Chapter 86: Throne of God
Nanashi's skin tingled as everything stopped around him. The crowd near him stopped murmuring; the light breeze stopped. In the center of the plaza, splinters of the ice pillars had not entirely fallen out of the air. Satan wasn't affected; he turned to look over those who also weren't affected: Lucifer, Flynn, and Issachar. The sky darkened, shifting to red.
Dagda seemed strangely satisfied. "Being so publicly denounced has drawn the tyrant into action for once."
"I've not seen YHVH act so directly before," Flynn said.
"We've dismissed his servants and denounced him in front of a good portion of humanity," Satan said, looking up to the sky now. "Others would hear of this soon from the witnesses. I feel as though his position as God has greatly weakened. Either he feels he must do something to prove himself as the Almighty or he's lost all patience and is preparing to destroy everything."
"Either way, we need to eliminate him," Issachar said. "Is he in this world or do we need to go after him?" Meanwhile, Nanashi went over to the others so they knew he was still moving too.
"We'll have to go into his realm," Satan said. "The obelisk in Ginza is usually the access point, but it's white instead of black in this time. That may affect things, but there's no time to figure it out."
"I've already looked it up," Aleph said, revealing that he had kept out of the time freeze too. "The change was done by the White, intending for it to lead to their realm. However, they have been overcome. They may put up a last resistance once the obelisk is unchained, but their chances of success are slim now. Satan, you are able to alter the destination of that obelisk since you can grant humans permission to face God."
Satan nodded. "Good. Thank you for coming to speak the truth."
"It's my duty," Aleph said, giving a bow. "But as an outsider, this is all I should do. I believe your world is safe in the hands of the heroes here." He then vanished like the angels had.
Flynn looked off towards Tokyo. "We'd best get moving, since there's no telling what will happen when."
"There's not much else we can do with everyone else frozen," Issachar added. "Even Jonathan and Walter got frozen."
"They're no longer tied to fate," Satan said, raising a hand to cast a magic circle around them. "Let's go."
There was a brief flash like traveling through the terminals. The well-kept stone plaza full of people got replaced with the worn pavement of a crosswalk with only a few humans and demons frozen in view. There, Masakado came forward and took one of the chains on the obelisk. "Allow me." He then ripped the chains off like they were nothing more than old threads.
As soon as he did, pale shadows emerged from the white obelisk. They brought a fog with them that quickly enveloped the crossroads. "Don't do this," they said in a chorus of anger, fear, weariness, and despair. "History has fallen into a spiral of defeat and loss; nothing can bring back what has passed."
"That's fine," Flynn said, resolute with them and tense at the same time. "We're here to forge a new future by getting rid of problems of the past."
"There is simply no winning anymore," the White said.
Before they could continue, the surface of the obelisks crackled with energy. They all paused right as the white surface shattered and tore the White apart. The fog thinned but still reflected an eerie glow of black from the obelisk. Lucifer chuckled at that. "My, it seems that not even the false God could stand those White."
Satan nodded. "It's likely a reason of they want to destroy the world at the same time he does, so he's not letting them."
"That's sounds so childish," Issachar said, going over to touch the obelisk.
Once he did, they were transported to a field of stars. An uncountable number, given that the stars surrounded them on all sides as far as the eye could see, in clouds of various ethereal colors. The only indication of where they were in this infinite expanse was a gloss to an otherwise unseen surface they stood on. Similarly, reflections of light occasionally revealed stairs, edges, and walls, but a step aside caused those reflections to shift in what they showed. There were white arches holding a glowing darkness that remained steadily visible, but it was difficult to tell how to reach any but the nearest to them.
Nanashi had a strong feeling that he'd been here before. That should be, given that he'd challenged YHVH in other times. From that feeling… this place wasn't infinitely long, but it felt that way. It was a labyrinth of figuring out where paths and doorways went since none of it followed earthly reason. It was a place that kept teasing the correct way forward only to send you far back. Along the many indistinguishable paths, when you finally got to a place that looked different, there would be some powerful angel or being standing in your way. That included both Lucifer and Satan… although, not the Lucifer and Satan that were with them now.
"Sorry, where are we now?" Issachar asked, looking off into the distance.
"We're in the Throne of God in YHVH's realm," Satan said.
"In the throne?" Nanashi asked, bewildered about that even though that sounded true.
