Deicide the God Eater
The Seventeenth Chapter

I am the one with power. Why would I waste it struggling with mydesires, when grasping them is far easier than stifling them? - Deicide

The Abysshad strung herself up like a hammock and Deicide rested in her folds swingingin the simulated breeze. High above wasa beautiful canopy created by giant exotic trees; warm artificial light needledthrough gaps between the leaves, and spilled onto the enormous stone slab wherehis children were being lectured by Ichor, his Weaver Chief Commander. Everything known of the Weaver department wasa mosaic of fabled misinformation and warped imaginings, the trim-bodied spiesskulked around like ghostly felines. Their culture was very insular to keep their training secret, it waseven rumored that those that failed any portion of the school were killed, lestthe embittered washouts expose them. Ichor did nothing to confirm or deny the fanciful stories, as it keptout those who would certainly fail to meet Weaver standards.

Deicidewatched as his old mentor explained to his children how the laws of theuniverse only applied to the common; he was sure that soon their nannies wouldbe complaining to him that the children were never around when they called,even though the children would be within earshot. Most of them would abandon many of Ichor’sstealth teachings after they learned the basics, but with their superiorstrength they would have little use for clandestine activities themselves, butat least they would understand the tactics. All who descended from Deicide’s official bloodline would live asdeities amongst the very best of society, necessary to maintain the grip on thethroat of his empire which doubled in size each assessment cycle. Deicide rolled from the folds of the Abyssand landed on the stone slab below, as her mass followed him in a black cascadetoward the ground. She crashed aroundhim, sending an oily flood towards the children. Ichor stepped aside as the Abyss washed overthe children’s feet.

Deicidelaughed as he watched them wade in the shifting black lake before they foundtheir way to their feet. All of them hadbeen fitted with a row of umbilical plugs down their spines, it down-scaled thevestige enough to where it would not poison them, but they received a muchgreater percentage than the average eater for greater power. From the holes in the children’s spines agray material emerged, the bastard vestiges of the Abyss.

Deicidespread his hands as the Abyss flared, a horde of yellow eyes emerged from hersurface. His oldest children Silex andCaissa led the attack, their veins shown a dark grey against their beige skin;the vestige material had formed itself into grey replicas. Deicide backpedaled and dodged the bites andslashes, before running into Eldora, Asotus and their own gray Abyss clones. The rest of the children, barely out of theirtoddler years, huddled on the sidelines with Ichor while he growled words ofencouragement.

The childrenwere capable of slaughtering more than the dregs of the Deathless, but whatlooked like a savage battle to the civilians watching from the windows, wasnothing more than a playful father wrestling with his children. Even as the gray drones rushed him withbladed attacks Deicide was in no danger, they may as well have tried stabbinghim with sticks of butter. The drones’limbs gave a wet smack as they hit his heavily muscled physique and none of hischildren could lay hands on him at all. Ichor shook his head as another blitz failed; none of them would beready for a battle against Ecocide and her sisters, even the mighty Eldora whohad already been touted as a prodigy of fighting.

As theydragged themselves back to Ichor, Deicide tried to console them, but they hadinherited Nott’s perfectionism. Helooked up and saw the eager face of an eater amongst his family.

“What’s up?”Deicide said; lifting the little gray skinned Amicus onto his shoulders.

“Messagefrom the Nazareth, sir,” the eater said. Deicide nodded and handed off little Amicus, holding back tears in hisgreat yellow eyes, so much like his mother’s. The tike seemed jealous of his older siblings, growing at an acceleratedrate. However, even he could notunderstand how special he was. The onlychild of Nott and Deicide, he would inherit the seal, if Deicide should everfall. Despite all of the princes andprincesses which Deicide had sired, Amicus was next in line, a fact that fewpeople ever allowed to slip from their minds.

Deicide madehis way toward the war room; he was followed by his advisor Ichor, Silex andCaissa his two oldest children. ThoughDeicide could view the message anywhere, he knew a meeting would be necessarysoon enough. He threw on a shirt as hewalked into the war room milling with his Cabinet, many did not bother dressingin full uniform as it was during the time of daily exercise. He crossed the room on the military side oftable, his children followed, but the rule did not apply to them yet. He dropped down in his chair as Caissaplopped next to him, while Silex hopped onto the armrest. The teens had been very involved in themachinations of the Aeolipile, political and all, but this was the first timethey had accompanied their father in the war room. Before they would only be allowed to sit silentlynext to the speaker, unseen, unheard. Deicide whirled his finger in the air at the aid running thepresentation, and he quickly ran his fingers across a holographic touch screento begin the prerecorded message.

