Uploading a bit early cuz I won't be able to later. Enjoy!
Chapter 45: The Godslaughterer's Tale
Jereth
(?)
I'm kinda glad I don't have a substantial form in my mindscape, otherwise I'd be picking my jaw off the floor right about now.
"…Holy shit…you're-"
The man who proclaims to be the Monastery's first and oldest Godslayer crosses his arms, puffs out his chest, adopts a massive grin and booms, "Amar Godslaughterer! Again, well met Brother! About time someone finally made their way in here!"
…
Beats me why I'm even surprised anymore. This entire trip has just been one mind-fucking revelation after the other.
"You seem bewildered, Brother."
I turn my attention back to the Godslaughterer and morbidly reply, "That's putting it lightly. Care to start shedding some light on the subject? Such as how the Hell me talking to you is even possible? Han did say you were gonna be the dude answering the majority of shit I had to ask…"
"Hmm, I suppose keeping you in suspense at this stage would be rather cruel. And there'll be time for conversation later. Very well, to first answer you're inquiries as to how I'm speaking with you now as if I never died? Well to be entirely honest the exact details escape me, although I have theories now that I've seen your memories though this little connection we have going."
He calmly sits before crossing his legs, hands on his knees and explains, "During my final battle against the King of the End where I died, my corpse self-evidently remained. The surviving Quiet Landers must have used a ritual of some variety, perhaps one similar to the stasis Magic you created using Simurgh's Authority, and preserved my consciousness that way. That'd explain why my body is suspended over the cathedral, actually. It provides a sort of focus for my consciousness to remain…at least, I hope that's why it's there, and not as some sort of macabre decoration…"
I think back to the enormous Dragon skeleton I'd seen and whisper out, "Holy shit, I was right…that carcass was you. And how the Hell did the Quiet land preserve your consciousness if you were already dead?"
At this he smirks and cheerily replies, "I didn't get the moniker, 'Godslaughterer with Ten Lives' because I was easy to kill. I distinctly remember entering a sort of coma after that Kanu and I killed each other off. While I certainly wasn't going to recover from the wounds I sustained, I was obviously able to hold on long enough for my memories and personality to be anchored to the sword. The rest, as they say, is history."
I 'shake' my head in amazement while Amar seems briefly distracted for a second before speaking up with, "Alright, sifting through your memories real quick-can I just say the world has changed quite a bit from mine?-it seems the Quiet Land has really doubled down on keeping things secret from the world at large, the Esoterics and Exoterics not being any sort of exception. Hmm…well, you might as well settle in, Brother…I'm going to have start at the beginning, or at least how it was explained to me."
"The beginning?"
"Yup, the beginning."
I heave a sigh and prepare myself for…well, I actually have no clue, but hopefully it won't cause my brain to leak out my ears or anything.
"Alright Brother, here we go."
"It's probably best if I start this off with a question. Jereth, does the Netherworld serve any sort of real purpose?"
…Not what I expected. Nevertheless I give it some thought before carefully replying with, "Well it serves as a sort of home to supernatural and divine beings…not to mention it connects to a lot of the various time streams, never mind containing the memories of Humanity as a whole. And then there's the whole, 'resting place of dead souls' bit…"
Amar nods before asking, "True enough. But why is any of that necessary in the first place?"
That stumps me.
"Think about it. The Domain of Immortality is where Gods, ideas and other such entities reside without interfering with the 'normal' world. The normal world is where a Heretic God first incarnates and if they're killed they go straight back to the Domain, no muss no fuss. And divine beings can survive in the 'normal' world perfectly fine if they outlast their Curse of Madness."
He smirks.
"Where does the Netherworld factor into all of this? I'll save you the trouble. It doesn't. The Netherworld is completely unnatural and unnecessary, if anything it's existence is downright harmful. Just ask the Guardian of Time how many times he's had to correct history because something or someone accidentally-sometimes even intentionally-messed with past or future events? And can you point out to me a single time when anyone has actually encountered a dead soul in the Netherworld? Face it, the Netherworld is a mistake and wouldn't be missed by either reality if it were to disappear entirely."
His face turns slightly sheepish after a moment.
"Sorry, went off on a bit of a rant there. Not to mention it's a purely academic question, the Netherworld is here to stay…but the original point still stands. Why does it exist?"
"…I get the feeling you're going to tell me."
A slow nod.
