Summoned to Destroy

by C L Walker

  A new heaven appeared around me. It was an ocean and I was at the bottom, but I wasn’t wet and I could breathe. Souls swam in great schools above me, darting quickly like the fish they believed they were. A hundred thousand dead played in the open water.

  I couldn’t end this heaven. There were too many people, too many souls who would die if I did as I was ordered. In a former life I wouldn’t have cared; I would have thought of them as simply collateral damage, if that. I probably would have seen them for the brief flashes of life they were, because even heavens would eventually end and I would still be alive.

  The new me, the one I’d clawed back from the barbarian I was raised to be, felt sickened at the idea. And feeling ill at the thought made me smile.

  I had become strange, and I was alright with it.

  I searched for more heavens and swam toward the nearest, stepping through to find another one filled with people. More water, this time enormous waterfalls falling from the sky to gently land in calm pools. People swam and laughed and had sex in and around the water. Nobody noticed me.

  I found another gate and another large heaven. Another gate, and another, and another. I noticed as I went that there were fewer and fewer people, though there was always water. The more heavens I traversed the less populated they became and I thought I understood what I was seeing.

  The bigger heavens were filled by the larger societies and they were the closest to earth. As I traveled through and between them I was travelling away from earth and toward the smaller heavens, the more personal ones, or the ones that had served smaller and smaller communities. Something about the mechanics of the afterlife pushed these smaller ones further away.

  Or, I conceded, the smaller ones were further away because they were filled with people who didn’t like company. It was as valid a theory as any other.

  When a former master had asked me kill all the gods I had started by closing the power of their heavens to them. But I had only closed the gates on earth, as they were the only ones that mattered to me. But I now saw that there were many more heavens that had closed their own gates to earth and drifted, perhaps when the societies that gave birth to them had died.

  I crossed a hundred heavens and watched the number of souls dwindle. I started powering the tattoos, trying to get through them more quickly, running as fast as I could and barely seeing any of the wonder around me.

  A city of ivory atop the shell of a crab scuttling in the giant waves. Huts attached somehow to a cliff over a deep gorge and the river below. A great tree that stretched from the deep blue sky down to the roots of another tree that grew out to the far side of an enormous sphere of air, everything surrounded by endless water.

  I only had one day and that didn’t leave me time to marvel at them. I had to find a smaller one before the phone in my pocket told me I had to go back. At that point, when it would take me too long to get back to make the deadline, I would destroy whichever heaven I found myself in.

  As though answering prayers I had never made, I found the heaven I was looking for.

  A log cabin beside a brook in the foothills of a glorious mountain range. An old man sat on the porch smoking a pipe, staring out at the great empty country before him.

  “I know why you’re here,” the angel waiting for me said. “I can’t let you do it.”

  Chapter 10

  The angel took the form of a small, old woman. She stood with an axe in her hand, the weight almost pulling her over.

  “I’ve never seen a female angel before,” I said.

  “We can be whatever we want to be, especially out here.” Nothing about her looked powerful but I could feel her might coming off her in waves. She was going to be a problem.

  “How do you know?”

  “I have seen your arrival for a thousand years.” She shifted her gaze to the man on the porch, who was oblivious to our discussion. “He deserves his afterlife and you will take it from him.”

  “Do you know why?” I asked. For some reason I wanted her to understand. I knew she would try to stop me but I needed her to know why I had to do what I’d journeyed so far to do.

  “You would trade one man’s afterlife for the life of your wife,” she said. She strained as she lifted the axe and laid it across her shoulder. “And then? You’ll have to set another heaven adrift, and another, until this god is satisfied. Or until there are no more heavens to steal from.”

  “I will stop him before that happens.”

  “I believe you will,” she said. She took a step back, and then another. She was getting ready to fight. “I cannot see the future in the other heavens so I cannot tell you if you succeed, but I believe you will try.”

  “Do I succeed here?”

  “You do.”

  She swung the axe with the force of an angel. The blade tore the air like paper, disfiguring the world as it fell. I dove out of the way and the world trembled when the blade cut into the ground.

  “Why are you fighting?” I said as she pulled her weapon from the charred ground. “If I win then why are still here?”

  “Because I fight you now, and then you kill me.” She hefted the axe onto her shoulder again and approached me. “And then you remove the core of what is good here and you leave as the light dies. That is what happens.”

  She attacked again and this time I powered the tattoos on my arm and blocked her. She was an angel and powerful in her heaven, but I had the energy of a god at my disposal. The tattoos erected a magical shield and prepared counter attacks for my use.

  “Just run,” I said.

  “That isn’t what happens today.” She swung again and again I blocked it. The axe bounced off my shield and she let it go. It spun in the air and landed too far away to matter.

  Where before she had moved like an old woman, halting and slow, now she was herself. She flew through the air and collided with my shields. They darkened under the onslaught, the tattoos pouring all the energy they had into keeping her from destroying me.

  I had to fight back. I had to kill her and finish what I’d come to do. But I hesitated; who was I to destroy this place and kill these people? For one woman, even if that woman was Erindis? How could I do that?

