The Second Archon War: Superbia Hominum 17: Destiny Unfurls

Superbia Hominum 17: Destiny Unfurls

David looked around at the exhausted and desperate soldiers, then down at the struggling and weary civilians struggling along the snow beaten path. Behind them, Helsinki burned. Weeks of desperate fighting, rivers of spilled blood…and all for nothing.

The Tsaritsa had taken Finland.  

“I’m going back,” David said, turning to Mouse Protector, who had one arm in a sling and was leaning on one of her squadmates. 

“I’ll go with you, sir!” one of the capes, an Alexandria type from Mexico, said. What was his name? Carlos? David was too exhausted to remember. 

“No. Stay here, cover the retreat. I’ll slow them down,” David ordered, and took off into the air. 

He found several squads of soldiers trapped, helping them break out from Fatui encirclement and evacuate the city. It was grim and bloody work, with Eidolon feeling the weariness in his very soul And every time he used his powers, every time he tapped into another shard, the same thought ran through his mind. 

Unworthy. You were never a hero. You are a monster. You are unworthy. 

“static wounded! Need, need evac! Too many static can’t static, need evac!” 

Snarling, David turned towards the source of the sudden transmission. He spent precious minutes fighting off two Fatui patrols, before crashing into the building the call had come through right through the roof. 

Before he even landed, David realized that something was terribly wrong. The entire room was covered in frost, and he could hear a faint tune playing, as if on a distant wind. Instead of finding a hidden room of the dying and injured, he instead found a group of men and women on their knees or feet, staring in abject awe or horror at a young woman of unequaled beauty, who had her hand on the head of an injured Finnish soldier, and was regrowing his arm from ice. 

The young woman looked up in shock as David landed, even as he jerked back and swore, “The Tsaritsa?! Here!?”

Stay behind me, the woman said, turning to face David and raising aloft a glowing scepter. 

After a moment’s study, David realized this wasn’t the Tsaritsa, but rather, the Princess. She looked…well. Kollei Moskaylova was looking more and more by the day like her mother. Her hair had gone from brown to platinum blonde, and her features looked like they’d been gone over with a photoshop brush, removing imperfections, heightening her cheekbones, and turning her eyes a pale blue. She was still not Bronya, but she clearly looked like the daughter of the God of Love. 

“Those are my men, not yours, monster. Let them go,” David growled, summoning glowing Geo Crystals around his hands. More and more, he relied less on his powers and more on his Delusion. How could he call on powers that had birthed such monsters? 

They have been healed by my Mother’s Love. They are free to go to you, should they wish it. If not, they may remain her, and rebuild this city for the glory of the Tsaritsa, the Princess said, raising her scepter. It was affixed with an icy chess piece: the Gnosis. David did not fully understand what that divine artifact was, but he could feel the power radiating from it. He expected that it would feel like ice, like numbness, like losing oneself.

Instead…it felt like…Love. It was warm and tender, and it seemed to wish to wrap David in a warm embrace, and tell him it would all be alright. He shook it off, glaring at the Princess. “You’re holding them hostage. Don’t make me kill you.”

I have no desire for violence, David Ward. Besides, you could not kill me even if you truly wished to. Well? Who wishes to part from my side? Go, with my love, and know that you will always be welcome in my mother’s domain, should you return to serve her with your whole heart.

Most of the soldiers and civilians scrambled over to David for protection, but not all of them. In fact, nearly a third stayed worshiping at the feet of the Princess, who even now was soothing away their hurts and pains. 

Take them. I will hold none who do not feel Love in their hearts for my Mother. 

“Who could ever love a monster?” David said bitterly, though he was speaking more of himself than the Tsaritsa. 

In a flash, the Princess was there, at his side. David nearly attacked her, but she simply reached out a hand and caressed his cheek. My Love is always there for you, David Ward. My Mother and I see now. See who your children are. We are monsters also. I, too, have brought war and death to this world. I too have sacrificed my ideals, my dreams, in order to save others. The world may hate and fear us, may reject us, but so long as there is a world to do so…is it not worth the price? 

“You never birthed a monster out of your own selfish ambition,” David found himself whispering, trembling at the surprisingly warm and gentle touch. 

The Princess gave David a sad smile. I am now the source of Delusions. Upon my Mother’s Throne, I give rise to new Harbingers and new armies to ravage the world in an attempt to save it. So who has birthed the greater monsters, David Ward? No, do not answer. It should not be a competition. Only know…there will always be a place for those who are willing to find Love in their hearts for humanity in my Mother’s court. 

David shook himself, and turned to those he was rescuing. “Come on, I’ll get you all out of here. Door me!” 

A door appeared to the evacuation point, a sunny field in Germany, free from the Tsaritsa’s wintery grasp. He guarded the refugees until they had departed, then nodded to the Princess. “We’re still enemies. But thank you.”

