-Joseph Campbell

"Have you any further preparations to make before we go? There will be no enemies in this Barrier but it will still take us a while to get through it.”

"Nope, I'm ready when you are," John agreed eagerly.

Kim nodded and stepped over to John - at first he thought she was going to literally pull him into a Barrier, but instead she aligned herself with him and began pacing off steps backwards. When she reached a distance that seemed to satisfy her, Kim closed her eyes and her breathing began to fall into a rhythm. John stood and stared for a moment, wondering what she was doing - then the thought occurred to him that most mages had neither a helpful interface or an intelligent VI to handle their Barrier creation. Whatever Kim was creating must have been very specific, because it took so long that the feeling of being pulled between planes of reality actually caused John to jump a little, as the stone and trim around them began to fade away.

Where John and Kim eventually found themselves was like nothing John would have predicted. Kim and John stood apart from each other the same distance as they had in the Order room, separated from each other by an expanse of rocks, arranged and raked into various patterns. Two large circular stones kept the two of them from trampling the neat arrangements.

"A zen garden?" John asked, quirking an eyebrow, glancing around at his surroundings. The garden went on for yards in every direction, a massive circular expanse that must have taken hours to properly rake into place. Several large stones like the ones they were on provided perfect spots for raking, with short walkways of smaller stepping stones leading each of them to a circular walkway that provided an outer ring. A red fence surrounded the entire area and gently led toward the area's most notable feature: an archway providing an opening to a staircase that seemed to trail on nearly forever up a mountain so high that clouds obscured its peak.

John's eyes widened - not solely at the mountain itself, but rather… at the unexpected beauty of everything. Not only was the rock garden itself absolutely beautiful in its patterns and intricacy, but the surroundings were lush and beautiful in their own way. Far enough from the fence's perimeter to avoid too many stray petals, several clusters of cherry blossom trees were scattered around the far side. Above and beyond them in almost every direction stretched a row of mountains, high enough to wall off the area though not nearly so tall as the one that the staircase reached up. Between the trees and the mountains mixed beautiful plains of grass, eternally calm lakes, and plenty of ornamental architecture, from statues to benches to long and winding paths that seemed to go everywhere and nowhere at all.

"What, uh… what is this place?" John asked, glancing around. "It seems kind of rooted in reality, but I've never seen anything quite like it. It's… absolutely beautiful."

"Yes," Kim called out to him, already halfway across the rocks and nearly to the pathway, "it is. Join me, John Newman. We can walk while we talk."

John wasn't sure what to say, so he just nodded silently. John made his way along the well-laid path, being extremely careful not to accidentally disturb the rocks. It was a Barrier, but it had been crafted so expertly that it was very much a work of art, and John had no intentions of disrespecting that effort.

After reaching the path John headed for the archway, where Kim was waiting. The time it took him to walk around the lengthy perimeter was long enough for John to get a good look at Kim. She still had that strange shyness he'd never seen her express before, but something else had come over Kim as well. A look of almost serenity, a calmness that stood in defiance of her usual blunt, determined, almost energetic demeanor. Kim seemed more confident and sure of herself than ever here, and that was saying something for the Slayer.

"What did you want to talk about? Looks like we have a long time to talk," John said, eyeing the staircase nervously.

"Indeed, we do. That's why we should taste that wine before we begin our journey. Let it strengthen us, and pass the time all the quicker."

"Sounds like a plan to me… but I didn't bring any glasses. How about we both take our own bottles to start?" John said, pulling them free of his inventory. John realized as the bottles formed in his hand that they still had corks placed in their necks, and he had no way of properly or easily removing them.

"Er… sorry, I've actually never drank before," John said sheepishly. "I didn't think about the corks."

"Allow me. Stand very still," Kim said, stepping back slightly. John was getting ready to ask what she was planning when a flash of light told him all he needed to know - John only perceived a moment of the blade's path as it travelled just above his clenched fists, cleanly cutting the glass without so much as cracking it. The corked tops of the wine bottles fell away while the bodies remained firmly in his grip - though he did almost drop one at the shock of having a blade pass so close to his hands.

