I talk to the prostrating gods.

"Are Truth or Envy here? Any of the sins or virtues?"

I can't recognize them if their bodies have changed. I don't have Origin Threads on them.

To my amazement, several of the gods raise their heads.

I ask the one closest to me.

"Are you?"

She's some sort of flame elemental; her flames change from mixed orange to pure yellow.

"Yes, Chronovoid. I'm Truth. Effierath is my name. My original name. Since Truth has died."

Weird for a flame elemental to be considered Truth, but who am I to judge?

"Tell me something only Truth would know."

She thinks for a moment.

"We didn't interact enough to have such a close bond, Chronovoid."

Raha. She's Truth. But I'm curious.

"Why'd you go from a humanoid body to a flame elemental? Also, why are you prostrating?"

"Ahm, humans are the inventors of science. If you didn't know, science is the process of methodically discovering truth."

Of course I knew. Well, sort of. I didn't know humans invented the concept. She continues explaining.

"My appearance was made from flame. Flame can be any shape or color. As for why we're prostrating, it's because you're insanely scary. Please don't kill us anymore."

Roh, good. I've scared Rank 4 and higher gods into submission despite only being Rank 3 myself.

...

No, maybe that's not good in this case.

...

Wait.

Don't kill us ANYMORE?

"What do you mean 'anymore?' I didn't kill you."

She looks around. The others are both back on the ground. She looks at me.

"While we were in there, you said you'd kill us once for each human who died. Then, you did. It was horrific."

Ruhh. No, I did—. Wait. I DO remember, and. And I claimed to be talking to myself earlier. Was that ME? Also, why do I remember doing exactly what she just said?

Am I finally going crazy?

"Why do you think that was me?"

"I asked for proof. You stabbed your arm. It made a weird noise identical to the one that happened in the fight before we were sealed in with you."

Yes, Truth would ask for proof. So, let me get this straight. For an entire day and a half, I left them in there with an evil version of myself who killed them repeatedly? Did one of my copies do this?

I check my copies.

Nope. They're all on their assigned tasks.

"How the heck did I revive you?"

"Can't you do that?"

Hrr.

I shred a bug, then use Perfect Terminus on it.

Its body goes back together, then it flees.

Hruh. I can revive things?

Then why is it called Terminus?

I'll try to...

No.

I can't do that to him.

I try to revive some random person on my kill list, but nothing happens. I create a human body and try to revive a random person I know was human. Still nothing.

Does it only work on the original body? Then all those bodies I ate. Hragh.

I grab my test bug with Perfect Terminus, then break it apart and speed up time. One hour.

I use Perfect Terminus to revive it.

Nothing.

Rokay, maybe not. Perhaps soon after they die their fate falls outside of my control. Why, though? Souls?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Then— I remember how basic anatomy works. It's not a soul.

Even after a person dies, they can still be revived by human medicine, never mind my level of power. Cutting the bug into shreds doesn't erase the information or decay the structures which comprise its mind. Weak bugs don't have Wills, but they do have a mind.

In the case of Yenim, her brain cells weren't annihilated— they were merely displaced or damaged. After a few minutes they'd start to decay to an irretrievable state. By recreating each cell based upon the original damaged cells, I inadvertently recreated her memories.

Which means, theoretically, it's possible to map out someone's mind and Will. Then, kill them, annihilate their body, build a new one from the saved map, and finally: revive them.

They wouldn't even know they died.

Then, is it possible to copy Wills?

I think back to the voice earlier.

Am I a copy or the original?

"... We're both the original. ..."

The connection cuts.

Roh my perfection!

Stop doing that!

Why am I annoying myself? I can't even communicate with whatever's claiming to be me, because they're eating my connection. Which suggests they ARE me. I can eat mental connections; nobody else can. At least not that I've seen.

"Rokay, I've got it figured out, Effierath. I just talked to myself via mind link. That guy is me."

She gives me a strange look. Her flames turn greenish yellow.

"Is that a split personality?"

"Hope not. Things could get apocalyptic again if it were."

"You're not devouring everything anymore?"

"Nope. Well, ruhhhhh, mostly."

I slide my mind out from my body. This time, my Origin comes out with it. The two now have an identical appearance, so it doesn't really matter. My memories are only visible to me because my Origin is apparently super-protective compared with a normal Will. I checked myself after my screw-up with the Viroid. I mean— I was literally drooling out my own brain matter. That was awkward. At least no memories went with it. Oddly, though, it doesn't retract easily anymore. Even when there's no food nearby.

I wave at Effierath with my glorpy mind. Then I point at the gooey blob with my clawed index finger.

"Gluttony did this when he found out I wasn't compelled to eat all of reality. Wanted to restart the end of everything, I guess. So— he got the end he wanted. He's dead. Speaking of him, did you know his name?"

