As guilt ravaged me, a familiar hand grabbed my shoulder. I turned, gazing at Hod. His eyes were no longer hollow. Instead, they filled with a bright iris of golden amber, like sweetened honey. His body filled in, appearing more like a muscled phoenix than his previous emaciated form. A tremendous intelligence and awareness washed over me, his gaze as piercing as Torix, Plazia, or Shalahora.
He murmured.
"I'm so sorry I couldn't warn you more. I would have, if I could. However, there is still a tiny slice of time left for me here."
Hod spread his wings, his feathers glistening like dew drops on sunflowers. He glowed like a sun, a miniature star gleaming over his head and bathing the city in its radiance. He shouted over all,
"And I will make the most of it."
Chapter Begin
Under the bright, glorious light of Hod's wings, a wave of mana coursed over us. It held a strange, glassy texture while glowing a deep, harmonic yellow. Like amber eternalizing an insect, the mana soaked into our surroundings, dismantling the rigidity of space into something malleable as clay in Hod’s palms. As the energy collected, it continued building to an oppressive strength.
The strength carried a lightness like a memory sweetened by time. It held the might and ability to correct and mend the most devastated of people and pasts. I fought against it, the energy seeping into my dimensional wake. It deluged past my instinctual resistance, drowning the entire region in energy.
After piercing into all near us, Hod lowered his arms in a slow, steady fall. As he did, the sun over his head eclipsed. A slice of darkness crept over the sun, masking the light in darkness. Memories of Lehesion’s magic coursed over me, but they never carried this depth, and something in my bones loosened before releasing.
A quake coursed, and portions of past events began reversing. The first reversal sparked amongst the glistening gray surrounding us. My dimensional blood fell off the ground and toward the sky. Disgusting filth and vitriol floated off the metal dollops toward the ground. The diseased runoff let out howls of agony before crumbling to ash.
Further beyond the droplets, the cascading principles that crushed me earlier began to undo themselves. I leaned forward, and a series of memories flashed over my eyes. I re-experienced the agony and torment of my battle against Mal-Shateth but in reverse. In a moment, I died many times while my body remained whole.
After the stunning instant, my hands trembled. My knees went weak. I leaned until my hands rested on the glowing stone beneath me. I vomited. The steaming, fuming mass of ichor bubbled and frothed as boiling blood would, and it melted through the rock, coursing down through the surface of the planet.
It kept flowing, and I closed my eyes. I worried they would crawl out of my skull. They did not. After the poison left my body, my dimensional essence flooded above me. It turned into spheres of black before falling onto my body in a cold, cascading rain. Each pang and impact returned energy, vitality, and power.
Through Hod’s strange magic, my abilities returned, and my strength bloomed. Hod’s sun dimmed as he covered over half of it in darkness. He undid my corruption, and Hod let out a weak laugh. When he spoke, his voice pierced my psyche like forced telepathy. He used words that transcended language, and even the deaf would hear him speak through their mind.
It felt like hearing the cipher spoken aloud.
"I warned you many months ago, but there is only so much one can prophesize. Despite my limitations, I have awaited this day for quite some time. I've amassed myself while being constrained by Other Hod as you call him. You should know that he despised my request as he wished to release control of my body. Forgive him should he lash out once I’m hibernating once again.”
A warmth radiated from Hod like a knowing grandfather.
“He is a worthy being, one that has altered his nature for something greater. He will find his way, and even if he wishes for his destruction, I will not allow it. Please, continue telling him to find meaning in his shadows and haunting origins. I believe his psionic poison has given him a sense of catharsis in that regard. Diving even deeper will release his latent potential.”
Hod’s eyes met mine.
“And for you, try to remember something simple: this dimension surrounds you and crushes you downward at all moments. Indirectly, you have trained your tolerance, but you must take a conscious effort to push against the relentless strain placed on you. In doing so, you will carve yourself onto all with absolute power.”
I gazed at him, my eyes wide.
“Wait, before anything else…You’re the real Hod?”
His eyes smiled, each piercing orb carrying unsettling depths.
