The man is standing in a dark, place. The sound of water dripping expands beyond his horizons, echoing across the entire place. He looks around, and looks at his arm with the inscribed words he had just previously written on his arm. They glowed with a pale, blue light, and the words flashed slightly, showing the area around him had a fog hanging about him.
“Hello?” He yells out into the darkness. Oddly, there was no echo coming back towards him. He shifts his feet nervously, and begins to take a step.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A voice echoes around him. He quickly turns around to discover only the darkness, and the fog. The man looks around.
“Who are you? Did you bring me here?” The answer was a low, mirthful laugh that made the air shake. “Answer me!”
“Be quiet Justice. You only just returned.” The voice scolds, and the man named Justice stops with his mouth open. From the fog, exits a man in the exact same appearance to Justice, except for the curved horns on his forehead. The horned man walks up to Justice, until he is only a few inches away from his face, looking directly into Justice’s eyes.
“I am Pride. That is what I grew up to be, and that is my namesake. You may think that Justice is not your name, but it is what you are.” Pride backs away and turns around. “Follow me Justice, to meet your siblings.” Justice closes his mouth, nods and follows Pride into the darkness.
Only a few seconds pass, as Justice and Pride walk into a doorway in the darkness. Neither pause as they pass through the doorway, or as the doorway crackles with the sound of… something. On the other side of the doorway, a giant chamber is laid out before the both of them, with torches hanging on the walls with an unnatural white flame burning. Banners of various creature adorn pillars that support a balcony, with the strange lettering that is inscribed into Justice’s arm is also on each banner and pillar.
“Sit at your seat.” Pride gestures towards a table in the middle of the chamber, where at the end of the table rests an empty throne. Justice begins to walk towards a seat with a specific banner, one with a man with 8 wings of white. Sensing a familiar feeling, he sits down at the seat under the banner.
Pride nods with a pleased smile, as he walks over to a seat with a banner that had a man with black flames at his feet, with horns just like Pride’s. He sits down, as the sound of various voices echoes around Justice.
“He’s back. Justice is back!”
“Innocence! Be quiet!”
“Shut it Envy! Only one being can order him, and you know it.”
“Ohhoho. Finally back from your trip, Justice?”
“Ah! My brother! Tis’ good to see you!”
Many more voices echo from behind each pillar, as their voices begin to pile up in a numerous chorus of tone and emotion. A lamia, a small golden eyed child, a red six-armed man, an old man with a white beard, and many others began to show their appearance to the newly arrived Justice. A tear ran down Justice’s face, as he looked upon each person or thing, and he didn’t know why. But on each figure that he could see, words in the familiar language were all written on their body, and not just on their appendages.
“Everyone, sit down. I have news.” Pride shouted to every being in the room, and they all sat down instantly, except those that had no legs to use. Justice looked at the golden eyed child and widened his eyes slightly, because to him, the child was the most dangerous. The child smiled and put his finger to his lips, and Justice looked back to Pride.
“Give me the good news first!” The man with 6 arms said, as he slammed his fists into the table, causing the table to shake slightly. Pride gives the man a look, and he instantly becomes sheepish. Looking away, Pride smiles.
“Well, since Anger decided to ask, I will go along with his wish.” Pride continues to smile, but looks at Anger before continuing. “Justice is back! That means the cycle continues.”
“The cycle? What do you-” Pride waves his hand at Justice who had suddenly spoken up.
“Don’t worry, I will explain. First though, did the world you were on have any idea of dying and living?” Justice nods, thinking of some Asian cultures back on Earth. “Good. Well, we call this reincarnation here in our personal void, and you had just returned from your turn at the cycle. This means that someone among our peers will be chosen for the next cycle. Then onto other news.”
Justice nods once again, but tilts his head as to why he doesn’t remember all of this. The being that sat next to Justice, an old man with a long white beard clothed in a blue robe, speaks to him. “Hoho, the reason why you don’t remember is because it’s a side effect of the cycle. Do not worry young Justice, it is basically being reborn.” The old man smiles a toothless grin as he turns his attention towards Pride, although he does whisper to Justice, “I’m known as Wisdom, do not forget.”
Justice then turns his attention back to Pride, as Pride is looking around at everyone else. “Do you understand? No more arguing. Why do you think Justice had so much trouble remembering our language? It’s because of you fools, excluding Foolish surprisingly, that Justice just about died!”
