"So let me get this straight. You're telling me you truly believe it is more of a mercy to put down an injured animal, with medical equipment on hand, than to nurse it back to health?"
"Mortality narrows your perspective, Korbin. You grasp onto the hope of universal prosperity, without the willingness to exterminate the very weaknesses that terminally infect a biome, an ecosystem, a society. It's a noble, but naive endeavor that's led countless bleeding-hearted fools to the spirit realm." Galenthelos replied, speaking far quicker than usual.
"Did you just call me a bleeding h-…you do realize that I'm chosen by a literal god of hell, right?" I shot back, sitting cross legged in the mana shaft beside Ehtani's body. He'd grown exceedingly aggressive the last 10 or so loops, and I had the feeling this challenge was just mirroring the growing intensity of Gelenthelos and I's debates. Well, debates that turn into arguments, which sometimes leads to planetary extinction event.
…okay, fine, 'always' leads to planetary extinction.
"Your association with Beloris may carry weight in that glorified furnace he resides in now, but not with me." Galenthelos replied with a scoff.
"Oh, I'm sorry, is this the same Beloris, god with legs, arms, and a mouth of his own? Oh wow, and where are yours? OH, then I guess you can shut the fuck up now right?" I shot back before I could bite my tongue. It'd grown increasingly difficult to keep my composure here, the air growing palpable with fire and chaos mana like infernal humidity that thickened with every daily reset.
"Have I struck a nerve in insulting you infernal master? Apologies, I assure you I meant no offense to your patron, only you." Galenthelos calmly clarified, only furthering my desire to rip him from my mind so I can beat the pompous godly-piss out of him.
"You're avoiding my question, Gale. You honestly call yourself the 'Progenitor Of Peace', while simultaneously believing it's best to put down any hurt animal in your presence regardless of your means of assistance readily available? " I asked, clinging to the topic at hand like a buoy in a sea of blinding rage.
"…yes, for it was not capable of maintaining its own peace, and will therefore leach upon your own until there is nothing left. It is the way of the weak."Galenthelos coolly explained.
"You didn't make many friends did you?"
"Of course I did. The multiverse was not so fragile-minded, once." Galenthelos quickly answered.
"Ah yes, from what you describe it was far more feral and uncivilized."
"Hah. You've never seen the beauty of a thriving civilization. It's not even your fault, your planets but an infant to the multiverse. Your arrogance, however, is a learned habit." Galenthelos replied with a smug chuckle.
"It was so great the god of forceful-serenity couldn't live to see it?"
"…"
"You know I'm so curious, is 'serenity' ironic, or did you kill anyone who tried explaining what that word actually means to you?"
"…No." Galenthelos grumbled sharply.
"…what? What do you mean no?"
I waited a few beats, standing outside the mana lift. I was so distracted by our conversation, I nearly tripped over Ehtani's unconscious body.
To be fair, he attacked me first.
"Hold on, you do realize that wasn't a 'yes or no' question, right?"
…nothing. My eyes narrowed for a brief moment before the dots beautifully connected, smiling from ear to ear.
"Are you…are you pouting right now, Gale?" I asked. There was no verbal response, only a quiet cold puddle rising at the bottom of my feet.
"Awww, is the big bad God's feelings hurt? Poor, poor Gale, it's so hard being dead. Everyone else lives wrong and I'm dead better." I said in an exaggerated whiny voice, pushing my lower lip out and crossing my arms. Still, the god of unending banter remained quiet.
Ohh, I'm going to have fun with this.
"Should I get you a godly ba-ba? Hm? Feeling peckish for some moral superiority? Why don't I take a nap so you don't get a headache borrowing the rightful control over my body, little guy? You're so strong, I'm so proud of yo-"
"ENOUGH!"Galenthelos thundered. Immediately, the small puddle swelled to my brain as the world around me flickered before fading into myself. What felt like a moment later, the world flashed back into view. Unfortunately my eyes didn't adjust soon enough to even attempt to brace for the ground rapidly approaching below.
"Oh that's just childi-"
*SMACK*
…
"Mister Erickson…" Ehtani's voice echoed across the dark sands that looked like gunpowder covering the beach. He was nowhere in sight, yet his annoying hushed voice carried on the breeze. Ahead, Elysium sat completely dormant, our infernal defenses apparently inactive with the front door wide open.
