Part 5 of 5, Gray Huntress and the Proto-Deus, by heozART:

Commissioner’s Note:

heozART even learned the runic alphabet to write the following message on the pillar. Now that is dedication you can’t pay for! Thank you so much heo, and again, thanks a million for your hard work and dedication with the whole series. You went above and beyond expectations, I can’t be grateful enough:

"This is where heaven meets the earth.
The ancient thought lingers here.
To gain understanding, awaken the river of knowledge"

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(This final sequence was written by me)


"Ok, mystic, I am not afraid of the dark. What am I looking for here?"

“Well, I certainly hope you’re not looking for me,” The familiar voice cut into Gray like glass, exposing her disbelief; the voice that was identical to hers in every way, “Because if you are…well, by the gods, there truly is no escaping you.”

Her dark sister, Jackalynn, finished with a sinister laugh as she came out from behind a dark passageway. The scarlet-clad clone made no move to attack the Huntress…then again as a telekinetic she had no need to move at all. The vast chamber’s air grew only colder between the two of them, and silence attempted to descend as Jackalynn’s echoes faded.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Gray demanded; she figured it was safe to assume the mystic chose her for this mission because of the intimate enemy.

“I could ask you the same.”

The Huntress unsheathed her bladed-bow; she wouldn’t reach for an arrow…close combat would be less expected, “I asked first…so please, after you…”

“You want me to monologue?”

“What makes today any different than our previous encounters? You always have something to say.”

“Yeah, well I also normally wear my lucky underwear when fighting you.”

“You don’t wear any.”

“Oh, you noticed,”

“Just answer the question!”

“Fine,” Jackalynn threw her arms up and turned back the way she came, “Follow me…I have something to show you.”

Ancient architecture always had a tendency to inspire awe and reverence for ages long gone; perhaps it comes with time, but there is something about stone, crude metal, and wood that makes skyscrapers of glass and steel look rather… petty by comparison. Gray wasn’t much of a historian; she relied on her contacts and spark notes to fill in the gaps of necessary information, but it didn’t take much for her to recognize the definitive Nordic origins of this place. Did she fly to Norway? Her flight was long, but it certainly wasn’t a trip across the Atlantic.

“Welcome to Asgard, Polina,” Jackalynn answered Gray’s unspoken question…the woman wasn’t telepathic, just had good timing, “Realm of the Gods…well, former realm of the gods. It’s been barren since long before the current life cycle of Earth; ever since Ragnarok occurred…I’m partially surprised it even exists. The surviving masters of this world are bound to the mortal realm now and with no one to care for it, well, it should have been consumed by the multiverse…sent into oblivion. Its existence only proves that what I’m looking for is still here.”

“And what is that?”

“Hmmm,” She purred back, “How can I describe something that existed before written word? Or even the eternal memory of God?”

Jackalynn stopped before a pair of massive stone doors, perfectly smooth and bare. It technically should have been a wall because it had no handles, no apparent locks or opening mechanism, just the faint vertical line that said it was indeed a door. Two silent stone sentinels stood on either side of the portal; each carved into the likeliness of a Nordic warrior in full battle garb, armed with double axes.

“Is there a password?” Gray asked with a smirk clear on her face, perhaps Jackalynn would be stopped, “Speak ‘friend’ and ent--“

“Oh, please,” The Jackal cut her short, “The password is… power.”

The word obviously wasn’t the key, Gray noted as nothing happened. Jackalynn focused her will on the doors; it wasn’t about concentration, but rather about confidence, pride…arrogance and desire. The stone walls began to vibrate, buckle and crack under pressure. The stone golems crumbled where they stood, and the floor shook defiantly against Jackalynn’s will. She showed no sign of distress or exhaustion; it was child’s play.

“It was said not even Thor’s Hammer, Mjolnir, could shatter these doors,” Jackalynn spoke despite the task ahead of her, “Giants created this sanctuary so this sacred item could never be under the control of another. I suppose I pack a greater punch than the god of thunder, Huntress.”

At that blasphemous statement, the doors burst forth crumbling into massive boulders. The screams of the metal bolts as they were ripped apart from within the walls was deafening and were louder than the shattered stone. Gray Huntress immediately knew she was in danger when the avalanche Jackalynn caused came tumbling down on them; she backpedaled the way they came hoping she’d be able to escape relatively unscathed. Jackalynn wasn’t done yet; she screamed out in defiance and swept her arms out and high above; her willpower released a massive telekinetic shockwave that grabbed the massive debris in mid-fall and began to break them down further.

Gray Huntress turned around equally impressed and grateful. Impressed as the echoes of the breach died down, and Jackalynn kept the boulders hovering in the air breaking them down further into harmless rubble. Grateful that Jackalynn was incapable of using her power directly against the Huntress; she had to rely on the objects around their battlefields because Gray was inexplicably immune. Jackalynn wasn’t always this potent; in fact, this power surge was something new for both of them. It was because villainess had never desired anything more than what was behind those doors. The now-open doors.

