1 Maelstrom

"Another one is gone huh?"

Drops of water floated towards the air.

A man with bright eyes looked over the ledge at the end of the world.

Stone pillars paralleled another based around the marble floor; not entirely connected but neither separated. A strange flow within the air seemed to suppress much was inside.

This was evidently the Pantheon, a dimension born by belief and pigmentation of thought.

Gods rule these parts of the realms and are usually enacted as through belief. Zeniria had birthed many believers of the former and thought little of it.

Mighty heroes born from huts, benevolent rulers to watch over their men. The Enlightenment had sprawled the Pantheon with new arrivals and most importantly, religion.

A mighty person watched through his all-seeing eyes aloft on his chair. He dawned a mighty helmet that covered a majority of his face with a T-shaped opening in the front. A plume was embedded above the helmet.

"Another war has broken out huh?"

Dominac was the God of War, his voice was dark, slightly hoarse but held a slight tone of empathy.

He was neither happy nor sad. Every war fought would strengthen the belief to necessitate the urgency of matters, a world led by belief was always on its edge.

Another man stood beside a stone bench.

The interior of the room was built to encompass a round-like table that was hollow in the middle. White marble chairs numbered throughout the space occupied by other beliefs.

The room was silent, many have gone through troubling times as one always had.

But a sudden tremor soon struck as a fist was slammed hard on the marble. Many moved their heads with little care in their minds, this wasn't the first case.

He had dark hair and his broad and sharp head was attached to his small yet nimble body. He had jet black hair combed back to fit a small wreath encompassing his heads. All was sharp about the man and his face had shown features explained with nothing but anger.

"I can't take this no longer, when will we punish the humans for their wrongdoing?!"

The amount of irritation in his voice was insurmountable to a point that it caused the room to tremble to his voice.

His recent power had caused nothing but his temper to rise even more.

A human was found using powers of his faith to raze an entire town of innocent men. They watched as he ravaged the women population with little care of the recipients.

There was always standards when comparing things to another and a basis to judge all things.

"That's enough Relufic, we follow our laws no matter how stringent they may be, we must wait for them to learn for themselves."

"We have waited far too long and yet have seen no progress! Are you okay with watching your brethren die Zetan?!"

Beliefs fell one after another as gods could neither answer the calls or pleas of help to the parabolic beings.

"Enough is enough Relufic, we follow the oath, the one you swore. Even if I wish I can guide them to the right choice, we are unable to."

The oath for the gods to never step in the mortal realm, once found they would disappear from the face of existence.

His anger had within no restraint, but with nothing to vent it out on, he bit his lips, hoping blood would seep through his gnawing teeth.

He stomped his foot down and dashed away outside the large pantheon and on the large steps.

Relufic gazed along the same enclosed sky with bright light illuminating all in its path. They acted as the reminders of them being gods, entrapped in a case of the display to be seen from others as workers of an unknown establishment.

His hand gripped hard on the rail at the end of the stairwell of the open podium.

"Reluf..."

A hand crept to his arm, as it slowly wrapped around another to hold tight.

"I don't know what to do, Hesa...Our world is falling and we are slowly dying along with it. I feel powerless."

"Don't worry Reluf, we'll get through this, I know it."

He turned his head around to see the owner of the caring voice.

A lady met his eyes with pure emerald gems and auburn hair in a messy style. her hair was to do all it pleases as it rests down her back. She too had a laurel wreath worn on her head with wraps of cloth and linen that clung on her figure as her proper attire.

"The world had already gone through the chaos and resentment rooted in the annals of its very core. I think we're already too late."

"Don't be pessimistic about it!"

Hesa and Reluf's first encounter was just eons ago with the birth of the world. They were polar opposites of one another and that led them to attract. He always had a soft spot on Hesa's orders and she was lenient of his attitude. They were born with one another to balance the world, but that slowly rooted itself with love as the bond.

"Fine Hesa you win."

His mind eased on as Hesa rose her arm with a victorious and vibrant smile.

"Told ya' so! Let's head back, I can get some wine from Krases under his nose!"

He supposed he had nothing else better to do and went along with her shenanigans and blunder.

This would go on for thousands of years, a few years equivalent to the gods who live in the pantheon.

But in those years came one of the worse changes of history.

A battle for superiority had caused many to fight for absolutely no causes. Thousands were murdered with little thoughts placed into the minds of those who held blades and called upon Gods' magic to do their bidding with no return of faith.

