Chereads / Boiling Gems (The Owl House x Steven Universe) / Chapter 76 - A Bird Atop A Crystal: The Sun and The Lightning Bolt

Chapter 76 - A Bird Atop A Crystal: The Sun and The Lightning Bolt

Summary: The power of stars and skies ... how revolting

The Titan gazed down at the enemy in front of him. "Did you honestly expect us to stand by?" He asked. "Did you honestly assume a species wouldn't fight for its world's survival?" The arrogance of these moving rocks.

"I expected a species to recognize when they were faced with an enemy they clearly aren't prepared to take on." The yellow fiend glared hatefully at their kind. "You savage brutes should feel honored we even considered your planet to be a colony for our Empire."

"Prepared to take on, you say." He raised his hand high. "Then let us see how your bite compares to your bark." They swung forward, fist moving with speeds that caused light itself to lag behind it.

"A strike? Against a diamond? Organics truly do find more ways to get more ridiculous." The yellow fiend dodged every strike, their speeds being comparable to the point where they came off as nothing more than brief flashes and blurs to the naked eye.

If physical blows were ineffective … "BRAAAA!!!" He sent forth a scream that parted the Boiling Sea itself.

"Hyper…sonics…clever…" The yellow one's body seemed to glitch out of existence, like it was having trouble staying still and standing. "However…I am a Diamond..and I don't fall down easily!" Sticking out her hands, she focused them together and had their entire body resonate with yellow energy, blasting straight at his head.

He felt the blast, noting the blood dripping down. "Making a titan bleed …" He touched the spot, letting the energy flow externally and internally. "That, was your biggest mistake." Compressing the power as hard as he could, and threw the ball of space time directly at the yellow fiend.

"No, making a diamond wait was yours!" Then yellow once vomited to fire at the attack, surrounding it with her yellow power as the colors of the infinite cosmos swelled within it.

It seemed unstable, violent, able to tear them both apart with a simple- "Oh, a ball!" … Fuck. "Are we playing catch, why didn't you invite me Trackor?" The most dangerous child in the cosmos asked, holding their combined attack and tossing it up and down as if it was a toy.

"What in the name of the stars are you doing?" The yellow one, seemingly one to ask for death at every corner and chance, spoke to the child as if she wasn't about to get incinerated.

"Joining in on the game, that's what." The child laughed, tossing the ball at him. The titan was forced to duck as it began tearing through reality. "Oh, is it dodgeball?" They began forming multiple balls of unstable cosmic energy. "Why didn't you say so? What teams are we doing? And who's this new player?"

"I am Yellow Diamond, and I demand to know who you are and how you're doing..this!?" 

"Pfft, someone's spent a millennia or two on the wrong side of the bed, am I right?" The collector snorted. "As for the how…I dunno. I think 'I want to have fun' and then 'poof' I'm having fun!"

"What leap in logic is-" One of the balls went right through the rock woman's arm, dismantling it into a glitchy mess. "What!?"

"Invader ... meet the Collector. A deity capable of altering the realm at their whims, with the maturity of a hatchling." The titan sighed out their exhaustion with … EVERYTHING.

"What, but how, I-I-I.." The woman kept glitching.

"Whoa, so your like a big game lady with a light body? Cool, like a rock robot. Who programmed you? Were they fun? Did they program some fun games in you?"

"How would your backwater planet understand the concept of a robot!?" She shouted, charging up even more energy.

"... No clue, I just know because I wanna." The boy spoke with his disturbing smile. "Information comes and goes, but you've opened up the floodgates. I've never seen a toy as interesting as you before. I think I'm gonna keep ya!"

"Keep … she brings things to destroy the world!" The titan shouted. "To turn this land into nothing but lifeless husks!"

"Hm, never seen that game before, at least not globally." The collector held out his hand and caught the ball of energy. "How do you play?"

"I kill every living thing, then I drain this planet dry." She growled.

"Oh, then let's take turns." He grabbed the ball of energy, shifting it and shoving it into her chest … reforming her body. "You hit me, then I hit you back." … He wasn't quite sure if this was a preferable outcome or not.

"I will fry you, little child!"

