Chapter 40 - Power

There is a beat, should you listen to it. It thrums, it sings of its power. It cascades down the heavens and drowns out all of creation in a wondrous symphony of endless glory and chaos.

Should you have the soul, the heart to listen for it, that is.

There was a different beat here, and it pervaded every pore, every nook and cranny of this dark, twisted space. It writhed in the shadows and demanded release, like a newborn clawing its way out from oblivion, and into the raw miracle of life.

Thusly gods are born.

“YOU WILL DIE!”

It was not a promise, nor was it a threat. It was a statement of fact, a clear and concise proof of existence prior to its execution, even to its very inception.

It was my will.

“YOU. WILL. DIE!”

My throat felt scraped and old, as though a rusty saw had been run through it countless times, each time carving new trails of pain and suffering, opening old wounds anew and birthing new scars.

I clenched my fists and twin supernovas of light flashed into being within them. They rippled with coarse, untamed power. Each globe of liquid starlight roared into furious incandescence, and I granted each a name and a purpose.

Vengeance, to slaughter all my foes.

Despair, to condemn their souls to perdition.

Come, Vengeance and Despair.

Come, for I am the Godslayer, the Ultimate Cause, the End of Times.

Come!

Reality wove a fabric so gossamer, so fragile, it would have taken a mere breath to tear it asunder. To gather it all into my merciless fists, and crush them into nonexistence.

I am Power Incarnate.

I am the Last God.

Come, for I shall unmake this abominable mockery of life, this pathetic continuance of floundering vitality. You who have offended a living, breathing God, you shall pay a steep price in thorns and sorrow, in trial and tribulation, in desperation and utter desolation.

“COME!”

I stretched my left hand forth, and instantly lightning danced upon my arms, gathering momentum and surging into the scorching fire within it that beckoned with a greedy maw, promising to roil the seas and ignite the heavens.

Guided by perverse instinct, I clenched my left hand into a fist as though to smother the cosmic fires contained therein. A soundless explosion burst into instant life, a shocking wave of energy pulsing in a wide, perfect circle and expanding at a rate faster than the eye could follow. With its passage, the blast snuffed all life and energy from the world, and in its smoking trail left silent flames licking at shattered remnants of what had once been part of a whole.

Not content, I raised my right hand and thunder answered with a titanic roar. I flung it downward and lightning pealed in a thousand voices, discordant notes that revolved into terrifying harmony in an unstoppable maelstrom of raw power that poured forth like the waters bursting from a broken dam, like the churning waves of an inexorable tsunami extinguishing all order and normality, leaving nothing but broken remnants and forgotten relics in its terrible wake.

In the distance I saw them, puny insects taking flight in desperate, uncompromising retreat. With a single flicker of my fingers I summoned them forth, and bid them stand judgment before the towering majesty of my will. Their trembling hands twisted pitifully in the most earnest entreaty for favor, for respite, for at least a merciful end.

I gave them flame and ashes, fire and thunder. I tore their skins off with my fangs, I ripped their entrails out with my claws, then I spit living fire into their veins, and watched it burn slowly, oh so slowly.

They screamed and writhed in utter agony beneath my feet, and in their desperation they sought reprieve from their torment. A swift death, they cried.

They begged.

In silence, I watched them burn.

For the world is of ashes, and to ashes it shall return.

I am the Deathbringer, the Harbinger of Chaos, the Right Hand of Doom.

I am the Godslayer, and I am come!

***

“Come back!”

I am the Devourer.

“You have to come back!”

I am the Breaker of Worlds.

“Please..”

I am the..

“MOMMY!”

A jolt of lightning hit my chest from within like a defibrillator dialed on too damn high, and the terrible thunder slowly leaked out of my eyes as I shook my head from side to side.

“Mommy! Please come back!”

“S.. Shia?” I mumbled disjointedly, as though awakening from the depths of an unspeakable nightmare.

“Mommy! It’s me! Shia’s here!”

“Shia.. What.. Where..?” I swayed on my feet, unable to bring my eyes into focus, painful light stabbing deeply into my eyes.

“Mommy, you’re back! You’re finally back!”

“Wha.. What do you mean? I’m.. from where?” I repeated stupidly, still woozily trying to shake the rocking seabed out of my head.

“You.. Shia was so scared. Uwaaah, Mommy! Shia was scared!”

