Chapter 413: The Rise Of Humanity
"Wow... Just wow... I thought these things only existed in games and shit... I didn’t know they were real," Laz thought to himself after seeing this massive flying gun ship for the first time. Sure, he had played first person shooters where a perk might be to pilot a flying gun ship, but when he was faced with one as it’s target, Laz couldn’t help but feel a cold chill run across his body.
Laz had been targeted by military choppers and troops before, but this was definitely a new one in his book.
Laz had to fight the will to run since he knew it would be useless. Just as he was standing there and trying to come up with something, Ichpochtli came up behind him, having shed her massive form for a human sized one after getting her shots in on Tezcatlipoca. While she would have loved to have tortured him more, right now, the feeling of fear she had gotten from the thing in the air couldn’t be ignored.
"Young Laz... What is that? That metal beast with strange wings and black things hanging off of it?" Ichpochtli asked, clearly confused.
"That’s a problem. It’s basically a flying weapon and it’s aimed right at us," Laz told her, not holding anything back.
"A flying weapon hmm? Well, well. I never thought I would see the day where mortals could fly in the sky along with birds and gods..." Ichpochtli said, clearly impressed.
"Wait wait wait... gods can fly?" Laz asked, clearly having picked up on the most important thing.
"Of course. Why else would they call us gods? The energy inside of us is sufficient to break loose the bonds that hold us to this planet. Perhaps gods isn’t really a good term for it since our strength isn’t even close to that of our ancestors, but as long as one reaches our level, being able to navigate the skies isn’t a worry for us," Ichpochtli said with pride.
Laz was digesting this information, but found it hard to believe. Could humans reach this point one day? Man has always dreamed of flying like birds in the sky and have achieved that to many different degrees. But to fly with nothing but the clothes on your back and the wind on your face... how crazy would that be?
Although these thoughts entered Laz’s head, the more pressing problem soon outweighed his fanciful dreams.
"Enough of that. Ok. So you can fly up and destroy that thing?" Laz asked, addressing the problem at hand.
"I could. Normally. But having been drained of my energy and being underground asleep for so long has left me rather weak. In this current state, I don’t believe I would be able to get high enough to catch that particular contraption. But if it comes closer, I can definitely knock it out of the sky," Ichpochtli declared proudly until she noticed the look on Laz’s face.
"Alright. Well. We won’t have time for that and it won’t be getting closer. The weapons of humans these days are far more powerful than you have ever seen. One human could press a button and send a weapon halfway around the world that is strong enough to erase an entire nation from existence. While I doubt anything that strong would be used against us, it still means that we would have no chance of winning if it came down to a fight," Laz explained as best he could.
"I admit that seeing such a weapon in the air isn’t something I ever thought mortals could do, I find it somewhat hard to believe your words as well. Humans barely knew how to harvest the power of fire the last time I walked this earth. Yet now you’re telling me that such weapons exist? In only five hundred years?" While she didn’t say it, Ichpochtli found Laz’s statement hard to believe. She had seen the development of humans for over four hundred years prior to her being made a guard for a prison of one. And in that four hundred years, not much had happened in the changing of warfare. How could she know just what humans had made in that time frame since then.
"You have a strong spiritual sense, right?" Laz asked, no longer trying for the direct approach.
"Yes. It was always by strongest ability as a god."
"Then come... and take a look at just how good humans have become at killing each other," Laz said, inviting Ichpochtli to take a look at his mind. This wasn’t something someone would normally let a stranger do, but Laz felt he could trust this beautiful female god.
Ichpochtli, enticed, walked over to Laz, while she had become human sized, she still stood over six feet tall, dwarfing the now six foot tall Laz. Putting her hands up to the sides of his head, Ichpochtli closed her eyes and waited to see what Laz had to show her. While it was possible for one to forcefully look at the mind of someone else, the entire process was much smoother when one person wanted to show another person something.
Laz quickly thought of the things he had seen in his life, books he had read with pictures in high school. Videos and documentaries on things he had seen on tv. Even the experiences he had when facing armed troops were shown to this goddess who had just woken up and was unaware of the world.
