Chapter 7. Technobabble.

The day after Santiago’s little outburst was far calmer, the exploration members had agreed to meet at 10:00 a.m. in order to begin a rough exploration of The City. From what Santiago had learned the past day, two Kings had been taken down. One within A Dimension, the other in the Spine. From the data they had acquired in the Spine, which was a vertical mountain range, there were three kings in The City.

The City was basically the archetype of a wretched city, a city of sin. Daemonic mafias, gangs, loose criminals, etc, all kinds of crimes happened in The City. Thankfully most daemons in it were false, which meant they could morally slaughter them as they had little difference from computer programs. But the true danger of the city laid in its True Daemons, since every being that could stand living there was most certainly up to no good.

That was why they had agreed to meet in the Bulwark, and from then on they would plan the infiltration. Once they had all arrived Santiago opened with a sheepish smile.

“So I forgot to ask what your daemons were.”

“And we forgot to tell you.” Commented Francisca with a smile.

That surprised Santiago, he may not have been the most perceptive or empathetic person, but even he could tell Francisca was uneasy around him. He looked at her for a few moments before deciding to let it go. Francisca was grateful for this, since she had been very conscious of him from the moment she heard who he was.

“What are they then?”

Akihito smiled at Santiago’s question, and signaled his companions to do the thing. I personally loved the thing, few had that dedication. Their reactions were varied, Ignacio did it enthusiastically, Isabel did it begrudgingly, Francisca turned red like a tomato, and Rubén did it with an impassive face. Though in reality he was just as mortified as Francisca.

“SEDS, transform!” Shouted Akihito, before they all were enveloped in a bright light.

Once it had faded the scene Santiago saw was peculiar, they were all covered in some sort of power armour, and posing. Akihito looked at Santiago expectantly, wondering if his corruption had advanced enough, but what he saw startled him. Santiago was frowning.

“What is wrong?”

“Why do you guys have Twilight Basic Armour mark 12?”

“Uh, what?” Francisca’s question was echoed by all of the original SEDS members.

“That is armour created by The Twilight, the organization from whom the Ancient Clans of the Covenant originated. Both the Kyrioi and my family are part of these ancient clans. So you can guess how old are those things.”

Ignacio whistled.

“I guess these ancient clans are the ones that built the Bulwark? So that’d mean… we are wearing ten thousand year old armour?!”

“Fifteen. The Twilight was born about eighteen thousand years ago, but originally they had little to work with. By 13,000 b.c. they managed to develop the first power armour in Earth Ψ, and they reached mark 18 before discontinuing the series.”

A silence stretched for several seconds, before Francisca spoke carefully. Or in other words, no one could believe what he was saying. And trust me, even I was surprised to see such a technological gap between The Twilight and normal civilisation of that era.

“Are you saying cavemen could build power armour?”

Santiago was about to answer, but he decided to think it through. He shouldn't have because he eventually chose to disclose as much as he could.

“Do you know anything about the pre-Bulwark era?”

“No one knows.” Said Ignacio, shrugging.

“Except you, I guess.” Commented Isabel.

“Hm. Then let me begin from the beginning, when history was irrevocably changed.

In ancient times humans wrestled with daemons in their daily lives, but as they were by far less numerous than modern humans it wasn’t unbearable. Most daemons attacked the Twelve Elders back then.

Until it came. The Dawn-“

“Your family killed him?”

“No spoilers Isabel. Anyway, back in 21,000 b.c. The Dawn came. I can’t discuss his goals, but he tricked humans into serving him by granting superior technology. Humans didn’t understand Dawntech but they could use it without issue. They lived for hundreds of years, they could hunt the greatest of beasts with their bare hands, they kept daemons away from them. And yet, they were still unaware of cultivation and rearing, as the Dawn didn’t want humans to grow too powerful. They lived in cities that couldn’t function without The Dawn, so while the quality of life and power were great, ignorance was rampant.

Under The Dawn humans regressed, becoming complacent slaves to his will. But in roughly 16,000 b.c. a man said that the current state of affairs was inexcusable. Suspicious of The Dawn he researched its activities, until he discerned the truth. Rising against his former master this man, wait…”

“What is it?” Asked Ignacio, spellbound by the story.

