We returned home victorious, but there was no celebration. Instead, a funeral was held that spanned seven days and nights. Eilos distanced himself from everyone during the funeral and no one tried to stop him. We knew that the pain we felt was nothing compared to what he must have been feeling, after all, he lost more than his friends, he lost his wife, and his children, but we only found out about them much later.
With the demons sealed away the world was safe, for the moment at least. Even with their great sacrifice the seal made by the warriors wouldn't last forever and this thought planted fear in the hearts of the people. Fearing that once the seal broke and the war restarted, they would be wiped out without the great warrior's protection. Their fear turned to hate. Hate for the warriors that left them, that had abandoned them and caused Eilos to disappear. These feelings were shared by both humans and gods alike and only continued to grow.
Before long things started to fall apart. The gods began to fight with each other again, humans began to steal, and fight each other. It was like their fear was being turned to anger and with no outlet, they took it out on each other. No matter what we did us siblings couldn't stop them. Our words and actions never seemed to reach them.
When it seemed like the world was about to fall to chaos Eilos appeared returning from his isolation.
"I'm sorry everyone! My prolonged absence has caused you all to worry. But I didn't do it without reason! In order to carry out the plan set in motion by my dear friends I had to prepare!"
The fear that had filled their hearts disappeared like the night at sunrise. They even grew excited at the thought that there was a plan.
"This plan won't be easy to carry out. I'll need everyone's help to make it work. So, will you lend me your strength?!" He asked the crowd and they all responded in a resounding,
"Yes!!!!!!"
The crowd cheered, chanting Eilos's name, while he stood above them. A smile on his face, but there was no warmth in his smile, and his bright blue eyes were dark darker than black. Us siblings knew something was wrong but didn't say anything, we felt like we couldn't. If we did the fear and chaos would return.
Eilos began his plan by sending the gods to Mount Po to find an ore called Mortifer. It seemed innocent enough. Weapons crafted from mortifer were well known for being nearly indestructible. Having weapons like that would go a long way towards defeating the demons once and for all. But we should have known that something was wrong when he sent us on a different mission. It was understandable that Tear, who was busy with the world system, and Var, who had no real physical strength at all, wasn't sent, but not sending Lugh was a huge red flag. Out of all the craftsmen, both humans and gods, Lugh had the most experience mining and forging mortifer. Not sending him was like asking a child to write an essay.
Instead, he asked us to lead him our power, literally. Eilos asked us to lend him our divinity. Divinity means something different for gods than it does for humans. For humans' divinity means that someone or something is divine. However, that's only partly true. To a god, divinity is the source of our power and existence. Have you ever wondered why there are so many gods? Or multiple gods that rule over the same domain? It's because of divinity. Divinity is the absolute power and authority over a domain. Because the domains in the universe are so expansive and practically infinite, no one God can have divinity over all of it. It's just too much power for any one person to handle, heck a single domain is too much for one person to handle.
"I know this sounds crazy, but to forge a weapon powerful enough to destroy those demons once and for all I need your divinity." Eilos exclaimed.
"Do you know what your asking brother? What might happen?" Lugh asked.
We were all concerned. If a single god takes on more divinity, then they can handle they suffer an incredibly painful death, if they're lucky. Our concern was clear to see and when he realized how concerned we were he smiled at us. It wasn't the cold smile that he'd been wearing the past few years, but the warm smile that we'd thought turned to ash along with Pompa.
It was that smile that convinced us to trust him. It was that smile that sealed our fate.
"Var, I need you to write a contract." Eilos continued.
It was a long-complicated contract, but to summarize it stated that we would lend him 95% of our divinity and not interfere with his plan. He explained that some parts of the plan would put him in danger and knowing how much we cared for him we'd try to stop him, but to ensure the demon's defeat risks had to be taken and sacrifices needed to be made. We agreed on the condition that the contract would end once the plan the warriors left behind was fulfilled. He smiled and the condition was added to the contract.
We signed the contract, not knowing how much we would regret it later.
Eilos put his plan in motion, and we began to regret our decisions. He started by spreading lies about the warriors, saying that they released the demons and killed the other gods. Anyone who said otherwise was killed on the spot, till not one would dare speak the truth.
Using his newfound power, he put restrictions on the world system and created the church of Hyssop. Spreading the Hyssop religion with the seven of us at the center as the saviors of the world. Shocked we asked Eilos what he was doing, but we never got an answer as he locked himself away. The next time we saw him was when he created the saint, your sister, and told us that she was the key to defeating the demons. We haven't heard from him since.
