The Creators Ch. 17

Chapter Seventeen: Thunderhead on the Horizon

Prelude: The Dimmest Star

CORRUPTION

I stood in the threshold of Diamond's gate, and looked out at the stars that shone over the vast astral jungle. There were billions of them, but a few hundred had shined the brightest when I first ventured out of my meld's realm. Now only ten of them remained. The other realms were now gone—not destroyed, but coopted into the great wildlands I'd made of mankind's subconscious plane. Eight of the last stars would fall soon, but two of them would remain bright until Julia aided me. Hatred and Guilt. Oh, how I feared them. I touched my lips, and felt the scars of the nymph's kiss. I lingered there for a while, letting my terror simmer, then I rested my hand against my side. I would deal with Hatred and Guilt in time, but the other eight could be finished soon. Civility would be a fun one to take down, and I would greatly enjoy turning Honesty's hypocrisy back on himself. Afterwards would be Lust, which I imagined would be a very exotic venture, though I feared Preservation would be rather dull. Then there would be Diversity, which would at least be an interesting visit, and Serenity would be...

I cocked my head as I looked up at the realm of Serenity. It was a very dim star, but it was undoubtedly a realm. A very young realm. The center had not yet been touched by Petranumen, and the occupant was gone.

"Angela..." I muttered, narrowing my eyes. So, she still lived even if her brother did not. He must've bound with her before he passed. She was mortal now, which meant her realm would die when she did. It was a mild inconvenience, but one that would need to be attended to sooner rather than later. I could not deal with Angela directly, and my factors in the physical realm were becoming more unreliable by the second.

I ran my tongue across my scarred lips, and looked back into Diamond's realm. There were ways I could persuade my mother to act at my will, but they were very vague, open to her interpretations. I could make her desire to seek out her mother, but I could not dictate the details of that desire. Diamond loved Julia deeply, but that love was a very dark thing. As I watched Diamond's thoughts grow in her mind, my anxiety began to grow with them. I only needed Julia's powers for a few more days, but I didn't know if I had that long.

Part One: Disturbance

JULIA

I paged through the Maternal Path, and frowned. Corruption told me that the words of man were evil, but this was the word of God. I had followed it all my life, dutifully making every move in accordance with its precepts, and yet, it was such a vague story. I had always thought it was a book of love, but as I paged through it with my new perspective, I realized it was quite the opposite. The Holy Mother's words were gentle and forgiving, but I could not help but feel the underlying agony behind them. The Maternal Order always focused on the miracle of life being born from her womb, but never about its conception. She was raped. She was taken by a stranger in the dark, and forced to conceive his spawn. How many mothers in history had left their unwanted children upon the doorsteps of an orphanage? How many of those forlorn wildlings had I grown up with? Unruly, sadistic, savage little children, all of them needing to be tamed by the cane and switch just to make them civilized. That's who we were. Just the placenta-covered bastards of a woman who had been broken. That was why the world was what it was. The Holy Mother was virtuous enough to give us her lessons, but could not bear the idea of bringing us to her bosom. We were cast out in this world, and look at what we've made of it! No wonder she destined me with this purpose. Start over. Burn the old wood down, and from the ash, regrow as we were meant to be. The final pages of the Maternal Path told a story that was yet unfinished. A story of the harbingers in their white robes, the angels guiding from above, the banners billowing in the breeze of the resplendent horde behind the proud champion of God on the last battlefield. My Breytans wore robes of pure white. My army raised the banner of the crescent symbol. The seraph had given me her command.

"I am the rapture," I whispered to myself.

Diamond rolled over in the bed she'd set up next to the sand I slept in, and smirked at me. "I seem to remember something in that book regarding modesty?"

I looked up at her with maternal annoyance, and closed my book. "There's also a few versus in there about the sin of incest."

"Some sins are irresistible, even for the Holy Mother's Rapture," Diamond yawned, and arched her slender body. There were scratch marks all across her back, red handprints on her olive-toned buttocks, and when she stretched her legs, I could see that her orifices were still slightly agape. "Jeepers, you were rough last night!" she exclaimed with a groan.

"I'm sorry, baby; I wasn't at my best."

She grinned at me behind a curtain of disheveled curly hair. "I like it much better when you're at your worst. Do you suppose God was watching us?"

"God is always watching."

