ALL NOVEL Crusade – Chapter 61: Judgement Day
Aperio took a step towards the man she knew to be Vigil, noting in the back of her mind that neither Ferio nor Caethya had followed her into the traitor's Dominion. It was perhaps for the best, as neither of them would be able to fight a God in their own realm. Aperio herself was not burdened by such frivolous limitations.
She watched the traitorous God in front of her, her smile growing larger as she saw him stagger back a few more steps. A small flex of her mental muscles caused the man to freeze, held in place by the invisible hands of her mana.
He paled further as he found himself unable to move, his feeble attempt at breaking free fruitless in the face of Aperio's might. The winged Goddess took another step towards the downed man, a web of cracks spreading through the polished marble floor. With a wave of her hand she caused him to float in the air.
"You have proven yourself a traitor," Aperio said, her voice echoing through his Dominion. "You have spread lies — tried to erase all memory of me. But, you failed."
With a thought, she brought the man in front of her. "You sent me into a lifetime of slavery, expecting me to never return. You were wrong."
"You have nobody but yourself to blame for that," Vigil said, his voice raspy. "If you hadn't hidden yourself we would have reached our goal."
"And what would that be?" Aperio asked, shifting her weapon in her hand to point square at his chest. A part of her wanted to end the man right now, kill him for what he had done to her. Get her revenge. But another part wanted to know what they had wanted to accomplish in the first place, why they would make the literal creator of everything they knew their enemy.
"As if I would tell you that." His words were accompanied by a sliver of mana that tried to pierce the fabric of reality but failed to push past Aperio's aura. Is he trying to call for help? For the briefest of moments she considered letting him do so, but quickly decided against it. She did not know how they had managed to kill her before, and was not eager to find out if they could do so again.
"Then I have nothing left for you but your punishment." Though she was still curious about what had caused him to turn against her, she was not keen on the idea of torturing him for information. Neither did she truly want to kill him, though a part of her hungered for the act. Aperio did not want to simply execute what was likely the God of millions of people. Though, their God will die either way. Vigil won't leave with his divinity intact. But why is he putting up less of a fight than Natio?
The obvious answer would be that Vigil actually knew who she was and therefore knew that a fight would be useless, but that did not seem right to Aperio. They have killed me before, so they know it can be done.
As if to answer her question, Aperio felt something shift in her aura that caused her to whip her head around. Coming out of a portal of her own was an Elven woman in a midnight blue dress that Aperio immediately knew to be Inanis.
What was more interesting than the traitorous Goddess was the weapon she held. It was a bow, made from the same silver material as her swordstaff. It, too, had a web of lines running all over the main body of the weapon, but those on the bow held by Inanis were dormant and did not pulse with the wielder's power.
The same was true for the arrow she nocked; the blue edge of the black tip was there but lacking the sheen her swordstaff had. Aperio did not feel threatened by the weapon, the feeling in the back of her mind not classifying it as any more dangerous than the weapons people had already used against her. The distance between herself and Inanis was also adding to her calm. Should she fail to stop the arrow through other means she could always dodge, or simply return to her Void.
There was a moment of hesitation as Inanis took aim, seemingly unsure of her actions. Aperio simply drew more mana from her well, using it to further increase the rate of her body's improvement. Just because the tiny voice in her mind told her the weapon would be useless did not mean Aperio would not take precautions.
"And again your hubris will be your downfall," Vigil managed to croak out.
Aperio moved him closer in reply, physically grabbing him by the throat. His face paled further as the blood failed to push past her grip, the man's eyes slowly starting to turn milky white. Why does a God even need blood?
It was true that she had it too, but it did not seem to serve any purpose as her mana took care of everything that mattered. Aperio shook her head and focused on Inanis instead. Before the winged Goddess had a chance to address her, she let loose the arrow she had nocked.
Aperio tried to stop the projectile with a touch of her magic but found it to be strangely slippery. She grappled with it like a wet bar of soap, and though she eventually managed to stop it the arrow still felt like it would fall from her mana's grasp at any moment. How does it do that?
She could not see or feel the traitorous Goddess use any magic, she had simply nocked the arrow and let it loose. That Aperio had managed to stop the projectile seemed to surprise her as her eyes widened and she quickly produced another black-tipped arrow.
Much like before, it slipped past Aperio's first few attempts before it simply stopped in the air, held aloft by her magic. When Inanis produced a third arrow Aperio had had enough. She let go of Vigil, causing him to float helplessly in the air again and bent reality so that the single step she took allowed her to appear in front of the other Goddess.
As soon as they were face to face the woman tried to leave, an inky black portal starting to form behind her. Unlike the previous attempts to stop the arrows, only a single thought was needed to close the passage Inanis had tried to create.
Aperio let go of her swordstaff, letting it float beside her as she reached out and ripped the bow from Inanis' hands. The Goddess tried to hold on to the weapon, but failed to fight Aperio's overwhelming strength.
