Mana Mutation Menace (Journey to Chaos Book 3)

by Brian Wilkerson

  “Is convincing her impossible?”

  Sagart chuckled again. “Of course not! With Chaos, all things are possible, but they require cleverness and faith. Tell me, do you understand human society and the fundamental difference between their culture and ours?”

  “Yes, I believe I do.”

  “And how did you come by that understanding?”

  “By living alongside them and experiencing what they experience.”

  “Thus, it follows...”

  Annala’s eyes lit up. “EAOL!”

  “Eaol?” Eric tilted his head. “Earth’s avatar? What can he do?”

  Annala hugged Sagart. “Thank you very much, Sister! I know just what to do now!”

  She shrugged. “I only helped you see the door. You found it and you will open it.”

  Annala stood up and made the Sign of Arin’s Triangle. “May you live in interesting times.”

  Sagart repeated the sign. “May interesting times live in you.”

  Annala walked back to the entrance of the shrine and entwined her fingers with Eric’s. Just before she crossed the threshold, Sagart spoke up again.

  “There is one more piece of good news I mean to share with you.”

  “Yes?”

  “Your collar does not have Order’s approval and was created by an ordercrafter who has since used the Zeroth Law Exception. This is rebellion against Order and using chaos to confine is a contradiction. This makes it weak. Despite the lack of a keyhole or releasing mechanism, the collar can be broken. All that is required is cleverness and faith.”

  “Thank you, Sister,” Annala said. “I will keep your words in mind.”

  The next person Annala visited was a florist. She picked out two Evening Tide flowers and a stick of incense. The florist herself was so amused by Annala’s plan that she gave them to her for free. The elf girl thanked her, told Eric to hold her purchases, and raced down a path to another area of the village.

  Down a winding trail away from the hustle of daily life was a clearing in the forest. Here the trees were straight and hallowed and the air was quiet and peaceful. Annala slowed down in order to walk with reverence. The boundary was marked with a ten-colored rope wrapped around a golden-brown pole. She stopped here.

  Clapping her hands together, she bowed her head and recited, “Chaos has eleven faces. I am one of them. I seek to enter the presence of the other ten.”

  Still in her pious posture, she turned her head to stare at Eric. This time, he consented to mimicking her. She stood upright and led him into the Courtyard of Elemental Worship.

  In this place, the elves worshipped the ten elements that composed the physical world. Ten shrines were arranged in a circle representing the Cycle of Life that all planets followed. Fire stood at the north point and Water the south point; Wind east and Earth west. The Four Basic Elements at the Four Cardinal Directions and the fundamental level of worldly existence.

  In between them stood four more shrines showing the cycles the elements themselves passed through. Lava at the northwest and Ice at the southeast; Lightning at the northeast and Forest at the southwest. The Four Composite Elements at the Four Lesser Directions and the complex level of worldly existence.

  Close to the center, but a large enough distance away to allow for a possible inner shrine, were two more for Light and Darkness. These represented cosmic existence; the give-and-take between emptiness and the stars that illuminated it.

  On this occasion, Annala visited the shrine to the Earth Goddess and her avatar. This was the one she believed would help her succeed in her plan to understand her aunt. It was a giant stone in the middle of four brown arches, which were also made of stone. A pink rope was tied about its middle. At its base were faded Evening Tide flowers and a pedestal carrying burnt out incense sticks.

  She placed her fresh flowers on top of their predecessors. Then she removed the old sticks and placed her own in its place. With the flint available, she lit it and waited for the cloud to lift above the stone before she began her prayer.

  “Holy Eaol, I ask for your aid to push the boundaries of my knowledge and increase my understanding. Only you, with your encompassing gaze and sturdy mantle, can lead me beyond the horizon. Please hear my prayer and answer my wish.”

  Eric tapped his feet.

  “Nothing’s happening.”

