by J. Cee
“I don’t know. Not a lot?”
“Besides us, Kaine was the only other one. Now that they know about you, they’ll never let you go. Neither will the Tetramorph.”
“Tetramorph? What’s that? Myrtle said something about a Tetramorph too.”
“Myrtle?”
“Um, nothing. What’s a Tetramorph?”
“It guards the Book of Life.” Aeri looked around impatiently. “We don’t have time for this. Are you coming with me?”
Ceph stared at Aeri. In the back of his mind, he knew she was probably right. There was no going back to his old life. He should at least try to learn what he could. Aeri seemed to know more than Myrtle. He would decide what he wanted to do after figuring out the facts.
“Okay.”
“No more running.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Aeri held out her hand.
“I don’t need someone to hold my hand.”
“That’s exactly what you need right now.”
Ceph sighed. “I’m not a kid.”
Aeri grabbed his hand, and the two of them disappeared further into the city.
* * *
Several hours later, Aeri and Ceph were perched in a belltower overlooking the entire city. They crouched below the side of the belltower so that no one could see them from the streets below. To Ceph’s annoyance, a family of bats had already claimed the belltower as their home. Aeri had insisted, though, that the belltower’s height would give them some protection from their pursuers.
“We’ll be out of range of basic detection skills,” Aeri said.
Ceph gave Aeri a puzzled look, then shrugged. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.”
“Don’t be juvenile. You need to learn. That’s how you’ll survive today and win tomorrow.”
“Win? Oh yeah, so I heard you’re here to blow up the world.”
“What? Who told you that?”
Ceph took the next several minutes to describe his meeting with Myrtle, interrupted only once in the middle of his story by a screeching bat. Aeri listened silently until he had finished.
“So who’s right? The Everborn or your cultists?” Ceph asked.
“I’m here to change the world. To save our people.”
“By ending the world?”
Aeri pursed her lips. “I don’t know everything. I know that finding you is the first of many steps.”
“Why me?”
“I don’t know that either.”
Ceph looked at Aeri with a raised eyebrow. A bat squawked from inside the bell. “Okay, then if I’m the first step, what’s the last step?”
Aeri frowned. “I said I don’t know everything.”
“Aren’t you the Creator’s daughter? How can you not know? What kind of savior are you?” Ceph sighed in exasperation. “Assuming that the Creator is real.” Ceph groaned. “'Creators, end of the world. I don’t believe it.”
“It’s not that simple. I know as much as an experienced Everborn. Maybe slightly more. Any further would have been too dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“Every disturbance to the natural order is met with an opposing response. Xero demands it. That’s why the Creator used fringe cults and rumors to prepare my way. The Tetramorph responded with a vague Everborn prophecy to stop me. If I had entered the world as anything more than a powerless mortal, the Tetramorph would have birthed an even greater threat.”
“If the Creator’s real, why can’t he snap his fingers and get rid of the Everborn? And what’s this Tetramorph you keep talking about?”
“He can’t. The Creator wrote the laws of our world to bind all things, even himself. The Tetramorph is the living embodiment of those laws. It protects the Book of Life, which is what gives the Everborn their strength, and also maintains the balance of our world. If the Creator interfered directly with these fundamental laws, Xero would be torn apart.”
“This Tetramorph sounds like a big pain.” Assuming it was real and Aeri wasn’t spouting nonsense. “But so what? What about me?”
“My task is to alter the Book of Life. Rewrite it. And you’re a part of my mission now. The Tetramorph must know that, too. So do you see why you can’t run? There’s no escaping.”
Ceph punched the bell in frustration. It gave a muted ring, followed by the flutter of angry bats. Aeri grabbed the bell to dampen its vibrations. “Don’t do that!” she hissed. “Someone might hear you.”
“Sorry.” Ceph rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “What you’re saying is that the very laws of reality are out to get me? This sucks. This really sucks.”
Aeri peeked over the side of the belltower to make sure no one had heard him. “You have a choice. Run and die. Or fight and win.”
