86. Shattered
Remnants of the Past
Within the stone chamber, Grayson curiously inspected the bare pillar
that had once held the clock.
"One step too late..." he mused. "Just like in Pittsburgh..."
Grayson's body jerked backwards. Keeping a firm hold on the man's legs,
Averyl swung him around in a clean arc and slammed his body into the side of the
chamber.
The Snake protected himself with a barrier as he collided with the hard
stone, then hopped to the ground.
"Grayson, I'll make you a deal," Averyl began. "Leave now,
and I won't pursue you for the time being."
"Wow, you must be really scared," Grayson said with a smirk. "Worn
yourself out already, have you?"
"Think that if you like." Averyl grabbed his torn-up cloak
with one hand and ripped it from his body. "But truthfully, I'm just warming
up."
With his cloak off, Averyl looked much different than before. Wrapped around
his entire body was a tight black bodysuit. It outlined his slim, athletic
figure perfectly, leaving not even an inch of his pale skin uncovered. Covering
his arms, legs, and torso were numerous black straps and chains that each
sectioned off a different area of his body like a puzzle. A huge silver lock
rested on the center of his choker.
"It's a psynergy restraining device," Averyl explained. "Whenever
I fight, I wear it, in order to train myself to defeat the one my sister could
not. In order to prepare my body to go completely berserk on her killer."
"Cute." Grayson's smug grin was ever present on his face. "In
that case, you'd better keep it on."
Then, Van Kaen and Zeigfried dive down through the thick ceiling of the
clock's chamber. Averyl tried to leap out of the way, but was caught within an explosion
of golden psynergy as Zeigfried struggled to loosen himself from the monster's
grasp. The three men went slamming into the ground, and Van Kaen's defense
mechanisms fired out a wide arc of red death.
The Dragon’s beam demolished the chamber, along with the rest of the arena.
Desperate merely to shield themselves from the lethal load of psynergy, Zeigfried
and Averyl rolled out from the crater and guarded themselves.
"Grayson!" Zeigfried shouted through the smoke. "What
are you doing here?!"
"Pursuing the Daughter," Grayson replied coyly. "I wanted
to surprise you, Father."
Van Kaen rose from the ground and lunged out for Zeigfried again, but
Averyl cut him off. A barrage of silver blades exploded from the Albavitrean,
skewering the cyborg like a grotesque sausage and sending him back to the ground.
Zeigfried spun around in shock and sized up what he saw. When his eyes
focused on Averyl's, his jaw dropped, and then transformed into a vicious
snarl.
"An Albavitrean..." he growled. "How? How?! How is there
still another one of you alive?!"
"Zeigfried..." Averyl stared back. "You're as vile as the
rumors made you seem..."
Grayson nodded toward his ally. "Engage Mode N. I want those two out
of here!"
Van Kaen's muscled gears and electronic synapses whirred and whistled,
and soon the Dragon's red aura began to condense around his body. As he rose into
the sky, the creature's chest opened up to reveal a glowing, torpedo-shaped capsule.
A spring-loaded mechanism within the creature’s body shot out the capsule, which
flew down to the broken earth as it pulsated and blinked.
"A bomb...?" Averyl and Zeigfried both mouthed at the same.
The Apostle quickly reverted to mist and rose into the sky, desperate
to escape the ensuing catastrophe. Focused on only one thing, Averyl sped toward
Grayson.
There was a flash, followed by a clap. And then, a nuclear fireball engulfed
the tournament complex.
*
The inside of Edgar J. Caskett's humble abode was as mismatched as Vance
had expected it to be. Complicated mechanical devices beeped in the candlelight,
while psynergy-infused artifacts pulsated on old-fashioned wooden shelves. Small
and quaint, the cabin had only a living room with a kitchen area, a bedroom,
and a small bathroom.
"You two must be tired!" Edgar exclaimed in delighted
surprise. "Would you like to wash up first, before we chat? Feel free to make
yourselves at home."
"Mr. Caskett?" Vance said, blinking. "Is it really you?"
"In the flesh!" Edgar replied with a smile. "My, Vance,
how you’ve grown! Wendy will be so surprised to see you... But what are you doing
here? You should be living with your father on Earth..."
