Amentia

Chapter 62 - Amentia

The names were the most powerful and deep ones she'd ever found. They were heavy to hold in her mind and they did not belong trapped inside it. She would need a lot of strength to call both of them for they contained entire worlds within; so she took a moment to make sure the twists and turns of them were crystal clear in her mind before daring to speak them. If she lost any parts of them once the words were out, it would be too late.

She stood straight, gathering air in her lungs and stomach, hoping that her vocal cords wouldn't fail her at the most important moment.

"Vid Alimerian," she finally said in a low voice that would allow her to save energy, but still keeping the tone rich and clear to make sure the entire name was contained inside the words. The effect was immediate.

"Stop!" she commanded, feeling her throat sore and her body limp from the effort.

The giant froze, stopping its infiltration inside Aurora's body, no longer getting smaller. The constant and overwhelming pulse of dark emotions the giant had been emitting all along also stopped, and the air felt fresh and clear as if a thick smoke had dissipated.

"Let her go," added Nati with the same tone of authority, each word requiring more strength than the last.

Despite itself, the giant opened its fist, revealing the agonizing Goddess inside, and brought it down to gently place the body on the ground. The sound the giant made upon having to part with Aurora could've been a whimper.

Aurora's transparent figure now had a black liquid running inside it, like ink flowing in water. She bent forward, letting out moans of pain, as the darkness made its way across her entire body.

Nati had to take a deep breath before speaking the next command, as this one involved something that went against all of nature's instincts and her own moral compass. This entity was horribly evil and had caused insurmountable pain to this world, but it was also still a living thing with its own name and was not technically at fault for anything it had done because it had not done it out of malice or revenge. Forcing it to destroy itself and leave no trace was not a decision that Nati took lightly or that would sit well with her, but it was also the only right thing to do if she wanted Amentia to have any hopes of recovering from this nightmare. So, with a bitter taste in her mouth but still a resolute expression in her eyes, she spoke the last command.

In unnatural and painful movements, the giant made out of darkness and suffering began losing mass and depth, its surface turning lighter and lighter until it was see-through. Finally, at the same time it cleared away from the Goddess' body, the black entity lost its shape, turning to smoke and fading away in the air.

In the aftermath, a silence fell. In a second, with the pronunciation of a few words, it had all been over. Just like that, gone. The wind was itself again, the roots underground began to regain movement, the poison was gone, everyone's emotions were their own. The suddenness of it left them all speechless. Nati had to make an effort not to lose her balance and fall down. She still had another name to call, though she was not looking forward to it.

As she turned her head to look at the fallen Aurora, the questions ran through her mind again, including all the tiny things that had nagged at her since they'd arrived into this world. Why was there a whole world connected to the Earth alone? How did the Gods know the Earth was even out there somewhere? How did they know how to find it and connect the two worlds? And what were the chances of Amentia having an atmosphere of oxygen in the exact proportions that humans need to breathe? Why were humans even invited to come here? There were other details too, like the familiar taste of the food despite being shaped differently, or the existence of common animals that were on Earth as well, or the fact that the entire population looked like a hybrid of a human and an animal. Amentia as a whole was like a distorted version of Earth stuck in the Middle Ages. What were the chances of all those similarities being a coincidence? Taking the Keeper's words as facts, this world had been created consciously and purposefully by five Gods, one of whom was lying on the ground in front of Nati right now. Out of all the infinite and crazy possibilities they had, why did these all-powerful beings decide to shape their new world in a similar fashion to the Earth? And how would these foreign Gods know what food tasted like on Earth or what the animals looked like in order to copy them in Amentia? The only possible answer was, of course, that they weren't foreigners at all.