New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



After half a minute of gesturing in the air, mana suffusing the air, the white clouds all around them flashed a lilac colour. Solomon nodded once to himself before sitting back in his chair, turning his head toward Nemus.

"We may speak freely now. Let us all be honest."

Solomon said these words with gravitas, looking specifically at the goddess. Nemus smiled at him.

"But I have yet to speak a single lie, great sage of souls. Why the accusations?"

Solomon frowned at her words.

"I consider half-truths and unspoken facts lies, goddess. Now, answer my question. Who are you, truly?"

Nemus' smile wiped away from her face. She loathed being called a liar, and had this not been the domain of this mere echo of the once great sage, she was half tempted to teach him some manners.

But she wouldn't be able to exert the full extent of her already weakened powers. Not here, not now.

Alex sat to the side, wondering who would win if a confrontation were to break out. But no such thing would come to pass.

"Fine. I will show my cards, but I expect the same from you."

Solomon nodded his head, expecting such a condition. Truth be told, he had also been very vague with Alexander.

Alex put all his attention on them both, even though he was but a bystander in the conversation. There was an old saying that fit well in this situation.

Knowledge is power. And he had a feeling he was about to become infinitely powerful.

***

Far away from there, in a plot of dead space, with no stars in visible proximity, a small hourglass floated aimlessly. In this glowing hourglass, a divine essence thrashed about, trying to break itself free, to no avail.

On the inside, Tyr could see the space outside, like an endless night through the glass walls holding him captive. He felt weakened to such a point, he might as well be a mortal.

"Curse you, Gaius. Once again, you play a game with the lives of so many mortals, and imprison those that would stand in your path."

This wasn't the first time Gaius pulled something like this, and it would probably not be the last, was he left to his own devices. But most of the lesser gods, and a majority of the greater gods, refused to stand in his way.

Gaius may not be the most powerful of them, but the resources he had at his disposition made him the largest threat. He wasn't the god of creation for nothing.

His shrewd mind had led him to create artifacts of his millennia of existence that could threaten the essence of the other gods. When they didn't ply to his intentions, he either locked them away, like Tyr currently and Psyche, among many others, or ended them.

Very few gods had lost their lives since the dawn of time. And of the very few that did, more than half had perished at the hands and creations of Gaius.

Gaius' only true natural limitation was that he could not directly kill mortals. But that didn't stop him from causing catastrophes that would wipe out civilizations with a snap of his fingers.

He held no such limitations against his peers.

Tyr sat on the beach like sand of the hourglass, resting his chin upon his hand, perched on his knee, as he thought about his predicament. Tyr had been aware that Gaius had long since been looking for a way to neuter him, but he hadn't thought him capable of ever succeeding.

What he hadn't expected was for the demons he created to find a way. As his thoughts drifted to the demons, Tyr remembered the day of their advent.

***

"Lady Psyche, please teach me how you create souls! How can I be a proper god of creation, if I can't even create the essence of life?"

Standing in a lush garden, on a hunk of rock floating through the vast expanse, a cheerful-looking Gaius was looking up to a fairy-like woman, whose silver-white hair floated behind her. The woman smiled warmly at him before shaking her head.

"You shouldn't try to encroach on the other gods' domains, young Gaius. You might irritate them and cause conflict. Fret not, though. Whatever life you create, I will gladly infuse them with my essence and craft their souls. Such is my duty."

Gaius' eyes squinted a bit, looking as disappointed as a featureless face could. He nodded his head, responding in a dejected tone.

"Yes, Lady Psyche. I'm sorry I asked."

The golden being opened a purple portal before walking into it and vanishing from the lush asteroid.

Fast forward many years later, the purple portal opened up on the domain of the goddess Psyche once more.

"Lady Psyche! Lady Psyche! I did it! I finally did it!"

The goddess turned her head slowly, looking at the younger god stepping into her domain so excitedly.

Gaius flicked his wrist, pulling out a wisp of red Aether, out of thin air, and showed it proudly to Psyche. But the look on her face became incredibly serious, teetering on the edge of anger.

"Gaius! What is this abomination you created?! I told you not to mess with things that are beyond your domain. Destroy that thing this instant!"

The excited look in Gaius' eyes vanished, replaced by surprise. He thought the goddess would be happy that he finally succeeded in his endeavour of copying her powers.

But she instead shunned him and ordered him to destroy it. Where had he gone wrong?

"But, Lady Psyche… I succeeded…"

"I said destroy it. This thing you created isn't a soul. It's an abomination."

As anger crept up into Gaius' body, the energy around him crackling, the wisp of energy in his hand changed as well. From its faint red glow suddenly darkened, blackening, keeping only tinges of red to it, as it turned pitch black.

But as it changed, Lady Psyche's eyes widened, before she waved her hand, sending pure Aether into the crafted facsimile of a soul, and destroying it.

"NOOOO!!!! My decades of hard work! You destroyed it!"

Gaius was about to erupt when, with a swift wave of her hand, Psyche teleported him out of her domain. That was the day Gaius became hateful of the other gods and vowed to get rid of the goddess of souls.