CHAPTER 11: END OF THE LONG DREAM

***The city of Hemelin, in the temple district…***

At the same time, while the surviving criminals went over to Kuro’s side, Ashren and his warriors noticed something stir from the direction of their allies’ camp. Thinking it was the Black God’s forces, they couldn’t hide their relief and excitement to learn that their salvation was near…and bloodless. At once, the former mercenary sent a pair of scouts to guide the reinforcements to their positions.

However, a few moments later, they returned, running back to the defense lines. Color disappeared from the scouts’ faces, and they were telling the others, “Sir, please close the barricades! Close the barricades!”

“Huh? What happened?” the dwarves who helped them asked, amused at the display of fear. “Don’t tell us you got shot at? Maybe you humans looked so ugly the others thought you are the enemy!”

“Please close the gate!” one of the scouts bellowed.

Stunned at the behavior of the humans, the dwarves obliged. Soon, they got to learn why…

“!!!” At one of the towers that overlooked the immediate surroundings of the Grand Temple, the observers manning it saw a dark mass moving towards their positions. Through their spyglasses, they initially thought it was black water, rushing through their defense lines. But, upon closer inspection…

“What the hell are those things?”

“They look like humans, only without faces!”

At once, the observers rang the bells, which alerted everyone on the temple grounds. The civilians rushed to the underground shelters, dropping whatever they were doing at that moment. Opposite them were the warriors, running to the surface with their weapons, ready to defend the breastworks and palisades.

On one of the towers was Ashren, as the view from the roof of the temple offered an advantage to his forces. With him were his lieutenants from both the dwarves of Albrecht, and his human underlings. Operating the artillery were the members of the Army of Stone, and they were put on the temple roof as well so as there was no obstruction when they begin raining their lethal ammunition.

The defenders on the ground wielded a mix of melee and ranged weaponry, though it was divided along the affiliation. The humans were armed with bolt-heaters from Chersea and the demon republic. Albrecht’s dwarves were a mix of makeshift melee weapons like clubs, swords, and pistols, while the warriors from the Army of Stone had their square shields, and war hammers and battle axes. As such, the Army of Stone took positions at the front the breastworks, shielding the humans hiding in the fortifications, aiming their guns between the dwarves’ feet and towards the incoming enemy.

“Okay boys, you know the drill! Fire!”

Upon one volley, an entire line of shadow children disappeared, though it was still followed by another.

“Reload bullets! Fire!”

Third wave came up next, as the second was also annihilated. However, the black mass of shadow children ran to their positions, even as the firing began, so the distance between the defenders was quickly lost and the dwarves from the Army of Stone faced off against the creatures of the Void in a melee. While it was a nerve-wracking charge for the humans, the dwarves—after awakening-from their long sleep—welcomed testing their mettle against the shadow children.

“Fix bayonets!” came the order from the human commanders, to which, the former mercenaries complied immediately. Being stuck in the trench wasn’t part of their training; they felt vulnerable while watching the thin line of dwarves defending them.

However, the dwarf warriors were having a field day destroying wave after wave of the shadow children. While it was certainly intimidating to watch that huge black mass approach them from afar, fighting it was a different matter. The shadow children just kept on running towards the defenders, as if trying to get themselves killed. Nothing, not even when some of the warriors took a break and they lowered their guards, that the black creatures would cause harm to any of them. The members of the Army of Stone hacked easily through the shadow children, and they were getting bored.

“Where are these bastards coming from?” asked one dwarf, not hiding his boredom. “I don’t know what these creatures are, but the enemy should’ve sent us a more challenging foe.”

“Just be thankful it isn’t like as what our commanders initially thought!”

“These are not even dwarves! Or humans!”

“Do we even need to know what it is? Less talking, more hacking!”

While the dwarves held on their own, the humans watching them looked in horror as the battle’s momentum slowly shifted. From their positions, they stood in complete silence, as big black masses of miasma rose above the buildings from the distance.

“Oi…you’re freaking kidding me, right?” Ashren went pale. “What the hell are those things?”

“Sir, d-do we start the artillery?” a captain of a battery asked, noting the anxieties of his forces; they were also shocked by the appearance of the giant black miasma. Nevertheless, even before Ashren replied to him, the large creatures suddenly went on a rampage with screeching howls.

“Shoot the fuck out of those shits! Reduce them to bits!” Ashren screamed as debris from the destroyed buildings flew to their positions, crushing both friend and foe. At once, the cannons announced their entrance to the battle with a volley that tore through the rampaging black miasma. It was a direct hit to the bodies, almost punching through the giants and cleaving those in half, as the dwarves had experiences in operating gunpowder artillery.

