164. The Frolic of Gods

  When caught utterly unawares by a far superior opponent, it was generally a good idea to avoid or at least delay direct confrontation. On this occasion, neither Team Serac (placeholder) nor their sending-off party were afforded the option, as the opponent in question opened fire before any of them could react.

  First, the shadowy figure raised a hand, revealing the silhouette of a weapon. From a distance, it looked to be some sort of polearm with a large, tapered blade. But then the figure swung the ‘polearm’ in a circle above their head, gathering rain and electricity alike onto its point. They then drove the whole thing forward with a powerful thrust, whereupon its ‘blade’ fanned out as a fast-spinning circle.

  [PARASOL Technique: LA MOULINET]

  A fusillade of lightning bolts brightened the sky as they flew earthward at speed and in tremendous numbers. The AOE was large enough to cover the entire Apical Bough, let alone the group of Wayfarers gathered at its very apex.

  [218!], [218!], [218!], [218!] -> [872!]

  [Wayfarer Status Effect: PARALYSIS]

  Just like that, before she even knew what the hell was going on, Serac was down to her last chunk of HP and [Paralyzed] besides. The immobility was a blessing in disguise, for it prevented her from running around like a headless chicken and drawing more lightning onto herself. Even so, it was a difference of dying now or dying several seconds later.

  None of her friends had fared any better, all in varying states of [Paralysis] and near-death. Poor Gulloyne—by far the largest target—had the worst of it, its gold-plating defense mechanism failing to keep up with the sheer volume of lightning. Indeed, its body slackened and its head (along with its passengers) lowered onto the foot of the waterfall—clear signs of Poise-break.

  Welp, if we’re all gonna die here, I’d at least like to see the bastard who did this to us!

  Serac soon got her wish. The shadowy figure descended until they grazed the waterfall, now lording over the group from directly overhead. And in Serac’s humble opinion, there was nothing ‘humble’ about the way [HUMILITY—Herald of the Muted Passions] presented themselves.

  Humility dressed in layered robes, each layer heavier and more textured than the last. Black, gold, pink, blue, and finally an outermost fabric of white base and sweeping whorls of jade-green. As undeniably pretty (and Pretjordian in a roundabout way) as the whole package was, Serac hoped for Humility’s sake that the materials were highly breathable. She herself sweated just from looking at them!

  Now with a sample size of two Devas, Serac detected a pattern. Like Sublimity, Humility too hid their face behind a mask of sorts. This particular one comprised a solid sheet of weathered copper, rather in keeping with the verdigris waterfall beside them. Atop the hidden face sat a crown (‘humility’ my ass!), curtained by strings of beads in a style unfamiliar to Serac. The curtain itself was weighed down by a circular jade stone, which deputized as the Deva’s ‘eye’.

  As to their Deific Instrument, PARASOL was an umbrella, as plain in appearance as the Deva themselves were ornate. What Serac had mistaken for a tapered blade had in fact been the umbrella’s canopy of tattered cloth. Humility now left it unfolded as they held it in one hand, keeping dry both themselves and their…

  Steed. Of course. Now that the shadows had come into the light, Serac saw Humility’s wings had actually belonged to their Steed. In fact, they weren’t even ‘wings’. Rather, they were the oversized, billowing ears of an elephant!

  [DEIFIC Steed: ROARTUSK—the Ivory Tempest]

  The elephant certainly did its own name justice, boasting a savage pair of time-worn tusks ready to gore and rend anything in their way. Interestingly, Roartusk was largely unadorned save for a saddle of lacquered wood. Perhaps the entirety of the wardrobe budget had gone to decorating Humility’s person! For all its nakedness, however, Roartusk was ready and raring for violence. It huffed, it snarled, it raised its head and trunk high into the air.

  Parrraaaaahhh…!!

  Another flash. Another crack of thunder. Context clues indicated it was in fact Roartusk that had called down the thunderstorm. Humility’s kit, then, was to harness and manipulate the elements using PARASOL. Again rather in keeping with the ‘local’ traditions.

  Sure enough, Humility re-folded their umbrella, readying for a second attack. Serac gritted her teeth and tried to break out of [Paralysis] to no avail. All seven Wayfarers and their giant salamander of a platform were stranded guppies, waiting for judgment from the god above…

  Suddenly, a ray of lotus-white light shot across the stormy sky, missing Humility’s raised hand by inches.

