Finally Aya stood up, walked over to Oisa, placed her hand beneath her armpits, bodily lifted her up, and shook her violently.

‘Snap out of it Oisa! Father is alive and well in front of you and so are all of us and all the other avatars back in our Household. You know that avatars fade to their deaths once their makers die. Do I look like I’m fading?’

Prof stood up and held out his arms. ‘It’s alright Oisa. You can’t trust your memories in a darkquake.’

Oisa jumped clear across the table into his arms. The Professor was an old man of frail frame and he stepped backwards and fell at Oisa’s weight. The other three avatars disappeared in blurs of yellow and blue, and next instant were behind the Prof, supporting him up so he would not fall.

‘Get off him right now, silly girl’ Alwana ordered. Aya and Bodhi pried Oisa off the tottering Professor, and set both of them on their feet. Once he regained his balance, Prof said ‘Go back to your chairs and freeze.’

All four did just that. In spite of the weirdness of events, Elam nearly laughed. Alwana, Aya, and Bodhi displayed frozen irritation on their faces, while Oisa had a huge permanent smile, as though she was just happy that Prof was still alive.

Prof sat down in his chair. His tone was formal. ‘Maestro, may I apologize for my avatars’ rudeness and misbehavior, breaking protocol.’

Kusgan, whose jaw had dropped at the whole affair, remembered to close his mouth. His tone was formal too. ‘I accept you apology with grace.’ Then in a more normal voice, ‘Really Professor, it’s quite alright. You’re alive and well, so your avatar must have seen a ghost reality that has faded into shadow. Any discrepant inconsistent memory formed in the vicinity of a darkquake is by definition a false one brought about by shifting realities.’

‘I am astonished though at how exaggeratedly human your avatars’ reactions were. They call you their Father, cry and act concerned. You programming is the best I have ever seen. And the speed at which they move, unbelievable!

'On a chair by the table’s side, Elam grew almost as still as the avatars. He remembered it now.

[A group of darklings converged on the Prof, but before they could reach him, a blue and yellow whirlwind flashing bladed double sticks began cutting them into pieces. It was the Warrior. She wore a blazing halo of incandescent blue. The final dozen survivors simultaneously rushed the Warrior. She cut them down, but one 10 foot tall Demon King broke away and leaped for the Professor. Before it could reach him, the entire scene retracted into a swirling gray fog inside a rectangle. Elam closed his eyes. When he opened them the Demon King had grabbed the Professor’s head with its taloned claw.]

Elam kept his peace. There was no point in confirming Oisa’s false memory when the evidence of its wrongness was alive and talking beside him.

‘What else would you like to know about us Minister?’

‘What about him?’ Kusgan was pointing to Elam. ‘He was at the Battle of the Spear, and now he’s here. The Tela produces Anachronistas for specific purposes, some mysteriously trivial, others affecting worlds. Have you figured out his?’

‘Not yet. So I’m kind of dragging him around with me until I find out.’

‘He is of a racial type I have never seen. Natural brown complexion as though he purposefully spent the whole day tanning at the beach yet he has just occurred, small nose, pure straight thick black hair.’

The wrist tabcoms of both Maestros suddenly rang a discrete siren-like alarm. Kusgan and Prof read the message simultaneously.

‘Magnitude 8 darkquake, South Continent, Fuego Peninsulares. You better go Professor. I don’t work for the World Defense Force, but my sources tell me you derive all your income from your job there as an accredited Bounty Hunter.’

The Professor did not seem to be in a hurry. ‘I was beginning to enjoy this conversation, but you’re right. It could be an opportunity for me to earn our week’s finances.’

‘If it’s alright with you Professor Duro, can we meet again?’ Kusgan checked on his schedule on his tablet computer attached like a large bracelet on his left wrist. ‘I’m free a week from now. You’re a free man of course; there are no charges against you.’

‘I have to attend the Senate Hearing on Devolvement next week. After that?’

‘Fine with me, Professor.’

Kusgan spoke to a microphone on the table computer. ‘Captain, by authority of DATA, acquisition a pilot boat, and have them bring the Professor and his party to the Shield.’

The two Maestros exchanged tabcom numbers. ‘Auto mode,’ Prof told the avatars. In a few minutes, they were riding a pilot boat across the mouth of Buhi river into the South Pier.

‘Manong Duro, what did the Minister mean, acquisitioning this boat?’

‘The Department of Anti-Terrorism Affairs is the most feared, respected, and proficient government institution in Alogostan. They accept only the brightest graduates of colleges and military academies, volunteers from police and military special forces, train them into spies and commandos, answer only to the President. One of its powers is the right for any officer grade 3 and above to order the temporary acquisition of any Alogostan registered vehicle or facility, public or private, in pursuance of its aims- which is to counter any terrorism and insurgency against the state. Officers grade 5 and of course its acting Minister can order the arrest and field execution of any individual deemed a terrorist, ever since the radioactive dirty bomb attack two years ago in the Tunga City’s northern suburbs.’

‘Wow. A Teran Kempetai.’ [Where did that statement came from?] ‘So minister Kusgan could have legally executed us in that flying boat.’

‘Yes, at the start, before the darkquake alarm. My status as an employee of the World Defense Force does not exempt me from the laws of Alogostan of which I am a citizen of. All Anachronistas must choose a citizenship a year after occurrence, and I chose Alogostan when I realized that its Eastern Islands provinces were analogues to my Sayabi homeland in my Null World. In addition, in spite of all its nationalistic proto fascist and centralist tendencies, Alogostan practices the closest thing to a libertarian system in Tera. Most of the rest of this world’s Nation-States are fascist or theocratic totalitarian states.’

‘Tera is like one giant conglomerate of police states?’

‘Yes I thought that when I first occurred in my current reincarnation. I came from a world where harmonious Anarchism had prevailed, partially because it got incorporated into most of my world’s religions and philosophies. The world’s population was distributed in small societal polities that exercised all government functions that could theoretically be devolved. The idea of a Unitarian nation-state was regarded as taboo by the Temples and repugnant by my world’s secular philosophers. Small societal units voluntarily practiced birth control to keep the population stable and in harmony with its flora and fauna, which were considered as part of society. Since only a few tens of thousands of citizens composed each polity, they could actually practice a form of participative democracy regarding important government decisions. The idea of warring on a neighbor to annex its resources was almost unthinkable. ’

‘That’s an impossible world, Manong’ Elam stated. ‘It can’t be done.’

‘Class 8 Battle Mission, South Continent, Fuego Peninsulares. Avatars to your stations. Let’s go!’

A tall impressively built middle aged muscular man with a military crew cut, an elderly man in a chef’s uniform, and a cute girl with a coiffure held by a long hairpin in an office worker’s attire greeted them with asian bows. All of them were extremely good-looking in an anime kind of way. [More avatars? Are they all this good-looking?]

The gangway automatically retracted and a sliding door closed the entrance. ‘All is well Bantay?’ Prof asked Mr. Muscleman. He was wearing the uniform of a security guard, blue trousers and a light yellow button shirt that could scarcely contain his huge rocklike pectorals and deltoids. ‘Yes Father. But I’ll just stay here on guard until the Shield launches.’

They began walking inside the entrance corridor, leaving Bantay sitting in a kind of guard booth set in a hollow on the wall, looking outside toward Buhi City Port through a transparent window.

‘What is it Luto? Ihap?

‘Father, I just wanted to know what kind of meals young Anachronista Elam is used to,’ Mr. Chef said. Unlike the typically stout cook, Luto was lean and wiry, and moved like a panther.

‘Uuhhm… Some financial matters, Father,’ Miss Cutie added. She was dressed in a newly pressed blue skirt cut at mid thigh, a buttoned up yellow dress shirt, and neat blue blazer. She had the same long legs and ample bosom of the other four female avatars. A name tag, Avatar Ihap, C.P.A., hung primly on her left breast pocket.

‘He eats the same as us. Seafood and vegetables, Luto.’ Prof gazed at Miss Cutie with an irritated look on his face. She shrank back. ‘Hhmm, I’ll just recheck the figures. Maybe later, Father.’

They exited the corridor into a humongous hall-like passage in the middle of the ship. LED lamps set into the walls illuminated the hallway. Above them Elam could see hanging gardens suspended by steel cables and connected by walkways and transparent hollow tubes. Small houses were set on top of each garden. A transparent roof or ceiling covered the top of the hall. The ship was huge. It was a small barrio inside. Only a few figures in human form could be seen. Luto and Ihap excused themselves.

The four avatars, still in auto mode, did not leave them and walked slightly behind and to the side of them. Elam noted that they had always walked in that formation outside the ship. [A guard formation.]

‘Manong Duro, are they guarding us?’

Prof said ‘Normal mode.’

‘That’s a relief,’ Alwana remarked in a normal voice. ‘I was getting tired of being an ambulatory statue.’

Prof approached a large transparent elevator the size of a small bed room set on the side of the main hall, inside a likewise transparent tube-like structure that had extensions up, down, to the sides, and apparently straight into the wall. The elevator was attached to several rails in the tube. Inside, Elam could see a computer table, sofa-beds, chairs, a drawer, and a partitioned-off bathroom.

