Arkhelios Adventures
"Xexys! You're too late, I already found her! Just give up already!" Lukas descended from the sky triumphantly, laughing at the Nightmare Demon below them. "It wasn't easy, but I guess I'm just that good."
It had taken a while, but Lukas had found the Timelady of Ticktop tucked safely away in a current of time. It looked like she had sealed herself away from Xexys' grasp when she saw the other defenses of Jubilant Accosts fall. If she had been dead, the search would have been considerably harder, as that was Izanami's realm, but Rani had been crafty. Whatever Xexys was using of Ticktop's magic, it had barely scratched the surface of what was possible. He couldn't use it to hunt Rani down; she had been trained to be one of the best of her people and Xexys couldn't compete.
After "borrowing" a staff to complete the summoning of the Timelady, Lukas felt like showing off a little. They knew that the Demon of Nightmares was nearby, watching them, so why not call him out?
Xexys appeared in an instant, wielding an ancient sword. Apparently, the demon had been following Lukas' efforts, hoping to derail any progress they made.
"It matters not, Life god," Xexys sneered. He held the sword of the Watcher tight in his hands, waiting for the opportunity to strike. He'd never faced Life or Death in battle before, but he imagined that it was similar to fighting that assassin he'd tamed. Coby respected his place in the order of Jubilant Accosts. Lukas, on the other hand, was going to be more difficult to convince to obey.
"I summon the Timelady Rani Bachelor of Ticktop! You have abandoned your post and your sworn duty to protect the kingdom of Jubilant Accosts. I, Lukas Lane, protector of Life, call upon you to awaken once more and resume the sacred duties that were assigned to you."
Lukas scowled when the Timelady didn't immediately appear before them. Ancient medieval creatures were evidently stubborn. There were very few living things that could resist a summons from their god, Timeladies included. Lukas focused on the faint hum they could feel within the folds of time, picturing the last face they remembered the Timelady having.
"Rani, come forth. I command you."
Time wasn't part of the duties of Life, but Rani was alive even if she was hidden away. Part of why their ex-girlfriend, Hailee, had been so useful to have around was her limited ability to see the streams of time. All other safeguards of time fell to the Guardians of Time in one realm and to the Ticktop Lords and Ladies of Time in Jubilant Accosts. Lukas had done their part by alerting the Timelady that her presence was needed, now it was time for Rani to answer their call.
"My lord, Lukas, forgive me. I didn't recognize you at first. I feared that your call was a trick of the demon. I am here now, ready to serve."
A blonde woman kneeled before the deity. She was exactly as they remembered her centuries ago when they had resealed the realm with the Grim Reaper at the time. Rani may not have seen them, hidden behind the portal, but Lukas had insisted on seeing someone from a country as mysterious as Ticktop.
Lukas tried to hide their relief that they had correctly found Rani. They had been about ninety nine percent certain that they knew what they were doing and that they could rely on their powers to be accurate. They may not be able to shift into their preferred form, but at least they'd summoned a living, breathing Timelady with an ease they hoped frightened Xexys.
"Timelady, take back your power from the clutches of this demon! He's been abusing the realm of Time to strengthen his nightmares. This is your sacred duty and you've abandoned it for centuries!"
"Yes, my lord. Please understand, I had to abandon my post. After Absydee disappeared, and the rest of the reapers eventually fell, the Dream Guardian was murdered by an invasion lead by Tredony's assassin. I didn't have the resources to fight them all on my own, so I hid until you or Lord Izanami's representative appeared again. It has been a very long time since you last checked in on us."
"I was in a centuries long coma, trying to reincarnate," Lukas replied, their voice cold. They didn't need to be lectured by a subordinate about how to do their job. "I'm here now. Who the hell is Absydee and what happened to the reapers?"
"Now's not exactly the best time to catch up," Rani answered, looking anxiously over her shoulder at the demon nearby. "Though, I am compelled to answer you despite our guest. Absydee was the head of the reaper team in our realm. She disappeared the same day that our last king died. The reapers held on for some time without her, but someone came for them a few centuries ago. They are all no more. Has no one made you aware of this situation?"
Lukas ground their teeth, trying not to take out their anger on the Timelady they needed on their side.
