Once every second, four humans are born on Earth. This one was no special.
He was told from its birth that it was one of its kind. And his mother wept when he was born, and when she died of childbirth, his father couldn't bear trying to raise his child alone. He was fragile–he couldn't have handled it. He wished for an unwishable thing, and so he married someone who wasn't the mother to help him. She didn't help either. Within five years, the child was quiet and respectful, and his step-mother was the reason for that. She didn't love him, and the child knew that. His step-mother's care completely vanished one night, and without saying a word, she left them. His dad was always at work, and he never paid attention to it. He heard him say once: "He reminds me of Nora… I can't bear to look at his face."
The child cried.
The child learnt things on its own. It grew respectful and innocent, and it always tried to be kind, because he did not want to be looked down on and he didn't want to hurt anybody else. After all, he was the reason why his father was so unhappy.
It wasn't in his nature to be kind.
His friends at school had names. The child wanted a name. Of course, he knew his surname: Infele, but his mother didn't have the time to name him when he was born. And his dad hated him; he was out of the question. The child looked through a book he found at his primary school, and he discovered a creature that worked in groups called Ants. They were strong. The child wanted to be strong.
The next day, he told all of his friends to call him Ant. The name stuck with him until his high school years, and when he lost most of his friends due to consequences, his name was just one of the things people used to make fun of him. He was fine with that.
Ant ended up joining a pretty large group afterwards. His grades shot up and more people started admiring him. He tried to be kind, to outsiders, to his teachers, to every human. At least, that was the only bit he would show to others.
"Hey, Ant, what do you say about going to Mcdonalds later?" One of his classmates told him before class started.
"No, sorry," Ant replied, and he bowed his head slightly. "I have a… uhh… study session afterschool."
"Aw, that's too bad," his classmate replied, and he patted Ant's shoulder. Ant did not have a study session. Everyday after school he would walk up to the roofs, and look past the 2-metre tall steel fences to look at the city. From here he had a view of everything, and the height that he wanted to fall down. He stood up directly to the fence, and he stood there for around an hour, just thinking. Just contemplating his life. Ant would do this everyday.
When the sun started to set, he would walk back to his father's house. He only went there to sleep. Everyday at 5 AM he would wake up and leave without saying a word, and he would eat breakfast at a cheap bakery nearby. This was his life.
Ant was still on the rooftop. He watched the cars pass by, and the birds fly in the air. For a second, a thought wafted into his mind: "I wish I were a bird", and not even a second passed before he destroyed it. No, he remembered. Out of all the species in the world, birds, lizards, fish, furry animals and humans… which of those do you think is the best?
Us, of course. Ant crouched down, and he sat with crossed legs. It would be fine–nobody stood on the roof anyway. If it was downstairs it would be another story. He looked like a peasant.
"Oh! Ant!" he heard a girl's voice.
"Who's–" he started, and then he noticed it was Lily. She was a short girl with blonde hair tied into a clean ponytail, and she very obviously had a crush on Ant.
"H-hi, Ant," she stuttered. Her arms were behind her back. Ant didn't like her back. To him, she was just annoying. She was one of the people Ant classified as lesser. "Oh. Hello, Lily," he asked, and he stood up from his cross-legged position. "If you're here to confess anything, I'm sorry, but I already like someone."
Lily heard his words and her face reddened. "Fine then!" she cursed, and then she turned around to go back downstairs. Ant sighed. It wasn't that nobody wanted him. He just didn't need anybody. He didn't even like anyone, that was a tactical lie to make Lily leave.
From his throne, The God of Earth watched Ant, and he was disappointed. He wanted to give the mortal a chance to change. That chance started knocking on his door.
"God! God! Please help me!" Jikoku gasped, and he kneeled on the ground. "Mox is dying!"
"I know that," God said, and he placed a clam hand on Jikoku's head. "Please stand up."
Jikoku complied. "Sorry for asking, but who are you watching on your monitor?" He pointed to a floating screen of light, where Ant was shown walking down a sidewalk towards his house.
"That is Ant Infele."
Jikoku nodded despite his question not really being answered. "Mox is dying for some reason. All of my citizen's crops have been dying, and people are developing diseases. I have not done any of this. In all of Mox's history, I have not made a single sickness!"
"And that is exactly why your planet is failing! Peace must come from conflict."
"And from peace emerges conflict!" Jikoku sighed. A vein in his temple was throbbing. "Why is making paradise impossible? You, God, made heaven, and that is the definition of paradise. Despite your creation, you still cling onto this planet, one that you have been nurturing for so long!"
