Chapter 32 - Incentive (Patreon)

“Well,” Lukas asked as he stared at the empty desert looming around him. “How do I look?”

“Like a noble clown,” said Solana, “but I doubt it would mean anything to you.”

Lukas looked at his current outfit and frowned at the skinwalker. “You’re just being mean because your fashion sense sucks.”

“I’m a skinwalker and a leader of yokai. Any apparel that doesn’t serve a functional purpose is useless for me.”

“And you managed to fool the noble sods with that attitude? I don’t know whether to be impressed or appalled.”

“You’re entering the Haze, a realm of pure energy that connects to other worlds. And you decided that dressing up like Asukan nobility is the way to go?”

Lukas arched his brow. He was familiar with this style of conversation. Answering questions with questions.

He looked down and inspected himself.

Apart from the usual shirt and trousers, he wore a thick monster-hide coat that went all the way down to his knees. Sure, he had based his current apparel from what Zuken wore on occasion, but it was for a reason. Apart from being a fashion statement, it allowed him to go wild on his Alteration practice.

“It has its uses,” he said. “I added an aqāru lining inside the coat, so it’d neutralize elemental attacks to a degree. I reinforced the monster-hide fabric to make it resistant to being pierced or cut, and cushion me from blunt impacts. Oh, and make it more breathable I suppose.”

He didn’t mention that the coat would also grant Blob plenty of wiggle room without anyone noticing it.

Solana snorted. “You enchanted the coat just so it can breathe better?”

Lukas looked at her blankly. “Tanya and I were in a lava ridge before we opened a rift to this place. Do you know how embarrassing it is to not have protective gear just because you’re worried about a heat stroke?”

“What’s a heat stroke?”

Lukas opened his mouth but then closed it. “... never mind.”

“I have a question, Outsider,” said Solana. “And I’d appreciate an honest answer.”

He curled an eyebrow. “Shoot.”

“It is no secret that you dislike me. I have used you several times in the past, and hurt the brat several times over. And yet, you keep defending me from her wrath. I know you have no lasting love for the yokai, and yet, you have firmly entrenched yourself to our side, and we both know that you have the girl’s loyalty. So… why?”

“Why, what?”

“Why do you do what you do?” she asked. “Why did you fight the Empress or myself, for the girl? Why did you reject the Empress’s offer to be at her side, when you knew that the alternative would be to condemn the world? Why do you side with the girl now, knowing it would invite the wrath of a monstrous warlord?”

“Does it matter? I’m standing with her, and that’s all that’s relevant.”

“No. It matters,” Solana stressed. ‘Power like yours does not manifest out of nowhere. The Key of yokai legend would change the world, and the Queen’s defeat at your hands only points to that. I am well-aware that you could have used that poisonous metal slime to devour my body whole, but you keep insisting that I cannot be killed. It is like you want to keep Tanya from killing me.”

“I’m keeping you alive so long as I can use you, so that I can kill you in the end myself.”

The reaction was instant. The innocent curiosity in her face gave way to cold rage, and for a brief moment he wondered if the skinwalker would actually attack him. And then as quickly as it came through, it was pushed back, though not without a great deal of effort and hidden behind a mask of apathy.

He snorted. “Was that what you wanted to hear?”

Frustration rose up her features. “I  do not understand you, Lukas Aguilar.”

“It’s one of my outsider powers. It makes me grow stronger when others get confused.”

“After what I have seen you perform, I am willing to believe whatever crap comes out of your mouth,” Solana said bitterly. “Be honest, Lukas Aguilar. What is it that you want from us yokai? From me?”

‘Nothing,” he said. “There is nothing that you can give me.”

“That’s a dangerously arrogant statement you are throwing around, Outsider.”

“It’s not arrogant if it is the truth,” he said simply. Solana and her machinations were no longer part of his plans. He might have started out as a pawn, but this pawn had seen the end of the board. “But that does not mean I cannot give your folk something.”

“Is that right?” She challenged, gritting her teeth. “And what’s that? A scared little girl that hides behind your pants? Or an ancient power that’s now reduced to a paltry trick because you interfered in my plans?”

He smiled and met her dark gaze. “I’ll give you a goddess.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think that Tanya—”

“Tanya,”Lukas stressed, “wields a Taboo. Even if she succeeds at Ascending, she can become an Empress at best.”

“Not a goddess,” whispered Solana. “But that means —”

“There is only one goddess that I… believe in. Everything that I am, everything that I have achieved, is because of her. Even a reflection of Her reflection was able to beat Everfrost into submission, and she did it with her hands tied and eyes closed. A Supreme Queen, that according to Everfrost itself, shines brighter than Amaterasu. A monarch that tore pantheons down and sat on a mountain of corpses. A dictator, a tyrant, a killer of gods and beasts, that is the goddess I am willing to give to your kind. The goddess that I want to bring back.”

“Bring… back.”

Lukas pursed his lips. “She is no more. She sacrificed herself to save me.”

“A goddess dying to save a mortal?”

He chuckled. “It’s exactly because it’s preposterous that she did it. She… she was something else..”

“Your relationship feels… intimate. Like a goddess’s Chosen, her High Priest.”

He snorted. “I spent too much time fighting her to be her High Priest. Our relationship is… wasn’t very different to what you and I share. Except that she never lied.”