“I don’t remember right now, but I think it was a woman. Oh yeah, it was.” He nodded to himself. “How did I forget about that woman? Probably because I can’t pronounce her name.”

That is true. No modern language resembles her native tongue enough for proper writing or vocalisation of her name.

“Anyway, rising against her former master this woman began to clandestinely work against The Dawn. With time she gave rise to The Twilight, who had sworn to bring down The Dawn.”

“Question!”

“Yes, Akihito?”

“Why call it The Dawn?”

“It’s its actual name. Pretty sure it was a Daemon God born from belief in technology.”

“Oh.”

“For the next three thousand years they broke the most sacred of taboos, they studied Dawntech and reproduced it. But they knew just that wouldn’t be enough, so they surpassed it. The Twilight Basic Armour was one of the first attempts, followed by the Humanoid Armoured Vehicles-“

“Mechas?”

“Le sigh. Yes, mechas.”

“Are there are ancient clans in my country?”

“Yes, the mecha makers do reside in Japan. But anyway, next came the Twilight Advanced Armour, which we used until Aesop created the nanomachines. Next they built the Planetary Defense Grid, magical satellites to monitor and destroy anything on Earth. Their final attempt at surpassing The Dawn were the Machine Gods, but even they failed to do it.

Even worse was the fact that they had declared war on The Dawn, and now they were losing.”

“Machine Gods?” Asked Ignacio.

“Yes. The Sea God, the Hunting God, the Destructor God, the Space God, the Sky God, the Sun God, the Healing God, the All-Seeing God, the Time God, the Forge of Destruction, the Charming God, the Earth God and the Biological Development God were the thirteen Daemon Gods created by The Twilight.”

“Wait!” Interrupted Isabel. “Daemon Gods can be artificially made?”

“Yes, but that knowledge has been sealed. And anyway only the Forge of Destruction, the All-Seeing God and the Hunting God survived. Now the last two are in charge of the Planetary Defense Grid, that has been expanded over the millennia, and the former collaborates with the Ancient Clans of the Covenant’s manufacturers for big projects.”

“So um, why don’t we have that tech nowadays?” Asked Rubén.

“Let me finish!” Santiago never liked being interrupted. “So they were losing, when the Founder came to them. He gave them great knowledge, and in a lot ditch effort they built the Bulwark.”

So, I know I said that I obviously helped build the Bulwark because it was before the Iron Age. Some of you may call bullshit on me now, but they didn’t use iron. Indeed, their technology was all made from recycled fragments of The Dawn, who was a metallic life form. So no, I was not lying. And did you seriously expect me to tell you everything? There would be no story if I did that!

“That helped turn the tides, but the Founder had made a covenant with them. They would never use their technology to conquer others. They wouldn’t allow their technology to fall in irresponsible hands. Finally, they would not interfere with ordinary people. That is why you don’t have that tech nowadays, Rubén.”

“Wait a moment.” Said Isabel. “So there are some clans out there with the technology needed to build Daemon Gods, but to avoid abuse of it they don’t share it?”

“We also have spaceships, warp portals, pocket dimensions, robot armies, nanomachines, etc. But we can’t use them unless something threatens Earth, that was the deal we made.”

The tale that Santiago had abbreviated for them made SEDS fall into silence. They couldn’t believe something like that had happened, and was hidden from most people. They stayed in silence until Ignacio decided to ask something.

“Is there any issue with us using the armour?”

“No. Not only are they obsolete, but you found them yourselves. Unless it is very dangerous we don’t regulate Dawntech, that comprises most of OOParts, or our old tech.”

“Out of curiosity,” asked Isabel, “how good is your modern tech?”

“As long as it remains no force in the Fayd can touch Earth.”

Those confident words came from the heart. No scion of the ancient clans doubted the might of their progress, for they had since young learned of its terrors. In their hearts Earth Ψ was invincible, with no equal in the known existence. Only the Bulwark was a greater achievement, and it was a utility tool not a weapon.

“You said something about nanomachines?” Asked Rubén, eyes shining with delight.

In answer Santiago just smiled smugly and lifted his arm. While his companions were wondering what he was going to do they saw his hand darken.

“Santiago?”

He paid no mind to Akihito’s uneasy, confident in his family’s masterpiece. From below his skin flowed a stream of black dust that covered his entire body, forming a exoskeletons of sorts.

