The Star, The Demon, and The God - 46. No Such Thing as Gods

The Ancient One

Raiyo sleeps with his head hanging low.

He has been asleep for quite awhile now. The stones from Drulai continue to push sleeping magics into his body.

Every now and then he will wake up and lazily attempt to escape, but eventually he succumbs to sleep once again.

I stand a few meters away from him, unsure of what to do.

Do I free him? Do I leave him here?

I know he would eventually free himself.

When exactly would he be free, I wouldn’t know. It could take minutes, days, years. I haven’t the faintest idea.

To see him in such a state however, trapped and left alone like some kind of dead animal on the side of the road…

Stepping closer, I reach out and nudge Raiyo’s head gently.

His eyes flutter open and he looks up at me with a sleeping look on his face.

“Oh,” He says. “It’s you. I thought you would have left by now honestly.”

I shake my head. “You know I would not. None of us would have.”

He chuckles and looks back down at the ground.

“You say that but you had all betrayed me. One ended its own life against my orders. The last two speak with Drulai behind my back so I kill one of you as a warning. Now you stand here, watching me and not doing anything to help.”

I stand silently as he speaks.

“What is next then?” He smirks. “You side with my enemies? You end up helping that replacement of me? Perhaps the most surprising thing would be that you don’t do either of those things. You may stay by my side till the very end.”

He sighs and closes his eyes again. “Wouldn’t that be quite the shock?”

“Raiyo,” I say but stop, unsure of what to reply.

There are so many questions I want to ask.

What better way then to group it all together with one?

“Why are you doing any of this?” I ask “Any of this? Killing humans, gods, angels. Any of it. Why must you kill so much for so little gain?”

He raises his eyebrows at me with a smirk. “Interesting questions from my pet. You must have done a lot of thinking while I was sleeping.”

“Very well,” He starts. “The reason I do all of this, is for no reason at all!”

I had a feeling he’d say something like that.

“I am bored in Enfierna. Being down there for so long while doing nothing is unbelievably boring! I wanted to have some fun and decided to mess around with other’s plans.”

“Certainly I was in the right because I was preventing all these world dominating plans by Morgoren and others.”

Others?

“Yes, others.” He rolls his eyes. “Morgoren is not the only god who desires to be the one on top. Humans think of that too. It is always fun to stop them. They make it so easy to tear their kingdoms apart.”

“As for the gods...they are sad narcissists who gloat about all day everyday, dreaming of being the most powerful being.”

“The humans worship them as if we are all responsible for different things in the world when really they are all the same.”

I slip in a little, “They worship you as well.”

“Ah yes,” He says with a laugh. “The God of Persuasion, Seduction, and Vengeance. Idiots. It isn’t like any of that existed before I was born or anything.”

“The humans are fools and will call anything different a god. It makes killing them so easy. It is like I am giving a service to Thymestrys and cleansing the world of stupid souls.”

“To answer your question,” He says, looking up at me with his glowing eyes. “I do it because I can. I do it because no one else will. I do it because I am bored. I do it because there is nothing else to do.”

Such...awful reasons to make the decision to kill innocents.

Raiyo shrugs and lets out a tired sigh.

The sound of stone breaking can be heard outside.

Moving to check what it could be, I look through the door and look for any different things in this destroyed realm.

A ball of swirling shadows flies through the air.

It circles around the battlefield, as if it is searching for someone.

Suddenly it bolts up the stairs of the temple and flies right past me.

When I look back, the shadow ball slips into Raiyo’s head.

His body tightens up and his hands ball up into fists.

Did...did they actually do it? Did the Star and Demon actually do it?

Raiyo goes completely still and he looks right up at me.

I hesitantly creep closer.

“Master?” I say carefully.

He blinks and looks side to side, taking in his surroundings.

He tries to move but the stones keep him grounded.

“Master?” I say again.

Raiyo clenches his eyes shut as he tries to move once again.

The stones crack slightly from his strength.

“Master?”

“Don’t call me that!” Raiyo screams at me.

He glares at me before he starts whining and grunting with his attempt to escape again.

My shoulders feel like a weight has been lifted off when I hear those words!

Yinx is back! He is actually back!

He hated when we would call him master and this proves his is back!

The stones shatter like plates as he finally stands up from his prison.

He blinks a few times and hugs himself, trying to make himself smaller.

