Hero of Darkness

Chapter 5: The Reason

SILENCE. ANOTHER TOTAL SILENCE.

Kill the Demon God? What the fuck?! How was Elric going to do it? From what he heard G.O.D. & Kravel say before, even those who came before him and also the Chosen ones of other Gods failed to do so and probably they all died including the previous summon who came before Elric. So how was he supposed to do it? Saving the world sounded good only when it was fictional or somebody else did it. Who would waste their life just so they could brag about it...

Elric looked at the two ultimate beings who were standing in front of him.. His expression was as if they killed his dog. Even Kravel who was even sterner and stone-faced than G.O.D. looking the other way as if he was thinking ʼThe weather is very nice todayʼ. Both of them were beings who could destroy an entire country with just a wave of their hand but now they were avoiding eye contact with a single human as they felt embarrassed for making such a request.

G.O.D. Finally dared to look at him and asked, ”So what do you think? Do you accept our proposal?”

Elric shouted, ”No. Nahi. Nay. Nada. Nako. Nie. Ie. Ani. Méiyǒu !!” he refused in all the different languages he knew.

He sat on the imaginary ground and held his head in both of his hands. He felt like dying one more time. He started hurling abuses at the two godly existences in front of him again.

”Fuck you! Fuck your mom! Fuck your sister! Fuck your entire family!” Elric kept rambling as he started cursing G.O.D. & Kravelʼs 18 generations of ancestors.

Unlike the previous time, both G.O.D. & Kravel didnʼt exude any killing intent & stood there like little kids who were being scolded by their parents. All they could do was endure with their heads hanging down.

After 10 minutes of rambling & cursing, Elric finally stopped as he was thinking of ways to escape his current predicament.

”What if I donʼt accept it? You clearly canʼt make me accept by force & thatʼs why you need my approval.” Elric said with a smug face.

But G.O.D. spoke again with a calculative expression on his face. ”Youʼre right. We canʼt transfer your soul into our world without your permission. However, itʼs not like you have any other choice either. Weʼre currently inside the World Boundary. Look at the dome around us. Itʼs a personal space I created when I summoned the souls from your world. Without it, nothing is supposed to exist in this place.” G.O.D. said in a smug tone.

”Doesnʼt that mean Iʼll die if I exit out of this dome? Works for me.” Elric said joyfully, that was his main objective for now. To die for good.

The next second, G.O.D. shook his head and replied ”Thatʼs not how it works. Nothing is supposed to exist inside this place. If you exit the dome, youʼll become part of the world boundary itself. And youʼll be tied to it forever. You wonʼt be able to leave and you certainly wonʼt die either. Youʼll be simply bound to this place for the end of time.. Why do you think even a God like me had to create this barrier to protect myself?”

Elric finally came to a realization. It all made sense! He looked around his surroundings again and saw that outside the dome, there really was nothing. No light, no land, no water, not even air, nothing. He thought he might cease to exist if he went outside but after hearing G.O.D. explain it, he found it believable. Why would a literal God like God of Darkness need to create a barrier and protect himself from this place? If he could enter it, he could easily leave as well. But if he did have the ability, he wouldnʼt need to create this dome and protect himself if not ʼbeing tied to this world boundaryʼ was an actual thing that would happen.

If Elric went outside the barrier, heʼll just become part of this place and exist here till this place was destroyed.. Which was simply impossible & wouldnʼt happen in billions of years to come. And Elric would become insane here.. This was literally a fate worse than death.

Even the core of his soul shuddered with just a thought of it. He heaved a long sigh and came to terms with his current situation. He canʼt die, and canʼt leave this place either. The only way out was with G.O.D. sending him to their world called Vantrea.

It seemed like he really did not have any other choice but to accept their proposal.

”Fine! Iʼll do it. As much as I want to die, I donʼt want to be stuck here and wander till the end of time and go insane.” Elric with discomfort spilling out in his voice.

”Great! Itʼs good that weʼve come to an agreement.”

G.O.D. said cheerily. Even Kravel was nodding his head in joy.

”BUT...” Elric said and stopped his words. He looked at both of them and looked as if he was thinking about something very important..

”Let me be straight. I donʼt want to work my ass off just to attempt your task. I mean, Demon God is also a literal God just like you, right ?” Elric asked.

”Not quite.” G.O.D. said as he continued. ”I and other Gods are beings born out of different aspects of reality and laws of existence in our world. We each have perfect control over the laws from which we were manifested from. And we will continue to exist as long as our world exists. However, Demon God was born out of thousands of years of malice & hatred. He is an unnatural being and something that shouldnʼt exist. If not for the past 10 thousand years of wars and bloodshed that kept happening in our world. Something like him wouldnʼt even come to manifest.”

