Chapter Eight - The Legend of the First Astrodeus

   A World without Misery (Interitus 1: Book 0)

Chapter Eight – The Legend of the First Astrodeus

 

“I always said this city was doomed from the start.”

Lazaro glared at the starlit walls which surrounded the city of Sentia in the distance. With his sail extended as far as it would go, Lazaro drove toward the city walls with every weapon holstered on his body; he was ready to jump into action. Vaida and Hatasuko sailed along the bumpy land just a few feet behind him; every piece of gravel caused their sail-rana to shake. A thin layer of darkness had already flooded the sky above the city walls, and smoke lifted into the air. They were too far away to hear any shouts, but Hatasuko could sense the anguish through the tempest in his head. He could feel lost souls join the storm of screaming spirits.

“There are only four gates in the entire goddamn city. How were they ever supposed to evacuate? This city was a mistake all along. It’s a deathtrap. The Interfectus is attacking, and they’ve all got nowhere to run. You know what that means, don’t you? We’re going to die in this city,” Lazaro yelled over the sound of the gusting wind.

            Hatasuko could tell that his mentor wanted to turn away from the unsavable city, but Lazaro’s sense of duty overpowered his survival instinct. Their journey to Sentia had been delayed by the ocean waves, so they had already arrived too late to help people evacuate. They were still too far from the city to see the monster in the sky, but they could sense its presence from the tension in the air.

“When we arrive, I’ll try to break holes in the wall. My warhammer’s strong enough to do it. I want you two to help rush people to safety. Be warned that the Interfectus is an intelligent creature; it will keep the walls intact on purpose. It will probably guard the gates so no one can escape. The monster will kill anyone who tries to leave,” Lazaro explained.

Madeline whispered from the edge of the tempest, “The people have no escape. There is no running or hiding. Humankind has been in this position for a very long time, but now you get to see it in the literal sense. If there’s no way to escape, we can only fight back. You must defeat the Interfectus.”

“But how am I supposed to do that? You said we all possess some intrinsic power, but how do I access it? What is the fuel? I need to use everything I’ve got if I want a shot at fighting back,” Hatasuko answered.

“The fuel for this power is called quintessence, but this is no potion or chemical that you can just buy. It is an invisible substance, imperceptible and immaterial in the physical world. It is an energy that you carry in your soul, but you can only forge it from the spirits of the dead. It is a hefty cost to pay, but you are already cursed to carry the weight of the dead on your shoulders; you are the perfect vessel to use quintessence. It will fuel the power that hides at the core of your soul, and it will transform your body into the perfect weapon! With the voices of the damned and a heart heavy with quintessence, you will evolve into an Astrodeus. You are the perfect candidate to become the first Astrodeus,” Madeline explained.

Though Hatasuko stared at the back of Vaida’s head and the walled city to the north, he did not process anything in the physical world at this time. He instead focused only on the tempest; his body trembled from the possibility of a power that could combat the Interfectus.

“Let me see if I’ve got this. By using energy from the lives lost to the Interfectus, I can fuel the power that could take one down. I think I can understand that, but what is an Astrodeus? What does it mean to be an Astrodeus? I have never heard that word before.”

Madeline said, “I don’t know the details; this apotheosis has never happened before. But I do know this: you will be sacrificing your humanity so that you can save them.”

“If my humanity is the price to pay for my destiny, then I will sacrifice it without a second thought,” Hatasuko decided.

As the sail-rana charged toward the walls that surrounded the city, Hatasuko became overwhelmed by the symphony of screams in his mind. Through the veil of smoke and pulsing starlight, he saw the burst of shadow spheres exploding within the city walls. He heard the crackle of fire and countless screams. Hardly any silhouettes fled the city, which meant that Lazaro was right all along; the Interfectus was guarding the four city gates.

When Vaida saw that they would soon jump from their vehicles, she reached down and grabbed her whip. It sat on the floor of the sail-rana at her right side, so when she leaned over, Hatasuko saw that she wore a large eyepatch over her right eye. It was a white material that clung to her face by a thin elastic band. Hatasuko wanted to say something to rebuild her self-esteem, but he feared that any mention of her scars would just rekindle her pain.