“Yinx,” I say, stepping closer and offering my hand.

He jumps at the sight of my hand and steps back, looking up at me with scared eyes.

“That’s not me,” He whispers, possibly to himself.

He lets go of himself and he begins to pace around the room, taking in everything as if this is the first time he has seen it.

His hands clench and unclench, each time small embers drop to the floor.

Raiyo pauses when he stands in front of a shining shield that shows his reflection.

His glowing orange eyes open up a bit wider as if he is shocked to see himself like this. Like Raiyo.

He brings his hands up into his reflection then examines his claws and the markings that lead from his hands, all the way up his arm.

One claw traces the demonic symbols, it drags across his chest until it reaches the wolf head over his heart.

As he touches it, his hand balls up into a fist and the skin around Raiyo’s eyes turns darker, like coal has been brushed around them.

His eyes glow even brighter as well. They completely pierce the darkness.

“Raiyo?” I frown, slightly worried he hasn’t said anything.

He walks away from his reflection and stands at the entrance of the temple.

His hand reaches forward and tendrils of smoke slither out from the skin of his arm.

The tendrils twirl around like snakes in the air before they stab into something in the middle of the air.

I am a bit confused but then something happens!

Glowing white lines crack through the air as if there is an invisible wall right in front of us!

The cracks grow bigger and bigger.

It gets the point that they are even bigger than me!

The tendrils retract into Raiyo’s arm and then he steps closer to the glowing cracks.

Raiyo’s palm glows orange and then he slap his hand flat onto the wall!

The wall breaks into hundreds of tiny shards of different colors. One side of them is orange, while the other is a light blue.

Raiyo has created a breech between the realms once again.

The other side shows a cold world made of ice.

Without taking a moment to think things through, Raiyo steps forward and steps into the Snow Goddess’ realm.

~~~
~~~

Drulai - The Mother of All

I frown as I look through Frizet’s ice mirror.

Earlier ago, I saw Morgoren speaking to Raiyo.

The images were silent but I can tell it was only a small conversation.

After Bolgran had subdued Raiyo, the gods had called for my help.

I was already on my way when I saw the sun’s light disappear from the sky.

My husband had died.

He was murdered by Raiyo.

When I found his torn open body, I had to turn away. Not even my children could handle looking at Raiyo’s work.

Right now, they are shaken and scared.

They not only lost a father, but a brother as well.

Now we all hide here in Frizet’s realm.

I seriously hope the Star and Demon succeed and soon.

Right now I sit in Frizet’s chambers.

She said I should stay here while she and the others ready themselves for another possible attack.

Who knows if it will be from Raiyo again.

Seeing them talk together is slightly worrying.

What if they are discussing terms for working together?

If they were to join forces, they would be unstoppable.

Drumming my finger against my chin, I frown as an idea slowly forms in my head.

Double checking on Raiyo, I see that he is speaking to his Ancient One.

That is slightly different, but I know that creature is on our side. It should be safe to look away for a moment.

I stand and make my way to the balcony.

Taking deep breaths of the cold, fresh air, I close my eyes and try to calm my nerves.

My moment is cut short when the sound of tiny bells can be heard back in the room.

Sighing, I make my way back and grab my small mirror from the bedside table.

Brushing my hand over the flickering surface, the demon’s face materializes from the colors.

Tobias has a strange expression on his face. It is one that is distant, as if he is distracted and off.

“It is done,” He says, his voice straining slightly.

He gulps slightly and blinks a few times before looking away. “His memories are free.”

My eyes widen in surprise.

“Really?” I ask, a smile blooming on my face. “Congratulations! You have all done wonderfully and shall be rewarded when I get back to you.”

He is silent as he looks at me again.

A glare forms on his face and he shakes his head.

“We want nothing from you and nothing to do with you,” He says with anger rising in his voice. “You are just as bad as your son for making do your twisted dirty work.”

The image pulls back and for a moment shows Luno comforting my champion.

All of a sudden the image cracks into small images of random parts of a room.

Then there is nothing.

I blink in confusion and surprise.

Tobias threw the mirror away and broke it.

That image of Laneer and Luno however...I thought my champion would have been happy! He would have been apart of the reason his lost love would be able to reunite with him once again!

I scoff at their actions and place my mirror back on the table.

Humans.

They may not be human now, but they were in the past and it clearly shows.

I stand to go and tell my children the good news.

