New Olympus Saga (Book 2): Doomsday Duet (12 page)

???

The piercing interrogative seared his mind. Consciousness vanished in a sea of torment.

The Lurker’s Tale

U-Tsang Province, Tibet, July 19, 1924

Damon Trent walked up the dirt road towards Milarepa’s Cave

The weather was a balmy sixty degrees, fairly hot for the region. Mountains loomed all around him, creating a majestic landscape that no longer impressed him. He had been in the region for three years, seeing and learning much, and growing used to both the altitude and the people of the area. It had taken a great deal of work before the monks in the region opened up to a Westerner; most places had refused to have anything to do with him. He persisted, however, and some temples had allowed him to stay, as long as he didn’t mind spending months performing menial chores in return for their lessons. The meditation techniques he had learned had made the trip worthwhile; through them he had developed and refined his abilities.

He was seeking more, however. The stories of a man who might have developed special powers hundreds of years ago had led him to this place.

Jetsun Milarepa had been a notable and notorious figure in the region’s history. Eight hundred years ago, the yogui of that name had allegedly developed several magical abilities, including the ability to control the weather and travel at inhuman speeds. Although the holy man was best known for his wisdom, Damon was mostly interested in the powers the man had been reputed to display. While ordinarily he would have dismissed those tales as just one meaningless legend among many others, something about them had driven Damon to seek out this place, the mythical cave where Milarepa had dwelled and taught.

Five years after embarking on his voyages across the world, Damon had learned to trust his instincts. He knew he was something other than human, and that he was given to premonitions and impulses that on hindsight always proved to be right. Among those impulses was the almost desperate need to learn more about his new nature. He still couldn’t remember the events in New York that had prompted his journeys of discovery, but it didn’t matter. Something drove him to learn all he could about his powers and what they signified.

So far, he had found little. He was no longer hopeful, but couldn’t bring himself to stop.

He walked up a steep brush-covered slope towards the unimpressive opening on a rocky hillside. Nobody was around: he locals had fled when they noticed his approach. Stories about the crazy wandering Westerner –and the fate of a gang of bandits who had tried to waylay him – had spread widely. Images of the brutal fight a few weeks ago flashed through his mind as he approached the cave. Waking up in the dark as figures rushed him from all sides. The gleam of naked blades in the moonlight. His fingers tearing a man’s throat, the spray of blood and the bandit’s dying gurgle, drowned out by the roar of the first gunshot. The torn and bloodied clothes he’d worn that night had been left behind, along with the corpses of nine bandits and the body of the young native guide who had died alongside them. The legend of the Flame-Haired Demon would live on long after he left the region.

The inside of the cave was narrow and unimpressive; a cramped space with only a few decorative statues and lit candles to show this was a holy place. For several minutes, Damon stood there, waiting for something, anything, to happen: a surge of understanding, perhaps, or a moment of insight. It was more than foolishness, it was sheer insanity to expect this place had anything to offer, but his instincts had led him there as unerringly as a migratory bird’s. He waited for a sign, however subtle it might be.

When it came, it wasn’t subtle at all.

It started as a shimmer in the air. Damon blinked, and it grew in size, a multi-hued light that resolved into a vaguely elliptical fissure in the air, an opening tear into reality itself. It beckoned to him and he unthinkingly stepped through it.

There was a long, disturbing moment of discontinuity, a sequence of time where he remained aware but was otherwise disconnected from his senses in a way far deeper than sleep or unconsciousness. He feared that this was what death felt like.

However long it lasted, it lasted too long for his liking, but eventually it was over. He could see again, and he was elsewhere; the cave had been replaced by a larger chamber. Its walls were glass-smooth surfaces with intricate carvings that resolved into a diamond-shaped space that was both a dwelling of sorts and a work of art, like being inside an intricately worked jewel. Reddish light that hurt his eyes filled the room. In its center lay a slender green-skinned figure, hairless and naked. It was human, or at least had once been human, but some manner of unnatural stress had reshaped it somehow, changing the shape of its head, enlarging it and also stretching its limbs. Its oversized eyes were closed, and it was unmoving, dead or in slumber. Next to the creature’s outstretched right hand was a red cube, covered by strange symbols. The object was glowing faintly, and Damon felt drawn to it.

