God School

by Scott Kinkade

  Just when he thought, for the nth time—honestly, he had forgotten how many times he had almost been killed since this whole adventure started—that this was the end for him, his head suddenly broke the water. He greedily devoured all the air he could get into his body.

  They were in a circular half-submerged room filled with lit torches along the walls. Perhaps Belial had lit them. Of course, for all Ev knew, they were magic, perpetually-burning torches.

  Brandon appeared beside him. “Sorry about that, Ev, but we had already decided speed was necessary, and there isn’t a moment to lose. Follow me.”

  He swam over to a ladder, attached to the far wall, and sticking out of the water. He proceeded to climb it, and Ev followed.

  They emerged into a similar room, only this one wasn’t flooded. The ceiling was perhaps fifty feet up, and another ladder could be seen at the opposite wall. “What are the walls made of? They look bronze.”

  “It’s actually haradium, an indestructible alloy that not even a god can break through,” Brandon said as they walked to the opposite wall.

  “Wow; they sure had strong metals in the previous universe.”

  “We needed the strongest of metals to house all the Artifacts. If just anyone could break in and take them…well, that would be a problem.”

  “So, then, how did we get in?”

  “Belial opened the door using the Blood Key. We’re just piggy-backing off him, in essence.”

  “Halt!”

  They stopped in their tracks. Next to the ladder they were heading to, an upturned sarcophagus had opened. And now, what stood before them was a skeleton wearing robes similar to that of the Nephilim.

  “What the hell is this?” Ev asked.

  “One of the Keepers,” Brandon said. “Damned souls whose punishment for their sins is to watch over the Artifacts.”

  The skeleton said, “Ye shalt not pass. My master has commanded it.”

  “Is he talking about Belial?”

  “Yes. Belial controls the Blood Key, so the Keepers must obey him,” Brandon explained.

  “Is that why Maya has to obey him?”

  “No. I think his methods of controlling her are more psychological.”

  “Oh. I think I understand now. Anyway, we just need to get past this skeleton, right?”

  Brandon replied, “I’m afraid it’s not that easy. Each of the Keepers wields an Artifact.”

  Ev decided to ask the Keeper directly, “Hey, skeleton. Do you have an Artifact?”

  “Indeed I do.” He held up his hands to reveal a large flute.

  “Shit,” Brandon said. “That’s Koothraparna.”

  “Koothra-what?”

  “Koothraparna. It’s an Artifact from a country called India.”

  Ev eyed the flute suspiciously. “What does it do?”

  In response, the skeleton began playing. It was an exotic sound, unlike any Ev had ever heard. It had Brandon transfixed. “Ev, watch out!”

  “Watch out for wha—”

  His words were cut off by a strange sensation. Something was putting an ethereal pressure on his throat, choking him.

  “It’s your shadow, Ev! Koothraparna takes control of your shadow and makes it attack you!”

  Ev looked down. Sure enough, his shadow had its arms outstretched, its hands around his throat. He tried to grab them, but there was nothing there to grab. A shadow, after all, had no physical form.

  As his life was strangled out of him, Ev had an idea. He began running around erratically. His shadow, being attached to him, was thrown off by the sudden movement and let go. He was momentarily free.

  However, Brandon’s shadow began punching him in the face. He held up his hands to block, but since the shadow’s hands weren’t actually traveling through conventional space to hit him, the act provided no protection.

  “Run around!” Ev said. Suddenly, though, he was tripped and fell over. His shadow had grabbed his legs. So much for running.

  “I have a better idea,” Brandon said. He swung his arms and whipped up a gust of wind. He then sent the gust around the room, knocking out all the torches until there was total darkness.

  Ev’s shadow stopped attacking him. That made sense; if there was no light, there could be no shadows. The Koothra-whatsit was useless now.

  Ev got back to his feet. “Great idea, Professor. But do we do now? I can’t see a thing.”

  “I’m going to teach you a new technique for seeing in the dark. First, send a little energy to your eyes. Not too much, or you could destroy them.”