“Daemon substitute nanomachines mark 186, one of the few allowed to be used outside of emergencies. They have an enhancement effect on the host’s body, healing bots, a modern EPS, a scanning system and database, WiFi connection, and can have additional applications installed. Eat your heart out, Akihito.”

He was ready to do so. Not only was the activation method much cooler, but it had many more abilities. In fact, it was so superior that…

“You make us obsolete.” Said Rubén with distaste. “Dammit, and we were so proud of our Booster Daemons.”

“Not necessarily.” Santiago put on a thoughtful expression. “I think they can be upgraded, but I’ll need my parent’s permission… How did you even use my armour?”

“Huh? The Booster Daemons can assimilate armour and acquire its capabilities.”

“They can. From mark 32 onwards. Someone must have upgraded them before you got them, how odd. Maybe it was an old recycling facility that you got them from? No, they would have been smelted and not modified. Maybe some isolated outpost during the War on The Dawn? That would explain it, but wouldn’t we have recovered it after the war?”

Santiago continued mumbling to himself as his friends watched him awkwardly. They had no idea about practically anything he was saying, so he may as well have just been speaking a foreign language. Eventually he stopped, and they briefed each other on what their technology could do.

“Not bad, but I can upgrade it further.”

“You?”

“Yep. That said, nothing is free among the clans, so it’ll take money.”

“And here I thought we would be relieved of equipment expenses once you joined us.” Commented Rubén.

“I am already giving you a large discount, so be satisfied. Shall we go?”

***

The City Where There Is No Day was located far from the Bulwark, in Elder territory. Thankfully they could just enter it due to interspecies treatises but it’d be unfamiliar territory, particularly since it was a wild zone.

They had stopped in the outskirts, beneath the waves of the Ether Sea. Santiago was satisfied by the quality of their ship, even if it couldn’t compare to Aesop’s. It at least had enough space for all of them, and advance reconnaissance equipment.

Santiago had been unanimously declared their new operator, as he was by far and beyond above this kind of primitive tech.

“So, radar and light scans tell me nothing has changed from recent reports. The city still has a killer doll infestation, and the wolves are rampaging everywhere. What am I supposed to look for?”

“I still can’t believe you were hiding your ultra sci-fi background from me.”

“I am not even important in the family, this is basic stuff.”

“And I couldn’t even make sense of half the instruments aboard.” Complained Isabel.

“At least that means you understood something.” Francisca sighed. “I can’t even use my phone correctly.”

“I am more impressed by how easy things are going. No need for leg work now!”

“I’m pretty sure we still will have to walk a lot, Ignacio.”

“Spoilsport.”

“I am a game maker! I don’t spoil things.”

“Sure. Spoilsport.”

“Can someone tell me what am I looking for?!”

The situation was beautiful. The five original members of SEDS had long since grown comfortable with each other, and Santiago couldn’t help but be pulled in. Meeting new people, for a value of new, would certainly do him good.

“Kings can only be humans, so search for humans with a lot of demonic daemons under him.” Akihito was about to continue speaking, when he thought of something. “Ah. I forgot something, your sister was alive after all, was she not Santiago?”

“What?!” “Are you kidding me?!” “Impossible!” “You say that now?!”

Santiago was struck speechless. Understandable, since they shouldn’t even know that he had a sister.

“Have you been talking about me with people?”

“Uh, yeah. That’s the case.”

Yeah, I am suuure that is the case. Why Santiago didn’t see through him I’ll never know. He doesn’t even have the excuse of Ein Sof’s curse of ignorance for this oversight.

“And anyway, why are you guys so surprised?”

“Well, um, you see, um…”

Great job at hiding it, Ignacio. Your labia and eloquence shall resound through the world for their greatness.

“I mean, you are now one of our comrades now. It’d make sense that’d we’d, um, worry about you.”

Isabel, you are supposed to be the cool headed one.

“That was incorrect.”

“Huh?”

“Too many abbreviations in that sentence, it should have been it makes sense that we’d care about you.”

Obliviousness level exceeds maximum values. That was just shameful Santi, what is wrong with you?

“But still, thank you for your concern.”

Face, meet palm.

“I learned recently that my sister was alive.”