‘Given the size of our Balanghay, I had these hybrid elevator-trains installed 40 years ago right after reoccurrence. Alwana designed them. She calls them eletrains. Originally there were only a few of them. In the past decade I’ve had Engineer Husay build and install dozens of new eletrains and scores of transport tubes. I estimate I am biologically nearly 70 years old, but I try to maintain a fit lifestyle and healthy diet. I can still walk almost as fast as you, iho, with your sprightly young legs, but not across this ship several times a day. I found myself forced to use these eletrains more and more often. They’re like elevators, moving up and down, but can also transport you like a train car across the horizontal halls and corridors of this ship in these transport tubes.’

They entered. Prof punched in coordinates in the computer table. The eletrain took off smoothly. ‘I placed it on tour mode, so you can see the scenery going around the ship. Aya, be the tour guide.’

‘Aren’t we in a hurry, Manong?’

Prof smiled. ‘No. Oisa please explain. I have to study the conditions of this mission.’ Prof sat down on one of the chairs, connected his wrist tabcom into the table computer, and began reading info sent by the WDF.

Oisa smiled. ‘Me first. Well then iho..’

Elam smiled back. ‘Please don’t iho me. You’re not my mother, and if I may respectfully say so, I can’t imagine you being a mother. What the hell, I saw you slaying a platoon of unkillable demons by carving them into little bloody gray pieces.

‘10 is the strongest and rarest kind of post Great Darkquake darkquake. It is a darkquake that encompasses a 10 kilometer diameter circle. Such a quake is a direct threat to Tera because high ranking darklings of Dans 11 to 40 invariably occur.’

‘9 is slightly weaker but occurs more frequently. It is a darkquake that encompasses a 9 kilometer diameter circle. High ranking darklings of Dans 11 to 40 invariably occur.’

‘9 to 10 darkquakes are managed only by licensed and accredited Grand Maestros. The main reason is that ordinary Maestros experience extreme difficulty in handling darklings above Dan 10.’

‘There are higher Dan darklings of course, but they only occur in anomalous quakes, which by definition can’t be predicted and are so atypical that the rules are suspended. Usually the closest Maestro to the scene takes up the position of battle Maestro immediately. That’s what happened when you occurred; Father was the closest Maestro and acted at once. In case Dans 41 and above occur, special protocols are initiated, and multiple Maestros and all their avatars usually participate in the battle simultaneously.’

‘The Great Darkquake was a unique anomalous quake, which encompassed all of Tera, inside of which smaller darkquakes continuously occurred.’

‘Going back to ordinary quakes, the mortality and success rates for both Grand Maestros and ordinary Maestros for magnitude 8 quakes and below are exactly the same.’

‘Based on the above data, the Anachronista Maestros near the end of the Great Darkling War decreed that Teran Grand Maestros, in order to preserve their lives for the class 9 and 10 missions, are prohibited from engaging in class 5 missions and down.’

‘For classes 6, 7, and 8 only an ordinary Maestro may first engage. If he fails, then either another ordinary Maestro or a Grand Maestro my take over, with the ordinary Maestro having priority.’

‘In cognizance that field officers are best suited to make field decisions, the highest ranking Anachronista, or later the commanding WDF field officer, could modify these rules.’

‘This old decree was adopted by the fledging WDF, and is applied until today.’

Oisa glanced at Prof, busy on his table computer. He had placed earplugs on.

‘Now here’s the point. Father does not hold the title but WDF officially regards him as having the same status as a Grand Maestro. Thus Father can’t engage in class 5 and below battle missions. He can engage in classes 9 and 10 missions if he gets there before a Grand Maestro. He cannot engage in class 6, 7, 8 missions unless the previously engaging Maestro dies, and no one else wants to try. Since class 9 and 10 missions are so rare, our House can’t derive income from them regularly. What will feed our stomachs will be class 6, 7, or 8 missions. But we first have to wait for the first engaging Maestro to fail.’

‘I have some questions!’ Elam exclaimed.

The eletrain was traveling through the hanging gardens. Each garden lot was an approximately 300 square meters of cable-suspended irregularly shaped platform made of carbon composites, on top of which was a few meters of soil, and one or two houses. The steel cables crisscrossed the open space of the main hallway, attached to the walls.

‘Numerous Maestros were battling armies of darklings during the Great Darkquake. Here only single individuals are allowed to do battle. Why is that?’

‘Why isn’t Sri Duro regarded a Grand Maestro?

Why isn’t Sri Duro receiving a regular employee’s salary?’

‘You and Sri Duro almost singlehandedly destroyed the darkling army in the Battle of the Spear. I remember that. Why do the rules protecting Grand Maestros from engaging in lower class missions apply to him? Shouldn’t he be able to engage in any battle mission?‘

‘Does Sri Duro hunt and collect bounties on the Possessed and Abominations too? And what in the world are they, really?

Oisa again smiled sweetly at him. ‘I see you already have some prepared questions. I’ll answer them one by one.’

‘One, in case two or more Maestros engage in a mission simultaneously, which inevitably entails fighting darklings with their avatars, the chance for them succeeding increases but so does the combined probability of both of them dying. In the end, more Maestros will die for the same number of darklings slain. During the Great Darkquake, Darkling War, and Shift, the darklings were employing organized armies coming in multiple quakes, which is a considerably different condition to today’s usually singly occurring significant quakes. The darkling armies could only be met and defeated by opposing armies of Maestros and their avatars.’

‘Two, Father is not regarded as a Grand Maestro. None of the Anachronistas were, because they came in such great variety and were impossible to classify into distinct classes. Today, it’s because of simple jealousy. The other Maestros envy him and avoid giving him more grand sounding titles.’

‘Three, all Maestros employed by WDF are given a choice. Work for the WDF for a 200,000 peso monthly salary and be assigned wherever the WDF wants. Most end up spending their time making Bugu coins and supervising Bugu mints all over Tera; and hunting and slaying low ranked darklings which get loosed in the numerous low intensity Decimal darkquakes. Most of these are idiots only slightly more intelligent than brain dead Bugus, but sooner or later a few do end up hurting and killing people. The professional bounty hunters don’t go after them because it’s a job that doesn’t pay much. But someone has to, and the WDF assigns many of its employed Maestros to do so without any bounty reward because they are already salaried employees.’

‘The alternative is to become an accredited bounty hunter. The WDF issues an all points broadcast to all Maestros in Tera for darkquakes magnitude 6 and above, but only informs and updates accredited bounty hunters for darkquakes magnitude 1 to 5. The WDF pays a bounty hunter a token salary of one peso a year, updates him on all darkquakes class 1 and above, and gives him a transportation allowance in case he chooses to engage in a battle mission. The WDF may command bounty hunters directly during officially declared State of Emergencies, but otherwise usually leaves them alone as freelance agents. By the way, Minister Kusgan could not have executed Father once the alarm was sounded. One of the privileges of being a WDF employee is diplomatic immunity if one decides to go to an ongoing darkquake.’

‘Four, because Father threatened the livelihood of hundreds of politically connected Maestros. They wanted to keep us out of their turf, the class 8 and below missions, which provide them with lucrative income. They held a signature campaign to treat Father as a Teran Grand Maestro, but without the title, who should abide by the usual rules, and gave it to the WDF. In order to keep the peace for what seemed to it a trivial matter, the WDF complied.’

Aya interrupted. ‘Oisa, we’re entering the Basement depots and cargo holds, my turn at the podium.’

‘The lowermost deck is divided into 8 compartments separated by walls made of titanium, as the hull of the boat is, with closeable openings in them. It’s a defense against the remote possibility of our House boat getting a leak, and would confine the subsequent flooding to the compartment that sprang the leak. These compartments act as cargo holds and storage depots for various vehicles, machines, equipment, food, and water.’ As if on cue, they entered a compartment jammed with sacks of rice and canned goods.

‘Food and water? You eat?’

Aya smiled at Oisa. ‘Question to me, so it’s still my turn.’

‘Yes. Our dark quanta mimic the human body down to atomic particles. So we can mimic human functions. We can also directly feed on dark energy if there is an available source. Dumbed down DarkAIs such as Bugus do this all the time.

‘Can you eat each other?’

Aya giggled. ‘Of course, but I wouldn’t eat Oisa there even if she is trying to frown me to death. That’s like you eating Minister Kusgan. We’re not cannibals. Notice though, have you seen us eat the whole day?’

‘Hhmmm, come to think of it, I haven’t.’

‘When Oisa slew those darklings this morning, their dissolving bodies released concentrated dark energy. Oisa absorbed much of it into her own body. Avatars have spleens, livers, kidneys, intestines, and stomachs that can store dark energy in concentrated fashion. She later transferred most of it to us and the rest of the House’s avatars, especially the Rowers.’

‘The Rowers?’

