A/N: Back in the present, Oren is still having a bad day.

  -x-X-x-

  It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Raythe’s words linger in the air as Oren kneels at the other man’s feet. No, not man… because Raythe is a god. Raythe has always been a god.

  Suddenly, so much makes sense. But at the same time, so little. Questions Oren didn’t even realize he had swirling around in his mind in the first pce have been answered, but even more questions have already arisen to take their pce.

  He’s aware of Sophia standing behind him. She now knows what he’s done. She sees him for what he truly is. Oren never wanted her to know, but the cat’s out of the bag now.

  “My oh my. Trying to stick a bde in your best friend’s heart just for telling the truth. For shame, Oren.”

  For all that his words are an admonishment, Raythe’s tone is one of pure amusement and pleasure. He’s enjoying this. He’s enjoying it greatly.

  Gritting his teeth, Oren looks up at Raythe. If he hadn’t run him and Sophia all the way here without sleep, if he was at full strength… but no. Even now his chest burns from the over-exertion. It was like he’d run a marathon at the speed of a sprint the whole way through. Oren had long since come to accept his superhuman physique, but it seemed even he still had limits for all that he was constantly told his potential was limitless.

  “Why… if you were a god all along… then why use me?”

  Raythe blinks and then sneers down at him.

  “Why? Don’t be an idiot, Oren. You’re asking why we summoned and trained up a disposable tool, rather than risk facing off against the God who had ruled all of Creation for countless eons? Flip it around. Why would we risk ourselves when we could just use you instead? The one thing Law feared above all else.”

  Oren’s brow furrows in confusion, prompting Raythe to expin.

  “Otherworlders. Do try to keep up, Oren! Law has long feared you Otherworlders. Your type were the only real threat to his rule because he couldn’t control you. He couldn’t keep you down like the rest of the universe. So of course he outwed your summoning. You terrified him.”

  “T-That’s not true!”

  Sophia finally speaks up, breaking into the conversation in defense of her father.

  “My father didn’t fear the Otherworlders personally. He was too strong for that. He feared for Creation itself! He recognized the damage that Otherworlders could do if left unchecked. All of the Gods and Goddesses of the Heavens did!”

  Raythe’s eyes shift away from Oren and over to Sophia. His lips pull back into a sneering grin as he shakes his head.

  “So na?ve. So trusting. But then, I suppose you did run into the arms of the God Killer himself and beg him to protect you. The Heavens’ blood on his hands, and you’ve been cozying up to him for a while now. What WOULD your father think?”

  The Minor Goddess whimpers but is not completely cowed just yet. If anything, she sounds just as confused as Oren.

  “I… I don’t understand. Why do all of this?! Why train the God Killer to sughter the Heavens only to create the God Hunters down here on the Mortal Pnes?! They’re indiscriminately murdering all of you just as HE murdered my father and my kin!”

  Oren flinches at the sheer vitriol in Sophia’s voice when she addresses him. He can’t really be surprised though. She hates him now, just as he knew she would.

  “All of us? You really are so very young and innocent, aren’t you? The volume of things you don’t know could fill an entire library, Sophia. As, I’m not here to answer your questions. You’re here to answer mine. Tell me what I want to know quickly and I might even make it quick. Lie or try to stonewall me and…”

  He’s heard enough. Raythe isn’t intending to let either of them walk out of this cave alive. Meanwhile, Oren… Oren has one st trick up his sleeve.

  As the god reaches for his hair, perhaps intending to make an example of him or something, Oren surges upwards while pulling the Celestial Dagger he’d taken off of Elric Steelwater from its hiding pce. The shimmering metal fshes for a moment before he sshes the bde across Raythe’s throat, sending a spray of divine blood all over the floor as the god’s eyes widen and he falls back, clutching at his ruined neck.

  Oren stands over him, clutching the Celestial Dagger in his hand and grits his teeth.

  “Funny. You never were very good with surprises, Raythe.”

  The light in the god’s eyes fades a few moments ter. Oren watches until Raythe goes completely still. Only then does he turn to Sophia… who is staring at him with wide fearful eyes, her gaze flickering to the bloodied dagger in his grasp.

  Grimacing, Oren tosses the weapon away from himself, letting it ctter across the floor until it hits the wall.

  “I would never. Sophia, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”

  He didn’t want her to find out at all, to be fair. And yet she had all the same. She knew what he’d done now. She knew what he was. There was no going back.

  “Why… why did you spare me that day in the Heavens? Why did you let me live and then go on to murder my father in cold blood?”