"I had to make the human's lives less impactful, for the greater good."
"What greater good?" Jikoku was tearing up. "What is it that makes the humans from your planet so much more resilient? I followed your blueprint perfectly!"
"On Mox, there is nothing to hope for. Everything had been good and fine, and your people had no reason to do anything or be put into any trouble until now. The galactic scales were tipped in your direction, but it appears more weight is leaning onto the side of peril and havoc."
"I'll just make more goodness!"
"Can your godly flare handle that?" God placed his palm on Jikoku's heart. "whatever a God has created, they lose a piece of their power of that size until it is destroyed. The reason there is disease on Earth is so that it can sustain itself."
Jikoku sighed. "That won't stand in the way of Mox!"
"A god's flare is never everlasting."
Jikoku threw his hands up in the air. But he didn't retort.
And Jikoku complied. He left to go back to Mox, but before that, he shrank from his god form to find out what really happened on Earth, and why it had sustained for so long.
All of the buildings grew to his size, and Jikoku himself shrank to the size of a normal human, and then he felt his back click, and he slouched to a hunchback. He had become an old man with a grey moustache, and twirled hairs grew out of his wrinkly bald head, and he looked like a spiked ball. He created a small wooden stick, and he leaned on it to help him stabilize. He glanced up at the towering glass buildings, and in awe, he wondered: why doesn't Mox have buildings like this? And he mentally wrote it down. He noticed a metal object shaped like a rounded rectangle, with a human sitting in the rightmost seat. He was holding onto black circle, and when he noticed Jikoku standing in the middle of the road, he slapped an unseen button on the middle of the black wheel. A blaring horn filled the air, and Jikoku leapt out of the way; the metal object swerved and dodged him–barely. The glass pane on the side of the metal object lowered, and the man that was piloting it called Jikoku a racial slur. Jikoku thought nothing of it, and he continued to admire the glass architecture.
"Hello, sir."
Jikoku turned around, and saw a tall boy wearing a brown blazer with yellow accents, and a schoolbag was slung over his shoulder. "Are you lost?" the boy asked. The boy had brown hair that was messy, but very obviously styled; he definitely put effort into it.
"No," Jikoku shook his head. "I am not lost. I simply have God guiding me."
"...right…" The boy sighed. "Where is God guiding you? I can lead you there?"
"No need to be troubled, young boy," Jikoku asked. An idea then flitted across his mindscape, and then he asked the boy: "I have a plant that is dying. Can you help me heal it?"
"Okay," the boy replied, and he nodded. Jikoku reached into his pocket and while he pulled his hand out, he created a pot with a dying sapling in it.
Silently, the boy asked: who in the world could fit that entire pot in his pockets? But he didn't say anything about it. He took out his water bottle, which was just a plastic bottle, and he poured slowly into the pot, and the dirt moistened. He didn't care about the plant. Or the old man. But if someone saw him helping, maybe they'd think he was kind. Maybe kindness would come back to him. Maybe that mattered. When the water landed onto it, the plant bounced a little. "Water this everyday, and keep it outside or near a window. Plants need sunlight to grow," and the boy felt like he was explaining the simple, simple concept of photosynthesis to a child who didn't know anything, or rather, and old man who was either never educated or forgot these things with his old age.
"Thank you, young boy!" Jikoku exclaimed, and he turned, and another idea fluttered into his mindscape. "And, what is your name?"
"My… My name?" the boy replied. "Well, I named myself…"
"You named yourself?" Jikoku asked. "Go on, tell me your name."
"My name is Ant. Ant Infele."
Jikoku nodded. "I will follow your advice."
He noted Ant's face and hair, and marked his back with an invisible sticker. Jikoku returned to Mox, removed his disguise, and stood up straight. The village he had warped into, all of the Parers cheered. "Jikoku, you're back!" they yelled, and one of the young Sables asked, "What is that in your hands?"
"An experiment," Jikoku replied.
He travelled to his throne and walked up the stairs, and he created a watering can, which every day, tipped a bit of water into the pot. The pot was in a prime position for sunlight, and he watched it. One Mox month later, the plant was growing. It had started as a dead sapling, and now it was a beautiful green shrub. This was what Mox was missing. Jikoku didn't smile. He just stared at the green. "So this is how Earth survives," he whispered. In his mind, he recited God's words: Peace comes from conflict. I doubt it now.
Back on Earth, there was a math class taking place at a certain school.