  Immediately, the jade-clad Deva stopped its wind-up and spun to the source of the light. Serac followed their unreadable gaze, only to confirm what she herself had already suspected.

  [Designation: SUBLIMITY—Herald of the Righteous Chains]

  [Wayfarer Race: DEVA]

  [Karmic Level: 185]

  [Liminal Karma: 319,403 ?]

  [DEIFIC Instrument: SCOURGE]

  Two Devas sharing the same Pretjordian sky! As rankled as Serac was to be reintroduced to the afterlife’s biggest asshole, she couldn’t deny the timeliness of their arrival. For reasons unclear to herself, she was unduly confident Sublimity was here as ally rather than foe.

  The effects of [Paralysis] had finally worn off. The six Wayfarers beside Serac all stirred into action, readying their weapons and stances to take on an impossible task. That of fending off not just one but two KL-185+ freaks of nature.

  “Wait!” She found the voice to save her friends from themselves. “Let’s just hold off and see how this plays out.”

  “Are you for real?” Both of Zacko’s eyebrows twisted incredulously. “With the two of them squaring off against each other, this might be our best chance at sneaking in a smite!”

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  “Why do you think they’re squaring off in the first place?” Serac argued. “I’ve got this funny feeling about Sublimity. Just watch…”

  Indeed, the two Devas now had not-eyes for only each other, utterly ignoring the guppies below them. Roartusk the elephant flapped its ears and Skyhowl the dog levitated, as their masters set off veritable fireworks in the darkened sky.

  A second volley of [La Moulinet], its net cast wide enough to trap Sublimity within a lightning minefield. But the Deva in white-gold armor somehow dodged everything, thanks to its giant hound spinning and contorting through the air. Sublimity then rode the momentum of their spin into a powerful whipping motion.

  [SCOURGE Technique: THE RAKING]

  SCOURGE’s five barbed lashes cut across the air in waves. To this, Skyhowl spat out its own projectiles, imbuing the lashes with lotus-white energy.

  In response, Roartusk swung its trunk from side to side, parrying every one of SCOURGE’s lashes. This caused the Deific auras to separate from their vehicle, changing course and flying at the elephant-rider. But then Humility, cool as you like, spun their umbrella again to deflect and extinguish every one of Skyhowl’s lotus-white flames.

  “Sheesh!” Zacko exclaimed, equal parts annoyed and impressed. “This is some high-level bullshit. You might’ve been right to stop us, Princess. Don’t think we would’ve stood a chance…”

  Yet, after their furious exchange, the Devas calmed considerably. Both of them lowered their weapons and moved straight into verbal sparring.

  “Herald!” Humility was the first speak, their voice surprisingly gravelly for their flowery attire. Here, Serac learned Devas could express their emotions rather plainly, for this jade-clad specimen clearly sounded cross with their colleague. “Is there no end to your contempt for propriety? I leave my Realm for three short months and this is what I come back to? A wanted anomaly on the loose—allowed to ascend a second time, no less! And here you are, frustrating my efforts to restore order. To put the anomaly in her place. To do the job the Abiding Ones had tasked you with. What have you got to say for yourself?”

  “For myself? Nothing.” In stark contrast, Naraka’s overseer maintained perfect neutrality. But if Serac weren’t mistaken, she heard a hint of smug exultation bubbling beneath Sublimity’s even keel. “I know the rest of Devalem thinks I’ve gone mad, and I’m quite happy to live with the consequences. But I ask you this, Herald. How do you not see what I see? Feel what I feel? And how do you not yearn for what may yet lie at the end of this madness?”

  “Happy? Feel? Yearn?” Humility positively spat out the last imitation, obviously in their feelings and not even bothering to hide it. “I do see. I see that you clearly have gone mad. Step aside, Herald, lest both you and your hound drown in mine and Roartusk’s tempest!”

  “Do I need to spell it out for you?” Sublimity persisted, voice picking up in volume and cadence. Serac had no clue what they were on about, but whatever it might be, they were very passionate about it! “The graveyard of Mount Meru is filled with so-called Wayfarers who knew only to follow the Paths that had been laid before them. Oh, they’ll boast and aggrandize if you let them—fool themselves into thinking they had a single original Dust in their soul. But the truth is we—yes, that includes both of us, Herald—are mere iterations in an endless cycle, doomed to repeat the same grit and grind for an eternity—in other words, Dukkha—until all that remains is self-less, stateless, meaningless muck! That is Anicca and that is Anatta. We can be anything and everything, and by that very virtue, we are also nothing.”

