Legacy of the Defender (The Defender Series Book 1) (9 page)

“I will tell you more about that later,” he said.

“Is there something on Earth that will allow Lucifer to breach Heaven’s defenses,” I asked, thinking aloud.

We sat in silence.

My training felt like it was approaching a milestone.  The studies had been grueling as the classroom was a battlefield.  Mathias returned to his duties.  It was not so much a goodbye, but “good luck” that he said to me after returning me to the camp.  I stood there pondering things and finally went to the fire pit to pull up and study my favorite Samurai.  Malnuras looked up from his book, gave me a nod, and returned to his studies.  The evening passed in silence.  

I reflected on my path ahead.  My skills grew beyond what Master taught me.  I found the ability to leap into a fight from a great distance to be an awesome tactical advantage.  They never saw me coming.  Mathias could do this too.

My swordsmanship surpassed any warrior from history.  I used to think Master held back to avoid hurting me, but after much observation, I realized mine barely surpassed his.  It was not an obvious difference.  He was just as fast but still stronger.  But my ability to foresee moves gave me an edge.  Sparring became a flurry of deadly, complex moves.  I used two weapons, whereas he used a sword and shield.

My swords were amazing and to say they were an extension was an understatement.  Earning a sword is an honor.  To receive two of them means my esteem had to be as that of the generals.  I imagined somewhere there was a forge with a smith hard at work making weapons.  With the intensity of the assault on Heaven, the situation of defending God’s kingdom took top priority.  Sasquatch did not need swords.  He had claws that were enchanted.  However, my weapons could envelope in flames at a thought and that did a lot of damage to daemons.  My swords grew in strength.  Mathias told me that my swords together rivaled his.  I playfully disagreed that they were better because I had two of them and he cuffed me.  I did not have the heart to tell him I saw it coming, but I think he knew I let him do it.

Even though runes covered my skin, I could still take damage but it was hard to get something past me now.  If a daemon managed to hurt me, I could heal, but at the cost of tremendous amounts of energy.  This was not a reason to be foolish.  My lessons reminded to be wise every day. 

Teacher told me after I returned and asked about it, that my teleportation rune would form when it was time, on its own.  Yesterday, I received a special adaptation rune.  My own experiences and development could influence and trigger future runes as needed.  So after the teleportation rune, which he explained was waiting for him to train me, came in, that the rest would be unique to my needs.

My training did not currently allow armor.  This had taught me how to move and not rely on something absorbing the hits that got through my shield.  I learned to do things that many of the other warriors in history could not do.  Acrobatics, like many of the swash bucklers used, added an element that helped me master placement during fights and allowed me to redeploy to another location quickly.  There were hints that something else would happen to me later. 

I still had my free will. My mind was conditioned.  I could not consciously do any evil.  Though not perfect, I could not purposefully commit an evil act.  Were I unscrupulous, my skills could make me a nearly unstoppable villain.  I know saying never is a bad idea, but evil could never take root in my heart.  I would miss my playful personality, but layers of conditioning changed that. 

Soon I would learn to track the evil and locate portals.  I was looking forward to learning this.  Teleporting would be weird.  My spirit was the core of all of my abilities.  I did not yet understand exactly how it worked but in time, I would.  Patience was my strong suit, so waiting was not an issue anymore.  In time, they would teach me, of that I was certain.

It was a comfort to know that the side of good had a small advantage.  Both of my mentors had faith in me.  Master would beam with pride as if he was a father looking at his own son at times.  It made me stand taller, fight harder, and listen.  To disappoint him was unthinkable.  My desire to honor them both directed my actions. 

Many nights when I was sleeping, the conversations he had with Malnuras still echoed in my memories over whether or not my skill would be enough to take on the task.  Mathias did not have any doubt concerning my abilities, but of the numbers that might arrive at any moment while training in the realm.  He sounded like a concerned parent would for the only human to get this far and live this long to achieve mastery.  The previous candidates barely made it past the cave.  Malnuras’s faith in my ability to adapt always won out in those conversations.  It made me feel pride. 

My smile faded as a foreboding sense crept over me while looking towards the direction of Heaven.

"Why do you feel this way?"  A voice like an airy whisper crept into my mind.  I opened my eyes.  Gazing around the campsite, I saw no one except my teacher.

"His confusion does not make sense," another voice chimed in. 

