No True Hero: Chapter 2 – Cut at the Light

“The men and women that have become like gods are the pillars that hold up our world. This pantheon of twelve gods each holds a power unique to them and a church that gives them gifts and praise. Those who refuse to submit to a god and who don't confess that there are multiple gods are exiled to the Void at the bottom of the world where the light of the gods does not touch nor the light of happiness and prosperity.”

-          According to the New Testament of the god-saints

Chapter 2 – Cut at the Light

God guides Valerius to go to an area outside of the Crown of the World. There he finds a hole in a slightly raised part of the ground that leads him through a cramped tunnel and into the undercity of the Crown though this is not the undercity that he knows of. This undercity is a place where the unwanted of the capital are kept. The doors appear to be automated with large eyes watching almost every corner of the prison with puppet guards watching and beating whoever they please even if they break the rules.

“What is this? How did I not know about this prison down here?” Valerius asks himself.

“This isn’t the work of Lucian but the pantheon that he created,” the voice of God says in Valerius’ head.

“How am I going to bring it down?”

“You will have to cut down the god that is the pillar that powers this whole operation though it is not the kind that you think. Ready yourself for the man turned monster.”

Once he finds his way into the central control room, Valerius sees a man with twelve heads and limbs. Each of the heads controls a different part of the prison such as the eyes, the guards, the doors, etc. The twelve heads all have the same disfigured yet somewhat recognizable face. One of these faces looks at Valerius and says his name.

“Jude? Is that you?” Valerius asks.

“Valerius…you shouldn’t be down here.”

“Neither should you! Why are you down here? I saw them burn your body after you died.”

“That was an illusion created by one that has that power. What was their name again? It doesn’t matter. You should leave here. I have important work to do in punishing the guilty.”

“What crime did these people commit that makes it severe enough to make their punishment a secret?”

“They were going against the truths that the pantheon is preaching. I may not agree with doing this, but with the powers that I have and the peace that the world is in, I must continue this work of mine.”

“What should I do to save him?” Valerius prays in his head.

The voice in Valerius’ head is clear and muffled at the same time because of what he hears as he is told, “Cut all his heads off. There’s nothing you can do to convince him to stop.”

Despite Valerius' job of being a killer and guard, he finds it hard to even raise his blades at his old friend. Doubts come into his mind because of the muffled nature of the voice he has heard. He does as the voice says and starts cutting off Jude’s heads that spew an oil-like blood once they are cut off. Jude uses his guards and arms to try to defend himself, however, he is unable to coordinate himself effectively because of the pain and the mental energy needed to continue working. It becomes apparent that no real defensive measures were put in place to defend Jude since no one expected anyone to reach him. With only one head remaining, Valerius hesitates to finish off Jude as flashes of the boy he once was nearly blind him in doing what he needs to.

“You’ve changed, Valerius,” Jude says which makes Valerius hesitate even more, “But I haven’t.”

Jude activates a self-destruct function in the prison that makes it begin to fall apart with part of the ceiling falling on Jude’s head to finish him off. The entire prison begins filling with water and debris as Valerius escapes. He tries to help as many prisoners escape as possible, but he manages to save only a few as hundreds are either crushed or drown in the relentless waters. Despite losing many people, those who did manage to survive thank God then thank Valerius for saving them.

“You shouldn’t be thanking me,” Valerius says to them, “I didn’t do all of what God told me to do.”

“That’s how we all are,” one of the prisoners responds.

“But it’s my fault that only a few of you got out. If I had killed Jude before he made the prison fall apart, then you all would’ve survived.”

“Don’t worry about it. Do you want to join us while we go to the Void? It’s safer to be there than here for people like us regardless of what people say about it.”

“No. I will wait for what God wants me to do next though I’m not sure He’ll speak to me again because of my failure. He wants me to be like St. Matteo, but I’m not sure if I’ll live up to that.”

“Okay. We’ll be in the Void praying for you.”

“Thank you.”

Valerius rides off with his horse and goes to a hill that overlooks the Crown. This house is a place that he, Lucian, and his fellow guards met up at to conspire against the leadership of the time and to stock up on weapons and supplies. He takes what he needs and looks out at the Crown. As he watches the sunset and be replaced with the moon’s light, he feels a subtle shake in the ground that turns into an earthquake as the ground falls out from underneath the ground as it swallows the capital killing over three hundred thousand people. Seeing this causes Valerius so much grief that he prays and begs for forgiveness from God until he exhausts himself with busy work in planning how to atone for his sins until he falls asleep.

Meanwhile, the pantheon of gods and Lucian wonder how this could’ve happened while saving as many as they can. This takes little time along with the time it takes to repair the damage done to the capital because of the gods’ abilities, but the lives that were lost cannot be brought back. As this is going on, Lucian goes to the god who can see visions of places of all places except for the Void and asks him about Valerius.

“Right now, he’s at the house not too far from here that we used as a safehouse back in the day. Strangely, he was exiting a mysterious cave that I didn’t know was outside of the capital with a few people that appear to have been prisoners.,” the god of vision says.