  “This is what happens, Agmundr,” she said. She rose into the air and lightning erupted from her to pound against my shields. They darkened further and the light from the clear blue sky vanished.

  This is what happens, I thought. I fight. She dies.

  I leaped into the air and we collided. My shields tore at her flesh and drove her back, but I was running low on the power I had stolen and she would have an endless supply. This was her world and it would give her whatever she needed. She looked down on me as I landed, preparing the next attack.

  I knew what I had to do but I couldn’t think about it. I had killed a few angels and I had killed many people, and yet now I had to fight myself. Now I found it hard to even contemplate.

  I remembered Erindis and I remembered Invehl. I held onto the image the angel had described, of me winning and ending the heaven. It was supposed to happen and I needed it to.

  She lashed out with a wave of angelic power that could have moved continents, and the heaven shook around me. I ran away, fast enough to evade the death she sent my way. I leaped at her again and this time I dismissed the shields and grabbed her arm as I neared her.

  She looked at me and I knew this was it. Something about the horror in her eyes told me all I needed to know.

  I drove my hand into her chest and tore her heart out. All her power and that of the heaven flowing into her was suddenly mine. The blood-tattoos covering my skin shone brighter than the sun.

  We fell to the ground at the same time. She landed in a heap and the tattoos brought me down softly. I was glowing with the life I had stolen.

  The old man sat on the porch, still oblivious.

  She had seen me coming and told me what happened next. I closed my eyes and the tattoos showed me what they could find as they hunted the heaven fo
r anything that might be a heartstone. When they found it I ran as fast as I could.

  At the heart of the mountains was a cave and within the cave was what I needed. The cave was small, with light filtering in through a million cracks in the rock to light the intimate space. A trickle of water flowed from the wall and disappeared into the floor.

  In the center was the heartstone. It was like a vibration in my bones from an earthquake far away, a low, dull, constant that drew me toward a simple wooden grave marker. The letters carved into the wood were unfamiliar to me but still, I knew what it was.

  It was the seed of the heaven, an important thing to its only inhabitant. Perhaps it was his wife or child, or someone else important to him in life. His devotion to it had allowed it to become the seed of all that surrounded me.

  It lay on the rocky ground, unprotected. I picked it up with ease. I’d expected it to be difficult, destroying a heaven. It was easier than almost anything I’d done.

  I ran out of the caves and headed for the gate. The world didn’t shake or tear itself apart; rather, it simply faded away like an old painting left in the sun. Color left first and then the shapes became indistinct. I reached the gate beside the cabin as the old man finally looked up to see what was happening.

  I couldn’t wait, couldn’t watch as his world ended. I stepped through the gate like a coward.

  The journey back was a blur. Heaven after heaven, slowly getting larger and more populated, and I saw barely any of it. I felt the eyes of angels as I traveled but they didn’t try to stop me. The heartstone was small enough to fit in my pocket and barely wrinkle my jacket. Still, it was the heaviest thing I’d ever carried.

  I arrived at the heaven of the plains and paused, out of breath and haunted by what I’d seen. I’d destroyed a heaven; the thought was insane and yet I’d done it. For Erindis.

  No, I realized. I’d done it for myself. This was what I did, what I always did. I picked a fight and I punched until the problem went away. Invehl had started it but I didn’t have to do as he said. I didn’t have to do what Erindis told me. I’d spent thousands of years twisting what my masters told me to do.

  And yet I’d chosen not to. I’d chosen to do as ordered rather than risk one person’s life.

  The heaven around me didn’t care who I was. I continued, the souls slowly walking through the grass, the statues looking on passively. Nobody cared what was in my pocket.

  I stepped through the final gate and the hollow man was waiting for me.

  “Did you know what I was going to do?” I said.

  The shocked look on his face was answer enough.

  “You should have stopped me,” I said. I pushed past him and walked to the road to hail a cab.

  On the ride back to Invehl’s base I finally pulled the heartstone out and examined it, looking for any reason the god would want it. There was none; it had no power now, or the tattoos would have taken it. It was bound to nothing and had no magical attributes that the tattoos could detect.

  It was a wooden grave marker and nothing more. And I had destroyed a heaven to retrieve it.

  Invehl was going to die. I was going to make sure he suffered before he did.

  Chapter 11

  Invehl’s base was an old airfield. The hangars had been patched and there were new vehicles parked outside, but I didn’t think the place had been used otherwise for a long time.

  The taxi dropped me off at the entrance to the field and I walked the rest of the way. Soldiers walked around the buildings in the early morning light, already busy with whatever their god had assigned them to do.

  Invehl had all the trappings of a god of war. The soldiers obeyed him as though he was one, and he went about his business in the way I remembered such gods behaving. But a god of war wouldn’t have sent me in his stead; he would have entered the heavens and taken what he wanted.

  Which meant he was something else, hiding in the guise of a warrior god. I hadn’t followed the new pantheon when they emerged and I didn’t know how they were arranged, but Roman would. Hopefully he’d be able to fill me in on who I was dealing with.