I closed my eyes and reached out. 
Two presences felt very close, so close they were within the camp, but I did know either of them!
  Lifting my legs off the mat and thrusting them down, I thrust my shoulders instinctively into the mat.  My feet touched down flat as my body followed upright and centered my balance evenly.  Hand drew swords to the ready without a thought.

Nothing.  Eyes panned the clearing.  Nothing...Yet two distinct beings availed.  A sudden intake of breath followed.  My feet shifted as I turned...allowing my guard to pan with me as they turned to offer a view of the perimeter.

"We are awakened now.  Do not be alarmed!"  Both voices spoke in unison.  My stance deepened, ready to spring into action.  I closed my eyes again to pinpoint the direction of the intruders.  Breathing slowed.  My focus tightened on the campsite.  The sense grew stronger meaning it was right on top of me.  I sprung straight up looking above and my blades thrust into the sky...To my surprise, they were glowing faintly with an amber hue.  There was nothing above.

I landed gently, still looking at the blades in my hands.  The intricate designs, beautifully crafted, pulsed softly.  Amber light glowed and pulsed from the base of the blade to the tip and seemed to lift off the blade at the end as if it was dripping upwards.  Only wisps of energy rose, though, not like dripping water.

"What in the heavens...,"   My senses sharpened.  The beings were in my hands.  I was about to toss the blades when the voices spoke again.  The feeling was soothing, something that was missed when they startled me from meditation.  

"We are
Enáretos Manía..."

"Righteous fury...” my lips orated immediately.

"Yes, you are correct,” the swords responded in unison.  "We are the spirit of your swords, manifested by your dedication and the fire that burns within your heart."

Ease drifted through my mind as the two voices began to speak to me about everything.  They were inside my mind, as my ears did not hear anything aloud.  It was like they had been asleep for thousands of years.  The questions were unending through the night.  I knew I would never be alone again.  My heart rested.

In unison, the voices lulled me to sleep with a song.

VIII

Personal Revelations

I was troubled. 

Ever since my master explained things as they were in Heaven, my mind worked overtime to process the reality of what he shared.  Sadly, my mind was not at ease knowing the truth.  The situation here in the realm of Heaven was dire.  I could not change how it made me feel.  Meditation helped little.  I had to work through it in time.  Time did pass.  That was some time ago.

When I was not viewing the runes, I focused on living in the present.

My swords occasionally spoke to me now.  Feelings, like filled with their emotions, communicated even more.  They blended with me.  My thoughts became theirs.  Their feelings became mine.  The final pieces of the puzzle fell into line to complete the psychic link.  My master explained he did not know how things would unfold for me long ago, and I did not speak of it to him in the village the day he shared the bigger picture.

Since we spoke, my training had come full circle.  In the past, I studied and mastered every known human weapon.  Somehow, the mastering of all of these weapons came as easily as breathing.  In essence, my weapons training finished a long time ago.  Learning to apply the use of each weapon to specific circumstances was the next step.  My raw tactics made most of the military leaders look like beginners.  This education would never end because the horde was formless and shapeless.  It was ever changing.  Even though most of the daemons attacked a predicable way, they came like a flood.  No campaign against them had succeeded.  The angelic commanders were good but could not adapt fast enough.  They only kept the hordes from advancing.

The Sasquatch dealt with large numbers as a whole and still occasionally got over run.  They did not train here with the horde as the training dummy.  I was the first to get this far.  That first day, Malnuras told me about the previous candidates’ failures.  How could everyone they brought here fail to accept their own death?  Growing up, I expected to die at any time.   

No pressure!

True tests, however, came not out on the battlefield but in my own mind.  I had learned many hard lessons.  Some of the lessons were
how much damage my changing body could sustain.  Many wounds had left their mark on my continuously growing frame.  I looked my Master evenly in the eyes now when I saw him last meaning I was as tall as he was now.  Malnuras was tall, but my youth with the proper diet had me gaining mass and size at an incredible rate.  I stood over him by six inches now.  There were no mirrors in the realm.
 
Occasionally there was a glimpse of myself in a clear pool or my shadow would catch my eye.  On Earth, this would take many years and steroids but would not come close because of the height.  This height could not be possible even with science.  My metamorphosis started the day I arrived and has not stopped. 

Thoughts of that past became another life.  Everything before was a blur as my calling was rewriting my memories.  My role redefined each day in my own mind, as I honed skills.  The application of those skills came easily to me, and adaptation was a second behavior pattern.  I could analyze tactics and turn them around.