"Infele, your test results," said the professor, and he held out a folded piece of paper at the front of the class. Ant stood up from his seat, and he glanced sideways, where one of his classmates gave him a thumbs-up. He took the piece of paper from his teacher, and he opened it. 98%. It wasn't perfect, and even though it was the highest score in the class, he felt disappointed. He heard his professor whisper "Congratulations," but he decided to not let the compliment affect him. If he were anybody else, he would be proud. He wondered why he always aimed for perfection, but his thoughts were cut off by the bell excusing them at the end of the day. He left the folded paper at his teacher's desk, and thanked him, and then he walked out of the classroom to his usual spot on the school's roof. He whipped his blazer off of his shoulders, and he stuffed it in his bag. He opened the door to the roof, and an old man was waiting there. He was holding a pot with a large green bush in it, and his wrinkled face was narrowing, albeit happily. "Hello there, young Infele," the old man said.
"Sorry, but do I know you?" Ant replied. "And why–I mean, how did you get to this roof?"
"I'm the old man you helped heal this plant!" the old man replied, completely dodging the first question.. "You never got my name last month, didn't you?"
Ant scanned his memory, and he indeed found a recollection of watering an old man's plant. "What is your name, then?" Ant wondered if he would get a reward.
"Call me Jikoku."
The words erupted from the old man's mouth, and the moment the old man's name was revealed, Ant felt the urge to bow. His legs limped slightly, but he banished his impulse. "Jikoku?"
"The plant you healed for me was a test for human Earthlings. And you passed," Jikoku sounded proud. "I have a request for you, Sir Infele."
"And that is..?" Ant replied. Sir Infele?
"I would like to bring you to my world."
Ant took a step back. This sounded really, really sketchy. "What do you mean by that, sir?"
"Mox."
"Mox..?" Ant tilted his head 20 degrees to the right. If he turned around and walked down the stairs into the school, would Jikoku be offended? But he really did want to leave. "Is that the name of your house?"
"My house?" the old man was taken aback. "No, no, Mox is a planet!"
Great, this is what I wanted, Ant thought. All I needed in life was a delusional old man to trespass on school property and invite him to his house. "I'm sorry, sir, but I really do need to go now," he said. He turned to leave, but the old man beckoned to him: "Leave? Where to? You've been standing at this rooftop–" he gestured to the ground– "every day for three hours. Where could you possibly be going?"
"How–" Ant tripped over his own shoes, and he caught himself on the small building that gave the staircase shelter. His eyes were widening and he could do nothing about it. "How the hell do you know that?" He bit back the word "stalker." Jikoku looked as if he knew exactly what Ant had refrained from saying.
"If you wish to leave, you may. But at the risk of the biggest chance you'll ever get to seize everything you've ever wanted."
"What do you mean by that?" Ant replied. For some reason, somehow, he had become interested. "What do I have to do?"
The old man smiled. "Promise to me you will keep this conversation between us quiet."
Ant nodded, and then they shook hands. The old man smiled again, and he lifted up his walking cane. He spoke words that Ant could not hear nor fathom, and then it started rising. The cane turned, and then it grew to a size taller than the old man itself. The old man grinned, and then a strong gust of wind rushed past Ant; whether it was coincidental or planned, he did not know, but he did know that the old man had vanished and when Ant lowered his arm to look back at Jikoku, he had been replaced by a man one and a half times taller than Ant himself. His hair was black and sleek, and it reached the middle of his back. His face was completely white, like he had been dusted in lead, and a shiny white robe was draped over him. The cuffs of his sleeves were oversized, and when he was raising his hands to put them together, they reached his waist. His eyes were closed in an upward arch, and a warm smile played on his lips. His robes draped to the ground and a golden ribbon was floating around him, connected to both sides of his waist. He wore a tall, white hat with no brim, and the first words he said to Ant were: "Hello there, Sir Infele."
Within the confines of his mind, it was as if someone had sent him a text message.
"You are in the presence of a God."
And then, without his doing, Ant bowed. He dropped to his knees and he looked down; his hands were in front of his body.
"Ah, yes, I forgot that mechanic existed. I ought to do something about that. Raise your head, Sir Infele," the god said, and he raised his hand–Ant rose with it.
"What was… What was that presence!?" he exploded. "Is it true that… Is it true that you're a god?
"I am simply the King of Mox, no more, no less. My people call me 'The Sovereign of Order', but a title like that speaks too highly of me."
"Yes… well…" Ant was struggling to grasp his words. He knew he was surprised, but he wasn't as surprised as he thought he would be. It was as if his mind had been preparing himself for this moment. "Why have you come to speak to me, King Jikoku?" he didn't want to offend the god by calling them by their name, like he was on good terms with them, friends, even.
