Let me first state, before I write anything, that this journal has been protected from reading by someone with the power of a god, so if you’re reading it, then either you’re meant to do so or will be punished later, I’m sure. Kyle, if you’ve found a way to read it, stop. You especially are not meant to read this. Stop or you might literally make the baby Jesus cry. I have that on good authority.
That out of the way, let me state that the reason I’ve started writing this is because there are details Kyle doesn’t know about. He believes that he tried his crazy plan, overtaxed himself and passed out. He believes that Samantha saved us. He’s wrong. He believes that because that is what he is meant to believe. They won’t be able to keep it from him if he dies again and spends enough time out of body to begin recalling past lives, but this was the accepted solution. Here’s what actually happened.
As you know if you’ve read his journal, we were backed into a corner. We had two options. Things played out as it has in forty seven of our past lives. I told my twin to run, intending to buy time and escape, or buy time with my death. Either way, I was good with it. Granted, I know now that if I died, she would have died too, but it wasn’t something I knew during any of those past lives. I knew now that I had to escape too, but I was confident that I could once Kyle was clear.
In those forty seven lives, I would make that suggestion and my sister rejected it outright. Then she’d get that same look Kyle had now, that grim determination tinged with madness. It doesn’t take much to make my sibling jump right off the slippery slope. Give her an excuse, and she has always jumped right past what Kyle now calls “the Godzilla threshold” with almost childlike glee, unleashing insane, forbidden magic of some type or another. In forty six of those lives, we died HORRIBLY from what she attempted.
And during this point, he had access to insane levels of power, so I knew I wasn’t going to like what he had come up with. And I know how he thinks, so I knew the song he was humming was also not a good sign. It was a song associated with mornings and sunrises.
“Well, shit,” I said as I realized what he was doing. Without looking, I quickly dispatched a trio of daemons. I would have tried to stop him, but it was too late. He had created a truly massive amount of hydrogen in space above us and had already begun the process of swirling it together, moving his hands about in front of him as if manipulating a floating basketball. In fact, as he worked, an illusory representation of the matter he was manipulating formed in that space.
I managed to kill several dozen more daemons before the 100 mile wide star above us ignited into something akin to a red dwarf, though from accessing the stellar knowledge in Kyle’s brain, it seems it would still be 346 times too small to be a class M9V star, whatever the hell that means. All I know is it was so close that it dominated the sky and made everything around us extremely hot, though not unbearable, if only just.
Kyle let out an insane laugh. “THE SUN IS A MASS OF INCADESCENT GAS, A GIGANTIC NUCLEAR FURNACE!” Well that’s it. That’s game. We were going to die horribly.
He raked a finger across the illusory star in front of him and the larger star reacted. I could feel it rumbling as it underwent a star quake and unleashed a solar flare, which reached out through space and slammed into the roiling mass of daemons. Even frenzied, that gave the survivors pause.
“The sun gives HEAT, the sun gives LIGHT, the sunlight that we see! The sunlight comes from our own sun’s atomic energy!” Kyle compressed the illusion, unleashing a coronal mass ejection – again, I’m not entirely sure what that means, but that seems right. All I know is it looked like a giant stellar shotgun blast into the daemons. And it was incredibly cool.
The effort of not just using a star as a weapon but from even holding that impossibility together in the first place was exhausting Kyle. Of the tens of thousands of daemons we’d faced, only a few dozen remained. It was time to get rid of the star. “Throw it away before you lose control of it!” I suggested.
And, to my incredible surprise, he actually listened. He Kamehamehaed the illusion away and the star shot off in a streak of light, becoming a tiny speck in the sky before exploding brilliantly. He fell right on his ass. “You get the rest. I’m just gonna sit here and rest for a moment.”
The rest of the daemons broke and ran in terror at what had just happened. I turned my attention to berating my sibling. “Are you insane?! You could have gotten us both killed, along with everyone for hundreds of miles!”
“It could have been worse,” he said.
“It scares me that I know you actually mean that. You actually thought it through?”
“Well, I had considered creating a gun powered by a Schwartzchild Kugelblitz black hole that fires concentrated Hawking radiation at a power level of roughly 129 petawatts.” Was he kidding me? A black hole?! What the hell was wrong with him?!
“And it never occurred to you to make a hundred auto-turrets or something else also less insane?”
He gave me a look of amazement. “Auto-turrets! Of course! That would have been so much easier!” My brother, the idiot.
We soon found ourselves surrounded by dozens of psychopomps and armed aeons. Yes, I believed we were under arrest. No, I didn’t have the energy left to run. “What’s the meaning of this?!” a woman demanded. She was ashen-skinned with white hair and white eyes – it was really freaky! – and she was wearing a hooded robe and carrying an hourglass filled with red sand. And more than anything else, I should note that she was beyond angry at us.
