Chapter 37: "Priority: The Gods".
The storm makes it always dark regardless of day or night, only thanks to the digital clock on board that the SIFs could tell how many days have passed. It has been a little more than 2 days since they left the village. The lack of vision and sensors in the thick vegetation makes it almost impossible to go too fast despite the vehicles' hovering ability.
All the wounds of the SIFs are now completely healed and the TAC suit extension from their lost limbs acts as a temporary prosthetic arm or leg until they could get back to base and regrow. Rory's situation has improved slightly but she has been in and out of a coma for the last 2 days despite Jimmy's best efforts to help her.
"How's she doing?" Ava asks, looking back.
"To be honest, I have no idea, commander" Jimmy replies, seeing the confused look on Ava's face, he continues "Her wound should be healed by now, it looks like something is preventing the healing process but the scan is not picking up anything. My first thought was that she got an unknown infection but the others healed nicely so that theory was out of the window. None of this makes any sense".
"Kaian, any magic spell you could use?" Ava asks.
"Apostle weapons contain some of the most powerful healing magic of this world, if it didn't work then any other healing spell would not work" Kaian replies.
"Well try something at least?" Ava keeps pushing.
"Alright" Kaian says as he extends his hand over Rory's wound and starts casting a spell. A pinkish aura envelops his hand and Rory's wound. After a few seconds, Rory goes into a convulsion causing Jimmy to stop him and give Rory a shot of morphine to calm her down.
Kaian gives Ava a 'told you so' stare without saying anything.
"Let's hope whatever gods in the valley can help her" Ava says.
"Commander, we're in the eye now" Rob says as they reach the center of the storm which is also the Valley of The Gods "We're there".
The convoy leaves the thick fog of the storm and enter the center of it. Heavy rain becomes light rain, thunder could still be heard but, for the first time in days, they can see the sky and sunlight. Unlike the dark and grim forest that they just got out from, the valley is green with grass with unusually tall trees scattered. These trees have white bark and colorful leaves. There are all kind of strange but beautiful animals, birds that could not be found anywhere else on this world and they all look so elegant and mystical.
All sensors of the vehicles are, suddenly, working as normal again. Scan indicates that the entire valley is the center of the storm and this storm isn't moving at all despite its strong wind.
"You guys seeing this? It feels like we're on one of those Gaia worlds" Ashley says.
"Yeah, it's beautiful" Ava replies then looks at Kaian at the back "Ok what now?".
"We must travel to the center of the valley where the gods live" Kaian replies.
"Alright, center it is" Ava says then nods at Rob.
It is much easier to drive now because of the clear vision and the grassland. As they're going deeper into the valley, the rain stops completely and the sun shines brightly, beautifully. Large herd of white deer-like creatures with golden antlers run across the green grass field around a lake of incredibly clear water.
A pair of white wyverns zoom pass the convoy at low altitude, high speed then pulls up and flies away. Unlike the wyverns in the Imperial Army, these are larger and have beautiful white fur. The sensor of the APC measured their speed up to Mach 1.5 as they passed by. There has never been any kind of creature on any of the known planets in the entire Milky Way that could reach that speed naturally, not even from the other galaxies that the expeditions were sent to.
"You saw that? That was incredible" Rob exclaims.
"Yea, biologists back home are gonna love to have a look at these guys" Ava replies.
Very soon, they arrive at a ruin of what looks like a palace. The ruin isn't old and it looks like there was a battle that took place here as burn marks are everywhere, collapsed parts and smoldering woods. Ava double-checks the map and confirms that this is the dead center of the valley which, according to Kaian, is where the gods live.
"It looks like your gods forgot to turn off the gas when they left" Ava says.
"This can't be, what evil could've done this?" Kaian lost his usual calm attitude staring at the ruin of what used to be a beautiful holy place. He is terrified, not because of the fact that there's a force out there that could lay ruin to the home of the gods. All that he believed in is now in question, all his devotion and direction lost with the thought of his god is now may very well gone.
"Well, lets find out" Ava replies then gives order to dismount through the radio.
