CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Pira scratched her head, chewed her lower lip thoughtfully, and paced in a short semicircle. "Let me get this straight. You're the source of the life force of the universe. But the universe is draining too much too fast, and you're dying."

Tod nodded.

"And when you die, everything dies."

"Not just dies," he clarified, "but ceases to exist in any sense at all."

"Right. So total oblivion in other words."

Tod nodded again.

The crimson angel completed the other half of her semicircle. "Now that you know the problem, can't you fix it?"

"How?"

"I don't know. You're an elder god. Can't you do anything you want?"

Tod chuckled dryly. "I'm nigh-omnipotent. Emphasis on the 'nigh'. There are limits even to my abilities at full power, and at the moment, I'm nowhere near full power. I'm out of practice and most of my energy is being sucked away by the rest of existence."

"So you can't fix it. We're dead. Everything's dead."

"I didn't say that." Tod flashed a weak smile. "I just need time to think this through."

"How much time?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I'm only nigh-omniscient."

They sat in silence for several hours as angel and elder god mulled over the most pressing problem in the universe.

"I've got it!" Pira shouted out.

"Let me hear it." Tod was somewhat skeptical but open to suggestions.

"Restore the balance like the Tenalpians are trying to do. Undo as much of the universe as necessary to give yourself time to rest. Then, when you're feeling better, recreate as much as you can."

"Nice idea, but I don't have enough power to do that. Even if I did, undoing the universe requires just as much energy as creating it in the first place. Destroying it would consume my life force that much quicker, and I just don't have the power to spare."

"So you don't have your powers, and even if you did, using them would do more hurt than good?"

"That's about it."

"Then it's over."

"Not yet. I just have to think of a way to restore the balance without using my nigh-omnipotence."

"Which you don't even have," Pira observed. "That's impossible. There's no way to do this without a full blown miracle."

"There's still time."

"Yes. Time." She leaned against the wall. "As long as we're alive, there's hope."

But she didn't mean it. Pira had been made to never know defeat. She was Desaphanus's Righteous Anger Incarnate, an unbeatable force whether leading the Army of Light or facing the Legion of the Damned all by herself. This foe was different: abstract, overpowering, and immune to the invincible might of her limbs. Kalb and his minions could be beaten back. Heretics and unbelievers could be taught the error of their ways. The death of the universe taunted her like a whispering ghost, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. She had never felt so powerless. Truthfully, she had never ever felt powerless before.

The door slid open. The green Tenalpian (or possibly just a green Tenalpian as all of them looked alike to her) and two guards entered the cell. Pira took a step between them and Tod. The guards raised their weapons.

"It's okay, Pira. They won't hurt me. They know what I am."

Pira's muscles tightened. She trusted his judgment, but she desperately needed to strike out at something, anything. She had not been made to contain her rage, but somewhere, she found the strength to check her righteous fury.

"I'll be fine," Tod said as the Tenalpians led him away to a new room.

This one was smaller than the previous examination room and mostly empty. A metal table sat in the center. A large silver ball hung directly over it. The plump Chief Science Officer awaited beside the table, which upon closer inspection, had metal shackles perfectly suited to restraining one's limbs.

"More tests?" Tod asked.

"Please lay on the table," the Science Officer requested.

Tod hesitated.

A big guard prodded his shoulder, reminding Tod he really didn't have a choice. He climbed onto the hard table and laid down. As the Tenalpians secured his arms and legs, he tried to relax. There wasn't anything to worry about. They knew how important he was. There was no safer place to be.

The Science Officer pressed a button on his harness, and the silver ball opened like a tuna's mouth. A strange amalgamation of whirring and clicking devices lowered. Vicious hooks and long, thin blades writhed on the ends of shiny mechanical tentacles. In the center of the mass, a bright yellow eye gleamed.

Nothing to worry about, Tod reassured himself.

The top of the walls slid down to reveal an audience of Tenalpians. They leaned over the edge. He caught snatches of their hushed chatter.

"Odd looking thing, isn't it?"

"Downright hideous, if you ask me."

"Now, now, it would be unfair of us to hold this pathetic creature to our standards."

"True, but you must admit, the primitive beast has a disgustingly overdeveloped body. What do you think those lower appendages are for?"

"I'm told the otherlings use them to move around."

"How pointless."

"I would imagine the redundancy might come in useful at times."

