As we finally reached the doors of the throne room, a Void eye appeared. Valsiel walked out of it and bowed her head.
"Valsiel...this ends now," I said.
"Yes... This really is the end...isn't it?" She said.
I simply nodded and approached the massive double doors. I kicked them as hard as I could and caused them to fly off of the hinges and slam into the ground.
The four of us entered the throne room and Difar simply stared at us.
"Miserable little...ugh... Welcome to the throne room of the Abyss. I am Lord Cain Difar, Abyssal god of Corruption and absolute ruler of the Abyss," he said.
"I already know that, you shithead," I said angrily.
"A formality. Why don't you join me in speaking your name? This is, after all, the last time we will ever meet. Wouldn't you agree? This ends today and only one of us will survive this battle." Difar said.
I couldn't help but feel like he was acting rather strangely...but I decided to play his game.
"I am King Mizik Iratus, the Destroyer of Worlds and Artificer of the divine realm of Dominus. Third generation exo-human, Captain of the Cursebreaker...and the one destined to destroy you."
"I am Isbella Iratus, first wife of Mizik and Avatar of Order. Vice-captain of the Cursebreaker."
"My name is Cassandra Iratus, the second wife of Mizik. I am the Avatar of Chaos and a Vice-captain of the Cursebreaker."
"Good. Thank you for demonstrating your status to my court. Now they understand a bit more as to why they shouldn't just attack you on sight," Difar said.
"Is that all?" I asked.
"Yes. I am a King, after all. I have a court. Everyone...this is the man who defeated Valtheim. If I were you, I would be hesitant to attack him. You have been warned."
The succubi and other strange monsters seemed to cower as they saw us. It was a good feeling.
I took several steps closer to Difar and he simply remained seated.
"You know why I'm here, don't you?" I said.
"To succeed me? Perhaps. But you want to kill me more than that, right?"
"I don't want your shitty kingdom of monsters. I want your head on a pike. Is that easy to understand? You destroyed our world...killed our friends and family. You murdered trillions on your quest...AND FOR WHAT!?!? I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY!!!! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST STAY DOWN HERE AND ROT!?!?" I screamed.
"Since I'm assuming you've already heard Valsiel's story...let me tell you. Honestly this time. I did it for revenge. Yes, as cliché it is, I wanted revenge. When the last Difar took Valsiel from me, he banished me to the deep Abyss."
"Then the ruins we saw down there..."
"Those were the ruins of a civilization that once existed down there. One that my wife and I lived in. They fell into disrepair as the deep ones rose up and took over...but in my rage, I awoke to a new power unlike anything I had ever seen before."
"And that would be?"
"Corruption. The negativity in my heart, the pure agonizing rage and suffering I endured caused be to awaken a power that warped everything I touched. My Corruption began to change the deep Abyss into a hell much worse than what it was after the deep ones rose up. I began to experiment with ideas as well..."
"My Lord, is this-"
Difar's hand flinched as a bolt of black energy skewered the floating eye with tentacles near the throne. It died instantly.
"Let me continue. I experimented with the energies coming from the Void...if you can believe that those even exist. The Insanity and The Devourer, helped me to understand them and conduct several tests. I wanted Valsiel back...to save me from my torment. But that salvation never arrived..."
"And that was how Valtheim came about?" I asked.
He nodded.
"In our Void tests, we managed to glimpse into the above worlds. Humans had been brought down through other means in the past...and became a rare delicacy in the Difar's domain. But such feats were nearly impossible under normal circumstances. The Void existed as a barrier to keep us contained. But when we also managed to figure it out...we saw a world. You called it...Tanavol."
"..."
"Oh yes. We were able to commune with the Central realm and convince them of the need for a divine prosthesis. But one that was broken and useless to them. It could not be used in the eye, nor would it function as the eyes did. They sent it to us via the medium of communication. The Insanity retrieved it first. I ran many tests on it...with interesting results."
"So Valtheim really is an Avatar of Tanavol?" I asked.
