Chapter 33: God’s requiem

And that's how the story ends

Alternatively:

"Will you, Lucas Knave, take our god Naga as your wedded wife?"

"I do."

"Will you, the all mighty god of demons Naga, Take this man as your wedded husband?"

"I do."

"For henceforth, I name you two husband and wife. You may kiss."

The bells on the underground ring for the joyous occasion as the two kiss. People are cheering as the wedded couple now walks out of the church of Naga to greet their people.

Later that night, Naga gives Lucas news that she thought would shatter him. "Your Sylviana is dead. The ascension ritual failed and it took her life. What's left of her is now a crater made by an explosion of energy that she failed to contain."

Lucas silently nodded and then said "You are my Sylvi now. That's all that matters to me right now."

Naga was a bit confused by this reaction, but now that her plan had come to fruition, she smiled. Oh how she smiled.

Then a god came to visit the wedded couple. He appeared like a burst of flame in the hall as the couple walked to get some fresh air. The god said "Legul Ranan should be dead according to what big sis Filas foretold." Naga answers "So it is. Are you going to do something about it, little Bell?"

Bell answered "I hate it when you call me that. Don't make this any harder than it already is." Naga says "So you are going to make sure that what Filas foresaw will come to reality? Am I getting this right?"

Bell said "It has to be this way. Don't fight against it." Naga laughs a little and says "That is hilarious coming from a god of war. Trying to avoid a fight. But you know what little Bell, if you are trying to enforce the fate that Filas has seen, then you need to get past me first."

Bell is silent for a while as he is thinking what to do next. Then Naga says "You won't do it because you know a god rank SS can't defeat a god rank SSS. You are thinking of asking other gods to even the odds of you winning, but you know that most gods see the fate Filas had seen only as partly conjecture. What she sees is how the previous circles went and even she admits that, while it is hard to do by one's own conviction, the events of a single circle can differ from the rest of them."

Bell is silent, looks Lucas in the eyes, then looks back at Naga and says "It isn't wise to start a war that one knows they will lose. I shall let this go, but my opinion still hasn't changed." Then he disappears in a fiery burst.

Naga then says to Lucas "How about we now go to our paradise. Our children have been waiting." Lucas says "Sure. As long as it isn't exactly the same as before." Naga smiles and says "While I can't say anything about how our children will take it, I will respect your opinion. Who knows how it will turn out since this time you have your original body with you and not something that I created myself. Now let's go."

Both enter a portal where their children are waiting.

And that's how the story ends.

Conjunction of these two paths had reached their meeting point. Both realities are now becoming part of one space and will alter the timeline.

Although inadvertently, the wish of a god born in one timeline will reach its apex.

The wish of the mantled demon god, Naga.

The wish of the demon god of trinity, Sylcas'us.

The wish of the demon god of alteration, Sylfi.

The wish of the white witch of Inertia, Sylviana.

Conjunction reached.

*Shatter*

Sylfi looks at her hand for a second in disbelief. Then she moves her hand a little to see the shattered pieces of Lucas' core. She says "No."

A moment of silence is spent as Sylfi keeps trying to figure out what is happening and Naga is just watching.

Then Sylfi starts to mutter "No no no… no no no no no… no this can't be… I've… it…"

Naga then states "He is dead."

As Naga says it, Sylfi quickly denies it by shouting "NO! HE IS NOT DEAD!"

Sylfi then starts to gather all the shattered fragments of Lucas' core. After she had collected all of them, she started to mutter to herself "I can fix this. I will fix this."

Then Naga says "It won't work." To which Sylfi shouts "Shut up! It will work! It has to work!" Naga just says "You are just wasting your time." Sylfi ignores this. Naga continues "You know you are now where I once was. You are going to reach the point where you have to either accept the fact that he is gone and move forward with your life or try to change fate."

Sylfi says "I will fix him. I must fix him." Naga just rolled her eyes and sighed.

After days of putting the fragments back together, Sylfi was almost ready to finish the core. It was almost ready. Just one more piece to put in.

As she did so, she poured some of her energy on the core to try and wake it up. It regained its power and Sylfi became hopeful. She said "Now I only need to put it back to his body and he will wake up."

Sylfi put Lucas' core back to where it belongs and lifted the spell that was in the body. She waits for a while at Lucas' body as it's turning to his original shadowy form. Sylfi says "No worries. This is something to be expected.

