Deicide the God Eater
The Twenty-Seventh Chapter

He compiled all of his knowledge intoa single work, chiseled on the mountain ranges of Otrenaton. The Trillion Volumes of Demiurge, theRanderict

The gateseemed relatively close to the singular home that it was adjacent to, but thesize of this ship seemed impossible, he could almost believe that his Aeolipilecould fit inside of this one room, perhaps even with the District platters intow. Of course the Demiurge was a giant,along with his keepers, but why not his son, or even himself, being cloned fromthe same stock? Even with the new bodyNott had blessed him with, he still stood only a few inches higher than a tallhuman.

When hearrived at the gate Deicide felt he had walked for centuries, but he tossedaside his miserable mood when he laid his hands on the door. Brilliantly jeweled, this shining doorway wasa symbol of his true desire, self-centered and outrageously sinful, he had notdared to even whisper it to himself, but the Abyss had. From the day he discovered her in the darknessof his playroom she had spoken to him of what he could have, what could betaken from others. The Abyss was thereminder of a promise he had made to himself as a boy, to surge upwards untilhe saw the entire picture of the Existence, outside of this blasted ship, andinto the true world.

He expectedthere to be winged sentinels on watch, but there was no one to block or allowhis passage. He slowly pressed hisfingers against the great doors and they slid open silently. As the space grew wider between the doors,there was no light to caress his face, void of any sound besides his earspopping. The world he had entered was abattlefield, an array of broken weapons and mutilated bodies, a grotesquecarpet that extended to the ends of this land.

Deicidethought better than to allow the Abyss to feed on these corpses, his antennasstood straight up on his head as he scanned the bodies for movement. Ahead of him, floating above the cruel scenelike a star in the sky, was a castle. Agreat hulking monster; with arches so large that he imagined an entire Districtbeing able to reside on one of their keystones, stained glass, miles longdepicting what he perceived as the history of other universes. He dashed up the seemingly infinite stairway,arriving almost instantly at the entrance. Every moment that passed he felt himself grow stronger and faster, heonly had to tell his brain where he should stop and he was there to meet thelight trailing behind him. He wonderedhow Nott could have planned for this without wanting to possess this powerherself. She was certainly moredisciplined than himself. Once, when Deicidehad first discovered the abilities of the killbox, he had tried to disassemble livingfish, but was perplexed on how to put them back together alive. He continued to repeat the act, thinking thatsimply by doing he could accomplish what he wanted. It took Nott’s gentle voice and scientificmethods to teach him patience and diligence.

He strodethrough the ragged halls of this once magnificent structure, gazing at itsshattered frescos and sliced tapestries. There was even damage to the arched ceilings high above, their paintscratched and rubbed away. This battlehad been waged by seemingly every possible form of sentient being. He saw the bodies of winged men he assumedwere angels, but they possessed faces like that of birds. He plucked a few of their feathers to takeback to the children; only their bodies were mature, but they would still befascinated by the treasure.

When Deicidearrived at the bridge of this vessel he could hear the voices of vestigescalling out to his own. The Abyss coiledherself around Deicide, fearing nothing, her smooth blackness became tough andlined with thorns. The door did not openon its own, locked, but he could feel the seal in his own body react to thesensors, and he stepped closer. Yes, thisis what they needed to clone to gain access, no doubt everyone else would bebarred from entering this space, or possibly attacked by some ancient securitysystem, but the Demiurge would allow a son, or perhaps some competent forgery.

The greatdoors slid open as all the others had, and Deicide was shown the bridge, halfnavigation and communications, organic creatures connected to these consoleswere in a ruined state, their mummified bodies still upright, as if ready to receiveorders at the slightest whim of the captain. And there was Demiurge sitting at the center console, reclined in thecaptain’s chair, very much alive, he was surrounded by two great vestiges, thebig blue Beyond hovered over his head and the Abeyance skulked beneathhim. Deicide thought that he was perhapsthree times his size, his body, mostly naked; his dark brown skin was one solidcolor, unmarred by the scars of war or the harsh life which must have createdhim.

The vestigesdid not seem agitated, and sat easily amongst him. The Abyss chirped and snarked, offended thatshe was not seen as a threat. ButDeicide knew why, vestiges matched the personalities of their companions,truly, Demiurge was no fighter, and his son had been no better. It was so that Deicide was the first, the Godof Eaters, created by a special balance in the Existence, not through someabsurd mysticism, but by natural laws which governed celestial bodies.

Demiurgenodded. “You have his face, but you arenot my son,” Demiurge said, his voice amplified by the duel vestiges. Demiurge had a kind, easy face, not that ofany kind of god one would imagine, it had angles, but it lacked the chiseled featuresor the patriarchal beard many of the ancient Abstrusian artists and believershad given him. There was no aquiline nose or eyes of fire to beset his face,his eyes were of an ordinary brown, and no antennas sat atop the edges of hisbrow. Deicide thought he appeared morelike some ancient monk, muscled, head bald, meditating on the end everything.

Deicidestepped forward. “Why did you hide the truth Pretender?” Deicide said. “Why didyou keep the Corridor a secret?”