"Holy- that was… impressive. And scary," John half-whispered, staring at the opened bottles.

"My blade is enchanted to prevent distribution of **** and to cleave as cleanly as possible… the magic is designed to combat Abyssal armor, so mundane or even minorly magical glass is in no danger of breaking or cracking so long as my strike is true. Do not worry about shards or fragments; your drink is safe, even if your organs were now **** due to this 'Reincarnation' of yours."

"Huh. Yeah, I guess it's safe even if… I mean, the Barrier creatures we've been fighting are immune to fire, kind of makes sense you could eat glass, even if your blade hadn't cut it cleanly. Still feels odd, though," John said hesitantly, before putting the now flat edge of the severed neck to his lips and taking a quick drink.

John had intended to only have a sip to taste the strange liquid, but the moment it lit upon his tongue, he was **** for more. The drink was as sweet as honey, as salty and filled with as much deep flavor as a well-seasoned beef dish, and had all the lightness and succulent joy of a fruit drink. John recognized the flavor as something resembling salted caramel, but it was so unearthly that he couldn't quite compare the two. Somewhere between all of that, there was a faint burn, but the aftertaste was so subtle and so removed from the delicious layers of flavor in the drink itself that John only barely noticed it, and forgot it entirely as he poured what must have been half the bottle between his lips before he eventually succumbed to his need for air.

Coming up nearly gasping from the bottle, John's gaze tore itself between Kim and the Elven Wine with equal reverence. The Slayer herself was only faring mildly better; her face was neutral, but her eyes shone with surprise as she hesitantly pulled the bottle away and gazed at its contents with joy.

"This a marvelous drink… this is easily on par with some high-quality Abyssal wines in taste. I imagine it does not have any magical effects, but this should surely make our journey pass all the quicker."

"Journey?" John asked, fighting the urge to take another sip already.

"We are going to scale this mountain," Kim said simply, pointing upward. "Do not worry. This Barrier is special; it's not as far as it looks. Besides, we need time to talk."

"Alright, so what exactly is it you've been wanting to talk to me about in private?"

"…"

Kim sighed and began to ascend the stairs up the mountain, shaking her head, abruptly looking far less eager than she had since their arrival here.

"To be perfectly honest… I did not want to talk to you about this. I had originally planned on keeping it a secret from you for all our safety, but… you've trusted me with a great deal of knowledge about yourself, John. Even if we already knew most of it due to the leaks of your magical data, you have still shown trust in us. Despite no longer requesting anything from myself or my Clan, you have allowed me to train with you and improve myself. It is only fair that I allow you to know as much as possible about your effects on the world."

"My effects on the world? Oh gods, what have I done this time?" John asked, eyes widening as he rapidly followed after the climbing Slayer. Kim turned her head back and quirked an eyebrow before she shook her head a little bit.

"Nothing… though that you chose that for your immediate reaction is concerning in itself," Kim noted, continuing onward. Her eyes were focused above, though all John could see were seemingly endless stairs stretching on for hundreds of yards, and eventually fading into the mist above. "This is actually less about you than it may seem, though it all eventually circles around to your abilities. You may have had no hand at all in its direct cause. I am speaking of the… effect that forging your blade had upon Koharu."

"You mean how she blacked out? Or how she forged a rune that she had no idea how to make, or even identify? I'd be lying if I said both didn't worry me, but I think I've gotten kind of numb to the surprise of my abilities breaking the world.."

"Everything you say about yourself concerns me more…" Kim muttered in annoyance. They came upon a plateau of the staircase, a flat section that rounded as the stairs continued even further up the mountain, but Kim continued onward past the secondary level and trodded up the distant stairs. "After you left, Koharu admitted to me that she has had such an event only occur once before, while forging another blade, one particularly powerful, even for her current abilities. But it is not so much the blade that was created that is my concern - rather, it is who was wielding it."