“Hey puppy!”Ecocide said. Deicide sneered asEcocide’s smiling face filled the wall display, her beige face surrounded bydark curly hair. He could still rememberthe coldness of her eyes, constantly betraying her otherwise friendly smile. She was reclined in the Captain’s chair onthe bridge, amidst bored looking officers and enlisted personnel on watch.

“I justwanted to tell ya’ we picked up your girl. Fucked up how you left her out there all by herself. You never were that good with the ladies. Maybe that’s why you stayed with that frown-facedwitch. How is she by the way? Nah, I don’t really care. Anyway, Genocide says hi, give Shay a kissfor me!” Ecocide said before the messageshut off.

“What thehell was that?” Someone said. Deicide turned back to the table slunk downin his seat, fuming. He watched underhis narrowed eyelids as the usual comedians prepared to lighten the mood, andthen as if through telepathy, they all held their tongues. Very few knew the exact relationship betweenDeicide and the genetic children of Bestat, one of his former mentors. As eaters they were known collectively as theLionesses and their power was known to have been on par with Deicide’s beforehe had become an adult.

“Is it notobvious?” Deicide said. “Their goadingus. Me.”

“What the helldo we care about one soldier?” someone said.

“Shit, wasshe a spy?” someone said; many began to murmur in agreement. Deicide threw his hands in the air at theincompetence that was spreading throughout the room.

“Why do Ieven pay you? You know she just wants tospin me up,” Deicide said. Caissa and Silex began to whisper to theirfather. “Address the cabinet like a biggirl Caissa,” Deicide said.

“We believeit’s a ruse to replace our true location,” Caissa said. The cabinet began to whisper.

“Dear girlthey already know where we are from the message,” a general said.

“One wouldassume so, but all they can garner is where we might have been, from ourgates. And that information fades withinseconds of its departure. So all theyhave is a guess,” Silex said.

“There couldhave been thousands of those message beacons,” Hellmouth said.

“I would betthat they’re testing a device to pin point our location, perhaps even topredict it,” Caissa said, nodding to Silex, who nodded back. Deicide pursed his lips and nodded slowly,squeezing a laugh from the room.

“So what dowe do about this?” Deicide said.

“I say wegive them what they want,” a general said.

“What ifthey use Neg-Shells?” someone said.

“We can’t beafraid of those,” Deicide said. “And we shan’t need them.”

“They existfor a reason, sir,” someone said. Deicide shot from his seat and slammed his hands on the table.

“Never! Only a coward would use such a weapon! Why do we train these people to fight? Why is it we endorse such ruthlesscompetition?” Deicide said.

“We have tolook at possibilities,” Great White said.

“When youall replace one worthy of my attention, I’ll review it,” Deicide said; thenstreaked from the room, the Abyss and his children followed.

Deicidereturned to his office to fume, the usual line of people were waiting outside,but he ignored them all, instead Silex and Caissa tended to them. Deicide burst in to replace the rest of hisfamily engaged in self-study, reading information from holographic screens anddiscussing weapon prototypes developed by the Somnus Engineers. He collapsed into the chair behind his sleekdesk as it emerged from the wall and ceiling.

“Hey Dadlook at this prototype,” Capella said, sending a holographic image that rotatedabove the black surface embedded in his desk.

“Why thehell are they designing cars at a time like this?” Deicide said, dismissing itafter a glance.

“You barelylooked at it,” Capella said, approaching his desk. She peeked under the holographic displays andwaved. Then she came around the desk andheld up her tablet.

“I sawit. Why do you even care about cars? Every eater can outrun one,” Deicide said.

Capellaclutched the pad to her chest. “But it looks so cool,” Capella said.

“I’ll beinterested when they make something that can stop a Neg-Shell without drainingthe Abyss’ power,” Deicide said. Immediately his children and the queue all turned towards him.