  Oren grimaces, excuses flitting through his head. For one, he was under an illusion that made everything look hellish and evil, including Sophia. But when she’d just sat there staring up at him, Oren had been able to see the actual fear in her eyes past the demonic visage, as though the illusion was starting to fray away.

  “I couldn’t hurt you. You were no threat to me. Sophia, I-!”

  He doesn’t even see the boot coming. His head turns with a sickening crack as he’s struck across the jaw, cut off and sent careening to the floor. Pain radiates through his body, especially when that same boot sms into his side, hitting his kidney directly. An agonized cry spills forth from Oren’s lips, even as he curls in on himself.

  “Cute. Real fucking cute. I would say you two should just kiss already, but there’s not much chance of that happening I’m not at all sorry to say. Stay where you are, bitch.”

  Through the pain, Oren looks up to see Raythe looming over him, hale and hearty… and holding the Celestial Dagger aloft, pointed in Sophia’s direction. The Minor Goddess had taken an aborted step forward, only to freeze up on Raythe’s order. The dagger… it doesn’t have any blood on it, Oren betedly notices. And when he looks over to where Raythe’s body should have been, there’s nothing there.

  Another kick to the ribs has Oren groaning and focusing back on Raythe, who grins down at him with nothing but malicious, malevolent intent in his gaze.

  “I’m the God of Lies and Duplicity, you stupid fucking mortal. Did you really think you could pull one over on me?”

  Looking at the Celestial Dagger, Raythe snorts derisively.

  “Still, this is a fine bde. Not what I’m looking for, but quite impressive. Where did you pick this up, exactly?”

  Oren stays silent, obviously. Something that Raythe doesn’t really appreciate, judging by the subsequent blow to the ribs. But this time Oren is ready. He wraps himself around Raythe’s leg and yanks with all of his considerable might, trying to bring the god to the ground with him. Sure, Raythe is the one that’s armed in this situation, but Oren isn’t going to go down without a fight.

  As, it isn’t meant to be. As if Raythe can detect exactly when Oren is going to try something, that foot turns out to not be real. Oren curls around nothing and leaves himself hopelessly exposed when Raythe stomps on his spine from the other side a moment ter, causing Oren’s back to arch and another pain-filled scream to echo through the cave.

  “Idiot. What was that quippy little one liner you threw at me earlier? I was ‘never very good with surprises’? Don’t you get it yet, Oren? I pyed you from the very beginning. You were MY pawn. MY tool. You fucking moron. Everything you are, you owe to ME!”

  Another kick sends Oren onto his back, his arms and legs spyed out. His vision is starting to bcken around the edges and he feels like he might just pass out if this continues on much longer.

  “Don’t go to sleep on me now, Oren. You’re going to want to answer my questions before you do, because for every minute you’re unconscious, I’ll take a finger off of your little girlfriend.”

  The threat to Sophia certainly wakes Oren up, but the knee on his chest and the bde pressed against his neck does an even better job of spiking some more adrenaline into his failing system. Eyes snapping wide open, Oren stares up into Raythe’s face. His best friend in this whole damn universe snarls at him.

  “Where did you get this fucking dagger?”

  “… Elric… Steelwater…”

  Raythe furrows his brow for a moment before snorting derisively.

  “That little ant had a bde like this? Well then he should be gd you killed him, because he would have been in very hot water when I got done here otherwise. Still, that’s good. That’s very good. For a moment there I was worried you’d done something stupid Oren. You’re so very good at making dumb decisions after all. Trusting the wrong people and all that.”

  Oren blinks, scowling as he tries to focus. What was Raythe even talking about? What was he so worried about.

  “Now then. Next question. Where did you-urk!”

  At first, he’s not sure what he’s seeing is real. Raythe’s eyes suddenly bulge out of his head as he’s cut off mid-sentence. As well, blood starts to leak out of his mouth for a moment before the front of his throat begins to bulge outwards until an extremely small bde bursts out of his flesh.

  It takes Oren a second to see past Raythe to where Sophia is standing behind the God of Lies and Duplicity, burying something made of Celestial Metal in the back of the man’s neck. The Celestial Dagger falls from nerveless fingers now that Raythe’s spine has been severed and Oren barely reacts in time to catch it before it carves a furrow through his own throat with its incredibly sharp edge.

