God School

by Scott Kinkade

  They knocked on the door of a pair of female students. “Have you seen Ev, Jaysin, Maya, CiCi or Daryn?” Brandon asked them.

  “I thought I heard Jaysin saying something about going to…um…where was it?”

  “Victory Square, I think,” her roommate answered.

  And with that, the two divine educators got in a taxi and headed to Victory Square.

  “What were they thinking, going off alone?” Brandon said. He rarely got angry, but today his patience was definitely being tested.

  Freya shook her head. “Youths can be impulsive.”

  “We specifically told them to ask us before running off on their own.”

  “It’ll be fine,” she said, though she sounded nervous.

  “You’d better be—”

  His words were cut off by a dark figure suddenly slamming on the hood of the cab from above. The vehicle launched forward as the laws of physics kicked in. If that wasn’t bad enough, a sharp object then sliced the taxi down the middle. Brandon and Freya, though, managed to dive out of their respective halves uninjured.

  “What in the world…?” Freya said upon landing on her feet.

  “I don’t think we have to look far to find the answer to that question,” Brandon said. He landed to her left.

  The dark figure appeared in front of them. They knew at once who it was. “Indeed, you do not.”

  “Shinigami,” Brandon said. “I might have known.”

  Freya decided to point out the obvious. “By attacking us out in the open, in broad daylight, you are in violation of the Ultros Pact.” That particular pact had been signed at the end of the previous Holy War.

  The god of death examined them behind his black mask. “In a matter of minutes, the Pact will be but a memory.”

  Brandon was angrier than he’d been in a long time at that moment. “What do you mean?”

  “Belial is retrieving the last components necessary to bring our plan to fruition.”

  Realization hit Freya hard. “The students!”

  Shinigami nodded with what they could only guess was satisfaction. “That is correct. Once we have collected their blood, the Ultros Pact will be completely nullified.”

  Brandon’s eyes went wide. “You wouldn’t!”

  “Oh, yes we would!”

  He turned around and was immediately tackled by another flying figure. The two of them went careening down the street. The humans that had been milling about scattered in terror.

  When Brandon and his attacker finally came to a stop in the middle of a busy intersection, saw who it was. He would never forget that mannish face and medieval attire.

  “Miss me?” Hera said.

  He delivered a savage kick to her midsection and sent her flying thirty feet. “Not really.” He then got to his feet.

  Hera removed her cloak, revealing her most striking feature. Her torso was pierced with half a dozen swords and knives. She enjoyed pain. She enjoyed causing it as well as receiving it. Because of that, she always kept blades on hand—or body.

  She ripped a dagger and a short sword from her abdomen, moaning in both pain and pleasure as she did it. Blood gushed forth before the wound closed up. “Well, I missed you. You always knew how to play rough with me. Now, before the lock opens, let’s have some more fun.”

  “Don’t do this!” he yelled. He knew perfectly well, though, that it was useless trying to reason with this woman. She was committed to a path of self-destruction from the beginning of time.

  “You might as well ask me not to breathe. I can’t deny who I am. You know that.”

  “No,” he sighed. “I guess I can’t.” He didn’t have time for this. He needed to go help the students. But if he ran off, Freya might have to deal with Hera and Shinigami on her own. Even her cats might not be enough to defeat the two fallen gods.

  Inwardly cursing his own powerlessness, he resolved to defeat Hera as quickly as possible.

  * * *

  Ev hit the refghast with a mean right hook, and the foul creature went down in a heap. It appeared as if his training was now paying off. The refghasts, once terrifying abominations, now seemed little more than nuisances. Ev was easily holding his own against them, and his friends fared even better thanks to their conjured weapons. Their matter transmutation skill, while not nearly as impressive as that of established gods such as Brandon and Freya, definitely gave them and edge. The sliced, pierced, and pummeled the monsters to a pulp.

  Nevertheless, the refghasts kept coming up out of the ground. The humans that had been in Victory Square had long since taken off, but that didn’t make things any easier for the aspiring gods left to fend off the assault.