"Who was it? How long ago? I mean- why is it concerning? Sorry, too many questions at once," John mumbled, shaking his head.

"Better to ask them than to remain ignorant," Kim noted, smiling wryly. "There is much information to give, and not all of it falls into relevance in any particular order. This may take some time, so please bear with me. I know that you are new to the Abyss, and understanding the full weight of these implications requires some knowledge of the nature and history of this sordid world."

"That cannot possibly be the beginning of a happy story."

"The Abyss has been a place of conflict virtually since its inception. The publically available Abyssal histories only reach back around three millennia - that may seem short, but only in comparison to the mundane world where some crude writings exist from further back. Abyssal history within each faction is closely guarded, rarely shared - only the work of factions that would eventually arise such as the Fateweavers and the Silver Scribes would hold the first continuous written history that wasn't either destroyed, kept strictly secret amongst members of various nations, or carved away when an entire faction or even nation was wiped away, without no survivors and no one to pass on their tales.

"Every piece of information we have tells us that the Abyss has always been filled with war and hatred, down to the last breath of some of its greatest heroes and villains. There has never been a period of widespread, continuous peace that lasted longer than a few months - a blink of an eye to anyone familiar with the Abyss. Kingdoms in the mortal realm are fortunate to last a few hundred years… organizations within the Abyss were once lucky to last a few decades, and even those were the most powerful, the titans of their eras."

"Wait, what about the Moon Clan? And the Order? Moira has been talking as if the Order was once far stronger than it is, but she always sounds like it has been around forever. And the Moon Clan…?"

"I would like to think that the Moon Clan are elders of some sort," Kim sighed, slowly shaking her head. "Or that we are somehow wiser than those that came before us, but the fact is… even at their highest point, the Order was at best a contender for one of the stronger organizations, and still would be hard pressed to hold even their full might to match against one of the Six Deities. They have existed for a very long time, but as with many others, their elders were slaughtered after various wars, and their written histories lost to time. We know they have existed, but their strength has waxed and waned with history’s passing. The Moon Clan have more specific purposes for their training and power-gathering; when we were united, we were certainly the most powerful in our field, but we have no army, and save for assisting our allies, we rarely declare war… except against those who have struck the first blow."

"Alright… so what made this blade so special, and what made its wielder so powerful?"

"The blade itself is a footnote," Kim said, shaking her head. "It was merely a weapon - though an immensely powerful one - and it eventually broke. As I said before, its wielder was what made this instance particularly concerning. The one who Koharu forged that weapon for was Isamu Masanori."

"…Who?" John said, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"…He is new to the Abyss, his ignorance is understandable," John heard Kim whisper to herself, briefly turning her head away as she mumbled those words. When she turned back to face him again, she sighed and continued.

"Isamu Masanori is one of the most famous - or infamous - figures in the entire Abyss. He is - was - the only person in the entire Abyss to have ever killed one of the Deities. The six that exist now have had many challengers… but Isamu was the only one to ever successfully end one's life when he slew Orrian five centuries ago, and he was halfway through carving a bloody path into Jiika's kingdom when he was finally felled."

"Wow. So did they all group up to stop him? Sounds like he was their biggest threat, and he could match them in combat.”

"He was, of course, immensely powerful. However… the Deities, whether six as they are now, or less as they were in the past, have never challenged each other in direct combat. Many mistakenly believe that they are allied due to this - but they also have never come to each other's aid against challengers. Not once. While Orrian was the only one of the Deities to die, there have been rare instances where they were defeated, either losing part of their kingdoms or such a large part of their forces that it was at best a pyrrhic victory. Usually due to a massive organization like the Order allying with two or three others and aligning themselves against one of the Deities."

"So how did they stop him?"

