“So what. You are multiple people?”
“I guess.”
“Then pick which one you want to be specifically. But don’t forget, all those killings— all of those actions of sin that you’ve committed don’t vanish with those guys. You are objectively a horrible person, a person that has killed possibly hundreds. But you should be greatful you are still alive.”
“Greatful?” The Imp scoffed, “Last moment I had alive before I returned from that bullshit universe which I don’t even understand… I was being dissected like a science schoolboy practical.”
“Really?”
The Imp pointed at their left eye, “I don’t even have tear-ducts anymore. That bastard Xeras practically turned me into an expirement. That’s why I killed his ‘daughter in law’ when I crash landed.”
“What did he do?”
“Oh wait. I put you out of comission so you weren’t there. But all those other Saints and Angels were, no wonder they don’t bring up their controversies. I may be a bad guy, but was I deserving of that?”
“Well the way you treat others is how you’ll be treated. I see this as a form of karma for a child killer, also a serial murderer. How did you not even get caught?”
“That bastard…. he didn’t care.” The Imp with no true name shrugged, “Xeras is a funny soul. He thought that the controversies surrounding the trials would cause more eyes to wander in. All publicity is good publicity, but this is really concerning for a ‘God’ that is supposedly supposed to love all of his people. You understand.
God is supposed to be omnibenevolent and all forgiving, he didn’t forgive me did he?” The Imp spat.
“Well, Xeras is certainly not God. Then also, you aren’t worth forgiving. You are evil, pure evil. The Invalian genocide is no excuse for your actions, neither is your dissociation.” Gabriel folded his arms, a light chuckle slipping out his voice but..
“Silence.” The Imp sharprly spun around.
“Pardon?”
The Imp stood in a stance, turning around.
A twitch pulsed behind his eye, the same one left mangled in Xeras’s operation table. Something old shifted. His right arm was over his chest, palm extended as it was placed on his chest— his fingers curved therefore allowing his claws to protrude outwards. The Imp’s eyes were a pale blue— teal, as he smiled— his canines sharpened, white as he chuckled.
Zero fizzled out but now…
“Medea cannot keep me bound for so long.”
“Zero?” Gabriel walked closer, but the distance between him and the Imp never shortened.
But the Imp’s smile grew larger, bloodier.
“I am not Zero. As said before I am simply an Imp. But I was wrong before, that is not all I am. I remember three specific days.
The day I was stranded in Hell after the Invalian Genocide.
The fourteenth of October this year, when I was reborn in that cell.
Finally, the sixteenth. When that false God Medea attempted to strip me of the truth. Of who I am. So I’ll declare myself of who I am. I am Invalia’s truth. I am what Nil Aries called me.
I am the Savior!
Mark my words, once the Florian ‘refugees’ arrive. Those god forsaken Seraphims abd Angels and Saints that dare tread on my land…
I’ll kill them all within one move.” The air thickened around him.
“No!” Gabriel clasped his hands together, a square floating out his hands and encompassing the entirety of the club.
“What?” The Savior stared above, there was a purple aura surrounding the club. “This is an advancement of your prior ability. Typical for a mortal, they keep evolving as if they can ever attain true divinity. Especially a filthy Knight.”
Gabriel shook his head, “I don’t know whats made you regress into your prior version, but I can take a good guess that this right now— isn’t certainly the Zero I’ve known since the Reprisal.”
The Savior chuckled, “Oh yes. It isn’t Zero or Me. It is all of us, blessed with sloth.”
“Blessed with what?”
The deal with Masalor pulsed inside the Imp, the Sloth-blessing stirring, waking, dragging the weight of every persona with it.
“No point explaining anything to a filthy mortal with no understanding. I hate you knights the most, you egotistical bellands caused my home to be destroyed! Deb! Skelsor! Biteso! They all died and I don’t even know where Asura or Fafnir are! The Seven Deadly Sins… they were destroyed. Invalia! They were cursed by Thidos. Cursed by that fool Xeras! Then he dare decide to make me view them be masqueraded. Put into a universe where I see my own dead friends’ corpses be jestered!”
“What the hell are you speaking about?”“Hell is the world! I’ll send you straight there on my name as Schrodinger! You will die filthy knight scum!”
