NOVEL NEXT 366. The King of Demons
"May the Guide hold your hand through it all."
The sentence resonated in Glenn's head, his eyes stuck on the words carved into the hourglass's wooden base.
"The Guide. The Guide!" Glenn repeated in realization, his heart racing madly. "The fucking Guide!"
Ages ago, he had met the Fallen Mother in Palancar. That meeting was followed by another encounter, another deity. The Guide. A timeless being that simply wished him well after reviewing Glenn's actions and showing him a time that should have been, but was not.
The black cathedral had never been dedicated to the Fallen Mother - it wasn't even in her style anyway. It was a church to the Guide, represented by the numerous hourglasses. 'Time. The Guide is a God of Time or something. How is he connected to the Fallen Mother? Why is there his church in the Beyond? And people venerate the Guide? Since when?!'
Numerous questions flew through Glenn's mind, but unfortunately, this was not the time to find their answers. He pocketed the small hourglass and bolted out of the underground area, stumbling over his team fighting against a massive humanoid creature with red skin, horns, and an arm that had morphed into a large, chunky sword.
It roared like a beast, charging at Sahro without tactics or plans, simply swinging his arm-sword wildly. Sahro's expression was composed as he dodged the violent attacks with minimal movements. The red-skinned demon's attacks split the ground in two and created violent gusts of wind, but they weren't as dangerous as they should have been. For a Newborn Ruler, at least. Glenn frowned and jumped in, but it was too late.
The creature's knees suddenly folded over itself from Milena's spell, while white magic Spears pierced through its chest. Finally, a crimson crackle announced its death as Sahro shot past it, its katana glistening with black blood. The creature's head rolled on the floor, lifeless.
"We need to get out of here!" Liara exclaimed as she jumped on Whitey's back with Milena. "More of them are coming!"
Glenn nodded and climbed on his mount's back. Pebble roared a challenge, his claws tightly clenched over the gigantic hourglass that previously sat at the top of the black cathedral. Sahro climbed behind Glenn, his teeth clenched.
"He was pretty weak. Disappointing." He gripped his katana tighter. "I should have fought the True Ruler instead of that dark elf traitor."
Glenn scoffed. "You wouldn't have been able to even scratch his skin. Leave that for when we become Newborn Rulers."
Sahro sneered but did not reply, his arms crossed. Pebble and Whitey soared in the sky, flying straight for the center of the Beyond, the Horizon Gates. They flew as fast as they could, but even then, it was going to take some time to get there, giving Glenn time to both recover his expended Mana and think about what he discovered in the cathedral's underground.
'Who even is the Guide? He's not part of the Seven Gods, he doesn't seem evil like the Fallen Mother, and is not connected to a visible object like the Twin Moons of Javier and the Pale Sons. Wait, no, he is connected to the Fallen Mother. I met him after encountering her, after all.'
Glenn rubbed his chin as he watched the Beyond being littered by countless meteors and an ungodly amount of Newborn Rulers unleashing their power against anything in their way. Thankfully, that just meant the hellscape and the roaming monsters. But soon, that would be the Black Knights and Limbo.
'I can't let that happen,' he thought. 'Shit, I can't accept letting this fucker with the Dragon-Mask get his way!'
'Glenn, I... I think I remember something.' Diamanes suddenly said, hesitating.
Glenn raised an eyebrow. 'Please, do tell if it's important.'
'It's just a sentence. I feel like it's important, like it's...' Diamanes trailed off, his voice weakening. He cleared his throat with uncertainty and uttered a few words.
'The Gods are only what we make them to be.'
'I never took you for a philosopher, Diamanes.' Glenn mocked even as he puzzled over the sentence. Diamanes did not reply, unusually silent.
Concerned, Glenn tried to make sense of the entity's words. 'What can that even mean? The Gods are only what we make them to be. As in, our beliefs shape them?'
The young man sighed heavily. 'I can't understand shit. What does that have to do with the Fallen Mother and the Guide? What's more, can I even trust these ramblings of yours, Diamanes?'
'Yes.'
Sigh. Glenn rubbed his forehead, grunting. He tried recalling anything important or seemingly illogical that he heard back during his meeting with the Guide and the Fallen Mother, but he couldn't...
