Chapter 8

“Don’t you think that human beings regard it as the ultimate desire and greatest humiliation to the extent that every government and institution’s job is to prevent that very thing…?” Yui explained. “That it is indeed both unnatural and perverse?”

“Yeah, well…” he tried to think of a response. But there are plenty of stories of people who live forever. In mythology and modern tales. And they often end with the immortal wishing they would die. Humanity has imagined what everlasting life is like and it’s often been a curse. So wouldn’t that be evidence against what you said?”

She then stopped painting and turned to him, setting her paintbrush down.

“Interesting conclusion,” Yui said. “Then let me ask you if you’re familiar with a tale. Do you know of the story of the fox and the sour grapes?”

“Yes,” Calvin said.

“Recite it for me,” she said.

He rolled his eyes before thinking of it.

“There was once a fox that noticed some grapes hanging from a vine,” Calvin thought. “They looked delicious and he wanted to eat them more than anything. However, after trying to jump to reach them so many times he eventually gave up. And after giving up, the fox decided they were probably sour anyway. So it was pointless to reach them.”

“Exactly,” Yui said. “The fox saw an ultimate treasure he wished for more than anything. But upon not being able to attain such a boon, the fox decided it was pointless to reach them because they wouldn’t be satisfactory to his tastes. Even though he never ate them to truly decide. In other words, his reasoning didn’t come from any evidence of experiencing his hard-gained treasure but a mentality to ease his discomfort. He was trying to make himself feel better that he didn’t get what he wanted.”

“And you feel this way…?” Calvin asked quizzically. “About mankind’s attempts to achieve immortality?”

“Moreso their view of it,” Yui said. “Perverse or not, all humans know they will die someday. So they think to themselves that to not die is a harrowing fate. People attempted to rationalize and make up the downsides of living forever, a fate they had never been blessed with. Just as that fox had never eaten grapes before and tried to soothe his hurt pride, so mankind has written tales about the horrors of immorality.”

“Wow…” Calvin said. “I-I-I never thought about it that way.”

“The grief you experienced was from a vague memory humanity has had long before they held the knowledge to build structures taller than mountains,” Yui said. “There is a memory they are all linked to of a time before…and it arises whenever a loved one dies, awakening like a lost dream or forgotten wound. Because they all know it would have never happened before the black serpent helped bring about humanity’s ruination. You felt you just had to bring me back alive because it’s how human beings would normally exist.”

“So-?” Calvin asked. “You don’t blame me for killing Nathan…?”

Yui sighed.

“I do but…” she paused. “This is the way I see it. Say someone stole something from you. Your most valuable possession. You tracked them down to gain it back but…but in doing so…you had to defy laws of invasion of privacy, breaking and entering and even murdering to get it back. The possession was yours, no doubt, but you committed many wrongs because of an original wrong done to you.”

She looked up at him, holding his smooth cheek with her even smoother hand.

“Death stole me away from you,” Yui said as she caressed his face. “And you did everything in your power to gain back your most prized possession, your most treasured jewel. Even if you had to steal away the life of another.”

Tears flowed from Yui’s eyes, watering her beautiful dark irises.

“And for that…” she said. “I’m beyond grateful. Not that you killed to bring me back…but to know someone loves me just that much. Calvin…you love me more than anyone ever has. And as someone who had parents who made me feel like I had to earn their love with good grades and responsible behavior…I’ll never forget that.”

A faint smile crossed her face.

“Death…” she said. “Is the very barrier that prevents love like that from uniting the two. And it is reviled for that reason.”

“But-!” Calvin said. “But death is still a thing! It still exists! Within everybody! Everything has to die some day! Perversion or not…we must exist and move on from reality, no matter how harsh it may be. It may not have once been normal…but it certainly is now.”

“So I suppose you’re okay with crime since law breaking happens everywhere?” Yui asked.

“What?” Calvin asked.

“Horrible things happen to everybody,” Yui said. “Everyone has committed heinous evil such as lying, hatred, or theft. All over the world things as disgusting as political corruption, conspiracies to kill innocent people and even pedophilia. In the latter’s case, much of the world runs off human trafficking of the sexual exploitation of children. Does that all seem natural?”

“Um-” Calvin said. “M-Maybe…maybe not good but it’s definitely existed forever.”

“But if it has always existed then why do all the world’s evils feel so wrong?” Yui asked. “They don’t just feel bad, like the natural course of weather. Bribes feel like a perversion of justice. Even if it’s how much of the government is usually run, we feel it shouldn’t be that. As does the notion of innocent people dying in terrorist attacks. We’re incensed with rage when that happens. When women are preyed on by men, we don’t say it’s natural for men to attack them. We condemn those things not because they are too our discomfort but because we feel the world should be different than to be supported by evil. Do you disagree?”

Calvin looked away. Yui was challenging him in ways he never expected. He didn’t wish to think this deeply. Calvin was more introspective than Nathan for sure but he had never felt his world flip upside down like this.

