Apocalypse Tamer - Chapter 124: Interlude: Apocalypse Now

• A few hours earlier…

A murder of crows flew over the countryside.

The winds of despair and ruin carried their jet-black wings over the open grave once known as Greece. Their feathers cast a dark shadow under the waning light of the Incursion portals. Facing them was a thunderstorm spanning the entire horizon, yet they did not slow down. They feared nothing and none dared approach them.

That changed quickly.

A lone human in metal armor signaled them atop a hill. He was unarmed and alone. That alone gave the crows pause. The head bird gave the human a cursory glance, identifying him as a Priest half her level. A member of an enemy group.

Was it bait? A trap? The crow’s first instinct was to carry on without stopping, but her partner broke away from the flock to check for himself. Cursing his suicidal overconfidence, she followed after him and landed on the hill. Her partner immediately changed back into his true form.

“I gotta say, I gotta say…” Belphegor stretched his arms as feathers turned to wax. “Pretty ballsy to confront us alone.”

“I am a messenger bearing news,” replied the man. His armor included as many gears as iron plates. Was he a Unity member in disguise? “My employer would like to speak with you.”

“Oh?” Belphegor put a hand on his waist. “Come on, what’s the catch? I’ll bite.”

The crow leader cursed as she regained her true form. Brina had done that so many times that shapeshifting came to her as easily as breathing.

“You have one minute,” she warned the messenger. “Our time is precious.”

The messenger joined his hands and prayed. Brina tensed briefly, before recognizing it as a basic hologram spell. A wall of golden light formed around the metal priest, and the projection of a towering figure appeared behind him: that of a humanoid machine with metal muscles and coursing lightning for blood. The silver mask of a mighty bearded patriarch covered his face; it reminded Brina of Lord Odin, but with twice the pride and half the wisdom.

“Mr. Belphegor, Mrs. Brina, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The android nodded politely at the Horseman, though Brina could tell the gesture was as mechanical as his body. His greetings were an ingrained reflex as insincere as any flattery. “I am Ashok Acharya, vice-president of Dismaker Labs and leader of Metal Olympus.”

“Vice-president?” The title amused Belphegor. “Will you give us a business card? I’ve heard merchants often do that.”

“I prefer one-on-one introductions.” The metal man looked up at the remaining crows circling above them; undead soldiers, each and every one of them. “Shapeshifting magic? A gift from Odin, I suppose?”

“Forty seconds,” Brina replied, ignoring the chitchat.

“Brina, where are your manners?” Belphegor chuckled. “Still, if you want to beg for our mercy, you should do it in person.”

“I must maintain my God-Field to protect my territory,” the false metal god said as his priest maintained the holographic projection. “Moving around would expose my position. But I would gladly invite you to my home if you prefer a cozier place.”

Brina had seen few traps as obvious as this one. “Your time is up,” she said after summoning a sword to her hand. “Cut to the chase and stop wasting my time.”

After a short silence, this Zeus-Ashok finally seemed to get the message.

“Do you know that one of you controls my organization from the shadows?” he asked. “Mammon, the Horseman of Conquest. He has founded my faction under the pseudonym of Anton Maxwell.”

Brina knew Mammon had infiltrated the Metal Olympus faction, but not the name of his cover. She didn’t see the need to confirm or deny this information. She had no love for Mammon, but identifying him might cause issues down the line.

Unfortunately, Belphegor was too much of a gossip to keep his mouth shut. “Ohoh, did he actually build your team in the first place? He usually infiltrates locals to sow discord so we can hit them quick and hard, but that’s the first time he’s gone so far. I’ll buy him a drink when I meet him.”

“He also ordered me to protect the Avatar from the Apocalypse Force,” Ashok replied. “Preferably by killing you both.”

“Eh, that’s so like him.” Belphegor shrugged. “Sending weaklings to die to us rather than do the job himself. At least we get experience out of it.”

“He has also informed me that you can survive any wound by possessing undead belonging to your Faction, and that it will fail if you are deprived of Special Points before death.” Ashok appraised Belphegor with a cold, calculating gaze. “I have been given the tools to do just that.”