“Shh. Calm down Shia. I’m here. Mommy’s here now,” I said reassuringly.

God, I hated crying. I couldn’t stand it. I would say or do literally anything to make it stop.

Struck dumb by my daughter’s sudden outburst, I turned my head from side to side, rubbing at my eyes and squinting, trying to bring the world back into focus.

The first thing that hit me was the smell.

It smelled of burnt flesh, like someone had left their porkchops over the grill and gone to bed, and woken up the next morning surrounded by the smoldering heap of ashes their home had become.

The odd thing was, there was no heat. Neither was there light. There seemed to be some sort of pulsing, thrumming illumination from somewhere beyond my field of vision, but I couldn’t quite make out solid shapes or objects yet.

I brought my hands up my face to try and squeeze some semblance of functionality to my eyes, and unbelievably, it seemed to do the trick. My eyes slowly regained focus, and the very first thing I could clearly see was the all the blood.

It was all over my hands, caked and flaking, crusted and crumbling, yet it was all over my hands. It ran up my elbows, and my arms. I looked down at my body in bewilderment, and found that over the old familiar grey of the uniform of the Federation special forces, it was all a sickening shade of rusty red.

“What the hell?” I whispered to myself, completely stupefied.

“Mommy.. You.. You don’t remember anything?” came Shia’s hesitant question.

“Nothing,” I shook my head slowly. “I mean, bits and pieces of..

Fire.

Death.

Obliteration.

I am the..

I cried out and flung my hands over my temples, squeezing my eyes shut as visions flashed in my mind, far too quickly to be recognizable.

“I don’t understand. Where are we?” I murmured, opening my eyes and scanning my surroundings.

A desolate vista greeted my eyes. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a fine layer of grey ashes covering the ground. I could not see a single shape breaking the bleak monotony of the landscape. The horizon lay completely flat, and though there were no moon or stars overhead, somewhere beyond my vision the sky above seemed to be vaguely pulsing with a shimmering wave of light that flickered periodically.

“What kind of vision are we in now?”

“Mommy, this.. This is no vision,” came Shia’s soft, eerily grave voice.

“What do you mean? Where are we then? Where is the Labyrinth of Souls?” I queried, turning around to scan the area around us.

Nothing. Nothing but ashes.

“This IS the Labyrinth of Souls,” came Shia’s voice, and there was a disquieting tremor that ran deep within her voice.

“What? Is this the original shape of the Labyrinth, before the soul constructs are fashioned?” I asked once more, incredulous.

“No, Mommy,” Shia answered in a calm, collected manner, like a doctor trying to give a terminal diagnosis to an overwrought patient. Still, her next words completely floored me.

“You are looking at the Labyrinth of Souls, or what is left of it.”

I stared in mute astonishment at the desolate vista around me. There was not so much as a breeze. Only a fine layer of ashes covered the ground as far as the eye could behold.

“I don’t understand, Shia. You’re not making any sense. Where are all the constructs?

“You burned them, Mommy,” came the calm reply.

“The metaphysical maze?”

“That too.”

“The whole damn dungeon?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well then, how about the so-called Worthy, those uppity bitches running this hellhole?”

Shia’s voice grew somber, “All ashes, Mommy.”

“That.. How did I do that? Why don’t I remember any of it?” I cried out, when the frenzied torrent of visions once again assaulted my brain, and it was all I could do to open my mouth in a silent scream, unable to draw enough breath to give vent to my pain.

Come, Vengeance. Extinguish the heavens, tear the earth asunder.

Come, Despair. Burn the world in blackest fire, leave naught but ashes in your wake.

For I am come.

A few agonizing moments later, I panted raggedly as I knelt on the ground, my forehead propped against the ground with both my fists carving deep furrows through the ashes that covered it.

“Mommy, are you alright?”

“I don’t know,” I murmured unsteadily. “I think so.”

Slowly regaining my feet, I decided I would rather leave the past be. At least until it stopped smashing my face like a damn freight train at the slightest hint of a flashback. If this had truly done by my hand, just what kind of power was I able to harness? And why couldn't I find any hint of it now?

Too many questions, and no answers except for the great mother of a splitting headache I received everytime I knocked on that particular door. I would at least try to make some semblance of sense from the situation in front of me right now.

I could only regret that I hadn’t gotten the chance to spit in that uppity bitch’s face before I burned her whole face off.

Aw well. Such are my regrets in this, my tortuous existence.

