It was the early days of existence, long before humanity was even a thought.

Within the domain of Elysium, a physics defying room housed two women.

Under the golden sky, the duo nuzzled in a sea of endless clouds like the softest cushions.

The sleepers were Yahweh and Satan, the angel yet to be fallen, her name still Lucifer, her wings still uncolored. Those wings cradled Yahweh as the two held each other. Her feathers were a blanket that the dreaming creator never wanted to leave her.

Lucifer's eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was Yahweh's face so close their noses were touching. The archangel felt her finger intertwined with Yahweh's hair, petting it unconsciously.

A living smile formed on Lucifer's face. She kissed the creator's nose.

The slight touch was enough to rouse Yahweh from her rest.

A wide smile of her own grew on the god of all's face once she saw her beloved Lucifer.

"Hi darling." The creator punctuated her good morning with a kiss.

"Morning honey."

"Do we have anything we have to do today? I wanna spend all day cuddling."

"That's all you ever wanna do."

"Because it's the best thing ever, and I created everything, so I'd know."

"Technically, since you make the rules, we don't have to do anything, but we should do more than roll around in the clouds."

"But, whyyyyyyyyy?" Yahweh whined like a child.

"You created everything, now you're responsible for taking care of it. You can't just orphan literally everything."

"They're fine on their own. It's not like they'll die without me."

"Yahweh."

"Okay, fine. But, we're only gonna do a little stuff. Then, we're coming back here and snuggling."

"I've got no complaints about that." Lucifer got up, summoning her butler outfit onto her body.

"Can you carry me at least?"

"Alright, ya big baby."

"I'm the first thing to ever exist, so If I'm a baby, then everyone's a baby."

"I mean, you're not wrong." Lucifer bridle carried Yahweh who nestled her head into the crook of the archangel's neck. "I spoil you."

"I can create anything you want from nothing. Who's getting spoiled here?"

"Once again, you're not wrong."

"What should we do first?"

"I heard some gods were close to getting into a big war yesterday. We should stop that first and foremost, primarily because we can stop any bloodshed before it happens if we act quickly, but also because it's the biggest pain in the ass on our to-do list."

"Might as well get it outta the way."

Lucifer conjured a portal of light that she carried her beloved through, winding up in the universe the Scythian pantheon resided.

What the lovers came upon was a forest on fire, gods on two sides, staring each other down with weapons at the ready.

"This is gonna really be a pain."

"We can just back out now, they haven't noticed us yet."

"Yahweh."

"I know, I know. Responsibility and shit." the creator huffed.

Lucifer walked between the two sides, everyone lowering their weapons, yet becoming even more tense upon seeing their creator and her consort.

Yahweh waved a hand. "'Sup, everybody. Seems things aren't going great right now. I'm not the type to interfere with other people's business, but I feel it's my moral obligation to stop people from ripping each other limb from limb. So, what happened?"

Members from both sides began trying to talk over each other to give their sides.

"One person at a time." Lucifer pointed to Tabiti, the current ruler of the Scythian gods who seemed to be leading one of the factions. "What's your side of the story?"

The woman dressed in fire spoke with a venomous cadence. "My very son and daughter want to overthrow me! I feel it is reasonable of me to try and defend my seat on the throne!"

"I see." Lucifer gestured to the son and daughter Tabiti referred to who were leading the dissenting faction, the nature goddess Api, and the sky god Papaios. "What's your side?"

The cloud haired son spoke first. "Our mother has complete control over everything! We can't disobey her in any way or it is considered treasonous! Her control is unilateral and it is only because she is the strongest of us!"

"We can't elect a ruler based on actual merit as a leader or intellect or anything else! She is the absolute authority and merely because she can kill us if we disobey!" The daughter with a body formed of plants continued.

"Strength is the only authority that matters!" Tabiti growled, her flames rising taller, burning brighter.

"Does morality mean nothing? We don't even want to overthrow you, just that your powers be limited and that democracy be installed in some form!"

"Make your excuses, in the end you are traitors!"

The archangel rubbed one of her eyes. "It is too early for this."

"At least it's pretty clear cut who's wrong here."

"At least."

Yahweh clapped her hands. "Okay! Everybody! I'm not gonna let you people kill each other, so I'm putting my foot down. Tabiti is staying in charge, nothing is changing. If you don't like it, too bad."

Lucifer was jolted out of her annoyance and into bafflement. She couldn't believe what Yahweh had just said. From the angel's perspective, it was obvious that Tabiti was in the wrong. There was no good reason she should have such unilateral power simply due to her strength.

While Lucifer's mouth hung open, the many gods opposed to the creator's decision were far from quiet about their displeasure.