However…

“What the fucking fuck?” the former mercenary blurted out. “Really?! Those monsters are regenerating from their injuries?”

The soldiers and warriors on the ground had also noticed the giant shadows approaching them. While they initially thought those monsters were also harmless like their smaller equivalents, it was only when a few of their comrades and allies were reduced to bloody lumps of meat that they realized they were not dealing with something that was easy to defeat. The change on the defenders’ morale was immediate; exhausted and stressed, the battle line quickly collapsed, as the dwarves and humans fled in terror as to what they thought were giants.

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**Kuro**

Just as we finished interrogating the criminals who surrendered to us, we heard of battle sounds coming from the direction of the temple district.

“Good lord,” one of the criminals blurted out. “So it has begun!”

“What do you mean by it?”

“That monster!” he was screaming his lungs out. “She’s just pretending to be a dwarf! That lady is a bloodthirsty monster! All those damned things…no, those damned monsters that devoured our friends are from her!”

“By ‘lady,’ you mean Miss Farah?”

The criminal nodded, and begged to be brought to the tunnels. I asked a couple of sentries to bring them to the baggage train marching after us, and warn them to stay the distance. Then, I told Lady Ahri…

“Get your dwarves ready. This will get absolutely bloody.”

“What’s going on?” she asked, dread was written all over her face.

“The Seductress has begun to move,” I admitted. “And she possessed the body of that dwarf, Farah Koh, in order to bring her shadow children to this realm.”

The dwarf commander nodded, and turned to her subordinates. “You heard the man! Get your asses moving!”

At once, the warriors from the Army of Stone prepared their equipment. In just a few minutes time, the entire dwarf forces of Her Holiness the Lady Helgath were lined up in the camp, ready for battle. Of course, the other guilds followed suit; tanks were warmed up, artillery brought to its proper bearings, and prayers said. Then, the sentries from the entrance to camp cried out,

“Dark…something incoming!”

“!!!”

The Seductress, through her servant, the former Golden Hammer, never let us march against her. Maybe she wanted to strike first, but she did bring the battle right up to the gates of our camp. The shadow children—those weak yet overwhelmingly numerous minions of hers—attacked our fortifications, put up there to defend against possible ambush and surprise offensives. Our armies were delighted to learn that the shadow children were weak, and were confident they could end this battle easily.

“Don’t keep your guards down,” I told them; having fought the shadow children in Cherflammen before, I got an idea of how the Void would fight us. “This is only the beginning.”

The dwarves from the Army of Stone took defensive stance, like that shield-wall tactic commonly used by medieval armies of Earth. However, as they were armed with guns (along with war hammers and battle axes), they got their ranged weapons ‘peeking’ through their shields, firing in unison and shredding wave after wave of shadow children. Nevertheless, for something that we dreaded for so long, I felt like we were still about to experience the worse. Killing shadow children was easy; even a simple punch to its body or head was enough to dissipate it. What often causes the defeat of the armies that fought against it was its overwhelming numbers, and whenever the Seductress would use her powers to absorb everyone’s strength.

In the case of the former, our tactics of line infantry volleys were enough to keep them at bay. For the latter, I had to cast the god-power of the Human Saint to ‘hallow’ the ground around our camp. That way, the effects of the Seductress’ influence wouldn’t get unto us.

“…”

Guarding me while I use the god-powers was Lady Ahri. She had her subordinates direct the battle away from us, for she was under obligation from Lily and the Lady Helgath to protect me. Well, with everything going our way, I guess she’d end up watching the fight unfold.

But then…

“!!!” Much to our horror, the ground beneath us started to shake, that it became quite difficult for us to keep our balance. Then, from the entrance, we saw several black miasma masses rise and block the blue sky. Everyone was so shocked by its appearance that there was a lull in battle for a few seconds; we simply couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

“What the hell…?” was all I could say. This is my first time seeing such massive ‘shadow child.’ Even the ones I fought in Cherflammen was dwarfed by these huge beings…

However, those ‘giant shadow children’ would not remain still. As soon as the battle resumed, the creatures started to thrash around, destroying the abandoned buildings, and hurling debris and dust to everyone, including towards the temple district. In an effort to keep me safe, Lady Ahri shielded me with her body, as the dwarves don’t possess the ability to use magic…unlike the humans and elves.

Of course, I wouldn’t stay idle, either. The rampaging ‘giants’ wreaked havoc among our forces, and caused casualties, both severely injured and dead. Those creatures also destroyed many of our equipment: cannons, weapon caches, tanks, and other vehicles. So, in an effort to dispel those monsters, I charged at them.

