Her husband, and Kallen and Ariel’s father, stepped forth for the first time. Dressed the same as his wife, his actor stood next to her and proclaimed, “This machine is a font of divine power created by mortals of their own will and their own strength. Creating it proves our intelligence; appropriate use of it will prove our wisdom. Together, we will prove that Order has no place in our world but that which we allow.”
Extras flowed on stage from both sides to flank the Selios family. Each shapeshifted into a different form to represent all the people of the world. As one, they proclaimed the love of Lady Chaos and thanked her for allowing them to achieve this feat on their own merit. Then an imp dropped from the ceiling.
It was short, ugly, and shod in silver-grey skin. On its head was a tiny crown of iron pyrite. It proclaimed them all senseless abominations in need of punishment. Order, it declared, was the rightful ruler of the world because mortals could not manage themselves.
“Ariel Selios! You agree with me. Now help me save them from themselves!”
Dust fell from the ceiling so thickly that it obscured the actors. When it settled, Ariel and everyone else were monsters. They mock fought each other while the muses spoke in sad tones.
“Only a handful survived, and among them, the two sisters. Though horrifically mutated and driven to madness by pain and chaotic energy, they survived. The younger pulled her mind from Chaos like Order of old, and, by her kindness and strength, she pulled her sister out as well. The two of them fought for their lives out of the ruins of their mother and father’s dream.”
The fighting continued until only the actors for Kallen and Ariel were left. They cuddled together, trembling and sobbing. The muses stood around them in a circle.
“It was a weary pair that emerged from the pit,” they declared. “They lay down in exhaustion and clung to each other. What they held in their arms was now all they had in the world. Oh, tragic sisters! Even this would be taken away.”
Tasio’s actor emerged on stage from the left and an actor wearing a silver-grey sheet representing a cloud of enforcers emerged from the right. Upon seeing the other, both dashed to the children in the center. Tasio grabbed Kallen, and the enforcer cloud grabbed Ariel. For a moment, they stared aggressively at each other, then both retreated. The sisters cried for each other, but not a soul heeded them.
The muses returned to center stage as the area behind them split in two.
“From that day forward, the sisters’ lives could not be more different. Kallen was adopted into the Enaz family and treated in the elven village of Dnnac Ledo, while Ariel became a prince’s pet and treated in Latrot, now a stronghold of Order.”
The left side showed Kallen’s actor zapped with props representing the Lance of Ciaphias. For a second time, she mana-mutated within a pit, but unlike the first time, her new mother carried her out of it. An actor for Ponix tickled her chin.
The right side showed Ariel’s actor in a cage that the enforcer cloud’s actor stood on. She gradually returned to human form, but the enforcers were not finished. They went to work on her sapient mind as well, and Ariel’s actress represented this by rolling around, clutching her head, and screaming.
Kallen’s heart raced and her eyes became triangles at the sight of it, but she calmed when Eric placed his hand on hers. Upon the stage, the silver-grey imp from before approached the cage and stuck his hand between the bars. Ariel’s actor licked it and the imp put a leash on her neck. Only then was she allowed to leave the cage. At this, Kallen became so calm, she triggered Eric’s threat instincts.
“Kallen threw herself,” the muses continued, “into becoming the spear that Chaos desired while Ariel was re-forged daily into the shackle that Order desired. Each believed that, one day, if they worked hard enough, they would save their sister.”
The curtain fell.
“To be continued,” Kallen whispered. Out loud, she said, “What do you think?”
Eric hesitated to comment. Choosing his words carefully, he said, “I think I’m a novice mercenary and this is way above my pay grade.”
“Think of it this way,” Kallen said. A little bit of pleading carried her voice. “Tasio is offering you a long term mission for which you will be paid upfront.”
“What kind of payment?”
“Omnipotence and immortality.”
“No, really, what is it?”
Kallen stood up. “I’m serious! Tasio wants you to be a super soldier for Lady Chaos. That’s why he went to the trouble of bringing you here. That’s why you’re his chosen.”
