On the Creation of Demon Gods
El Hazard was done by AIC and Pioneer. I hold no rights to the characters or situations therein.
On the Creation of Demon Gods
Makoto kept the Power-key Staff on his person these days. He spent his time in the Royal Library, searching through ancient tomes about the Eye of God, or staring up at the giant weapon. Makoto stalked through the halls of the palace at night, spending so much time looking for something he did not know how to stop searching.
Shayla Shayla and Nanami knew what Makoto was looking for, and they knew he was killing himself trying to figure out how the Eye of God worked. The two of them confronted Makoto in the garden, after the third hour of night. Makoto just looked past Nanami and around Shayla Shayla, staring at the Eye of God with blank eyes as they harangued him.
Something had to be done. Mr. Fujisawa was currently running away from Mizu and her advances, and he was just about the only one who Makoto might listen to. The important part of the statement was "just about."
"Princess, you have to help us. This goes beyond Makoto's normal dedication. Just look at him. Makoto is wasting away, pining for her and trying to figure out a way to use the Eye of God to go after her," said a red-headed Priestess of Mt. Muldoon and a young Earth girl in perfect synchronisation, to elder princess, Lune Venus.
"I am aware of Mr. Mizuhara's condition, but what can I do? I forbade him from actual experimentation with the Eye until he figures out some other way how to control it; the Eye is just too powerful to let him try without understanding it. I cannot command him to sleep, and I will not take away his access to the Library. In any case, I doubt I could, he would sneak in and look there anyway."
"All we are asking is that you talk to him Princess. Makoto respects you. He will listen to you, and to your advice. Just talk with him, we ask you," asked the desperate duo.
"We will do as you ask, because he is dear to us, and it pains us to see him so," the princess spoke.
Late in the afternoon, Makoto Mizuhara was summoned for an audience with Her Royal Highness, the princess Lune Venus. "You wished to speak with me, princess?" Makoto asked dully.
"Makoto Mizuhara, earlier today Shayla Shayla and Nanami Jinnai came to me for help. They are worried about you." Lune paused, giving Makoto a sympathetic look. "How will you find her if you kill yourself to do so? We cannot order you to take care of yourself, but we ask you on behalf of your friends, and as a friend: give yourself a rest. What would Ifurita say if she saw you like this?"
Makoto leaned on the Power-key staff as he listened impassively to Lune Venus. When she finished, he said heavily, "May I go now? There was a promising book I wanted to see in the Royal Library."
The princess nodded and half-heartedly waved Mizuhara off. Makoto blinked slowly then left as he realised he had been dismissed. Lune Venus sighed as she saw Makoto's slumped back leave the audience chamber. After Makoto left, the princess summoned Dr. Schtalubaugh.
***
Makoto made his morning pilgrimage from his chambers to the Royal Library, nothing unusual except this time Dr. Schtalubaugh accosted him. The doctor spoke excitedly. "Makoto, you must help me with this. It is an artefact we have just unearthed. We believe it to be a recording device from the ancient El Hazard culture, and it came with several storage devises, or so we theorise. With your special abilities, you could help us find out much about the Ancients. Please Makoto, please."
Mizuhara broke out of his private thoughts long enough to listen to Schtalubaugh. Makoto was about to dismiss the request when 'ancient El Hazard culture' and 'records' hit him. There was a possibility that some of these records might contain something about the Eye of God, something that might give him enough of a hint on how it worked to allow Makoto to use it. A slim chance, but better than what he had now.
"Okay doctor, I'll help you. Where is it?"
"Not now boy. The way you look now you would be no help to us. Go and get some rest today. We will start tomorrow morning, and if you don't rest, then I will bar you from the Library." Makoto looked shocked at this. Schtalubaugh frowned angrily at him and continued, "I will not have you jeopardising this because you are tired, and right now you look ready to drop. Now go back to bed! If I send somebody to check on you, and they don't see you there sleeping, do not think for one second that I will hesitate to ban you from my books!"
Makoto knew Schtalubaugh had him beat, and he also knew that the Dean was right, so Makoto acquiesced and trudged slowly back to his room. Schtalubaugh nodded to himself with a satisfied air, turned around, and went to give a report to the princess, Lune Venus.
***
There was something different about Makoto this morning. Maybe it was a certain life in his step, or a spark of brightness in his eyes. Quite possibly it was the day and the night of solid sleep, but Shayla-Shayla and Nanami believed it was a step towards healing.