Oh crap, wait a moment.

The gloating grin I’d been wearing slid right off my face.

“Shia, you said I burned them all?” I said heavily, stilling my chest.

“Yes, you did,” came the gentle reply.

“Then.. How about.. What about all the souls? What happened to all the souls trapped within the whole freaking Labyrinth of damn Souls?” I shouted, unable to keep my composure anymore.

“...”

“Shia!” I cried out.

“From ashes, to ashes..” came the soft whisper, and it crushed my heart in a vise grip.

“It.. I did.. It can’t be,” I mumbled incoherently.

“I’m so sorry, Mommy..” came Shia’s words, and I could hear the tears in her gentle voice.

“I.. I killed them? Sol and Reaver? They’re gone?” I breathed out, and a black fist kept squeezing my chest until my breath came in ragged pants, but as ever, there were no tears to be found.

It was a dry sorrow, a wordless lament, the silent mourning of a soul far too worn and wasted to do anything but blame and hate.

“There must be way.. To undo it. To summon.. To.. You’ve grown in your powers, right Shia? You’ve learned new things!”

“Once the soul.. Once the soul is destroyed, the Great Cycle is broken, then it is the end of the journey, a final rest for the departed. I.. I’m sorry, Mommy.”

“Of course, I did it. Again,” I whispered, and a bitter smile stretched my lips into a terrible mockery of a smile.

“Mommy, it wasn’t your fault,” Shia began, her voice growing anxious.

“Of course it was, it always is. I knew it would do no good. I knew I would burn them in the end. It is what I do. It’s the only thing I’m good at. Everything good and pure I’ve touched with my tainted hands, it ends up in the dumpster, worn and broken.”

“That’s not true, Mommy,” Shia tried to interject, but I was beyond listening to her sweet absurdity. “It was a freak accident, an arcane catastrophe of uncontrollable proportions..”

“No, Shia,” I interrupted harshly, shaking my head back and forth. “I wish I could accept your comfort, I truly do. However, I know I don’t deserve such. It is the reason I am here in the first place. All I can do is take. Destroy. Burn. This quality, it has always defined my life, and it always will. My one constant, no matter where I am or what I become.”

I lifted a trembling fist to my face, staring at it with bitter resignation.

“My one true calling.”

“Mommy..”

“I am here to burn, after all.”

I spread my arms wide to the great desolate wasteland lying at my feet, and resigned myself to my fate as the Destroyer, the Devourer, the Godslayer.

I came to bring chaos, not order.

I am death come, not life.

I am.. Full of shit.

Wait a moment. Wait a god damn second. Wait. Wait. Wait.

What the hell?

“No,” I whispered quietly, as I lifted a handful of ashes from the ground and held it gently in my hand.

“No,” I muttered darkly, and I clenched that fist convulsively, channeling all the rage and chaos from the hammering furnace of my heart, through the roaring currents of liquid fire coursing through my veins, and into that handful of ashes lying cold and inert within my trembling grip.

“No!” I yelled savagely, and the wild nature of an untamed beast answered my call. I could hear its unfettered fury tearing at the confines of a prison not my own. It demanded release, and it pounded away in a reckless frenzy against the walls of this cold, grey fort.

“NO!” I roared furiously, as chains and fetters strained beyond enduring at long last shattered, I was once more free. Free, at last.

I will not be bound.

I will not be denied.

I will not lose them again!

A burst of power pulsed through me, and rippled outward in a shockwave that traveled a thousand miles in an instant, rattling the edges of this space and finding it wanting. The very air around me seemed to buzz with a static crackling, as though I’d just ripped the cover off a fuse box and poured water all over it.

Sharp rupturing noises could be heard from all around me, and the skies lost their gloomy, perpetual grayness. Instead, its vague shapes seemed to slowly dissolve into straight lines and angles, until I could barely discern lines of incomprehensible writing scrawled all over the firmament above.

Abruptly, multiple windows popped up before my face, one after the other.

WARNING!

ERROR CODE 5511002

WARNING!

ERROR CODE 5511002

WARNING!

ERROR CODE 5558277

WARNING!

ERROR CODE 6987821

WARNING!

ERROR CODE 1982746

WARNING!

ERROR CODE 82716661

The bizarre windows kept popping up everywhere, and I could swear the whole landscape around me was shuddering as though it were a mere breath from collapsing completely.

