Antithesis

Note: all characters are over 18, as established in previous chapters.

*****

Master of Elements: Chapter 12 - Antithesis ...

"There is an eye of justice that sees everything." — Menander, 4th cent BCE.

I reached into the stone box and grasped the rock, which was about the size of small melon but a great deal heavier. I hoisted it out and turned to face my enemy on the hillside opposite. I had no idea what I intended to do and just prayed that perhaps the meteorite itself would do something .... which in a way it did, although not what I had hoped for.

In an instant the hill opposite, the Creature and the captive women all vanished to be replaced by a grey mist. I glanced round and realised the same was true of the temple site where I stood and the two girls who had been standing either side of me. There was no one and nothing here but me and the meteorite I was carrying and even I seemed ghostly and insubstantial. Only the stone looked real and it seemed brighter and more beautiful than ever.

And then things got even weirder. The rock seemed to speak to me, although without a voice, the words just appearing in my mind. "Greetings Master of Elements," it said.

"Where am I? Send me back at once! I'm needed. The others are in danger!" I thought back at it. If it was possible to shout a thought, then I was doing so.

"Do not be concerned. No time passes in this place or at least none that you will notice. When you return everything will be as it was - except perhaps for you."

I didn't much like the sound of that. "Who are you and why did you bring me here?"

"For the latter question you touching the Gift of Theia - what you call a meteorite - did that. As to who I am? Well, in a manner of speaking, I am you; or rather a version of you that was meant to be. In another way I am also what you call 'the Creature', a thing that was certainly not meant to be."

"Enough riddles," I thought, becoming angrier. "The women I love are in danger. Tell me something useful or let me go and fight for them."

"Very well, I will answer you by telling a story. My people liked stories and some were so powerful that they are still being retold in your time, thousands of years later. And this one has the merit of being true."

"If you must," I thought, "but make it quick."

"Long ago the rock you hold in your hands fell from the heavens. Naturally, people saw and went to find where it had landed. When they did they were amazed, for none had seen anything like it. All agreed it was a gift of the gods and from the nature of it, it was deemed to belong to the titan Theia. This you have already worked out yourself, but not what happened next. Some of the wisest of the Greeks were summoned to examine this gift and I was one of them. I know I was from Athens but have forgotten my original name, because I was later called Kyrios and that has become my identity."

"Hang on," I interrupted, "If you are an ancient Athenian, how come you are speaking in English?"

"I am not and nor are you. We are sharing our thoughts and can simply understand one another. We are akin and share the same nature."

"Ah ... I see," I thought, although I most certainly didn't understand. "So what happened when you inspected the meteorite? Short version please."

"We found that Theia's gift had the ability to grant great and dangerous powers to others and, to our surprise, that women seemed to respond best to this. Further experimentation found that females from particular places were particularly sensitive to different aspects of these powers. After much trial and error we discovered the optimal mix was of a woman from the sun lands of Nubia, another from far-off Cathay, a barbarous Goth from the frozen north, one of the Keltoi from the distant western isle of Albion and a Greek maiden from Hellas. But there was a problem."

"Let me guess," I thought cynically, "you weren't happy with letting women have access to that much power." I wondered what the 'experiments' had involved; I had a feeling that they had not been kind. Most of their subjects were probably slaves. Those 'wise men' must have been scared what the survivors would do with their new abilities.

The voice in my head sounded defensive. "You must understand that with such power comes risk. Four of those women were barbarians and even the Greek one was not a well-behaved Athenian girl who understood that the role of women is to be obedient, but one of those wild Spartan women, allowed far too much freedom. All were full grown in their twenties, strong in body and mind; they represented a danger. Our solution was to create a Master of Elements, a man who would have power over all five elements and the females who represented them. They would be compelled to serve his will and so the risk would be contained. I was chosen to be the vessel for that power and took the name Kyrios to symbolise this."

"Only something went wrong," I guessed.