The vault was by far more extraordinary than any other room in the mountain complex. It was inexplicably light as there were no torches, or sunlight, or obvious sources of magical illumination…it just was. It was almost designed like a throne room: colossal rune-carved pillars ushered the ‘guests’ further down the chamber; the flagstone floor hadn’t been walked on or weathered for ages and was just as smooth as the day it was first polished; the ceiling reached for the heavens, or at least it seemed so, and one could easily lose their focus and footing by trying to conceive the distance the pillars covered from floor to ceiling. Interestingly enough, the outer walls were left unworked and were rugged cavern walls; the only ‘decoration’ were large columns of ice that poured out of them. Frozen waterfalls.

The end of the room, and the focus, featured a short set of stairs that reached up to a large rune-carved white stone altar; veins of gold ran across the outside tracing precious rivers along the surface before diving back into the stone. The altar itself was empty.

“So what is this ‘artifact’ you’re looking for, Jackalynn?” Gray was getting tired of following her worst enemy around; normally her gut instinct told her to fight, however today it was telling her to be patient and listen, “Speaking of which, it seems to be gone.”

“It’s not gone,” Jackalynn stated, “Just waiting to be found.

“It has no real name. How could it? But by its very nature, I call it the Proto-Deus; an artifact before god. The Gods’ God in a sense. It existed before Creation and while there are many theories, or dogmas, stating how the universe began, nothing knows what was before something came out of nothing. It is Sentience, the first thought; It thinks therefore it is…and reality only exists because It thinks it does. We only exist as a byproduct of this reality, by the will of the gods spawned at Creation, and by the Proto-Deus’ idea of ‘life.’”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Gray interrupted, “First of all, if no one, not even gods, know of this ‘ Proto-Deus’’ existence…then how exactly do you know? And! And, more pressing, even if it does somehow exist as you believe it does, how could you possibly hope to master something so ultimately powerful? It would crush you…with a passing thought.”

“Hmph,” Jackalynn frowned slightly, “There are forces that existed at the same time as the Proto-Deus…concepts such as Fate, Chaos, the Beginning, and the End and others. While the Proto-Deus gave them self-awareness, they were innate Laws nonetheless. I’ll just say I had the pleasure of meeting Fate in person, my dear.

“And as far as controlling the Proto-Deus is concerned? That is the easy part. While it is ultimately powerful, self-aware and Its thoughts are reality’s command, it is not omniscient and has been trapped in this vault for ages and ages of Earth. Approaching the Proto-Deus will be much like approaching a newborn child, albeit a child who is aware of all the concepts of existence but not how they necessarily interact. It is naïve, absolutely innocent to a fault, and I will introduce it to the world through my eyes.”

“Is this where we fight?” Gray asked; while she wasn’t nearly as aware of the situation as Jackalynn, the Huntress didn’t need to be. Stop Jackalynn, even if she is right or just plain crazy.

“Not yet,” Jackalynn warned, “Don’t you want to see the Proto-Deus, Gray Huntress? To see the First Thought?”

Something was holding her back; was it curiosity? Was it necessary? Was there some sort of divine destiny staying her hand? Jackalynn smiled at Gray Huntress before turning her back on her and moving closer to the altar, but she didn’t go all the way and slowed to an almost reverent pace. The Huntress warily followed behind, keeping aware of the environment around her…an attack from Jackalynn could come from any angle.

As Gray came closer to the altar, she could feel ‘something’ caressing the edges of her mind; something was in this room after all and it was inquisitively probing them. Once Gray focused on where it was intruding it would run off like a rabbit before returning from a different ‘direction.’ She didn’t know what Jackalynn was thinking, but if this ‘ Proto-Deus’ was thought-incarnate then the Huntress may need to open her mind a little. ‘Where are you?’ was the first question that popped into her head to directly address it.

In the center of the altar, a bright white light came into being. At first it was no larger than a pinpoint, but quickly expanded, transforming into a six-foot wide orb of pure glowing white energy. A dozen or so tendrils began to extend from it, growing into massive tentacles that curiously probed the environment around it. It caressed the altar’s base, wrapped other appendages around some pillars…was this the first time it physically manifested? Or had it just been too long? Jackalynn was more surprised than the Huntress when it appeared ironically, though her stance became more threatened when she realized the hero had communicated with it as well.

As a tentacle slithered across a frozen waterfall it melted…releasing the long-dammed river behind it. Gray Huntress had to act now, however Jackalynn was one step ahead and knocked her off her feet with a sweeping kick. The cold liquid spread quickly though the Proto-Deus didn’t seem to care, if it had eyes it watched them.

Jackalynn back-flipped away from Gray to put more distance between them, and the Huntress quickly rolled onto her feet. She drew her bow and had an arrow cocked and ready as the scarlet-clad villainess telekinetically ripped out a slab of flagstone and broke it into stone daggers. Their eyes seethed with hatred as they stared at each other in the bright, ever-curious glow of the Proto-Deus.