After it has completely turned into its original shadowy form, the body slowly starts to melt. Sylfi asks "What's going on? Why is his body disappearing?" Sylfi tried to hold Lucas' body together with her powers, but the melting wouldn't stop. She said "No no no. This isn't happening. Why is it…"

Then Naga says "It's because the core is no longer connected to the body after the core shattered. There is no longer a connection between his core and his original body as the soul has dissipated. The core that is inside Lucas' body is no longer part of Lucas."

Sylfi then says "Then… if we would have done it in his body, then he would have…" Naga stops Sylfi and says "That wouldn't have changed the outcome since Lucas' core decided by itself to absorb more of the power coming from the condensed core so that your core wouldn't have suffered any pain. That fact wouldn't have changed if all the cores were inside Lucas."

Sylfi then says "Then… What should I do? There has to be a way to fix…" Naga stops her again and says "There are two options for Sylfi to choose. The path that other Sylfis had taken and put what remains of Lucas' core back into you and live your life as the demon god of trinity, Sylcas'us."

Then Sylfi says "And then there is the path you chose and hop into another timeline and mantle the true demon god Naga and become Naga. Become you."

Naga says "That is correct. Of course if you choose that, then you should probably put the remains of Lucas' core into yourself and then try to do what I did. At least that's what I chose to do first before I hopped to this timeline."

Sylfi thinks about what she should do. Will she choose to accept that her beloved Lucas is gone and live on? Or should she try to do what Naga did and refuse to give up on the future she had planned for her and Lucas?

As Sylfi was thinking, Naga said to her "Then there is one bonus path that I didn't have when I was in your place." Sylfi said "A bonus path?"

Naga said "When I was in your place, there wasn't any mantled Naga in my timeline. But now that I am here, I can give you a bonus path."

Sylfi asks "Which is?" Naga answers "Give the remains of Lucas' core to me and I can restore the connection between his soul and his core."

Sylfi then asks "What's the catch?" Then Naga answers "The catch is that you have to give up the other part of your plan and give Lucas to me. You will take a place in the god realm and I will live my life in the way that I originally planned."

Sylfi quickly says "I refuse" and Naga says "That was quick. Are you sure? If you will not comply, Lucas will truly be gone from this timeline."

Sylfi says "I will not accept a future where you can live the life we dreamed of and I have to abandon it."

Naga says "Then you won't be any different from me and my efforts will be pointless. The suffering I put Lucas through will also become pointless."

Sylfi then says "But I give you a compromise." Naga is surprised for a moment and asks "A compromise?"

Sylfi says "If you save Lucas, I will let you be part of his life as his second wife. You will be on mostly equal grounds as me, but I will be the first wife. That's my compromise."

Naga starts laughing for a while. Then after she is done, she says, while still chuckling "You think you have the leverage to make a compromise with me? Even though you are also a god now, you are still at the god rank SS and I'm rank SSS. You won't stand a chance if I choose to force my will. So far, I have been considerate with you with the three of the choices you can make, but now you are pushing the limits of my patience."

Sylfi says "If you choose violence over this, then we both know that you are a sore loser between the two of us."

Naga still chuckles as she says "You… you really have guts, I give you that. Well, you are me after all, so that is to be expected. But not even giving me the first wife position is out of the line. I am the first one that existed and I have loved darling the longest."

Sylfi says "Well, in this timeline, I was the one who Lucas had fallen for, so that means he loved this version of me first. You came second after that dream you put him through."

The two women stare at each other in the eyes for a couple of minutes. Eventually Naga realizes something and concedes as she says "I give up. I'll take you god damn compromise."

Sylfi is a little surprised, so she asked "Why did you give up so easily? I was sure you wouldn't give the place of the first wife to me so easily." Naga says "I have what remains of my timeline's Lucas' core inside me. And for whatever reason, my gut felt like conceding the position of first wife to you without any bloodshed. It just… felt like my Lucas tried to tell me something and that's what I came up with."

Sylfi says "I see." Then the two stay silent for a while.

After that, Naga says "I'm going to resurrect Lucas now." To which Sylfi said "Yeah, but how exactly are you going to do it?"

Naga says "Those daughters that I had with darling in the dreamscape weren't just made for my own pleasure. I mean, it was also for that, but the main objective was to make copies of darling's soul. If I use the power that our daughters have, then I should be able to recall darling's true soul back to this world and to the body and his core."

