Zacchaeus was alarmed by the sight of unconscious Guardians and Daemon on the asteroid when he and Issac rendezvoused with the Queen Rowen.
“They ain’t dead, right?” he said to Issac as he kneels next to Maxx.
“Not at all,” Issac said and he lifted a hand, moved his index and forefinger subtly. Maxx began to move and he eventually stood, looking around himself confused.
“Everyone is dead…” he stared before Isaac explained what was going on.
The Mmoatia ship had stopped its advance toward the asteroid and there were smaller ships that surrounded it and extended metallic structures to take control of the giant rock. As the ships began to navigate to Top, a winged man that Zacchaeus was sure was an angel descended on the asteroid. He had long, curly black hair that was beautiful on his bare shoulders. He wore a white tunic that had only straps on his shoulder and the stiff looking fabric of the skirt at his knees was moved by the chaotic transition to the asteroid surface. He landed effortlessly.
“The last man with wings I saw tried to kill me,” Zacchaeus said.
The winged man was solid and taller than Zacchaeus by half a foot.
“This is the Archangel Raphael,” the Queen Rowen introduced them all, then questioned the angel. “I hope that this means Bludon will no longer be tormented by Daemon.”
Raphael scowled. His skin was tan, but darker than the other archangels and he brooded for a moment.
“The Aerphim that you call Daemon will be taken back to Endla and will never bother Bludon again. That is my sincere promise.” He looked Maxx in the eyes then and he bowed his head slightly before continuing. “I have immense respect for you, Superguardian. If I had been aware of what has been going on here…”
“For centuries,” Zacchaeus interrupted him. “They’ve been dealing with this for so long it shaped the way life evolved on this planet.” Zacchaeus was angry at the resolution of all of this, the realization that the chaos of this planet he and the Needy had come to care very deeply for had only been made to endure untold trauma and loss all because of a cosmic whim that had allowed the Daemon Head to travel to the planet at will.
Raphael nodded and his jaw flexed like he was stifling words. He just nodded in agreement.
“It was a great oversight that the Aerphim were not here to prevent what has happened here for a very long time now,” Raphael continued.
He continued apologizing like that until the asteroid landed on the surface of Top. Zacchaeus stopped listening as the asteroid made its descent on Endla. There was a battle raging inside of him and he turned his attention inward.
Jit and Minyak could not see eye to eye.
“It is not true that achieving the goal of conquering Bludon will make you happy,” Jit explained. “I have been there. Dominating others and taking away their agency is a hollow victory. You are left with nothing to appreciate, just your memories of the horrible things you’ve done and the wonderful things that you have smited.”
Minyak shook his oily head. The two were still on the glassy shore.
“I am not dominating to destroy, I never was. I was only interested in making a home for me and the Daemon.”
“But you have confessed that they wanted to make Endla better, they didn’t want a new home on a distant planet.”
“But they would think differently once I have delivered it to them. When they landed on the fertile islands in the vast oceans, they would have seen that we had arrived at our own paradise that was not the artificial beauty of Endla. I live to show the Daemon the paradise that we deserve. And Bludon is promised to me. You do not want me to fail here, Jit. Join me and let me conquer the Bludonians in the soft way that I have so that I can bring the Daemon to Bludon and we can live side by side. I will allow that compromise. I will not kill the Bludonians. I could have by now, I could turn them against each other and I control enough of them that I could easily destabilize their society. But I do not have to do that. I don’t want to make enemies of the so called heroes of this universe, I don’t want you Outsiders fighting me. And I don’t want the darkness that will come if I fail here. I made a big mistake, Jit, I can admit that. I made a deal with darkness that frightens even me, but they made good on their end of the deal and gave me the power to take what I wanted and to spread. If you allow that to continue, your real enemy should be stalled for long enough for you and your friends to mount a proper defense. And the Daemon will have a home. It is the only way forward, Jit.”
Jit had not expected Minyak to negotiate so soundly for conquering a world, and the Needy that he had become on his native Earth would have relished this type of plan. But the Needy that he was after spending so much time on Bludon while so much of his being was in the caves of Sakpata’s disc, could not allow Bludon to lose what made it special. Even if Minyak was threatening something so much worse to follow him.