‘House Avatars who power up the outrigger engines. They are unique to our House, and only Father has the skills to make them. Whatever worlds Father got our House Boat from, it has shown up here with technology far more advanced than anything in Tera, and Teran MDEs have been using DarkAI based technology for 400 years. We combat avatars always feed the Rowers energy we take from the darklings we slay; so that they do not have to eat the Bugu coins that the WDF give to us as transportation allowance. The uneaten Bugus then act as a secondary source of income for our House, aside from the bounties.’

‘Oh here’s the museum where I keep the fruits of my research. Marvelous isn’t it?’ Bodhi interrupted with evident pride. They entered a hall full of archaeological artifacts- articles of clothing, scrolls and trinkets, sculptures and statues, small boats and carriages, flags and banners, weapons and armor. To his side, Elam could see Alwana smirking.

Aya again took over the lecture. ‘Now we’re going to enter one of the outriggers, which are hollow by the way.’

The eletrain went up a hole in the basement ceiling, reentered the Main Hallway, and then entered a corridor on the side. A few Avatars dressed in yellow T shirts and blue shorts were weirdly plugging in their arms and legs into the floor and walls of the corridor. ‘We are now inside one of the arms of the outrigger.’

At the far end, the corridor divided into a T. They took a right turn. ‘We are now in the hull of the outrigger.’ There were more Rower avatars jacked into the walls. Aya pointed to a closed-off opening above them. ‘That’s the entrance to a lifeboat. There’s another one on the other outrigger. Our lifeboats are called Lumba-lumba and Tulingan, and have been stuffed with high tech equipment. In order to launch, the Shield lowers this outrigger’s hull below sea level, thus floating the lifeboat above.’

An avatar dressed in Rower uniform waved at them. Well contoured muscles bulged underneath his tight T shirt. ‘That’s Bugsay, head of the Rowers.’ Aya and the other avatars waved back at him.

Another right. They had effectively made a U-turn. Before reaching the main deck and while still within the outer wall of the boat, the eletrain began to ascend.

‘We just toured our House’s left outrigger. The outriggers are advanced dark technology engines that enable this ship to move almost as fast as Oisa in battle. Now we go up the command tower.’

The eletrain reached the roof deck and moved around. The middle part of it was the transparent ceiling of the ship’s main hallway below. On both sides, the scenery resembled that of a luxury cruise ship. Parks, cafes and restaurants, swimming pools, an auditorium, sports complexes. In the center was a tower, jutting out of the Main Hallway. A transparent shimmery plastic-like sheet covered the whole roof complex, anchored at the central tower and to four smaller towers at each of the ship’s corners, giving the impression of a giant tent.

‘Anything that separates from the ship might end up getting pushed by the miniquakes into a different reality. Thus, the protective tent-like cover, which we call the Shield of the Shield. The protective tent and all of the boat’s outer covering is charged with dark energy, keeping it structurally intact.’

‘So it’s a force field that protects a spaceship as it warps through space time’ Elam said.

‘Nice analogy,’ Aya said. ‘I watch Journey Between Suns Sci-fi series myself.’

The eletrain moved toward the central tower, fitted into a furrow at the side, then ascended to the top. It opened to a large circular hall. ‘This room functions as the captain’s bridge, command and control headquarters, and observation deck. Notice the numerous table computers and giant screen monitors.’

In the middle was the central stairway which continued up in a central cylindrical structure, atop of which was anchored the ship’s protective transparent tent cover. Inside the central cylinder was a mezzanine. On its side was a sign: Wings’ Living Quarters, Demons Keep Out.

Prof removed his ear plugs and stepped inside. ‘Just in time. I can see the coast of the Southern continent. We’re now on the opposite side of the world.’

A tall, lithe and lean blue-haired avatar dressed in a captain’s uniform greeted them with clasped hands and a bow.

‘Status report Sugo?’ Prof asked.

‘The ship and avatars are all functional and at their stations. That’s Fuego Peninsulares ahead of us. I can’t come closer because the bottom is shallow. Round one is ongoing. ’

‘Elam will come with us. Prep the two dragons. I’ll ride Blu. Elam will ride Yel. Aya you ride with Elam and make sure no harm comes to him. Oisa you’re point. Alwana and Bodhi, fly left and right.’

Captain Sugo laid a palm on one of the table touch screen computers.

‘Hangar is open.’

Without a word, Prof strode back to the eletrain. The four combat avatars followed, with Aya taking Elam’s hand in her own and practically dragging him in when he remained standing still, confused. The eletrain immediately descended to the next lower level of the tower and entered a hole on its side. A sliding door closed the opening.

They were in a large room just below the command tower room. One side was totally open to the air. In its center was the cylinder housing of the tower’s central staircase. Elam’s jaw hung open.

The other occupants were two winged dragons, one colored blue, the other yellow.

The eletrain slid along a cable to the top of the blue dragon. One of the eletrain’s door opened. Prof exited and settled himself on a metallic saddle covered by soft cloth. A seat belt, backrest, armrests, control panel, joystick sprang from the sides of the saddle. It had turned into a seat in front of which was a control panel and joystick. Then a plastic-like transparent material billowed out of the backrest and hardened around him. Prof was now sitting in some kind of pilot’s cockpit.

The eletrain moved to the yellow dragon. ‘Get in the saddle’ Aya told him. Elam did so gingerly and slowy. Once he did it transformed into a pilot’s cockpit same as the Professor’s. Aya sat behind the makeshift cockpit directly on the dragon’s back, holding on to the back rest.

Elam turned back to her. ‘Aya you’ll fall off!’

‘No I won’t. Just make sure you are in the saddle’s center, and don’t kick Yel. She knows who you are and will fly gently. She’s an avatar like me. I promise you won’t come to harm. If any darkling wants to harm you, that would be over my dead body.’

The control panel in front of him protruded a small speaker. Prof’s voice spoke. ‘Starting position.’ The dragons walked on four legs toward the open side of the hangar. Their wings below the saddles unfolded.

To his left Elam could see Alwana, right at the very edge of the drop. [Oh @#$%, don’t fall off Alwana.] Elam looked straight ahead. In front of the dragons was Oisa. He turned to the Professor and the dragon Blu. To Blu’s right was Bodhi. All three avatars were poised at the hangar’s edge.

‘Ready for take off.’

The dragons crouched, wings slightly flexed. Bodhi folded her hands as if in greeting or prayer. Elam could not believe what happened next.

‘Launch!’

Oisa, Alwana, Bodhi and the two dragons all simultaneously sprang into the air. They flew toward the gray land under a dawning sun.

[It isn’t so bad.] The dragon Yel had taken off gently as Aya promised. Elam only felt a slight acceleration and then nothing. Beneath him the cyan-blue sea raced pass. It was like he was on a plane flying in calm weather. No wind, just a small hum of what seemed to be air-conditioned air coming from both sides of the saddle beneath him. Aya need not have worried.

Aya! Elam turned back in panic. Aya was calmly sitting behind him, still holding on to his backrest. Golden hair flew in the wind behind her. She smiled at him just a few inches away.

Elam remembered that smile.

[Turning to the Medic beside him on the bow, Prof ordered ‘Doctor to him, Aya.' The Medic disappeared from the tower, hurried out of one of the ship’s side entrance on a gangway, checked his head, pupils, neck, chest and abdomen. She lifted him and carried him in her arms effortlessly toward the Order’s home ship. He looked up at her blankly. The Medic saw her charge looking at her. Using the Sayabi term for younger brother, she said ‘You’ll be fine, Toto.’ She kissed him gently on the forehead and smiled. Close up, she had the face of an angel.]

The world stopped for a second. Bliss. Riding a dragon between the sea and sky, his guardian angel smiling over his shoulder.

Said angel snapped him out of his trance. ‘We’re crossing the shoreline’. Her voice was coming out of the speaker. Elam looked at it, then back at Aya. She pointed to a small microphone tied to a necklace around her neck. ‘You can talk to me directly. My hearing is acute enough to catch what you’re saying.’

‘How do Oisa, Bodhi, Alwana, and the dragons fly so fast; they barely beat their wings?’

‘Our wings work along the same principles as the Shield’s outrigger engines. They allow us to move in little increments of reality shifts. Like the outriggers, they’re powered by dark energy, from our body’s reserves. By the way you might want to look to your left.’

Alwana had moved right next to his cockpit, all buttery hair, gold feathered wings, and angelic face, and like Aya was smiling at him. She took his breath away. Then she waved at him and pointed to his right.

Aya was now also soaring beside his cockpit. She smiled again and raised both hands to give him a double thumbs up. Elam laughed for joy.

Aya’s voice came over the speaker. ‘Do you think we’re angels?’

Oisa’s voice came over the speaker. ‘Aya, Alwana, stop fooling around with Elam. We’re getting closer to the Maestros’ camp. Switching to broadband so everyone can hear.’ Pause.

‘Something is wrong.’ Pause.

‘New epicenter. Localizing. New one is anomalous. Right here right now.’

Elam looked at the Prof, Blu, and Bodhi to his right..

‘Bogey to the right!’

There was a blurring and then Elam saw Bodhi attacking a huge winged creature with her doble espada. It was an intricate whirlwind dance of flashing blades and taloned limbs.

‘5 bogeys to the left.’

