Chapter 759 - The Scalpel and the Club

Zeke reached out with his will, intending to unravel Shar Maelaine where she sat on her throne.  However, he was shocked to find his efforts blocked by some unseen force.  It only took him a moment to recognize that she was using the negative threads against him.  Somehow, she’d managed to wrangle them under her control.

“How?” he demanded.

“Your ignorance knows no bounds,” she spat.  “You think you are the only one to attain a little power?  I put people like you down once every hundred thousand years, boy.”

“There are no people like me,” he growled.

“They were all arrogant as well,” she said, pushing herself to her feet.  The world flexed with her presence, far more powerfully than anything Aja or Oda had managed.  If Zeke had to guess, she held just as much power as the Waymaster.  Perhaps even more. 

Which meant that he had underestimated her.

“Did you not wonder why I chose not to stop you?” she asked, stepping forward.  “Did you not stop to think that perhaps you were uninformed?  That you had no idea how the universe truly worked?  No.  Of course not.  Because you are nothing but a blunt weapon.  Thinking has never been your strong suit, has it?”

Zeke flexed, targeting the knights lining the throne room.  They unraveled into nothingness a moment later, but Shar Maelaine never even looked in their direction. 

Instead, her eyes remained on him.

“No answer?  Are you even capable of intelligent speech, you dumb animal?” she asked.

“Who is out there?” he asked.

“Ah, a good question.  Perhaps you will see.”

Then, Zeke felt something latch onto the threads in his chest.  They unspooled a moment later, exposing the glowing thread that was his soul.  Raising her eyebrow, Shar Maelaine ripped it free before Zeke could even respond. 

He collapsed.

Or his body did, at least.  His soul tore across the throne room until it floated before the Sun Goddess.  She asked, “Did you know that every thread is comprised of tinier threads?  And they, in turn are made of even smaller strings.  On and on it goes.  I have never found the end of it.”

Zeke struggled against her control, but her grip was firm.  Too firm to escape.  Even as she peeled one thread after another away, Zeke wanted to scream in agony.  Having his soul flayed was one of the more painful experiences of his life, and for a moment, he couldn’t even think.

But then, something crashed through the throne room.

Zeke had no eyes.  No mouth.  No senses of any kind.  But he sensed the new arrival as easily as if he had seen them through his own eyes.  And what’s more, he recognized them. 

Or her.

The red dragon loomed in the double doors, somehow fitting even though everything said that she should never have been capable of doing so.  Was it spatial manipulation at work?  Some other trait of which Zeke was unfamiliar, perhaps?  There was no way to know, and Zeke was in no place to question it.  Not with Shar Maelaine peeling his soul away, one string at a time. 

“You thought you could keep him for yourself?” demanded the dragon.  Zeke had first met her when he’d encountered her child in a chance meeting centuries before.  And she had clearly held a grudge ever since.

“Be still, dragon.  You will get what’s due,” Shar Maelaine said. 

“My flight will not stand idly by and –”

The Sun Goddess raised her hand, cutting the dragon off.  The massive beast choked as Shar Maelaine stated, “Do not test my patience.  You understood the terms of our deal.  If I believe you are trying to wriggle out of it, then I may take issue, little dragon.”

She released the dragon, who nearly collapsed in relief.  Not from being choked, as it seemed.  Rather, from the sheer power difference.  Clearly, the Sun Goddess was far more powerful than Zeke had been led to believe.

But it didn’t make sense.

Zeke had slaughtered her worshippers in the lower realms, while the war waged by Talia and Pudge had cut her Ethereal Realm forces to pieces.  By all rights, she should have been struggling to hold onto her position as a greater god.

And yet, there she was, displaying far more control over the threads than Zeke could manage.  Obviously, she had spent quite a lot of time training that particular skill.  She knew far more than he did.

He reformed his body, though her grip on his soul kept it from connecting.  To counter that, Zeke sent out a tendril.  She noticed, but she didn’t seem to care very much.  After all, she could snip the string at any moment.

In fact, she could destroy his soul thread just as easily.

But Zeke wasn’t worried about that.  Instead, he had questions. 

“How are you this strong?” he asked.

“You can speak?  Truly, your pain tolerance is even more impressive than I was led to believe.”

“Will you answer?” he persisted.

She shrugged.  “I may as well.  You are now my plaything.  You and I are going to have quite a lot of fun together.  Well, I am.  You may not categorize it as such, considering that you will spend much of that time in agonizing pain.

“Until you agree to worship me, as is right and proper,” she added.

“Never.”

“Never say never, little god,” she teased.  “As to how I am so powerful?  Did you ever stop to wonder how a little amoeba was ever allowed to gain so much strength? 

“Waymaster,” she scoffed.  “It is master of nothing.  It exists at my whim.  Devoted to me like a pet.  Just as you will be.  And while it may be simple, that creature carries with it quite a lot of raw power.  Of course, as its master, much of that has gone to me.”

“I see,” Zeke muttered, trying to ignore her continuous efforts to pick his soul apart.  “Did it teach you about the threads?”

She laughed, the sound like a series of solar explosions.  “Teach me?  You have it all wrong, little god,” she declared.  “I taught it.  Though I will admit that I kept much of my knowledge for myself, only doling out the scraps.  As befits a relationship between a master and her pet.

“You will learn, though.  They all do eventually.”

Zeke couldn’t help it. 

He laughed, deep and rumbling.  The building shook as if under the effect of an earthquake, and the dragon even cringed away from the sound. 

