Chapter 8: An Unsteady Village

Three more days pass.

The two sisters have been making their rounds, talking with everyone in the village. They all seem excited for them. Excited for their journey, away from home.

Nameless and Divine flash may have lived in the village since their birth, but they were not born here. Shortly after they were born, their mother brought the two, cradled into her arms into this village.

Instead, more strangely. Her mother came here willingly. To this backwater, out of the way village, in the middle of nowhere. To Granny, and the other elders, it felt like she was here to escape from something, like she was here ditching her responsibilities. That was the way Maggie felt whenever she spoke to their mom. She did talk the most to her out of anyone else in the village. Maggie merely conveyed her feelings to the sisters as they grew older.

They could never figure out what her real job was, Nameless thought, as she was packing some clothes into a stack. She grabs a small cube from her desk and pushes a button. The cube expands in size, landing on the ground. She puts her clothes and some other valuables into the cube, then returns it to its smaller, more compact form.

These portable growing, shrinking TecCubes were one of the new technological marvels.

Created by the divine hammer herself. She had them mass produced and sold cheaply, so everyone could use them. This cube came out about a year ago, along with some other useful household items.

Much more useful to us than the Goddess of the Under Realm, Nam thought as she returned the cube back into her pocket. She was far less useful, in every regard. She sighs. She walks over to the kitchen, grabbing one of the wine jugs. She starts pouring herself a glass of non-alcoholic wine, a treat she kept for special occasions.

Tomorrow was the day, after all. The day she and her sister embarked on their journey. Where they would set off, she would not know. But she was sure she would enjoy wherever they went. Today, however, was less joyous.

That useless Goddess has finally decided to grace us with her presence, she thinks. She almost thought of delaying their trip to further convince the goddess to stay, but her sister persuaded her to not bother. She told her it was not worth the time nor effort. She hears footsteps, her sister has returned, with water. She was talking to Granny for a while before she came back, it seemed.

“Welcome back. Did Granny tell you anything?” Nameless sips on her juice, leaning in her chair.

“She just told me when our realm lord should arrive. Should be in an hour from now or so.” She says, as she removes her shoes, then drops the buckets of water near the kitchen table, relaxing.

“You know. I should be happy but.” Nameless just lets out a large growl of frustration, almost slamming her stone cup on the table. A little liquid splashes outwards, making her sister frown a bit.

“No need to take it out on the table. Which I just wiped clean before I left.”

“Sorry. I just can’t force myself to feel happy, even though we are finally getting that visit...Where the hell has that woman been anyway? How did she even get back here?” Divine flash could only nod. It was unknown how the Goddess of the Under realm returned to her realm since, frankly, she didn’t use any of the official transportation methods.

There were other, natural gates that were used in ancient times. But no sightings of her were reported there, either. Divine flash thinks to herself. The news reports from two days ago showed the woman, in black and white dress, walking straight out of her office in Lunace. Baffled, the only answer they received was “It’s a trade secret~” and the Goddess flew away from the eyes of the press, left in sheer confusion and wonder. She turns towards her sister, who quickly cleans up her mess with a nearby cloth. She continues sipping, pondering her thoughts. She eyes her sister inquisitively.

“What?” She mouths at.

“Nothing. I guess we have the same thoughts. It is suspicious how she arrived here so quickly. Especially since she was supposedly with those other council members. All we can tell, for now, is she is hiding something. What that is, I dare not even think of.” The Divine flash sighs, sinking deep into her chair. Nameless finishes her drink. She stands up and grabs the large jug again, this time grabbing another stone cup. She pours herself, then her sister, a glass of the delicious deep red juice she has been consuming. Nameless sits back down and begins drinking some more, then replies.

“We can try to get some answers, when she shows up. Luckily for us, they’ll be here pretty soon.” She looks at the wall. There is a digital clock on the wall. An hour has almost passed, surprisingly

Time was flying, it seemed.

“Well. Then I guess we’ll go find granny once we finish this.” They two quickly finish their drinks, then begin heading outside.

The sun is somewhat low. It will be sunset soon, Divine flash thinks. The two walk through the outskirts of the village and reach the front of it. There, Granny is sitting in her robotic wheelchair. She is also snoring, it seems.