“I hate how much this world hurts you,” Hatasuko whispered as he readied his own weapons.

“I’m just getting what I deserve. Please don’t feel sorry for me. Let’s just stay focused on the Interfectus,” she said in a voice half-hidden by the wind.

“Fine, but this isn’t over. You better stay alive so we can talk about this.”

Without any warning, Lazaro pulled his mast shut, slammed his warhammer on the ground, and quickly slowed his sail-rana to a stop. Hatasuko and Vaida tried to do the same thing with their swords, but Lazaro acted much faster. He jumped out of his boat, kicked it onto its side, and then charged toward the city wall with his hands on his warhammer. As Hatasuko and Vaida disembarked from their sail-rana, Lazaro let out a grunt and slammed the spike of his warhammer against the wall with all the force in his arms. A cloud of dust and a cluster of gravel flew from the place where his warhammer hit the wall; Lazaro had to close his eyes so that they would be safe from shrapnel. Cracks covered the wall in this place, but the wall had not shattered. Lazaro heard the footsteps of Vaida and Hatasuko running toward him in the background, so he took a deep breath and then swung his warhammer at the same part of the wall once again.

            The cracked section of the city wall blew apart in a huge shower of crumbling rocks. A thick cloud of smoke and dust flooded out from the hole in the wall. Though he could not see through the cloud of debris, Lazaro ran across the broken rocks and into the city.

“There’s a new hole in the wall! Get out now before the smoke clears!” Lazaro screamed at full volume in front of the opening.

Vaida and Hatasuko rushed through the hole right before a small crowd of people charged into the thick cloud. People piled out of this opening as quickly as they could, but it was not long before the Interfectus noticed the breach. The terrified citizens also realized that they finally had a way out, so countless people charged toward the opening.

“Vaida, Hatasuko! Get ready to throw! And then go off into the city!” Lazaro shouted as he pressed his shield against the back of the crowd to speed them up.

“Yes, sir!” Hatasuko yelled back.

With its golden eyes glaring at the small opening in the city wall, the Interfectus unleashed its scattershot of shadow spheres. Vaida and Hatasuko both threw rocks into the sky without any aim; the spheres camouflaged with the smoke and were therefore hard to see. Somewhere in the smoky cloud above the rooftops, a rock and a shadow sphere collided and exploded with a tremendous glow of blue fire. The shining light illuminated every building in the area; the radiance revealed every silhouette. Hatasuko and Vaida both ran off together down the nearest street toward the southern gate. Terrified civilians stood in the way, all waiting for an opportunity to run. 

              “Keep going! Get out of here as fast as you can!” Lazaro roared into the crowd.

The shadow demon then unleashed its first weapon; its bladed arm of shadow blasted down from the sky at an unrivaled speed. The blade-arm slashed through the air at a high altitude, so Lazaro jumped up and swung his shield to intercept the attack. The shadow blade struck his black shield without piercing it, but the impact threw Lazaro backward at a high speed. His backside slammed into several civilians as they desperately tried to escape, and the impact threw them to their knees.

The Interfectus did not retract its sword of shadows; it instead stabbed its blade through the wall right above the opening. The monster slashed its shadow blade vertically upward, tearing straight through the wall, and then it all came crashing down. As the wall crumbled and collapsed upon the crowd of people trying to escape, Lazaro grabbed some civilians and threw them aside before they could get hurt. Despite his efforts, the crumbling wall crushed eight people and injured several more as it sealed shut the hole in the wall.

“Vaida, this is a bloodbath! How are we supposed to get anyone out of here? Everyone’s trapped,” Hatasuko said as he slowed down in a smoky street.

“We just have to trust that Lazaro will smash open another hole in the wall. I guess we’ll try to bring people to him,” she suggested.

Hatasuko looked over his shoulder and saw that Vaida looked just as miserable as he expected. The eyepatch covered the right side of her face, but her blue left eye looked somber. A thin layer of cold sweat covered her body. Despite her sorrow, she still ran toward the helpless victims at the nearest gate.

“The world will knock us down, but the important part is that we stand back up. My mother always said it, I’ve tried to remember it, but Vaida’s living it.”

