“Why not? Is it because you think we could win?” Kevan said.
Svante looked up at Kevan. “I suppose there is a new possibility that the humans could win the fight against the gods now. I guess it’s the gods versus the humans. I don’t want the gods to die out. It’s our nature to persevere. You’d wish the same.”
Svante’s eyes suddenly flew open. “The watcher’s here!”
“Who?” Kevan asked.
“The judge and executioner. Michael. God’s only angel. Run!”
August suddenly felt the air around him get warm. Thanks to his power, everything slowed for him. The window started to get brighter and brighter. Something was coming. Something more powerful than Svante. Something more powerful than August could have ever imagined.
He looked at his brother. He needed to save him. He grabbed Kevan and threw him out of the window. Just as a light hit him.
He felt a heat rip into his very being, ripping apart his cells, molecule by molecule. As his chest exploded out into light, his world went black. All he saw was an infinity of stars as his eyes evaporated from his face. As his skin and bones turned into ash, August felt his very death.
11
War of the gods
Two thousand years ago, before August was killed by a mysterious light, before August had killed his father in a fit of rage, sending him down a path of ruin. Before the gods had organized and built a government of subjection and tyranny, the gods were young and naïve, unknowing of a world without the guidance of their creator, He.
Humans lived peacefully on the greens of the Earth below the heavens. The gods in the heavens were distant and detached, uninvolved in the daily musings of the humans. It was a different time, a time where He was still highly praised, where He still watched over his creations, the humans, the gods, and the world.
A time when his judgement was just and fair.
Too fair to Queen. Queen stood over a mountain top, staring at the world below. She stood on her own mountain, a place unscalable by normal human means.
The sky was as bright as high noon. The sun never had a cloud to block its embrace in the land of the gods, as they stood above the clouds themselves.
She stared at the Eye of the World. A view of the entire world was in her sights. With a thought, the Eye of the World zoomed onto a small human village. To anyone else, it would have looked like she was simply staring out into the endless expanse that was the Earth, through a small hole in the sky.
But to herself, the world around her ivory tower was focused on that small human village. Like a boundless magnifying glass. The gods’ own way of looking into the world.
She watched as the humans worked on their farm lands, tending their crops.
She nearly spit off the side of her mountain.
She hated them. The vermin. They lived so peacefully in the god’s image.
He himself had told her that the gods were made in his image and yet, He had made the human’s in the very same image.
Only they were weaker, each one less significant and more expendable than the gods. They were dirty, murderous, diseased monkeys. A fact she still believed even though He had told her otherwise.
Why did He make them? What was so wrong with the gods that he decided to make the humans?
Queen remembered back to her birth.
She was made from the Wavering Radiant, as all life was. The first thing she had remembered was simply opening her eyes and seeing He standing above her. Her father, her creator. To her eyes, He was a woman of impeccable beauty, her face never unblurring but still the beauty of creation.
At that time, Queen hadn’t known that each being saw He in their own personal image. She didn’t know if He was male or female. He simply was He. She was still simple-minded and primitive. She stood in front of He, bare in her child-like body, and He was the same.
He had told her what her name was. Simply Queen. She was the god of death. He brought life and creation and she brought death.
When Queen was born, He had yet to create the heavens, the stars or the world. She simply existed in the Radiant. She was the first god, the first being to exist; she was the first.
Except for Michael, He’s only angel. Michael always sat by his side, never speaking, never moving, unless He moved himself. That always unsettled her. What was the purpose of Michael? He was the creator of all and all-knowing, he didn’t need protection, he didn’t need a soldier when He himself could will anything from existence.
As He created the stars, the heavens, and the Earth, He spoke to her, taught her of the world and about herself.
Even as He created others gods to populate the heavens, she was still the first, the one He always spoke to before the others.
She remembered to when she was young, when she hadn’t even lived for more than two decades. He walked the Earth, following a trail of dead rabbit carcasses. He came up to a teenage Queen, bending over a crippled rabbit.
She held out a small knife made out of her own blood and stabbed it into the squealing creature.
“Why Do You Kill My Creations?” He asked.
“Because it’s fun,” Queen quipped as she stabbed the dying animal again.
The blur of He’s face was unmoving. “You Are Not Above The Animal That Lays At Your Feet, Nor Any Of My Creations.”
Queen paused and looked at He. How could she not be above animals? They were weaker, pitiful, and lesser than her in all their rights. But He’s guidance was always right. So she accepted it as He said.
Only He personally looked over her. She felt special. Whenever she had a question, He answered it. Whenever she needed help, He gave her guidance.
But that guidance ended as he created life on Earth. He would spend less time with her, their conversations would become more infrequent and his guidance became vaguer.
Once, she asked why He created the humans. He simply answered, “Why Did I Create You, If I Didn’t Need To?” The answers never made any sense to her, his guidance became unreliable.
