Chapter 15

My aspirations of heading straight back to Far Reach were dashed as soon as I returned to the Sphere. An agitated Sophie was in my mind the moment I materialized. “Clive!”

A second later, she was in front of me.  “We’ve got someone from the US government on the radio. Lucas is talking to them, but they want you. It seems your message has been received loud and clear.

"That was quick. I suppose we better go and see what they have to say for themselves."

She led me off to the temple, speaking as she went. “Hopefully this is an end to the attacks at least. It would be nice if we could leave the Sphere and shield again.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that. You know what I’m most curious about?”

She turned to face me in anticipation. “No.”

“We have a radio?”

She finally cracked a smile. “Yeah, Lucas made sure we had a full communication system here.” As she explained that, we entered a room in the temple that I’d barely even registered before, having never been in it.

Inside the room sat a number of pieces of high-tech equipment and Lucas with headphones on. When I walked in, he smiled and told the other person to explain it to me. Removed the headphones and muting the mic he handed them over.

“They’re still going to be difficult, but they’ll at least stop with the bombardment.”

“Good enough for me. What’s he going to try and sell me?”

“Alliance agreements for now. Cleverly worded to make you help in their wars from the sounds of it. Such as not signing any agreements with countries they don’t like. Maybe not straight away, but they’ll lead into it.”

”I’ll let him tell you, so you don’t have to hear it twice. I’m fairly sure you don’t need to prep your answers.”

I snorted at that and put the headphones on, then I pulled the headphone jack from the port so everyone could hear. "Hello, this is Clive Sutherland speaking. Who am I speaking to?"

"This is the Secretary of Defence, Jeremy C Richards. We are willing to talk deals."

"That’s good news. Okay, here's the deal. This is my sphere and these are my people. If either one are harmed, I will take it personally. The world as you know it is going to change and great power is going to become available to everyone on Earth and the races of the nearby planets. If you want help, we are here to guide you through the development of this power."

“Now wait a minute, this is not what… I… we need to discuss…”

“Whatever you think we need to discuss is irrelevant and I havent got time to be jumping through the hoops you’ve got lined up for me. We won’t be taking sides or alienating your enemies before you ask. You need to focus on the arrival of power here and the problems that’ll cause when everyone’s superhuman. I’m sure there’ll be plenty who want to use that power in extreme ways, which is gonna cause a whole load of suffering on this planet.”

“People like you?”

“No. Not that powerful. I’m pretty much the most powerful being in the universe at this point in time, which is why you need to stop messing around against me and my people.”

“I think we’ve covered that. But how do we control this thing? How do we stop those we don’t trust having access?”

"You don't," I replied simply. “The only thing you can do is manage it, which is one of the many reasons why you should be nice to me.”

“And because you’re the self-proclaimed most powerful being in the universe.” He said drily.

“Not self-proclaimed. It’s just a fact. For now. Our enemy, and I do mean our enemy will take over if I don’t find him soon. Which is what I’m supposed to be doing, instead of pissing around here playing toy soldiers with you and the Chinese.

“You’ve made a deal with the Chinese?”

“I’m not really making deals here. I’ve given them the same warning as you… kinda. I dropped their aircraft carrier off at the Great wall. I imagine I’ll hear from them soon.”

“You didn’t! Wait, no, I can see it. How exactly did you do achieve that with those craft? We all wanted to believe that it was some kind of trick, but it really wasn't, was it?”

“Nope. I used portals, growth, flight, containment barriers and finished with teleportation.”

“To attack the Pentagon,” he said without humor. “You do realise that's a war crime?"

"Maybe in your country," I replied. "But we’re not in your country and I don’t abide by your laws. I am, however, perfectly capable of war crimes that everyone can agree on, but we really do not want to go down that path, do we? Especially when I'm trying so hard to be peaceful and returned your property so gently.”

“There is much that will need to be discussed on our side before any official agreement can be made and despite your words there will still be requirements that I won’t be able to budge on with the formation of alliances and the like.”

“Prepare to be disappointed, then. And in future talk to Sophie as if you were talking to me. She’s in charge of the Earth Sphere and is fully acting on my behalf.”

"Now, see here, it’s..."

Warning. Your bond with the Goddess of Peace has been severed.

I spun around to Lucas and Sophie, my voice an urgent rasp. “Gotta go. Deal with him or don’t. If they attack again, I’ll be back when I can.”

As I teleported away, I heard the arrogant voice over the radio protest.  "Now wait just a second! This is…"

My mind was working overdrive on how to trap Hakan this time and stop the bastard from escaping again. A null shield with bond severing was first on my list, if I could get it off before he broke it apart.  As I materialized in Elvia, far above the  above the capital where I sensed Peace, I expected to find her dead or dying in Hakan’s arms and I had the shield ready to throw out immediately.