"Well, you're not wrong. So get this. The Netherworld actually didn't exist at one time, only coming into existence around 6000 or so years ago."
"…What?"
"Yup. 6000 years ago there was no, 'boundary of life and death, mortal and immortal'. It was just the Mortal Realm and the Domain of Immortality, completely separate from each other and having next to no interaction."
I take a second to process that and then carefully ask, "So…what happened to change that?"
"Pandora's Box was opened. And can I just say it's kinda bumming me out that I never got visions of our adoptive mother when I became a Godslayer? I guess she only started doing that after the King of the End became a constant threat…"
…
Wait.
"Hold the fucking phone for a second…what do you mean Pandora's Box was opened?! I thought that was Greek shit! You know, only about 3000 years ago, not twice that?!"
He gives me a sympathetic look.
"Trust me on this, Brother…it's best you go into this tale with an open mind, otherwise you're gonna be tearing your hair out every other sentence."
"At this point I have little hair left to tear. Start talking."
He snorts in amusement before seemingly gathering himself.
"The Greeks, according to your memories of the subject, were indeed the first ones to recognize the Gods known as Pandora and Epimetheus. They only got part of the details right, however. Most likely they were told the story second-hand by a particularly well travelled Mage or by an unrelated God having a laugh. The Pandora's Box that was originally opened wasn't an actual physical construct…it was a metaphor. A covenant, if you will."
"A covenant? Wait, if she 'opened' a metaphor…"
Amar solemnly nods.
"All the world's evils, right? Upon breaking open Pandora's Box the Domain of Immortality and Mortal Realm started…mixing, for lack of a better term. And from what I was told, it was nothing short of Hell."
His countenance hardens and his voice becomes grim.
"Can you imagine? The Gods and Legends of the Domain are constructs of our thoughts, prayers and stories…when the boundary between our two realities began to blur, well…imagine the worst fever dream you've ever had, multiplied by a million. In between Human thoughts and emotions, as well as God's powers frantically interacting and playing off of each other, 'reality' became a nightmare that no one could wake up from. A never ending cycle where nothing ever remained 'real', at least not for very long."
"…Well then how the fuck did things ever calm down?"
The Godslaughterer sighs before dryly replying, "We don't really know since, as you can imagine, actual surviving records or eye-witnesses of that time are rare, at best. And the ones who DID survive that waking nightmare profess to not having any concrete evidence either. Regardless, the prevailing theory is that some sort of universal threshold was reached. To use a vastly oversimplified analogy, 'too many cooks in the kitchen'. Eventually, after who knows how long of time-bending and reality-fucking, all of that energy and physics-denying power coalesced into a separate plane of existence, creating what we know as the Netherworld and more or less stabilizing the Mortal and Divine realms again. Personally I think this one fits, if only because it does a rather bang-up job of explaining why the Netherworld is such a fucked up place to begin with."
…Christ almighty, this actually makes sense.
"Wait, so the Netherworld came into being and everything was all hunky dory after that?"
A harsh bark of laughter.
"Hardly! The aftereffects of that disaster still hound us to this very day. Hell, you've been facing off against said effects for the past few months and you haven't even known it."
I'd be frowning if I had a mouth.
"How so?"
"Think, Brother. Thoughts and prayers of all kind, creating legends and terrors born of ever increasing madness? You think those very same nightmares just up and disappeared along with the Netherworld?"
A truly disgusted look appears on his noble features.
"Werewolves, Vampires, Yokai, Demons…these creatures are just some of the more well known ones that still exist in some fashion in your present day. But they were originally 'created' during the time after Pandora's Box was opened…along with other things."
He pauses and I carefully ask, "By other things…you make it sound like these are the 'aftereffects' that I'm supposed dealing with."
"And you'd be absolutely correct. You'd know these creatures better as the deities from the Cthulu Mythos."
I feel a chill crawl up my spine.
"You're serious? That fucking Lovecraft shit? Those guys that are supposedly capable of wiping out reality with the blink of an eye-…oh…oh my fucking god…"
Amar gives a dry chuckle at my sudden revelation.
"I'll admit that Humanity can come up with some pretty messed up deities…but creating an entire Pantheon of hundreds of beings, even the lowliest of whom could cause no shortage of insanity among Humankind? Seriously, the only kind of people who could think of something like that would have to be caught in some kind of never ending nightmare or something…"
…
…I need a fucking chair to collapse in.
