Chapter 141: And God Laughs

Chapter 141: And God Laughs

Truth looked at the shard of glass. Then Merkovah. Then back at the glass. Then at Merkovah.

“I think I finally snapped. This is the what now?”

“Only just now? Sorry. I hate that thing with every fiber of my being. Not your fault.” Merkovah waived his apology. “Obliteration. The functional components lead you into some fairly deep technical weeds, but simply put, you use magic to simulate, then ultimately generate, the anti-magic magic used by the Anti-Thiests. You can understand why it took a hellishly long time to work out.”

Truth took a moment to process the words because he was sure he hadn’t understood them properly.

“I... use magic, which is definitionally the cosmic energy inside of me interacting with the cosmic rays outside of me, to cast spells that do basically the same things as that cabal of Anti-Thiestis. Which is to destroy cosmic energy letting me unmake spells, and cripple mages by emptying the cosmic energy inside them. Do I have that right?”

“Yes.”

“That...”

“Sounds insane?”

“Yes. Very much yes.”

“As I said, we have been working on this for a long, long time. The short version is that at the most basic level, you create a field that excludes cosmic rays. Basically, they just bounce right off. At the more advanced level, you force the rays away, channeling your own magic to disrupt incoming magic. At the highest level is true obliteration, except unlike what the Cabal did, this would result in a very energetic reaction. The spell is somewhat brain-melting to learn, but in practice, it should be a great deal simpler to master than Incisive.

Merkovah caught Truth’s eye. “It will also get you killed if you get caught using it... basically anywhere if you manage to get off-world. It will certainly get you killed if you get caught using it on this world. It’s a spell that, when mastered, accelerates the diminishment of magic in this world. Which is to say, the end of technological development. The end of clean water and plentiful food.”

“And warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer. Not to mention the number of buildings that will just collapse when the magic stops holding them up. I get it.”

“On the other hand, at even a basic level of mastery, you will be a one-man killing machine. Starbrite, and Jeon, share a combat doctrine. They rely almost entirely on range-based weaponry layered with spells. You could negate most of its effectiveness and power with Obliteration and endure the rest with your over-refined body.”

“I just couldn’t leave any witnesses.”

“No. You could not.”

Truth shut his eyes and imagined it. He infiltrates Jeon. He looks and sounds like a local boy because he is a local boy, so ninety-nine percent of the population would ignore him in the first place. They would be encouraged not to notice him by the Scales portion of Incisive. He needs to break into a building. Alarm spells, flying curses, spell hounds, the whole bit. Most just ignore him because he is wearing military-style clothes and has a bit of paper saying “Pass.” For the higher-tier stuff, they just... vanish. Wink out of existence. A local district manager would be found dead in their office with their throat slit and painted on the walls “No Salvation For Starbrite. FREE JEON!”The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

He could blow up a lot of shit that way. And that was just him thinking casually. For example, he could murder the spirit controlling the bus network. That would cause more than a little chaos. Truth would be a top-notch murderer and saboteur, even more so than he already was. But it would mean that, at least until he was Level Five, it was all that he could be.

Wait. Wait just a goddamn moment.

Truth started laughing.

System, memorize this shit!

ON IT! Truth could hear the system cackling.

“Teacher, why don’t you just pass along the Sword of Moshe and, let's say, a good healing spell?”

There was a tentative offer, an invitation to greater closeness. Not a merger, exactly, but a joining. Truth smiled. He would like that very much. He extended the path of his energy cycle slightly, reaching out to the sword.

There was an unpleasant moment, like being caught between the bells of two cathedrals each ringing out their call to prayer. The shard of demon punishing steel at the heart of the Tongue seemed to find something it recognized in the Nine Worms, and they in it. His perception suddenly lurched as some seemingly solid piece of the world shifted.

The Tongue changed- not its shape but its nature. The angelic blade shed much of it’s physicality, and became spiritual. That spiritual sword then swam with the cosmic energy within him, and took up residence in his first aperture. The bells tolled a joyful clarion, as though the sword had at long last found it’s home. The Worms cheered too, though their cries had a darker tint to them.

It was all much too much. The furious flood of the array driven Cosmic Energy. The cooling, strengthening elixir. The Tongue joining with him. It was all far too much.

Within his fourth aperture, a new star was born. Rapidly shifting into luminescence, then into blazing light. The stars within him seemed so vast now, so furiously bright compared to that dim light of Level One.

Truth smiled, letting the array pour more and more power into him. He couldn’t wait to see how much he changed.

“Saints and Angels preserve us. How much power can he absorb?”

“Dunno, but if he’s still at it by dawn, I’m calling it. This is absurd.”

“Was the elixir that good?”

“Nothing is that good.”

Truth could hear the people running the array muttering. He decided to ignore them for now. He could feel the elixir wearing off, and he wanted to pour as much into his newly widened apertures as he could. When he finally stood, he took the time to really feel his body. He flexed. Stretched. Reached for the sun and did a final round of moving cultivation. Glorying in the power of his body and the star-stuff within him. With a subtle flex of his magic, he declared his presence. His strength. He knew himself, and for today, he was enough. Tomorrow he would learn something new.

He felt a spell go off to his side. Jember was there, taking pictures. “Etenesh is going to love these pictures. Actually, I know a lot of people who will.”

Truth laughed quietly. “It’s fine if Etenesh sees, but please don’t let my face get around too much.”

“Still worried about bad guys in the Old Country?”

“For a little while longer, yes.”

“Fine, fine.” Jember smiled, glorying in the sunlight. “And this, too, is God,” he murmured.

“What do you say we give the Deserin community one last gift, a thank you for all the moral support?”

“What do you have in mind?”

____________________________________

A week after Truth left Siphios, a small package was delivered to a Xandre local news station. It went to air almost immediately, and the segment repeated on news stations across Siphios. Just a picture and a few words, but it was the hopeful news everyone wanted to hear.

There was a picture of a Deserin man photographed from behind. He was proportioned like a hero, tall and imposing as the Aussa Highlands of his birth. He stood on a rooftop and watched the sunrise. His zeph was proudly tasseled, his sheathed sword hung comfortably by his side. Around his neck was a scarf, declaring him a regular in the terraces at High Chirchin. Even from behind, you could tell he greeted the day joyfully. Unafraid.

“The Hero released this statement, and nothing more- ‘One day, I will rest. One day I will come home to my mountains, lay down my blade, kneel before my wife, and let her blessings shower upon me. Until that day, I fight. But I am not the last sword in Siphios, and I do not fight alone. Brothers and Sisters and every soul that loves our land. Put down your fear, and draw the blade in your heart. The time of heroes is upon us. Time for the swords to rise up. And bring low the armies of Hell.”