‘Yel, land’. Aya’s voice.

Elam suddenly felt his stomach rising as the dragon Yel plummeted down to ground. Just before landing, Yel decelerated, turning a potentially fatal crash into a case of queasy stomach. The cockpit’s plastic tent retracted. He looked up. Bodhi was repeatedly darting in, slashing, drawing back from the darkling she was fighting. It seemed weaker. One final slash. A wing came out. The darkling fell. Bodhi flew down after it.

Above him Alwana was fighting another darkling. It was like they were doing the tango in mid air. Synchronized movements of bladed sticks and talons so close to one another, yet not cutting into flesh.

In front of the Prof’s dragon, Oisa stood hovering, flaming doble espada in her right hand blazing blue and yellow fire, arm extended, golden wings and flowing hair, sapphire eyes flashing, a seraph’s face set in determination. Two huge darklings plunged into her, talons extended. At the last moment, Oisa pivoted away from her original position. The two darklings crashed into one another. As they instinctively drew back from each other, Oisa in the same pirouetting motion beheaded the one closest to her with an arcing sweep of her doble espada.

Yel growled. A darkling had appeared 30 meters to her left. It leaped toward Elam. He awkwardly rolled off the saddle and fell to the ground, the darkling passing overhead. It landed, rolled, and came up facing him in a crouch. It snarled, getting ready to attack again. A plummeting form smashed into it from above. The two rolled along the ground and came to a stop just 5 meters away. Aya rose quickly withdrawing her two mono espada fighting sticks, one glittering bright gold, the other shimmering dark blue, from the monster’s head. The corpse dissolved into dust and was gone, except for a vague afterimage.

She smiled at him. ‘You’ll be fine, Toto.’

Out of nowhere black metallic talons erupted in front of her right chest. Another darkling had speared her with his steel-hard right hand from behind.

Elam screamed. ‘No!’

The Demon King stood up to its full height, and raised its arm, Aya impaled and hanging from it. The thrust had missed her heart on the center-left. She was still alive. The darkling grinned at Elam. It stood 10 feet tall; sported sharp cloven hooves, several bladed horns, a long twitching pointed prehensile tail, insect-like wings as sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, turgid hermaphroditic genitalia, and thorny undulating razor spikes all over a hardened steel-like black skin.

With its taloned left claw, it ripped off Aya’s clothes, leaving long gashes down her body. Blood the color of the sky and sea splashed across her breasts and down her torso. The Demon King’s worm-like member distended and lapped up the azure liquid on her thighs and pelvis. A long forked black tongue snaked its way out from the monster’s fanged jaws, over her right shoulder, and eagerly began licking at the copiously dribbling blood on Aya’s chest. It slid into the hole on her thorax adjacent to its claw, slurping in lung parenchyma and more bubbling blood. The appendages were like sponges attached to a suction machine; blood, body liquids, and soft tissue rapidly disappeared into them as they flicked over skin and into body orifices.

Elam watched mesmerized as several horrific minutes passed. The darkling was not hurrying; it seemed to be waiting for something to happen. Waves of convulsions began passing up and down Aya’s body. Finally the darkling seemed to have come to a decision. Its tongue darted into her mouth. Aya began gagging, her face grimacing at every cough. Then there was a sharp crack as the tongue penetrated the posterior wall of her esophagus, fractured her upper thoracic spine, and severed her spinal cord. Her quivering body ceased all movement from chest down. Next the tongue withdrew from her mouth and began to coil tightly around her neck.

Spastic with pain and effort, face set in rictus, Aya mouthed to Elam, Am sorry, run! Then she relaxed as though she had sensed something.

She smiled at him for the last time that day, and gave Elam a two thumbs up.

Then again, I have also learned things from you, so -

<and gave Elam a two thumbs up>

Pardon, how is she doing that with a severed spine? ;)

Hehe. Astute question.

The darkling raised Aya’s slumped body, tongue still coiled around her neck, into its cavernous fanged maw. Elam stared horrified as the darkling clearly was about to rip off her head and eat it.

There was a little whoosh. A shimmery doble espada impaled the darkling’s head, temple to temple below its temporal horns. It was not colored the usual yellow and blue, but jet black through and through. The darkling, surprised look on its face, collapsed on its back, Aya’s body draped across its front, still impaled through the chest.

A shadow fell over them. From Elam’s seated position on the ground, Oisa appeared as a beautifully contoured ebony statue shimmering across the morning’s yellow sun. She removed her doble espada just as the monster dissolved in a cloud of dust.

A faint black afterimage of the darkling’s body persisted where it used to lay. Oisa knelt and thrust an arm into it. It lost form and entered Oisa’s arm and body.

Elam walked over and sat beside Oisa. To his surprise Oisa looked calm and composed; and as black as a starless midnight underneath her denim skirt and yellow blouse. He was trembling like a fluttering leaf. He avoided looking at Aya’s body.

‘You OK iho?’ Oisa patted his head. Elam found himself quietly crying. Flashes of blue and yellow appeared to scintillate in waves across Oisa’s body, sparkling sapphire and topaz on jet chasing night’s shadow away.

Bodhi and Alwana landed beside them. ‘It’s alright Elam. Oisa, you should have told him we can still bring her back,’ Alwana said. Oisa was now back to her normal aspect- yellow hair, milky white butter-tinged skin, aquamarine irises.

Bodhi explained ‘DarkAIs aren’t human. Although our component quanta mimic human cells at the atomic level, they’re still compressed dark energy. As long as Aya’s form has not dissipated, we can reanimate her by infusing her with dark energy. It’s a question of how much energy.’

Oisa, Bodhi, and Alwana laid palms on Aya’s chest. They glowed blue. Then the light faded and they sat down, looking exhausted.

‘That bastard bled off her energy down to the barest minimum and has placed a Block on her. It’s going to be a problem,’ Alwana said.

Yel barked a greeting. Blu landed softly beside her. Prof got down and without a word hurried over to Aya and hugged her body. Then he pressed his forearm on the back of her head. Elam could see his Seal glow blue, then fade. Prof sat down beside them.

‘We’ve given all the energy we took from the slain darklings to Aya, and more’, Bodhi said. ‘The darkling pushed her down to her minimal energy level.’

‘The Pseudo Death technique. Only a very high ranked darkling can do that’ Prof stated.

‘But at least she is still alive? I thought she was dead!’ Elam interrupted.

Prof turned to him. ‘This darkling, and it must have been a high ranked Dan to have the ability, purposefully did this to Aya anticipating that reinforcements would arrive. They often do that. They know that humans and some of their programmed avatars always try to save their own, in which case the reinforcements would get distracted trying to save a dead but still salvageable avatar.’

‘The big problem is that it also placed a Biased Block on her. According to my diagnostics, only large amounts of energy from Naturally occurring darklings can revive her. Energy from man-made artificial incarnates, avatars, dragons, Bugus, can only prevent her dissipation, and there’s a time limit.’ Prof turned to Oisa.

‘That was a pretty powerful Demon King. How did it die?’

‘I employed the Separated Strike.’

Prof looked at Oisa in surprise. ‘You know how risky that is!’

‘Huo Father. But it was about to deal her the final death by eating her head. I saw that it was a powerful Demon King, Dan 90, nearly a High Demon. It employed the Chameleon Cover to sneak up on Aya and impale her. I was too far away and was busy terminating another Demon King, Dan 80. So I employed the Black Shadow in order to sneak underneath its Chameleon Cover. It probably decided that no reinforcements were coming, so decided to finish Aya off. By then I had come close enough to do the Strike.’

Prof looked even more surprised, and then worried. ‘The Black Shadow?’

‘The Black Shadow is a dark technique employed by the highest darkling Dans, usually High Demon Kings. They gain more powers at the expense of using more dark energy, including the ability to make themselves invisibly black to lower Dans. Only the Wings among Artificial Incarnates are capable of using this technique, but can do so only by assuming the color of a High Demon King. Afterward, there is a small probability that a Black Wing would forget her true colors.’

Before Elam could pose further questions, the two dragons barked excited greetings. A large noisy helicopter loomed overhead. ‘I called for Big Mov as soon as we were attacked. Sometimes the long range air to air missiles it carries can distract high ranked flying darklings, and its bombs, air to ground rockets and missiles, and 30mm automatic cannons are almost as effective against low Dan darklings as modern combat avatars. It also carries medical supplies and food. Since it’s here already, I think we could use it as living quarters instead of one of the tents at the Maestros’ camp.’

The chopper approached and landed on a small clearing nearby. It was huge. It had contra rotating rotors at its top.

‘A Movka 1000,’ Oisa told Elam with evident pride. ‘It’s powered by Bugu coins. It cost Father 500 million pesos, but I insisted that we buy it when I saw one in an air exhibition. We had to sell several items from the Great Darkling War stored in Bodhi’s junk depot.’

Bodhi glared at Oisa.

‘Sorry Bodhi, but you well know that they were the most insignificant of the assorted trinkets that we acquired with our Boat.’