            Vaida and Hatasuko were now just a few blocks away from the southern gate in the city wall, but Hatasuko knew that the Interfectus would attack as soon as it saw movement. If he tried to herd people toward Lazaro, it would certainly spot them.

            “Vaida, this is never gonna work. We need a distraction! I will find a catapult; I’ll draw its eyes! I won’t be able to send you a signal, so just keep an eye on the demon,” Hatasuko said.

            “You’re going off on your own? Are you sure? You’ll get killed,” she exclaimed.

            “I won’t let myself die. Don’t worry! I have a secret weapon. I have the tempest.”

            “Please don’t die. I’ll never forgive you if you die,” she said with her quiet voice.

            Hatasuko showed a small smile, nodded, and then ran off to the north. He ran at full speed so that he could distance himself from Vaida and the helpless civilians, but every step was a fight against his urge to flee. Even after all these years, his mind was scarred by the brutality of the Interfectus; his heartbeat spiked whenever he saw its glowing eyes. The shadow demon levitated over the rooftops with a veil of smoke. The transparent blackness in the sky churned with waves the size of ocean swells.

            “How am I supposed to get out of here? I’m never gonna get out alive,” whispered a man who crouched behind a wagon at the corner of this block.

            Hatasuko knew that the Interfectus saw both him and the forlorn man, but the monster chose not to attack as it focused on guarding the four gates. The man behind the wagon weakly clenched a large wooden staff, though Hatasuko could not tell what it was.

            “I will try to distract the Interfectus; you must run to the gate! Tell me, sir, is there a catapult anywhere around here?” Hatasuko asked while glaring at the monster.

            “Of course not! This is a walled city; all the catapults are on the walls. I’ve got a staff sling here, which is like a handheld catapult, but-”

            “Please, sir, I need to commandeer your weapon. If I can draw the eyes of the Interfectus, then countless people can escape. You can escape,” Hatasuko reasoned.

            “I have nothing to lose. I was damned in the moment it attacked.”

            The man who crouched behind the wagon tossed his staff sling to Hatasuko, and then he ran off toward the south. At the same time, Hatasuko ran north toward the Interfectus, though he was still tens of blocks away. Dust and smoke plagued the streets, though they were not empty; terrified people crouched in the shadows. Hatasuko knew that many people still hid in their homes. They could survive for a short while since the Interfectus guarded the gates, but if no one ever tried to run, they would all eventually suffocate or burn. The people hiding in the streets were totally helpless; their wide eyes watched Hatasuko as he ran by, but they all looked like they were waiting to die. Their frightened faces and anguished whimpers felt like a precursor to the anguished souls in the tempest—the screaming spirits they would inevitably become.

            “Madeline, I have chosen to take your advice. I will fight back against the Interfectus even though it’s said to be impossible. We can’t just run away from it; we must become strong enough to tear it down.”

            Hatasuko pulled a large rock from the sack that bumped against his ribs with every running step. While still running onward, he stuck the rock into the sling at the edge of his staff, and then he grabbed the other end with both hands. He stopped halfway through a block which was flooded with smoke, and then he swung the staff forward with all his strength; the sling launched the rock into the sky like a catapult. The rock flew so fast that it was nearly impossible to aim, but this made no difference against a massive target like the Interfectus. The rock flew through the sky, struck the monster’s knee, and crumbled into gravel. The Interfectus was unharmed, but its golden eyes now glared at Hatasuko. He quickly armed the sling with a second rock from his bag, pulled the weapon back again, and then swung his mighty arms to attack. This time, the rock struck the black armor on the Interfectus’ chest. Hatasuko could only see that he hit his target because of the starlight glow.

            “Now as I stand upon the boundary between life and death, I hear the screams of the tempest louder than ever. If I am to fall and become one with the abyss, then humanity itself will pay the price. I will be swallowed by agony and carried through the hollows until it is all that I know. All their weight is on my shoulders. I am the emissary of our final endeavor. This is not futile, and this is not frivolous. I will draw the golden eyes of the demon, set free the people huddled by the gates, and then defeat the Interfectus beneath the glow of starlight,” Hatasuko vowed as he set another stone into the sling on his staff.