"We have no idea," Kim said honestly. The two of them reached another plateau, but this time Kim turned slightly. One side of the flat area was overshadowed by an outreaching edge of the mountain, but on the other side was a terrific view of the land below, all the way to the outer ring of mountains. Kim strode to the edge and leisurely leaned over the bright-red fencing outlining their path.

"Join me over here, John. This is my second favorite spot in this Barrier."

John did so with a smile, leaning against the red railing right beside Kim. The two of them stood there in the light breeze for a while in silence. It didn't feel like they'd been walking that long compared to how high the mountain was… but now, looking over the edge, John thought it looked as though they were already several thousand feet into the air!

"As I was saying, we have no idea how he was stopped. Orrian was at least as old and powerful as Batu, and Jiika was unlikely to succeed where he had failed. Isamu's body was found at the site of Jiika's former capital. The city was razed and burned to the ground, civilians evacuated… and the soldiers on both sides were slaughtered, to the man. Every last soldier under Isamu's command was dead, despite apparently having succeeded in the battle and razed the city. Every one of Jiika's soldiers present fell with them. The only known and confirmed survivor was Jiika himself, and as far as I know, he has never once said what truly happened that day. He has claimed to have struck the final blow, but something still bothers me about that tale."

"Alright, so what part of this is so concerning in regard to me? I mean, aside from the whole… 'he died' thing, and him being a powerful mage who went on a rampage."

"Not… quite a rampage. In fact, in many ways he as a ruler was almost peaceful. You see, what concerns me is the number of similarities I am seeing build up between the two of you."

"…In what ways?" John asked, the suspicion hard to hide from his tone. The comparisons of similarities to a mage on a warpath who eventually died were both strange and all too disturbing.

"Unlike many other powerful mages - and some of the Deities themselves - Isamu was not known for cruelty or mindless ****. I said that the civilians had been evacuated before the battle even began, did I not? That was by his choice. Jiika's capital at the time had no Barrier over most of its area, only the castle and some areas of minor importance. The slaughter of mundanes and mages alike who were not a part of his military would have been immense if their battle began with no warning, even if they had not razed the city. Isamu launched his war in the name of bringing the Deities to heel and ending their endless expansions and wars with the less powerful mages around them, and bringing peace. He wanted to-"

"He wanted to change the Abyss. Make it a better place," John mumbled, interrupting Kim with a note of fear in his voice. "Surely he can't have been the only one?"

"He was the only one with the fire I see in your eyes," Kim said with certainty. "The only one foolish enough to formally warn his foe that their army was at the door, solely for the sake of saving innocent lives. You assuredly have many, many differences from him, of course. Your powers alone put you in a class all your own, different from any mage in history in how you can create these new beings. But there is one far, far more troubling similarity that I cannot entirely ignore. Isamu was married… and though he died that day, he was survived by his wife."

“His wife?”

“Himiko Nakamura."

An icy chill shot through John's body, and every muscle he had tensed in unison. The breeze in the Barrier seemed to grow colder, and for just a moment John would have sworn he heard a soft giggling on the wind.

"You're… you're pulling my leg, right?" John said, too afraid to turn his head and look at Kim. "You said that she was one of the Six Deities!"

"Not until over a hundred years after his ****," Kim corrected. "She was a powerful and well-known mage at the time, but she was not an official member of the Deities. At that point in time, she was simply a General in his army, and a lover in his bed. One of many, if the tales are to be believed."

"But Isamu hated the Deities; why would he marry someone who had the mentality to become one, someday?!" John spat, his chest heaving.

"A hundred years is a long time for someone to change, even in the Abyss. From what we know, Himiko grew cold and distant after her husband's ****, forsaking most human contact and all signs of belief in his former cause. For the past four hundred years, she has shown little of her previous personality, rarely displaying emotion, and approaching each conflict with cold, calculating logic. It is even rumored - however trivial it may be if true - that she has not smiled in centuries."

"She has," John choked out in a half-whisper. His upper body swayed a little on the fence and he gripped it with both hands to steady himself, his body growing uncomfortably unsteady. "She slaughtered the Knights Moira assigned to guard me, approached me on my own, even tried to kill Seras… when I punched her, when I touched her face, she just smiled."

