Chapter 67: Chapter Sixty-One: Clash of Gods

“I’ll turn you all to dust,” Zaserdizar growled as a faint grayish aura grew from his body. Everything the aura touched seemed to age centuries in seconds reducing it all to ash. 

“That won’t help you,” Otrea grinned flicking her fingers causing several bolts of golden lightning to appear and strike Zaserdizar. 

In response, Zaserdizar's grey aura of time grew tendrils that whipped about wildly. Everything they struck was aged leaving Otrea’s study looking as if it were an ancient ruin. 

“You’re destroying books it took me centuries to collect,” Otrea hissed sending several more bolts of lighting to strike Zaserdizar. 

“Shouldn’t have sided against me then witch. All things must turn to dust someday, even you.” 

I nearly shouted as a pair of time tentacles struck Otrea in the chest, sending flying backward. The round table where she once met with the Council of Sorcery shattering as it caught her. 

“You plan to let the witch do all your dirty work Laurmonja? She’ll die if you stay on the sidelines any longer,” Zaserdizar jeered, his expression a mask of madness. 

“Hmm?” Mommy Laura raised an eyebrow and shrugged, her body dissolving into soap bubbles. Before I could even process what was happening a flaming sword pierced Zaserdizar’s chest. 

“You will not harm our baby,” Rysa shouted, pulling the sword from Zaserdizar’s back and swinging for him again. 

“How apt for you to attempt something so cowardly Zrysanthene,” Zaserdizar huffed his wounds healing as if his body had gone back in time. 

“I should’ve expected you wouldn’t go down so easily,” Rysa chuckled swiping wildly at Zaserdizar before leaping backward. As Otrea’s voice speaking the last words of a powerful chant reached my ears. 

“[Seraph’s Wrath]!”

The room shook as reality tore and a bolt of heavenly lightning exploded forward. Everything went white and all I could hear was the crumbling of stone and the thundering rain of dust and debris. 

My vision returned slowly, the air so full of dust it was impossible to see what was left of Otrea’s study. What I could see was both my mothers standing before me, protecting me from the fallout of Otrea’s attack. 

I waited with bated breath as the dust cleared finally revealing Otrea to me. She was standing over the blooded cloak that Zaserdizar had been wearing, his body hardly recognizable.

Glancing back to my mothers for approval Otrea drew a pearlescent dagger and knelt to puncture it into Zaserdizar’s body. The dagger had hardly punctured the skin as the old god’s hand rose, his index finger touching Otrea’s forehead. 

“Forget everything,” Zaserdizar wheezed. Otrea wobbled for a moment and then collapsed, her eyes glassy and lifeless. 

“Otrea!” I shouted yet Mommy Laura and Rysa held me back. 

“To think a mortal could use such a spell,” Zaserdizar huffed as he forced himself to his feet. His body little more than bone and singed flesh. “But if time will not affect her, forgetting herself will. Now then you two, it’s time we replaced you in our pantheon.” 

“You seemed pretty sure that sword of yours would kill him,” Mommy Laura smiled wryly at Rysa, “How come that failed?” 

“I don’t know, the sword is powerful enough to kill me, I’d have never believed he was stronger than we are.” 

“Well new plan then,” Mommy Laura strolled towards Zaserdizar, her body fairly glowing with a golden hue. “Time for you and me to take a nap Deezer.” 

“You’ve always been a failure of a god Laurmonja,” Zaserdizar pointed a skeletal finger at Mommy Laura. “It’s foolish of you to defy me.” 

Mommy Laura leaned forward exposing her forehead within Zaserdizar’s reach. “Then erase me Deezer, just like you erased the witch. Even though we are timeless, we are not immune to your power of forgetfulness, use it and eliminate me Deezer.” 

“What kind of game are you playing?” Zaserdizar asked gazing uneasily at Mommy Laura. 

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“I wonder,” Mommy Laura smiled sarcastically. 

“You will regret testing me,” Zaserdizar gnashed his teeth as he pressed his finger to Mommy Laura’s forehead. For a moment it felt as if time itself had stopped. 

Everything from the smallest particle of dust to the scream rising in my throat was frozen in place and then reality vanished. Rysa and I floated in a grey featureless void as the world pieced itself back together. When it was done we were no longer standing in Otrea’s study. 

Rysa and I found ourselves standing in a vast section of overgrown forest, as heavy rain came down from above. 

“What did Mommy Laura do?” 

“Time is a greater mystery, it flows even beyond the veil of what we gods can see. Deezer isn’t able to grasp that mystery fully, not without causing a massive fissure in the timeline, one that could alter the world in ways beyond our imagination.”

“I… don’t understand?” 

“The greatest misfortune Deezer could experience would be disrupting time beyond his ability to repair it. That’s what we’re seeing here,” Rysa sighed looking mournfully at the trees around us. “We made a mistake, she’s bought us time to fix it.” 

“How do we do that? Without Mommy Laura and Otrea… I can’t.” 

“It’ll be fine Bernice, you’ve still got me. I may be a coward but I’d never run away from a fight if doing so meant you get hurt. It’s likely we’re in a fringe timeline copying a version of our past. Which means a version of Otrea may exist here, we should work on finding her first.” 

Rysa grabbed my hand and pulled me forward as a rain of glittering lights crossed the sky overhead. 

“Meteor shower?” 

“No,” Rysa frowned as she watched the little lights. “That’s a rain of souls. The original souls of the people who lived during this time are not present, and a body cannot exist soulless for long. These souls are being forcibly pulled into this timeline. I’d expected we’d be dealing with puppets acting out ancient lives, but this changes things for the worse.”

“Why?”

“Because they’ll be real people, able to deviate from the memory they’re meant to embody. We’ve practically created an entirely new world. Laura… did you anticipate this?” 

Collapsing against a tree I watched the rain of soul as my cheeks became soaked in tears. “Rysa… Can we really fix this?” 

“I don’t know,” Rysa replied with a defeated sigh as her blond hair changed to a shade of red that matched my own. “But we won’t know until we try. Let’s not give up just yet, okay?” 

“Your hair…” 

“I don’t know if a version of me will inhabit this world, so I’m altering my avatar. The last thing we need is for a divine copycat to take interest in us before we’ve found our footing. You’re still my oracle after all Bernice, it’s possible my alternate self will find herself connected to you because of that.” 

“Why wouldn’t she take interest in an oracle?!  Who cares if I’m hanging out with a girl who looks like her.” 

“I’m changing what I can change, and hoping the rest just plays out in our favor.”

“I guess that makes sense.” 

“Come on, let’s find a city.”