"Whatever my believers make of me is nothing I'm responsible for."
The young man froze as he recalled the sentence. Back then, he had dismissed it without thinking too hard on it, but now? That same sentence resonated perfectly with Diamanes' revelation. Once could be a mistake, twice makes a coincidence. But on Limbo, coincidences did not exist.
At least that's what Glenn now firmly believed.
"If... The Gods are indeed the product of their believers..." Glenn muttered, piecing his thoughts together. "And if we consider faith as a... A resource. Could Gods be artificially created?"
He shivered at the idea. When he thought about it, every one of the Seven Gods (aside from the Dead one, obviously) had a following. Onnea, Epinos, and Bloodblade had organizations named after them, while Plutus and the Divine Sage had, respectively, most merchants and mages worshipping them. Not the same kind of worship, but perhaps it still worked? Merchants venerate money above all, and mages' knowledge. Perhaps that is how Plutus and the Divine Sage gained power?
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As for Nergal, he had the Cleaner Workshop move in the shadows to reap lives, just as expected from him as the God of Death. Perhaps he doesn't even need them, as all beings eventually die, and just uses the organization as his armed force.
Glenn felt a sense of vertigo as he tried to consider the entire board instead of just his narrow point of view.
'If that's true, then the Gods have all a deep interest in maintaining the faiths of their believers, as that is what makes them. The Gods are only what we make them to be. Shit!'
The young man clenched down on Pebble's scales and tried to calm his racing heart. 'The Fallen Mother has little to no followers. Shit, the only one I know about is dead, and it was her fucking Envoy. So how the hell does she maintain her Divinity?'
'She doesn't need to.' Diamanes intervened once again with eerie certainty. 'She is like the Guide. She is not like the Seven Gods. She does not need beliefs.'
Glenn slowly turned to his left, purple hand. '...How are you so sure? Diamanes, how can you even know? Aren't you from another world in deep space or something?'
'I don't know. I'm not so sure anymore.' Diamanes sounded... Confused, afraid even.
'What does that mean, Diamanes?' Glenn bit on his lip and bottled down his frustration. 'Never mind that. What else can you tell me? How does the Guide and the Fallen Mother exist, if they're not dependent on the 'The Gods are what we make them to be' idea?'
'I...' Diamanes grunted painfully. 'Sorry, I-I can't...' His voice faded away as Glenn felt the entity's consciousness slip into a deep rest. The young man remained silent for a moment, digesting everything he had just learned. It was all a theory, but considering how Diamanes had supported it, Glenn felt strongly encouraged to believe it.
'Let's just think that this is real. What other implications could it have?'
Unfortunately, or rather, fortunately for the group's survival, they had already arrived at the Horizon Gates. Explosions of Mana and Aura clashed constantly as the Black Knights fought against the relentless wave of insane Newborn Rulers. Glenn's eyes widened as he watched a few dozen of the demons being obliterated by a man's single punch. Duke Noir bellowed with broad laughter, his bear-like face covered in blood.
"Bahaha, come, you fiends! Let me show you the might of Munirp's Iron Fist!"
Pebble and Whitey landed amidst the chaos, the dragon dropping the gigantic hourglass. Meteors kept raining down on them relentlessly, but a wave of twilight swallowed them. Munirp's King was fighting alongside them.
Glenn glanced at the Horizon Gates, his eyes bulging out when he recognized the W.O.R.M. lying next to them. Demons were coming out of it, guided by Javier and a few Pale Sons. The silent hunter noticed and gave him a nod before focusing back on his task.
"How the hell did he even get the machine through the Gates?" Glenn muttered in disbelief before shaking his head. 'I need to focus and find a way to stop the Newborn Rulers!'
But aside from fighting until all of them had fallen, Glenn couldn't come up with any good ideas. And neither could Liara nor Milena. Sahro hadn't even considered the question, preferring to throw himself into the melee and unleashing violent lines of crimson Primal Aura over the battlefield.
"This is it, boys!" Duke Noir shouted. "If they pass through, our efforts against these orc bastards will have been for nothing!"
