“Hello little jewel! My, how you sparkle today!”

The god had a voice that had never even heard of inside. He howled like a madman, his words slurring together drunkenly. In his chest, a low growl drooled from the wolf, and the world seemed to darken for a moment at the very sound.

“Mm, yes, hello. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to make this goodbye too?” My voice was everything. The sound of wind on the water, or water on the rocks. The low rumble of thunder. I had no tongue or vocal cords, so I spoke through the land, making it resonate with my words.

“Oh no. Sad to say, you're going to have to put up with me for a while yet! Matter of fact, we’re going to get to know each other real damn well...”

“You know, you reek of radiation. Radiation and death. I’m not usually one to make accusation, but if I was in the mood to point fingers, I’d say I’m looking at the reason this whole place is a burnt-out crater.” This was a blatant taunt. And there’s probably some benefit in not mouthing off to gods.

But I never claimed to be smart.

“Ha, right you are. Right you are. See my friend here-” He dipped a finger into his own gaping wound, stroking the wolf as affectionately as you might a puppy. Scratching it under the chin. It snorted, and embers burst from its nose in a cloud of smoke. “He has a nasty appetite!”

“Well I can see they’re probably the brains of the operation too. You know, I’m a little out of the loop here. Literally born just minutes before you arrived to darken my doorstep, but- I have a sneaking suspicion we’re not friends, hmm? Mortal enemies, maybe?” I had a sneaking suspicion he doesn't have many friends.

“Right again! Say, you’re a pretty clever little fellow for a chunk of rock.”

“Mhmm. Well the way I look at it- See, a dungeon core usually chooses their blessings, right? But I didn’t. I was just born this way, as if somebody else had chosen for me. Which suggests they made me and put me here for a purpose. So, and this is just a wild thought, feel free to tell me I’m totally wrong, in fact, I’d love to hear it-”

He waited for me to finish the thought, that big idiot grin on his big idiot face.

I felt the tension rising. Lazarus pushed at my mind from his place in the pool’s depths, begging to come up, to test his claws on this mouthy invader. I answered no.

He would only be wiped out in a heartbeat.

“I’m here to fix the world you broke, no? And you’re going to, I’m guessing, not like that very much.”

“Oh I don’t like it at all. Matter of fact, I’ve come here to kill ya!” He nodded along, happy I’d come to the same conclusion as him. His hand reached out and I felt…

Fear. Incredible, shaking fear, an ocean of terror sweeping towards me and trying to drown my soul. The sky went dark. As his fingers reached out towards me he ceased to be flesh, and became a black shadow that towered up into the endless dome of the world. Stars burned in his hair. His eyes were glowering suns.

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A human would have fallen to their knees, if they didn’t die outright from fear. I fought to hold myself calm. To resist the urge to just surrender, just give in, to beg for my own life. Hope faded. Determination faded. I was being worn down to nothing, until in the far distance, I felt something reach out and touch my soul. A brushing contact of one mind against another, lending me clarity.

For a moment I broke free and found my words-

“Well!? Do it! Come on!”

I was making a very desperate gamble - but in fairness, I had no good bets remaining.

He paused, smile faltering for a second. The moment faded away. The sea of fear vanished, and his towering stature was reduced to that of a rather tall and ugly man. His fingers came to a halt just short of me.

Mentally I breathed a sigh of relief. I was right.

“I mean, I can’t stop you, now can I?” He couldn’t kill me.

He looked downright sour. I imagine he expected me to be cowering in fear as soon as he turned on the divine rage. Most people probably did. And yet there I was, a mostly defenseless chunk of rock, talking back to him.

“Except you can’t actually make good on your threats.” His expression told me I was right. “If you could, you wouldn’t be talking so damn much in that thunderously stupid voice of yours. For whatever reason, stomping on me here and now and calling it a day isn’t an option for you. So here you are, trying to bluster, hoping I’ll beg for my life and you can fool me into giving in easy.”

“Pretty clever.” He admitted, grudgingly, his eyes glowering down. I could imagine he thought I looked rather small. A tiny fleck of glimmering gemstone in a shallow pond.

It must have been infuriating that he couldn’t - for whatever reason - end me. I decided to make it worse for him.

“You are a magnificently big idiot, aren’t you? Just think, ten seconds ago, I had no idea you existed. And then you decided to traipse on down like an enormous waltzing idiot and announce yourself. Gosh.”

I felt the pressure of the godly aura around him building again, the way the air changes just before a coming storm. The world was full of barely-restrained lightning, a crackling, surging hatred pouring out from him and making the wind howl back in fear. Sand cascaded up around his bare feet in a spiral, drawn by the growing energy.

“Well? Nothing to say? Good. Shoo. I’m busy here, and the sound of your brain overheating as you try to think of a comeback is really quite annoying.”

The god snarled, and took one more step forward. Which turned out to be a mistake.

A bell rang out from nowhere and a wave of force stopped him cold. Alabaster energy wrapped over his limbs, binding him and forcing him to stumble back, step after step. Motes of the light broke away, becoming tiny moths, drifting through the air in a storm of moon-white wings.

He sort of phased through the world, dissolving into thin air, and all that was left was the lingering stink of a battlefield gone sour as the corpses rotted and the blood on the ground dried to scabby black-red rust.

I felt quite pleased with myself, really.

“But I won’t be safe for long, will I? It can’t be that easy or the world would already be fixed. He’ll be back.”

I wasn’t sure who I was talking to. But I was sure they existed. Whoever made me, whoever put me here, they must have been watching.

“Any clue how long I have?”

[https://i.imgur.com/4gzRSG9.png]

Divine Protection - Abyssal creatures above [Unranked] are restricted.

Protection will weaken to allow [Bronze] creatures in:

6 Days : 21 Hours : 14 Minutes : 2 Seconds

I watched as the seconds slowly ticked down.

Well.

I’d better get to work then.