"Yes. Previously we had controlled the Theia stone and passed on part of its power to the recipient. This process had seemed safe enough for us and for the subject too, once we had learned how best to do it. However, in seeking to create the Master I took hold of Theia's Gift myself and tried to draw on all its power at once. What none of us knew was that the stone carried some life on it, not part of its own essence but a parasite it had gained on its journey through the heavens."

"Ah, that was what we guessed. Some alien bacteria or virus that could survive in space," I thought in reply.

"Such things had no meaning to us, but whatever the cause the result was that the Master of Elements was divided. The intention had been to give me all the powers that the five Mistresses of Elements possessed but in addition control over them so they would love and obey me. It was a noble calling, designed to protect the world, but I will confess that the five women were comely and the idea of them being in love with me had its own attractions."

"That I can certainly relate to," I thought wryly. "So what happened?"

"I gained the ability to command the women and their love as planned, but only a fraction of the intended elemental power, perhaps no more than a twentieth. The rest was drained into what you called the 'alien bacteria'. The result was that we created what you name the Creature - a being of immense power and high intelligence, the latter being a gift of the element of Aether, but with no empathy for humanity, no love, no soul. The Master of Elements had been split and still is. You as the current Master and the Creature each have some of the intended legacy but not all. And I must tell you, it is the stronger."

"So you created a monster. Well done, you geniuses," I thought, somewhat bitterly.

"It is true we did but we also fought it and, after many difficulties, I and the elemental mistresses drove our enemy into exile in that place you call the Aether world. We thought we had won, so to prevent any further such disasters we buried the Gift of Theia and raised a temple over it. What we did not know was that the Creature would return and the Master and Mistresses of Elements would be reborn to fight it, over and over again. Nor that it would learn from each defeat to the point where its victory is all but inevitable."

"So is that what you want to tell me? That we're all going to die and the world with us? Thanks for the encouragement but if it's all the same, send me back and I'll take my chances."

"No, I want to tell you how to win. Burying the Theia stone was a mistake; only with it can you defeat your half-brother. Thanks to your cleverness and the skills and bravery of the Mistresses you have found the weapon you need. For the first time in over 2,500 years there is a chance to end this. The first step is to destroy the Creature's material form. That is a job for the Mistresses of Air, Earth, Fire and Water and you can leave it up to them. But it is not enough. It has been done before and in time the Creature will generate a new body. To win you and the Mistress of Aether must work together."

"To do what exactly?"

"To trap the Creature's essence in the Gift of Theia, so it can never rise again. But do not ask me how, for I do not know. You and the one named after my city's own goddess Athena must do this. I will return you to the battle now. May fortune favour you."

"Wait ... there is one thing I must know. If we succeed and defeat the Creature and end this, what happens to us? Do we keep our powers or lose them? And ... what about me and the girls ..." It was this last question what was filling me with a sudden fear, which seemed worse even than the threat of death. Might I lose them? I wasn't sure I could stand that; the bond between us meant so much.

The voice seemed to pause before answering. "It is possible that if you survive the battle you will be returned to what you once were, just ordinary people, and you will have no special hold over the women. To win you must risk this; that may be the price you pay for victory. But lose and the Creature will kill you anyway and millions will be enslaved. Such is your fate. Good luck Master of Elements ..."

*****

As suddenly as I had left I found myself back on that hillside in Greece looking out across the valley at my enemy ... an enemy that I was more akin to than I had dreamed or it knew. Everything was exactly as it had been before with one exception - me. I felt filled with power and more alive than I ever had before, perhaps more than any man in history. I could sense every atom of matter around me almost as if I could see them and hear the thoughts of every sentient lifeform in this valley echo in my head. I felt as if there was nothing I couldn't do. The stone was giving me this strength. For the first time I truly felt like the Master of Elements.

And yet I knew that my first task was to lend much of that power where it was needed. I took a moment to glance across the valley and with a simple thought shattered the bonds of force in which the Creature had bound Athena, Matsu and Freya. Then I poured much of my new strength into the five Mistresses of Elements, together with my orders.