“Is that true, Tasio?”
The trickster took a long sip from his soda and bubbles came out of his ears. Then he put the soda into a cup holder in his stomach.
“I brought you here to help Kallen, but that’s not why you’re my chosen.”
“Then why?”
“Because you’re a terrific straight man. Few people have the audacity to interact with me the way you do. It’s terribly good fun.”
Kallen sat back down and intertwined her fingers with his. Tasio looked surprised at the action. Kallen squeezed lightly, then tenderly said, “Sai, please be straight with him this time. I want him to understand how serious this is and how much it means to me.”
Tasio smiled warmly. His divinity faded and his body shifted. It became younger and more feminine. “Her” clothing became tougher and less stylish until it became something like an ICDMM field agent would wear when on assignment. With white hair and pink eyes, she could be Aio’s twin. She leaned over and kissed Kallen on both checks.
“Alright, my bestest friends,” Tasio said in an undeniably girlish voice. “I’ll explain everything from the top, no jokes or tricks.”
She floated to the row before her bestest friends and expanded her size. Then, from her chest, stomach and torso, she generated a map. It depicted Noitearc with colored fruit hanging from its branches and moving lines through the branches and trunk to show the flow of the River of Chaos. The Sea of Chaos lay at the roots and the Cloud of Order engulfed the trunk.
“It all began with the First War. Chaos and Order disagreed on the proper form of the world fruit that grew on Noitearc’s branches. Order insisted on security and regulation while Chaos insisted on freedom and creativity. They fight each other for control over them.”
Golden-brown light flowed through the world fruit in a complete circle. The strength and vitality of this flow depended on who ruled the world fruit in question. Each one changed color as the tides of war swept over them; a gradient of golden-brown, silver-grey, and emerald green, depending on the influence of the Three Founding Deities.
“Since neither of them can enter a world without causing it severe damage, they fight through agents. Their most direct agents are tricksters and enforcers. These are fragments of themselves that operate under the restrictions Noitearc placed upon them in return for granting them free movement within Itself. Thus, while we have great power, it is limited and we act primarily by influencing the inhabitants of a given world.”
Screens appeared next to Sai’s body showing snippets of the activities of both as they manipulated, guided, and empowered the local inhabitants towards their respective goals.
“This wasn’t enough for either of them, so they both created a race of creatures that best pleased them. With opposite principles in mind, they used the same tool, selectively mutating the local lifeforms into elves and orcs.”
“‘Local lifeforms’?” Eric asked. “You mean not all elves are humanoid?”
“Absolutely not,” Sai said. “Strictly speaking, an ‘elf’ is any creature that has been uplifted into a chaosified version of itself. They all have the same pointed ears and golden-brown hair because they’re all based on my default form, but everything else is subject to change. Anyway...”
The main screen shifted to a compare/contrast of elves and orcs. It was medical in appearance with its layers of detail and the columns of facts listed on either side.
�
��The elves are immortal through a healing factor, unlimited in physical form, and base a religion around revolution and discovery. Orcs, by contrast, are immortal through nigh invulnerability, do not change physically except to get bigger and stronger, and base a religion on secular law and tradition. Through these personal races, my mother and uncle achieve much of what they wish, but it is still not enough. They want to be able to interact directly with the worlds and bring their full power to bear. They want their own avatar.”
The elf and orc screen was replaced with one representing a hypothetical avatar for Lady Chaos and one for Order. Details filled out next to them and Eric read them with interest.
“I want the two of you to create this avatar for her by becoming it. Kallen is correct in saying that this is the reason I brought you to Tariatla in the first place. I guided your development so you could be her partner in this endeavor.”
“Why does any of this involve me?” Eric asked. “Surely you can find someone more interested in eternal servitude to The Ocean of Madness.”
At this, Kallen was suddenly bashful. She played with her hair and looked away from Eric so he wouldn’t see the blush on her face. Seeing her unable to speak, Sai continued, “Your naytheism is a necessary counter-balance to Kallen’s piety, and your dislike of change and mischief likewise.”