Belphegor’s grin swiftly turned into a grimace.

Ashok turned his gaze to Brina next. He waved his hand and a projected system screen appeared before him. “Is this information correct?”

Brina’s jaw clenched as she read a very detailed description of her stats and Perks. It wasn’t quite up to date, since she had gained new levels and abilities after purging her own army, but the screen’s information was entirely factual. A clever fighter with access to this stat sheet would be able to counter her.

“As I suspected, you did not know,” said Zeus-Ashok. “I assume my employer shared similar advice on how to take me down. He set us up to kill each other.“

“You could have obtained this information another way,” Brina accused him. “It could be a ploy to sow discord between us Horsemen.”

To her surprise, her teammate shook his head. “I’m not so sure, Brina my dear. If he knew how to counter one of us, I would put it on him keeping us under close surveillance… but both? That smells like sabotage to me. He couldn’t have figured out all our abilities from watching us fight in Thessaloniki.”

No, he could not, Brina thought. Neither she nor Belphegor had revealed all their trump cards back then. Mammon has always been deceitful… it would make sense for him to sabotage the competition for the throne of the Overgod.

“If this is true, why warn us?” Brina asked Zeus-Ashok while keeping her doubts to herself. She would be a fool to take him at his word. “What do you hope to gain from this?”

Ashok crossed his arms. “I hoped for a truce and a temporary alliance.”

“Mmm…” Belphegor grunted. “Nah, I don’t feel any righteous anger from you. It’s not vengeance you’re after. You need Mammon out of the way for practical purposes.”

“So long as you hold the Avatar of Preservation, we are bound to fight,” Brina said. “If Mammon has betrayed us, we will deal with the both of you.”

“With all due respect, Mrs. Brina, I sincerely doubt you can kill either of us on your own,” Zeus-Ashok replied calmly.

“Says the coward who would rather send a thrall rather than face us,” Brina sneered. The nerve of this upstart. “The two of us Horsemen earned our power through countless battles. You stole yours.”

“No matter where it comes from, power is power.” Zeus-Ashok shrugged. “While I agree we are bound to fight eventually, I would not approach you if I were confident I could remove my employer from the board with my current resources. He possesses powers I do not understand. We would both benefit from his defeat.”

“You dare doubt my strength?” Brina scowled at the insult and pointed her sword at the projection’s neck. “I have fought greater terrors than you or Mammon.”

“I will take you at your word,” Zeus-Ashok replied somewhat courteously. “Nonetheless, I insist that you entertain my request.”

Brina snorted. “My answer is no.”

“Hey, I was still considering it!” Belphegor complained. “Let’s put it to a vote first!”

“What happened to you following my lead?” Brina glared at Zeus-Ashok. “You are as deceitful as your employer, and an upjumped upstart at that. I will not trade one snake for another.”

“Forgive me, Ms. Brina, but I was not asking you to entertain my request.” Zeus-Ashok looked up at the pathways of light in the sky. “I was asking him.”

Brina did not have to wonder what he meant for long, for a dark shadow fell upon them. A terrible presence heated up the air with the nauseating smell of charred flesh and sulfur. The flock of crows above them scattered in panic, and Ashok’s priest froze like a deer sensing a tiger stepping out of the woods.

To the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the pressure in the air was disturbing. To their weaker undead thralls and human foes, it was simply overwhelming. Even Belphegor’s control over his minions faltered in the face of his true master.

A black cloud descended from the sky onto the hill. It swirled on itself and invisible hands sculpted it into the shape of a ghastly visage. Four fiery eyes opened at its center above two mouths full of fangs.

“Your Dark Majesty!” Belphegor immediately dropped to his knees. Of all the Horsemen, he had always been the most faithful; though Brina couldn’t tell if it was out of respect or abject fear. In the Apocalypse Force, it made little difference. “You have returned to us!”

