Chapter 103:

V3 Incline 30: Nin

Dark Crow Rising


"You found him here?" Kyarverin asks me with a quiet hush. One of His hands rubs the nearest parts of the church after the barrier evaporates in the face of His presence. I glance about with tired blinks, I'm getting a little sick of everything suddenly changing around me. We're not walking, flying or running, we're not doing anything that makes the sights transition, it just changes!

He certainly seems to be finding it amusing and I know He knows I saw that smile...

We go into the church together, "Well, technically, down in a large chamber that starts over here."

Kyarverin looks the mess over as we walk down the aisle. Something pulses from His hand and it soon clenches as narrow eyes turn towards the stairs. He steps away from the steps and His powers restore one of the bullet-holed benches. I sit down by Him at His request.

"I see, was there anything guarding it?" He asks.

"Not really, no, the entrance was hidden, but that is it."

"And how would you describe the bullet holes?" He questions, His raised brow not buying my simple answer.

"There was a lunatic, but, I'd hardly call him a guard. Just this annoyance who kept going 'shit' over and over endlessly." I almost mutter.

"Ah, so he was here as well." the God of gods reminisces as I pat down my overalls again to clean off some specks of dust and splinters. Not that there's really anything to clean up... I just...

"He had an army down there, dressed and armed much like himself. Though, I am not sure if this chamber on the way down had anything to do with it..." I add on, shiver-groaning as I rub my scalp at the thoughts of that chamber. Not an experience I am particularly keen to go through again if I can help it.

"Chamber?" He repeats, His head rising like a curious, long-necked bird.

"Yeah, a bloody chamber with claw marks all over it. I went in and was suddenly in some kind of illusion, memories I think."

"Elaborate." He tells me, His tone growing stern in line with his narrowing eyes.

"I seemed to have been someone called Kyr-" I start to say before I am left unable to speak. It's not hard to figure out why, but, the way He did it is weird. I feel like I want to simply shut up, despite how His fingers are pinched.

"Do not -ever- speak that name in my presence." I am warned as He actually sets a grip on my jaw. It moves with joint-popping jolts before He lets go. I move it myself a little before I open it to carry on.

"Alright..." I start with as I try to bear His demand in mind, "So basically, I was in the memories of someone, I wasn't too sure what was going on. It kept switching between events. But, the first one involved some kind of arena. Giant... Flaming bird."

"The wedding..." Kyarverin breathes as His head drops back.

"The next one would be something to brag about if it was real... Heh, got a kiss on the cheek from a right beautiful woman. Maybe my past has me a little different to the feeling, but, she had lovely red hair. Really red hair, colourful and bright but not obnoxiously so." I chuff, not paying Kyarverin much mind as I get it out with fidgeting hands and the sensation of danger on His side.

"She really is, isn't she? Unfortunately for you, she is taken. Fortunately or not for me, she is mine." He answers with a hollow sigh before shooting up to His feet with bothered energy. He can't seem to keep himself still in the slightest and His powers are quick to act. Destructive pops echo about the vast, acoustic wreck of a building.

"Do you...?" I start to ask as I slowly get up and move to the exit, minding my eyes as He continues to break things. He stops.

"No, no," He quietly mutters as His face continues to droop, "Thank you, Nin. Thank you very much for what you did today. This is something beyond what I thought was possible to happen. A mortal of all things... Near enough a stowaway, and yet, you saved my son. The one I actually thought I lost..."

"Y-You're welcome..." I say as I remember something serious.

"What's bothering you, Nin?" Kyarverin asks as He firmly grabs my shoulder in appreciation.

"So now what?" I ask, ready to fall apart in the event a certain someone is listening.

"Right, soul." He reminds Himself and me to a seemingly gut-punching effect.

"Yeah..." I rub my stomach as its pain continues to bother.

"Up to you, Nin, your time with me and my family is up now. I remember the condition I set up with Undwote the very first moment you got to experience this once-in-an-eternity chance."

"Thanks for the chance, I guess. Not really something I ever thought would happen, but, it's not something I'd like to forget regardless. Actually meeting the gods, the heroes I grew up hearing and reading about. I'm glad I got this chance..." I tell Him, hiding my face as I struggle to comprehend even finding His eyes.

"My family really is something." the Father of All huffs pridefully as His chest swells with dadish confidence.

"It doesn't hurt, does it...?" I ask as my eyes water a little in front of someone like Him of all people, divine or not.

"I don't know," He smirks, "you have plenty of time before you find out."

"H-Huh?" I go before He gently smacks my head.

"I ain't letting Undwote getting to you too quickly now!" Kyarverin laughs as I struggle to find a place to laugh and breathe.

"Wonderful... Wonderful indeed!" I go as I cover my face with both hands, cupping it in a sloping pyramid-like shape.

"So, Nin, what do you want to do with me and my family?" He asks as He opens His arms wide.

"Sraacdchammu took me somewhere... Bowl..."

"Bowling, you want to do something at Hot Rod's?"

"Yeah, that place, the whole thing, I want to do something there!" I laugh heartily as my excitement gets the better of me. So many things to do on His ship and most of it can be found there!

"Could've made a better choice." Kyarverin yawns with a smile.

"How so?"

"Something more impactful!"

"Well, I'm dead and I have never, ever heard of anyone coming back from being so. So, how about I make my last memory a good one? Go out with a full belly at the very least." I explain hopelessly with my final words being accompanied by a drumming of the named body part.

Kyarverin looks away, "Yeah, sure, never heard of it either..."

"By the way... Can we get out of here? Fun as it's been watching you all fight, I don't like being so close to an inferno." I remark, pointing my thumb back in the direction of the orange glow lighting up my back and His front.

"Sure."

"Stop doing that!" I nearly shout as I walk on the deck of the ship.

"No." He answers, sticking out his tongue.

"Shit..." I let out, copying how that lunatic said it when he was frustrated over something.

"Oh? That's not Tobaballian." the God of gods comments as he walks up to the steering wheel of His ship.

"What does it even mean, anyway? That lunatic in the church kept saying it, as I said earlier, I think. I believe I heard it enough to have a grasp on it but, naturally, I'm not too sure."

"Poo." He draws out with the o-ing of His mouth.

"Poop." I repeat, a brow rising.

"Yes." He nods.

"As in toilet?" I ask to make sure I heard him right, fiddling with an ear as I do so.

"Sometimes, but, a lot of the time for some of us from that world, it's a substitute for 'bad' or 'awful.' To add to it, if someone is extremely unlikeable, they'd be a shitty person. If the food on your restaurant order is bad, a shitty cook made it. Something bad happening to you? Exclaim the word out to the world!"

"I see, well, thanks for explaining it." I say as He starts to walk off elsewhere.

"Go into the kitchen or something, have a snack while everyone comes back aboard. I'm going back to the church, try and figure out what Sair did to the place. See if she did anything else." Kyarverin explains before I blink and find Him gone.

"At least He did it to Himself alone this time." I comment as I quickly go down the steps before swinging around the decorative bump at the end. Speeding to the first one, I try to remember the way to the kitchen through these doors. Muttering and moving my head a little as my memory jogs images past my eyes.

Maybe I'll sneak a slice of blackberry tart whilst there is no one to tell me no!