Nesbeth left almost as quickly as he had come. Staying only shortly to explain the differences between the beings he was part of. He was trying, as he put it, not to interfere. But, as far as I was concerned, choosing a champion for your goals was tantamount to interference.
The Great Ones were those that have existed before time was time. The creators of all. The most powerful of all the faceless gods. There were only eight of them. He neglected to tell me their names. Names, he said, have power. Not knowing them was better for me. At least, at the moment, it was better.
The Minor Ones were those borne of the Great Ones and also those borne of other Minor Ones. They played the role of warden to the multiverse. They looked after the mortal races. Somewhat. He only put it that way because each one had their own goals and aspirations.
The Lesser Ones, also known as Fractions, were demigods, heroes of old. Heracles, Achilles, men of that caliber. Their lives were recorded and passed down the generations. They acted as the hand of the Minor Ones, doing what needed to be done when no one else could. Or, they died trying.
After that, he left it to Silas and Abryi to explain to me what to do. The bunker was as if he had never come, dark and forlorn. My mind was swirling with so much information.
"Come." Abryi said after a second or two. "We will do this outside." This side of Abryi was very different from what I was used to seeing, almost mature. Very focused. He walked over to the door that conjoined the room with the other. Heading over to the stairs, picking up the silver that had fallen when the door opened and began to ascend. He only glanced back a couple of times to see if I was following until we made it outside in front of my uncle's house. "We will let Silas and Hina do whatever it is they need to do to prepare. You and I are going to have a lesson in the meantime."
"A lesson?" I questioned.
I looked around. He had taken me to the backyard. The dirt was dark, the sky had grown quite shadowy. Night had come quickly while we were in my uncle's house. The moon hung high, clear from cloud cover. Yet, even with all this light, so much was not illuminated.
A smile crept across Abyri's face. "I intend to teach you how to use your inner power. When I am done, you will know exactly how to control yourself." Then, he did something I could not fathom. He reached behind him and manifested from the nothingness: Malda, his double-bladed sword. "Don't worry, Mara. I will go easy on you. Just imagine the feeling you had the last time you used it."
I had no idea how to do as he wanted. I didn't even know what my powers really did. All I had to go on was the very little Nesbeth said. It was fair to say that Abryi probably had more ideas than I did.
The next thing I knew, Abryi rushed me and swung very violently at me. I reflexively put up my hands and shut my eyes, waiting for the strike to come. I could feel a pressure against me but there was nothing. I slowly opened my eyes to see Abryi's sword above my head. He was straining to push down against nothing. He wasn't even that close to touching me. The more he pressed, the more I could feel my knees buckle, until I was ass-first into the dirt.
"You invoke it reflexively…" He pondered aloud. "Interesting." He backed off and tried it several times. Only to get the same result. "Interesting." He repeated. He decided to wait a moment.
I relaxed, dusting myself off.
It was then, he tried again.
Once more, seeing him about to swing at me, my body tensed. I didn't try to block the strike. I took a deep breath. I began to understand that my body was instinctively shielding me from harm. As the strike came down at me, I put my hands up and away from me.
"Reject!" I yelled, much like Abryi had done.
Immediately, Abryi's strike was stopped and then, he was pushed back. I could feel the force of it. If it felt like I threw the battle jitney at him. I watched as Abryi went skidding backward on the dirt. His arm pushed back unceremoniously from the weight of his own strike. I looked down at the dirt and realized, I was also forced back.
"That's it!" He exclaimed. He sounded like a child overjoyed to find something they had been looking for. I almost expected him to start jumping up and down. What he did say after he regained his composure was, "Mara, your power is to push back any kind of power ten times its original strength. Right now, untrained, you can only do so as much as your stamina can withstand." I could see he wanted to say more. But, instead, he just started sniffing the air, almost like a dog searching for something. One sniff in one direction, then a sniff in another. Searching. "Not good."
"What is it?" I asked. I smelled nothing.
