"The council is ready t-argh" Ehtani grunted angrily as I shoved his face out of mine.
"-ah, the f-, Sir Erickson, wait!" Ehtani called out, his voice fading echoing down the corridor as I sprinted for the man's lift.
"What is this? I didn't realize we were in such a hurry." The voice asked. My heels slid across the Violet and crimson designs decorating the marble floor. My hands snagged onto the edge of the doorframe, pulling myself onto the mana lift and slamming down on the activation button. As soon as two sliding doors shut, I summoned my battle axe and wedged it into what I had assumed was the man's source, a steel box humming with blue energy. The lift froze in place, just as it had the last 17 times I had to do this. Sighing, my body relaxed as I finally sat down on the floor in a butterfly pose.
"..look, I realize this is unwelcoming news. Believe me, I'm annoyingly aware of how little you value my word. So before I inform you of this pesky fucking situation we've found ourselves ensnared in, please, let's just talk." I said, mindfully drawing slow breaths to curb my frustration. I spent years wondering what death would truly feel like. Now, 42 times deep? Well, 'demystifying' is putting its terrible instantaneous discomfort lightly.
"Korbin, we almost constantly speak. That aspect of our little 'connection' may very well be my least fa-"
"No, no that's not talking. I don't want to trade conflicting philosophies with you. If you haven't noticed, neither of us have learned anything other than a familiarity with resentment. Which, don't get me wrong, I'd be okay with that. Except I don't know you, at all. How can I resent what I have no knowledge over?" I asked, feeling my fiery mana fighting to surface my skin. This place it's, it's strangely more irritating than it ought to be. It felt as if every time we came back, the air grew thicker, people's attitudes shifting or altering entirely. Even the council grows shorter with me, Gydian's uncharacteristically viperous words being the final straw for this voice in my head the last loop.
"…I don't see why this is relevant. You're somehow exhibiting higher levels of paranoia than normal, for what reason?" The voice asked, his tone more curious than I expected.
"We're in a tough spot right now, whether it's apparent or not. And I promise you the truth of it far outweighs the trust we've garnered from one another. I know, I've fucking TRIED. I'm not asking to be friends, acquaintances, or even allies. Honestly I don't want to be. But if we cannot trust each other enough for the most absolute basic levels of communication, we're literally doomed." I said, wincing at how angry that might have sounded only after the fact.
"You imply we're in some sort of danger. That is untrue." The voice replied, coolly. Smuggly, in his typical snarky fucking tone.
Calm down.
"Calm down? Ha-ha, ah, you don't know the irony in requesting that of me, mortal." The voice chuckled.
'Mortal.'He's said that a few times now.
"A god. You're a god, aren't you?" I asked, the hardly chuckled echoing through my mind going completely silently.
"Indeed."
"God of what, exactly? Split personality di-"
"It is none of your concern, for now." The voice abruptly cut off.
"I disagree. You live in my body, my brain. I know that even if you take the wheel, it'll only be temporary. I know you want to, just being in my vicinity makes your metaphorical skin crawl in there. And if you weren't so self abs-.." I paused, biting my tongue and reassessed my choice of words.
"..you above anyone else should know I share your sentiment. I don't want you here anymore than you want me in control. Now explain to me why I should know all of this, and not even your name makes any sense?" I asked, my hands trembling with rage as I forced myself to vocally maintain my composure.
"..indeed. Being trapped within your hollow little spirit means I can sense how angry you are with me. The source, albeit a mystery, is irrelevant…alright. You wish to know my name?" The voice asked after a pause.
"Yes." I said, through clenched teeth.
"Well, a chosen of Beloris should know nothing comes without a price. You agree to concede control of your body for a time, enough to harness your power level, and I will give you my name. Do we have a deal?" The voice asked, his smirk audible through his smooth tone.
"…you give me your name, and you have control of my power level for an hour." I counter-offered, realizing a leverage I never considered.
"Deal. Take me to the council chambers, and I will give you my name at the entrance." The voice demanded, carrying a tinge of excitement. Fighting a smirk, Infernal Enhancement ignited fiery mana around from arms and legs as I latched onto the side of the lift shaft.