To the Mistresses of Air, Earth, Fire and Water I gave a simple instruction - "Destroy the Creature's physical form" - and then left them to it. I had complete faith that they would find a way. But with the Mistress of Aether I formed a mental link. We would need to work together to achieve the real prize - trapping the Creature's mind and will and, for a want of a better word, soul.

All this took just seconds and then I stood and watched in awe as Brigit, Freya, Matsu and Jenny Kitaka showed what they could do. If they had ever impressed me before this was nothing compared to them in their true power. I could see why the Creature considered them goddesses. Still, they needed all of it. They could have destroyed an army with ease, but the Creature was a Master of Elements too - all five of them - and it was not going to go down without a fight. That was why it needed six of us to match it.

Brigit and Freya made the initial mistake of attacking the Creature directly. It switched shape again and now resembled something like a heavily armoured insect. This form seemed invulnerable to Brigit's fiery blasts and the violent winds, laden with uprooted trees and the like, that Freya directed at it. It simply squatted in the midst of this howling vortex of air and fire and then began to counter attack with the opposed element - water against fire and earth against air.

The Creature hit Brigit, standing not far from me, with a jet of liquid summoned from god knows where and Freya with a bombardment of rocks, stones and debris. The Swedish girl was forced to give up her attack and raise an air barrier to defend herself, while Brigit's assault died down and failed as the water weakened her and eventually she was obliged to duck for cover in the temple ruins.

But then I realised that the girl's tactics had not been a mistake at all. Brigit and Freya had just been keeping our enemy distracted while Jenny and Matsu got to work on the real trap. They understood that if fighting an opponent that seems invulnerable, then attacking it indirectly is the answer. Jenny was couching down not far from me her fingers plunged into the thin soil of the hillside lost in concentration and now I saw why.

With a hideous noise, a great tear appeared in the ground right beneath where the Creature was standing. This continued to increase in size, deeper than it was long and longer than it was wide, but growing in all directions. For a moment our enemy wavered as gravity threatened to drag it into the chasm that had opened up below it, but it rallied and using its mastery of air floated where it was. However, the need to do this meant it dropped its attacks on the Mistresses of Fire and Air.

Brigit did not use her recovered freedom of action to launch another attack on the Creature itself. Instead she concentrated her efforts on the rock exposed by Jenny's rip in the fabric of the valley, pouring heat at them until they began to glow first red, then orange and finally even started to melt, the rift beginning to fill with lava. This had the makings of a trap for the Creature, but I couldn't see how they could force it into the chasm.

Freya was keeping the Creature busy with resumed attacks, now helped by Jenny who was bombarding it with rocks and other loose material, but without making any great impression on its armoured shell. Our enemy had regaining its composure and was responding by turning their assaults against each other, Air and Earth being naturally opposed elements.

It was now that I found out what Matsu had been doing. It became obvious that she must have been busy diverting every river and stream for miles around into one course controlled by her as suddenly as if from nowhere a tremendous tidal wave of water came thundering down the valley in a foaming torrent making a vast roaring noise. The Creature was just as taken by surprise as I was, but with the difference that I was on a hillside safely above the water, while it was down in the valley hovering above a vast lava filled pit.

I could see Matsu standing in the valley completely immersed in the flow, her long black hair floating in the current, directing its motion, totally at one with her element and its raw primal power. The torrent hit the enemy with stunning force, and yet it still wasn't enough. The Creature was knocked off balance but recovered, directing the wave around it.

Then the other Mistresses joined in, but now all with a single purpose - I realised they were seeking to drive our enemy into the chasm Jenny and Brigit had prepared to receive it. I think the Creature knew this too, as it suddenly gave up on counter-attacks and defences and simply tried to escape, changing form into something demonic with wings. But it was too late; the Mistresses were exerting all their power in a final effort and it was terrifying to behold.