Oisa continued, trying to ignore Bodhi’s glare. ‘Big Mov is kept in a hangar beneath the bow’s deck whose roof opens into the air. It can carry 150 people comfortably, and more in an emergency. There are about 100 avatars in the Shield and so it can carry the entire crew of our Household.’

The back of the chopper lowered and transformed into a boarding ramp.

‘Bring her to Big Mov’ Prof commanded. Bodhi easily lifted Aya’s body. They all boarded the giant helicopter, including the two dragons. After they had all settled in, Big Mov took off.

Prof barked out a report to the World Defense Force in the helicopter’s middle compartment, a furnished passengers’ living room complete with ref, bathroom, computer table, chairs and sofa beds, located behind the pilot’s cabin. The back compartment was occupied by the two dragons in freeze mode; it was so large that it doubled as a hangar for the dragons and various types of vehicles. In front of them was the front compartment that served as the pilot’s cabin and cockpit.

‘I have successfully calmed the second darkquake at Fuego Peninsulares, South Continent. It was an Anomaly. Very highly ranked Dans occurred, including a Dan 80 and a Dan 90. I will write down the details later, but for now I must report that Wing 4, code name the Medic, was slain by the Dan 90 Demon King.’

‘Darkling diagnostics reveal that Wing 4 is still salvageable. The Dan 90 has pushed her down to her minimal energy level and placed a Biased Block on her. ‘

‘Wing 4 is a veteran of the Great Darkling War that has reoccurred along with her maker, myself, Anachronista Professor Duro, MDE, in Tera 40 years ago. She was and is a Winged avatar. In today’s Tera she is one of the four avatars left behind capable of slaying very high ranked Dans in single combat. She is an irreplaceable asset of the World Defense Force in battles against invasive darklings. Thus I have made the decision to save her by slaying the darklings that are occurring in the first darkquake also occurring simultaneously in Fuego Peninsulares, and infusing her with their energy, if the commanding field officer of the WDF approves.’

‘It is reported that the first battle Maestro has failed and has been slain. The second battle Maestro is currently engaging.’

They lounged about the passenger cabin as the giant helicopter raced above a lush tropical forest. Elam scratched his head. ‘I thought it was only Oisa that was the soldier,’ he said to Alwana on the chair beside him.

‘Nope. Near the end of the Great Darkling War, most of the Anachronista avatars began to grow bored, including us, the Winged avatars of the Order of the Sun and Sky. Most of the engagements were being handled by the new generation of Teran Maestros. The darkquakes began to resemble those of today’s era, occurring singly, and drastically fell off in quantity.’

‘Conditions had become no different from that of today’s, except that most of Tera was not industrialized. Anachronistas from technologically advanced worlds decided to upgrade the old academic institutions, and began initiating various professional specialties that could handle the advanced equipment and technologies that had occurred with them. The modern University system was born, under the supervision of Anachronistas. Father enrolled us in the first University that opened, where I graduated Bachelor of Science in Physics. However, I was a combater first, as were all Wings.’

‘What are the others’ specialties?’

‘Oisa never studied. She’s the unschooled one.’

‘Common Alwana. I was so good in slaying darklings that they never retired me until near the end, which they did to all the other Anachronistas’ avatars once the native Teran Maestros began making their own. For ten years before the De-occurrence, you and the rest were doing nothing.’

Alwana ignored her.

‘Aya took up B.S. Biology and went on to Medicine. She was into second year Medical School when a new upsurge of darkquakes began to occur, portending the arrival of another Great Darkquake. It was then that the Anachronistas decided for everyone’s sake to leave Tera for good.’

‘Bodhi took up Philosophy and Anthropology. She believes that her greatest contribution to humanity is potentially her thesis for her Doctorate degree.’

‘Yeah, how rational religions can be used to usher in libertarian social systems and preserve humanity’s ethnic diversity. I actually wrote numerous essays and some books. Unfortunately when the fledging theocracies then heard of my thesis, they filed numerous cases of slander against me.’

‘Wow! Are all avatars as talented as you four?’

‘Not to boast but from what I understand, even in the Great Darkling War, we were regarded as extraordinary. It’s why we were sometimes code named Archs, short for Arch Winged Avatars of the Order of the Sun and Sky. In today’s Tera the top one hundred combat avatars in the kill/mission rating list have similar so-called code names. Mine is the Scientist.’

‘Father doesn’t remember a thing, as you well know. We ourselves remember only bits and pieces of the War and even those memories aren’t reliable,’ Bodhi said. ‘What strikes me is that we can hardly remember anything about our warrior and military training or nature. I feel I am a philosopher and a writer, not a soldier. I don’t know if that’s true for Oisa.’

‘I don’t know how I feel. I’m just good in slaying darklings, that’s all.’

‘How about Manong Duro? What is he a Professor of?’

‘No one really knows,’ Bodhi answered. ‘Our memories don’t extend to that.’

The intercom buzzed.

‘Captain Lupad of the Big Mov reporting. Father, we are now about to land in the bivouac camp of the battle Maestros, just 4 kilometers off the epicenter.’

‘Power up’ Prof told the Wings.

He produced 3 jars of Bugu coins. Each avatar took one jar. The girls proceeded to swallow the coins.

‘You ate them!’

‘They taste terrible and are hard to swallow if that’s what you want to know, my dear child. But it’s the most efficient way to absorb all the dark energy of other darklings. None of it gets dissipated into the environment.’ Oisa stood up as the copter landed.

Prof opened the door into the pilot’s cabin and spoke directly to a blue-haired avatar wearing the uniform of a pilot. ‘Standby, Lupad. Take care of Aya.’ He nodded toward Aya seemingly asleep on one of the sofas.

The pilot’s blue hair reminded Elam of Aya’s blue blood. ‘Do other avatars have blue blood?’

’Not all. It depends on the colors of their Order. Some of our House avatars have yellow blood. In fact, I have yellow blood. Our DarkAI quanta can configure themselves so that only blue or yellow light bounces off. If our House colors were red and green, our blood would reflect red and green, and be perceived that way,’ Alwana answered.

Lupad touched a button on his wrist tab com. The side cabin door opened down to form a ramp. Oisa and Bodhi and descended first, the Prof and Elam next, Alwana bringing up the rear.

‘Salutations, Maestro Juan.’

They obviously knew each other. Else they would be touching wrists.

‘I heard about what happened to the Medic.’ Juan pointed at Big Mov. ‘She in there?’

‘Yes.’

‘I just read your request. WDF control forwarded it to me. You know that the other Maestros won’t like it.’

‘I know. Can we talk about it? You’re the WDF commanding officer for this region.’

The weather was tropical like that of the South Eastern Islands. There were tents, Maestros, avatars, and soldiers of the same race as Juan from the Fuego National Army all over the place. Maestro Juan led them to the largest tent.

Inside was like a suite. There were air-conditioning units, a bathroom, and a large refrigerator plastered to which was a sign that announced ‘Free Food and Drinks, Maestros Only’. Table touch screen computers sat everywhere. On them various aspects of the battlefield, including avatars and darklings hacking at each other were being shown in real time. Some were in 3D holograms. Stats flashed on and off.

Elam stared at one screen fascinated. A platoon of combat avatars was firing Rocket Propelled Grenades and Anti Tank Guided Missiles at a group of wingless low Dans. One ATGM landed 2 meters away from a darkling. The explosion threw it 10 meters away. To Elam’s amazement, it immediately albeit slowly, began to stand up again. An RPG hit it directly on the chest. It burst apart into a hundred pieces of flesh like gray popcorn. The remaining darklings expertly avoided direct hits, moving crab-wise laterally, and then swiftly rushed the avatars. At close range, the avatars abandoned their RPGs and ATGMs and began fighting with sword and shield.

One darkling raked an avatar with its left claw. The avatar met the claw with her shield on her right hand, and simultaneously swung her sword with her left hand. The darkling was ready and intercepted the sword with steel-hard talons on its right claw. Then it swiftly jutted its head forward passing the avatar’s shield on its left and sword on its right. Its machete-like single horn penetrated the avatar’s chest dead center. As it withdrew its head, blood the color of fresh summer leaves spouted from the avatar’s chest. She crumpled to the ground dead. She immediately began to dissipate into green and yellow dust. It all happened as fast as blitz that Elam did not have time to get shocked.

On another screen were some stats rounded off to the nearest tens. A thousand human civilians in two villages had been killed. In the current round, the second battle Maestro had fielded 250 combat avatars. 200 had been killed, along with 30 darklings. In the present battle, only 50 avatars were left fighting the remaining 30 darklings.

A dozen Maestros were waiting for them seated haphazardly all over the command tent’s interior.

Everyone grabbed an empty chair. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone began to speak at once.

‘I disagree’. Another Southerner spoke up at once.

‘Go on Maestro Mario,’ Juan said.

‘You can’t use the kill/mission rating list as the basis of your argument, Duro. Avatars are expendable. We can always make another if one dies. If the Medic dies, the present number 5 just moves up rank. Tell us Duro. How did the rating list start?’

Prof remained silent.

