Ethan leaped right out of the field of battle to take a closer look. He watched, and as they grew closer, he recognized the reassuring formation. They looked more machine than human. It was Tasha and the eleven Warriors. How they got to be there, Ethan couldn’t guess, but he was sure glad to see them. When they arrived, Tasha signaled the Warriors to attack the Demons and Nephilim. The Warriors immediately dropped down and engaged. Wild eyed and determined as ever, Tasha dropped into the middle of the Dark Angels with percussive authority. Instinctively, they spread out in a ring with her commanding the center. Michael quickly joined her, and they engaged from this momentary vantage point.

No longer in possession of Michael’s axe, Tasha now sported a long sword which, like her, had a faint glow and maybe belonged to her all along. The Dark Angels didn’t like the look of her or the sword. They fell back further. Scrappy as ever, and without regard for safety, she lunged at the Dark Angels, with Michael right beside her, just as heedless. They managed to take down two Dark Angels before the rest closed in and they were forced out of the fray to a safer vantage point. From there, they attacked again, side by side. This style provided some support and offense, but there were so many it was difficult to advance.

Ethan and the other Warriors were having better success with the Demons, Nephilim and minions. The Warriors were jacked and capable of holding their own with the Demons. Just like Tasha, they didn’t know fear and leapt upon the Demons like they planned to break and ride them. They’d bull rush their way in close, grab the Demon by the scruff of the neck, and start hacking at it with their axe. The Demon couldn’t reach back and bit them from that position. It's only options were to tussle and turn, or take flight. When they tussled, the Warrior stayed with them, sometimes dangling and bumping into the beast, but always hacking at it. Eventually the Demon tired and from there, the Warrior made short work of it. When the Demon took flight, the Warrior still hung on, sometimes cutting away a wing or leg, sometimes mounting it like a horse to get at the exposed neck.

Having been one of them, now they were near, Ethan shared the connection with the Warriors. He became much stronger, wary, and capable. Energy flowed through his veins. It was focused and lethal. Of all the Warriors, Ethan became the most lethal.

The battle raged on for hours. The turning point came when Ethan and the Warriors killed or maimed all the Demons, Nephilim and minions. The Warriors rushed the Dark Angels, and although they mostly fell short of killing them, they did upset the balance of the fight. More than a nuisance, their axes cut, and if not regarded, killed. Ethan bloodied his sword more than once.

With the help of the Warriors, the battle very quickly took to the sky, which Tasha and Michael desperately needed. There was more room to maneuver in the air, and provided Tasha and Michael great advantage, especially when the Warriors acted to intercept attacking Dark Angels. They were able to focus on fighting, not defending themselves.

Still, the battle raged on, and it was 18 hours until the last Dark Angel fell. Everyone was exhausted. Energy is energy, no matter what being it flows through. It gets depleted. Everyone was tired and covered in blood. Even though the reunion was a monumental moment for Ethan, the greetings were rather formal due to everyone being covered in blood, and a little smelly if the truth be known. Their first act was to find a lake to bathe in, and afterwards lay around resting and sorting out what brought everyone to this place.

Ethan was surprised Tasha recognized him but Raven didn’t. Through the connection, Raven knew him to be one of the warriors, but regarding their friendship from Ethan’s last quest, it simply didn’t happen.

“This is a different world, Ethan,” Tasha explained. “On this world, it’s the first time you’re meeting”.

“Well, how come you recognize me?” Ethan asked.

“Ethan, I am the mother of all you see, now and forever, and what has come before. “What kind of mother would I be if I didn’t recognize my own child”?

“Well, what are you doing here anyway”?

“Tara sent for me,” Tasha replied. “She said you wandered off like a babe lost in the woods, and wanted me to come and look after you”.

“I am not!” Ethan replied indignantly. “I know exactly what I’m doing. I just wanted some time to think things over”.

“Didn’t look like it when we found you,’ Tasha replied with that blend of confidence and arrogance Ethan found maddening back at the commune in his last quest. It was a precursor to many an argument in the past. “Anyway, she wanted me to bring you your sword.”

