Battle of the demigods 8

Back on Londris, the battle had reached the peak of what the violence a conflict between demigods could be.

The flames Cain had summoned already spread across the entire planet. As Saginus was desesperately trying to make the burnt on his body disappear faster than they were appearing, he completely abandonned the hope of controlling his Authority while doing so: all across Londris, entire pieces of the planet itself were ripped apart and disappeared, while the rest was slowly being reduced to nothing by the incandescent fire, which seemed to irradiate the warmth of the sun itself.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Saginus let out what was undoubtably the most pained shriek that ever came out of a human mouth. The suffering he was subjected to, being burned whole in continue, countless times, was more than what an average human mind could even imagine to take.

And yet, the one who was actually in the most pain was none other than Cain. As he kept calculating the derivative of the Dream Field so he could prevent Saginus from just turning all his injuries to nothingness, his brain was put under the most severe backlash possible. In the first place, Timewalker Blessing was designed to suit Tyler, and even the latter experienced severe backlash upon overusing. Angel or not, Cain was not doing much better, especially with how much he was forcing on it.

In the first place, was calculating the derivative of an entire set of physics' laws easy? No, it was quite the opposite: it was impossible, even for Cain. Instead, what he was doing was calculating a significative part of it so, once he got a global understanding of it, he could just do as Saginus and change the rest instinctively...

... which, obviously, did not mean it was easy in the slightest. He still had to calculate dozens, or even hundreds of thousands of values each time, and memorize all of them while doing the next ones. And each time, it was as if he had to rediscover every basics of mathematics, as the method changed each time. It was about as hard as inventing 1+1, 1x1... 38278², really, everything from scratch, even the most complicated things, and all that while resisting the terrible, inhuman pain his head while subjected to.

His whole body was already incapable of moving, and actually sustained nearly as much damages as Saginus'. The conclusion of the fight would depend on only one thing: how much time the magician would last.

For the first time in more than seven centuries, Saginus felt the fear of death invading his mind. All these centuries, more than one and a half millenials living with the sole purpose of crushing people's dreams and forcing them into nightmares, to finally feel the joy of seeing their lives end painfully.

He lived his dream life for so long, only to end up getting killed by someone even worse than him? If he had to choose, he would have preferred to die to the hands of a hero, a good person or anything else, rather than to be the victim of such a cruel irony.

Yet, it wasn't really something he regretted much. No, if he had to think of one thing he truly regretted, only one would come to his mind: if he could redo everything from the moment he became a Great Sin, he would have made sure to cause more pain, more suffering and more despair.

'Haha,t would have been so fun... Well, even if Cain stole the final kill, making Tyler snap is okay for a grand final, I guess...' he thought. 'Haha, his face was so fucking hilarious, haha, hahahahaha'

On this thought, his mind started to fade away.

However, Cain's mind too was on the verge of shattering. It was a natural reaction for any being with a mind, human or not: after concentrating on a single high-difficulty task for a long period, the brain would naturally start to drive away toward other thoughts to distract itself. However, in this case, distraction would mean creating more disorder in his brain which, given his current state, meant a certtain lost.

Yet, Cain couldn't stop few scenes of his past from resurfacing in his mind.

.

.

He was in a garden, dressed in a simple white robe, at a time when he was still calling himself Aquillion. Dressed the same, His long hair that seemed to be made of pure gold, just like his eyes, His father was quietly sat in front of him, listening as he was screaming toward him:

"Why, Father, why! From the very beginning, you knew about it, right?" Aquillion asked before snapping: "You knew from the start that one day, everything would end!"

His father, Genova, didn't budge, and remained perfectly calm upon replying:

"Yes, you are right, I knew it" He said. "From the start, I have always known that all lives in this world, even humans', even Angels' would one day come to their end. Even my own life is bound to end one day. Nothing is eternal, even Gods themselves"

"So... you would rather keep things the way they are, rather than try and change Fate? Is this what you are saying, Father? That you would rather stay passive instead of trying, and reach a better ending?"

"You may see it this way, my son. In the way I see it, trying to go against Fate would be futile. If we start a fight against something we can't defeat, then the entire purpose of everyone's existence would become an illusion. I prefer grant humans the freedom to act how they wish rather than the false hope of reaching a good ending that doesn't exist"

"So, you prefer to lie to them? I never heard you lie a single time in your life, Father, not even once? But from the very beginning everything was only that, A LIE?"

"A lie? Yes, I guess, in your eyes, it might seem like a lie"

Genova got up, and walked to Aquillion, taking him in His arms:

"I'm sorry, my son" He said.

Aquillion pushed him away from him:

"It's too late, Father" the Angel of Will said. "I refuse to live my life based on a lie. If there is no good ending, I'll simply create one. Because unlike you, I truly love humans!"

Aquillion gritted his teeth and wished wings for himself, flying away.

