11-The Seven Chaos, The Seven Thieves

"Well," said Marduk, "It began about fifteen years after you left. Libertor was still leader, and he was a great one too. There was just one thing people were angry about: while disease was kept at bay, poverty experienced only by a handful, a steadily decreasing number, and famine nothing more than a bad dream, Libertor absolutely refused to expand beyond need. While we lived happy lives, to some it was unimaginable that, with an entire continent to expand to, our population was contained in a few small cities. The seven greediest people in the nation used this to their advantage."

They were back in Libertor's‫–No, thought Chaos, Marduk's office. Marduk had thought it best to continue the conversation in private, but Chaos didn't know why; surely everyone but him knew this.

He ticked them off on his fingers. "Aspu, Tiamat, Ereshkigal, Erra, Cronos, Fomor, and Mammon. I'm ashamed to call them Echidnas. They said they could lead better than Libertor, that they could get everyone exactly what they wanted."

"You're not telling me everyone fell for that?"

"Of course not. But, two months after the election, he was assassinated. The evidence pointed to both Skullbash or Sparks, but I'm sure it was one of them." He said this with a look of disgust on his face. "Anyway, after that we were split. Many of them followed those seven. I'm thankful to say a small number followed my mother, Ishtar, because soon after those thieves carved up South America, it became clear that they didn't want what was best for their people. Unfortunately, the things they used to calm the radiation also proved to be efficient weapons: the Chaos Emeralds."

"Is that what they're calling them now?"

"Yes. Anyway, the people were helpless to stop them, though a few escaped. Soon, of course, they began to have babies. Their leaders quickly snatched them and brainwashed them. We don't know the full extent of this, but the one person we managed to capture alive seemed to think you were a god."

"No doubt they wanted it to appear that they were divinely appointed."

"That's what we thought, too. We were going to try to convince him, but when we got there we saw he'd been beaten to death with his own arm, which was ripped out of its socket. It's amazing what Echidnas can do to each other," he said, although he sounded more sad than amazed. "I never thought we'd be at war with our own people..."

"At war?"

"Yes. These seven, as I've mentioned before, are very greedy. They want each other's land, but they are too evenly matched, and alliances never last more than a day. The population here is large enough to tip the balance in any direction. The only reason Detwelf hasn't been taken over is the soldiers often focus on fighting each other rather than us, so by the time they do attack us, there are only a handful of them left."

"I can beat them."

Marduk stared at him.

"You've never seen me fight, have you? Nothing on Earth could possibly even come close to beating me."

"That's a little arrogant, isn't it?"

"It's truth."

Marduk stared into Chaos' bright green eyes as Chaos stared into Marduk's unusual purple ones.

"Very well," said Marduk after a long while, and pulled out a map of South America (complete with borders) and a pen.

"We are here," he said, dotting one point on the map. "As far as we know, they are here, here, here, here, here, here, and here," he said, dotting one point in each of the other seven divisions, which seemed to be as far away from each other (and Detwelf) as possible.

"I'll be back in eight to fourteen days."

"You're that confident of your abilities?"

"You're talking to the guy who stopped a nuclear missile with his bare hands. I can handle seven power-crazed Echidnas."

He came back, victorious but weary, fifteen days later.