I.
January 4016-B, The Town of the Church of Holy Light
I woke up slightly before midday in a makeshift bed at the back of an alley, surrounded by junk and trash. The sky was cloudy, its gray light complimenting the dulled, dusty tones of the town. I had moved here a number of years ago after a long series of incidents which I don't like to speak of, and was never quite able to find my footing in the tight-knit, downtrodden area. Of course, I had never made a totally honest effort; I liked to live in such a way where I could run at a moment's notice. I might lose a couple things, but at least I'd be prepared, not like everyone who'd let their roots grow deep here. I had woken up late, but still had enough time to get to Sunday's weekly church visit for the week's end. Most people in town went there, and if not knew plenty of people who did and so ambiently believed much of the same things. I wasn't that same type of believer, but the connection was a little nice, I suppose. It was a bit of a walk, but church wasn't for another few hours, and it's not like there was much to do out and about anyways - short of hanging out on the beach, which isn't worth much on its own. Seas are nice, but not when they're filled with trash and machinery (fancy trash) from some far-off place. If I got there a little early, I wouldn't mind the alone time.
Through the stained-glass portrait behind the podium, a sunset's warm glow lit a crowded afternoon sermon, wooden benches lined with people listening intently to our pastor, the Great Relayer Alzeki. There was nothing special about today's sermon above all others, no indications of unusuality as people prayed in formation, tiny pieces of sunbleached electronics skittering around on the floor. Between chants we hit the usual topics. Community togetherness; the need for a leading Power in our lives and the emptiness of one without; our church's familial bonds; recovering from what had happened here so long before I arrived, and which we could never seem to shake; our pastor's meetings, new and old, with the Goddess herself. I sat there next to my two friends in the world, praying along. No matter our reasons, we were all believers. The sermon continued - it always went on just a little too long, I felt - as the Relayer raved about all the good She (and he) did for us, and our responsibility to do back to them, everyone working in service of something greater than ourselves. Not much to write about in detail, I suppose. As the sun continued to set, the outlines of light intensifying as our details grew darker, we were finally called to leave as the session ended, tailed by an especially large bit of crawling electronics as we walked out.
Me [and my two friends] Sefgh and Matt walked out together, and I glanced back at the front face of the church, a pair of angel wings emblazoned above the door. Most of what was said there was true, but the Relayer had a way of distorting things; Almendra was real, of course, but I doubted he had ever met her. Certainly neither were doing much for us - for all he talked about recovery, things only seemed to decay a little further each year I stayed. He was a good performer. My friends believed in it all, though, and I went with it all so I wouldn't alienate the last few people I still regularly talked to. It was a bit of self-betrayal I had to tolerate so as not to go insane.
"So did either of you two notice there were more electronics on the ground this time than usual?" Sefgh asked.
"Yeah, actually! Usually I don't pay attention to that stuff, but there was this really big one, it was like the size'a my foot..." Matt replied. Usually I didn't participate a ton in our after-church conversations, but I liked hearing them talk. I listened in as we walked back to our houses.
"You think it had a camera?"
"Naaaah, those ones've usually got a pretty clear sensor, or at least a light or somethin', but this one was just some orb rollin' and wanderin' around. Maybe it was lost!"
"Poor thing, I hope not. I always feel a bit bad for them when they get trapped in there."
"Ahh, it's fine, I'm pretty sure it got out untrampled."
I noticed something overhead at the edge of my vision. Looking up, it seemed to be this small red light, not blinking but rather steadily pulsating - maybe slowly getting closer, it was hard to tell. A satellite, maybe? No, it was still cloudy, and we didn't see much of those over here anyways. With how many little pieces of robotics hung out around here you could never discount something just shooting off into the sky, but this seemed different. It was oddly transfixing, the way it stood out against the clouds, riding high above the sunset as a burning speck. What... was it?
WHAT INDEED?
