Chapter 383: Sleeping Monster
There was something bothering Laz, something that had been on his mind since the fight earlier that he had shoved back until everything was over with, focusing on just making sure no big accidents happened. And this wasn’t the first time he had felt this way while being on top of this weird field. While he wasn’t sure why he was feeling this way, he was sure that his senses were warning him of something dangerous close by.
’But what the hell am I missing?’ Was the thought going through Laz’s head. It was right there, tickling his brain, he just couldn’t place it. Hence he decided to take a walk while thinking over the things he knew in his mind.
The first time he felt it was during the small earthquake that happened the other day, the one in which happened after he had discovered the pregnancy. Strangely though, he felt that to be a coincidence and nothing more. Then there was the killing of prisoners that seemed to make the feeling stronger. It was also there after the first grand fight he started and then again today after the second one.
"So what is it?" Laz asked to no one in particular as he stood looking out over the demolished field. The damage done to the ground thanks to everyone using their abilities was far more destructive than the first group when he didn’t allow them to. On the same note, while he was still unhappy with himself for allowing the all out fight to occur, he was glad that the women still recognized each other as allies and things didn’t go too far. This meant he could do more things using abilities in the future since it seemed like their bloodlines, while not being similar, recognized each other enough to not want them to kill one another.
Laz thought this might have been true, but he didn’t want to test it.
"What is what?" Came the question from behind him as a pair of silent steps closed in on him, bringing Nora to his side. Laz didn’t respond nor look at her, instead scanning the area with his Heaven’s Gaze ability but still finding nothing.
"What do you see?" Nora asked, also looking. Perhaps if the seals were completely undone, she might be a better help to Laz, but even then, she suspected her abilities were far more physical leaning than supportive in nature. And an eye ability could only be classified as supportive.
"Nothing..."
"So then...?"
"Well, it’s nothing, but also not nothing... There is nothing but what would normally be within a large open field, but there is also like... an emptiness as well? As far as I can tell, it’s nothing. But for some reason, it doesn’t feel like nothing," Laz said, trying to explain himself.
"So... is there a problem with nothing?" Nora asked, a little confused. While her interests were considered vast, the peacefulness of nature wasn’t really one of them, especially when it just came down to being nothing.
"There shouldn’t be...nothing. Even in a desert, there is something. Bugs and creatures that are buried in the sand, waiting out the heat of the day or for prey to walk by. Even in the giant outpost I visited on a foreign planet, one made of metal and machines and long since abandoned, there were machines and energy everywhere, yet to the naked eye, it was like a dead cold land of nothing. But now, comparing that metal city to this lively grassland, I would say there was more life in the metal city than there is underneath this field. That’s what I feel is strange about all this." Laz finished his explanation while still looking out, but he had stopped using Heaven’s Gaze.
"There seems to be more and more strange things these days. Demon beasts, planets that come alive and kill you, even hunting infected is now allowed, even though we are still human. Everything that we know or once knew, it’s all kinds of fucked up. I mean, look at me. I look like some kind of hardcore ink bitch, but who would believe that all of these just appeared on my skin one day when I broke through awakening and entered my foundation realm? And even then, maybe I am the lucky one. Have you seen what some of the girls turn into when they assume their battle states? Some of them look like nightmare horrors from a bad b-rated 80’s sci-fi flick. Do you understand what looking like that does to a girl’s self-esteem? It’s like being trapped in a body you don’t recognize but can’t deny that it’s yours. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if they ever ended up getting stuck in those forms. Hell, I’m sure more than a few of them would commit suicide on the spot. Luckily that’s not a problem..." Once Nora started with her complaints, she kept on rambling. It wasn’t her intention, but she had never really been open with her feelings on these kinds of things before so now that she could talk to someone she trusted, she didn’t know when to stop.
Laz just listened on, half paying attention while also thinking about the scene before him.
"Hey. I’m talking..." Nora grabbed Laz’s head and turned it towards herself after she asked him a question and he didn’t respond.
"What? Now that you’ve gotten a taste of this, you’re done with me?" Nora put on a fake, pouting face as she asked the question but seeing Laz’s surprised face, made her bust out laughing.
"I’m kidding. I’m kidding, obviously. But since you seem to be obsessing over this, I felt you needed a distraction," Nora laughed.
"Yeah. Sorry. I just... don’t like surprises like this. I just don’t know what’s gotten me so uptight," Laz admitted.
"Here... lay your head here for a minute and let me tell you a story," Nora said, sitting down on her butt and shifting her legs forward, giving Laz a nice lap pillow on which to rest.
Laz was going to resist at first, but Nora just grabbed the collar of his shirt and forced him on to her lap. Then, like a mother comforting a sick child, she started rubbing his head.
While Laz was stunned by her actions, Nora started speaking.