Mario continued. ‘It started as a betting guide to Maestros after WW3, who bet on their avatars for amusement. Even now, the strongest advocates for the retention of the rating list use it to bet on avatars. Perhaps you liked to watch Avatars vs Darklings TV shows?’

‘No.’

‘Organized crime made it in order to increase profits of crime lords. Eventually it came to affect mission performance. Maestros with avatars who were near the top of the rating list refused to allow them to engage high ranked darklings, in order to preserve the lives of these avatars so they could cash on them. This in turn lessened their chances of accomplishing and surviving their missions because they kept using their more inferior avatars. At least a dozen Maestro deaths were linked to gambling activities. The World Defense Force final made a unilateral decision to ban such television shows and public betting on avatars. The only good thing that came out of it was that the WDF clamped down on crime lords into the avatar betting business and terminated most of them.’

The Professor had been caught on the wrong side of the debate. He tried another argument.

‘Well then what about anomalous darkquakes? In the recent one, a Dan 90 occurred. We really don’t know the reason for them, but suppose two Dan 90s appear? At least we have the Winged avatars as insurance against such possibility.

Another Southerner spoke. As this was the Southern Continent it wasn’t surprising that most of the Maestros were Southerners. [They don’t seem to like him so much.]

‘Duro a year ago, a Dan 90 did appear in an anomalous quake, while you were off engaging in one of your conferences. 20 Maestros and 6000 avatars fought it and slew it, although they all died in the process. A single Dan 90 is still quite killable. Now you assume two? Duro do you even know the definition of ‘anomalous’? They are unpredictable events. It’s like you’re saying that we should sell everything and join those hundred colonists in Ares because we fear a giant comet will hit Tera.’

‘And even they are not immune to darkquakes. It’s been proven that darkquakes occur wherever humans settle in. Our minds are linked to them somehow in the Tela.’ A third Southerner butted in.

Maestro Juan offered them accommodations in the empty tent of the slain first battle Maestro. The Professor politely declined, saying that his helicopter had adequate living quarters, but that they would like to ask for food and water. As though feeling sorry for them, Juan half emptied his tent’s refrigerator into a large grocery bag and gave it to Elam to carry.

Maestro Mario sat alone by himself in a corner. He was busy punching keys on a table computer. As they left the command tent, Elam thought he saw a hallucination. A hologram of an avatar appeared floating on top of the table computer. It rapidly expanded, climbed down the table, and stood beside Maestro Mario. Then Elam was out of the tent.

They trudged back to Big Mov with the grocery bag. In the passenger’s cabin room, Prof announced he would get some sleep. He took a shower in the small bathroom, unfolded one of the sofas into a bed, and dropped off to sleep.

Elam took a shower after the Professor. There were clothes his size on a hanger inside the bathroom. A piece of paper was plastered to them. [Your new clothes, compliments of Captain Lupad]. He got into the newly pressed blue cargo pants and yellow shirt. [Am I to wear blue cargo pants and yellow shirts throughout my life here?]

To his surprise the three Wings also took showers. ‘We don’t want to wake you up because we’re smelly’, Alwana told him smugly.

When it was obvious that Prof was asleep, he joined the three avatars on the table. They wore short denim skirts and yellow camisoles, newly pressed ones. They were drinking some of the bottled water from the grocery bag.

‘They don’t like him, do they?’
‘Of course,’ Bodhi replied. ‘Legends are supposed to go away and never come back; to be admired, not to be competed against. MDEs have egos the size of the Great Eastern Ocean. They’re jealous.’

‘But it’s more than that. Father threatens the income of many of them, especially Southerners. The original Great Darkquake originated in the middle of the Southern Continent. Until now 80% of Tera’s darkquakes occur here. It has made most of the Southern Continent uninhabitable for humans.’

‘What about animals?’

‘Animals?’

‘You know, elephants, hippopotamuses, zebras, and what have you.’

‘Oh, the darklings mostly leave them alone. Most of the Southern Continent is one giant refugium. The most popular hypothesis states that when a Natural Darkling kills a sentient human, it creates a small ripple in the Tela which acts as an addicting pleasure drug to the darkling and provides it with some dark energy. The natural tendency of a Natural darkling is to kill human beings until there is none left, before it turns to other sources of dark energy for sustenance. They can and do occasionally kill and eat other animals, but it’s the death of human beings and the taste of their flesh that they really crave, which is precisely why there are only around 30 million Southerners in all of Tera. All of them are located in five Nation States located in a strip of land in the northernmost part of the continent where darkquake incident rates begin to fall off. All of them are dirt poor. Fuego is the last inhabited southernmost nation.’

‘Yet precisely because there are so many quakes here, there are also so many Maestros. A disproportionate number of Maestros in Tera are Southerners. Universities and Colleges that offer the degree of MDE in the Southern Continent are always full, with more than half of the students in the MDE courses. Every child dreams of slaying a demon. The total income of bounty hunting Maestros contributes significantly to the economy. The WDF relies on Southern Continent academies to continually produce new Maestros, and has to make sure that Southerner Maestros always get a piece of the darklings, especially when the darkquake is occurring here. For Southerners, Father is a poacher.’

‘The first two battle Maestros have already been killed. Yet I could sense they are all positively craving to do battle. Are all Maestros so fearless?’

‘Only these Southerners, for reasons related to their economy and culture. A Maestro getting KIA usually means that the darkquake has occurred high ranked Dans, or lots and lots of low ranked darklings; or worse, lots and lots of high ranked Dans. In other parts of the world, that usually scares the other Maestros, and so after the first battle Maestro is slain, the others usually give way to a Grand Maestro. Not here. Southerner cultures deem it a great honor to be killed while fighting darklings. The governments proclaim them heroes and by tradition award lavish cash prizes to their families. ’

Instead of asking more questions, Elam yawned.

Bodhi eyed him. ‘Aren’t you sleepy?’

‘Just a little. Aren’t you?’

Bodhi smiled. [They all like to smile.] ‘Darklings don’t need to sleep. And we are darklings in essence.’

‘What?’

Bodhi said ’Ah but is sleep a physiological need for most of our organs? Does our gastrointestinal tract need to sleep? Our heart, liver, kidneys? No one really knows why humans need to sleep; yet permanent sleep deprivation kills humans and other mammals. I would guess that it has something to do with the brain or the mind itself.’

Elam glanced at Aya lying peacefully on a sofa. ‘Is she asleep?’

‘No she’s dead.’ There was sadness in Bodhi’s voice. ‘Her heart does not beat, her remaining blood has coagulated, and she does not breathe.’

‘But she could be resurrected if she gets enough jolt of dark energy, right?’

‘So could Father’s wrist tablet computer, after it gets turned off, by mundane electrical energy.’

‘So what are you, tablet computers?’ [This conversation is beginning to get irritating.]

‘Bodhi is a philosopher. Never get into a debate with her’ Alwana told him. ‘You said it yourself, migo, while you were laughing for joy on Yel’s back, and Aya and I were soaring the sky beside you. We’re angels.’

Alwana stood up and unfolded a pair of magnificent gold feathered wings.

Elam stopped, stunned. He did not know what to say. Alwana grinned, retracted her wings and sat down in front of him.

‘We don’t fully understand what our wings are.’ Oisa had joined in. ‘I can remember winged avatars in the Great Darkling War. There must have been ways then to make us because we are the only ones that can effectively combat flying darklings, and all darklings above Dan 10 can fly. With the loss of memories from his past lives, Father just can’t produce winged avatars anymore. Nor this.’

Two mono espadas sprang out of her wrists, one blue and one yellow. They were cylindrical sticks with several blades running in spirals throughout their length. She joined them into a single doble espada, a longer stick-like weapon divided into two equal parts of yellow and blue. The proximal parts had fused smoothly and seamlessly. They burst into flames. ‘No they are not flames, although they look like it. Don’t touch it!’ Elam was just about to poke it with a finger.

‘You were about to lose that finger. If a human were to touch it anywhere its length, it would cauterize him. It cuts through virtually any substance except things made of dark quanta and those protected by the Maestros’ power and arts, and even these are not totally resistant. I am the only being totally autoimmune to my doble espada and that’s because it’s a part of me.’

‘By the Maestros’ power, you mean the power of their Seals?’

‘Of course. The Maestros derive their power over the Dark from their Seals, which can only be handed down by skin to skin contact, an apostolic succession. They make avatars by sitting in front of a computer, generating some kind of figure with programmed attributes, and touching their Seals to that computer generated figure. This universe’s dark energy flows into the Seal and into that figure and its attributes. The figure steps forth out of the monitor, and an avatar is born.’

‘Don’t ask us or them who made the original Seal or why they come in different varieties. They don’t know. Your guess is as good as theirs,’ Bodhi added.

Elam found his brain getting numbed down by all this new information. He tried another question. ‘Why stop at angels and dragons? Why not build giants 300 feet tall that could swat down darklings like hapless gnats?’

‘Because the Seals simply do not animate such things. Seals will animate human-like figures, Dragons and they’re always mute and with IQs like chimpanzees at the most, Bugus who are always brainless, and what have you. Not impossible monsters.’

