Emeri and I reappeared in the middle of a town square. No, judging from the size of the nearby buildings, we were currently within a larger settlement, perhaps even a city.

The sight would have been a familiar one, if it weren’t for several things that stood out. A subtle difference between the cities I was used to and the one I was looking at was the architecture. It differed from anything I had ever encountered before, resembling the ruins I had delved a while back more closely than today’s usual building styles. Its sharp angles and straight edges felt out of place, the lack of any detailing below a certain point making these features even more noticeable. This particular issue could be attributed to the time that the vision supposedly took place in.

Something more disturbing was afoot, however. The entire city seemed to be on lockdown. People had boarded up their windows and gone into hiding. Apart from several exceptions, I supposed.

The lockdown hadn’t been declared without reason, as this city must have been under siege for some time, from the looks of things. Craters and holes covered the city like a blanket, entire houses and guard towers missing large chunks and only barely remaining standing. People had used wooden boards to make improvised bridges over the larger craters, but even they looked like they could fall apart at any moment.

The few small groups of people that remained in the square kept to the shadows, talking in hushed tones. Their faces were grave, as if whatever they were talking about had sapped them of all their strength. Nobody was smiling.

Before Emeri and I could attempt to listen in on their conversations, a man came running onto the square from one of the side streets. He was wearing poorly maintained plate armour that was missing several chunks, but his weapon, a glaive with golden and ruby accents, made it obvious that this man had some standing within the community.

“Evacuate! Evacuate now! The pope has ordered it so! Guards, head to your stations!”

As he made this declaration, a few of the people I had been observing earlier drew their weapons and hurried over to the city walls that towered in the distance. I would never have had them pegged as guards, their equipment even more downtrodden than their leader’s, but these were clearly desperate times.

The remainder of the stragglers started streaming out of the square and headed in the opposite direction, though some folk refused to move.

When the guard’s leader went over to chastise them, he had his words thrown back in his face. The people that remained, comprised of mostly older people, were adamant and wouldn’t change their minds.

“I was born here, grew up here, fell in love here… I’m going to die here, too.” One of them had explained to the guard captain. He had shaken his head, before following his subordinates to the city walls, ignoring the troublemakers as they followed him, their minds set on defending their home.

Emeri turned to me, moving as if to grab me, but thought better of it.

“Things are looking grim here,” I contemplated, breaking the silence. “I wonder what these people are so scared of?”

“War. It’s always war.” Emeri muttered, looking downcast.

Before I could console here, a cataclysmic fireball bloomed on the horizon, melting a giant section of the city walls in seconds. The resulting shockwave collapsed the nearby buildings, flattening what remained of this unfortunate city.

For a lengthy minute, Emeri and I just stood there, staring at what had once been a beautiful, if wounded, city.

“Not this time, it’s not.” I spoke, disparaged.

Emeri, shaken from her reverie, turned to me with a questioning gaze, though I could tell that she couldn’t bring herself to focus.

“What?”

“It’s not a war, this. Doesn’t that fire remind you of anyone?” I asked, gesturing at the golden flames that continued to rage in the distance, fuelling themselves with whatever it could find.

Emeri shook, realizing what I was getting at. Suddenly, she began running in the direction of the fire. I wanted to stop her, to tell her I must have been wrong, that there must be another explanation… But a bigger part of me understood that she needed to see this for herself.

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Minutes later we arrived at the great sea of fire. In our ethereal state, we could just ignore it and head to the deeper parts of the destruction. Unfortunately, no others were as lucky. There weren’t even many corpses left. Only the classers that had possessed a high constitution when they were alive left burned husks to be remembered by.

The fire had spread so much, fuelling itself even on water and mana as if to spite creation itself.

Eventually, we reached the walls. What used to be the walls, anyway. Emeri’s instincts had led us here, right as two people were having a conversation in the distance.

We got a bit closer and found the one responsible for all this carnage. We recognised him as the mortal form of Helios. This put the final nail in the coffin of Emeri’s already shaken faith. Her countenance went from one of denial to one of sheer rejection. She looked like she was about to charge at Helios herself, in hopes of getting answers or, perhaps, vengeance.

The one that Helios was currently conversing with wasn’t an ally of his, that was clear. The elderly woman in question stood with her back to the destroyed city, to protect whatever remained. She was dressed in a deep-blue gown that didn’t hide her bony frame. Despite her apparent weakness, her gaze was steely, determined.

“Are you proud of what you have done?” she asked Helios, her face cracking from woe as she talked.