I'd been sitting here listening to their story and only one thing came to mind, anger. The more they told this story the more my blood boiled. First off, it was clear that they weren't telling me the whole story.
"Hey, what happened to the other gods? Are they dead?" I asked. They were caught off guard by my question. Maybe they thought that I wouldn't question their story? Or maybe they just think I just wasn't listening?
"Um well…." Enki started to answer when Maat interrupted,
"I can't keep silent anymore. Enki, she has a right to know. She won't help us if she doesn't trust us."
I don't trust them, even if they lay down their lives for me, I could never really trust them. It's more than a little clear that they aren't being truthful, and besides, I could NEVER trust these sorts of people.
Enki took a deep breath and sighed. He looked at me and said,
"They're not dead, but they're not alive either." He replied.
"Did they meet Schrodinger?" I asked
"No, if only it was that simple. To be frank we don't really know what's happened to them. After Eilos took control of Fabula, we searched Mount Po from top to bottom, but couldn't find any traces of them. The only thing we could find was black crystal pilers littered across the mountain." He continued.
"I'd ask how that could be possible, but considering I've been dragged throw diminishes and I am now talking to a bunch of ghostly gods, it's clear that conventional logic probably isn't going to help me here, but here goes. Could they have been turned into those crystal pilers?"
"It's more than likely, but we can't prove it either way."
"I see. So, that's why you said that they are alive but not. You can't prove anything so it's just better to say they're both. Wouldn't it have been better to say that you didn't know in the first place?"
"Properly, but it wouldn't be the truth." Maat replied, "Despite what you may think we're being truthful in that we've told you. I swear on my own divinity, what's left of it anyway." She continued.
"After hearing the truth, will you help us save this world from Eilos and the demons? Will you help us do what's right?" Tear asked with a look on her face that told me she knew what I say, but boy am I about to surprise her.
"Help you do what's right? Shouldn't you have done that long ago!" I said as I got up. "It seems like you all had plenty of chances to act, but instead you chose to be bystanders instead. Don't get me wrong I understand that you wanted to trust your brother, but you knew that something was wrong and chose not to investigate further before deciding to literally sign away your powers. So, tell me how I'm I suppose to trust you, people, when it's clear that you can't even think before you act or just decide not to act at all?" I ranted in a voice that clearly showed that I was angry. But in my defense, people who never try to do anything then complain about the outcome make my blood boil. I had to take care of both myself and my sister, it had acted like them and just watched Hana and I would've been separated. Though I guess that in the end we were separated anyway.
They hung their heads down low for a moment, then raised them looking me in eyes, and collectively said,
"Your right." Now I'm the one surprised.
"We saw the warning signs but instead of doing or saying anything we turned a blind eye. We were afraid, afraid that if we acted things would change and we'd lose something. In Pompa, we lived simple happy lives, but after the demons attacked, we were paralyzed with fear. We knew that if we acted we could end up losing what we had left, Eilos and the warriors. Though in the end we still lost both and doomed the world in the process." Var said it's the first thing she said this whole time. Her tone has had no emotion in it, but you could tell that she meant every word.
"That's why we need your help. We couldn't make the right decisions when we had all of our powers, now with us so weaken we can't do the right thing even if we want to. But you're different from us, yet also the same. You too have gone through a life-changing ordeal and have something you want to protect, but unlike us, you're moving forward. But how far can you go on your own? Regardless of what you think of us, you need our power to save your sister. Or would you rather make the same mistake as us?" Apophis Said in a calm voice.
As much as I hate to admit it, she's right. I don't have any power in this world, or even know where Hana's been taken, and standing around talking isn't going to get me any closer to finding out. I truly hate being used, but it's clear that no one in this castle has any plans to help me either. So, I have no choice.
"What are your terms?" I asked. Var moved forward and produced a scroll and quill pen.
"Our terms are simple. In exchange for being added to the world system and receiving our blessings, you will seek out the legacies of seven warriors. You may do anything you want with the power given to you and we will be unable to take those powers away from you. Once you've found all seven legacies then our contract." Var explained.
"Their legacies? I thought the whole "they had a plan all along" thing was something that Eilos made up in order to get people to do what he wanted?" I asked.
"We'll only tell you once you've signed the contract." Apophis replied.
Gritting my teeth, I took the quill a signed the contract. Looking at them I said,
"I'll play your game, but know this, I will save Hana even if I have to burn this world to the ground to do it!"
They smiled and Apophis said, "Do as you wish."
I'd made my choice, but what I didn't know was that Hana was also making a choice. A choice that would forever change her fate and my own.