“You didn’t have to go to another world fruit to find someone like that.”
“It has to be you because it has to be me,” Kallen said softly. “I…survived Siduban. Out of everyone that survived, all of them mutated. Out of all of them that escaped Siduban, I was one of the few that regained sapience. Out of that tiny group, I was the only one that still had faith in Lady Chaos. This made me uniquely qualified to eventually become a permanent host for Lady Chaos’s spirit.”
“Again, what does that have to do with me?”
Kallen blushed deeper and turned completely away from Eric. Sai drifted down to her, took her hands in her own, and placed her forehead against the other girl’s. Kallen smiled weakly and rubbed her head against her god’s. Sai scooted away and let her explain.
“Uh…We…err…” She swallowed a lump and blurted out, “We’resoulmates!”
“Excuse me?”
“We…the two of us…are…we’re soulmates.”
“We’re what?!”
“You mean you haven’t figured it out yet?! You’re good at puzzles, just like I am. Think about it. You felt something the second we met, at the New Scepter Magic competition. I know it. What do you think I was doing when I kissed you that time? I was looking for a sign that you were my partner. Tell me you were disgusted when I did that, and I’ll stop talking right now.”
Eric didn’t say a word. He remembered that day well. When Kallen kissed him, he felt more than just her lips; he felt something deeper. Kallen was looking into his soul, but he didn’t mind. Looking for the final piece of a puzzle; the one that would complete the picture...
“That hardly means we’re...we’re...”
“Really, Eric! Why do you think you recovered from monsanity and returned to human form within a week?! Your mind was long gone by the time you arrived at the ICDMM; you couldn’t make sense of spoken language anymore!” She stopped, swallowed, and spoke again in a softer tone. “But I was there. I listened to your teammates reminisce. I relayed it to you. I was there to help you, to welcome you back...”
“N-no...I can’t. I just ca—”
“Eric, please! Please understand!” Kallen begged. “We’re two halves of the same whole. That was my experience I was imparting to you. How do you think I can do that?”
“You can’t!”
“But I am!” Tears came to her eyes as she saw the fear in Eric’s. “It’s not a romantic thing!”
She blushed again. “...Not entirely... it’s mostly a...a metaphysical thing.” She looked away again. “I can’t do this on my own. I need you.”
“So that’s what it all was?” Eric asked. “Stuffing me like some sacrificial pig?”
Kallen’s head swung towards him. Her eyes were wide and shining. “Eric, you mean more than that to me. Much more than that. I need you in my life and I wanted so much to be with you all the time...” Her chin fell and her tears slid off it. “But you already liked Annala and so I tried to respect that.”
“Yes, you did a great job clinging to me.”
“I helped you get together! Making her jealous at Across the Sea, encouraging your date at Sun Coins, suggesting you two play the leads in the play. I did that because I knew she was important to you. I want you to be happy... I just...want to be included in that happiness...”
“Kallen...I’m flattered...I really am...but…this is a lot to take in. I don’t know what…”
Kallen’s dam of sorrow finally broke and twin tears streamed down her face. Sai took Kallen into her arms, rubbed her back, and let her cry on her chest. She scowled over Kallen’s head at Eric.
“You made a girl cry, scoundrel.”
Bestest friend? Looks more like a big sister.
“Surely I can have some time to think about this?”
“Yes, you can have all the time you want to think about this,” Sai said. “I am the Guarantor of Free Will, after all.”
Eric stood up and calmly walked out of the theater. Once outside, he broke into a run. He ran across the village of elves; all of them pawns of Chaos. His path took him to the Sage Tree, on whose fruit the first elf was raised. He made a right angle turn away from it. He wanted to grab his stuff and leave the village, but it would mean going to his girlfriend’s house, an elf who became a priestess for Chaos.
“AAAAHHHHH!”
