Summoned to Destroy

by C L Walker

  I had spent all the energy the tattoos had stolen from my recent fights. I needed power and there were only a few ways I could get it. I could go on a killing spree, which would be the easiest way, but that didn’t feel right to me anymore. Instead I was going to have to speak to Invehl before I betrayed him. He was a god and I was sure he could give me the power I needed.

  If he couldn’t, I reasoned, he could probably find it for me. If he wanted his heartstones he’d have to.

  The door opened on the top floor and Erindis was waiting. I hadn’t been expecting to see her and in my surprise I froze in place. She froze too, staring at me like I was an oncoming bus.

  “Hi,” I tried, hoping it wouldn’t make her angry again.

  “Hello, Agmundr,” she said. Hearing her say my name was like music after a long silence.

  “We need to talk,” I said without thinking. It wasn’t a smart thing to do, but now that I’d said it I knew it was what I needed to do.

  “I don’t know,” she said, looking away. Looking for an escape.

  I stepped out of the elevator and she backed away. Her avoiding me hurt more than all the wounds I’d received fighting angels.

  “I want this to be better,” I said. “I want us to be better. We used to be…” I trailed off, lost for a way to describe our lives so long ago.

  “Better?” she said. Then she smiled and I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time: happy.

  “Yes, better. I know I’ve hurt you and I know things haven’t been easy for you, but I want to make them better. I want…”

  Once again I couldn’t finish the sentence, because I didn’t know what I wanted. I wanted our old lives back, in the kingdom we’d ruled side by side. I wanted her to look at me as she had then. I wanted the intervening millennia to have never happened.

  I also didn’t want it, because I liked this new world. I liked the way it treated everyone equally. I liked the way it didn’t punish people for defects of their birth, and I liked the way it didn’t force people to serve just to survive. But I hoped Erindis and I could find a place in this new world anyway.

  “You want us to be married again,” she said.

  I hadn’t stopped thinking of us as married and the comment confused me, but I didn’t say anything. I just nodded.

  “Too much has happened,” she said. “Too many years.”

  “Then we can start again.”

  “Where?” Her smile, which had barely been there to begin with, faded. “With you receiving a child-bride in exchange for killing people? With us trying to frighten our enemies by being more ruthless than they were? Or by making deals with beings we can’t understand and then losing our minds in exchange for safety?”

  When Erindis made her deal with the elder god Ohm it had marked a change for us. She’d become more powerful and in the process she’d become better. As we were crushing our enemies we were finding each other, and to hear her dismiss that time hurt me.

  “I always knew what I was doing,” I said. I’d done terrible things for her, things that had changed me in ways I hadn’t realized until I was bound to psychotic masters and made to do them again and again, only to find that it was easy for me.

  “That’s the problem,” she said. She was looking for an exit again, her eyes shifting around the empty entrance to the top floor. But there was nobody there to save her and I was too sadistic to let her leave.

  “We had a bad start, but things got better.”

  “When?” she said. “At what point did our lives get better?”

  I remembered months of tranquil peace, after she’d received her power and crushed our enemies. Months we’d spent exploring the world and seeing which parts we wanted to keep and which could be tossed aside. I remembered her making the sun rise just so I could see the early morning light in her fine blonde hair.

  And she didn’t, apparently. Or she remembered it but she remembered it differently. I was starting to realize that our memories weren’t the same and I wanted to slap myself for not seeing it sooner.

  “Let’s start over,” I said again. “Let me…let me take you out to dinner.”

  “Dinner?” I’d surprised her and she was smiling again, and I felt that happiness well up inside.

  “Yes. Let me take you out for some dinner. And we can talk and see if there’s anything we like about each other. Let’s forget all the other stuff and just see if we can have some fun.”

  “I have seen more in my life than any other person,” she said. She was watching me like I might sprout another head at any moment. “But I never thought I’d see Agmundr ask me out on a date.”

  “I would do anything for you. And I want to do everything with you.”

  She reacted strangely to my words, flashes of suspicion and anger tainting the smile. But the smile was still there and she hadn’t run away yet. Things were looking up.

  “You think we can escape, don’t you?”

  “I think we have to,” I replied. “But that isn’t why I want to take you out. That’s just about us.”

  “He’ll send guards with us.”

  “And we’ll manage.”

  “You can’t kill them,” she said.

  I wanted to object to the suggestion, but it was fair enough given who I was.

  “No, but they will have to put up with watching us eat and laugh.”

  She looked at her feet, mulling over my proposal. “I haven’t laughed in a long time,” she said at last.

  “Then let’s see if we can change that.”

  “You’ll have to ask Invehl. I don’t think he’ll go for it.”

  That was true; the god would be a problem. I was going to take care of him, though, so his opinion no longer mattered.

  “I’ll speak to him. If he wants a nice, docile Agmundr then he’ll let us have what we want. He has to know by now that I won’t run without you.”

  “Alright, then,” she said, looking up at me. Her eyes were a pale blue I had never seen on anyone else. “If you can get him to sign off on it, and you’re not planning this as some kind of escape attempt, then yes. I will go on a date with you.”