"You can try, but it won't work!

"Trust me … many have tried before." So many times.

"Then I'll just try even harder!"

"A challenger that likes difficult mode, I am definitely gonna keep you!" The collector cheered. "We're gonna travel the cosmos tougher and be best friends forever!" … Please don't destroy the planets.

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Pearl watched as her Diamond groaned. "You threw a constellation at me … even ignoring the physics of size, the sheer heat of the stars should have melted the planet!"

"I told you that it was like picking up a snowball. You have snowballs on this planet, don't you?" The source of her diamond's frustrations suddenly popped into existence, as the child did every now and again.

"Constellations are just stars far away! It would be the equivalent of moving hundreds of suns!"

"You make it sound like moving the sun is hard. I have to raise it when we play shadow games after all." This was absolute proof of her Diamond's level of prowlers and resoluteness. A lesser being would've gone mad listening to the moon child for the last six hundred years.

"Do you even comprehend how you arrived into existence?" Her Diamond questioned.

"An Axolotl told me to have fun." The child shrugged. "I think a corn chip and a ladybug might've been involved too, but that part's a bit of a blur. Bottom line is someone wanted a change, and I provided that change in the funnest way possible."

"By causing absolute chaos." Yellow groaned. "If White saw my sorry state now …"

"Then I'll just show her something fun too, and bring the joy to everyone!" The moon child laughed. "Don't get why you're so afraid of her. Sure, scary voice and kind of tall, but nothing special."

"... As someone who's never spoken to her, you don't get to say that." Yellow deadpanned. "She's the pinnacle of everything our race needs to be. Failure to achieve even a fraction of that brilliance will have..dire consequences."

The moon child looked at her diamond in the eyes for a few seconds with a puzzled expression. "So..this white chick is why you're so stressed out all the time?"

Yellow looked shocked, before becoming appalled. "I am not stressed out!"

"Your shouting says otherwise."

"It's caused by annoyance from you!"

"Oh really, then let's get a third party opinion, shall we?" The moon child popped in front of her. "Hey, YP, tell me, as my best friends loyal secretary for the last ten thousand years or so, was she stressed out before I came here?"

"I am not liable to answer to anyone about how my diamond-" The Moon Child snapped a finger. "White's standards made it hard to keep up, Pink alone was the only relief she had aside from blue." She held a hand over her mouth.

"See, telling the truth doesn't hurt anyone." The moon child smirked as her diamond began zapping the child, to no avail as usual. "Doesn't it feel good to let it all out?"

"You cosmic ignoramus! If White ever saw what you just did, she'd shatter my pearl without a second thought, and any other gem you've come in contact with!"

The child tilted their head. "In that case, I'll just poof White."

"Poof…White…. Pooof white!?"  Her diamond exclaimed. "Do you have any idea what your suggesting!? The upset you'll cause, the wrath you will incur!?"

"Oh, like I haven't pissed off a Koala before." The child rolled their eyes. "Look, from where I'm sitting, this white is giving you a bum deal without break, and your losing it. I poof White, and then you're free to run the empire however you want. Not White's way, your way."

The Diamond paused, looking puzzled, and somewhat intrigued. "I..no, that's impossible, I couldn't.."

"I've seen how you plan things out, how the gems adore you, you could totally do it."

"Resources on Homeworld are scarce without Pink, getting rid of white would dwindle the quality of gem life even more…"

"I could fix that up." The child smirked. "Just a snap of my fingers, and I can provide the essence you need to make more gems, heck, I could make them even better than they were before Pink! You can have an army of invincible soldiers that'll never lose a fight!"

"... Why do this?" Her Diamond questioned.

"Cause you're fun." They grinned. "Come on, imagine it … the games we could have with an entire race of people …" The boy chuckled. "Imagine the fun we could have!" The sky itself seemed to laugh in joy with the moon child. "No more stress, no worries, heck, you can find time to be with Blue without worrying about White assimilating her! Wouldn't that be perfect…your idea of perfect?"

"..." Her Diamond stared at the child. "... It would be."

"Then let's do it!" They laughed, as the planet itself began to move. "Lets poof White!"

"If this goes wrong, I am never going to talk to you again." Yellow groaned.

