1 Prologue

When the High God was created from the energies of the universe, he was given full power over all. And so the High God began to create new concepts and laws of reality. The first concept he created was time, and since that was his first demonstration of power he called himself the High God of Time.

After countless millennia of time progressing, he created more and more. Implementing laws on how beings and objects operated, he finally made his biggest accomplishment: humanity. Wonderful, ingenious creatures capable of self evolution. But they lacked something. Violence was launched in succession. Mass genocides on all sides.

So he pondered. What exactly was it that they were lacking? So he tried again and again to get them right. His ambition to perfect them bordered on insanity. He started over and over, abandoning the failed creations to their own devices and moving on to the next batch. He created new gods and goddesses with different concepts of their own to help fix his failing creations. Like him they were given titles, but unlike him, they were limited to what they were created as.

The High God created the muscle brained God of War, trying to see if he could prevent humanity from killing one another, yet he joined in on what he deemed was "the fun". He created the gentle Goddess of Peace thinking she could instantly end the conflict. Death, Fear, Joy, one after another he made new gods and goddesses. But humanity continued and the warring only intensified with each new batch. But then after creating the God of Wisdom he was given a theory of what was wrong. The God of Wisdom deduced that the humans didn't seem to care for one another, didn't care that they were killing each other.

The High God was ecstatic with joy. He promoted the God of Wisdom as his right hand and ordered him to compile a list of all the things the humans have done. He then began to prepare. He needed a new concept, one that cared for humanity, but more deeply than that. He needed a god that would show the humans how to protect each other, how to show the humans how wonderful Peace could be.

He needed something that eclipsed all the god and goddesses he'd made before.

He started the ritual needed to create a new god, but differently. He wanted a god powerful enough to affect other realms, and so he condensed the vast powers of the universe, and a sliver of his own power, into a single entity. And with expectant eyes the High God watched as they were created. With beautiful brown colored skin, chocolatey brown hair, and a face like a perfectly carved statue, they were born. But he noticed a difference from the rest of the gods and this one. While the others were born with a distinct gender like the humans, this newborn god was genderless, an androgynous being. He was perplexed at the difference but brushed it off as an anomaly due to him using a vast amount of cosmic power in their creation.

As the High God watched them open their eyes, he was hit with an emotion he'd never felt before. He looked into their golden eyes ringed with pink around the pupil, and felt his heart palpitate. He realized rather quickly it was their innate ability at work and quickly covered their eyes with a white cloth he materialized.

They made a gasp of astonishment at their surroundings before being thrown into darkness. The High God spoke to them before their confusion could grow.

"Dear child. You, who have been born of my might, I ask you this, who are you?" He spoke with a resounding voice that echoed through the silent platform on which they stood. It traveled through the empty void they resided in, and penetrated the ears of the watching gods and goddesses.

And with a voice like smooth velvet the newborn god spoke their first words.

"Who are we? We believe we would be called... Love? Yes. Love. That's what we are called." An with a smile full of joy, they dazzled all the waiting gods and goddesses.

The High God was overwhelmed with the countless possibilities ahead of him. And with a smile containing joy, and something darker, he proceeded to introduce the god to the others.

***************

"Father please! Don't send us away! I beg of you, We'll be better! I'll learn to control him, so just don't send us away!"

A heartbreaking cry resounded throughout the antechamber of the High Gods palace.

The Love God had made their last mistake and was being punished for the crimes they committed.

"Child I had already given you a chance before to prove you can change and suppress it, be useful to the many, and yet you still let me down. Know this, I do it out of love and compassion to help you see your wrongs! It won't be eternal, but punishment is needed!"

The High God was incredibly dissatisfied with what happened between Wisdom and Love. But he brushed it aside the first time because Wisdom got an appropriate punishment, but this time too many gods were lost in trying to subdue Love.

"I didn't mean to kill them Father, you must believe me! They kept looking at him, and talking to him, he'd smile back, but he never smiled like that to me! He should only look at me! Smile any type of way to me! Me! Not those sow's! So why! WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY! WON'T HE LOOK ONLY AT ME!"

She lost control over him again. Love was straining at the chains holding him to the floor. Thick black chains, embedded with the High Gods and the seven major gods' powers. But that was barely holding Love back. His power had grown stronger over time the more he learned about what 'love' truly was.

"Master we must send her away now! Before she breaks the chains and we have to go through the containment process again! We lost too many trying to get her subdued in the first place!"

Wisdom was terrified of the fact that Love may get loose from her containment. He had suffered her wrath before, and knew that he wouldn't be able to survive again.

"Shut up you blithering fool! None of this would have happened in the first place if you hadn't done that experiment!"

The High God, despite valuing Wisdoms knowledge, he found Love mich more useful. And bow having to banish them to a separate realm pissed him off like no other.

"Dammit Wisdom! You're supposed to he wise! You're supposed to know when not to do stupid shit! Useless!"

After spouting such, the High God completed the seal and banishment ceremony.

