CHAPTER ELEVEN

Barely ten minutes after nearly drowning in the Gray Sea, Tod found himself whisked away from the Realm of the Dead. Under heavy guard, he was escorted to a secured location in the Palace of Heavens so fast his clothes were still wet. The angels showed him to a small room.

"Wait here, sir."

The door slammed shut before Tod could ask for something dry to wear. The lock clicked.

Tod grimaced at the puddle dripping around his feet. The room's sole piece of mortal comfort was a cot with a flat pillow and a thin blanket. Cold, but too tired to bother taking off his wet clothes, he climbed onto the cot and waited.

He made a deliberate effort to avoid thinking about anything. He pretended the universe wasn't ending.

He ignored the assassination attempts of demons. He disregarded his dead brother and his own possible mortality, and he didn't acknowledge the terrible ache that ran though his limbs. He knew these things were all still there, and certainly not going away on their own. He simply pretended they might.

Water pooled in the center of the cot and dribbled onto the floor. He counted the steady drips and had gotten to one thousand thirty before the door opened again.

He found the energy to turn his head and nothing else. Xyreen entered with a pair of crimson bodyguards and a tall golden angel with a round, warm face. She radiated peace and caring.

Xyreen mumbled a quick introduction. "Tod, this is Slyvia, leader of the bearers of succor."

"Wish I could say it was nice to meet you."

Slyvia said nothing. She laid a hand on his shoulder, and gentle heat filled his body. Tod's aches and pains melted away, and his clothes instantly dried as well.

Tod sat up. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Her voice was soft and sweet, like a loving mother's. Although this was mostly conjecture for Tod, who had never had a mother.

She pulled away her hand. The warmth left him, and too many of the stinging pangs returned. He still felt better, but not entirely well.

Slyvia turned to Xyreen. "Can I speak with you for a moment?" She flashed Tod a reassuring smile. "In private."

Xyreen nodded. "Certainly."

"It's okay," Tod grunted. "I know."

"Know what?" Xyreen asked.

"It all makes perfect sense. The weakening of my powers. The sudden pain. I'm dying, aren't I?"

"Dying? Don't be absurd, Tod. Elder gods can't die."

"Sure they can. Just ask Desaphanus. Just ask her."

The golden angel clasped her hands together and nodded. "Your body is dying. This much I can say for certain."

"Can't you restore him?" Xyreen asked.

Slyvia frowned. "His life essence is in a state of rapid flux. It's waxing and waning, but definitely ebbing away. I can correct the physical problems, but this is beyond my powers. I don't even know what's causing it."

"That's what I figured. And seeing as I'm currently stuck in this body, when it goes, so do I. How much time do I have?"

"I couldn't say. Your life force is beyond anything I can truly measure, but it's diminishing quickly. If you weren't an elder god, you'd be dead already. If I were to take a guess, a week. Perhaps a little more."

She paused. "Perhaps less."

The room fell silent.

Tod contemplated death, and just what it meant for him. Mortals died, but their spirit went onto the Realm of the Dead. Unmade angels and demons were fully reborn after a few centuries. What awaited an elder god? Did anything? Or did they simply cease to be? From nothing they were born, and to nothing they mostly likely returned.

For the first time, Tod found himself facing the unknown. It was an odd development accompanied by a strange mix of emotions: equal parts fear and exhilaration with strong hints of curiosity. He both liked and disliked the feeling at the same time.

"A week, huh?"

Slyvia nodded.

"Doesn't give me much time."

"For what?" Xyreen asked.

Tod stood. "To save the universe. What else?"

The door flew open, and a battered figure stumbled in. Tod didn't recognize Pira right away, covered in purple bruises and dried blood. Bone stuck out her twisted leg, and her wings were stripped of most their feathers.

Xyreen and Tod ran to her side and kept her from falling.

Slyvia laid her healing touch on Pira. Her bruises disappeared. Her leg bone drew back into place, and the flesh closed up. Her scars vanished while her tattered robe became whole once more.