Diamond rolled off her bed, and nestled herself beside me in the sand, pressing her flaccid member against mine. "What did God think when you pushed my face in the sand and screwed me in the butt?" She drew her finger up my hardening shaft. "What did she think when you drove your penis down my throat, and made me taste my own butthole as you came in my tummy? Were your baby-girl's insides tight enough for you?"

"Why are you doing this?" I hissed.

Diamond grinned, wrapped her cool fingers around my cock, and slowly stroked me. "What did God think when you got on your knees, and opened your cheeks for me? What did God think when I screwed your butthole, then plunged my filthy wiener between your boobies? What did God think when I—"

"Stop!" I growled as my manhood grew.

Diamond pressed a cruel thumb against my throbbing head, causing me to squirm. "Sister Julia, God's favorite little nun," she giggled. "In the morning, at least. Not at night, oh no, no, no. When the sun goes down, you take off the mask, but I see you." Her black eyes twinkled. "I see right into you. There's nothing but darkness all the way down to your marrow. I can see your sadism, your masochism, your jealousy." Her lips hovered over mine, her breath expelling smoky gouts of Corruption. "It's so attractive to me. I want to drown in it with you. Now tell me truthfully, dearest father of mine, what did God think of you last night?"

My expression went cold. My eyes went dead. My heart beat steadily in my chest. I wrapped both hands around my daughter's throat, and squeezed. I squeezed until her face was purple, until her eyes were bulging, until the veins were thumping in her temples. My cock was so hard. So was hers. As our engorged organs combatted with throbbing rubs, I choked her until her eyes rolled back, and spittle dripped from her lax mouth. She slowly faded in my iron grip, but still she ground against me, rubbing her shaft alongside mine until hot cum was oozing from her pulsating urethra and greasing our rubbing members. When her heartrate slowed, and her face turned from purple to pale, I peeled my fingers away one by one. She gasped, and collapsed atop me, her breaths desperate and rapid as her masculine organ slowly belched volumes of her dying orgasm. I patted her back while she coughed, and sang an old hymnal gently in her ear.

"I'm sorry, baby, but only through pain can we heal," I whispered.

Diamond wheezed against me. "You still haven't answered my question."

"Why do you provoke me?"

"Because I hate playing second-fiddle to a fairytale," she croaked. "Now I'm third-chair, but at least Corruption is real."

I smirked at her. "And you call me jealous."

"I never said I wasn't." She searched my eyes. "Do you love me at all?"

"Of course."

"Then why didn't you bind with me?"

I loosened my grip on her hair, and kissed her lips. "Because you are my daughter no matter what we do to each other. That kind of love isn't meant to bind."

"You don't even know the thing you're bound to."

"I know her intimately," I said. "I've felt her in my soul. She courted me in her own way, flirting with my desires during the temptation game with Willowbud. Now she loves me. God's own angel."

"Yes, when you look back at history, it's very easy to make a narrative of it."

I patted her cheek affectionately. "We are all part of one story, Diamond. There has only ever been one."

Diamond's lips curved sardonically. "Maybe it's time for a sequel."

JUSTINA

In my time, I had done things most people would call abhorrent. I sucked sperm out of my own mother's gaping asshole; I enslaved a virgin boy and made him fall in love with me just to fulfill a wholesome-teenager kink; I even once forgot to properly tip a waiter. Truly, I was an evil creature. But despite all of that evil, I had never once taken a life. Well, that wasn't exactly true; I'd swatted a few mosquitoes, but besides them, I'd always been scientifically faithful to the miracle of biological existence. So as I stared down the elk in the woodlands, and clumsily drew back my bow, I found that the fingers on my drawing hand were tighter than iron despite my soft muscles.

"You have the shot," Astrid whispered. "He's not just going to stand there all day and wait for you."

"He's eating!" I hissed backed. "I'm letting him finish!"

Astrid gave me a bewildered look. "You know you're about to kill him, right?"

"That doesn't mean I have to be rude about it!"

Deja drew back her bow, and launched the arrow. So strong was her draw that the missile ran clean through the elk's eye and exited the back of his head with a confetto of pink brains. He collapsed like a puppet with severed strings.

"Damn fine shooting, Deja," Astrid said, her brows raised.

"Thank you, Bound One," Deja said, and drew her hunting knife.

"Why?!" I exclaimed, utterly horrified.