"And if this goes right, you have to play every game I make up for the next two thousand years without complaint." The boy ginned.

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Greg cracked his neck as he got out of his bed. "Great, now I need to spend money on fixing a defluffed pillow." He muttered. Why did sitting in a cubicle all day cause so much back pain? All he did was sit down! That should've been the definition of easy life!

At least it would've been, normally, had he not listened to his parents and gave up on his music career. Sure, he had a steady check every two weeks and a decent amount of money stored up, but by god was he empty inside. It was just nothing but wake up, breakfast, work, home, shower, sleep. Endless repetition without anything meaningful.

No joy, no passion, not even a decent laugh every now and again. The only upside was that he lived by himself now and could eat whatever he wanted. He could sit back quietly and enjoy a street taco or a frozen burrito without a single shred of his parents' meatloaf anywhere. Also the internet finally expanded into something useful, so he didn't have to hide away cassette tapes to listen to decent music.

But that was small potatoes in the long run. Greg could only afford to be the real him for what, one hour a day? Two? When that was over, it was back to the repetitive tedium that was his life.

He adjusted the tie he was forced to wear every day and left out the door, walking to work, because driving would mean he'd get there faster, and he was desprete for any delay or diversion. As he was fiddling with his ear buds, he ran into something. "Sorry there …" He looked up and said the first, stupid thing that popped into his head. "Giant woman." Damn it, gutter brain.

The woman was indeed a giant, standing seven feet tall, maybe even a little higher with those heels on. She wore a yellow pantsuit with a black hat, and straight blonde hair. If he squinted a little, her skin almost looked completely yellow too. "I see you're not exactly a shameful man, are you?" The woman spoke in a tone that screamed dominator. This was the kind of woman that would step on him, and he wasn't sure of how okay he should be with that.

"It's … buried deeply." He nodded. "Just kinda … done with a lot of things in life." Greg felt like admitting. It was a random stranger after all, not like they'd tell anyone he knew.

"I've been there before, for far too long." The woman groaned. "Those closest to you just say everything is fine. They flatter you, say you have a good life, but really.."

"You wake up feeling more dead inside than ever." He finished for her. "You repeat an endless cycle for so long you forget why you're doing it, or if you ever felt alive before."

"Yes …" She sighed. "At this point I'm just trying anything new …" She held up a cigar so big that it should've killed someone. "Smoking doesn't seem to actually do anything, despite how many people enjoy it."

"Tried a smoking phase myself once upon a time. Had to go to the hospital after the first day, and never tried it again." He weakly laughed. "It was like there was a storm cloud in my lungs from what the x rays showed me."

"Lungs?" She questioned.

"Yeah, smogged them up real good. I was tasting tobacco for a week." He rubbed his neck. "Name's Greg." 

"..Yell.." The woman paused for a second, shaking her head. Yelena Diamos." Sounded spanish. Wait, was that too presumptuous? Should he keep that to himself? He's been out of the game for a while.

"Nice to meet you, Yelena. You new around town?" He asked, trying to make as good of an impression as possible. This was probably the most excitement he's had in years.

"No … but it's been a long time since I've seen the place." She gazed around. "Time changes so little yet so much, it's almost like a completely different planet."

"I wish more things changed around her from my perspective. There are just days where I want to shout at the universe to give me something different." Greg responded honestly.

"Give it a couple of years, you notice things … how about I show you what's changed?" She asked, beginning to walk away.

Well … wouldn't be the first time he's called in sick.

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The Collector laughed. "The Appoplexians are so funny! They run all around and punch wildly!" It was a riot. "Just a giant field of cats scratching each other up and yelling like maniacs! You should've been there, Yellow, it was the best!"

"Much as I would've enjoyed seeing organics beating each other senseless, I do still have an empire to run, you know." His best friend rolled her eyes.

"Please, you've been leaving your Pearl at the desk half the time anyways. You've been having your special play time with that human for a few years now." The child grinned.

"... Doesn't it grow dull?" She asked. "The repetition?"

"... What?" The Collector asked. "There's an entire multiverse, why would it be dull?"