  The first soldiers I met were waiting for me with their pistols drawn. Bannon stood at the front glaring at me.

  “I didn’t think you’d risk coming back here,” he said. He readjusted his grip on his weapon. “You’ve got balls, I’ll give you that.”

  I tried to keep walking but he took aim and the others followed suite.

  “Are you stupid?” I said. I paused and turned to face them. I had the full power of the angel still available to me and I was sorely tempted to use it.

  “I don’t know what you are, but everything dies.”

  He was going to shoot me. Despite knowing it wouldn’t work he was still going to try and shoot me. I couldn’t understand it.

  “Remember what I said I’d do if you shot at me again?” I said. I didn’t have to try and be threatening to them; I could see on their faces they knew what was coming. All except Bannon.

  “Everything dies,” he said again, as though the words were a prayer directed at his god. “Everything.”

  “Not me.” I let the tattoos glow, preparing a shield in case the fool went through with his ridiculous threat.

  The other men lowered their guns and looked away. Bannon didn’t.

  “You were told to follow our orders,” he said. “Not attack us. That makes you unpredictable. That makes you a threat.”

  “You are risking the lives of the men beside you.” I looked at each of them, letting my eyes slide over them on the way back to Bannon. “If you fire I’ll kill them all before I rip your head off. Deal?”

  He was still going to fire. I could see him mentally preparing. Whatever he thought was going to happen next, he felt it was worth the risk if he could at least try to kill me. Mortals were always idiots, and bullies more so than most.

  “Let it go,” one of the soldier said. He put his hand on Bannon’s arm, only to be shaken off. “We’ve got orders.”

  Bannon held his pose for a few seconds more, then lowered his gun and turned away. He yelled at the other men to get out of his way.

  I had the irresponsible urge to call after him and stoke his anger. It would feel good to kill him.

  I stopped myself and tried to remember that I was a better person now. I didn’t kill if I didn’t have to. If I could avoid confrontation I would.

  I continued to the main building, not sure if I believed any of it anymore.

  A man inside pointed me up a flight of stairs and to a large room with closed double doors. I pushed them open and smiled at the flash of irritation on Invehl’s face.

  “Did you do it?” he said.

  I tossed the grave marker on the large table that filled the center of the room. He approached it reverentially at first, laying his fingertips on it like it might break at the slightest touch. He stroked it before looking up at me, still irritated.

  “This is the best you can do?”

  I still couldn’t feel anything coming from the heartstone, but he could. Something about it would give him power and it seemed only he could detect it.

  “You wanted that, and I got it. Stop complaining.”

  He picked the wooden grave marker off the table and tossed it to the floor, going back to looking at the map spread in front of him. My eyes lingered on the heartstone for a few seconds as I tried to remain calm.

  “Take a look,” he said.

  It was a map of Fairbridge out to the highway, with neighborhoods highlighted in different colors and battle lines drawn between them. He had used plastic toys as faction markers.

  “What is it?” I said. I’d seen war planning plenty of times, but it would make him feel better to explain it to me and perhaps he’d mention something he would rather keep hidden. Megalomaniacs loved the sound of their voice.

  “This is my little project for the month. You’re not the only reason we’re here. Things have been heating up and I think, with the right nudge, we can g
et them to boil over.”

  Without him explaining it to me I couldn’t tell who the various factions were meant to be, but I could guess. With what Bec had told me about the vampire infighting I figured I was looking at a map of their territories and enmities. Although, why Invehl would care was still unknown to me.

  “See, these little bastards have been running around untouched for centuries.” He moved one of the pieces until it sat uncomfortably close to ACDCs little lane. “And they don’t add anything to any of us. They don’t worship, even in the abstract.”

  The gods were powered by the belief of the faithful; the god with the biggest following was the most powerful, and if they ran out of believers they faded away.

  “I think, with what’s happening, I can get them all going and perhaps even have them turn up on the news. Can you imagine it?”

  “Why would you care?” I had a good idea what his plan was – spark fear in the citizens and get more soldiers on the streets – but as long as he was talking there was a chance he might tell me more than he intended.

  “The witches are on board,” he said, half to himself. “Of course. But I can’t work out what will push the vampires over the edge. Maybe if I turned up in person? No, that might unite them.”

  He was going over the plan in his head and for a moment I thought he’d forgotten I was there. The he looked up at me expectantly and I realized he was genuinely trying to get my input.

  “I say pack up and crawl home. You’re outmatched.”

  He shook his head but kept his calm. “You have experience and I want your truthful advice. I order you to give it.”

  I took a deep breath, about to tell him exactly what he could do with his map and his plans and how much it would hurt the first time, but there was an opportunity available. I spent too much time reacting and not enough thinking, as Seng had told me. Though it hadn’t worked out well for him.

  I leaned over the table and examined the map more closely. Some of the markers – tiny multi-colored hats – probably represented the witches he’d been speaking of. They were mostly around the edges – the suburbs – but some were making inroads on the city. Some of the vampires – silver race-cars, for some reason – covered a portion of the downtown area, while others – silver warships – covered the rest.