Chapter 38

Only the dead have seen the end of war!

Plato said that without even being aware of the existence of another dimension apart from his own. Yet it didn’t ring any less true even now, when I had literally transcended to a higher dimension, with access to powers Plato could only have attributed to the residents of Mount Olympus. Even in this so-called transcendent dimension, war and strife were commonplace.

The atmosphere in the Council Headquarters following the announcement of the imminent was tense enough for someone to cut through it with a knife. No hint of a smile could be found on anyone’s faces and you could consider yourself lucky if you could even catch a glimpse of one of the members of the Council.

I couldn’t help but pity the Council. In a time where all their focus should have been on the impending war, they were forced to meet with the delegations from the mortal world. The responsibility of handling the policy of Untethereds on two fronts was proving to be too difficult to juggle. And it showed in the way things were being handled right now in regard to the war.

From what I had been able to gather, the ongoing talks with the mortal delegations weren’t going all too well. Even with the prospect of the upcoming inter-planetary war, the mortal governments wanted to set some issues straight. As far as they were concerned, the war had little to nothing to do with them, at least for the time being.

To be fair to them, they did raise a valid argument. Why should they be a participant in a war when they weren’t even aware of the existence of the parties involved in the war until just a few days ago? The only thing they were willing to talk over was the exertion of influence over the Untethered. They just wanted some semblance of control on the Untethered for the foreseeable future, just so the Untethered didn’t suddenly wake up one day and decide they wanted to rule this planet.

This paranoia from the mortals’ side wasn’t helping matters when it came to the war efforts of the Council. They were having to exert so much of their resources on the problem that was just in front of them, the mortals, that they couldn’t even properly delegate their responsibilities to the other Untethered.

When it came to me personally, through some good fortune for a change, I found myself completely removed from these issues. Instead, I was able to fully concentrate on increasing my own power and my connection to my core. So much so that I could feel that I was on the verge of the breakthrough.

Now, I was able to communicate with my core and the core of my familiar through some sort of weird signals. It was rudimentary at best, consisting of nothing more than vibrations of the chords connecting me to my core, but it was a promising start. Even the chords themselves had grown stronger, resembling trunks of banyan trees rather than simple ropes.

“Are you done?”

I wasn’t as connected to my core as I would have liked if all it took to break through my meditative state were just those three words.

With a sigh, I opened my eyes to find Samuel staring at me. I rose from my sitting position and said, “Not really but I don’t have an option, do I?”

“Sorry man, we can’t just skirt around this responsibility. We are overtaxed as it is.”

I could only sigh once more as I said, “I know. I know. Let’s go.”

Samuel nodded at me as we proceeded to move out of the room to patrol our city. Yes, just because the Untethered of this planet were on the cusp of war didn’t mean that the monsters were resting easy. If anything, the decrease in numbers of the Untethered available for patrol had meant more monsters were running rampant now more than ever.

To make matters worse, the fact that mortals were now able to see monsters and witness their extraordinary powers only added to the paranoia they felt towards the Untethered. All of this contributed to making patrols more important than ever at a time when the least amount of resources could be spent towards that task.

As we were roaming the city, I couldn’t help but look towards the sky. Today was yet another occurrence of red Luna, an event that was always filled with ill fate for me more often than not.

But tonight, the moon that I and most of the Untethered population were most concerned with was the other one. The normal one, if you will. The one which could be viewed by everyone, mortal and Untethered alike. At least until a few days ago.

Even now, an army was stationed on the moon, lying in wait for the perfect opportunity to strike at our planet.

“The city is too silent.”

Of course, Samuel was too concerned with the present to delve too much on the prospect of war.

“What do you mean?”, I asked, looking around to check for signs of any lurking monsters.

“There’s no trace of any monsters around. We have been scouting the city for the past hour and have yet to come across even one. While that may have been good news if we were patrolling just a small area, an entire city being devoid of monsters doesn’t comfort me one bit.”

When the facts were laid out for me like that, I couldn’t help but realise that Samuel was right. It was highly unlikely for a city that was being patrolled by just two Untethered didn’t have any monsters rampaging about. Monsters didn’t care much for the presence of Untethered patrols, anyway, being too concerned with their absorption of miasma.

The silence which had been soothing just a few seconds ago suddenly felt eerie, almost hostile, as if it would suddenly strike out at us like a viper.

“No monsters on a red Luna night? There’s a greater chance of one of us winning the lottery than of that happening.”