“Really?!” So much enthusiasm Francisca, I thought you couldn’t face Santiago?

“Yes! My master has told me I am still not ready to rescue her, but in a few years I should be able to do it.”

Thousand faces, meet thousand palms.

“Rescue her from what?”

Santiago went on an explanation of what he knew about his sister’s situation, all the while never realising that his new friends were a bit too happy about it. I know you hadn’t had any friends until Akihito came. I know you are happy to have more people to confide in. I know all of it, but still.

“I see. I am very glad for you.” Rubén said with tears on his eyes, he should be thankful that Santiago was looking at his screen.

“Thank you.” Santiago smiled. “Man, you all are pretty nice. Maybe I should speak more with others, I wouldn’t have failed knowing you otherwise.”

But what Santiago didn’t know was how deep his words cut his new friends, as they all held a singular regret in their hearts. They were most definitely not nice. At least, in their own eyes.

“Ah, found it.”

“One of the three kings?!” Shouted Francisca, a bit too desperate to escape her thoughts.

“No, seven factions organised well enough to have a good head behind them. The instruments aren’t that precise Akihito. I made do with what I had.”

“Who?”

“The eastern thugs, the black cultists, the elite, the wolves, the killing dolls, the fairy tales and the demonic raiders. There aren’t really that many demonic daemons, but I’d put my money on killing dolls and fairy tales. Who do we investigate first?”

“What do you think?” Asked Akihito to his two advisors.

“What can you tell us about the factions?” Asked Isabel.

“From the scans little. But in terms of raw power I’d prefer to leave the wolves and fairy tales for later.”

“Those are the most powerful in the city?” Asked Rubén.

“I know what you mean, but I think the wolves represent fear of the unknown nature that isn’t present in the countryside. The fairy tales will flourish anywhere where there are humans, so their being the two greatest factions is reasonable.”

Isabel, Rubén and Akihito began to discuss the possibilities. Francisca and Ignacio weren’t dumb by any means, but they weren’t strategists either. As for Santiago, he didn’t even know who these kings were. As such Francisca and Ignacio started a staring contest, and Santiago decided to judge.

“Santiago.” Spoke out Rubén. “Would the killing dolls get in our way if we ignored them?”

“They are killing dolls, I’m pretty sure they will try and kill us on sight.”

“Is there anyone we can ally with? To camouflage our presence if we take them out?” Asked Akihito.

“Good idea but… no, there is one.” Santiago had to force those words out of his throat.

“Who?”

“The mastermind, a True Daemon that has attempted to take control of the city several times over the past centuries. He has managed to do it before, but he always loses control at some points. Now it’s one of those.”

“Why don’t you want to deal with him?” Asked Isabel.

“My father may have scammed him before.”

“He what?” Asked Akihito, unable to believe that mild mannered man was capable of doing that.

“Scammed him.”

“Your father can scam.”

“Yep.”

“What?”

“Bones of the Outer Lord, an old enemy of Plrt.”

“Plrt?” Asked Rubén.

“In Elder tongue that means rat, it’s probably the name of the mastermind.” Answered Ignacio. Seeing that Santiago nodded he continued. “Will that be a problem?”

“I doubt it Ignacio. It’s just…”

“It’s just?” Akihito had experience getting information out of Santiago.

“Elders have five genders. I say he because he is the equivalent of male in his species, and he is a daemon in the form of an Elder. But due to their many genders, Elders are known to be very loose on the targets of their affections.”

Ignacio, who had seen an Elder before since his parents did interspecies diplomacy, made a disgusted face.

“An Elder has a crush on your father because he scammed him?”

“Yeah.”

“Ugh. No wonder you don’t want to see him.”

To put it bluntly, by human aesthetics most of the Twelve Elders are hideous. Funnily enough, for Elder standards humans are considered the most beautiful beings in the universe. Most likely because they were quite similar to the Twelve Elder’s Original forms, before they dabbled recklessly in genetic engineering.

“Tell me he is a Telmari Elder.”

Except the Telmari and Exaur, who were considered acceptable and not vomit inducing. Among Elders they were considered the most beautiful of their kind.

“Araun.”

“Ew! A spider?!”

“Hey, that’s a slur.”

“Sorry. They do look a lot like spiders though.”