As usual, Ava lead the 1st squad with Kaian carrying Rory into the ruin to investigate while Ashley and the 2nd squad stay and secure the perimeter. The fact that some of the SIFs lost their limbs doesn't reduce the unit's combat effectiveness as their wounds are healed and they have gained back their strength. In addition to the efficiency of the TAC suit, the SIFs training and experience allow them to operate at maximum capacity even without their real limbs.
"Alright, stay frosty, people. Whatever did this to the supposed gods' home could be extremely dangerous" Ava reminds the unit. Although she has great confidence in every one of them, it is her duty to remind the men to be on alert because there is no such thing as too careful in combat.
Although it is not visible to the naked eye, TACNet reconstructs the building from the ruin in the form of a blue and transparent holographic image. Built with large white marble stone blocks, the structure's design has a lot of similarities to that of Earth's ancient Greek. Following Kaian's guide, they go down a hallway to a large door that leads into what would be the forum of the gods.
The squad stacks up at the door, despite TACNet isn't picking up any potential danger inside of the chamber. On Ava's signal, the SIFs breach the door into the room using the standard room-clearing tactics that they've done countless times. Once everyone reported clear, Ava allows Kaian to carry Rory to enter the chamber. From the looks of it, the fighting was most intense here. There are various burn marks on the walls and columns, melted golden furniture as if they were hit by plasma bolts. They slowly advance toward the center of the chamber where a broken ring table is located.
"Kaian, any theory?" Ava asks.
"I have none" he replies.
"Gods' civil war?" Rob asks.
"The gods have disputes among them but nothing could've led to a civil war. No this is something else" Rory says in a tired voice.
"But didn't you say the gods work in a mysterious way? That means you don't know everything about them" Ava says.
Before Rory or Kaian could reply, a tall woman of extraordinary beauty appears seemingly out of nowhere in the center of the ring table. Her skin is radiant and fair, her golden hair is gleaming in the sunlight. Wearing an elegant white robe, she stands in the sunlight looking at the SIFs with a smile on her face. An angelic smile that could smooth any mortal souls and melt the heart of even the coldest men.
"We did not fight among ourselves" the mysterious woman says with a smile.
Immediately, Ava and Rob lock their weapon at the mysterious woman while the rest of squad form a circle and keep field of fire at every direction. Almost instantly, Kaian leaps forward and puts himself between Ava and the woman.
"Commander, wait!" He says then turn to the woman and kneels down with Rory still in his arms "Minerva her holiness".
"What? Kaian gets back here, now!" Ava says.
"I'm no threat to you, commander, I was expecting you" Minerva says.
"And I have only your words for it" Ava replies still keeping her gun pointed at the woman.
"Yes, but if I wanted to hurt you, I could've done so already" Minerva says as the SIFs' TAC suit and weapon turn into dust leaving them with only their uniform and no weapon.
Realizing that this woman is a powerful being, Ava has no other choice but to, hesitantly, go along "Ooookey, so you were expecting me?" she says.
Without saying anything, Minerva smiles and walks towards Kaian and Rory. She kneels down and gives Rory a light, quick tab with her index finger and stands back up. A cloud of golden dust appears from the ground and covers Rory entirely. Just a short moment later the cloud disappears and Rory sits up, her wound is now healed and she is back to full strength. She quickly gets on her knees next to Kaian and bows to Minerva.
"Thank you, your holiness" Rory says.
"You're welcome, apostle, stand up both of you" Minerva smile and replies, she then looks at Ava and starts walking towards her "I was expecting your kind to come here, commander Ava Bennett".
"Do I know you?" Ava is confused that she knows her name.
"No, but I know you, I see all and know all" Minerva replies.
"Alright, drop that 'I'm an all-knowing god' shenanigan and tell me who you really are, what you really are. Show me the real you" Ava says.
"We call ourselves Imarian. We were the first sentient race in the universe" Minerva replies and then turn herself back to her true form which looks like the image of the alien race back in the Grand Library of Rondel "This is how we really looks like".
Both Rory and Kaian are perplexed by what their god just said and what they're saying.
"Commander, her kind built the lab under the Grand Library of Rondel" Rob says.
"We built this system, young one" Minerva replies.
"So, Minerva is your real name?" Ava asks.