Satan nodded. "A multidimensional space beyond four dimensions is difficult to explain to those without certain knowledge, but you could think of it as a closed book. We're merely on the first page on," he shrugged, "let's say a million pages. The doorways you see can take you to another page, if you can find your way to the doors. YHVH can be on any page at any time. But unless you have permission to come before him, you'll never end up on the same page as him."
"He's doing this to show off," Lucifer scoffed. "Making us feel unworthy and small before him."
"But you can get us on the same page," Issachar said to Satan.
"Yes, that's no problem," they said, gesturing to the nearby door. The darkness within it flickered and took on a golden tinge. "That door will now do so."
"Good, because this place is a slog to get through otherwise," Flynn said.
Through the door, they came to the place where the stars ended. The door itself vanished seconds after Masakado came through as the last of them. It was utter darkness without any outer light to cast reflections on what was around them. Despite that, all of them there were visible as if the area was lit. Lucifer in particular emitted an eerie cold light that let them see a small ways around them. Despite seeing so little, this place didn't seem empty.
Then golden reflections raced over an enormous being with them. Their entire being wasn't visible at once, only in fleeting glimpses like the arch of a cheekbone, the curling lines of an ear, the corner of a mouth. When they spoke, Satan immediately held a hand up and did something that caused a web of sparks around them. "Bow before me, for I am the beginning and the end, the creator of all and the destroyer of all. I am God."
"I will never bow before you," Lucifer said.
"I won't acknowledge a foreign god who abuses my people so," Masakado said.
"You're being more of a devil than a god right now, so no," Flynn said.
"Right, I won't accept a god of intolerance that resides in such darkness," Issachar said.
"No," Nanashi said, feeling superfluous here. The others could handle this, maybe better without him. Then again, he wanted to be here. He had to see to it that YHVH's covenant was broken so that innocent souls would be recognized as such instead of condemned to hell for terms they didn't know about.
"You've been judged inadequate, unjust, and cruel," Satan said. "You are not God."
"That is not true!" YHVH bellowed. Sparks flew around them with the force of his voice. "You will acknowledge me as the almighty God and I will restart this world entirely! It is too far gone to save! Bow or perish!" He blasted them with an invisible wave of energy that knocked Nanashi back a foot and nearly made the others lose their footing.
"You sound like the White," Flynn said, taking out his sword and slashing at their barely visible foe. A tear of white appeared in the darkness, shifting and betraying where YHVH was.
Something slammed down around them; transparent starry walls had appeared to split him off from Issachar and Flynn. "Don't panic," Dagda said, causing Nanashi's eyes to go blurry. When his vision cleared up, there was a golden shimmer of a giant arm in front of him. "Defeat the part in front of you, then your sword can take out these walls."
That made sense. Focus on his part of the fight. Able to see YHVH now, Nanashi slashed at his arm. A white cut bleeding light appeared much like with Flynn's katana. "I am all-knowing and all-seeing," YHVH bellowed from above. "My judgment is absolute."
"If it was, then Satan would have agreed with you," Nanashi said, attacking the arm again.
A burst of energy hit him from all sides as YHVH trapped Nanashi under his hand. "I am eternal; you are transient. My judgment is unchanging."
While he was able to cut through the immense fingers, that didn't remove them. "It isn't unchanging," Nanashi said. "You went from doing nothing to trying to end the world when things didn't go your way. And if you are the eternal God, you changed your mind about us humans greatly."
"You will survive to get your revenge," Dagda said, right before YHVH closed his hand to squash Nanashi like a bug. For a moment, it felt like his flesh and bones were pulverized into a paste. Maybe it had happened. Whether it did or not, he felt Dagda's power encase him and he was returned to normal. Nanashi still felt pain through all of his body, like everything should be bruised.
"You are children and you should obey the one who gave you life!" YHVH shouted. "That is who I am! I know all matters great and small. My judgment is absolute, unchanging, just, and fair."
"You are not just!" Nanashi said, his anger flaring up. Ignoring that he should have died again, he slashed with all of his fury against the hand trapping him until it finally let go. Then he wrecked both barriers so their team wasn't divided.
He heard Flynn first, angered much like he was. "You have not shown an ounce of wisdom or love yet!"
"Nanashi, what happened to you?" Issachar asked in concern, appearing near him in his angel form. He put a hand on Nanashi's shoulder to heal him better.
"I survived," he replied. "We have to win this."
"Yes, I'll be watching over you two," Issachar said, patting his shoulder before letting him get back to fighting.
