Chapter 54: His Arrival
Liliana smiled.
"Then I’ll have it all. All of the love and attention you gave to everyone else here, at the Oracle, with your other students and so on."
For several seconds, Amon continued to stare at her, finally tearing his gaze from hers and instead staring out at the city before him. He looked at the ruins of the temples around them, at the crumbling towers of stone and glass reaching up toward the sky, at the single statue of himself standing proudly in the center of the city.
How could he tell her? It wasn’t that he didn’t want to bring her here. It was that he himself didn’t want to be here.
It was a familiar sight, one that brought back memories of the day he had first seen it. Of the single first stone he had laid for the first road, of the first prayer that had been spoken here.
And of all the others, the people who had followed him here, building homes and lives in the hope that somewhere, in some corner of the universe, Amon would one day return.
"Give them back."
Liliana’s smile softened.
"You still don’t understand."
"I understand enough, Liliana, of how pitiful you truly are..."
"None of that matters," Liliana continued, taking another step forward. "You ask to give them back. You still don’t understand. You never could...You understand how to fight, how to kill, how to save. But you don’t understand what love does to people."
"Amon! The golden immortal, he’s back..."
"He’s back..."
Even the Oracle, who was now in the dark hole inside Liliana, half conscious, saw him. Saw Amon. A part of him rejoiced.
Amon froze as Liliana watched him.
"Do you hear them?"
His jaw tightened.
"Stop."
"They’re inside me."
"Release them."
"Hit me," Liliana said. She did not move, her smile growing even wider. "You can’t hit me," she said.
The blackness beneath her skin pulsed and Amon could see them. Not literally, but he could sense them, threads of memory stretching out from her and disappearing into her skin. Each one containing a name, a face, a memory of a lifetime. Amon’s fingers clenched into a fist.
[Warden Authority detecting foreign memory structure.]
[Attempting separation.]
Amon raised his hand and the golden light coalesced around his fingers.
"Go ahead," she said, ready to take the hit.
Amon stopped as she smiled.
"Hit me. Hit me!!"
The golden light around Amon’s hand of power began to fade. Liliana was now laughing at him.
"You can’t."
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"You really think I won’t?"
"Like I told you...You’ll kill a god without blinking. You’ll tear Heaven apart. You’ll walk through Hell." Her smile disappeared. "You’ll walk through even Hell...But you will never accept it, the love the people around you give you..."
Amon’s eyes turned colder.
"Don’t mistake restraint for mercy."
"I don’t."
Darkness exploded beside Amon. He crossed his arms. The impact sent him flying through the stone of three buildings in succession. The structure around him would continuously shatter as he came to rest on his feet.
Stone would constantly break around him as he stood. His coat was now torn. Liliana stood in the distance.
"You’re holding back. Come on, Master, you can do better."
Amon looked at her.
"Liliana, don’t you realize that creature is using you? Trying to make you his vessel?"
He held up one hand, causing the city to violently shake. Golden threads attached to Liliana began to shake violently, and Amon’s massive amount of authority began to spread to them.
"Hold tight!"
He clenched his fist, causing the golden threads to begin to pull apart, one by one, causing hundreds of memories to begin to pull away from Liliana. She let out a blood-curdling scream.
"No!"
Amon gritted his teeth. The System flashed rapidly.
[Memory separation successful.]
[Warning.]
[Foreign consciousness detected within memory structures.]
Amon froze.
"Foreign?"
The System flickered.
[Separation will cause permanent information loss.]
Amon’s hand trembled as he stopped his skill.
Liliana laughed through her pain.
"I knew it. You. Your pitiful weakness. And you call me pitiful?"
The threads snapped back into her. She stumbled, gasping for air.
"You can’t...You don’t have the right!"
Amon stared at her, her eyes fixed on his as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
"Because you don’t know how to save them."
The Oracle suddenly appeared from inside her, a part of him.
"Liliana."
She turned.
"Brother...stay quiet, won’t you?"
The Oracle’s expression was grim.
"You can still stop. Master is right, he’s using you. You need to stop."
"Why?"
"Because this isn’t you. The Liliana I knew was different."
Liliana laughed.
"You said the same thing before."
"I was wrong."
She stared at him. The Oracle stepped forward.
"I thought you hated Master."
Liliana’s expression became still as the Oracle continued.