We need not be. Return to me soon, David Ward. When the pain becomes too great…my Love will wash it away.

Deliberately, David turned his back on the Princess and the fools that worshiped her, and strode through the portal. He looked around, Knights and other emergency workers were tending to the wounded. He felt exhausted, but also as though he needed to charge back into battle. He was about to take off and fly for Finland, when a tremulous voice called,

“David?”

He turned, and found an unsteady Fortuna, hobbling along with a cane, one hand extended forward and grasping, a blue veil over her eyes. Fortuna had ditched the Fedora, and was growing her dark curly hair out. He stepped towards her, and she gratefully put her arm through his and leaned on him. 

“Take off your Delusion. It’s staining your soul,” she told him, her fingers reaching for it.

He reluctantly removed it, though once he did, it felt like he could breathe again for the first time in days. 

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be back at HQ,” David said, letting Fortuna guide him back towards the aid tents. 

“Screening for any potential fatui agents. I’ve not found any so far, because there won’t be any. The Princess doesn’t see the point, and the Dancer is concentrating her efforts elsewhere. But it lets me leave the Secret Lair and get some sunlight, so I came anyway.””

“Hmm,” David said, shaking his head. “We lost.”

“Yes,” Fortuna agreed. “The Princess is too powerful, and Ziz is still licking her wounds, while Barbatos sleeps. And you…you are losing faith.”

David chuckled bitterly. “It was all a lie. What faith is there to have?”

“We did believe in a lie. We let our own hubris guide us. But the gods have returned, David. We can put our faith in them.”

“They’re false gods! The Tsaritsa has caused untold suffering! She-”

She was just like him. Railing against powers greater than her. Willing to sacrifice thousands, millions, if it meant that in the end, humanity would survive. 

“Hey. Dad. I’m sorry.”

David froze, then slowly looked to where Fortuna had been guiding him. Ziz was standing up from where she’d clearly been using her powers to heal a group of people, looking awkward. She came over, glancing at Fortuna, then back at David. Licking her lips, she said, “I…I’m sorry I couldn’t save them. I…I’m not as strong as I thought I was. Guess both of us are unworthy.”

“You are not-” David tried to say “not my daughter.” Tried to deny that it was him who had created this monster. The fury kindled in Ziz’s eyes, the anger and hatred. That same righteous fury that had fueled David for so long. 

He swallowed, and felt Fortuna squeeze his arm. He closed his eyes, and instead said, “You are not to blame, Ziz. I…I don’t know that I can be a father to you. I never…”

“Yeah, I was a fucking accident, I know,” Ziz said bitterly. She looked away. “Not hard to see why you’d disown me though. Gods. I’m the biggest mass murderer in history.”

“No, you’re not,” David found himself saying. “It was my sin. Not yours. You repented.”

“Yeah, well, I just had to be tortured for a few hundred years to make it stick,” Ziz muttered, sticking her hands in her jacket pockets and slouching. “Nahida’s kinda scary, you know?”

“Out of all my…children,” David said, tasting bile as he forced the words out, “you’re the only one…the only one I would be proud…to call my daughter.”

Ziz blinked at him. “What?”

“I created you out of my own arrogance. But you turned your back on that. I guess…I guess I’m proud of you, for at least trying to be a hero,” David said, flailing about miserably. 

“You’re still a fucking deadbeat, you know that, right?” Ziz huffed, looking away and blinking her eyes rapidly. 

“Yes. I’m a failure at everything. I’m not the world’s greatest hero. I’m not the world’s strongest cape. I’m just-”

“Oh shut the fuck up and quit wallowing in self pity, asshole!” Ziz snapped, turning her glare back on David. “So you’re not the strongest. Big fucking whoop. If you thought you were the strongest since the Electro Bitch carved up my brother, then you’re not stupid, you’re delusional. And world’s greatest hero? Please. Nahida’s had that on lock since BEFORE she beat me into submission. Just, fuck. Just don’t keep screwing up, OK? Have the balls to do what Outlook Not So Good here did, and cut out that damn traitor in your head. Before you spawn another kid.”

“I…” David felt his mouth go dry. Lose his powers? What if he ended up back in the wheelchair?

“I knew you were a dickless wonder. Just don’t knock up mom again, coward.” With that, Ziz stomped off to the next group, leaving David feeling even more sick and lost than before. 

He swallowed, and looked to Fortuna, who was clutching at his arm still. “Should…should I kill my shard? Like you did?”

“If you do, you will doom the world. You must give up your shard to another, and accept that someone else must wield the power you held if you wish to save the world. Only by humbling yourself completely may you finally begin to atone for your sins,” Fortuna told him. 

