21 - Shock and Awe

“So… what exactly am I doing here,” Andras asked with a cocked eyebrow. “Well, I wanted to talk about plans for after you finish the procedure,” Droseros casually responded. However, all this served to do was confuse Andras even more.

Realizing that he would never understand what this man was up to, Andras sighed. “Whatever you say,” he groaned while placing the bottle of whiskey down on the smooth, brown desk. “Well, to be more specific, I was going to ask what you wanted to do,” Droseros clarified, making the situation clear as mud to Andras.

“Right… well, I don’t know. In fact, I was fairly certain that you had a plan,” Andras said with narrowed eyes. “I do,” Droseros chuckled, “but my plans and your plans are two different things.” Andras blinked. “So, you’re not going to give me any assignments?”

“That would be unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong, I do have a few things for you to do. However, if I forced you to focus on tasks instead of giving you time to do as you desire, I’d be the very thing I hated. So, I intend on giving you the task most convenient for you.” Andras froze. This all seemed so… foreign.

“Well, I had no other plans other than doing the procedure,” Andras admitted. “In other words, you were planning on dying there,” Droseros pointed out, causing Andras’s eyes to widen. “No, I wasn’t… well…” Andras stuttered. For some reason, Andras couldn’t seem to refute that claim.

Droseros sighed heavily, causing Andras to flinch slightly. “I don’t know what happened, Andras, but, if there’s one thing I know, it’s that your life isn’t over yet. You could die tomorrow, or you could die in a hundred years. You really can’t tell. So, tell me, what do you want to do when you’re done?”

Andras was speechless. To be honest, he hadn’t a clue what he’d do. “Well,” he began, “how long will I be gone?” Droseros stroked his chin. “Well, the experiment is more than a one time thing. One of the boons of being higher on the blessing board is ever increasing longevity. Hell, I’m pretty sure the top ten oldest apostles for each god are all immortal. Considering humans have been alive for… around four thousand years and each procedure will age you twenty… In order to make you the oldest being, it would take about 200 different procedures. Even while being optimistic, the odds of getting there aren’t that high. Merakio underwent ten procedures and lived, which could be considered a miracle looking at how most don’t even survive the first. Even after that much, he’s at most in the top fifty. Though, it would be helpful to point out that gods have different amounts of apostles. Demeter is hardly stingy, so I’d say there’s around 1,000 of them… As for Hephaestus, I’d say around 500? The population has been drastically increasing lately, so it's a bit hard to tell. But, the point is that if you were to become number twenty five, you would be theoretically just as powerful as Merakio.”

The feeling of the olive tree growing so fast it literally threw him out of the greenhouse replayed in Andras’s mind. “But how many ranks would I climb after one singular procedure?” Droseros looked down at his desk. “Hm… well, that really depends on what rank you are currently. How old are you?”

“18,” Andras replied. “So you’ve had a blessing for about ten years, which may put you at about… 450 maybe? 400 max.” Andras bit his lip. “Come now, all that means is that you have plenty of room for improvement,” Droseros gently coaxed.

“I’d say that every time the amount of time you’ve had your blessing doubles, you’ll increase your rank by about 75. That amount will decrease after a few procedures, but, by then, I’m sure you’ll be strong enough to climb the ladder through… other means.” Andras raised his eyebrow. “Other means?” Droseros sighed. “Well, at some point, it becomes a better option for you or an ally to kill higher rankers, since undergoing the procedure won’t raise you by any substantial margin.”

Andras gulped. “Did… did you do this with the other one? Merakio?” Droseros’s eyes narrowed. “Do you really want to hear the answer to that?” Andras recoiled slightly. “But Demeter’s are usually harmless! Wouldn’t it have been a better idea to recruit them instead?” Droseros picked at his fingernail. “Most people aren’t like you, Andras. If they knew that they were talking to a rebel, they’d make a break for the guards. Of course, that did not stop us from trying. Usually, we’d isolate them when presenting the offer, but if they made the slightest noise…” A piece of dead skin separated itself from Droseros’s finger.

Andras’s eyes wandered to the ground. “Don’t misunderstand me, Andras,” Droseros began. “I’m not a cold blooded murderer. Most of the ones who perished had some connection to the military or had used their abilities for less than altruistic purposes.” Andras’s leg started shaking on its own. “Most?”

Droseros sighed. “Well, not everything could have gone as smoothly as we hoped.” Andras swallowed hard. “Now then,” Droseros suddenly snapped, causing Andras to flinch, “you were telling me what you were planning on doing after you finished the surgery.”