"Have you ever heard of the ancient Aztec god, Quetzalcoatl? According to legend, Quetzalcoatl was the Aztec god of light, justice, mercy and wind. There is also a ton of other stuff about him like the current world that we live on is one that he made after invading the underworld and building it on top of the bones of the previous worlds and races. It’s all actually quite enchanting. Most people know the stories of ancient gods of Egypt and Greece and Rome, or even the Nordic gods like Odin and Loki. But not many people know the old tales of the gods that once ruled the America’s. Anyway, back to the story I wanted to bring up. So while lore and myth depicts Quetzalcoatl as a giant, feathered serpent, there is also myth that suggests he had a human form as well. So, as the story goes, it is said Quetzalcoatl was coerced by Tezcatlipoca, his brother into becoming drunk on pulque, cavorting with his older sister, Quetzalpetlatl, a celibate priestess, and neglecting their religious duties. Basically, they went and had drunken sex. The next morning, Quetzalcoatl, feeling shame and regret, had his servants build him a stone chest, adorn him in turquoise, and then, laying in the chest, set himself on fire. His ashes rose into the sky and then his heart followed, becoming the morning star. Seems a little far fetched, but hey, that’s myths for you."
"So... the dude got drunk thanks to his older brother and ended up having consensual sex with his sister and then killed himself by lighting himself on fire?" Laz said, wondering why she decided to bring this story up?
"HOLY FUCK YOU’RE NOT ABOUT TO TELL ME YOU’RE MY SISTER RIGHT?" Laz jumped up and screamed, after adding one to one and getting five thousand.
"NO. NOW LAY DOWN AND SHUT UP," Nora smacked Laz in the back of the head and he obediently laid back on her lap as Nora shook her head.
"Now then, where was I?" Nora asked out loud to herself.
"Guy fucks his sister and kills himself with fire," Laz offered.
"Right. Well, glad you got that part anyway. So then, moving on. It’s important to know that his brother, Tezcatlipoca, was known as the god of judgment, night, deceit, sorcery. Considering the brothers were two polar opposites, the fact that Tezcatlipoca went through so much trouble to trick his brother into sleeping with his sister meant that he wanted him out of the way. Knowing that he could never beat his brother in a battle, this was the only way he could come up with to kill him. Sure, it was a risk that maybe Quetzalcoatl wouldn’t kill himself, but knowing his brother like he did, it was far more likely that he would. And in the end, he did. And that’s where the story ends for the feathered serpent god. Right? Wrong."
"Wrong. So... No. He didn’t die or...?" For some reason, maybe having to due with the whole sex, deceit and incest thing, Laz was actually paying attention. The same way you can be distracted by watching something bad happen to someone else.
"Well, there is one other, way less official ending to the story, but one that makes more sense in the broader context."
"You mean like how events in the past get sugar coated by the winners?"
"Exactly. So instead of Quetzalcoatl becoming a human torch after he laid himself in the stone chest, it’s more likely that his brother interfered once again and set him on fire himself before closing the stone chest. So him burning up inside the chest and becoming the morning star? Bullshit. What happens when a fire doesn’t have enough air?"
"It goes out?" Laz answered.
"Right. So since his brother wanted him out of the way, he probably locked him in that chest, killed all his servants and spread the word himself about his wonderful brother and his miraculous death. This way, people would be far less willing to question what really went on. After all, who would want to disturb the final resting place of a man who became a star, right?"
"Makes sense."
"So than, the interesting part is what happened afterword’s."
"What’s that?"
"No one knows..." Nora said with a thousand yard stare.
"Now you’re just fucking with me again, huh?" Laz laughed, seeing her antics.
"Of course I am. But in truth, no one really knows. The whole thing could be fake as hell. But then again, maybe it isn’t. You’ve got to remember something. The Aztec empire wasn’t some 2,000 year old empire. Hell, they were on this continent when the Spanish first started showing up like four hundred years ago. So there hasn’t really been that much time between then and now. Now all these things occurred way south of here in the middle of Mexico is where their empire was, but Tezcatlipoca was the god of the north so if he was going to bury his brother, he would do so in area far removed from his own and in the north."
"So wait... you’re saying like... here?" Laz asked, somewhat alarmed. Maybe he would believe the story to be bullshit if he hadn’t already met gods before.. but he had. And he wasn’t in a hurry to meet them again.
"Well. maybe not here here. I was thinking like Texas. But still, a buried god huh? Maybe that’s not so far out of the realm now that all this crazy shit is happening, right?" Nora said, completely unaware of that fact that she was more right than she could imagine.
"He.. he he he... no. I can’t be that unlucky, could I?" Laz asked himself out loud.
"What do you mean, unlucky? It’s just a story since you’re worried about something buried in the ground. It’s not real..." Nora started to argue before seeing the look on Laz’s face.
"Well... actually..." Laz started and then explained about the goddess trapped in the crystal coffin and the bronze solder god he had fought in New Orleans.
"Wait wait wait wait wait... so you’ve met and fought with actual gods? Like... really for real gods?"
"Yeah. Well... the lowest of the low. I don’t know about the sleeping one though, but the bronze one wouldn’t even be considered low level, more like infant level."
"But... according to you, the gods and the giant creatures fought this way like tens of thousands of years ago and they are all sleeping now.. So how could..."
"I don’t know. There is too much of the past i don’t understand. But I can tell you that gods do exist. And if one is sleeping below us and decides to wake up, especially if it’s a higher level god.. Well... I’d say we are screwed, but that would be a gross misrepresentation of just how fucked we are..." Laz admitted.
"But don’t worry too much. Based on your story, there is very little chance of it being Quetzalcoatl considering how north we are from central Mexico," Laz tried to comfort Nora who had just had her world rocked.
Like he thought though, it’s hard to convince someone else of something when you yourself has started to wonder if it’s possible.