Now that Raiyo will have those memories of how Morgoren took part in killing the love of his life, he will surely join our side now.

Leaving the room, I make my way to find them all.

This castle is dead silent as I walk through the halls.

There were spirits of all kinds running around, preparing for the inevitable but now they are all missing!

Have they somehow heard the news?

Did something happen that shows my plan was a success?

After a time, I find them all crowded on the balcony at the end of a hallway.

Frowning, I call for them.

“What are you all doing,” I ask.

The only one who looks back is Altiba.

Her pretty face has gone as pale as the snow outside.

Stepping through them all, I look for what has their attention.

At first, all I see is the snowy world.

This balcony looks over the garden of the castle.

There are tall ice tree sculptures that line from one end to the other. Green bushes with blue plants help mark a path through the gardens. A large fountain sits in the middle with the ice frozen in the middle of sprinkling through the air.

This seems rather normal, but then I see the strange white lines that blend through pale realm.

I barely noticed them until they grew even larger.

Cracks form near the back of the gardens

Smoke seeps through the white glowing lines and I know why they are scared now.

“No,” I whisper to myself and shake my head.

We must be reading into this wrong! He was supposed to help us once he remembered!

A space between the realms breaks open like ice exploding.

Through the hole between realms, we see Raiyo standing there with his Automaton behind him.

The Ancient One disappears into a puff of smoke as soon as I notice him.

Raiyo’s his burn brighter than I have ever seen before. Even the orange markings on his skin are glowing more.

They pulse quickly like a heart pumping blood through veins.

When Raiyo takes his first step onto the pale grass, my heart starts beating faster.

As soon as his barefeet touch the ground, the area around them scorches up into flame. That fire spreads further along, burning bushes, plants and making the ice trees shatter into pieces.

My children have already run to ready themselves for battle.

I can only stare in shock.

Raiyo struts forward and with each step, it brings more destruction to the world around him.

A cloud of smoke and fire pours forth from the hole in the realm and it spreads around behind Raiyo. It burns and destroys everything it touches.

It circles along the edges of the realm , creating a wall that grows closer and closer.

Seeing that wall of destruction and Raiyo’s terrifying footsteps of death makes the world feel even colder.

~~~
~~~

The Ancient One

Raiyo walks through the garden with a lust for blood.

His footsteps unleash ripples of fire made from his rage.

Like a flame on paper, it burns and spreads quickly into the realm.

As he grows nearer to the castle, the door are lifted open as a group of spirits in armor run out with weapons in their hands.

Raiyo keeps walking, never faulting his steps.

The spirits run up to Raiyo, lunging their attacks as one.

Before they can touch him, they all burst into flames and disintegrate into nothing.

They try and try again to hit him but they only meet a quick death.

Spirits who were lucky not to be in the front quickly run back for their castle.

Raiyo puts a stop to that immediately.

His arm lifts up towards the spirits and the wall of smoke behind him gathers forward, surrounding him in darkness and then moving forward to encase the poor spirits.

The smoke cloud grows bigger, completely covering the gardens.

It splits itself in two, revealing Raiyo once again in the middle.

With a gentle push of his hands, the cloud quickly moves to circle around the castle, completely destroying anything and everything.

There were other spirits and various creatures along the outer ring of this realm, but not all that is left of them is blood and ash.

It scares me with how quickly his magic was able to do such a thing!

This only took a few seconds!

Black tendrils shoot out of thin air. They stab into the stone of the castle walls in seemingly random places.

They straighten out and turn into chains.

Raiyo pulls his hand backwards and the chains pull large chunks of the castle off!

Many rooms are revealed inside the castle.

Inside these rooms, many different gods can be found.

A few stand in shock at being revealed.

That shock quickly turns into action as a few give out battlecries and swoop down for Raiyo.

Only four of them attack while others run off to hide once again.

A God of the Weather’s fingers spark with lighting as he floats in the air.

He is about to send an attack but Raiyo is too quick.

Another black tendril strikes forward at unremarkable speeds.

It pierces the God’s throat and the shock in his eyes quick fades without life.

The Goddess of the Hunt cries out in horror before preparing a glowing green arrow.

It flies out to his Raiyo square in the chest but it slips through like a shot through smoke.

He creates a swirling bow made of fire for himself and fires his own glowing red arrow.

The Goddess tries to roll out of the way but the arrow changes direction mid-flight. It follows her until it meets it’s mark right between the eyes.