“This is crazy.” It’s not like he had anyone else to help him, though. “Fine, I’ll try your way. Show me how to fight. How to stay alive.” Ceph emphasized the last two words.
Aeri smiled. “Great. Now, we go Everborn hunting.”
Ceph’s mouth fell open. He punched the bell again.
Chapter 5
Ceph slapped at something that buzzed too close to him in the dark. The stink of manure filled his every breath, reminding Ceph of his short-lived stint as a Sanitation Officer. He tried to clear his head and focus on the targets below.
Ceph and Aeri were crouched behind the crest of a hill overlooking a small farm on the edge of the city. This far from the East Line, the urban landscape gave way to lush pastures and arable land. Under the moonlight, Ceph could make out the lumps of cattle in the pasture at the bottom of the hill. Every now and then, he heard a soft moo.
“Safe enough for you?” Aeri asked. “If you kill a hundred of those cows, you’ll probably gain one power point.”
Ceph blanched. “Isn’t this wrong? Killing defenseless cows?” Sure, he had squashed bugs, but he had never killed something so… big. And bloody.
“You’re the one who refused to go Everborn hunting,” Aeri reminded him.
Ceph and Aeri had argued for another hour in the belltower. Aeri had explained the importance of growing stronger by gaining power points and ranks. Overcoming challenges granted power points, the simplest challenge being combat. An Everborn’s rank equaled the total number of earned power points. Killing other low-ranked Everborn was the fastest way to gain power points in Aeri’s view, but Ceph had refused to budge on the issue.
“This feels wrong.”
“It is. But if you’re not willing to kill an Everborn who will simply resurrect, then this is the only other option. The other areas are too dangerous for us Onceborn, since we can’t rely on resurrecting.”
Ceph didn’t like the idea of killing people, even if they were Everborn. Of course, the real reason he didn’t want to kill an Everborn was that the thought of fighting one terrified him.
“Alright. Give me a minute.” Ceph looked at his inner left forearm. Corpus. Blue sigils glowed briefly, showing his current status. Thirty-two blood, four spirit, and zero percent harmony. Aeri still hadn’t explained what harmony was. He’d have to find out later. Right now, he only needed to worry about casting a basic Soulstrike attack. It would cost two spirit and, with his attributes, inflict one point of damage.
Aeri had assured him that was enough to kill a cow. He’d have to rest to recover his spirit after every two cows, but they had plenty of time for slaughtering the cattle. He began to estimate the time he’d need, taking into account the spirit regeneration times.
“How did spirit work? It refills every minute?” he asked.
Ceph’s concentration was broken by the sound of loud snorts and moos.
“Look! Someone had the same idea as us.” Aeri pointed to the far right of the pasture. A dark figure was sending Soulstrikes into the sleeping cow herd. The waking cows were running in random directions, crashing into each other. Ceph saw more streaks of violet light.
“What should we do?”
“Stay down. Keep watching.”
The Everborn continued his killing spree, every Soulstrike he cast turning another cow into an explosion of raw meat, bones, and innards. The faint sounds of laughter tinkled across the area.
Ceph and Aeri watched the massacre in silence for nearly half an hour. By then, the Everborn had killed most of the herd. Eventually, the Everborn lost interest and walked towards the center of the city.
“Move!” Aeri ordered in a hushed tone. She and Ceph circled around the hill to avoid meeting the Everborn. They watched the figure disappear into the distance.
Ceph stood, but Aeri pulled him down. “Not yet. Look again.”
As soon as the Everborn was gone, another figure emerged from a nearby farmhouse and ran onto the pasture. In the dim moonlight, Ceph could make out a man on his knees. He was weeping.
Aeri’s face was grim. “The Everborn destroyed that farmer’s livelihood. Without his cattle, that farmer and his family will face starvation or worse.”
“Worse?”
“Without cattle to sell, some farmers choose to sell their children instead. Forced labor crews for the boys, whore houses for the girls.”
Ceph was horrified. “But you were going to have us kill the cows too!”
