"A Mora's instinct is to kill. It would have had a very difficult time staying its hand. Therefore, it was probably given an order to prioritize utmost secrecy in its attempt to hurt you. This utmost secrecy – even to the possibility of failing to remove you, Elwin – probably attests to the likelihood that whichever greater plan they're preparing is more important than the risk they see from you or your father's work. One interpretation is that they do not consider you capable of reforging those Epitomic Forms. Another, and more dire interpretation, is that they believe you can reforge them, but not as fast as they can put their plan into motion, or that their plan is of such great and malevolent import that it even triumphs over the risk you pose to their existence."
"Then our answer depends upon how much risk I – and everyone here poses – in being able to reforge the Epitomic Forms," Elwin nodded, a flurry of calculations flying in his head, Isaac and Katherine leaning in to him. "Professor, do you think that using the Epitomic Forms is our sole chance of defeating Mahanai and his servants? You managed to defeat the Mora in the lost city without those Forms, after all. Maybe that's why they're downplaying its importance."
"There are already ways to defeat Mahanai's forces, but it is near-impossible for the unprepared and untrained, and defeating Mahanai for good... that is something which had escaped my purview, for we cannot defeat him while he remains in the Abyss," she answered. "But provided the Epitomic Forms can be used to prevail against him, to alter the rules of the cosmos so that we can erase his existence forever – you have brought to me, brought to us, a knowledge and hope that emerges perhaps once in a millennium!"
Elwin nodded in return, lips parting in renewed confidence and mirth. It seemed like clouds were giving way to the azure in his head at last. But out of the corner of his eye, he could see Isaac tremoring with cold sweat.
"That's good and all but... we're still so far away from reforging the Forms..." stuttered Isaac. "And professor, you said... you said it's near-impossible for us to defeat Mahanai's servants. What if we – what if from now on – we're hunted and driven to –"
Professor Aionia put her hand upon his trembling shoulder. A measure of radiant warmth flowed into him. "It is alright to be concerned, Isaac. It is normal, ordinary even, to feel fear in the face of such harrowing beings. But we must let it pass over us and never let it steer our thoughts. In order for us to prevail and battle against the forces of Mahanai, we must regard them with our eyes and head unclouded. Understood?"
"Okay..." Isaac inhaled, letting her hand rest for a while before breathing out. He pulled away from Professor Aionia's assurance. "Whew, okay. Sorry I had to interrupt. I'm – I'm ready to listen more. I won't be afraid."
"What makes Mahanai's servants so powerful compared to us, professor? Compared to you?" asked Mirai. "We've seen Hûnbaba battle against that Mora. Is it because they regenerate their flesh?"
"Correct. It is true that the physical prowess of all Anghras are remarkable. They can restore their wounds and flesh in the blink of an eye, and regenerate large portions of their body in a matter of minutes. The only way to vanquish them is by destroying their Kaha, which is pooled in their 'heart' – and this is not an easy task for the untrained."
"So Elwin was right in attempting to go for the Mora's heart back then!" Katherine exclaimed. "But... why didn't it work?"
"That's because some Anghras possess more than one heart."
"More than one?" commented Isaac, grimacing.
"A Mora typically possesses only a single heart. It was highly unusual that the Mora you faced had two. We surmise this is why it was able to maintain its transformations impeccably on par with its seniors."
"Seniors?" Elwin perked up his ears. "There are more to the Anghras than just Mora?"
Professor Aionia nodded. "Regrettably. A Mora is on the lowest rung within the hierarchy of the King of All Ends. There are beings more powerful above them," she stopped, intending not to darken the light of day further for her Artens.
"Which ones?" Isaac trembled.
Professor Aionia halted in her tracks. A maelstrom of opposing considerations flooded her mind.
"Please, professor, you must tell us. We've heard about almost everything already. Surely it can't get worse than that!" pleaded Katherine.
The Master of Light hesitated. Surely the knowledge she could divulge would strike terror and despair into her Artens. But was it a wise choice to leave a portion of the painting unfinished? She had planned to inoculate them from surprises by revealing knowledge step by step, when they were ready to hear it. They were still too young. But in the light of such wanton invasion of Mahanai into the heart of Aeternitas, the present was no longer the same; time was ticking, the dice had been thrown.
She allowed them to hear.
"...When a Mora consumes the Kaha of several hundred people, they metamorphosize into a higher being. They call themselves Daevas – meaning divine – once a holy word on our tongue, twisted by them in their association with malevolence. When a Mora undergoes ascension, it becomes what we call a Daeva."