Pira stood on her own. A slight limp was the only trace of her injuries.

"Is it over?" Xyreen said. "Has the Legion been defeated?"

"Yes and no."

The others exchanged puzzled glances.

"Who won?" Xyreen asked again.

"The eggs."

"What eggs?"

Pira shrugged. "Good question. I don't know what they are. I don't know where they come from. All I know is that they don't seem to be on anyone's side. They killed Kalb and the Army and the Legion. And everything else. I barely made it out of there alive."

"But Desaphanus never made anything like that," Xyreen pointed out. "How can they exist?"

"I don't know, but they do."

The Palace of Heavens shuddered.

"The Legion," Xyreen exclaimed.

"Worse. It's them."

Another stronger tremor rocked the Palace.

"Tod, stay here," Xyreen ordered. "I have to look into this."

"I'm coming with you."

"It's too dangerous."

"I'm dying. Remember? What do I have to be afraid of?"

Pira paled. "You're dying?"

A nearby explosion rocked the room.

"That's not important right now," Tod said.

Xyreen considered arguing, but he was right. She had far too much on her mind to waste energy giving him orders he wasn't going to follow.

They flew through the Palace, towards the sounds of battle. Soon they came across two dozen flying eggs busy blasting the walls into powder and disintegrating scattering angels. Seeing the objects up close did not justify their existence, though debating the impossibility of their being was hardly on anyone's mind.

The angels and elder god hid behind a chunk of shattered crystal.

"They're destroying the Palace!" Xyreen needlessly observed. "We have to stop them!"

"I'm open to suggestions," Pira said. "We can't fight them."

"What do you suggest then?"

Tod spoke up. "We could always fall back and regroup."

"Abandon the Palace? We can't do that!"

More eggs crashed through the walls and proceeded to demolish anything and everything with colorful energy bolts.

"There isn't going to be a Palace much longer."

"He's right," Pira agreed.

"But-"

"We have to come up with a new strategy."

"But-"

A shadow fell across them. A flying egg aimed several guns in their direction. Slyvia were blown to atoms before she knew what hit her, but Pira managed to snatch up Tod and fly away. Xyreen disappeared amid the chaos.

Pira darted through energy beams and falling debris, soaring through a gaping hole in the ceiling. Outside, the eggs were too busy destroying the Palace to bother with two fleeing specks.

At a far enough distance, Pira stopped just long enough to allow them to watch her home crumble into a mountain of shattered crystal shards. The eggs hovered quietly over the ruins.

"What now?" Pira asked.

"I was hoping you would know," Tod replied.

The air before them shimmered as another egg materialized from nowhere. It was immense, at least three times the size of any of the others, and thousands of blinking lights covered it. Bright purple energy crackled on the strange array on its pointed end.

"Damn," Tod groaned. "I was hoping to make it at least four days."

The bolt struck the pair. There was no pain, Tod realized to his relief. In one moment, the universe disappeared, replaced by darkness.

Tod couldn't move. He couldn't feel his body, but this was different than his original formlessness. It was chilly, but not uncomfortably cold. Soft humming came from somewhere. So this was death. Not much to it. It wasn't all that scary, after all.

Somebody moaned.

"Pira?"

"Tod, is that you?" Her voice came from his left.

"Yeah."

"Where are we?"

"Well, I thought we were dead. Now I don't know." His body began to tingle, reminding him it was still there.

Lights flared, illuminating the small chamber. There wasn't much to see. The bare room had a domed ceiling and nothing else.

There was one other occupant, a strange creature with glistening pink skin. Its pear-shaped body had only two oddly jointed limbs. A pair of beady green eyes and a tiny mouth were the only facial features.

"Oh no," Tod sighed. "Not you."

"You know this..thing?"

"You might say that."

The creature used its arms to drag itself across the floor, leaving a trail of slime behind it. Its mouth moved, and a soft whistle escaped its lips.

"You're telling me," Tod replied.

"You can understand it?"

Tod nodded.

"How?"

"Because," he sighed. "I created it."