The fun of old age, the two think. Surrounding granny are the rest of the village elders, their neighbor, and some of the guardsmen. A couple of the other guardsmen were sent out yesterday and are returning with the Goddess to ensure her safety.

Not that lord even needs it, she thinks. That person is possibly the most skilled swordswoman in this realm, if not all the realms. Divine Flash never sparred with her, but she did once watch Nameless attempt to duel her, after a small argument. It was an embarrassing memory; the battle was over before it even started. This was when her sister was very young, when she was 9. Seems like Nameless “pretended” to forget about it, though she never brings it up. Nameless then coughs, making the group turn their eyes towards the sisters approaching them.

“Are you going to wake her up? The bloody lord will be here momentarily!” She groans, annoyed.

“Ah! She’s old, let her get some rest.” Nathan shrugs. He was the one who pushed her here. He was used to her, by now.

“Dang woman was out cold before I even started pushing her here. Then, those rackety chidlens came around making a racket. Granny did not even budge a single inch.” He just laughs, further annoying her.

Sometimes, she wondered if she was the adult instead of them. Divine flash ignores him and walks up to Granny, whispering something in her ear.

The old hag immediately shrieks, waking up in an instant.

“You goddamn bastard of a child! Stop wakin me up like that!” Granny yells at Divine flash. She breaks off a piece of steel of her chair and throws at her, Divine flash narrowly dodging on instinct.

“How else were you going to wake up, you crone?! The adults don’t even know how to wake you up most of the time. Try staying awake when she shows up...in fact I can see her in the distance.” They can see the figure of their guest in the distance, surrounded by a couple guards. She is walking forward, smiling. The goddess of the Under Realm waves her left hand, greeting them.

“Oh hello! It has been so long!” She yells outwards. Granny merely nods her head.

“And you are so slow. You should have been here a couple hours ago, based on the report I got from the watchman...then I took a nap in sheer boredom.” Whimsical old people, Nameless thought. The woman in the black and white dress merely laughs, amused.

“We got sidetracked hunting down a couple desert elk. So, I come bearing gifts. Let’s cook ’em!” She holds the freshly maimed corpses of the slain wild beasts in her hand. She was always a wild person. She only acted proper around her folk, the rest of the time, she barely acted her age, Nameless thinks. So common for these adults to be two faced, the youth feels dejected. She then removes these thoughts from her mind. Shrugging, the red-haired girl just walks towards her and grabs the animals.

“Let me finish butcherin them, you go start the fire.” She grumbles, then turns away, starting her task.

She was tired of the adults already, today. Nameless grabs a bucket of oil, near the fire, then she puts it near the basin. In the middle of the village, there is a large spot for cooking. The girl gathers some of the flammable wood, which was imported from the northern region. Sometimes, the villagers cook large community meals for celebration. Or when they hunt a lot of wild game. Today was such a day, it seemed. Nameless reaches inside her pocket, gathering another tech tool she bought recently.

It is a device that has liquid that can become super cool or super-heated quickly, simply by pressing a switch on the item. It is quite useful, for many situations. She flips the switch on the device. It emits a rather hot flame she then uses to start a fire. The fire quickly spreads inside the dugout area and does not go further, after a couple of minutes.

The convenience of modern technology, she thinks.

A couple years ago, she had to make this fire by hand. How slow and tedious that was. Nam can hear footsteps behind her; the Goddess of the Under Realm is walking towards her. Seems the lord and the butcher have successfully carved the meat off the beasts and have put skewers through the meat. They are carrying one of the large skewers, one which is the size of an average adult.

“That will feed the entire village, I think?” She looks mildly interested in her haul. The goddess looks at Samuel, who is laying the skewers in between pikes he put down and he starts roasting the meat slowly on the underside. The towering, imposing woman then glances over at Nam, smiling.

“Heh, wanna hear how we killed em?” Nameless doesn’t care and shakes her head in disagreement. She could care less about her little “game.”

“Ah what a spoilsport. I wanted to tell you how we murdered those raging beasts, each nearly the size of one man. There was five of em..the other villagers have the rest put in storage for later.” She carries on talking to herself.

