Chereads / The Six Guns: The Library / Chapter 55 - Chapter Fifty-Five: Catalyst

Chapter 55 - Chapter Fifty-Five: Catalyst

"There's something I need to tell you, Silas." Gaia says. Silas opens his eyes and looks around, but he only sees an infinite black void around him. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't see where Gaia's voice was coming from, what was around him, nor himself. "It's important" Gaia says again. "You see, this is inside of your mind. I can not bring you to Valhalla because you do not belong. This... me you're hearing is the last of my dying consciousness inside yourself."

"Dying consciousness?" Silas asks. "Is this like... what dad wrote about in his book? Are you the goddess from the other side of the Theist Gate, Gaia?"

"The very same." Gaia says. "For millennia, I have been broken apart. The last shard of myself, as I'm dying, is inside of you."

"Dying?" Silas asks. "Gaia is... dying?"

"It might be more accurate to say I'm already dead." Gaia adds. "I have one last message for you, and not much time. The last of my strength is going into fixing this mess the very best I can and saving you. In turn, I want you to carry something for me. A responsibility. Call it a favor for a favor."

"Well, I am not sure how I could turn it down." Silas responds. "I'm not even sure what's going on, actually. I was sealing an Endo-Stream and suddenly my mind had gone blank."

"I can't answer all of your questions." Gaia says. "Take this knowledge with you and I will do my part in stopping you from losing control. You see, my brother Chronos has long since been hosted within you. I can see now that he attempted to gain control over you. For what reason, I don't know. However, I can give you the strength to resist. In addition, I want to leave with a dying message. Listen closely and do not interrupt. You are not a human. Your parents are no longer human either. Within the time of their last visit to Valhalla, I had to take measure to guarantee their survival. They had come to a grave position and the only way I could think of to save their lives was make them something just outside of human. It may seem rude of me, but I had to make them a catalyst of something that has a natural affinity for massive amounts of endo. You can call this existence of theirs the "catalyst."

"Catalyst of what?" Silas asks.

"Shut up." Gaia says. "Do not interrupt." Silas almost said "Sorry" but stopped himself just in time. "This brings me to you" Gaia continues. "There's only one lifeform I could think of that was befitting this situation, and to complete it, Siran and Zia had to create it again, just like in their original life. I had made them the catalyst to create you, a Laibah. You are no human, you are a Laibah. A humanoid fox lifeform that shares in all physical traits with a human, aside from having the natural affinity for endo and an inherited affinity for shapeshifting magic. Unlike the humans you stand next to, you are able to shapeshift and have fox forms as the origination of Laibah are from a foxlike beast, Ishmael. You are the start of something new. A rebirth of a race that long went extinct in this world. Laibah genes are dominant genes as I had designed them to be. If you mate with a human, the result will create a full-blooded Laibah rather than a half creature. This is me trying to repay your parents for what they've done for me, and me trying to make up what I've done to them. You are now the first Laibah to have existed in thousands of years, and you will not be the last. I have given unto your mother the souls of their original offspring. One day, I hope they will make good use of that. The responsibility I bestow unto you is to be what you were born to be, and be the leader of this new generation of Laibah once they finally come forth. With this, I can finally rest in peace."

Silas was stunned. He tried to take all of the information in at once, but it was too much to handle. "So the reason I could shapeshift as a kid?"

"That is indeed because you are a Laibah." Gaia answers.

"A-a-and... and my parents?" Silas asks.

"Both are God Slayers." Gaia answers. "With the same affinities as a Laibah, making them the catalyst to recreating your race. This has been in the works ever since the Naris Catastrophe. Only certain kinds of lifeforms can handle shapeshifting magic without immediate death."

"G-G-God Slayers?" Silas asks. "What is that exactly? I've heard it before..."

"A lifeform created to destroy gods, or trained to counter gods as they invade your world." Gaia adds. "I have bestowed unto Siran, to the best of my abilities, his original power. To Zia, I have made her my replacement. All of the essence of the god of nature, without the roles or limitations of a god. She is a new God Slayer."

"I was told I was a new God Slayer before too." Silas says.