Him, here? Brina reluctantly followed her fellow Horseman’s example, though she only dropped one knee. To fully kneel before this creature meant surrendering oneself to his power; and while she craved his strength for herself, she refused to submit to it. How long has he been listening? Probably from the start.

Zeus-Ashok’s projection cautiously saluted the apparition. “Your Majesty.”

The false god’s composed facade did not fool Brina. His metallic body gave no tells, but his words brimmed with apprehension. Though Metal Olympus’ leader thought himself in a secure location, he knew better than to underestimate the herald of the Apocalypse.

“Ashok Acharya, is it?” The black cloud’s two mouths moved as the Maleking spoke. The Level Barrier must be paper-thin for him to manifest an avatar so skillfully. “You have my attention.”

Realizing he was walking on thin ice, Zeus-Ashok immediately made his case. “I will not pretend our goals will align forever. However, we currently share a common enemy.”

“More than one,” the Maleking replied calmly.

He did not deny it. Brina’s eyes snapped in her superior’s direction. “Has Mammon truly betrayed us?”

“Of course not,” the Maleking answered. “He was never loyal in the first place.”

His deadpan tone made Belphegor laugh. Zeus-Ashok appraised the Maleking with a strange look; he seemed as confused as Brina herself.

“I do not understand,” said Brina. “You knew of his treachery from the very beginning?”

The Maleking’s chuckle was as deep as a bottomless pit. “Do not mistake not caring for not knowing, Brina. I have known Mammon’s true nature and web of deceit from the start. I have made no move against him because the time was not right, nothing more. Patience is the mother of progress.”

“But the time has come, hasn’t it?” Belphegor’s eyes burned with cruel glee. “We’re eating the rich tonight?”

The Maleking swiftly crushed his hopes. “Perhaps you will have the honor of delivering the killing blow on Mammon, Belphegor, but not today. Nor tomorrow.”

Brina’s hand tightened her sword’s pommel so much that it cracked beneath her fingers. “You do not think we are capable of it?”

“I do not believe, I know.” The Maleking glanced at Brina with what could pass for sympathy. “Do not misunderstand me, Brina. I do not doubt your skills. Destroying Mammon is simply impossible for the moment. It is not a question of power, but circumstances.”

“We do not need to kill my employer,” Zeus-Ashok suggested. “If you can weaken Mr. Maxwell, I have a way of neutralizing him.”

“No, you do not,” the Maleking replied. “You strike me as too clever by half, Ashok Acharya. You are a gifted student seeking to usurp your master, but you lack the wisdom to see the trap laid before you.”

Zeus-Ashok crossed his arms in skepticism, but he was smart enough to listen. “And what would that trap be, Your Majesty?”

“You seek to win by subverting Mammon’s rules, but you owe all your power—or rather what you believe is your power—to his corruption of this System.” If Brina wasn’t mistaken, she detected a hint of scorn in the Maleking’s words. “You have not earned your strength, and therefore it is false. Fragile. Your castle’s foundations are built on sand. You will never conquer Mammon so long as you live in his world.”

“He is still bound to the System’s rules,” Zeus-Ashok countered. “We made sure of that when we designed them.”

“He does not need to break rules when he can bend them.” The Maleking’s two mouths morphed into twin smiles. “The Trimurti System permeates every inch of this reality… a System that he has infected. All variables are subject to his influence. Damage will be reduced to zero. A blow will miss because your accuracy will switch from one hundred to one. Death will not be the end… and your attempt at polymorphosis will fail miserably.”

Though Brina was not familiar with the term, Ashok was. He flinched as if slapped.

“Your plan is transparent to me, and Mammon will see through it,” the Maleking said. “You cannot defeat him with this method.”

“Then how?” For the first time since the conversation started, Zeus-Ashok’s facade of confidence began to crack. “What solution do you propose then?”

“Simple.” The Maleking’s twin grins stretch into a terrifying expression. “If you wish to prevail, you must destroy the world Mammon has built.”

“Again?” Belphegor groaned. “I’m sick of the planet blowing up behind us!”

“I thought we aimed to capture the Avatar to prevent this exact scenario,” Brina reminded the Maleking. “Will this not interrupt the competition?”

