SECTION 2          CHAPTER 2 - Paradox Under the Ocean
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        The 7th Day of the Month of the Goddess's Death, Year 548
                      February 5th, 2013 Earth Time

Soleil, a little startled, stepped forward in her calming way of making 
friends, gestured down and said, "He is on a mission from God.. Wait, 
what? Why did she say that, she thinks? Then, who points down when saying 
that? She had meant to say, and tries again, "He is alone in the center of 
the world.. Then adds, "But you had to know that." She continued to slowly 
step forward, as if in a trance, doing it and not knowing why.

The Necromancer cocked his head sideways as if looking at a curious 
creature, and smiled. He just stood looking at Soleil in an odd way, like 
a father proud of a daughter, or a teacher proud of a student. Then his 
expression changed, as much as could be seen with his ghostly vapor-like 
face, into a genuinely sad expression, he looked sad and defeated.

Meanwhile, Marious had been quickly getting the guys ready. Ontarious and 
Wellz were done,  and already starting their Necromancer mind-reading 
spell as he worked on Liono.

The Necromancer seemed oblivious to what the men were doing. He looked 
down, as if contemplating Vryce in the middle of the world, then looked up 
and said, "He is no longer there." Stopping for a long pause, he 
continued, "He was there before, yes. Vryce is dead."

He looked at everyone without moving his head, just his eyes. Remaining 
very still, he lectured with his powerful raspy voice, "He is not 'the 
planet', he is not 'God', he is not 'Gaea', he is dead, as dead as dead 
can be. I do not know what he was trying to do, but it failed."

Marious looked as if he could not breathe and stammered, "This cannot be!"

The Necromancer continued coldly, "Vryce is no longer anywhere in this 
universe, not in any of the billions of galaxies and countless planets 
they contain. He is gone."

The Necromancer, collector of souls, tied to Vryce's soul by some 
mysterious pact, sighed. As he did so, every person on the planet also 
sighed as his weathered but commanding voice filled the room, "His soul is 
gone. This I know. I cannot be wrong. I am truly sorry."

Soleil registered what he had just said but again, as if in a trance, just 
kept walking forward as if to touch the Necromancer, as if to hug him.

Marious, thinking that this is not the plan, did nothing, even as he 
watched Soleil reaching out to the Necromancer. He was frozen and felt 
like a child for not knowing what to do!

Marious proudly watched Ontarious, Liono, and Wellz somehow focus enough 
while hearing this news. They finished their spell to try to read the mind 
of the Necromancer. This was no ordinary spell and was well beyond 
anything anyone ever attempted. He did not tell the heroes, but he did not 
expect it to work because the most important baseline was how well the 
casters knew the target. Who knows the Necromancer? They would have better 
luck reading Vryce's mind! At least they all knew him well. Marious 
thought, "Could Vryce actually be dead?", as he continued to pull off a 
classic Marious, doing nothing, but doing it exceedingly well!

Soleil somehow knew that Vryce was not dead, knew it in her bones, as if 
God himself somehow swore on his own mother's grave that Vryce was OK - 
she knew it. What she did not know was why she continued to step forward 
and now wanted to reach out and kill the Necromancer! Kill the 
Necromancer!

The Necromancer looked at Soleil oddly, as if he loved her beyond hope, as 
if he was also frozen like a child not knowing what to do or what to say, 
as if he could not save her or himself.

Marious watched and noticed that every step Soleil took towards the creepy 
Necromancer the more solid it appeared. He must act but what to do, his 
mind screamed inside of his head! What to do!?

Then, as the Necromancer materialized even more, the heroes, spell took 
hold and, like a hammer hitting their faces, the men instantly knew the 
truth behind the Necromancer! They knew the truth, and they knew it was 
something Vryce did not know!

Soleil took one final step forward, her mind in turmoil. She must kill the 
Necromancer! Vryce must be alone and cut off. This must be the will of 
Jakob! Vryce's Necromancer was acting like an anchor to his soul that must 
be released. How did she know this? Jakob's command rushed into her and 
over her like awesome waves of God power. "Kill the Necromancer", "Set 
Vryce free once and for all", "Remove his anchor and set him free!"

Her mind blazed behind her eyes! Her tortured thoughts ripped through her 
consciousness! 

Jakob!

She did not know what to do! She has never killed anything in her life! 
Well, not until just a few minutes ago! What has she started!?

She calmed and slowed down time in her soul. She entered her own personal 
dream world ... and ... breathed in ... and out. It was Vryce who taught 
her this spell, as he often talked of dreams and awareness. He once said, 
"when you are in a dream, you are unaware of your own blind stupidity 
towards what is real. Then you often wake up and feel like a jackass. If 
only we could wake up the religious fools who ruin every world I have 
stepped on. Just wake the idiots up so they can see they are just idiots 
following idiots and in doing so rejecting God, and reality!" This was how 
he would talk to her when no one was around and he was in one of his 
moods. Not much set him off more than watching peoples. souls being turned 
off by religion. She even missed his rants.

Her dream spell was working but reality was getting harder to ignore. Was 
she a killer now? She had to decide what to do because when she started 
time again she would not be able to resist the command of Jakob. She 
should be mad, but somehow that seemed wrong. In fact, what seemed right 
was to kill the Necromancer! It must die. She knew it. Did she? What is 
real?!

The words of Vryce, he once said, just put this on my tombstone - "God 
made Hope, Love, and Magic. Man made everything else, like fear, greed, 
and religion. Not this man. He knew what was divine. He knew what was 
real."

.Kill the Necromancer. echoed in her brain as her spell weakened. She 
tried to focus on what was real. 

