CHAPTER 547

SAVIOR (I)

A horrifying explosion blew apart the cloudy skyline, shimmering mix of red and azure collapsing into an abounding pillar of energy that shot beyond the planet's membrane. Surrounding it were repeated flickers and flashes of colorful lights, shooting left and right, continuous, smaller explosions blasting off without a stop.

Grandstanding cathedral, shielded within a cyan encapsulation, stood amidst the bastioned ruins, leveled buildings forming a downtrodden cascade across the falling slope of a hill. Hundreds of craters composed an eerie scene surrounding it, black fires and smoke crying out into the vanishing sky.

Standing in front of the cathedral was an elongated, strange, humanoid-looking creature; thin limbs stretched out for well over two meters each, chest area sunken, pulled inward, lined with steel pipes at the sides. At the very center of the chest, a dim, azure crystal still burned, tendrils of light dancing within its confines. The chest gave way to a narrow, oval-shaped head elongated into a tail-like protrusion backward, similar-looking steel pipes framing the skull and the elongation. A pair of desperate-seeming eyes darted left and right, the arms flying along their gaze, creating repeated bubbles of light that swallowed the falling ribs of fire.

By the creature’s side, eight similar, only slightly shorter ones fought the same; mostly forming bubbles of protection to contain the violent explosion of the elements, only on occasion firing back in singular, concentrated beams of teal light.

All they could recognize, as far as their slanted, narrow but wide eyes of varying colors could spot was ruin – a planetary collapse of everything they've known, loved and built for eons past. In a flash, it was all gone, giving way to the stench of death, a brilliantly horrid, heart-wrenching stench that had nearly driven away their will to fight altogether.

“Hold on! Don’t give up!” the tallest creature cried out when it spotted a few dispirited seemingly about to fall to their knees. “Protect the Uh’kur’gaah at all cost!!”

With a faintly renewed vigor, they continued deflecting as much as they could, but well up above, in the now corrupt skies, they could see their brothers and sisters slowly being pushed back, losing. By now, it was only a matter of time. This was their last stand – but none could see the heroism of it, only the filthy decadence, the ugly nature of everything.

A single pillar of golden light suddenly fell from the burning skies, landing just in front of them. From within the beam, a figure walked out – encased in a shining, incandescent even, armor of gold. Of humanoid appearance, save for the pair of breathtaking wings and the spinning halo of golden liquid, its ethereally blue eyes stared at them calmly and emotionlessly. Ak’gva knew that it was over – it was the Agent. Deep down, all the while, he had hoped the assault wouldn’t have been directed by an Agent… but all his vain hopes have crumbled.

The Agent stared at them evenly while they continued to deflect the attacks, warily looking at the newcomer. The indifferent, even cold expression, the absolute disregard for life… Ak’gva realized that the stories his Grandmother had told him were all a lie. A filthy, deposed lie.

“Why?” Ak’gva asked desperately.

“It was your time.” The man replied evenly, without batting an eye.

“… it was your time?” Ak’gva mumbled in disbelief. “All this carnage… waved away by ‘it was your time’?”

“Are you doubting the Will of the Creator?” the man frowned, showing expression for the first time, sternly gazing into Ak’gva’s trembling eyes.

"…" the latter remained silent, mortified. All his life, he had been taught that the Creator's Will was the penultimate reality – that nothing was above it. Yet, indeed, a worm of doubt swelled within his heart; what part of his surroundings, drenched in rivers of blood, decorated within the billions of innocent corpses, ruin the likes of which even the cruelest couldn't envision… what part of any of this was something a Creator would commence?

“The struggle is futile,” the man said harrowingly. “Accept your Fates, and Adjoin the Creator.”

“…” Ak’gva’s arms shook; had it been a year ago, he would have knelt down immediately and accepted it. There was no higher honor for the Un’yuvur Peoples than that of serving the Creator. Yet, his knees seemed to resist the bondage, pulling him back up when he wanted to kiss the earth.

“What are you doing?” the man asked, his voice a growl. “Are you defying the Creator’s Will?”

“What if he is?” a sudden voice startled everyone present as the space between Ak’gva and the man split open, like the opening of an eye, a human walking through shortly after. The first impression Ak’gva got of the human was that he was… quite shabby. He stood topless, scarred through and through, half-black, half-white hair fluttering violently behind him, his trousers ripped and bruised all throughout. Yet, he swallowed his words as he felt the pressure he was experiencing vanish – rather, it was only then that he looked up to the skies, where there was no more fighting. His brothers and sisters looked on befuddled, unsure as to what just happened. There were no more foes. No more rippling explosions. No more… nothing. “Had you had a speck of brain in that bean-head of yours, you would defy that cocksucker’s will too.”