“Somethingthat isn’t my face,” Deicide said. Hesat in his corner of the room, while the rest of his world went on withouthim. He watched members come and go,interacting with his young family. Hischildren were liked by the crew, but he was afraid the soldiers still thoughtof them as mutants, which they were, as his oldest two would be fully grown inabout a year, with the rest not far behind. It was only little Amicus who seemed to be getting left behind. He had grown just like the others and thenjust stopped, though Deicide thought it was just as well, none of them would bephase three for several hundred years, only then could they be called trueadults. According to Nott’s standardsDeicide had only reached adulthood when his body was revamped inside of thatgreat tree his wife had taken refuge in. He brooded as he mentally thumbed through reports in his external mind,surprised when he came to a missing persons report from inside theAeolipile. He wondered how anyone couldgo missing even if they wanted too; every Aeolipile citizen had a uniquesignature written into identification strips on their necks which could not bespoofed.

Deicidenoticed that the woman missing was related to one of Asotus’ instructors. He thought about asking the boy if he hadseen her, but had no patience for the boy’s apathetic sighs. In truth it was someone else’ duty to be onthe hunt for her, it angered him that he had even bothered wasting time readingthe message. He mentally contacted hisAmanuensis Array and told them to hold his messages concerning trivial matters. The Aeolipile would be headed into war with aworthy opponent soon and he wanted to limit his distractions.

He sat upwhen he saw Hellmouth, White and Ichor making their way toward his office onthe security camera, immediately the queue in front of his door fled from thescene, as some of them were skipping chain of command having Deicide, or moreaccurately, his children signing his name on legal documents. The door slid shut silently behind them, andthen the children returned to their studies.

“Is this howit’s gonna be?” Hellmouth said, gold teeth bared. Deicide was unmoved, even the Abyss gave noreaction. Deicide looked to one of thenannies playing with Amicus on the other side of the room. The women charged with taking care of hischildren seemed to know his moods almost as well as the Amanuensis or theAbyss.

“C’monkids,” she said, gathering them up, despite their protests. When they had gone Deicide stood and pulledhis shirt over his head. The Abyssgiggled and hung at the back of the room.

“We didn’tcome here for that,” Ichor said.

“Bullshit,” Deicidesaid.

“Your paranoiais gonna eat you up, Ant,” Hellmouth said. Deicide clenched his fists and came from around the desk, his musclestight, and jaws grinding his teeth.

Hellmouthwaved her hands out in front of her. “Iwon’t fight you,” Hellmouth said.

“Then whyare you here?” Deicide said.

“You’reexhibiting traits of someone with a mental illness,” Ichor said. “When you actually show up to meetings allyou do is make nonsensical outbursts.”

“You have tostart setting a better example,” Hellmouth said.

“I’m sick ofbeing the better man, sick of being the one that has to do right. I’m the one with the power. Why should I make concessions?” Deicide said. The Abyss had increased her size quickly,nearly swallowing up a third of the room.

“Becauseyou’re the Captain,” Hellmouth said.

“What thefuck happened to you in there?” GreatWhite said. “Ever since you took thattrip you’ve been acting like a punk. Notlistening to shit, angry over nothing. What the fuck?” Great White said.

“We know youmiss her, but this is inexcusable. It’sunbecoming of your rank,” Ichor said. Deicide lowered his head and shook it from side to side.

“What isit?” Hellmouth said.

“When I fellthrough, I wasn’t in the Fringes. Youthink I would be wandering around in the Fringes for months and not get out?” Deicidesaid.

“Of coursewe thought it was strange, but you were hurt. We didn’t want to assume anything,” Hellmouth said.

“I saw Nott,”Deicide said, his mentors, stunned into silence had to take their seats.

“How?” Hellmouth said. “She’s in the Machinethough.”

“I know, butI didn’t get there through the door,” Deicide said.

“Are youfucking with us?” Great White said.

“Of coursenot. We’re about to go through sometrying times,” Deicide said. “And wecan’t allow the Nazareth to go unchecked any longer.”

“How can youknow this? We haven’t had any Intel onthem in years,” Ichor said.

“You thinkEcocide’s not scheming? That’s all shewas good for,” Deicide said. “You thinkshe sends me love letters out of boredom?”

“I agree,but we have to be sensible,” Ichor said.

“He’s right,punching through the wall is still pretty far off, we don’t have to rush,” Hellmouthsaid.

“I know, butI’m not sure how much time we have left,” Deicide said.