Andras leaned over and clasped his hands. “Well, I guess that depends on when I’d be going. Would it be after all procedures are complete, or in between each one?” Droseros’s eyes widened, a small ah slipping from his mouth. “I forgot to mention. You’ll be given a small break in between each procedure. You know, to help cope. Ideally, you’d complete one mission per break, but if you’re in a poor state, you won’t be made to do anything.”

Andras processed the words he was hearing. “Well,” he slowly muttered, “I suppose I’ve always wanted to travel.” Finally receiving an answer, Droseros smiled. “Sounds good. Anywhere specific in mind?” Andras thought to himself for a bit, but drew nothing but blanks. “Not that I can think of.”

Droseros looked at the desk in contemplation for a moment before a large smirk appeared on his face. “Well then, how does Peloponnesus sound?”

…

The room was bright and quiet, aside from the dull hum of the lightbulb that kept blinking on and off. “Well Pierre, how does he seem,” the brown, spiky-haired doctor asked. “Hm… the patient seems to have high blood pressure and abnormal behavior in the nervous system. Does this guy have any diseases I should know about,” Pierre inquired, leading the other doctor to sigh.

“Nope. That's why we’re stumped. We have no idea why he dropped. We tried giving him some medicine in case it was caused by germs, but that didn’t help. He doesn’t have any wounds, which already puts this out of pretty much every doctor here’s area of expertise.” Pierre scowled. “So no previous illnesses, odd symptoms, and not a germ problem? You’re not giving me much to work with here, doctor.”

The doctor shrugged. “Not my fault. Besides, does it really matter what I say? You’ll be able to figure it out eventually.” Pierre sighed. “I wish I had that much confidence in myself,” he muttered. “Anyway, is there any possibility that he consumed something odd?”

The doctor thought to himself. “Nah. Most painters don’t seem too hungry these days. I doubt he’s any exception. Besides, I’m sure you could find that out.” Pierre shivered. “As much as I would like to dig through his stomach… oh wait, I wouldn’t.” Pierre growled frustratedly. “Alright, you can go. Just tell me if anyone comes forward with anything, okay?” With a swift nod, the doctor left the room, leaving nothing but a frustrated Pierre, a worried File, and a passed out painter.

“So we have no idea what’s going on with him,” File whimpered. “Seems that way,” Pierre sighed as he sat on a stool. “Odds are I’ll have to do a deep dive. From what I’ve seen, whatever is going on has done something to his brain, so I’ll probably start there.” File shrank into the corner of the room. Everything about this situation seemed so… off.

“Anyway, it looks like we’ll have to wait on training. Sorry, kid,” Pierre groaned empathetically. “It’s fine,” File whispered. “Now, I’ll leave you to this. I’m going to go check up on Aunt Gyn.” Hearing his words, Pierre gave a small nod of approval and stood up, his eyes lingering on the unconscious man.

Not sure if he wanted to see what came next, File promptly left the room and began walking down the now familiar hallway. At this point, nearly the entire place had been painted white, which only seemed to make File feel worse about this place for some reason. ‘The color of the hallway hardly matters, idiot,’ he scolded himself. ‘Let’s just go check on Aunt Gyn.’

Within thirty seconds, File was greeted by the sight of a familiar door. A bitter frown carved onto his face, he slowly opened the door and flicked on the light. “Hey, Aunt Gyn,” he muttered. As per usual, there was no response. This hardly mattered to File as he walked in and closed the door behind him.

“Things were a bit hectic today. A guy passed out with a weird disease. It almost makes me scared,” he chuckled to himself while wondering what Aunt Gyn would reply to him with. Probably something along the lines of ‘Oh my Gods! Is it contagious? Are you okay?’

File gave himself a small chuckle as he looked down at Aunt Gyn’s unconscious image. From looking at her, he could hardly tell that she had been sleeping for over two weeks. For a while, File simply sat in silence. Soon enough, however, he couldn’t bear to look at her any longer. “Wake up soon, Aunt Gyn,” he muttered to himself before leaving.

File looked at the parallel side of the hallway, tears baking in his eyes. Without looking back, he began slowly walking towards the cafeteria. ‘What am I doing? I’m not even hungry.’ Despite his inner turmoil, his legs still carried him towards the cafeteria. First down the hall, then take a left and…

“What the heck,” File suddenly screamed, the body of a painter laying on the floor crossing into his vision. “Another one?!” Not knowing what to do, File picked the man up and began running towards the room Pierre had been in.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The man was fairly light, but the skinny hallway slowed File down as he attempted to prevent the man from hitting the man’s vital appendages on the wall. Soon enough, the door he was looking for appeared on his right.