So, of course, that’s exactly what I did next.

Shia seemed to sense something of what I was about to do, and she quickly exclaimed, “Mommy, wait-!”

Woops, too late. Sorry darling.

“Down!” I shouted, and I watched in smug satisfaction as rumbling echoes burst forth from my mouth and tore a goddamn black hole in the space before me! It was exactly that, a giant tear in the fabric of space, and beyond I could see a massive gate extending so high above that it became lost in the roiling clouds above.

“Mommy, maybe we shouldn’t-”

I held an imperious hand up to forestall further protest. Aw, don’t be a party pooper, honey.

“I said, DOWN YOU BASTARDS!” I roared at the top of my lungs, and a veritable wave of red-tinged magic-something or the other lit the air with a visible corona of corruscading lightning as it sped off in an arc before me. Wherever it passed, the air shuddered violently for a moment before bursting apart with a buzzing noise and leaving a dark void in its place.

When this churning mass of crimson lightning hit the gigantic gate, it seemed to light up with countless lights as though it were absorbing the energy. Then, very slowly, the gate began to glow with the same scarlet hue as a rumbling sound could be heard from beyond its enclosure.

Database Login: Acepted

Clearance Level: Alpha 1

Awaiting command..

“What the hell?” I scratched my head. “Shia?”

“Mommy, you went and broke the world,” came her immediate response, and she had the gall to sound peeved.

“I meant, what is this message?” I repeated, pointing at the strange menu floating before me.

“What message, Mommy?”

“You don’t see it? Database entry? Clearance level?”

“Uh, are you sure you’re feeling alright, Mommy? Erhm, you’ve gone through a very stressful experience, and it is normal for biological entities..”

“Hey kid, cut it out right there. Give me a second to figure it out,” I muttered, scowling at the menu standing before it.

It had to be a game context menu. Now that I thought about it, it made sense that Shia wouldn’t be able to see it, since she was part of the game itself. Now, as for what this database did. Perhaps the interface wouldn’t differ too much from modern Federation AI systems.

“Ahem. Query: What is the database?”

Response

CENND. Centralized Enhanced Neural Network Database. A fully autonomous facsimile of every individual physically connected to the Central Neural Network, as a further resource, failsafe and back up for vital procedural interventions on Project DEUS.

I was completely thunderstruck.

“Query: How many individuals do you hold in record?”

Response

Response: As of 20:34:06.11 April 23rd, 2039 there are 43,192,299 entries stored in CENND.

I sucked a breath in between my teeth. So many? But after the Great War barely more than 100 million people had been left alive. How could there be so many? Did that mean that nearly half of the world’s population had been copied into this monstrous system?

“How could this be?” I breathed out, completely shaken.

“Mommy? Are you alright?”

“Hold.. Hold on Shia,” I managed. “Query: What is the final objective of CENND?”

WARNING!

WARNING: Access to information restricted to clearance level Omega 3.

“Query: Who designed CENND?”

WARNING!

WARNING: Access to information restricted to clearance level Omega 3.

“Query: How long has CENND been running?”

Response

CENND has been active since 04:00:01.23 August 9th, 2033.

Six years? That had been even before the beginning of my fall from grace, when I had declared all out war against the powers that be, and as a result had been crushed like a powerless insect under their indifferent heels.

I closed my eyes as I began to recall all the experiences I had been through within the Labyrinth. In particular, I had been bewildered at impossibly complex and life-like nature of each and every individual within. Their own distinct memories which should have been locked within each of those individuals could not possibly have been extracted from my own mind. It sure as hell was no mere fiction either.

No, I felt deep within my guts that each one of those people had been just that, people. After all, each distinct character related to my life had been in possession of character traits and flaws that had frankly surprised me as I had explored them for the first time. The incredibly varied palette of emotions they had displayed would have been beyond even the most sophisticated AI I had even heard of in development stages within military grade labs.

However, Project Deus truly had access to a resource such as CENND, then it all slowly began to make a bizarre kind of sense. I could definitely understand the baffling complexity and fidelity to the inscrutable nature of the human psyche I had found as I interacted with each character within not only the Labyrinth, but Aeterna as a whole. Such advanced AI was far beyond the reach of anything I knew possible, but if there were real people behind them, I could see how the logistics of it could work.

In theory, at least.

