Novum Syndicate (III)

The smooth flowy sounds of jazz filled the evening air as I walked along the sidewalk on the Boulevard des Invalides, tucking my coat close to me to ward off the harsh winter breeze. I had stopped counting how many days I had spent in this paradise, mostly because I had forgotten about what came before. That suffering was enough to drive any man even beyond insanity, you couldn’t blame me for pretending this was my life now. I walked into a cafe and up to the counter ordering a latte, warm and preferably with two shots of coffee, before sitting myself down by the window. The timid glitter of streets lamps plastered against the window, a soft, subtle glow lighting the cozy environment. I received my coffee and took to the streets once more, coat and coffee in hand to ward off the cold weather in my path. I took pleasure in my evening and night time walks, they were rather calming and as someone who never slept well, that was a miracle. 

My walk through the calm streets of the serene city was cut short as I passed a shadowed alleyway, my eye-catching a figure just beyond sight for a brief second. As I turned back to face the alleyway the figure turned back and receded deeper down the small road. Deep down I knew I should not follow suit, after all, nothing nefarious had happened here in the year and a half I had spent here, why would I let myself by purposely exposed to it. Curiosity, however, got the better of me and I slowly paced down the alley reaching a corner and turning to see an end to the path, dimly lit by the blue backlight of what appears to be a restaurant… the Living Event of the World. On a side note, I would highly recommend their dessert menu selections. 

The figure turned to look at me directly, familiar eyes staring into mine. I took a long moment of thought on the individual before stepping forwards and dropping my coffee in realization, only to stagger back. The bastard wasn’t dead, I was baffled as the thoughts rushed through my head, questions one after the other. How did he survive? Was that not enough to kill him, I injured him 3 times before offing him! Why won’t he leave me alone!

Syndicate put his hand on my wrist, grasping with force but not the kind you’d associate with ‘oh I am going to kill you now’. He looked up and spoke calmly, “We have unfinished business Jacob.”. Saying this the world slowly faded around me and we stood once more in the endless planes of the Void, Syndicate stepping back laughing at me lightly. “It was all a dream Jacob, a figment of your imagination to protect yourself from the truth of where we truly are,'' he explained. “You have prepared for this moment your whole life, strike me down.”

I looked around still baffled and utterly confused, yet at the same time engulfed in anger as I realized yet another world had been taken away from me. I shouted at him agony wracking me once more, “You bastard you can’t just keep taking things away from me! This was all supposed to be over, I shot you!” 

He shrugged looking around as the familiar wrecked landscapes of the Red Solstice faded into existence around us. He looked me straight in the eyes retorting, “Take it back you whining fool.”

As I rushed towards Syndicate in a blind rage he lifts a hand and flicking a finger, sending me spiraling back into a concrete wall, collapsing limply to the floor. An ordinary human would have died, but I wasn’t alive to begin with, I had killed myself halfway through the process of becoming whatever Syndicate was. I lifted myself up and coughed up some blood, looking up to see Syndicate standing no more than 15 meters away. I started crying lightly looking to my right arm, scarred from my index finger to my elbow with burns, and lash marks. I was afraid of what I knew I would have to do next, I would need to push beyond the point I stopped myself, become Syndicate for a brief moment to tap into the power of gods. As silly as it sounded it was the truth, the only thing that holds humanity back from understanding the greater scope of our universe was our contained minds. Perhaps by design whoever made us protected us from collective self-destruction by limiting our thoughts, but Syndicate, and myself, we were exceptions to that rule. I stood up and smiled at Syndicate taunting, “I’ll join you when we are both dead.”

I raised my hands, lightning sparking from my hands arcing off in multiple directions, essentially my body channeling powers of the Solstice. I wasn’t trained or used to the feeling, and trust me it was tearing through my body with slicing pain. I directed it all at Syndicate who himself chained it away from me and to his right laughing maniacally and exclaiming, “Yes! Jacob come now, come now channel that power, let it consume you!”

He thought I was doing this for him, to finally complete this cycle and make his power grow even more than it already had. Syndicate’s crazed fantasy of overpowering even the strongest deities of the worlds beyond was going to end here. Billions of men, women, children had died at his hands, my hands, and I had to rectify this once and for all… thus would begin our final confrontation, and perhaps our requiem.