Dumar followed in the footsteps of the gigantic figure that Narami had called Dawa.
What the fuck am I doing? Following this thing away from the Polstice and the guards? Something's definitely not right here. I should be scared of this thing at least.
"You're not scared cos I'm suppressing what you feel," Dawa told him in the voice of millions.
You can read my mind then can you? And what's with the change in speech?
"Of course I can hear what you're thinking and it's easier if I talk to you how you're most familiar with."
Yeah, right.
"What do you want?" Dumar asked bluntly.
Dawa laughed, the sound of his multitudinous voice sounding weird to the big man's ears.
"Believe it or not, sunshine, I actually want to help you."
Dumar looked sceptical and Dawa laughed again.
"I knew I'd got it right when I picked you."
Oh, for Christ's sake, what's this shit now?
"Do you know, in all the infinite universe, you're unique."
Wonderful.
"You gonna take this a bit more seriously?" Dawa demanded with a little edge to his voices.
"Take what seriously?" Dumar wondered. "That you reckon I'm unique? What for? Isn't everyone unique?"
Dawa sighed.
"Because it never happens. The universe is infinite, Dumar. Because of that anything, everything, is replicated somewhere or somewhen."
"You too?" Dawa smiled.
"Definitely the right choice," Dawa said to himself. "Yes, there are other beings like me out there."
"You're not God then?"
"No but then I never said I was."
"People here think you are," Dumar said.
The giant nodded.
"Yeah, and I never stopped them believing it, but I never told them I was either. I seeded this planet with human life, well the possibility of human life, about fifty thousand years ago..."
Bollocks. Next.
"So if you're not God are you infinite like you reckon the universe is?"
Dawa actually looked surprised for a second.
"No," his multiple voices drew the syllable out as if he was being evasive. Dumar turned off to stare at the distant mountains.
"So working on the idea the universe is infinite and you're not, how the fuck do you know I'm unique?"
The alien grimaced.
"Ah, right, well that's one of them answers you're really not gonna like, mate," Dumar carried on staring at the mist caressed mountains as the creature carried on. "I kind of helped make you."
What the fuck?
"Just wait Dumar. You can't do anything to me anyway. I never had a hand in the shit McCabe put you through."
But you never fucking stopped him either.
"No and I couldn't have, cos the things he did to you helped shape who you've turned out to be."
Dumar could feel his heart thumping hard. He knew the bio-circuitry in his body was pumping testosterone and adrenaline into his blood, preparing him for a fight. He had to breathe long and slow to calm himself.
"Go on then, bitch, what did you have a hand in?"
"I found a blank soul to put inside you," Dawa said.
More soul crap, just like Grethron.
"Why did I need a blank soul?" The big man asked.
This is fucking nuts. I have seriously lost it.
"I had to make sure you had a soul so you'd be able to make the right choices."
That's nice and cryptic.
"So at the instant your life began, I had a soul ready. A proper soul, not like your brothers had."
"What?" Dumar asked, his eyes wide. "What brothers?"
"When you get back," Dawa said. "Read the notes on that tablet you got. Everything's on there."
Dumar was trying to process all this new information, wondering exactly what to believe. He decided to cut straight to the heart of the matter he asked.
"Okay. I'm unique. And here, so what am I here for?"
"To stop Malthrom at any cost," Dawa said, looking directly into his eyes.
Back to that again.
"Any cost, eh? What about using that nuke Grethron brought here? That should do the trick."
"Dumar..."
"No, hold up, what about a nice dose of Ricin? I could rig a bomb and fuck thousands."
"Dumar...
"I know, what about Japanese encephalitis or Rift Valley fever suspended in a nice dose of powder to spread it with?"
"Dumar!" The blast of sound threw him to the ground where he cringed in abject terror.
Oh fuck! Oh fuck!
He lay panting on the ground as the giant form of Dawa crouched beside him.
"Enough. You know I don't mean WMD's. You might just have to suspend your vow not to kill, though."
Oh, now you're taking the piss!
"So I pay the bastard price again!" Dumar shouted through his fear.
Sitting up, the big man thrust his fingers towards Dawa's large face, ticking off his complaints.
"Created by the megalo-fucking-maniac Company, tortured and beaten, forced to murder my only friend, shot myself to get away from McCabe, had my soul nicked…"
Dumar broke out into fits of laughter and lay back on the grass as the giant face of Dawa as it creased in puzzlement.
"This is insane. Just fucking insane," Dumar chuckled. "To think I've gone so bugshit crazy I'm actually debating with an alien demigod," he shook his head and watched as Dawa stood once more, nodding.
"I like the sound of that. Demigod? Yeah."
From his prone position, Dumar looked up, tilting his head to one side.
"How would you describe you then?"
Dawa shrugged his immense shoulders.
"Dunno. I just am. Once I wasn't, then I was. I existed."
Weird. Bet you're lonely.
Where the hell did that come from?
"How old are you?" Dumar asked.
Dawa made a strangely human face and slowly tilted his head from side to side.
"That one's gonna be hard to explain. I don't experience time in a linear way like you. I can be anywhere, anywhen. So when it comes to age, I suppose from your point of view I'd be eternal."
Bet that's confusing.
Dawa nodded.
"Well, it would be for you but it's all I know, so…" The alien said.
"All right, all this getting to know you chit chat is fun and everything," Dumar said from the ground. "But what is going on?"
Dawa reached his vast hand down offering to help Dumar up. After a moment's hesitation, the big man grabbed the middle two fingers – his own fingers unable to meet due to the size of Dawa's own – and was hauled up onto his feet.
Dumar was surprised to feel the warmth of life heating the alien's skin, especially as he had watched this entire thing grow from the surface of a chilly lake.
"You like concise, don't you?" Dawa mused to himself. "Okay. I told you I wasn't unique, right?" Dumar nodded. "And you know I'm eternal?"
Dumar nodded but shrugged at the same time.
Dawa continued.
"That doesn't mean I can't die." His large face crumpled in a frown. "I found a being like me. Similar in so many ways we almost merged. Where I ended they started," the tone of Dawa's multiple voices saddened.
"But they weren't quite like me. I don't like to use the word malignant but it's apt. They got off on hurting other beings. I didn't agree with that. I like to see things – people – grow and thrive," Dawa was beginning to get wistful.
"Stay with me, big guy." Dumar verbally nudged.
The alien seemed to snap out of some kind of remembrance.
"Yeah, well, we ended up fighting and we both got hurt. Basically they ran off. I thought they'd gone to recover but they came here. To a planet I seeded with the possibility of human life, to die but to do so in a way which guaranteed their power lived on."
"Necromancy," Dumar whispered, piecing things together quickly.
Dawa clicked his huge fingers and pointed at the big man's chest.
"Bingo, we have a winner. What your little friend Grethron calls necromancy is the remnants of their power."
"And because he was evil, this friend of yours," Dumar said with a little tremble. "That explains this Malthrom fucker."
Dawa pretended to take a breath and raised his hands making the big man think he had it right.
"Ah, no," Dawa said, crushing Dumar's theory into the ground. "Necromancy, we'll call it that, isn't good or evil, it all comes down to the user. I could smash all life from this planet in an instant but I won't cos I don't like to see creatures suffer and die."