"Oh Kooooorbin?! The councilSSss ready to Ssee you!" Ehtani hissed from across the hall. His long, scaly tail whipping behind him, like a serpent excitedly spotting its next meal.
"Lets get this over with, you annoying little shit. I've run out of fun ways to fry you, this shits just annoying now." I replied, pacing down the corridor.
"Ssmellss like fear wearing a brave massk. Deliciousss." Ehtani replied, his head dropping to the floor as he slithered toward me.
"Wow, this place succumbed to itself faster than I expected." Galenthelos snickered as I summoned my battle ax from my storage space.
"Wish the feeling was mutual." I said, sliding to the side of Ehtani's chomping maw and long-clawed hands. My axe swung at my side as I evaded, piercing into the half-serpents chest. Blood splattered from Ehtani's body, just before I summoned a fireball at the end of my ax. Mana hummed along my polearm, whirring into a small ball of flame until it expanded into his chest.
*BOOM*
Chunks of Ehtani's thin, rotten armor and scaly body parts scattered across the hallway, a bloody slab squelching as it landed on my foot. I kicked it off, and continued pacing down the corridor toward the mana lift. Overgrowth began sprouting through the cracks of the rusted floor, as if this place had gone through several hundred unmaintained years since I last 'arrived'. Honestly, its like they're mocking me at this point.
"Not bad. I'm tempted to let you solve this problem you've created on your own, if it wasn't my duty t-"
"To WHAT, Galenthelos?! To destroy anything and anyone that doesn't fit in your niche belief of what 'serenity' means?! Fuck you, hypocrite." I said, feeling my blood boiling in my face. Of course, if my theory I developed from 3 loops ago in the mana lift is true, holding my tongue would only extend our stay in this endless societal collapse-loop.
"…you know my name? How?" Galenthelos asked, his words gruff and under pronounced like he spoke through metaphysically clenched teeth. Through all my searing rage, a glimpse of joy flickered in my mind.
Good.
"Heeeere we go. You told me, Genius, like 60 something apocalyptic cataclysms ago. The 'God of Serenity', a narcissistic asshole who thinks their morality supersedes the fucking entire multiverses' to the point of voluntarily collapsing planetary stability if it meant your ideology may rise from its ashes and indoctrinate the survivors." I barked back, angrily.
"You lack the nuance to make such a judgement, even IF you've somehow accessing m-"
"Memories? Nope, and I wouldn't touch that trauma box with a fifty-foot pole either. If you deserve anything, it's whatever shriveled remnants of a conscience you have left whispering the truths you spent millions of years running from." I interrupted with a scoff.
"I'm capable of seeing every outcome, as it's all been done before, mortal. You have no idea th-"
"-scale to which your scope encompasses. Same old prideful bullshit, every time." I cut off, in a deadpan.
"And what would YOU have done? The multiverse was on FIRE when I rose to Godhood. You think I never TRIED it your way, you petulant, naive mortal?!" Galenthelos shot back, sounding far angrier than I'd heard without getting literal-cold feet.
"I find that pretty hard to believe considering you called me 'mortal' as if that were an insult." I pointed out. A silence hovered in the air as I hit the mana lift activation, immediately bashing my ax into the power source to freeze the lift in place.
"I saved ENTIRE planets from destruction, at an atomic level. I've freed enslaved species and toppled galactic empires with a single motion. I brought the weak and the forsaken to glory, I allowed them retribution. You?! You've what, bound an entire society by their very souls before they ever learned what it meant to sign your infernal parchment? For what?!" Galenthelos angrily replied, his guttural tone filled with conviction.
"How many did I force to sign? The answer's not zero, I'll admit that. But they've been prisoners caught spying, or political tyrants using deception to gain power while using MY soldiers to do their dirty work. Nearly every single signee was warned thoroughly of the repercussions, I made certain of it, yet I've NEVER claimed to be the 'Deliverer of Spiritual Sanctuary' or whatever bullshit you tell yourself." I said, wondering if he memory loss predated this objective after all.
"Of course, because manipulation leading to long term suffering is SUCH a mercy." He mocked sarcastically. My face burned with rage, feeling my patience for his pompous attitude.
"I'm not sure if you were too busy naval-gazing for the last 3 weeks, but most of my signees approached me, seeking a better life than what this tutorial had to offer them. Now tell me, Gally-boy, how many planets asked for YOUR help?" I questioned, hoping to inspire just a sliver of self reflection.