            With a forward lunge and a powerful swing, Hatasuko launched the rock from his staff sling. The projectile shot into the sky with an incredible speed; it looked like it would hit the Interfectus in the face. But in a swift movement that startled everyone in Sentia, the monster knocked the rock away with a powerful slap from its shadow sword. The demon had drawn its weapon, and then everyone took off running. Every citizen who waited near the gates now had the chance to flee. An uproar sounded through the city as countless people tried to escape at the same time. Hatasuko started sprinting forward, and as he ran, he loaded a fourth rock into his staff sling. However, the Interfectus looked away as soon as it saw the runners; it unleashed an attack with its bladed arm of shadows.

            The demon’s diamond-hard blade slashed through the sky and tore into the large crowd which scurried through the eastern gate. The victims shouted so loudly that their voices echoed through the city. The Interfectus then spun its blade-arm and swung its weapon at everyone else who tried to escape in that place. Countless lives were lost; several screaming souls simultaneously surged into Hatasuko’s mind. They empowered him with adrenaline and a sense of desperation, so he catapulted a rock as he raced through the streets. The rock flew so fast that when it struck the monster’s stomach, its golden eyes shifted back to him.

Hatasuko said, “Keep your eyes on me! I won’t give you the chance to kill them.”

The Interfectus activated its third weapon and summoned the scattershot of shadow spheres. Hatasuko predicted that the people who ran through the other gates would pause to watch the scattershot, since they all had a one-third chance of being its target. Nevertheless, Hatasuko swung his staff and launched a rock as soon as he saw the shadow spheres. His rock struck the scattershot before it shot off into the sky, so the entire cluster erupted in front of the Interfectus. The blue inferno engulfed the demon and knocked it backward; a fiery shockwave engulfed the rooftops beneath the monster.

Hatasuko felt amazed by his success; the shadow demon was covered in embers and sparks. The smoke that lifted from its massive body smoldered with a blue glow. But through the smoke and the dim city light, Hatasuko could see the demon’s gold eyes glaring at him.

The Interfectus then attacked with a quick lunge of its shadow claw; the lunge was so fast that it summoned a gust of smoky wind. Hatasuko let out a quiet shout, kicked off the nearest wall, and dodged its claws by a matter of decimeters. He lost his balance as the demon’s arm destroyed a building behind him; he then landed on the dirt street with a double-somersault. He had to drop his staff sling as he rolled, but he managed to land on his feet. A nearby wall came crumbling down as the Interfectus opened the finger-daggers on its claw, and then its shadow daggers slashed at Hatasuko again. He dodged this attack by kicking off a wagon in the street; the claw sliced cleanly through the wagon and left it in shambles.

When Hatasuko realized that the Interfectus still sought to kill him, he pulled out his whip, forced it into motion with a swift flick, and wrapped the end around the doorknob of a nearby home. The demon attacked again with its shadow blades, but Hatasuko pulled on his whip and jerked himself out of the way, right before he would have been killed. He came so close to being struck that the wind spun him around and forced him to hit the ground with his back. Hatasuko pulled on the whip again and used the force to help him stand. At first, he felt surprised that the Interfectus did not attack again, but then he glanced up and saw a cluster of shadow spheres. The Interfectus had him trapped; he had nowhere left to run.

With his back against a house just a few blocks from the monster’s hovering feet, Hatasuko quickly pulled another rock from his bag. The Interfectus unleashed its cluster of shadow balls; they blasted down from the sky while he threw his rock with careful aim. The shadow spheres flew much faster than the rock, so when they collided and exploded with an azure eruption, the fiery shockwave blew Hatasuko through the door. The door exploded into a shower of splinters and woodchips; Hatasuko crashed onto the floor of the house as every window blew apart. 

            Hatasuko’s body roared with pain because of the countless splinters in his bloody skin. He could feel that a giant woodchip had stabbed into the side of his lower back, but he had no way to rip it out now. He climbed onto his feet as ashes and smoldering debris landed on the street outside. He then kicked his whip off the ground and into his hand as he trudged toward the doorway. His ears were still ringing from the explosion. The blast of blue fire had stained the front half of his body. As soon as he stepped out into the street, he saw a blue glow illuminate the north side of Sentia. The whole city shook from the explosion. Hopeless screams echoed across the city walls.