Eden furrowed her brow. "Who’s Wendy?"
"Mr. Caskett’s daughter," Vance said. "We used to play together
when I was little...when the Casketts came over to visit my mother. Man, you
were the last person I expected to find here..."
Eden looked back to Caskett. "You saw me when I was little too,
then?"
"Eden," Edgar said softly. "I know much about your origin,
but sadly I was never able to be part of your life on Earth. Victoria and I both
agreed that we needed to cut all ties with you in order to let you live a peaceful
childhood. But..." he paused. "I suppose that didn’t work out very
well, did it? Our plan was far too naïve...really now, I simply must know. How
did you two get in contact with each other, and what in the world are you doing
here?"
"A clock led us here," Eden said. "Does that mean you
have another one?"
"Yes, of course! You can use the clocks..." Edgar ‘s eyes widened.
"I just recently recovered a new one from some ruins. I’ve been meaning to
take it back to Earth, but it’s such a pesky trip..."
Vance and Eden glanced at each other, then quickly tried to bring Edgar up to
speed on all that had happened to them in the past five months.
"My God..." Edgar reeled. "I never thought that old hiding
place of mine would ever end up causing something like this. I only left it
around because I’d grown so attached to the place, and because Earth is such a perfect
hiding spot due to its psynergy vacuum. The shop also isn’t registered in my name,
so I doubted Grayson would ever find it."
"Is that why you and your family disappeared?" Vance asked
with dark eyes. "To escape Grayson?"
"Oh, at this point, it’s become such a complicated tale..."
Edgar scratched his head. "You know, Victoria wanted so badly for you both
to live happy, quiet lives on Earth. She even thought she could make it really happen
if she worked hard enough...that’s how much you both meant to her. Go on,
please, sit down. It might take us a bit to go through everything."
Vance and Eden joined Edgar at a wooden table, staring at him in awe. Eden
looked pristine in the white outfit she got from Averyl, while Vance’s clothes
were still in tatters from the tournament. They both leaned forward a bit in their
wooden chairs, eager to hear from the man who seemed so deeply connected to
their pasts. In turn, Edgar rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, as if physically
drawing the memories out from above.
"I used to work for the Church of Holy Truths as the director of
the archaeology programme, which dealt specifically with preserving ancient ruins
and trying to piece together history that had happened over two thousand years ago.
"That was when I began my intensive study of Earth's history,"
Edgar explained. "Earth has always been seen as an untouchable holy land by
the Church for some reason. But I was curious...as my research continued and my
interest heightened, I decided that it would be best if I visited Earth myself
to gain a first-hand opinion on the issue. The problem, however, lied in the fact
that there was no real way to get to the darn place. That’s around the time I
met a man named Sasuke Fukunaga."
"Fukunaga?" Vance sounded the name out. "That’s the
Seneschal’s last name..."
"Ah, I see the connection already," Edgar said with a wink. "Sasuke’s
family also worked in the Church – his father was instrumental in many technological
advances connected to tunneling, but died young, leaving Sasuke and his brother
Tao in charge of the remaining projects. Just like me, they were also both very
interested in exploring historical, religiously significant sites both on Earth
and in other dimensions. Solving the mysteries of creation had always fascinated
me, but I had never known where to start.
"In the end, it turned out that most of the sites in other dimensions
had been marked as off-limits by the true leaders of the Church – beings with
angelic blood known as 'Apostles' who controlled the Church from the dimension
of Eretz. They gave us no response when we asked why even employees of the
Church had been banned from entering the sites, so as a last-ditch effort, the
two of us decided to visit Eretz directly.
"The world of Eretz contains a single, massive continent. In its
center sits Medina Abiat, a gorgeous gilded city said to be a living paradise. Above
it floats a brilliant stronghold known as the Supernal Chapel, home of the
Apostles. I assume you were both raised Christian, or some similar denomination?"
"Methodist," Eden replied.
"Catholic..." Vance muttered.
"Well, you’ll both find many similarities between Christianity on
Earth and the teachings of the Church of Holy Truths: they speak of a single God
who gave his only son to the world roughly 2000 years ago in order to allow
believers to gain eternal life upon their death – trusting that they accept God,
that is. The believers gained their knowledge from an ancient book that had been
passed down generation after generation from the priests' ancestors – an ancient
book that has many similarities to the Bible on Earth.