"Of course, once the Netherworld finally coalesced, these beings found themselves in a peculiar position. They were not technically creatures born in the Domain of Immortality and thus couldn't return to it when they died, there being far too much overlap of the Mortal and Divine realms at the time. Understandably this wasn't a concern before the time when the Netherworld came into existence, the world itself bending and twisting to their whims, but once that was no longer an option…"
His next words leave me the most shellshocked I've felt yet, even since I set foot in the Quiet Land.
"Obviously, they turned their anger and frustration on the remnants of Humanity. And that was what the Monasteries were first created to fight. Not Heretic Gods, which at the time seemed like a laughably small threat compared to the rampaging pseudo-divinities, but the miscarriaged monsters born from Humanities most fevered nightmares."
…
Fucking Hell, neither of us were kidding about the hair ripping part…
"Ok, riddle me this. Where do the Campione fit in? How did people like us come into being? Another side-effect of the universe getting it's ass fucked so badly that it had a reality prolapse? Or did Pandora actually have a hand in things like I thought she did? Because right now I'm willing to bet what people told me was the color green was actually blue all along."
Amar snorts at that and easily replies, "No, Pandora and Epimetheus were responsible for our creation, that's for certain…but there's a bit of buildup to our taking the stage, so let me cover that first."
"The initial Monastics had a rough time of it. Mostly singular or small groupings of Shamans or Witch Doctors that only had sporadic contact with each other, they were rarely able to do little more than keep their small bands of fellow Humans out of the eye of the nastier types roaming the planet. In fact, if it wasn't for the few pseudo-Gods wandering the planet that were helping them out that probably would have eventually been the end of things."
"Gods were helping us?"
"Oh yeah", is his definite answer "Bear in mind, while people were no doubt losing their damn minds during the opening of Pandora's Box and thinking up all sorts of horrifying entities there were also a sizable amount of prayers and thoughts geared towards 'save us' and 'please help', stuff like that. Best estimates suggest for every ten Cthulu Gods or their equivalent there was at least one benevolent deity, either intent on fighting them or protecting Humans."
…Well, I guess it makes sense how the Monasteries got so many Gods to aid them in the creation of the Quiet Land and the like.
"I think I can skip ahead a few thousand years or so. While there was no shortage of heroic tales or the like in that intervening time, the bottom line is that casualties were passed around between both sides. Us and our early God allies and the leftover freaks. And after that interim period…well, that's when things really went off the rails."
"Let me guess. Pandora and Epimetheus created the Campione?"
"Got it in one. Talk about a total shocker! The Quiet Land has never had any sort of contact with Pandora or Epimetheus, so we can only guess at their motivations for doing so, but seemingly out of the blue Humans were popping up every few decades or so with the power of a true God at their beck and call. Not the imitations that had been battling back and forth across the globe for an aeon, but the real deal. Naturally, the Monasteries and what few surviving Gods were left on our side attempted to either befriend or take advantage of those early Godslayers, using them as weapons against the rampaging pseudo-divinities or as shields against their wrath."
A small smirk crosses his lips.
"This little process carried on for yet more centuries. Monastics, Gods and Campione dying in droves, slowly grinding away at the seemingly endless legions of horrors in a dirty, extended conflict. Eventually, however, the Cthulu gods and their brethren began to dwindle in number and power. More Godslayers began to rise up and actually survive for more than a few years, growing wiser and craftier with their age, as well as accumulating greater power and Authorities. We seemed to be approaching some kind of tipping point."
His smirk becomes a full blown grin.
"And then I came along. I slew the God that gave me my namesake of 'ten lives' and the Monasteries quickly rallied around me, finally having a Campione who could directly engage aggressive Heretic Gods and the remaining Cthulu nightmares and company. And for a time, that's what we did. We slaughtered them."
His predatory grin becomes slightly wistful.
"And that was the problem. We were too successful. Pretty soon the very beings I was attempting to hunt ceased confronting me, running and hiding upon my approach and keeping us from effectively pinning them down. And they became desperate."
A heavy sigh.
"Three Heretic Gods and one other deity had survived the millennia of conflict leading up to my birth. 40,000 Monastics. Hundreds of thousands of mortal Humans who viewed me as their King. All dust in the wind because of one creature."
His voice is a volcanic rumble by the end of his sentence, the constantly shifting landscape around us seemingly shaking due to his anger.