"She… smiled, as you attacked her?" Kim said, her breath noticeably catching. "That woman has faced down **** attempts and coup attempts that were laughable at best, with no hopes of success, and she has never once been known to look down upon her foes as inconsequential or face them with anything less than merciless slaughter, even when she taunted them to lower their guard."

"No, not like that. She talked down to me once before, the first time we met. This was… she… she acted like she enjoyed my touch," John admitted. "If what you say is true about her never showing emotion…"

John trailed off, uncertain what to say. How Himiko had acted not unlike Seras, if only for a few moments. How she had looked at him with love and admiration, despite openly trying to piss him off and get him as angry as he could be. How she had referred to him as her love, although they had only met twice, and never in friendly circumstances.

"She sees something in you, John Newman. Mark my words… one of the Six Deities taking an interest in someone is worrisome enough, but for them to behave in this manner is alarming. Even coming to visit you is out of her normal behavior - Himiko is well known for her tactical and cautious behavior; she normally would spend months scouting a location or person before even attempting to contact them."

"So… what does all this mean?"

"I have no idea," Kim admitted, shrugging her shoulders. "Let's keep going… There is a place of rest and relaxation at the top of this mountain. And I think we could both use it… and perhaps another bottle to forget these worries, even if only for a moment."

John hadn't even realized the bottle was pressed to his lips when Kim spoke, but her words drew his attention to it, as well as to the emptiness within as nothing more than air touched on his mouth. John shrugged in a blank agreement and conjured up the remaining bottles. This time, he pulled all of the remaining bottles out at once, allowing Kim to cleave them all open together - not only to save time, since his inventory prevented spilling, but to prevent any accidents. Kim seemed as composed as ever, but John was noticing a sudden sway to the ground under his feet. After each of them had a fresh bottle clutched in hand and the remaining bottles were sealed in his inventory, they began to travel up the stairways once again, ascending toward the distant peak.

"So… the Abyss is a place of **** and sorrow. That's what all of you keep telling me, anyway," John began, only a short while after they resumed their ascent. "How powerful are these Deities, that only one man has ever been known to kill one? That none have ever fallen to the tides of war save by the hand of a single man?"

"They are powerful beyond the comprehension of normal mages. When they are properly challenged by a worthy foe - such as Isamu - they demonstrate skill and precision that reflects their age and experience. Most of them demonstrate mana reserves alone that would decimate any challenger… the techniques and expertise they have acquired over their long lifespans are almost a secondary concern. As I said, Isamu is the only one to have ever succeeded in slaying a member of their order. Their numbers are not limited by fatalities… they are limited by quality.

"You're familiar with one already - Himiko Nakamura. She's cold, calculating, and by all accounts in battle she is nothing short of a terror. She wields ice and shadow magic so tactically it cuts through battlefronts like a scalpel, shifting the terrain, obscuring vision, and changing the tides of entire wars by her presence alone. We believe she is originally from Japan, but now dwells on the West Coast somewhere. She controls almost everything west of the Rocky Mountains within the United States, and has matching territory in the western parts of Canada and all of Alaska.

"There is also Frigga, who controls most of the Scandinavian nations, and everything in Europe east of Germany well into Russia. She's an arcanist with a frightening amount of power; they say she can compact mana so densely that a speck no larger than the tip of your finger can explode with enough **** to rupture the most enchanted of armors, and form constructs of mana that are nearly impossible to break, even making sections of her armor from pure mana on the fly which can exist as solid objects and resist the most steadfast of assaults.

"A young woman named Suula once dwelled in the southwestern region of the USA, within a hundred miles of Himiko's territory, but she later relocated to Northern Africa. We aren't certain exactly why; what we know is that while she dwelled on this continent she was a psychopath, one who burned down an entire city that was otherwise peaceful, but until then we believe she was relatively peaceful, or at least unknown. She is the newest of the Six Deities, but is widely considered to be the most unpredictable, and her fire magic has been said to take the shape of a dragon and leave entire battlefields burned to the ground, sometimes including her own soldiers."