Realizing she is being ignored, she then returns her attention to the food. She doesn’t mind; she is aware of Nam’s personality quirks.

Nameless walks off, returning to the side of her sister, who is talking to Granny.

“Mmm, I guess we can discuss business after dinner. No need to waste the food she generously gathered for us.” Divine flash says as she talks to the oldest member of the village.

“Aaaah I can hardly remember the last time I saw this old star warrior. Why, it oughta have been like thirty years since I last saw here!” Divine flash sighs, resting her hand on granny’s shoulder.

“Gran, your mind is failing you, as usual. You saw her like last year, right after she slayed that wild space lizard that crashed landed from outer space, near Lunace. I remember seeing it all over the news for weeks.” The Under Realm, like the Heavenly realm, was the name of the realm. It was a galaxy that had thousands of different planets located in numerous solar systems.

At the center was the true home system, Lunate, with the capital planet being Lunace.

Travel amongst the worlds was possible due to advances in spaceship technology. As well as the “undernet,” as people liked to call it.

Long ago, ancients weaved a path, formed from digital data, between the worlds in the Under Realm. Anyone could traverse the dark path to reach another place or planet.

However, it was dangerous. Few could traverse the path.

The undernet was chaotic, full of rampaging dark data life forms.

Some took forms like the cyber beasts that plagued every realm. Often, the goddess of the Under Realm went on expeditions deep within the darknet, culling beasts that formed there before they matured and became more powerful.

The large Space lizard, Riiken, was merely one of the darknet beasts that escaped her watchful eyes. Luckily, she caught it quickly in the air as it emerged from the dark net and slaughtered it with little trouble. Granny briefly met again with the goddess of the Under Realm after that happened. Clearly, her memory was becoming more fragmented by the day, Divine flash thought. She was worried. Gran was made from ancient technology, so the inner workings of her brain circuit were beyond their understanding. Perhaps if they could get the divine hammer to look at her but...

“Ha, I wish. We don’t even know where she is at the moment, she has been missing for a week. She disappeared in a flash of light, after being helped by that giant strange black golem.” She says to herself. There were some reports of the giant machine seemingly “teleporting” around the city, helping the injured for a few minutes. Gathering them all in one place and healing their wounds. And within the next moment, it seemingly disappeared in thin air, space warping as it returned to its resting place.

That “thing” gave her more things to worry about, but for now, Granny and her sister were her primary concerns. She can smell the food cooking in the air. It is almost time to eat. The other villagers brought out a table, dining ware, as well as other side dishes they prepared earlier in the day, in preparation for the feast. There was salad, fresh fruit, some beef jerky, and well-seasoned chicken. They always save that special seasoning for these rare occasions. She pushes granny over to one of the tables and grabs a plate.

“Gran, what do you want to eat?” She asks kindly.

Granny mumbles incoherent nonsense, indicating that she should just give her usual. Chicken, salad, and fruit. She was used to deciphering her words.

Sometimes, Granny spoke in a language that was not their native one, the native language all people in the star verse used. The name of this language was called Stollva. Whatever language Granny was using predated the current one, popularized in the last two millennia. Before the universal language was adopted, every single planet had a variation of their own language.

The divine hammer slightly rectified this problem by implementing a universal language.

As well as creating a device that automatically translates any known language into one that was understandable to the user. Unfortunately, this “AllLanguage” voice technology was expensive to produce, so it was hard to get a hold of even one. And since their village wasn’t exactly rolling in income, Divine flash had to just manage without one.

She puts the food Granny wants on her plate, then she takes a little bit of everything. Everyone in the village has gathered, the mood is quite festive. Her sister walks over to her, holding a plate of her own.

“Get as much as you like, sis. We will have plenty for the next week or so, with the number of snakes they murdered today. The black n white armored woman went a bit too wild, if you ask me.” She grabs a chicken leg off her plate and takes a huge bite out of it, savoring the juiciness of the dark meat. Divine flash begins eating, while Granny starts to talk, a bit strangely.