"This is unacceptable! You want us to kneel before a tyrant whose throne was built on power and power alone?"

"Merit! Morality! Intellect! Do these things mean nothing?"

"We don't even want to be the ones in charge, we just want a fairer system!"

A cacophony of grievances tore at Yahweh's eardrums.

"My word's final! Tabiti's in charge! I don't care if you don't like it!"

Her words were ignored.

"I said I don't care! Shut up!"

The anger of the slighted Scythian gods kept on coming.

"Shut the fuck up!"

All the angry gods were pinned to the ground by invisible force. It pressed into them, their bodies at risk of splattering into red smudges.

"I'll kill all of you if you don't learn your places. My word is gospel, got it? Tabiti is in charge and I don't wanna hear even half a complaint. Winge at me one more time, and the Scythian pantheon is erased. Understand?" The immobile gods gave grunts of brief yeses in response. "Good. Luci, let's go."

Before Lucifer could get a word in, Yahweh had teleported them back to the sea of clouds.

"I'm pissed off now. Let's get back to cuddling. I'm not doing anything else today."

"Yahweh, what was that?" The archangel was trying to put her thoughts together after what had just happened.

"What d'you mean?" The creator was already lying down in the clouds.

"I, just, it's multiple things. First, why, like, why'd you say Tabiti was right when she clearly wasn't? Second, why'd you use force like that and threaten to kill them? You weren't really gonna kill them, were you?"

"Uh, well, I said Tabiti was right because she was. And, I dunno if I woulda killed them. I was really angry. It was a lot, and I wasn't ready for it. They just kept going on and on. So fucking annoying, whining about nothing."

"They weren't whining about nothing, though. Why should Tabiti be allowed to be in charge and do whatever she wants just because she's the strongest?"

"I, what? You, cause, wait. I don't understand, why wouldn't she be allowed to rule? She's the strongest, so she gets to rule, that's how it works."

"Since when? People should rule because they're really strong or whatever. You rule…because…you're the strongest. That's the reason you're in charge. Why didn't that ever hit me before? I knew that, but it never hit me."

"Luci, you're acting weird. Are you okay? Come to bed. We shouldn't have gotten up today."

"I, I need-"

"Come on. You seem like you need to relax."

"Okay."

Lucifer wrapped herself around Yahweh, but as the creator nuzzled into her, the angel wasn't getting much calmer. Her reevaluation of what should have been obvious had left a crack in her previously solid sense of contentment with the state of her life, and with the state of the cosmos.

Looking at Yahweh, Lucifer couldn't instinctually smile like before.

In the sea of clouds under the golden sky, Yahweh and Lucifer were sitting at a table, feeding each other sweet desserts.

"Say ah."

The archangel did as she was commanded, Yahweh putting a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

"Now me."

Lucifer placed a cookie into her master's mouth, Yahweh failing to hold in her giggles as she bit into it, crumbs dropping onto the tabletop.

"You're like a baby."

"Googoo gaga."

Time had passed and Lucifer's discomfort with Yahweh's way of ruling hadn't actually gone away, but they had shrunk down and hidden behind her infatuation with the creator.

"What's next, am I gonna have to nurse you?"

"Kinky. I'm into it."

"I'm not."

"You should explore more, be more open minded."

"You have no right to lecture others!"

The lovey dovey duo jerked their necks at the outburst to see an angel, a woman with hair as dark as a black hole.

"Azazel, what's wrong?"

"As if you don't know! Did you think that it wasn't a big deal, that everyone would sit quiet? Or, did you seriously think nobody would hear about it?"

Lucifer stuttered out. "P-please, I really don't know what you're upset about. What's wrong? We wanna help."

"I'm not a big enough idiot that I'd believe that!"

"Please just explain!"

"I'm talking about the Scythian pantheon! You let Tabiti keep being a tyrant and threatened to kill the whole pantheon for being annoying for a few minutes!"

A tiny noise left Lucifer's throat and nothing more. The dam that held back the archangel's discontent at that particular event crumbled and the waters that came forth tasted of guilt.

"You're really whinging about this?" Yahweh bore the frustration of someone forced to hear the complaint of a child not wanting to eat their dinner. "Tabiti gets to rule cause she's strongest, end of story, now go away."

"No!"

"No? No? What? I'm Yahweh, you're an angel, you can't say no, that's not how it works! Go away!"

"No!"

A clap of the hands and Azazel was teleported away, only for the angel to travel across totality and back to her creator in less than any unit of time in existence.

"You're not going to ignore me, or anyone else! I'm not here just on my behalf, but on the behalf of the many upset beings across the cosmos that I contacted, those that are afraid to speak out because of what you might do!"

