Ha! Surprise!
You didn't know, thought we was new on the sceneWell, it's alright! It's alright!I know you know, I see you smiling at meWell, it's alright! It's alright!Boom! Here comes the Boom!Ready or not, here comes the boys from the SouthBoom! Here comes the Boom!How you like me now?
— POD
Day 35269 10:25 AM
I lay on my back, looking at the beautiful blue sky above. White clouds passed, much like I did through others’ lives. Ruby, Dandelion’s long-dead children and wives, his brother and the rest of the scum…
The list seemed endless even if I only took into account the first handful of weeks of my new life, let alone the long-lasting impact and firmer relationships I developed later.
I wonder how Ruby is doing? I chuckled. She’s about to become a very rich woman; as soon as Newstar returns and triggers my last will and testament.
She would also have a huge target painted on her back. Hopefully, Maelstrom would keep her promise and help her with that.
The hag was drawing closer; I could feel her presence oozing across the world, heading towards me. She probably sensed something similar when looking for me. Perhaps I smelled of steak or something. Candy perhaps?
After parting with Point, after letting go, I found myself free. Free and untethered. Perhaps that was what Manny had wanted for me all those centuries ago. Perhaps our final days needn’t have been hell.
Something moist touched my temple. I touched it; a tear. I was crying, and I didn’t even know what for. A deep steadying breath, followed by rubbing my eyes should’ve solved it. It didn’t. They just kept flowing, and I welcomed them.
Three significant women in my life, and I fucked up with two of them. Mary, whom I’ve shunned in a fit of madness through no fault of her own, leaving her alone with our children. Manny, whom I couldn’t let go, whose final days I had transmuted into torment. At least I hadn’t made a mess with Point.
It was almost as if I had grown as a person. That, or perhaps a heroic death was the best relationship exit strategy I could come up with. I chuckled. It wasn’t necessarily a bad one, to bang then go out with a bang.
I’m trying to make light of life again. I stood. Then, instead of shifting mana a bit to shake away the grass and dust sticking to me, I did it by hand. The gesture of making myself presentable somehow helped ground me.
“No hostages this time?” The amused cackle came before the wicked witch.
I drew my detonator and pointed it towards her as she drew out of the jungle.
“What will you try to bargain with this time, time-hopper?” She grinned, showing un-mammal-like teeth. Long and pointy, and yet pointless, since the creature didn’t use them to eat.
“Come with me peacefully. I promise you a world of pleasure, beyond what you can understand. I can awaken your mind, let you see what you think impossible. All I ask for is a quota of females you impregnate every month.”
“How could I ever believe you? When there’s a power imbalance as big as the one between us, could you trust the other party?”
She twisted her head unnaturally, spine obviously a foreign concept for her.
“Pacts can be made between unequal parties; that is why they exist. To balance where balance cannot exist. For the prize your offspring would represent, I don’t mind making a binding pact.”
Yes, and when I grow strong enough to almost threaten you, you will devour me instead.
Still, I had to feign interest. My goal wasn’t to make a deal, nor was it hers. I had no doubt a god had ample ways to put me into a coma and pump me for children for thousands of years.
No, what I wanted was to make myself look suitably wary, but tempted enough to eventually drop my guard and force her to come close to me and take my detonator. As such, I waved the boom-stick, held in my fist between my middle and ring fingers. Very long, very erect, but the creature didn’t understand the message.
“How can I believe in pacts? Kingdoms and orders make pacts, then break them the first chance their interests don’t align with the previous agreement.”
She once more did the owl thing with her head, then cackled.
“Listen, young man, the deals between lesser creatures aren’t the same as the ones with the likes of me.” She squinted at me. “Even you are on the verge of your word being binding. And the elder beings of our kind are bound in such a way that even should they lie, a portion of their might would seep out and make the lie true in one form or another.”
She was weaving a story to distract me. Also, she is kind of lying. I learned from the other outer gods that there is no such thing as a pact that enforces contracts between two parties, only penalties.
They also mentioned twelve laws of magic. Dare I ask her about that?
No. I didn’t. And it was a wise choice. She believed me a native deity rising, unaware of the greater world, and a part of it was true. I had no clue about the place where the outer gods dwelled; only visions and hallucinations.
“But you aren’t on that level,” I pointed out, once more waving the stick. She must have felt like someone trying to capture an endangered and very fragile butterfly with their bare hands. I half expected her to stick her tongue out, but she didn’t.
“No, I am not. Pacts would still bind me to you, but you should know that I am unwilling to make great concessions. I need to find a decaying pearl for you to live in, take you and the cattle there. All of that would cost me a lot.”
“And why would I want to come with you?”
“Because,” she spoke slowly, “that is the only option you have. You have somehow made something I don’t understand, or it could be a part of your time-hopping, but you leave no divinity when you die. That means I gain nothing from killing you, but your descendants shouldn’t inherit the same power. That’s not how things work.”
“And how do they work?” I asked with genuine curiosity, lowering the boomstick slightly.
She pointedly didn’t look in its direction, holding my gaze as she answered.
“Such powers are bound to the soul, not the flesh. So, unless your power changes your flesh, there is nothing your spawn can inherit. Your divinity saturates your flesh, just as it does your soul. But when you travel back in time, it’s only your mind and soul that return, not your vessel. Right?”
She hadn’t told me anything new. Still, I pretended I was deep in thought, thinking, the hand holding the detonator relaxing further.
A couple heartbeats later, I nodded. “You’re right.”
I glanced up, as if I was thinking what else I should ask, letting my hand drop further, and she moved.
She was the fastest thing I had ever seen. If not for danger sense flaring with phantom pain, I never would have seen her coming. Still, her attack came like a gale. One moment everything was fine, the next my arm ended with a stump at the elbow.
“Got you, you slippery little grutshak,” she said from behind me. I turned around to see her holding my arm in one hand. She pried away the detonator and threw it far into the jungle.
“Now, you had your chance, but you didn’t take it.” She walked slowly towards me, scarier and more lizard-like than any saurian I had ever seen. “Don’t even think of killing yourself while I’m focused on you. Don’t even move, or else, I will remove all the limbs I don’t need for my little endeavor.”
Eight steps. She confidently strode towards me, while I let my primal urges do their thing and have my body shake like a leaf.
Six. I wondered how far Vengeful’s blast went. That was something I needed to find out somehow, but it required someone I trusted profoundly.
I could have done it with Point…
Four steps. At that distance Point had returned with me. I burned with the desire to make a witty remark. To make the outer god to know what was coming. It was stupid and suicidal. She could move faster than me, and if she got away once, that would be the end of my attempt to slay her.
I stared into her eyes with fear and defiance, and all I found in them was glee.
She was oblivious. Oblivious she remained.
***
I awoke in a pitch-black field with dying fires all around me. Before I could process what was happening, a screen appeared before me.
[You have slain a god as a mortal.
Achievement unlocked.
Reward - Myth - Gods have faith, mortals myths. Myths about you empower you and your abilities.]
[Anarchist Level 7
Abilities - Rage, Redo, Blunt, Heavy Handed, Direct, Insightful, Precise, Amicable, Legendary Visionary, Godly ✦✦, Gate Sealer ✦✦, Vengeful ✦, Grandmaster Rider ✦, Myth ✦✦✦
To level up, force the authorities to impose justice upon a party they had previously ignored.]