Now that Yui was alive once again, his world was becoming more warped with every word. His world was not decaying like it was after she died but new dimensions of reality were appearing within him. He finally began to understand what Yui meant.

She’s not talking about how the world is. Calvin thought. She’s talking about how the world was…and is supposed to be.

“I…” he said. “I guess not.”

“Good,” Yui said.

She turned back to her easel and began painting. Calvin was impressed with how fast she could paint masterpieces. There was no doubt her artistic skills had multiplied by at least ten times after her resurrection.

It was not long before Yui was done with her newest one. She put her paintbrush back in the water and stood up. Calvin’s eyes went wide with the horror she had captured.

“This is what the stars told me,” she said.

The tower rising from the sea of blood was like nothing he’d ever seen. It was a darker shade than the more pale color of the beach near it but it looked like human flesh nonetheless. And still it looked like blood had been mixed in with the material and something white, like bone, to create a swirl of color. The hue of the tower was like an ice cream flavor made of chocolate, strawberry and vanilla that had an odd effect on his eyes.

It rose tall enough to reach the heavens. In the same way that Yui’s path of white reached to the end of the horizon as though it were a physical barrier, the tower stretched to the top of the heavens. Calvin could tell because standing atop it and clawing the blackness of the sky was someone who resembled his brother.

His body had morphed into that of a monster’s. Three snakes grew from his back, one of which included a tail-like appendage that hissed at the viewer of the painting with malice, as though it could see Calvin. His hands and feet were equipped with claws that looked like a mix between a large cat and a wolf’s.

Calvin kept his square jaw but it was wider now and filled with rows of knife-like teeth. Onyx black hair streamed down the back of his head like a veil while two obsidian black horns sprouted from his scalp. His skin was similar to the brown of his tower, an oddly beautiful shade that reminded Calvin of imported wood.

He watched the beast of his brother shred the humans bathed in the light of the stars with his animal-like fingers. His hands were coated with their golden blood and the painting portrayed them in mid-fall, either trying to fly back up to their place in the sky or land on the beach or river of blood. The star people that now floated on the surface of the river had their golden blood color the otherwise red liquid a strange yellow.

But even worse was how many other creatures climbed the tower and fought the stars. Many were winged beasts that brawled with the star people in midair, while the grounded creatures had limbs malleable enough to turn into ladders their comrades could climb up. Monstrosities with too many eyes to count and more limbs than an earthly creature should have savagely attempted to rip their holy enemies apart. The wicked, beastly monsters piled around the tower dead as they bled human blood but many stayed on the tower itself.

Those not fighting were building the tower. Calvin could see the depictions of both winged and non-winged monsters ascending up the structure carrying piles of molten red and pale mush. Those that reached the tower were fashioning new layers to the tower from the malleable material, sticking it onto heights of the structure and molding it with their hands to create a solid structure.

“What-?” Calvin asked. “What is going on?!”

“What the serpent wanted,” Yui said. “This.”

She put her finger just above the base of the tower where the red paint for the sea met with the mixture of other colors for the tower. She then ran her finger to the top of the tower where its utmost height very nearly met with the top of the black sky. It was where Nathan in his monstrous form fought against the descending star people.

“The tower is what the black serpent has wanted all along,” Yui said. “This tower of…of flesh is perfect since it is both physically tall enough to reach into the heavens and made of the right material to cross over into the material plane.”

“So…?” Calvin asked. “It’s made of-?”

“Human flesh, yes,” Yui said. “The tower is made of death itself, meaning that it is built upon the principle of life for death, sacrifice for advancement. Just as the knife of choice has the power of. By sacrificing so many lives, Nathan has ascended to a height he can literally place himself in the heavens. And that very tower is what the black serpent will use to climb back into the heavens, where he was cast down long ago.”

“But I thought the grand star won since you came back?!” Calvin said. “Not only is the knife retrieved, you made a way for dead souls to avoid eternal suffering but you came back! So…so what did the black serpent do?! Did he bring Nathan back or does that thing just appear to be my brother?!”

“Apparently…” Yui said. “From what the stars told me…they’re now fighting these creatures that Nathan created. They’re trying to replace the stars’ place in the heavens and now…now…now this is entering the second phase of the black serpent’s plan.”

“Second phase?” Calvin asked.

“Did you really think that these two powers that had been warring for eons had no backup plan, do you?” Yui asked. “The knife made sure a more complicated layer would arise. The first stage was their official agreement they made…my life for the knife. But they had plans beyond that that went beyond what they said…hidden stages…”

“And the second stage of the grand star’s plan was to have you create the way to life for those that died,” Calvin said. “While the second stage of the black serpent’s plan…was…was for Nathan to become this huge monster and build this immense tower.”

“Exactly!” Yui said. “And the third stage of the black serpent’s plan is when the tower is finally tall to reach the heavens and supplant the stars in heaven with himself and the army Nathan amassed for him! Once it’s reached the height of the moon or grand star the black serpent will slither up the tower and attempt to supplant himself as king!”

“Wait, wait!” Calvin said. “I only resurrected you! Not Nathan! Why is he here?!”