"Love, my child, you have two options. One, learn to seal Dorn and prove he's gone for good. Or two, kill him. Erase his existence completely so that his foul, corrupt "love" may never again be inflicted or shared with any."

At his words Love stopped their pleading and froze. With a whisper asked,

"You think...his love...is..foul?"

"Undeniably so." The High God replied.

He meant what he said, and assumed with Love's childlike and usually obedient attitude they'd agree. But what happened next made him, the High God of Time Obelius, tremble in fear for the first time.

Love looked up, and their eyes had become completely red. Unlike the usual gold ringed with pink, it was a complete blood red. And they were completely empty, no emotion could be seen. But what was most terrifying was the smile. Reminiscent of the one they had when first created, they smiled with pure joy.

"Master! Send her away! Send her away now!"

"Father~ You can't say that you know! You can't say one love is good and one bad. So I'll show you. I'll show you that you can use only 'bad' love and still be loved back. But, Father needs a punishment~ you've broken my heart and that's mean~!"

And with that Love broke the chains restraining them. They dashed towards the High Gods and using the broken chains, melded them into a black sword. They gripped it tightly in their hand and plunged it deeply into the High Gods side, the tip piercing out his back.

"Master!"

The other gods on standby in case of Love escaping their restraints, were horrified and all exclaimed at once. The War God was the first to react and quickly ramed himself into Love. They flew back and landed heavily against a pillar, and dropping to the floor, coughed up their ichor.

"War, you jerk. To do this to a lady, how mean!"

"Shut your damn mouth Love! To lay your hand against the Master! Blasphemous, stupid child!"

The High God had collapsed into another goddesses arms, the Peace Goddes. She attempted to help heal his wound by sacrificing her life force, and despite using almost half nothing happened. His wound continued to bleed and would not stop.

"Love! What have you done to the Master!" Peace shouted to the collapsed and still smiling Love.

"Dear Peace, I did nothing. He did that himself. Of course the chains might have had something to do with it! Hahaha!"

The High Gods went pale at those words. He knew how much power he and the others had poured into those chains to suppress them, yet he didn't think it would work against him.

"I need to finish the banishment! War! Make sure they can't get up!"

"Yes Master!"

War made his way to Love, who was still lying against the pillar he knocked them into. He looked at them and sighed. He was the personification of war, and enjoyed a good scuffle, but what Love did, that wasn't a war; it was a genocide.

"Tsk. Love you fool. You should have just stayed the maiden you were, and never had let Dorn exist in the first place." He muttered thus.

Love's smile changed from pure joy to one of bittersweet memories passed. "You all just don't understand what I am. You can't force someone to love you unconditionally without anything 'bad'. That's not how I work." They replied.

"Love for the sin of attacking the Creator and the punishment for what you've done before. You are hereby banished! And the time limit shall be the formation of a galaxy! May you know that you shall be known from henceforth as the Corrupted Gods of Love. Remember Love, of the options I gave you. And before I forget, here's a 'gift' to you"

And with the final word the banishment was complete. A circle with roses and thorns appeared on the floor where Love laid. And with a snap of his finger, the High God bestowed his gift onto love. Searing bright light appeared and collided with Love's prone body, and started printing into their neck, wrists and ankles. They screamed in extreme pain as the images of thorns wrapped around their extremities. The High God grinned with pleasure as he watched them writhe in pain for what they'd done to him. He looked forward to their ultimate return from the random realm he chose as their destination. But what he didn't know was that was the final line for Love.

"Mark my words Father! I will return, and when I do you will understand true, unfiltered love! I will make you all understand!"

And with a final possessive glance at Wisdom, Love, along with their castle, vanished from the Beta realm.

The High God collapsed from the overexertion he went through. And clutching his still bleeding, albeit more slowly, side he dismissed the other god and goddesses to start the renewal and rebuilding of the realm. The only gods to stay back were War, Peace, Wisdom, and the hovering Death. Obelius looked at each of them in turn and spoke,

"You must each prepare for when Love returns. They'll be back and when they are, we'll place the most powerful seal we can on them, and wipe their memory completely. I can not afford to lose that ignorant cur due to that blasphemous thing they call Dorn. We can't afford to lose Love's influence. You saw what their mood swings did to the humans."

"Master-"

"Wisdom enough! This is all due to you! I've said it once and I'll say it again! Nothing would have happened if you had kept your ideas to yourself! Because of you we lost our best chance of having just the pure side of Love!"

"Master what should I do with all the essence from the gods that Love eviscerated?"

Obelius looked at Death with disgust.

"Just keep it for now."

"Understood."

He vanished after saying such.

"Enough talk. Master needs to rest and recuperate. All of you leave." Peace started ushering Wisdom and War out of the antechamber and called for Obelius' time spirits to attend to him.

And with an audible closing of the massive doors, Peace left as well. The High God was left alone in the antechamber and looked at the split ichor on the ground from him and Love. He stood there staring until he heard his spirits arriving, and wiping any trace of emotion from his face, looked towards the future with unease.