Sylfi then says "Then I leave it up to you." And Naga starts using her powers to use the daughters she and Lucas made.

Naga said "Can you girls do it?" To which they said "For daddy, as many times as need be. That is our purpose after all." Then a massive light comes from the melting body of Lucas. The world itself is feeling the effects of what the outsider had done in it.

And as the world itself is feeling it, so do the gods in their own realm. There Luga and a blue haired woman are sipping tea that Luga had made. The woman says "You know, it would be better if you left the tea to me in the future." to which Luga says "I will get it right one day. I just have to keep trying."

Then Luga sips some more tea as the woman says "You felt that too, didn't you?" Luga answered with "Of course. The sea of fate is expanding once more. Perhaps someone in your place will have another future to consider in their circle." The woman says "Perhaps." The two sip some tea.

Then Luga says "I would hope that the rascal will not try too hard to make the fate stay the same." The woman says "Certainly. That little brother of mine is sometimes too bent on letting things flow their course."

Luga says "But alas, that is how that one's nature is as the god of war. Always having the need to see things change for better or worse. Yet that one still tries to keep the fate you see as is. How peculiar." The woman says "Indeed."

The two then sip some tea. After a moment of silence, the woman says "Shall we peek?" To which Luga says "Oh absolutely. We need to see that the world doesn't get destroyed. We are talking about two gods fighting for crying out loud." The woman just says "You just want to see two gods fight again, don't you?" To which Luga says "No comment." The woman giggles and then says "Let's see then."

From the light came a familiar looking man to both Sylfi and Naga. If nothing else, he looked a bit more handsome to the ladies than he did before, but as a mimic, this didn't really matter to the man himself, for appearances are malleable for them.

The man looked around a bit, then smiled and said "Hello you two. I hope I didn't scare you." To which Sylfi follows up with a slap on the face at the man. Then Sylfi shouted "How dare you die on me like that?! Do you know how much sorrow I was in?! Even Naga can agree with me on that part." The man then looked at Naga, who then said "As someone who went to hell and back to be with you, I can agree with Sylfi."

The man then said "I see. I just… didn't want you to suffer. That's all." Sylfi then said calmly, "You idiot."

The man then said "So your new name is Sylfi. Almost the same as before." Sylfi then asked "What's your new name then." The man said "Hostia, the demon god of sacrifice. But you may call me Lucas as usual."

Then Naga said "Just so you know, I'm now your second wife." Lucas said "Figured as much. I saw a world where I chose you and we got married." Naga comments "So you saw that too. Weird."

Then Lucas said "How on earth did you agree to be the second wife though? Knowing you, you would have fought Sylfi from that title." Naga says "That's not important. What is important is our little guest here."

Then a man appeared from the shadow and said "As expected of Naga. Nothing gets by without you noticing." Lucas says "So your name was Bell if I recall." Bell says to that "It's Bellus actually, but everyone who has reached godhood calls me Bell. I grant you the same honor, however short it might be."

Lucas says "You came here to kill me" to which Bell says "That's correct. Weird how we met for the first time, but know what each other wants."

Then Naga says "I'm not going to let you touch him." To which Lucas said "Hold your horses Naga. I think there is fun to be had here." Naga is dumbfounded and says to Sylfi "Is… is he seriously thinking what I think he is thinking?" To which Sylfi says "He wants to battle the person who just appeared? Yes, that is what I think he is thinking."

Then both ladies mutter to themself "That fucking battle maniac." To which Lucas says "What's wrong with that? Can't a man have a little fun every now and then?"

Bell says "Are you not taking what I'm saying seriously?" to which Lucas says "Oh I'm taking this supper seriously. You and I are going to fight until either I die or you give up."

Then Bell pauses for a moment. Then he starts laughing his lungs out. While he is at it, he says "Do you have any idea how far us two are apart? Haha… You just reached godhood and you are a god rank S. Me on the other hand am a god rank SS and I have had time to train myself for all kinds of battles. Are you sure you don't need your lady's help?"

Lucas says "Let's get this dance started outside. Don't want to ruin the decor." Bell kept giggling as he said "Well fine then. Let us go outside."