And yet, a hundred years later, he was the one to stop His Father and his siblings from getting away:

"You can't do this!" he shouted at them. "You can't just go away, abondon humanity when they need us the most!"

"Little brother, please calm down" Aldéa, his elder sister, the Angel of Forgiveness, said. "You know we wouldn't make this choice if we had another option"

"So this is the only choice in your eyes? No, cowardice is never the only choice" Aquillion retorted before pointing at his Father. "He's lying to you! To all of you! From the very beginning, He didn't tell you all the truth! From the very start, He-"

"We already know" Aldéa cut him off. "It's all condamned to end, he told us already"

Aquillion, shocked, took a step back:

"You... knew? How is that possible?" he asked.

"I told them" Genova replied. "After what happened a century ago, i realized it was unfair. At least, my children deserved the truth. I told them everything"

Aquillion turned toward his siblings:

"And you still side with him!? You still choose to betray humanity despite all your past promises?" he asked them.

None of them replied, they all remained silent. A slience that stabbed through Aquillion's heart like knives. Aquillion turned his eyes and looked toward his fifth sister, the Angel of Patience, Kalmiliel. Out of all his siblings, she had always been the closest to him. He thought that at least her would listen to him.

But she simply avoided his gaze with guilt in her clear green and golden eyes.

Aquillion turned back toward Genova:

"Father, please don't do that" he said. "Humans pray for their God every day. They need you"

Genova shook his head:

"No, Aquillion. They pray for Allah, they prey for Yahweh, they prey for Zeus, for Râ, for Odin, they prey for any god that could grant them the acceptance they can't grant themselves because of their own crimes" He said. "It's not prayers. It's merely a desperate cry for help, help that they can't even accept because no matter what happens, they can't get over their flawed nature that pushes them to sin"

He walked to Aquillion and put his hand on his shoulder:

"I tried, my son, I tried my very best, but even the power of a God is powerless in front of humanity's very nature. I refuse to give in to their false hope of salvation anymore, I can hide them the truth on the end of times, but I love them to much to betray them like this" he said. "I rather leave them, even if it makes them reject me in the end. Please, Aquillion, leave with us, I don't want you to stay behind, on your own"

They both looked into each other's eyes for a long time before the Angel of Will finally shook his head:

"I won't be alone, I will be with humans" Aquillion replied. "I'll stick with them to the end, no matter what all of you can think, I won't abandon my goal at the first change of heart. In the end, you all are no different from the Silent One, but I refuse to be the same. I refuse to be like you!"

Genova's expression changed to pain and sadness for a short second, one that Aquillion had never saw. But then, it returned to its usual kindness:

"Maybe you're right" he said. "Maybe all of us are wrong, and your choice is the best of all. I sincerly hope you will prove it to be right, my son. Farewell"

Genova, along with five of the six Angels of Virtues who decided to follow him, transwalked away, in a place that no human could ever reach. Kalmiliel hesitated and looked at him one last time, meeting with Aquillion's indigo and golden eyes.

"I'm sorry, little brother" she apologized. "I would like to stay here, but I can't. My will is not as strong as yours"

And then, she disappeared too.

"Yes, my will... my will is stronger! Stronger than all of yours! I'm Aquillion, the Angel of Will! Anything that anyone wishes for, I can make it real! I'll do the same with the end of the world; I'll turn it to a good ending!"

He fell to his knees. He clenched his teeth, and punched the ground, crushing the flowers of the garden:

"I'm not the one ending alone, you all are! You unworthy deities, you're no different from the Devil, you all are the same! I'm not like you! I'm better! I... I'm better..."

Aquillion started to cry, alone.

.

.

Finally, Cain managed to get a grasp on his mind again. He couldn't help but laugh a bit in his heart:

'Ah, how nostalgic... to think that I cherished humans so much at these times...'

He had went through everything with humans. Love, anger, hatred, everything. And yet, now, none of these remained. The only emotions left when thinking about these pathetic, delusionnal ants, were either interest or indifference.

He would dethrone Genova, he would make sure that the Silent One remained trapped forever, he would kill every Angel and Great Sin that got in my way, and he would become the new king of this world, and lead humanity to its next era! To a point where humans could look back at their history and finally declare that they had surpassed Gods, and Fate itself!

Nothing else mattered. He really, really didn't care anymore. Everything that was in the way of this goal, be it on purpose or not, would be refused its right to exist.

'And what I refuse to exist has no right to do so'

Once again, he focused back on his calculations. And finally, after what felt to him like an eternity, Cain could feel a change in the Sacred Field around them, as if a part of it had brutally disappeared.

He immediately understood what it meant: after all this time, Saginus ultimately couldn't use his Authority through the Sacred Field anymore.

Eventually, despite all the odds against him, by using both sacred powers and science, Cain had defeated Saginus. He had won.