The world was already at its final stages and many have passed from their beliefs dying with only those left to strengthen.

Relufic had enough with what was going on, he had given them enough chances to fix their mistakes, but the birth of new life made by no god had caused his wrath to increase.

He pleads to Zetan the removal of the oath so that the gods can punish them.

"No, we can't, the oath strictly forbids entering the mortal realm."

Zetan had grown quite large as of now as his large white beard had reached nearly to the floor. His stature was hunched as his chair increased in size to compensate for his massive legs.

Zetan's power was always the strongest and filled the desire of many in the world, no matter at what stage he would always gain stronger whereas others grew weaker and finally die.

"You...!"

Relufic walked towards him and rose his hand to punch directly to his face.

But at its final moment, a hand grabbed to tug away his arm to stop the impact.

"Reluf, that's wrong!"

"Don't hold me back Hesa! He wouldn't even feel a thing even if I were to beat him!"

Zetan remained straight-faced and apathetic of the man in front of him, his eyes watched forward as the fist was just inches away.

Relufic pulled harder to remove the constraints and felt it lighten and suddenly released.

"Reluf..."

He was surprised by the feeling of the impact as his fist soon met up to Zetan's wrinkled face. Zetan flew quite a distance along with his chair as it broke away from the foundation. There he sat once more with little care of the events that occurred.

Something was strange about Hesa as his first thought came to be tragic. He stared back in absolute disbelief.

A woman that collapsed with her wreath slowly decaying.

"Hesa!"

He turned back and grabbed her arm; a sensation of pale coldness was all he could meet with the usual warmth of her body. Her once radiant skin soon became ashen gray and aged as if merely a corpse. With all but remaining was her eyes that held little light as it used to. Her once cheerful smiles was all that kept Reluf at the brink of sanity.

And it would finally break.

She grabbed tightly around Reluf's arm and smiled once more in a faint light.

"Remember...Stay strong and don't do anything rash..!"

Her arms went limp as the final word left through her mouth. Her arms soon became limp and lost their grip on the petrified Reluf.

He could not comprehend what happened in front of him until he let out a shriek. A shriek that had an essence of expressing anguish. His tears came out crimson from the death of his once betrothed.

Reluf had lost everything he could have his hands on. Those he could call friends, rivals, and now the one he truly loved. All gone in the span of years.

His resentment garnered what little energy he had left into his anger. With no target to vent, he blamed the world once more his blindless wrath.

But deep down he knew, he shouldn't have been angered at the world, but only himself. His powerlessness and carelessness to even protect even one person and not return the love she gave him. Reluf couldn't fathom that his own anger would be an even stronger power than the belief of anything could imagine. Fueling himself with his own belief. All the rage accumulated to form what was only the beginning of change.

"With my body, I sacrifice to make all repent for their sins under the blade I call judgment."

Using his powers, he swore to destroy the world of what it loved most and everything in its path.

Using every ounce of power and breaking the oath, his body began its path of destruction as his very skin melted away from his body. Revealing the blood that he wished he never had to begin with. He began his descent with no power whatsoever in the world of mortals.

And to what his intent was to show that their creation of life was just the start of their annihilation.

His 'body' flew unimaginable distance to a place enshrouded in a black smog. Dead trees were numerous and almost monotonous to hide away a simple town. Only for it to be an organization of mages practicing the dark arts and worshipping demons.

In one of the decrepit laboratory laid a beast with no defined features inside of a black gem. The sheen reflected remnants of white where spirits have passed through.

Deep down in the tunnels was a man creating the first body.

Its main body was consisting of thick brown fur of a brown bear with legs of that a lizard. Its head was similar in size but held little to no similarities of the body as a head of a hawk was placed awkwardly on the body of a bear, its prized feathers combed back as the mage at hand worked meticulously to interlock each piece with one another.

"Almost, got it..."

He used his hands to retrieve some of the tools and sown together some of the important nerves and skeletal system. All the pieces of the puzzle were already planned with magic-resistant magic being embedded on the body and allow full compatibility with another.

But a misfortunate event occurred when he pricked himself as he was gonna finish up.

"Ouch!"

He pulled away his finger to check to see if any damage was done. Of course, a sewing needle wouldn't do much damage so he resumed the finishing touch with his blood in contact with the needle, slowly dripping away in the body of the Chimera.

"Done!"

The lifeless body of a Chimera was born yet to have a soul instilled.