"Just…I don't know….I've lived for a few thousand years without worry or stress lingering over my head…I'm the closest to happy I'll ever be…I'm expanding the empire…but I don't know what I'm expanding it into." The yellow girl groaned. "And you…you've spent all of eternity going through game after game…how do you not…burn out? How do you keep going without losing interest?"

"Losing your muse, huh? I have that problem occasionally every third milenia or so." The collector mused. "That's why I tend to let other people pick games every now and then. Games from a source you never expected can be so much fun." He gasped. "Let's ask Blue to play."

"No, the moment she realizes your existence, she'll forgo everything to bring Pink back, and as a being of change, you don't undo the dead."

"Got it on the mark, buddy." Plus Pink wasn't dead, but the gem seemed to be playing some kind game on earth, so he wouldn't ruin her fun. "So what you're saying now is that you, specifically you, are having trouble figuring out what to do with all your power and authority.?"

"Precisely." She sighed. "I've reached greater heights than White … but now there's not much ambition left."

"Then there's only one solution…become something entirely new, evolve yourself and become something better!" He grinned. "Tell me, how close are you and that human you keep visiting?"

"Close…I think." She answered. "I presume we're intimate. We've engaged in what human's prefer to call 'coitus', though I don't entirely understand the point."

"Then how about we both play a game." He spun his head upside down, letting the stars twinkle behind him. "One where we play even after we die?"

Her eyes widened. "... Ignoring the stupidity of that idea … can you even die?"

"If I don't want to exist, then I don't, and something replaces me." The Collector answered. "It's like that for everything … well, except the big three up there." Old Koala head would probably throw a party once he was gone…which would make the comeback part all the more amazing. "Have you ever wondered how humans went from hairy mindless monkey to talking monkey's in fancy looking suits?"

"Not particularly, though it's honestly a bit jarring to consider them actual people rather than animals." Yellow nodded.

"Because they existed before once, and then they'll exist again." He spun around an orbiting moon. "It's like a disk. Endlessly rotating, each mildly different, but key points rarely differentiate… that's the flow of fate." Something his boss wanted obliterated. "Now imagine that, being applied to you. An eternally living being with untold levels of power, having that power grow, cultivate, continuously turning into something new and grand with each passing day. That is the power of change. You follow my lead, and I guarantee something amazing will come from both you and your empire."

"... I think I see the point." Yellow looked intrigued. "Similar to how we have weak gems power stronger objects."

"Exactly! We'll both do it. We'll experience a change no Gem or cosmic being would ever consider doing!" He grabbed his friend by the face. "We'll both become…HUMAN!"

"... Human?" She asked. "You want to become … organic?!"

The Collector stared at her for a moment. "Oh, I must have forgot to cut my toe nails, or blink my eyes, or look over my round ears." They sarcastically responded. "New existence, new body, new experiences, and new chances to grow."

"Grow into what?" She questioned.

The Collector sent her a grin. "Into everything."

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"WHOOOHOOOOOOOO!" Steven shouted as he slid down one of the hundreds of crystal pipes that covered the entirety of homeworld. They were basically like giant slides he got to ride at a hundred miles an hour. Nowhere near the light speed the hardships went, but this was close second until he owned his own.

"Get back here, my diamond!" The fuddy duddy Pearl tried to stop him once more. Giving them a run for their life gave half the meaning of waking up in the morning to Steven. "You have lessons to attend to!"

"Sorry YP, but I have my own lessons! Like what's the fastest speed I can reach without moving a single muscle!?" He yelled back as he lept off one pipe and slid right on top of another. "And which of these buildings should I tear down to build the universe's biggest slide?"

"Your mother spent so long making this city, do not tear them down!" Ah yes, the ever famous and glorious 'Yellow Diamond'. Co-leader of Homeworld and the visionary behind era three. That would mean something to Steven if he actually met her, but he didn't, so all he was hearing right now was 'some dead lady wasn't here'. Which meant he was free to do whatever he wanted!

"Suck an organic fruit sharing my color scheme!" Steven called out as he hid inside of a tunnel, snickering as she ran past him. 