She falls flat onto her back dead.

The last two gods standing are twin brothers.

With matching motions, they drive their fists together, creating cracks along the wall of the castle.

Two large chucks of the stone wall are torn off and the Gods send both flying for Raiyo.

Raiyo holds his hand forward with a calm expression on his face.

As the stone meets his palm, an explosion erupts from within the stone, destroying the other and sending hundreds of shards backwards towards the twins.

They can only look in surprise before shards impale them everywhere.

Their stomachs, their heads, their arms and legs. Everywhere!

The impact of the shards sends them flying backwards and pins the twins to a wall inside one of the rooms.

Raiyo dematerializes into a body of swirling darkness and flies into the castle, searching for his next victims.

I follow alongside him.

As I always did before, I remain in between all realms to keep an eye on him.

Knowing the threat of his death is so much higher now thanks to the Star and Demon succeeding their quest, I feel very much on edge.

One wrong move and Raiyo will be dead.

Truly dead.

No curse can stop him now.

Raiyo reaches a large ballroom floor.

Stairs lead up to a set of doors that must lead up higher into the castle.

Raiyo reshapes and stares up at two gods standing at the top of the stairs.

The God of the Harvest and the Goddess of Illusions.

“I take it there’s no way to make you leave us,” The Goddess says.

Raiyo stays silent but his hands clench into fists.

“Come on, dear Raiyo,” She pouts. “Surely you must think this through! The world needs us! It needs our powers and blessing to keep moving!”

“It’s true,” The God says. “We help keep the balance in Thymestrys! Surely you of all people would understand!”

I frown at these gods.

They are acting very strange. Almost...as if they are trying to hold Raiyo off!

I am about to warn Raiyo of possible danger, but his hand reaches out behind him and grabs something invisible.

When Raiyo tightens his grasp, colors shimmer into light as the Goddess is revealed.

I knew it!

She grabs onto Raiyo’s hand and tries to pull him off. Her actions frantic and desperate.

“Plea-!” She cries out before Raiyo’s claws sink into her neck.

He harshly pulls a chunk of her neck out and tosses it to the side, splattering her blood onto the clean floor.

The Harvest God stares down in shock before turning to make a run for it.

Raiyo simply waves his hand and then a circle of fire erupts at the god’s feet.

His screams can be heard as Raiyo makes his way up the stairs.

His screams grow higher in pitch, sending shivers down my body.

I notice a strange glowing line forming along Raiyo’s right temple.

For a moment I think of mentioning it, but seeing as he is in this situation, I think it best to keep silent.

When we reach the top of the stairs, we find a charred up body with small flames still burning.

Raiyo steps over the body and pushing open a set of doors that hide a set of stairs leading upwards.

Slipping into the shadows, Raiyo leads us up the stairs quickly.

We quickly find ourselves on top of the castle.

A small garden sits up here along with even more stairs leading to a small temple with columns holding up a building without walls.

The Snow Goddess and the War God stand at the bottom of these steps.

Drulai and Altiba, the Goddess of Beauty stand at the top.

Bolgran, The War God, holds two axes.

Frizet, The Snow Goddess, wields a mace.

Both are ready to attack.

Bolgran launches forward and like the speed of light, he tackles Raiyo into the wall next to the stairway down.

Raiyo doesn’t even blink at the attack.

His eyes only burn brighter as he is face to face with the War God.

“You are nothing but a puny whore,” The God growls.

Raiyo vanishes into a puff of smoke.

“Get back here coward!” Bolgran shouts.

Frizet stands by the stairs, trying to be the last stand for her Mother and Sister.

Raiyo appears once again between the two gods.

He thrusts his hands in both directions, sending a black like of magic that pierces through the War God’s stomach.

Frizet, having dodged the attack in time, screams at the sight and runs for Raiyo.

The tip of her mace glows brightly as she leaps into the air to slam it onto Raiyo.

Just as she is about to hit him, Raiyo raises his hand to her, freezing her in the air.

She struggles against his magic, trying her best to get back on the ground.

Turning back to Bolgran, Raiyo motions with his fingers to bring the War God closer. That drags Bolgran along the piercing line of darkness.

He screams in agony as random barbs pierce through his stomach and exit through his back.

Raiyo then removes him from the deadly line and while holding both gods in the air, he makes his way up the stairs for Drulai and Altiba.