"…there was hardly time to explain the severity of a planet's situation depending on their state when I'd arrive. They had to learn the nature of peace as it arrived. Chaos cannot escape and run rampant, I've SEEN what this multiverse became when not even the system dared to intervene in incalculable evils' wake of destruction. Only peace can cull chaos." Galenthelos proclaimed, calmly. My fists shook at my sides as I fought to contain my anger. Then, after a few deep breaths, it occurred to me.
"But peace is not external, is it?" I asked.
…
Oh-ho, the silent treatment. I'm getting to him.
"You revere me as mediocre on a regular basis. Selfish, overly emotional, and a fraud of a leader. Which would make it fair to say after the millions of years you spent galevanting around the multiverse, that my type must be a dime a dozen to you then, right?" I asked after a long silence. Another followed, my grin only growing wider, even as my anger boiled hotter by the second.
"Your rebellious nature is nothing more than a formality to the multiverse, something to sharpen the strong and the deserving through trial by fire, while the truly wicked provide them their purpose." Galenthelos finally replied.
"Right, whatever. So tell me, with all my flaws and shortcomings, do you think you could change my mind on literally anything?" I asked, smiling as the god of unwarranted self assurance blissfully stumbled into my verbal snare.
"I…" he muttered.
"I'm a 'formality' after all, certainly you found countless ways to break-I mean inspire those who refused your influence in a peaceful manner, right Gale? Or was the concept of 'consent' invented after you died?" I questioned, hoping to twist the knife deeper into the wound.
"YOU, you…you've said that before." He grumbled, his annoyed voice morphing into curiousity.
"Sure have, and yet here you are, itching to seize hold of my body so you can slaughter whoever doesn't smile the way you like. Besides attempting to craft porcelain peace with a sledgehammer, what aspect of 'serenity' do you even practice?" I asked, rubbing salt into it now.
"Stop, stop this, I warn you. I will not humor this nonsense from a chaotic mongrel any longer" He growled, after a beat.
"Uh-oh! Look out everyone, the peace gods getting angry, you know that means! It's… tantrum-time!" I sarcastically proclaimed with head hands extended pleadingly up the empty mana lift shaft, doing my best children's show host impression. Without a word, liquid began filling my ankle from within.
"Why do you always run away?" I asked, hoping to gather more information for the next loop.
"What do you mean?" Galenthelos asked in an annoyed tone.
"Every time. Every loop, you run away before I can even begin to get through to you. Is it your guilty conscience, or pride refusing to bellow any deviation from your 'truth'?" I continued, the liquid rising up my leg into my stomach.
"Quiet…"
"Are you scared? I suppose truth isn't a necessity by your definition of 'Serenity'." I pressed on as the cold feeling trickled past my rib cage. The 2 seconds of silence I received in response served as an invitation to continue.
"…or maybe it's because you realize your legacy would be a farce, and the multiverse would have every reason to view your life as nothing more than a cautionary tale about losing yourself."
"Thats enough."
"And that's only until the lesson sticks, or someone else doesn't out-fuck a similar path. Then? You'd be totally forgotten, wouldn't you, Gale?" I added, as the cold liquid sensation trickled up my throat. Just as my vision began tunneling, an odd humming in my skull began subtly shaking my vision.
"YOU…you know nothing of what you speak. Your ignorance blinds you, while your hubris only carries you into deeper waters you've no right to wade through. Look around you, can you truly argue with the results of 'your way'?" Galenthelos said. I glanced around the shaft we held ourselves up in, making note of the fact Ehtani was eating another guard when I woke up in the lobby today.
"No…maybe not. Maybe my way isn't guaranteed, but at least those who fail and succeed by it had the choice not to follow me in the first place. No soldier who's fallen under my command has ever done so by force, but by trade." I replied, reminding myself this place was fake, a simulation of what the system thinks fit for this stupid quarterly objective I wish I let Tom do instead.
"Korbin, the purpose you've instilled IS your failure. You believe everyone is capable of the same peace." He coldly replied.
"My failure here is that hope died and was replaced by fear and paranoia without my noticing. Even still, I gave them the opportunity to choose their fate. Not through threats and ultimatums, but through discussion, and mutuality. Every time you destroy this place and leave me with the rubble, I wake up knowing I did my best for these people. That maybe their downfall is the peace they've truly earned." I said, my voice trailing off.
