AUTHOR'S NOTE

Literally, I thought I would not have this chapter out for a few weeks. But, it happened.

Btw, this story might get zonky soon.

As before  I will work more on my other fic Renewal Eternal

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I opened my eyes the second the transport had completed, feeling slightly queasy. I don’t know why but transportation always jumbled my insides. There were a few theories that I found probable. It could be due to the turbulence of converting my mind, which is pure energy, to a state of matter; this might cause some uncomfortability when I complete the transportation.

Another, perhaps more plausible theory, is that my use of transportation is directly against nature’s laws thus, as nature tries to reject the transportation process, I become uncomfortable due to nature willfully opposing my action.

But, that was neither here nor there. As of this moment, I was in a new and interesting situation; therefore, my attention was directed solely on the present. Blinking my eyes once, I took in my surroundings.

I stood on a small hill, the grass shorn short. Apple and orange trees rose from the ground in a pre-arranged fashion as they directly outlined the wide, marble path leading up to a marble building with wide steps and yawning openings. The building, held up by wide columns, stood alone on the hill like it was a God itself; judging, analyzing, cold and distant as it was.

Instantly, I felt the building was one of the more abhorrent pieces of nature. It was the reason I turned from the planets and stars. It had no feeling. No understanding. No mortal being would have built a structure like this. This spoke too much of disdain for the many for the sake of one. A structure like this would have only been built by one who spent too much of his time remaining remote and superior to all others in his vicinity. I had seen kings and emperors with such a demeanor but they had been held in check by their counterparts; Gods, I could see, felt they had no counterparts and thus, flexed their power mercilessly.

As I walked up the marble path towards the goliath of a building in-front of me, a small wind caressed my body and the twin suns beat down on my back. But, silence remained. The birds did not sing. The crickets did not chirp. The wind did not sigh.

All remained silent, too fearful of the being or beings within the marble construct.

Ducking under an arch, I entered the building and was met by darkness. The constructs of mortals were lacking here.

There were a few bits of furniture but it seemed as if the lush couches and elaborate paintings were more for the austerity of building rather than the pleasure of the beings who inhabited it.

Stretching out my awareness, I found a presence in a room at the end of the awning foyer. My footsteps echoing in the hall, I walked slowly, announcing my presence, as I headed towards the room. The presence moved quickly. Not as quickly as I could-not nearly so.

However, I was not here to fight the God. Merely, I wished to explain some things to him. If he did not listen, he would just have to live with the consequences.

Even before I moved a dozen steps, the God stood in foyer, his face a mixture of incredulity and anger. He was a humanoid. While modeled on the people who served him, he was several feet taller, more refined in the limbs and face, and a golden hue shone from his skin as if molten gold flowed through his body.

“Who are you? Did my sister send you?” The God asked coldly. He had recovered from his surprise and stood, arms crossed, in front of the back room in flowing white robes.

This reaction was not unexpected. At the moment, I looked no differently that one of his subjects. Tan skin, black hair shorn short, muddy brown eyes.

In fact, my appearance was so bland, so common among the humanoids, that it was unlikely the God even remembered that he smote me recently.

Although, I wasn’t too sure how that worked. The priest might have just had a link to the God’s power which allowed him to use it; therefore, the God could have been unawares. Or, the God could have directed the lighting himself at the humanoid male’s word towards me.

But, in either case, the God, most likely, had not directed his full attention towards the situation; much like one would while batting a fly out of your face.

“Your sister? No she did not send me.” I said as I found a rather plump purple couch as sat in it. I had never actually sat before. In the void between universes, there was no seat, no bed, no comfort; just the coldness and dark one would find where there was nothing.

It was odd. That was all I could say. As I sat, I sank into the plush cotton, relieving a tension I didn’t even know I had in my backside. ‘This is rather nice’. I murmured as I gripped the armrests, trying to maximize my comfort.

“Then who sent you? You are an emissary, are you not?” The God said, a low growl in his voice. He had, I saw, noticed my surprise as I sat in his chair and he was beginning to adopt the same peculiar expression that I was becoming used to as I interacted with other sentient beings.

“Of a sort.” I said, feigning disinterest as I looked around the room. This was a great time to observe a God’s mentality. What would he be like? From this current confrontation, I could tell, it was not pleasant. But, there was room for experimentation. How would one who knew none were superior to him react when he finally met someone who was? Expanding upon that, how would I? Were there any superior to me?

As I pondered this conundrum, even bending time to see my future, the God, Gantuk, said in a more reserved tone. “Then who sent you? One of the Emperors? I know his emissary’s well. It must be one of the lesser Kings.”

He left the last statement hand in the air like a question. The God was starting to hesitate in his brashness as he studied me further. He saw no fear, no love, and no hate in my eyes as I looked back. All he saw was curiosity and, I felt, this unnerved him.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“No, no King or Emperor sent me.” I said.