  Annala dropped her hands and raised her head. “Of course nothing’s happening. Eaol is a busy guy. Besides the natural processes of the world, he has a formal religion and clergy. As an elf, I worship the Ultimate Cosmic Force of Chaos instead of the Grand Elemental Sentience of Earth. Third, he’s the patron god of a lot of things besides farmers or miners, like students, and some schools are still in their finals week, so he likely has a lot of prayers to keep up with and-”

  BOOM!

  The ground exploded. Shrapnel flew everywhere and dust filled the area. Eric pushed Annala behind himself on instinct and took all the kinetic force and rock bits on his own body. It stung like a dozen bee stings on his grendel hide. Some of them pierced it and drew blood, but his Seed of Chaos healed him just as quickly.

  "Greetings!"

  The force of it knocked Eric off his feet. He spun in midair so that Annala landed on him instead of the other way around. Then he cast a simple wind spell to dispel the dust around the shrine. The sight before him was a living god.

  At first glance, he appeared to be an orc. He was big and muscular enough and his facial features matched, but his skin was rocky like a golem. He wore an enormous tunic and baggy pants in varying shades of dirt brown. His hairless head was a multitude of colors from limestone green and quartz purple to granite grey. His feet were bare and dusty. Crossed behind his back were a miner’s axe and a farmer’s scythe.

  "No fear, young man!" the god bellowed. "I’m always careful with my Divine Presence when I appear before mortals. Ain't that right, sis?!"

  The ground beneath him trembled and swelled upwards, propelling him higher and higher into the sky. At last, the mound was as tall as Dnnac itself. No creature emerged from this mountain of dirt, for it was the creature. The orc-like man stood on the forehead of a larger-than-life earth mole. Its fur was crust, its skin was mantle, and its eyes were shining diamonds.

  "Inside voice, Big Brother.” Her voice was surprisingly gentle for something so big.

  "But I'm not inside; I'm OUTSIDE!"

  His voice created a shockwave that made the ground vibrate, rattled trees, and buffeted flying elves. It made Eric, still in partial grendel form, fall over again. His above-human hearing amplified the shout further and overwhelmed him. Annala was quick to help him.

  "Eric! Are you okay!?” Annala shouted.

  "I can't hear you!" Eric shouted back. "I think Eaol deafened me!"

  "What was that? I think Eaol deafened me!"

  "I can’t hear you! Eaol deafened me!"

  The giant mole sighed. "This is why you use your inside voice."

  The orc man laughed. Their Seeds of Chaos would repair the damage and, in the meantime, he wanted to show off for his local fans. Just because elves had chaos in their blood didn’t mean they never venerated other deities, and a number of them entered his shrine when they heard his big entrance. For them, he demonstrated his avatar power, made grand pronouncements, and lapped up their amazement.

  The giant mole shook her head, which resulted in Eaol losing his footing and tumbling head over heels down her front and crashing into the ground.

  "Sis! You're not supposed to embarrass me in front of mortals!"

  "They're not mortal," the giant mole said. "Besides, you were making an ass of yourself."

  “I was serving the spiritual needs of my follow—”

  Aside from the original two, the elves were laughing at him. Three of them were discussing how they could develop spells that would perform similarly to Eaol’s avatar powers. He hung his head in disappointment.

  “You have godly duties to attend to.”

  “Rig
ht.”

  Once the couple's ears stopped ringing, he properly introduced himself as Eaol, Earth's Tool and the Mover of Mountains. He spoke of how he heard her heartfelt prayer and deemed her worthy of divine intervention. However, he included a warning.

  “This isn’t something you can wash off. It will not be a movie that is separate from you, nor will it be like your virtual reality library room. It is permanent. You will carry these experiences with you for the rest of your eternal life. Your older relatives fought in that war so their descendants wouldn’t have to endure what you are asking me to inflict upon you.”

  “I understand, or rather, I don’t, and that’s why I want to,” Annala explained. “I’ve lived in an elven village and a human city. The humans were kind to me. Even Norej and his father, who hate elves in general, accepted me once we grew to know each other. We found common ground and became friends. If I can understand the root of the conflict, I can better resolve it.”