  “You doing all right, Ev?” Jaysin said behind him.

  Ev turned around to answer him and see how he was doing. “Fine. I just—”

  His sentence came up short when he saw the deadly serious look his friend was giving him. Jaysin pointed his staff squarely at his chest. “Ev…”

  Ev was dumbstruck. “What?”

  “Get down!”

  Without any further encouragement, Ev dropped to the ground. An energy arrow pierced Jaysin in the chest. His friend fell backwards onto one of the stone slabs. Blood streamed from his body. “Jaysin!”

  Two more arrows issued forth, striking down CiCi and Daryn.

  Only one person could have fired those shots. Ev whirled around to face Maya who had an arrow pointed directly at him. She stared at him with cold, sad eyes.

  “Maya,” he said. “Why…?”

  “I told you it was complicated,” she said.

  He shook his head. This absolutely wasn’t happening. “What is this?”

  “You asked me if I hated men. I said no. That’s because it was a man who saved me. It wasn’t Freya at all.”

  “W-What man?”

  A flaming red figure dropped down from the sky next to her. It was Belial. He had an exceedingly arrogant expression on his face. “Me, kid. I found her wandering the streets of Stiftung, hungry and alone. No one gave a damn about her. But I did. I saw her potential and knew she was my way into the Divine Protector Academy. So I made sure they found out about her. Once she was in, it was only a matter time before everything fell into place for me. Hate to break it to you, but that day is today.”

  “You dick!” Ev roared. “What did you do to her?”

  Maya opened her mouth to speak, but Belial continued to do the talking. “Weren’t you listening, kid? I saved her. You should be thanking me. I know how crazy you are about her.”

  “Why do you keep attacking me? What do you want?”

  Now Belial looked bored. “Huh?” Suddenly he laughed. “Oh, I get it. You think you’re some sort of important pawn in my master plan. Well, you got the pawn part right. Actually, I would say you’re less than a pawn. You’re nothing but one sacrifice out of a hundred.”

  Ev’s eyes went wide. “Sacrifice?”

  “That’s right. See, a long-ass time ago, we gods had a little war. The Nephilim, the biggest, baddest weapon of that war, ended up getting sealed away in a dimension of darkness. The dimensional lock can be opened, but it requires a key forged from the blood of one hundred god candidates.”

  Ev cast a glance at his fallen friends. “I take it I’m number one hundred.”

  “Basically. Once we have your blood, we can open the dimensional lock and get our toys back.”

  Ev realized there was still a chance, no matter how slim, of thwarting Belial’s plans. As long as they didn’t get his blood, they wouldn’t win. His brain told him this required him to run like hell. But this time, he refused to listen. Besides, he had to save Maya. “As if!”

  He charged at Belial. He didn’t get far, however. Maya put an arrow in his shoulder. He was momentarily blinded by pain, and so didn’t notice his body hitting the ground.

  His blood poured out from the wound. “That’s it,” Belial said. The dark god held out his palm. A large crimson key, about the size of a sewing machine, appeared hoverin
g in the air. The blood that had spilled from the students was drawn into it, making it even larger.

  “Shit,” Ev said. Despite his best—though incredibly futile—efforts, Belial had gotten all of their blood.

  “Hmmm.” Belial stared at the key, seemingly unsatisfied. “Something’s missing.”

  “My blood,” Maya pointed out.

  “Oh—that’s right! You can’t shoot yourself with your arrows.” Belial removed a knife from his pants. “Hold out your hand.” She did so, and he cut her. Probably even deeper than he needed to. She winced, and the blood flew upwards into the key. It then began to glow brightly with a deathly pale color.

  “Maya! Don’t do this!” Ev implored her.

  With an air of utter defeat, she said, “It’s too late, Ev.”

  The ground started shaking. Numerous black portals opened up into the sky all over Stiftung. Out of them fell countless figures. They were luminous giants, dressed in white robes. To his confusion, Ev realized these were angelic figures. Why did Belial want to release them upon the world?