“Milord, please stay here!” Lady Ahri cried out as she ran after me. I guess she was under really strict orders from the Iron Princess and the Dwarf Saint to keep me in one piece. Yet, I wouldn’t sit down and watch our forces get decimated.

The Seductress be damned, I’m going to save my allies, the dwarves!

Cutting a wide swath through the masses of the shadow children (which were trying to smothered me with their ‘bodies’), I ran to the front lines, hacking and shooting my way in. Likewise, the Army of Stone’s captain followed through with my attacks; those who escaped my gun and blade would then be crushed by Lady Ahri’s war hammer. Supporting us were the surviving tanks and other armored vehicles, firing their cannons and machine guns to relieve pressure on me. Soon, they were also joined by the dirigibles and fighter planes, strafing our enemies when they got in range.

Finally, when we got past the field of the smaller ‘shadow children,’ we had to contend with the flailing arms of the giants, trying to crush us. With my nimble body, I simply evaded their attacks, running as fast as I could to safety, or jumping away before the ‘fist’ hit. Meanwhile, Lady Ahri just ran head on; she would block the blunt attack with her body and shield, which, because of her prowess and strength as a dwarf, was often enough to stop the lethal momentum.

“Milord! Come and join me!” she would call out to me, laughing her way towards where I was hiding. Well, I’d say now I understand why Prince Uhrian is kind of awkward about his mom; she is one big battle junkie.

The giant miasmas peppered us with its fists, which also destroyed the nearby buildings. Lady Ahri blocked it all; using her battle axe’s handle to shield herself. Not wishing to just be reduced to a mere witness to her near-legendary feat, I ran to help her. Using the god-power of the Beastman Saint, I summoned a powerful hailstorm and caused thousands of ice to fall on the shadow children, effectively reducing their numbers and shredding the ‘arms’ of the giants. Then, I caused a torrent of water to gush out of the mountains through the god-powers of the Elf Saint, pushing off the remaining enemies off Hemelin’s peak, much to our warriors’ pleasant surprise.

“Milord!” the dwarf captain called out to me, gesturing to boost me towards the giants’ heads. So, casting the god-power of the Human Saint, I let myself be thrown to the ‘weak spot’ of the giants, before activating the healing spells, engulfing the entire city of Hemelin with holy aura and erasing every trace of the Void.

“…”

Though, well…it was a miscalculated move. I didn’t know how to fly; nor I had anything on me that could help me land and survive.

“!!!” At that point, however, Lady Ahri and her dwarves joined hands to ensure I fall safely. When they finally caught me, everyone was already cheering, “Kuro! Kuro! Kuro!”

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**Louis Fabelle**

Back when I was still a university student, I was always at the forefront of the fights.

“Black lives matter! Defund the police!”

“Men can wear their preferred clothes! Let them wear skirts!”

“Why turn away those who need our help? Let them in!”

These fights, I think, were necessary for a community’s progress. My friends and I had long believed in the superiority of our culture, of our beliefs. And equal rights for everyone, especially the weak; for those who were always oppressed by the patriarchal society. We would never bow to anyone we see as dictatorial, and divisive.

Yet…

“Kevin! Please, stop this—kyaaa!!!”

Where did we go wrong?

“Kevin, you’re a good friend to us! You came to our protests, too! Aargh!”

Kevin DeLaney, 22 years old. He was a colored guy that was often coming with us whenever we organize protests. While he was a quiet fellow, he did talk about his advocacies to us. And really, we thought he was one who believed in those he said.

“You fuckers don’t know how much suffering my sister endured after she was raped by that man in skirt, entering the women’s comfort room!” The pain in his voice resounded in my ears.

Yet, I wanted to tell him, it’s just an isolated incident!

“You fuckers are the reason my family fell through! You should all just die!”

“Kevin!” I finally had the courage to confront him, after he already killed three of our fellow students, and ransacked our dormitories. “Please, calm down.”

“Louis, goddamn it, man,” he had his hands clutching his head, even as he held on to his gun. “I don’t want to do this! You are my friend. I treated you as one!”

“Yes…let’s go back to talking about your favorite anime!”

“No, goddamn it! Goddamn it! I fought for those fuck-ass weirdoes! I fought for their rights; now, they destroyed my sister’s life! They destroyed my family! And you fuckers are complicit to this fuckery! I swear, I will kill those responsible for this bullshit!”