“I am his original incarnation if that is what you mean, but the Hod you know of is just as real as I am. The same can be said of Other Hod. We exist as pieces of each other, and one day, I believe we will be as one. Other Hod has yet to see my vision, but one day, he will.”
I winced.
“Lots of people have tried fusing eldritch and sentients. It always results in destruction.”
Hod let out a laugh like quicksilver and wind.
“And I have survived despite existing as a triad. You know as well as I do that limits exist to be broken. Still, I have little time left, and I must tell you what you need to do.”
Hod landed in front of me. He stood two heads taller than normal Hod, his sixteen foot form bristling with muscle and suggesting physical mastery. Even a cursory glance exposed how lethal and explosive he was, and his eyes held the clarity of a pure sea.
When our eyes met, a spark of nervousness came over me. He gazed through me as if peering through glass, and I faced an enormous mind. A quick brush against his psyche verified that feeling; his mind carried titanic resilience and size. It loomed as Shalahora’s would, and it carried the same explosivity as his physique did.
Despite my apprehension, he held no malice or ill-will. Instead, his eyes twinkled.
“You’ve fought against your enemies and yourself. You must learn to carry the fabric of reality, and you will no longer suffer from your time magic. Have Althea focus on learning warping techniques. Teach Kessiah how to empower other people’s blood. Have Krog learn physics from Diesel. Expose Helios to an ice primeval, and give Florence a dedicated embassy class. Show Chrona Balsht’s sanctum. Create a conduit from Plazia to yourself and finally, continue training against Shalahora.”
All of the ideas sounded great, but it was a lot to take in.
“That…That’s a lot.”
Hod laughed.
“And I know you shall finish it all quickly. Alas, I have only one more burst of energy left. I know we haven’t spoken much, but good luck, Harbinger. I will try to help you from the masked light of Hod’s shadow.”
He spread his wings.
“And I knew that all my power would be required for this moment, so don’t feel sorry for me as I will return.”
I raised a hand.
“Wait…How are you doing all of this?”
Hod’s eyes took in the world, and the world reflected in his gaze.
“I haven’t healed or reversed time. I have simply purified the corruption that was unleashed onto this realm and you. That is my specialty - purification mana and magic. It is a natural weakness of law based manipulation. Since it alters laws to enact change, correcting the laws undoes what has happened. It is the core of my research and the crux of my abilities. I can say no more-”
Another flash of light coursed over our surroundings, the energy rippling over us like the glowing sap of Yggdrasil. I trembled as people arrived from the gloom. Their bodies reversed from glowing, confused souls back into normal people wearing their old equipment. Hod even gave them back their revival from Schema’s luck perk. After the magic manifested, Hod's sapience and glow faded, and he collapsed.
I caught him in a gravity well before Hod's mouth dripped dark ichor. Hod murmured.
"I wish we could've spoken more, friend. Take care of me while I sleep, would you?"
The light and clarity in his eyes faded, the hollow covering returning from before. The sun over him fully eclipsed, and he encompassed in umbral flame. Other Hod appeared standing on his own. He walked over to the ground and struck it, leaving a pit of bubbling dark fire. Other Hod took a breath before letting out a pained roar.
His roar bled into our reality. I peered around, searching for anyone alive. Many of our soldiers collapsed, unmoving and still after being reborn. Every set of eyes held horror in them. As I had, they experienced the same reversal of events. That included dying once more, and soldiers began falling apart at the seams.
I took deep breaths as panic rose in my chest. I was a leader, and I needed to act like one. Wielding my dimensional wake, I stretched it across my full domain. Kilometers in every direction fell into my awareness, yet nothing stirred. All was dead aside from the people Hod brought back from death.
Before anything else, I searched while aiming to find energy or some kind of signature from Mal-Shateth. A void answered back, and I let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t waiting across the veil, setting up some terrifying ambush. Verifying our immediate safety, I planned out a rescue mission.
I raised a hand, collecting my guildmates in a gravity well. They spiralled in circles, each of them orbiting an unseen center. I hovered them toward my open pocket dimension, locking them in a stasis. Remembering Mal-Shateth and their deaths would only erode what remained of their minds. Instead, Shalahora would have to slice that patch of memories out of most of them.