Nanashi then hurried over to fight side by side with Flynn and the demons. YHVH was able to make powerful attacks from any and all directions. But since he was enormous, they had no difficulty hitting him. The bleeding light in the darkness tried to blind them, to no avail. After a few hits, Flynn called out, "You should be good now!"
"Got it," Issachar called behind them, then fired his guns quickly.
The various translucent limbs stumbled backwards on getting hit by his attacks. "You fools, I am the God of your world! I created you!"
"You're the face of vengeance, not creation," Flynn said.
"You've gone too far, outside of the true God's wishes," Issachar said.
"I am God, the one who can bless or curse your souls for eternity. You cannot overcome me. Stop your meaningless efforts and bow to me, or else perish!"
"You've cursed us with your foolishness long enough," Flynn said, taking a moment to step back so he could start casting magic instead. That spread his damage much further.
"Your judgment is unfair," Nanashi said, attacking again. How long would this take? "We won't accept you anymore."
"Right, we humans will cast you down," Issachar said, attacking again.
This time, his gunshots forced YHVH to take a visible form. He managed to be even more monstrous than Satan, a multitude of humanoid torsos that were horned, winged, and scaled all sprouting from a serpentine dragon body. Screaming in a rage, he blasted them from every head he had. The blasts that hit him made Nanashi feel like he'd been pulverized to nothing once again. However, Dagda's healing still proved more than YHVH's destructive power. How had the others fared?
"Don't worry about them, just defeat this false god," Dagda scolded him. "You're close; he's already been cast down as a demon."
A different healing spell hit him, so one of the others survived at least. After a few moments, Nanashi had spotted Flynn and Issachar still there. Good. All the others involved were demons who'd survive on as spirits if their physical form perished. Then he had the thought, wasn't he functionally immortal as well? Because he was Dagda's puppet, Dagda wasn't going to let him die until his goal was attained. Among the runes he'd been learning, if he activated them in the right combination, there were three that should draw all of YHVH's attacks at himself…
The next series of attacks really should have destroyed him utterly; there was so much pain that all of Nanashi's senses cut out. "Why'd you have to go doing that?" Dagda grumbled. "Here, holding all this power will end us."
Somehow, Nanashi brought his hands together and fired all that power back at YHVH. Feelings of coldness, heaviness, and stillness came back to him first; his hands seemed empty. Then someone took hold of him, their touch much too hot at first. Was that YHVH again? Nanashi tried to throw them off and not only failed to free himself, but also slipped from his clumsy movements.
"Don't fret," the person holding him said, patting him with a third arm. As he started being able to see again, he realized it was Vishnu who had him. "You protected us and now we're protecting you."
"That was an idiotic move," Dagda grumbled in his mind.
Feeling embarrassed, Nanashi tried to ignore a feeling that he really should be dead a thousand times over now and looked over at the battle still raging. Many of YHVH's excess limbs and heads were limply being tossed around as he kept trying to fight on his own; perhaps that was because of Nanashi's reflected attack. Flynn and Issachar were keeping some distance, sensible given that they would be most easily killed off for good here. Along with that, they both attacked best at a distance with magic and guns. Satan, Lucifer, and Masakado were keeping closer to YHVH, between the false god and the living humans. There weren't any other demons out in the fight. They must have gotten wiped out and there hadn't been time to revive them or call out others.
Once Nanashi had recovered, Vishnu handed him back his sword and let him go. But by that point, Satan had waved Flynn to get back in close. "YHVH, you will never be allowed to reign over our world again," Satan said with absolute certainty.
"You can't do that to me," YHVH growled, sounding more like a dragon than anything like a human. "I am your master."
"No longer," Satan said.
"We will not be worshiping you any longer," Flynn said, drawing his katana out again for one final strike.
There was an explosion of light, an unearthly scream that turned into a wail. As it faded, the empty darkness was replaced with the stars once more. There was ground clearly under their feet now, shifting with plants sprouting into existence. Far out at the horizon, a blue glow gathered as though dawn was approaching. That was different. His memories were faint and difficult to recall at that moment, but Nanashi knew this was different.
"Good, the souls of humanity are free," Dagda said. "Now kill the others here."
"Why?" Nanashi asked quietly, horrified at the idea. The others were checking on each other, or in Lucifer's case silently gloating to himself.
Dagda grumbled. "Because you're just a support fighter while they're alive. If you want to shape the future, you need to be the Messiah. But that's Flynn right now. He needs to be killed so we can reach our goals, and the others so there's no competition. Do this and I can make you the new God."