Elwin inquired immediately. "And these accursed Daevas –"
And as soon as he uttered 'accursed Daevas', it appeared as if something came between them and the Sun, and the forest-garden around them seemed to dim. Daylight grew thin, shadows burst forth from their hiding places to extend in long sinuous streaks, and all the chorus of birds shut out into silence. Elwin found Professor Aionia's voice grow thin and her physical self vanish into smoke, his kismets dissolve around him, and found himself bewildered, tracking the emerging forms of faceless beings beyond the trees mightier than any of his imaginations. All around him were the crunching of skulls, the trees overgrown vines of thorns, the sky was drowned in a color of a wound with a single massive eye opening into existence in a hideous squelch, gazing into Elwin with a single question.
"PRETENDER TO OUR FLESH, YOU DARE TARNISH OUR HOLY NAME?"
Elwin stumbled backwards upon a protruding branch, and scrambled to flee from the colossal eye in the sky – turning slowly in its sheathed sky-sockets to track his desperate attempt at escape – but the vines and sinews of trees ensnared his foot and coiled around his legs, some struck his belly and head with the force like a punch from Ursus, and were bringing him down, down into the murky waters to drown him –
"BANISH THYSELF!" rang Professor Aionia's clarion command like a thunderclap, disintegrating the horrific vision with a blinding flash of light.
When Elwin blinked and opened his eye, he felt the radiance of the Sun upon his face again, hearing the voices of Isaac, Katherine, Mirai, and Professor Aionia all clamoring for his name. He found himself presently in the arms of his kismets and his Tanaar.
"Elwin, Elwin, can you breathe?" she shouted, shaking him to his proper senses. Elwin sputtered in unintelligible grunts and deep inhalations, looking wildly around him; the forest was whole. He was still on the gardened footpath, in almost the same spot. He must have passed out and collapsed.
"Breathe deep, and drink," Professor Aionia commanded, drawing out a thin rivulet of water from the air. Elwin did as he was told, cold sweat upon his brow. It was only when he could muster a gulp that Professor Aionia extinguished her Quan, which had come alive the moment Elwin fell.
"Thank you for saving him, oh the FOUNDERS, I thought –"
"Isaac, a moment," interrupted Professor Aionia, reclining Elwin upon a bench by the footpath some way off, undoing the fabric upon his left shoulder. His scar was streaked with thin violet tendrils, surfacing to his skin and evaporating away in purple dust. "What was it? What did you see?" she asked him, peering into him with her hand upon his wrist.
Elwin heaved in large breaths.
"Did you see an eye?"
Elwin nodded fearfully. It all happened so suddenly that he was still unsure whether he was in the nightmare still or the waking world.
Professor Aionia grit her teeth.
"What did it say?"
"It – it said – pretender –"
"Pretender?"
"Ye – yes..."
"That you were?"
Elwin nodded profusely.
"What else did it say?"
"It said... I dared – to tarnish – their holy name..."
"Was that all?"
Elwin racked his head for anything else. But that was it. He nodded, his eye on his Tanaar's own.
Professor Aionia let out a long sigh, leaning onto her staff, letting him catch his breath. A good five minutes transpired with the kismets frozen in their places. She looked up at last.
"Isaac, Katherine, Mirai, we will adjourn our revelations here. Please help Elwin back to his bedchamber. We will continue again tomorrow morning."
"Okay," they said in unison, helping Elwin to his feet and back to his pinnacle bedchamber about a fifteen-minute limp away.
Professor Aionia ladled the air with her spellsong and flew down into the valley, her cape of white billowing in her flight.
* * *
"Lesser Daevas? So there must be bigger – I mean, Greater Daevas?"
"Hang on, Katherine, that's not the point here," interjected Mirai. "So Elwin's wound was the work of a Daeva itself?"
"I've deduced it so," Professor Aionia answered, facing the seated kismets in the bedchamber in the light of the morning sun, the day after. Elwin was still groggy, his mind hazy from clouded dreams. Katherine handed him a cup of warm chamomile.
"Not the Mora?" Elwin croaked, quenching his parched lips.
"No. The obsidian blade that gave you your shoulder wound didn't belong to the Mora, nor did it produce it. It was instead given by a Daeva, one of a Lesser being, probably from a part of its body," explained Professor Aionia. "The blade evaporated away underground before we could analyze it. But your condition yesterday helped me uncover the facts. It is a veritable fortune that no disaster came to befall you yesterday."
"What would have happened if I –"
"An invasion of your Kaha by a fragment of the Daeva. At best, you would have gone into another coma. At the worst, your Kaha could have been seized by the fragment of the Daeva, and you would have perished."
"A Daeva could do that to Elwin? But there are no Daevas nearby, right professor? Does that mean it can even act through distance?" Isaac gestured wildly, exasperated.
