Lowly Ascent

Cain rebutted her.

"I seek only my own truth. I disregard other truths and create those that fit my own. The truth I seek is that the world needs to be reset from this hateful and malevolent state, even if I need to become an incarnation of destruction.

"This is all in my church's texts you know."

Alex narrowed her eyes. "You say that, but you haven't seen the whole world! There are good people! People like Luna!"

"And the ones who ruin the world make good people useless. Those who have greed in their hearts do more damage than those with good. And this corruption only spreads more and more. The only way to erase it is to make a clean slate." Cain criticized.

"And what if that doesn't work?"

"Then I will do it again and again until it does. But I am confident it will work the first time. As long as people have their needs met, they will never grow hungry for more. Only when something better comes into view will envy follow, and with envy comes greed, and greed brings everything else."

Tears had long started to stream down Alex's face, her voice choked with sobs as she spoke. She looked at the person in front of her, but it was no longer the one she knew.

She couldn't believe that someone could change so much, and fall so low.

"Please, Cain, if you're still in there, stop this monster before he kills innocent people! Stop yourself from making a terrible mistake!"

Her words reached no one. Cain looked at her with surprise and amusement.

"I am Cain. The person you wish to exist only does so in the past. You cannot change me when your logic is flawed by benevolence. It is sad to say, but ignorance and good go hand in hand. One must go to great lengths to find the truth, usually committing sin to do so."

Alex fell to the floor. The leader she once knew, the friend she once knew, was gone. Cain was gone and would never come back.

The Cain she knew had already died the day Luna did, and the husk left behind finally shattered in that prison.

Seeing the state of the people before him, Cain felt amused by their weak wills and flawed thinking.

"I hope you have learned that benevolence is a mirage, a feeble attempt to mask inherent cruelty with ignorance. Truth is the only thing you can cling to in a world plagued by weakness and false hope, other than your very existence itself. I am not your enemy. I stand before you seeking to become the embodiment of a world without ignorance and cruelty!"

Cain hoped that with this speech, these people would switch to his side. However, that was not the case.

Alex raised her head and stared at him with unwavering determination, her eyes turning into a deep gold. She stood up and looked down at Cain as if he were a criminal. She held a face of disgust.

"You say you are the savior, but you are not. Unlike you, I know the truth of this place, and what you hope to achieve will never come to fruition."

"You know the truth of this world? Then why don't you tell me?"

Laughing, Alex looked at Cain with dead seriousness. "This world is a cage, and you are not the first to try and break it. What you think are truths are just lies so warped they have become the truth. God of the Pestilence church, you are destined to forever live in ignorance, as truth does not exist in this place and never will."

'She appears serious. How would she know this?'

Cain asked, "How do I know what you're speaking is the truth?"

Alex replied, "I drank the sap of the Great Earth Tree. With it, the knowledge it knew was transferred to me. It knew the purpose of this place and why it was created, but even so, it would never be able to escape."

Frowning, Cain leaned back in his chair and looked up. His thoughts drifted to whether he really had true freedom, whether what he knew was truly the truth.

'What if this place was something more than it appeared to be? How would I react if I could never leave the Landfill if I could never complete this goal of mine?'

Cain then smiled.

'Eh, none of that matters anyway. If so then I'll just shift my goal. Even now I'm just acting off of hope. Hope can die, I will not.'

Leaning forward, the Pestilence God watched Alex with sharp eyes, "Well... if what you say is true, like you said, truth is, in reality, lies. I am confident I will find a way, even if it takes eons. I know in my heart I am real. My consciousness is proof of that, and since I carry truth, then I can turn lies into my own truth. My will shall outshine ignorance because the ignorant cannot affect me!

"How's that for an answer?"

Seeing Cain's smug look, Alex stopped trying to save him from himself and was prepared to do what was necessary for the continuation of all life.

"Then you really are lost. Madness has already overtaken you."

"Only through going against the flow will you become unique. Conforming to the majority leads to nothing but repetition and a dull life." Cain remarked. 

"Goodbye, Cain."

Alex stomped her feet on the ground, and roots sprung up at their call. Cain chortled and dodged the attacks, his eyes lit up, showing a cold light as he charged at Alex.

Coming to, the Knights of Truth rushed forward to protect their leader. But just then, figures jumped from the windows and landed behind them. They charged at the knights and stopped many from their continued advance forward.

The few that made it to Alex began to charge at Cain, but as soon as they were at arm's length, Cain reached out his hands crushed their helmets, and quickly passed them.

Two dead knights were quickly added to the floor with blood seeping out of the crevices of their visors, as the remaining few guarding Alex shivered in fear.

Alex walked forward, her guards following closely behind. In a swift motion, a spear made from roots emerged from the ground.

Grabbing it immediately, with eyes devoid of emotion, she launched herself at Cain, ready to confront him.

As the two clashed, Alex thrust her spear at Cain.

Doing nothing to dodge, Cain let the spear pierce his flesh as he used it to get closer, pulling the spear deeper into his stomach.

Noticing this behavior, Alex let go and created another spear. This time she threw it and hit Cain right in his shoulder, hitting him with such force that he was knocked back. But to Alex's horror, he ripped out both spears as his flesh seemed to come alive and heal itself.

Cain began to laugh hysterically, seeing the fear in her eyes. "Let's get serious!"