“Kevin, we can still talk about this,” I inched my way towards him. “Just give me the gu—”

Then, I was dead. Shot by Kevin DeLaney, who would also die that day because of a ‘self-inflicted wound.’

This is why we advocate gun control…

Well, it was a recurring dream of mine for a long time, ever since I ended up here as the god of the dwarves, the Golden Hammer. Honestly, I never thought I would be given a second-chance. Heck, I don’t even believe in heaven or in hell! Yet, here I was…

And really, my biggest regret was that I wanted to come back to Earth. To me, Equality was like a ‘dream,’ albeit, a long one. Kevin would lend me some of his favorite books back then, and would often read about humans from earth getting summoned in another universe, where they would become a hero, and a god. Yes, I couldn’t take this place seriously; my heart yearned to return to my old life.

“…”

Yet, because of Kevin’s stupidity, I ended here. No friends, no family, and the dwarves keeping a certain distance from me because they believed I was a holy person. It was a lonely existence. Honestly, my hopes went up when everyone told me they wanted me, their Golden Hammer, to be like a god. I mean, isn’t it that the Lady Arame is a goddess, too? If she can do whatever she wants, then that includes the ability to come back to earth, right?

And because of that hope, I strove to become Equality’s god. I taught the dwarves modern concepts of economy, since their greed for material wealth was endless. I taught them my world’s technologies to improve their lives. And I taught everyone the better systems I knew, which led to this land’s unprecedented prosperity, unmatched even in the past.

“…”

Still, I was found lacking. Though thousands—if not millions—of dwarves worshipped me as their ‘god,’ the fact remained that I was still a human, just being referred to as a god because others said so. And then…

“The Black God is the former teacher of our greatest hero, the Lady Cassandra David.”

That ‘Black God’ just came in, and snatched my chance to escape this fictional hell-hole. Like, where did I go wrong? Do I really have to die in this place, isolated from the people I knew and loved me?

So, really, I had to remove that human, and his saint, Seirna. But, they destroyed my supporters even before we could get them. I was on my last legs…I had to make this last chance work for me. But, at the end, I was still defeated.

“Yes, you really are a useless human!”

“!!!” The voice of Lady Arame suddenly echoed, and surprised me.

“It is I who tried to make you successful! And yet, this is what you’re going to show me? Failure after failure? Do you even have your pride as a man?”

I was shocked with the words the goddess spoke to me. Surely, hours ago, she wasn’t talking in that manner.

“Are you going to throw me as well, Your Holiness?”

“Shut up, useless idiot! I gave you all the help you need, yet, you squandered it all! And you have the gall to think of yourself as someone important? Hah! You’re too naïve!”

I could only swallow the painful words I was being subjected upon. Honestly, with everything I did ending up wasted, I just wanted to curl up in one corner and cry. However, the Lady Arame wasn’t finished yet.

“You want to know why I helped you, Louis Fabelle? Because I thought you’re someone great. Isn’t that how you see yourself? You think of people who don’t agree in your views as someone inferior. I thought you have the backbone to follow through your perceptions! But I was mistaken; you’re as weak as your ideals! Your advocacies that you only took up because you can’t value your life outside of those stupid philosophies!”

“Please! Enough!” I fell to my knees, clutching my head.

“You’re pathetic. You can even put some spine in your words! Come and stop me, Louis Fabelle!”

At that moment, I felt extreme regret my decisions before to listen to Lady Arame. It was only then that it dawned on me; like I did to others before me, I was used. And when my ‘benefits’ ended, I was discarded.

A fitting end for me, I guess?

“Oh, I will not just throw you, useless piece of shit! At this point, you’re as good as feed for me!”

“F-Feed…for you?” I certainly didn’t expect that.

“Your hubris made you blind to the danger before you!” That moment, Lady Arame’s form finally appeared in my mind, though it was far different from her usual appearance. Black miasma clothed her body, unlike the long, flowing white dress she wore before, and her eyes glowed red. “Let me introduce myself again to you, pathetic mortal. They call me Arame, the wife of Gaius, another stupid god. And I also go by the name ‘the Seductress.’ If you don’t know how I survive, it’s because I devour worlds…and everyone trapped in it.”

I couldn’t believe what she was saying; it sounded so surreal. But well, no matter what I do here, there was no escaping my fate. I was already tired from denying that I lived an unfulfilling life; and my quest to unnaturally prolong it led to this tragedy. As darkness slowly invaded the space that was my mind, I gave up fighting my former benefactor’s influence.

Ah, fuck this. Just let me die already.

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But, that’s just me…

Suddenly, just as the blackness engulfed everything, there came a cracking sound.