As time went on, the humans spread like vermin. They thought they knew of the creator, as a revered being. They built idols of He, a faceless man. Prayed to it on a daily basis and He answered them.
Queen believed those prayers took his time and energy and, eventually, He stopped speaking to the gods.
Queen looked at the humans below; she hated them. For being created in her image, for taking He away from her. Why did He make them? Why did He spend his time on them when He was so far above them?
It had been hundreds of years since He last spoke to the gods or the humans. Long enough for Queen to rethink the initial wonder of amazement she had when she first laid eyes on him. When the gods looked for him in the Wavering Radiant, He never showed up.
Queen never tried that hard to find him. She knew of his resting place, but with the hate she had felt from his abandonment, she never attempted to go to him.
Maybe He believed they could take care of themselves.
Or maybe He wasn’t as far above her as she once thought. It was time for her to take her fate in her own hands. If He wasn’t going to speak to her or the gods anymore, then it was time for them to stop relying on him.
Only a century before, Queen and the other gods had decided to create a hierarchy among the gods. A government. Creating the major and minor gods.
She had gotten them to agree to have her choose the positions, as she was the eldest god. They were naïve back then; convincing them to give her power was easy.
Before then, there were no such titles as the major and minor gods. There were no designated jobs but now, there was a functional government because of Queen and she placed her favorites in power. The Radiant-born were usually higher-ranked, most of whom happened to be her favorites. If she was going to create a government, then she was going to run it her way.
Some of the gods had disagreed with her postings, as the major gods got more incentives for their positions. More land, political power unrivaled by the ones
below them, and rights to materials that couldn’t be made by a god.
In the hundred years since she created the government named Ifor, a very vocal group slowly rose against her, protesting against the major gods and their actions. It had been growing in size.
All the minor gods thought they had a say in the future of the god’s world, they didn’t. Queen wanted a war, she had elected the most powerful gods as the majors, so the war would be quick and easy.
But the only thing that held her back was that since He stopped speaking to them, He also stopped making gods from the Wavering Radiant.
There were gods who were born from a male and female god mating with each other. But it was very difficult for a god to get pregnant, which made for a lot of promiscuity. However, the consequences were that only one god was born every few years. The low birth rate would make a war devastating.
With a few quick moves and accidental deaths, the protest could cease, making a war unnecessary. As she elected the most powerful gods as the major gods, the minor couldn’t dream of fighting them without their leaders.
But that kind of shadow work required making partners and long-term planning. To prevent the situation from boiling over before she was ready, she decided to promote some of her opposition as major gods. To help her bide her time until she and her partners were ready to make a move.
For now, Ifor council member meetings were a test of patience for her. If she couldn’t have a war, then she needed another way to crush the opposition.
She continued to stare down at the Earth, at the humans she hated so much.
“I wish He never left us,” she whispered. Right now, she needed his guidance the most. But she knew it wouldn’t come anymore. She had to rule over the gods, as she thought she understood He’s words the most.
She missed being special, the warmth of being around his presence. But now, she had to rule, even if He came back. He wasn’t someone to be looked up to anymore. He abandoned his own children. So she would abandon him, too.
An anger burned inside of her. Out of all the gods, she took his indifference to them the hardest. She was the first.
Why did He abandon her? What did she do to drive him away?
The image of humans tilling in the fields disappeared and a small hole opened in front of her.
Her mouth was agape. Inside of the hole were thousands of stars. It continued to open until she could walk through it.
“Don’t be afraid,” a voice said behind her. Queen jumped at the voice and fell over the edge and into the hole. The hole quickly disappeared from behind her as she fell through the infinite black, screaming.
She tried to claw herself to a stop, tried to teleport to a dead body somewhere on Earth. But there was nothing to claw at, no existence to teleport to.
But then, she just stopped, her hair tumbling to the infinite below.
“It seems that my instincts were correct,” a voice came from below her. She looked down, a man in grey slacks and a white crisp button-up shirt lay below her, his hands in his pocket, his feet flat as if he was standing on the plane she was falling from.
His clothes were weird to Queen and so was the small white ball over his head.
Queen gasped as she felt an invisible floor come beneath her and the gravity shifting to under her feet.
She looked at the hole she fell from. It wasn’t above her anymore, but in front of her now.
The man continued, “You’re not human, you’re something more. I don’t need to help you exist in a place that doesn’t exist.”
Queen tried to brush her frazzled hair from her face in an attempt to look collected. But her voice betrayed her. “Who… who are you?”
“I’m just a curious man, passing by.”
“What are…?” She paused. She needed to think.
“Where are we?”
“Outside of reality itself.”
Outside of reality itself? Impossible. But the man’s casual demeanor and his matter-of-fact way of speaking made her believe him.
“Why did you bring me here?” A little more confidence entered her voice. She was a god, she was above all existence except for He himself.
