Titans of the Current: Hands of God Edition

Part 2:1:2

"Founder!" The guardsmen all salute my presence as I dismiss them from my office.

"You are dismissed, report to me at sundown."

All of them respond simultaneously "Sir, yes sir founder Zher."

The armed protectors leave my office on the thirty ninth floor, the newest installment to replace Xio's office. But not to fear, his research lives on through himself!

I never would have came up with the idea had it not been for my close relation with Bell. I remember when I first gave her that name. By now she must understand it's meaning and the weight it carries.

Her researched with my influence were able to manifest the diety of Sloth into a drone. If I can instill the soul of a demon into a lifeless price of metal, what keeps me from withholding Xio's soul to simply wither away in the spirit world waiting to be grasped by a shini, or claimed as a trophy from a Nightshade Valkyrie? Well I say I will be that barrier!

And pretty soon Tamiel will have all he needs to rise to power!

Xio's body may be mutilated far beyond the point of repair his soul lingers, ripe for the picking! One of the many perks of the pantheons leaving the world, the inevitable has now become reversible.

Ring ring ring!

What infernal racket disrupts my contemplation? I press the intercom switch "guards, who is it."

What I expected was an explanation, what I got was screaming with classical violin overtones. What is the meaning of all this? I must find out!

"Sergio! Give me video feed!" My communications officer quickly gives us visual of the security checkpoint just outside my office. The image we recieved was rather... Distasteful.

My guardsmen, all with blood leaking from their eyes, their bodies mangled. One unfortunate soul send to had been plastered to the wall. The only thing remaining of his upper body is bone.

But who could such a thing. Murder of this scale is a skill not bestowed to one overnight. This is an accomplished killer, and I must take measures to ensure my survival. Wait a minute.. That tune? Alrach's lullaby?

"Sergio! Look away! Do it boy!" I was to late, the first strain had completed, the second chorus had begun that could only mean it was too late.

The pitches are elaborate. The first movement is a docile piece that eludes wave energy. Anything from light and sound, to motion and tectonic activity, if it travels in waves the song can manipulate it.

Even the waves the brain creates in the chemical reactions of thought can be stalled, as seen in my underlings case. Sergio has just begun to listen to the second piece, as his gaze remains unchanging, and as his eyes bleed profusely.

The second tune is a fast moving piece that has a unique quality. It contains the specific frequency of all the known elements. When these frequencies collide, the equal motions cancel one another out. What that means for its victims is whenever the song stops playing it means the frequency for carbon had been met.

The stopped motions cause the victim to literally fall to pieces.

Sergio couldn't scream, or feel it fortunately. I imagine the pain of melting from your bones as your skin peels from your body would be too much.

I leave the sanctum of my desk to call in more guardsmen, but the notes begin, and the lights flicker. The systems are haywire!

All the feeds are fried! I'm stuck here.

The next pitch plays.

CRASH!!

The vault doors crash open as he walked in.

The shirtless, dark-skinned, fedora bearing, infamous, and charismatic host of Asmodeus.. Jazz....

"How is it hanging oh high and exalted founder?"

"How could you do that to poor Sergio you monster? How am I supposed to tell his single mother?"

Jazz shrugged with the least bit of concern, your not, because you already sacrificed her to Xio's cause.

How could you have known that ?

The harp works both ways

It just occurred to me he wasn't even using his voice. Rather he used the Harps ability to control waves to speak to my mind directly. He had become quite the musician. Isn't that right?

You were never hard to read anyways. The harp just simplifies the process.

"Sit down Jazz, if you here to kill me it would be over by now."

If I were here to kill you, I'd wrote my own melodies in commemoration. Ones that could disintegrate you from the testicles up.

"Still touchy about the whole demon host thingy? You need to lighten up! At least your not as dim as the others."

He looks up at me.. Eye contact was something he never made, there was never a necessity. He was blind and deaf, and he himself had caused it.

He was the only host to overcome his demons. Asmodeus, was the chief diety of lust. To beat him, Jazz removed his senses of sight and sound to curb his desire for mortal tangibles.

This began his internal war for control of his body. In the end his willpower alone slew Asmodeus, but the price Jazz paid was his voice. And his lips were melted shut by the fiend himself. To this day I yet to know what Jazz is variable of.

But he found the Harp of Alrach, a one-stringed instrument that can play any pitch. The effect of its songs originates from how it is played.

Jazz was able to find the harp because without his sense, all he had were his thoughts. The silence allowed him to sense the Harps vibration. The closer he got, the harp would manipulate the waves in his mind, telling him where it was.

After he found it, he learned it's secrets and was soon able to experience the world one more. The Harps control of vibrations and waves allowed him to transfer the image and sound of the world directly to his mind.

But I heard he could sing. Sing a song that could lure sirens into eternal bliss.

"That's really touching Zher, it really is! That story is almost as miraculous as the one where you lived this long as to continually affect the lives of those you already damaged! What are the Nightshade Valkyries doing on the flooded rim? So you really need reminding of the consequences of involving then with the IAC?"

"Oh Jazz! When did you start caring about this humble bioengineering facility, and its public relations? Don't you remember? The Valkyries will do anything for me as long as I hold the grimoire..."

Jazz's silence was golden. Moving his fingers which was literally second nature became difficult.

You think that will save you? Etrius is the only one who can write in it! And Jack is the only source of ink to write in it! Both of those people work against you! To stop you Zher! Did you forget that?

On the contrary Jazz! I know that your friends' resistance serves only to fuel my own cause!

.... But you knew that.... Now you'll excuse me....

The soul catcher needs attending to...