  Ev did so. He felt the curious sensation akin to the warm tingle one gets from alcohol (the analogy he had made to Atlas), only it was in his eyes. “OK. Now what?”

  “You know what the world looks like through night vision goggles, right?”

  “Yeah?”

  “All right, now imagine your eyes are night vision goggles.”

  Ev rubbed his temples while willing his vision to do what Brandon said. At first it remained the same. After a few moments, though, the room around him gradually lightened up. He saw everything around him as shades of green and white. “I did it!”

  “Good job, Ev. Now, see the Keeper?”

  “Yeah, he’s still in the same spot.”

  “Smash him.”

  Using his god-speed, Ev launched forward. He grabbed the pale white skull in his palm and crushed it. All the bones fell to the ground in a clutter, along with Koothra-whatever-it-was-called.

  “Way to go Ev,” Brandon said. “Now, let’s continue.” He went over to the ladder the skeleton had been guarding and climbed up. Ev followed.

  Chapter XVI

  Up the street from the TV station, people inside a restaurant were under siege from a group of Nephilim. The group from Divine Protector Academy rushed in to assist.

  As they ran over, CiCi said, “I thought the Nephilim would leave people alone as long as they agreed to worship Belial.”

  “Maybe these people refused to bow down,” Jaysin suggested.

  Daryn offered a different theory. “Based on their actions up to this point, it seems the giants are under orders to attack any gods or people with the potential to become gods.”

  “You think the people inside that restaurant are potential students of the Academy?” Freya said.

  Daryn shrugged. “Possibly. We won’t know unless we save them.”

  Freya sicced her tigers on the Nephilim, while CiCi slashed at their legs with her chakrams. Daryn pounded them with his hammer, Atlas swung a giant ball attached to a long chain, Jaysin worked to draw the Nephilim’s attention, and Aphrodite tossed razor-thin sheets of metal she had conjured up. Meanwhile, Freya used her radiant spear.

  Fortunately, this group of Nephilim didn’t seem to control any of the elements. They were simple foot soldiers, and so didn’t have any tricks up their sleeves—or robes. It wasn’t long before the Divine Protector crew had made short work of them.

  The people who had been trapped inside the restaurant hurried out, eager to thank their rescuers. “You don’t know how happy we are to see those freaks dead,” a black youth said. He appeared to be the same age as the students.

  “Yes, thank you!” A young woman with long auburn hair said. She, too, appeared to be their age.

  There were six other equally grateful young people in the group. Freya made sure to ask, “Is anyone hurt?”

  They shook their heads. They explained they had been visiting Stiftung on a field trip from Morovia when the Nephilim attacked. They tried to get out of the city but their bus collided with a garbage truck and ceased to function. They decided to take shelter in the nearest building which happened to be the restaurant.

  “My name’s Deep, by the way,” the black youth said.

  “Nice to meet you, Deep,” Aphrodite said.

  “Same here,” Atlas added.

  Deep examined the bodies of the fallen Nephilim. “So what are these things, anyway?”

  “Giants,” Jaysin said.


  “No shit. But where did they come from?”

  Freya decided to be honest with him. “Another dimension. They were sealed away after a war between gods, but an evil god has released them.”

  “You mean that guy on the TV?” the auburn girl asked.

  Freya nodded. “That’s right, Miss…”

  “Sahara. Sahara Alato.”

  “That’s right, Sahara. The man you saw on TV is the one who released the Nephilim—that’s the name of the giants. He’s far from the only god in the world, but he wants you to worship him as if he was.”

  “But he said he wouldn’t sic ‘em on us if we bowed down to him. Those giants didn’t even give us a chance, though. They just attacked us,” an acne-ridden member of the group said.

  “Which means one or more of you is carrying god-potential within you,” Freya said.

  Deep raised a curious eyebrow. “God-potential?”

  “That’s right,” CiCi said. “Some people have the potential to become gods. We even go to a special school to train us to be divine.”