"Ugggh! You little intolerable little peb-UGGGGHH! Curse you moon child and your manipulative mind games!" The Pearl grumbled as she went in the opposite direction.

"Stuck up pencil neck. What's got her gem in a twist?" Why couldn't she be cool with him like Blue was? Sure she got mopey and cried alot, but she gave the coolest feeling hugs and loved to play when she wasn't working. Kind of a downer and a mood killer whenever she called him Yellow though.

"Now what kind of chaos can I cause …" Nobody trusted him around ships anymore after that star crash incident … maybe he could go near the old Kindergarten and test out some fun little powers that showed up out of nowhere. Maybe blast the ground hard enough he'll activate one of the leftover gems that never formed.

If he could get off the planet, then he could have a whole new playground to explore. Show off his stuff as a Diamond and create a creative chaotic kingdom of fun. Better than just making a thousand gems over and over again for the sake of making more gems. What was the point of making so many gems if they never did anything interesting?"

He gazed up at the infinite cosmos. The twinkling expans of infinity filled with stars, small, big … really big … super big … it was getting bigger? … oh, nevermind, it was just getting closer. "Oooh, I thought the sky falling was just a myth dad told me." Weird guy he was. Don't know why Blue had him locked up in the zoo all day. He was harmless enough.

The sky piece just fell, coming closer, closer, closer, and even closer to him. It finally landed in front of him, eternity looking at him straight in the eyes, the vastness of infinity filling his brain with an endless sea of colors and impossibility.

"Missed me~." He sang out with a smirk, looking at whatever the heck was in front of him. "Hm, I feel like this is one of those things YP is always telling me to never touch." He thought about it for a second. "So that means I get to touch it!"

He poked at the thing, feeling a strange tugging sensation. "Oooh. It's like gelatin times ten." He grinned, placing his head inside of it. Maybe it would be like that time he fell into water and saw some fish for the first time! "So cool and jiggly…..I should poke it even harder!" 

He reached deep into the piece of space, and his vision became filled with endless possibilities. World's beyond imagination, where gravity didn't exist, where the seas were filled with mushrooms and gravy, where people lived on a giant corpse on boiling water. "So many world's … so many places to have fun in….I want to see them all!" 

Steven wasn't sure how he was going to get their without a ship, so he did the only thing he could think to do…zapped it endlessly until something happened.

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Luz groaned as she gazed upon the witches. "You're all so boring."

"I can have fun!" The girl with glasses spoke with desperation. "Watch!" She created a flower that had a strange center, jumping on it as it bounced her high. "See!?" She shouted, clearly trying to gain favor and not be kicked out of the game.

"A bouncy flower … is that really the most original idea you have?" The girl walked up to the girl, who's fear instantly grew, making her fall off the flower and land on her butt. "I've been really…really patient with this world. I really have. I came here from my boring dimension because I thought you witches had some imagination to you. Sure, you're not as strong as me, but you have magic, the world should be your canvas for titan's sake!"

"What about this!?" The dark skinned boy created multiple copies that all danced around, before getting into an argument. "This could be entertaining, right?!"

"... I've seen more entertainment in a sitcom." Luz complained. "I know I can't expect you all to try to put up a better result than Belos, but at least he put up a minor fight with all those tricks they had. Isn't that right?" She turned to the floating mask. "'Yeppers Luzzy. I feel mighty stupid not playing a game with you and instead doing real dumb things.' See, even he knows the error of his ways."

"For the love of Titan, why won't you let me die!?" The mask spoke with their real voice.

"Because death is boring, and playtime is hard." Luz laughed, chucking the mask aside. "Look, I don't like being mean, I'm not a mean kind of gal, I'm not. But when you push my patience like this…then I have to be the bad guy here." She lifted up a finger. "So who'd liked to be it now?"

"Time pools!" The finger stopped, as she turned to a brown haired girl standing in front of glasses. "Time pools … can be fun."

"... What's a time pool?" She questioned.

"My mentor spoke of them … they're…they're pools of time….made out of dried titan blood." The brown haired girl spoke. "If you're lucky, you can go ten thousand years into the future … where we will obviously have better games."