"…he's ready to see you now." Ehtani's raspy voice echoed over the wind.
"Well, this is new. What did you do, Gale?" I asked aloud, pacing towards my settlement.
"Me? I believe you were the pylon owner who left their gates wide open." Galenthelos shot back, sounding borderline offended at the accusation.
"Whatever. Who knew the only thing worse than long-term egotism was layering it with short-term memory lo-"
"AAAAAAAHHHH!" Derrick's panicked voice reverberated across the beach as I dropped into a dead sprint toward the gate. As I reached the front door however, my inability to connect with our defenses was all the confirmation I needed to slow my pace.
"…ha-ha. Almost got me there. You're good, you are good." I said, wagging my finger at the air. I can only assume the system had to have a sick, twisted sense of humor, given my current predicament.
"Are you going to enter, or are you waiting for an invitation?" Galenthelos snickered. Realizing I held up to process everything, I shrugged.
"Just needed to piss you off one more time." I replied before walking into the crumbled remains of Elysium.
——————————————————————-
…
*sniff*
*sniff* *sniff*
——————————————————————-
"And then I said 'aw, is the big bad God's feelings hurt?' And you were like, 'no, I mean yes but in the denial way." I said, barely holding back my laughter between words.
"You're quite liberal with your fantasies, I'm starting to think I've been too formal with you." Galenthelos replied hesitantly.
"I bet anything feels too formal when you spent thousands of years usurping planets and calling it a 'blessing'."
——————————————————————-
*sniff* *sniff*
"…movement."
——————————————————————
"I'm just saying, if you thought an ancient race of sentient underground creatures with immense power had even the smallest value for freedom, it would be an objective waste NOT to at least attempt to reason with them." I shot back at Galenthelos.
"Easy to say when their colony isn't eating your soldiers as their feet touch down with the planet's crust."
"…fair."
——————————————————————-
"One…warmth. His face…home."
"A lie. Warmth. Warmth true." A burst of energy shot through my brain as lightning mana surged from my body, launching me from the pylon building rooftop high in the air. Saliva poured across my face as gravity began pulling me toward my warmth.
——————————————————————
"Tell you what, we'll ask Randy about this when I get back. Guarantee you he's destabilized at least four galactic empi-"
"-aaAAARMMTH!" Tom's screaming voice crescendoed from above. I stepped back instinctively, letting him land in a flash of lightning mana in front of me.
"Tom? Wow, I really didn't expect to see you here if I'm going to be hone-" with a twitch, Tom's wide eyed stare and twitching smile blinked in a bright blue flash. Then, his ear was right under my nose as I felt his teeth sink into my throat. In one smooth motion, his jaws clamped and ripped out my trachea entirely.
"WARMTH. WARMTH CAN'T DIE! WARMTH!" He screamed, pounding onto my chest and ripping at my belly. Thousands of rats poured in from the rubble and collapsed buildings surrounding us, circling us as I felt my Health Points draining away in concert with my blood covering my chest and neck.
"NO MORE! NO MORE!…Korbin?" Tom said, shaking his head and wiping the blood from his mouth. His hands began shaking as he stared down at his palms, all the while rats began sprinting up his back and gnawing at his ears and face.
"I d-...I didn't mean to-.."
Before I could will myself to slap the shitty replica, the familiar twinkle of guilt in his eye gave me enough pause to die before I got the chance.
…
"The council is ready to see you, mister Erickson!"
…well that was a weird one, huh?
"Agreed, the kid's way too excited to address you so formally."
——————————————————————-
…day 1,876.
I…I think I saw Korbin yesterday. Today. Home.
Warmth. Need warmth, make it, make the warmth.
My hands erupted with lightning, igniting another tree in this wretched forest covered in sharp metal wires. Almost all of them were soaked and stained with blood, indicating a lot of animals must've died. Hopefully it didn't get some of my brothers, hopefully all of them.
More warmth, more movement, more...
This DAMNED door has gotten more and more elusive by the day, masking itself in oceans of rats covered in popping boils filled with necrotic sludge, or hidden in Lonni's chest. A couple false doors got my warmth taken from me, but I know what they smell like now.