  I stepped aside and pressed the button to call the elevator. The doors opened immediately and I waved her inside.

  “Let me take care of Invehl and I’ll let you know where we’re going as soon as I find a place.”

  She didn’t speak as the doors closed but she did watch me, and having her eyes on me without her yelling was enough.

  I had a date with my wife and I was excited. I felt like a sappy poet or a woman, or Roman. I felt happy.

  I turned and headed for Invehl’s office so he could give me the power I needed to destroy the hell that would hopefully destroy him. Things were definitely looking up.

  Chapter 26

  Invehl was waiting for me in his office, leaning against his desk again with his hands in his pockets. He waved me in and pointed to the couch Erindis had been sitting on the last time I’d been there. I decided to stand instead.

  “Ever the contrarian, Agmundr,” he said. He was different, more confident than before. More sure of his power, like the moment he told me he’d taken my wife away and would burn off her face.

  “I see the heartstone was to your liking,” I said.

  “It was wonderful. Filling. Fortifying. I wish you could feel the way I do.”

  “I need some of your power.” There was no point dancing around what I’d come for, and the less time I spent around the god the more chance there was I’d be able to restrain myself from hurting him.

  “So you haven’t brought me another one, then?” He didn’t seem upset; it didn’t look like anything could upset him, the way he was feeling.

  “I had something else to do first. Now I need more power before I head back out.”

  “Just punch a vampire or something,” he said.

  That surprised me; it was too close to what I’d actually done before facing Seng. A tiny voice in my head was yelling that he was looking int
o what had happened. And if he did that, he might take a closer look at Bec and Roman.

  “I need more than that,” I said. “I had your power running through the tattoos the first time I entered the heavens, and after that I was powered by the angels I defeated. I have nothing now, which means I can’t do what you want.”

  “You’ll work it out.”

  “No, I’ll go back to my room and have a nap.”

  “I’ve given you an order, Agmundr.” His smile was slipping, his happiness giving way to anger. Good.

  “I don’t have to commit suicide for a lost cause. I can’t do what you want without your help, so I won’t do it. This is a simple choice for you to make. Make it.”

  I didn’t know why he was being so reluctant. I was going to do what he wanted, as far as he knew. And giving me power wouldn’t harm him, so whatever his game was it seemed pointless to me.

  “I’ve already offered you my power,” he said. “You don’t want it, remember?”

  That was it; he’d offered me his army and I’d turned him down and disobeyed him. He wanted me to grovel for what I needed.

  “I am not going to do this for you. And I am not going to dance for you, either.”

  I turned and walked toward the door, expecting him to call him back at the last minute. I wasn’t disappointed.

  “Come now, Agmundr,” he said. “I’m sure we can work something out.”

  I returned to my spot, standing before him with my hands behind my back.

  “I want you to join me,” he said. He lifted himself up on his desk and folded his hands in his lap. “I don’t want to keep fighting with you over everything. We can do great things together, you and I.”

  “I destroy heavens for you, nothing more.”

  “Nothing more? You’re not destroying them, just cutting them off from earth, but that’s not such a small thing. Come here.”

  I didn’t approach. I didn’t react at all.

  “I want to give you what you’ve asked for. Come here.”

  He was playing a childish mind game with me, trying to exert influence by making me do what he wanted. It was the sort of thing insecure rulers and tyrants did, but if it got me what I wanted then so be it. I approached him and stopped within punching distance.

  He reached out and touched my arm. A moment later the tattoos began to glow and I could feel power in them again.

  “See what happens when you do as you’re told.” He pulled away and I wanted to follow, to get more, to be more. “Work with me and you can have all you want. Work with me and we can have whatever we desire.”

  I stepped back, fighting the drug-addict impulse to give him whatever he wanted in exchange for more. I was a warrior and I was a man, not his slave. I waited for him to get over himself and tell me what came next in his little dance.

  “I’ll cut her free,” he said. “She goes and you stay. We work together and we conquer the shit out of this world. We can make it like it used to be.”

  “It can never be like it used to be,” I said. I didn’t want it to be.

  “Nonsense. We can do whatever we want. You shouldn’t be so short-sighted.”

  “What do I get out of it? Power?”

  “As much as you want?”

  “I can get power myself. I’m just here because it’s easy.”

  “Then what do you want.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to start naming the horrible things I wanted to do to him, but I restrained myself. This called for some subtlety, even if it wasn’t my strong suit.

  “I want my freedom. I don’t want you or anyone else ordering me around. We would need to work together, as partners.”

  He pretended to think about it but I could already see what he was going to say. Gods were so simple.

  “Agreed. Swear yourself to the cause and we can go forward as friends.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  He pouted theatrically. “That’s not fair. I offered you what you wanted. Everything you wanted. You can’t reach out your hand and then take it away.”

  “I said I’ll think about it. Now give me what I came for so I can go.”

  He held out his hand and reached for it. He pulled it away at the last minute.