I'm abruptly reminded that this man was far, FAR more powerful in his prime than I can even imagine.
"This creature single-handedly destroyed everything we had worked for. We never gave it a name, it never needed one. Indeed, if there was anything we ever called it, it was 'Xul'."
Something clicks in the back of my mind.
"Xul Sharur…Demon Hunter. So that's the why and how, isn't it?"
He nods, replying, "Precisely. The Xul Sharur were Brothers and Sisters chosen from the best and most loyal we could find, tasked with hunting down any wayward pseudo-deities that had realized trying to fight me or my Heretic God companions in a direct fight was a losing battle and would always flee when we tried to approach. It took several years before they finally managed to corner Xul…and by the time they did things had gotten so far out of hand it was all we could do just to run damage control."
He gives a morbid laugh.
"You know, looking through your memories…it's actually hilarious how many people legitimately believe the King of the End was created by Human hands. Seriously? Several millennia after my time and Magic has barely progressed at all, the majority of Mage Associations still using theories and Spells stolen or copied from Gods several centuries ancient."
He fixes me with an understanding gaze.
"And no offense meant to you Brother, but even your Spellwork that preserves Athena's power and accelerates her return, something even Gods thought was impressive, is hardly a fraction of what the King of the End's revival system is capable of. A self-perpetuating legend that increases it's power based on how many of it's foes are present, always guaranteed to wake should too many Godslayers walk the Earth, essentially immortal even should defeat find it? Bah! No Human could ever hope to accomplish such a feat…no, this was the work of Xul…and it succeeded."
A tired sigh follows his words.
"Xul and it's cohorts willingly gave up control over the King of the End, forgoing any kind of insurance that could protect them from it's crusade in favor of completing the system as quickly as they could. In retrospect I was overconfident and lax, thinking that there was no real threat and that in between my own powers and those of my allies we could crush any sort of opposition…it was only after the damage had been done that I recognized the true measure of the threat bearing down on us…and it cost me everything."
There's an awkward silence that follows his speech, me practically lost in thought and he in reminiscence.
"You said you had actual Heretic Gods as allies, right? Who were they? And what the Hell happened to Xul? You said the Xul Sharur had it cornered, right?"
"Ok, getting back to Xul…the clever Bastard only stuck around long enough to complete the reincarnation cycle of the King of the End, summon Sita and then get the Hell out of dodge, to borrow one of your terms."
He suddenly looks as if he just remembered something mildly unpleasant before muttering, "Damn, I always forget about that Kanu's wife. She certainly had a lousy hand dealt to her in the grand scheme of things…I'm getting off topic here. It was only in the weeks leading up to my final confrontation with the King of the End that we finally tracked down Xul and the Xul Sharur immediately set out to kill it. It's without a doubt dead, otherwise my Xul Sharur wouldn't have returned. Shame I didn't get to witness it's death myself though…"
A small smile plays across his lips, fondness evident in his tone.
"Those brave idiots…no sooner do they get back from an incredibly difficult quest than they go ahead and do the impossible, eventually becoming the Judicators…"
"So I guess I don't need to worry about Xul then?"
"No. Of course, there's no shortage of other nasty shit headed your way but at least that monster is dead, dead and DEAD."
"I'll take what I can get…about those three Gods on your side, as well as the pseudo-divinity, as you were calling it?"
The brief flash of pain and tenderness he displays leaves me more than a little confused.
"Yeah…I suppose I should finally get to that, huh? Very well, two of them were Goddesses, going by the names of Shiva and Jupiter. And, for a great number of years, they were my lovers."
…
Y'know, I'm kinda glad I'm not drinking anything or I would have expelled it across the half the fucking planet right now.
"Hold up, you were banging two Goddesses at the same time?! And they were ok with that?! And why the fuck would they even help any of us to begin with, you said they were Heretic, right? Not the variety that was somewhere in between?"
He laughs at my questions, of all things, before easily replying, "You're one to act skeptical about Heretic Gods offering their aid, Brother. Don't you have a Heretic Angel offering you her unconditional assistance as of this conversation? And what of the Greek Goddess that you apparently went out of your way to help? Solid alliances have been born out of less…"
Momentarily stumped I nonetheless retort, "My situation is a bit different from yours. The Angel is just doing it because she has nothing better to do with her time, apparently…and I would NOT describe my partnership with Athena as anything other than a temporary aligning of interests, if that."