"Hm…well evolution does dictate your species would improve themselves significantly give or take a thousand years…heck, maybe the magic will advance your body's to ethereal forms and we can have cosmic dodgeballs and flying suns at each other!" Finally, someone said something interesting. "Alright, I sold. Come on people!" She snapped her fingers, lifting the girl and the other two up in the air. "We're going to the future!"

"Wait, why are we going!?" The glasses girl shouted.

"Because you're on thin ice for being boring." She lightly frosted the girl. "And she gave an excellent suggestion." Luz gestured to the brown haired one. "To the future, we go-"

Crash

They both stared at the meteor that came through the area, the one that tore off the head of the brown guy. "GUS!" Glasses screamed.

"Ooohh …" She looked over to the new object. "Rarely see shooting stars." Luz jokes. "Must be my lucky day."

"GUS JUST DIED!" The brown haired girl shrieked.

"Eh, it's his fault for just knowing illusions. Not like he'll be missed." The cosmos were too big to worry about one single witch. "Now, let's see what you're all about." She poked the star, which was more accurately described as a compressed void of space time collapsing on itself. "Boooop." She pressed it.

The moment her finger made contact with it, a spark of electricity emerged, coming out of the ball, enveloping the area in yellow energy. "WHAT'S HAPPENING!?" Glasses shouted.

"Either something's trying to break through, or this section of reality is about to go bye-bye." Luz confirmed. "Pretty light show though. I give it eight out of ten."

"You're not worried about this!?" Brown hair shouted.

"Relax, relax, I've got this." Luz just wrapped a neat little bow around it. "There, that'll stop the explosion-" A lightning bolt emerged from the little, hitting her in the chest and sending Luz flying back. "Wow … that ….tickled ….. that really … really … tickled." It was strange, it was a new sensation she's never felt…..AND IT WAS AMAZING!

Before she could ponder the possibilities that could come from this, the ball exploded, showing off more light and electricity convulsing, before it imploded in on itself, and then exploding again, shooting out something bigger and just as yellow. "WHOOOOHOOOO!" The thing shouted, shooting ontop of the ground and landing with heat and steam radiation off of it. "Stars, that was a trip. Who would've thought getting stuck in the void between time and space would be so hectic?"

She stared at the boy covered in yellow armor, black hair and a starry eyed gaze around him. "Hello there, new friend!" Luz cheered, ditching the two and moving closer.

"New friend?" The boy tilted his head. "A little presumptuous, don't you think … whatever kind of thing you are?"

"I'm a Luz." She twirled around, presenting her space themed robe.

"Luu....zer?"

"No silly, Luuuz…" She echoed, cupping his face. "The only one of my kind, magic extraordinaire, and proactive advocate for all things fun and different, as long as they're never boring."

"Now that is something I can get behind." The boy chuckled. "I take it you've never seen a gem?"

"Like the rock?"

"Yep." He showed off a yellow stone inside of his chest. "I'm a diamond … which means I can do this!" He raised an arm forward, shooting out lightning and obliterating the forest, along with some three eyed girl that Luz got bored of earlier.

"Oooh, pretty lights." Luz nodded. Those definitely weren't ordinary lightning blasts. This kid was something special..but she needed to make sure. "What else you got? One trick ponies only get so far."

"Oh, I also happen to do this from time to time." He lit up yellow, and disappeared for a second. "Boo." She turned her head, and saw her behind him. "I've been trying to reach lightspeed, only able to get to mach 2, maybe three if I push it. And I do this occasionally." He patted his cheeks, which became covered in yellow fur and feline like. "Meow."

"Now we're getting somewhere." She chuckled.

"What about you? Just the starry light show?"

"Light show?" She laughed. "Listen banana pants, I'm more than just a light show." She poofed out of existence, and came back floating above him with a cotton candy cloud. "I'm playtime incarnate. Care for some chocolate rain?"

"Now we're getting somewhere!" He cackled, taking a bite of it. "Wanna see what kinda crazy clouds we can make when we can combine out powers!?"

"Combine powers…I never knew something was possible…let's do it!" She cheered, grabbing his hand as it lit up in a sparkly cosmic fusion.

