“The busier we are, the more acutely we feel that we live, the more conscious we are of life.”
― Immanuel Kant
The song of uncountable worlds filled the breadth of the realm. A chorus of newborn wills, joyous in their first experience of life. With their music came a rush of faith, not only from the masses, but from the planets themselves. Praise to their creator, thanks for the life on their surfaces, even a few pleas for help.
“It seems like some are too weak to raise up a champion…” Ven touched upon these lines of faith, an instant regret. He received more than the brief life of the awakened wills. Aeons of experience, from the formation of the words, until this moment in time.
“So much information…” Ven closed his eyes, lips turned in a frown. Most of these troubled planets stood on the brink of death, populations lost to disasters of all kinds. “I’ll take the lazy path…”
A trickle of system energy spiralled into the lines of faith that led to the desperate worlds. Enough for the planets to crown a champion. Their Chosen would start them on the path to restoration, with the help of the realm’s will.
“Good enough for now,” Ven nodded. He turned squinted eyes to a pair of cages, hidden in the depths of the system star. “Time to deal with the troublemakers.”
His system had imprisoned Lucifer and Dante. Both devils had sought to control the system, only to face cruel reality. Ven had yet to encounter anything that stood up to the star in his soul. A flick of his wrist and he stood before the offenders. Lucifer looked embarrassed, but Dante had changed completely.
“Greetings, friend from Earth,” Dante flashed his perfect teeth. The once desiccated flesh of his body had filled out, refreshed and reborn. “Have you come to release us from our bonds?”
“You’re in good health, for someone in prison…” Ven clicked his tongue. A swift survey of the two trees showed him the truth. “Looks like you’ve eaten well while I’ve been away.”
The Tree of Life held many newly ripened fruit, but the old harvest was gone. As for the Tree of Knowledge… one red fruit remained, alongside two half grown pods. One silver, the other gold, they held no ominous edge, unlike the red tinged remnant.
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“A man must eat, lest famine strike in the future,” Dante laughed as he pointed to his cage of flame. “It is my nature, something you understand, yes?”
Ven sighed and opened the cage. He drew the devil into his hands and met the cheerful gaze with his own. Behind Dante’s black orbs, Ven could see the trace of unfamiliar runes. This idiot had eaten the fruit of knowledge. Now, some unknown spell clicked away within him like a time bomb.
“Let’s have a look at you…” Faith empowered his eyes, a return of the runes of Truth. The scripture under Dante’s skin opened to his sight, a complex weave that used odd variations of basic runes. “Some kind of legacy record, the memories of a universe given form…”
The volume was beyond him, runes layered within the empty space of atoms. Side by side, they left no space for anything else. The inside of the devil’s body was a vast formation, dedicated to the empowerment and protection of what came before.
“You can’t kill me now, no one can,” Dante laughed, relaxed in Ven’s grip. His disturbed grin divided his face and tipped back into a yawn. “Once you’ve eaten a ripe fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, you become tied to its existence.” The Devil straightened his hat and gave Ven a wink. “If you kill me, I’ll be reborn through its fruit!”
“If that were true, wouldn’t Adam and Eve be here right now?” Ven tossed Dante back into his cell and sealed over the barrier of flame. If the devil spoke the truth, this tree had incredible value. “Or did you eat their fruit?”
“They ate unripened trash,” Dante snorted as he lay back against the fire. “This fruit was beyond aeons in its development, ready just a short time ago.”
Ven shook his head. He would investigate the last ripe fruit on the tree later. Right now, he had another Devil to deal with. Lucifer had waited, quiet as Ven dealt with Dante. His eyes stayed on Ven, and the runes on his chest, like a man obsessed.
“I warned you that the system wouldn’t take things lying down,” Dan gave the Devil a smile and opened his cage. “How about we call this a warning, but next time you’ll stay until the system lets you out.”
“That’s fair, I…” Lucifer paused, head tilted to the side. “You have another angel in your realm? I sense a close, yet unfamiliar presence…”
“Angel?” Ven squinted one eye. A light clicked on in his head and he snapped his fingers. “I remember! I tossed an angel in here before I came in myself.” He scanned the realm and located the woman. “She’s behaving herself, so it’s fine.”
Ven shrugged. The rogue angel was seated in a restaurant on a random Earth, face buried in a mountain of food. She was welcome to enjoy his inner world, as long as she left the people unharmed. A snap of his fingers brought Lucifer and himself to the base of the Tree of Knowledge.
“You’re welcome to your true body,” Ven jerked his thumb and the serpent spiralled from the tree. It landed in a heap at the Devil’s feet. “Once it’s gone, I can let some of the others inside the formation.”
Ven let his body drift to the ripened, red fruit, eyes lit with the laws of truth. It carried the same formation, compressed into the atoms of the pod's flesh. Powerful, dangerous, created with a runic system that held closer to the truth than his own. He would need to study this fruit, and both the others.
New knowledge on runes had become nonexistent, with only his innovation to pave the way. This gave him insights he’d never considered, changes to the very foundation of what he had learned. Closer to what had slowly become his obsession, discovery of the truth of this world and all its secrets.