He approached the body carefully, a hand hovering near weapons on his belt. His other hand reached for the cube. As his fingers closed on the cold stone, something burst behind his eyes and he fell back to the ground.

Information flowed into him, too much for him to understand it all. The little he was able to assimilate was overwhelming enough. The first thing he learned was that the body was a hybrid of sorts, not born by created when an entity beyond our world and a human seeking wisdom melded their minds and bodies together. The entity was a scout, seeking new species among the vastness of the universe.

Damon caught glimpses of the alien civilization the dead scout had served – a conglomerate of civilizations, thousands of beings who had risen in power over untold eons, living together in the center of the galaxy. The civilization’s desire, or so Damon was given to understand by the object he was holding, was to empower lesser species, to serve as potential allies.

The civilization needed allies, for it was at war. Its enemies were vast intelligences dwelling in the shadows of deep space, unbound by natural laws and driven by an abiding hatred of everything in reality, from the smallest atom to the largest star. Most of that implacable hatred was aimed towards all thinking entities in the universe. Merely contemplating the psychic echoes of that hatred was agonizing. But the worst part was that they were somehow familiar to him. He’d been exposed to those entities before.

That realization triggered an epiphany of sort. Repressed memories came back. The meeting in New York, the abominable Mr. Night, and his offer of absolute power. He remembered it all. The vision of his future self bringing death and destruction to the entire world was the worst part of it. Damon screamed in terror and rage. He realized that he had been contaminated with the hateful energies of the Enemy on that night, and if left unchecked that taint would grow and consume him sooner or later. There was hope, however, thanks to the object he had taken from the dead entity.

The red cube was called the Codex. Just by holding it, he gleaned a great deal of information from it. It was a repository of knowledge and a teaching tool, although at need it could also be used as a weapon. If he could learn to use the Codex, he might be able to cleanse himself from the taint of the Enemy.

Seconds after reaching that conclusion, he noticed that the corpse of the creature had begun to glow; its brightness quickly became blinding. Damon blinked to clear his eyes and found himself back in Milarepa’s Cave. The ground began to shake violently moments later. Through the Codex in his hand, he understood some of what was happening: the corpse – not quite a corpse, he suddenly realized – was destroying itself and its place of rest, now that the Codex had been passed on. He stumbled out into the open and heard the cave collapsing behind him. Damon managed to run a dozen yards before some unseen force pushed him down and sent him sprawling onto the ground. His body grew unnaturally heavier; the invisible force pushed down on him, straining his bones and internal organs nearly to their breaking point. The odd and painful sensation didn’t last long, thankfully. The tremors subsided along with the inexplicable pressure; after a few seconds, he stood up and looked around.

The cave was gone, buried under rocky debris. There were strange indentations all over the ground, as if a large creature had left gigantic footprints on the ground, or perhaps as if some invisible force had pulled portions the earth downwards. He was left with a feeling the scout’s destruction had involved the manipulation of gravity, and that the chamber he’d visited was now gone, obliterated so thoroughly no one, not even the agents of the Enemy, would ever be able to find it.

Damon watched the devastation around him, trying to make sense of it all. The Codex was still in his clenched hand. In the daylight, it looked like an ordinary piece of rock, but he still heard it whispering inside his mind, in a language he couldn’t yet understand.

He had come to this place seeking knowledge, and he had found it in spades. He had much to learn.

Chapter Six

The Invincible Man

Charlotte, North Carolina, March 15, 2013

“A crazy alien Neo killed everyone in his home planet? Are you sure there were no survivors?” John asked.