“You’ll need to be more specific,” Kyle mouthed off. I cringed. The hell was wrong with him? “We’ve done so much today.”
A familiar radiant peel of laughter cut the tension before the woman reacted. I heard the sound of someone biting into an apple and turned to see Samantha reclining on a black cloud behind us, enjoying what looked like a pink lady, or maybe a gala. “Sleep,” she commanded Kyle. Even I could feel the strength of the words. If it had been directed at me, I don’t think I could have resisted the command.
“Good night,” he said. His eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out where he sat. It was rather funny.
“Who are you?” the white haired woman demanded angrily.
“Oh come now,” Samantha said. “Surely you recognize me, seeress! It has been so long since last we met, back when the stars were new. But it was such a memorable meeting I was sure you’d remember me.” She took another bite. “Your thoughtlessness wounds me, right here,” she said, her mouth full. She pointed at her chest.
The other woman, who I suspected was Pharasma, goddess of death and prophecy, took a long look at the golden haired Samantha. Her eyes went wide. I mean, really wide. I wasn’t aware gods could be scared. “That’s impossible!” she hissed. “We killed you!”
“That is not dead which can eternal lie,” Kyle muttered in his sleep. He then began singing the opening theme from “Haiyore! Nyaruko-san!”. Badly.
“What is he doing?” Samantha asked me, ignoring the angry and/or terrified goddess standing off to one side.
“I think he’s subconsciously comparing you to a moe anthropomorphization of the Nyarlothotep.”
“Moe?”
“Cute. She was a character in an anime.”
She laughed. “The things you people come up with! That’s interestingly astute yet so horribly wrong. I’m totally telling him about that next time I run into him, though.” Nyarlothotep was real? Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck-ity fuck.
Our hilarious little moment past us, we turned back to the seething and/or terrified goddess. It really made me wonder what Samantha was that she scared a goddess. Drawing on Kyle’s knowledge of Lovecraft, I’d suspect that she’s an Outer God. I doubt it would take a coalition of gods to take on a Great Old One, no matter how insanely dangerous they were to us mere mortals. And if that was the case, she was terrifying. And hot.
What? You don’t see me shaming your kinks. That said, don’t spread it around. Wouldn’t want my brother finding out I have the hots for his ex.
“Anyway, what he said. You can’t kill me. That’s why you cut me into a thousand pieces and scattered them through the cosmos. A lost paladin on a Shantak found the largest piece and now neither of us exists anymore, existing as a rather interesting amalgamation of the two. Truth be told, I don’t even think I could recombine with the other pieces anymore.”
The goddesses Sarenrae and Desna suddenly showed up, along with several beings I think might have been empyreal lords. Apparently word of Kyle’s little show had gotten around. “What is going on here?!” the sun goddess demanded.
“This creature has assaulted my domain,” Pharasma accused, indicating Samantha.
“Don’t be silly,” Samantha replied. “I only just arrived. What was done was done by the hands of these two. I only came here to protect them from reprisal for their actions, which were only done in self-defense. In fact, I suggest, based on what I know of them, that their decision to stand and fight was only because teleporting away would have left a horde of frenzied daemons here to attack the residents of this area.”
“Creating a star might have been a little much,” I admitted sheepishly.
“But it was really cool!” Kyle protested, still asleep as far as I could tell.
“How the hell is he doing that?!” Samantha demanded with a laugh. I could only shrug. “Look, if you want me to leave, I will. But I do not trust the children of,” she said a word that made my head hurt, like something in me was preventing me from hearing it, “to your care. If I go, I take them and their angel with me.”
“What is your game?!” Pharasma demanded.
“No game,” Samantha said. “Just self-preservation. Or has the tide of chaos the creatures of Earth have caused robbed you of your vision? Yes, that’s it, isn’t it? You can’t see. Not since the Earthlings drove out the Fair Folk, leading to the ill-fated Wild Hunt that led to the death of the Great Hero’s ancestor that ultimately led to my return.” She was talking about revelations that came during the lead up to the battle of Valor’s Triumph! Earth had something to do with that? And it had affected a goddess’ ability to see the future?
“What are you talking about?”
“Let me show you.” Samantha was instantly in Pharasma’s face, hand on the goddess’ forehead. “SEE!” she commanded.