Warm smells like freedom.
Freedom is a lie.
Warmth doesn't…cold. Make warmth.
Lightning flashed in my palms, a burning tree behind me crashing to the forest floor as I ignited another. The sharp, blood soaked wires whipped and twirled to the ground, plucking a discordant tune.
"…hhhhHEEELP US TOM!"
"GET OUT!"
"TOM PLEASE DON'T, LET Me go…" the wires sang, their voices tangling and overlapping before suddenly subsiding. Doesn't matter. Their songs don't end. I always hear now. Always singing. Always…the door.
I need that door.
Sometimes it needed a key, and sometimes it didn't. But the handle? That golden, shimmering door knob? It always felt euphoric to the touch, always felt warm.
…I think that Korbin saw me yesterday. It didn't try to take my warmth either, it wanted to…to talk. Never talk, they always take. Or sing. They tell me what I did wrong, always wrong, Tom's never enough. Always failed, always late, always weak. But they, they don't know. No one ever knows. Only I know, I know because I stay warm. Warm always forgives when I stray. Warm never lies. LIARS can't feel the warmth. Liars burn. They, they NEED me to stay warm because…
…
…I think I saw Korbin yesterday. I think…I think I hurt Korbin yesterday…
Cold. Too cold.
Movement.
——————————————————————-
"Soo…that was pretty fucked up, huh?" I said, completely ignoring Ehtani entirely as I walked into the mana lift. Before he could come in with me, I front kicked him in the chest outside of the lift.
"Not sure what you're referencing, unless you were foreshadowing that mercy of a kick." Galenthelos replied coolly.
"Oh, oh good! I get to remember the creepy Elysium hellscape and getting eaten by Tom of all fucking people all by myself! Thanks, Gale, you're really the best god-leach a guy could ask for." I said sarcastically.
"I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about. And don't call me that." Galenthelos replied, sounding a bit more firm.
"Wah-wah, I get it, you were a shitty god of peace and you're so self conscious about it you can't even accept nicknames. Fine, will you please stop being a whiny fucking baby, 'Galenthelos'?" I asked, making sure to sound out every letter of his name.
"How do you…how dare you? You know nothing of what I've sacrificed." Galenthelos replied, sounding more offended than angry.
"Oh I know enough. A god that swears his societies were the poster child of peace and order. Meanwhile never living to see them inevitably collapse, as all things naturally do. And carrying that smugness until now, a bitter echo in a puny human." I replied, my nose twitching with rage. I'd spent enough time trying to convince this asshole with reason, I barely got his fucking name, and I'm tired of dying.
"No." Galenthelos replied, bluntly. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose knowing what comes next.
"Don't do this again. I don't want to hear Ehtani anymore." I pleaded.
"No…you shouldn't know this. Something's wrong." Galenthelos replied. My eyes lit up, jumping to my feet realizing he wasn't about to just hijack my body.
"Yes, YES! You're absolutely right!" I exclaimed excitedly.
You, you did something." Galethelos continued.
"No, NO. You're absolutely wrong." I replied, equally as giddily.
"This cannot persist. My knowledge is mine, and for encroaching on what is not yours, I shall repay your transgressions in kind." He muttered, as cold liquid filled my legs.
"Listen, this is an event. We're in the quarterlies. You need to remember, you stupid fucking godbaby." I quickly rambled off as the fluid filled my belly and tickled up my throat.
"Stop…I will know soon enough. Now sleep, little one."
…
My eyes fluttered open, surrounded by burning rubble and crumbling skyscrapers.
"Ah, I see you threw another tantrum." I said aloud. Making my way toward the nearest building, Gale decided to speak up.
"…I did not find proof of tampering with my spirit. Why do you know who I am?" He asked. I froze, feeling this was the most receptive he's ever sounded.
"Because we've done this, nearly a hundred times. I show up, meet the council, you figure a way to control my body and destroy this place. Every single time. We're in the Quarterlies still, Gale." I replied.
"That cannot be. I am no destroyer." He said.
"That's not what you've told me." I replied.
"…no." Galenthelos said after a long pause.
"No, what?" I asked, impatiently.
…
"…fine." I said aloud, turning and climbing up the side of building.