The Bastard just laughs twice as hard.
"Brother, did you forget what I said about having access to your memories? Allow me to quote back to you, 'No…that's just not what she is'. Face it, for whatever reason that Angel has taken a shine to you and isn't going to be leaving anytime soon. Trust me on this, Heretic Gods can be very determined when they set their mind to something. And come now, you can't honestly expect me to believe that you've forgotten Greek mythology 101! You saved the life of a War Goddess and created a scenario where she'll reincarnate with access to her full strength. You think that carries so little meaning?"
I scowl before replying, "Yeah, well, I also remember how many Greek legends and tales end with betrayal, jealousy, murder, incest, divine fuckery and all sorts of other fun shit."
"Bah, you'll see what I mean in time, Brother. Pallas Athena will make a stauncher ally than you give her credit for. Regardless, I was indeed enamored with the two of them…Shiva had a something of a mouth on her and our first meeting was one of three straight days of battle, culminating in a result that resembled a draw. Afterwards she promptly declared that she would be watching me rather closely, whether due to interest or scoping me out to glean an advantage in the future, I didn't know. After she helped me survive an ambush by five of the pseudo-divinities three years later, I had a most definite answer."
"Jupiter, or as you would know her by her modern name of Fortuna or Fortuna Redox, was almost the polar opposite. Quiet, and even somewhat non-confrontational, an odd trait for a Heretic God. She must have outlasted her curse of madness since her very first meeting with me was actually quite peaceable."
He smirks at me.
"In fact, you might recognize it as the Dapalis Epithet. Jupiter arriving amid an offering of meat and wine, entreated by a peasant in hopes of finding favor…the details are fudged a bit, obviously, but the actual events are quite accurate. She arrived in the middle of a feast we were hosting and merely asked that she be given a place to sit and partake of the food and drink."
He suddenly snickers before amusedly continuing with, "Shiva almost had a shit-fit right then and there. In retrospect, she was right to be initially wary, considering I ended up falling head over heels for her as well…"
He shakes his head briefly before heaving a massive sigh and quietly saying, "I wish I could do justice to their tales, Brother…but even in here our time is not unlimited and I could go on for years about them. Of how one time, during a Kartik Purnima, Shiva played such beautiful melodies on a Veena that thousands of Brothers and Sisters were in tears by the end of it. Or perhaps when Jupiter, through no prodding or prayer, grew a forest of such vibrant greenery and fruit around my castle that no one could find it for weeks on end, her attempt at combating a drought that was plaguing my kingdom. Or, on a slightly more apocalyptic note, when tensions came to a head and Shiva and Jupiter actually fought each other, completely demolishing a Monastic fortress nearby."
Against all better judgement I slowly ask, "And…did you try to stop them?"
"Huh? Hell no! I cowered like a little boy, since the one time I did try to intervene I found myself simultaneously struck by lightning and stabbed with Trishula. They worked it out on their own afterwards and actually got to be on…well, 'good' terms is a bit of a strong word, but at least they never tried to kill each other again. And the makeup sex was amazing. Seriously, Shiva could do this thing with her six arms that I-"
"Ok! We are officially heading into too much information territory now!"
I shake my head in exasperation before wryly asking, "Ok, might as well ask this…aren't Jupiter and Shiva supposed to be male?"
Amar arches on eyebrow in response.
"You're asking that when you have a female Angel living in your house? In all seriousness though, if there's one specific aspects of their legends that Heretic divinities seem to love rebelling against…it's their genders."
"Can't argue that…Alright, what about that last God?"
"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out by now, Brother. It was Svarog."
…
"Huh?"
And then I remember.
My time is up. Go with my blessings, Jereth. You will be the successor to all that we built…
"That vague mother fucker…he knew exactly what he was talking about."
"Yeah, Svarog always was kinda iffy on the details when talking about stuff. Regardless, he and Ashoka were the ones who did a lot of the work on the Quiet Land, the sword we're in being one of the more specific and important examples."
That confuses me for a moment.
"Wait, Ashoka wasn't a Heretic God? The way Han described it was-"
"Nope, Ashoka was the one pseudo-divinity that had survived throughout the years. Like Xul, he had an idea or three of how to create some truly inspiring pieces of work."
We're both quiet for a second before Amar lets out a breath of air through his noise and quietly says, "Well, you're probably wondering what happened to all of said Deities, aren't you?"
