"Back up, back up." I urge Ramon as the Logos spews more of that green fire around it.

The conflagration around the Logos grows, as the green flames hungrily devour everything in their path, including parts of the ground itself. Large patches of white void are all that's left behind as the flames surge outward. But despite the tremendous destructive power of the green flames, no heat is emitted. The ruins of Springvale remains as damp as ever from the aftermath of the massive flood. There's no scent of burning either or sizzling whenever the flame touches pools of floodwater. Everything the green flame touches is devoured silently.

Negated rather than burned.

Ramon snaps off a pair of shots at the Logos with his pistols and I can tell from the dull metallic thud that my friend's aim was true. The Logos however remains hovering in place, not a single scratch marring its surface, continuing to feed the green flames that have already spread a good distance. Hoping that gunfire would do anything against something called the Word of God was probably being a little too optimistic.

"Any ideas, Mac?" Ramon whispers to me, sweat and desperation running down his face.

"Here's one." I grunt, hurling the length of scrap wood in my hand at the Logos like a javelin. I managed to dislodge the Logos from its position once. No idea how that happened, but I might get lucky again.

The length of wood bounces ineffectually off the surface of the Logos before plunging into the green flames and getting vaporized out of existence. Ramon looks at me, singularly unimpressed.

"Good ideas I mean." Ramon says, "Got any of those?"

"Keep away from the flame?" I respond as we keep walking back in the direction of Springvale's entrance. The green flame is certainly not taking its time, gobbling up the ruins of Springvale at a ferocious rate.

"How long can we do this?" Ramon wails plaintively, "We'll just end up with our backs against the chasm blocking the way to Granite Pass!"

"The flame might not make it that far?" I suggest, not really believing this claim myself, "Or we could hang from the edge of the chasm until the flame burns itself out."

"Are you being serious right now?" Ramon stares at me in disbelief.

"Yes." I insist, "My magic has recovered. I'll be strong enough to carry you and hang from the chasm at the same time if it comes down to it."

"The flame destroys the ground as well Mac!" Ramon nearly shrieks from the stress, "Open your eyes!"

"I don't see you contributing any good ideas!" I snap back as both of us pause at the carcass of Ramon's pony, glaring daggers at each other.

"If you hadn't insisted to come to Springvale -" Ramon begins but I interrupt before he can say anything more.

"Don't blame this on me." I jab at Ramon with an index finger, "Don't you dare."

A pregnant silence settles between the two of us, our figures dully illuminated against the incline by the spreading fires. Ramon finally lets loose a long sigh and face palms tiredly.

"Let's just focus on getting out of here first." he says, "Anything else can wait."

"Look, I didn't mean to -" I try to placate Ramon but he's clearly not interested right now.

"I said it can wait." he waves my words away, "So hanging from the chasm, huh?"

"Unless there's something down there that can help us escape." I return to the matter at hand with some relief. Never really was very good at the touchy feely stuff. If Ramon doesn't want an apology, that's fine by me.

Both of us look down the white void once again, trying to discern anything we had missed the first time we examined it. But nothing has changed. The endless white remains as blank and unhelpful as ever.

"Got all your luggage?" I ask Ramon while prodding the carcass of his pony with the tip of my foot.

"Its all ruined." Ramon grouses, shaking his head at the soaked saddlebags carried by the pony, "I keep all my valuables on me anyway."

"Alright. Let's do a test then." with that said, I kick the pony's carcass over the edge of the incline, sending it plummeting down the white void.

"Maybe there's an invisible platform below us." I think aloud while craning my neck over the incline's edge, "There's no force in this world that can keep something as large as a village floating indefinitely."

I reflexively clench my fist as the pony's carcass gradually shrinks into an increasingly smaller speck. There has to be some kind of trick to all of this. An illusion that we haven't seen through yet. Materialism has not been roused from its slumber, so that means the mundane laws of our world still hold true. Meaning that everything we've experienced so far counts as "natural". There's no magic involved.

Something mundane is behind all of this, not a fabled Word of God. I'm sure of it.

"No. Nothing's down there." Ramon morosely comments as the pony's carcass disappears from sight, swallowed up completely by the white void.

"Can't be." I narrow my eyes further, scanning the void for any clue that could point us in the right direction, "There should be a strut, a platform, something to keep Springvale from falling as well."

"My horse would have hit something on the way down." Ramon closes his eyes in defeat, "Face it Mac. Nothing's there."

"The angle might be wrong?" I hopefully suggest, "We could throw something else down the void, see what happens?"

"I think ..." Ramon sucks in his breath and squeezes my shoulder, "We should get prepared for hanging from the side of the chasm instead."

"Yeah." I look up and notice the green flames lapping eagerly at the base of the incline we're standing on. Ramon and I are just about out of time. The sea of green has cut us off from Springvale proper and just behind the veil of flames I see a horse galloping about in a panic.

"Loaner." I chuckle despite myself, "Its always the misfits that find some way to survive, huh?"

"Mac, something's wrong." Ramon points at Loaner, squinting through the flames, "There's movement coming from one of the saddlebags."

Turning my attention to Loaner's saddlebags, I realize one of them has grown full to almost bursting. Loaner is visibly struggling under the weight and yet the bag keeps growing bigger and bigger, straining at its seams.

"Shit." I gasp in alarm, "That's where I stowed the Order satchel."

