Death's fall

Elise followed Seth’s gaze toward the far north, her eyes flickering hesitantly. Eventually, she clenched her fists and turned around.

“You’re not coming?” asked Seth with a surprised look.

Elise shook her head. “I don’t feel like it anymore. I’ll return to my place.”

“Did anything happen between you and Death?” asked Seth, not knowing why Elise would suddenly change her mind and wish to return home.

“No, I only met it during the parallel timeline. After the whole voidling thing, I want to take some time to reflect on what I have to do before you’re ready to leave. I doubt you’ll have any issues dealing with it, anyway. Come find me before you leave this universe.”

Seth nodded and watched Elise’s body turn into a pool of blood, sinking into the ground below. Being left alone, Seth sighed and walked through space, appearing in the depths of the Death Kingdom.

Standing before a strange whirlpool of death energy, Seth looked pitifully at the man bound with green chains right before the whirlpool, his head bent forward lifelessly and body filled with wounds and scars.

“It would seem congratulations are in order,” a wry voice entered Seth’s ears as a massive skull materialized from the man’s chest, crawling out to reveal more and more of its body bony body.

Flesh grew over the skeletal silhouette, forming a tall and slim man’s body. His hair flared up with death energy, and his eyes were like green emeralds, flickering with light.

“It has been a long time, Death,” said Seth, carelessly approaching the strange man that had crawled out of Thanatos’s body. “What happened to your host?”

Death turned around, his eyes filled with indifference. “I had to lock him in here to earn a chance to survive our meeting. He has been a good host, but a very bad judge of circumstances. He was ready to stake it all by going against your Empire, so I had to stop him like this.”

Seth smiled and asked, “So, you’re ready to surrender?”

Death turned to look back at Seth, its face marred with resignation as it exclaimed, “Who would have thoughts that one of my students would decide to kill me not once, but twice? Is there no way for you to spare me this time?”

Seth shook his head. “I can’t. I need your power for what I’m about to do. There’s no way around it.”

Death chuckled as it asked, “Are you saying you would have let me exist if you didn’t need my power? We both know that’s nothing but bull.”

“Who knows?” said Seth with a shrug. “In the original timeline, I only destroyed you because I needed to do it to summon a divinity. In the one created by Kronos, I did it because you had Caitlin as a hostage. And in this one, I need your will for Lust’s plans. Personally, I never had anything against you, but I’m still curious about something. Why did the spirit well break its divinity to send you down here?”

“What?” asked Death with a chuckle. “Can you really not figure it out yourself?”

Seeing Seth shake his head, Death sighed and continued, “You wouldn’t… You’re still too young and have never experienced a world without me to know what it means. Care to listen to a story, then?”

Seth created a chair for himself and nodded. “I can, but make it quick. I have an entire universe to conquer.”

“Don’t worry. You might need to know the things I’m about to tell you. Even more so if you plan on leaving this simulation, as he called it.”

“When mother created her paradise, she did it following the Sovereign’s words, but still took a few liberties to change everything to better suit her creation, aiming to create a paradise straight out of stories. A world of light and life, with no darkness or death to plague it.”

“And who could blame her? What mother won’t want anything but the best for the children she had created?”

“At the start, her universe was a paradise indeed, a paradise for every being that lived in it. Unfortunately, she failed to see the need for darkness, destruction, pain, death...”

“Slowly, her paradise fell into stagnation. Everyone had everything they could ever want and nothing to fear, so what need was there to seek anything else?”

“Even as the Sovereign begged her to give the universe the things it lacked, to bring struggle into the lives of her creation so that their wills won’t crumble, she still declined, claiming that struggles didn’t belong in a paradise. The one thing she always loved in his stories was the people being happy, so her perfect creation didn’t need any of the sadness and death they contained.”

“Unable to convince her otherwise, the sovereign took a different approach and enticed her with thoughts of having children, just like the lovers in his stories always did.”