  As if to answer that question, Belial said, “Look at them! Beautiful, aren’t they?” Maya nodded grimly, but said nothing. “The greatest weapons ever created. And they’re programmed to obey whoever releases them from confinement.”

  Ev didn’t understand any of this. “W-Weapons?”

  Belial turned his attention back to him. “Still awake, are we? Why don’t you leave us, already. I have no use for you anymore!”

  The last thing Ev saw was his boot coming at his head.

  * * *

  At that moment, Brandon’s worst fears were realized. When he saw the holes opening in the sky, he knew Belial had created the Blood Key. And now that the Nephilim were pouring from them, the situation would only get worse from there.

  A battered, bloody—and ecstatic—Hera gazed upwards and uttered the most joyous cry of celebration anyone had ever heard. “Looks like you lose, Divine Protector Academy…or whatever you call yourselves these days.” She looked half dead, but sure didn’t sound like it.

  He stared at her, his brain struggling to comprehend what could possibly be going through hers. “Do you have any idea what you’ve unleashed upon this world?”

  “The Nephilim,” she replied. “Of course I know. Did you really think I could forget what they are and what they’re capable of?”

  “Then why? Why release them?”

  She looked at him with something he’d never expected from her: Pity. “You poor, poor man. Look how much you’ve forgotten over the years. You used to be one of us, and now you don’t even remember how we think, what drives us. Our mission has always been to impose order on a chaotic world, even if that means creating temporary chaos in the process.”

  “Ridiculous. You just want to sate your own egos.”

  “Ego? Yes, I suppose that does have something to do with it. But ultimately it goes much deeper than that. We have needs that must be met, and we will do anything to meet them. You should know that better than anyone.”

  A portal suddenly opened up above them. A Nephilim fell from it, landing before Brandon with a thunderous crunch that split the street and sent asphalt flying in all directions.

  The giant—easily twenty feet tall—surveyed his surroundings. He had long shaggy hair which appropriately looked like it hadn’t been cut in millennia. Physique-wise, he would have made Atlas jealous. He looked as if he had been carved out of granite. “Εχω επιστρ咋?/i>,” he said in a booming voice. I have returned. It was a language Brandon had not heard in millions of years, not since the destruction of the previous universe. Greek. “Ποιο?με κ甩纽姚?i>?” Who has summoned me?

  “We summoned you!” Hera declared behind him.

  The Nephilim turned around and examined her closely. Then, without a second thought, he kicked her like a hezball. Brandon marveled at her stupidity. It wasn’t Hera who had summoned them; it was Belial. Thus they would only obey him. Perhaps this, too, was part of his plan.

  Brandon hoped to escape before the giant noticed him. Unfortunately, that was not to be. It turned around and locked eyes on him.

  He held up his hands in a gesture of peace. “I don’t want to fight.”

  In response, the Nephilim brought down a gargantuan fist onto the spot where he was standing. He managed to jump out of the way as the ground got completely demolished. The giants were deceptively quick despite their immense size.

  The god landed a few feet away and quickly pondered his options. He needed to escape, but that wouldn’t be easy with a Nephilim anxious to pound him to dust. Complicating matters, these beasts were unbelievably durable. He wasn’t sure he could defeat one in a reasonable amount of time.

  “Brandon!” Freya came running up the street, accompanied by her tigers. They wasted no time biting into the giant.

  “Freya. The students—”

  “I know! If Belial has used the Blood Key, it means he has collected their blood.”

  The tigers were on the Nephilim’s back. He struggled to get them off. Freya leapt into the air and stabbed him in the face with her spear.

  Brandon ran over to her. “Where’s Shinigami?”

  “He ran off as soon as the portals opened. Looks like his job was merely to distract me until their plan came to fruition. Where’s Hera?”

  Brandon pointed his thumb at the fallen Nephilim. “That guy kicked her into the next town. Come on; let’s get to the students before he gets back up.”

