Chapter Twenty-One: Tara. I Beg The God In My Head For Help

Here's the twenty-first chapter of Heroes: The New Level.

I Beg The God In My Head For Help
In the temple, one will fall/When the master enters misfortune's hall.

Clarisse's prophecy rang in my head again. If we were right, and this is misfortune's hall, then Xolotl's being here cannot be a good thing.

"What do you have to do with the Merge?" Eddie asked. "What is its purpose?"

Xolotl laughed, an ugly, harsh sound. "Those foolish gods believe that we must all be kept separate due to bad blood. The Romans overtook the Greeks and the Egyptians, courtesy of Alexander and Scipio. The Greeks were never strong enough to send a few human sacrifices our way. Romans despised Neptune and Pluto, whereas Tlaloc and Mictlantecuhtli were revered by the Aztecs. When the Merge is complete, all of those gods - Poseidon, Jupiter, Huitzilopochtli, Ra - they'll be too busy fighting amongst themselves to even face the master of the Merge."

He let something slip, I realized. Xolotl's not really the master of the Merge... He must be taking orders from someone.

Good, good, Anubis told me. Now let's see if we can exploit this somehow.

Eddie gave us a slight nod. A signal. Suddenly a burst of flames struck Xolotl - Re Khet. Along with water from Maldito and a few slashes from Vicis Tincidunt Vivamus and Paradosiakos Thánato.

"It's not working," Eddie called out. "We need, like, a spell or something."

I remembered something that the Egyptian guy - Carter Kane - had told me. Anubis, I said. Any chance the rest of your consciousness can get Sadie Kane over here?

I can try, Anubis said. But Sadie has never been quite an agreeable person.

Still, some sort of message, at least, like a "Hey, sorry to dop in unexpectedly. But Tara needs you and Carter to get the hell to the temple of Xolotl."

'''I understand. I will be back shortly.'''

A few seconds later, he responded. ''The Kanes cannot come. They are currently under attack.''

I looked around. Since Xolotl was a fire god, it seemed that Re Khet was the one doing the least amount of damage.

"Raymond," I said. "The Kanes are under attack and we need their power to stop Xolotl. Care to shadow travel over there and get them here?"

Raymond nodded. "Sure. Just take me there."

I concentrated on Raymond's memories of the Kane mansion and let the shadows overtake us. I stayed at the mansion long enough to see a vague shape enter the mansion, then left.

"Where's Raymond?" Natalie asked.

"Getting help," I told her. "Carter and Sadie Kane should be here at any time."

Suddenly the shadows within the temple started to change shape, producing a guy's shape. At the same time Xolotl's flames struck my skin, knocking me off my balance and onto the floor.

"No... no... not again," I heard a voice say as it got closer to me.

In the temple, one will fall. Guess the prophecy was true.

I closed my eyes.

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Heroes: The New Level