"Ah, so you DO see. No matter what you may offer, some are blinded by their own darkness. All that remains is to begin anew." Galenthelos replied, as the cold feeling halted at my neck. I sighed, letting my head slouch forward.
"Yeah, and then I remember that it's your doing.You pull the plug on entire planets because they're not healing the way YOU like. So I'll never truly know if this place were too far gone or not. The multiverse is robbed of that. How many civilizations' opportunity to rise from the bowels of suffrage did you rob of their truth?" I shot back.
Just as the final word slipped from my lips, the annoying humming in my head intensified. Pressure expanded in my skull, like a balloon was being inflated inside my brain. My vision faded and returned rapidly, like I was strobing between consciousness. Then, images began flashing into view between losing and regaining my vision. I felt my back slam against the mana lift while trying to make out the details. Shimmering blue light illuminating oceans, faces contorted in fear peppering the surface. Glowing tsunamis pulverizing massive buildings, some only crashing on armies of beings I'd never seen before, as well as humans and demons alike.
Slowly, the flashing blue streaks pulsating through the waves were replaced with fire filled destruction painting the foreground for the moments playing through my mind, as well as buildings and the citizens themselves I recognized. The betrayal in Gydrian's eyes as a fireball erupted from my palm, burning away his face in an instant. The people of Apouti, crushed and burned by crashing buildings by my hand, not will. An aching pain in my chest flared, as Galenthelos apparently began to unravel.
"No…no I've not been here. The worlds I…the battles I fought. I'd never forget, I couldn't. How, how could I forget?!" He muttered, the visions overtaking my own as I felt the cold lift floor sinking around my body. The images melted away in a mess of red and blue light beaming into my eyes, replaced quickly by a darkness reminiscent of when Galenthelos took the wheel.
We're in the Quarterlies, Gale. The systems been whiping your frail-fucking memory. I thought, hoping to still get through to him even as I fell deep into myself.
"That can't be…you shouldn't know more than me."
Just wake the fuck u-
My internal demands were cut just short as I felt my skin rapidly deteriorating, as if I were being completely erased in a blink of an eye. Something that, in all honesty, might not be the worst thing.
Shit, guess I lost.
…
My eyes fluttered open, greeted by thousands of twinkling stars illuminating an endless abyss. My feet stood firm on…nothing. Ahead, a man stood clutching a double sided halberd in a large cloak.
"Hey?" I said, walking toward the figure. I stopped in my tracks as he spun around, revealing the spitting image of me with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Hello, Korbin." He said with a soft baratone.
"…Gale?" I asked, surprised to see the god for once.
"In the astral-flesh." He replied with a grin.
"Oh so…we won?" I asked. Galenthelos nodded silently with a grin.
"Hey uh…look, there weren't any hard feelings back there. We were stuck, and I needed to convince you of the loop if we were going to escape. You're a literal god, so I had to get creative. But I made a point to never ask about your personal life at any point, only ambiguous details of your morals." I said, realizing he may recall the countless insults hurled his way. Galenthelos' eyes narrowed, before delivering the faintest nod.
"I understand. Without your rather creative berating, we might've been locked in there for eternity. The system doesn't reward the weak-willed when they hold such power." Galenthelos replied, stepping closer through the endless space we somehow treaded on.
"I see, so we're good?" I asked, extending my hand forward. He looked at my hand, tilting his head as if not quite sure how to respond.
"…yes, we're 'good'. In fact…unfortunately I must recognize that, while it may not have been your intent, you've saved my life. For that…" Gale said, his eyes trailing off into the stars. I grinned, realizing there might be some Godly-bullshit rules at play today.
"Yeah?" I asked, leaning in closer. Galenthelos peered back, locking eyes with me as he finally reluctantly continued.
"-I owe you a debt. A single favor, my disorderly mortal vessel, that you may use at any time, only once." Galenthelos said, his hands spreading out with his palms upward as if preaching to the stars themselves.
"Deal!" I quickly replied, snagging his hand and shaking it hard. Instantly, a bright light bursted from our palms, the radiants so intense I could see it through my closed eyelids. Finally, as it felt my eyes beginning to burn from my sockets, everything tunneled around me as if a black hole had spontaneously opened somewhere nearby. Then, a quiet breeze that quickly crescendoed into ear piercing whirling invaded my ear canals, as I felt myself plummeting into nothing.
Okay…so we won?
…
*GASP*