Of course, Shar Maelaine ripped one of the threads apart a second later, fully expecting it to cut him off.  But Zeke had felt worse, and so often that the agony felt a lot like going home. 

“You are so confident,” he said, pulling his soul back.  Despite the infallible grip of her will, the Sun Goddess could not stop it.  It merged with the body he’d just built for himself.  “So, so confident that you know everything.  Ultimately, that’s your downfall.”

“What?  How?”

“You think I’m just like everyone else,” Zeke said.  “I don’t doubt that you’ve slaughtered hundreds – maybe even thousands of greater gods.  It’s the best way to gain power, right?”

As he spoke, he paced back and forth.  The whole time, Shar Maelaine struggled to pick apart the threads of his body, but she failed to grab a single string, much less separate it from the rest.  The fact was that Zeke had been preparing for this altercation for centuries, and unlike her, he respected his enemy enough not to underestimate her. 

He’d spent much of that time letting the Waymaster pick him apart, one thread at a time.  Partly, that was so he would know what it felt like, but it was also to teach him how to resist.  He’d learned both lessons very, very well. 

And in doing so, he had prepared himself for his confrontation with Shar Maelaine.  So, while he might have been surprised at the power she had displayed – as well as her dominion over the Waymaster – Zeke knew how to counter it.

Shar Maelaine could not say the same.

Zeke stepped forward, his naked feet slapping against the floor.  Each step was accompanied by a burst of fire and the Sun Goddess’ frenzied attempts to unravel his body.  It did not work any better now than it had before he’d begun his approach, but Zeke had to admire her persistence in the face of abject failure.

“I might not be as skilled as you are with the threads.  I suspect no one could make that claim,” he admitted.  “But what I lack in dexterity, I more than make up for in sheer strength.”

He ripped a thousand threads out of the wall, and it collapsed under the weight of its own instability.  A second later, it disintegrated into motes of energy that were quickly absorbed by the nearby sun. 

Zeke never stopped moving, though.

Shar Maelaine stepped backward.  She knew she couldn’t run.  She knew that if she fought, she would lose. 

“I think of it as the difference between an axe and a scalpel.  Sure, it might be difficult to perform surgery with the former, but if all I want is to kill a man, it works pretty well.”

He sighed.  “You called me a blunt weapon,” Zeke stated.  “You thought of it as an insult, but I see it as a compliment.  Yes.  I’m a weapon.  I’m good at one thing.  Do you know what that is?”

As he spoke, Zeke continued forward.  Meanwhile, Shar Maelaine had hit the edge of her throne.  She had nowhere else to go. 

Sure, the Sun Goddess had options.  She could flee at the speed of light, if she so desired.  But she knew she couldn’t outrun Zeke.  That much was painfully obvious. 

He drew close, and suddenly, his fingers wrapped around her slender neck.  Touching her was like thrusting his hand into the sun.  Fire tore through his flesh and bone like it was nothing, but Zeke simply rebuilt the limb with a deft manipulation of the threads. 

“Answer me,” he whispered.

“I…I don’t know.  We do not need to quarrel.  Together, we can supplant the Creator and protect this reality.  He is mad.  A failure.  He can no longer stand against the adversary.  But together, you and I are stronger than he ever was.  Together, we can turn the enemy away.”

“Do you really believe that?” Zeke asked, considering her words.  His initial response was to believe they were lies.  She was good at that kind of thing.  However, her words carried with them a kernel of truth.  Of sincerity.

“Of course,” she said, sensing weakness within him.  “I can take you to him.  The Creator is barely even awake.  He does not deserve his throne.  We do.”

Zeke cocked his head to the side.  “Do you even know my name?” he asked.

“What does that matter?”

“Answer the question.  What is my name?”

Her perfect brown scrunched, though only briefly before she schooled her expression to placidity.  “That is irrelevant.  We are –”

“You don’t know it,” Zeke said.  “Ezekiel.  Ezekiel Blackwood.  Do you know what planet I came from?  Do you know who I was before I died?  Do you know anything about me, save that you don’t have the power to beat me?”

“I…”

“You don’t.  You also never answered my question,” he said.  “Do you know what singular thing I’m good at?”

“I…I do not…”

Zeke leaned close, breathing in her essence.  Shar Maelaine smelled of gasses and fire – like the sun. 

“Destruction,” he breathed.  “It has been my talent since the very beginning.  Mostly, it allowed me to bash my enemies in the head with a club.  I called it a mace, then a hammer, but I knew what it was.  I’m a simple man.  I see an adversary standing before me, and I hit it really hard.  No muss, no fuss.  If something is in my way, I destroy it.  And you, Shar Maelaine, are both.  An enemy and an obstacle.  What do you think I should do with you?”

“I…”

He didn’t wait for an answer.  Instead, he flexed his will, and her threads fell apart.  With that came the destruction of the palace, which simply ceased to exist.  However, Zeke wasn’t focused on the Sun Goddess’ body.  Instead, he only cared for her soul, represented by a glowing thread that darted out of his grip. 

In a moment, it was gone, slipped away in the chaos of the palace’s destruction.  A moment later, Zeke felt his body being roasted alive by flames even more intense than those on the surface of the nearby sun.

He turned, his body charring, flaking away, and then regrowing with every passing instant.  That’s when he laid eyes on the dragon. 

He could already feel Shar Maelaine escaping, but he felt he still had plenty of time to deal with an overgrown lizard.