"It's the name that your ancestors gave me, my original name is Ἀθήνη, but you can just call me Minerva" she replies.
"Ἀθήνη" Rob mumbles "Athiní, commander, she's Athena in ancient Greek language" he tells Ava.
"That is correct, your ancestors, the ancient Greek, created their language based on ours" Minerva says.
"Wait, so that means you were on Earth, posing as our gods? Why?" Ava asks, very confused of what she just heard.
"Oh, where do I even begin" Minerva replies excitingly "Come, let me takes you on an adventure through time".
Suddenly, everything around them changed as though they were teleported to a different place. It's an alien city, highly advanced, lively with traffic and passing by Imarians. Although different in architectural style, it looks similar to UNE's large metropolis but a lot more advanced.
"This is Kορώνη, the Crown and the capital of Imarian. Over nine billion years ago, in your time measurement, our civilization spread across thousands of galaxies. We had thriving metropolises on trillions of planets and our technological level advancement was ever-increasing fast. We could freely harness energy from all 10 dimensions as well as cross the veil to explore them. We could look into the infinite alternate realities and learn from them" Minerva says.
The surrounding changes from places to places as Minerva explains her civilization.
"But the more we learned, the more answers we found, and even more questions were raised. Eventually, sparked an ideology that was strange and new to our civilization, some argued that there's a higher being that created these laws and rules of the universe. The concept of god was born and for the first time after millions of years of scientific advancement, we had a religion" She continues.
They're now in a large structure that looks like a grand temple of some sort. There are Imarians kneeling and praying, the number keeps increasing.
"The religion spread fast and strong across our civilization. For the first time in our history, a crack was formed and our civilization was divided. There were those who believed that science and technology is the only way that could solve all questions eventually and those who believed that the path of faith would lead to ascension to a higher plane of existence, the next step in our evolution of our species."
"At first it was just small arguments among the population, then it became politics. The tension was high but it was nothing serious, it lasted like that for thousands of years until one day a religious Imarian gained psychic ability. Over the years the number grows and the religion gained more followers, but evolution came with challenges. A group of psychics attempted to use their ability to turn the non-religious Imarian into believers because they want to help them gain enlightenment as well. However, when the minds of millions merged, they lost control and resulting in a catastrophic release of psychic waves that spread across the planet killing everyone on it. Billions died and the non-religious faction used that as an excuse to start a war against the religious faction. I was a believer back then so I joined the war".
The scene changes to a battlefield on an unknown planet. Both sides are using incredibly advanced weapons with one side using higher technology while the other possesses abilities that could only be described as magic.
"The Techno-Imarians invented ever-increasing deadly and highly advanced weaponry to match our magic. The frontline spread across thousands of galaxies and trillions died every day, system after system destroyed whole, while innocents were forced to choose between fighting for one side or be hunted by both in order to stop the other side from gaining more manpower. Countless of lesser civilizations were wiped out just because we needed their resource or enslaved to fight as fodders. Until one day, a group of scientists from the Techno-Imarians side decided that if the war went on, all will be destroyed and they could not let that happen".
The scene is now changed to a scientific lab.
"In secrecy, they developed a sentient AI, more sophisticated, more intelligent than any ever created with only 1 directive: To stop the end of all lives, no matter the cost. Once they unleashed the AI into the military's mainframe, the AI is what you are calling Reaper took over everything and start attacking both sides. It was expected because the only way to stop fighting is for all sides to lose all military capabilities. However, it didn't stop there, the AI decided that the best way to preserve lives is to stop any civilization from being advanced enough to wage deadly war and result in the destruction of themselves and others. Therefore, it went on a mission for our extinction. At that point, our military was already devastated and almost non-existent. Both sides joined together in an effort to resist the AI but nothing we tried ever worked"
They're now standing in space looking at a system that looks like Uros.
"So when it was decided that all hope was lost, we built the Sanctuary which you are now calling Uros system. It was here that we were hidden from the AI so we could peacefully work towards ascension. There were only a few thousand of us left and, one by one, we ascended to a higher plane of existence. Right here in this Valley. However, we did leave behind something for the next generations of races to discover. A plan to destroy the AI that by the time we figured it out, there were too few of us to execute it. For millions of years, the Prothean and your people were the only races that ever found it" Minerva says as they're back in the chamber.