“Great. So I suppose you saw that you had to destroy your Shard, or was it just the easy way out?” David said bitterly.

Fortuna hung her head. “I…I cannot see myself in my visions. I can see everyone else, even the Archons, for their Fates shine brightly in the heavens. I can see your Fate, David. But I am utterly blind to my own, and what I should do.”

He digested that for a moment. “Maybe…maybe I should give my power to Nahida. She is the best of them.”

“That’s a potential path. But Nahida would never allow you to go to war again. You’d live a simple life. She’d find you a wife, and a plot of land. You’d become a farmer, growing food to feed the world. This is the path where you would be happiest.”

“Just like that? You can tell me my Fate, just like that?” David demanded. 

“I am a True Oracle now, David. I see the future more clearly than I do the present. I could give you the name of the woman you would wed, the night you conceive your first son, the very hour you die from a stroke after a life well lived. Do you want me to?”

He was silent for a few moments. “What of the Raiden Shogun?”

“She would kill you. Beezelbul sees you as a threat, and she responds to threats in only one way. It would be an end to pain, yes, and she would forge a mighty weapon from your Shard and Soul, the weapon that could perhaps strike down the Warrior himself. You would be somewhat aware of this, the weapon she forged would be imbued with your consciousness to a degree. But you would be forgotten, and another would gain your glory.”

Death. At times it sounded appealing, but…David did not want to die. Despite everything, he did not seek death. 

“Venti?”

“He would set you free. He is, after all, the God of Wind and Freedom. You would be free of your burdens, free to pursue your own life. If you go to him…your path is less clear to me. Barbatos is nearly impossible to properly scry, his very nature defies confining, even to the strictures of Fate.”

That was somehow even less appealing. A murky fate, knowing only he would be unburdened? He didn’t want that. He still wanted to be a hero. “This new one, this Focalors?”

“She would judge you. And find you guilty. You would be utterly condemned, your soul crushed beyond despair. She is the God of Justice, and if you surrender yourself to her Justice…she would be forced to find you guilty. Do not do this to her. It would cause her great sorrow to be forced to condemn you. Additionally…I am not entirely certain where to find her. She is a tricky one, even heaven itself cannot always keep an eye on her or know how her Fate will play out.”

The silence stretched, and David looked up to the blue sky above them, Fortuna silently standing beside him. At least, he forced himself to ask, “And the Tsaritsa?”

“You will betray all that you once loved,” Fortuna whispered. “Your name will be synonymous with Traitor. The world will hate you. Your former friends, myself included, will try to kill you. And yet…you will become the Hero. The man who will hold the fate of the world in his hands…and choose to save it out of Love. Though it costs him…everything.”

“Well. Perhaps I should just wait for the next one.”

“Do not wait for too long. Even now, the next Endbringer stirs. Soon, it will awaken.”

David grunted. “I just…I need time to think. I can’t go back to the wheelchair. I can’t go back to being useless. The others seem to think I should keep using my abilities…”

“The others are about to commit a Sin so great, it may doom the world. Please, David. Please do not be party to that,” Fortuna said, beginning to tremble all over.

He looked down at her, frowning. “What? Sin? What sin could be greater than the one we have committed?”

“‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.’”

“That’s…Genesis 3:4-6. Why are you quoting scripture?” David asked, baffled. He might have nearly the whole Bible memorized, but there was no way that this pagan did.

“Because: the Serpent has come into our midst, and even now, one of our kind seeks to eat of the fruit,” Fortuna whispered. “Do not eat of the fruit, David. Or you, and the world, will surely die.”

“I can promise you that I will never again take up cursed power,” David promised. “The consequences from last time…they were too severe. If I do take power, it will be holy power. From a god.”

“Then you don’t believe in your old God anymore?” Fortuna asked. 

David opened his mouth, closed it, and thought for a moment. Then, he gently let Fortuna go, and turned his back. “No. But I suppose I was my own god all along. I guess I’ll just have to find a worthy one this time.”

Then, he flew back to Finland. This battle was lost. But the war for the soul of humanity raged on. 

Standing on the shore with her feet upon pebbles, Chiyo closed her eyes and let the sea speak to her. She could feel it, the ocean in all its majesty. She could sense the great power of the depths, feel the creatures within it swimming through the waves or crawling along its bottom, from the sunless depths to bright sandy coral. 

The waters of the world spoke to Chiyo, and in their voice, there was pain. Refuse and waste polluted it. Fishermen robbed hatcheries of fish, threatening them with extinction. Dolphins, turtles, and other creatures wailed in pain as they were cut up by boat motors or trapped in nets, only to drown or be tossed back to bleed out. 

“The world needs healing,” Chiyo whispered. “How am I to bring it?”

“So. You’re hearing it too, now.”