“Yeah, but they don’t like being told that.”

The other four watched their exchange in amusement, as Santiago and Ignacio were giving enough information to guess what they were speaking about.

“Will he cooperate then?” Asked Akihito, a smile in his face.

“Definitely. But he will be very creepy about me.”

“Lead us there then, our dear sacrifice.”

“Douche.”

***

The city was an Elder city, quite clearly. Elders were on average bigger than humans, and so their buildings had to be taller. Due to this they had developed an architectural style employing many arcs, though they varied more since they discovered more resilient materials.

Still, their cities had an style reminiscent of Gothic and Arabic buildings, except with a lot more paintings on the walls. Elders had a cultural love for frescoes. Some may wonder why Elders were so monolithic in their culture, and the answer was in the Genetic Wars.

The Elder homeworld was without a doubt the place with the highest amount of monsters in the universe. And for a long time that had been even worse, because as I said before Elders are too trigger happy with genetic manipulation. Their entire world was overrun by creatures far more powerful than them, back when they were at the level of current humans. This made it so they lived in twelve neighboring cities for a long time. Fortunately the fact that the monsters didn’t attract daemons protected them for a long time, until they grew strong enough to reclaim their world.

As such Elder regions of the Ether Sea tended to be more dangerous than human regions. The Krelik, who were difficult to describe physically, had very few territories, they had arrived late at the party. They were a ten thousand year old species, much younger than humanity and the Elders.

Santiago’s group couldn’t bring their vehicle into the city out of fear that it’d be damaged. This meant that they’d have to walk for hours in hostile territory, which meant.

“Die!” Santiago shouted as he sliced through the doll’s neck, killing it.

He marvelled at his new sword, a gift from his father, that was way beyond anything he had ever held. It cut through the doll daemons like they were butter when in reality they were harder than steel.

He took a millisecond to look at his companions. Rubén was at the top of some rubble, calmly shooting at their assailants, while Francisca and Ignacio protected him. Isabel was tearing through the dolls like they were paper, her brute force put to good use. Akihito was fighting with his sword, but he was mixing magic into it. Santiago himself was simply using his physical abilities and swordsmanship to annihilate his foes.

He ducked when a doll jumped at him, and sliced it in half from below. He then spun to his right and stabbed another through the eye, before retracting his arm and sliding to his left, killing yet another doll.

“These things never end!” Complained Ignacio, who was fighting against most of the dolls, befitting of the meat shield.

“Hang in there!” Shouted Rubén, focusing his fire on Ignacio’s foes. “Grenade!”

“Impervious!” Voice activated commands were normal for magic, as they were easy to perform.

Rubén’s tempest grenade tore through Ignacio’s surroundings, but his defense spell had worked fine and was unharmed. The same couldn’t be said of the dolls.

Santiago run to a cluster of enemies and sliced his way through them, evading their attacks and leaving no survivors. It was like a dance of death, where the price for failing was death. A symphony of steel, accompanied by the death throes of his enemies. And he was smiling while doing it.

His sword bent at seemingly impossible angles, his feet never left the ground. All attacks missed by a hair’s breadth, even those with wide area of effect were dodged by the minimum distance. By the time three seconds had passed over twenty dolls had lost their lives.

“Woah.”

“Akihito! Less drooling, more smashing!”

“But Isabel!” He whined as he cut through three enemies simultaneously. “Have you seen what he just did?”

“Less talk, more smash!”

As she said that Isabel stomped on the ground, causing a shockwave to spread, shattering a dozen dolls.

“Scary.”

“Less talk, more shoot!”

Her answer was a hail of twenty bullets fall into a group of clustered enemies, tearing through them.

“Tch. This is unending.” Complained Akihito as he saw even more dolls appear. “Use your grenade launcher Francisca!”

Francisca nodded, and took it out of her Booster Daemon. She shot towards the incoming group, blowing them to smithereens. With that the dolls finally decided they were too tough an enemy to swallow, and run away.

“Finally!” Complained Ignacio. “I was getting tired of being hit.”

“Use your polehammer properly then.” Sniped Rubén.

“I don’t see you using your sabre.”

“Because I am mainly long range.”

