Chapter 24

Avan arrived after Rain, Hammer and Rajin had left. The first thing he noticed was the proliferation of the wormy replicating creatures and it made him grimace. He did not like what Rain had done here, but it was not in the nature of the fragments of Daret Nul to be destructive. This was why he had originally been chosen; his compassion, empathy, and inner strength made him perfect. Of course, Garon had grown him naturally for this purpose, and that was Garon's nature.

Still, something had to be done about these replicators. They were simple, and young enough to still radiate Shar like tiny torches in the sand. The needed a predator.

Avan had done experiments creating creatures before. It was a fine balancing act. Too powerful and they would take over an ecosystem and destroy it entirely. Too weak and they would be ineffectual and eventually die out. These replicators reproduced quickly, so he would need something ravenous. He could build an entire food chain off these. The rate at which they recycled material was staggering. After he had created one predator species he could re-evaluate. Or should he just introduce a disease? Would they be genetically similar enough for that to kill them? Some instinct told him it wouldn't. These things would be too resilient.

Looking around, he noticed they liked the dark. He would create something that would hunt them when they fed, that could reach into gaps and under stones. Something with a long snout. It didn't have to be fast and it didn't have to be smart. Those would sufficient weaknesses.

He looked at the ones around him, hiding under rubbish in cracks. There must be millions by now! Could they swim? He hoped not. That would confine them to this continent at least.

He channelled haze at the ones he could see, pulling them out into the light, then he poured it into them, expanding them, giving them genders. Male and female. Introduced variations in each to kick-start their evolution. He extended the pseudo-feet they had beneath them, making a pair of legs. Small, fat, round, snouty things, with slick skin the colour of deep sorrow. For their task, they were perfect.

Pushing downwards with a thin stream of haze, he lifted himself off the ground, over the derelict rooftops of buildings with cracked-glass wall. The residents long since having fled the raging influence of Tera as the leaking power had increased to an unmitigable flood over the last hundred years. He cast his gaze around, searching for Hammer. He did not find Hammer, but he did see the residual energy left behind by Rajin, like small puddles of starlight to his eyes.

Now what could that be?

Setting himself down again, he made his way over. The magic tasted like Tera. Something had come through but had, presumably, left again. He would keep an eye out for anything of that ilk.

He supposed that Hammer could still be in the temple, so he ventured inside, trailing a hand along a wall in the dim light. This was the trick to finding your way in a labyrinth. Provided you kept your hand on one wall, you would find your way through. You wouldn't traverse the entire maze, usually about half of it, and it had to be confined to a single level, but Avan knew that was the case. This building connected to the tunnel he had cut from the rock all those years ago. Cut to a perfect 10 degree slope with a slight curve to guide it down to Tera's prison. It was why he had not allowed the planet to break up this continent like it had the rest.

Within the temple, it quickly became too dark to see, and Avan conjured up glowing fireflies to light his way. The small creatures buzzing around his head and down corridors in swarms, lighting the building like a scattering of candles. They wouldn't live long; he had only infused them with small amounts of haze.

Before he had ventured for more than a few minutes after beginning with the fireflies, someone accosted him, a priest by the looks of him.

“Tera!” The priest inquired. “Have you come to taunt us with more empty promises of relief?”

He must have looked quite a sight, practically wreathed in a fiery glow. Like the god this priest had once worshipper.

“I am not Tera, but you could say I had a hand in his history.”

“Our highest priest and priestess were taken by the Reliever when she freed Tera, and others were slain by a blue skinned fighter! Who are you? Are you here to help?”

“I am Avan Nerovast. I will help as I can, but I am looking for that blue skinned warrior. I sent him here to protect the woman you call the Reliever. He must have thought your people were a threat to her.”

“You sent him!”

“Yes. Like I said, there was confusion.” Avan paused for effect. “You asked if I was here to help. What did you have in mind?”

The priest froze, as if this was unexpected.

“Tera promised us relief from our pain when he was freed. All of his followers live in constant suffering. Modern medicine could not help us, and now our hope is gone. He lied to us!”

“And you want me to heal you all?”

“Yes!”

“That is not as easy as it sounds. There are diseases whose only remedy is death, or whose cure alters a person's core being. They become almost another person.”

“There is not one of us who would not risk either of those outcomes! Despair and suicide has already begun amongst those who have lost all vision of escape.”

“Gather your people. Meet me at the entrance to the temple. If you see the blue skinned man, do not harm him. Ask him to wait for me with you. He calls me Evan.” Seeing the priest nod, Avan began to continue on his way before stopping again. “Oh, one other thing.”

The priest looked up and waited for Avan to continue.

“You may come across small black toothy things. If you do, kill them.”

“Those! They are everywhere. They've eaten almost everything. Some have even tried eating people! We call them sinistrals.”

“You've named them already?”

“We needed to refer to them somehow, and they seem, well, sinister.”

“An appropriate name. I will see you at the front of the temple in a few hours. Take this.” He quickly pieced together a giant scarab beetle, incorporating the right adjustments to its abdomen so that it produced a steady glow. He made sure to fill it with enough haze to last the night.

The priest and Avan Nerovast parted. One to find the survivors, one to search for the blue skinned man he now considered his champion in Lor-Neron Alarast. The Champion of Alarast.


***

Deep in the bowels of the mountain backing the temple, a clay jar broke open, spilling out onto the floor. The Panens had it wrong; this was not the blood of a god. This was the stuff of nothingness, that space between the realms which tunnels bridged. It numbed the living and filled them with hollowness and greed.

Hungry mouths lapped it up, forming links into those outer lands where the worldspheres resided.