“Because that’s not how the knife works,” Yui said. “It essentially…gives both back.”

“How do you know this?” Calvin asked.

She turned and looked back towards the window, the stars still twinkling very oddly.

“Because it’s what the stars tell me,” Yui said. “They tell me that…when one kills a person to bring another back from the dead…they don’t resurrect just one. They bring back two. The first they intended to bring back in their natural form…and the other as a ghoul.”

“A ghoul?” Calvin asked.

“A malicious being back from the dead who feeds on other lifeforms in order to get stronger,” Yui said as she kept looking at the stars, many disappeared into the black void of the night. “It assimilates the flesh of others and can create spawns, demons that obey its commands. Once they feast on humans, their bodies become clay in their hands that they can make into nearly anything.”

“Then what’s the next phase of the grand star’s plan?” Calvin asked.

Yui then turned back to her paintings. She set aside the one she had finished before taking a blank canvas and set it at her easel. She then dipped her paintbrush into her palette and held her brush over the white object.

“This,” she said. “My paintings…they have the power…to create anything I wish. I suppose…it is a power only one who has crossed death’s boundary twice can attain. The ability to create portals to reality…or even change it.”

She then set her brush down onto the trey.

“Only…” she said. “I don’t know what to make.”

“What do you mean?” Calvin asked.

“I-I-” she said. “I don’t know what I can make that would aid us. I-I don’t think I can imagine anything that would defeat Nathan and the black serpent or aid us in this situation.”

“But why?” Calvin said. “You drew all those other amazing portraits even before you rose from the dead. Why can’t you just make, like, a giant wrecking ball or big hammer that destroys these guys?”

“Because I can’t do that!” she said. “It’s not what I usually paint!”

“Well…” Calvin asked. “Couldn’t you break out of your element…even just a little?”

Yui shook her head.

“There is a big difference between artists who can just imagine anything and those who are trained to draw as close to real life as possible,” she said. “Even under the same art, there are different disciplines and specialities. Just like a shaolin monk can be excellent in their field of kung-fu but know nothing of jujutsu. Or a great poet not being able to write the novels an author who specializes in full-length books can.”

“What’s the difference?” he asked.

“Calvin,” Yui said. “I’m a realist painter. I was trained to draw things I have physically seen or remember. If it’s not right in front of me or I can picture it in my head then it’s very difficult for me to create. I’ve practiced memorizing objects and places so that I can portray them on my canvas. Any weapon that could defeat them is something way out of my element for me to paint.”

“Then that means you can depict things you know are real but not change them or add onto it,” Calvin said.

“Exactly,” Yui said. “It’s why I was able to paint the realm of the dead so well. I’ve been there long enough I can picture it perfectly. And the stars themselves told me in images what Nathan was doing.”

“But if the grand star’s third stage of his plan was to have you use your paintings to defeat Nathan and the black serpent…!” Calvin said, trying hard to think. “Then…then he knew that you could do something. Draw something.”

“But I can’t!” Yui said. “Nothing powerful enough to hurt Nathan or his monstrosities! What animal or beast is there that can crush…crush things that can defeat star guardians?!”

Calvin looked away to turn back to the moonlit night. He looked back at the starry night sky to watch the stars twinkling oddly as ever. The young man felt they were saying something to him but he couldn’t quite make out what it was.

His eyes narrowed not in a glare but a deep expression of confusion followed by a heavy sigh. Calvin’s gaze drifted down to his backyard before turning back up to gaze at the night stars. He couldn’t look very long at any one object or place for some reason. At this point, Calvin was filled with self-doubt and hatred of himself.

I tried to make things better…He thought. I can’t even enjoy Yui, life is so weird.

Love. The word came to him. Except, it wasn’t a mere word. It was followed by a great sensation of warmth and compassion that was then followed by intimacy.

Only to potentially destroy everything. Calvin thought. My parents were right to trust Nathan over me. He was always better in everything he tried.

Longing. The word along with the sensation of missing something in the past or wishing the future would change to be more suitable.

Now he’s proving that he was better. He thought. Nathan had Yui without needing to defy the laws of nature and was powerful enough to defy the heavens. What am I in comparison?

Lost love. Calvin recognized that it was no longer the word but the very concept being downloaded into him. His very spirit was being talked to as he looked out.

He then looked up at the stars more carefully, transfixed by their odd lighting. Calvin then understood what Yui meant by the stars talking to her. They were not speaking audibly. They were communicating with the very core of his being.

Resurrect. Was the next concept downloaded into him. It was not just the idea of a person brought back from the dead. They had defeated death, an unnatural enemy of the world. And with it brought a renewal like the spring green of a newly budded leaf. Calvin could almost see pink blossoms erupt from the branches of trees in his mind, the same hope and relief flowing over him as when Yui plunged from the earth.

He was shocked at the intense feelings washing over Calvin before he found himself looking at his backyard. And in the corner of his square fence was a wooden grave he hadn’t touched in years. Calvin’s eyes watered at the sight.