Status Quo

"Not currently a god to the humans. Maybe way back then she was. If you want to know, they associated her with Gonggong, the black serpent or dragon with a human head in China's flood myth. Kanghui is her personal name."

Alex's face dropped once he heard Yata's words. Recent archaeological evidence had suggested that the mythical flood of China took place, but not 10,000 years ago during the legendary Xia dynasty.

Carbon dating brought the floods back to the Erlitou civilisation in 1920 BC, far later than estimated, but it referred to the Yellow River bursting its banks, which it kept doing so every few centuries.

Gonggong, a fearsome serpent-like monster, was the star of the legend behind that ancient flood which almost wiped out two-thirds of the population in the central plains of China.

What about the biblical and Sumerian legends of the great flood that nearly destroyed the human civilization then? Alex mused.

Since he was about to suffer under a monster, Alex reasoned he might as well indulge his love of folklore as a last pleasant memory.

"When did it take place? This great flood?"

"A very long time ago," Yata said thoughtfully.

"What is your definition of a very long time ago?" Alex slapped his forehead.

"Well, once upon a time, before… my existence," Yata shrugged his shoulders, throwing his hands in the air. "Why is it important to you?"

"Was just wondering about the names of beings associated with the floods, never mind. What would you know?" Alex huffed.

"Hey now… shoot the names and I'll say if I heard of them."

"Enlil, Ahriman, and Sekhmet. Some names associated with the flood myth around the world."

Yata frowned for a bit as his eyes gazed upwards like in deep thought.

"Enlil from the Epic of Gilgamesh…" he mumbled.

"So you know him!" Alex jumped up in excitement.

"I read the book. It says he caused the floods," Yata replied.

Noticing the disappointment on Alex's face, Yata continued, "Japan never had a flood myth. Not with mountains here, there, everywhere. Over 70% of Japan is freaking mountains. Flood or tsunamis comes, humans and animals scoot up there. A reason Japan feels a little more elevated than the rest of the world."

Alex snickered at his remark on its elevation as it reminded him of an ultra-nationalistic essay that Japan was the 'highest' point on Earth and that it never had a flood myth, for all the wrong reasons.

There was a ring of truth about the mountains.

"Now Sekhmet… I've heard of her," Yata bit his lips.

Hope had entered Alex again about the information on the ancient flood.

"Tell me!"

"The Mishakuji told me the story of this Egyptian goddess that is worse than Ōmagatsu-kami."

"Ōmagatsu-kami the Kami of Great Calamity?" Alex wondered aloud.

"Yeah, your marker is on a nickname basis with him. She might even know Sekhmet personally," Yata shuddered. "Sekhmet makes Ōmagatsu-kami sound cuddly."

"Why?"

"Ōmagatsu-kami may bring on a huge calamity on a mass scale but he doesn't revel in the human deaths. He does it because it is in his nature," Yata replied.

"Sekhmet…," Yata trailed off with a shiver. "… is a different kettle of fish."

"What's the story then?"

"The Mishakuji said she almost wiped out the human civilisation within her territory to bloody the waters of the River Nile…" a dramatic pause followed.

"Continue, please."

"To bathe in it." Yata shivered uncontrollably.

"Why would the Mishakuji tell you about her?"

"Because of Yamata-no-Orochi," Yata replied.

"The legendary eight-headed serpent, which Susanoo the Kami slain, because he demanded to devour a maiden?" Alex thought back about his trip to Izumo and the story about the river Hii.

Yata coughed politely, "bull *cough* shit. They used the human accusation against him for staining the river with blood. It wasn't blood but iron wastewater created by humans refining iron."

Alex tilted his head in confusion. "Why would they take the words of the humans? Even my kind tied the legend to the environmental impact of iron dust processing."

"Because you have science and they can't keep the truth forever. No. The reason is far more than that. An age old internal conflict between two groups of primeval beings. Goes back to history."

Alex thought for a while and then asked, "Emishi versus Yamato?"

Yata nodded. "One group looked after the Jomon Emishi people and the other after the Yamato herd. The Mishakuji, Yamata-no-Orochi and the other serpent gods belong to the Jomon Emishi group. Their leader is Arahabaki. Yamato leader is Amateru," Yata replied.

"You mean Amaterasu," Alex corrected Yata, much to his annoyance.

"Honorifics. But Amateru is not a female in original form, although he can take female form," Yata waved his words aside. "We can't deviate from that now."

