CHAPTER NINTEEN

Pira flew across Wa'suria, and Tod saw firsthand what disasters had befallen the world. Forests reduced to ash. Proud and ancient cities razed to the ground. In the East, dried up oceans transformed into vast, lifeless desert littered with thousands upon thousands of dead fish. While in the West, floods engulfed even the highest peaks in a churning, bubbling rage. Inhospitable sleet buried many a kingdom under an ever growing smothering blanket of snow. But these calamities were just those plaguing his brother's world. There were many others pestering the rest of the universe.

The dimming sun barely managed to bring light to Wa'suria, and what little it did manage covered the world in a murky twilight. Comets and asteroids and other assorted debris careened wildly above the planet in a chaotic dance without any semblance of order. Tod could count the number of remaining stars on his fingers, and even as he did, two more flickered out of existence. Everything was mostly nothing now, and with each passing hour, there was less everything and more nothing. It wouldn't be long now, he realized.

The elder gods had been born from nothing. He remembered the void still. It hadn't bothered him then, but the ages had changed his perception. Suddenly, nothing seemed like a cold and lonely place.

Especially without his brother to keep him company. Not that he had to worry about loneliness. He would soon be dead too.

He tried not to think about the future. Rather, he tried not to think about the complete lack of one.

Below, the survivors (of which there were few) struggled to stay alive. Age old enemies huddled together around flickering campfires to stay warm. Races that had hated each other since the dawn of time were facing much bigger problems. Wa'suria's children had finally found the unity that had always eluded them, and all it took was the death of creation.

His stomach tightened. It might have been general nausea. It might have been a little more of his life force being sucked away.

Pira finally spoke after hours of silence. "We're here."

They landed before the smoldering ruins of Tod's cottage. The dying flames danced along the blackened limbs of trees like scavengers picking clean the leafy flesh of charred skeletons.

The elder god bent down and ran two fingers through the gray ash of what had been his favorite shade tree. "Perfect. Just perfect."

"Tod, I'm sorry."

"Guess you won't have to take care of my Cat after all."

"It could still be alive," Pira suggested. "They're very clever animals, and it is immortal."

She didn't sound convinced. Smiting, not comforting words, was her purpose, but he appreciated the attempt.

"Yeah."

"It's probably somewhere under all this. I'll see if I can find it." She began digging through the cottage ruins.

"You don't have to-"

"It shouldn't take long."

"Pira..."

She stopped and looked over her shoulder. "I'll find it, Tod."

Looking into her black eyes, he knew she wasn't searching for him. She was searching for something to do. As hard as the end of the universe was for him, it had to be a thousand times worse for her. Pira had been created to protect Wa'suria. This final turn of events hadn't been her fault, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. Logically, she had to know that. But all the logic in the universe couldn't measure up to the overwhelming impotence she must have felt.

"Yes, I'm sure she's under there somewhere," he replied.

Smiling, Pira furiously tossed aside smoking rubble.

Tod sat on a flat, black stone still warm. His body ached in every conceivable way. His muscles were stiff and sore. His vision was blurry. He was both freezing and feverish at the same time. His skin felt clammy and moist in some spots, dry and itchy everywhere else. His tusks wiggled loosely in his gums.

Even his sturdy, orcish fingernails hurt.

"I think I've found something!" Pira shouted out. "Oh wait! It's just a..uh well, I don't know what it is, but it isn't a cat. Never mind."

Tod nodded and smiled, trying not to look as bad as he felt. She returned to the search.

The hours passed, and Tod couldn't help but pass them by feeling sorry for himself. He hadn't ever wanted much. Desaphanus had always been the one with high aspirations. All Tod had ever wanted was a nice, quiet existence. It didn't seem like too much to ask.

A burnt out tree shimmered into transparency and then into complete nonexistence.

Tod's instincts told him that this was the last stage of oblivion. First came chaos, the breakdown of all the natural laws. Then came destruction, the violent fits of a dying cosmos. Finally came the unbecoming, when things would simply stop being.

His bones throbbed as if they might turn to jelly, but he couldn't put it off any longer. Time neared its end, and if he was to going to save the universe, he had to get to work. The only hope for Creation lay in a miracle. Tod wasn't feeling up to even a minor miracle at the moment, much less one so grand that it might restore the universe. Yet he was an elder god (despite his current very un-godlike feelings), and there was no such thing as impossible for a being of his awesome power.

Best to start small, he decided.

A wilted, dying sunflower fell beneath his gaze. He would begin by renewing it to a full, healthy bloom.

The leeching parasite of the Cosmos surely left him enough power for such a minor feat of elder godhood.

He focused on the blackened petals and willed the flower whole and healthy. Nothing happened, and he pushed harder. He drew upon every last ounce of his waning strength, and the stem straightened reluctantly. Fresh, green leaves sprouted. Drooping petals curled with new life.

Tod felt like throwing up, but he kept pushing.

The sunflower stretched toward the dying sun. It was the most beautiful sight Tod had ever seen. He could do it. Piece by piece, one sunflower at a time, he could rebuild the universe. It might take a while, but it was possible. Gently, he pulled back his nigh-omnipotence, and let the flower stand on its own.

It crumbled to dust along with all his hopes.

The sun flickered a shade dimmer.

A blackened and limping finch landed beside him. It cocked an eye in his direction.

"Get lost," he barked.

A violet bolt blasted the bird into a shower of feathers and a lump of smoldering meat. Kalb blew the smoke away from his lightning-tossing finger.

"Hello, Tod."

The elder god jumped from his rock. Pira darted to his side.

"I saw you killed," she said.

The small gathering of demons beside Kalb chuckled.

"Not killed," he corrected. "Merely inconvenienced."

"What do you want?"

Kalb shrugged. "Nothing much. Just ultimate power, but I'll settle for the death of the universe. Hand over the elder god, Pira. It'll be so much easier for all of us."

The angel considered her choices. She could try to fight off Kalb and his demons, but she was not feeling particularly righteous in her anger anymore. Fleeing was unthinkable, but Tod had to be protected at all costs. Even if the cosmos was going to die soon, she wasn't about to give its last hours to the Overlord of the Damned.

"I'll make this easy for you."

He snapped his fingers, and Staggia stepped from behind him. She gave the Cat to her master.

"Surrender yourself to me, Tod," --An evil, all-too-pleased grin spread across his blackened ferret lips.

"Or I shall kill this Cat."