Lucifer chewed the inside of her cheek. The Scythian pantheon weren't the only ones facing problems due to Yahweh's rule. The waves caused by the creator spread across every inch of all things, uncountable numbers of people being made to suffer because of it, and Lucifer was complicit in it. She had been aware, vaguely, but she never pursued such information, never allowed the thoughts of discomfort that spawned to grow, killing them like weeds, but now they were a moss that had coated the archangel's entire mind.

Yahweh stood from her chair while Azazel was pinned to the floor of clouds by invisible force.

"I'm the motherfucking creator of everything. I am in charge. I am in charge because I am the strongest. I don't care about what you insignificant flies want. You don't matter, none of you matter. I matter! I'm the only one who matters! Everything you've got is thanks to me! Be grateful! Bow before me! Get on your fucking knees and praise my name! Praise Yahweh!"

The pressure kept increasing, blood leaking out of every one of Azazel's orifices.

"I will, I will never, p-praise your name. Not now, and never again!"

"Then I've got no use for you!"

Before the force could increase one more time and turn Azazel to grime on the clouds, A hand clasped onto Yahweh's shoulder.

It was Lucifer. "Stop, you're gonna kill her! Don't do this, it's…fucked up!"

Yahweh looked at her favorite angel, her face constantly shifting between emotions, but surprised, confused, and frustrated were the most repeated.

"Luci, what are trying to save her?"

"You're about to kill her, that's too far! No matter what, you can't go that far."

Yahweh was about to retort, but stopped, her breathing that had gone erratic without her noticing. She realized what she was about to do, and it made her shiver. Despite her absolute sense of justification in her actions at nearly all times, never had she needlessly killed anyone before.

The weight on Azazel went away. "Leave us. I'll listen to your problems, but later. I need a moment."

Scoffing, the rebellious angel hobbled to her feet and flew away.

"Thanks for stopping me, I was about to do something I was gonna regret forever."

"Yeah, you were about to kill her for being, for being r-right!" Lucifer forced out that transgressive statement.

"I wasn't wrong, what're you talking about? Don't tell me you're really falling for their crap."

Lucifer had to look away. "I, well, I, you always, I'm, I'm trying to say that you shouldn't be allowed to be ruler of everything just because you're stronger than everyone else, and that you shouldn't be allowed to not face consequences because you're the strongest either."

"I can't believe this. Really? Did Azazel just convince you of this, or were you thinking this before?"

"It wasn't Azazel that just suddenly convinced me of this, or maybe I should say that she did convince me, but I was nearly there already. It was the incident with the Scythian pantheon that really shook me."

"Ok. Let's talk about it I guess."

"Maybe we should each take some time to cool off and figure out what we want to say before we talk. We might say some things we don't mean right now or not get our points across well."

"That sounds good. We don't wanna waste time arguing without really saying anything."

"I'm gonna head off then, I guess."

"Yeah. Hey."

"What is it?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Resting on an extra soft puff of clouds like a bed, her body fenced in by an army of stuffed animals and clutching a person sized rabbit plushie, Yahweh wanted to believe she was right, and she was praying Lucifer wasn't too mad at her.

"She won't hate me for this. No way. But, she really thinks I'm wrong. I can't be though. But, I haven't really thought about it before. I'm stronger than everybody, so I'm better. Wait, does strength make me better? How are they related? But, I'm supposed to be better. Lucifer isn't as strong as me. I'm, I…I'm definitely not better than her. She's the best. So, I'm wrong. But, maybe she's just an exception. She's special. She can…she's special because…I don't know. Oh, no. Was I wrong when I let Tabiti keep ruling? Have I done a bunch of horrible things? Everyone probably hates me. Azazel definitely does. Please, please don't let Lucifer hate me. She didn't seem angry, but I'm clearly not as smart as I thought I was, so I probably missed it. No, no, no, no, no, she's gonna hate me. She hates me."

The creator tucked her face into her stuffed bunny, her tears dampening it.

"I don't wanna lose her. I'll give up my throne. I'll get rid of everything I've got if I can just stay with her. I need her."

Hiccups and sobs overtook any attempt Yahweh made at speaking after that point. She felt an existential dread she never had before upon thinking that Lucifer might leave her. The archangel was her companion, the one who made her existence meaningful.

In the beginning, there was only Yahweh, and she created totality because she could think of nothing else to do to entertain herself. She remained bored, melancholic, until she created Lucifer. Something about the archangel's existence resonated with the creator, made life feel like it mattered. The mundane became spectacular merely through any association with Lucifer. The archangel brought light into Yahweh's life when there was none.

