by Alex Raizman
Ryan’s frown deepened. “So, wait, what about creating or destroying matter? Doesn’t that add new matter to our universe?”
Moloch answered after another chuckle. “Our nanoverses are part of this universe. The only difference is scale. When you pull it out…” He shrugged. “It scales up.”
“Okay.” Honestly, as far as strange things went, this one didn’t make Ryan’s rapidly revised personal top ten. I mean, it’s completely bugnuts bonkers, but I guess it’s really not that much odder than having a pocket universe in the first place. “So...how do I do it?”
Crystal reached into the air and pulled out a beautiful silver sword. “Like that?”
Ryan did the same thing and pulled out...nothing. “Uh...maybe there’s a bit more to it?”
Moloch got up and walked behind Ryan, putting his hand on Ryan’s shoulders. Ryan fought back an urge to shudder. Moloch leaned down and whispered in Ryan’s ear, making Ryan’s skin crawl. “Eschaton. Everything we do is a matter of will. We exert our will upon reality. We bend it, we break it, we do what we need to it. You are treating your nanoverse like it is a child. It is not. It is a battery. It is the source of your power. It is yours to do with what you will. Do not gently hope your nanoverse will give you what you need. When you need something from it, you reach out and take it.”
Ryan took a deep breath. “Okay.” He focused on his need, on his desire. He was not asking, he was taking. He plunged his hand out into the air again, and this time he felt...something. Something solid and real under his fingertips. It brushed the edges and then it was gone. “I...I almost had it.”
Moloch walked away, grinning. Ryan relaxed some. It felt real. He could do this! He noticed Crystal’s frown, but assumed it was because Moloch was being so damn creepy.
If it was something else, Crystal decided not to clarify. Instead, she said, “Try again.”
It took a bit more time, and Ryan was starting to sweat by the end of it. Just when he was ready to give up, worried about burning too much power before the battle with Enki, his fingers were able to close on something.
It wasn’t a sword he pulled out. It looked like a flat wooden club, almost a thin paddle, with blades of obsidian stuck into its side. Crystal clapped her hands in excitement. “Oooh, your people haven’t gotten swords yet, love. That’s a...what’d the Aztecs call it, Moloch?”
“A macahuitl,” Moloch said with a nod.
“A...mak…” Ryan glanced helplessly at them. “I’m never going to be able to pronounce that,” he muttered.
“Don’t sweat it, love.” Crystal grinned. “You don’t need to name it to pull it.”
Moloch chuckled, and Ryan rolled his eyes. “But I was reaching for a sword. Why’d I pull out...this?”
Moloch answered for her. “It’s likely the people of your nanoverse have not yet discovered metallurgy. When you reach in, you pull out...the best version of what you were looking for. If you reached for an arming sword but they don’t have one yet, you’ll get a gladius if they have those. If they lack swords altogether, you’ll get the closest weapon your nanoverse has.” Moloch indicated the macahuitl. “The Aztecs favored those weapons. Don’t underestimate them - obsidian is scalpel sharp. I’d avoid trying to parry, you’ll shatter the blades, but…” Moloch shrugged.
He does that a lot. I wonder why. Some people just had ticks, but Ryan felt like there was some mockery he was missing with every shrug. He gave the weapon a few experimental swings. At least it was balanced well. With his own shrug, Ryan reached out and shoved it back into the nanoverse. That, at least, was easier than reaching in to pull out a weapon. “That’s...really cool, actually.” Ryan smiled. He’d just pulled a weapon out of nothing. It wasn’t the same as manipulating the math that underpinned reality, but it was definitely something he liked. It’s like being a video game character, but my inventory is bottomless. The thought made him grin.
“Something funny?” Crystal asked.
“Long story. I’ll tell it to you later, but…” he glanced at his phone, “We have to head out to make it in time. Moloch, you good on the plan?”
“Oh, yes,” Moloch said with a thin smile.
Ryan nodded, and he and Crystal got up to give an interview. And, if things went well, finally get a leg up on Enki.
◆◆◆
It didn’t take them long to get set up. Gail was a professional, at least, although she did seem somewhat flustered by their presence.
“Okay, we’re live in three, two…” the cameraman held up a single index finger for the last number.