Gabriel stiffened. This wasn’t rage. This was fracture.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
(“Speak your truth… Speak our truth!”) A voice within the Savior’s head.
“Yeah. I will!” The Savior pointed to the ground, a spear jolting from nothingness and into their right palm. Hell’s voice still echoed in him—the day Masalor reached through the flames, the day the Savior woke. The day the Imp was reborn from hell in his lowly cage. Their eye twitched. “Save me!
No! I will save myself— and the world! I am the Savior!” The Savior punched himself in the face with his left fist. But he never broke formation— his stance never changing as a bruise was left on his left cheek, to instantly be regenerated afterward. “Heh…”
“Are you speaking to yourself?” Gabriel tilted his head, “You really are going insane— I’ll have to stop this right now though. I can’t risk anything!”
(“See how he laughs at us! He sees us as a tool! Utilise the power of sloth! Utilise mine and your power! Showcase that you aren’t Zero… or Masalor! Show that you are more!”)
“I WILL ON MY GOD GIVEN RIGHT!” The Savior screamed, his teal eyes spiralling. His skin flushed bright red as their long, serpent-like tongue unfurled like a crimson waterfall, histail flicked rhythmically, a metronome to their spiralling insanity.
“Let’s hope I can finish this early before anyone notices— other than the omniscient Medea.”“Of course a mortal like you slobber on the success of a false God.” The Savior spun the ruby spear in their claws, pointing it at Gabriel’s temple. “It’s all you sycophants can do to try attain divinity after all.” The night sky illuminating their back.
“Bring it on!” Gabriel stroked his mask before leaning further onto the railings.
“Speak primitively and you’ll die like a gazelle!”
The Savior dashed…
But.
A memory split. Not his. Not Masalor’s.
Something primordial shoved itself into his skull.
The world was once beautiful, a garden of Eden. God had created the world and all that surrounds it within six days, before resting on the last. As a result, this is referred to as the Sabbath Day. On his last day prior, he created two humans.
A male named Adam, the first human. The father of all humanity.
Then after using Adam’s ribcage, he created Eve. The mother of all humanity.
As a result these two humans lived in harmony with animals, naked and pure until one fateful day they were tempted. A serpent crawling amongst a forbidden tree, a forbidden tree with housed the forbidden fruit of knowledge. The only rule that God gave to those two was to never consume it.
But the serpent tempted Eve.
Then she consumed the fruit and passed it to Adam.
Hereby creating the Original Sin.
Afterward, God kicked the two out of the Garden of Eden. He was dissappointed, his unconditional and omnibenevolence was betrayed by his own creations. But this was not the end of it.
The two had children, Cain and Abel.
Abel was a beautiful boy, a boy who worked hard and was loved by God. The relationship between humanity and God was beginning to amend due to the parent’s constant repentance.
But Cain was envious of Abel.
The ugliest human emotion, envy.
The dragon Fafnir who killed.
Cain who killed Abel.
Then was cursed with the mark.
“I see. I see from the real world.” The Savior muttered, invisible to all— beyond this plain as he stared at the events. He then saw Gabriel, attempting to bypass the reality.
“I’ll return to your dimension…”
THUD.
“The world. History floods into my brain like a gush. A gush of gush of gush!”
And somewhere deeper—far below Hell, below memory, below Masalor’s voice—another truth stirred. Older than Zero. Older than Invalia. Older than this world.
“Silence! I say silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Eliza… Samiel… They chose me as their representative. Before the world. Before it all. Why? Why do you decide to ask such a stupid idiotic redudant illogical question! It is of course because I…
I AM THE SAVIOR!”
“You are stuck in delusions! Have you faced such stupidity by yourself? If Thidos would’ve known— he would’ve simply killed you within a second to stop anything like this happening! You idiotic simpleton!”
CLANG
A shockwave.
“You weren’t there! You didn’t see! I was cast out of my love— Invalia! I didn’t care for it but it was my possession! Alongside Samiel, I had all the power!
But now… I have nothing! No reputation! No castle! I have just a title that is not of me. ‘Invalian Mutilator’. I’ll show you real mutilation! Just as Thidos casted me out! I will cast you into hell!”
“Lord!”
