A Conversation with a Death God

   The trio made it to the castle of the God of Death within no time. It was a large imposing fortress, boasting massive walls and large towers. Skeleton archers lined the top of the wall with their bows trained upon the trio. As they stood in front of the massive gate it slowly opened with ten skeletons on either side of the doors pushing them. Out from the door marched a legion of undead soldiers in full armor. They were orderly and lined up in perfect formations. The skeletons left the center clear and lined the path holding flags in an arch across it. "I guess they were expecting us?" Mia said nervously.

   "Appears that way." Lucell responded. "I believe they wish for us to…" Before Lucell could finish his sentence Vanessa had already started down the path. "Wait Goddess!" Lucell said as he hurried after her.

   They made their way to the castle keep, where again the doors opened and skeletons lined the path. This time the skeletons held swords instead of flags and held them up from form and archway. Fires were lit throughout the keep and Mia looked around. She saw skeletons cleaning and acting as if they were people. Finally, after a while of walking the trio made it to the throne room. Where upon a giant throne sat a pale man with long black hair. His body was slender and his skin was sunken in. His eyes were a piercing red. And his garments were black and flowing with silver runes stitched along the edges.

 "You must be the one who is causing my children such grief." The man in the throne said. "How strange you three are. Clearly you are not from this universe." He said in a raspy voice. "You may call me Alexander. I am the lord of death and master of this realm."

 "I am Vanessa, known to my babies as the Goddess." Vanessa responded. "Why would you cause my babies so much trouble?"

 "You mean the invaders that were brought here by that blasted divine one?" Alexander said. "Their life is a disgrace upon this universe and needs to be eliminated."

 "How can you say life is a disgrace?!" Vanessa yelled back. "Life is precious! Life is beautiful! Life is everything!"

 "Maybe in your universe that is the case." Alexander replied. "For one of an elemental level you are very ill informed. You must be an idiot."

 "I am not an idiot!" Vanessa answered back. "I just don't understand how you could be so mean!"

 "Oh, I am the mean one?" Alexander asked. "Have I gone into your universe and started turning your creations into abominations against their will?"

 "I didn't make anyone an abomination!" Vanessa answered. "I just cured a few of the boney people, gave them life again."

 "And did they ask you to do that?" Alexander asked. "Did they wish for you to strip them of everything that made them, just so they would fit into your ideal of what something should be?"

 "Well no, but being alive is better than being dead!" Vanessa snapped back. "They should thank me for what I did for them."

 "In my view death is beautiful." Alexander answered. "My children feel that way as well. They never fear the end of their existence. They do not worry about illness. They never lose a loved one or have to experience grief. They don't need to sleep, or to eat. They are free to follow whatever they desire to do without being constrained by flesh. Tell me what is so great about being alive?"

 "Everything!" Vanessa answered. "Everything is better when you are alive!"

 "So, you are an idiot." Alexander sighed. "Look, I allowed you entry into my home because I know that none of my children have the ability to stop you. You would inflict a punishment unspeakable upon them if they stood in your way. I was hoping that we could have a civil discussion as elementals. I fear however that you may be too stupid to be able to hold one."

 "Must you continue to insult me!" Vanessa responded. "I am not stupid."

 "You have done nothing that persuades me otherwise." Alexander answered. "I feel bad for your universe, with an elemental of creation like you it must be in pretty bad shape. I hope your counterpart is at least doing their job correctly."

 "You know about the elemental of destruction?" Mia asked.

 "Oh but of course, let me guess your Goddess was clueless." Alexander smiled. "That's because she is an idiot."

 "Stop calling me that!" Vanessa demanded.

 "I will when you stop behaving like one." Alexander replied. "As for your question human female. Every universe is made with a group of elementals. Two prime elementals and four subprime elementals. This universe is home to me, the elemental of undeath, and my counterpart the elemental of life. Your universe appears to have your Goddess, the elemental of creation. So, it would only make sense that there would be an elemental of destruction."

 "So is your elemental of life like the Goddess?" Mia asked.

 "Not at all." Alexander replied. "The life elemental of this universe mainly sticks to the creation of plants. So, when I found this planet I knew it was different. Lifeforms such as the ones that inhabit this world are unlike anything else in this universe."

 "So there's no life in this universe?" Vanessa asked. "Why wouldn't the elemental of life just create some."

 "So from my research on the divine one, I have discovered that there are countless universes each with their own set of elementals. Only one of the prime elementals in each universe is responsible for creating intelligent life." Alexander explained. "In this universe that elemental is me and I do not enjoy having my children sullied by you."

 "So what is the divine one?" Mia asked. "since you did all this research you should know right?"

 "Alas I have been unable to approach him." Alexander answered. "Only those he wishes to see him will be able to. I have discovered that he is one of two divine beings. They are not elementals, but true Gods. The one here appears to be the one of Order, although I could be wrong and it could be the other one which is chaos."

   "How in the world did you even find all of this out?" Mia asked. "We knew nothing of this!"

 "Well, I have time, and I am not an idiot." Alexander answered. "I have my ways of finding things out."

 "So Mr. smart elemental man!" Vanessa interjected. "What do you want from us? Or did you just want to insult me all day."

 "As fun as it is to continuously point out your failures of intellect, I do indeed desire something." Alexander answered. "I want you to go home, and take all of your creations with you. I want my universe to be the way it should be and not be this corrupted mess."

 "I would love to!" Vanessa replied. "Except I don't know how to get home."

 "Yes, that is why we were on our way to visit the divine one." Mia explained. "We figured that only he would be able to send us home."

 "That would be correct." Alexander continued. "I knew that was your objective, I just wished to ask you to take all of your creations with you. I did not want you three to just leave without them." Alexander looked at Mia. "I see you have two subprime elementals within you. How quant your universes subprimes are just water, wind, fire, and earth."

 "Hey who is he calling quant!" Aquir shouted back. "You come over here and I'll show you quant!"

 "Ha!" Alexander laughed. "What a humorous subprime. Listen human, if you get all four of the subprimes within yourself, I do not know what will happen to you. In all my research I have never found the subprimes getting along, much less inhabiting the same body."

 "Thanks for the warning." Mia responded. "But I have to do what I need to. I have to save everyone."

 "You're brave, I'll give you that." Alexander now turned his attention back to Vanessa. "You there, creation elemental. I have an idea. Fight me."

 "I don't know why you suddenly want to fight me, but bring it on!" Vanessa replied. "You have been insulting me all night. It is time I make you pay for that."

 "I'm sorry Alexander, she is not normally like this." Mia explained.

 "I understand." Alexander answered. "Elementals are not supposed to leave their assigned universes. I am sure she is experiencing things that she has never felt before."

 While Alexander was talking to Mia, Vanessa was charging an attack. She was condensing energy into a ball and was preparing to shoot it at Alexander. When he saw what she was doing he created a dark energy ball as well to counter. The two launched their attacks at each other only to be stopped before impacting one another. In the center of the two orbs stood a man. He held an orb in each hand.

 "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" The mysterious man said. "Elementals from other universes shouldn't fight each other!" He said with a smile as he made both the orbs vanish in his hands. "Nice to meet you, I am the divine one, but you can just call me Phil."