She once asked Vryce why he trusted Jakob so much and he said it was not 
faith, that Jakob earned it. Not only that but that the words of Jakob 
could be trusted more than anyone's, even his own. She wondered, and 
asked, "What if Jakob told you to kill me?" She remembered suddenly being 
afraid of what he might say. He leaned in and whispered to her,"Well then 
I would kill him for even suggesting it. But he would still have been 
right." He had that particular sort of handsome-but-sly smile, but I 
believed him when it came to Jakob. He joked and said, "Listen, believe it 
or not, but if Jakob ever tells you to kill me, it is probably best that 
you do."

That was how much he trusted the ageless planet-sized space tortoise named 
Jakob, and she trusted Vryce. 

ACT!

Soleil then snapped awake without a second gone in the room and reached 
out as if to hug the thing and to kill it in her embrace, to kill it with 
the power of all of the stars in the universe! To be a killer again!

The Necromancer bowed his head as if in defeat, knowing what she intended. 
Then, smiling at the thought of dying in her embrace, he reached out 
towards her embrace.

"I am sorry!", she shouted at the Necromancer and she took hold of him!

Ontarious, Wellz, and Liono looked at one another in disbelief and 
simultaneously, as if one voice, shouted, "The Necromancer is Vryce!", 
"It's Vryce!", "That is Vryce!", "Vryce!".

Soleil's mind buckled! She heard them! She even somehow instantly believed 
them, but she still had to kill the Necromancer! She knew she should not 
stop! She yelled, "Vryce!", and grabbed the Necromancer, unleashing the 
power of countless stars. destruction between her arms.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aimonsorcio walked like a proud man with his friends, Daedalus and 
Kwexania, as they ascended the staircase of the Castle of Medievia towards 
Marious's war room. Daedalus says to Kwexania, "Have you ever walked to 
the war room like this?" Kwexania, walking along side Daedalus as they 
followed their mutual friend, said, "nope, I just lazily *pop* over like 
most people." Aimonsorcio looks back as they top a bend in the staircase 
and says, "You two do not know each other so I thought I would do the 
introductions before you officially take office.. He grinned and offered, 
"Daedalus, as you may have heard, is a legend amongst legends, a hero's 
hero, a ..", then stops as Daedalus pokes him in the ass with his sharp 
ceremonial obsidian athame dagger.

Kwexania, never late to enjoy a good laugh says, "Ha poke him again!". She 
returns to the honor of the situation, them being elected, her Mayor and 
Daedalus Governor of Medievia, and says, "I know of Daedalus, legendary 
leader of the clan Fate, from way back, someone who could take a group of 
the roughest most ruthless heroes on the planet and get them to work as 
one, as a team, while somehow keeping them out of trouble. It is truly 
legend. Since then it has been years of hearing about the great Daedalus." 
Kwexania held her smile with a straight face, the way a leader learns, the 
others not knowing if she was being sincere or making fun.

Daedalus, who just returned to Medievia after many years. absence, walked 
next to Kwexania, pretending to stick Aimonsorcio in the butt again as he 
said, "I know of you as well Kwexania. You are a brave leader in the 
Insurrection of Chaos clan, known for being brave, loyal, and funny. The 
type of person I approve of, even if I didn't vote for you.", he joked. "I 
was speaking to Soleil last week and she said that your generosity towards 
Medievia has helped keep her spirits up.  She also mentioned something 
about Medievia owning you a debt of gratitude that would be hard to pay 
back?"

Aimonsorcio looked back and said, "Kwexania is a badass, a gracious 
happy-go-lucky badass filled with compassion. It is a strange mix!"

Kwexania laughs and adds, "You have to rip the fun out of life, or it will 
eat you up. Laughing is why we live!"

Daedalus nods as he really pokes Aimonsorcio's ass by accident, making him 
laugh. "I lead through humor. It's the only way to get the knuckleheads to 
behave."

Aimonsorcio stops at the top of the castle staircase, turns, and says to 
Kwexania, "So Daedalus here wanted to try shipping out, since being a mad 
death-defying captain of a Man of War is all the rage now as you know, in 
order clans like yours anyway. He came from the time before we could float 
anything on the ocean, so he had a lot to learn. Daedalus is now a member 
of the Rise of Mayhem clan, a chaos clan that has never thought shipping 
was fun. The legendary Daedalus here starts to ship, and now all of a 
sudden the other members start shipping. Now, shipping is cool to them!"

Kwexania points at Daedalus and says, "You should start collecting 
flowers! Do it to see if it becomes cool! I am sure your's would be a 
'legendary' collection."

Daedalus chuckles and stands up taller. He was actually pretty impressive. 
He barks, "OK jackasses, follow me! The LEGEND! Into ... what is this 
again?"

Kwexania grins, clutching the handle of her sword and says, "We are about 
to enter the dangerous and dreaded procedural meeting, where newly elected 
leaders learn how to govern!"

The three heroes walk down the hall of statues toward the hidden 
passageway to the war room, their footsteps echoing back softly. This area 
was as quiet as a library. A war could be taking place in the war room but 
because of the spells to protect what is said in there, no sound could 
escape. Aimonsorcio stops before the secret statue entrance and says, "You 
know Daedalus, it is a shame things are so boring around Medievia lately. 
If you were really back, maybe things would pick up!" 

They step forward and immediately the statue of the tall man moves aside 
to reveal the war room and the sound of thunder! They, in one quick view, 
witness Soleil trying to kill the Necromancer with some sort of sun-plasma 
bear hug, Marious behind the Necromancer trying to heal it, and Ontarious, 
Liono, and Wellz trying to pull Soleil off of it! The statue quietly 
slides back into position, the area once again as quiet as a tomb.

Daedalus turns to his companions, his eyes glowing with excitement and a 
grin slowly taking over his face, and says, "I am back."

To be continued soon ...

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