"Everyone who gets to stand beside him." The darkness in her eyes pulsed. "You hate everyone who gets to stand beside him."
Silence.
"And now you’re trying to become the only person he can’t leave."
Liliana’s fingers were shaking. For the first time ever, her smile had disappeared from her face. The voice in her head whispered, More. And as she raised her hand, the entire city sprang to life. All the golden threads that connected to the people of Amon’s city rose up into the air.
Thousands upon thousands of them filled the sky until Amon couldn’t even begin to count them. Some of the threads were connected to people he had known and loved. Others to people whose faces he had never seen before.
"What is this?" Amon asked as his face went pale.
"That’s not possible...The city...It isn’t just connected to my followers."
The Oracle looked toward the statue of Amon.
"Everything that remembers him. She is not targeting just this city."
The world went silent. Liliana smiled.
"You finally understand."
He was connected to every memory, every prayer, every story, every child who had heard his name and every old man who had told stories of the golden guardian of old. And somehow, he had become a part of their world, their experiences and memories.
Amon’s expression turned hard.
"System."
[Awaiting command.]
"Can I remove the connections?"
A pause.
[Yes.]
Amon looked at Liliana.
"And what happens to them?"
[Unknown.]
His eyes narrowed.
"That’s not an answer."
[Removing the connections may result in irreversible memory degradation, as mentioned before.]
Liliana laughed.
"There." She spread her arms. "Now choose...Me." Her smile trembled. "Or them."
Amon said nothing as Liliana’s voice became softer.
"You always choose the masses, but for once..." the darkness around her grew. "For this once, Master." She pressed both hands against her chest. "...choose me."
Amon closed his eyes. For thousands of years, the System had given him choices to save, to destroy, to sacrifice one life to protect another, to complete the mission, to accept the loss and continue. Always to sacrifice something, always to save the greater number of lives. Amon opened his eyes.
"No."
Liliana’s smile faded.
"I refuse." He added.
"You can’t save everyone."
"Nobody can save everyone," Amon said, holding up his hand. Golden light spread out from it, across the city. "But that doesn’t mean I have to choose."
The System flashed.
[Warden Authority responding.]
[Temporary Seal Manipulation activated.]
Liliana’s eyes widened.
"What are you doing?"
Amon looked directly at her.
"I’m not choosing," Amon said. Golden threads of light changed as he spoke, forming into two different seal patterns. "I’ll save both."
The laughter of the First Refusal resounded throughout the city. Amon’s gaze had suddenly shot up into the air. A sky split open above him, and in the clouds an enormous eye of the First Refusal was gazing down at him.
"That’s why you always fail."
Amon’s expression hardened as the creature smiled.
"You will never leave, will you?"
Amon raised his hand higher.
"Watch me."
The eye narrowed. Then the First Refusal spoke.
"She isn’t my vessel."
Amon froze. Liliana looked upward. The creature’s voice rolled across the Second World.
"She is my door. Her body is my gate."
Suddenly, a hole in the ground beneath Liliana exploded outward. Something sat on the other side and opened its eyes.
Amon stared down at the dark space under Liliana. It felt as though something was looking through it at him, rather than at him. Every instinct in Amon screamed at the feeling. He had fought against Leviathans, demons, angels, and even gods.
There were even things older than Heaven itself that he had battled against. But nothing had ever looked at him as though he was nothing but a wall. Amon’s golden eyes narrowed.
"What’s behind you?"
Liliana smiled.
"I don’t know," she said with perfect honesty. "But I do know that it wants to come through."
Amon’s gaze shifted toward the First Refusal.
"You knew."
The creature remained silent.
"You knew this would happen."
"I knew what would happen if you understood."
Amon’s expression hardened. The System flickered.
[Warning.]
[Foreign foundational presence detected.]
[Warden Authority insufficient.]
Amon clenched his fist.
"How insufficient?"
[Warden Authority: 3%.]
"Then increase it."
[Impossible.]
Amon’s eyes narrowed.
"Why?"
[Understanding threshold incomplete.]
Amon suddenly understood something very important about the First Refusal. The First Refusal had never had to escape its prison because it needed someone on the outside of the prison to connect with Creation. Someone who could carry memories. Someone who could carry faith. A darkness which could handle anything.
"If you want to save both, then you will lose both," Liliana muttered.
Doom!
[The First Refusal has entered the World]