"You have potential." Gaia says. "But your role isn't to protect the world from gods. It's to herald in your race safely and protect them."

"How do I do that?" Silas asks. "How do I even get out of here? Wherever this is..."

"By waking up." Gaia says.

Suddenly, Gaia's voice goes away as the black void washes away into a gray void. Now, Silas could see his body as he awoke into another place within his own mind. He was kneeling on a dark gray floor, surrounded by slightly less gray atmosphere. When he looked up, he saw that copy of himself once more. It looked just like him, but monochromatic and looked as if it were made out of solid glass with cracks all throughout. The glass copy stands above him with a rather unamused expression. This time, the copy wasn't mimicking his every move. "What did that bitch do?" he asks in a rumbling voice.

Silas slowly stands up, then asks "And who are you?"

"I am Chronos." the copy says. "I can feel my pathetic little sister around here. But now that you've seemingly woken up, it seems I can no longer sense her. I can only assume she's finally died and moved on. So tell me-" Chronos then lifts Silas by the collar of his shirt, "What did she tell you?"

"Not... enough... apparently." Silas says as he struggles.

"Then how are you awake!?" Chronos asks as he violently throws Silas across the ground.

"I don't understand what's going on here..." Silas says as he picks himself up. "But I'm willing to assume you're what's been messing with my head all these years?"

Chronos walks over and kicks Silas in the stomach so hard that he skids across the floor. "That's right!" he says as he kicks.

"All those sleepless nights, the whispering..." Silas asks. "The mumbling, we crazy dreams... the... t-the murder?"

"You have me to thank for it all." Chronos says as he stands over Silas and outstretches his arms. "I made you strong. I made you smart. When someone tried to kill you, I made them disappear. You'd be nothing without me. However, I've gained enough from you. It's about time you moved aside and let me take the wheel."

"You made me..." Silas says as he gets up, "kill people. When I was too young to even know what death was. You made me murder someone!? You think I'd be grateful!?" Silas throws a punch at Chronos' face and sends him flying backwards.

"So you won't go away so easily, huh?" Chronos asks as he gets up. Chronos summons endo from the surrounding area and draws it into himself. He creates several objects out of digital magic and envelopes them in reactive endo. These objects were like arcs sticking out of the ground that would move as if they were breathing. They shone with a white light as reactive endo covers them. With a simple movement of his hand, the arcs distort and throw themselves like giant blades at Silas. The arcs were giant and unable to be dodged. Silas crosses his arms and tries to block with as much buff magic that he thought he could conjure. However, just as he got prepared for the attack, Chronos appear behind him as if he teleported. Chronos grabbed Silas by the back of his shirt and threw him against the ground with enough force to cause Silas to bounce. Silas felt extreme amounts of pain all over his body and felt as if he were about to both vomit and pass out, but no blood and no vomit would come out, since they were inside his mind. Silas lost focus for a second and saw the giant arcs coming for him as he was suspended in the air.

Suddenly, everything around him stopped as if he stopped time. "You have potential" Gaia's voice rings in his mind. "You have no maximum capacity" Loki's voice rings in his mind. Silas draws in large amounts of endo, and does his best to focus. While still suspended, time starts to slowly move again as reactive endo surrounds his hand and he cuts the flying arcs in half with his hand. Silas lands on his other hand and pushes himself off of the ground and stands on his feet. Chronos reaches for Silas again, however he's met with a large force from a distortion punch from Silas. The punch sent Chronos flying backwards. The magic Silas was using felt unreal to him. He had only recently learned to use these sorts of spells alongside Dana and Carl, but now he felt like he had a lot more endo and proficiency. Silas slowly walks towards Chronos as his right arm is outstretched, slowly enveloping in pure black smoke-like endo. Even though there was plenty of distance between he and Chronos, he threw another punch and a black fist made of endo flew at Chronos.

The fist his the ground, causing a rumble and Chronos appeared behind Silas. "Maybe it was my fault," Chronos says as he raises the back of his hand, "for allowing you to draw the endo in from that nearby stream. However, what I didn't account for was that some of our knowledge managed to actually stick with a human..."

