Papuru Star: Coalition Carnage

Chapter 28: The Gospel of Plunk: Illuminance

"Can a mortal match the power of a Deity?" This is the question I posed to my creator, the Ancient, the morning of the thirty-eighth day in the year one thousand, fifty. Mere moments before, the day's battle brackets were released and Ramza's opponent was someone this question was not wasted on.

"Yes," was his only response. The three of us, the Ancient, Ramza, and I, were in the Ancient's throne room, which was similar to the rest of his home of clouds and ivory. He sat on his gold and silver throne as he looked at his son. "You must use caution."

Ramza was looking out an opening in the wall of clouds, his back to us. He made no indication he'd heard the warning. His father went on.

"He is different from the rest. I cannot get a firm understanding on him. He's holding back much more power than he's shown."

"That means I can let loose more power then I have shown," he said brightly, before flying out the castle through the ceiling. It was rare to see such enthusiasm for battle from the Deity of Unluck, who, for countless millennia, was a pacifist of godly renown. His current attitude towards violence didn't cause me to worry, but I could see how the skin around the eyes of the Ancient crinkle in his son's wake. My creator was a god of infinite patience, but his reaction to Ramza's caviler attitude towards his coming opponent had me doubt, for the first time, the infinite part. This prompted me to ask a second question.

"Is Soul Style truly that great?"

"Willard Drax is the only mortal that comes to mind with the power to rival that of Tier Alpha Ramza. This year, there are more than a couple that could have beaten his former self." The Ancient casually waves a hand, conjuring a vision of the man his son would soon face in combat. The life scale interpretation towered over me forebodingly; I felt a need to take a few wing flutters back from the overwhelming eclipse. Just looking at the being dressed head to toe in a form fitting suit of total midnight sent a shiver through me. The Ancient stood to his full height, walking up to his illusion, the top of his head reached Van Black's chin.

"I don't understand this aura around you," he said absently, like he wasn't talking specifically for me to hear. "Or why I can't see your face."

I got the sense I shouldn't be here for my creator's private musings, so I took my leave. I went the opposite way of Ramza, descending below the cloud floor. Hundreds of feet below was a cloud bank and thousands of feet below that, the Pinewhite Wood. A forest of trees with needles and bark the color of the snows of Ja'ir, stretched for over four hundred miles to the Bay of Marshmallows. The pine needles shifted colors as the violet light of the Papuru star struck them at angles I witness in my flight over.

My thoughts drift to Van Black and how the Ancient couldn't even view his face. What did that mean? Was he faceless? Or did he mean on a more spiritual level? My creator being unable to understand a mortal made me uneasy as I head north at a modest clip. I could cover about sixty miles in forty-five minutes, getting home in time to watch my friend's battle with my wife, who was now a fan.

I had been gone for days on an adventure with a Taurus friend of Ramza and I and had ran out of pixie dust, thus no instantaneous transport. We had gotten lost in the Mines That Glitter searching for a special ingredient my Taurus friend needed for a sculpture he was constructing; no surprise, it was of Ramza. The seeking of the moonrock he wanted led to many dangers; a cave in, gas that made one hallucinate they were amphibious, even moss which spores could turn a person into moss if exposed. These incidents left me to take the long way home, giving me alone time with my thoughts.

My recent adventure and the unease of my feelings, brought, unabated, long past memories to keep me company for the journey home. Two hundred years after the 'Arrival', Ramza and I went to visit my aforementioned Taurus friend, whose name is Kimukor. The half man, half horse people like living in nature; open areas with little to no shelter. The Avondala Taurus roam the Foldham Plains lush green and white grass fields, feeding on the fruits of the many trees. Kimukor shares our sense of adventure and the three of us went out in search of one.