A bright beam shot up in the air, forming a gaint cloud…that was big…green…and had a mean toothy smile on it. " CLOUDY ANGRY! CLOUDY TAKE ANGER OUT ON WORLD!" Tornadoes of fire spun out of it as hailstones the size of houses spread all over the isles.

"We made a baby!" Steven gasped.

"... I am not paying child support." Luz chuckled. "This is going to be fun."

"THE WHOLE ISLE IS ON FIRE!"

"Like I said, this is going to be fun." Finally, a playmate that knew how to have a good time.

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Eda crawled as gently as she could, moving through the narrow tunnels. This required never being noticed, even once. Praying to the titan that they couldn't pick up even a smidgen of sound. "Talk to me sister, how's it looking out there?" She spoke softly into her crow.

"Well … it seems that the Lighting boy is more mortal than we thought."

"How do you figure?" If there was a weakness they could exploit here, they owed it to the isles to dedicate every resource they had to taking them down, even if it was just one of them.

"He's been … 'flirting' with my pupil's siblings, if you can call whatever he thinks he's doing that." She could feel Lilith shudder. " He's offered fifteen witches hearts to them on a river of blood and skulls…what's worse is I think that they're into it."

Eda shivered. Teenage romance, the worst kind of romance. "Sadly, nothing on Moon Girl, she's just playing around with the Titan's organs."

"If your algae makes time pools … what can I do with lungs?" The girl chuckled. "Oh the fun little games!" So indemane and cruel. The world was nothing but a playground for them, and they were the dolls they could be broken within seconds if they weren't careful.

"Yo, Luzzy, the cult is building another statue of us." The Lighting child called out. "Do you want it made out of gold or chocolate?"

"Gold. I wanna wear it like armor when we try that one knight fantasy game we had stored on the list." The girl answered. "And we both know chocolate is better melted into ice scream anyway."

"Aw, I was hoping to make it out of chocolate and have it be in a gladiator style fight. Witches go in and try to eat it before it can eat them." 

"Save that for when we have them make giant marshmallow bunnies." The moon girl suggested. "That way they have a fair chance to burn them or cut them, but at the same time have the advantage offset by the feral nature."

"... I will never understand your almighty yet irrational fear of rodents." The thunder child shook their head.

"Once you see Monty Python, you know the fear that's there." The girl shuddered. "And on that note, do we really have to call them a cult? Why can't we call them our fanclub? That sounds more fun."

"Yeah, but cult also brings more respect." The lightning boy child spoke.

"You say respect in the same sentence as people who blow up when I poke them." She said in a disappointed tone.

"Respect, fear, same diff, we have fun either way." The boy laughed. "We have an endless playground of entertainment and pleasure that only God's get to experience."

"I'm not a god, I'm a superpowered thing." The Moon Girl spoke. "Gods just sit up on the clouds and never do stuff directly, just making bets on what's gonna happen with minor intervention. It's boring." She began shifting, becoming one with the shadows of the cave as she showed herself chasing witches through the forest. "I like the thrill of hunts, the challenge of tricks, the adrenaline of pushing myself!"

"Yes, and I love when we do that, constantly shifting and changing, growing into something more powerful as the days go by, reaching untold potential that's unfathomable to the mortal mind." The boy kept going, leaning on the wall, and casting shadow puppets of a butterfly landing on top of the girl. "Growing into something unimagined before, what else can describe what we are but gods?"

"Snakes among rats?" She questioned. "Or would it be mantis to ants … the point is I don't just wanna sit up and wait around while they have fun in our sted. I want them to grow great enough to be on our footing!" She showed the witches growing beyond the titan. "And then … we have fun across all of space and time, endlessly expanding our playmates as we grow more and more, an endless collection of fun!"

"Believe me, I have no qualms about having a challenge. It's why I took the jump from Homeworld when I had the chance." The boy snickered, taking out a trident. "But I think you're still underselling yourself, so allow me to illuminate. Bardie, you still here!?" He called out to the back of the cave.

"Yes, lord thunder!" A girl with a lute shouted, a chain on her foot.

"Why chain them up, we know where to find them if we really put in the effort." The moon girl questioned.