"No, it could not have done it without marking itself into Elwin's wound," Professor Aionia answered firmly. "Elwin, could you show your scar to your friends?"
Elwin finessed away his fabric and slid it down, showing them the scar.
"When you were stabbed by the obsidian knife, it likely contaminated your body with a fragment of the Daeva's cursed will. When Chancellor Concordia purified the miasma and the poison two months ago, its influence must have gone away. But I surmise a very small fraction of it had managed to latch onto the ORI surrounding your scar, because the miasma spent an extended time in your body."
"You couldn't detect it, professor?"
"No. Just as I cannot detect the foul presence of Mahanai's servants when they are cloaked as someone else, I cannot detect the foul presence of their traces within someone, unless they decide to manifest. The latter is what happened yesterday."
"These Daevas..." Katherine muttered, crumpling the sheets under her fingers.
"So is Elwin safe now?" Isaac leaned in, concerned. "Are the Daeva's traces gone?"
"Yes. I banished its manifestation. From its strength – or lack thereof – it must have been the only and final traces left with Elwin."
"But how did it manifest? Like – if it was inside Elwin's body –"
"Not in Elwin's body, rather attached dormant to his. More accurately speaking, inhabiting the same weaves of ORI that emanate from his body," she clarified.
"Right... but it could've jumped out at any time and seized Elwin in the mind, right?"
"Not likely, because Elwin's Kaha was too strong and the Daeva's traces were too weak. I believe Elwin's particular words must have flared the remainder of its will into awakening – perhaps at what it considered an insult to its status."
Professor Aionia said the traces of the Daeva were 'too weak', but to Elwin – who still remembered the horrifying nightmare of yesterday, the blood-red sky, the giant eye, the vines that punched and constricted him, the swamp, the tendrils of shadows that seized his mind to the point of convulsing – 'too weak' was not an assurance. Rather, it was a frightening glimpse of what these beings called Daevas would be capable of in actuality, since a fraction of its mere will inside him could produce such terrible effects.
"...What words did he say?" Katherine's voice came through to him from his contemplation.
"He said something along the lines of 'these cursed Daevas'..." Mirai recalled, looking at Elwin worriedly. "Was that what you said?"
"Yeah... I remember saying something along those lines – Professor, if I say it again, would I – you said all the traces of the Daeva were gone, right?"
"Right."
"Then I can say it without falling to that nightmare again?"
"Rest assured."
"Okay..." Elwin paused, inhaling a mass of air to prepare himself.
"Accursed Daeva."
And –
Nothing.
The kismets collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
A pleasant breeze unfurled the curtains and brushed past their hair.
"Thank the FOUNDERS," Elwin remarked, leaning back into the headboard. "I was worried I would have to deal with it for the rest of my waking life. And thank you above all, Professor..."
"Your words are free," Professor Aionia declared. While everyone seemed to let go their worries, Katherine was deep in thought, finger on her chin.
"Professor," she began, "if the Daeva could 'infect' Elwin like that, and try to take him over, why didn't it do it underground back then? In the city below earth?"
"You think incisively. That question and its answer is the source of my utmost concern," Professor Aionia replied immediately. "When a Daeva inflicts injury to a person with its body which ends up drawing blood – in this case, the obsidian knife from the Daeva – it can impart a part of its cursed Kaha into the person, which can overcome them. The only defense against the Daeva's encroachment into one's mind is an exceptionally strong will, immediate removal of the Daeva's physical traces from the wound, or through a process known as dreamdiving, the latter which I performed on Elwin yesterday. For Elwin to have persisted without the Daeva overcoming him, his will and resolve must have been unassailable. And it was indeed, in the underground city," she explained, letting her words settle.
But the professor put up a finger. "Still, that does not explain why the Daeva did not take hold of Elwin when he was critically injured in the last stretch. With continuous injury, a person's mind is bound to wane in strength. Its fortress eventually crumbles. As Elwin slipped into unconsciousness, the Daeva would have easily been able to take over his mind," Professor Aionia elucidated. "And this is where lies the crux of my concern. Because the Daeva did not take that obvious opportunity."
"Why?" Elwin leaned in.
"Because," Professor Aionia whispered solemnly, "if the Daeva did, your Kaha would have been extinguished. No Kaha means that the Mora – the centipede demon – would not gain any benefit by consuming you."
"So you're saying that – that the Daeva's refusal to kill me by taking over my mind was so that the Mora could eat me and benefit from my Kaha?"
"Precisely."
"That sounds like something they would do. Is that a... too big of a concern?" Mirai asked, her expression trembling ever so slightly.
