The mountaintop was flat, as if someone had taken a gargantuan cake leveler to it and frosted it with a thick layer of snow. The smoke and snowfall were exceptionally heavy up here, and I could see nothing but the red light of a small fire burning fifty yards ahead of me. As I walked toward it, a harsh wind rushed past me, filling my nose with the sweet smell of blood.
Mag lay next to the fire, still unconscious, still battered and bruised. I knelt and gently rubbed the back of my hand against her cheek. Her skin still had its color but felt like ice. Despite my reinforced distaste for humanity, I still cared about this one human, and I wouldn’t let Vulgra harm her.
Vulgra’s smooth voice surrounded me, comforting me to no end. “I’m dreadfully sorry you had to see all that, Emerson, but I needed you to see—and feel—what your species is capable of. I needed you to understand that to end humanity is to end all evil in your world. You do see that now, don’t you? You will help me erase human life from your world, yes?”
The obvious answer was yes. Ending humanity was what I had always wanted in my heart, and now I had the means to do it. Moreover, I knew that it was the right thing to do. I had no good reason not to kill everyone.
Well, I guess I had one reason: Mag wouldn’t want me to do it. She believed humans deserved another chance, and she wanted to honor Archie’s wish. Plus, I had given her my word that I would defeat Vulgra, and seeing her awakened within me the desire, the need, to keep that promise.
“I don’t know,” I eventually said. “I feel so confused.”
“Of course you do. You’re human and, therefore, understand almost nothing. Even the Butterfly Guild will admit that. For instance, no human even knows something as simple as how their realm came into existence.”
“Actually, we do. It was the big bang. At least that’s what Mag says.”
“Ah, yes. Your big bang theory,” Vulgra said with a chuckle. “Pardon my laughter, but the fact that the big bang is the best theory billions of you have produced over hundreds of thousands of years is hilarious. Watching humans contemplate the existence of their realm is like watching a baby elephant play Nintendo: completely pointless, adorable at best, and destructive at worst.”
“Destructive?” I asked. “How could contemplating our existence be destructive?”
“I will get to that,” Vulgra said, “but allow me to start at the beginning. A very, very long time ago, your realm—‘the universe,’ as you call it—which includes your specific world, or ‘planet Earth,’ was created by a being who represents an even higher form of existence than I do. Its name is !©§#. However, you could never pronounce such a name, and simply hearing it probably caused irreparable damage to your eardrums, so I will refer to it as Susan instead. I cannot describe Susan to you, unfortunately, as it does not have any characteristics that you could detect with your five senses or imagine with your inefficient brain. To you, my description of Susan would come forth as its real name did—that is, as ear-splitting nonsense.
“However, I can tell you that Susan is what is known as a Creator. After space and time came into existence, Creators like Susan began forming realms containing various worlds from different elements. The beings of most of these realms cannot function unless their Creator watches over them at all times; therefore, each Creator can have only one realm at a time.
“That is, except for Susan. Susan is special, for it is the only Creator with the ability to arrange matter into beings that do not require supervision. Miraculously, some of these collections of mindless particles, like humans, can even contemplate their own existence and imagine things that could never be.
“Once Susan realized it could create beings with such capabilities, it endeavored to create self-sustaining utopian worlds. It wanted to know that, when left alone, the thoughtless, soulless molecules of the multiverse were inherently good. In other words, Susan wanted to prove the benevolence of existence itself.
“Creating a utopia was not as easy as Susan had hoped, but it refused to give up. It created realms and worlds ceaselessly, always tweaking one thing or another. However, in every world Susan has created, the sentient beings eventually start acting in their own interest instead of for the good of their world as Susan intended. They inevitably start attacking each other, as well as the non-sentient beings with which they coexist and even the worlds in which they live. Your Earth, your entire universe, is but one of these countless failures.
“To this day, Susan continues attempting to create a perfect world, and it gets a little closer with each try. For example, it recently fixed one of the greatest flaws of sentient beings. Specifically, the sentient beings of Susan’s most recent worlds cannot lie to themselves. Therefore, these beings cannot rationalize intentionally harming each other, either directly or indirectly, and Susan is most hopeful that one of its most recent worlds will become a utopia.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, nor did I know if I should believe it. Vulgra’s words could be nothing but lies, an elaborate trick to make me betray Mag and destroy the human race. But my interest was piqued.
“Now,” Vulgra continued, “you’re wondering why I’m going through the trouble of killing the humans of your world if it’s such an inconsequential place.”
Vulgra was right. I had been wondering that, though I didn’t realize it until Vulgra said it. It was like Vulgra could read my thoughts before I even had them.
“A moment ago, I mentioned that your contemplation of your realm’s existence is destructive. This is because the beings of another world similar to yours also spent much time wondering how their realm came to be. As part of their quest to understand the origin of their existence, by dumb luck, they discovered that there were other realms beyond their own, and they eventually learned how to cross into a different realm.