“My whole life has been a reiteration of the same damn message; it’s like the universe is trying to beat into me that I’m too weak. It has always been this way. I had the chance to save my mother from the demon, but I was too weak to make it happen. I’ve been running across the world for years just trying to fight back, but I’m still too weak. I have always been too weak.”

“But the strength is waiting inside you. It is time to unleash that strength upon the world. Are you ready?” Madeline asked from the edge of the tempest.

“I have never been more ready for anything in my life,” he answered.

“Then I will become your strength. I will sacrifice myself on the array and set my soul on fire for you. I am the catalyst. You will awaken as an Astrodeus.”

As Hatasuko stepped out into the smoldering street with his whip in one hand and a rock in the other, he asked, “Why would you sacrifice yourself for this? If any lost soul can pay the price, it shouldn’t be you.”

“I never wanted to be this, and I never meant for anyone to know my pain. But the reality is that this is my destiny just as much as it is yours. I was broken from the very beginning. My purpose was stained on my soul since the day I learned the truth of the Interfecti. If nothing is done, then this whole world will end in tragedy, but I can stop it because I was created in tragedy. Only misery can defeat misery,” she whispered.

            Hatasuko said nothing as he stepped into the middle of the ashy street. Flaming debris danced in the air around him. Smoke continuously lifted from the dirt and the nearest buildings. A flash of blue light emanated from somewhere in the hopeless city as another scattershot engulfed a crowd of desperate people.

Madeline said, “Goodbye, Hatasuko. No one deserves this power more than you.”

The tempest grew chillingly quiet all at once. In the very next moment, an intricate symbol appeared on the ground beneath Hatasuko’s feet. The gold-flashing symbol circumscribed his body on the smoldering street; a sudden burst of black fire lifted from the symbol and engulfed him, but the flames did not sear his skin. He could feel the heat swallow his whole body, but the black fire took nothing from him; it instead burned through the voice that belonged to Madeline. As soon as the last of her soul succumbed to the flames, it unleashed an extraordinary energy. The black fire disappeared all at once, and then every building began to tremble. The whole city started shaking. The temperature in the air suddenly plummeted to something wickedly frigid; every ember and spark died at once. The air pressure on this street then disappeared. Every window shattered. Hatasuko pilfered the pressure and temperature in the air, and he forced them to become the ingredients for his new body. 

            From the heart of this extraordinary convergence of light and energy, Hatasuko watched as every wound faded away. He watched his body grow taller as every organ in his body felt the pain of tearing apart. As he grew three feet taller than before, he watched every muscle on his body swell with power. His hands and feet grew larger by the second. A layer of smoky frost coated every surface on this street. The transformation was complete; Hatasuko had entered the form of the first Astrodeus.

“I can feel it. I can feel the weapon that Madeline mentioned. I can feel my Astrodeus power at the forefront of my mind,” Hatasuko whispered.

Hatasuko was now so tall that the top of his head reached only slightly beneath the rooftops of the single-story buildings. The whole icy street shimmered from the light of the stars. It exhilarated him just to control a body as powerful as this, but he knew that he could not miss his opportunity to strike. The Interfectus prepared to attack elsewhere in the city, but he knew he could not let this happen.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO LOOK AWAY FROM ME!” Hatasuko shouted with extraordinary volume as he pulled back his right arm.

            Before the Interfectus even had the chance to move its golden eyes, Hatasuko activated his Astrodeus power for the very first time. An extraordinary surge of power flooded through his muscles and made them invulnerable; his whole body illuminated with power as he threw the rock with all his strength. This power enchanted his arm and gave it so much force that when the rock separated from his hand, it shot into the sky a speed faster than sound. A deafening sonic boom shot off in all directions and shook the city. The rock crashed into the demon’s right shoulder and blew it apart instantly on impact. The rock and the shoulder both shattered at once; the Interfectus roared as its broken armor rained to the ground. 