Makoto arrived at the Dean's workshop. On top of the table in the centre or the room cluttered with papers was an empty spot. In the middle of this spot lay a device which looked similar to the device Makoto thought was an Ancient El Hazard CD player. Beside the device was a stack of thin disks. Schtalunbaugh merely gestured for Makoto to use his power on the device, and Makoto did, first putting one of the disks into the small machine.
The machine came to life, spinning the disk around quickly as Makoto kept his hand touching the player. The translucent image of a man appeared above the player, facing Makoto. The image was thirty centimetres tall, and dressed in cream pantaloons, and matching turban; a shirt of purest white, and a deep royal blue vest with intricate gold trim along the edges. The cuffs of the pantaloons matched the colour of the vest, down to the pattern of the trim. On the image's feet were a pair of sandals, deep brown, and of fine quality.
The image bowed, touching its forehead, mouth, and heart with a single flourishing motion, while saying something. Makoto frowned momentarily, and then there was sound to accompany the image. "...-kum. In the name of Padashah Amalik ibn Musa the seventh, who rules most benevolently under Allah the Merciful, I, Ammar ibn Imfari do give you this record of our greatest achievements, and something of their histories.
"I begin with the jin, artificial, roughly humanoid constructs used to free us from dangerous jobs, such as deep mining operations, undersea exploration, and such. New areas both on and off El Hazard can be explored with no loss of human life."
The image of Ammar flickers and is replaced by that of humanoid shapes with arms ending in tools, or pincers, and weird sensory apparatus instead of eyes or ears, performing various tasks, such as mapping the ocean floor, or refueling a craft outside of a space station.
Ammar reappears, and begins to talk again, the former images having disappeared.
"Of course, the models you have just seen were relatively simple, single-purpose ones; we are now several generations away from these, having made more life-like ones."
Images of handsome men and beautiful women flash by, dressed in clothes which are both revealing and covering at the same time.
"These jin have more interaction with people, so it was decided that we try to make them look more human. We have found that this makes them easier to be around, and by making them beautiful," Ammar leers slightly, "it makes them much easier to be around.
"The previous models were unable to speak. Instead, they had modem ports." Ammar chuckles quietly. "There are stories, modern myths, that talk of people communicating and giving orders to jin by whistling. Impossible, of course. For one, the sounds are above the human range of hearing (for close range, in an atmosphere environment. Long range communication or out of atmosphere environments use specially reserved wavelengths on the EM spectrum).
"The stories persist, and few people whistle around the jin anymore. Why takes chances? is the logic," Ammar shrugs.
The image of Ammar flickers again. He is still wearing the same clothes, but lines are starting to mark his once youthful face. Obviously, this part of the recording has been made several years after the original.
"Salaam aleikum, my friend. Ten years have passed since my last entry on the jin. I am now wazir to his most gracious Padashah Amalik ibn Musa, whose slightest frown causes his enemies to quail in fear and his smallest smile his friends and subjects to rejoice for one full seven-day. But enough of me though, for I have the job of recording our greatest technologies.
"The secession attempts of the Northern Quarter Caliphs in the last five years has caused the greatest advances and revolutions of jin technology since the Aladdin project. The latest generation now have the ability to make creative decisions to effectively complete their tasks, not relying totally upon programmed instructions anymore. As such, these newer models are often used for covert missions instead of humans. Casualty rates for the human operatives are down five-fold because of the accompanying jin (which puts the safety of the human partner of the team as highest priority), while the success rates have increased by a similar amount due to the new generations' ability to learn from past actions.
"The latest model jin is the Ifrit class, currently a prototype, developed at the Ahriman testing grounds and laboratories."
A three dimensional representation of Ifurita, with her Power-key Staff, appeared and began to slowly rotate in a full circle. Makoto shook at the sight, almost losing contact with the player. Makoto's eyes became more intense as he looked upon the Ifurita's form. The image was quickly replaced by Ammar, who began to talk again.
"The Ifrit class is not slated to go into mass production, as it is still very experimental. Production costs, while they would be lowered via mass-production, would still be too high. It matters not though, for the Ifrit class is meant to be our elite force in our armies.
"The Ifrit's power source is one of the most powerful for a jin and a marvel of miniaturisation as well. Explanations on what exactly powers this class are unavailable, being one of the military's highest and most closely guarded secrets, but I have heard rumours varying to that of ambient energy absorbtion to total conversion to something referred to as an 'Entropy Engine.'
"Regardless of the power source, it is the ability to duplicate any force which acts upon it, meaning that each unit will become more powerful after each battle, which is the true strength of the Ifrit design. The Ifrit is the first to use a new type of processor, largely organic in nature; traditional processor types do not have the flexibility needed to utilise this class' unique abilities."