My meditation led me deeper into the study of balance by going deeper into myself.  Inner peace that could not be broken, even when the waves of the horde crashed upon it, became my stride.  These things guided me to serenity amidst a horrible fight, and balanced in my mind when a disturbance rippled my awareness.

“A presence approaches,”
a feeling advised me.  I sensed nothing with my own senses and realized where the feeling came from.  Soon I would be able to detect danger even farther away, as the blending was almost complete.

Smiling, I opened my eyes to greet my mentor.  ”I sensed your approach."  Something smacked me upside my head faster than I could blink.  A slight pain, accompanied by a ringing filled my head.  I smelled fish.  In Malnuras’ hand was a scaly creature, one that I had learned to love to eat. 

He was still a better angler.  I tried.  My patience wore thin sitting and waiting.  The fish at this new location fled when I entered the water and were impossible to catch by hand.  He enjoyed it, so I left him to it.  I never tried eating some of the flesh of the monsters I had slain.  Disgusting did not even come close to how they smelled. 

We spent some time cleaning and frying up his catch.  Overall, he had caught seven of them.  The fish in this realm were bigger on average than of Earths fish, and harder to catch.  They had scales that were like a suit of scale mail armor straight from the dark ages and possessed a higher intelligence.  One could not merely fool them with a worm.  A net or pronged spear was the best way, although spears were the less effective of the two.

There was not much conversation over the food.  I was beginning to feel that my time with Malnuras neared its end, as he seemed to be treating me more as a friend then a pupil.  The thought of this scared me sometimes as the realization grew in my mind.  I felt ready to fight battles of a larger importance.  My confidence was high and the chance of failure hanging over me like a dark cloud diminished.  Part of me knew that I had to succeed, but another part of me wanted to be realistic.  To be the first of a new concept of Defender made me a prototype.  The chance of failure was equal to the chance of success. 

I cleared my head as I finished cleaning up the cook pot.  The remaining fish we wrapped in large leaves to protect them.  They would keep for a day or two.  With my appetite, they would not last the morrow.  Malnuras had made his bed upon his favorite bluff and slipped into meditation for the third time that day.  His solace was increasing.  I was okay with it since my daily hunting routine kept me quite busy.  When I patrolled the area around the camp, I grabbed any game that was unfortunate enough to be in my path.  Today filled itself with reflection, as he put it, so the two of us had spent a fair amount of the day in deep thought.

Sometimes I missed his companionship.  Often after a battle, I came and sat down next to him.  In the years before, I sat across from him and hung on his every word.  His vast knowledge of warfare kept me asking questions, which usually led to a point in history.  New tactics always came from watching the failures of others. 

Through all of my studies, daemonology was tremendously fascinating.  Watching the legendary creature move and fight, was hypnotic for he did not move as a creature but a man.  This ability captivated me most.  I saw the different types of daemons, except the large dragon like beasts.  None of those made it through a portal in any of my viewings.  Size was a clear hindrance.  They feared nothing.

Then there was the mystery around the Sasquatch.  I studied everything the runes could show me.  For a creature, although divine by right, to move as a man was not natural, even though it was bipedal.  The moves that I had focused on were more like that of Chinese Kung Fu; Master taught me to move like an animal, learning many different styles.  Long ago, Malnuras felt that this change would make me even more successful than the Sasquatch.  He was right.

The ability to adapt was an immeasurable skill.

As I viewed my own battles just like the historical recordings, I could see the difference.  As an animal, I could mimic the movements of the creatures and adapt.  Bigfoot had only his brute strength and animal rage as his ally.  He did possess the ability to heal, just as I, but he did not have the magic runes protecting him.  He also did not use weapons…although he could teach the fundamentals.  His hand-to-hand technique was brutal and strong.  It was a style very similar to that of a bear, but with more speed.  He would occasionally spin with his claws out, catching all within his radius.  I smiled I saw the bear shape of Malnuras stand up and do that move too.

I moved over to where Malnuras sat and joined him.  The breeze blew gently from the south towards the main mating grounds of the horde.  I had hunted there many times.  It gave off a disturbance and unnatural presence.  The scent was pungent and thick, almost like dark viscous blood mixed with dirt, but in an ichorous form.  From miles away, the scent caught my senses.  I learned I could track this.  It became a not so welcome link. 