"Again, coma. Reincarnation. I was busy. How did you manage to lose the head reaper? Izanami would have chosen the best to serve here. I wasn't created until after he'd staffed this realm with my predecessor, so I didn't know the reaper team personally. What exactly happened to them? I've never seen an entire team wiped out before."
"But you have, Life god," Xexys cackled. "Your sister and her peers were lost, or have you forgotten? The reapers here died in exactly the same way. I heard their screams myself. They begged for your Death god."
Lukas wasn't about to take the bait that Xexys was dangling before them. Some individual reapers, like their sister had been killed, but an entire team had never been lost before, and certainly not centuries after losing their leader.
And they would never beg for Izanami's help either. Izanami was incredibly hands off while serving as the Grim Reaper, and had always made his disinterest in management clear. The reapers should have known that Death would never come to save them; he'd let his own son go up against a cult of witches entirely on his own.
"Rani, I'm not going to ask again," they stated, glaring at the Timelady. "I don't need excuses, I need the realm of Time in the hands of its guardian. Now."
In an instant, Lukas felt the currents of Time swirl around them, following the sweeping motion of Rani's arms. Seconds, centuries, they all passed by, trailing snippets of life before the god's eyes.
The rise of the Jacobean church at the cost of all other faiths.
Two soulmates torn apart by the laws of the Proxy, and separated by this plague.
King Apophis Xechasménaeizam. The last king whose death apparently coincides with the team leader of the missing reaper team's disappearance. His name was marked with a "burning soul", was Hailee right that it might be connected to the reapers? To Riley?
No, I can't make that assumption just yet. Too much is at stake if I'm wrong. Still, there is something about this king that I need to discover. He seems to be somehow tied to all that's wrong with Jubilant Accosts.
And Izanami?
"You must know that there will be no returning once this is done. I trust you with this mission, but I need to know if you think you can handle it. I can send someone else if need be."
"No need, I've been preparing for this assignment for some time. To lead this new team of reapers in a new realm is an honour. Xexys doesn't frighten me and I have few attachments in this realm. I'm ready to do this. And this isn't goodbye forever. We can always catch up when you come to maintain the seal between realms. Plus, I'll have the rest of the reapers you've selected to keep me company. I'll be fine."
"Of course. I'm sure that you'll do an adequate job. Remember, you will be one of the only levels of protection this realm has. Its survival depends in part on you."
Oh Izanami, you sentimental idiot. She's the best you could pick? At least I know what this Absydee looks like now. That eye of hers is hard to forget.
"I wish you were dead! I want you to be dead! I don't want to share any realm with you, even if it means living in fucking Jubilant Accosts! You've already ruined any chance of happiness that I had, so piss off and leave me alone! Just leave me alone! We've done our job, so fucking leave!"
What a strange memory to pop up now, especially one that took place at the portal to this realm. I need to explore this further. This must mean something.
Lukas opened their eyes and saw the magic Rani had pulled, pooled beside them.
"This is it? This is what you need?"
When Rani nodded, Lukas began the work of binding the magic to the Timelady it belonged to. It was easy to reattach, as it had always belonged to Rani. Xexys had twisted it over the years, stretching it to suit his whims, but that was easy enough to fix. Lukas hadn't been the deity of Life when Jubilant Accosts had been sealed away, but it was their job now, and the magic of the realm couldn't help but bend to their will.
"This is my realm! I will not let you have it! Your predecessor became a demon, just as I am, while you are mortal created. You're as weak as the mortals here!"
Xexys raised his sword and rushed towards the deity. The assassin of Tredony had surrendered to this blade and so would this would be god. Xexys could remember the first Life deity and the power they had once wielded. This god had been created from mortals and had already reincarnated twice before. Xexys was certain that he could cause an third reincarnation, one that would buy him more time to defend his realm from the gods.
But Lukas had been prepared for the attack and easily knocked the demon to the ground with their staff.
"Those mortals I came from are the best swordsmen in the afterlife," Lukas laughed. "They taught me everything they've ever known about swordsmanship. I've fought wars against demons stronger than you. You're a joke without your little gimmick, and once I end this plague of yours, you'll be stuck in here with a proper defense against you. I'm not as easy of a target as I used to be."