Deja shrugged. "You were worried about the beast's suffering, so I showed you that death can be done mercifully. Haven't you dissected an animal in your numerous studies?"

"Only dead ones, obviously!"

"Well then," Deja handed me the hunting blade, "I will show you how to skin an elk."

"That's not why we're here, Deja," Astrid said to my girlfriend/boyfriend. "Justina needs to learn how to kill."

"Hey, I've killed before! I enslaved the Breytans and made them—"

"Deja, shoot that fox," Astrid said, and Deja nearly blew the poor canine's head off with the force of her arrow.

"WHY?!" I screamed.

"Because it was very easy for me," Astrid said sternly. "Telling someone to do something for you is the easiest thing in the world. It removes the responsibility to act, which I'm afraid is a crutch of yours."

I glowered at her. "You can lie now, you know. You no longer have an excuse to be a bitch."

"I never needed one."

Deja tapped me on the shoulder, and pointed to a peregrine falcon in the tree beside us. "Shoot that."

"I gotta be honest, Deja, this isn't what I had in mind when you promised to take me birdwatching."

"I would apologize for ruining our first date, but the Bound One insisted. Besides, she's right. You must learn to kill if you are going to be in a war."

"I'm not my mom, OK?"

"Do you think killing came easily to Tera? Do you think it came easily to any of us?" Astrid asked. "When I killed my first deer, I wept for three nights thereafter, but killing must be done, Justina, so shoot that fucking bird, or I'm going to eat it alive in front of you."

I glowered at Astrid, then took a deep breath, drew back my bow, and steadied my aim.

"Exhale slowly," Deja whispered. "Shoot between heartbeats."

She put her hand on my back, and a strange calmness came over me. I let my breath go, and felt my heart slow to a crawl. Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom; it beat in my ears, silencing the whistle of the wind and the calling of birds. Ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom. I loosed the arrow. The falcon shot backwards with the force of the blow, and flew out of sight. I let the last of my breath go.

"There," Astrid said, and put a hand on my shoulder, "it's done."

"I'm a murderer," I whispered.

Deja planted a kiss on my neck, and took me into her embrace. "You're a killer, Justina, not a murderer."

My eyes caught a ball of black feathers at the base of the tree. The falcon was curled around the shaft that impaled it, almost as though embracing it. Its dead black eyes stared at me as a trickle of blood ran from its open beak.

"Not yet," I whispered.

WILLOWBUD

I picked up a ten-ton boulder, shaped it into an enormous frisbee, and hurled it as hard as I could. It skidded across the water, sliced through the air, and decapitated the stone statue of Julia I'd erected on the other side of the lake.

"Too wide a kill-zone," I muttered, and wiped the sweat from my brow. I erected another statue, and picked up another boulder. Shaping it into a missile, I launched it as hard as I could. It shot across the water with such speed that the shockwave disturbed the pristine surface, then it exploded ten feet to the left of my target.

"Fuck," I grunted, and set up a new target.

"I thought you said throwing a rock at her wouldn't work?" a smarmy voice said behind me.

I turned around, and struggled to meet Angela's gaze. She'd jettisoned her vampire form as a mere flavor-of-the-day costume for her brother to fuck, and was back in her strawberry blonde beauty, her blue eyes cutting right into me. Brandon had given me the shape-shifting ability early in the morning, but I didn't need to practice like the others; I'd been transforming all my life.

"Every good plan has a contingency," I said.

"So if you can't crush her with Droktin's Pass, your solution is the one you already said would fail? You're just a fucking genius, aren't you?"

"This isn't a backup plan; it's a contingency," I grunted, and picked up another rock. Once more, I shaped it into a missile, and launched it as hard as I could. It shot across the lake, and burst into dust five feet to the right of my target.

"Nice shot," Angela sneered. "I think the frisbee was more in your wheelhouse. I've seen better aim in a men's restroom."

"Frisbee won't work."

"Looked like it worked just fine. Why are you doing this anyway?"

I pushed my foot into the earth, and felt the hardpan. Across the lake, two statues flanked Julia. One was of Angela; the other was of Brandon. I formed a frisbee from a nearby boulder, and let it fly. It sliced across the lake, and decapitated all three statues. I turned around, and looked at Angela. She wasn't smiling anymore.

"You have to get closer," she said softly.

"I'm already way too close."