Once I took care of that immediate concern, I winced. Everything had happened so fast. Those people had been the very best of the guild. They were individuals who charged ahead to clear dungeons and kill the eldritch. Many had already gained classes with a few even achieving Fringe Walker or a rare variant class. Others had been Speakers aiming to level quickly.
Despite that, they would’ve all died if not for Hod’s intervention. I gawked at my hands. I hadn’t been that helpless since I first faced Yawm. No, even against him I could bluff and deal some damage. Mal-Shateth exposed me to a wild, uncaring kind of power that didn’t mind my stats or physical immortality. He simply tore away the progress and might I once had after humbling me.
Even moreso, this tragedy would’ve been orders of magnitude worse in Springfield. All would be turned to ash as all had vaporized in a devastating moment. That painful realization came crashing down on me, yet a writhing denial wailed in my chest. The death and destruction had all happened so fast that it didn't feel real.
The memory manipulation didn't help, and worsening my blurred recollection, my mind almost wanted to forget. I shivered. I knew I wouldn't. This would brand itself onto me as an unforgettable scar. My perfected memory ensured it would never fade. It taught me that my current path wasn’t enough. I had to do more no matter what that entailed.
Striking me out of my shock, my dimensional wake caught a blip of mana that leaked out below the ground. Far below. I bolted downward, traversing through the ground and into the mantle of Rebirth. Amongst the lava flows and churning magma, a strange shivering orb floated. It was pure metal intersparsed by flesh.
I pulled it to my palm and traveled upward. At the surface, I set the sphere down. I pulled off pieces of magma, and below the glowing rock, a horror faced me. Eye stalks rose from writhing limbs. Broken arms and legs scraped at the ground, each of them burning yet refusing to die. The acrid stench of acid filled my nose, and the flaps of grotesque meat buzzed or moaned in agony.
A part of me wanted to destroy the shere. I chose patience before wrenching it open. It peeled apart, layer by layer like an onion composed of screaming tissue and corded muscle. In a last burst, I unraveled the ball. Inside, a guardian golem molded itselt into a metal ball surrounding something. A quick brush against its mind exposed how close to death it was.
I took a hand and gently pulled it open. The surface was as thin as aluminum foil. Within the protective barrier, the guardian golem held Amara in two arms while gazing down at her like a mother holding its child.
Amara held its dying core in her palms, and the golem’s eyes gazed at her from within. They flickered on and off. With its last, dying thoughts, it fought against the abomination its body had become. Amara trembled, terror filling her mind as the guardian whispered its words.
“I am here. I will protect you. I will hold you close. I will not let go.”
When its eyes met mine, the golem murmured.
“Thank you, crea-”
The light in its eyes faded, and the core crumbled in Amara’s hands. She took shallow breaths before pulling the golem heart close. She let out ragged cries, her grief, frustration, and mental torment escaping in a caustic cocktail of emotion. I held down my own sadness, letting her sob. Each of her cries echoed into the canyon Mal-Shateth left of the city. They wounded me.
After a time, she silenced. That lingered until she stood from the sphere. She blinked, her eyes red as she coughed. She hissed.
"The fool. The gullible, naive, disgustingly optimistic fool."
Her voice held pain.
“The pandering. The nights spent listening. The feeling of my hair being brushed by telekinetic combs. It’s all gone because some monster chose to destroy us. Why?”
She turned her palm eyes at me and growled,
“I said why?”
I grasped my hands to fists.
“Because we weren’t ready. Because some things in life can’t be prepared for. Because I’m weak. There’s a thousand reasons, and for each of them, I’m sorry. I’m…I’m so sorry.”
Amara howled before kicking at the metal.
"You...You were supposed to make me lamb. Why...Why?"
She fell down and hit the steel. Her hands began to bleed, but she continued her assault.
"I...I can't believe you. You idiot. You imbecile. This..."
She stopped moving after a sickening pop thumped in her hand. She held her shattered fist to her chest. She let out a raging howl into the horizon. I watched her stand before turning to me. She wiped tears from her palms before snarling.
"What attacked us? All I remember is a headache that melted my memories before my guardian wrapped itself around me. I watched it deform and die."