“M-m-make sure to say your grace before you eat, you youngins! Back in my day, my parents would have whipped me if I didn’t say it before I—”

“We don’t worship gods, granny. So why say grace? Just thank the people who made and cooked your food. Also, religion is...kind of banned? Wasn’t it banned when you were younger? If I remember correctly.” Divine flash says, thinking deeply.

The machine gods have existed long before she was born, for tens of thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. The rulers of the realm were godlike machines, typically androids. Though how they were created was unknown. And according to her knowledge, they have always outlawed religion, institutional churches and have banned excessive donations in their name.

So, what was Granny thinking of?

Another universe?

Divine flash shakes her head then laughs. In this one, the gods acted like bosses of an organization. Some were keener towards being helpful, like the Divine hammer or the Earth goddess, and helping out when needed. But they also taught the importance of self-help and self-motivation.

Gods were not beings that solved every problem, did everything for you. In the words of the Divine hammer: “If god lives your life, then your life wasn’t really lived by yourself, was it?”

She remembers the Divine hammer being interviewed on the intergalactic television channel, a while ago. She truly valued the free will of her citizens as much as she valued her own. Thus, she did not intervene in their lives that much at all.

Or much of politics or matters of governance. She left it to the humans to rule over themselves, mostly. With some oversight as needed.

Other realm gods were more neutral.

Star breaker merely left her realms citizens to manage themselves, telling them to never bother her. Whether or not that was an effective strategy remains to be seen...Especially with the brewing revolt about to happen, as she idles away.

No one knew what was on her mind, not even her own assistant.

Of course, she thought. There was always going to be someone that would break the rules. Always someone enticed to do something illegal.

There were those that illegally created churches.

Institutions founded on religion. Some were middling, others needed to be destroyed.

The gods, although discouraging the idea of worshiping them, did not act upon those that did, unless they gave them a reason to.

About as reasonable as they could get, she thought.

“I guess existing in the real world means accepting things you don’t like and just not being bothered by them.” Divine flash speaks out loud to herself, as she slowly eats some of that roasted snake for dinner. Nameless notices, putting down her plate full of fruit for a moment.

“Something bothering you?” She asks. Divine flash shakes her head in disagreement.

“No. Just idle thoughts. I’m enjoying this meat, what seasoning did y’all use?” Nameless shrugs.

“I dunno, it’s a secret. Maggie won’t tell me what she put in it. She just gave me a huge container of it and told me to dump it. Sometimes, better just to go along, mm?” She continues eating, finishing the apple she was eating. She turns around, heading towards the large table for another plate of meat. Divine flash does the same, enjoying the vibes of her fellow men, women, and children of the village.

Some more time passes. The celebration meal is nearing its end.

The feast is finally coming to an end, much of the meat cooked has been consumed by the one hundred or villagers that live in the village.

Nameless stretches her arms, yawning. All the food made her a little tired. In the corner of her eye, she can see the Goddess of the Under Realm walking over towards her. The look in her eyes has changed. Nameless just stares at her then begins speaking her mind.

“Finally done, Ms. I rule the underworlds?” Nameless remarks, making the dark-skinned woman frown. The Goddess begins speaking.

“Yes. Well, I’ll cut straight to the chase, then. It will be difficult sending aid to this village. The corpos have a tight rein over the military force of the capital, after all.” She shrugs.

As if she wasn’t the one responsible for the corporation’s rise to power.

As if she didn’t know what those cyber demons would do when she let them gain power over the military or the trade routes. Nameless wasn’t buying her canned response, but she remained cool.

For the moment.

Honestly, the young girl knew that she was a bit hot headed, a bit immature. Sometimes, Nameless lacks the foresight to think things through and just foolishly dives into things, whether it is a battle or an argument. Which is why she tried avoiding problems to begin with. Tonight is testing her limited patience. Greatly.

“I’m not buying it. There must be something you can do. We barely have enough money to keep this village afloat, even after my dealings with some of your...lot. So, we don’t have the funds to hire independent mercs.”

Independent mercenaries. For the right buck, they would do anything you want. Literally.

Perhaps some of the most useful but also, the most highly despised members of society in the Under realm. Hiring them was akin to buying the services of the Devil herself

Nameless remembers the story Divine flash told her from childhood.

