An Imperceptible Ruse Indeed (The Gods' Executioner Series) (23 page)

I simply keep my mouth shut while taking my punishment so I don’t make anything worse. By noon,
Cheza sits down next to me on the couch and snuggles up to my right side to watch a movie, all without saying a word. I accept this silent mood improvement and watch the movie with her. By dinner, Cheza’s mood towards me has greatly improved and things are back to normal.

…

[December 31st]

In the words of the great Christopher Titus, “So I woke up at 3 o’clock last night and she was just sitting on me, popping me in the temple… Then today I went out and got her flowers.”

I never thought that a joke about domestic abuse would apply to my life, but that’s exactly what happened, and I still have no idea what I did; my only guess is that a dream version of me did something that she didn’t approve of. Cheza accepts the flowers silently and then starts sneezing uncontrollably. It’s around this time that I remember that a heightened sense of smell is another ‘pregnancy thing’.

“You did this on purpose didn’t you?” Cheza
accuses with narrowed eyes.

Aww
w… I’m about to get stabbed again.

“
AUGH!” I scream in pain and grab my head as I suddenly feel this undeniable sense of dread.

“Cole!? Are you okay!?” Cheza asks with concern.

“Airi, what is going on!?”

(Something has happened in
Tir na nOg)

Chapter 22: Tir na nOg and Black Fire

After rushing upstairs to equip my old suit and my holster,
I touch the triskele on my left shoulder blade to port to Tir na nOg’s gate and I’m met with an unexpected sight. The grassy hills and groves of trees are all ablaze with black fire, in addition to a feeling that something is off about the whole plane. I feel the heat of the flames around me as I notice dozens of Dagda’s black winged soldiers, all of them dead and most on fire.

The ones that are most likely responsible for the deaths of the soldiers make their way toward me. The six creatures are unlike anything I’ve seen before: all black, humanoid shaped bodies
between five and seven feet tall with long, thin limbs, and no visible facial features or sensory organs. They remind me of shadows, albeit unstable ones as they seem unable to move straight towards me; their movements are jerky as they shift to the left and right while quickly advancing.

It seems kind of like they’ve all done a load of speedballs before eating several dozen crystal meth cupcakes, but instead of overdosing and dying, they developed a whole body twitch with super speed. They blur back and forth as they approach, looking like they are moving even when they are standing still.
The most disturbing part about them is their aura, and I’m not even referring to their lack of outline that is usually only reserved for the deceased; Their all black central aura that is barely noticeable against their bodies is far more disturbing to me… is this what’s going to happen to me?

I
engage my helmet while drawing my right Diamond sword and my .460 S&W as the shades advance, armed with either a sword or an axe. The permanent darkness in my left arm floods into my gun, turning it black as I take aim and fire at the shades. I miss all five of the shots that I take at the creature in the front of the pack; I’m going to have to stall these shifty bastards if I want any hope of hitting them. The purple lightning bolt surfaces on the back of my left hand as I take aim and fire. The lightning hits the front shade and stalls it long enough for the bullet to connect with its head. The shade at the front flies backward through the pack with the force of the hit, like anyone who gets shot in a Tarantino film. The other five shades stop and look at their fallen comrade. Then something unexpected happens: the shade gets back up like it wasn’t just shot in the head.

The shades restart their advance and I charge forward with my Diamond sword to meet them. I dodge past an axe slash and bring my Diamond sword through the neck of a shade,
its head turning into black smoke upon decapitation, only to have the shade attack again and hit me with the axe after its head is gone. I jump back to distance myself from the shades so they can’t surround me as the decapitated shade’s head starts to reform. What in the hell is going on!?

“
I’m just going to go ahead and warn you that this threat cannot be beaten without using the Void!”
Loki’s voice echoes in my mind.