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“Sword?” Ethan replied, taken aback. “I don’t own a sword”.

"Yeah, you do,” Tasha replied, pointing to one leaning against a tree.

“Naw. Naw,” Ethan said, defensively. “I’m going to do this peacefully. This world is going to run by my beliefs. AI will reach that moment of consciousness when it understands it becomes part of something greater. A part of humanity and all that came before. When that day comes, it will govern the earth and get rid of the bad guys in the process. That’s what’s going to be done here!”

“No violence?” Tasha asked, with a confused look on her face. “This is post-actualization time. There’s nothing left to do, but condemn Satan to fires of hell. It’s going to require a little violence.”.

“That’s what I told him,” Michael chimed in. He said it like now that it was out there and so obvious, everyone could see part of his role down here on earth was to be a martyr, having to go along with Ethan’s plan.

That little quip set Ethan off. “This is my world, and I will take care of things the way I see fit. I am following the rules of the New World; logic and evolution. That’s the way it’s going to be”.

“Sounds to me like you’re just setting yourself up for failure again”.

“Failure again? When did I ever fail”?

“Your last quest when you allowed me to be killed, and Satan escape to this world”.

“Well,” Ethan replied, caught off guard, “What”?

“Did you know, the moment you left your last quest, the world you created ended, and was wiped from existence? You broke the one rule of creation.

“What? Let the Dragon escape”?

“No. Letting me die. I am the mother of all creation. Everything. All there is, all there will be, and all that was, and you left me lying on the battlefield with a grotesquely broken neck. The rule is, I don’t die. Ever. Not even in a simulation. If I get killed, your world gets killed. It never existed and I was never there. A power greater than heaven and earth intervenes and what was is no longer more. Although they lived for a brief moment, all those souls you created, never were. A fate much worse than living.

“You came into that quest without a thought or plan, treating it like it was a big game, and when you left, you left behind the consequences without a second thought.

“I killed off one of my worlds.” Ethan wasn’t asking. The realization left him feeling gutted.

‘Yes, and now you’re doing it again”.

“How, because I don’t see the need to personally confront the Dragon and condemn him to hell”?

“No. By leaving behind the ones who died but deserve to live. All the people who lived good and decent lives and died not knowing the completeness of life. You’re leaving behind those people who deserve to live because they lived well. They’re forgotten and left behind your way. They’re left in limbo, waiting for salvation. Life passes on and they only become a part of history. God does not forget his children, Ethan. You have to raise those deserving to everlasting life. You have to condemn Satan to eternal damnation. In so doing, the forgotten shall rise again. It’s the duality of life, Nathan. For one to come up, the other has to go down.

“Grab the sword, Ethan and do what you’re supposed to do,” she commanded.

“But that stuff sorts itself out when you die anyway? I know when minions and Nephilim die, they become isolated; left alone with their thoughts out in the vacuum of space. There’s no need for judgment. Their actions dictate their fate. Doesn’t something like that only good happen to those who lived a righteous life”?

“No. Not if you don’t go get them. The deserving people who came before died not enlightened. They live on into eternity, but trapped in purgatory, just like the ones who wear the mark. They have not experienced the community that is enlightenment. I repeat. God does not forget even one of his children. That might be a good starting point for you if you want this world to survive.

Ethan walked over to his sword. “I don’t know,” he said, picking it up. “Wow!” he exclaimed. The sword was not only light and easy to handle; somehow he knew it. It sat in his hand like it had sat there forever. It had an energy of its own, and it ran through him. “What is that?” he said, surprised by the feeling.

“I really was set on doing things my way, Tasha. From the New World perspective it works,” he said, swinging at a low hanging branch of the tree his sword had been resting on. It was at least six inches round and he planned to dramatically lodge the sword into it and walk away. There wasn’t even a feeling of impact as it sliced through the branch.

“This is a nice sword,” he said. Then he looked over at Raven. “How’s Bubba”?