I grimaced.
"The monster called itself Mal-Shateth."
She stomped up to me. Her words were like hammer strikes across my skull.
"Why didn't you stop it?"
I stared at my hands, remembering the insects they became.
"I couldn't. I didn't stand a chance."
A silence passed before she laughed. It was a broken thing.
"All you do is train and you can't even save the people under you?"
I squeezed my hands to fists to stop the shaking.
"I was helpless. It...I was like some fly, and it crushed me."
Amara walked up to me.
"Then what did it want?"
"For me to let Earth die."
Amara growled before kicking a rock.
"Why have I decided to be a part of your forsaken guild? Agh. A reality-destroying terror has landed upon us because of your home planet. It's a cursed lamb, doomed for slaughter, and we are but poor farmers fighting wolves to save it. We are bare handed. Our joints are old and arthritic. The hounds lick their lips as they see us failing. We can hold no hope."
I took a breath. I rallied.
"We don't know if that's the case."
Amara snapped her gaze at me.
"After we were slaughtered by some foreign force without reason, you speak of hope?"
I took a breath, calming myself down.
"I think we were nothing to it besides an inconvenience. It's not going to spend any time on us because we don't matter. I also don't think that was the strongest person they have."
Amara snapped,
"How is that encouraging? Has this lamb lost its mind in fear?"
I pushed through my unease, trying to seem unperturbed while my heart was hollow.
"It matters because we gained time."
She shook her hands at me.
"None of us are your match, and it played with you like a broken toy."
I gazed around myself.
"Then we need to change that paradigm. We need to gain power, and we can't leave stones unturned on how to do it either."
Amara's hands fell.
"I'm tired of fighting. Its endless."
I hit my chest.
"Do you think I like what I have to do? Do you think it feels good to constantly have something thrown on my plate the moment I finish something? It's one thing after the next. I got some time to explore and think. Guess what happens in less than a year? The world's going to fucking explode."
Amara peered off. I kept hammering my words.
"We will lose everything unless we're able to push well beyond anything we ever thought ourselves capable of. There's no more being idle and hoping for the best anymore. Things are going to change in the guild, and that includes how I handle my time."
A shadow loomed from me.
"We're going to need to push harder."
Amara scoffed.
“You push as hard as you are able.”
“No. I can endure more.”
She raged,
“You cannot. You torture yourself every moment of everyday and look what you have reaped? A broken home and a city left dead.”
I took a few breaths. Her words cut deep, and I had no response. I had pushed myself every waking moment, oftentimes beyond human limits. Despite my endless pursuit of power, I still couldn’t even phase a general of Cygna, let alone an Old One. It left me haunted.
What had this all been for? All the psionic death? All the sleepless nights and eternal time magic? It amounted to being a bug that was splat against a wall by some unknown horror. A wave of helplessness coursed over me, and for the first time in years, I was impotent. Amara was right. I could endure no more.
And a question raged in my mind - did that matter?
I couldn’t take on anymore suffering, but did that mean I couldn’t progress? Was that the limit of what I could do? I hit my head in frustration. Of course it wasn’t. My progress wasn’t tied to suffering. It was something I would march through, but it wasn’t the means of my progression.
At some point, I forgot that. I tied my abilities to pain and discomfort as if that changed my power. To my chagrin, I simply took on burden after burden like some mindless drone. I never challenged why I suffered or if that helped me. In a way, it gave me immense power. In other ways, it limited my progress.
After all, getting even more stats wasn’t about to change my life. Using the stats well would. Against a foe like Mal-Shateth, I couldn’t leave strengths on the table. I had to progress beyond my current threshold of thinking, and that meant unravelling sources of power I long left lingering.
I had to think and be creative, not just sit and suffer. For instance, I could unravel the secrets of the cipher and fractals. I could take apart an elemental furnace before turning myself into a fusion reactor. I also needed to learn these other types of mana for other dimensional wakes. All of these avenues opened before me, yet I put little toward using them.
That would be the case no longer. As I drafted up different ideas, a dimensional rupture opened. From the dark, a gray titan walked out, and it gazed down at me. My blood froze over at the sight, and my skin bristled. If another enemy like Mal-Shateth appeared, we would stand no chance of recovering.