As they were going outside, Sylfi asked Lucas "Are you sure you want to do this? You just woke up from the dead and you haven't gotten used to your powers yet." Lucas said "Look, sometimes us battle maniacs need to battle our brains out till we are satisfied. It doesn't matter if it leads to death. All that matters is the thrill of the moment."

Naga says "So the situation is similar to when he fought his father. Give up Sylfi, he is out of our reach now." Sylfi says "How can you let him go like that? He will most likely die, you know." Naga said "At this point, I'm tired. Have a little faith in our darling." Sylfi decided to say nothing more after that.

After they reached outside, Bell opened his arms and said "I'll give you the first shot." To which Lucas went straight at it and punched Bell as hard as he could. Bell went flying towards the mountain.

After a moment of silence, that part of the mountain blew up as Bell was coming at Lucas at full speed. Bell said "Ire in gehennam" and the platform blew up in a great explosion. Sylfi quickly reconstructed it back to its original glory while wondering about Lucas.

Then Lucas appeared from the sky and punched Bell again with all his might. Bell managed to dodge it this time and kicked Lucas on the stomach while both of them were flying in the air.

Lucas was sent flying, until he suddenly disappeared like a smoke. Then Lucas appeared from Bell's blind spot and tried to uppercut him, but Bell managed to dodge, even though barely, and proceeded to try and kick Lucas again. This time Lucas dodged and attacked Bell with many attacks.

Both proceeded to exchange attacks over and over again, dodging some, blocking some and taking some of the hits. Both were ecstatic about the fight and neither could help but to smile as they made attacks at each other.

The mountains around them were breaking from the impacts that these two were and that resulted in a great change of the image of the Zulion mountainside. Both moved at speeds which were hard for any mortal to comprehend and the sounds of breaking the sound barrier were heard moment after moment to those who were unfortunate enough to be at the scene of the battle.

In one of the attacks, Lucas used the speed of a speed demon from the demon realm, who could move a lightyear in any amount of time. Meaning that they can move a lightyear in less than a second if they chose to do so. And yes, that means they could move back in time. The downside of this speed demon's ability was that they were limited to only a single lightyear of movement, and if they used it in a second, they could no longer move for what constituted a day in the demon realm. The other downside these speed demons had was that they weren't very intelligent, meaning that they could barely comprehend any sort of language and were more animalistic in their nature.

Back to the fight. Lucas used that speed demon's speed to overwhelm Bell's own speed in great regard, but this put great strain on Lucas' body. But thanks to the fact that he had reached godhood, it took less of a strain than it did when he used this ability.

Lucas was moving back and forth, attacking Bell as many times as he could without moving back in time. It was important that he didn't move back in time as he attacked, since that could cause some strain on his body. Lucas could move back in time with this ability if he wanted to, but it took a strain on his body.

Bell was being overwhelmed with the speed that Lucas had, so he shouted "ENOUGH!" Then teleported himself to somewhere. Lucas was left there thinking "What is he going to do?"

Then flames started appearing in the sky all over the world. And as they did, a voice appeared in all the people in the mortal realm. It said "I am Bellus. God of war. I will grant the newborn demon god of sacrifice, Hostia, my ultimate attack. The world destroying sword, Iliathamos Dax. Now bear witness all who walk this realm, for this might be your end."

There was a worldwide panic as the flames on the sky were starting to get bigger. Lucas then said to himself "I guess I can't hold back any longer. Guess I have to create an attack that only I can do."

Lucas landed on one of the mountaintops that was flattened by the battle between Lucas and Bell. Then he started chanting "Multa proelia pugnavi. Multi enim mortui sunt et multi salvati sunt. Impetum hoc dedicabo nomine patris mei, Dorian Ranan, est enim fortissimus adversarius, quem habeo adhuc faciem. Memoriam eius immolabo…"

Three ghostly people appear on Lucas' right, front and left. Then the chant continues.

"...Quia puer ego sum…" The ghost on the right turns into Legul as a child.

"...Quia rex sum…" The ghost on the left turns into Legul as an adult in his shadowy form.

"...Quia vir sum…" The ghost in the front turns into how Lucas usually looks.

The flames in the sky start to form a giant hand holding a giant sword that is readying for an attack.

Then all four of them hold their left hand in front and all their voices start to chant together "Has virtutes colo, hasque virtutes carissimas memorias immolabo. Memoriam fortissimi viri hic cognoscit. Demon rex cinerum, Dorian Ranan. Hoc est meum motum. Hoc est meum motum. Hoc est sacrificium meum. Prode, memoria velati in cinere."