“Pierre,” he yelled while bursting down the door, “I found another…” Before File could finish his sentence, he took a look around the room, the surprised eyes of Pierre falling onto him while his pupils wandered over the three new bodies that sat in the room. “...one.”

…

Nazarius could hardly hold back the urge to scream. How was this person still moving without a head? Was it a person? No, it couldn’t be. People needed heads, though Nazarius wasn’t quite sure why. Actually, maybe it was possible for people to live without heads and he simply didn’t know it.

While Nazarius thought to himself, the headless creature began kneeling down and cupping small amounts of the liquid before slowly pouring them onto his stump. To Nazarius’s surprise, the thing sputtered a bit while shaking before collapsing, revealing the gruesome remnants of the brain of whatever that thing was.

It was split surprisingly clean, leaving the whole surface flat. Two small pipes seemed to emerge from the red and yellow flesh as well as a solid white piece of bone. The back pipe was much slimmer than the front one, and began frantically shaking as the painful liquid began spewing out of it. ‘I guess it can’t prevent itself from choking,’ Nazarius shakily thought to himself.

The humanoid creature was surprisingly partially clothed with half of a toga wrapped around it’s legs. It seemed like the top straps had broken, however, as the man’s ash colored torso was completely exposed, revealing his extremely unhealthy looking complexion. It’s ribs seemed to be a breath away from breaking through the skin, and it’s arms were thinner than Nazarius’s despite being twice as long.

‘What do I do,’ Nazarius thought to himself. ‘It won’t be able to see, hear, or smell me, but… it was able to kill this monster, so it probably has some sort of way to sense me. Should I try and sneak by?’ However, before Nazarius could come up with any concrete plan, the light gray body suddenly turned around in surprise. Nazarius was certain that, if the walking corpse had eyes, they would be looking right at him.

Nazarius frantically stood up in horror. He had to get away. With every ounce of strength he had, he forced his legs to move through the large, rough hole that had been cut out of the beast. However, before he could even make it across the cave, his senses began tingling, the hairs on the back of his neck completely raised. Instinctively, he froze on the spot, his body not daring to look backwards. But he had to. He needed to know what was going on, so he put as much force as he could into his neck muscles, eventually causing them to creak over to the headless creature.

Instantly, as Nazarius’s eyes fell upon it, every single one of his senses seemed to explode. His eyes were somehow seeing something that didn’t exist, his skin feeling something that wasn’t there. He could taste it, smell it, hear it even, but, somehow, he still couldn’t process it. His head hurt. Badly. He screamed as an infinite number of shapes, sounds, sensations, tastes, and scents forced themselves into his brain like rusty knives, each one causing an excruciating amount of pain to fly through all of his nerves.

Nazarius screamed louder than he had ever screamed in the belly of that monster, but he couldn’t hear it over the cacophony of chaos that pounded into his skull like a silverback gorilla. All of his thoughts were drowned out by the unrelenting, incomprehensible pain. Nothing made sense anymore. No, nothing ever made sense. Everything was made up of random combinations of hastily thrown together assets. Shapes, noises, smells… they were all just poorly made sculptures worse than those made by four year olds.

Once more, Nazarius’s mind had shattered.

…

Kako sighed. This was supposed to be a happy day, and yet, it was ruined from the very moment he woke up. No: actually, it was ruined from the very minute he went to bed yesterday. ‘What good is a blessing going to do me? I don’t care about going to school or getting a job. I know I have to do something, but the most a blessing will actually do for me is force me into an occupation I don’t care about.’

Kako knew that he had no right to complain. For the most part, this would be strictly beneficial. Hell, if he got a good enough blessing, he could be hired on the spot and be guaranteed a comfy life! ‘Or be forced to join the military and die on some random battlefield,’ he grumbled inwardly.

Soon enough, the increasing amount of surrounding chatter led him to notice that he was getting close. ‘Better go sign in,’ he muttered inwardly. After digging around with his eyes, he quickly noticed a freckled woman sitting on a chair with a ginormous line of people stacked behind her. With another sigh, he began walking, his eyes desperately looking for the back of the line. After nearly a solid minute, he found it, and promptly placed himself at the back. The line traveled a lot quicker than he thought it would. Perhaps most people there were family members of children actually signing up.