"She's three-hundred yards away."

I shook my head, and tightened my fist to keep it from shaking. "She's fifty miles away, and we are all way too close."

BRANDON

I laid my hand atop Ally Summerhammer's brow, and sent my energy into her. Her blue eyes ignited with power, the veins in her neck glowed, and her wings unfurled as if catching the wind. She tremored for a moment, then stood tall and proud in her Ionan splendor, opened her hand, and watched it as it transformed into a bear's paw. She looked back at her wings, and smiled with satisfaction when they became the membranous flites of a dragon. She glanced down at her feet, and actually giggled when they became the hooves of a horse. Then she transformed back into her normal self, bowed and thanked me, and went to the fighting ring to test her new abilities against the other Ionans. There, Bianca trained them with a gentle hand (as I had demanded that she do so), though I could tell by her impatient posture that she wanted to play the drill sergeant. Nona took on that role instead, hovering above the combatants with her enlarged hummingbird wings, shouting orders and making stern corrections to any woman who performed at lower than the impossibly-high Ionan standard.

I turned away from the training ring, and set my eyes on the next Ionan.

"Helga Suncraper," I mused to the prostrating redhead. "Why are you naked?"

She shivered as she knelt before me, but she kept her steely blue eyes fixed on me. "I wish to be blessed in the Ofanian method, Your Holiness."

I sighed and rubbed my brow. It was at these times that I wished my omnipotence extended to my own dick.

"Look, Helga, you're a really pretty girl, and far be it for me to tell you what to do with your body, but the Ionan Codes—"

"Astrid doesn't follow the Ionan Codes any longer." Helga put on a stern face despite her embarrassment. "She is the Bound One of our matron God, and a loyal friend of yours. What good are the codes if breaking them leads to all an Ionan could want?"

I looked at the line of Ionans waiting behind Helga. "Your sisters are watching you."

"I... I don't care!" she said, growling more to herself than to me. "Let them see me! Even if I am ashamed of my nudity, I know there is no shame in it! The Ofanians flaunt theirs like it means nothing! Astrid doesn't wear any clothes but the strap for her sword. Even your own sister is naked more often than not, and all of them mate with each other like they're proud of their sin!" Helga shook with frustration. "I... I... I want to join them! I am a young woman, and I have desires!"

"And we would love to help you fulfill them, Helga," Angela crooned as she draped her arm over my shoulder. "But I'm afraid we don't have time. If Brandon fucks one of you, he's going to have to fuck all of you or it'll look like favoritism. Please feel free to resubmit your application to the orgy club after this is all over."

Helga bowed her head in dejection, and I transformed her. Instead of immediately testing the new combative gifts at her disposal, she elected to increase her bust size, widen her hips, and fill her lips. She stood up, saluted me smartly, then took her sweet time walking over to the fighting ring.

"Dibs," Angela whispered.

"Be patient. It'll take a long time to integrate the Ionans into the fold."

"Oh, I'll be integrating into their folds alright," Angela snickered, then her smile faded. "Have you heard the news yet?"

"About Diamond? Yeah."

"Does it change anything?"

I chewed on my lip. "Willowbud can get Diamond and Julia in one go."

"She's not so confident. Brandon, we should—"

"I believe in her," I said firmly.

Angela ran her fingers through her hair, and sighed. "When we infiltrate the horde, we will have two-thousand of the world's best killers within an arrow's distance of Diamond and Julia. Nona has asked me numerous times already if we can arm the Ionans with weapons like Astrid has. If Willowbud makes a few thousand arrowheads, we could end this thing with one lucky shot."

"Julia walks around naked. She's not worried about armor. If we reveal Willowbud too early, then everything goes to shit."

"What if—"

"There's no 'what if,' Angela," I said gravely. "I'll talk to Willowbud about these contingencies she's planning. We cannot divert from our goal. When Julia and Diamond walk through the pass, that's it, game over. That is our one surefire way to win. There is no other guarantee."

Angela chewed on her lip nervously. "What if we get captured?" she asked softly.

"Justina and I are making concentrated opium. We'll give everyone a capsule with a lethal dose."

"What if you die? Brandon, I'm telling you right now that you cannot go in there. It's not just for my selfishness; if you die, we lose all our powers."

"I can't help anyone from a distance. I'll be careful, Angela, I promise, but I have to be there."