[FFML] [Mai Hime] The Sword of the Lord

[wombat]

The Sword of the Lord

By John Biles

Series:  Mai Hime (distant aftermath)

*****************

	In the dark corners of the world, things are breeding, ancient things, which
ruled this world before man.  There are things within only a few miles of
some major cities that, if set free, would turn the blood of men to ice and
fire, which would shatter the thin veneer which is all that holds mankind
separate from its savage ancestors.

	Their power is rising, and the stars moving into place.  Their prophecies
speak of their inevitable victory, that the time comes when mankind shall be
as the Great Old Ones, 'free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and
morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy'.

	I have felt it myself, the call of the darkness that seeps into your soul
when it seems there is only pain and death in the world, the temptation to
cast all rules aside and live only for your own pleasure, your own vengeance.
 Power without responsibility inevitably leads to the abuse of power, a
spiral down into the darkness.

	That's why, these days, I kill these motherfuckers and take their stuff. 
The Obsidian Lord's relatives may inevitably triumph now that the Festival
that held them at bay has ended, but not on my watch.  Especially not when
they tend to be loaded.

	I kill monsters for God these days, though I'm not sure if he exists.  I've
seen things I can't explain in any other way, and yet, what kind of God would
let a world this fucked up exist?  Let the kind of bullshit that happened to
me and my Mother happen?  And yet, in the end, she was healed and so was I.

	Sometimes, I wonder if Mai brainwashed us all to go all fluffy, when she won
the Festival.  But then, I think I'd be more fluffy if I WAS brainwashed. 
Except for Midori and her old boytoy, I don't think any of us...well,
Yukariko can be nice, when she's not pissed off, anyway.  Reito seems nice,
but I think it's part of his endless quest to reassure us that he isn't
possessed today.  

	Most of us who lived through the Festival wussed out, ran off to live normal
lives.  But not my monster-hunting squad pals.  The existence of the Festival
made it too likely that other such events were also out there.  And we
determined to ensure an end to such things, to crush the monsters.

	But their numbers are rising and they're getting stronger.  The places where
magic works are getting more numerous, larger, and spreading.  That's useful
so far as ass-kicking these fuckers go; the holy weaponry from the Order is
nice, but my Weapon and my Child are nicer.

	Though I have to admit that jeep mounted machinegun of Midori's is pretty
sweet.  I remember when we were in Morocco, and the Professor mowed down
forty cultists with that thing.  Bodyparts flying everywhere, blood on the
rocks, cultists screaming as bullets ripped them in half...

	Okay, getting too excited.

	It's sweet, I'll leave it at that.  I prefer melee weapons myself, as my aim
isn't so great, I've found.  But still...

	So what's it like?  Sure, I can tell you a story.  How about the time we had
to deal with the damn blue goblins.  Yeah.  

************

	It was a boring Saturday afternoon.  I was supposed to be hearing
confessions while Sister Alyssa and Mother Yukariko finally got the parish
office in order and Sister Miyu was trying to repair the damage the hailstorm
had done to the roof back in the winter.  It was raining lightly outside,
contributing to the distinct lack of confessions.

	So I was leaning back in my chair, slowly working my way through Peterson's
Guide to Aquatic Horrors.  I'm not much of a reader, but Midori had been
making noises about being close to discovering the location of Atlantis.  I
knew, perhaps divine revelation, perhaps just habit, it would no doubt be
swarming with nasties.  I had a copy of the Magdalenan Underwater Operations
Manual sitting to one side, ready for my perusal.  I had to read this thing
during my training, but I forgot it all; we just don't go underwater that
much.

	I heard movement on the other side of the grille.  "That you, Alyssa?" I
asked.

	"No, sister," some girl said.  Sounded like a teenager.  Probably in some
kind of trouble; those are the ones who choose the privacy booth instead of
face to face, I've learned.  "I just don't know what to do."

	Almost certainly teen pregnancy.  "Are you on the pill?" I asked.

	"I had aspirin for my headache earlier, yes," she said.

	I fought the urge to bash the wall with my head.  "Birth control," I said.

	"No, sister, but my boyfriend...he used...he used..."  She began to cry.  

	"A condom?" I asked hopefully.  I'm not supposed to be pimping birth
control, but the Magdalenes get a lot of leeway since we constantly face
death.  Also, our order was founded by a prostitute, and non-practical whores
die quickly.

	"Yes, sister, but it didn't stop..."

	"Are you pregnant?" I asked.

	"No...I don't think so..."

	I sighed.  "When we're done, go see Sister Alyssa or Mother Yukariko.  She
can give you a home pregnancy test.  So it tore?"

	"No, sister, this thing came out of the woods and attacked us!  We got away,
but he started acting all weird and now he's run off into the woods and..." 
She started to cry.

	Fuck, a lycanthrope, I thought.  Alyssa could give you the big fancy science
of occultism explanation of them, but in short, unlike most monsters,
lycanthropy is an infectious monster.  Tiny bacterial 'orphans' infest you
and periodically build up, triggering transformation to a monster form.  You
rampage a while, and then your body burns off most of them and they start
building up again.  It has to do with adrenaline or some such shit.  The full
moon thing is just a myth; stress is more likely to trigger a bloom.  

 	Anyway, if we can catch this guy, Miyu can probably purge him, I thought. 
With her nanomachines and stuff.

	"Did he start craving raw meat?  Refuse to eat vegetables?  Stop wearing
clothing?" I asked.

	"He'd go topless all the time and sing and eat nothing but fruits and
vegetables," she said.  "And he went all...he lost interest in sex!"

	What a fucked up bastard, I thought.  But almost intriguing in that I'd
never seen anything like this before.  Some sort of were-hippy lycanthropy
strain?  

	"Did he start wearing tye-dyed shirts?"

	"No, but he wore his ski-cap all the time."

	"But no shirt," I said.

	"No shirt."  Depending on how he looks, could be a bonus, could be a
negative.

	"Alright.  We will see if we can help you, young one.  Go to the office and
tell Sister Alyssa and Mother Yukariko everything.  And say fifteen Hail
Marys and Our Fathers as your penance for your premarital sex."  Gotta make
that nominal effort.  If she hadn't been using birth control, THEN I would
have made her do several hundred.  Well, he did it, but at least she showed
some minimal sense.

	Like I said, I'm not the best of all nuns.  

	I listened to mumbled prayers and waited until the official confession hours
were over, then called Midori, so we could all discuss what we knew.

**************

	"Hyperborean goblinism," Midori said.  "Originally created by Eikoleo the
Wise, in order to raise an army to conquer the port of Shadoleo and to build
his grand palace.  Now that the drugs and magics used to keep them in their
docile mode are long lost, they likely waver between docile servitude and
fits of psychosis."

	"They form one of several sources of Japanese legends about onis," the
Professor said.  He and Midori tend to be a double act; it's kind of creepy
at times, watching them basically continue each other's thoughts.  "It is
unclear how true the legends about beans are, but it wouldn't hurt to carry
some."

	"Beans?" Alyssa asked.

	"You can repel onis with beans, supposedly," Miyu told her.

	Alyssa nodded.

	"Is this lycanthropy or a permanent transmutation?" I asked.

	"Eventually permanent," the Professor said.  "But possibly reversible.  The
legend of Ashkent Cro indicates he once purged his infected uncle
successfully, anyway."

	"So why the appearance now?" I ask