"Yes," Professor Aionia answered, "because no Daeva or Mora I'd known has ever cooperated or given each other an opportunity to advance. They are pragmatically selfish beings."
"So they're – the Daeva would have killed Elwin at the first opportunity?" Katherine summarized.
"Yes. But it chose not to. It instead gave an opportunity for the centipede Mora to consume Elwin. In my experiences during the Mythrisian-Syndicate wars, I battled against many Daevas. Though they ordinarily do not kill or consume one another, they certainly don't concede prey to others either. To summarize, the search for nutrition is a free-for-all endeavor amidst all servants of Mahanai with no obligation to give up or nourish others."
"But killing me would have extinguished my Kaha, right?" inquired Elwin, leaning in. "Maybe it thought that it was better to, ahem – feed me to another servant of Mahanai, otherwise it'd be a waste. You know."
"For a Daeva, a mission rules supreme over any other consideration. If its objective was to kill you, Elwin, it would have done so at the first opportunity, without giving a chance for the Mora to consume you. So either the Daeva overrode the mission it's been given to kill you, or the mission in the first place was for the Mora to consume your Kaha. However, given that Lucian was tasked with your expulsion and death with ordinary methods, the second seems unlikely. The first remains as the only remaining reasonable explanation."
"To put it another way," chimed in Isaac, "it means the Daeva showed consideration for the Mora? A kind of care and empathy?"
"Yes, and I had never observed such a thing before in decades of battle against Mahanai's servants."
"You said it was free-for-all, right? So none of them cooperated with each other in the past?"
"All Anghras I've vanquished in the past were universally at odds with the growth of each. Each Daeva and Mora would clamber and strive towards the greatest power imaginable in rank by being ruthlessly efficient at consuming the souls of the innocent, even go so far as to take each other's kills and invade each other's territories. They could freely engage in this game of power as long as it did not contradict or interfere directly with the missions they were ordered to execute. But this is the first shimmers we see of Anghras looking out for each other's growth and well-being. There is a new culture, a new modus operandi at work among their hierarchy, no longer of the ancient paradigm of winner-takes-it-all but that of willful cooperation and care for those under them. This new unity can make them considerably more dangerous and effective in achieving their goals."
A shudder went through each of the kismets. Such beings were terrifying enough on their own to hear, but to imagine them cooperating and organizing, and bearing down on all of them together to enact their fuligin plans until it was too late for them to know, was a scary forethought indeed.
"Still, this depends on what they are really capable of, right?" asked Elwin, defiance on his face. "Cooperating or not, as long as we can destroy them one by one, whatever plan they're hatching will fall apart."
"Yeah! What are they capable of, anyway...?" Isaac murmured, his voice dropping with each continued word. "Professor, you said Moras become Daevas when they consume the Kaha of hundreds of people, right? But isn't that just – I mean, that doesn't mean they suddenly become way too powerful for us, right? Maybe?"
"Regrettably, they become much more potent when they ascend to become a Daeva. They mature to become an embodiment of utter annihilation, driven by an ideal unique to their history and the tragedies that have turned them to Mahanai's side. Some seek to extract as much grief as possible from the innocent of the world; some revel and feast on the despair of peoples, some delight in witnessing the cries of anguish and rage, and others derive great enjoyment from plunging their victims into loneliness and witness the best of friends turn against each other in abject hatred. Once a Mora ascends into a Daeva, it becomes considerably more dangerous and difficult to defeat."
"But like how much? Surely they can't stand against you, you're the – you're the Encarnacion, professor!" stuttered Isaac.
"Back in the lost city, we defeated the Mora with not too much difficulty," she answered. "That is to say, on an equal arena, each Master could have easily overpowered the Mora one-on-one. But had it been a Lesser Daeva, which exceeds the power of a single Master, it would have taken the collective effort of our most advanced Forms in the Mahamastra. Many of us would have received injuries far from dismissible."
"Lesser means there's Greater Daevas, right? What – what about them?" asked Katherine.
"From my observations, Daevas rank their authorities by strength within the hierarchy. If we had gone against a Greater Daeva that had just ascended from a Lesser one – and therefore of a lower rank – we would have claimed victory with the skin of our teeth, even if we spared nothing of our strength. But for those near the pinnacle of the hierarchy, those who've lived hundreds of years, it would have taken all six of us for a victory of an uncertain chance. Even if we had won in both cases, the spectre of death for at least a few of us would not have hung far."
A shudder went down the kismets' spines.
"So you can't go up alone against a Greater Daeva? But you're the Encarnacion!" Katherine implored.