"I must ask, what is your obsession with my name? Is it so bothersome a detail, or maybe you've been feeling control slipping subtly yourself?" The voice egged, as I kicked off one wall high in the air, latching onto the opposite wall and repeating.
"Please, my dog was harder to keep inside the house than you in my mind." I quickly shot back between leaps, digging my fingers into the dark steel wall.
"So it's pure curiosity? You chaos types never cease to…intrigue me." The voice replied as my hand snagged onto a metal beam. I'd done this climb plenty of times by now, and died the first 5 times trying to figure out my best route. By now it felt routine, giving me plenty of mental space to get my licks in before the inevitable.
"Is it so difficult for you to go 5 minutes without boiling sentient life down to an experiment?" I shit back, pulling myself up onto the beam and leaping across the mana lift shaft. Only 7 more floors, so long as my mana surges empowering my movements remain consistent.
"I have forged peace and prosperity from worlds sundered by war, greed, and even death itself. What I see here is a farce, a facade of freedom that can only lead to planetary suffering. Puppets, and voluntary delusions of security to avoid the frailty of the veil. To question my value of serenity, is to question serenity itself." The voice proclaimed, his tone carrying a hint of pride. Pride that would only be surfacing if he felt it was questioned. Not if it was or not, but if he himself felt my question resonate…how curious.
"I don't recall using the word 'serenity', I said sentient life. You know, that thing you mock at every opportunity? But, 'Serenity' huh? What an odd thing for a god to be so sensitive over." I added, kicking off the steel wall and bracing my shoulders.
*CRACK*
All of my momentum slammed into the doors at top floors, the metal screeching as it bent around my body.
"What's that supposed to mean, mortal?" The voice asked, carrying a hint of annoyance in his tone. I smiled, basking in my moment of satisfaction as I burned through the bent metal wrapped around my body.
"Just sounds to me like you've got a real shitty case of the 'guilts' swelling around in that godly mush of yours. Or have you ascended past both recognizing when you're in a loop and responsibility eating at your soul, too?" I asked, peeling the last of the doors off me.
"And who are you to even begin to understand m-…wait what do you mean by a l-"
"Ah-ah, I'll tell you next time. We're here." I said, pointing toward the oversized golden twin doors leading to the council chambers. This damn door has become slightly more pompous every time I've come here, with the latest addition being glowing red and green gems embedded into its golden designs.
"…fine. Then I will not delay our agreement any longer." The voice said. A familiar cold fluid began rising in my feet, stopping just at my knees.
"I am the Truth only muttered in silence. The fate that is earned, be it unification or utter desolation. I am what every one of you mortals long for at the pits of your shallow spirits, yet rebel against at every turn." His voice echoed through the strange cold fluid echoing through my bones. A burning rage ignited in my belly, serving as the only sensation I had remaining in my body.
"I am the Progenitor Of Peace. Bringer Of The Original Oasis, and The Aboriginal God Of Serenity." The voice continued, sounding as though they were longer in my mind, but directly in my ear. My mouth moved, as I felt myself speak with a voice that was not mine before fading into the darkness.
"I am Galenthelos."
…
"The council is ready to s-" my fist bashed into Ehtani's fake little face, knocking him out instantly.
"So tell me, Galenthelos, why is the god of Serenity so hellbent on full-blown planetary destruction? In what universe did mass-murder qualify as 'peacemaking', and please say you blew it up on your way out? Because wow, what. A . Joke." I asked aloud, smiling ear to ear as silence filled the air.
"…what did you just call me?"
——————————————————————
"You let me die, Tom." Steve whimpered weakly.
"Why weren't you there?" Phoebe asked.
"You "watched." Cassi viperously added.
"You hesitated." Korbin scoffed.
"You were never enough." …she said.
"Why do you fight?"
"Why Tom?"
"Why Tom?"
"Why To-"
…the voices faded. As they always do, every single time. So does the fiery joy of hearing Cassi, Korbin, Lonni, Derrick, Phoebe, and Steve. Even under duress, just knowing they exist is all I need to..to keep going. The forest, I woke up in this dense forest um…a while ago. I ran, I saw a way to…I saw a way.