“I have no doubt, John. By the time I left, I was certain.” There clearly was more to the story than Cassius was saying, but he had already shared a lot more than John had hoped for. Even though Cassius’ account had been fairly terse, it was nearly dawn already.

“That matches what Christine Dark told me,” he said. During pauses in Cassius’ story, John had shared some of what he’d learned from the girl from another reality.

“And all the dead worlds I saw are collateral damage of this war?” Cassius considered John’s tale. “While I was a guest of the Genocide, I saw things…” He trailed off and his expression became haunted with bad memories. “But it doesn’t matter. Neolympians destroyed at least half of the fallen civilizations I found. If our powers are a gift from some elder race, it’s less of a gift than a trap.”

“Or a test,” John replied. “Either we learn to live with those powers, or we die like those others. And maybe some of those dead worlds weren’t destroyed but merely left behind: Christine told me the truly advanced races eventually leave their native planets and head towards the center of their local galaxy. It would be hard to tell an abandoned world from one that was destroyed, I’d think, especially if enough time had passed.”

“Perhaps.” Cassius looked dubious. John couldn’t blame him. He’d been burdened by his discoveries for so long that even hope instilled suspicion in him. “Looking back, though, I think the state of a few of the worlds I visited could be explained by some form of voluntary migration. Perhaps extinction is not inevitable. Perhaps. I would like to speak with the girl myself.”

“You will. She’s… she’s something else, Cassius. Funny and a little awkward, but she has a lot of heart, and her abilities are amazing; she learned how to enter my mind just by watching the Dreamer do it. I think she could become the most powerful of us all. The traitor within the Legion brought her to our world because she has some sort of special connection to the Source, something beyond what us ‘normal’ parahumans have.”

“Yes, the Gifts of Shiva,” Cassius said. “Of course, if that power corrupts her, she could become a deadly threat, just like the entity I met. The alien later told me about a contamination, a dark force that needed to be eradicated. What happens if she becomes tainted with it?”

“We won’t let it come to that.”

“If it does come to that, will you do what needs to be done, John? Even if it has to be done to that funny, awkward girl you like so much?”

“We won’t let it come to that,” John repeated, a little less certainly. He could not accept the idea that he might have to hurt Christine, the girl who had saved him from madness and worse. It wouldn’t come to that, he told himself firmly.

It was John’s turn to tell Cassius everything that had happened. His old friend listened in silence, without interrupting or asking questions. “Well, we’ve shared our little campfire stories, Cassius. Do you believe mine?”

“I believe you have been under some form of mental attack,” Cassius said. “And the girl’s story does dovetail with the things I experienced during my trip. I don’t think you’re lying.” He sighed. “Yes, John, I believe you. I will help you deal with the Legion.”

John felt as if the weight of the world had come off his shoulders. “Thank you. With you by my side, we can convince the Legion I’m not insane.”

“Unless they think I’m also mad as a loon. God knows I’ve given them reason to. We might as well try, anyway, since they have pinpointed your location already.”

That was worrisome but not at all surprising. The information John had willingly shared with the Parahuman Registry made it easy for psychic searchers to locate him. When he had been around Christine, her innate ability to avoid detection had protected him, but he’d been away from her for several hours now. “It took them longer than I thought. Of course, finding me, and figuring out how to deal with me are two different kettles of fish.”

“I am picking up radio chatter from police and emergency channels,” Cassius said. He still had his Legion-issued cochlear implant, which enabled him to interface with just about every communication system in the world. “So far, they are setting up a perimeter around us and waiting for reinforcements to arrive. The Southern Justiciars are on their way, but since they are based in Atlanta it’s going to take them a while to get here. None of the local Neos are powerful enough to be anything but an annoyance, so they are keeping their distance for now. The Legion has been alerted and is mobilizing.”

“We probably should go elsewhere before they get here. If things go awry, we don’t want to be anywhere near a populated areas.”

“Yes. I’m going to say goodbye to Javier, and then we can go. I’ll be right back.”