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Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The Twilight of the Gods - a story of Mantra, Chapter 4

 

 The TWILIGHT OF THE GODS - Chap. 4

A story of Mantra and Black September

 

By Aladdin and Christopher Leeson

 

Posted 6-7-2022





Chapter 4


A Guillotine for a God

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


I saw amusement in Diana’s eyes.  “You don't know what you're asking,” she said to me.  

“Oh, come on! This insanity must have had a beginning somewhere,” I replied.

“All right. In the beginning there was darkness....”

“Are you trying to be funny?”

“If you don’t really want to hear the story from the beginning, let me ask you how much you know about the old Gnostics.”  

I didn’t know a lot. They were a persecuted Christian sect that had been stamped out by about 450 AD, the year I was born. Their books were seized and burned. That was how it was in those days. With the help of the Roman Caesars, bishops suppressed every religious movement that they chose to call heretical.

As far as I knew, only one sect of Gnostics had lingered on, the Manicheans. They survived in Asia, east of the Roman sway. But even the Manicheans had vanished before the end of the Middle Ages, outlawed by both the Islamists and the Chinese. I never had any reason to read up on Gnosticism; it had become a dead letter before I ever came upon the scene. Anyway, the only “god” I believed in had been Archimage.

"The Gnostics,” continued Diana, “understood the Beginning Times with such accuracy that their knowledge must have been otherworldly. They somehow knew that the god who had created the universe had himself been a created being, created by Another, a deity who had existed before time began and was much greater. The chief god he created was called the Demiurge. That one lived, did some amazing things, and then died.”

"The Creator God died?" I asked.  

"Oh, some might call him the Creator God,” she said, “but to whom does the house belong, the carpenter who built it, or the land owner who put him to his task? But you have to understand that the Demiurge did not die in the ordinary sense."

“Okay, he had a close escape. Did his own Creator try to take check him out?” I asked.

“No, he committed suicide.”

"Why? Who can have more to live for than a god?”

"Seemingly, a god can be lonely.  For eons the Demiurge had been seeking to create living beings worthy to be his companions. But every sentient race he called into being were inferior to him. Perfection was beyond his power to create, because he was himself created with flaws. Think of Adam and Eve.”

“Do you believe in Adam and Eve?” I asked.

“I have good reason to.”

I said nothing one that and Diana picked up on her tale. “The worst flaw in the Demiurge’s creations was their readiness to do evil.  No matter how well they started out, they soon grew disobedient and the god could not tolerate disobedience. Without perfect but yet obedient companions, he remained in effective isolation. He eventually grew fixated upon self-annihilation, but he had been constituted to be almost unslayable…"

“But he did pull it off, didn’t he?” I asked.

Gabriel now joined in.  "That's woefully correct, Eden.  If the Demiurge had cut himself into pieces, his parts would have come together again in the blink of an eye. Had he plunged himself into the heart of a super nova, it would have affected him no more than a warm bath.  But by applying his immense intellect to the problem of self-destruction and at last found a way – or at least thought he did."

"What did the idiot finally do?"

Diana rejoined the conversation. "He created a – a platform -- and occupied it.  He had created a small and rudimentary universe to serve for his place of death. Then he opened a portal to an existing universe and placed his head through. It grieves me to say it, but the reality that he was intruding upon was the Main Bough of the Tree of Life.”

“Do you mean our Main Bough?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“That can’t be good,” I conjectured.

“It wasn’t.”

“It sounds like suicide by guillotine. Is it that head that’s now causing all our troubles?”

“I'm afraid so,” our hostess said.

“Why did he want to throw him bomb into the one place that was supposed to be holding up the whole Multiverse – if I admit just for argument’s sake that there really is a Multiverse?”

Gabriel chimed in again. “The intellect of a true god is beyond the ken of even the Timekeepers. But whenever I contemplate that question, the only thought that comes to me is that he perhaps wanted the last thing in his sight to be the paramount glory of his Creation -- the finest and most perfect universe he had ever created.”

Diana sighed.  “When he activated his guillotine, the dimensional door closed, shearing off his head and letting it fall into the Main Bough. His body remained in the 'Scaffold Universe.’ He knew that his body would become a toxic, a danger to any realm that it occupied. It was for that reason that he created a slap-dash scaffold universe. Its only intended purpose was to serve as a toxic waste dump."

"So what's the catch in all this?” I knew there had to be a catch, and a bad one.

