Elyon's Perspective:
"Do you have any more titles God?"
"Heyy! I said that's what others called me, not what I call myself!"
"So what do you call yourself? My friends call me Belphegor."
"You know for a God you really don't act or sound like a God"
"What are the Gods like in your world? The divine and immortal?"
"They're stuck up, like all the 'higher than thou' attitude, they look upon everyone with judgement and cast blame. That's the high gods at least, the lower Gods are more tolerable, because at least they aren't asshole pricks"
"Your Gods are asshole pricks?"
"The only beings that can become Gods are people who are naturally asshole pricks" I gruffawed. "If you weren't an asshole prick you wouldn't be chasing the power of the divine like those Gods"
"So the power can just be robbed from?"
"Duh? Yours can't?"
"I'm afraid not. No, it's yours only unless you wish to give it away. You see, when you become a God in our World you gain the ability to mold a resource into whatever you want. We can take the interactions between object A and B which can be known as Laws, of how they should act, and then instead of saying A + B = C, we can say A + B = D. The ability to harness these powers though, are only exclusive to the people who harvest their own specific power. It's usually not transferable since Gods tend to keep the principles behind powers a secret"
"That's nice. Ahhh! So are the Gods nicer in your worlds?"
He had a disgruntled face. "Nicer? Not sure. I guess? But I don't think it's because their powers are un touchable. As a matter of fact you can definitely fight with other Gods, heck you can even kill them!"
"If only it were that easy for us"
"It's not like you stab them. You starve them of resources until they no longer have the resources to preserve life any longer. What's it like over there?"
"We're like pawns in their game of power. You either had power or you died as a pest. Power in most regions defined the quality of life"
"I can relate with that" I sighed, "Too similar in our old world. Where tyrannical tyrants ruled across the world. Where rulers weren't incentivised for development and growth/ Where life was fair in that it was a simple roll of the dice, you either prosper or died according to where you were born."
An eerie pause filled the space between us, before I noticed his wording.
"Wait Old?" I noticed, "It's not like that anymore?"
"Hmm? No? It's like a thing of the past now. People read it like they read the dark ages in this world"
"Wait no no, hold on how did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"How did you get rid of all the tyrants for good?!"
He bursted out laughing. "Bwahahahah" resounded across the hill, "It's a simple solution. You replaced a Bad Tyrant with a Better Tyrant, then do your best to keep the Better Tyrant in place."
I was dumbfounded. You replaced a tyrant with another tyrant? But one is better than the other? How does this even make any sense!! "That doesn't make sense!" I told him!
"Hmm?" Confusion was seen on his face before his eyes sparkled like they were a saying
"Teaching time!"" He whispered, "Typically, conscious beings are under someone else rule because being in a society is better than being alone. So there needs to be a form of ruler at all times. Since we can't get rid of the concept of tyrants ultimately, then all we can do is to get Tyrants we like into that seat to suppress other tyrants."
"It sounds like a terrible plan" I retorted, "Like it's a ploy for a Mega Bad Tyrant to keep himself in power"
"I would agree, if he didn't have people to keep him in check"
"So there's a careful balance of powers?"
"Mhmm! As long as we like his rule then a Caesar won't happen" (Caesar was betrayed by his closest people)
"So how does he ensure against just bribing you to say yes to everything he says? I've seen it far too many times. A gang of higher-ups in Church's, Kingdoms, even Mercenary Groups that are bribed to be a dedicated Yes-Man.""
"We aren't necessarily interested in power, fame or money. We have our interests that can only be gained through the natural progression of the status quo"
"The fuck? Your silly words hurt my brain man"
"Just think about it like this, we are only interested in products that come from the future of the current status quo."
"So how has that worked out for you?"