"The thought had crossed my mind…"
"…The first to die was Shiva, three weeks before my final battle against the King of the End. While I had been busy fighting off that damn Kanu his subordinates had snuck around and once again attempted to kill Sita. Shiva was there to stop them and she did so magnificently…at a cost."
A spark of fury lights up in his eyes and his voice is a tectonic growl as he explains, "One of those pseudo-divinities landed a clean blow, a specially made toxin that none of us had any way of curing-despite all the resources at our disposal-pouring through her veins."
Anger is replaced by sorrow.
"…Her last wish was for me to strike the killing blow, so that she may impart an Authority and watch over me even after her death. So…I did exactly that."
I shift uncomfortably before Amar suddenly rightens himself, resolve making his tone steely even though his words are bitter.
"Ashoka, Svarog and Jupiter all went at roughly the same time. Lakshmana's assault on the fortress where Sita was under guard caught us by surprise, since practically every single prior assault had been carried out using secretive methods. That one annihilating attack wiped out both the King of the End's wife as well as Svarog and Ashoka."
His smile turns oddly feral.
"Brief aside here, can I just say that you're execution of that insane Son of a Bitch was most gratifying to witness? Seriously, I think I've replayed that particular memory a dozen times at this point…"
I'm about to respond that I'm flattered when he suddenly gets back on track with, "Jupiter…she passed on in trying to protect me from the resulting blast of energy that accompanied the King of the End's true ascension. She said that I would need every drop of my strength in order to defeat him now that he had reached his pinnacle of power…and, just like with Shiva, I administered a mercy killing, her body too broken and damaged to continue."
Another moment of silence that stretches painfully…before he suddenly locks his gaze in my direction, his raw fury causing me to instinctively tense.
"And, when I finally marched forward to meet that Kanu in our last duel, do you want to know what he said to me? That Kanu, that fucking Coward, had the gall to lament about his situation, about how tragic everything was and how he was doomed to have to repeat his actions for all of eternity. Of how he though I would be able to keep his wife safe! What a load of pathetic tripe. Had he the courage to find a way to break himself out of his covenant this entire mess could have been averted! I refuse to believe one of his legend and power would be unable to achieve such a feat…"
His anger subsiding somewhat Amar closes his eyes before quietly finishing his tale with, "…My love's sacrifice ultimately ended up being for naught, however. I was unable to survive the battle against the King of the End, despite it technically being a draw. The Monasteries had suffered horrendous losses over the past few decades of ever increasing conflict, the vast majority of the Gods we had called allies were either dead or missing, the Quiet Land found itself under siege due to our reduced strength and it was only through the actions of my friends that now go by the title of 'Judicators' that they too survived. That, Brother, is my legacy."
I take a moment to digest all of this, lost in thought for a few seconds…before I ask, "How many Campione were still alive at the time of your last fight the King of the End?"
"If memory serves, it was twenty."
If I had a physical mouth, it'd be hanging open right now.
"TWENTY?! You fought the deity specifically designed to kill us when it was twenty times more powerful than your average Godslayer…and you still forced a draw!? I'd say that's a pretty damn impressive legacy to leave behind…"
His smile only has the slightest bits of humor to it.
"If only that was all that mattered."
Silence yet again reigns.
And I feel like it's crushing me just as much as the weight of my now inherited responsibilities are.
I mean, I doubt he's just telling me all of this for fun.
"…So that's the whole sordid story then. Start to finish and top to bottom?"
"That's an affirmative."
I pause and then curiously ask, "Why are you speaking with such a 'modern' vocabulary? Shouldn't you be whipping out phrases and shit from the B.C. era?"
"Hey, we're in your head, I'm just borrowing from the local Rosetta Stone."
"That almost makes some amount of sense…"
He laughs before fixing me with a moderately serious gaze and calmly states, "You're worried."
"No shit I'm worried! I was just told that practically everything I know about our past was a fraction of the truth, that Heretic Gods are only half of our worries, there's apparently a weapon so lethal and game-changing that I fully expect Gods to take active steps to remove it's threat from the board and now, to top it all off, half this shit was stuff in the works for millennia?! So, yes. I'm a little fucking stressed!"
"Easy does it Brother…ok, maybe I could have made this a bit more palatable…but that's the reality you got stuck with the moment you killed Veles. It's shitty, and it's sure as Hell not fair…but did you honestly think that your life would be the same after you became a Godslayer?"