“Good evening, this is Gail Pittman with ANC. As a follow up to our interview with Enki earlier today, I’m here right now with Ryan Smith and Crystal - the two individuals that Enki alleges are his adversaries, for an exclusive interview. Ryan, Crystal, thank you for talking with me.”
Ryan put on his best smile. It felt like it was being forced lengthways through a sieve. Crystal’s looked more natural, but Ryan was beginning to suspect Crystal wouldn’t be phased by a hungry T-Rex wearing a sombrero.
“We’re happy to be here, Gail. Want a chance to clear the air,” Ryan said as Crystal nodded in agreement.
“So, let’s start with the big one - Enki claims that you two are gods, like him. Is that true?”
Crystal spoke up here, her smile not wavering, “I wouldn’t exactly say like him, not in the details, but in the broad strokes, we’re gods too.”
“Details? What details are those?” Gail leaned forward, a hungry motion, the wolf that had spotted its prey. In this case, the prey was the chance to break new information about what was undoubtedly the story of the century.
“Well, Ryan here, he’s only been a god for...two weeks, that sound right love?”
Ryan nodded. “Yeah, two weeks.”
“Enki’s been a god for about ten thousand years, so that’s a difference right there.”
After giving that statement a dramatic pause to hang in the air, Gail turned towards Crystal. “And you, Crystal? How long have you been a goddess?”
“A little over a million years.”
That got Gail to lean back, giving her time to process that. “That would make you...about as old as the earliest humans?”
Crystal nodded. “I remember when you lot started figuring out tools. But, Gail, most of that isn’t relevant to the current situation, yeah? I can talk about millions of years of old news later on...if that’s alright.”
Gail nodded. “And in that case, Ryan. Enki also alleged you were the Christian Antichrist. Is that true?”
Ryan shook his head. “Of course not. But don’t ask me to prove that, Gail.”
“Why not? Surely people at home would be relieved if they knew you weren’t.”
“Oh, believe me, Gail, I’d love to.” He could feel himself sweating under the lights and hoped it didn’t show on camera. “But...well, it’s a HUAC thing, from the 50’s? ‘Prove you’re not a communist.’”
Gail gave a polite smile. “So you’re saying it’s impossible to prove?”
Ryan nodded again. “I mean, I can assure you I’m not having anyone put a mark on their hand or forehead - or anywhere else, for that matter - so I should get some points for that.” He scratched his chin, “Plus, last Crystal heard, Hell is a bit too much of a mess right now to organize a proper Apocalypse, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Crystal said, “and I know you’re going to want more information about that Gail, but only have so long, yeah? So I’m gonna ask that you just roll with it, so we can focus on what Enki is claiming.”
Gail blinked at that, and Ryan thought he was starting to get a feel for the woman. Gail was a good reporter and always opened to new ideas, but she had the sort of perfectly practical mind that was doing its best to cope with the perfectly impractical reality of gods walking the Earth and doing interviews. “I see. Then...why were you fighting Enki in that video?”
“Two things there, love.” Crystal regained
control of the conversation - they had both agreed that she was the more charismatic of the two. “First of all, it’s because Enki is an absolute tosser. What you’d call a tool. But the two of us went off to help Ryan acclimate to his changes, yeah?” Gail nodded along, her forehead wrinkled with intense concentration. Ryan realized exactly how tightly wound she was and felt a perverse urge to lean forward and shout “Boo,” as loud as he could. Even though Gail was maintaining a professional demeanor, her eyes screamed that she was terrified of the two of them. “When we got back, he ambushed us. Probably because he sees us as a threat.”
Gail played along, not realizing there was a script Ryan and Crystal had come up with in the two hours they had to wait, and so far, she was playing her role with all the skill of a master thespian. “You two did do a number on him in that fight. But what is he afraid you’ll do?”
“Stop him.” Ryan took back over, leaning forward for the camera’s benefit.
“From doing what?”
“He’s going to blow up the sun.” Ryan delivered the half-truth with the absolute certainty of a preacher that’s been dipping into the donation plate to line his own pockets, and with about as much honesty. “That’s what he wants to do.”