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Wondering about this portion of the conversation, Justice raises his hand like a student would ask a teacher. Pride motions for Justice to go ahead. Justice then asks, “What is this about me almost dying, and our language? Those are actually words?” Pride opens his mouth to answer, but then a voice echoes around the chambers.
“Yes, dear Justice. That is our own language, the language we made to represent power.” Every being in the room all lower their heads, as Justice looks around, trying to find the disembodied voice. That is, until his eyes fall upon the child with golden eyes.
The child is standing out of his chair, the banner above him flapping with a nonexistent wind. Justice widens his eyes as fog exits from the child’s pores, and floats over to the throne at the end of the table.
“Greetings, myself.” The voice comes from the cloud, as it begins to take form of a man, albeit foggy and see through. The heads lowered at the tables all look up as the sound of the child’s body falling snaps them out of their trance.
“Greetings, Will.” Every being says to the fog man known as Will. Some begin to visibly shake in some manner when they see Will, although a humanoid shadow shows the back of the chair with it’s smile. Justice continues to look in amazement at Will, as will points to the doorway that crackles with something.
“Through that doorway, is the next cycle, and I’m going to take it.”
“““““WHAT???”””””
“You heard me, you are me after all... I didn’t think I’d need to explain myself but I apparently I must.” Will stands up and simply floats onto the table and begins a slow walk down the table, passing through tableware set for appearance only. “I am going in the cycle of reincarnation with memories intact, because.. I feel lonely.” Throwing out his arms, Will pretends to balance with his arms out.
Wisdom stands up shakily, and points a wrinkled finger at Will. “You sensed their presence. You sensed their.. intent, didn’t you Will?”
Will looks over to Wisdom and gives a thumbs up, while heading towards the doorway still. “You are indeed correct Wisdom, I did find what opposes us once again, where only you and I were the survivor of that extermination.”
“Sire! What do you mean ‘opposes’?” Pride jumps up and shouts, visibly shaken by this event. Will stops and turns around smoothly, while he begins to sit cross legged and in the air levitating.
“There are those who wish to devour the souls of the One God’s children’s children. You may not know this, Pride, but we are not alone, we are not omnipotent, we are simply the first defense on a steep mountain.”
“But, there is no reason to risk your life for--”
“Pride, do not let your nature control you. You are too afraid to say that you don’t want to die, am I right? I’m right, for I am Will. I have known how you act, Pride.” Will crosses his arms at Pride, which causes him to shrink back into his chair, defeat apparent Pride’s shoulders.
Looking around, Will finally gazes upon Justice. He smiles as Justice continues to wonder what is going on. “Those that oppose us, we call the Shepherds. Simply because they guide the lost souls to their untimely demise. For that, power will be necessary, as will reincarnation. I need a body to attack the Shepherds, and I cannot kill indiscriminately for that body.” Will smiles slightly as if an old memory surfaced from his past that didn’t go well with him. Shaking his head, Will turns around and stops levitating to reach the doorway, where he holds his hand against it.
The crackling energy on the doorway enters Will, and the foggy state of body disappeared to a pure white, as if made from metal.
Justice stands up with his eyes locked on Will’s form, “Wait! I still don’t understand!.” Will pauses before entering the doorway, as he turns his head to look back at Justice. “In time, you will understand. Like all the others I govern, I provide the way.” Will looks down at the ground for a second, “I do not agree with your method, Justice, but you provide your namesake well enough. Do not mistake yourself as a hero, for only humans can become such… mistakes.” Will turns his head towards the doorway, and fades into the ethereal darkness.
In the chamber, the rest of the beings stay in silence. The boy named Innocence groggily picks himself off the floor, and shakes his head. “What did I miss?” A being in a jester's outfit begins to hysterically laugh. Pride looks up at the jester with a scowl on his face.
“Shut up, Humor.”
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Thanks for reading, it's nice to change pace with stories I've been making and putting off. This story is interesting, very peculiar when compared to my other stories. But I like my character(s), as far as I have introduced them. The next chapter will be just as short as this chapter, before I begin the 'lengthy' chapters. Keep reading, to find out what the background is, since I will explain it next chapter.