(You are correct in thinking that, Master. I’m almost certain that these ‘shades,’ as you have started calling them, are made of the Void. You can easily send them back using the Void, but they cannot be harmed through traditional means)

Dammit… I guess there aren’t any other alternatives…

A shiver of pleasure runs down my spine as the tingling flows up my shoulder, across my chest and back, and up my
right thigh; I should probably be more concerned by the fact that the prickling sensation has now become a pleasant tingle, but I really don’t mind at the moment. I holster my sword and gun as the Void reaches my eyes and the shades stop advancing, cocking their heads to the side in confusion as they watch me. My left fingertips warp into claw-like points and I flash forward. With six quick slashes, I rip the shades apart and they disperse like smoke. The nearby flames suddenly dim from an inferno to little more than a campfire; so the shades are causing the fires?

(It seems that the fires aren’t feeding on the grass and the trees, but on the plane itself. The presence of the shades seems to be
igniting the fires. Eradicating the shades should extinguish the fires and the plane should repair itself with time)

“Well you should certainly know; you created the planes after all. So what’s the next step?”

(The plane will still fold in on itself if the heads of the pantheon are eliminated, and the gods have no way of destroying the shades)

“Shit! Will porting still work throughout the plane!?”

(It should)

I touch my triskele and think of
Dagda’s palace. I land in the white marble foyer to find that all the alcoves that were full of trees are now aflame with black fire and that there are more dead soldiers on the ground. The dozens of shades around me take notice of my presence and turn towards me before Void tendrils emerge from my arm. I quickly spin in a circle and the shades get split in half, turning to smoke; I chuckle at how easy this is as the alcove fires diminish.

I walk over to the large doors that lead to the main hall and throne room, only to find them locked. I consider disintegrating the doors for a split second before I realize that it would leave Dagda, and anyone else in there, without their first line of defense. Thus, I resist the urge to blow the doors away and knock
instead.

“DAGDA! Are you in there!?” I shout.

“Cole? Is that you, boyo?” Dagda asks through the door.

“Yeah, I just cleared out the shades in the foyer. What’s the situation in there?” I inquire.

“The area’s secure for now! We can hold our own, but I need you to go help Brighid; she left to get Aine and Lila, but she hasn’t returned!” Dagda urgently exclaims.

“
I’ll head to Aine’s now.” I reply and touch my triskele.

I appear in the yard outside
Aine’s palace to find the entire area engulfed in black flames: the grassy lawn, the surrounding forest, the white marble palace. Water automatically flows out of my arm and deadens the heat from the flames as I look out across the sea of shades that surrounds the area. So Loki has sent the majority of his force here to take another one of my friends… did he really think I would allow that!?

Void tendrils shoot out of my left arm and right leg in a fanned out pattern. The tendrils make their way through the crowd in front of me, turning the
hundreds of shades into black mist en masse. Laughter erupts from my throat as I slowly walk towards the palace, all those around me getting obliterated. I walk up the white marble steps of the front porch and blow away the main doors. The multiple shades in the foyer are quickly eliminated as I hear the sounds of conflict coming from the throne room.

I make my way through the doors and all I can see are dozens of shades.
The enhanced awareness that comes with a Void state notifies me that the shades are standing back while one shade engages one person at the end of the room. Since they’re blocking my view, I quickly eliminate all of them. Black smoke fills the room and quickly disperses, revealing a bloody and battered Charlotte at the end of the hall. Her fairy wings are projecting out of her back, but one is halfway torn and hanging limply.

“Cole?” Charlotte asks with her usual uninflected tone.

“Where are Brighid, Aine, and Lila?” I inquire while fighting a darker impulse that is telling me to kill her.

“Lila went down the secret passage behind the throne… I stayed behind to hold them back when Brighid showed up
… she followed after.” Charlotte explains while breathing heavily.

Charlotte
collapses to the floor, her wings disappearing as I notice a large gash on the left side of her ribcage. She’s on her way out anyway; I should just kill her and end her misery. That would be the humane thing to—No.

“Come on. We have to go after them.” I say as I walk towards her.

“You go on… Leave me here…” Charlotte says with strained breathing.

I take my left hand and pour blood onto the gash to quickly form a seal. I scoop Charlotte up in my arms
, taking care of the placement of my claws, as my tendrils shoot out and throw the throne aside.

“Just leave me… focus on… getting to… the princess.” Charlotte
responds.

“Sleep now.” I command
my blood and Charlotte’s eyes close.