“This seems counterproductive,” Zeus-Ashok added. “Not to mention Mr. Maxwell has already survived similar circumstances according to my information.”

The Maleking’s twin smiles faded away. “You hear my words, but you do not listen to them. I said to destroy Mammon’s world, not this one.”

While Brina grew even more confused, Zeus-Ashok seemed to catch on. “Ah, I see… yes, what he has built… how could I not see it? It is risky, but it could work…”

“Now you understand what must be done,” the Maleking said without elaborating. “If you have the resolve to follow through with the deed, that is.”

“My thoughts are unclouded,” Zeus-Ashok replied with confidence, “but I lack the access required to pull it off. Doing it manually will take forever.”

“For you… but not for me.” The Maleking locked eyes with the false god; all of them. “I require the Avatar alive, secured, and separated from his other half if possible.”

Brina raised an eyebrow. “If possible, Your Majesty?”

“Letting them fuse will play into Mammon’s hands,” the demon king replied. “Though the situation can still be salvaged afterward, the risk of failure will be greater too. The window of opportunity will be shortened considerably.”

“I… I do not understand.” Zeus-Ashok’s projection blinked in and out of existence, as if his shaken spirit influenced the hologram’s stability. “Mr. Maxwell explicitly forbade us from letting the Avatars fuse.”

The Maleking let out a cold, dark laugh that sent shivers down Brina’s spine.

“From my long experience, human,” he said with a bemused tone, “The best way to make a fool do something is to forbid it to them.”

A harsh truth, Brina thought darkly. The gods had set countless rules for the betterment of mortals, only for madmen and sinners to violate them at every turn. Even the law of death has been broken in my world. Few can resist the call of the forbidden.

“That makes no sense.” Zeus-Ashok shook his head. “Letting the Avatars fuse means returning power to Lord Vishnu and canceling the competition.”

“Yeah, I don’t get it either, Your Majesty,” Belphegor told the Maleking. “This happened already, and more than once.”

“And it would have happened again, had Mammon failed to catch the Avatars,” the Maleking explained calmly. “This is the first world where he has succeeded in putting them in custody.”

“So all the previous ones…” Zeus-Ashok looked down at the ground. “I thought he needed to destroy planets to survive, but… are you saying that was nothing but a string of failed iterations?”

“Yes,” the Maleking confirmed. “Either he failed to properly bind the Avatars in a weak enough shape or the Destroyer was summoned before he could complete his preparations. Mammon has spent eons refining his plan, trying again and again, until the stars finally aligned. I assume he will do his best to set his enemies against each other through misdirection, as the risk of failure remains high, but the trap is already set.”

“What will happen if he wins?” Belphegor asked with a curious look.

“These worlds…” The Maleking’s cloudy avatar pointed at the pathways of light in the sky with his chin. “Will know a calamity the scale of which you cannot fathom.”

Belphegor exploded in a burst of maniacal laughter and rolled all over the ground.

“If Walter Tye can peddle his wares here, then that means my world is connected to this one!” Brina pointed her sword at the Maleking. “Why did you let it progress this far?”

“Because I benefited from it,” the demon lord replied flatly. “And so will you. You require strength to slay your sworn enemy. I offer you the opportunity to seize it.”

Brina frowned at the Maleking, but remained silent. Although she knew she was being manipulated, the promise of the power to defeat Nidhogg was too appealing for her not to listen.

The Maleking’s projection turned to face Zeus-Ashok. “Ashok Acharya, the dream you pursue is anathema to me. I daresay it is no better than death. Nonetheless, I respect those who walk the path of strength. If your resolve grants you the power to claim the throne of Overgod, then your cause was righteous. Victory is the winner’s justice. Hence, I shall make you an offer.”

The false god raised his chin. “I’m listening.”

“Though defeating Mammon is beyond any of you, there is a group who will provide a suitable challenge.”

“The Bohens,” Zeus-Ashok guessed.