"Please. Call me Jikoku," and then he repulsed slightly, as if he didn't like the title. "I have come to ask for your help."
"My help?" What would a god want to do with a useless student like him?
"Yes. I want to recruit you. I believe you are the one to heal Mox."
"What is 'Mox', really?" Ant replied.
"It is what I have told you. It is my planet," Jikoku clapped his hands, stamped the ground twice, and a golden circle appeared on the ground. A golden holographic sphere erupted from it, and Ant felt his bones recoil. The golden sphere showed a planet that looked much like Earth.
"This–" Jikoku gestured to the hologram in the air– "is my planet. Mox."
Ant didn't render what Jikoku said. He was much more interested in the planet standing in between them.
"Recently, my planet has been in a state of crisis. More and more crops are dying, and disease has been spreading over the lands, and yet, I, their creator, cannot do anything about it. Never have I created a disease, nor have I forced my civilians to bear natural disasters."
The golden hologram flickered, and a large festering black spot covered the planet. Jikoku looked at the golden sphere as if it pained him to even see it.
"I did not make death, but death found us nevertheless."
He turned back to Ant, and for a brief moment, his ageless face looked tired. "If I cannot interfere further without destroying the balance of creation, then I must ask a being of balance to act on my behalf. You, Sir Infele."
"Why does Mox need balance? How would an outsider like myself accomplish anything?"
"A being from the perfect Earth will help nonetheless."
"I hate to ruin this moment, but Earth is far from perfect. We have disease and natural disasters ourselves, if you didn't notice."
"Earth is powerful through its chaos. Humans strive no matter what, and–" he paused– "As your people say, Life finds a way. On Mox, there is no chaos. It has never been taught how to bend. It can only break."
Ant nodded. He agreed in some way, but the idea still sounded preposterous.
Jikoku sighed, and the visual of Mox exploded. The circle on the ground vanished, and Jikoku put a hand on Ant's shoulder. "Please, Sir Infele. You are our only hope. I will give you something of importance that will help you."
"And that… is?" Ant asked. He was as skeptical as ever, but he planned to hear out this god's problems. It made him feel important somehow, how an actual god was asking him for help. He was on equal, if not higher, terms with an actual god. Someone who created a planet.
"I will give you a fragment of my divine essence. A 'Godly Fragment' if you will," Jikoku bartered. "It will allow you to create and destroy objects of considerable power within your powers, and with it you can create life itself, albeit one or two breaths before you fall unconscious."
Ant blinked. The words "create life" echoed in his head like a bell that wouldn't stop ringing.
"You're giving me part of your soul?"
"A sliver," Jikoku said, and though he smiled, there was something mournful in his voice. "Less than 0.1%. Though, despite its size, it is invaluable."
He extended his hand. A golden shard hovered above his palm, spinning slowly like a galaxy in miniature. "Accept this, and you begin a journey you cannot undo."
Ant reached for it, but yanked back his hand. "Can I think about it?"
"If you must. But the quicker you reply, the better," And Jikoku threw the golden shard in the air, and it exploded into millions of tiny particles. Ant noticed each of them left behind trails as they flew into the center of Jikoku's chest. "If you remain Earth-bound, you cannot help Mox."
Ant blinked, and then Jikoku vanished. A circle of orange dried leaves remained where he once stood, and then it was like a small tornado expanded from the center, and a weakened spiral of air rushed past him, and then, just like Jikoku, the leaves were gone as well.
Ant stood alone, the silence ringing louder than before. "What the hell just happened?"
"What have you been doing?"
Ant glanced backwards, and Lily was standing in the doorway. His heart dropped. She could have not witnessed him and Jikoku's entire conversation. That would be–
"You've been standing there in a trance for… around…" she raised her arm to look at her watch– "ten minutes?"
"Ten minutes!?" Ant blurted. His conversation with Jikoku was around only three minutes. "I was only talking for three minutes!" he retorted.
Lily's eyes narrowed. "You weren't talking. I came up from these stairs to ask you out on a date again, but you were just…" she blushed. She made circles with her hand. "You were just standing still. No movement. No nothing."
Ant tried to walk, but he stumbled, and then he nearly fell over.
"Oh! Careful!" Lily said, and then she walked over to Ant to see if he was ok, but he raised his hand.
"I… I don't need your help."
His words were probably as toxic as he thought they were, because Lily staggered backwards. She didn't say anything, but Ant knew in her face that she was hurt.
