Chapter 5: Herald

Herald

 

As an atheist, Logan found his reaction upon being told God was not only real, but essentially dead multiple times over, to be very surprising. He was both relieved and flat out thankful that there were still some lowercase ‘g’ gods running around out there. Mostly this was because Logan suspected any possible route back to Earth would likely involve interacting with at least some form of higher power.

 

Strangely, thinking about going back to Earth was where Logan’s emotions really got all… strange. He would miss his family of course, and the smattering of friends he had made over the years, but if he was honest with himself, Logan had been coasting for years already. He had been relatively happy with where he was, even if some people looked down on Logan for it. But, Logan supposed, death was probably the best wake up call you could get.

 

After he ran through that thought in his head, Logan then realized that he had very rudely stared at Jeremiah after the man had told a truly intriguing, and likely immensely relevant story, at least for Logan’s current situation. Clearing his throat, he floated out a “Well that was a great summary of world history.” 

 

Mhmmm, that was maybe a tad more patronizing than I intended.

 

Logan sensed that was the wrong reply when the old man simply grumbled and told him off, saying that he should return to the cottage and cot respectively, for more continued rest. That was not a particularly hard sell to Logan, who once again, as soon as Old Jeremiah mentioned his rest, felt ready to fall over where he sat. Logan didn’t even remember reaching the cot before sleep took him.

The sight of his father standing over him filled Gregor with dread. The Mayor was a large man at almost six and a half feet, with a wild head of untamed red locks, similar to Gregor’s own. Most would describe his father’s mere physical presence as intimidating but that wasn’t what caused the drop in his stomach, as Gregor now resembled nothing more than a sized up model of his father.

 

He had held onto this secret for so long, to finally lose control of it caused a panic of an instinctual level. Gregor almost started sputtering out excuses, but instead took several deep, calming breaths. 

 

“Father, this is good timing. I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now, but hadn’t found the courage. This is the Codex I found, and it is the reason I’ve grown so strong.”

 

There, the truth of everything was finally out. Gregor watched the emotions swirl around his Father’s face, until it settled on a mix of consternation, shock, and… awe.

 

“D-do you have a master? Where did this Codex come from?” The Mayor of Alteep village ran a hand over his face and through his hair.

 

“No, father, I came across it in the Inaug. It contains no Affinity either, only runes and mantras to help in focused mental exercises and meditations. These exercises allow your soul to slowly change your body how you wish.”

 

“Like a power from legend… Son this will be a family heirloom.”

 

“A village heirloom, I… intend to gift it to the village come the end of the season.”

 

“You’ve set your sights beyond here already, haven’t you.” Gregor’s father said it as a statement of fact rather than a question. There was a weight behind his words and eyes that Gregor had never seen, or perhaps had never realized existed. Suddenly, the man that Gregor had looked up to his whole life, seemed just a fraction older, and smaller. Gregor didn’t remember when all those gray hairs had grown wild in streaks through his fiery mane.

 

The moment ended though, and now the Mayor spoke, not Gregor’s father. “The village of Alteep will accept this generous gift with grace. Never before has the future of the village seemed so bright. Wherever you go, hold fast to this: the village will always open its doors to you and your companions.”

 

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Then, in a slightly lighter voice, his father Grenneth asked, “Will you join the Legion?”

 

All Gregor could do was hope was the tremble of fear he felt didn’t herald a terrible future.

 

“Yes.”

On his third time unconscious, Logan finally had the mental bandwidth to dream. He found himself drifting in an endless expanse of stars, the bright pinpoints of light sending steady streams of light towards him. Logan would have expected to feel cold, but in this vision, he instead felt empowered to the extreme, as if all the potential of the universe stemmed from him.

 

The exhilarating chorus flooding through him filled Logan with a thrill unlike any he had known. Unlike the rush from caffeine, sugar, or more exotic drugs, Logan was becoming progressively more energetic every second. The endless depths of power seemed to pool its excess in Logan’s body, bringing the torrential rush down from a death race to more manageable levels. Then, with a loud snap ringing his head, Logan seemingly passed a threshold. 

 

Suddenly, the energy itself started whispering in Logan’s mind, strange and archaic syllables that somehow reverberated with his soul on a fundamental level. It was now flowing through him not as some nameless energy, but as a companion he could recognize, and control, from his voyage to the Austen Kingdom. The Void.

 

The Void was simultaneously the absence of existence, and its source. It brought substances together to create, and pulled them apart to destroy. It provided the separation and division required to foster life, and would destroy anything or anyone who dared challenge its grasp on the order of the Cosmos. All elements were simply a reflection of a fraction of the whole, the Void.

As all of this compositional information entered Logan’s brain, he didn’t question how he knew it. The knowledge made him feel complete for the first time since he had been reborn. All the uncomfortable feelings of being alien to his own body suddenly disappeared leaving him more peaceful than he could remember being for well, ever, even while Logan still resided on Earth.

 

There was something about being suspended among the stars that reminded Logan of his hazy experiences of death, except the feeling of safety was of a slightly different cut this time. Instead of being curled up into himself, in his soul’s version of the fetal position, he was now standing and staring proudly into the void, ready to intercept anything that might whisk him away this time.

Of course that was when he recognized that he was not alone. Although Logan couldn’t see anything beyond the starscape, along with the growing awareness of his element was the awareness of where energy of the Void started and ended. No part of the Void encroached for miles in any direction of Logan’s location. Instead, inside that space felt suspiciously like… the source of the energy flowing through Logan’s body. 

 

Which made no sense to Logan, as his newfound understanding told him that nothing existed in reality before the Void, not even the Gods, although Logan had yet to meet them. 

 

What could possibly be its source?

 

As Logan was pondering this, a new, heady sensation began to come on. A pressure was building against him, like the Void was trying to make him a part of the whole. His soul slowly, but surely, finished the process it had begun on his impromptu trip across reality. Logan’s core unfurled, until it no longer looked like the glowing naruto swirl it had started off as, and instead, eight grasping tendrils extended off of it, reaching out towards the Void.

 

As soon as the process completed, the pressure on Logan’s mind redoubled. Just on the edge of his senses, was… something beyond. The closest his strained mind could come to comprehension of the entity was Infinite. To whatever was reaching out to him, reality was little more than an absent thought, infinitesimally irrelevant and meaningless. 

 

Then the being made direct contact, and Logan’s brain shut all systems down. The only thing he could perceive was one single word, or more accurately a concept, as the being he was connected with most assuredly didn’t know English. 

 

‘HERALD’ it implied, as the starscape around him shattered and Logan was sent spiraling back down to reality.

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