As well as Gail’s composure had been maintained throughout the interview, it cracked a bit here and she blinked slowly, giving herself just a quarter second to process that. Ryan was now certain her gasp earlier when interviewing Enki had been some manipulation of his. “He wants to...blow up the sun?”
Crystal took back over. “I noticed he left that out of the interview he did with you, which seemed like exactly the kind of underhanded move that git would pull. He’s also the type dumb enough to think that would work, that we wouldn’t tell you the truth.”
“Wait,” Gail was starting to realize that she was losing control of the conversation. “You’re saying he’s dumb based on-”
“-on knowing him for multiple thousands of years, love. Back in the day of Sumeria, he was pretty clever. Since then, he’s devolved into a nasty brute who can put on a good show, sure, but at the end of the day, he’s a common bloody bully. The god of being a common bloody bully, really.”
Gail opened her mouth, but another voice spoke up, coming through the door that should have been locked. The door to the adjacent room, which was also the door Ryan had very carefully suggested Crystal didn't block with her ship's door.
“You’ve got quite a mouth on you.” Enki wasn’t bothering to control his voice, although the weirdly handsome face he’d worn for the news was still the visage he was presenting. “But you made a mistake, going on live like this.” His grin didn’t fit that handsome face - it was like halfway through a cartoon about musical princesses, the handsome prince started to beat the villain to death with a severed arm wrapped in barbed-wire. Ugly and twisted and just wrong.
Behind Enki, two other figures walked out of the doorway. Both of them women. One had a wicked smile and hair that was curled up in a pair of buns. They looked almost like the points of a cat’s ears. Cat ears, huh? Guess that makes you Bast. He glanced at the other. She had strong, Mediterranean features and eyes that were as warm and welcoming as garrote wires. And that must make that charming lady Athena. A fourth figure was coming through the doorway, though Ryan couldn’t make it out yet.
“Yessiree Bob, you made a big mistake. Because this time...the two on one odds favor me.”
And for a moment, the only sound was Gail scooting her chair out of the line of fire.
Chapter 9
Out of Hand
If Enki had hoped his little speech and pointing out the odds would frighten Ryan, he had another thing coming. Oh, sure, it terrified Ryan to his core, which wasn't the same as frightened. It’s okay, Ryan, he reminded himself, doing his best to not let the panic show. Instead, he made a show of shrugging, and looking at Gail as Týr emerged.
“Seems a bit less heroic when he’s gloating, doesn’t he?”
“Heh.” That, at least, got a chuckle of Enki. Not quite the reaction Ryan was hoping for. He knew it was a long shot, but he was hoping Enki would slip up here, say something stupid, something that made him the obvious villain. Anything other than coming across as a cocky hero. “He’s playing you all.”
Athena sighed and rolled her eyes. “Enki, this a waste of time. We have the Eschaton here; can we just end him already?” Her voice was dripping with annoyance. Dissention in the ranks? Or just not one to mince words? Ryan wasn’t sure, but had a feeling it wouldn’t matter for long. “You know,” she continued, “before he ends the world?”
Bast nodded in agreement, and Týr...struck a pose. Hands on hips, chest jutting out. Like some kind of nineteen-forties superhero. It was so ridiculous that Crystal started to giggle, which drew Enki’s attention to her. “You think something’s funny, you evil bitch? You think the end of the world is a joke?”
Crystal chortled for another couple moments. “No...no I swear, I’m not laughing at the end of the,” and the laughter overtook her again for a moment, “end of the world. I swear. I’m laughing at you all...oh damn it all,” and she all but doubled over with laughter as another fit hit her.
Enki’s face was twisting in a scowl, and in his case, that was more literal. His heroic visage beginning to run like a wax figure shoved under a heat lamp, fading back into his more familiar paleolithic features, eyes shrinking into tiny little beads of spite. “I’m going to rip your head off.”
“To save the world,” Týr interjected.
“Of course.” Enki glanced at Bast, then at Gail, who had stayed silent, and the cameraman, who was still broadcasting to the world. Ryan could see Enki’s brain churning, rusty gears clunking into place with metallic clanks. “Bast, you know why you’re here. Keep the humans safe.”