Abryi didn't get a chance to answer. All at once, from every direction, I saw them. Hell-hounds. They formed themselves from the dirt. Three-headed, no-faced creatures that made me shudder. They inched closer, still forming from the dust swirling around them. I could finally hear what they sounded like. A soft deliberate breath, like a painful sigh, after someone had been tortured. Labored. One of them looked directly at me and screamed. It sounded the same way I imagined a banshee would. Distressed. Sorrowful. Enraged. Indignant.
"Lesson's over." Abryi remarked. His sword began to glow black. "Remember what you learned." He charged towards one and with a heavy swing, he yelled, "Black Slash!" He continued to run about swinging at everything, letting the black flames cut through as many of those creatures as he could.
The one that decided to scream at me suddenly jumped at me, shrieking. I put up my hand to catch it mid-pounce. Now, it was my turn to bellow. When it finally made contact with whatever it was that projected out of me, I could see it writhe in pain. A giant hole and a cloud of dust burst from its center. It fell to the ground. Writhing, whimpering. Until it formed once more. It struggled to its feet, steadying itself, and readying for battle.
Another jumped at me from behind. Only to be suspended in the air, its teeth sinking into my shoulder, and holding there for a moment before being thrown back several feet. I hadn't even been paying attention. I could feel the trickle of wetness from my shoulder, but very little tenderness. It managed to breach my defense. It arose to its feet more incensed than before.
Abryi was still running about slashing at various hell-hounds. And then, he turned to see a group of them approaching him like a wolf pack would. A smile crept across his face. He sheathed Malda in the dirt before him, crouched down low so that he was almost at face level with the hell-hounds, took a deep breath, and instantaneously blew a cone of black flames at the pack, incinerating seven completely and wounding several others.
The hell-hounds began encircling, carefully eyeing us. They didn't dare get closer, only snarling and growling at us. I could sense fear. That feeling of dread came over me again as I watched them. It felt like someone was observing us. It grew by the second.
It was then I heard it. The sound of a clink-clank type of drumming getting nearer. The stones sounded like they were cracking under the weight of the skittering as they came closer and closer to us.
The hell-hounds growled harder, fiercer.
The skittering stopped as soon as it was upon us. Before me stood a large arachnid with six mechanical legs and a human torso covered in a metallic vest of some kind, his arms hanging in front of him, shoulders rolled forward. His face held a sinister look on it. His mouth was filled with fangs of all sizes. His eyes were red orbs and spread across his face in a symmetrical fashion so that all six of them were positioned at the top half of his face.
"Kratos, Kerberos!" He said in a sweet melodic voice, that also found sternness in its breath. "Enough." Immediately, all of the hell-hounds turned to dust and reformed into two larger versions of themselves, near this arachnid creature. "We don't want to kill our lovely little pet, do we?" The hell-hounds hung their heads.
Pet?
"Something bothering you, Mara?" The arachnid creature suddenly asked.
"What do you need with me, Yog Thalthos?" I asked, remembering the name Abryi had called him.
Yog winced. I guess he wasn't used to his name being said. "Need is such a strong word, Mara." He found his voice. This god had a silver tongue. "I am not like your father. I will not blindly put my faith in something, especially if I know I will not get a return." A eerie smile graced his face. "I don't have a need for you. What I want is for you to play a role for me. After all, you should be giving me something for living on what is rightfully mine." His smile faded. "No matter. You are not ready. Yet."
"There will be no bloodshed here, Yog Thalthos." A deep voice said suddenly. Yog turned to the voice and so did my attention. Before us walked up a young man of African descent. He was a bit on the larger side, muscular but not that fit. He wore a black button-down shirt and grey trousers with two metal plates strapped to the back of his ankles. "Are we clear?"
"Cheeky child." Yog responded. His mirth was gone. In the same instant, he and his hell-hounds were gone in a cloud of black dust.
"Who are you?" Abryi asked, getting in front of me, readying his blade.
"Worry not, descendant of Hered. I come in peace." He said with a smile. There was a strange calm in his voice. Almost like pride. "I am Campbell Soupe, King of Haddock."