  “See how annoying that is?” He laughed as he reached out again and shook my hand.

  Power, raw and bountiful, flowed into the tattoos. They were flooded by it, bursting with it. It was like things had been before the end of days, like the elder god Ohm’s life still flowed over my skin.

  “Fun stuff, right?”

  He let go and I didn’t immediately want to tear his arm off. I stepped back and closed my eyes, feeling the little aches and pains melt away as the tattoos did what they were supposed to do. Healing was the least of what they could do, though, and knowing that had my head spinning.

  I was back to being myself, if only for a limited time.

  “I have an errand to run in the city before I go,” I said. “It won’t take long.”

  “That’s disappointing.” He was pouting again. “Do try not to disappoint me constantly. Please.”

  “This is important to me. I’ll think about what we’ve discussed here.”

  “Quick question,” he said, stopping me as I turned away. “Do you think I can curb-stomp an angel now? You’ve felt the divinity flowing through me; do you think they’d even pose a risk to me now?”

  I didn’t know what he was talking about and I didn’t care. I had business and I needed to complete it while the sky was dark.

  “I have to go.”

  “Go, then.” He waved me away. He was acting drunk or high, as though the new faith was going to his head in more ways than one. “Go do the thing you think is more important than pleasing me. Remember, though, I have offered you your freedom and that of your wife.”

  “I will think about your offer.”

  “And don’t forget all the power, either. That’s a pretty big bullet point.”

  I turned and walked out while he was still mumbling. He might have said something interesting or important, but soon I wouldn’t have to talk to him anymore, so I didn’t care.

  I stepped out into the night and closed my eyes for a moment, feeling the tremor of the tattoos begging for action. Then I sent them out to find some vampires.

  Chapter 27

  My power swept over the city as it had in the heavens, seeking what I needed.

  The tattoos searched everywhere thoroughly, building a map of the world in incredible detail and delivering it to me eagerly. People sensitive to the supernatural – physics, witches, oracles – woke from their sleep with a shock. To them it was like someone had shined a spotlight on them, but my gaze was gone by the time they opened their eyes.

  I found what I was looking for a few blocks over; a group of five vampires were breaking into one of the high-rises. I sent the search into their minds and confirmed they were rebels to Artem’s rule.

  I drew the search back and opened my eyes. The city seemed so small all of a sudden, as though my god’s eye view had taken from it somehow, made it less than the spectacle I had come to love.

  I lifted into the air on tendrils of divine power and raced to my prey.

  People turned to stare as I passed, the night owls and the drunks, the prostitutes and the police, but nobody did anything. Nobody screamed or called for help. It was like they couldn’t understand what they were seeing so they chose not to believe it.

  I descended outside the building I wanted and walked up the steps to the smashed-in front door. I could feel the vampires speeding through the building, searching for something. I was tempted to find out what, but I was on the clock and it didn’t really matter.

  I burst in the door to find the first of my enemies. He turned too late, his small automatic weapon still held at his side. I decapitated him with raw magic. No finesse required, not when I had this much power to burn. I looked down the gun and smiled.

  Four more, and they were further up into the
building, climbing the elevator shafts with their claws out and bursting onto floor after floor. They were burning through the life-force in their blood, spending far more than they should. They were desperate to finish whatever they were doing before the sun came up, or someone came to stop them.

  The next one was three floors up. I lifted into the air, raised my hand above my head, and leaped upward. The ceiling exploded into scrap around me and I raced through the next one, and the one after. I burst from the floor before the vampire, throwing him off his feet.

  “You,” he said, raising his gun to fire. I wanted to let him try, wanted to see the fear in his eyes when his modern weapon failed against me, but I only needed one of them to live and it was a waste of energy.

  I stepped forward and crushed him, soaking up his life-force as it escaped his body in a bloody wave.

  I used the elevator shaft for the next two, blasting the door open and stepping out into space. They were above me and they were expecting me. They opened fire as I slowly approached.

  This was who I had been for thousands of years. This was who I was meant to be, a force that couldn’t be stopped, a being of pure violence. I was Agmundr and gods quaked at my approach.

  Then why was I feeling so sick? I had done this a thousand times and worse. They were the enemy, rebels in the kingdom of someone I wanted to prop up, and yet I felt bad killing them, as though their lives mattered.

  The vampires had stopped firing and gone back to racing up the shaft. They thought they could outrun me and I wanted to laugh at their naiveté.

  I kept ascending slowly, letting them wear themselves out. My mind was roiling with the odd thoughts assaulting me. Empathy had never been one of my strengths but seeing the terror on their faces was a problem for me. I cared how they felt, even if they were the enemy.

  I was as powerful in that moment as I’d ever been, and I was still haunted by my new humanity. I’d thought of it as something I felt because I was spending so much time weak and human, but it was more. It was becoming a part of me, as though I was infected by it.

  The vampires escaped the elevator shaft and joined the last of their number near the top of the building. I exited to find them with their hands up in surrender, on their knees and shaking.