And this monster oozed power and force. It reminded me of an angular, mechanical angel. It wasn't particularly humanoid, more of a cross-shaped, ethereal series of floating runic markers connected by lines of energy. A semitranslucent barrier covered the creature, and despite the monster facing me, I could not sense it.
It carried no smell or sound. I couldn’t taste it on the wind, which it held no effect on. If I wasn’t facing the mechanical construct, I wouldn’t know it was there. It reached back one of its arms before a wave of power surged. It slammed the ruptured reality shut. When it spoke, An eerie hum lined its voice. It resonated with reality, a pulsing force.
"You’re Daniel, correct?"
A wave of fear overcame me again. I didn't hesitate, raising my hands.
"Are you here to try and finish the job?"
It opened red status screens.
"Hardly. I am a nuetral force."
It gazed around at the mess Mal-Shateth left behind.
"Besides, it seems like someone's already done devastated you already. It needs no help from me."
I lowered my hands. Adrenaline or its metal equillivent still rushed through my veins.
"Then who are you?"
"An Arch Magnate. I led one of the clans for the remnants during Schema's rise to power. I was given a privileged position along with other magnates for siding with the wily AI. I handle higher tiered cases than Magnates or the Overseers."
I frowned, inspecting him.
Arch Magnate Kolos, The Eighth Leader | Level: 298,019 - This is a high-tiered Schemic warrior, scholar, and ruler. It fights horrors at the edges of Schema-owned space or deep within the older areas that were assimilated long ago. It inspects upper-tiered conflicts.
Do not fight it or be torn apart.
I gawked at it.
"Where were you when Schema faced Elysium?"
Kolos laughed.
"I was fighting horrors at the edge of reality. Surely that much was evident by the status you read?"
I blinked.
"Schema never considered the rebellion important?"
"Not in the slightest. Schema keeps a tight lid on information. It doesn't let anyone know anything. The fact that I exist is enough verification for that. Also, how in the world did you survive an altercation with one of Cygna's generals?"
Reality rumbled, and once more, it silenced before a coursing wave of energy. I gazed at the Arch Magnate.
"I...I'm hard to kill."
"Apparently. Either way, excellent work surviving. Based on the corrupted principles lingering around, it was Mal-Shateth, wasn't it?"
"How did you know?"
Kolos scoffed.
"You know, there's a lot you don't understand considering what arena you’re in. Hm. I've read your bio. A little freak aren't you? A Living Multiverse. That's rich. I don't think I've ever heard of someone deserving their title less."
Despite myself, a part of me burned at his words. Kolos took a breath, its voice machine-like but far more fluent than an Overseer.
"You've barely been in the system for, say, twenty galactic years? That's a blink of time, and there's quite a bit you don't know about Schema's reality. Likely, you're a part of a backwater border planet where there are nearly no resources. That's probably why you tried harvesting what's here."
Kolos rolled its disparate hulls like a human rolling their shoulders. They shifted with ease, being held by streams of blue light.
"That's the problem with the early rulers of races. You are a big fish in a small pond, so you don't know how to keep your head down. Oh well. Now you know there are horrors out there that you can hardly fathom. I'd be careful if I were you. Perhaps trying to fully colonize this planet was a bit more than you could manage?"
Kolos leaned down to me and met my eye.
"This is far closer to Schema's centralized areas. Sure, this spot is abandoned, but you never know when a shark will find a big fish like you. Anywho, be careful out there. I have other important matters to attend to aside from inspecting child who has no clue what's actually going on."
It opened a portal.
"Also, weird. That's an eldritch Builder. I could've sworn Schema decommissioned them, hm...Thousands of years ago? I'd imagine they'd all be dead long ago. Odd. Ah, whatever."
It walked away, and the portal closed behind it. I gawked at where it had been, and I took a breath before shaking my head.
"We're nothing, aren't we?"
Amara hadn't breathed for the first time since Kolos stepped foot on the planet. She nodded.
"We are morsels amidst a swarm of wolves."
She gulped.
"Let us hope the wolves do not find us."