Rani stared in awe at the power Lukas was sending to her. Her mind slowly began to remember all the laws of time and the delicate threads holding together the universe. Her fingers relearned the specific motions needed to open a window in time and the way to halt the flow of time altogether. The long centuries of hiding, powerless to defend herself faded away. She was a Timelady of Ticktop and she had forgotten herself after the destruction of her people, after the destruction of her colleagues defending this realm. She had lost so much over the years, but it was in her power to take back what was hers.
Xexys scowled at the Timelady's transformation. It had been hard work to steal the reins of the realm of Time, but there hadn't been a god there when he'd done it. That Tredonian assassin was still haunting his own realm at the moment, and Xexys' own son was a prisoner there. He was at a disadvantage, and he was smart enough to know when to retreat.
"So long, Life god. You won't always be so well defended, and no one can stay out of the realm of dreams forever. We will meet again with a very different outcome."
Rani gasped as Xexys vanished from sight, astounded that the demon had given up so quickly. The Xexys she remembered had destroyed everything she'd ever loved in the blink of an eye. Well, losing Absydee had been the true beginning of the end of Jubilant Accosts' defenders, but everything had begun to snowball from there.
"Thank god he left," Lukas sighed, stretching the arm holding the very heavy staff. "I'd hate to actually have to use this thing. I had to steal this from a museum and no one's used it in centuries. It's been awhile since I had to duel with a staff. I don't suppose that you have much practice with one, right?"
Rani nodded her head solemnly.
"My people were peaceful, God of Life. We manipulated time in our defense, though I have completed some training with a sword."
"Call me Lukas. We're going to be working pretty closely for the next while, and it gets annoying hearing my title over and over in every conversation I have. You can catch me up on everything that I've missed here though. Starting with the first defense to fall here. I take it that was the reapers?"
Rani lowered her eyes. Dwelling on unpleasant memories was never easy, but her superior had commanded her to do so. She had always been fond of the reapers, especially Absydee. They had had a lot of fun together.
"Yes. When the king was killed on a hunt, Absydee was sent to reap him. No one knows what took place, just that neither of their essences were recovered, and the reapers found a strange notation beside the king's name on her reaping list."
"Yes, this burning soul business," Lukas said. "Neither of their souls were found in the afterlife? I know Apophis' was never found, but the reaper's too?"
"So the other reapers said. They were lost without their leader, and couldn't travel back to their home realm to ask Death about it. Death never came back to reseal the realm either, just his associates, so they had no instructions. Later, when they were lost as well, their souls were never seen again."
"Like RIley and the others. So this Absydee could have been killed first, and her coworkers were killed centuries later? That doesn't sound right. What happened to her if the king's soul supposedly reincarnated?"
"My people will reincarnate in a way when we are faced with death," Rani suggested, hoping to be helpful. "We generate a new face and body. The Jacobeans called us shapeshifters and sinners because of it, but it's what's natural for us. Perhaps there is something in the nature of a reaper that can explain this."
Lukas shook their head, disappointing Rani.
"No, reapers have little connection to life. They can't change their form in my realm. They rely on Death's power only. Perhaps if this soul truly was 'burning' it might have consumed the reaper trying to collect it. But how did this dead soul get the power to reenter my realm? Life and Death are incompatible. There's no way for those two realms to combine at all, let alone in one soul."
"I wish you were dead! I want you to be dead! I don't want to share any realm with you, even if it means living in fucking Jubilant Accosts!"
Lukas paled as they remembered the glimpse of their past while handling Rani's power.
"Oh, shit. I think I may...but how would she...I need to confirm something. Something important. Rani, I need you to reestablish yourself in this realm. Find a place to practice using your abilities again, and wait for me to return. There's a group of teens who are from Tredony, hoping to help us win back this realm. We need to assist them, and figure out how we're going to replace a trained reaper team and a Dream Guardian. I don't know what cost the other reapers their lives, but I have a sneaking suspicion about what may have happened to their leader. There's only one place where Life and Death combine. I just need to understand what she did. I'll come find you when I know."
Lukas vanished just as quickly as Xexys had, leaving Rani alone in a realm she barely recognized. Though for the first time in centuries, Rani had hope for the future. Someone with power had come to save the realm she had failed to defend and maybe things could go back to the way they were supposed to be. If this deity needed her be ready to fight against Xexys, then that was exactly what she was going to do.