Frizet struggles more against Raiyo’s hold and tries to swing her mace down at him.

When she tries to finally use her magic, Raiyo flicks his wrist.

Frizet’s head abruptly twists to the side at an angle that definitely isn’t natural.

She stops moving or attempting to struggle.

Altiba’s scream can be heard above at the sight of her dead sister.

“Please!” She screams down to Raiyo. “Please I beg you!”

She falls to her knees at the top of the stairs.

“I never brought you any harm!” She says with tears streaming down her pretty face. “I-I was the who helped you better than anyone here! I am the one who gave you a face that make even the most stubborn of men fall for you!”

Raiyo pulls her towards him with a wave of his hand.

She whimpers and turns her head away, her chin trembling.

“Look at me,” He snarls and turns his hand to force her head to look at him.

Her whole body heaves as she sobs while looking at him through her tears.

“What you did was no gift.” His eyes burn with a literal fire now. “What you did ruined me to a life of nothingness!”

She whimpers and turns her head away in fear as his voice rises.

Bolgran groans in pain as his blood spills from his wounds. His face is pale and his eyes can barely stay open.

“You’re..,” He coughs, splattering blood onto the steps below. “You’re a monster. A horrible monster.”

Raiyo ignores him and continues up the stairs with the three gods floating along with him.

When he reaches the top of the stairs, we see Drulai standing near the edge of the temple.

She looks down at the destruction of the realm below.

What was once a snowy and pale place, it is not a realm filled with fire and ash.

“I always knew we would have consequences with you,” She says without facing Raiyo. “I knew it the moment you had died.”

She turns to face him and there are tears on his cheeks.

“I suppose you finally got to do what your rage had always wanted to do. To kill all the gods for ruining your life. For ruining your childhood. Your teenage years. For getting Laneer killed. That was it right? Or perhaps it is that sick nature inside of you that belonged to a demon this whole time.”

The skin around Raiyo’s eyes is growing darker once again.

“No,” He says. “I did not kill gods today. Gods would never be able to die. They are supposed to be unkillable beings. Clearly, none of you are gods because they are not real. You were all a bunch of stupid spirits with more power than most.”

Drulai chuckles before letting out a sigh.

“Perhaps that is true,” She says. “We aren’t unkillable, but we did create this world. I guess our time was bound to end. Let us hope it ends with you and not Morgoren. Though...an Archdemon being the most powerful thing in Thymestrys will surely bring the end of all times.”

Raiyo tosses the floating gods next to their mother.

Altiba and Bolgran hold onto each other as Raiyo creates a swirling sphere of black energy.

It shields them all from my sights, but there are slight openings that give me small glances into what is inside.

“Let me show you what you chose to bring back to my body,” Raiyo hisses inside the sphere.

The heat around the sphere becomes a lot hotter as a orange light shines bright from inside the swirling mass.

Heat waves radiate from the small openings of the sphere.

Screams then can be heard.

There is Altiba who screams the loudest. Followed by Bolgran who somehow is still alive.

Drulai’s voice then pierces through them all.

They all scream in agony at whatever is going on inside the sphere!

When I try to see what is in there, I only see small cut out pieces of the scene.

Red skin, smoke and embers, glowing orange eyes, Altiba’s beautiful face burning off into flakes of fire.

I have no idea what is even going on!

Once the screams fall silent, the heat dies down and then the black energy slips into Raiyo’s body.

Where the four gods once kneeled, all that remains are scorched bones.

Raiyo falls to his hands and knees.

I quickly rush to his side.

He stares down at a puddle of blood between his hands.

He looks confused. His body feels weak!

Why can’t he stand? Why are there more of those orange lines on his face? They look like they are cracking through his skin! They run along his chin, neck, and temples.

Raiyo reaches out to run his fingers along the strange lines in his reflection.

His eyes begin to well up with black tears and his closes his eyes, letting a few fall.

“Raiyo?” I call for his attention.

He ignores me.

“Raiyo,” I touch his back gently. “Let us go home.”

Finally he looks up at me.

This poor soul.

He has gone through a lot in his two lives. If only he could get a break from it all.

“Come,” I say, offering my hand. “I will take you home.”

Raiyo sniffs before nodding and placing his hand on my finger.

I help him sit on my hand before he summons a portal back to Enfierna.

This was enough killing for today.