Part 32 (2/2)

A mix of hissing and human scream sounded Quetzalcoatl's attack. Taking advantage of Kydoimos' pause while his hammer imbedded itself in the wall, the self-appointed G.o.d slashed at the Einherjar's midsection-a small trickling of blood spattered on the mangled wall.

Crack.

Kydoimos took the slash but rolled aside so his hammer came loose from the wall, right into Quetzalcoatl's head. A fountain of red trailed after the G.o.d as he flew backward from the blow. The wall he struck didn't stop him and he plowed into the room beyond.

Hailstones the size of golfb.a.l.l.s filled the hall where Kydoimos stood. Fuyuko braced herself against the wall to keep upright.

The crazed embodiment of war stood against the storm, laughing with outstretched arms as the hail pelted his body.

Dammit, that slide took too much out of her, Jason thought. She'll be out of juice soon.

Risking a glance to where Quetzalcoatl landed, he saw the man's chest rising and falling, but his face was a red pulp.

”I had really been hoping for more of a challenge,” Kydoimos said. ”You three are greatly disappointing me.”

While the hail seemed to do little to the man himself, it started to fray and tear his clothes.

His arm...he's not a Script?

Jason couldn't make out the number of runes dancing across Kydoimos' arm, but it clearly didn't cover the entirety. A deep breath failed to calm his trembling limbs.

I must. We're all dead if I don't.

”Fuyuko, don't stop. Just hold on a little longer.”

Pouring as much power as the Veil would provide into his legs, he ran, plowing into Kydoimos, grabbing the man around the mid-section.

”Come to embrace your death?” Kydoimos asked.

Jason ignored him, ignored Fuyuko yelling for him to get clear. Any second now, Kydoimos would try to snap his neck, or bring that d.a.m.ned war hammer down on his back. But a second was all he needed-just an extra fraction of a second to finesse a second-nature action.

”Huh?”

It was all Jason needed to know he'd succeeded. He threw himself away from Kydoimos and kept walking backward.

”What the h.e.l.l did you do?” Kydoimos roared.

A loud snap silenced the mad man. His feet drew up an inch from the floor toward his bellyb.u.t.ton. At the same time, his upper body compressed downward-snapping his spine. Limbs went limp and his eyes blanked.

”What did you do?” Fuyuko asked.

Jason couldn't answer. Because what he'd done hadn't finished yet.

With cracks, snaps, and pops that caused aches in his own body, Jason watched Kydoimos crush up and down into himself. When he couldn't stand it anymore, he tore a hole in the Veil and shoved what was left into it.

The sounds of Kydoimos' body had covered Fuyuko's gagging.

Yeah, I did that the first time, too.

”What the f.u.c.k was that?” she said through her dry heaves.

Jason didn't look at her-his eyes remained glued to where Kydoimos had stood.

”I did what Anunnaki do. I tore a hole in the Veil.”

”That was not what Anunnaki do.”

”Yes, it is,” Jason said. ”We tear holes in the Veil so we can vanquish our enemies. I tore a hole in the Veil. I just did it inside of him. He was a Fragment-he couldn't close the tear a Script, I, created.”

From the nearby room, Quetzalcoatl moaned.

”We should tend to your boss,” Jason said. ”I still need him.”

24.

Resonance

”The Norns said Odin learned the meaning of the runes after hanging on the tree,” Gwynn said.

”Mhmm. But there is a difference in how you interpret 'learned the meaning.'”

Gwynn stared at the line of runes circling Sophia's hand and continuing up the stump of his right arm.

”Pridament said they were the instructions of creation,” Gwynn said.

He imagined flexing his right hand and forming it into a fist, so he could see the runes dance and skip across his flesh. As if reading his mind, Sophia's hand mimicked his imagined motions. Outside the Veil, the runes looked like scars carved into his skin. He could discern their movements and s.h.i.+fts, especially when he was accessing the Veil. But here, they glowed like someone had painted them on their flesh with glowing paint. Even their shapes, which seemed so angular and sharp, seemed to flow like calligraphy.

Sophia giggled.

”A little romanticized, but he's not far off. Consider the different ways Anunnaki manifest their powers. You know some who heal, s.h.i.+ft rocks, or move at incredible speeds. They're able to do those things because they resonate with those aspects of the world. Basic elementary school science teaches us all things in the physical universe are composed of the same basic building block. The earth you walk on, blood and healing properties within the body, even the air you breath, are all composed of the same things as your own body and mind.”

She opened her right hand and the runes s.h.i.+fted into different patterns. For a moment, Gwynn thought he saw something familiar in their shapes.

”These runes,” Sophia said, ”aren't a written language. Yes, Odin delivered those types of runes to the Nordic people, but his understanding of Anunnaki runes was different. He couldn't read them, per se, but he understood they weren't just things carved into his flesh. They were outward manifestations of a process occurring within his own body. These instructions told the world around him what he held a mastery over-as if G.o.d stamped him with an official seal. The Veil supplies the power, but the runes, the composition of your own mind and body, control the effects.”

The darkness surrounding them began to soften with a hazy green glow coming from the walls. As he looked closer, Gwynn saw this wasn't just a light, but the glow of millions of runes, coursing along the interior of Yggdrasil.

”There's so many,” he marvelled.

”This,” she nodded over his shoulder toward the runes, ”is the script of creation. All the instructions for the workings of the universe and every song shaping the behavior of each living thing. This is the closest thing I know of to G.o.d. It doesn't hate or love, there is no judgement, there's only creation and beauty.”

<script>