He gave a helpless look at Elric and said, ”We Gods can only represent a law of our world and have perfect control over that law. So we canʼt affect the world or intervene in it directly. Weʼre more like an overseer at this point. And with different species in our world reaching the most prominent time of their civilizations; something like wars for survival, for resources & for the beliefs that were instilled in them by the Gods theyʼve worshipped till now, conflict was bound to occur. The past 5 Thousand years were a testament to its greatest impact in the history of our world. And the Demon God, who was born as nothing but an anomaly in our world kept feeding over it and is becoming stronger and stronger again. Even though he is still not even half as strong as any of the 12 Gods. At this rate, we think it wonʼt take him even next 100 years before he reaches to our level and establishes his Law of existence into our world.” G.O.D. finally stopped explaining.

Elric, who was a person with actual brains in his previous life quickly understood what G.O.D. was implying. He said,

”So if what you say is right.. After he establishes his Law of Existence in your world.. Heʼll become a literal God like you and the other Gods. And will become an invincible existence. Impossible to kill unless one can destroy the who world of Vantrea itself. Which also means killing the other Gods including you in the process.”

G.O.D. looked at Elric in approval of his intellect. ”You were able to infer all that just from few words.” he nodded and continued. ”But thatʼs not all. Since heʼs an anomaly born out of war, malice & bloodshed inside the whole world. Once he becomes a God like us, he will keep getting stronger till the point none of the 12 Gods can stop him. And unlike us, he wonʼt be bound to follow the laws of reality in our world and will be able to interfere in it directly. He can simply wipe out all the living beings and reach to a height where even us Gods would be nothing but ants in front of him.” said G.O.D. in a worrying tone.

”Are you kidding me?! How is that even possible? To reach a level above the Gods? Youʼre lying.” Elric said with a curious manner.

”I wish that was true. But unlike your world, ours is filled with Magic and Natural energy so vast that even we Gods canʼt completely control or contain it. And since we also represent different Laws of Reality, the world rejects us when we try to combine our powers and treats us like an external being.. Like an Outsider trying to enter your house. Weʼve tried and failed hundreds of times already. And thatʼs why, 3 thousand years ago; we gods made a pact to find a solution to end it. And after decades of research, we found a way... To summon beings from other worlds.” G.O.D. finally explained the exact reason why Elric was brought in here. So this was the main reason behind it.

”But I donʼt understand one thing. Why us Humans? Because there must be other superior life forms in the Multiverse, right?” Elric asked.

”If I had not read your memories, I wouldnʼt understand what Multiverse meant.” G.O.D. said and continued, ”The thing is, you Humans from other worlds have the greatest affinity with the Magic and Natural energy of our world. In other words, you can become indefinitely stronger as you increase your magical powers and experience with time. You lot possess the potential to reach the same level as what you can call a Demigod. Just like Kravel over here.” G.O.D. finished his words and pointed towards Kravel, his most trusted servant.

”So youʼre a Demigod ?” Elric asked as he looked towards Kravel with a surprised expression.

”Yes, I am. But unlike you or the other chosen ones, Iʼm not from a different world. I was born in our world and reached the level of Demigod by my own efforts. It took me thousands of years to accomplish that goal. But unlike the Demon God, Iʼm bound to the laws of our worlds since I was a natural living being in the first place. So I too can no longer directly intervene in our worldʼs happenings. If Demon God was born in the same time as me, I couldʼve killed him myself but itʼs long time past that.” Kravel said and shook his head as he was at a loss.

After hearing someone so stubborn as Kravel, Elric understood exactly how grave matter it was. The world was near to an end, and the most supreme beings in it were helpless to do anything to prevent it. And the world itself was rejecting their intervention. It was a very complicated situation itself. No wonder even the Gods had to rely on humans summoned from other worlds to do their bidding.

”Wait, I donʼt understand one thing though. You said all the Gods agreed to kill the Demon God together. But then why were your followers boycotted and now declared to be on the entire worldʼs Must Kill List? Youʼre not hiding something from me, are you?” Elric asked and looked at God of Darkness with a suspicious gaze.

At his query, G.O.D. looked at Elric with a helpless expression and said, ”Itʼs because among the Gods, I and God of Light are the strongest. However, I represent death & the end of a living beingʼs existence. And not many in the entire world would wish to worship such a God who thrives on deaths of worldʼs inhabitants, right?” G.O.D. said embarrassingly.

”Out with it! The whole truth! Or you can forget about me accepting your proposal!” Elric said in an angered tone. He was no fool. Where there was life, there was bound to be death. But that wasnʼt a valid reason to despise death itself as it was part of a natural cycle of any living being. Even the most indestructible thing in the world would cease to exist after a time. So whatever G.O.D. was telling Elric wasnʼt the complete truth. Or it was a complete lie to begin with.

G.O.D. was left speechless again. Why was this human so smart? Was it because of his past life experiences that he found everybody untrustworthy? Or was it because he was simply an overly cautious guy? He had no answer.

”Fine. Iʼll tell you the truth.” G.O.D. said with a furious expression.

”As long as itʼs the whole truth.” Elric said in a firm tone.

”Itʼs because my 8th chosen one, the previous summon and your predecessor... He..” G.O.D. stopped his words and rested his head back on his throne as if he was lamenting on a bad memory. After a dozen seconds, he continued,

”He killed all the other chosen Heroes.”