"So what happened to Yamata-no-Orochi? Was he really slain?"

Yata shook his head. "Only imprisoned somewhere. Destroy him and you destroy the river. That's how connected he is with the nature there. The Mishakuji thought the world of him. Just not pretty to look at in his true monstrous form."

"And you think spiders are good looking?"

"Heck. What are you on about? When I mean monstrous form, he is as big as the river Hii. Why the fuck do you think the early humans described him as big as an island? Because that freaking primeval being was THAT BIG!" Yata stretched out his arms to emphasize the size with exaggeration.

"Primeval being? What are those beings? Aren't you their kind?"

Yata shook his hands quickly while looking wildly about him as though watching for the others. "Dude, we are different. Wait… let me explain the hierarchy of beings in the hidden dimension."

Yata grabbed a stick off the ground and swept the leaves off the patch of ground in front of them.

Then Yata drew a triangle on the bare soil, which he divided into four, and continued, "Think of this as the hierarchy of our hidden dimension. The triangle would apply to all social hierarchies, including the human world."

"Top," Yata pointed to the top triangle of the pyramid. "Primeval beings like Sekhmet, Yamata-no-Orochi, Ōmagatsu-kami, and Arahabaki. Gods or demons according to whichever human legend you believe in. No one knows their origins. That includes the one who marked your soul."

"Second," he continued, while pointing at the segment below the top. "Jiuwei and the Mishakuji - we call them the ancients. Although I got a feeling that the Mishakuji may be primeval instead. Ones which we knew that originated on Earth itself or another physical world like Earth, and underwent the final evolution."

"You are not in there?" Alex asked. "Wait, did you originate from Earth?"

Yata winked and tapped the stick on the third segment. "No. I belong to the third. And yes, my species only exists on Earth, so I originated here. You will enter the same category as I if you survive the final evolutionary process. We are the ones who really don't matter in the hidden dimension."

"Why?"

"I am not old enough. That's all you need to know," Yata snapped at him.

Young? How young? Alex could only wonder as he pointed at the last segment. "Who falls into the last category, then?"

"Your 'ghosts' - the ones we can't do anything about. Think of them as… nothing until useful."

Alex snarled at his swift dismissal of his own kind. "But those ghosts were once like me."

"Yeah, whatever, boohoo. That's why I said the Asian primeval beings set up a containment field for them - our current ghost cities."

"Is there even enough space in your dimension for ghost cities?"

"Unlike your human, or what we call a physical dimension, where space is finite, space does not work the same way in ours. That or leave them to linger in the human world. I don't know what the other factions do with theirs," Yata explained.

"Why?"

"Not too sure. Our hidden dimension has factions to boot. Remember, we have many worlds attached to the dimension. Whom your human legend regards as gods or demons, dominate and guard each territory in each world. Those are a group of primeval beings, for example, like those Olympus dudes of Zeus, or Odin's Æsir…"

"Humans don't worship the Olympian gods and the Norse Æsir anymore," Alex interrupted Yata, much to his annoyance.

"Let me finish… those lost their territories on Earth to Morningstar's group. But they have other territories in other worlds. However, Morningstar can never gain a foothold under the primeval beings who hold East Asia and other similar civilisations on other planets. Populous numbers in humans and…"

"Ghosts?"

"Um. I guess. Ghosts have powers of influence over humans to a certain extent. More of propaganda - the once glorious past as the pinnacle of civilisation hammering patriotism into the minds of the humans within our territories," Yata added with a triumphant look.

"When you say Morningstar… is he the…" Alex racked his head to think of the better word.

Yata nodded as though he had guessed who Alex was referring to. "So what you see is a religious change, but what we see is the changing hands of a faction. East Asia is more relaxed. As long as the status quo is undisturbed, no one cares. Morningstar strives to upset the status quo."

"So, what is the status quo?"

"Don't ask me, ask the primeval beings. I am on the unimportant list of not-to-inform. Benefits of getting ordered around by the higher ups," Yata threw his arms up.

"Do the primeval beings usually mark humans like me?"

"Well, you are the first case I heard of. Usually markers are the ancients. And judging from how Jiuwei was actually talking to you, probably his first time seeing your case, too," Yata replied.

"What do you mean by him actually talking to me?"

"You are still intact, are you not?" Yata retorted. "He feasts off souls faster than you can speak. Even partials, except I think he hates their energy."