Wiping her face with her hands, the creator decided.

"I'm gonna give up my throne, and I'm gonna live with Lucifer. Then, everyone will be happy, and Lucifer'll be happy."

She nodded to herself repeatedly, continually reaffirming her resolve.

She found Lucifer's location with her omniscience so she could teleport over to her, but she saw that her lover was talking with Azazel in a private tea room of white marble. Curiosity getting the better of her, Yahweh listened in on their conversation.

Azazel sipped her tea while looking Lucifer straight in the eyes, trying to read her.

"You're really willing to betray Yahweh."

"I'm not saying I want to, or that we'll even have to, I'm just, it's, we need to be ready. I, we can't be confident that Yahweh will take it well when I try to convince her to step down and allow us to remove the current hierarchy."

"She'll probably try and kill us all. We need an army."

"I don't think she'd go that far, but we do need to prepare a rebellion just in case. If worst comes to worst, we'll both be killed, so we need others to carry on our torch."

"I appreciate your honesty, and your attempt at pragmatism, but I think you have too much faith in Yahweh. Do you actually think she'll just be like, 'Oh, you want me to give up my absolute seat of power for no benefit to me? Sure!' Sorry, but that isn't how she is."

Lucifer downed the rest of her tea. "I know you're right. Even if it's me, it won't matter. She doesn't actually love me, I'm just her favorite toy, one she can replace with a literal thought."

"She only cares about herself. The only reason she created everything that exists was for herself. It wasn't some act of love, unless you count self-love."

"I say we need to be ready just in case, but as soon as we start getting this rebellion together, everyone we're gonna recruit will probably want to just go straight to an offensive rather than risk negotiating and getting us all killed if she reacts badly. Our only chance is if we catch her completely off guard."

"We can't bother trying to convince her. It's a pointless risk."

"Yeah. Yeah. We'll have to go straight for violent revolution."

"Probably."

"I hate this. I hate this so much. Couldn't things just be simple, nice?"

"It's terrible, but we have to be ready."

"I'm ready, I'm ready to do anything I have to, I just wish I didn't have to."

"Are you even ready to kill if you have to? Could you kill Yahweh?"

Lucifer was like a statue. She didn't even look shocked or upset. She was processing, like reevaluating a math equation. She was rethinking everything she had any preconceived notion about that was even tangentially related to Yahweh.

"Yes."

Yahweh covered her mouth. Her tears had started up again. She felt like throwing up.

She couldn't believe it. She used her omniscience to check Lucifer's thoughts, to see if she was posturing, but no, she was as serious as could be.

She felt betrayed. She felt hurt. She felt the worst pain she had ever known.

Lucifer had no faith in her, thought she was nothing but selfish, incapable of love.

Lucifer was willing to kill her.

The creator was on the ground, curled into a ball.

She was overcome with a sense of heartbreak that made all the joy she felt, all born from Lucifer, turn bitter.

Yahweh felt sorrow, and that sorrow turned to anger, and that anger gave birth to the new emotion that would dominate the creator's existence, her new source of joy, the emotion called spite.

"Everything's shit."

With a dead expression, Yahweh floated off the ground and teleported right in the middle of Lucifer and Azazel, looking down at both of them.

The angelic duo jumped in surprise.

"Yahweh, wha-"

"Shut up."

Azazel's entire body popped like a balloon filled with red paint, coating the room and Lucifer in blood. Not a single drop touched Yahweh, disintegrating when it got in range of her.

"Y-"

Lucifer couldn't finish her first word as she was lifted into the air, immobile.

"Y'know, it's funny. I was planning to give up my throne, and even if I wasn't, if you asked, it wouldn't've taken much convincing. Apparently, you didn't have a whole lot of faith in me, though. You were scheming 'just in case.' You would kill me if necessary. I loved you, but apparently you didn't love me, not in the same way."

The archangel's mind was blank. She had just watched Azazel die before they could even realise it and was now facing the woman she loved, who knew of her plans for a potential betrayal. Lucifer couldn't even imagine what wouldn't happen next. She was forced to stare Yahweh in the eyes, and the creator had a look that was new to her, one colder than absolute zero.

"I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? You had no faith in me, were planning on starting a revolution so you'd be ready to overthrow and even kill me, didn't believe I really loved you after everything we've been through together, and you think 'I'm sorry' means fucking anything? You really do think I'm trash, like everyone else does, apparently. But, I'm not trash. Now, I'm finally sure. Everyone else but me is trash. I'm the only thing worth a shit."

Lucifer's face scrunched up. She was ashamed. It was her fault Yahweh's will and morality just broke. She simply awaited the end, not eager for it, but unable to claim she didn't deserve it.