My attention snapped back to reality as Matt left on his own branching path back home, both of us saying our goodbyes. It was just me and Sefgh, now. It's occurring to me that since I only started journaling again recently, I never really explained who they were. Sefgh was someone I'd known for a while now, about two or three years; I didn't still have any childhood friends or anything, and I had a habit in the past of just dropping out of people's lives, whether slowly or all at once, and so they were the longest-running true friendship I had going right now. Their name was an odd androgynous jumble of letters, one designed to be ambiguous to suit their fluid needs but not quite fitting their warm friendliness. Usually we just called her "Sef" when we talked. She was a bit of an odd duck in the town for experimenting with gender, but as long as she didn't rock the boat too much, nobody particularly cared.
"So what do you think about it, Maine?"
"Uh, think about what?" I said. I really needed to start paying attention again. Conversations are hard enough when you're focused.
"Her!" They said, giving me a teasing elbow.
"'Her' as in 'some girl you were talking about', or 'her' as in 'Her'?" I said, smirking back at them.
"'Her' as in 'Her'! Jozep said he thought he saw Her behind his building last night and Matt got excited about it, weren't you paying attention?"
"Oh, you know me. I got distracted by that thing up there." I pointed at the red dot, now a bit larger.
"Huh... yeah, that is weird, usually electronics flicker a bit, maybe go off-rhythm sometimes, and this thing is staying steady. It's... weirdly hypnotic!"
"Exactly, I was just watching it that whole time."
"Well anyways, what do you think? I know you don't take all this stuff quite so literally as us, but do you think it was real?"
I shrugged, pretending to be neutral. "Could've been. Maybe She should appear to me next, huh?"
"I wish!" Sefgh said. Suddenly, they perked up at the sky. "Hey, I think it's getting bigger..."
I looked up and what had been a speck and then a dot was now becoming a small object, not quite a circle anymore but a silhouette of something. It sent out a sudden, crashing wave of noise, and we realized in unison that this wasn't something electronic. It was something beyond this world. A supernatural hum got louder and louder as its approach got faster and faster, headed right above our current location on the street. I snapped my head back as another noise played, this one less perceptable to the human ear, another figure rushing over to meet it. I grabbed Sefgh and started running as the two figures collided mere feet above us, lightning bursting from the clash and shooting up scorched gravel on the side of the road as it hit the ground. More lightning strikes battered the town around us, flying off in every direction at every distance, hitting roads and sides of buildings, sending bits of stone and cement flying off in an impossible display of explosive energy.
"W-what- what the...-" Sefgh stuttered out, quickly losing breath. "I-is- is this...?" I kept running, pulling them faster than they'd be able to run on their own, not stopping until we found shelter to wall us off, settling for an especially sturdy building at the town's center. We tucked behind it into an alley, safe to watch from a distance.
"Who... who are those? Do you know?" Sefgh whispered as we stared, the two airborne figures still just barely visible. One appeared to be cloaked and masked, a large sword faintly visible at moments when the two flew apart. The other was harder to make out, what looked like a devil glowing a strong, harsh red, bolts of energy shooting out of it at random intervals and raining destruction on the center of the town. Without the context to understand what was happening, it looked like a demon and its hunter, a struggle to bring down something terrible and evil. I looked over, expecting Sefgh to be terrified, but instead they were transfixed at what was happening in a mix of horror and awe. It's not often you see a god with your own eyes.
With an inhuman shriek, the two plummeted down, the red creature impaled by the masked man, his(?) purple cloak billowing as they were sent flying downwards and crashed into the earth, the impact knocking us backwards, the ground rumbling, the sound and dust from a building's collapse filling the air. I slowly got up, glancing over to see if Sefgh had been hurt.
"I'm fine, just... just, uh... a couple scratches." They reassured me as I helped pull them back up. Cautiously, we walked back over to see what had happened, looking around us at the charred debris which had been parts of buildings and roads and electronics and even a few people who had just been in the wrong place. We slowly approached the crater where they had landed, and many others were crowding around it as well, too many for us to get a clear view inside. A nervous murmur rippled through the crowd, people shifting as those on the other side parted for something. The voice of the Relayer rang out, as commanding as ever.
"This is a demon... an opposing force... and it has been slain," he spoke, "do you all know what this means?" He paused for effect. "This is what I've been telling you all about, all this time! Yes - I declare it, and listen well!" He stretched his hands to the sky, holding it in his palms.
"The prophecy is now in motion!"