"Surprisingly well" he commented, "Although disagreements can happen, we have our ways of dealing with them. If anything then I would need to commend our leader Melphistoles for picking good people to work with"
"What happens if someone tries to take your power?" I asked out of curiosity
Uriel pondered for a bit, "You wouldn't be able to use it. Think of Oil for example, Oil is what this world runs on, but if you lose the refinement method then Oil is useless. That's the same with our world. How does your world handle its power?"
"Augh, it's complicated." I began, "Magic is the main source of Energy on our World. Pure Magic is gained through the seasonal radiation of our stars. You can imagine our World like a Giant Donut with Stars orbiting around the Donut. We have long season of light and darkness and in the middle is a huge sun. The Moons and Asteroids that orbit our Donut Shaped World is where the magical particles come from which litter the land. People who grab onto these magical particles and can harness them are the ones in power. It's a world purely based on the energy source of Magical Particles that emit through radiation from the sun."
"Sounds Chaotic" He noted, "Like a place where there are strong, but countless wars are made for the sake of more power"
"Yeah" I said melancholically, remembering the memories I had of my world. "But it isn't all bad! That's only in the super scarce places! Most of the time we can build beautiful and wonderful landscapes and cities from the Magic Particles. In places abundant with it the people live a good life."
"Now that doesn't sound so bad!" He remarked, "I also must say, my world isn't full of roses as well! We have some pretty rough parts around our edges where we can barely access. We try our best, but it's always a reminder that there is more work to be done!"
"Yes!" I nodded in glee!, "So why are you here?"
"Establishing a Trade Route from Earth to Inkosoyth"
My ears perked up! Wait if they hold the power to change the laws of the world then would it be possible to bring their powers back to Elgatross to impose a new world order?
Gosh I'm no different than everyone else, I still need power to achieve my ideals.
"How did you get here?" He asked back,
I looked at him annoyed, knowing damn well why I ended up here. "I saw someone opening a hole in this dimension like a lighthouse signaling to the sea so I had to come here and say Hi"
His cheeks flushed red. Hehe he finally realized what he has done.
"Surely that has nothing that has got to do with you" I snarked
"Surely not" he smirked back, "Okay, Okay, I admit but you came here of your own volition"
"I know" I looked at the sun, setting from yellow to orange, in a matter of few minutes, instead of days like in Elgatross where seasons were determined by the slow movements of the sun.
"There are only a few minutes left" I told him
"I know." he responded, "I want to know, Why did you jump across worlds? That's a huge risk. Was it just an accident?"
I shook my head, "It wasn't an accident, I was just desperate enough, to find a solution. If nothing on my world worked, then I might have missed my chance if I never grabbed at this opportunity."
He listened to me silently, as we patiently watch the orange turn into red. "I'm looking for a way to save my tribe"
Solace passed through his cold black eyes, rippling to show a glimpse of sadness behind his aloof mask.
"Then do you want to team-up?" He asked, as the red sun turned blood red, and the sun began to fall like a bobber on a fishing line. "You help me establish an economy, I'll do everything in my power to find a way to save your tribe"
"That isn't too bad" I remarked, seeing the dark red sun sink in the backgrounds, as the darkness crept where the light cannot touch. A dark orange glow emitted from the crack in space near the contract, encircling both of us like a steam bath before entering the contract inside Belphegor's hand.
"That marks the end of the sunset" Belphegor established as he slowly got up, "Remember not to mention anything, I'll send you a copy of the contract so that you can have a more general understanding of it. Is there anything else you want from me?"
I looked around, seeing the sun gone and the moon light up the sky, "Yeah, How do I contact you?"
The little boy with old eyes pondered, "Have you ever heard of pigeon delivery birds?" His eyes lit up with an exuberance of youth, "Let's use those! Do you have a familiar you can send? or like what magic powers do you have?"
"Fuck no. These are just normal beasts here, I don't have enough magic energy in the atmosphere that I can use to tame the beasts"
:Belphegor frowned. "Do you have a phone?" He begrudgingly asked.
"Yes" I responded, pulling it out. We exchanged numbers before we left that night.