It's…it's cold. So…keep doing the movement.
*crunch*
*crunch*
*crunch*
*DING*
"AHH!" I yelled out in pain,my eyes darted down as I clutched my blood soaked shin, finding a shimmering silver string behind me and dripping blood as it hummed with vibration. Multiple deep lacerations etched my leg like a crimson web, entire chunks of skin dangling from a few threats of tissue. The pain was immediate and immense. And yet…it was reassuring.
"…hhhHELP! HELP US, TOM! PLEASE!" The familiar wet crackling of fractured bones echoed across the foggy forest.
"I'm trying to." I said, feeling my mind kickstarting like an old engine.
"Tom, Tom no no wait please DON'T!" The memory of my…teeth sinking into Cassi's neck played behind my eyes. Feeling my thoughts returning, I shot up to my feet and immediately beelined it further into the forest. I'd seen a red door before, and it looked…it looked like a way out. It had to be, why else would it float away when I ran after it?
"THERES TOO MANY OF THEM, TOM GET OUT H-" the memory of Terra's panicked screams outside of my house in Elysium as I lay chained to my bed played twice over in my mind. My boot snagged under a tree root as I ran, throwing my forward into a tumble.
"Hang on!" I yelled, my coordination suddenly dwindling.
"PLEASE HELP US, PLease…"
*swoosh*
A towering, dark figure darted across the forest at the corner of my eye. The same one that had been stalking me for…however long it's been. Weeks? Months? Either way, this thing crept closer and closer each time I wake up and fall. And…I fall every. Single. Fucking. Time.
…
"…you were always too late." Cassi said. Her skull smashed by a falling tree, her colorless face scrunched and hollowed with…them swarming her insides. Her legs were eaten to the bone in mere seconds like she lay waist deep in piranha infested waters as I held her dangling over Elysium's wall, the light in her eyes fading fully before the rats worked their way up my arm.
"You let them die." Korbin said. As if he stood beside me before our first group of the tutorial, their bodies lay shredded in crimson puddles across the sands. As if it were his final words to me, before being overrun by undead rats while I was in exile.
"Why do you even pretend to care?" Lonni asked, clutching Terra's body with tears streaking down his face. From her chest, dark smoke wafted off a charred, blue glowing wound. The kind that Lonni and I could recognize with our eyes closed. It was the mark of a string of lightning mana, my lightning mana.
"I'm…I'm so sorry." I muttered, struggling to lift myself from the floor.
My friends' gut wrenching screams quickly fell to sinister whispers that carried on the wind, swirling around my ears like ghosts carrying secrets. As they grew quieter, I felt my strength fading with their calls. Those damned strings, they were fucking everywhere in the forest. They always cut several inches deep into my leg.
But, the razor sharp cords that etched this endless forest floor also seemed to boost my focus enough to collect my thoughts and press on, but only for a while. Enough to remember it'd been lived and died through over 400 iterations of…of bullshit. Suffering, nothing but suffering and freedom dangled in front of me like fucking cheese. The times I never made it out of Elysium, when I'd almost save someone. Even…even the times when I was…one of them.
*woosh*
Rapid pittering fluttered past me, shaking up the tall foliage. I didn't even have the strength to address the noise, my neck refusing to abide by my commands.
"You failed, you have always failed. And you call it 'learning'." That strange voice said again, one so unnervingly…professional? It was as if a businessman from before the integration was watching me, adding their judgements to my unending agony.
Just get up, Tom.
My hands pressed off the wet forest floor, my leg throbbing in pain as blood poured into my boot. Every step with that foot squelched as red liquid poured out the sides of my boot, like I'd jumped into a crimson swamp wearing socks. My eyes grew heavier and heavier, as leaves crunched under my boots.
*crunch*
*crunch*
*crunch*
"You cannot escape yourself, Tom…" a voice I'd heard before, but can't remember where from whispered in my ear. It felt really, really…
Get up and…get up and…
…cold. So, so cold.
Movement.
Do the movement.
*crunch*
Find body.
*crunch*
*crunch*
Find…warm.
…
——————————————————————