  “If that is your decision, then I will hold you to it.”

  “Wait a second, Patron of Chivalry!”

  Eric pulled his staff out and brandished it. The fire and water lights swirled around the spirit light at its center. Then he struck the ground with the butt and said,

  “Avatar of Earth and Guardian of Flowers, I seek your divine power because my own mortal strength is dust in the wind. I need your help to defend my lady’s life and honor. Give me an impossible task and I will prove that I am worthy of it.”

  Eaol waved his stony hands. “No need for the ritual stuff. Tasio already asked me to do that. Both of you, your quest for power and understanding will begin right now!"

  A surge of earth launched the two elves into the sky and the giant mole ate them. They bumped into marble teeth and a pumice tongue conveyed them to the back of her mouth. Her head tilted up and the couple tumbled down through her basalt throat.

  When Eric regained consciousness, he was sitting in a stadium. The roaring crowd; he could hear it. The sweat, food, and blood; he could smell them. The seats, bodies, and chalk of the ring; he could not only see, but feel them. Two pairs of feet thudded heavily. Two contenders grappling, kicking, and head butting; one fell.

  "Winner!" said a man in a language Eric didn't know and yet understood.

  At another place and yet not another place, two girls sparred. It was a mountain grove, clear of any buildings; isolated and yet it wasn't to him. He could feel the exact distance away from the stadium down to the last inch and yet he was still there. He felt both the light steps of the martial artists and the heavy stomping of the sumo.

  "Don't over-extend or that'll happen again," said the victor of the spar at the same time the sumo were shaking hands and talking in a different language.

  More grass. Hills instead of mountains. Statues of a different style from before and yet he still saw them. Wrestlers that were thinner and lighter than the huge topknots and yet he could watch both at once. He heard their grunts as they struggled and the laughs of the sumo as they drank sake and the chatter of the martial artists all at once.

  Then, somewhere very quiet; dark and wet and cold. Small pockets of heat separated the zones of oppressing cold. He vaguely heard sounds above him; explosions and fires and crashing and yelling. Suddenly, he was there on top of the waves and also deep beneath, flying through the air and crashing into a wooden beam. Even while he was on the ship, he was still in the stadium and the wrestling ring and the martial art grove and the chamber of an elite girl getting her ears pierced and screaming when the needle punctured her cartilage.

  Eric screamed with her.

  This and a thousand more places streamed through his mind, simultaneous and endless. A thousand scholars debated across time and space and all of them proclaimed themselves correct. Competing truths in every age and discipline; enough blood to fill a thousand rivers. All of this was only a fraction of the information rushing through his consciousness and competing for attention. Each crowded out all the others and reduced everything to maddening white noise.

  He pushed it away, but it didn't budge. It all came in faster, pushing! Closing in; getting smaller! Dying of thirst in the desert and mad with sunstroke, while relaxing in a pool of mud with cucumber eye covers. Felt, saw, smelled, and heard a large force leave Canne victorious and a precious few fleeing in defeat at the same time. For a thousand years, he watched the tectonic plates shift and collide with each other.

  All he could see was everything at once and thus he saw nothing because he understood nothing. Sitting on bleachers and a tree stump and a cushion and a throne; forest, mountain, sea, swamp, home; high and low and all the cardinal directions; he could see everything. All of earthly creation was present before him and overwhelmed him. He was lost in the endless stream of information until one voice in the din reached him. It was an elven mage conducting research in isolation. During a meditation session, he realized a fundamental truth of the world. Eric recognized it intuitively and recited along with him.

  This is the world and the world is mana because it is born of chaos. I am a mage and I control mana. Therefore, I control this world. Therefore, I control what I see!

  At once, everything froze.

  All of creation is nothing more than a river of mana flowing to and from the Sea of Chaos. A river is nothing more than a collection of water droplets. I divide the droplets just as I separate mana for spells. This is called the Eyes of Earth Viewed through Water.