"I… I'm sorry I said that," he apologised, and then he touched Lily's shoulder. He didn't know why he had that reaction. Normally he would tell Lily to go away, with more respect, of course, but he didn't feel like insulting Lily today.
She looked up, and her cheeks were red. She looked up to Ant with a face full of hope, and then she said: "Ant! Do you want to have lunch together sometime?" and then she immediately turned away, covering her face.
"No can do, sorry," Ant replied, and he walked away from her toward the edge of the roof, towards the netted fences. "Lily?"
"Yes, A-ant?"
"If you had the chance to save a planet that wasn't ours, would you do it?"
Lily saw this as a test. "Yes! Of course!"
Ant finally turned his head, just slightly, enough to glance at her from the corner of his eye. He didn't smile. Ant could tell she wasn't being honest.
He noticed that the sun was setting. That was his cue to walk back to his house. He brushed past Lily without saying a word, and he could see that she was confused. He trudged down the staircase back to ground level, and he exited the school.
We need to Erase him.
What do you mean?
He's too dangerous to be kept alive. We need to fix Jikoku's errors by Erasing Ant.
Well, yes.
So you agree to this?
Of course. The God Council will not bounce back from this loss, won't it?
We'll send some trusted associates down there. Do we send them via dreams to gangs? Or do we come down there to take him out ourselves?
Send premonitions to people on Earth. Tell them to hunt down Ant Infele.
Every day started the same. Ant would wake up and tear his school uniform off of the ground, in a special designated spot where the floor was clean, and then he would change. After he was finished, he would climb out of the window. On the outside of his house, Ant installed a few metal beams, and he knew the way by heart–Ant could get down with his eyes closed. But today, something felt off. He could hear someone breathing outside of his barricaded bedroom door, and curiosity lured him into moving aside all of his belongings so that his bedroom's entrance was cleared and it could be walked through. He steeled himself, preparing for a fight, and then he opened the door. Immediately his father leapt at him, and Ant dodged him skillfully, and then when he got up, he noticed his father was holding a wooden bat.
"Holy–" he started, and then he narrowly dodged a fatal swing by leaning backwards. "Why are you doing this?" Ant yelped, and then he was knocked the the ground. His father, unkempt brown hair, a lighter shade than Ant's, and glasses that were tainted by dust. His beard was rough, and what was left of his black stubble was sparse. Ant's father pushed the side of the wooden bat into Ant's neck, pinning him to the floorboards. "I don't know why. But I had a dream that you were dangerous!" he yelled, and then Ant struck his father's stomach with his knee. "And besides, you need to be gone anyway?"
Ant's mind was racing and he was dazed–such an event just after he had woken up was bewildering him to chaos. "Snap out of it!" Ant himself knew that his father wouldn't stoop to the level of a petty thug. He stepped to the side, dodging another desperate swing, and he grasped onto his fathers wrists and then he pushed his thumb into the gap between the bones on his palm, and without yelping, his father dropped the bat. Ant kicked it away, and it collided with the side of the wall.
While he's distracted! And then Ant punched his father's nose, with lacking force, and then when he immediately crumpled, Ant knew that he had rendered his opponent unconscious.
It took him three minutes to recuperate.
What the hell just happened? Ant was scurrying for ideas, anything to explain what just happened. What did my father say about his dreams, again? Did he say he had a premonition? And then Ant looked towards the sky, and he instinctively knew that this was the work of a god.
He then got changed and climbed out of his bedroom window. He picked up the wooden bat and threw it down two stories so that he could use it for self-defense just in case he came across another person with killing intent. There was a crowd of people standing at his front door, and none of them noticed that he had escaped through the window. Carefully, glancing for twigs, he made his way to the back of his house, to the fence, and he vaulted into his neighbour's garden. He landed on a ripe tomato and its insides stained Ant's leather shoes, and he grimaced, for he hated tomatoes. One of the lights was on in the room on the second floor. He saw the silhouette of a man, and when he spotted Ant sneaking around his backyard, he opened the window and screamed "ANT INFELE!"
How this man knew his name, Ant had no idea. He was sure that the man in the house also had a premonition about killing him. The man upstairs picked up a full jug of water, and with some struggle, threw it out of the window. Ant walked to the right and the jug missed. The man on the second floor cursed at him, and then started cackling as the large mob of Ant haters climbed over his fence.
"Shit," Ant muttered, and then the gang surrounded him.
And then–
"You are in the presence of a god."
Then all of the Ant Haters froze, as if they were waiting for a signal or a command. They were not waiting. One by one, each of the Ant haters collapsed, and then Ant heard a voice, not from behind or in front of him, but from the inside of his skull. It was as if his brain had gained the ability to speak despite not having a mouth, and it was about to lecture him.
