Inferno Rising (IR #1)

5 | High Gods

I slammed the book closed, hopped off the bed, and trudged to Aszreal’s office, determined. Claire’s book mentioned that the Ultra Inferno and Albino Phoenix were known as “High Gods,” and the topic of those two made sense to me because I read about them. The one thing that didn’t make sense, though, was the topic of High Gods. I mean, everyone here in Cyelos inherited supernatural, godly abilities, making us all “Gods,” but clearly something is special about these so said High Gods, whatever they were, and I wanted to know. Actually, I didn’t want to know, I needed to know. So I quietly slipped into Aszreal’s office as to not disturb her and got her attention by knocking on the door frame. She picked up her pencil from the paper she was writing on and turned around with a sweet smile on her face. I love her smile. I’m not romantically attracted to her or anything, she’s years older than me, but she’s kind, and I appreciate how she’s helped me the last few weeks.

“Bren!” She exclaimed. “Did you finish reading?”

“Yeah, a minute ago,” I mumbled. It’s been two hours and I’m a fast reader, cut me some slack. “Can I ask you a question about something? If not, it’s okay, I know you’re busy…”

“Of course! Take a seat over there,” she pointed. She has two bean bags in the corner of her office. “We can have a whole conversation about it if you’d like.”

I plopped onto the blue bean bag and Aszreal got up from her desk, then sat down beside me on the green bean bag. She relaxed comfortably against it and placed her hands in her lap. My body molded into it and I gazed at her. She has to know about the High Gods… right? I mean, she taught me everything else. She knew all the facts about my fire abilities, and she’s mentored several people before me. I have high hopes that she give me the information I need. If not, I’m sure she has another book in her library.

“The book talked about the Ultra Inferno and the Albino Phoenix,” I began, and she instantly looked invested in what I was going to ask. “And I understand, but it said something else about High Gods, that the two of them fit into that category, but… I don’t know what it means and I was hoping you could give me some answers.”

“About the Ultra Inferno and the Albino Phoenix?” She wondered. “Or the High Gods?”

“The High Gods. What are they?”

“Great question,” she beamed. “And I do have answers for you, though it’s kind of difficult to explain, so bear with me,” she cleared her throat. “High Gods are similar to normal people with supernatural abilities, but they’re special. They have extra abilities, meaning they’re stronger and more skilled. It takes a lot more work for them to train their abilities, but when they’re fully developed, they’re very useful, and it’s extremely complicated to kill them. Many people work their butts off to become a High God, but there’s only one of each, and they only appear after the previous wielder dies.”

“Who are the High Gods?” I questioned.

“The wielders are unknown, but there are 16. Some abilities only have one god, while others have two, like the Wind Bender and the Lord of the Sky,” she shrugged. “Then there’s the Autarch of Nature, the Sula Sovereign, the Earth Dynast, and the Monarch of Winter. There are two for water. Chief Aqua and Tyrant of the Sea. Storm Bringer is for electric. There are two for fire, which happen to be the Ultra Inferno and Albino Phoenix, and only one for magic, called the Crowned Beauty. Then there are two for dark. The Dark Duke and the Moon Leader. Stay with me, though, there’s two more. These last two inherit every ability. The Banishment Emperor, and the strongest supernatural ever known, the Supreme Goddess.”

“The Supreme Goddess?” It made me wonder… Since Aszreal is so different from everyone else, and her eyes are white, could that mean that she’s the Supreme Goddess like I might just be the Albino Phoenix? If so, that would be an interesting fact to find out about her.