"There was a time I could. But more than a decade ago, I sustained an injury that no longer allows me to fight as I once did. Though I can still freely expend the Kaha of more than a million within me as the Encarnacion, and overpower our opponents through pure force, I cannot do it with wanton abandon, lest the generations after me have none to spare in time of need."
"That's not a problem unless there are so many of these Daevas to fight, right?" asked Elwin, pumping his fist. "You can still get them all!"
"That is, if we can find them..." she paused, minutely shaking her head. "The difficulty of finding them is on par with battling them, because they can mimic any person they touch, so long as their Kaha permits. Having lived for hundreds of years, they are vastly knowledgeable, and have blended in with the everyday peoples of our Republics in places standard and prestigious. The neighbor baker could be a Greater Daeva, and you would never know it. Your senator, even your Chancellor, could be a Greater Daeva. We do not reveal this possibility to the world, because it would undo the fabric of our tenuous stability."
"But what's their purpose? They can't just go around killing people and – and – consuming their Kaha without retaliation!" sputtered Isaac, indignant.
"We know that they work to serve Mahanai and his goal, in exchange for greater dominion over the earth. They are the ones who set the first motions of the dominoes, who throw the dice using the clockwork of people's self-interest and the methods of civilization to further their ends. These are the ones who likely tried to bring down Mirai's family, cognizant of the rivalries between the Quanmaster Houses in Heian, as well as the lobbying of Quan manufactories."
Mirai's fists began to shake; Elwin rested his hand on her shoulder.
"Could've one of the Greater Daevas set off the motions that led to the Mora infiltrating Aeternitas?" asked Elwin, his fear about to be confirmed. To be in their crosshairs meant he was going to be watched everywhere he went –
"That, we are uncertain. We know at least that one of the Lesser Daevas must have sent the Mora to Aeternitas, like we discussed before. Regardless, if a Daeva was involved, it likely means that Mahanai was well aware of your father and what he tried to achieve, even before his servants got their eyes upon his letter at the beginning of the year."
Oh no, he lamented. "Do they decide to do these kinds of things on their own volition?" asked Elwin. "Or do they each receive specific orders from Mahanai? Because if they do..."
"No. There is a being higher still, ones which call themselves 'ANGELS,' who appear to coordinate their collective efforts. From the memory of the past Encarnacions, only one Angel exists at any given time – as the right hand of the King of All Ends, they surpass even the greatest of Daevas in might."
"Have you ever vanquished one?" Katherine leaned in, hands clammy.
"Yes. At no small cost," she looked away, all warmth vanishing from her cheeks. If Professor Aionia, who'd cleaved through the Mora like paper, reacted like this to the memory of the Angel, then...
"I defeated the Angel that called itself Duma, nearly two decades ago, on the Central Mythrisian Plain. I thought that was the end of it, and the era of peace would return. But now that forces are beginning to stir, a new Angel must have arisen in his place."
Photograms in terragraphy books struck Elwin's mind.
"The Central Mythrisian Plain? The – those tabletop mountains rising from the Plain, their tops had been shaven clean, that was – was that you, professor?"
Professor Aionia nodded. "The product of our struggle. For as long as Mythrise has stood, we have fought against Mahanai and his servants from the shadows."
"'We?' Does this mean you – all the professors, the headmaster – they know about Mahanai? They know about you as the Encarnacion?"
"The Mahamusha," she answered. "There's hundreds of us in the Republics and Jin, as well as Avan. We're not formally recognized by the governments of the three polities, but we help them when we can. You can find us in many places, high and low, offering aid and shelter; even in the echelons of the federal government of our Republics, so that we can do all in our power to ensure undue suffering for the people do not come to pass."
Tears began to pool in Elwin's eyes without knowing. "All this time, you've been fighting a secret battle, a war without end? Without anyone to sing of your name, through an endless litany of battle and blood? For all of us, ungrateful and ignorant? How do you muster the strength...?"
"Yes," answered the Encarnacion. "We resist immortal Mahanai with our own mortal bodies. Since we're human, our wounds are slow to heal. We fatigue, we tire, we crumble and stumble. But even so, we battle the demons, because that is what we must do. Who else but us, so that the mahn and frhi, and the children of our time can live free from the spectre of his will, the terror and injustice he commits upon the world?"
Words which Elwin once spoke surfaced alone to his consciousness.
For every second I am facing you,
Katherine can choose her own destiny.
To all those who come to me for help,
To all those who come to me for freedom,
I shall stand for them and exclaim:
This shall be the meaning of my name!
At last, the curtains were thrown down from the firmament of all earth; in the shadow of a new sky, they felt infinitely small.
"Come. It is time."