  He picked one drop at random and focused on it. In doing so, he excluded the other drops, which diminished the distractions and enabled him to focus more on that one drop. Instead of looking at the planet as a whole, he focused on one country; instead of one country, one city; instead of one city, one building; instead of one building; one room. Only with the greatest strength of will was he able to narrow his focus from omniscience to a single object. He spent another thousand years studying, practicing, and experimenting with his new skill.

  One century, while looking in on a war, he focused too hard and created a mound for one of the armies to camp on, thus providing a crucial advantage. Intrigued, he opened a ditch to spare a sapient fleeing a monster. Humming with curiosity and achievement, he tweaked his latest skill by encouraging plant growth. The places streaming through his mind were bathed in a new light. Things were changing and staying the same; he and Annala and Tiza and Nolien and Basilard; all of them changed and yet they stayed the same.

  This is present day. I could spy on any place in the world from this vantage point. The Earth sees all, but does it remember all? How far back does the memory of the planet go?

  He willed one year and the earth spun counter-clockwise. He spied on the Rose Forest and saw himself drop out of a Golden Gate.

  Interesting, but I have no time for reminiscing. Let’s go back further.

  He willed himself back four hundred and thirteen years; 1587 AA, to be specific. He stood in the palace of Lios, where the Treaty of Lios was signed by humans, orcs, and elves. This was the formal end for the last stage of The Conversion War. He rewound history further still and the scenery changed again.

  A valley formed by mountains surrounded him on three sides. Grass carpeted the floor and was broken only by streams. Eric followed their source with his eyes and he could see snow at the mountain peaks. He took his shoes off and dug his toes into the grass and soil; it felt great. He was there and not there at the same time and it didn't pain him. He was aware of everything in perfect detail but capable of blocking everything else out. The cave fifty miles out in front was so clear he could count the lichens on the back wall while staring at the fish in the stream behind him, and all the fleas hiding in the hair of the human camped there.

  Maps spread across the ground around him and a sextant measured the distance between her location and a human castle. He carried an axe on her back and numerous shackles in one bag. In her hands, he re-read a letter about an elven village supposedly hidden nearby.

  Odd. Why can’t I tell what their
gender is?

  He circled the human invisibly but couldn’t tell if it was male or female. If anything, the creature was both and neither at the same time.

  Is it shifting?

  “If you can find that village, you will be set for life. Famous, wealthy, and a couple of those eternal beauties to pleasure you. All you have to do is flush them out into the open.”

  Outside the cave, an elf approached and grinned at what she saw. A snap of his fingers created a gentle illuminate aura and then a levitation spell to lift her feet a few inches above the ground. He stamped her staff on the cave floor to gain attention. This startled the human to full alertness and she stared at the elf, whose gender Eric had similar success in pinning down.

  “Are you a deity?”

  “Yes,” the elf said. He offered her hand. “I see a glorious future for you.”

  The human reached out, grabbed the offered hand, and just like that, she became a grotesque monster. Bellowing in pain, he rammed her head into the wall until his head split open, but that only caused more pain. The blasphemous elf sighed and snapped his fingers a second time. The monster burst into flames and became charcoal.

  “The lab results were more positive.”

  An ethereal hand clamped around her body. It squeezed hard enough to crush both arms and several ribs and yet the elf did not die. He tried to spin her head around, but her powers did not work. Suddenly, it forced him face first into the dirt.

  “Are you a deity?”

  “No,” the elf confessed. “I am fashioned into the likeness of a deity, and I have powers similar to a deity, but I am not a deity myself.”

  “Then SUBMIT!”

  The ethereal hand leeched the chaos from her body and thus rendered him mortal. Then it crushed her. When his immortal soul attempted to flee to the Abyss, the human reached out with another ordercrafted hand and snatched it out of the air. It thrashed desperately, but there was no escape. The ordercrafter ate it.