by C L Walker
“Good boy,” Seng said.
I punched him, putting everything the tattoos could give me behind it. The locket grew warm in my fist as the tattoos exploded with power. Seng’s head snapped back, his skull crumbling to dust as he was thrown through the air to land well away from the circle.
“I don’t have to obey stupid orders that put my master at risk.” I put the locket and the key back in my pocket and ran, closing the distance as the god began to heal. “I am not a puppet, Seng.”
I jumped and aimed my landing at his body. The leg tattoos shone as I came down. He was crushed beneath the weight.
“You know this, but you just weren’t thinking.” I lifted his broken body from the ground. “You’re too arrogant.”
I had my hand wrapped around his throat. I reached up with the other and grabbed his head.
“You are as pathetic as you were the last time I killed you.”
I tore his head off. His blood drenched my arms. The tattoos didn’t react.
Seng was clapping behind me as the body in my hands faded away.
“That was impressive,” he said as I spun to face him. “I mean it. The punching and the jumping and all. Really great.”
“Trickster,” I said, powering up for another attack.
“You need to learn to think through your moves, berserker.” He crossed his arms again, waiting for me beneath the hell-gate. “Would you like to try it again?”
I attacked and the world froze around me. Every bit of the energy flowing through the tattoos was put to use to get me to him before he could do something unexpected. I aimed a fist at his smug face and watched it pass through.
I overshot the circle before coming to a stop. Seng was waiting for me where he’d been before, an illusion I couldn’t harm.
“Where are you?” I growled. I wanted to get my hands on him, to tear him open for real and see his blood stain this heavenly plain. “Face me.”
“No,” the illusion of Seng said. “I’m not that stupid. The way I see it you only have one option, but if you feel you must continue this inane fighting then you do what you have to do.”
I yelled, my rage pointless if I had nothing to aim it at. The angels were too high for me to reach and Seng was nowhere and everywhere at once. I was a weapon without a target and I didn’t know what to do.
I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. Seng kept taunting that I never thought things through and he was right. I had never had to, but now I did. I focused on my surroundings, on the charred circle beneath the gate and the plain around me. I sent the tattoos hunting for a god.
At first all they delivered was what I could see with my eyes: resident souls collapsed in disbelief at what had been done to their afterlife; angels circling overhead; Bec held high above me, hurt and bleeding. I found Roman, also carried high into the sky, but no sign of Seng. His illusion made no impression on my tattoo-extended senses.
The gate was pulsing with the power locked inside. I could see the seal I had placed there so long ago, an artless clump of raw power slammed into the opening. I could make out the fractures and see where it was weakening. The gate was already partway open, though there were few who could traverse the gap and survive.
Seng could, I realized. He had to be hiding beyond the tear in the hell he hoped to consume. It was the only place I couldn’t see and he knew it. He thought he was safe from me.
I opened my eyes on the smiling god waiting patiently for me to react to his provocation. The gate hung in the air above him, its red glow coloring the world.
I ran forward and leaped into the gate, passing through into the hell beyond.
Chapter 35
It was a cold hell, with no heat from any major source. Infrequent rocks were covered in luminescent slime, but everything else was covered in ice and slush.
Visibility was practically nonexistent, but I remembered the landscape from my last time there. On the horizon I would find grand fortresses filled with souls who had managed to climb a rung above their fellows. They enjoyed less harsh circumstances, but they still had to contend with the demons who ran the place.
Seng glared at me from the shadows nearby. I reached out with the sight the tattoos gave me and confirmed it was really him.
“Found you,” I said, already preparing to attack.
“Be quiet,” he said, casting around nervously. “We can fight back in the heaven, if you’re going to ruin my surprise anyway.”
I extended the range of the tattoos, sweeping the landscape to find what had the god spooked.
Bands of souls roamed the blasted lands searching for food. They would eat each other despite knowing they could never gain sustenance from the souls of the damned. I watched as two large groups attacked one another, wielding weapons of bone and rock.
Where were the demons – angels of the various hells – and why weren’t they monitoring the petty battles of their charges?
“Look up,” Seng said.
I sent my magic sight upward and found what I was looking for: the demons were chained to the rock face that was the roof of this place. They were maimed and disfigured, twitching and in pain.
“What happened?” I said.
“Like I would know. I just got here as well.”
I didn’t have time to wonder about the goings on of a place I had every intention of destroying. I focused on Seng and prepared to fight.
“One thing,” he said, holding up his index finger. “Just before you attack and ludicrously waste more of your limited energy.”
“What?”
He pointed into the darkness off to one side. I took the bait, knowing he wouldn’t risk an attack yet.
Bec emerged from the shadows, held aloft by the shackles on her arms. Frost had formed on her skin and I wasn’t sure if she lived. A fifty-foot fat and greasy beast that looked like a pig-human hybrid moved surprisingly quietly into view behind her.
“I can still kill her,” Seng said, his nervousness gone. “I lied a little about only just getting here.”