“Yes,” the Maleking confirmed. “If you overcome them, then you will have proven you indeed earned your divine power. I will let you join the Apocalypse Force as the Horseman of Famine.”

“I have no interest in joining your organization,” Zeus-Ashok replied calmly.

“This organization will not last beyond the final Incursion.”

Belphegor stopped laughing at his master’s words. “It won’t?”

“No.” The Maleking marked a short, thoughtful pause before continuing. “I sense Wyrde poking at the Level Barrier. She will cross over the moment I do. Once we arrive, there should be enough experience gathered between all of us for an Overgod to rise from our shared ashes. A great battle for the throne will begin.”

Brina lowered her sword as she figured out the endgame. “To the victor the spoils.”

“Wait, wait, what about us?” Belphegor asked in sudden panic. “What will happen to us?”

The Maleking looked down on his Horseman of Death. “Either you will kill me, or I will kill you.”

Belphegor fell silent. Brina sighed at his willful ignorance.

It was always going to end this way.

“I have witnessed many iterations of this cycle,” the Maleking declared calmly. “With each failure, I have gained greater insight into the universe. I know how to purge this System of Mammon’s corruption. My victory will be honest, purchased with blood. If I prove too weak to defeat you, then you are more deserving of the throne. That is all.”

Zeus-Ashok considered the proposal for a few seconds before answering, “I agree to your terms.”

“Good.” The Maleking’s projection spoke a few last words to Brina before disappearing. “If your resolve remains true, Brina, we shall meet again… once this world comes to an end.”

The cloud dissipated into nothingness, leaving the Horsemen past and present alone. To Brina’s astonishment, Belphegor didn’t offer a comment. The undead remained strangely subdued.

“Come with me,” Zeus-Ashok said almost immediately. “I will join your Faction and let you teleport inside my dungeon. It is only a matter of time before the Bohens try to attack it.”

“Why should we help you?” Brina asked with a sneer. “The challenge is for you, weakling.”

The hologram pointed at the spot which the Maleking used to occupy. “Do you think you can defeat him without more levels?”

Brina clenched her jaw in frustration. “No.”

“I feel the same,” the false god replied calmly. “Let us deal with our common foes and then fight. We will save more experience this way.”

“Ugh…” Belphegor jumped back to his feet. “I, uh… is this truly our last tour?”

“Sounds like it,” Brina replied. “The Maleking is not one to joke around.”

“I know the Boss means business, but sheesh… I’ve been doing this forever.” Belphegor scratched the back of his head. “It’s like being on a world tour and the final destination is finally in sight. It feels both satisfying and weirdly sad.”

“I am not sad.” Joining the Apocalypse Force had been a means to an end for Brina, nothing more. “It was a chore.”

“Come on, don’t be shy.” Belphegor patted her on the back. “We had good times.”

“We had tolerable times.” However, Brina found herself strangely unable to push Belphegor’s hand back. She would have killed anyone else trying that, especially an undead, but she found the Horseman’s presence almost… normal. “Though there is still time to do better.”

“Are you done?” Zeus-Ashok asked with an annoyed tone. “Time is of the essence.”

“I’ll be honest, I’ll probably skip town and become a freelance murderer rather than face the Boss in battle, but… sure, let’s add a few zeros to the body count.” Belphegor jumped back to his feet. “I love team-building exercises.”

Brina’s eyes darted to her battle-tested sword. She had collected countless weapons, each of them stained with blood. She had trained relentlessly and swallowed her pride for power, all in the name of her ambition.

The risk was great. The world she was fighting to save would potentially be at risk… though when she thought over it, Walter Tye had already reduced it to ruins. Prevailing over this last challenge was perhaps her only chance at finally destroying this evil at the root.

I cannot falter now. Brina hardened her heart. The road behind me is soaked with blood. If I turn around, I’ll slip.

One way or another, she would see her path to its end.

“Brina?” Belphegor said.

“Yes?” she asked.

“You are my friend, so if it comes down to it… I swear I’ll kill you last.”

“Thank you,” Brina replied with a faint smile. “Me too.”