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Narration by: Great God of Loss, Preservation of Stories

My brother, are you watching this?

In a forest like any other, a shrine was built to house the god who lied, nothing was special about this forest in particular, nor did it change when the god resided within it. The shrine was simply in the center, if someone were to walk in one direction from the outside they would reach it, yet the shrine remained illusive, just out of sight.

It’s because of the Liar, when the god lied, humans believed it.

If a god willed it, they could kill any number of difficult humans, cull any that did not follow their commandments, but that was not the god’s mission. Simply put, interference was not their goal, in fact the Liar’s goal was to make humans prosper, and for that, the god made them believe a sweet Lie.

Not just one Lie.

There were plenty of things that humans were better off not knowing, but there was no way humans would understand that. In fact, it was that drive to understand that made them difficult, no matter what world they come from, humans will always thirst for knowledge, knowledge beyond man.

But there was truly an ingenious solution, two Gods were born, one to spread the truth, and one to hide it, so long as humans believed something to be true they would not question it, it would become the truth.

But it seemed our King intended to make our job more difficult, it was those humans, untainted by our meddling, from another world, who would not so easily believe the Truth.

1

“No, it’s just the opposite, you have only ever been Lied to.”

My eyes adjusted to the darkness, but nothing changed, except for an itch. It was a familiar feeling, magic calling out and responding to my body’s needs, this time it was my eyes, they strained and bulged before…

The darkness started to fade, these magic eyes swallowing up all the shadows, they began to dry out faster, but I kept them open.

“Child, I am the evil God, soon the humans will hunt me for my sins, then He will come.” The God spoke with a sickly certainty, what was a lie and what wasn’t? could I even tell if I already knew nothing?

“I will pay for all my crimes, but I will not die, in exchange for my blessing you will hunt Him.” There was only one person that everyone seems to fear, The Dreg King, that meant that whoever he was, it was certain he could kill the very Gods. But…

“A blessing? is that like my-” As the darkness was being eaten away, the first thing that was revealed was an eye, and unnaturally large, bulging and full of popped blood vessels, it was only an arms length from my face. This eye could only be one thing, a God, surely it had a body, but it was covered in a ashy gray cloak, the only visible extremities were a few dozen arms and legs of various insects, all poking out of holes in the tattered cloak.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“No, you are mistaken about that magic, what I am about to share with you is a piece of my divinity, it is not magic, it’s a force that can act upon the world, along with a piece of my conciseness.” My vision became more clear, but there was nothing more to see of the God, everything about it was obscured, even looking directly at it was difficult. It felt like the moment I blinked it would leave me, it was barely even there.

“You wouldn’t do this to the first person to pass by would you, tell me what makes me different.” I would rather hear something than nothing, even if this was the greatest of all liars. If I could just pull back the cloak and see it’s face maybe I could tell…

“You are mistaken, it is simply too dangerous to remain here in full, I tried to reach out to the large one that accompanied you, but his body rejected me, it seems that they want you to take me with you, I have fallen into their trap.” I could finally see the walls of the shrine that surrounded me, walls lined with sharp points and larger spikes, four of which…

“They intend to bring me to him? or to amass the power of every God to fight him? That one you have with you is an exceptional Liar no wonder that monster needs such a heavy set of armor to hide that ugly truth geheheh…” A chill ran up my spine, that’s the second time Jupiter has been called a monster, and this time by a God, but what is a monster? he certainly wasn’t an animal, and demons can’t talk.

“What is Jupiter? Why is he a monster? He’s a hero and a knight, he is indestructible and protected the entire world when the Gods-” That’s right, the Wrath, when humans did something so blasphemous that the Gods unleashed their divine rage on the whole world in a great storm of disaster, Jupiter was able to protect entire cities from the onslaughts of angels and natural disasters.

”Don’t think we hold a grudge, in fact having such a strong human is an exciting outcome from such a war, but he would barely count, it would be better for you to believe that lie for now, my apologies.” The spikes on the walls… they were piercing me, one in either hand and foot, my body contorted and twisted in an uncomfortable position, I was held in place.

Escape, magic is what I needed, I still did not know all the magic I had grabbed from that graveyard, that required me to look inward, if I could just access what’s already in my body, I had to reach out.

“You didn’t need to impress me, I am already willing to give you this power, your escape is not necessary.” The God seemed to take a step back, only there were no legs it was standing on, it only moved back. Even if I would truly be safe, and I would have this power with no effort, I couldn’t stand it, I needed to earn it, I had already been given enough of a head start with magic, any more and I would grow stagnant.

“Sorry God, it’s a personal thing, and how do I even know you’re telling the truth?” A familiar sensation washed over me, like an arm reaching back, heading my call, all I needed to do was grab them.

“Geheheh… I hate your type, make this worthwhile.” The God probably expected this to happen, what would have happened if I just accepted without a fight? I definitely couldn’t take one head on, I should thank my luck this one does not seem to be aggressive, just what you’d expect from a God of solely subterfuge.

Close your eyes, concentrate, grab those hands reaching back for you.

“No, keep your eye’s open, that is your new burden.”

“Huh? did you-” -read my mind?

Before I knew it I couldn’t blink, the muscles in my eye wouldn’t respond, they weren’t my own anymore, and along with it, the magic straining my eyes didn’t stop either.

Maybe now I could understand the pain Europa went through…