Elam’s brain had stopped functioning. He yawned again. Oisa said ‘Quiet you two. He’s just a kid.’

‘He’s thirteen. Old enough to dance with me at a party.’ Alwana giggled.

‘Wake up sleepy head.’ Alwana was shaking him.

‘What time is it?’ He looked around. ‘Where’s the Professor?

‘He’s on a meeting with the Maestros. The second battle master has failed and has been slain. Maestro Mario and his avatars are now inside the darkquake circle fighting the darklings. This round is going to take some time because the darklings are now engaging in evasive action. They are bound to the darkquake’s 8 kilometer diameter circle for only about a hundred hours or 4 days, after which time they can escape into the world. They sense that time is coming.’

Elam glanced at the transparent cabin window. It was night.

‘It’s night!’

‘But of course it is, pang-ga my dear.’ You slept the entire day away. It’s 9pm.’

‘Father is applying for the position of fourth battle Maestro, just in case Maestro Mario fails.’

‘You mean killed. Why are you so casual about it?’

Alwana looked at him puzzled. ‘Maestros get KIA all the time. Most combat avatars don’t last three missions. The Southern Continent academies ensure that there are always new recruits to the MDE course. The avatars are mass produced in computers. You saw Maestro Mario conjuring one out of a table com, didn’t you? He probably has a hundred virtual soldiers stored in the memory files of his computers. Just waiting to be animated and incarnated into real life. He began summoning them as soon as the decision to make him third battle Maestro was taken.’

‘Why doesn’t he just make a million avatars and squash those darklings in a second?’

Bodhi said ‘It takes much time and effort to create a virtual avatar in the computer. The rules are that you can’t copy paste virtual avatars. If you do, you get a cartoon character that can’t be incarnated. Moreover, while tediously punching keys writing the program for a virtual avatar, the Maestro has to perform rituals in his mind’s eye. It needs concentration to do that. In short, if you want to make a single good combat avatar, you need to invest a lot of time and effort.’

‘Or you can burp out a million avatars in a jiffy, and they’ll turn out to be small brainless lumps, like the Bugu coins,’ Alwana added. ‘That’s how MDEs in the mints make them.’

‘Quit it. Father said we should be there in 30 minutes.’ Oisa pushed the passengers’ cabin door’s control button. It opened down to form a ramp. She started marching out.

Alwana grabbed Elam, stood him up, and walked him toward the door. They walked toward the command tent about a hundred meters away. He noticed the avatars had assumed a guard triangular formation, with him inside the triangle, Oisa in front, Bodhi and Alwana behind and to his sides. A gray military helicopter was landing near the command tent’s front entrance. Dozens of Fuegan soldiers in khaki uniforms stood at attention.

Oisa ignored them and entered a side entrance. The two Fuegan military guards glanced at their blue and yellow colors, and did not stop them from entering.

The Professor was sitting by a small round table near the entrance, looking at his tabcom. They joined him.

‘How are you my dear guru?’ She spoke Sayabi, somewhat to Elam’s surprise.

Prof looked at their uninvited guest coolly. ‘Nice to see you too. Elam this is Maestra Lili.’

Elam looked at her curiously. She looked like a young student.

‘So this is the new Anachronista. He looks so young.’

‘What does Minister Kusgan want Lili?’

Lili looked pained.

‘I will be frank. You ratted on me last year. No one knew that I was going to attend the South Eastern Islands Provincial Council Hearing and protest the new bill advocating that debilitating poll tax of a hundred thousand pesos a month on radio programs that use the Sayabi language. Only you. Then on the morning of the Hearing, I got arrested on charges of seducing a student against her will, the charges filed that morning by your legal guardian, who I later found out is an employee of DATA. That prevented me from attending. I carry enough esteem in the eyes of the people that my personal protest would probably have halted the bill. Not only was the bill passed, North Eastern Islands decided it was the chic thing to do and adopted a similar bill, although the tax was reduced to fifty thousand pesos a month. Someone in their Council decided North Eastern Islands could do well with an additional 50,000 a month, without forcing me to totally abandon the radio program which would have happened had they imposed a higher tax. In 10 months we paid 2 million pesos in taxes for our two radio programs in South Eastern Islands, and I was forced to stop them. Now only one Sayabi radio program is left and I can barely support it financially.’

‘Duro, you know that next day I signed an affidavit that my legal guardian had been misinformed and acted too hastily. The charges were immediately dropped.’

All three avatars were looking on with iced eyes. Prof continued, ignoring her.

‘Then after a week, the South Eastern Islands Provincial Government announced that they had chosen you as their year’s wild card for the Seal, even though you had spent just two years at the Provincial Academy.’

‘Duro, I passed didn’t I?’ She bared her right wrist. It had a Seal, in blue and red colors. Same Order as Kusgan.

‘You know well that I paid for my MDE training. I hired you as a personal tutor using DATA funds for a hundred thousand pesos a month, on the condition that you teach me the arts of Humble Acceptance and Avatar Making, normally taught only to 4th year students in regular classes, and that I be allowed to room and board in one of the vacant houses in the hanging gardens of the Shield. The fact that you began teaching me as a first year was what allowed me to pass the Sealing test so early. I want you to know I am grateful for that. And the other lessons of course.’ Lili smiled confidentially. Without a word, Prof stood up and walked toward the command tent’s bathroom.

‘Could you just please leave Father alone?’ Oisa told Lili. ‘You set him up and destroyed his reputation. Even with you dropping the charges, the South Eastern Islands Provincial Academy has stopped inviting him for lectures, which is exactly what DATA wants. The salary that you paid him as a tutor has been eaten up by the poll tax on our Sayabi radio programs, which came about thanks to your machinations. You betrayed and harmed him. Now you spy on him for a man who was threatening to execute him just yesterday. You’re essence is blacker than some of the Abominations we have slain.’

Lili looked hurt. Also without a word, she stood up and moved toward a group of Maestras.

Afterwards, they met with the Dictator in a closed-off portion of the command tent. They bowed asian style. The Dictator vigorously shook the Professor’s hand.

‘It’s an honor to meet you in person,’ he told the three avatars with a politician’s smile after they had made themselves comfortable sitting around a table. ‘I made my fortune betting on you, that you would never get slain. Tell me about yourselves.’

Bodhi cleared her throat. ‘I am the avatar code named the Secretary, personal name of Bodhi, of the Sun and Sky. My maker is Professor Duro, MDE, Anachronista. I participated in the Great Darkling War as a combat avatar. Ten years before the De-occurrence, my unit was retired, and I studied at the Anachronista University, the first and oldest University of Tera. I am a cum laude, Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Anthropology, and later I took my Doctorate in the same University. I held a teaching position for 6 years, and in my spare time wrote 4 books and more than 40 essays, and participated in numerous archaeological expeditions recovering invaluable ancient texts.’

‘As the leader of your nation, you might be interested in my doctorate thesis, which later I expanded into a book. Shortly after I occurred, I found out about the ancient religions of the Far Eastern Islands. I found out that some pre-supposed a more ancient civilization, now deleted by the Great Dark Shift, wherein the majority of citizens could actively participate in forming government decisions.‘

‘For instance, when I deciphered one of the ancient religious texts, the so-called Codex ALFED, I found out that it advocated a system of government wherein the economic productivity of a local government should be returned to the peoples of that local government, through fiscal autonomy and automatic tax retention. I wondered in what kind of political system this could be done, and found the answer in an obscure papyrus scroll, an addendum to the Codex coded Political Program.’

‘Here is an excerpt which I have memorized: …pursuit of a libertarian participative democracy that provides basic goods and services to all its citizens, preserves its ethnolinguistic peoples' diversity, and that is ecologically sound. What the smaller societal unit is able to undertake shall be undertaken by the smaller unit and what cannot shall be undertaken by the next bigger unit; power comes from below.’

‘At this point, it was too damaged to read, but then it continued:

‘Cap shall not encroach on the powers and functions of the Local States, and vice versa, except for the specific instances described by… and once again unintelligible.’

‘I also found another obscure..’

‘Bodhi, the Honorable Dictator might wish to discuss ancient texts some other time,’ Prof interrupted. ‘Give Oisa and Alwana a chance to introduce themselves.’

Bodhi looked disappointed. Prof nodded at Oisa.

‘I am the avatar code named Warrior, personal name Oisa, of the Sun and Sky. My maker is Professor Duro, MDE, Anachronista. I participated in the Great Darkling War as a combat avatar and as the point commando of its Wing unit. The Winged Avatars consisted of me, and the avatars Bodhi, Alwana, Aya. We were instrumental in many of the victories of the Anachronista Maestros against the darkling invaders, including the Battle of the Broken Spear. There are many who swear that I was responsible for the slaying of a hypothetical over-all leader of the darkling army, the so-called Emperor of the One Night, although I have no memories of such an event. A decade before the end of the War, my unit was retired, but I was ordered to continue in active service in the fledgling World Defense Force.’

Dictator Marcus was politely looking on and giving the impression of being impatient and bored at the same time.

‘Oisa, it’s Alwana’s turn,’ Prof said.