“Why is ityou call me that, Pretender?” Demiurge said. “Do you believe there is anothergreater, possibly on the other side of these doors?”

“There mustbe,” Deicide said.

“I createdthese boundaries, not to protect myself, but the true world beyond,” Demiurgesaid. “Away from you and the half worlds.”

“Well you’vefailed,” Deicide said.

“That I havechild,” Demiurge said. “The arrogance and meddling of the Abstrusians hadbecome an incurable disease, a fate the Humans would surely catch, had theydiscovered the artifacts fast enough.”

“We upliftedall species with science,” Deicide said. “All creatures deserve god’s tools.”

Demiurge’sshoulders bobbed as he laughed. “Is this what they told you?” he said. “TheAbstrusians made all others their slaves. The Carnica were twisted to save Abstrusian women the trouble ofbirthing and raising their own children. The Dorsali were made to fight in place of Abstrusian males. The Abstrusians will always force others todo what is difficult.”

Deicideclenched his fists. “Yet I face you now,” Deicide said.

“You are notAbstrusian,” Demiurge said. “Only an imitation, modified to serve another’spurpose.”

Deicide’santennas flickered rapidly. “You lie!” Deicide said.

“Do I? I am no Abstrusian and neither was yourmother,” Demiurge said. “A vestige could never bond with a trueAbstrusian. That’s why they needed you,to access the power of the vestige. Youhave shouldered their burden, and now you are a slave to their dark desires.”

“They soughtonly to save the people from a fate you handed down,” Deicide said.

“They wantedto become gods,” Demiurge said. “They wanted to wield the vestigesthemselves. And after they accomplish this,they won’t need you.”

Deicidetightened his lips. There was so much henever understood about the people he called his own, so much information todevour and decipher. From the verybeginning he had accepted the narrative which had been placed before him, thatthe Demiurge was a poor steward, greedily coveting knowledge and power for himself,and he had never questioned any of it. Howmuch did he really know? There had beensmall gaps in the massive archives that the Amanuensis had fed him, but how didhe know? Yes, he was a different personthan the man he was cloned from, but somewhere deep within, he knew that theinformation he received from Nott and all of his surrogate mothers wasincomplete. Could it be perhaps that he had read them already, in itsentirety? A clone did not retain any ofthe memories of its source, yet Nott had been chosen to be his companiononboard the Aeolipile, surely some other woman could have been chosen, but ithad been her, the wife of Antino I.

The Demiurgewatched as Deicide’s face contorted as his mind processed this data. Then he spoke once again.

“Long ago, aman told me that I should never have children,” Demiurge said. “For to do so would mean my doom, he said tome: A child creates a bridge between the work of a Constant and himself. The work will see this bridge, and it is intheir nature to walk across, trampling the child and the father. You do not have to believe me Antino, but youbetter than anyone understand man’s destiny. Have you not seen the way that humans look at you? It is the same way that the Abstrusianslooked at me. Any people that bow their heads willingly and never gaze into theBeyond are animals or slaves.”

Deiciderecalled the disgusted, cynical faces of the people he had conquered. He then turned his mind to those that he hadallowed to live within the Aeolipile, those he ate with and shared bedswith. Out of all of them, how much ofhis trust had he allotted to them, and how much did they really deserve? Especially his army of children, aninheritance of unimaginable influence would be bestowed upon a single heirshould he meet his end, the seal of the Aeolipile and the mighty vestige, theAbyss. He remembered the change in someof his natural birth children when his official heirs had been unveiled, forthey knew now that they were out of the running, pushed further back in theline to the throne by these monstrous children of a living god.

Deicidecalled upon the Amanuensis and the Abyss, to parse through this enigma andreveal the diabolical plot that must have been festering within, but theyreplied to him only with the knowledge that he had given them, that this waschaos, and it would take a mind far wiser than the Abyss and faster than all ofthe Amanuensis to part the darkness which veiled these machinations. Though he did know, if he was a pawn, then sowas everyone else beneath his level of understanding.

“I feel Ihave reached you my Pretender son,” Demiurge said. “But what will you do withwhat I have given you? Will you seek Truth?”

Deicidenodded. “I will,” Deicide said.

The Demiurgesighed and he too nodded. “Then I will allow you to consume my flesh. Then youwill be granted your inheritance, the seal of the Antikythera, as well as thevestiges the Beyond and the Abeyance. The archives of this ship go back to the day it was commissioned.”

Deicidereluctantly allowed the Abyss to slip away from his shoulders. Instead of tearing the willing creatures toshreds she increased her size, drawing more and more girth from Deicide’sumbilicals and she drowned the Beyond and the Abeyance, and finally theDemiurge, waiting with a sense of relief. Deicide clamped his jaws as the Abyss consumed them all with her blackmaw deep within. Her normally lightlessflesh now gave off a slight, violet hue, but her eyes still remained a mustardyellow. The Abyss opened her inky folds to reveal a large red mass that Deicideassumed was the heart of the Demiurge. Deicide grimaced as she pushed the organ close to his face. He sniffed and then turned his head away.

“It’s just aname…only a name,” Deicide said.