“The realm they found was one of Susan’s new worlds, the beings of which were quickly killed and enslaved by the intruders. Thus, that new world never had a chance to blossom into a utopia. This event alerted Susan to the possibility that its primitive creations could invade new worlds and conquer races that still have a chance of forming a utopia.
“Your human species is especially dangerous, as you have already been to your world’s moon. And you’ll never be satisfied with that. Your species is never satisfied with anything. You will always want to explore further. If I fail to stop you, you will one day travel clear out of time and space as you know it and find yourselves in another realm. You may even find yourselves in a potential utopia.
“I don’t think I need to explain why this is a problem. If you’ve spent even a microsecond studying human history, you know what humans do when they encounter beings who they label ‘different.’ What do you suppose your species will do if they come face-to-face with a race living in one of Susan’s new worlds? Do you think they will be friendly? Do you think they will help them achieve their utopian dreams? No, of course not! Come on, Emerson, don’t be so stupid! You know that the humans will slaughter these better species and steal their resources. And they’ll do so easily, as the new species are peaceful and, thus, have no weapons with which to defend themselves.
“Clearly, there is immense risk in allowing species like yours to continue living. Therefore, Susan declared that all sentient beings from all hopeless worlds must be eradicated to keep potential utopias safe. Unfortunately, Susan gave humans free will and cannot simply end your world itself. Susan could, however, implant the soul of a deceased phantom being into an undeveloped Creator, which could then bind with the souls of the living to guide them toward extinction.
“These modified Creators, of which I am one, are called Deleters. Each Deleter has been given a dummy realm, such as the one we are currently in, from where it can fulfill its duty. My mission is to use this realm’s connection to yours to encourage the humans of your Earth to follow their natural, destructive instincts, thus eradicating themselves.
“So, now you know what I am, Emerson. I was created to save potential utopias from the human species by making them kill each other. But, again, I am not evil.”
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That was a lot of information to take in, but I somehow understood all of it. It was like I had once known everything Vulgra told me and was being reminded of it instead of being taught something new.
One thing confused me, though. “Creating worlds seems like a lot of trouble for nothing,” I said. “What if Susan finds out the multiverse is benevolent? Then what? Why does Susan bother creating worlds in the first place?”
“Logically speaking, the Creators could have begun creating worlds for one of three reasons. The first is that they began creating by accident. The second is that they began creating to alleviate their boredom. The third is that they began creating to appease whatever entity created them. Naturally, the third case begs the question of why that Supercreator created the Creators. And that question has the same three possible answers. I don’t know how far the Chain of Gods extends if this is the case, but it starts with some entity creating everything by accident or out of sheer boredom. From a purely logical standpoint, those are the only possibilities. Most likely, however, the Creators’ actions transcend logic, meaning there is no reason for anything.”
“But couldn’t—”
“No.”
“But you didn’t let me finish.”
“Because anything else would be wrong. I’ve had millennia to think about this, and my mind has the power of quadrillions of supercomputers that are quadrillions of times more powerful than the most powerful supercomputer any team of humans could ever create. I have considered 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999998% of all possibilities. Accident and boredom are the only two logical reasons for Earth’s existence.”
This conversation reminded me of the dark thought Mag had shared with me: “If we ever learned why we’re here, we’d all give up. We’d all throw ourselves to the ground and lie there and wait for whatever’s above us to crush us.” I now thought she was right. The perpetual struggle that we called existence was utterly pointless.
But there was a massive hole in Vulgra’s line of reasoning, so I asked, “Well then how do you suppose the very first thing came to be? How did the Chain of Gods start?”
“Okay, I think that’s just about enough stalling,” Vulgra responded.
“What do you mean? You’re the one who’s been talking this whole time, what with all those nines and everything.”
“Yeah, I know. I was talking about myself. I was distracting you while I seeped into your soul. And now that I am satisfied with how much control I have over you, I can stop stalling.”
I should have known Vulgra was seeping into my soul when it read my thoughts. I should have been on guard for that kind of thing, as, admittedly, my soul was extremely seepable.
“I’ve waited long enough to complete my mission,” Vulgra said. “I surely would have done so by now if not for those pesky butterflies and the futile hopefulness which they bestow upon your species. I’ve done everything I can to destroy the humans of Earth, but you just won’t die. You are truly the cockroaches of the multiverse. But now, at last, it is time.”
“But what will become of me?” I asked.
“Naturally, you will die along with the rest of your kind. However, the Committee of Creators will see you as a great hero, and you will be rewarded with a most comfortable afterlife. Your soul will be sent to a place far more blissful than what you call heaven and far more joyous than the realm of the butterflies.”
“And what about Mag? She won’t suffer, will she?”
“Mag will not be harmed. I will simply drain her life before we cross into your realm. The process will be painless, and she will be waiting for you when you arrive in your perfect afterlife. Both your souls will be very comfortable for all eternity. I promise.”
The offer was tempting, but as I mulled it over, the fire on my staff reclaimed my attention. As I stared at it, my gut told me to refuse. Vulgra hadn’t gained full control over me yet. As my dad would have put it, there were still some chunks in this smoothie.