"But we didn't learn about any of that at first. The Church seemed
to be very suspicious of what we were up to, so they eventually ordered us to go
through a scrutinizing interrogation by an Apostle named Father Zeigfried. In
the end, he showed a great interest in our studies and excavations and invited us
to join him on a large-scale project he was working on. You see, they’d
recently uncovered a subterranean temple buried deep beneath Medina Abiat. It
had never been touched, out of reverence...but Zeigfried, sought skilled archaeologists
who could properly enter the ruins and uncover all the secrets held within. I still
suspect to this day that he only initially hired us because he learned about my
psychometry ability, and wanted to make use of it to find out all he could about
the artifacts."
"What's psychometry?" Vance asked.
"If you have any personal objects on you, I can show you,"
Edgar replied.
Eden pulled out the clock she had hidden in her jacket and put it on
the table. "Here."
Edgar calmly placed his palm on the object and closed his eyes. "I
can see Averyl, Victoria’s brother...he ordered you to run. Commotion outside..."
Vance and Eden's eyes grew wide.
"That's psychometry," Edgar explained. "I can determine
the histories of objects by channeling my psynergy with them."
"Now I get it..." Vance asid. "That’s why you and my mom
started working together. She was searching for the clocks too, right?
"Something like that. Originally, I wasn’t the one who reached out
to her. After overcoming the strange trap mechanisms in the ruins, Sasuke, Tao
and I made our way to the final chamber of the labyrinth. There was one problem:
the door to the inner sanctum would not open no matter what we tried. We couldn’t
simply destroy it, since that would risk damaging the valuable treasures and documents
inside. The outside door was covered in a strange language that none of us had ever
seen before, even the well-traveled Sasuke. So we returned and explained our
dilemma to Zeigfried. He insisted that this was simply a test of faith from God,
and that we would be rewarded with riches beyond our wildest imaginations if we
only trusted and did our best to figure it out. We did as we were told, and soon
enough, Sasuke brought news that he had found someone capable of decoding the
wall: Victoria."
"So she really was an archaeologist?" Vance asked.
"She was more of an explorer," Edgar answered, "most interested
in the history of her own kind – the Albavitreans, or as they are known in
biblical texts, the Nephilim. Descendants of the fallen angels who were exiled
from Heaven after becoming corrupted by the primordial chaos that had existed
in the universe before the advent of God."
Vance listened to Edgar with wide eyes, then sent Eden a quick glance. "Primordial...chaos?"
"Yes," Edgar answered with a sage nod. "Within your
blood, Vance, flows power that not even God Himself could fully subjugate. I
got to spend a great deal of time with your mother, Vance, during which she told
me about the witch hunts that had targeted her people, and why she felt it was
so important to uncover the mystery behind their origin. Long ago, the Church
had also launched a massive crusade against them, decimating their numbers.
"Your mother was inspiring, brilliant, and kind. She had such an
aura about her that it didn’t take much for Sasuke and I to become staunch
supporters of her cause. We assisted her as best we could, and in the end, the
three of us succeeded in opening the vault. Inside, we found two items. The
first was a collection of scriptures, written in ancient Albavitrean. I’ll tell
you, it was like opening the lid of Pandora's box. They spoke of the ancient
war between angels and the Albavitreans, as well as the seal on the clocks that
was supposedly set to break after two millennia."
"What was the second item?" Eden asked.
Edgar chuckled. "It's funny you ask that, Eden, because the second
item was you."
Eden froze. "Me?"
"In the center of the room stood an incubation device – alien
technology, certainly nothing that should have existed 2000 years ago. In the center
of it, floating within a capsule, was a tiny baby girl suspended in cryostasis."
"What?!" Vance shouted. "And that was Eden? How is that
even possible?!"
"I don’t know." Edgar scratched his chin. "Either way,
according to the scripture, the first child of God – His son – caused the first
Collapsing 2000 years ago, which broke down many of the barriers between dimensions
and changed the universe forever. She is God’s second child – His Daughter."