"So if you've evolved to a higher pain of existence and could do pretty much anything you want, why didn't you just snap the Reaper out of existence? Also still didn't explain why you were on us pretending to be our gods" Ava asks.
"As soon as we ascended we realized that the power we now have is so powerful that we introduced a rule of no intervention with the material realm. Any who attempted to do so were destroyed by the others" Minerva replies looking around the place then continues "When the Prothean found the blueprint we were hopeful that they were the one that would fix our mistake, but it was soon cleared that they were too late. Just like I'm standing in front of you now, I was standing in front of their leaders on this world explaining everything. In the ended they decided that the best course of action was to commit mass suicide so Uros could remain hidden from the Reaper until another civilization eventually find it and continue what they've started. And you did" Minerva says.
"After the Prothean was gone we waited, for hundreds of millions of years, for another race to advance enough to fight the Reaper. But none could ever stand a chance because the Reaper learned from their mistake with the Prothean. So a small group of us decided that something needed to be done, we set out to look for a potential race that we could protect so they could thrive" Minerva continues.
"And you chose us, why?" Ava asks.
"When we first discovered the human, we were amazed by your race. Naïve and primitive but you have much in common with us, so it was decided that with our guidance, your civilization would advance to great power. That's when we posed as the gods throughout your history" Minerva explains.
"That explains why different cultures and religions of ancient Earth had many similar gods just different name" Rob says.
"Yes, but it did not last long, when the others took notice of what we were doing despite our great efforts to stay hidden, we were forced to stop all intervention on your civilization. An unfortunate effect of that was almost 900 years of dark age which your civilization had little to no scientific development" Minerva says "all hope was lost, but you humans time and time proved to be more capable than we thought. You thrived despite all the hardship that was imposed on you by the universe and became as great as you are now. That was why we decided to open a portal to lead you to this world, the GATE"
"Wait, wait, wait, the tech back home said the gate was a system error of the Prothean facility?" Ava asks.
"It was an error that we encouraged, it was us using their technology to bring you to this world in an attempt to hide from the others. But we were unsuccessful" Minerva says "When the other discovered, they attack us and wiped us out. I'm only here to talk to you because Nyx and Emroy hid me out of sigh. The battle tore a rift between this dimension and another dimension, that's where the storm and the creatures are coming from".
"Why did you open the gate in the middle of the city? Thousands died because of that!" Ava raises her voice but still not losing her cool.
"We apologize for that, but as I said, we tried to avoid detection by making it looked like an error. It was never our intention to harm any of your people" Minerva replies.
"It didn't work!" Ava says "Did it?" her voice lower "You said you were expecting us, why?".
"To give to the core command of the weapon that you are building, project Excalibur" Minerva replies.
"So, give it to us" Ava says.
"Before I do, there one other thing I want to tell you" Minerva says "The Reaper has hundreds of thousands of galaxies under its control, as it expanded, it encountered a highly dangerous swarm that bend on devouring all things. They had devoured countless galaxies and the Reaper is fighting them to a stalemate. All the materials they got from the cycles are thrown at the frontline to keep the swarm out. If you destroy the Reaper, you will have to take on their role of stopping that swarm or all will be lost".
"Something more dangerous than the Reaper?" Ava asks, feeling unease.
"Yes" Minerva smiles "Now it is time for you to go, I will force the creatures back into their dimension and close the rift. You should have a clear way home".
"Why didn't you do that sooner?" Ava asks.
"Because If I did the others would've come for me and I would not be able to give you this" Minerva extends her hand, an octahedron object with golden shining strips on it appears and float over to Ava.
A bright aura extends from Minerva and sweep across the land. The SIFs' gears are now back and the storm is gone. Her body turn into light as several other light bolts appear out of nowhere and crash onto her. A blinding flash goes off and then everything is back to normal, Minerva is now gone.
"The gods were no gods?" Kaian mumbles.
"And they're all gone? Forever?" Rory adds "What happened to the other apostles?".
"Maybe we'll find out" Ava says then she starts walking towards the entrance "Come on, let's get outta here".