"Wait, wait, wait. Who labels these people?" John asked. "I just assumed they were some group that used to be together and had agreed on a title when they went their separate ways, or that they were just a bunch of strangers on another tier who had grouped together to come up with a name for their particular level of skill and power. Is it an official thing or just a name that was given to them by the public at large?"

"Few would be so foolish as to conflate a mortal with the gods, even if they might be more powerful than some of the lesser deities - the actual label of godhood is as much a title of respect and a separation from mortals as a label of power. All the same, that is the name they chose to give themselves… and the group does not take lightly those who **** that title. There have been those in the past who claimed to be another member of the Deities, and all have been swiftly executed by one of the existing members, then the current members swiftly speak out against their involvement. No matter how powerful they were, no matter what armies they had at their back. Sometimes they disappear and we don't even know why."

"That's… ominous. So why did they let new people join at all?"

"The Six Deities came into existence around a thousand years ago - at least that's when the title became widespread through the Abyss. Frigga and Batu were already prominent figures by then; Frigga is older than the Abyss' most available written records by at least three hundred years, and Batu claims to have spent two hundred years before Frigga’s birth as one of the most legendary mercenaries in Eurasia. Zion joined around one hundred years after the Deities’ initial formation, after serving a number of different factions with very few ideological similarities, but after having proved his might in countless wars. Jiika became a Deity around seven hundred years ago, and Himiko only approximately four hundred. Suula is the most recent, only having been a part of the group for a little under a hundred years, since earning her title by burning an entire Abyssal city to the ground."

"The most recent is nearly a hundred years… I haven't even made it one year and I've almost died like… shit, I've lost count,” John noted, his gaze travelling further away, along the distant mountainous horizon.

"I would slap you for making further comments that cause me such grave concern for you… but that is sadly not uncommon in the Abyss. One could say it's almost rarer these days for new mages to make it past their first year…"

Kim sighed and put her bottle back to her lips, taking a long and hefty swig. John matched it in time, trying not to lose his footing - the Slayer never even hesitated to take the steep stairs while drinking. John wondered if the **** was having any effect on her at all. Then again, was it having any effect on him? Hard to say, he'd never drank before. His lips were feeling particularly tingly, though, and he was losing his footing an awful lot despite leaning against a post…

"Sorry, I got you kind of off topic," John said as they continued to climb together.

"No need to worry about that. The rest of what I was saying was only a minor overview of a very complex history - how Jiika took over the eastern coast of Asia, how Zion has ruled over nearly a dozen kingdoms himself even before he joined the ranks of the Deities, and how Batu has been an unstoppable **** in the world since his birth, much less his initiation to the group. I fear there is little else I can say that would have any relevance to your current situation, save that you should watch yourself any time your dealings concern one of the Deities… especially Himiko."

"I'll keep that in mind," John said, punctuating his words with a quick swig of the bottle in his hands. "Now… if you have nothing else of importance to add, I actually have a few things I'd like to ask you. For starters-"

"At last, our journey is finished!" Kim announced, too loudly to be coincidental, holding her arms wide as the mist before them parted.

The seemingly endless stairway finally came to its end, revealing before them a massive wooden archway. Below the arch was a cobblestone path leading to a wooden building half-covered in mist, rolling waves of moisture hanging in the air around it, and a heat emanating from the dwelling so strong that John could feel it from where they stood, now that he was paying attention.

"We can talk inside, John Newman," Kim said, sighing wistfully. "I hope you can appreciate that I am the only person, in or out of the Abyss, who has ever scaled this mountain… until now. Come. Bask in its glory, and bathe with me."

"…Bathe?" John thought, watching Kim sway toward the small building with grace, despite the swagger to her steps and the bottle pressed firmly to her lips.