Kako impatiently tapped his foot. After what felt like five hours, he was finally able to make it to the front of the line. “Ah, hello young sir. Here to sign up for the ceremony,” the cheerful freckled woman inquired. “Yeah,” Kako muttered in a hardly audible tone. “Alright, name,” the woman asked in a high pitched voice. “Kako,” the boy himself responded. “Any parents or other observers with you today,” the woman continued while scribbling what Kako could only assume to be his name on a discolored, uneven piece of parchment. “No… I’m an orphan actually,” Kako said while scratching the back of his head, sending a sorrowful look across the opposing woman’s face. “I’m sorry to hear that. I know times are a bit violent right now, but I promise you things are destined to get better!” Not knowing how to respond to the woman’s enthusiasm, Kako simply nodded and walked towards the town’s square.

The one clock tower towered over everyone, it’s hands resting at the time of 11:55. ‘Guess I should get closer towards the front so I don’t have to shove my way through the crowd,’ Kako reasoned while weaving through the hordes of people. Many groans slipped past his ear, perhaps due to his lack of touch causing him to bump more people. By the time he made it properly to the front, a man wearing a shiny gold robe and a headpiece made of foliage had cemented himself on the meter tall base of the tower.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he yelled, sending waves of silence throughout the crowd. “Please calm down a bit. I can only talk so loudly. Now then, you all know how this works, correct? We call your name, put your hand on this slate, and grab the hand that appears. Is everything clear?”

Nods of approval spread through the crowd, leading the priest to beckon towards the freckled woman for the list of names. “Alright, let’s begin. First up, we have Tychaios. Please come up to the stand.” Following the priest’s words, a short boy around Kako’s age excitedly rushed up onto the clock tower’s base and slammed his hand on the black slate of stone about fifty centimeters in diameter, prompting it to light up. A second passed, followed by a small, black and gold light to begin emanating from the boy’s palm.

“Hmm… I’m not sure if I recognize that one. Young man, would you mind sharing what god you’ve been blessed by?” The boy looked at the priest with a face that screamed of disappointment, as if someone had just killed his pet. “...Aristaios, god of… cheese and bees.” A few laughs spurred from the crowd, causing tears to form in the boy’s eyes. “Don’t fret, young one. Cheese is one of the most delicious foods across the land, and bees are one of the most useful animals around. So be proud of your blessing,” the priest preached. The boy’s frown stayed present. “B…but I wanted…” The priest sighed. “Listen young man, the gods know all, including what blessing is best for you. Are you saying that you doubt the gods’ judgment?” Fear entered the boy's eyes as he began frantically shaking his head. “Then go sit back down.” The boy hardly seemed to feel better, but, likely fearing the wrath of the gods, he went and rejoined the audience. “Alright. Now, next…”

Name after name exited the Priest’s mouth followed by the names of countless gods Kako had never even heard of and a heartbreaking amount of disappointed faces on the young children who had just been ‘blessed.’ “Alright. Next is Koritsi,” the priest grunted, sending a shiver down Kako’s spine. Now that he thought of it, it had been over two weeks since he last saw her. Was she alright, and, more importantly, did she know what happened?

Within moments, a young girl with sleek, shining brown hair stepped onto the stairs leading up to the base, causing her sparkling blue eyes and occasional freckles to be revealed. ‘She looks fine,” Kako noted. “You know the drill,” the priest said: it was easy to tell that he was getting tired of this. With a nod, Koritsi placed her hand on the slate and closed her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened.

Suddenly, a blinding pillar of gold shot down from the sky, encapsulating the base of the clock tower. Kako hardly had time to close his eyes before the glaring light comparable to the sun smacked down upon the earth. Chaos ensued as parts of the clock tower began raining down on the unsuspecting crowd. Screams echoed throughout the mobs of people. Kako couldn’t see what was going on, but he could tell it wasn’t good.

A few moments later, the pillar of blinding light disappeared, leaving nothing but a broken clock tower, a half-blinded crowd, a stunned priest, and a missing Koritsi. “L-ladies and gentlemen,” the priest stuttered, “for the first time in thirty years, someone has been chosen by the god Apollo!” The crowd went silent as the members slowly regained their wits and vision. Slowly, mutters began turning into full blown cheers of celebration. Someone had been chosen by Apollo! From this town!

Kako’s eyes were wide open. He didn’t know how to feel. Obviously, he should be happy, right? His friend was just chosen by a god! But, at the same time, it meant that he’d likely never see her again.