Whoever was left standing came to from their standing unconsciousness, and each of them covered their ears, their faces aghast. Ant assumed that they too could hear this voice.
"Cease your chase against Ant Infele immediately."
They complied, and then the gang ran off into different directions, leaving behind the members that had fainted previously.
"I do not know why these people are chasing you, but I can only assume The God Council has sent delinquents after you. Alas, they as a group have a combined superiority to me. They will return, and I urge you to find safety, as I cannot protect you for too long," the voice said, and Ant knew that he would normally be surprised by this, but just yesterday, he had spoken to an otherworld god, and now, he believed that nothing could surprise him at this point.
He gathered a handful of orange leaves from a tree in the backyard, and he started running to his school, to the rooftops where Jikoku asked him for help. He was noticed by a few bystanders, but none of them tried to attack him.
Ant made it to the school, and the first teacher he spotted gasped and took out their phone, and when he passed a classroom all of the students pointed at him through the windows. Ant couldn't help but feel endangered.
"I cannot undo their commands, but I can give you a shield," the mysterious voice said. Ant looked down and noticed a golden ring on the ground below him, and it followed him wherever he stepped.
He noticed a group of student athletes, and when he tried to pass them on his way to the stairs, one of them stuck out their foot and tripped him up. Ant's shield was not activated, and then he rolled onto the ground looking like a fool.
"Hey…" the one who tripped him up said. He crouched down to Ant's level. "You're the one named Ant Infele, right?"
"Nope," Ant lied. He shuffled upwards, and then before he could stand up fully, he was almost gut-punched by the one who tripped him up. Less than a quarter of a second before his fist collided with Ant's stomach, his shield activated. A golden burst of energy erupted from his stomach, where the boy's fist was about to hit, and it preceded a cloud of smoke that erupted from Ant's feet. A thought blitzed into his mind, as if it had just been planted:
"3 hits left."
Three hits? Ant cried in his thoughts, and the mysterious voice in his head spoke once more: "Three should be enough for you to make it to the rooftop."
So he can read thoughts too, eh? Ant thought. The smoke must've been sleep gas, because the athletes had fainted on the spot. Ant walked past them.
On the second floor, he walked past the food tech room, and everyone in that class pointed, and one student pointed a knife. Lily stood up from her seat. She, too, was holding a knife.
Yeesh, this is scary. Everyone wants me dead, he thought. The next floor was uneventful, and nobody had attacked him, because all of the teachers wanted to protect their students from Ant, whom they saw as dangerous. As far as they were concerned, the school was in a lockdown.
On the highest roofed floor, one away from the rooftop, he was stopped. As he was walking out of the staircase, someone called out his name, and Ant recognised it to belong to Lily.
"I don't want to have to hurt you," he sighed.
"Why are you here?" she yelled, and then Ant tilted his head. She was still holding that knife. Her eyes were wide, and she looked as if she was about to leap at any moment.
"Are you one of those people that had that weird dream last night?" Ant asked.
"I…" she started. Ant looked at her again, and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "I don't want to kill you."
Ant let down his guard. But despite all of the words she had said, Lily leapt at him.
A golden light burst from his chest, and Lily was blown back. Smoke flew from Ant's feet, and a message flashed in his brain.
"2 hits left."
"You actually did it?" Ant cried. He crouched down, and Lily's knife barely missed his forehead. She was still crying. "You actually tried to stab me?"
Lily lunged with her knife, and then she attempted a roundhouse kick, which Ant dodged perfectly. "Stop trying!" he yelled, and then he grabbed onto her shoulders. He swept her legs with his foot, and then she fell down. Ant wrestled with the knife in her hands, and when she let go, he carefully put the knife one centimeter up from her neck. "If you try to get up, I will kill you."
Lily began to wail verbally. Ant did not let his guard down. "I'm sorry, Ant!" she cried, and then she started rubbing her eyes. "Please put away that knife!"
Ant sighed, and then he stabbed the knife to the right of her head, upright. He put his right hand on her forehead, and he put his left arm on her neck, pushing her into the ground. Lily was still crying, but then, slowly, she started to smile "Ant… I love it when you pin me to the ground."
"What the hell?" Ant muttered, and then he pushed harder on her neck. "This is not the time to–"
When Ant was distracted, Lily punched his stomach. It didn't gain enough force to be fatal, and it was too weak to deploy Ant's shield, but it was enough to stun him for a second. In that second, Lily turned, and she pulled the knife out of the ground. She swung the knife into Ant's forehead, and she was knocked back by a golden flare.