  Then, with what strength he has, Oren flips the Celestial Dagger around and stabs it upwards through Raythe’s heart. The god dies choking on his own blood, even as Oren and Sophia work together to shove him to the side, each of them letting go of their weapon. Though in Sophia’s case… her ‘weapon’ is silverware. Literal silverware. It’s a butterknife made of Celestial Metal of all things. And she just killed another god with it.

  -x-X-x-

  Sophia has never killed someone before. She’s never so much as harmed another living being. Truth be told, the Minor Goddess has always been opposed to the concept of violence. She was a Goddess of Wisdom and Equity, but even past that… she just didn’t like fighting. And she certainly didn’t like killing or hurting people.

  But when she saw Raythe looming over Oren like that… it was almost like her body had moved of its own accord. The other god had thrown her things all over the ground while looking for whatever it was he’d been searching for. And… maybe it was a little over the top, maybe it was a little bit spoiled, but Sophia had brought a set of fine silverware from the Heavens when she’d first set this pce up all those centuries ago.

  The butterknife she’d just used to help kill a god had never been used for anything else before now. It had in forgotten in its drawer until Raythe had come around and tossed it and some forks and spoons onto the floor during his search. Sophia had picked it up, taken a few steps… and stabbed Raythe in the nape of his neck with all of her might.

  She was just so angry… so very, very angry. At Raythe. At Oren. At herself. The God of Lies had been right, after all. She’d been an idiot for trusting Oren. Her grand scheme of convincing Oren to kill the God Killer for her sounded so STUPID now that she knew the truth. And… an Otherworlder of Oren’s power and strength? Of course he had to be the God Killer. Even Otherworlders didn’t grow as fast as he would have had to if he were only summoned after her father’s death.

  “Sophia…”

  Blinking, Sophia looks over to see Oren on his knees next to Raythe’s body, making sure the god is truly dead this time. Prudent, given what had already happened. But from the amount of blood pooling under him and the fact that the body isn’t disappearing again, she would say they got the real deal this go around.

  Oren seems to agree, because he turns away from Raythe still on his knees, holding the Celestial Dagger. For a moment, her heart skips a beat. Has he changed his mind? Was he going to kill her after all?

  But no. Instead, Oren turns the dagger around and holds it out from himself, positioning the tip of the bde against his chest.

  “I cannot make up for what I’ve done to you. I cannot make up for killing your father or your kin. But we have a concept back on my world… A life for a life. I know my life isn’t worth all of the lives I stole from you but say the word and I will pay it all the same. It’s what I should have offered you the first day we met back in those woods.”

  Sophia stares, eyes wide, as Oren asks her if she wants him to take his own life for her. And she knows he means it too, because she can feel the building power behind the gesture. Human sacrifice had been forbidden under her father a long time ago, but that didn’t change the facts. A human sacrifice was just as good if not better than any other animal sacrifice one could offer.

  Oren is well and truly ready to give her his life in this moment. It seems she has what she wanted after all. Oren is offering to kill the God Killer for her.

  “… You’re right. You should have offered it then.”

  Oren doesn’t flinch, merely staring at her solemnly and waiting for her to give the word. The minor tremble in his arms is the only sign that he’s still on his st legs from the trek here.

  “But I’m gd you didn’t. I don’t know if I would have been wise enough to make the right choice back then.”

  A flicker of confusion appears in the Otherworlder’s eyes, even as Sophia steps forward, looming over his kneeling form.

  “This is not forgiveness. I’m never going to forgive you for what you’ve done, Oren. But it’s like you said… you owe me a life, not a death. Killing yourself here and now doesn’t help me. It doesn’t even begin to make up for everything you’ve taken from me. No… I refuse to let you die so easily. You will live and devote yourself to me. Completely and utterly. You will serve me until I have no further use for you. Understood?”

  Slowly, Oren lowers the bde from his chest and nods.

  “… Yes Goddess. I understand.”

  And then, not but a moment ter, he keels over onto his side, passing out from his exhaustion and injuries. Sophia stares at him for a moment, the sight tugging at something in her heart that tells her to get him into a bed. But that tugging is nothing compared to the anger and hatred she feels towards the man she now knows to be the God Killer.

  She might have spared him, but only because she knows he’s more useful to her alive. Especially now that she knows the God Killer was just a pawn… and that it was gods like Raythe who sent him forth to do their bidding. Her eyes linger on the god’s cooling corpse for a moment before she stalks away.

  Sophia wanted answers. And one way or another, she was going to get them.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: The dynamic has changed. Irrevocably? Only time will tell...

  This is the final chapter of Arc 1 btw. Tomorrow we start Arc 2!

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