“I wonder why he hasn’t returned. Have you seen the artifact on him?”

“No. Another oddity is that I saw him go into a cave that I could not see into and he came out appearing as if he were a new man.”

“Something must’ve happened to him then. The rest of the pantheon know that he was searching for the artifact and are wondering what happened to him and if he has anything to do with the earth swallowing earthquake.”

“Use that charisma of yours to give them a temporary explanation from what we know before we ask him. Send out a small squad of people to meet him.”

“I will, and I’ll send his friend, Killian, along with them if he needs to be convinced to come back.”

“That’s good because we need him to come back now more than ever. We lost too many of our friends who’ve tasted the fruit in the tragedy.”

“We’ve built up the world the way it is today off the actions of a single saint. This is only a temporary moment of sadness that will be forgotten once Vere manipulates the truth enough to get them to forget and gives some explanation for the loss of hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe we’ll say that they were raptured into Heaven, which is half true.”

“Be careful that he doesn’t one day use the truth against us. I feel that he already has and we don’t know it.”

“I feel the same way too, friend.”

While asleep Valerius dreams of the day that he betrayed his father and sided with his uncle. It was a day that he was a typical guard and there were no gods in the day. He was transferred to prison duty along with his father since they needed them to temporarily replace two guards who were recently killed. This is the same prison that his uncle was in so Valerius would visit his uncle during his break to bring him special meals and talk about what was going on.

“How do you like working as a prison guard so far? I bet it’s a better position than what I have here,” Valerius’ uncle says.

“Things are awful around here, uncle. The pay may be well, but the guards do nothing to keep order and conspire with the prisoners though I don’t know what they conspire about.”

“Oh, but I do. The reason that those guards were killed was because they were righteous men like me who were wrongly put in prison. Their sentence was short so the guards were paid off by their masters to pay the prisoners to get rid of them in a secluded area and make it look like an accident or at least an unsolvable crime scene.”

“Is that true?”

“Would I ever lie to you?”

“No, I’m just shocked to hear it.”

“Those who know the law while going against it truly commit the worst of sins, however, this is a way to bring justice to these criminals. I have my own connections that will bring these guards to the same secluded place that they killed those righteous men at and you’ll have the chance to bring some poetic justice upon them.”

“I don’t know uncle if I can do this. What will father think about it if he finds out?”

“So what if he does? You’ll be doing the right thing and doing the right thing is better than following man-made laws that don’t allow true justice to take place, am I right?”

“You’re right, uncle.”

“Good because the wheels of fate are turning and my plan is already in motion. Expect justice to be satisfied tomorrow.”

During the next day, Valerius’ uncle tells him that it’s time and brings him to the secluded area that he was talking about to kill the five corrupt guards that were involved in the killings of the innocent inmates. These five corrupt guards were tied up by the group of inmates that Valerius’ uncle knows and have already suffered a beating.

“Go on and bring justice upon these scum,” Valerius’ uncle says.

Valerius hesitates to take out his sword and raise it above the corrupt guard’s head. This whole scene is stopped by his father.

“Stop it, Valerius! Stop this all of you!” his father demands, “These guards may not have the best character, but they will be judged one day for their actions.”

“But how many people will they hurt until then? Brother, your heart is too soft for this job,” Valerius’ uncle counters, “Do it, Valerius. Show your father what a true guard should do.”

“Don’t do it.”

Valerius hesitates and is unsure at all of what to do then says, “I’m sorry, dad.”

His uncle then knocks out his dad from behind to stop him from stopping Valerius. The inmates and his uncle congratulate Valerius for his actions and bravery before disposing of the bodies. When his father wakes up, he is talked down to and feels somewhat disappointed in himself. He feels like he has no idea what he wants to do for the rest of his life especially when his uncle keeps telling him that he should act outside of the law to bring true justice to the world, which was the same suggestion that Lucian gave to him during that time. In this dream, he sees the shadow of his father and uncle both of which have darkness and light in it with light being more prominent in his father than his uncle.

In the morning of the next day, Valerius wakes up feeling groggy and unsure of what to do for the second time in his life and prays about it.

“Come, Valerius. There is much work to do,” the voice of God says.

“Huh? You still want me to do Your will even though I disobeyed You?”

“Your temporary failings do not halt or change my plans for the world. You accomplished the primary role of making the Crown collapse and result in the deaths of many false gods, but we lack the numbers that we need. Instead, we’ll have to make do and convert two people in the Crown that will help us.”

“Who are those two people?”

“Your uncle and your father.”

“Those two can hardly be around each other much less work together. What will I tell them to get them to cooperate?”

“I will inspire you with the right words, but for the time being, we must convince them to join us. Ride into the Crown and find your uncle first. We will need him so your father can be freed.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

Valerius takes his weapons and rides his horse to the Crown with a renewed sense of hope since God is still giving him instructions though he is hesitant because of what he has to do next.