"1 hit left."
Ant used his hands to propel him from the ground. He landed in a crouched position, where Lily was mid-jump. She aimed to split Ant's skull. But he dodged it. He grabbed onto her left wrist and pulled it around her body, fast and aggressive, until he could hear a crack in her shoulder. She yelped, and Ant put her into a headlock. "I was going to spare you."
"Ant… Ant…" she murmured with a soft, quivering voice.
"Why're you being so weird about this?" Ant repulsed. With her right hand, she tried to stab Ant's thigh. He saw it coming, and he kneed her lower back. Her arm stuttered in the air, and then Ant dislodged her right hand. Lily cried out in pain, and then Ant kicked her to the ground. He couldn't waste any more time on this. He could hear footsteps from the staircase below, and he started to run. He made it to the final staircase, which led to the roof.
The moment he was greeted by the school's roof, he placed the orange leaves he had collected earlier in a circle, like the one he had remembered that Jikoku had left before.
He crouched to one knee, and bowed. He had no idea what to do.
"Jikoku!" he yelled desperately, and nothing happened. "Shit!" he cursed.
He turned around to look at the staircase again, and to his surprise, Lily was limping towards him. Ant sighed loudly. "Why can't you give up?"
Lily's arms were listless and weak, and blood dribbled down her chin. "I had… a dream…" she murmured. She didn't sound like Lily. Was she being possessed? That could be a possibility.
"You've gone mad," Ant muttered. "I might have to kill you."
He meant it.
"Ant..!" she yelled, and then she choked on her blood. "I… I want you!"
"I know that."
The clouds began to shift, and it suddenly started to rain. Ant glanced at his leaf-circle with panic, and was relieved to see that it had remained unharmed, despite the strong wind and heavy rain. A bolt of lightning fell from the sky, and it directly hit Lily in the head. Ant's emotional shock was almost as powerful as the thunder itself, and he took multiple steps back.
Lily was unharmed, but she was no longer Lily. Her eyes seemed to glow, and her arms seemed to have healed.
A message was sent to Ant through his own mind:
"You are in the presence of a god."
And then he felt the urge to bow.
It was less than one second that a golden flare erupted from Ant's entire body, and a large explosion of smoke detonated from his feet, and then another message was sent to Ant.
"Your shield has depleted."
Shit, Ant thought. Then came another message. "You are in the presence of a god." and Ant felt something emerge from behind him. A hand touched his shoulder, and he was thrown back. He landed on his feet perfectly, and a man's voice told him that he was safe.
When Ant looked up again, he saw a man one and a half times taller than him, adorned with a white robe and a tall, brimless white hat.
It was Jikoku.
"It appears that you need my assistance, Sir Infele," he said.
Ant nodded, and despite him being behind Jikoku, he knew he still understood.
"I do not know what business you have with Sir Infele, but you better crawl back to the shelter of The God Council."
"What would you know about it, Jikoku?" Lily's possessor spoke. Then she laughed. "In fact, you're one of the people I need to capture! Two birds with one stone, eh?"
"What are you doing, possessing a young woman like that?" Jikoku asked, dodging Lily's possesor's statement. "I didn't know you were–"
"Shut it, Jikoku," Lily's possessor interrupted. "She was the closest, after all. Besides, I need to take you and Ant to the court."
"Don't take another step towards him, Raiden."
When the god's name was called out, a shiver was sent down Ant's spine, and then he felt the urge to bow. Raiden?
"What are you going to do about it?" Raiden taunted, and then another bolt of lightning fell, and Lily was now holding a shield and sword made out of flickering yellow lightning. "Step aside."
Jikoku whipped out his hand, not to Lily, but to Ant.
Ant's eyes closed without his will, and then he fell unconscious.
He was shaken awake, and Jikoku was standing in front of him. He was wearing a blanket, and he was still sitting on the school rooftop. It was no longer raining, and it was night. Lily was lying down on the ground. She was sleeping, but blood still stained her chin.
"Sorry for what I did to her," Jikoku whispered. "Is she… a… companion of yours?"
Ant rubbed his eyes open. "You could say that."
He glanced at his surroundings, and then remembered what he wanted to say. "Are more of them coming?"
"Yes," Jikoku answered. He gestured to Lily's unmoving body. "I have banished Raiden from her, but the shield will only last ten minutes. I suggest you run as far as you can before she wakes up or another wave comes."
"Where do I run?"