Pharasma moaned in agony as her mind was flooded with visions. Her voice boomed as she spoke. “AND THE ROUGH BEAST SHALL BREAK FREE OF HIS PRISON! THE GODS THEMSELVES WILL BE SLAIN AND THE UNIVERSE DEVOURED! ONLY THE CHILDREN OF,” there was that word again, “SHALL BE ABLE TO SLOW HIS MARCH, THOUGH THEY TOO SHALL FALL. WHEN HE COMES TO THREATEN THEIR BIRTHPLACE, THEY SHALL UNLEASH THE FIRES OF CREATION, DESTROYING THE MATERIAL PLANE AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE. GROETUS WILL TURN OUT THE LIGHTS ON CREATION, BUT AS HE TURNS TO LEAVE, A NEW LIGHT WILL SPARK AND THE FIRES OF CREATION SHALL KINDLE A NEW EXISTENCE.”
Samantha let her go and she slumped to her knees. “Unlike you, I’m tied to the material plane. You might be fine with it ending completely, but I rather prefer the idea that its destruction be temporary.”
Sarenrae had stepped in between them, concerned, but Pharasma put her hand on the other’s shoulder. “Its okay. It was just a vision.” She gave Samantha a look. “Who are the ‘Transcended’?”
Samantha shrugged. “The gods of the new universe. I showed you everything I’ve seen.”
“Then go. We will not bar your way. But do not return to this place.” I have no idea what had just happened, but if I’m interpreting what she just said correctly, then the god of destruction was going to stage a prison break and eventually attack Earth, where Earthlings were going to kill him using the power of THE BIG BANG.
Neat. That sounded like a fight I could really enjoy.
Samantha shrugged. “No promises on the not coming back if it amuses me.” She blew a kiss to Desna for some reason – no, I’m not jealous – and teleported us away. Now that I think about it, Desna never made any kind of move against her. The others had been hostile, but the butterfly woman had seemed merely curious.
We found ourselves in some kind of demiplane of non-Euclidean properties that would drive normal people mad. It didn’t seem to faze me. Essielle was still unconscious and Kyle was “Do do dooing” the tune “Popcorn” in his sleep for some reason.
Which meant that Samantha and I were more or less by ourselves. “Alone at last,” I said, sidling up next to her. My tone of voice spoke volumes.
She gave me a surprised look, then burst out laughing. “Have I mentioned how much I love you people? Statistically speaking, you should be insane right now. And it’s not just you! Nyarlothotep likes to visit your world and reveal the truth of the universe from time to time. So very few of you go mad! Everywhere else, the rate is 1% retaining sanity, or 2% for humans, with your flexible minds. But for some reason, you Earthlings retain your sanity almost a quarter of the time!”
“Should I take that as a rejection?”
“Take what as a what now?” Had she really been so amazed that I hadn’t gone crazy that she hadn’t noticed that I was hitting on her? Eh, screw it. I’m not a pansy like Kyle. Boldness! I planted one heck of a kiss on her. She kissed back for a moment then stopped me. “You know I can’t be with anyone because I can’t risk that even happy in my melding I wouldn’t take the chance to escape if I…wait, that’s not an issue! You’re also a girl!” Nice of her to notice, not that I really feel like one, since the vast majority of my lives have been otherwise.
She kissed me again, this time with abandon. After several very enjoyable minutes, we parted. I’m sure I was grinning like an idiot. “We can leave them asleep a bit longer, right?”
“Unfortunately, no. I’ve brought you both back in time as far as I dare and it’s time they wake up. There are things you have to see.” Back in time? What? “But before I do, there are a couple things I need to ask of you. First, don’t tell Kyle about what he did with the star. Believe it or not, I actually had the permission of your god to rescue you and he wanted me to make sure Kyle didn’t remember the extent of what he’s capable of. He thinks it will mess with Kyle’s decisions when revived.”
“That’s fine. What do I tell him?”
“He’ll remember trying and passing out. Tell him that I showed up after he fainted and took care of everything.” I could do that. “And leave out the involvement of all those gods and especially the prophecy. He doesn’t need to know.” I could do that too. I nodded. “And finally, tell him to work on getting you your own body.” Her tone made all sorts of promises I intended to hold her to one day.
She woke up Kyle first. He took a look around us and immediately began trying to figure out the math of our environment. “You know, I think, given a few weeks here, I could come up with a new system of math to express what’s going on here.” Samantha and I shared a laugh.
Essielle’s reaction was a bit more terrified. She was a celestial, so it didn’t affect her like it would a human, but I think the ramifications that she was in the realm of an Outer God really terrified her. I think only the fact that Kyle and I were calm kept her from freaking out long enough for Samantha to prove to her that she had been asked by God to come get us out of danger.
Which was weird. Then again, what hadn’t been weird since we’d died? Or in any of our lives, for that matter? We attract weird. Why would God sub-contract to an Outer God? Look, I don’t have any answers, just questions.