“So you cannot emerge from Zacchaeus when we land on Top?” Jit asked. “We are almost there.”
“I can emerge from Zacchaeus and I mean to do so violently. This version of me intends to die on Top and I will take out as many of your allies as I can before I am put down. I know that there are Archangels on board and I cannot wait to corrupt their bodies to cancers. But, if you agree to join me, I will emerge from Zacchaeus harmlessly and only attack Metatron and the Archangels. Can you stop me from emerging from Zacchaeus?”
Jit closed his eyes and he felt his being inside of Zacchaeus, then he felt Zacchaeus paying attention and assured him that everything was under control. But then he realized that he had not decomposed Minyak. Minyak had contracted and was now beginning to expand. Jit knew that the Needy would have to expel Minyak and instead of returning to the conversation with Minyak, he made moves to protect Zacchaeus.
“Jit is busy,” Zacchaeus said when Minyak turned on the glassy shore to see he had come to continue the conversation. “I’m not here to convince you of anything. I just want to know what you scared of. Cause we ain’t gone let you hurt nobody. And we can protect you from whatever it is supposed to be coming after you.”
Minyak shook his oily head. “All is doomed. The Pito will come and all will be lost. There will be no more beaches of Bludon. No more artificial vistas of Endla. No more Earth. There is no time to rise to their level. I am sorry for this Zacchaeus.”
Everything went black for Zacchaeus and he only felt confidence that the Needy would protect him.
In the Smiting Chamber, deep within the caverns of Sakpata’s Disc in the Fonlands, Yana, the queen of the caves, observed the strange metamorphosis of Zacchaeus Turner after the Daemon asteroid landed on Top. His body was suspended in the air and black forms erupted out of his body, then either surrounded his body or spread in the air like droplets of oil suspended in space in spray patterns that caused alarm for everyone on the Mmoatia ship, including the mmoatia and the archangels. It was obvious that Zacchaeus was not controlling his body, he was merely the battleground where his psyche and the Needy fought to tame the form of Minyak that he had absorbed. Owuo was with her in the chamber, eager to settle the bet that he had lost to Yana.
“Should I go and save him?” Owuo asked. It was difficult to tell how mad he was because Owuo lacked affectation in his speech unless he put in effort, and he didn’t want Yana to know just how annoyed he was with this situation between the two of them. Owuo was a lover of the game of Smiting and Yana was probably the best player on Sakpata’s Disc, so he loved to sharpen his skill against her. But she had made a wager that Owuo had agreed to flippantly, not fully aware of the full extent of the duties that fulfilling the bet would require. But a deal was a deal and he was on the hook to help defend the universe or some shit.
“Will you stop asking stupid questions?” Yana said angrily. She was suspended in the Essence blue mist of the Smiting Chamber and Owuo stood far enough away that they could talk easily in a formal suit with his arms crossed. There was a projection of the scene on Top that formed in the mist between them. “You don’t have to be here. I know how to contact you.”
“I know, I know, you’ve said this before. But isn’t he pivotal to your plan to stop the ghosts you see haunting the multiverse?”
“Yes, but he’s not a child, and I know that this does not break him. Just shut up and go,” Yana said with exasperation.
“You are agitated from the strain of weidling the Chamber as you do,” Owuo said. “It must be a real burden.” Owuo was intent on annoying Yana as much as he was annoyed by her machinations to make him into her hero puppet, he would not leave the Smiting Chamber as long as she was there. “But even I very reluctantly and begrudgingly and spitefully thank you for your nosey nature that had you spying on the multiverse to discover the blight that threatens us all. I like death and all, but it’s much less fun without checks and balances.”
“Evil like you wouldn’t understand divine intervention,” Yana said. “I was not being nosey when I discovered the blight, as you call it. I was called by the arcane energy of this Chamber to see what frightened it. The Chamber itself sought aid, and you are a lapdog in its service. So go play somewhere, I’m sure there are some corpses that need mangling. I will whistle when I need a dog.”
Owuo retreated up to the ledge over the Chamber, but he would not leave. He wanted to avoid an all out battle with Yana, and when she started calling him a dog, that meant she was on the edge of her ability to avoid slapping him with her clawed wings. He would give her time to settle, then descend to annoy some more.
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