  Sahara’s eyes lit up at this revelation. “Wow! Is there any way to tell which of us has it?”

  Freya held up her palm. “It just takes a quick check.” She waved her hand over each of the Morovian students. “You two. Deep and Sahara Alato. You both have god-potential.”

  “Awesome!” Deep said.

  “So we can become gods?” Sahara asked.

  But Freya replied, “Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. We recently had a student who turned out to be a mole for the man you saw on TV. We’ll have to perform more stringent background checks on you before we can accept you into Divine Protector Academy.”

  She expected the news to be disheartening. However, Deep and Sahara’s enthusiasm didn’t diminish at all. Hopefully, once this was all over the two could become proud students of the Academy. With any luck, Maya would end up being Belial’s only disciple and history would not repeat itself.

  * * *

  Ev and Brandon emerged onto the next level of the Tower. Once again, they made their way to the far wall. Once again, a skeleton emerged from a sarcophagus to confront them. “Ye shalt not pass.”

  Ev rolled his eyes. “Yeah, the last guy said that, too. Guess what? We passed.”

  “Don’t get cocky, Ev. I told you each of the Keepers is in possession of an Artifact.”

  Ev studied the skeleton carefully. “But he’s not holding anything. All I see is a big pot.” Indeed, there was a large pot in front of the skeleton. The Keeper reached over and stirred it with a ladle that was sticking out of it. A pungent aroma assaulted Ev’s nose. “Oh, man. That’s ripe.”

  Suddenly Brandon yelled, “Ev! Don’t breathe it in.”

  “Too late for that. I smelled it, and it’s gross.”

  The skeleton charged towards Ev. He was fast, but not that fast. Ev had plenty of time to dodge. He decided to jump to the right to avoid the Keeper’s bony fist.

  However, Ev instead jumped left, right into the skeleton’s attack, sending him flying backwards. As he lay on the ground, he realized the terrifying reality of the situation. “My body won’t do what I tell it to. I’m trying to get up, but I keep staying down.”

  “It’s the Dagda’s Cauldron,” Brandon said.

  “The what?”

  “It’s one of the four magical treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.”

  “The who?”

  “Mythological beings from the previous universe. Look, I’ll explain later. The point is, the scent the Cauldron releases reverses the signals your brain sends to your body. In other words, it makes you do the opposite of what you want to do.”

  “Great.”

  The skeleton closed the distant between them and began kicking Ev in the ribs. He would have never expected a creature without muscles to be so strong. Ev felt the excruciating crack as his ribs buckled under the assault.

  Think, Ev. All you have to do is tell your body to do the opposite of what you need to do. He tried telling his body to stay down, but that turned out to be easier said than done. Every impulse he had said to get up and fight, so he found himself unable to do the opposite. It just wasn’t natural.

  He managed to turn his head to look at Brandon who was flailing about like a marionette with a crappy handler. Obviously this was just as difficult for him. If Ev wanted to get out of this situation, he would need to do it himself.

  Despite the intense pain he was under, he decided the best way to get through this would be to do it in steps. Step one—throw your arm away from the skeleton’s leg. Ev’s arm reached out and grabbed the skeleton’s leg.

  Step two—throw your arm down. He threw his arm up, flipping the Keeper off his feet. The skeleton fell onto his back.

  Step three—keep your legs straight and stay down. He bent his legs and got to his feet. So did the skeleton.

  His side felt like it was on fire, but Ev didn’t have the luxury of focusing on that. Step four—reach forward. His arm pulled back.

  Step five—keep your palm flat and your arm behind your body. His arm launched forward in a fist, smashing the Keeper’s chest into a hundred pieces.

  Ev’s body abruptly returned to normal. It seemed that without the skeleton to work it, the Artifact ceased to function.

  Brandon quickly joined him. “Good job, Ev. You impressed me with that one. Even I wasn’t sure how to handle that, but you made short work of the Keeper.”