I think back to those opening moments of my ascension, of my utter joy at finally being able to change things, of threatening the Heaven's themselves…
Well, looks like things have come full circle then.
And it slapped me in the face with a wet fish.
"Ok, fair point…"
Amar chuckles at my tone and reassures me with, "Don't worry about it too much, Brother. There's still one final test to pass before all of this becomes something you need to worry about."
"Huh? What tes-"
A wave of such raw, unadulterated energy slams into me that I find my words abruptly cut off mid-sentence, the nonexistent air being driven from my lungs in a rush of stunned awe.
Is…is this just his amount of Magic power?!
A quick activation of Black Wool confirms my theory and oh my fucking God…his reserves make a Heretic Deity's look puny in comparison, an ocean to their lakes and ponds. A veritable erupting volcano of scarlet streamers flying off of his form and creating violently twisting edifices of primordial power, all of it contained by a body that seems far too small to control it.
…
The title of 'Godslaughterer' seems all the more reasonable now.
"A trial by combat, Jereth! I wasn't merely sealed into this blade to inform you of our long and extensive past…I'm the last line of defense, my soul and power anchored to this weapon so that I may judge the worthiness of the one to wield it!"
He raises an arm directly in front of him and his chant seems to echo across the stars themselves as he intones, "A final gift, freely given! An unbreakable shield, gravely accepted! A peerless weapon, furiously inherited! A savior's touch, lovingly offered! Primordial Divide!"
With a sound like the sky itself collapsing a bar of light crashes into the ground and when my 'vision' clears I see the Godslaughterer wielding a bronze trident that seemingly shivers in delight at being wielded, his eyes closed in peaceful contemplation…but a third pupil, completely obsidian in coloration, appears vertically on his forehead and gazes malevolently at me.
Unbelievable…a chant that has nothing to do with what I'm pretty sure is Shiva's legend…but of the time they spent together, of their relationship and their connection even beyond death.
A legend in and of itself.
…
I am SO fucked.
He levels the weapon's point at my chest and gleefully booms, "Arm yourself, Brother! This battle has no affect on reality, fight to your utmost limits! Prove yourself worthy to inherit the title of Godslaughterer!"
…
…Alright then.
If he's so insistent.
I focus, bringing forth my actual physical body instead of the shadowy avatar that best represents me-
-"Spit and crackle, tear the sky asunder! Kop'yo Groma!"
The lightning spear descends into my grasp and with an eager twirl of it fire surges up my spine, coinciding with the real fire that ensconces me with armor from Forge of the Father, the same suit that I'd donned during the battle against Lakshmana and the rest.
"Alright, Brother."
Electricity dances around me and my voice turns into an aggressive hiss.
"Let's get to the meat of the lesson, shall we?"
And with that we conclude my attempt at explaining the history of the Campione-verse while still staying true to it's canon setting!
So? How'd it go? Confusing? Easy to follow? The result of a cheese puff nightmare? Any and all opinions or thoughts would be appreciated as this is obviously a big heaping load of original material I came up with :D
Oh, and now Jereth has to fight the Godslaughterer himself.
Spoiler alert: It doesn't go well.
At all.
pwashington: If I find the opportunity to do so I'll give it a shot, I'm always open to new stuff to read!
desdelor97: I definitely aimed for it for it to be so :D just wait until it gets put into action!
xanothos: It was a whole load of me espousing, that's what it was :D
Regards,
Classic Mecraphone, Memento Mori's Salad Fork.
OshiroNai: It's all good, whenever I don't have a job I pay my rent by selling assorted boxes of pencils that I picked off the floor. You'd be surprised at how much an 'assorted flavor' package of Number 2's and mechanical pens can go for when someone is desperate (no refunds accepted).
Dark White Fang: Sniff, sniff...thanks buddy :_}
In all seriousness though, I appreciate these types of reviews just as much as the constructive criticism ones, since they let me know both what I'm doing right as well as what I'm doing wrong.
And nothing beats a competitive kiss born of wanting to shut the other person up :D
hopelessloser: You can tell your friend...I guess I'll consider it. Ambriel has a unique position in the story and I'm not entirely certain where it ends up with her.
Still though...Meh, you can inform your 'friend' that one might appear in a sidestory or something along those lines.
