Chapter 39 #2
With that demand, the two-tailed kikai seemed uncomfortably willing to comply. I stood poised, ready for the tone to shift quickly.
“Acceptable. After all, our people have wronged you, but they don’t appear to be here any longer,” Ushael said.
"Good. Then we have an accord." Violet pulled her chin up and turned to glance at Lily and me. "You can't expect the world to change if you simply remove all of the problems. You need to let people work through the challenges and come out the other end," Violet said, proud of her actions.
"It is as she said." The two divines stuck their noses in the air. It seemed all divines were incredibly prideful people.
And beside me, Lily growled. "They cannot be trusted," she said.
"They will not be trusted," I whispered under my breath, letting her know that I understood her position and to remain prepared should they turn.
"See? We are reasonable," the two of them said, and I smiled.
"Sure, and since you're being so reasonable and you spoke of The Unity, I was wondering if we might understand more?" I pushed.
"Yes, of course," the two said, still happy to work with us.
"It's quite simple. At some point, the divines realized that there's no point in allowing our lessers to govern themselves.
They don't really have the strength, the broad long-term perspective, or many other necessary qualities to lead.
Sure, they are living creatures and should be allowed to live, but only so much as it doesn't interfere with their betters' plans. "
The three-tailed kikai's tail swished back and forth. "As one of the divines now, you are welcome to join The Unity," Ishael said to Violet. "However, there is a bit of a..." He hesitated and waffled his head.
"Initiation. Though we’re certain it won't be an issue for you, but rules are rules," Ushael said.
The bad feeling in my gut dialed itself up to max.
Violet at least seemed somewhat suspicious. "And what would this ritual be?" she asked, still not letting the two-tailed divine back to his feet.
"Quite simple. You just have to take your place in the hierarchy of the universe.
We can bend the rules a little for you, but at the very least, everyone in this city must die.
They must be eradicated from the face of the planet.
And if you could start with that one"—the three-tailed brother pointed at Lily—"it would be much appreciated. "
"You want me to kill my crewmates? How is that any show of loyalty? That sounds like showing nothing more than I'm capable of betrayal," Violet answered.
Ushael shook his head. "I was a little worried about this. After all, you referred to a human as your captain." He shuddered as if it were appalling. "If you truly feel that he is above you, then that will be problematic.”
“The Unity does not believe anything in this universe is above the divines. After all, we were granted powers that go beyond the scope of comprehension. We were given power to take responsibility for the universe,” Ishael intoned reverently.
Violet squinted at their words. "And what would be your particular response to said problem?" she asked, but I think we all already knew the answer.
"Well then, in that case, you'll be considered a divine not under the authority of The Unity. Is that really what you want to be?" he asked, pausing, waiting for her answer.
"I think in this case, it is," she answered confidently, and my heart swelled a little at hearing her claim us above them while also tensing my entire body for the response from the other kikai.
Ishael's shoulders moved down ever so slightly at Violet's decision, and the three-tailed kikai blurred across the space between him and me.
Even while I was on alert, all I could do was turn twenty degrees to the side as a beam saber flickered to life, piercing through my ribs and coming out the side.
“Then you are no divine! And I do not need to heed the honor of a lesser being!” Ishael boomed as the air filled with the smell of seared flesh.
Everyone around me exploded into action. Lily let out a roar of frustration, whether at the kikai or at Violet was beyond me. The whole space around me was instantly covered in a plethora of black spines.
I heard Violet call out my name, but everything else around me was too cluttered for me to identify. The sounds became muddled either by the spines or my mind wasn’t doing that great of a job processing things right now.
The latter could very well be the case since I was missing a chunk of my chest.
The spines had clipped Ishael, and before he'd fully extracted himself, Lily was on him, her hands turning into claws again.
Her fingernails arced out into claws that stretched forward, hooking the divine kikai and dragging him farther into the spikes until there was no escape.
Her arms locked onto his hand with the beam saber and forced it to the side.
I could at least get to see the shock on his face as he realized, even with three tails, he was unable to put up a struggle against Lily's strength. In that moment, horror flickered through his eyes as he realized she might actually be a helivore.
His eyes flicked to meet mine with even greater fear before he saw me sagging against several spines, and his face shifted into a shit-eating grin.
Ah fuck. Lily’s comment earlier had made me an unknown threat that he’d decided to get rid of first.
Not that it was going to matter much as Lily pressed the divine into the spines. He had to focus on his own battle, struggling and twitching his tails to try and escape her.
It helped that she had moved a massive amount of mass under the surface of this estate. Lily had assured me that as long as there was enough material for her to work with, there was little chance that the two kikai would be able to stop her.
Though the divine's surprise was short-lived. His eyes narrowed in fury, and his tail flicked.
Lily's arm jerked to the side, suffering a wound as if an axe had just been buried in it, yet it failed to cut cleanly through whatever she was doing to him. She had simply made herself too resilient to stop.
"You will stop this!" he shouted and tried to pull his arm away. Several more of those invisible, telekinetic axes hacked into her arm as the kikai tried to work his way free while Lily made her own countermoves.
The spikes that had been stuck in the divine curled into him, wiggling and squirming as they tried to burrow under his skin. Then Lily grabbed his face with another clawed hand, raking a deep wound down it as she stared into Ishael's eyes.
"For injuring my captain, I will make you pay dearly,” she told him with pure vitriol in her voice.
I couldn't see her face, but I was certain it was a horror to behold. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of her attention at that moment.
Yet the divine kikai wasn't even scared. He stared back at her with a smile. "I don't care what you are. You are nothing before gods."
As he said those words, a powerful force buffeted me, sending me up into the air and flying away.
Lily's attention jerked towards me, and she leapt away to snag me out of the air, holding me against her chest while her opponent extracted himself from her spines by cutting parts of himself off.
Without a care for collateral damage, the kikai simply pulled himself out in a bloody mess, grimacing as he did so.
I took some solace in the fact that it hurt him, only to have my vision shift while Lily practically thrust me into Melgara's arms at the ramp of Madame Chiksai's shuttle. Which was a good thing, because the second she let me go, my legs gave out from under me.