He Bows to me

Lee knew that his body was bowed over, and he stared down at the ground, eyes wide and lost, but ultimately still resting in the arms of the God of Strength.

What was he supposed to do in this situation?

This wasn't the way it wasn't supposed to go.

Gods didn't beseech mortals for help.

The Gods only looked after their own.

Humanity existed to serve their whims and their petty desires.

Humans didn't matter to the Gods.

But... but... the God of Strength here was asking Lee for his help.

What.

Lee could take the threats of the God of Secrets. Lee could survive after having all his thoughts and desires physically ripped out of his body.

It was pain, after all. Pain was something easily overcome to keep on going and walking. Lee had pulled himself together and up, over and over again. Pain was a natural part of life that everybody experienced.

Pain was natural.

Pain was normal.

Not whatever this was.

Gods who held humans in their arms to keep them from wandering into the clutches of death were not natural. They were not normal.

They were not this.

Lee gulped and swallowed down the tangle of nerves and choked screams that had firmly lodged themselves into his throat.

Lee's eyes widened even further suddenly, fists clenching, hands no longer hanging limp at his side, dangling off into the pit where the light of hell came from.

If there's a God here, begging for my help, then the situation must be a dire one, Lee rationalised to himself.

The God of Secrets must have been lying to him when he spoke of the situation being damaging far into the future. It would make sense considering he was a conniving asshole.

It would make sense for this proclamation to be given to him to make him more eager to complete his journey, but if that was true, then why would the God, who brought him on this side quest, be the one who made this.

Why was Lee even brought here?

What was the point of him being here, from the perspective of the Gods above?

The God of Secrets and the God of Deception were adamant that he complete this journey as quickly as possible, inflicting harm upon him as threats.

But the God of Strength here was eager to pull him away from the path.

Their actions were in direct contradiction of each other, no matter what the God of Strength was saying to him.

The God of Strength had been deliberately trailing him on his way to the town of the Moon Temple, and had deliberately drawn him away from it, taking advantage of Lee's attraction and crush.

Lee was currently under the God of Strength's protection, only gaining the God of Secret's protection as soon as he entered the town again.

There was a stretch of road between them.

It suddenly occurred to Lee that he had no idea how he was going to make it back to the town if the God of Strength left him here and now.

He was tiny, compared to this being.

To this God.

Lee was functionally powerless.

This wasn't the God begging from him.

This was a threat.

Lee was being threatened by somebody who could and would do harm to him, currently isolating him over a pit of death and only living through his grace and mercy.

Did the Gods know of what Lee really thought about the mission and task bestowed upon him. Lee knew that the God of Secrets had a giant scroll full of his thoughts ready to dictated to a crowd, but he never actually thought that the God would do such a thing, declaring out loud to the God of Strength, here, what Lee truly believed about them, and his place in the world.

God of Strength indeed.

It took strength to manipulate somebody and place them in such a dangerous position with no outward inclinations towards guilt.

This was fine.

This was alright.

Lee could deal with this.

He had dealt with these things before.

All he needed to do was bow prettily and wait to be believed.

Lee tapped the God of Strength's shoulder, requesting to be let down.

He let himself slink to the floor, his feet, legs, and knees dangle over the edge, his vision consumed by the bustling town underneath where the waves were once more.

"I understand," he mumbled out, his back bowed down to the ghosts and remains of the people, rather than the God of Strength.

If the God of Strength clearly knew his thoughts so well, as implied by his actions, then he would be able to see what Lee truly meant here as well.

Lee was not completing this mission for the Gods who had handed him the task.

He would be completing it for the ghosts below him.

Humanity were below the Gods.

Humanity were the toys of the Gods.

Humans were petty, jealous and resentful, all things that Lee was as well.

Humanity did not associate with the Gods, cowed by the fortitude and magnitude of their strength.

The Gods made the rain fall from the clouds.

The Gods made the sun shine above.

The Gods had read through the thought process every single minute action of Lee's.

Lee was a human, lower than all the humans around him for abandoning his family and shunning the notions of filial piety.

Lee was lower than humanity, and so then given this task to be condemned in life, his freedom and privacy stripped away from him.

He would be condemned to become a toy for the Gods to play around with and push and pull to where he was needed.

Lee was nothing now.

He was a simple puppet, continuing on with this mission when there was so much else for him to explore and enjoy.

The worst part: Lee knew that the greater association that one had with the Gods, the holier their beings and stations were.

There was nothing left in the world for Lee.