I nodded as I said, “I just so happen to be Gaia’s strongest creation. My resolve forged in her fire, and now I defy her.”

Ara stammered, “That’s bullshit. There’s no possible way we’ve been worshipping something like that.”

Razor floated over them as she said, “Think about it. What is Gaia? Do any of you really know?”

Solomon stamped his foot into the ground as he said, “She is a harsh and healing god. I’ve fought off her presence when I grabbed the remnant centuries ago. There was no evil or demonic presence like what you all speak of.”

I frowned as I said, “Come now, surely by now you’ve realized that not all demons are what they seem. Me, for example.”

An irritated hiss escaped Solomon’s helmet as Razor continued, “I’ve spoken with her, though only the smallest parts. She lives in the ground, just as your religion suggests, but there’s nothing holy about her.”

Krakowah snapped, “How can something so powerful not be a god?”

I grimaced as Aether said, his voice cold, “I am powerful. Do you believe I am a god?”

Krakowah bit her lip as Razor continued, “Do you think storms are gods? Or eruptions? They are powerful, but does that make them your rulers? No, they simply are.”

Aether stepped forward as he said, “If you understand, let us through here. I will not kill, but I will not risk my friend’s lives either.”

Solomon grit his teeth as the wrinkled skin around his eyes furrowed. He said, “All this time I’ve lived for the church. I abandoned my family. I allowed the churche’s genocides and atrocities. I followed them...Are you telling me that everything is just a lie? That our society is built on a misunderstanding?”

A mental throe of suffering split my sight into a blur, but I maintained my footing as I gasped, “Yes. All of it.”

Ara shouted, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

I chided her like a child, “And what? Walk in through the front gates and say, ‘By the way, your religion is a lie and I’m The Darkened One.’”

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A sharp sigh escaped her throat as I said, “One thing I learned early on is that the church never listens, regardless of reason. You all close your eyes and run forward, blind and hard of hearing.”

Ara’s fingers curled until they clamped into fists. Veins appeared on her forehead as she snapped, “You killed everyone at Mareovosa for what then? The remnant?”

I grimaced as I replied, “The palisade killed everyone. They believed that I was an infection, so they quarantined the entire campus before culling the population. Whenever I arrived, they’d fused the student’s souls into the malformed body of Saint Petra.”

Solomons whispered, “That’s impossible...”

My words erupted, “The palisade found a way, that’s why they created that deformed monster.”

I opened my arms as my words left my lips like acid, “I had to kill my former mentor. I had to kill the sister of Joan, and her father...I exiled her from her family. I stole her from them, just as lightning stole mine. I saved who I could, but they killed so quickly. There was nothing I could do.”

My words weakened until I murmured like rain, “I tried so hard, for so long, but in the end, there was nothing I could do. I, the apparent embodiment of darkness, the killer of gods couldn’t even give a broken girl back her family back. I could only tear it apart.”

I heaved as I stared at my hands. A calming quiet saturated around us at that moment. I opened the suffering of my soul to them, and like leaping in cold water, their minds opened. I wasn’t some forgotten prince or entity of evil. I was as human as kindness and brittle as dry leaves. Even after a minute, they said not a word, as if sound were a sin.

As I tilted to my side, Aether kept me standing as he said, “You’ve another remnant still. Save your strength for then.” Aether stared at Solomon as he said, “Please, let us go and kill this corruption.”

My eyes rolled in my head at that moment, but my conscious whipped back as Krakowah’s hands shook and sweat began pouring from her her brow. Her eyes snapped wide before she fell to her knees as she rambled, “I...She’s hurting me. I can’t listen. Hah...Hah...”

Her breaths grew heavier before Ara’s brow furrowed. Ara snapped, “What are you doing to her, Darkened One?”

I raised an eyebrow as I said, “Besides enlightening her?”

Krakowah smashed her hand into the cobblestone, creating a pile of powder that she grabbed and squeezed in her hand. Against my skin, I noticed a light breeze pulling towards her. Wind caused little concern under normal circumstances, but no wind blew in Nelastra.

Krakowah’s hands exploded blue and bold once more before building into the vivid color of cobalt. Like a fiery liquid of lapis lazuli, blue fire spread from her before the ground around her singed. A wave of heated air drove the other saints away from she glared at me, her glance staring into an endless abyss.

She mumbled, “I...can’t let you...live...Gaia won’t let me.”

Ara’s own eyes ripped open before shards of sanguine ice expanded out of her skin. She snapped her teeth before Solomon said, “What’s happening?”

Razor replied, “Gaia’s taking over.”

Lifting his left hand, Aether said without worry, “It is a shame. I hate harming others.”