“You do not speak of her Name.” she noted.

“Names have power, and I don't really trust you enough to keep it a secret.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have revealed anything at all in that case?”

Lukas decided to bite the bullet, and met her pitch black gaze. “It’s called incentive, Solana. This is me giving you and your ilk a way out. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. You used me and you betrayed me. Several times over. And when you lost, you tried to break Tanya again by destroying her old relationships. Even half of that is enough to make me want to sic Blob on you and slowly consume your soul, make you feel the exquisite agony your kind loves to share with hapless bremetans. And yes, I’ve reached the end of my patience and so this is how things are now.”

“And what is that?” She demanded defiantly.

“I plan to end Mujin Shimizu. I’m going to rob him off his kami. And once I’ve done that, I’ll install Tanya as the next Shimizu head, and you, as Lady Kandra, will pull all the stops to ensure she stays in power. You will help us get to Niflheim after that, and you will help her Ascend. And then you’ll grant me all your six centuries worth of connections and knowledge to find a way to get my goddess back. And in return, I will give you a chance to take back what is yours.”

“And why would I believe you?”

And there was the clincher. This would make or break it.

“Because Meynte wasn’t the only one that became an Empress through a Taboo.”

Solana stilled.

“My goddess wasn’t the Supreme Queen for nothing. First, she became an Empress with a Taboo. Not a half-assed effort like Meynte. No, a true Anathema. One that massacred Pantheons in her wake. And then she Ascended with her own Truth, and as the Supreme Queen of the Heavens and the Earth.”

“Tell me something,” She demanded, her eyes affixed to his. “This goddess… if she was this powerful, why is it that I have not heard of her?”

And  that was the crux of the matter. Wasn’t it?

“Tell me,” he  asked conversationally, “do you remember that tale you told us, about how the war ended? About how Meynte was winning, how your gods Fujin and Raijin had slayed Tsukuyomi? And then… they hadn’t? Instead Fujin and Raijin were dead, and Tsukuyomi was alive?” He met her dark eyes. “Do you remember how you described it to me?”

Solana gazed at him inscrutably. “Like someone up there didn’t like the story that came to pass and tore the page to rewrite it again. But what of it?”

He smiled. And it was a bitter one. “Once upon a time, there was a girl. A slave girl. She didn’t have fancy  soulcrafting powers like  me, nor was she an ancient skinwalker like yourself. A plain, vanilla, mortal with an ambition. A lust. A desire so great that the entire world, no, the entire universe fell short to accommodate it.”

“A desire for what?”

He smiled. “Everything.”

He looked far ahead into the desert. Sand dunes raced all the way to the horizon and beyond, with absolutely nothing to be seen for miles and miles on end.

“She was a slave. Someone that had nothing. No identity, no power, no ornaments, nothing she could claim for herself. Rock-bottom was her reality. And from there, with nothing but sheer diligence, will power and treachery, she arose. She tricked, hustled, betrayed and tortured her way to power. She was to murder as maestros are to music. She was to war what oil is to flame. Her footsteps left behind mountains of corpses. Clans, Nobles, Kings and even Emperors, she overcame them all. And then when faced with the might of a God, with her greatest power no longer enough, she turned to something that even the Great Progenitor would shrink away from.”

“A Taboo?”

“A Taboo,” Lukas agreed. “She became an Anathema. Butcher of Gods and Beasts, they called her. She destroyed multiple Pantheons, taking her acolytes with her, stepping over the broken thrones of the dead gods, and upon that hill of corpses, created her own Empire. Akkad. And if that wasn’t enough, she Ascended through a new Truth, and became a Goddess of her new Pantheon, ruling as the Supreme Queen of Heaven and the mortal world.”

“Akkad…” murmured Solana. “In all my years, I have never come across that name. I imagine it predates Crooked One-Eye and the Nordic Pantheon.”

He let out a bittersweet chuckle. “It does. But I’m certain even your Crooked One-Eye, if he’s still there, somewhere, doesn’t know of it. No one,” he sighed, “no one knows of it.”

“...Why?”

“Because,” said Lukas. “Something happened, and it erased all History of the goddess, her journey, her legend and her pantheon, from existence. As if someone did not like the story that came to pass and tore the page to rewrite it again.”

Solana staggered. “You — do you think —”

“I do.”

“But — But how can I —”

“The question isn’t if we can defeat the Empire, Solana. Nor is it if we can survive against the Asukan Pantheon. The question is what if we managed to do all that, only for this story to be rewritten again? That, that is the Enemy that I want to defeat. And I need Everfrost, the Haze and every single bit of help you can give me. The question is, will you?”

The  desert was deadly silent for a good while as both maintained eye contact for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally Solana broke it. She didn’t say anything, only raised her hand, and flicked her fingers. And just like that, a thin mist-like curtain began to superimpose with reality. Blob wiggled within his coat, something about the Haze affecting it.

Hmm. He’d have to look at it later.

“Do you think you can find a way back from the Haze?” asked Solana. “I can open the portal from here, and getting out is up to you.”

“I think I’ll manage just fine,” he said with a grin. He had gotten his answer. “So long as you stick to the plan.”

“Don’t patronize me, Lukas Aguilar. I have been at this before you were a twinkle in your ancestor’s eyes.”

He snorted and took a step forward.

And vanished.