After the scenes were played for her, Ichpochtli took a step back in horror. Laz had even shown her the videos he had seen of landing on the moon, sending satellites to the far end of the galaxy and beyond, bio warfare, the atomic bomb drops on Japan to end world war 2 and anything else he could think of to explain just what humans were capable of.
"I never... It can’t be... humans... they...."
"This is what the world is like now. Gods have been replaced, their holy halls torn down as men has risen up to replace them. Even someone such as yourself could be a victim of a mortal with the weapons we now possess. I don’t think any of the slumbering gods truly understand this. But one day, when they awaken... they will be made aware," Laz advised. With the worlds energy returning, all of the sleeping gods in hibernation would awaken and attempt to become the rulers of the world again. And except for the strongest of these gods, the only thing that awaited them upon their return was a fiery and explosive end.
How were they to know that? Ichpochtli wouldn’t have believe it except she had seen it for herself. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have thought normal humans would be able to kill her.
"What... do I do?" Ichpochtli asked, speaking as though she was a frightened child who had just seen the world for the very first time.
"Go and hide. Find a place you can escape detection and wait for now. My master, one of them, said that she has a need for you. Knowing that you are free, she will come to find you," Laz suggested, now knowing that the one her master wanted to recruit was Ichpochtli.
"Your master?" Ichpochtli asked, wondering just who the master of such a powerful young person could be.
Since Ichpochtli had initiated the link, Laz just had to once again think of A’ruya for her figure to appear in Ichpochtli’s head.
"BY MY ANCESTORS..." Ichpochtli said, breaking the link of her own accord.
"What?" Laz didn’t expect this reaction.
"They have returned..." Ichpochtli was stunned and obviously knew something about A’ruya, or at least her people.
"They have returned? What do you mean?" Laz asked, wondering if he could get information on these people for the first time in his life.
Just as Ichpochtli was about to say something, a loud explosion sounded just off to their left, causing the air around them to whip into a frenzy and blow outward.
Laz was almost thrown off his feet while Ichpochtli seemed to be alright, just slightly surprised.
"Shit. They are firing," Laz said, looking upward.
"We need to leave. Your women are hiding in the woods just a few leagues from here," Ichpochtli said, quickly collecting herself.
"They are still here? They were suppose to leave!" Laz said, surprised.
"I was told they were surrounded and had no choice but to retreat into the woods. I found them there and gained their help in freeing me. If not for them, I would still be trying to get free from the ground," Ichpochtli informed Laz.
"SHIT SHIT SHIT..." Laz swore. If they were still around, there was no way to get everyone out safely when they would be fired on from above.
"I can get them away and hide them. Truthfully, those girls interest me greatly. I think between their history and my arts and knowledge, I can guide them to a strength they never dreamed of."
"You want them to become your followers?" Laz blurted out, knowing that gods usually had followers.
"No no. Nothing like that. I wish for them to become my apprentices. I shall teach the ancient magics I know to those who can learn them and at the same time, help them to relearn their own ancient magics. This is also an excellent chance for me to learn magics from other parts of this world. If this was five hundred years ago, something like that would have resulted in the death of those who learned those magics. They were always considered a closely guarded secret and if someone not from their pantheon learned them, then that pantheon would go through fire and flesh to destroy the sinner. Now though, those pantheons no longer exist so who’s to stop us from learning them?" Ichpochtli laughed, clearly very excited about this situation.
Laz got the impression he was staring at a junkie who had just discovered a massive amount of the drug of their choice and couldn’t wait to dive in. Perhaps this was Ichpochtli’s true self, one that she had never shown before.
But as long as she could keep them all safe, Laz could rest easy.
"Then go. Go now before they focus on us both. Get them to safety and... please tell Nora and Celes...."
"That you love them?"
Laz was startled as this wasn’t what he was going to say. But trying to say anything else right now would make him seem kind of sleezy.
"I uh..." Laz stammered, not able to think of what he really wanted to say.
"HA he he he he. I’m only kidding. Don’t worry, I shall tell them that you are thinking of them. Now go as well. And when we meet again, these girls shall be the warriors you meant for them to be," Ichpochtli promised as she started walking away.
Laz was about to say something else to her when a huge explosion took place between them, blasting them apart.
What might have been a few moments to a few hours passed before Laz was finally able to open his eyes again.