Eden listened with wide eyes. "And those scriptures...did they say
anything about what my purpose was?"
"They might have," Edgar said darkly, "but we never got
to read all of them. After we uncovered the artifacts, Zeigfried made his move,
along with Grayson. Zeigfried wanted Victoria's knowledge, while Grayson lusted
for Victoria herself. In the end, Sasuke’s brother Tao helped Victoria, Sasuke
and I to flee with the embryo. Victoria relocated us to Pittsburgh, and for the
first few months of our new lives, the three of us shared an apartment in the city."
"And me?" Eden asked eagerly. "What did you do with me?"
"Victoria was insistent that you be allowed to grow up as a normal,
healthy girl, at least for the duration of your childhood. She was also worried
about what would happen if your psynergy reacted with hers – that of an unholy
being. Eden, all she ever wanted for you was peace. I had become attached to you,
but I also felt like I wouldn’t be able to keep you properly safe – so we decided
to entrust you into normal Earthling parents we could trust. I realized in retrospect
that this may have caused you great pain, so please accept my sincerest, most sorrowful
apologies."
"No..." Eden shook her head as she whispered, trying to hold the
tears back as they began to squeeze through the corners of her eyes. "Edgar,
I appreciate what you all did...so much. I was lucky...my parents really were
sweet, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. But they died...both of
them, in a car crash. Just one year ago."
Edgar’s lips sagged. "I’m deeply sorry to hear that."
"Eden..." Vance put an arm on her shoulder. "Remember,
you aren’t alone anymore."
For the first time, Edgar looked distressed, and he ran his dirty fingers
through his white hair. "How old are you now, Vance?"
"17," he replied.
"So it's almost time," Edgar mumbled to himself. "What am
I going to tell Wendy? Things weren't supposed to turn out this way...we underestimated
Grayson..."
"What did he do?" Vance asked. "Why did he hate my
mother so much?"
"He hates everyone," Edgar said, shivering. "He seems to
live only to destroy. He infiltrates, and then crumbles organizations from within,
just like he did with our archaeology group and Zexaron. We thought he was on our
side for so long...only to find out that it had all been a horrifically well-played
ruse.
"The last time I spoke to Victoria, she said she was going to confront
him and his Dark Zodiacs once and for all – in the hopes of coming to some sort
of understanding, so they might be able to work together. That was the last time
I ever heard from her. He’d threatened her family, you included, Vance, so I
can only imagine how distraught she was. But Victoria was the strongest person
I’ve ever known...I have a hard time believing Grayson could actually defeat
her in a fair fight."
"But did he really kill her?" Vance asked. "Are you sure
she’s actually dead?"
"I haven’t heard from her in four years," Edgar replied
sadly. "Have you? She loved you more than anything, Vance. She would never
completely abandon you like this."
Vance grit his teeth, and his aura flared. "He’s going to pay for this...I
need to get back there and help Averyl!"
"Wait," Edgar said. "Before you get hasty, there’s more
you must know. We never found conclusive proof, but we suspect that the Space-Time
Continuum lies within Earth. When the Daughter collects the clocks and activates
them, the doorway to the Space-Time Continuum, and possibly heaven itself, should
open. All of this was in a language that only Albavitreans could read, so Victoria
was the first to discover it."
"I have to give up my life to open it," Eden said. "That's
what the Dark Zodiacs said. Everyone wants to use me for that..."
"This is bullshit." Vance violently punched the table. "Eden
shouldn’t have to give her life up for anyone."
Eden looked down sadly. "But that's the selfish way to think about
it. I mean, honestly, what if I could save millions of people? How much is my life
really worth?"
"What kind of a God would do that?" Vance asked. "What
God would want his own daughter to suffer?"
"I don't know," Edgar sighed. "According to some people,
God does everything for a reason. I'd like to believe that. I’d like to believe
that God is all-knowing and benevolent. I'd also like to believe that we go to a
good place when we die. Some call psynergy, technology, and life itself a miracle
of God...if you look at everything from a positive point of view, it could seem
like he indeed continues to bless his people with new experiences. But if you
look at it from another...it also seems like deranged torture concocted by the
ultimate sadist."
Next: A Dream Distorted