Her flames change to a dark yellow.

"That's disgusting."

"It's my mind. Guess I have a dirty mind."

*kut*

She tries not to laugh as her flames turn blue.

"His name was Perthin."

Eeeyup, that name came right after Gluttony. He's dead as a doornail. I'm mildly curious why a gluttony god had 'thin' in his name, but I suppose it doesn't matter. Hrr.

Maybe he was trying to eat my Will? Perhaps that memocyte contained his Will. He didn't know about my Origin, and that oversight caused him to implode. If true, it's weird how I didn't get his memories. I'm not sure how that works.

"Double dead. It seems I killed both him and his sin."

Her flames change to a white-yellow.

"Are you going to—"

"Shut up, I'm thinking about it."

Her flames flicker multiple colors; white, red, deep orange, then they settle on yellow.

She remains silent.

I'm not going to torture them. No idea why the 'other me' did that. They'll either die for killing so many or, rehm. They were twisted by their sins and virtues. However, they don't deserve to be free no matter what, as unlike the other three, these guys didn't fight their compulsions.

A hundred eighty billion died for their laziness. I remember Indolence. I realize I have his memories, too. He embodied a form of indifference. I understand how he continued existing.

He was feeding off the laziness caused by every other deadly sin and false virtue. A good example was when I fell asleep after failing to fend off my pride and greed. But, he also fed off the intellectual laziness their compulsions caused in normal everyday actions. Both to others, and to themselves, as well. He infected their Will leeches— just like Gluttony infected Meme. He was too lazy to infect actual Wills, so he stole from everyone else around him.

He was feeding off so many other gods. At Rank 36, he was secretly the most powerful of all the deadly sins and false virtues. By so, so many orders of magnitude. Though, despite embodying Indolence, he still wanted to help with unsealing the Abyssals. Which means he WASN'T indifferent... To committing mass homicide.

Everyone was simply beneath his notice.

Alright. Enough is enough. No point trying to play the nice dragon anymore. It's gotten far too many people killed. I kinda see why the other me might've resorted to torture. Even though they did it all wrong.

I need to confirm these gods' identities for certain, so I put my Origin... Tentacles on these gods.

My Origin tentacles vanish and form a connection.

I check their names.

Reah, she's who she said she was. Her memories check out, too. I look around. The only others here are Lust and Hope. I can't tell from their names, but their memories are right.

"Where's the rest of the sins and virtues?"

I notice my Will blob has found a bit of Origin Crystal and is munching on it.

Stop that. I let you out for a damn moment—

Something slips into my Origin. It feels weird, but then, my Origin starts morphing AGAIN.

I feel my Origin and mind merging fully together, then my body merges with both.

image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/169.png]

I try to change myself using Perfect Terminus, but my body simply evolves like when I used it on my mind a while back. My body pulls together in my favored draconic form, but at the same time, the barrier that keeps my form vanishes.

I AM the gooey blob now. Damnit!

...

I guess it's nice not having a fixed form, but am I still a dragon? Please still be a dragon.

Status, Species.

Species: Chronovoid (Timeless Dragon)

THANK YOU! Rhew. I wonder.

Status, Timeless Dragon.

Timeless Dragon

Your Origin has gone far beyond consuming and embodying mere void, fate, and perfection. Your Origin lay outside the bounds of what reality can coherently affirm.

You are the Origin, you are the Terminus, and you are everything between. Yet, somehow, you continue beyond what rationality demands should be the confines of existence.

You are timeless.

You are you.

Weaknesses: Inviolable

...

I didn't know I HAD a weaknesses column. Is being inviolable a weakness, though? That's like saying my biggest weakness is 'I'm too perfect.'

Reh, Pride probably would.

"Conveniently, it seems I've got my mind back under control. Except I'm—"

Effierath's looking at me like I'm a freak of nature. Reh. Makes sense: I am. A freak who exists outside of what nature can coherently produce and represent, I think, but still.

I glance around.

Wait. They're ALL looking at me like that.

"Guys? Is everything okay?"

They reply in unison.

"Fine."

Roh, crap! Don't tell me...

I contact Pride.

"Pride, did I compel you again?"

"No? Are you cooking up something to stave off your inevitable defeat?"

"Absolutely not. Never mind. I've just got all these people staring at me and responding like they're compelled. Not gonna go around anyone until I figure out why."

"Here come the excuses. Regretting already?"

I ignore him and transfer all my copies back into my main body. Luckily none of them were around anyone else. My mad scientist tendencies generally mean my copies are holed up in various labs or somewhere in space.

Rokay, so it's not mind control.

Thank Chronovoid.

Thank me.

Hra.