“Because you were being stubborn.” Aeri’s brows furrowed in anger. “Do you see? I told you before. Every time you run, someone gets hurt. You can hunt Everborn, or you can kill cows. What’s it going to be?”
The broken farmer’s wails twisted Ceph’s gut like the taste of cold vomit.
“We’ll do it your way.”
* * *
The next night, Ceph and Aeri were once again skulking in the shadows, this time in the urban center near the East Line. They were hiding next to a closed market, using several abandoned barrels for cover. Across the street was a small blue building with an elaborate golden arch in front of its doorway. At this hour, this part of the city was empty and silent. Aeri fixed her eyes intently on the golden arch, waiting.
The plan was simple. This gateway was one of the locations new Everborn preferred to enter the world. They would wait for a low-ranked Everborn to emerge by himself and proceed to fight two against one. Those odds would provide a safe margin of error. At least that was what Aeri had told Ceph. Ceph wasn’t sure about the plan.
In any case, Aeri would take the lead, with Ceph contributing when he could. With his low spirit pool, he wouldn’t be inflicting as much damage as Aeri, but every bit helped. Ceph was quite happy with letting Aeri handle the bulk of the fighting.
The soft sound of footsteps broke the night’s quiet. Ceph peeked over a barrel and saw a lone figure walking away from the blue building.
Inspect. Aeri had shown Ceph how to assess an Everborn’s power. As Ceph thought the word, a green aura appeared around the figure. That was good. Green meant someone was a similar rank as him. Redder shades were dangerous opponents at higher ranks. Blue signified a weaker opponent, and fighting opponent with gray auras would never yield a power point.
Aeri finished her own inspection and turned to Ceph. “Ready?” she whispered.
Ceph nodded.
“Don’t run away,” Aeri reminded him.
He probably deserved that, but Ceph still rolled his eyes.
Aeri stepped into the street. “Hey!”
The figure stopped and turned around. Aeri waved at the figure, who slowly approached. Ceph was still hidden, but he could make out the outlines of a young man. He couldn’t see any other details in the dark.
“Hi, what’s going on?” a rough voice said.
Since the damage from a Soulstrike depended on the distance to the target, Aeri intended to lure the victim closer for a more powerful surprise attack. Ceph would also strike from the shadows, and, with any luck, the Everborn wouldn’t notice him in the confusion until it was too late.
As the Everborn approached, Aeri suddenly cast a Soulstrike.
“Oww! What was that for?” The Everborn doubled over in pain from the attack.
Aeri cast another Soulstrike, and this time Ceph sent another one.
“Stop it! Oww! Are you attacking me?”
Ceph and Aeri sent another round of attacks before the Everborn recovered his wits enough to cast a Deflection Shield. His body glowed with a yellow light.
Ceph remained crouching behind the barrel, his spirit pool empty and slowly regenerating. It would take a minute to fully recover, although he didn’t think the fight would last that long. Inspect. The Everborn’s green aura was about half as bright as before, which meant his blood pool was cut in half.
Aeri, meanwhile, waited several seconds, until the Everborn’s shield expired. She resumed sending Soulstrikes.
“What’s going on here? What are you doing?” the Everborn said, more annoyed than scared. He cast another Deflection Shield and then sent his own Soulstrike at Aeri. She didn’t cast a shield but gritted her teeth, bearing the pain of the attack in full.
Aeri and the Everborn traded another pair of Soulstrikes. Ceph held his breath, watching. He knew that Aeri had put most of her power points into spirit. With a small blood pool, she couldn’t take many more hits without a shield. Ceph checked his own spirit pool. Corpus. He had one spirit point. He’d need one more to cast a Soulstrike.
To Ceph’s relief, the Everborn’s spirit pool appeared to be empty, as he had stopped using any skills.
“I don’t believe it. It’s only been a few minutes here, and I’m already about to die.” The Everborn looked around in confusion. Aeri cast another Soulstrike, drawing a cry of pain from the Everborn. The Everborn ran.