Chronos swings his had at Silas, but he's suddenly met with a great force to the side of his own head instead. Silas' illusion spell went away as the real Silas stood next to Chronos as he lay on the ground. "That's where you're mistaken. I'm no human." Silas says. The endo around Silas forms a swirl almost like a serpent that moved as Silas moved his arm. Silas throws another punch at Chronos and Chronos cuts through the endo with reactive endo.

"To think that there would be another who learned the art of pure endo control." Chronos say with an annoyed face. "I haven't seen something that vile and useless since that shitty snake thing Gaia made, Naris." Chronos distorts the world around them. The ground starts crumbling and tilting as Chronos walks upside down on a piece of the ground that is now above Silas. Black arcs form all around them that start as pure endo and slowly refine into glowing white arcs of pure reactive endo. "Block this one, kid."

Not sure where to run, Silas does the only thing he can think of to do. He prepares reactive endo of his own around both of his arms and charges right at Chronos. Chronos vanishes by the time Silas reaches him, and one of the arcs fly at Silas. Silas blocks with his arms still covered in reactive endo, but the impact still hits him and causes him to fly into another arc which hits him in the back. The arc that struck his back caused him shocking and immense burning pain at the same time as he fell to the ground below him. Another arc flew at Silas, but Silas rolled under it just in time. The ground below him shattered and crumbled as the arc hit, causing him to fall, except Silas fell upwards to the ground above him this time, at Chronos' feet. The last two arcs flew at the same time and Silas grabbed Chronos' feet. "I'm taking you with me!" Silas yells.

Chronos lets out a "Tch" as he simply vanishes from Silas' grasps. In desperation, Silas gathered all the endo he could in time for the arcs to hit and got between the two arcs. Trying to overpower Chronos, Silas began using all of the endo he could conjure to gain control over Chronos' own reactive arcs. The two arcs stop in front of Chronos, and Chronos begins pushing back. The two fight over control over the reactive endo arcs, using sheer willpower and limitless endo to gain the advantage. However, as time passed, Silas slowly gained the upper hand. Silas eventually gained full control over the arcs and grabbed them from the air. Chronos vanished again as Silas was about to throw them, but Silas anticipated it. Silas waited for Chronos to appear behind himself, and threw one with his left hand right across Chronos' face like a slap. Chronos' head looked up like it ricocheted off of the reactive arc, as the second arc came down on top of him like a giant hammer. Chronos was slammed into the ground that shattered beneath him as the impact destroyed yet another piece of the ground. Chronos fell onto another piece of ground below them and Silas jumped down to where Chronos was. The cracks in Chronos grew visibly much larger as he lay on the ground. Chronos slowly turns his head to look at Silas. "It may have only been a single shard of me, but you've bested me..." Chronos says in an impressed yet disappointed tone. The cracks slowly grow as he talks. "If only you hadn't woken up. You and Lokin would have made great puppets."

"Loki!?" Silas asks. "What about Loki!? Where is he!? What did you do to him!?" Chronos simply answers by smiling, before the cracks suddenly expand so fast that Chronos seems to shatter into thousands of tiny pieces. All of the pieces disappear into Silas as the gray world around him starts to fade. The faint white light in Silas' eyes start to dim as he comes back to the real world. Dana, Carl, Athena and Thor were standing around nervously as Silas was still stuck in a charging pose without moving. The moment a single part of his body moves as Silas tries to relax his body, Dana and Carl ask in a hurry.

"What happened!?" Dana asks.

"Are you okay!?" Carl asks. "You suddnely lost control!"

"We were worried sick about you!" Dana says. "What happened to you? Do you need a break?"

"Kid..." Athena says as she approaches. Thor had his hand fixed by bending the fingers back into the correct position, but he kept his right hand elevated and refused to move it as the two of them walk towards Silas. "What did those two do to you? Are you okay?"

"We were worried we might not meet again." Thor says.

Thinking over all of the things that just happened, Silas didn't have any idea where to begin. "Should we move on to another stream?" Silas asks nervously.