My first concern was the fear that my ability to sense them meant they could sense me.  The number of ambushes I successfully pulled off, the upper hand was mine.  They might be able to smell me coming, but only a fool attacked down wind.  I was no fool.  At times from our camp, I could smell them as they approached.  It may have been that I had their scent and with my heightened senses could single them out.  Perhaps the slaughter that occurred daily in the surrounding made the smell of blood thick as it hung in the air.  My senses were constantly on alert.  It made it hard to relax when I was studying.  I kept expecting that there would be an attack at any moment.  Thankfully, the wards Malnuras had put in place were reliable; and a good view and a good vantage was just a bonus.

I never took my edge for granted.  Lord knows I needed one when the hordes attacked en masse.  It made me chuckle at the thought considering it was Malnuras that allowed me to become the warrior.  He had to have known. 

“Can I meet God?”  I asked one day

“Perhaps.”  I did not press the issue, knowing that a desire such a desire fell beneath all other priorities.  Who was I to command God’s attention?  For me to consider anything else but protecting Earth seemed so far away.

Malnuras breathed out and deeply inhaled.  I could tell he was about to speak because his breathing changed.  I sat and waited out of respect, not wanting to interrupt his thoughts, which were plentiful.  He shifted from his meditation pose to one of greater awareness.  I did not doubt, however, that he was equal in both.

“Questions you have?” he began.

My desire to speak was obvious.  “Teacher, since that you in the form of the bear that showed up to save humanity and the Sasquatch…”

“It was.”  There was a delay in the reply as if he had debated answering.

“So why did you not take a more active role in the defense of the people?”  He was silent.

We sat in silence.  I half expected to hear that he was too busy elsewhere.  The answer rather shocked me.  “I am not able nor allowed to directly interfere, except under the direst circumstances, as you have seen.  My mandate is to let the Defenders do what they need to do.  Even when the balance tips towards evil, God still holds back most of his angels.  There are a few angels still tracking down the more troublesome of the daemons, but for the most part, the Sasquatch does the heavy lifting.  There are far too many battles still raging in the spiritual plain.  Daemons are trying to lay siege to Heaven.  God needs his forces elsewhere.  If he did not use his strength to beat back the hordes assaulting Heaven, there would be no Heaven for the souls to go to when they cross.  Lucifer could just gather them up and take them.”

“If he were allowed to do this, his power would grow tenfold in a matter of hours as he fed off the souls of the righteous.  God’s thinking in the immortal wisdom is that it is better to have man lose his life in the physical world than lose his soul in the spirit world.”

“So we truly are on the same plain as Heaven!  Is Heaven close?”  Not that I felt Mathias would mislead me, for he would have no reason to, but hearing it from a second person cemented it.  The concept of being this close to Heaven was so intriguing.  Like a kid on the night before Christmas, my anticipation built.  I had to know the truth as a child wanted to know which packages under the tree are for him. 

“We are on the same plain as Heaven.  Mathias has taught you this.  Neither you nor Mathias can enter Lucifer’s realm.  The energy barrier alone would sunder you.  I, on the other hand, might fare a bit longer with a few tricks.”  

“This is others hunt here.  It helps thin the numbers.  In time, when you return to your body back on earth, you will be there in unison.  You can return to hunt here if you wish, from a sleep state.  Your body will, however, take the damage you sustain here and be directly related to how rested you are.  The more time you spend healing, the less pain and discomfort you will experience when you awake.  This will take some time for you to get used to, but eventually, it will seem normal.”

“Others hunt here?”  He ignored my question and continued.

"However...time away from your station can be dangerous.  Be warned and do not spend too much time away.  I suggest."

“Is my body taking damage right now when I fight?  That must be causing some unrest since you told me I am in a hospital bed.  The doctors must be freaking out trying to solve the riddle.  It would not surprise me if there is a priest in the room with me.”

“Funny you should say that.” chided Malnuras.  “They ran tests of a useless nature.  They could never understand the magnitude of what is really going on, and you must never explain it to them.  They can never know the whole truth.  The human mind has a hard time admitting this kind of evil truly exists, let alone understanding its true aims.”

I took to heart what he said.  It did not make much sense that the greatest minds on Earth could never know what I knew.  It felt strange to be trusted on these matters more than the most scholarly.  Scientists with this knowledge would be able to make leaps in knowledge in the area of astral physics, even quantum physics.  The meta-physical aspect was a completely new science by itself.  I had barely even heard of these sciences before my arrival.  Now I could probably teach a college class on some of it.  My ability to grasp and understand higher-level learning had increased greatly.  The hunger for knowledge had yielded skill.  It felt weird to consider myself highly educated.