Soulstrike. Soulstrike. Soulstrike. Ceph needed one more spirit point to cast his attack. Soulstrike. Soulstrike. Soulstrike. A streak of violet energy finally shot out from his hand and hit the fleeing Everborn. His lifeless body, drained of blood points, hit the ground with a thud.
Ceph leaned against one of the barrels he had been hiding behind. He brushed away the sweat from his forehead. “I can’t believe we did it. We killed an Everborn.”
Aeri shrugged. “Once. He’ll be back.”
“This is absolutely insane.” Ceph was clutching his hair with his hands. “We killed an Everborn!”
“Calm down, Ceph. It’s nothing to be excited about.”
“Huh?”
“That was sloppy. To be fair, I’m still getting used to this body. But we both need to do better. We have a lot of training to do.”
“Right…”
“Hurry, we don’t have much time.”
“Time for what?”
“Check your status. You should have received a power point. Assign it. Hurry.” Aeri touched the blue sigils that had flared on her forearm. She gave Ceph a hard look. “Make sure to add your power point to spirit.”
Corpus. The symbol for power points indicated that Ceph had one to spend. He wavered. He wanted to assign it to blood points, but Aeri was right. He had run out of spirit too quickly to contribute much to the fight.
“Spirit,” Aeri said, sensing his hesitation.
Ceph grunted and assigned the point. His spirit pool was now at eight points. Aeri grabbed his forearm to check.
“I did what you said. Sheesh.”
Aeri ignored him and began walking towards the golden arches of the blue building. “Hurry.”
Ceph jogged after her. “What are we doing?”
“An Everborn will normally resurrect at the same gateway he used to enter our world.” Aeri stopped next to the blue building’s entrance. “You stand there,” Aeri said, pointing to the other side of the entrance.
“That means… Oh.” Ceph hastily checked his status again. His spirit pool was full. He eyed the entrance nervously. There was a whirring sound from inside the building.
“Get ready,” Aeri said.
A man walked out of the blue building’s entrance. It was the same Everborn as before. Aeri and Ceph instantly cast their Soulstrikes.
“Ouch!” The Everborn reeled from the attack. “Again? What the hell’s your problem?”<
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This time, the Everborn didn’t bother with shields but started sending Soulstrikes at Aeri continuously.
“You fucker!” the Everborn screamed in anger.
The Everborn’s attention forced Aeri to pause her own attacks and cast Deflection Shields instead. Still, she was never in real danger, and the pair quickly defeated the Everborn once more.
“Fuck you. I hate you.” The Everborn’s body hit the ground.
Ceph winced at the Everborn’s language. “I think I’m getting the hang of this.” At Aeri’s urging, he once again added his new power point to spirit.
“I know you won’t understand, but this… this isn’t real combat.” Aeri paused in thought. “We could stop by the Pits. You’d have a chance to see real combat.”
“Pits?”
“Another time. Get ready.”
“Poor guy.” Ceph shook his head.
“He’s an Everborn, Ceph.”
“I know. It still feels like we’re doing something wrong. Something worse than killing.” Ceph remembered the Word’s threat. “That other one, the Word. He said he could hurt Everborn without killing them.”
“Focus on the task. You can worry about that later. I want you to try something new this time. When you attack, weave in and out. Close the distance when you attack. Draw back when he attacks. That will maximize your attack’s damage while reducing his. At our ranks, it won’t be a big difference, but it’s good practice.”
“Isn’t that a lot of trouble for nothing? I mean, we already know he’s easy to beat.”
“Which is exactly why we need to practice. Do you want to practice tactics when your life is on the line?”
Ceph swallowed nervously. “Right. Good point.”
At that moment, the Everborn stepped out of the blue building. “Oh, come on. Did I do something to piss you off?”
Ceph cast a Soulstrike, closing the distance to deliver it at point blank range. He quickly retreated, putting a large gap between himself and the Everborn. Aeri mirrored his movements on the other side.
“Can’t we be friends? Listen, my name’s Marcangelo. Who are you guys?” The Everborn began casting Soulstrikes, this time at Ceph.