Jikoku sighed. "This is a very dire situation for you, and I will agree to giving you a Godly Fragment."
"Really? Free of charge?" Ant stuttered.
Jikoku nodded. "If this keeps up, every single creature on the face of the Earth will wake up with killing intent. You will be Earth's target."
"Can't I just go with you? To Mox?"
"Have you decided whether or not you want to save Mox?"
"I'll have to do it anyway. Please take me to Mox."
"I cannot bring you there unless you're absolutely sure."
Someone was kicking the door, they were running out of time. Ant could hear a group of people chanting on the floor below them, with each word after the other completely out of sync, "Kill Ant!". Though the chant sucked, he still felt endangered. "Come on, Jikoku! There's no time!"
"Do you know what you're getting yourself into?" Jikoku answered. He put his palm on Ant's forehead, and he forced a memory into Ant's head. One that didn't belong to Ant himself, but Jikoku.
It was a second long, but the memory scarred Ant's brain, and though it wasn't his, his mind treated it as a personal experience.
Fire. Death. Dragons. Humans and villages. Sables and Drayles, and monsters.
It was disgusting.
"Do you understand?" Jikoku called out, and Ant was brought back to reality.
"I thought you were the one recruiting me, old man!" Ant cried. He didn't know why, but his heart was pounding and he could feel his heartbeat in his ears. "I just want to leave this planet. I can save Mox."
Jikoku grunted. He didn't say a word, but he put his hands together, and then there was a burst of wind which Ant wasn't sure existed, and then when Jikoku opened his hands again there was a glowing golden crystal floating above the palm of his hand, and it was spinning slowly, like an orbiting planet.
"Less than 0.1% of my divine essence. Though it may appear small, this piece can go a long way," Jikoku commented. He crouched to one knee and held the crystal high above his lowered head. "If you really wish so, you may collect it, but know that there is no going back."
Ant accepted the crystal, and with his hands, he grabbed it out of the air.
A message flickered into his brain.
"You are a god."
And he was not told to bow.
"How peculiar," Jikoku said, rising from his bow. "The Universe still acknowledges you as a god even though I gave you 0.001% of my energy," Ant looked at his face and knew that the god was noting this all down mentally.
"I don't feel any different," Ant commented. He looked at his hands. The same lines were there, as they have always been. He had read about people gaining superpowers, but he had no idea how they activated them. What was spoken of on this topic, was that it was as simple as moving your hands, like your body had predefined a nerve command for this new power. Like a muscle. He moved onto other ideas. "Are there hand signs I can make?" Ant asked, to which Jikoku replied: "I do not know. I am not sure anybody has attempted giving their powers to a mortal."
They were pulled away from their conversation by a cry of someone behind them.
"There he is!"
He? Ant thought. Was it possible Jikoku only showed up to the people that he wanted? He raised his hand, hoping that he would fire off a beam of light, but nothing happened. Instead, all of the people that were now on the rooftop froze in place, and then they bowed.
"Why are we bowing!?" someone yelled, and then they threw their pencil at Ant. He saw it coming and stepped to the side. The pencil missed.
"I don't know!" someone else wailed, and then they all rose slowly.
"What the hell was that, Ant?" a tall muscular student said. Ant recognised him as the person that tried to trip him up in the hallway. The one that was knocked out by the first shield detonation.
"It doesn't matter!" a girl wearing a sports jersey said. "Let's kill him!"
It was over,
"I will assist you, Sir Infele," Jikoku said, and he grabbed the back of Ant's head. "Remote activation," he whispered, and then Ant raised his arms despite not having the will to, and a large column of light fell from the sky, and the clouds were split. The entire group of Ant-haters collapsed when the light lifted.
"Was that me?" Ant gasped.
"No. I remotely activated your Godly Fragment. The sensation you experienced just now should help to make it easier for you to use your new powers," Jikoku explained. "Are you ready to be taken to Mox?"
Ant nodded. Finally, he thought.
"Will you be Mox's hero?"
Ant nodded. "Yes, I will."
"I will put you into a deep sleep for three weeks," Jikoku said, and he attempted to tap Ant's forehead, but he stepped backwards.
"What? Why?" Ant cried. "Why can't you just teleport me there?"
"I do not know if your frail mortal vessel can handle the backlash. It will take three weeks to deliver you to Mox at the maximum speed a mortal vessel can handle. Do not worry, you will be safe. I will await you at Mox. Expect a welcoming party."
Ant was skeptical, but he agreed nevertheless. "Okay, sure."
Jikoku smiled, and then he put two fingers to Ant's forehead.
And then there was darkness.