Kako’s lips pursed. Was that really the last time he would ever see her? To depart like this with so many unanswered questions and unsaid goodbyes felt… empty. The cheers of the crowd soon died down as many people began shifting away from the leaning side of the clock tower. “Ahem. I know we’re all excited, but, before we celebrate, we must finish the ceremony. Ah, and it seems like we only have one name left.” A string of dread shot down Kako’s spine. “Kako, please come up and place your hand on the slate.” The words reverberated across the town, and Kako could swear he felt many gazes already pierce through him despite the fact that he hadn’t moved yet. ‘How am I supposed to follow that,’ he screamed to himself. But it wasn’t like he just couldn’t go. He had to. He had been called, after all.

‘Calm down. It doesn’t matter what happens, just go up there and get it over with.’ Slowly, Kako began walking through the crowd, his movement causing more and more eyes to fall onto him. For some reason, Kako felt like he was going to puke. ‘Why are they all looking at me like that,’ he thought to himself. For some reason, it felt like all of the gazes were somewhat hostile. ‘Do they know what happened? No, they can’t have… right?’ Kako’s legs trembled as he inadvertently smacked into several people without noticing. His actions seemed to send whispers throughout the crowd, which only served to make him flinch more.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of walking, Kako found himself at the base of the stairs. ‘Relax,’ he told himself; though, thinking this hardly did a thing. Despite his anxiety, Kako continued placing one foot in front of the other. “Alright kid. No pressure or anything, just place your hand on the slab,” the priest chuckled. For some reason, his words seemed almost condescending to Kako.

With a gulp, Kako gently placed his hand down, the lack of feeling still somewhat jarring to him. ‘Wait a minute… what if nothing happens because I can’t feel it,’ he thought to himself in a panic. His arm started shaking. ‘Oh no… this is it… they all know…’ With a whimper, Kako shut his eyes tight and wrapped himself into a ball.

Time passed, but nothing seemed to happen. The sounds of an angry mob followed by the sight of rocks getting chucked at his head never came. Sort of confused, Kako opened his eyes, revealing that the space around him had turned into a white void. ‘What happened,’ he asked himself, but his question was quickly answered by the sight of a hand falling in front of him.

The arm connected to the hand was feminine, and wrapped in a layer of cloth. The hand seemed smooth as it reached out towards him. ‘Oh. I guess it worked after all.’ A sigh of relief escaped his mouth. What had he even been worried about?

Kako silently shamed himself for being so stupid, his arm reaching upwards in order to grab onto the heavenly hand. However, before he could properly grab it, an arm covered in feathers emerged from the void and smacked the goddess’s arm aside and promptly replaced it with itself. Kako’s mouth gaped. “Uh, what?”

No answers ever came to Kako as the new, feathery hand gestured towards him as if begging him to shake it. ‘What is going on here?’ A tiny bit confused, he took a peek to his left, revealing the feminine arm that had been rudely smacked aside wandering back over towards him. ‘This doesn’t usually happen… right?’

The set of arms began physically bickering by exchanging slaps as Kako slowly creeped backwards. Whatever was going on here, he wanted nothing to do with it. Suddenly, as if noticing his escape attempt, the feathered arm dashed over to him and once again desperately held its hand while flicking its fingers towards Kako and against its palm. ‘It wants me to grab it instead of the other one,’ Kako guessed inwardly.

Before Kako could make a move, the other clothed arm also darted over to him and slapped the feathered arm hard, causing it to fly across the room. Unlike the other arm, this one didn’t seem nearly as desperate as it just sat there waiting as if it knew Kako would choose it. ‘Well, I guess I’d prefer this one. It seems less… weird.’ With a sigh, Kako once again extended his hand and hovered it over the goddess’s hand. However, just before he intertwined his fingers, the other arm came shooting from the other side of the room and made contact with Kako’s hand as well, resulting in several different conflicting colors of light to begin filling the once white void.

Kako’s eyes widened in terror. What was going on?! One side of the room began dying itself a playful orange as the other turned itself a neutral gray. The two colors clashed against each other, sending waves of pain through Kako’s mind.

“Ah,” Kako cried, causing the clash of the colors to suddenly stop. As if noticing the pain they had been inflicting onto the boy, the colors began arguing in a more peaceful manner. Kako began standing up again, wondering what was going on. He swore he heard both of the colors sigh as they evenly arranged themselves to take up half of the room each, a straight, unbreachable line separating the two.

Before Kako could even process what had happened, he felt his consciousness being dragged back towards the outside world.