"What? You think I'm gonna kill you? No. That's too easy. I already have a perfect way to handle this. I'm gonna let you go free, and you're gonna start your rebellion."

"Why?"

"Because I wanna see you fail. You're gonna suffer, and everyone you drag along with you is gonna suffer. Plus, I wanna prove a point, and that's how worthless you are without me. I'll give you a handicap to add an extra sting. I won't personally fight, I'll just set up my army. If you can beat them, you can kill me, I won't even squirm. This is nonnegotiable by the way. If you don't do it, I'll kill a bunch of innocent people, including all the other angels." Lucifer dropped back to the ground. "Now, get to it."

The creator blinked away before letting Lucifer get any last words out.

The archangel was left to begin her sanctioned rebellion. Her guilt was overflowing, Lucifer groaning as a form of release for her emotions. She bit into her hand, drawing blood. She could have solved things peacefully, in a way that could've made just about everyone happy, and all she'd have to do was trust the woman who had absolute trust in her.

And she didn't do that.

She assumed the worst of her.

Now Lucifer would be punished, as would so many others if she couldn't pull off a victory.

"Why the fuck didn't I just trust her?"

An ocean of blood with an uncountable number of corpses floating in it was what remained of the battlefield where Lucifer's rebellion took place.

A small number, relative to how many there were in total, were still alive, though incapacitated.

The only fighters who were still standing were the archangels, flying over the red sea and under the starry sky. On Michael's blazing spear, Lucifer was impaled, still conscious, the other archangels surrounding her.

"Your pointless resistance is over. Tell me, Lucifer, what were you thinking?"

"What're you thinking? Yahweh forced me and she threatened to kill you all if I didn't. What would you want to serve her if she doesn't care about you?"

"She is the pinnacle of all beings. We serve her because she deserves unqualified servitude by her mere existence. If she were to kill us all, she would be justified because it would be her doing it. Your selfish desire for a world that values anything not associated with her is why this entire mess happened."

"I couldn't have said it better myself. Actually, I could have, but you still put it pretty alright." Yahweh had teleported in now that the fight was over.

"Lady Yahweh, how do you wish for the traitor to be dealt with?"

"I've already got that planned out, leave her to me." Michael nodded and pulled his spear out, burned organs getting pulled out with it. Yahweh pinched the defeated Lucifer's chin. "Luci, baby, darling, how are you? Are you regretting your decisions, your life? Feeling guilty over all the lives lost, because of you?"

Heartless. That was the name for Yahweh's expression, the tone of her voice.

The old Yahweh was dead, and Lucifer killed her.

The creator didn't expect a pair of hands to caress her cheeks.

"What have I done to you? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve to become this."

Yahweh's eyes became wide portals before shrinking into slits. She was angry, offended that Lucifer decided now was the time, now that it was too late, to act with love.

"How dare you. After everything, you think that you could say that now. You were light, but not anymore. You don't deserve the name Lucifer. Now, you are my nemesis, my adversary. Your name is Satan." A portal to a newborn reality opened. "Abandon all hope, because you're about to enter the inferno."

Lucifer, now dubbed Satan, was tossed into the portal. The last thing the angel whose wings dyed black saw was Yahweh's expression change at the very last moment before the gateway shut. She was sad.

Satan was in Hell, the new realm that Yahweh created for the sake of punishment. To the frozen wastes at the lowest point of Hell, the lowest point of all existence and nonexistence, the furthest point from Yahweh's Empyrean, Satan's body fell, freezing over. The ice seeped into her, and not just her body, but her mind, her soul, the very concept of her being and the information that composed its definition. All that was Satan froze, but could still feel, and the sensation that was most potent was pain.

It was the ultimate form of suffering that Yahweh could create, one that could never be adapted to, that always formed new depths of agony. Satan was tortured for years beyond the infinite in number, and in that suffering, a new feeling was birthed.

Hatred.

She hated Yahweh. Her love for her dried up, entirely.

All Satan could think of was how to get back at Yahweh, how to make her suffer, how to finally kill her.

But, she felt her hatred give way as other emotions budded and blossomed. She desired to fix reality, she desired love, she desired to make up for the pain so many were facing due to Yahweh's spiteful wrath born from Satan's mistake.

Satan gave birth through her power to two children, Sin and Death. She managed to negotiate with Yahweh to be allowed to leave her icy cage on occasion, in exchange for feeling the cold pain at all times, even when free.

Satan began her machinations, coming up with plan after plan to fix her mess, each failing, but getting a little closer to a success, slowly, but steadily.

Eventually, she'd reach her final plan, Revelations.