Alwana blurted out excitedly. ‘I remember! We found that manuscript in an ancient temple full of Possessed and Abominations led by high ranked darklings including a Dan 96! The Battle of the Ancient Sayabi Temple, and what a battle it was. I helped decipher the manuscript! That’s the same Codex that has bits of that intriguing passage at the end that says ’laws of complexity of nature… small societies will naturally self-organize themselves into a fluid, responsive, and innovative system of varied harmoniously functioning levels of organization, given a minimal set of orderly guidelines in order to minimize chaotic system catastrophes, shall be implement… ecosystem least prone to catastrophes… unity in diversity, recognizing the natural diversity and complexity of nature… abrogates unity in uniformity… protect the existence the different species of living flora and fauna.’

‘Alwana, say something about yourself. You are quoting bits and pieces of memories from the era of the Great Dark Shift, about Bodhi’s ancient manuscripts of civilizations that may or may not have existed.’ Prof interrupted, exasperated.

‘A Dan 96! But that’s only legend! How did you slay it?’

For the first time Dictator Marcus evinced genuine excitement. ‘The Book on Darkling Dans and Stats from that era doesn’t mention any Dan 96. In legend that’s a High Demon King!’

‘The darkling contingent guarding the Temple wasn’t part of their regular army. It was Bound to the place by agents unknown. The presence of Possessed and Abominations in the place suggests it was bound there by human Sorcerous Dark Lords.’

Dictator Marcus did not hide his fascination.

‘Sorcerous Dark Lords and High Demon Kings are myths, yet you say they exist! Amazing.’

‘If I may say so, Honorable Dictator, the Dark Shift only totally ended after the De-occurrence. Reality was still shifting then. The Winged avatars may be describing a Ghost Reality,’ Maestro Juan explained.

‘Even I know that if at least two humans or avatars share the same memory, then that memory probably occurred in one timeline or the other. They all have the same memory of this temple battle, and so it must have happened. I want to know how they slew a High Demon King.’

‘It was the avatar Aya who slew it, Sri Marcus,’ Bodhi piped up.

‘Well, can you tell us how she did it?’

Alwana began opening her mouth to speak, but Bodhi, sitting beside her, kicked her underneath the table.

‘As WDF Regional Commander Maestro Juan says, our memories aren’t too reliable, but I am pretty sure Aya can give the most accurate description of the kill.’

Marcus looked disappointed. ‘She’s the one who died, right?’

‘That was brilliant Bodhi,’ Prof said back in the passenger cabin of Big Mov. ‘Now I am the designated fourth battle Maestro. Juan is within his authority to refuse, but thought it far more expedient to honor Dictator Marcus’ request that I be given this chance.’

‘That is if Mario gets killed,’ Elam said.

‘Maybe we can find a way to allow him to get killed.’

‘Oisa! Are you suggesting we harm a human? ’ Bodhi asked.

‘Of course not. But we can’t just allow Aya to dissipate, can we?’

The avatars began a heated debate. Prof remained silent and then wordlessly retired to a partitioned corner of the cabin to pour over more info about the ongoing battle mission in his tabcom. The avatars’ debate sounded extremely disturbing to Elam. He went over the pilot’s cabin.

Captain Lupad was seated comfortably on a small couch behind his pilot’s seat, reading what seemed to be an Alogostani Airplane Manual. He looked like a handsome slim gymnast in a pilot’s uniform. When he saw Elam, he immediately stood up and gave an asian bow.

‘Good evening Elam’.

‘Hhmm, good evening too, Captain.’

‘If I may ask, how is the mission to save Aya going?’

‘I’m not sure.’ Elam was still disturbed by the avatars’ debate on the pros and cons of Maestro Mario’s possible demise. He changed topics.

‘What’s a Dan 96? And Dans in general?’

Lupad sat back in his couch. ‘OK let me sum it up. Dans 11 to 20 are high ranked darklings. In the War they acted as the equivalent of military officers in the darkling army and were and even today are sometimes called Darkling Officers. More commonly they are called Darkling Adepts. Unlike the low ranked Dans who have one horn, Adepts have two. Dans 21 to 30 are Darkling Masters, and are be distinguished by 3 horns. Dans 31 and above are called Demon Lords, and are distinguished by 4 horns. Dans 41 to 50 are called Demon Princes, and are be distinguished by 5 horns. Above Dan 50 are the Demon Kings, and are distinguished by 6 horns or more. All Dans 11 and above have wings.’

‘Do High Demon Kings really exist?’

‘Yes, they are the Dans 91 and above. I and many other avatars and Maestros saw Oisa slay the head of the darkling army, an ancient Dan 101 High Demon King, who was also known as Emperor of the One Night. She does not remember, unfortunately.’ Lupad shuddered. ‘He could have been an ancient god; the Natural Darklings themselves refer to their higher Dans as dark gods.’

‘Oisa was magnificent. She walked up the huge castle that served as the darkling army’s headquarters, located right inside the Tela tear. Her colors turned gray. She invoked the ancient code of the darklings. That if a darkling challenges another of similar rank, the challenge has to be met. They dueled for 40 days within a Bounded Pentagon upon mutual agreement. At the end of it, Oisa was as black as the Emperor’s head that she had lopped off.’

Another shock for Elam. He remembered what Prof had previously said. [There is a small probability that a Black Wing would forget her true colors.]

‘Is Oisa.. hmm.. a High Demon King?’

‘Don’t worry; she turned back to blue and yellow after the fight. Oisa is a darkling, just like all avatars. I am too. That does not mean we are malicious criminals out to harm others for no good reason. Does Oisa behave like a demon to you? If you ask me, the Wings are quite fond of you. I am curious, what did the Dictator have to say?’

‘It was kind of funny. The Dictator asked them to tell him about themselves, and hinted he wanted to hear about their fights with darklings. Bodhi instead began talking about her academic career.’

‘They do that. It’s the one thing human that they did in the Darkling War, and they cherish memories of that.’

‘Huo. Then Oisa and Alwana began remembering pieces of memories. They began talking about an old codex that Bodhi had found, and recited parts of it in detail. Weird.’

‘Amazing! That’s smart Bodhi for you at her finest.’

‘The other Maestros did not seem to think much of the Wings, even if the Dictator seems to idolize them.’

The pilot drew a deep breath, ‘The post War generations of Terans have lost their gut memory about it but it was the Winged avatars that saved their ass. They were the only ones who could effectively fight the high ranked winged darklings. The Fuegan Dictator idolizes the Wings because he was betting on them heavily in the Avatar vs Darkling gambling business for 30 years. I did a little research on Big Mov’s computer. His wealth and subsequent rise to power depended on his gambling empire. He is Dictator because he has essentially bought the position. Don’t be fooled by his rank, medals and uniform. He’s not a soldier. All Dictators traditionally promote themselves to Field Marshal of the Army of Fuego.’

‘Were there other avatars with Wings in the War?

‘Huo, there were a lot, or we would have lost the War. There are none today except the 4 Wings of the Sun and Sky. Well, actually I do.’

Lupad stood up and sprang short stubby blue wings behind him. Elam almost fell to the floor.

‘Don’t get so shocked. They seem to be more of a decoration. If the 4 Wings are the eagles of our House, I am a domestic chicken. I can fly but not very far and it tires me out fast. I am not considered as a Wing. I also don’t have ingrown weapons such as the Wings’ doble espadas. My wings are what made Father encourage me to become a pilot. Just in case I have to jump out of planes, I won’t get killed. In fact I am a graduate of the Alogostan Civil Air Academy, and licensed to fly helicopters and airplanes.’ Captain Lupad drew up his chin proudly.

‘Is the presence of a Wing unit the reason why Manong Duro has not made any other combat avatar? I haven’t seen one in the Balanghay’.

‘Huo. The Wings can take on all the avatars in this camp and easily win without a feather getting scratched on their golden wings. In the War, even Demon Kings feared them.’

‘OK. How about the Possessed and Abominations, and Dark Sorcerers?’

‘If a darkling bites or scratches you in a certain way, some of its quanta are injected into you. These multiply and begin to adsorb on all your cells. The infecting dark quanta totally covers the human victim’s cells, like a strangler fig entraps its host tree, and a darkling ensues, made from the quanta of the donor darkling, but in the form of the host human, even down to his memories. However the quanta also retain the darkling donor’s memories. The ensuing creature possesses two sets of memories. Most of them are actually quite harmless. Most decide to live out their normal human lives. The problem is that they don’t physically age. So they eventually transfer residences and build up fake identities. I know of a few who are 400 years old; they’ve been around since the Dark Shift era. The Possessed accrue many of the powers and abilities of the original infecting darkling, but generally in weaker form. Humans can’t detect them, but darklings and Maestros always can. Some become harmful. The infecting donor entity, be it Natural Darkling or Possessed, usually attains a measure of power over the Possessed it creates, and some of the Possessed try to infect more humans in order to gain followers. The WDF’s solution is to allow permanent open season hunting on all of them. Many Maestros supplement their income by helping rich patrons hunt them down like rabbits, but Father believes that killing an adjusted Possessed is simply legalized murder.