“!!!”

From somewhere in that space, I saw white light coming from the crack. Then, I heard another, familiar voice…

“Louis! Louis Fabelle! Can you hear me?”

“H…Helgath?”

“Louis! You fucking asshole! Not only did you piss me off by claiming that you love me, you also made a pact with evil!”

“Yes…” I was apologetic; though there was still a little hope in my chest, I didn’t think my recent actions would warrant unconditional forgiveness. “I did all those…and only think of myself. Why are you even here? Let me die. Let me be devoured and vanish from your world.”

“Hey, buddy, I can’t let you do that!”

I turned behind me, as I felt someone tapped on my shoulder. But, even before I figured out who touched me, I nearly came back to the real world when I received an uppercut that sent me to the floor of my mind.

“If the Seductress devours you, our hard work will all come back to zero.” Much to my surprise, the man they call ‘Kuro’ stood before me, together with another man…who dressed like a Roman and a sword in his hand. “And yeah, that punch was from the Lady Helgath. She asked me to punch you for fucking with her feelings.”

“What are you doing here, Black God?”

“I prefer that you call me ‘Kuro’; I’m more comfortable with that. Well, as of now, I’m currently ‘saving’ you in the real world. You know, you used the power of the Void, and was unable to control it. You’re a mortal, like me, okay? Easily fooled. So don’t play with stuff you know nothing about.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I told him; then, the Roman guy suddenly took hold of the collar of my clothing and dragged me to his face.

“Look here, Louis Fabelle,” he never hid his annoyance. “Our guy Kuro here is on his way to become my successor as Chersea’s god. Yet, you fooled the dwarves, got their thoughts polluted with your ‘equality and diversity’ thinking. It doesn’t always go that way, gringo! The world isn’t your playground, and there are a lot of gray areas to consider.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“Lower your pride. Too much idealism can be poison.”

“It’s too late for that.”

“Yes, I agree,” the Roman then turned to the Black God. “And I already said that. However, Goodie-two-shoes over there insisted on saving you—”

“Because the Lady Helgath will be sad if he dies,” Kuro quickly added. “We don’t want any unnecessary negative stuff if we can avoid it.”

“Y-Yeah, what he said!” the Roman guy agreed, before muttering, “This is why I don’t like love triangles…too corny.”

The Black God, upon hearing that, could only shake his head in amusement. Then, he reached out to me and said, “Look, if I may be honest, I can’t let you die, too, Louis. I mean, you’re a person from the same world, and the same era as me. It’s difficult for me to get you killed, even when you’ve been an asshole.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Heh, asshole, huh? So, look, after everything I did, you’ll let me live?”

He nodded. “It’s hard to live in this world at first, but I hope you eventually settle in here. Think of this as a ‘brother’s mercy’; I only ask that you help me build this place that once loved you.”

“How rude of you to ignore me!” the Seductress reminded them of her presence.

The Roman guy bellowed, “Begone, evil from the Void! Don’t fool us by pretending to be Arame! You’re just a fraction of that creature’s power!” He followed that by casting a spell, restraining the monster.

I fell silent as the creature with us smiled with the uncanniest expression, and slowly revealed itself to be a shadow-like figure, similar to the ones I used to fight the Black God’s forces earlier. As it lost its ability to speak, it was the Roman guy who explained to me,

“The Void is trying to meddle with Chersea’s timeline, Golden Hammer, that’s why you encountered this ‘Seductress.’ Look, you’ve let yourself be used by the Void to prevent the ascension of the Black God…the ‘bane’ of the Void. But, you know what? If my guy over there, Kuro, hadn’t come, you’re probably still the Golden Hammer of the Dwarves.”

“What do you mean by that?” it was Kuro who asked.

“Nothing against you, bro, but see, if you didn’t return to Cherflammen back then, there won’t be the Black God, and Louis Fabelle is still the Golden Hammer. And Seirna would kill her for me.”

I could only stare at the Roman guy and the Black God as they talked about things that could’ve been. Then, it came to my understanding that…

“So nothing would’ve changed, huh?” I commented. “Had the Black God made another decision, is that it?”

“Yeah, well…” the Roman sighed. “You may have to fight me instead. You’ll die then, for the former ‘me’ leaves no room for mercy…”

“Who are you anyway?”

“Gaius Julius Caesar,” he puffed his chest as introduction. “I’m sure you know me as a Roman dictator, general and orator. Now, I’m a former god, a retired deity of this world, Chersea, Cherwind, and Cherwoods. And an otaku.”

Then, after that, Gaius banished the creature that was tormenting me.