A figure spoke. A naked angel with luscious white curls shouted at the pitch-blue sky. He layed on the grassy floor which surrounded him entirely, his right arm pointing at the sky; curled in a fist as a furious expression layered across his face. His bold white wings fluttering on the ground as the linen robe covering his body jolted in the wind.
“How dare you! You dare treat I as if I was scum, I have seen my beauty! No individual such as you can judge me.
For I am PRIDE! I am Lucifer of the Heavens!
You will never cause me to suffer.
I’ll end you!”
“You will not do such a thing.”
BMMMM.
A shockwave hit Lucifer as his bright teal eyes dilated, pure clear blood spitting out his mouth. Leaving a drool, as he stared above.
“I am the True God, you are a dissapointment. An angel, my cherised one. Why’d you have to befall this path and lead to Satan.”
“S—Satan?”“Lucifer you are no longer of the Heavens. You are cursed to a throne within hell, a throne whichn is seated with spikes. As the punishment within, is your own. Hell will be a desolate landscape, everyone far from each-other. Unable to ever meet, as not only is being distant from me hell. But distance from everyone is hellfire.”
The Fallen Angel beared his fangs.
“Curse you! Curse you!”
“I’ll inform you of something as respect out of my love for you.
This world that you currently lay on, alongside the universe and cosmology around it. It will all be destroyed. When the time comes, this reality will be destroyed and a new one will take it’s place.
I have already pre-destined my chosen one to be Ezekiel Levy of the Future. But that is all I can do, these people are stronger than my control— no such pre-destination can befall them.
But I’ll alert you of one more.”
“Why splatter such insolence to me! What goodness can I do with this!” Lucifer roared, sending tremors throughout the whole universe.
Wave after wave after wave.
But no effect did it do to anything, not to the universe and not to the True God.
“You have such integral influence in the world of Omalga. All of you devils do.
Teysu Hama. Do you understand this name? It is the name of the boy I’ll speak to in a distant, distant time. I’ll alert of my truth, due to obscurities of the past.”
“I don’t care!”
(The eye laughed—an echo not meant for human ears. Teysu clutched his skull and screamed until the sound rotted. Then silence.) A remanant from the future… 4th October 125AD
“Mortals don’t deserve divine intervention after the sacraments… now stray away and depart further till Hell consume you!”
CLANG!
“I see the truth! You don’t see anything at all! I best you with my own hands!” The Savior slashed their spear like a sword against Gabriel’s body, sending the Saint flying to the railings.
“Bastard! What goes through a mind such as your own?” Gabriel grumbled, he utilised his power to bounce off the railings before charging his fist into the Savior’s face.
“No! It’s useless! Wait! I feel another! I see you Lucifer!
I feel another memory!”
Lucifer stared at the sky.
“For all you speak of, you don’t speak of the truth. I am the Angel that is destined to lead and become God. I am the Omega— not you.” He spoke softly, covering his face with his palm. “Why would Hell consume me? I am no Fallen Angel, I am an Angel. I am divinity at it’s finest. Finest I say— as if wine from grapes from thousands ago. A fern flower. Yes— I see, a fern flower that represents my true eternity. True youth.
As a Savior for Angels— yes. I am not Satan, I will never be evil. I am pride but I am sloth at the same continium. I am pure and I am beyond God. Why would I take his arrogance as word? I do not care, I see the truth. I see the future.
True God I am. Not him! Me! I am!
I see your battles. I will lend you strength— my sloth. You are the True Devil as you said you are. Yes.
You are the Savior! You will lead existence to the true future! Not me— Not this God. Not Ezekiel Levy. It would be you!
Yes! You!”
The Angel pointed at the sky, smiling.
“I adore you… Savior.”
Thank you for reaching the end of this chapter!
A lot went down, and from here the story begins to accelerate even faster. Every character is being tested, and every decision is reshaping the world around them.
If you have thoughts, theories, or reactions, I’d love to hear them, comments genuinely help the story grow. If you’re enjoying things, don’t forget to follow the series so you don’t miss upcoming updates.
More chaos awaits next chapter, "Chapter 98: The Mock Slavi’s Story"
(Royal Road's been not treating me well so I'll wrap up this arc and the next and then continue the story in private drafts, those who wish to see the story should join the discord server in the Prologue chapters notes.)