What I found was far worse than I’d imagined. Peace, was firing down on her own defenseless city. Her own followers. It was such a shock that for a fraction of a second I faltered. Unable to decide what to do about Peace, I threw a shield around the city to protect what was left of her people. Thankfully I’d gotten here only seconds after the bond was severed so she hadn’t managed to cause complete carnage, but a little longer and there’d be nothing left of the city of Celes.

Next, I threw a shield around Peace. The one I’d intended to use on Hakan to sever whatever bonds he’d gathered now cutting her off from her people and Hakan.

The Alo-im in question hovered a couple of miles away with War. Both of them seemed to be very much enjoying the show from the safety of their own shield.

“Bear with me Peace,” I growled over my shoulder.

I left her suspended there to face the two of them. No brash attacks this time. A containment shield around their shield was the first order of business, followed by pulling apart the complicated weave he’d created to protect himself.

War fired gleefully at me as I approached and got to work. Hakan was uninterested. Focusing over my shoulder instead. I didn’t know what he was up to, but I was having success with his shield, so I doubled down my focus on achieving that task.

A second later and I was hit in the back with a blast. The Neuma signature was unmistakably of Peace.

I turned, flabbergasted as she attacked me again with rage in her eyes, even though I'd cut the bond to Hakan.

And while that bond now reformed in front of my very eyes, that didn’t explain her attacking me prior.

I growled and pushed her back with a barrier. "You don't want to do this, Peace.”

Her response was a feral scream followed by an inordinate amount of power intended to cause me pain.

Around the same time, Hakan pulled my shield down and War increased his own attacks. It was around that time I discovered even at my current stage, god level Neuma attacks did more than tickle.

"You're a real piece of shit, Hakan," I shouted, accepting the attacks of the other two gods to refocus on disrupting his shield again.

Two became three as Hakan joined the physical abuse of Clive party.

It was too much damage to stand there and take, so I took evasive action. Trying to hold my attention on the spot of the shield I was working on, I began to teleport around them, shrinking smaller each time I appeared to pull another few threads of his shield.

This went on for a little while, and right as I felt as if I was getting somewhere with it, I felt something insidious enter my mind. I saw it now, a thin tendril of Neutral Neuma that I'd missed in all of their attacks.

“You can get the fuck out of there, you filthy bastard," I snarled back along Hakan's mind control bond.

As the words left my mouth, it hit me. This was why Peace still attacked me, after the servant bond to Hakan had been severed. My rage shot up to a new high. Using Peace like that was a damned dirty trick.

I severed the mind control bond he had to both me and to Peace with an angry dual slash of power.

But his servant bond was still in place and I couldn’t get to that and hold everything else together.

“So you’ve even developed a defense against that trick. My, my, my, Clive. You keep surprising me. Is it just pure obstinance? Or is there actually a mind in there worthy of praise that I hadn't noticed in our time together on Earth?"

"Obstinance," War grunted. In answer.

Hakan smiled. "I'm inclined to agree with you, War. But the will to achieve will never match the ability to achieve."

AS they both spoke calmly, their attacks of power died off. Though Peace's didn't. She seemed to really fucking hate me.

In the lull, I surged forward, finishing of my efforts to tear open their shield again. This time, it opened easily. If I hadn't been so pissed off, I might have thought that was a little too easy.

Understanding hit me a moment too late. Hakan's very own sword of the Alo-im sprung forth from his hand like a lightning bolt. Combined with my momentum and his strength it plunged deep into my chest and he wasted no time in greedily drawing out Neuma.

It all happened in a blinding second and as I tried to pull back, War’s sword came at me too. I couldn't avoid it. Only bring my own sword up to deflect his blow.

Hakan's mind-control tendril struck at me again. I managed to block it before it reached my mind and threw a spicy ball back at him, while I deflected another thrust from War.

The sensation that Peace was right behind me with her own soul-bound weapon now in her hand, roared in my mind, but I couldn’t do anything.

Held in position by Hakan’s sword as it steadily leeched power from me, she hacked into my shoulder. Her weapon was weaker than Hakan’s and I offered no momentum to help her, so it didn’t cut nearly so deeply.

It did pin my arm for a moment allowing War’s attack to get through clean. I teleported behind Peace, but went nowhere as War’s sword struck my neck, cutting a deep gash.

Panic was surging now and my mind blazed through of all the ways I could escape. Using the totem was the most effective option, but another dread realization came. Peace had a totem of her own. And access to the administration center. If I left her with Hakan. Even if only to give myself a brief reprieve, there was every chance he could use her to get himself into the admin hub. And then we’d really be fucked.

It also meant I would probably lose Peace and all of her followers below. It was just too much of a risk.