  “Thanks. I have to admit, I’m glad the Cauldron didn’t affect our speech. If you hadn’t explained to me what its function was, I’m not sure I would have been able to figure it out in time.”

  Brandon looked away, embarrassed. “I’m only just starting to remember all the Artifacts and their functions. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I forgot about them over the years. Maybe on some level I wanted to forget. To forget about the bad things we gods have done.”

  “What sorts of things?”

  “It’s not something you need to worry about right now. Our priority should be stopping Belial.”

  Ev wasn’t about to admit it, but that wasn’t his priority. His main objective was to rescue Maya and bring her back to the Academy. Would they even take her back after what she’d done? Well, he’d deal with that when the time came.

  He took a step forward and experienced intense pain. He had briefly forgotten about his broken ribs. “You OK, Ev? The Keeper did kick the crap out of you, after all.”

  Ev grunted. “He didn’t kick me that many times. I’ll be fine as soon as I heal it up.” He redirected energy to the broken bones and told his body to put them back together. Within a few moments all of his parts were back in working order. “All right. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  In the next level another skeleton awaited them. “Ye shalt not pass.”

  Ev rolled his eyes. “Look, pal. The previous two guys who said that got smashed to pieces.”

  “Ev, what did I tell you about getting cocky?”

  “Sorry. But you have to admit, we’re two for two.”

  The Keeper gripped a spear with two hands. “That’s the Spear of Lugh, another of the four magical treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.”

  The skeleton struck the ground with the butt of the spear. Suddenly they were surrounded by skeletons, each holding a spear. “Illusions?” Ev said.

  “No, Ev! Each of them is real. The Spear of Lugh multiplies its user.”

  “Well, shit.”

  Half a dozen skeletons hurled their spears at Ev. He had to contort his body in a very embarrassing way to dodge them all.

  A full dozen skeletons were soon upon him. He frantically alternated between dodging spear thrusts and punching them out. Each Keeper went down in one hit, yet their numbers didn’t seem to be diminishing at all.

  Brandon, too, had his hands busy knocking out skeletons. “The Spear can multiply them endlessly.”

  Ev laid out seven more Keepers. “But does it multiply itself?”

  “
Sort of. It makes cheap copies of itself, but the duplicates don’t have any power. There’s only one Spear of Lugh.”

  “So we just have to figure out which of these guys has the real deal.”

  “Yes. But that’s easier said than done. They’re not giving us a lot of room to maneuver here. Figuring out which Keeper has the real Spear of Lugh is going to be tough.”

  A horde of skeletons piled on Ev, pinning him to the ground. He could sense all the fake—but every bit as sharp—spears coming down upon him. So, summoning up all the strength he could muster, he exploded to his feet, knocking all of them off him.

  As they fell back to the floor, it created a light breeze. That gave him an idea. “Professor!”

  Brandon trashed a couple more skeletons before replying. “What?”

  “Earlier, you created a gust of wind to knock out the torches. Can you do it again, only make it way more fierce?”

  “How fierce?”

  “Fierce enough to tear all these skeletons apart. I’m talking hurricane winds.”

  Smash. “Sure, I could do that. The problem is, it might tear you apart in the process. That’s why I haven’t already done something like that.”

  “Not if I create my own wind to counter it.”

  “You sure you’re up for it?”

  “Hell, yeah.”

  Brandon said, “All right, then. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

  Ev now knew what he had to do. Brandon was right, though. This would be easier said than done. With all the skeletons attacking him, he wasn’t entire certain, despite what he had told Brandon, that he could do it. The Keepers attack was relentless. At least, on the ground.

  That was it! He just needed to get into the air, away from his bony assailants. Sending energy to his legs, he hurled himself off the ground. Once in the air, he channeled the wind and wrapped it around himself so he would stay up there. He then willed it to split it into two layers. The inner layer would remain stationary and the outer layer would spin at high speed. Thus he would remain stationary while generating a shield to protect him from Brandon’s attack. “Now!”