The uninfected fragments of me shuddered at the thought of agreeing to do Vulgra’s bidding. I reminded myself that people’s deaths weren’t going to be painless. They were going to be violent and painful, and everyone would eventually end up in the Abyss. I was unsure whether I could ever be truly comfortable knowing I was responsible for bringing so much suffering to so many people.
“Of course you can,” Vulgra said, having read my thoughts once again. “Remember, Susan designed you such that you can lie to yourself and rationalize anything you ever do. Thus, you will not be overwhelmed with guilt for your decision. Maybe it will nag at you once a month, but it will quickly disappear. It will be like how you know you shouldn’t throw batteries in the garbage, but you do it anyway and then feel a pinch of guilt for half a second before forgetting about it.”
I now found that I liked the way Vulgra could read my thoughts. I felt understood and reassured. As I allowed more of Vulgra to enter my soul, it felt like I was being wrapped in a warm blanket. I felt an easy smile form on my face.
“I know this is what you want. You’ve always hated humans. Deep down, you’ve always wanted to kill them all,” Vulgra said as it swirled around me, its essence continuing to fill my soul, its power rushing through me until every last particle of it was within me.
Now that all of Vulgra’s smoky essence was inside my body, I could see patches of black sky through the blizzard. The stars still shone, but, just like everything else, they had become colorless. But now, the achromaticity of the environment was ethereal. Ambrosial, even. Vulgra had taken over my thoughts. I knew this because I would never use the words “achromaticity,” “ethereal,” or “ambrosial.” I don’t even know what they mean.
I felt the same ecstasy that defeating the stone goblins had given me, but this was infinitely more intense. It was no longer appropriate to say Vulgra had infected me or was within me. That would indicate that we were two separate entities, which wasn’t the case anymore. Vulgra was me. I was Vulgra.
I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when we became one and the same, but I suppose that’s how evil works, isn’t it? In the movies, they like to make you think that evil people have an origin story, that there’s this dramatic, devastating moment that turns a person from good to evil. But that can’t be right because there are way more evil people than there are people who go through soul-crippling trauma. So I don’t think evil is as grand as the origin story theory would have you think. Probably, evil consumes people in a completely unremarkable way, like dust settling into a carpet.
Regardless of when or how I became Vulgra, I now knew I had to destroy humanity. It was the only rational thing to do.
Now that I was Vulgra, it didn’t need to communicate with me anymore. I simply knew what steps to take, for I knew everything it knew, just as my dad had. First, I made a large circular motion with my hand, creating a hole in time-space. The void led to Earth—specifically, to Mag’s basement, from where I had entered this realm.
Next, I opened my Skills submenu and activated Dream Buster. Once I reached Earth, I would use this spell to release Vulgra from my body via the Destruction Rod and unleash it on the world.
However, for the Dream Buster to have its desired effect, the Destruction Rod would need to be powered by all three talismans. Although the talismans were originally intended to power the Butterfly Rod, the butterflies who left them in this realm to keep Vulgra contained on Misery Peak had severely underestimated Vulgra’s power. During its time in this realm, Vulgra had grown stronger with each human soul it consumed, and it eventually became powerful enough to incorporate its essence into the Butterfly Rod.
Just as I had hypothesized in Egola Castle, the Butterfly Rod and Destruction Rod were the same thing. My staff contained both good and evil power, though I now saw that I had been wrong in assuming that the butterfly part was the good part and the dark part was the bad part. What kind of power the rod manifested depended on who was holding it. And now that Vulgra itself possessed it, it was surging with a transcendent, dark power.
But, like I said, it wouldn’t be powerful enough unless I was wearing all three talismans. Therefore, the final step before crossing over into my world was to get the Knowledge Bracelet from Mag.
But there was a catch. I could not remove the bracelet from Mag’s unconscious body since the talismans, once equipped, could not be unequipped by force. They could be removed only if the wearer removed them willingly or was dead. So, I revived Mag.
She sat up, blinked hard, and rubbed her eyes. She looked perplexed and seemed to barely recognize me. “Where am I?” she asked. “What the hell’s that portal?”
“Vulgra tried to infect me, but the Hero’s Medallion protected me,” I lied. “I attacked it with my staff, and it got scared and escaped through that portal to Earth. We must follow Vulgra posthaste and destroy it while my staff is still ultra-powered. But first you need to give me the Knowledge Bracelet. I won’t be strong enough to destroy Vulgra unless I’m wearing all three talismans.”
I didn’t like lying to Mag like that, but I knew she would never go against her promise to Archie. She would never help Vulgra willingly.
“No!” she cried as she rose to her feet. “You’ve been infected.”
The smoke in my eyes must have given me away. Or maybe it was my use of the word “posthaste.” Either way, Mag knew I was Vulgra and, therefore, would never hand over the Knowledge Bracelet. And that meant I’d have to kill her.