Ryan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. If Enki had been willing to throw aside his pretense, Ryan and Crystal would have had terrible odds, and would have had to protect the innocent people they had dragged into this. The entire plan had hinged on that point, on Enki’s ego - which Crystal had said “was like betting on the sun coming up, love. Not a sure-fire thing, but you’re pretty unlikely to be wrong, yeah?”
Now if only we can pull off the rest of this, we might have - fist. Granted, the word Ryan had been about to think hadn’t been “fist,” but when a fist as large as Enki’s filled your field of vision it also tended to dominate your thoughts.
And then said fist fully occupied Ryan’s mind by sending lances of pain through his nose and face. The blow picked him up out of the chair and sent him crashing through the wall and into the adjacent room. A naked woman screamed as she hopped off some man. She clutched the sheet around herself as the man’s hands went to cover his lap and he started to roll over the side of the bed.
For some reason Ryan’s divine senses decided to note atoms of gold encircling one of her fingers, but none on any of the man's. Before he could take any time to figure out why his divine senses decided to focus on the importance of some random woman's infidelity, he impacted the opposite wall. It barely gave him any resistance as he passed through that one too.
Enki followed, blocking Ryan’s view of Crystal’s fight with Týr and Athena. A small part of Ryan’s brain tried to remind him of the plan, but the majority of it was focused on the fact that Enki was bringing a foot down on Ryan’s gut.
The blow punched Ryan through the floor, and then the one below that, and then a third. “I’m going to feed you your own entrails, you little shit!” Enki was coming down the hole after him.
Ryan threw out his hand and grabbed the equation for gravity. It had been the first equation from physics to ever really click with him, and he could recite it in his sleep. Those numbers needed to obey him. He slapped a minus sign in front of the vector of gravity, turning it around to pull Enki in the opposite direction. Enki’s downward progress slowed, coming to a stop inches from impacting Ryan, hovering for just a second like a basketball player get
ting perfect hang time. They were almost face to face, and Ryan got to enjoy the look of realization grow in Enki’s beady eyes.
“Oh, fuck you,” Enki nearly whispered as gravity began to reverse, and then he went rocketing away as Ryan quickly slapped a 3 onto the gravitational constant.
“Antigravity cubed, bitch,” he said to the retreating form. He could still hear the sounds of fighting above and shook his head to clear it. Crystal needed his help.
It took a few quick leaps to carry him up between floors. At the top was a gaping hole where Enki had punched through the ceiling, and Ryan knew it was too much to hope for that he’d keep sailing all the way to space. He raced past the naked woman and man - who were midway through rushing out of the room. Neither had bothered to get dressed. The man was still wearing only the clothes he had been born in, and the woman was clutching the bedsheet across herself as she ran. He ignored them both, dashing through to where the battle raged.
Crystal was moving in the same graceful dance she had used against the Hecatoncheires, flitting between their blades. Athena’s came at her low as Ryan approached, and Týr’s was moving in a high arc, but she dove between the two swords. Her weapon snuck like a snake to nick Týr’s arm.
But she was also bleeding from a dozen small cuts herself, and Athena and Týr only had five total between them. Hundreds of millennia of experience, it seemed, only counted for so much.
Ryan rushed in, like they’d practiced, and reached out to draw a macahuitl out of thin air.
He brought the primitive weapon down towards Týr’s back in a wild swing.
A small part of Ryan noted that Bast was watching the fight and hadn’t moved during his charge. She could have tried to give Týr a warning, but instead had just let Ryan get in the surprise attack. Ryan wasn’t sure why, but was glad for the opportunity. Say what you will about obsidian as an alternative to metal, but it was razor sharp. Týr howled and whirled around, but instead of striking at the sword, he curled his fingers.
Shit. He could see what Týr was doing, although it was difficult to understand - the math was wrong. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a simple twist. Ryan tried to grab the equations Týr was manipulating, force some order onto the chaos. As natural as tampering with the fundamental equations of reality was starting to feel, Týr had centuries of practice on Ryan. He pushed back against Ryan’s manipulation with a deft ease. Ryan was still fumbling when the equations fell into place, and Týr selectively changed the coefficient of friction of Ryan’s clothes and, simultaneously, the density of air.