“I see my weapons are being put to good use.” Commented Santiago, approaching him. He made a ghastly sight, covered in doll blood. He was not someone to avoid the blood splashing into him from his overly forceful slashes. Particularly since due to the Fruit of Divinity his eyes would not be irritated easily, though having them covered in blood could be blinding.

Rubén was a sniper and used a sabre. Ignacio had a rifle in addition to his melee weapon. Since Francisca was a backliner she had an assortment of ranged weapons, though she could only afford two firearms, a grenade launcher that shot elemental bombs and a submachine gun. Akihito used a katana and handguns, and Isabel gauntlets and handguns.

Santiago himself used swords and an automatic rifle, a shotgun, and two pistols. He was by far the richest one in the group.

“How much further?” Asked Akihito.

“Just two blocks.” He cracked his neck. “Still, knowing each doll is as deadly as a trained soldier made me overestimate them. I guess soldiers are no longer a threat to me huh?”

“Is there anything worse to keep in mind?”

“In this area? The wolves. Each of them is like a tank, so not that difficult, but they come in groups of thirty. Can each of you take on four?”

“Probably, but that makes twenty.” Answered Rubén.

“I can deal with ten. Still, I was right to fear my power.” He looked to his surroundings with a complicated look on his eyes.

“When did that happen?” Asked Akihito.

“During training with the Founder.”

“You train with who?! Can’t you guys tell us everything at the same time?!” Complained Isabel, tired of the constant shocks.

“I see. How did you deal with the realisation? I mean, I freaked out a bit when I discovered I could blow up walls.”

“Well… it happened yesterday night actually, when I reported to my master and confessed my doubts over the fact that I was as powerful as you, despite you having fought for longer. I asked him whether I was leaving my humanity behind, but…”

***

“I understand that you are scared, Santiago. It is one thing to know something, and another to experience it. So it is no wonder that when confronted by such power you would tremble, hesitate, and be nervous.”

“I just… how am I supposed to deal with that?”

“Your problem is that the might that you witnessed surpasses your imagination, I have a way of dealing with this. Tell me, you remember the Wise Six?”

“Yes, they are a bit difficult to forget.”

“You know what Alpha said of their power, but you don’t actually know what they can do. If you did what you saw that day would not scare you so.

Let’s start with Delta. Delta is not a warrior, so in combat he is very weak and has little achievements. But I can tell you one thing that he does constantly. He has nostalgia for Earth, since he was born in one.”

“What does that have to do with power?”

“I told you that there were many Earths due to the size of the Sea of Chaos and probability, but that answer wasn’t complete. See, Delta has so much authority as a Ruler that his desire to see his homeworld, Earth, again influences reality so Earth-like worlds are born. The number of Earths would not even be a hundredth of what it is, were it not for Delta.”

“Why does he create so many Earths?”

“You didn’t listen. He doesn’t create Earths, he reminisces of his own and just that causes Earths to be born.”

“So wait, you are telling me that Delta can cause the creation of countless worlds by reminiscing? How is he the weakest?!”

“Because he is. Well then, let’s speak of Dseta. Dseta is a warrior but if I had to say anything about him, it’s that he is well rounded. He has no weak spots. That however, gives you nothing about what he can do.

I’d say that he one of the top ten beings at discriminate murder.”

“Discriminate murder?”

“Yes. Among my subordinates Dseta is best capable of ascertaining the morality, intentions and desires of someone and kill them in records time. If we are speaking of mortals, Dseta could produce a judgement in a million universes and kill those he judged to be better dead in seconds. Thus, the best at discriminate murder.”

“The more I hear of Dseta the more I wonder why he is your subordinate. Exactly why do you accept him?”

“Because Dseta is a hero. I can say that the last thing he does is killing, but when he needs to he will do so ruthlessly, but mercifully. Which is to say, just because he can do something doesn’t mean he does it. Though he did once kill over eighty billion beings in a single day, back when he was still weak. I know that sounds bad, but in all honestly it would be difficult to say that those places visited by him haven’t improved their standards of living, and their overall morality and happiness.”

“I see. Why is Alpha so scared of him?”

“Because of weird things that happened around Dseta. Normally beings that die remain dead, unless Death, who is one of the youngest Eternals mainly due to the fact that all beings before he was born were Eternals, allows it. And yet Dseta returned without Death allowing it. This means that someone that stands above even the Eternals resurrected him, and no one knows why. This is why Alpha doesn’t want to fight Dseta. The unknown.”

