“Svante, use your power!”
“No!”
“Dammit!” Mathis summoned a transparent orange blade.
“What… what is that?” Svante asked staring at the blade.
“The power to change things. Men! Guard the Eye!” Mathis charged forward, the twenty remaining men charging behind him.
Svante slowly sat down, his back to the action. In front of him was the hand of someone he had killed. He couldn’t take it. The horrors of war. He had ended someone’s life. A breathing living soul.
Maybe he was lying to himself, that he wasn’t a fighter, wasn’t a killer. He was a great fighter, he ended fights before they even became fights.
He did kill those men on the cliffside. But he was angry, he did in self-defense because they were going to kill him. Did that make it right to go against He’s word?
Didn’t that make him the same as the men fighting over the Eye? It did. But it felt different, it felt wrong. He didn’t want to kill any more than he had to but they were doing it willingly.
Did that make him a hypocrite? He didn’t even believe the reason the two sides were fighting for, this wasn’t his fight to be in.
He heard clashes and screams behind him. He didn’t want to look but he forced himself to.
He watched in horror as they fought. Sword clashing with various-colored weapons. Heads were lopped off, spears forced down necks. Blood spilled over the Earth.
He had to stop this. If he couldn’t stop them through his words, he was going to do what he did best. Strike them down hard enough to force He’s words into them and get the answers he wanted. Svante got to his feet and ran to the carnage. His electricity pulsed through his veins.
Something hit him in the chest and he flew back. Blood entered his mouth. He struggled to his feet. His vision blurred. He didn’t see what hit him.
He had to stop them. But he didn’t have the power to. They were going to kill themselves in front of him and he was going to have to watch.
“Stop!” he screamed but the fighting continued.
He watched as Mathis’s head was chopped off with a blade.
“Stop!” He screamed at the top of his lungs. The world went silent as a blue light erupted from Svante. The fighting around him came to a halt as Svante stared into his hands.
He suddenly had an answer. As the raindrops fell onto his skin, they burned off as steam.
He remembered what He had told him to become.
“To become the light.” He raised his hand into the air. Millions upon millions of volts pooled inside him as the rain amplified his power. Storm clouds swirled above him.
He struck down into the Eye of the World. The world flashed white as his hand of lightning struck the floor.
In a flash, the Eye was gone. All that was left beneath them were clouds. Everywhere around the heavens, from the mountains to the city of the gods, the world was covered by clouds.
The gods had just lost their only way to see into the world.
Svante had a blade of lightning pulsating in his hand. The rain stopped as blue crept through the clouds. He felt his power in the blade.
“What did you do?” one of the men yelled. Svante didn’t know whose side he was on, nor did he care.
“I ended this fight.”
“You fool. Get him!” the man yelled. Everyone charged for him.
He was the lightning. He stepped forward and in a blink, he was past them. They collapsed onto the invisible floor.
Moans came from their mouths. Some attempted to get to their feet but fell over, a bloody spot spreading on their legs.
“That should be enough to stop you. Now, stay here and be good.” He didn’t kill them, he couldn’t, but he hurt them enough to knock them out of this war.
He finally understood what He meant when he told him to be the light. To be lightning. To reach his peak. It just took some people getting killed in front of him for him to reach it. He wished it had never came to that.
Svante looked up at the final peak. The Wavering Radiant. Where he was going to stop this fight, once and for all.
He called the lightning and it came to him.
Svante flashed onto a cliffside. He stood on the highest peak. He moved there in an instant. A smile crept to his face. He could get used to this.
Below him was the archway to the Wavering Radiant. In between the Radiant and himself was a huge battle. Hundreds were fighting, it was almost as horrible as the battlefield in front of the Eye of the World, except hundreds of men weren’t strung up with spears.
He was glad he put a stop to that. He looked over the battlefield. It was easy telling the sides apart as all around the battlefield, his brother’s men fought with strange colored weapons. Swords, spears, lances, from red to blue and every color in between. Even still, the battle was leaning towards Queen’s side.
The men with those weapons weren’t fighters. They seemed powerful, but if they couldn’t hit their targets then it was pointless.
Svante scanned the horizon and found Queen on the battlefield.
A god fell to his knees.
Queen stood in front of him with an indifferent look on her face. She held out a blood-red spear. She pierced it into the god’s chest. The god grabbed it as he screamed and pushed it out.
“Can you die already?” Queen said.
“You will never get away with this, Queen,” the god said while on his knees.
“That’s not what I asked of you. I asked you to die.” She pushed out her arm and held open her hand.
The blood from his wound pooled into the air. He screamed out in pain as his blood surrounded him.
Queen slammed her hand closed and the god exploded out in blood. Queen stepped back but the blood still landed on her shoes.
She sighed and the blood lifted from her shoes and onto the ground. She looked toward the archway to the Wavering Radiant.
She watched as Zakhehus walked through it. She clicked her teeth. She had to stop him before he got too far. She couldn’t allow him to find He.
She glanced behind her. She saw Svante looking down on them. She could use him.
She felt the deaths passing around her and found a dying god near Svante and disappeared.