"I suppose. I wonder if the internal physiology is as excessive."

Tod decided to start worrying.

The Science Officer pressed another button, and the yellow eye extended to within an inch of the elder god's face. It rotated and sparkled, slowly moving from Tod's head to his feet and back again.

"My fellow realiticians, having reached the limits of what can be learned through non-intrusive methods of analysis, we have now determined to enter the next phase of our examination. Somewhere within this being, we believe the Core of the universe is contained. We will now locate and remove it for further study."

"You can't do this!"

The Science Officer dragged over to Tod and placed a psuedopod on his chest. "I shall begin here, slicing open the abdominal cavity here and here for easiest access to the organs. This process will be slowed by the subject's internal calcium framework which shall have to be snapped and pulled out of the way."

"Listen! I'm the Core! It's not inside me! It is me!"

The Science Officer nodded towards a burly Tenalpian, who began to gag Tod.

"Wait! Don't do that! You have--"

His pleas were muted with one tight knot. He screamed through the gag, but they ignored him.

"I have ordered the subject muffled. As we have a limited understanding of the otherling's physiology, I cannot risk adverse affects from anesthesia. The subject's pain is regrettable, but we must remind ourselves that there is more at stake here than the fate of one being."

Tod pulled against the restraints. He called upon his extremely limited nigh-omnipotence. A tingling mist rose up on his chest and congealed into a blowfish. A rather sickly blowfish at that. The poor convulsing thing rolled off the table and quickly expired.

The Science Officer handed the dead fish to an assistant and ordered it analyzed.

"I shall now begin the operation. I would warn anyone sitting in the front row: you will get wet."

The bladed device clicked. A curved knife lowered to Tod's sternum where it stayed for a very long moment. He fixed on the shining instrument, poised to split open his guts and bring about the end of the universe. The blade raised to slice into his blue flesh. His eyes clamped shut, and his fists clenched so that black orc fingernails dug into his palms.

The operation room's door fell in with a crash. Pira stepped inside, an unconscious Tenalpian guard in each hand.

"What are you doing!"

"They're trying to kill me!" he shouted over the blare of alert sirens. A stifled "Mmmmph mmmph mmmph mmph!" found its way through the gag, but that, along with the dangerous clicking surgical device preparing to eviscerate him, got the message across.

The two guards stationed inside the room raised their weapons. Pira whirled about in a blur, hurling a beaten Tenalpian at each. The boneless, fleshy projectiles connected with their equally squishy targets.

They splattered into a shower of colorful chunks.

The Science Officer retreated to a far corner as the crimson angel zipped to Tod's side. She pulled free the gag.

"How'd you know?" he asked.

"I didn't, but I couldn't sit in that cell anymore. Hang on. I'm getting you out of here."

She pulled the table (and him along with it) free with a casual wrench. A fresh half dozen Tenalpian security officers dragged through the fallen doors. The Chief Science Officer waved his pseudopods furiously. "Don't shoot. You might damage the Core."

"They don't want to risk hurting me," Tod explained to Pira.

"I thought they were trying to kill you."

"They were."

The security officers fanned out in a circle to find a clear shot. She swung him from side to side, but soon she would be covered from every angle. They leveled their oddly shaped weapons.

"You do realize," Tod observed, "that you're shielding yourself with the fate of the universe?"

The ship trembled. It tipped to one side. The pear-shaped Tenalpians fell over while Pira remained standing. The moment's distraction was all she needed. She spread her golder wings and shot upward, punching her way through four layers of the egg before finally breaching its thick hull. She streaked onward, not bothering to look back until she was a safe distance away.

Four dragons battled the flagship. They flitted about, swiping at the egg's side with their great claws. A lucky blast disintegrated a dragon's wings, and the reptile plummeted from the sky. In unison, the other three exhaled gouts of flame that engulfed the egg.

Tod allowed himself a relieved smile. "The fire was my idea."

The flagship emerged from the white hot conflagration. A volley of yellow deathrays vaporized another dragon's head. The remaining two pulled back, circling warily.

"We better get out of here while they're still busy," Pira suggested.

"Where?"

"Anyplace far from here."

"Good idea, but can you get me off this table? These restraints are starting to chaffe."

"Later, Tod."

Table securely in hand, the crimson angel soared away from the shrill blasts of deathrays and the angry roars of dragons.