The God’s face, once again, flashed with fury, but then he hesitated. “Did you come by yourself? This place is blinded from mortals eyes unless marked by me or one of my priests.”

I sat up in the chair reluctantly. It made a protesting groan as I moved, as if, it too were saddened that I would soon have to leave its comforting embrace.

“No priest gave me your mark. I think you would have seen such a mark as soon as I entered your territory.”

“You are a God?” Gantuk asked hoarsely as his face became more luminescent. “How?” He took an unconscious step back, his face contorting with fear.

“The Aspects did not dictate another God on this planet other than my sister or I.”

‘The Aspects’? I thought confused. Then it came to me. He was speaking of the various aspects of nature. Nature, in many of the universes, had physical forms that encapsulated minuscule amounts of its true embodied form. In this way, nature could more effectively govern the plane.

As I had not been intend by nor was I apart of nature, the ‘Aspects’ as the God called them and I rarely interacted. I had never strayed from my void until now and the ‘Aspects’ had always remained in the deep corners of universes, planning, developing, and growing the plane.

It hit me then that I had been rather foolish not to inspect Gods in the past. Individuals, they may be. But they were important individuals in the order of things. As I bent time, I saw the truth of things. Gods were not just part of the flimsy religions of mortal sentient beings. They were the governors of planets for nature who did not have the ability to overlook every planet in existence. In shock, as I looked back on the creation of the Gods, I saw that the ‘Aspects’ of nature created Gods based upon my development.

Gods were not apart nor were they separate from nature. If the natural order had occurred as planned, Gods would never have existed. This plane did not allow for semi-immortal or even immortal beings. I’m not exactly sure how nature did it as I only saw glimpses and flashes of what occurred, but Gods were formed with the combination of a soul and spacial matter.

“Aspects.” I said as I looked back at the God. “No, they have not ordained that I come here. We mostly avoid each other. Bad memories. You understand. Right?”

Gantuk blanched. “Who are you?” The question came out in a whisper as the God’s strong voice, affected by his emotion, constricted in his throat.

“Just a being who likes to travel. And you,” I said, narrowing my eyes, “have annoyed me.”

“How have I done that?” Gantuk said flabbergasted.

“Do you not remember the lighting?” I said as I pointed a single finger up towards the sky.

Gantuk looked up into the sky and paled as a dark cloud, ten times the size he sent at me, clouded over the deep blue. “I did not know you were on my insignificant planet, my lord!” Gantuk said as his knees thumped to the ground as he saw this his power could not hope to match my own.

He seemed to finally have realized that I was the being he had sent the lightning-bolt at. Although, there had been more than a little prodding on my part.

I could not help but think this God was rather thick.

“If I did,” Gantuk continued, “I surely would not have deigned to strike the lords person with my touch.”

“That is not what I am concerned with Gantuk.” I said softly.

“What is then, my lord?” Gantuk said as he lowered his head, awaiting his fate.

“It is your misuse of power. Here, you were absolute, only held in check by your sister. Who, I would say, was more your ally than anything else.”

I walked slowly forward as the dark cloud above rumbled with my anger.

“These beings you so callously abuse are more special that you could ever know. If you knew them, you would know this palace you have constructed for your solitude, seemingly above the maelstrom below, is nothing to them except a place of fear. You neither govern nor rule; you are worse than the corrupt or the cowardly. You are the indifferent.”

I said this coldly without a hint of remorse as  I continued to advance upon the cowering wreck of a God.

“Please, spare me!” Gantuk shouted. “The ‘Aspects’, for so long, have ignored my solar system and I had free reign to do as I pleased. I disrupted what was to be. I repent! Please, forgive me my lord, friend of the ‘Aspects’!”

I smiled. It was a bizarre expression. Not one any mortal with a mortal’s lifespan could make. It spoke of millennia’s of experience and understanding.

“I am no friend to the ‘Aspects’ but I think I will do them this favor.” I said as I flicked my fingers downward. A lightning-bolt arched down from the cloud above and smashed into the open-aired foyer, striking the God and blasting the room in a pearly, white light.

For a long minute, the room was bathed in the light. Slowly, the light faded and in its place, a rabbit sat, huddled on its four legs. I felt a sudden wave of nausea and keeled over, retching onto the marble floor below. For quite some time, I knelt, catching my breath.

This had never happened before but I immediately understood the reason. I had modified something of nature. Unlike Gantuk’s lighting which killed, my lighting altered a creation of nature. I had never gone so directly against an act of nature before. It hurt. It really, really hurt.

As I stood, I wiped the sick from my mouth and picked up the rabbit that was Gantuk. The ‘Aspect’ of this Universe, I thought, would very much like to speak to this God who had ignored his duties. But, that was not my purpose. It might be what I say to the ‘Aspect’ when I greet him but, in truth, I just thought it would be interesting.

Closing my eyes, I once again, transported; however, this time, I carried the Rabbit God, Gantuk.