Loaner's saddlebag can't take any further abuse and tears apart, revealing the Order satchel now grown to the size of an attaché case. The satchel falls to the ground heavily, inflicting a noticeable dent in the soil. Loaner whinnies loudly, relieved at being freed from carrying that massive load about. But as my disobedient horse soon finds out, the green flame has it penned in, just the same as Ramon and I. Loaner is forced to circle about in the background, vainly looking for a way to escape.

A bulge forms outward on the satchel, as if something inside is thrashing about. As the thrashing grows increasingly violent, the satchel's catch pops open with little resistance.

"What in the world?" I mutter as a viper begins to extend itself from the satchel, uncoiling gracefully. I had not sensed anything alive in the satchel while I was carrying it.

And as Ramon and I stare dumbstruck, the viper continues to uncoil itself in defiance of the limited space in the satchel. By now the viper towers proudly over the wreckage of Springvale, staring down at the Logos imperiously. The satchel lies discarded next to the viper, absolutely miniscule compared to the true size of the creature that it once housed. Confronted by the Viper, the Logos begins to blink in an angry red once again, the full force of its hostility blazing at the interloper. The viper hisses confidently in challenge, the hues playing across its skin shifting like paint being mixed.

"This is bad." Ramon groans, "That's the avatar of Hackal. We have stumbled on a conflict involving the gods here."

"Hackal?" I shudder at my friend's observation, "That's the other face of Pahlaver, right? The evil one."

"Not evil." Ramon clarifies, "Pahlaver grants strength, but respects fair play. Hackal is the side of him that believes in power at all costs. And Ea hates Hackal."

The avatar of a power hungry god squaring off against the Logos. We're like a pair of ants caught between a fight between enraged bears. This is all sorts of bad. For the first time, an unpleasant thought hits me. Everyone assumes that the gods left this world because of their silence.

But silence does not necessarily mean absence.

"Hackal the Corruptor." I mutter, recalling scripture class at the church, "The people Hackal blesses become absolute beasts. Monsters in human form."

The Logos flares in fury and the green flame responds accordingly, lashing out at the avatar of Hackal. The viper merely slithers forward, the flames flickering harmlessly across its hide. The avatar is powerful, that's clear to see. So how did it fall into the hands of the Order?

A low whining noise comes from the Logos and it begins to vibrate rapidly. A tiny pinprick of light forms at the center of the Logos and before I can understand what's happening, the Logos launches a spear of cerulean energy from its core right at the Avatar of Hackal. The viper reels backward as the cerulean spear lances right through its protective hide, neatly skewering the Avatar.

The Logos is not done yet though and begins launching more cerulean spears at the Avatar in quick succession. The viper is stopped right in its tracks, having no opportunity to respond to this attack as its body is pierced time and time again. The radiance from the Word of God is even greater than before, its might simply overpowering. The Avatar of Hackal doubles over in pain, its skin drying up and cracking.

"Its over." Ramon says solemnly as the Logos fires off one final volley of cerulean spears at the viper.

Then the body of the viper bursts open, launching something out at lightning speed. It happened so fast that if I had blinked, I would certainly have missed it. Barely a second later, the cerulean spears puncture the Avatar of Hackal, turning it into a pincushion. At the same time, the light from the Logos begins to dim and flicker.

An exact copy of the Avatar, except now the size of a regular snake, is coiled tightly around the Word of God fangs bared and ready to strike. Hackal the Corruptor, the Serpent That Sheds Its Skin. No matter how many times he's driven off by Ea, as long as Pahlaver exists, Hackal will always return. The scripture makes it all sound very poetic, but today Ramon and I have the privilege of seeing metaphysics in action.

The tiny Avatar bites down hard on to the Logos, its fangs piercing the glowing core. Dark venom flows into the core, and the radiance of the Logos takes on a dusky shade. The Word of God flares angry red again, but the viper tightens its hold on the floating rune. The coils of the Avatar stifle the Logos' power and soon the swirling cloud of venom blots out the core entirely. The green flames gutter out of existence, their source of power extinguished.

"Now its over." I correct Ramon as both of us cautiously climb down the incline, heading to where Loaner is standing. We pause as the Avatar of Hackal releases its grip on the Logos and slithers back into the Order satchel. The satchel then snaps itself shut before shrinking back to its normal size.

"No one would believe this story." Ramon comments ruefully.

Another low whine echoes throughout the wreckage of Springvale and both of us turn back to the Logos in shock. The Word of God's radiance is back and brighter than ever. Then there's a huge flash.

And the world is torn apart.

......

Addendum

... upon detection of unauthorized activity within the system, the anti tamper tools will act immediately, killing the instance and restarting it ...

... rely on several methods to foil modern anti tamper tools. The first of which is data compression. Commercial grade scanners are easily confused by data compression and are generally not able to perform a database match of a target that has undergone data compression.

... upon meeting set parameters, unpacking will occur. At this point polymorphic defenses will be deployed against the anti tamper protocol. In theory, polymorphic defense provides resistance and active stealth against such countermeasures. However, the algorithms employed by modern anti tamper tools have grown capable enough that ...

... nevertheless, defeating polymorphic defenses requires precious cycles, allowing the anti tamper protocol to be directly engaged. Through the injection of ...

... takes control of both surveillance and repair functions, coopting the anti tamper protocol ...