"That's not what I want," he said, trying to put his sword away. His arms weren't listening and kept it out; Vishnu glanced at him. Nanashi tried not to say anything more even as he fought the orders. Flynn had worked hard for this and there was no reason good enough to take this victory from him. And while Flynn was quiet and almost cold at times, Issachar was a wonderful caring person and Nanashi really did not want to kill him or even make him upset.
"They'll just leave the world the way it is," Dagda said spitefully. "You've gotten rid of the main threat, yes, but not even this solves the problem. If you want your world to be better, then you'll need to be rid of all gods, even those who could be gods like the other spirits here."
Maybe that would work, but it wasn't worth killing Flynn and Issachar over. And wouldn't that kill off Dagda too? And himself because his existence depended on Dagda.
"The gods were once forces of nature: the winds across the plains, the storms and the seas, the stars and moon, even the earth and sky. I want to return to that. But before that, in exchange for your help, I will make you the eternal God. You can improve the world you have or remake it entirely if you want. To get any of that, though, you need to be the one who can choose the course of humanity from this point forward."
That wasn't what Nanashi wanted. He wouldn't do this.
"You will," Dagda scolded him, tightening Nanashi's grip on his sword. "I won't let you back out at this last moment! I've worked on this for too long, made many changes to get this result. If we let this go, there will never be another chance like this. Now kill them or I will."
He wouldn't… but how did he get back control of his body? Nanashi felt like he was being choked, pressured and light-headed. Then Dagda tried to move him forward. As Nanashi fought to stay still, Vishnu put one of his hands on the sword. "There's no need to fight now, either of you," he said.
While he tried, Nanashi wasn't able to reply. Issachar and Flynn came over to them. "What's the matter?" Flynn asked.
"Is Dagda trying something?" Issachar asked, coming closer to him.
Dagda tried to thrust the sword into Issachar's chest. However, Vishnu deflected the attack. "Nanashi isn't in control at the moment," Vishnu said.
"This world has already become a failure," Dagda said with Nanashi's voice. "We need an absolute solution."
"No we don't," Flynn said, sounding tired now. "You just want to end your existence as a god; don't drag everyone else into that."
"That is not it!" Dagda said, trying to attack again. Vishnu got hold of Nanashi again and kept him from doing so.
"It is, I'm sure of it," Flynn said. "Take the sword for now."
"Yes," Vishnu said, taking it from Nanashi with one of his free hands.
"If you're going to do that, then I'll just kill him," Dagda said.
That wasn't what he'd just said. Thankfully, Issachar put a hand on his forehead. "We won't be letting you do that either. The true God is restored, so we'll evict you instead."
"That would still kill him without doing anything to me," Dagda said, although he was worried now.
"Not now," Issachar said, putting his other hand on Nanashi's head. "In the name of God, release Nanashi from your power, Dagda. He will live again."
Dagda struggled against Vishnu for a second before Nanashi felt something drain out of his body. But he didn't feel heavy and cold anymore. Instead, a warm light replaced Dagda's power. Nanashi gasped as his lungs drew air again after so long. The light strengthened him too, allowing him to stand on his own when Vishnu let him go. The whole area was lit up by then, leaving them in a field of flowers that spread to the horizons.
Dagda was there too, forced into a physical manifestation with the rest of them. "I'm not about to stop working towards my goal," he said. "I will find a way to make things right."
"If you wanted to make things right, you shouldn't have messed with Nanashi like you did and make things worse," Issachar said.
Dagda shook his head. "Such extreme measures were necessary. You've gone to extreme measures yourself to challenge YHVH."
Another angel materialized with them. He appeared like a winged human with long silver hair and impressive armor. "There's an important difference there," he said. "I am Metatron; I speak for God. They tell me that there was cruelty in both your plans and those of Satan and Flynn. However, they took the brunt of the cruelty themselves. You avoided all cruelty in your plans and inflicted it on Nanashi here. Since you're doing this to return yourself to a force of nature rather than a god, you will have to do a lot of good work yourself before we will do that for you."
"You're not going to cast me off right away?" Dagda asked, confused at that.
"No," Metatron said. "But we will be keeping a close eye on you and will restrict you to the Abyss if you keep doing more harm than good. Satan, we'll need you to help with the reassessment of the human souls released from captivity. But that'll be discussed between you and God since you've changed."
"Understandable," Satan said. "I would like to be in on that."
