Surprise. I wrote roughly half of this as part of my ELA Provincial Exam.
Please read the author's note at the bottom of the chapter.
Below me I can see the kingdom celebrating, and hear the sounds of merry making and joy echoing throughout the lands. But I cannot join them. How could I, when I know that a sword hangs above them all.
A curse shall strike this land in mere moments, the manifested spite of a dying tyrant God's wish.
And all I can do is lament.
Lament my failings.
Lament the end I have seen that is surely coming.
I lament, for if I was greater, could I have prevented all this?
As the clock ticks in time with all the others in this kingdom, I can hear the solemn singular toll of a bell, it is 5:00 PM, it is the evening.
In the very outskirts of this glorious nation, on the very edge of my perception, I can see an argument break out.
And as the festivities continue, and the kingdom celebrates their victory, unaware of God's last laugh, and the death of 4; I cannot join in. All I can do is mourn the loss of 4.
The Bell tolls, and I mourn the loss of The Phoenix, the creator and upholder of our justice system and laws, the dying star who abandoned heaven, illuminated its evils for all to see, and burned all his feathers to neuter all of Hell in a single sacrificial strike.
The Bell tolls, andI mourn the loss of The Fox, my niece, my liege's daughter, our kingdom's princess, so cruelly stolen and defiled by God, whose blood burned a river into the world, whose illusions once deceive reality, and whose blade once parted sea and sky.
The Bell tolls, and I mourn the loss of The Drake, our greatest smith, our Champion, The Trailblazer, for whom nothing was impossible, whose weapons sought to imitate primordials, who carved a path into heaven for our king to follow.
The Bell tolls, and I mourn the loss of The Dragon, our glorious king, who marched into Heaven alone, to rescue his daughter, gave up his mortality and ascended so as to defeat God, who recreated the entire universe in a single moment, and was erased due to his paradoxical nature.
In the distance the argument escalates into violence, and the festivities and celebrations grind to a halt as more and more conflicts rise.
The glorious language that all in this world speak, begins to break, and misunderstandings rise and lead to conflict.
The first fire is lit, and as the curse ripples silently across the world, I can do naught but despair at the loss of tongue only I can remember faithfully.
I despair, for I cannot repel or counteract this curse.
I despair, for I cannot lead this kingdom alone.
As the glorious kingdom of Babel, that once stood against the combined might of Heaven and Hell slowly crumbles as age-old feuds are suddenly reignited.
I can do naught but Lament at my weakness.
I can do naught but Mourn the loss of my companions and kingdom
I can do naught but Despair, for I am but a lowly shadow of the king.
As Grief and Wrath rise within me;
I chain it within my heart/I let it spill out,
I prepare to do the only thing I have ever done/and my form distorts.
I shall imitate my betters/shadows and Mana spill of my formas the air begins to scream.
I shall remake this world/I shall end this worthless world.
I shall follow in the footsteps of my friends and walk The Path!/I scream for all to hear.
I will bring about the Ideal/ I will drown this world in my misery
I gather mana, steel myself, and think of my friends/I gather mana, I Lament, I Mourn, and I Despair.
"Echo;Enuma Elish!"/ "Shadow;Enuma Elish!"
Babel falls, and the world is changed forever more.
the Shadow of Babel sweeps across the world for countless eons, brutally ending any and all he comes across, when Earth is bare and the only evidence of what once was is the memories of the few who managed to avoid The End, and an infinite library locked within the Shadow of Babel. The Shadow turns on Heaven and Hell, Heaven burns in his Wrath, and Hell is drowned in his Sorrow. Eventually it would settle with time, as the oceans of grief dried, and his wrath burned out.
Slowly, life returns as The Shadow of Babel withdraws.
The world would be forever scarred, and all the new mythos and pantheons that would eventually be born, would have an instinctual fear and memories of The Shadow of Babel
As for The Shadow itself? It would attempt to walk The Path, and it would fail, and despondently, it would curl around and within The Path, forever obscuring it from Mortal eyes, so that none would suffer the same sting of failure, and so that none could possibly succeed where it had failed.
Babel falls, and the world is changed forever more.
Earth's clock is turned back to its beginning, and life begins again, there are no gods walking the surface, and the monsters have not yet come to be.
Vitni follows The Path. Along the way he brings about Akasha, he marches into Hell, and annihilates the surviving members of The Ars Goetia(though they would later be revived and bound by a great king). As he wandered the world and watched it and life change as time passed, he learned, and grew, in self and power.
Somewhere along the way a new God came to be, a different one, still with fault and imperfections borne of inexperienced and lacking age, but not a cruel tyrant.
This God was inspired by Vitni, by the things he did, and how he grew and changed, and by the lives he had recorded within Akasha
He was inspired, and so he embarked on a Path of His own, and he made Humanity, seeking to become The Ideal, and wishing to see others truly change and grow, for the monsters and animals could not truly change, and neither could his angels or the demons of Hell.
Humanity was a success, not only capable of changing themselves, but others and the world around them, even the angels and demons could change when in their presence(though that would turn out to not be quite so good a thing)
Eventually Vitni would see qualities of his old friends in humanity, and chose to guide and guard them.
When new gods and monsters came into existence, he waited and watched them interact with humanity, and served as a mediator between the various mythos and pantheons.
When Gilgamesh declared humanity's separation from the gods, he supported them, giving unto them one of the blessings bestowed upon him by his old companions. He granted them The Trailblazer's ability to do the impossible.
When God chose to flood the world in a rare moment of wrath, Vitni marched into heaven, and bargained for humanity, God was forced to witness the truth of himself, and humbled by the experience, he allowed humanity to survive the flood, though they would still be devastated by it.
Not so long after God would reach the end of his Path, becoming The Ideal.
Somewhere along the way, Vitni, using Akasha, and the memories of Babel he had recorded and etched into reality, successfully revived his dead companions, though they were weaker than they once were.
Of course they rebuilt Babel, though not as a kingdom but as a tower.
And when it was smited by a passing god, they simply shook their heads and waved it off, after smiting said god themselves of course.
An Echo of Akasha manifested into The Library of Alexandria, The Fox of Babel gave birth to the race of Kitsune, The Phoenix decided to scatter his feathers across the world, and the phoenix race was born.
The Drake ended up marrying the ever promiscuous Fox, getting both of them to become much tamer.
The Drake would also have brief stints masquerading as various blacksmiths with The Fox's help.
And The Dragon simply decided to surrender his soul to a cycle of reincarnation, where his memories and powers would be sealed, only to be regained should humanity face extinction before 400,000 years had passed.
As for Vitni himself? Who knows, even to this day, he wanders the world, nudging people onto their Paths, and living life as he pleases.
This is actually just a part of an actual story that I may or may not actually make.
The ending however, is purposely open ended so as to allow myself and others to fit it into other stories, which is exactly what I want to do.
I am a Fanfiction Author after all.
In related news, I am both willing and looking for other writers to collab with, because while I'm not super confident in writing characters I didn't make, I am very confident in my ability to write the characters I did make.
no I don't expect you to be cool with the kinds of power most of my characters throw around, please know that I use these characters to play D with, and the power sets I give them are just a basis and what you see In the stories I have personally written are simply said power sets taken to their extreme.