If she was here then she couldn’t be in the heaven. Or that was where she really was and this was the lie. I had no way of knowing and I couldn’t risk her life on a guess.
“See,” he said, again walking up to me and patting my arm. “I told you I’ve had time to think about how this would all go down. I’ve been watching you and planning, planning and watching, and now here we are. And you’re fucked.”
He had me. Any action I took would risk harm to one of them, and I couldn’t know which one was the real Bec.
I took a shot at Seng and my hand passed through his chest.
“That’s fair,” he said. “You had to check.”
Even the tattoos were wrong, telling me that this was the real enemy beside me. I could do nothing, which meant I was going to end up doing what he told me to do.
“What do you want?” I said, trying to put the right amount of resignation into my voice. I hadn’t given up but he didn’t need to know that.
“You know what I want. Do as your master ordered and give me my stuff.”
I reached into my pocket but paused before bringing out the contents.
“I need to see the real Bec, or you don’t get anything.”
“That’s not how this is going to work, Agmundr.” He was grinning at the thought of controlling me, so proud of how smart he was.
“Fine, then I’m leaving.”
The gate wasn’t visible on this side. I closed my eyes and found a nondescript black hole beside me. Seng was saying something but I cut him off by stepping through.
The change in temperature alone made me happy. The heaven hadn’t been hot but in comparison to the freezing hell it was like a tropical island. I turned my back on the ragged red tear and started walking toward to the gate leading to earth.
“You can’t leave,” Seng said behind me. “I’ll kill her.”
The tattoos convulsed, locking tight around me and stopping me from continuing.
�
��If I can’t tell which one is real then I can’t protect her,” I said, talking to the symbols etched into my skin as much as to the god. “I don’t have to act to save an illusion.”
The tattoos let me go and I continued walking.
Seng appeared beside me, a little less pleased with himself. “I will kill her if you leave.”
“You’ll kill her whether I leave or not.”
“I won’t,” he said. He held two fingers in the air, a symbol I didn’t recognize. “I promise.”
I was walking a fine line, risking her life in the knowledge that the only way to save her was to piss off the being holding her. It could all go horribly wrong but I’d weighed the risks against doing what he said, and I’d decided it was worth it. Clearly, so had the tattoos.
I kept walking and Seng kept appearing beside me. He looked confused, like I was a bug for him to study. The idea that I could just walk away seemed to have never occurred to him.
Good, I thought. Let him stew. Hopefully it would finally throw the god off balance and give me an opportunity.
“Fine, I guess,” he said.
I stopped walking. “You’ll bring her to me? The real Bec?”
“Oh, sorry. No, of course not.” I turned to face him and I didn’t hide my anger. “I’m just going to kill her while my army tears you apart. Have fun.”
The angels descended from the sky, all but the two holding Roman and Bec. Seng vanished and didn’t reappear. The tattoos brightened, readying for battle.
I had taken a risk and it hadn’t paid off; not yet. But it could.
All I had to do was defeat a horde of beings who were more powerful in the heaven than I was, and hope Seng hadn’t been honest about killing my master immediately.
No pressure.
Chapter 36
The hollow men dropped like bombs, crashing into the plain and immediately making a run for me. Their dead eyes lit up as they channeled the full extent of their angelic power.
The tattoos responded immediately, conjuring a shield around me and driving power into my muscles. I moved, faster than I’d moved in centuries, and it wasn’t fast enough.
An angel appeared in front of me and grabbed my arm, twisting me around and throwing me off balance. I used the new momentum and turned it into an attack, punching him in the face with my full strength. He fell back, his broken face already healing.
That wasn’t promising. I only had one move, one plan I used in every situation: punch the thing I didn’t like until it went away. Seng kept telling me to think but I had no idea where to start.
Another angel grabbed me, and another. I attacked the first and the second suddenly had his hands on me, his grip stronger than I could possibly break. He restrained me while the first drove one of their ornate daggers into my chest.
The pain was worse than any I’d ever felt, an all-consuming fire that spread in an instant to fill my body. I was paralyzed by it. The angels let me fall to the floor and all I could do was hug myself and close my eyes as I slowly healed.
I had to think. There was no way I was going to beat them all. There was no way I was going to beat one of them. I was no longer powered by Ohm’s dying life-blood. The best I could do was die honorably.
It was my weakness talking, the weakness of a man grown used to being feared, finally meeting his match. I had spent too long as a regular human, been defeated as one too many times.
And I no longer thought that was a bad thing. Experiencing the fear and the powerlessness had changed me, had helped me see this new world for what it was: better. And I was better for having experienced it. I wanted to shrug off the change and let my rage free, to die an honorable death according to the rules I’d been taught as a child. But I couldn’t; not anymore.
I reached into my pocket and withdrew the stone half-mask Seng so badly wanted. I had planned on using it the same way he had, wanted to devour the souls beyond the gate when they were set free. I had wanted to become my old self, but that way was barred to me and I was pleased.