Samantha conjured up a screen. It was made of meat. Like, real zerg shit here. “This is what you need to see.” She tapped the screen and we were watching as Kyle pushed Aurora out of the way. The screen was set to view things using the same kind of magic vision Kyle uses, so we got to see the crazy spellforms used.
I don’t know crap about magic. Kyle does, however. And he explained what we were seeing. Let me tell you, fam, it was effed up. Lyrie had attuned a curse to the Lamashtu malus, likely because she knew we had cleansed several shrines and really ticked off the evil goddess. It was like planting a bug, and was powered by the soul it was attached to. Kyle was impressed. Apparently it was pretty sophisticated magic.
The problem with it was that it had been meant for Aurora, not someone with as many lives as we have under our belts, so it got overcharged, hence the swarm. Making it for Aurora had really ticked Kyle off. And then we got to see her rant. Kyle got so angry that Samantha’s domain started melting around him.
Kyle asked Samantha if she could revive us. Essielle pointed out that it would be interference, which was against God’s rules. So Kyle pointed out that she’d only be answering the prayers invoked in the failed resurrection attempts. They settled on that being an acceptable justification. It was rather amusing to watch, if I’m being honest.
I talked Samantha into helping us make an entrance, by projecting a recording of my voice during the resurrection. She also did a thing to bind us together so that if we died again, the fact that two souls had to be brought back wouldn’t stop the spell from working anymore.
I’ll admit, the entrance was awesome. Kyle’s magitech armor worked extremely well and the gun he’d made for Aurora had been quite useful as well. Also, Samantha’s addition of the black tentacles was pretty great, too, though I’m not too enthusiastic about the sounds the zombies made when they got torn apart.
Now, let me talk about what Aurora wrote down about the events that happened. Yes, I’ve read her journal. Kyle may be too much of a gentleman to do so, but I’m not Kyle. I’ve always been overprotective of my sibling, and I’m not going to stop now just because I actually approve of the person he likes.
We human beings are not great at remembering things exactly as they happen, especially when emotion is involved. Aurora’s journal is a textbook example. The fight was well documented, though I don’t think Aurora quite understands just how amazing it was that she managed to learn how to channel her rage from Lenn and then turn it into a true blood rage. Kyle’s fairly certain that she’s going to get access to a limited supply of sorcery at some point as she continues to use anger to tap into her bloodline. That’s WAY beyond “You ever been so mad you hit a guy with a cactus?” or whatever your favorite version of that demotivational says.
No, her report on the battle was accurate, if lacking in certain perspectives and a bit spartan. What was inaccurate was what she wrote about the whole scene afterwards. I find it heartwarming that she actually remembers it all that way, but that’s not how it went down at all.
She did get on one knee. They did kiss. There was clapping. But it was far more like two awkward nerds on their first date than anything like how she wrote it. Look, at one point, she managed to headbutt him when going in for a kiss. It broke his nose. Paulie had to heal it. I’m not even joking. And they never would have had that second kiss if Chadwick hadn’t started a “KISS! KISS! KISS!” chant.
All in all, it was absolutely adorable. They were both just so nervous, it was like seeing Kyle back when he was still in high school. I just wish I had it on tape to play at their 25th anniversary party.
It has been two days and they’re finally getting over that ridiculously sweet nervousness they’ve had around each other. It probably would have gone by more quickly if they’d just bang and get it over with, but for some reason that hasn’t happened either. No, I don’t know why. I go into something of a nap state to give them privacy when they’re alone.
They did spend some time talking over their argument. Working from a place where their mutual love was out in the open, they finally managed to work it out. I’m really happy about that because the days leading up to our death had been really frustrating and annoying.
The day after we got back, an interesting bundle was brought to us by Magrim Emberaxe. Inside was a craftsman’s hammer and a stein, along with a note addressed to me, so we knew something was up.
Kira,
I just wanted to thank you and your brother for the great time the other day. T and I really enjoyed the battle. If you ever find yourself up this way again, you’re always welcome at my bar. I even set you up a tab. The stein is from me. Once per day, feel free to enjoy the finest beer magic can conjure. It’s not quite as good as the real stuff, but it’s still pretty good. T sent the hammer for your brother. He was so impressed with that spear that he just felt the craftsmanship should be rewarded.
Speaking of the spear, we recovered it from the site of the other battle you had. That fight was some impressive work. T’s planning to give it to a worthy hero in his time of need. Hope that’s alright.
Anyway, thanks again for a great time and good luck on your adventure. We’re rooting for you.
Cayden
Yeah, our life is weird. Like super, super weird. Yet, that said, I can’t imagine I’d have it any other way. I’m really glad I remember who I am now. Now Kyle and the others just need to finish analyzing that library so we can go kill that Runelord.
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