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The liveliness of the bar put the rest of the party to shame. Demons and gods alike mingled freely, drinking, eating, and talking amongst themselves without worry. It could be due to lowered inhibitions as a result of the alcohol being served, or it could be due to the area seeming more intimate.
She politely tapped twice on the bar surface to get the attention of whatever was operating it. She felt slightly silly speaking to the air even though she somehow knew that it would work. “Natufian beer, chilled.”
A small glass cup slid across the bar, stopping perfectly in front of her, before rapidly filling with a golden brown, slightly frothy liquid. The glass was slightly cold, and the alcohol was perfect. She could practically taste the stone used to contain it during the brewing process, the wheat and barley that had been ground and fermented into the drink. She let out a small, contented sigh. The drink was excellent, and the mixed sounds of conversation were more soothing than she would have expected.
Beside her, a guest ordered liquid courage, receiving a small glass half-filled with tiny glowing lights that they took a sip from with an amused air.
“You look relaxed.” the stranger said, mirth clear in their voice. They sounded old, which was strange for gods, who usually kept themselves appearing young or middle-aged. For Demons, however, she did not know their lifecycle, much less their vocal behavior.
They were garbed in a worn and faded blue robe, fastened around the waist by a yellow sash. Every millimeter of skin was covered by tan cloth held tight to their form by a length of chain extending from around their neck down each of their limbs. A half-mask very similar to her own covered the top half of their face, though no light shone from within the sockets of the eyes.
“I am,” Akira responded. She could feel her touch radiate from the guest (a feeling so familiar it itched at the back of her mind, though she could find no name) and did not appear outwardly hostile, so despite their strange appearance, they were not a threat to worry about. Besides, if they tried anything she could annihilate them with a thought— assuming that the Dark One didn’t enforce their rules first.
“Relieving stress?” their voice reminded her of the times she would overhear Kaito or Mei speaking to their children. Perhaps they were a familial god of some sort.
She nodded.
“That’s good. Stress can be very bad for you, you know.” the stranger paused for a moment, then continued. “I’d recommend taking some time off every now and then. The universe won’t end if you do.”
She almost scoffed, but didn’t on account of not wanting to come off as rude. They didn’t know that it very well could.
“You might think differently,” the guest interrupted her thoughts. “But it won’t. I promise you that much.”
Akira froze suddenly. Those last few words weren’t in the same language as the rest of the sentence. She still understood them, like she had understood the demon when she first arrived, but they were clearly in a different tongue. She examined the guest again. They were humanoid, no obvious demonic features, and they still felt like–
The guest wasn’t what felt like her creation.
The chain was.
A chain had a unique feel that had been branded into her mind since the moment of its creation, no matter how far from the universe she had shunted it.
Despite the stranger facing her directly, she felt suddenly like nothing was looking at her. A lack of feeling flowed over her, as the hum of ambient noise from the party was washed away into an almost painful un-sound. It wasn’t quiet. It wasn’t still. It was like sound and movement did not exist at all.
The Dark One, wearing the facade of a stranger, did not speak.
It's been a long time.
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Akira felt herself be guided to a two-person table, not far from the middle of the celebration area.
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The Dark One’s puppet (because what else could it be? It did not resemble the last form she had seen it take, nor any of the appearances described by its followers. But she still knew it was the Dark One, like knowing that one’s hand is their own) sat itself down, and gestured for her to do the same.
After a moment’s contemplation, she did.
“Why?”
She felt the culmination of her being conveying the thought, a deluge of impossible noise spilling from her lips, a sound so absolute and all-encompassing that any being in existence would be reduced to splintered microparticles if it were heard. She was careful, despite the slip of power. She had complete control over the noise, ensuring that the sound was directed and heard by only that which she spoke to.
Elaborate, All-One.
The concepts seemed to appear in the forefront of her mind from nowhere like a gap in her memory suddenly being filled. The second concept almost surprised her. One-that-is-all. A being that encompassed everything. She could feel everything that she had made like they were all part of her. She had made everything there was, except the Dark One and its creations. Creations that all felt empty. Like they were nothing at all.
“Why speak to me?”
She could not show weakness by asking what it meant by calling her that. What it implied.
We have things to speak of.
She felt all of existence– herself– tense. Every possible thing they could discuss suddenly ran through her mind all at once. Their first meeting, the banishing of the Orc goddess, the invasion, anything and everything.
“Then speak.”
Would you prefer a delay on the next invasion, so you may relax?
“I would prefer a next invasion to not happen at all.”
She did not receive a response in words, only in a single concept of amusement.
“Why invade in the first place?”
More concepts. Decay, Erosion, Entropy. Reluctantly, she asked the question that had plagued her mind since the conversation began.
“You called me one who embodied everything. Where do you stand in this?”
Nothing. Nowhere. A great, all-encompassing abyss. A lack of existence, an antithesis to being. The zero to her one, the none to her every.
No-One.
. . .
“. . . Why would you care if I were stressed or not?”
From where did you come from, All-One?
“I came before anything. By your own words, I am everything.”
And before you?
She stopped. Before her? When she had first awoken, she had found herself in a void. An abyss. A blank, empty–
“Nothing.”
Everything had never been so quiet.
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She stared at the puppet. Its mask remained blank. No expression, no feeling, no light, no life. The entire party area felt like nothing: like she and her creation were floating in empty space, speaking to and interacting with nothing. Even the drink she had gotten from the bar felt like nothing at all, a void in her body.
It wasn’t her body, she realized. It was a puppet, like the one she was sitting across from. A more elaborate one, certainly, but still a puppet. And yet, she was the puppet. She encompassed everything there was. The body of the puppet was her own. The body of the gods was her own, albeit possessed by other consciousnesses. The entirety of the universe was her body, her being. She was existence. And before her, just across the table, was everything that wasn’t.
She focused back on her body (her puppet. It was her puppet, not her body–) and summoned the strength to glare at the Dark one.
“Why? Why would you speak to me at all?” she asked weakly. “To torment me?”
The Dark One shook its head. “I do not want you to suffer. I would prefer you to be strong of body as well as mind.” The voice, so different from the empty concepts it had conversed with her previously, seemed almost apologetic, soft, and comforting. Like a father might speak to a crying daughter.
“I will fight.” She wished her voice was stronger than it was. She wished she could summon the strength to sound determined and courageous. The strength to keep the tears from gathering at the corners of her eyes. “I will win.”
The Dark One nodded slowly. “Very well.” It stood up, rounding the table and placing a cold hand on her shoulder. “I will delay the next invasion so you may get some rest.” And then it walked away, disappearing into the guests without fanfare, just another empty body among many.
Even as she felt the distance between her and chain that bound the Dark One grow, she still felt as though both it and the one it held had never left at all.
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