“I’m conducting a little experiment. I saw you asking just the right questions. You are unsatisfied with your God, your existence and I believe I can fix it.”
“What? You know nothing about me!” Queen said, suddenly on the defense.
“No? Then who did I see crying herself to sleep every night, calling her God’s name? Spending countless hours staring into the sky and the stars? Not someone who has her life worked out. Let me help you.”
“You…you’ve been watching me?” Queen asked, her quick burst of confidence suddenly gone.
“I’ve been watching everything in this universe. But now, I think I can finally stop watching.”
“What do you want with me?” Queen thought about running away, escaping from this crazy man. She wasn’t much of a fighter and if it was true what he said about them being outside of the universe, then she doubted her powers would work.
She tried to move the blood in her veins; her blood magic didn’t work.
The man raised a hand and a chain appeared in it. “I want you to incapacitate your God.”
“You want me to what?”
“Did I stutter?”
“That’s impossible!”
“Is it?”
“He created all of us! He can see everything, He knows everything! He can see us talking!”
“Can He? Your god doesn’t exist here. He didn’t create me. So why should I expect his judgement?”
“Wha…what? Are you a god?” The thought of a person existing outside of He’s existence twirled inside her. It was impossible. It was maddening. He could have been another god as powerful as He himself.
“Like I said, I’m just a man passing by. My mere presence disrupts your God’s all-knowing power. Do you want my help or not?”
Queen stared at the ball that made up the man’s head. Could he really do what he said? She didn’t believe him. He was all-powerful, all-knowing, it must have been a lie.
“I can’t…” Queen whispered.
“Take the chains anyways.”
The chains appeared around Queen’s left arm; her arm went suddenly cold. She couldn’t move it. She panicked and clawed it free of her arm. The chain went weightless and draped down past the invisible floor.
“With this, I can imprison He?” Queen asked. The warmth was slowly coming back to her left arm.
“With that, you could do anything.”
“And what if I say no?”
“Then no harm done, it’s a big decision for you to make, to go against your God. So I’ll give you a week to make your decision. But after that, I will move on with my experiment. Don’t be surprised if you regret your decision.”
“What do you want from me? Nobody gives anyone this kind of power without reason.”
Queen could feel the man grin under the ball.
“Now, that’s the question of the day. I want the Eye of the World.”
Queen’s eyes opened, she nearly dropped the chains into the infinite abyss below.
She mouthed words but nothing came out. The Eye of the World was what the gods used to look down on the Earth from the heavens, to make sure no place was left unseen by the gods. Queen didn’t even know if its power was attainable, it wasn’t a simple object she could give to someone.
The man started to drift away, as if the floor was moving them apart. “One week. If you need help finding He, just yell for me.”
Queen snapped out of her stupor. The man knew where He was.
“Wait! What is your name?” Queen yelled.
“Whatever you want it to be. I’ll be watching, so I’ll know if you’ll want me or not.” And with that, the man drifted away like a sail from her vision.
What should she call him? He seemed to know everything, he even claimed to know where He was. Queen had personally searched the Wavering Rad
iant for years until she found He’s resting place. Was this man telling the truth?
She then knew what to call him. The Omniscient Man.
A week and a half went by. Queen sat in the highest chair in the council hall. The major gods were arguing in front of her.
She ignored them.
She never gave the Omniscient Man his answer. She hoped a non-answer would get a reaction out of him, but nothing had happened.
She had simply gone through her days as usual, giving small glances around her. In the council hall, she stared at the ceiling. He said he was watching her. The sick bastard.
Did the Omniscient Man really exist outside of He’s grasp? She hadn’t been reprimanded for their discussion in the place with the stars. No visits from Michael. Maybe He really couldn’t see into the Omniscient Man’s void in the sky.
If that was true, she made a big mistake. Ignoring a being that powerful. She needed to contact him, she needed to learn more.
Shouting interrupted her concentration. Zakhehus and Midas were arguing in front of her.
She sighed, “So early in the morning? Can we keep our tones down?”
“Have you not been listening, Queen?” Zakhehus asked her. He was the god of war. An elected official from her known adversary.
“No, not really.”
“It’s your job to listen, Queen,” he said with a little venom. Midas attempted to grab him but he shrugged him off and walked up to Queen.
Zakhehus was a powerful god, one of the strongest there was. But when Queen attempted to bring him to her side, he denied her offer. He was a fighter for his people, the minor gods. Stupid.
He was mostly just a thorn in her side. Zakhehus and the Ifor leader were the only ones who hadn’t submitted so easily to her rule.
“It’s the leader’s job to listen, I’m only subbing today as the leader, Afin, is away.” Queen had a member of the opposition elected as leader of Ifor. It was the best way to quiet down the protest.
Legends of the Damned: A Collection of Edgy Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels Page 217