  Police cars suddenly arrived on the scene. The cops got out and stared dumbstruck at the unreal scene unfolding before them. They didn’t even seem to notice the two divine professors.

  * * *

  “They’re alive,” Freya said.

  Brandon gave a silent thanks to…someone. Or something. As a god, he didn’t know quite who to thank for such miracles.

  Ev, Jaysin, CiCi and Daryn were laid out in front of the central pillar of Victory Square. Each of them had severe wounds. Fortunately, whoever had attacked them hadn’t been aiming to kill.

  The two gods set about seeing to their injuries. Brandon and Freya were no doctors, but they did possess basic healing abilities. Those abilities were thankfully sufficient in this case.

  As they worked on the fallen students, Brandon said, “Wait. Where’s Maya?”

  They looked around for her, to no avail. “I don’t see her anywhere,” Freya said.

  Brandon didn’t want to say anything to crush their hopes. “Hmmm. Maybe she ran for it and is hiding out somewhere nearby.”

  “I really hope so.”

  “You know, it’s strange,” he said. “I know Belial better than anyone. If he or his refghasts really did attack them, they should be dead and in pieces. But these wounds are pretty light.”

  “You think someone else attacked them?”

  He thought about it for a moment. He had his suspicions, but he was afraid to voice them in front of Freya. The wounds were clearly made by some sort of projectile. Maya Brünhart was known to use energy arrows as a weapon. If Freya thought her favorite student had been responsible for this, who knew how she would react? “I don’t know.”

  “Let’s just focus on healing these students, and then they can tell us what happened.”

  * * *

  His eyes opened. At first, everything was blurry. As the moments passed, however, everything came into focus. Brandon and Freya knelt beside him.

  “W-What’s going on?” Ev said. Freya held a glowing hand to a dark red spot on his shoulder. That was when he remembered. “Maya!” He tried to get up.

  Brandon held him down. “Don’t move, Ev. Judging by your wounds, it’s clear you were hit with a divine weapon.

  “Where’s Maya?” he demanded to know.

  “Gone,” a familiar voice said. Jaysin walked into his field of view.

  “Jaysin! You’re all right.” Ev felt relief, though not nearly as much as he wanted.

  Dayn appeared next to Jaysin, followed by
CiCi. “The bitch left,” Daryn said.

  Ev was silent. He wanted to ask follow-up questions, but he already knew what the answers would be. Where had Maya gone? We don’t know; somewhere with Belial. What happened? She betrayed us. Freya looked incredibly saddened at the revelation.

  There were, however, questions he didn’t know the answers to. “What were those things in the sky?”

  “Portals,” Brandon said.

  “Yeah; I figured that much. Portals to where?”

  “A dimension of darkness,” Freya replied. Belial had said as much. “A place we created to send the Nephilim after the last great war.”

  CiCi said, “The Nephilim? Is that the name of those giants?”

  Brandon nodded. “A long time ago, we went to war with Zero Grade. The Nephilim were the main shock troops.”

  “For whose side,” Jaysin asked.

  “Both sides. Both Zero Grade and those of us who would form the Academy had their supply of Nephilim.”

  “You make it sound like they were just tools,” Daryn said. “Aren’t they living things?”

  Freya said, “They are. However, they have very limited intelligence. They can only think in regard to their mission. We made them that way on purpose.”

  “What’s their mission?” Ev asked, afraid of what the answer would be.

  Brandon shrugged. “Whatever their controller decides it is.”

  “Meaning it’s up to Belial,” Daryn said.

  Ev felt the area of his shoulder where Maya had shot him. It had completely healed thanks to Freya. “What does he want with the Nephilim?”

  “It’s all about ego with Zero Grade,” Brandon explained. “And he has the biggest ego of them all. He wants everyone—mortals and gods alike—to bow down and worship him. Knowing him, he probably plans on using the Nephilim to scare people into obeying his will.”

  Ev got to his feet. “We have to stop him.”

  Brandon said, “Later. Right now, we have to get back to the hotel and retrieve the other students.”