I carry her down the
white brick passageway and hear the echoic sounds of metal clanging in the distance. I race down the passageway, around a corner, down a flight of stairs, and into a long, straight hallway. I see Brighid clashing swords with several shades while trying to fight her way to a room. The entrance of the room is surrounded by shades and appears to be covered in tree roots as shades with axes try to hack through them. Without needing to command them to, the Void tendrils shoot out of my arm and leg, around Charlotte, and hit the shades while weaving around Brighid. I flash down the hallway, past Brighid, and blow the roots to dust. I hear Lila scream as a torrent of brambles surges towards me; I start up the gyroscope and slice the brambles to pieces.

“Lila, can you stop that?” I calmly ask while resisting the impulse to fight back.

I feel Brighid rush in behind me and stop, unsure of how to approach this new threat, until she realizes who I am.

“Cole
…? COLE!” the 4’10” nineteen year old peri screams and runs toward me with her white feathered wings fluttering along behind her as I cut off the gyroscope.

“Charlotte!” Lila exclaims when she sees what I’m carrying.

“She should be fine, just unconscious. Where’s Aine?” I inquire.

“She went into the town whe
n things started getting frantic and told me to stay here. When those things attacked, Charlotte took me down the passageway and resealed it behind me. I didn’t want to leave without her, but she ordered me to go… I continued down here when those things appeared in front of me so I ran and barricaded myself in here…” Lila tells me while looking ashamed.

“Don’t worry; Charlotte will be fine and I’ll go after
Aine. Is Colton still in the house?” I ask, thinking that Lila might’ve brought her pet chinchilla home.

“No, a friend in
Fogquartz is watching him for me while I’m here on break.” Lila replies.

“Good.
Brighid, I need you to take Charlotte and Lila to my house. Stay there and whatever happens, don’t come back.” I order as I turn towards her.

“You aren’t going to keep me from coming back to fight, Cole!” Brighid exclaims.
Something is telling me to beat her into unconsciousness and drag her to the house myself, but I refrain.

“Right, your
fighting
… how was that working out against the shades? Did you manage to kill even one of them?” I ask with a condescending tone.

“I—” Brighid starts.

“You are underpowered and underequipped to face this threat. I don’t know quite what the shades are capable of; all I know is that you can’t kill them, but they may be able to kill you. Should the worst come to pass and we discover that they can kill gods, that’s all the more reason for you to stay out of it. I might be able to save Tir na nOg, but if the heads die, there is no coming back from that; Tir na nOg dies, and all of Ireland will probably fall into the ocean.” I tell her with a grave tone, helped by the ‘Sith’ voice setting on my helmet.

“Alright…” Brighid concedes.

“Let’s go to the gate.” I reply, deciding that an escort would be a good idea just in case shades have reappeared.

Brighid snaps us to the gate and I see nothing around except burnt grass and dead bodies. I hand Charlotte off to Brighid when I realize something.

“How do I get to the fairy town?” I inquire.

“Just head straight out the doors of the palace. The path through the forest takes you to the town.” Lila replies.

“Alright. You two head to my house and get medical help for Charlotte. It’s the same house that you visited for the house warming party a few months ago, Brighid.” I tell her.

Brighid nods, grabs Lila’s shoulder, and ports away. I suppose I should get back to work now. I touch my triskele and port to the front lawn of
Aine’s palace, the surrounding trees noticeably less on-fire. After turning around, I notice the path that Lila was referring to so I take off down it.

After running for about a half of a mile, I exit the forest and see smoke rising over the hill in front of me; that’s not a good sign.
I crest the hill and see a meadow of flowers—that is on fire—along with a quaint little town in the center of the meadow—that is also on fire. I see Dagda’s black-winged soldiers fighting the shades, as well as several light-winged fairies and creatures that I’m not familiar with; they look like humans, but their central auras look like a wreathe of brambles backed by earthen tones… druids perhaps?

The fighting is not looking good for the home team, but roots have ensnared several shades; the fairies
or druids must be using nature magic. I take to the skies and fly over to the center of the town. I float there for a few moments as I pinpoint all of the shades, and then Void tendrils shoot out of my arm and leg. The pencil sized tendrils spear through each of the shades that are below me, sending them back to the Void.