"Let me finish. The prosthesis only functioned without the presence of anything and resisted the power of The Void. Most of them required the Central realm's Elder Core to do anything...while this one repelled all energies. I simply modified the prosthesis to suit my needs. It told it to create a specific form, to obey only me, and to return once it had accomplished this...then I journeyed to the place of execution...there Valsiel died. I threw it into the Void...and moments later, Valtheim returned."
I wasn't sure why he was telling me this...but I wasn't about to stop him.
"I thought it was my beloved Valsiel and hugged her...losing my arms in the process... Thanks to the Corruption, however, they returned to me. The thing that appeared had no emotion and no will of her own. But she was far stronger than any known entity in either Creation or the Abyss. Since she was not Valsiel...I named her 'Kratheim'. The Abyssal word for false. Taking away Kra and adding 'Val' to represent who she was supposed to be. The false Valsiel. Pronounced...'Valtheim'. And with her serving me...we conquered the entire Abyss. Every single Abyssal god in the realms below was killed...and I absorbed their power. Gaining strength with my Corruption. Until we finally came here. I fought with all of my power against the Difar and won. Valtheim dealt the final blow...and I devoured his Core... With that, I took his place."
"You still haven't told us what you really want..." I said.
"Let. Me. Finish! When I conquered the Abyss, I realized that even though I had everything...I still had nothing. Nothing in this life was worth the hell and suffering I went through to get it. I had everything I ever wanted...but I wasn't happy. All I really desired...was for my dear Valsiel to return. Not the false remnant that stands beside you. I wanted MY Valsiel... And so, I cursed the Creator's name...and vowed to have my revenge. I would take his precious creation and combine it with the Abyss using my Corruption. And when he had nothing left, I would be the new Creator. I would take everything from him...because he allowed everything to be taken from me! Do you understand, Mizik?"
"I think so..."
"Yes. We really aren't that different. As cliché as it sounds, we want the same thing: revenge on the one who took everything from us. And only the one who has the stronger will can succeed in their goal. The Creator made you in response to my actions. Whatever or whoever was supposed to nurture you isn't my concern. But when I entered Avernia, I was repeatedly warned by the gods not to interfere. They called it a shield world and simply told me to leave...oh how naive I was... I was locked in a reset loop the moment I began channeling my power onto Avernia's core through the mines in Lorelei. Apparently, I got a little too close to something they didn't want me to find. You."
"And the story begins there..." I said.
"Exactly. A young man and his father entered the mines. The father told his son to run. I killed the man and let the boy go. Later on...I killed a Princess down in the mines south of Albatross...the boy was there too, but he escaped. And after I destroyed Avernia, I found it humorous...that years later on a completely different world nearby...that the same boy somehow managed to hop to another world to escape me. And once I finally killed him...I ended up back in Lorelei. I watched carefully as I did everything the exact same and killed the boy again on Ignitus...and after that, I did a test. I killed the boy at the start...and was reset. Over and over, I killed him until I nearly went mad from it. I tried befriending him, leaving Avernia all together, and everything you can possibly imagine! But nothing worked. So I decided...to nurture you. To manually break out of the reset using you and your own abilities. And it worked."
"The reset incident..."
"Exactly. Once the blasted Oracle died, I was free. And so I wanted to savor the last time I killed you. I regret everything, to be perfectly honest."
"And you'll only regret it for a short time," I said.
"Cain...please. This is your last chance. Please stop this!" Valsiel said.
He shook his head.
"It's too late for me, you fake... I'm too far gone to be redeemed. Besides, there's no way in hell that one would let me go free," Difar said.
"That fake is your dead wife, Difar," I said.
"She is not. That Valsiel is an amalgamation of thoughts and memories from the previous version. It isn't really her and I don't believe that lying to myself would solve anything. I'm too smart to believe my own lies."
"Fine then. I guess it doesn't matter anyway..." I said.
I manifested my claws and prepared to fight. Isabella and Cassandra readied their blades.
"I am resolved unto death to take you on, Mizik. Very well...we will begin. The hero and his allies versus the monstrous King. Please do me a favor...and bring one final moment of meaning to my existence."
Difar slowly stood up and stepped down from his throne.
He stood across from us and glared at me with his remaining eye.
"Today...one of us dies. Permanently," I said.