  With that load of overbearing gibberish, Sublimity well and truly lost Serac. Judging by the way Humility pulled up on Roartusk’s reins and collapsed PARASOL, it seemed being fluent in Devalish didn’t help. The sky flashed again, as fresh tempest brewed.

  “And by the same token,” Sublimity continued, paying no heed to their colleague’s naked aggression, “I grant you that your label of ‘anomaly’ is apt. For here is a soul who’s spurned her forelaid Paths at every turn. Who would zig when others would zag, charge when others would retreat, and flatten the very hills themselves before she would let them hinder her climb. She’s left a trail of devoted—borderline cultish—followers in her wake. She’s corralled the very universe to do her bidding: bending wills, space, and even time to realize the impossible.”

  Okay, now this is getting silly… and also wrong, I think? Sublimity’s exaggerated appraisal of her achievements notwithstanding, Serac thought she’d caught a contradiction.

  As much as she had a strong will of her own, she also did follow in others’ footsteps—and gladly at that. Trippy Version One had been the first to show her the way, with his lost memories slowly but surely reconstructed by her ongoing mastery of REVOLVER. Who could forget the countless ‘local guides’ whose wisdom and experience had been indispensable to her journey? Not to mention the elusive yet very much present third entity…

  But, right or wrong, Sublimity wasn’t done.

  “Don’t you see? This is what we’ve all been missing. This is what I’ve been yearning for all my afterlife, without even knowing what it was. My hopes that germinated in Naraka have borne certainty here in Pretjord. Serac Edin and her band of followers are the Wayfarers to change Mount Meru. To disrupt the old and endless. To usher in a new age of chaos. Indeed, ‘Wayfarer’ is a tasteless misnomer for ones such as she and her ilk. For they do not merely ascend the routes marked out before them. No, before all’s said and done, they mean to turn every Realm on its head! They are, in a very real sense, Upheavers.”

  Serac’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard.

  This asshole just stole my idea!!!

  Crraacckkk…!!

  Evidently, Humility had also heard enough. The jade-clad Deva twisted the thunderstorm onto their umbrella, ready to unleash its full force on a raving lunatic in white-gold armor.

  But that was when Sublimity made their move, faster even than lightning. Skyhowl zipped across as a blur of lotus-white, lending fresh imbuement and sheer physical power to its master’s whip. SCOURGE and its five lashes wrapped around Humility and their Steed in an instant, before flinging them far into the sky.

  “Make haste!” Sublimity ordered, not waiting for SCOURGE’s lashes to slacken. “However much time I’ve bought you, I assure you it’s a lot shorter than you think.”

  Team Serac—nay, the Upheavers (grumble, grumble…)—didn’t need to be told twice. They exchanged one last hurried look with their embattled sending-off party, before climbing their way into the waterfall proper. First Zacko, then Renna right after him.

  Serac didn’t join her companions right away. She couldn’t resist. With one foot in the waterfall, she looked up at the Deva in white-gold and asked the only coherent question she could think of in the moment.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “I thought I’d made myself abundantly clear.”

  “Yeah, but… what’s your endgame? I won’t pretend to know anything about Devalem, but it sounds to me like you’ve just become a fugitive among your people. Was it really worth it? Whatever it is you think you set in motion just now?”

  “Well, Serac Edin, I suppose the answer to that is entirely up to you,” Sublimity said, their elliptical opal glinting with palpable menace. “Suffice to say I’ll be watching with great interest… and waiting. Rest assured you haven’t seen the last of me. May we meet again as equals in a boundless, fateless world.”

  With that, Sublimity and their hound took to the skies, shrinking into shadows in the blink of an eye. That was as clear a demonstration as any of Serac’s vanishing window of safety, so she hastily tucked herself inside the waterfall to meditate.

  This wasn’t the way she’d wanted to say goodbye to her friends. Nor was she anything but disturbed by the ramblings of a mad Deva. Then again, what had she herself said moments before disaster had struck?

  Expect the unexpected. Because here on Team Serac, that’s pretty much all we do.

  [Designation: SERAC EDIN—the Upheaver]

  [Karmic Level: 60]

  [Ascension Status: APPROVED]

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