“How dare you?!” the Agent exploded in fury immediately, drawing out a golden chain and lashing it toward the man. Just as Ak’gva was about to warn the human, the latter extended his left arm and grabbed the chain fearlessly. Even before Ak’gva could process the horror of such action, the chain snapped as though it was made out of glass underneath the man’s grip. The Agent, not unlike the rest witnessing the scene, looked at what had just happened in terror, mortified.

“How dare I?” the human crackled eerily, evilly even, as he slowly began walking toward the Agent who stood rooted in the place, his eyeballs jumping about in absolute horror. “I dare because I can’t stand your big daddy,” the human’s pace was even, brisk, unhurried, his small feet leaving even smaller footprints in the wet earth, yet to Ak’gva they appeared world-bounding. “An indifferent, power-hungry tyrant professing holy multitudes. He’s no better than a king sucking on the queen’s tits while their kingdom burns and dies.”

“…” the human quickly covered the short distance between the two, reaching the Agent. The latter was merely half a head shorter, yet from the view of those watching, he appeared more akin to a child standing beneath the might of a giant, of a behemoth, looking up in awe, wonder, and mostly terror. “Y-y-you—you…”

“You, you, you,” the human shrugged, rolling his black eyes. “Come on, treasured son. Don’t you love your father? Shouldn’t you at least try and defend his honor in the face of my mockery? Or are you too busy controlling your bladder so you don’t piss yourself?”

“…”

“He thinks he can waltz into my home,” the human’s voice darkened as he extended his right arm and wrapped his seemingly thin fingers around the Agent’s neck, lifting him up, holding him like a child. “And act whichever way he likes… and suffer no consequences? It seems to me,” the human tightened his grip around the ever-caving neck of the Agent. The latter’s complexion paled quickly, a tint of bluish appearing in his cheeks. “He’s been unbridled for too long, having forgotten that madness invokes madness. Why you, do you wonder?” the human asked with a faint trace of amusement in his voice. “I don’t mind answering. Let’s just say it’s because it was your time.” Without even letting the Agent process the words properly, the human snapped his neck in a violent jerk, ripping his head off as the hapless body fell onto the ground with a silent, yet world-ripping thud that echoed in all the hearts witnessing the scene.

The human seemed to stare at the wide-eyed Agent for a moment longer before suddenly tossing his head sideways, as though he was too disgusted by it to hold it for much longer. It was only then that he turned around and faced the still-stunned Ak’gva. Among all the humans the latter has met in his long life, the one before him hardly stuck out from the crowd – ordinary features, slightly on the more mature side, a pair of jet-black eyes, ordinary nose, slightly wrinkled forehead, thick and bushy black-and-gray beard, and the still-spewing hair. Yet, amidst the ordinary, Ak’gva recognized the extraordinary – it was in the countenance, in the way the world around him seems to bow to his will without him doing anything.

Ak’gva saw the Elements that he trained for thousands of years to merely befriend immediately kneel before the figure, shaking not in terror but in reverence.

“Don’t.” just before Ak’gva was about to follow their lead, he heard the human’s voice, forcing him to stop lowering his head and looking up, meeting those black eyes squarely. “Your bravery is quite inspiring. What is your name?”

“… Ak’gva.”

“Ak’gva?” the human repeated, as though storing it into his memory. “It’s nice to meet you, Ak’gva. I’m Lino.”

“… t-thank you… for saving us.” Ak’gva expressed his gratitude quickly as the last of their forces began converging toward the Cathedral, barely a few tens of thousands in number.

“Barely made it,” the human called Lino grinned boyishly for a moment, quickly dispensing the rather overbearing countenance Ak’gva saw in him. “Though, I imagine, this won’t be the last force they send after you. And, as much as I’d like, I’m afraid I can’t stick around as you are just one out of many currently engaged in the war of survival. If you’d like, however, I can transport you and your people to my void world temporarily, and bring you back to my home when I’m done here. Or, if you’d like, I can help you escape to some other place. You choose.”

“We’d like to accompany you, Great Human.” Ak’gva replied without much thought; they hardly had any alliance willing to stand up to the Agents of Creation and the Creator himself, and anyone who can so easily kill an Agent has to at the very least be a World-eater, those few who even the Creator dares not offend easily.

"Very well," Lino said, tracing his finger across space next to him, opening up a vortex. "Bring whatever you wish and hop in once you're ready. I’m looking forward to our lengthy friendship, Ak’gva.”