The Black Knights roared wildly, the ground shaking because of them. They renewed their efforts, emboldened by the Duke's words. For a moment only, the tide of Newborn Rulers was pushed back. But unlike the Black Knights, they weren't of sound mind anymore. They didn't care about pain, fatigue, or energy consumption. The Newborn Rulers just wanted to make the world suffer as they had during thousands of years, sealed in the sky of the Beyond.
Lucian's pair of blue eyes followed the events from the sky, helpless. Another wave of twilight covered the Beyond, making hundreds of the Newborn Rulers disappear. Glenn clenched his teeth, glanced at the gigantic hourglass he had brought with Pebble, and shook his head.
'I can't figure it out, and Diamanes seems out of it. Only one thing left to do, I suppose.' His Mana exploded out, spells swirling at the tip of his fingers. 'I need to cover the demon civilians evacuating. And who knows? With the King of Munirp and Duke Noir with us, perhaps we can fight off all of these guys.'
Even as he thought that, more meteors came crashing down, bringing reinforcements to the already unending wave of Newborn Rulers. The demons truly sealed an ungodly amount of their people in the Beyond's sky. 'How the hell did they even get that many Newborn Rulers?!'
Just as he was about to jump into the battle, a strong hand clasped over his arm. "Wait."
Glenn turned to find the Guardian, his black armor dented and his breath ragged. He was using his greatsword to keep himself from falling, and his red eyes were glassy with exhaustion.
"You couldn't get the Seal back." The Guardian simply stated.
Glenn shook his head. The heavily armored knight looked at the sky and the lone pair of blue eyes. "The Beyond is doomed. No, it's been doomed since the Gods sealed us away as punishment."
He looked at his hands, covered by thick gauntlets of black steel. "And now, my dear friend's legacy will be destroyed by my people." He clenched his hands tightly, the metal straining with an intense creak. "I refuse to let this happen."
He turned to Glenn. "I know you've picked up the Guide's idol."
Glenn pulled out the small hourglass and held it out. "I did. Wait, you know about the Guide?"
The Guardian chuckled sadly. "Of course I do. Now, step back."
He walked up to the gigantic hourglass and propped it up with one hand. He took a deep, long breath, casting one last gaze over the Beyond. Remembering a different time, before the harsh stone and winds of sulfur replaced everything. He remembered the paradise before it turned to hell, the sole place he could call home.
"The Beginning, the Chaos..." The Guardian took his helmet off, dropping it on the ground. He was faceless, just purple skin with no mouth, nose, or ears. Only a pair of red eyes, filled with nostalgia and sadness.
"...And the End."
He flipped the small hourglass down and crushed it in his hands. The glass shattered with a crisp, crystalline sound, clear and resonating all over the battlefield. The Newborn Rulers all stopped, listening for that sound. The Black Knights, Duke Noir, and even Alaric himself stopped as the crystal clear sound echoed sharply.
The gigantic hourglass rose in the air and flipped back in its previous position before Dragon-Mask interacted with it. It was effortless, as if it was meant to be. The Newborn Rulers looked at each other, their insanity fading away momentarily. They realized what they had become, what they were about to do, how low they had fallen. The demons evacuating to Limbo all stopped, staring at the demons on the frontlines falling to their knees, tears streaming down their faces.
"The End." The Guardian quietly repeated. His armor fell off as his flesh turned to dust, sucked into the gigantic hourglass. Every Newborn Ruler looked at their monstrous, mutated bodies, finding them to also be turning into ashes.
The silence was loud as the Newborn Rulers disappeared, consumed by the hourglass. The pair of blue eyes in the sky closed, disappearing as well. The Guardian turned back towards Glenn, a mouth breaking through that shell of purple skin he called a face.
"I remember now."
Glenn flinched, only then realizing he was crying. His heart felt caught in a vice, twisting tighter with every beat.
"My name..." The Guardian's smile widened even as it turned to dust.
"Please, don't forget it."
A hot wind rustled past Glenn as the last of the Guardian's body turned to dust. A whisper echoed over the battlefield, a memory sealed and forsaken.
Sinclair, King of the Demons.