As soon as the bow was firmly in her grasp, the web of lines lit up in a familiar blue as her mana flowed through it. Much like her swordstaff, the bow seemingly hummed with joy as it rested in Aperio's hand; eager to be used.
There were no arrows to go with the weapon. Where the other Goddess had gotten hers from, Aperio did not know. Neither did it matter, however. She simply stored the bow in her Void for future inspection and grabbed her swordstaff once more.
The same touch of her magic that she had used to hold Vigil in place now closed its invisible hand around Inanis, the Goddess' face starting to show the first signs of fear as she realised her escape would not be forthcoming.
Aperio could not help but smile. That the other traitor had chosen to show herself so soon was a nice turn of events. She had expected that her search for the other Goddess would have involved going to the other moon and searching for something similar to the thread of mana she had found here. How exactly a Dominion was bound to the mortal realm was something she would have to investigate — after she had taken care of the two traitors.
An unnecessary wave of her hand caused Inanis to lift off of the floor and float next to Vigil. "Perhaps you can tell me what you two tried to achieve. Your compatriot was not very forthcoming."
The Goddess simply glared at Aperio, struggling against her magic in a futile attempt to break free. Aperio could not help but sigh. She had no desire to torture them, but not knowing what they had tried to accomplish in the first place was starting to nag at her in ways she had not expected. Her desire to simply know was a lot more pronounced than she had ever thought possible. With another sigh, she flicked her wrist, letting Vigil float next to his accomplice.
"And you call yourself Gods," she said, the disappointment evident in her voice. Why exactly she felt so disappointed was something she also did not know. Am I blaming myself for picking these two as God and Goddess? "Natio put up more of a fight than either of you."
With an unneeded breath, Aperio focused on her aura. She followed the tiny bits of mana that flowed through Vigil's body, trying to find something similar to the System's seed she had taken from Natio.
Aperio did not quite find what she was expecting. At the core of this traitorous God was not a seed made from the System's mana, but one made from her own. She creased her brows as she reached out to grab hold of it, ignoring the hiss of pain that came through Vigil's clenched teeth.
As she pulled the tiny speck of her mana free from the man, he let out a piercing yell. Threads of mana which still connected him to his source of divinity were methodically severed, one by one. The pain he was experiencing as she removed what she had undoubtedly once given him was pointedly ignored. Not even when Vigil fell unconscious did Aperio's mind stray from the task at hand. He had turned against her and any pain he would feel from her taking back the gifts he had enjoyed were his alone to bear.
Inanis was muttering curses — some of which Aperio even understood — but none of them would change what she would do. With a flex of her mental muscles, the winged Goddess severed the final threads of mana that bound Vigil to his divinity.
As soon as the tiny bit of her mana became unbound, it returned to her. That was what she had expected. What she had not expected was the veritable flood of memories that came with it. How she had given Vigil a blessing, setting him on the path of eventual godhood. How, after Inanis had saved Vigil when he was still a mortal, she had done the same for the woman.
She could remember how they had chosen their new names; had built their fellowship. But she could now also recall how both Vigil and Inanis became more reserved around her, no longer talking with her. At the time, she had not minded. She had been busy with something else, she now remembered, but the specifics of that which had so occupied her still remained out of reach. Taunting her with their presence.
Despite having regained a part of her lost memory, Apero felt nothing but rage bubbling up inside her. How dare they take her memories? How could they even do so? Her hand shifted, unbidden, pressing her weapon against Vigil's neck until a sliver of blood began to trickle down. The System's notification that undoubtedly wanted to inform her about the fall of Vigil was ignored as she turned to Inanis, scouring her for the tiny bit of her mana she was sure the Goddess had to have.
Severing the seed of divinity from Inanis was as easy as it had been the first time. Another wave of long lost memories flooded her mind, tiny flashes of the life she did not remember. Most were simply a continuation of what she had gotten from Vigil. A few more bits and pieces on the ceremony that had actually made them into a God and Goddess.
The mortals at the time were happy, bright laughs and smiles resounding through the halls as those invited celebrated the ascension of the people they knew. Aperio herself had been there, hidden from sight through means that did not want to reveal themselves to her now.
Sucking in a breath, trying to hold back tears that wanted to burst forth for reasons unknown to Aperio's conscious mind, she moved her hand sharply to the left, severing Vigil's head from his body. In a smooth motion that came too easily to her, she shifted the course of her blade and, just as Inanis' expression was starting to show shock and surprise at the decapitation of her partner she, too, was divested of her head.
"No one steals my memories."
With those words, Aperio turned to leave, dismissing the notification that informed her about the eradication of both Vigil's and Inanis' Dominions. They would never need them again. Now, she would destroy what the defiler had built on her moon. On her creation. Her memory.