            Hatasuko knew that every eye in the city had seen this happen. Everyone had witnessed the Interfectus suffer a tremendous blow; countless people saw it roar out in pain for the very first time. Everyone watched with wide eyes, so Hatasuko grabbed one of his last few rocks and threw it again; he activated his Astrodeus power so that it unleashed an ear-splitting sonic boom. The Interfectus used its second weapon to block the attack, but it was too slow. By the time the demon summoned the shield of swirling shadows, the rock had already struck its stomach and blown apart its armor. Shards of blackness rained down beneath the monster; it stumbled backward and unleashed another city-shaking boom.

“My power is a flash of strength that overcomes even that of the Interfectus. It’s like my soul has carried the strength my body was always too weak to show.”

“HATASUKO, WATCH OUT!” yelled a distant voice.

As soon as he heard Vaida’s voice from somewhere far off in the city, Hatasuko threw his right hand onto his sword, which was still holstered on his back. Before he even got the chance to unsheathe his weapon, the Interfectus launched an attack with its massive claw of shadows. His mind flashed back to the day when he had the chance to save his mother from this very same attack, so in a way this felt like a shot at redemption. His golden eyes glared at the black blade which could easily rip him from life into death, but then he used his power once again.

Hatasuko felt the fuel burn away in his soul as his whole body glowed, and then his sheath blew to pieces in the blink of an eye. His mighty sword slashed forward in the moment before he would have been triple-impaled by the Interfectus’ dagger-claws. His sword struck the claw with a deafening crash and an extraordinary force that threw his whole body backward. As he flew, he saw that his sword had blown the demon’s blade-arm to pieces. The Interfectus roared as it tried to retract the small fragment that remained of its shattered arm.

A loud cheer arose from the circumference of the city walls; everyone had seen Hatasuko destroy the first weapon of the Interfectus. Many people stopped fleeing so that they could watch this momentous battle. No one had ever heard of someone standing against the Interfectus and succeeding.

            As Hatasuko charged toward the Interfectus with his sword in his hands, he said, “This body isn’t a part of my power; I’ve thrown away my humanity for good. I always knew this journey would make me a monster, so this is something I can live with. It’s always been my destiny to defeat the demon of blades and shadows. My heart was the cost, and their souls are the fuel. That is what it takes to defeat the harbinger of tragedy; this is what it costs to create a world without misery. I can accept my pain. I welcome the sacrifice.”

Hatasuko was stunned with the speed that his new body could achieve. His legs were so much larger that every step carried him significantly farther. He was even faster than Lazaro now; he arrived beneath the Interfectus in under a minute.

While all eyes in the city watched, the Interfectus used its third weapon and summoned a scattershot of shadow spheres. As the voices of the tempest whispered on with wonder in his head, Hatasuko pulled back his sword and activated his power. With an indescribable surge of energy pulsing through his body, Hatasuko twisted his hips, swung his arm, and threw his sword with so much force that it broke the speed of sound. Since it flew so fast, the sword struck a shadow ball before its own soundwaves; every shadow ball detonated right in front of the demon’s face. The massive inferno engulfed the Interfectus with a tremendous shockwave; the supersonic sword crashed in through the monster’s neck as blue fire swallowed it completely. The glow burned so bright that it illuminated the city; it overpowered both the monster’s golden eyes and the starlight in the sky.

The transparent layer of darkness in the sky began to tremble. The Interfectus started to fade from the city as sparks and cinders fell from its broken body. Hatasuko watched the monster with his bright gold eyes.

A cheer went up from the crowd as the Interfectus’ body faded. The transparent layer of darkness began to disappear. Hatasuko watched in silence as the monster’s legs and stomach vanished. Its torso and its one remaining arm faded into nothing. Its head was the last to disappear, but the Interfectus closed its glaring gold eyes right before it faded. Hatasuko knew that it was still alive, but it had retreated from the city by retreating from existence. The sword that had been stuck inside its body fell from the sky and landed in the ashy street. Roars of surprise and joy emerged from the city walls.

Hatasuko whispered his mother’s words, “All that matters is that you stand back up. The world can knock us down… but it cannot hold us down.”

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