"Indeed, there was a catch,” admitted Gabriel. His body in the Scaffold Universe crystallized into six gems, each embodying a part of the Demiurge's godly qualities -- control of Reality, Mind, Space, Power, Soul, and Time. They comprised most of the Creator god’s power, only lacking his unifying intelligence. That intelligence had been lodged inside his now-severed head. That head, having fallen to Earth, congealed into a seventh gem – the Ego Gem, the repository of what was left of the god's self-awareness.

“Unfortunately, the Ego Gem held only the intellect of the Demiurge, not his spirit, which, as far as we know, had been dissolved and lost.  Intellect without any moral spirit is a mad thing. In the words of your planet’s psychologists, it creates a psychotic personality. But the practical power still under control of the Ego Gem were slight and it could do little harm to the Main Bough. Likewise, existing without any directing intelligence, the other six Gems posed a great, but survivable, threat even when all of the six were combined. But…."

"But what?"

It was Diana who continued the story. "By the construction of his guillotine, the Demiurge had created a lasting link between the Scaffold Universe and the Main Bough. He had had enough foresight to establish a seal to keep them separate, but like all things he created, that seal had a flaw. It has been gradually weakening over the eons."

"So, what does is comedy of errors adding up to?" I asked.

Diana swallowed hard.  "The seal has diminished to the point where the Vahdalan Argus, the entity whom you and your allies did battle with on the Godwheel, was able to cross over into the Scaffold Universe, and later cross back. Each time the portal was penetrated, it grew weaker."

I frowned. “I suppose Thor and Rune, traipsing back and forth, didn’t make things any better.”

“No. And don’t forget Loki’s surreptitious passage, too,” said Gabriel. “Further, when Rune came back to our reality, he brought with him what he considered to be a precious treasure.”

Rune had returned? If he had, one of my worst fears had been realized! My family and I had become sitting ducks for that fiend’s malice.”

“What loot did he take?” I asked.

Diana shuddered: "He bought to our universe the six forbidden gems. If they are ever united with the Ego Gem, they will merge into the Infinity Array. It will be the veritable rebirth of the Demiurge. But in this form the Demiurge will be only a soulless, mechanistic reconstitution, lacking the redeeming qualities that the ancient Demiurge possessed."

I got it! These two were expecting me to go up against a mad god, one able to create universes as an afterthought! Well, their confidence in me was flattering.

But if they thought I was going to set myself up to be swatted like an insect, they were absolutely insane!

#

"The Mind Gem you fought Loki to possess was one of the seven, Eden," Gabriel informed me.  “In Zero Time, Loki has already won control of the Six.  But the existence of the Ego Gem has escaped his notice. It has taken possession a goddess from the Scaffold Universe, Sersi. Now, having access to her body and her powers, the Ego Gem is fixated on wresting the other Gems from Loki and recreating itself as the Demiurge."

"Are you saying that by losing to Loki, I set the universe -- the Multiverse – on the road to destruction?"

"Do not fault yourself. You could never have matched the Asgardian in terms of naked power. It would have taken many ultras assisting you to fend off the trickster god."

Did I dare believe him? In bygone days, I had been taken in by the duplicitous Archimage. The being now egging me on could be concocting a phony spiel to recruit me for some nefarious purpose. I didn’t want to be duped again.  

"So,” I said stiffly, “if the six Gems fall into the orbit of the Ego Gem, is it going to be even worse than if Loki keeps them?"

"Infinitely so," averred Gabriel.  "With the Six, Loki has attained the power to crush worlds and even whole galaxies, but up to this point in Real Time, he has only used the gems for playing pranks. As for what he will eventually decide to do, we have no idea."

“Can’t you time travel into the future and take a peak?”

“The Timekeepers have already done that. They have learned that Loki is about to lose the Gems to the Ego Gem.”

"That sucks. But let me understand. You’re saying that the Ego Gem intends to destroy the universe -- the entire Multiverse? Why?" I asked.

"Its motives and intention are not so simple to comprehend," Gabriel explained.  "We suspect that the reconstituted Demiurge hates the Multiverse for failing to live up to her vision of perfection and that imperfection is a source of anger and shame. In her dementia she will be driven to sweep the table clean.”

"She?  You've been calling the Demiurge a ‘he’ up to now.”

The little man shrugged.  "The indications are that the resurrected Demiurge will on take a goddess shape after attuning herself to the body of Sersi, a demi-goddess. In most future alternatives, the Ego Gem will choose to manifest inside a superficially female shape and call herself after a goddess of vengeance and destruction – Nemesis.  But the particulars of the revenant’s name and shape hardly matter."

"If you say so.  But if this -- Nemesis -- rises, what exactly will she do?"