Svante continued to look out into the battlefield. He watched his brother go into the Wavering Radiant. “There.”
He heard movement to his left. A blade of lightning flashed into his hand. “Show yourself.”
Queen walked up the peak with her hands raised.
“Queen! Stop your men at once.”
“Or what?”
“You’re killing your fellow gods. He taught us better than that. It’s wrong and you know it.”
“I don’t want to fight, Svante.”
“Bull crap! You’re the true head of Ifor and you ordered this.”
“No. That was your brother.”
“Don’t throw the blame on him. He didn’t have anything to do with this!” Svante raised his blade to her. Of all the people he shouldn’t have believed, it was Queen.
“I’m trying to stop your brother from doing something stupid. He’s trying to kill He.”
“Have you really fallen this low, Queen?” He could end it here. He could kill Queen and end this war.
“Think, you fool! Look at the weapons your brother’s people have. They’re unnatural, not of this world. They are weapons that can kill He! That’s what this whole war is about. He’s angry at He for going away.”
“That doesn’t sound like him.” Svante looked at the weapons his brother’s fighters were using. He’d never seen anything like them.
“Only you can stop him, Svante.”
But he couldn’t kill her, not before hearing his brother’s side. He didn’t want to believe her, he couldn’t. But he also couldn’t be the harbinger of justice if he didn’t have all the answers.
“Dammit.” He lowered his blade. “Only one person would know the truth. I don’t believe you, but this war needs to sto
p.”
He flashed off his peak and onto the battlefield.
Queen stared down at him. Eventually, he would know the truth, or he was so devoted to He that he would kill his brother. Either way, his actions should give her enough time to do what was needed.
Svante plodded his way forward. A group of soldiers walked up to him. Queen’s men. Svante glanced behind him. Queen was gone.
“I don’t want to fight you,” Svante said. But they continued their approach. Svante summoned his blade of lightning. “Please…” They charged him and he flashed forward.
He fell back as he slammed into the first soldier. The man stood his ground and called a blade of water. It was a major god; he couldn’t knock him out.
“Please, I don’t want to kill you,” Svante pled.
“Fight like a man or die like one,” the god said. Behind him, more continued their advance.
He didn’t have time for this. Svante slowly backed up. If he couldn’t knock him out he was going to have to kill him. What was one more death, if it saved his people?
“He, forgive me.”
Blue electricity pulsated through his flesh and he flashed forward again. In seconds, he was in front of the archway. All the men he came upon collapsed to the ground. Dead.
Svante shuddered. He had to end the violence and through the archway was the answer.
He stepped through.
The clouds of the Wavering Radiant clashed in their silent embrace, unheeding of the turmoil outside of its gates.
In the silence of the Radiant stood five men in modern black suits. They each held a sheathed katana in their hand, all of their hair stylized in different fashions, some of them simple.
Smoke bellowed from one of their mouths as he flicked a cigarette into the clouds. “This universe seems fun,” he mentioned.
“How can you say that, Cloudslayer? There’s no good drugs here. I need a fix,” the man said as he lit a rolled cigarette.
“I’ve never fought a god before. That’s why.” Cloudslayer slicked back his dirty blond hair. “Our targets are here.”
Clouds swirled between Zakhehus’s legs as he ran through the Wavering Radiant. Twenty of his men ran behind him, holding blades of light.
Zakhehus had forgotten where He’s resting place was. He needed to find him before Queen did.
“Brother!” Zakhehus stopped and looked behind him. Svante flashed in front of him.
“Geez, Svante. I see you came into your power.”
“How could you? This war, everything. Is it true, Brother?”
“Yes, Svante. I started this war, but it was a long time coming. Queen’s power-hungry madness has been going on long enough. I’m going to stop it.”
“Not that! Are you trying to kill He?”
“What? No, Svante. Why do you think I would do that?”
Svante stared at his brother’s face. There was no illusion of a lie, no change in his face or internal conflict. Just his brother with a questioning look on his face.
“No reason. I just wanted to be sure. But this war you started, it’s horrible, Brother. So much blood and violence. It’s…”
“I know it’s wrong, Svante. But I’m fighting in He’s name. We all are. If we fail here, then the world as we know it will change forever.”
“But those weapons.” Svante looked at his brother’s men’s weapons. They shimmered in the everlasting sunlight of the radiant. “They’re unnatural. Where did you get them from?”
“You don’t have to worry about that power, Svante. If I may call you that.” Cloudslayer and the four suited men walked up to them.
“Who the hell are you?” his brother said.
“We are the executioners and we are here to kill you.”
Zakhehus’s men raised their weapons. Flames engulfed his brother’s hands and spun into a sword of fire. “Svante back up.”
“But—”
“Now!” His brother pushed Svante back.
“Don’t worry about your brother, we are only here for those touched by a certain man’s power. The sinner of the infinite, or the one who you would call the Omniscient Man.”
“They can’t beat all of us,” Zakhehus told his men.
Cloudslayer slowly unsheathed his katana. As soon as the light of the Radiant reflected off the blade, the other executioners flew forward at impossibly fast speeds.