Again, he made a sharp turn and decided to run straight out of the village. The tree sentinels saluted him as he burst through their line and the Chaotic Curtain washed over him without issue. He had been manipulated into becoming one of them; his best friend, his girlfriend, and now that he thought about it, his mentors. All of them were pushing him down this path.
“HYPOCRITE!” In an empty field, he shouted to the winter skies. “HOW IS IT FREE WILL IF I AM MANIPULATED INTO...”
His high emotions returned him to his true form. Yes, that was another thing Chaos did to him. His humanity was gone. All that remained were his memories of it. While he had come to terms with that and recognized that he was still fundamentally himself, there was no denying that he had also fundamentally changed.
He began to hum the nursery rhyme that would calm himself, but instead it angered him further. He learned it from Kallen, who learned it from Nunnal, who was a more pious devotee of Lady Chaos than anyone in this village, second only to the goddess’ own clergy. Instead, he stomped about, venting his anger on the ground. It cracked.
It rumbled. Out of it jumped creatures bonded to it. Made of rocks and dirt melded together by the planet’s will and animated through its spirit, they were earth’s foot soldiers. Teeth gnashing and eyes flaring, they directed this wrath towards Eric.
“I was wondering when proper gnomes would show up! Come on!”
They swarmed him and he punted them into the distance. The impact shattered them, but when they fell to the ground, they reformed and charged again.
“World breaker!” they shouted. “Vein Splitter!”
Eric cast Air Disk to float above them and cast more air spells to batter them. They chortled at his attempts. They simply crouched to anchor themselves to their mother ground. Then they retaliated with earth spears.
Eric dodged and weaved around their projectiles. Though they fired ten spears, all of them failed to hit him. Three collided with his back. Their impact knocked him to his knees on his Air Disk. Again, the gnomes sniggered and formed two new spears from their mother ground. This time, they nailed his chest and knocked him backwards. Two more spears hit him from above.
Eric spun in midair to deflect them with a gust of wind. Then the remaining five earth spears floating in the sky all dived for him at once. He held out his hands and sped thro
ugh a moderate level wind spell to catch and throw them back. Twenty more replaced them.
Eric found himself surrounded by them. From earth comes gravity and these creatures of earth selectively controlled it to direct their “misses” back to him.
“Winds that blow and gusts that gale,” Eric chanted while dodging and deflecting, “become an army and fire on my command!” Eric pointed his staff at the army of earth beneath him. “Stratos Lance!”
One lance of air struck a gnome. Then two more found their mark. Then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and finally, sixty-four at once. None of them reformed. Eric caught his breath. Then the ground rumbled again.
A large stretch of ground broke free from the earth and stood up. This gnome looked exactly like the others, except it was sixteen times bigger. It raised its mighty hand to swat him from the sky.
“You gotta be kidding me!”
Invoking his wind avatarcraft, Eric flew away from the giant creature. It followed with large and swift strides. Projectiles flew from its chest while its hands continued their attempts to swat him. Eric deflected the former and dodged around the latter. Only a minute of this was enough to make him short of breath.
Turning on his back, he searched the rock titan for a weakness. Dodging more spears and giant hands, he directed two equally big bars of wind at it. One struck the back of its head from behind, while the other struck the lower chest from the front. The two together stole its balance and it went down. It fell flat on a sheet of air. Screaming a battle cry, Eric plunged his chaos spear into its head. He fractured the gnome’s skull and shattered it.
Abruptly, the wind avatarcraft cut off and Eric plummeted to the ground. Thanks to his grendel form, he survived the fall without injury, but the ground swallowed his limbs. He was now lying face down in the dirt and unable to move.
Remember the Omnipresent Mana Principle. The ground is mana and I am mana. I can slip through by...why can’t I slip through?!
It was then that he realized that his limbs were more than buried. Gnomes were holding them beneath the surface. Mana Enlightenment doesn’t work on spirits and certainly not on mana breeds like gnomes. More of them jumped up and smiled viciously at the immobilized and exhausted grendel.
Transcending Limitations Page 23