“She will use her immense power within to let loose the forces of chaos, of anti-Creation. But we know that her active threat will be but short-lived. The future, at the farthest point that our time agents have been able to travel, reveals that the array of the Seven will be attacked and disrupted by an audacious warrior. That blow struck will cause the Seven to be scattered as separate entities."

"That's good, isn't it?" I asked.

“It’s good, but not good enough.  The victorious warrior will make the assault too late and Nemesis will have time to release a portion of her Nemesis Energy, the energy of destruction. The ancient Demiurge endowed the Tree of Eternity with the ability to heal itself, but it cannot stand against the Demiurge’s own power. Not for long. The leaked Energy will act as a cancer inside the system of the Tree of Eternity. It will repeatedly try to heal itself, but in the long term it will be unable to cope.  That will mean its eventual exhaustion and its collapse, unleashing a cascading breakdown that will bring about the collapse of the entire Multiverse. In the broader perspective, eons of Creation will vanish as if they had never been."

"What warrior gets to conk the bitch? Is it supposed to be me?"

"No. The warrior is one whom you’ve never met, Mantra.  But, even so, you have already heard of him.  The Black Knight."

I took that in. I had read about the Black Knight in Aladdin reports, a run of the mill adventurer who had shown up during the summer, seemingly from nowhere. From all reports, the fellow didn’t amount to much – an ultra of limited ability with some sort of glowing sword. For some unknown reason, he had been allowed to join the UltraForce.  

"He is, in fact, an intruder from the Scaffold Universe," Diana volunteered, "one who has come to reclaim his exiled lover, Sersi."

"Whew," I said.  "This dude has been shacking up with a goddess and he’s also the only guy who’ll be able to land a blow against Nemesis?"

Gabriel smiled woefully.  "We think he will just be ‘lucky.’ Our task is to rewrite future events so that at  more effective fighter than him strikes an earlier and more telling blow."

“How much do you know about this upcoming battle?” I asked.

“Not everything is clear as yet. From the hacked information in the central VIGOPS, we presently know that even a tiny particle of escaping Nemesis Energy will be enough to set the Multiverse on its career of doom. The aberrations you witnessed in that other reality represent just the earliest changes in reality forced upon the Tree of Eternity. Once the process has begun, there will be no saving the Multiverse."

"Do you have any idea how to stop the process?"

"We have a general idea, but no specifics,” said the Timekeeper. “A forensic reappraisal of the hero’s battle with Nemesis is an absolute necessity before a valid plan can be formulated.”

"There's something else I've been wondering about," I said.  "What, exactly, do you need me for? Isn’t the whole world of the Timekeepers with you on the front lines? And what about your army of time agents, like Diana here? What is everyone doing?"

Gabriel winced. “They are doing...nothing,” he said.

“Nothing?”

"They are in retreat. By now, the Timekeepers will have finished their evacuation of the Main Bough, even from their home on the Godwheel," he said with a face of disdain. “The time agents have been given no specific orders. They are being left behind to their fate.”

"Come again?" I asked incredulously.

"In plain words, our leadership has decided not to prevent catastrophe."

I couldn’t believe I’d heard that correctly. "Why not? Isn’t their own hides on the chopping block, too?”

"Yes, they are. But response is to merely make themselves the last bird eaten by the crocodile.  Or am I using that metaphor wrongly?”

"I get your idea, but you’d better explain this craziness."

“The Timekeepers have developed a very hands-off view of what their job is. The ruling ideology maintains that the solution is to let the problem work itself out. They are used to monitoring the trivial, but being confronted by something they have never dealt with before, has turned them into lost sheep. Their instinct is to run away.”

“You didn’t give me that impression before!” I accused.

“Sorry if I lent insufficiently forthcoming.”

“How could they have possibly decided to do nothing?”

"The same phenomenon has occurred many times, even on your own planet, Eden. How many great empires have collapsed when they were strong and vital enough to stand tall and triumph? Did not Rome’s leaders, as the end approached, fight one another with zeal while doing little to stop the advancing barbarians? And think how the French seemed to lose the will to fight during the opening rounds of World War II.  And look at what the overwhelming passivity of your American president in Afghanistan.”

"Where are your people evacuating to?” I asked. “Can it be a refuge for others, too?"

He shook his head.  "In the long term, there are no refuges. When the collapse comes, it will not come at every location at once.  Think of a building on fire. The fire takes time to overwhelm every particle of the structure. On the Main Bough, there shall exist remote twigs that will perish later than any of the rest. Those are the localities that the Timekeepers will install themselves. But those last remnants of the Main Bough will outlast the first collapse by mere centuries."