"And Lucifer, you like humans now, so fine, you'll stay free for now," Metatron said.
"Wh-what?" Lucifer said, looking embarrassed at that acknowledgment.
Metatron nodded and waved a hand. "Bye." Lucifer vanished, then Metatron continued went on. "Masakado, we acknowledge your position as a protector of humanity and will support you when needed. We'd also like to inform other spirits like yourself that you'll now be in similar terms as Dagda here. As long as the spirits, lesser gods, demons, and angels are doing more good than ill, you'll be freer to move about the world now. But if you begin harming humans more than helping them, we will act against you and support the humans afflicted by you."
"That sounds like a better way of doing things," Masakado said. "But it will cause instability in the first few years. I'll always be a protector of humanity and will help them keep things stable."
"Thank you," Metatron said, even bowing his head. "Though our greatest thanks is to you three heroes: Nanashi, Flynn, and the Messiah Issachar. You will have our gratitude and blessings through the rest of your lives."
Issachar was the Messiah? Wasn't that supposed to be Flynn? Although, hearing it made sense. Issachar had been leading them the past few weeks; he'd also been the one publicly recognized as a hero for humanity because of the tournaments. If the future was going to be guided by his actions now, Nanashi felt like it would definitely be better.
"We did what we felt was right," Issachar said. "We'll do our best to teach others not to let hate grow to the point of bringing out something like YHVH again."
"Right," Nanashi said. "That's not going to help rebuild the world."
"We angels will be helping with that too, with humanity leading," Metatron said. "After all, Issachar, you found the nameless truth of God and brought Them back into power. They are calling the angels back to Them, to restore us to the caring guardians we should be. Although, would you call yourself one of the angels or one of humanity?"
"One of humanity," Isachar answered without hesitation even though he was in angel form there.
Metatron went over to him, extending a hand. "Then because this war is over, would you give up your angelic powers to be given to a true angel, so that they will be a memory of your spirit and always protect humanity?"
After thinking a moment, Issachar nodded and took his hand. "Sure, I shouldn't need them anymore and it would be good to know there is at least one angel that future generations can count on always."
"Then it shall be so," Metatron said, his eyes glowing gold briefly. In turn, Issachar was shifted back to his human form as a woman, this time without the usual star marking over his eye. A brief image of a more androgynous angel who looked like Issachar appeared with them, smiled, then disappeared off into the field of flowers. After shaking his hand, Metatron let Issachar go and turned to him. "And you, Nanashi, you have a cyclical soul that has always sought to keep balance and protect others."
"I don't remember it all that clearly, but yes," Nanashi said, wondering why that was being brought up.
"Since you have fulfilled that role today to far greater measure than ever before, you could choose to retire on that obligation and become a normal soul." He'd been serious so far, but Metatron smiled a little at Nanashi now. "You don't have to decide on that now since you haven't chosen a definite path for this life. But someday, you'll be called to meet with Masakado, as the one you swore that oath to, along with an angel as a representative of God. Then you may decide to be free of your obligations or continue on."
Feeling relieved that he didn't have to decide now, Nanashi nodded. "All right, but I think I'll continue with those obligations to protect humanity for this life at least. And, thank you for giving me back my life."
"It was God's power," Metatron said. "I merely speak for Them. They know; your death and reanimation was a result of Dagda's scheme for a human puppet to act through. You will not be blamed for his actions. Instead, you've been blessed so that no other can take such control over you, among other matters."
"Good, and I won't chose to let it happen again," he said. After all, he got what he wanted: his parents should be able to find peaceful rest instead of near-eternal waiting now. There shouldn't be anything else that would need such drastic measures.
Metatron then turned to Flynn. "And we have our greatest gratitude to you, who persisted through many lives to achieve your goals."
"I finally got what I wanted out of being asked to decide the future," Flynn said. "Is it going to stay like this?"
The angel nodded. "It was both you and Satan who weren't satisfied with results. Since you both have accepted this victory, you won't be going back in time again."
"Good," Flynn said, looking relieved.
"We'll work on repairing the world from our end," Metatron said. "Let others know that any angel of God will be there to help and protect humans now. Also, because humanity is greatly reduced in numbers, the blessings that made Mikado a prosperous and fruitful land will be spread to the lands around Tokyo as well. These blessings will last two hundred years, after which stewardship of the land will be left to humanity."
"We'll have to make sure that gets remembered," Issachar said.
There was a lot to tell others, a lot for future generations to remember. But the future now belonged to them.