Chiyo turned to find her husband, carrying their child, approaching on silent feet. For such a big man, Kenta was remarkably silent when he wished to be. Bailu was sleeping, which had aided his stealth. They’d had a long journey to this remote island along the coast of Japan, then played on the rocky beach for some time. 

It was to be their last such day for some time. 

“I could already command the waves. Now I can listen to them,” Chiyo said, turning back to face the endless ocean, turned blood red by the setting sun. 

“Yeah. I can hear storms. Started a year or so back,” Kenta commented, adjusting Bailu slightly on his shoulder. She was getting big, three years old now, with a long pink tail poking out from above her swim skirt. Her horns were still little nubs, but they were growing larger every day.

Even now, Chiyo had her own horns growing from her forehead, as did her husband. She could disguise them, of course, but they felt natural now. A part of her. Though she usually kept her tail hidden simply out of convenience. 

“Ei says we are gaining Authority. Becoming Sovereigns. Gods, in all but name,” Chiyo said, pressing herself up against her husband. 

Kenta grunted. “Didn’t think all this was what would happen when I showed up to an Endbringer fight.”

“Neither did I. Though unlike you, I didn’t do much fighting,” Chiyo said with a small grin. 

“You saved people. That’s what matters. Besides, I think the difference between our powers back then is dwarfed by how much both of us have grown. I might have been a strong para-human. But now? Now I can see…everything.

Kenta’s eyes misted over. “I can see that you’ll be gone for years. First hunting the Hydro Archon. Then serving her.”

“I…I am still loyal to Ei. To Japan,” Chiyo said slowly. “But…”

“But we serve what we are. You’re the Hydro Dragon. Besides, from what Ei has said, and from what I’ve seen, there will be only minor conflicts between Japan’s interests and the Hydro Archon’s. Well. Aside from one thing. That’ll be interesting.”

“Oh? What have you seen?” Chiyo asked curiously. 

“You and the Hydro Archon will judge the Raiden Shogun for what she did to China.”

“What?! But, Kenta, I fought for her then! Gladly! How could I judge her?! How could I condemn her?!”

“Because you must. You’ve already felt it, haven’t you?” Kenta said, giving her shoulders a squeeze. 

“I…yes. I have. There must be Restoration, Kenta. What she did…perhaps it was justified, but it was not Just. Nor has there been healing. And there must be healing for there to be Justice,” Keiga said, feeling frustrated. 

“Ei understands. She will come to your summons willingly. And I trust you enough to know that you won’t make it any harsher than it needs to be. Judge her you must, however. And before the Geo Archon arrives.”

“You can see that as well?” Chiyo asked, surprised. “I had…dreams…of the Hydro Archon. I still do. But I cannot so easily see the future.”

“Eh, it’s confusing. Sometimes, I forget when I am. Time is starting to…fuzz. I can see the past and the future, and sometimes I forget that I’m in the now. It’s…Eternity. I’m starting to get why the NEET is always withdrawing from people. It’s hard to have a conversation when you remember having it and it also hasn’t happened yet.”

“And what do you see…happening to us?” Chiyo asked, looking up at her husband’s eyes.

Kenta met her gaze, putting a strong hand on her chin. “I can’t read fate the way Ei does. But I also can’t see myself all that well. I did promise you eternal love. And I don’t mean to go back on that promise.”

They kissed, and Bailu stirred. 

“Mommy?”

Bailu picked up her daughter, squeezing her tight. “I’m sorry, Bailu. Mommy has to go on a trip. She will…” her voice hitched, and tears filled her eyes, “she will be gone for a long time.”

“No! Mommy come home,” Bailu huffed. 

“I will, darling. I will. And you can come visit me,” Chiyo promised. 

“No,” Bailu huffed. 

“Momma’s gotta go, kiddo. Daddy will be here though,” Kenta promised. 

Bailu considered that, then reached for Kenta. “OK. Want daddy. But want mommy too!” 

“Soon, my heart,” Chiyo said, feeling as though her heart would break. She handed her daughter back to Kenta, and turned to face the sea. She closed her eyes, and felt the waves speak to her. 

The world needed healing. It needed Justice. And it was Keiga’s duty to go find her. She dove into the waves, her tears forming sparkling gems as Chiyo became the Hydro Dragon. She would swim up, up, up. To the Arctic Ocean, then under the ice caps, down the Atlantic, and to the Mediterranean. There, her search would truly begin. Her trip would take weeks, months. As she went, she would purify polluted waters, restore coast lines ravaged by the Leviathan, renew fisheries, and punish pirates and poachers alike with all the wrath of a dragon. 

She was the Ocean, and it was her domain. And it was time for the Ocean to be restored. 

Sovereign sought Archon, as a new divine balance was struck. In this world, Dragons and Gods would need to ally with Humanity if there was even the slimmest chance for all to endure.