Of the great Cyber devil. The one Maggie always used to speak to them about as children.

The myth of the Cyber Devil.

A great demon lord who sacrificed countless lives in order to defend the universe she made. She threw millions upon billions of brave souls at a large, serpent like beast, in vain. All so she could think of a way to defeat the large, silver-eyed snake.

That Cyber devil would truly do anything and everything she could to win. To overcome that damned beast she could not defeat herself.

The Devil resurrected her dead comrades. Reincarnating them into cybernetic, godlike machines that performed her will and bidding, fusing their souls into greater ones. Mighty Colossus-like machine Gods, giant battle machines that towered over twelve meters tall. The Cyber Devil formed six of them.

She then made one hundred different machines, calling them the deus ex machina angelus or the machine angels of god. Smaller yet loyal servants to do her bidding. The great Demon Lord genetically modified living creatures, regardless of whether or not they could survive her “experiments.”

So, to her, making a deal with the mercs was like making a deal with that heinous Cyber devil.

Who could trust someone like that? Someone that could backstab you the moment you stop being useful to them?

According to Divine flash, the Cyber devil said she protected the world, but she was just protecting herself. She was too afraid of failure. Since she was unable to defeat the beast herself, she relied on others to solve her own problems.

Or perhaps she just gave up after realizing she couldn’t defeat it by herself.

She did fight the beast for a seemingly infinite amount of time, according to the myths Divine flash found scattered around some nearby villages.

It didn’t matter to Nameless. She would have to rely on herself to solve her problems, not some fantasy person that doesn’t exist. She eyes down the person in front of her.

“Got any better ideas? Or do I have to think of one, for you?” She lays it out plainly, making the Under-Realm ruler sigh.

“Perhaps. I could petition for a volunteer force, made of able-bodied men and women, to be utilized as a defense force for surrounding villages, such as this one. Or the one to the east of Lunace. I do value your presence here, but y’all are not the only ones I have to worry about.” The response makes Nameless lessen her stare, but she still feels like something else could be done. The goddess of the underrealm notices.

“I mean, if you are really desperate, you could always wor—” A hand appears, stopping her in the middle of her sentence.

“Never. I’ll never work for you, you annoying, irritating—” Nameless stops herself before she misspeaks. The other woman simply laughs, grinning. Almost manically.

“Oooh...I would enjoy having you work for me.” Her expression becomes solemn, the smile disappearing from her face. Only for a moment, though.

“But I think it was never meant to be.” She turns around, looking into the now dark sky, alight with star light.

“I think we are more suited to be. Hmmm, what’s the word I’m thinking of? Working together only when we need to.” She laughs again, making Nameless scowl.

“Ah. As useful as you ever are. Whatever. I had my say. You can say the rest to Granny.” Nameless simply clenches her fist in frustration, as the woman turns away from her. She is barely able to hold back her anger. This useless Goddess, who is seemingly incapable of helping them in their time of need.

What an irritating person, she thinks. The woman in the black and white dress spins around as Nameless begins walking off.

“So fast! As fast as your sister. Don’t you want to know how I got back here so quickly?” She asks, grinning like an evil cat.

“You wouldn’t even give a satisfactory answer, even if I did. Or if I asked about those people with you.” She continues walking off but stops for a moment, turning her head.

“I don’t care what you have been doing. But if you do something to my sister. Or the people of this village...” A blood curling glance shoots out of her eyes, unnerving the god for a moment. But she regains her composure in the next moment.

“You have nothinnngggggggg to be worrrried about.” She laughs, hiding her nervousness.

Nameless just turns around, then walks off. She has had enough of her for the moment. The goddess wasn’t a problem she could easily solve by herself.

Nam continues walking and walks back towards her home. On the way, her sister catches up with her. She had escorted Granny back to her home. The blue haired girl can see some of the boiling frustration on her sister’s face, then she sees the goddess in the distance.

“You had a little chat with her?”

“More like a waste of time. I’m tired. Let’s go to sleep.” The two walk up to the door of their home.

“Tomorrow is the day, after all!”