“His plan worked, and in that manner, the energies governing the world were given consciousness and awareness as newborn children formed of the two’s union. However, what mother realized too late that the sovereign has intervened in the process, and some of the greater wills were born of concepts she had previously sealed deep inside her very being, which the sovereign had brought to the surface. This gave birth to something she never wanted for her world. Destruction and darkness.”

“She had tried to reseal the two seeds of power but could not bring herself to kill her children. Still, a new blow came soon after, as the final seed her union with the sovereign had created was used into an unknown rite to break the barrier of her world, opening the gate to The Outside.”

“You should know the rest of the story. What I’m getting at is that when this universe came into being, Yggdrasil was manifested out of the life energy and claimed a divinity first. With her newfound power, she broke her divine crown to rip the Spirit Well’s link to the world and redirected the missing parts of a soul inside her: death, emotion, and thought.”

“This kept repeating in every small universe created. To prevent what happened in the main universe from occurring again, the Sovereign broke parts of the Death, Emotion, and Thought greater wills forming the Spirit Well and sent them inside each of the smaller worlds.”

“That’s how I and the other two energies arrived in this world, but as the other energies scattered between the empty shells, mending the humans and their broken wills, I only tied myself to a single host and forced that host to become the enemy of the world, the object of desire for every incomplete soul that plagued the world.”

“Why?” asked Seth in confusion.

“Because having your food come to you is much easier than chasing after it. I knew their incomplete souls will crave death, and they will over their life to me on their own. They even offered me the treasure of life, allowing me to absorb my sister’s power.”

“So, in the end, you’re also seeking power…” said Seth with a sigh. “What do you need that power for? Did you plan on fighting the sovereign as well?”

“Fight the sovereign? Why would I do something so stupid?” asked Death with a small chuckle. “He and I share the same goal, after all. To leave the world created by the All-mother.”

“You want to gain the power to reach The Outside?”

“I do,” replied Death with no hesitation. “Everything here is nothing but a collection of fake thoughts given form….”

“But there must be a creator that gave form to The Outside too. What does it matter if the All-mother or a different creator birthed the world?” asked Seth.

Death smiled in ridicule and asked, “Why did it matter to you if the world was a simulation or the one created by the All-mother? They are not that much different after all. Also, as I have said, you are too young to understand many things…”

Seeing Seth’s frown, Death sighed and said, “I’ve already said more than I had to. Do you want to absorb me inside that seed growing inside your lover? Since we both know I have no way of fighting back, just do it.”

Seth frowned and said to Lust, ‘This doesn’t feel right.’

‘Don’t worry. There’s nothing she can do once her will is absorbed inside the seed, and if she doesn’t fight back, this saves us a lot of trouble.’

Seth still felt something was wrong with the situation and asked, “Won’t you lose who you are once your will gets absorbed?”

“This person I’ve built, yes, but I’m just a fragment of the greater will inside the Spirit Well. Losing this fragment so that you might gain the ability to open a path is a blow, but in the end, I have no choice. This way, I can at least say I had a part in opening that seal.”

Seth sighed and eventually nodded, waving his hand and allowing his lust energy to cover Death’s body. Strands of eerie green energy started leaving its body, moving through Seth’s source toward the link with Katy’s seed.

Once the last ember of death energy was absorbed inside Seth’s source, the chains holding Thanatos’ body crumbled and allowed his body to fall to the ground.

Thanatos crumbed into dust upon impact, having lost Death’s and Noth’s support, and the whirlpool of death energy behind it also disappeared.

Seth remained to stare at the now empty underground cavern, trying to understand where the sudden unease he felt was coming from.

Just as he was about to speak to Lust, Maya’s voice resounded in his head through the lust link.

‘Seth, the Council members have gathered here, claiming they wish to join us on our journey. Also, all the ascended under the demigod level who wish to come with us have been moved inside Henrietta’s source, while those at the demigod level have already started moving on to the rest of the universe. We’re waiting for you before we march on Gaia and Dukbium’s domains.’

‘On my way,’ replied Seth, turning around and disappearing from the underground cavern.