“I can only hope that you people don’t know what you’re talking about.”

"I cannot blame you for a lack of confidence in us. My people have behaved shamefully and I am even more exasperated with them than you are.”

“Recriminations can wait for later. Right now we need the heroes to step forward,” I declared.

“All is not lost, Mantra.  My section-chief, Michael, the former leader of the Timekeepers’ field division, managed to create a new technology that has been aided the remaining dissenters immensely.”

"Former leader?"

He was arrested and evacuated perforce.  The self-defense measures that Michael developed were also shut down by his higher-ups and his known allies have been neutralized. Fortunately, Michael had taken extraordinary measures to conceal my membership in his group, due to my crucially sensitive position as an insider.”  

"Where does that leave us?"

I thought I saw a glint of optimism in Gabriel's expression -- forced optimism, I supposed.  

"Though the Timekeepers ultimately refused to act,” he said, “they had studied the looming disaster, gathering much useful information.  Fortunately, by means of Michael’s secret tap into the most confidential VIGOPS data banks, he and a few others were able to form a defensive scheme. I still have access to that data."

"So, your leader was called Michael?  Do all you Timekeepers name yourselves after Archangels?"

"Of course not.  There are only twelve Archangels."

I shook my head.  “Look, I’ve done some of my best work in the company of renegades.  But I was hoping that there would be a super-civilization out there backing us up.”

Gabriel’s momentary optimism devolved into sheepishness.  “I didn’t want to emphasize the difficulty of our situation right at the outset, lest it discourage you.”

Disgusted, I turned toward Diane.  “How much did you know about this fiasco?”

She sighed. “I’ve been fully briefed only lately. It's grim, I admit, but I’m hopeful that Gabriel's confidence in you will be justified.”

“Don’t you dare put this on me!” I snared. Oh, brother! A whole civilization had copped out of its responsibilities and the diehards were expecting me to straighten things out!

"We have a promising plan to follow,” Gabriel declared. “Our first task is to monitor Nemesis being vanquished by the Black Knight. Our key to success should lie in discovering what variables existed during that encounter. If the presumed X-Factors can be identified and manipulated, ensuing events might be manipulated, thereby avoiding the collapse of the Multiverse."

I scowled.  "You make it sound so easy, Gabe.  What if your theory is cockeyed?”

"Give Gabriel a break!" exclaimed Diana.  "Michael was the Time Master we were all counting on.  Gabriel worked in the shadows, as an infiltrator gathering data. Because of Michael’s exposure, Gabriel was forced to step into that giant’s shoes at the last instant. Gabriel believes that recruiting you gives us the best odds of preventing the cataclysm. Are you willing to try or not?"

"Why me? Why can’t you be his ride-along assistant?” I asked.

Diana threw up her hands.  "I'm already helping all I can. I’d do more if I could.” She suddenly pushed her chair away from the table and stood.  "Lukasz -- the other Lukasz – has been waiting to speak to me.  On the off-chance that Creation survives, I still have a job to do.” She started to step away.

I glanced over at Lukasz and Thanasi, still quaffing ale.  “Say, Di, would it mess up history if I warned my old self about what kind of crap is coming at him down the pike?" I called.

She looked back. “It would only affect this timeline, not the Main Bough’s.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound like anything worth doing,” I said dejectedly.

"Eden," said Gabriel over my shoulder, "the pressure of onrushing events is very great.  To go forward, you need to make a great leap of faith, perhaps the greatest you have ever allowed yourself to do. You must believe that success if possible, even though we currently lack all the data you need to be convinced."

"I’m keeping an open mind,” I said.  

He shook his head.  "I will do nothing to coerce you, warrior.  If you assist us, much will be asked of you. When thing look darkest, you will need to be positive and fully self-motivated, otherwise failure is certain.”

“Making a decision of this size would be easier if I knew what, precisely, you expect from me. And if I agree to do it, what happens to the kids back home? Forgive me for thinking that what you want me to do can easily get me killed.”

“If you become a casualty even thought we have been successful, the alternate Mantra now with the young people will treat them like her own, and even take over your ultra role in Canoga Park.”

“Oh, great. That’s one babe who doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. She seems too wounded to operate at peak capacity.”

Gabriel continued. “If you are slain and we fail, I promise to send the children into a remote time-line, one that should not collapse until well after the end of their natural lifespans.”

“Well, that’s something. But before I agree to anything, you’d better tell me everything, including every detail.”

Hell! Had I said that? Was I starting to believe in this nut stuff?

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 5


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