The Mistress of Water was still in the valley, not letting her torrent disperse but bringing it back to hammer at the Creature again and again. The Mistress of Air was no longer standing but was borne aloft by her element, her blonde hair whipped by the wind and her blue eyes like ice as she drove a hurricane at her enemy, forcing it into the pit.

Closer to me the Mistress of Fire was once more bathed in a fiery glow, but not warm and gentle as when she had made love to me on this hill earlier, but fierce and angry as she directed balls of fire at the enemy. The Mistress of Earth was kneeling once again, her fingers trust into the soil as she hurled increasingly large chunks of hillside at the Creature. It was caught in a vortex of wind, water, fire and earth that was so dense I could hardly see our enemy through it.

And this proved too much. Slowly at first and then with a rush the Creature was forced into the lava filled pit, sinking into the super-heated liquid rock. At once Matsu directed her entire river of water into the chasm, a vast cloud of steam rising as the lava was instantly cooled by the liquid, sealing the Creature inside. Then, just as quickly Jenny slammed shut the crack in the earth which she had made with a resounding boom. Our enemy's physical body was trapped far underground, encased in rapidly solidifying rock.

Even as the ground sealed around their defeated opponent the four elemental Mistresses who had fought so hard collapsed, utterly spent by the struggle. I could see Matsu lying in the valley bottom where the road had once been, although there was little sign of it now, and Freya on the hillside opposite, no longer borne up by the air but prostrate on the ground. However, I was not worried for them as, being nearer, I could tell that Brigit and Jenny were alive and essentially unharmed, although exhausted, so I trusted that the same applied to the others.

You might reasonably ask what I had been doing during this spectacular but tense battle. In truth I was not idle and nor was Athena. I had used my own limited ability with her element to make mental contact with the Mistress of Aether, who was watching calmly from across the valley, and told her that our task was to trap our enemy's essence in the Theia stone. I had also admitted that I had no idea how to do this.

Athena's thought came to me: "Leave it to me, Master." It was rare indeed that Athena ever called me that. It gave me confidence; I saw it as a sign she had faith in me not to screw this up and just at this moment I needed all the reassurance I could get.

The Mistress of Aether was as good as her word. She sensed the Creature's consciousness fleeing its trapped body long before I did. In the world of pure thought the tons of rock imprisoning its body were no hindrance to our enemy and if it could escape it could always forge a new body given time. Fortunately, Athena was on to it immediately and even had the time and strength to bring me into the struggle.

Yet again I found the valley fading into the background. This time three things stood out - the rock I was holding, an amorphous crimson cloud, which I instinctively knew to be the Creature's consciousness and a sort of glowing-white vision of Athena in pursuit of the cloud. I was irresistibly reminded of an angel.

What happened next seemed to take place in slow motion and yet was over in seconds. The crimson cloud tried to flee but the angel grappled with it, succeeding in halting its progress but nothing more. I understood that this struggle, which I was interpreting in physical terms, was in truth a purely mental one. Seeing Athena needed my help, I intervened, concentrating my will through the stone to pull the Creature's spirit toward it. Slowly between my efforts and Athena's it was dragged toward the stone, still resisting strongly.

I was staggered at the strength of will our enemy possessed. It was desperate to escape and Athena and I were weakening. I think we would have failed, except once more the others helped. Red, blue, green and silver forms appeared, smaller than Athena's angelic form but still impressive, as she summoned her elemental sisters to her aid. All five of us pushed, pulled and dragged the Creature's consciousness toward the stone in this contest of pure thought. Then, with a rush, we had won and we all collapsed toward the Theia stone as our enemy was drawn inside it.

Back in the material world I dropped the Gift of Theia and, strained beyond my strength, collapsed unconscious.

*****

I had no idea where I was when I woke, except that I was no longer in that wrecked and blasted valley. As I gazed round, getting my bearings, I concluded it was a change for the better. For one thing I was lying on a comfortable bed in what was obviously a hotel room, although not one I recognised. I could tell it was evening, as the lights were on and it looked dark outside. I presumed it was still the same day. A lot had happened since I went in search of buried treasure that morning.