“Beings above Eternals?”

“I won’t yet speak of those. Speaking of Alpha he is weird. He is stronger than Dseta due to his raw power, but in terms of abilities he is nothing special. So I will tell you were his power comes from. Alpha has the ability to receive power from his offspring, and he and his wife have a very active sexual life. They have had an average of a child every twenty years, so Alpha has the power of a truly immense amount of Rulers, or gods if you prefer that name.”

“So what? He is a Zeus that grows stronger as he has more children?”

“Yes. Less horny though, Alpha has never cheated on his wife. Regardless since I speak of his raw power I will say that he’d be able to destroy the entirety of the Fayd with not even a septillionth of his might. So that The Dawn guy who was so scary for you? He can destroy him by looking at him.”

“...”

“Then comes Beta. If I had to say something about Beta is that in one on one fights she is the best among Rulers. She’d be a war goddess so to speak, akin to Ishtar or Athena, but focused on single combat. There are few beings she can’t defeat one on one, including many Eternals. In reality my Wise Six are more powerful than most Eternals, it’s just that unlike Eternals they can die.“

“Can you give me some examples of Eternals?”

“Sure. The Hindu Pantheon is fully made of Eternals. They are an special case in that they can die, but being part of Brahman (that is one that stands above Eternals), they will endlessly reincarnate and even if they don’t they will never be truly dead. They are of varying power, with Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma being the most powerful.

If we were to compare the Wise Six to them I’d say that the six of them together have a chance of winning against Shiva. But it is very low. Shiva is one of the top ten most powerful beings. That ranking doesn’t include those that stand above Eternals since all power is meaningless in front of them.”

“Have they ever fought?”

“No. Beings of our calibre rarely go all out, the results can be catastrophic. My guess is just an estimate of what I know of my guys’ might, and of Shiva’s.

But anyway, a being that Beta defeated one on one would be Typhon, who is way more powerful than mythology makes him out to be.”

“...”

“And now for Epsilon. Epsilon is the best at annihilating things. In fact she can kill them so thoroughly that only Death can bring them back to life. Or again, those that are above the Eternals. There is nothing she can destroy, except Eternals. And yet even Eternals need billions of years to recover from injuries inflicted by her, at the very least.”

“If your intention was to scare be even more, good job.”

“And finally Gamma. Gamma, Gamma, Gamma, terrifying old Gamma. In the entirety of the Sea of Chaos there is no being as good as killing as Gamma, not even Death.”

“Wait, how is that possible? Due to the calamity he has?”

“Gamma’s calamity allows him to kill a fourth of everything in a split second. But Gamma’s own abilities allow him to kill another fourth in the same time. Which means he could kill half of everything faster than you can think. Were Gamma to decide to rampage we could surely defeat him, but the Sea of Chaos would never recover. Or at least it would take longer than it has existed to do so.

Gamma is the deadliest being. Even Eternals fear him, for while he can kill them he is able to damage them so much they would enter an eternal sleep.”

“How?”

“You can’t understand. But let me give you an example, when Gamma was mortal and still twenty one years old he appeared on television. The broadcast wasn’t even live, but just seeing him caused sixty eight of his enemies to die. And Gamma had done nothing, in fact, he appeared only by the side. He didn’t even know he had been in television.”

“So Gamma can kill people by being seen?! How do you fight against that?!”

“You can’t. Which is why Alpha told you that fighting skill was worthless. One of my standing bets with Shiva is over what would happen if Gamma and Death fought each other. And yet I’d say all of them are still very much human.”

***

“I learned I was nothing.” Santiago shivered, not willing to think any further about those monsters.

“Huh?”

“Let’s just say the Founder opened my eyes, Akihito. And leave it at that.”

Akihito was about to ask for clarification, but when he saw the sheer terror in his friend’s eyes he let it drop.

They walked through the city, and managed to avoid any more scuffles, arriving at Plrt’s palace.

It was a very impressive place, resembling a cathedral quite a bit. Santiago approached the door and spoke.

“I am Santiago Alonso Caballero, son of Gonzalo Alonso Ruiz. I seek audience with Elder Plrt.”

At those words the door silently opened.