However, the figure I had just learned was simply mind-boggling. After the Great War had ended and Earth had lost over 97% of its population through a deadly mix of bio-chemical warfare and the irrepressible human instinct towards the extinction of their own species, the relatively intact infrastructure had lain unmanned and unusable due to lack of personnel. Only through the passage of the highly controversial NCRA act, thereby conscripting and initiating the mass assimilation of all “non-conforming” individuals into the vast neural network known as “Valkyrie”. This massive network had been the sole medium through which humanity had been able to harness the vast armies of AI needed to manipulate the infrastructure needed to maintain order and stability in society, as well as nurturing future growth.

The secrets through which Valkyrie was able to use the brains of the millions of unfortunate non-coms plugged into its neural network was one of the most highly guarded secrets of NEO, or the New Earth Order. Of course, the process of mechanization and assimilation of a breathing, living human being into a huge computer had as many staunch opposers as it had supporters. In the end, several compromises were needed to push the project through.

One of them was Aeterna, the realization of an ambitious project (Codename: Project Deus) to allow the otherwise unproductive, non-conforming members of society to live out their lives within a fantasy world where theoretically anything would be possible.

They would be free to live out their most cherished dreams and wildest ambition within the safe confines of this virtual universe.

The second was the absolute agreement to never allow Valkyrie’s existence to exceed the level of a neural networking interphase. In other words, the development of AI pertaining and relevant to any of Valkyrie’s domains or functions was strictly forbidden under penalty of death.

As it was, the AI supporting the management of Aeterna was shackled and regulated so heavily under layers and layers of checks and balances that the everyday maintenance of this virtual realm beggared the most intricate bureaucracies in most smaller countries in today’s world.

This was one of the reasons I had been so shocked when I had seen the level of detail and sheer complexity of Aeterna. I had assumed that Kyren, Zephyr, Sol, hell perhaps even Reaver were either player characters without memory of their real lives, or at the very least heavily player-influenced AI subroutines and algorithms.

However, the Labyrinth had truly opened my eyes. Each of the soldiers whose eyes I’d looked into as their lives were guttering like a candle blown by the storm, in the precious moment right before they had drawn their final breath, they had been just too damn real to be simple AIs. You just couldn’t fake all the raw emotion, the sorrow, the loneliness, the resentment. Yet it had all been there, to one degree or another.

I could still remember blondie’s eyes as she whispered to me that I was the flame. It made my heart beat faster still, causing my pulse to accelerate and my hands to slowly twist into fists.

I don’t are what you think, no AI couldn’t replicate that.

Hell, most humans wouldn’t be able to.

Blondie had died in my arms. She was dead over 15 years past. How the hell had they managed to bring her back if the CENND project had only begun 6 years ago?

But that must be what they had done. If that was true..

I began to breathe in ragged pants, my eyes beginning to flood with a red tinge. My heart beat like a jackhammer and it pounded away at my sanity until it slow began to crack.

“Mommy?”

“Q.. Query: Is it possible to search the database for the records of a specific individual?”

Response

Alpha 1 Clearance has access to CENND records up to Priority Level 3. Please state the name of the individual.

“Major Ombue Akatombe.”

Match Found: Major Ombue Akatombe Codename: Warthog

Records found.

Priority Level 2.

VRS Code 28874661-2.

Status: Active.

Active? What did that mean? Was he part of Aeterna now? However, my mind at the moment had no chance to entertain any of those questions as I single-mindedly pursued a single track.

“Colonel Dominik Stahl.”

Match Found: Colonel Dominik Stahl Codename: Ironmask

Records found.

Priority Level 3.

VRS Code 47728112-1.

Status: Active.

Colonel Dominik Stahl A.K.A. Ironmask.

Hardly able to contain myself, I continued at a breakneck speed. Only two more names left.

“Major Katarina Snow.”

Match Found: Major Katarina Snow Codename: Queen of Hearts

Records found.

Priority level 3.

VRS Code 472676612-1.

Status: Active.

My fists convulsively slammed my chest as I sought to slow down the frenetic beating of my heart. I stared in helpless desperation at the windows open in front of me as I forced myself to draw one more shaking breath.

If only.

If only sinners were allowed second chances.

If only repentance went hand in hand with redemption.

If only mortals were allowed to fall in love with angels.

Ah, if only.

I slowly exhaled, and it felt as though part of my soul escaped with that same breath as my lips formed the words I had been dreading to speak this entire time.

“Sophia Valerossia.”