I snapped the fragment in half and dropped it to the ground.
The angels fell back and Seng was suddenly kneeling in front of me.
“Why?” he cried, reaching for the broken key and scooping the halves from the ground.
“Because this world doesn’t need people like us anymore.” I was tired and sore, but I was smiling. “Because neither of us should have the power.”
Seng looked at me, as puzzled as when I’d walked away from saving Bec. He stood and backed away from me. And then he laughed as though I’d told him the funniest joke he’d ever heard.
“No,” he said when he could catch his breath. “Why did you think this would work?”
He held up the halves and pushed them together. His hands glowed for a moment. When he was done the fragment was whole.
“It was already in pieces, Agmundr. I was going to have to repair them anyway.”
I had made another mistake. I hadn’t thought through the situation properly, again. I was kneeling in a field and my only bargaining power was in the hands of my enemy.
I wasn’t very smart, but I knew what that meant. Seng had been working through his minions every time I’d come near him. He’d never shown any real power because he’d only shown me illusions designed to defeat me. And illusions couldn’t really do anything.
The stone half-mask was in his hands, and he’d just repaired it. He’d given himself away and he hadn’t realized it yet.
I stood and swept my gaze across the battlefield, noting the positions of the angels and the distance to what I was sure was the real Seng. I could make it before any of them could stop me.
I was within striking distance in a blink and had my hand buried in his chest in another. The tattoos gave me everything I needed and more, burning through their power to give me my victory.
Seng screamed. His divinity fought back, his own stolen power rushing to his defense and pushing me away. But I had a grip on his heart and all it did was make him scream louder. Angels were all around, grabbing me, trying to tear me free of their god, and making it worse.
“Get away,” Seng yelled. The angels backed off immediately. Seng had blood coming from his mouth. “What do you want?”
“Where is Bec?” I said. He didn’t start talking and I squeezed his fast-beating heart. “Roman?”
Two angels descended, one holding Roman and one holding a blood-covered Bec.
“How do I know this is really them?” Seng’s divine power swirled around us like a fine mist. He wasn’t a powerful god and he didn’t have the strength to control me. The tattoos were syphoning power from his blood while the rest waited for any opening.
“You don’t,” he said. “You’ll have to trust me.”
“No, I don’t.”
I walked toward the gate, dragging the trickster god along behind me. The angels kept their distance, calmly watching as their god was led by his enemy. I knew they didn’t care what happened to him and I wasn’t worried about them interfering without orders to do so. I kept my eye on the red tear.
“What are you doing?” Seng said. He was out of breath and frightened. His heart felt soft and fragile in my hand.
I didn’t answer him and when we reached the gate I took us through.
The hell’s frigid air hit me hard and the blood surrounding the wound I’d made in Seng’s chest froze. I turned to look at the fifty-foot demon with Bec hanging before him.
I could make him cancel the illusion, but that wouldn’t prove it wasn’t really her. He could use his illusions to hide her from sight as easily as he could show her. She could be hidden somewhere deep in this hell and I had no way of knowing. As long as Seng lived.
He realized what I was going to do. His face alternated between angry and scared, and I felt the same way I had the first time I’d killed him.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
I crushed his heart and the tattoos fed. He screamed with his few remaining seconds and the image of t
he hanging Bec disappeared. I let him fall to the frozen ground.
“Now what?” Seng said, his voice formed of the swirling winds and the far-off sound of wolves hunting the damned.
The blood-tattoos hadn’t finished with Seng’s dead body yet but I had to act fast. I pointed all the energy I had, all the power I’d stolen, at the dark hole that was the gate on this side, and I crafted a new seal.
There was still no artistry to my work, no skill in what I was doing. My power was less refined than a witch or a god, but it had held for thousands of years and it would hold for a few thousand more. Enough time for this world to survive without Seng interfering.
“You still don’t know where she is,” the god said in my ear, so close I imagined his breath. “Help me and I’ll tell you.”
It was desperation. I had as much time as I needed to find her. I could pass through the gate I’d sealed and I was betting the angels wouldn’t interfere with me now that their god was dead.
“Goodbye, Seng,” I said as the seal finished wrapping the gate. “I will be waiting when you find a way out, in a thousand years.”
“That day will be glorious,” Seng said. His voice, patched together from all the background sounds of the world, seemed to hold no animosity for what I’d done. He knew he’d get out, and he now knew how to regain his life when he did. I could almost hear him begin to plan what he’d do to me when he did.
I stepped through the gate and onto the green plain, the seal offering me no resistance. The ragged red tear was gone from the air and the clouds were fading.
Bec was clutching her side as Roman supported her, but if they were here then they were real, now that Seng was gone. An army of angels stood behind them.
One of the hollow men stepped forward. “What are we supposed to do now?”
They wanted a rousing speech, for someone to give them new direction. They were followers with nothing to follow.
“Go, do whatever you want.”
“I don’t understand,” the hollow man said.