Yes, I was outmatched. No, there wasn’t anyone strong enough to come and help me. I was on my own.

Ignoring Peace and War for a moment, I thrust out a hand at Hakans face, summoning my own Sword as I did.

With an agile twist and sway of the head, he avoided the blow of my materializing sword. Which I fully expected and as he reacted, I activated the time dilation and Ethereal skill on my armor and while the increase in speed made very little difference with the gods, becoming insubstantial helped a surprising amount as I quickly slipped off Hakan’s sword, deactivating the armor as soon as I was free.

If I had time, I would have grinned as his brow furrow in confusion. “How did you do that?”

He slashed at me again, but I was already teleporting. I appeared behind Peace and surrounded us both in a shield that would trouble Hakan for good few seconds. Then I attempted to sever the two bonds that led between Hakan and her.

Easier said than done when you were trapped in a small space with a raging, rampaging Goddess, intent on ripping your head off and being very close to having the physical strength to do it.

Desperate to give myself more time, and unable to create a portal, with all of the other Neuma heavy work I was doing, I held Peace of me as best as I could, and flew backward toward the shield I was holding over Celes.

Of course War and Hakan followed us down, with War firing everything he had at the Shield while Hakan tried to pick it apart. I almost lost it to him during a couple of particularly violent attacks from Peace.

After quickly rebuilding it again, I roared through my bond to Danivra. “We need portals into Celes to evacuate! Fast as possible!”

I had to refocus on my own immediate survival again as Peace tried to fit her sword through my gut and Hakan finally tore away my shield.

As the last threads of power were laid bare to be torn away, I knew I’d lost it. But I wasn’t done yet and repeated the trick that Hakan had played on me, letting the shield fail but doing it in such a way that favored me. I created a simple but powerful blast of Light Everlasting. Completely harmless, other than to obscure everyone’s vision and give me a second of time.

I followed up the attack with a blast of pure gravity, fired between them and pulling the two temporarily blinded bastards off course.

All the time, flying backward to finally get inside the city shield.

Unfortunately, Peace was still outside, prevented from passing through the barrier due to her bond with Hakan.

I reacted fast and threw another shield around her that marked her as neutral and yanked her inside.

She was howling with rage at me. The entire city was now firing up at me with everything they had. I wanted to rage myself, but I had more important things to do, such as dealing with Hakan’s efforts on the shield. Rather than fight against him, I added a second, even more complicated shield, right under the existing one before turning on Peace. I attacked the Mind Control Bond first, which was easy. The servant bond Hakan had created was too strong to break easily, and I didn’t think I’d have the time to work on it before he broke through.

"One hour! One fucking hour I left this place, and this is what happens!"

She screamed and thrashed back at me in answer.

Unable to dislodge Hakan’s bond I instead cut every bond she had, that I could. The onslaught from below ceased almost immediately as I released all of her followers, yet Hakan’s bond resisted, stronger than ever.

Though it was futile, I still tried again and, as a last resort, I sent out a tendril of Mind Control and pushed the thought to resist the bond into her mind.

It didn’t work, but I’d apparently pissed Hakan off enough to change tactics. Peace raised her sword up high above her head. It was foolish as she could never break through my shield, and I was foolish for not seeing what was really happening. Peace plunged her own sword into her own gut with enough force for it to burst through her back.

It was a horrible visceral scene that I just hadn’t expected. Once again, I yanked at his bond and desperately fought to free her. And failed.

On a hope and a prayer, I tried to remake my own bond to give myself a foothold. It was pointless, but I was desperate.

It shouldn’t have worked and it wouldn’t have worked if not for one thing. A link to her that I hadn’t considered before.

A tiny pearl of power and an exact replica of her core that allowed me to teleport to her.

Instead of pushing my bond directly to her, I pushed it through that fragment of her core first and then onto her. My bond reached her core and Hakan’s power didn’t even react to it. I pushed more power along the new bond before risking a bond and when I did, I chose the Soul Mate bond again. It transcended all other bonds when active.

The moment it latched into position, Hakan’s bond was rejected from her core and I could have cried with relief. I felt like a balloon that had been filled to bursting point only to be deflated at the last moment.

Peace’s eyes cleared. She looked shocked for a moment. Then the sword through her gut disappeared,. The whole closing up immediately as she spun, screaming at Hakan now and firing what little she had left after her ordeal.

The blasts passed through the shield, but they were weak and both War and Hakan evaded them .

For Hakan’s part he wasn’t even looking at her. His eyes were locked on me and he was smiling.

"I'm not exactly sure how you managed that, Clive. But honestly, well done. It was very well played and I must say, despite my desire to leave this universe, you have provided the most fun I've had in a verylong time. I thank you for giving an old man some entertainment before you die.” He offered a little bow. “Until next time."