"I like to keep my friends close at all times." What a messed up idea of friendship. "Play your most upbeat and catchy earworm. I'm gonna be both serious and fun here." He told the bard girl.

"Yes my lord-"

"Also …" He zapped her lute, obliterating it as it reformed into something new. "I think that instrument will be more appropriate."

"Oh…okay…" The girl held up the pan flute, and began playing. The rock's began floating everywhere as Eda braced for impact.

The Moon girl began walking forward, her shadow, forming behind her as she stood. "I hardly think I'm qualified, To come across all sanctified." It showed an image of multiple people laughing it up with a high society setting. "I just don't cut it with the cherubim."

"Luz, what are you talking about?!" The boy nonchalantly laughed as he jumped on the walls, dragging in numerous witches in chains, all scared and fearful of the supposed children. " There again they're on their knees! Being worshiped is a breeze!" He jumped across their heads and joyfully chanted as they all grunted in pain. " Which rather suits us in the interim…The interim..the interim

"That's me and them! " The girl's popped out of her shadows and grabbed the boy, taking them outside.

"Oh my god!" The boy chanted as they both landed on a floating rock.

"It's tough to be a god!" They both sang in unison, the world almost spinning from their steps. "Tread where mortals have not trod!"

"Be deified, even if you feel like a sham." He assured the shadow, placing it above all the high society looking witches. " Be an object of devotion! Be the subject of psalms!"

"It's a rather touching notion… " The girl admitted, patting the heads of numerous witches, that bowed to them upon sigh. " All those prayers and those salaams."

"And who am I to bridle?" The boy hopped ontop of a snorse, standing on it's head. "If I'm forced to be an idol?" Nobody was forcing you freaks to do anything. "If they say that I'm a god! That's what I am!"

"Although, we can't play things light, forget all notions of wrong and right." The Moon Child began shifting chess pieces around, turning them into the witches around them.

"I can see us being bored out of our minds." The lighting boy laid on his throne, electrocuting witches without even so much as giving a second glance.

"That's a pretty good point." The girl admitted, flipping the board, and all the witches on it, all over the forest. " So let's be gods, the perks are great!!"

"Yeah, the whole universe is on our plate!" The boy twirled several buzzsaws on his fingers, before throwing them at the crowd. "Local feeling should not be rebuffed."

"Never rebuffed, A-never rebuff a local feeling, No, my friend!" Fireworks shot out of the girl's fingertips.

"It's tough to be a god! " The entire grounded shifted into drums that the two maniacs bounced on. " But if you get the peoples' nod." The people continued to bow, nodding silently as they could with all the bouncing. "Count your blessings, Keep 'em sweet, That's our advice." Chocolate milk began randing from the sky.

"It's great advice." They wouldn't know great advice if it exploded in their faces.

"Symbolize im-per-fect-ion!!" The two jointed hands as gorndoes and painbows flew everywhere. "Be a legend, Be a cult!" They stood on top of one of their many tacky statues and bowed to the gathering crowd. "Take their praise, take the collection."They created multiple words in the air, shoving them into a bottle. "As the multitudes exalt!"

"Don a supernatural habit." The boy spoke, diamond shaped lightning shooting out of his eyes.

"We'd be crazy not to grab it!" The girl began warping that very substance like a balloon animal.

"You got it!!" The boy landed on the ground, shaking it and burying even more witches. " So sign up two new gods for paradise!" This was far from paradise. "Paradise!"

Great, now the two psycos got an ego trip. "If we're doing the god thing we're doing it right though." The Moon girl said. "You know, divisions of worship between us?"

"That's not fair at all." The Thunderbolt child pouted. "You have the stars, sun, and moon motif going on. What does that leave me?"

"... Lightning and adult games?" She suggested. "And rocks too."

"..Fair enough for now." He shrugged. "Speaking off, is my hair okay? I got dates to impress."

"Meh, looks better than the Owl Lady." Huh?

"You should really get a pesticide for that. This is the fifth time you've caught her."

"Meh, I don't mind." The girl shrugged. "She's getting better, I just know she's here because of my library brain thing. She's free to go and improve as she wishes. Heck, maybe start an enemy cult and become her own god!" Crazy maniacs … titan help them all.