Ammar flickers in and out of vision, and then reappears, perhaps five years older.
"Further addendum to the notes on the Ifrit class. The Ifrit prototype performed beyond all expectations, and was more powerful than we were prepared for. Ifrit are single-handedly responsible for taking out two major rebel cities, along with many bases and such. Mere mention of a single Ifrit attack (each Ifrit works alone, or with other jin and personnel for suppost. Never do we pair up two Ifrit) coming was enough to cause cities to surrender. The first battle-tested prototype is responsible for seven such surrenders-- one glimpse of her silhouette on the horizon and the city is often ours. I say her because the all units of the Ifrit class are female and share the same form, although I really should say 'it' and not 'her.' A failing (not just) of mine that I often refer to them as I would a human.
"There is a problem with the Ifrit class however. Near the end of the civil war, the jin began to develop some glitches. The opinion of the developers that some of the prototypes began to develop some form of emotional response. The Ifrit will still obey orders, that is hardwired into her, but this emotional response may hinder their effectiveness.
"Maybe it is not a failing of mine to refer to her as a human.... I digress though. A decision was reached to place the prototype Ifrit into storage until such a time as our researchers find a way to control the emotional response side-effect. Further units are not to be made prior to solution of this problem. Instead, we will continue to use the traditional inorganic processors for our jin."
The player stopped, the disk was finished. Makoto looked up at Dr. Schtalubaugh, who was brimming over with delight.
"Marvelous! Simply marvelous! Oh, fortune has smiled on us today Makoto Mizuhara!" Dr. Schtalubaugh ended up dancing a little jig, unable to contain the joy of recovering this storehouse of knowledge.
"Let's see what the next disk has on it doctor," said Makoto eagerly. Quite possibly there was information on the Eye of God, especially after what Ammar had said at the beginning of this disk.
"No," said the Dean simply. "We have to record this knowledge ourselves, and make sure we do not overlook anything. I made a few cursory notes," Schtalubaugh waved a sheaf of about twenty pages, then continued, "but they were rather brief. Now, take a break, and when you return, I will have a few artists here to take sketches, and a scribe to transcribe what Ammar dictates; and Makoto, I want no arguments from you, you gave your word after all. Tomorrow we will try another disk."
Schtalubaugh waggled his index finger at Makoto in admonishment.
"We don't want to overload ourselves after all, and we must be thorough. Now run along, before I have to call Shayla and Nanami to drag you out of my workshop!"
Makoto actually barked a short laugh as he left the workshop, heading for the gardens. Dr. Schtalubaugh chuckled to himself as he watched Makoto's retreating form, then he looked at the player and laughed out loud at the find. The doctor, after Makoto had left his sight, went to get the artists, and the scribe; more importantly though, he went to tell Princess Lune what had happened.
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Notes and musings (might actually be useful to read, for once!): Well, it's been over a very long time since I first wrote and posted this, which is my first ever fic. Originally posted to the FFML (on which I usually post), I'm only now getting around to putting it up here. Perhaps because I've finally got something for the successive parts (of which I have had planned for a rather long time). You may notice some of the names seem familiar, that's because they are. Just changing them back to the original, thus Ifurita maps to Ifrit (I previously used Efreet, but have decided to go to use this spelling, it being closer to the original). An ifrit is an evil spirit or jin. That thing about whistling? The language of jin was thought to sound like whistling, and so whistling in the desert was not encouraged, just in case. Arliman translates itself to Ahriman (Ahriman is the evil force/god in Zoroastrianism, which is a dualistic religion still practiced by the Guebres in Iran and the Parsees in India. The good side is known as Ormuzd or Ormazd, formerly called Ahura-Mazda. Does this mean that there should be another set of springs or something for the priestesses to go to? Perhaps a treasure trove of ancient technology is just sitting there at the companion site. An idea one might want to use, nothing more). Padashah is a rank roughly equivalent to an emperor.
I plan to have Makoto read/do two more disks, on the Bugrom, and on the Eye of God; most likely this is a three part story (although the story really just links the disks together, and is, as such, a fairly background thing).
Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis is: InDefinitelyso on IRC Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck maybeso@ican.net prone to exaggeration, 150% of the time
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Z embla, Zenda, Xanadu:
A ll our dream worlds may come true.
F airy lands are fearsome too.
A s I fade far from view
R ead and bring me home to you.
-dedication from Haroun and the Sea of Stories
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Comments on this, or any other works of mine, are appreciated.