Helios didn’t respond. Perhaps he couldn’t… Maybe he had forgotten how. Or maybe… maybe he just didn’t want to.

“Do you enjoy witnessing all this death?” she continued, as a single tear slid down her wrinkled cheek.

Again, she received no response.

“Look at it!” She shouted, gesturing wildly at everything around her, her calm demeanour entirely lost. “Look at this destruction that you have wrought!”

Helios didn’t vindicate her with a reaction.

Then, the elderly lady laughed. She laughed, losing her composure and cackling like a madman. Or a person that had lost everything. It was a painful, embittered thing, that laugh.

“That’s just it, isn’t it. You don’t care, because you blame our god for everything bad that happens to us… Let me just say this. While our grace might have abandoned us to save himself, while he might never have deserved our devotion… YOU are more guilty. Even if you kill me, his pope, to get to him, you will have saved no one. You had the final say… and chose death. You are no better than him-”

Her rage-fuelled shouting was cut off as Helios’ blade pierced her in the stomach.

Her body, floating as it was impaled on his sword, began to glow with an azure blue light. It shone brighter by the second, before separating itself from her and forming a round orb in the air.

The orb changed shape bit by bit, until a humanoid creature was formed. It looked male, but had blue skin and black horns protruding from its head. A scaly tail hung from its hips, floating lazily in the wind as the creature’s feathered legs slowly descended to the ground below.

The creature had the torso of a man, with animalistic features here and there. It possessed an ethereal beauty, as if its body had been created to mirror the description of ‘Adonis’.

Helios regarded the creature with quiet fury.

Was this the true form of the god that had abandoned his people?

Suddenly, the god began to speak, as if conversing with an old friend.

“What do you want, silent one? Why go to such lengths to prove your mettle? None of us dare underestimate you anymore, youngling. It’s about time for you to choose a domain and settle down, no?” it said.

I did a double take, not understanding its words. Was it trying to convince Helios to spare it?

Unsurprisingly, Helios thought the conversation to be just as pointless as I did, because he lifted his sword to the sky and started concentrating his mana.

“Whoa, whoa! Enough of the threats, silent one! I know all this ‘exterminating the gods’ business of yours is a fun game and all, but you can’t actually believe that stuff, right? Come on, let’s strike a deal…” the god spoke, laughing nervously.

Above Helios, the sunlight began to shine brighter.

“Seriously?! You do believe that? Do you think you can still act like a hero after destroying an entire city’s worth of mortals?! That’s the very idea of a ‘god’, kid! We outlive mortals by so much that a lifetime for them is a second for us! The fact that you understand that proves that you’re already halfway there!”

Helios seemed to still at that, but the brightness of the sky didn’t lessen. He was shaken by what this god had said, but not enough to stray from his path. The heat in the area grew, so much so that even Emeri and I began to feel it, somehow…

The sky opened up, clouds parting to reveal a second sun that was slowly descending to the earth.

The azure god regarded the sun with shocked silence.

“So that’s it then? Five thousand years of godhood, all to be done in by a delusional kid…”

Suddenly, a nearby pile of rubble stirred. The stone shifted as a hand shot out, pushing everything resting on top of him out of the way bit by bit. Helios and his opponent didn’t seem to notice, but within seconds, a burned man rose back up.

He was unrecognisable, his body scorched on all sides and his metal armour fused into his flesh after melting. The only thing that I recognised was his glaive… This was the guard captain from before…

He shuffled over to Helios, groaning in pain with each step.

Helios ignored him.

His god laughed at him, and at his own fate.

Then, the guard toppled over a few steps away from Helios, before pulling out a small, angled piece of metal from his skin and attempting to bury it in Helios’ foot.

Helios let him.

It didn’t leave a scratch.

Still, the god laughed.

“See that, kid?! That’s what I call loyalty! My people love me so much they rise from the dead just to spit on you! Haehaehae!”

The god’s cackling was interrupted by the hoarse voice of the guard, who ground out a few words.

“Not… about… God. Never-People… only people…their faith… in me.”

He breathed his last, his body stilling, never to move again.

As the silent sun descended, the air burned. The earth rose to meet the collapsing fire, burying the city with its light…

Emeri and I were blinded.

Then, we woke up, back in the real world.

As we escaped the church and headed through the portal to our next target, I had one memory stuck in my head.

As the guard spoke his last words, Helios’ eyes widened. As if he had finally figured something out. Something simple, that had remained hidden from him for too long.