Chapter One: The Beginning After the End
The echo of boots on marble was the only sound in the Hall of Judgment. Two guards dragged Vash forward, his feet scraping uselessly against the polished floor. Blood dripped from his mouth, each drop a small crimson star against the white stone.
He tried to remember how many days it had been since the war ended. Three? Five? Time blurred when you were kept in the dark, when your body was broken and your power stripped away piece by piece. But even now, even hollow and beaten, Vash forced his head up to meet the eyes of his judges.
Five figures sat on thrones of black iron, elevated above him like gods looking down on insects. Once, he would have laughed at the irony. He was a godslayer—he had felled beings far greater than these pompous council members. But that was before. Before the betrayal. Before the trial.
The guards shoved him into the chair. Chains materialized around his wrists and ankles, burning cold against his skin. Suppression chains. He could feel them drinking what little power remained in his veins.
"I will now address the verdict," Council Member Draxis announced, his voice booming through the chamber. His silver beard flowed down his chest like a waterfall of moonlight—too perfect, too pristine for someone who'd never fought a real battle.
"Agreed," the other four intoned in unison, their voices harmonizing in a way that made Vash's teeth ache.
He coughed, tasting copper. "Do you think..." Another cough, wet and painful. "Do you think that the Supreme One will let you do as you please?"
Draxis leaned forward, his eyes glittering with something between pity and contempt. "We have jurisdiction over all gods and mortals, Vash. That is our mandate. That is our law."
"The Supreme One stands above all." Vash's voice was barely a whisper, but it carried. "There's nothing you can do against him. And when he learns what you've done—"
"Vash." Council Member Seline's voice cut through the air like a blade. She was younger than the others, her face unlined but her eyes ancient. "You have lost a great deal of power in this war. You have no say in these proceedings."
"Murderer." That was Council Member Koreth, his face flushed with righteous anger. "You are a murderer beyond comprehension. You disobeyed direct orders. You violated the Accords."
"You must pay for your sins," Council Member Thane added, his skeletal fingers steepled before his face.
Vash felt something break inside him. Not his body—that was already broken. Something deeper. The last thread of hope that maybe, just maybe, they would understand.
"I did what was right." His voice rose, gaining strength from somewhere he didn't know still existed. "I disobeyed your orders because innocent people were going to die. Children. Elders. People who had nothing to do with the war."
The chains burned brighter as his emotions flared. Pain lanced through his arms, but he didn't care.
"We became godslayers to protect everyone!" Vash's laugh was ragged, broken, touched with madness. "But I guess I was wrong. I guess becoming a godslayer was the greatest mistake of my life!"
Power surged within him—not much, barely an ember compared to the inferno he once commanded, but enough. The chains screamed in protest. The council members leaned back in their thrones. Even weakened, even diminished, the aura of a godslayer was a terrible thing to behold.
"I AM THE IMMORTAL KING VASH!" His voice shook the pillars. "THE LAST OF THE GODSLAYERS! I WILL HAVE YOUR HEADS! DO YOU HEAR ME? I WILL—"
The guards' fists slammed into his ribs from both sides. Air exploded from his lungs. The world tilted, darkness creeping in from the edges of his vision. Through the haze, he heard voices, distorted and distant.
"...still release such a terrifying aura..."
"...what kind of power did you give him, Lord..."
"...dangerous even like this..."
Council Member Draxis stood, his robes flowing like liquid shadow. "The final verdict is rendered. Vash, former Immortal King, last of the godslayers, you are hereby sentenced to eternal imprisonment on the hellish planet Gaia. You will be stripped of your powers, your titles, and your immortality. You will live as a mortal, and as a mortal, you will eventually die."
"Strip him of everything," Koreth added, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "Leave nothing but rags."
Seline's voice was softer, almost regretful. "May the Supreme One have mercy on your soul, Vash. We cannot."
The guards hauled him up. Vash's head lolled forward, consciousness slipping away. Through the fog, he thought he heard something else—a whisper that didn't belong to anyone in the room, a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
Not yet, brother. Not yet.
But then the darkness took him, and he knew nothing more.
Far above the Hall of Judgment, beyond the mortal realms and the divine courts, beyond even the fabric of reality itself, a figure sat on a throne of pure light.
The Supreme Deity had been watching.
His eyes—older than time, deeper than the void—opened slowly. A single tear traced down his luminous cheek, catching the light of a thousand dying stars.
"So it seems," he murmured, his voice resonating through dimensions, "the council will have difficult days ahead of them."
He raised one hand, and reality bent to his will. The laws that governed existence itself rewrote themselves at his command.
"This is my verdict." Power thrummed in every syllable. "The Almighty Law: Let Vash retain his powers, but seal them to ten percent of their original strength. Any more than ten percent, and the Chains of Tempest shall cause him agony, binding him to Gaia's earth, preventing his escape."
The deity paused, his gaze turning distant, seeing futures that had not yet unfolded, possibilities branching like infinite trees.
"Vash, I hope you will bring forth a new generation of godslayers. Raise them well. Train them as I once trained you. They will be your greatest asset in the battles to come. The war the council thinks is over..." A sad smile touched his lips. "They have no idea it has only just begun."
He leaned back in his throne, the weight of eternity pressing down on shoulders that had borne it since before the first spark of creation.
"Vash, my dearest brother," the Supreme Deity whispered into the void. "I bid you farewell. And I wish you luck. You will need it."
His eyes closed once more, and the light of his presence dimmed. In the darkness between worlds, a plan set in motion eons ago continued to unfold.
And somewhere far below, on a prison planet called Gaia, a fallen god was about to begin his greatest journey yet.