“Kill them!” Zakhehus yelled with fever. But as soon as he stepped forward, all around him, the executioners flashed through his men, their heads flying off of their bodies.
In only a few of his steps, Zakhehus’s men fell dead and the Executioners stood back in front of him as if nothing had happened.
Zakhehus stopped and looked around him. All his men were dead in seconds. “What…?”
“You’re getting old, Cloudslayer. You can’t move like you used to,” one of the executioners said.
“Fuck you, Chris, and your sloppy-ass technique. All speed and no power.” Cloudslayer turned his attention back to Zakhehus, who stood among his fallen men.
“I’m… impossible!” Zakhehus yelled. He screamed and his flames grew more intense.
Svante said, “Brother. Let me help.”
Zakhehus looked back at him, the anger flashing through his eyes. “You take the left, I’ll take the right.”
One of the executioners said, “Cloudslayer, you can hang back and watch.”
Cloudslayer shrugged as they flashed forward again.
Svante felt the air around him, the clouds’ embrace on his feet, the electricity pulsating through his veins. Everything slowed down for him, but his thoughts and movements moved with incredible speed.
He became the lightning.
To his right, flames burst from his brother’s back and swung out to create wings of fire. They moved in unison. Svante threw lightning toward the executioner to his brother’s right.
The executioner ducked under it but as he came up he was engulfed in Zakhehus’s flames as his blade cleaved through him.
Svante looked forward as executioners came from both sides of him. Their blades flashed through the air. They were incredibly fast, but Svante was the lightning.
Their swings moved in slow motion as he thrust his blade into one of their chests and then his fist into the other. They exploded back in a thunder clap, thousands of volts surging through their bodies.
Svante glanced to his right as his brother’s flames blew a hole through the other executioner. He and his brother made eye contact. Svante looked at Cloudslayer as he slowly unsheathed his blade.
Everything was still moving slow to him. His brother was as fast as a spark of ember, not as fast as Svante’s lightning but fast enough.
They zoomed from both sides of Cloudslayer and swung for him. A bright pink light exploded from Cloudslayer’s blade as Svante’s sword of lightning and Zakhehus’s sword of fire collided with it.
Cloudslayer stood his ground as their swords pushed on his. Svante’s face clenched. There was a force pushing back from Cloudslayer’s blade. His blade grew pink.
Svante pushed harder and so did his brother. He pooled all his power into his blade. The air popped around him.
“Blade,” Cloudslayer whispered.
Svante felt a sudden reverberation in his arms as he was blown a hundred feet back as a pink light came from Cloudslayer’s sword. He skidded across the Wavering Radiant and finally came to a stop. He felt his electricity pulsating through his body. He tried to stand but couldn’t as he was unable to control the electricity.
He could only struggle to look ahead of him. His brother still stood ahead of him, with Cloudslayer’s blade still somehow in its sheath.
Cloudslayer fully pulled his blade fully from its sheathe and said, “Blade of murderous intent.” He released the blade and it floated in front of him. It pulsated with a pink glow.
“What the hell is that?” Zakhehus said.
“It’s my blade, I set it with the intent to kill you and it won’t stop try
ing until I force it to stop.” Cloudslayer grabbed the blade and swung it.
A pink force sliced through the air and Zakhehus leapt out of the way.
Zakhehus swung out his hands and fire erupted from them and he hurled it at Cloudslayer. Cloudslayer held his blade in front of him and the flames split in two.
Zakhehus summoned his blade of fire and flew toward Cloudslayer. Cloudslayer threw up his blade and ran for Zakhehus. As they met, Zakhehus swung down on him, Cloudslayer swung out and another katana appeared.
Zakhehus moved fast and his flames swirled around him. But as Cloudslayer’s blade smashed into his flame shield, it swung with the weight of a thousand suns and he was flung back.
Cloudslayer charged him, caught his blade of murderous intent and flashed past him.
Svante stared at Cloudslayer as he appeared on the other side of his brother. Cloudslayer sheathed his blade as blood sputtered from Zakhehus’s mouth. Zakhehus fell to his knees.
Cloudslayer pulled out a cigarette and lit it on the embers of Zakhehus’s ebbing flames. Zakhehus collapsed.
“Brother!” Svante yelled.
Cloudslayer walked up to Svante. Svante was starting to get the feeling back in his body. But he was in no condition to fight him.
“If you hurry, you may be able to have some last words with him,” Cloudslayer said. He turned and walked into the expanse of the Wavering Radiant.
Svante struggled to his feet and walked to his brother and knelt by his side. He held his head, his blood getting on Svante’s clothes.
“Brother.” Svante started to tear up.
“Don’t cry… Always… fight… for… He.” His soul passed and his body went limp.
“Brother…” Svante held his brother’s body until it cooled. Svante knew everything was going to be alright. His brother was with the Wavering Radiant now. With He.
Svante walked out of the archway of the Wavering Radiant to the aftermath of the battlefield. His brother’s men were all dead. Queen’s men were looting their bodies, but their mysterious powers were gone.
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