A circle is formed between the four figures. From that circle rises a great tower of ashes rises to thwart and consume the incoming world ending blade blade.

As the tower rises, once more is the same voice heard in all people in the mortal realm "Strike of the bloodline of Bellus." And the arm that is holding the giant flaming blade is starting to be shown towards where Lucas is standing.

As the tower of ash is rising and the flaming sword is falling, two eventually meet and cause a great deal of energy to be dispersed all around the world. The two are pushing against each other with all their might, but eventually one has to fall.

Then… something shattering can be heard all across the world. Not a single soul could fail to hear that ever so mighty sword, Iliathamos Dax, starting to shatter little by little. But Bell was stubborn as he could not believe someone of the lower god rank than him could stop his world destroying sword that even the chief god Luga couldn't easily stop. Even though his defeat was imminent, Bell couldn't help but smile.

Then a voice could be heard again "YES! Come at me Hostia! Come at me with all of your might! Come and defeat me and earn your place as a god!" Then the all mighty sword, Iliathamos Dax, was completely shattered and the tower of ashes came shooting towards the weakened Bell. He said this time without channeling his voice across the world "Yes. A worthy defeat." Then the tower of ashes consumed the god of war to its grasp.

What was left now was a giant tower made from hardened magical ash that reached the height that no mortal has ever reached. The battle was now done and Lucas was the victor.

Lucas fell down on his back and lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he found himself in a bed where Sylfi and Naga were sleeping next to him from both sides. When Sylfi woke up and noticed Lucas awake, she hugged him as hard as she could, which almost killed Lucas right then and there. Naga woke up soon after and said "You sure know how to make a flashy introduction to the whole world, darling." Then she hugged him and said "Don't you dare die on me again, you hear."

Then a knock comes from the door and then the door opens. Behind it appears Luga, a woman and Bell. Luga says "I see you are finally awake." And then the woman says "Greetings to our two new members of our god gang. My name is Filas, the god of fate, and I have come to apologize together with my little brother Bell. Come Bell, say you are sorry." Bell meekly bows his head a little and says "Sorry, I guess." Filas then smacks his head and says "You guess? Why are you adding your own bits to it?"

Bell just says "I mean… You know where I was coming from, right Hostia?" Lucas says excitedly "Of course I get you! Us two are kindred spirits as far as I can see!" Luga says "Bellus almost destroyed the world you know." To which Lucas says "In the heat of battle many things can happen. If the world is accidentally destroyed, then so be it."

Bell then gets excited as well and says "We really are two kindred spirits! You totally get me!" Then Filas smacks Bell again.

Luga says "I take it from this that he would have done the same in Bellus' shoes?" To which Sylfi and Naga say "Pretty much." Luga then rubs his forehead a little and then says "I suppose it is my fault for letting it go that far, so some responsibility rests on me. In any case, Sylfi, Hostia, welcome to the god realm. Now that you two are gods, you can enter and leave the god realm as you please, but do know that you have some limitations now that you two are gods. Well, demon gods to be precise, but gods all the same."

Filas then says "Basically you can't mold the world as you please and if you do things that the head council disapproves of, then you might get some more restrictions which might be enforced via methods known to those in the head council."

Then Sylfi and Naga look at each other and nod. Then Sylfi says "Thank you for the info, but we don't think we need it that much as we will be leaving soon." Filas asks "Where to?" to which Naga says "The grand plan of Sylviana Inertia is to become a god in order to live in eternal peace. We will create a realm that isn't necessarily connected to this world so it can exist even after the world ends. Inside the realm, me, Sylfi and darling will be staying in our little realm, doing whatever we wish to do."

Luga asks "Will you never visit this world again?" To which Sylfi says "Well… I mean there is still the matter of Lucas' job as a teacher, so we might still be around from time to time."

Luga then says "As long as you don't cause trouble, then feel free to do whatever you like. Just don't break the world that already exists."

Then Luga starts to leave, but then Filas asks him "Weren't we going to talk about the matter of demonic energy and holy energy?" To which Luga says "We will have time for it. As for now, I think those three have something else to do."

Then Luga, Filas and Bell leave the room. Then Lucas asks "Shall we get started?" To which Sylfi says "Yes" and Naga says "Let's do this".

And so the story ends.

For now.