37 Light and Darkness

The orb exploded with blinding and incomprehensible brilliance, eclipsing everything.

As golden blood trickled down Apollo's cheeks, he closed his eyes, unable to witness it even with all of his power.

It was a miracle, a miracle of creation.

After a few seconds, Death whispered. "You can open your eyes."

Apollo opened his eyes wide. The scorching, blinding light had vanished. And Death held the same orb, but it was no longer dark, but rather flecked with light.

That was a universe. He knew it instinctively.

"Did you just create a universe?" Apollo inquired, still gobsmacked.

"Yes," Death said simply, smiling at his surprised expression.

Apollo had the ridiculous notion that she was thoroughly enjoying this. However, he shook his head at the thought.

She continued her story while staring at the gleaming orb. "With the eruption of the big bang came echoes of energies, echoes of consciousness which coalesced into cosmic beings embodying the sentience of the universe abhorring."

"That universe was the prime universe, and from it, the multiverse gradually emerged, blossoming in actuality."

"But..." she paused, as if to create tension, and she was remarkably successful, as Apollo couldn't take his gaze away from the orb, staring at it intently, trying to find anything different within it. He obviously failed.

Death chuckled, seeing his actions. "Even so, the multiverse lacked something more, something very important: it lacked a meaning, reason, or purpose to exist."

"So, my siblings and I, The Endless, as we're known, were born out of time and space, and we gave the multiverse a reason, purpose, and meaning."

"And with our birth, a new universe came into being, coalescing from all of our powers, so similar yet so different from the multiverse, too abstract and conceptual in nature, dwarfing every other universe in that category."

Death came to a halt, allowing the expanding universe in her hand to fly upwards. It shimmered and then vanished in a flash of light.

Then, she stood up from her seat, spreading her hands, as if trying to encompass this entire universe in between her hands. Who knows, perhaps she did.

"This is that universe," she said, looking him in the eyes. "I and my siblings made it our home as it was created from all of our powers, and it is now also your home, Phoebus Apollo."

"Wow…" That was all Apollo could make out.

Death smiled brightly as she continued her story. "Due to this, our home is as special as the prime universe. It holds the same amount of influence over the multiverse as the prime universe."

"Anything significant that occurs here will have a considerable impact on the rest of the multiverse."

"So this was one of the two reasons why your action of undoing fixed point in time affected rest of the multiverse."

Two?

"Wait!" Apollo uttered, gathering himself. "Come again."

"This was only one of two reasons, Apollo," Death explained patiently. "And the second reason is..."

She indicated him. "You."

"Me?" Apollo blinked, pointing at himself.

"Yes," Death said, nodding. "Phoebus Apollo, you still don't understand what you truly are, what you actually represent."

She raised her hand, most likely to create something shocking yet again.

In her palm, a swirl of pure darkness appeared, swirling like a dark galaxy.

"Before creation, before everything, there was only great darkness; a single, black infinitude. Within that darkness, however, a single, burning Light was born. As it grew, the darkness screamed, resulting in an imperceptible flaw in the once-immaculate perception of the Light."

A small spark of light was born within the swirling darkness and expanded into it. In an attempt to extinguish it, the darkness surged and thrashed mightily.

"In response, the Light declared, 'Let there be light!'"

"The light caused the darkness to retreat, but it still didn't relent. Finally, the light and darkness reached an agreement."

The light erupted forth with blinding brilliance, illuminating everything. The darkness was shattered. However, the shards of it reformed, resisting the blinding light.

"The light would no longer shine as bright and the darkness would slumber and no longer attempt to extinguish it."

The light and darkness relented, and they began to swirl together, achieving true balance.

"A compromise of near-perfect harmony."

"Or so it would seem…" Death finished her story in eerie words, waving her hand. The projection of light and darkness shattered and vanished.

Then she looked at Apollo, her arms crossed, as if expecting him to deduce the truth for himself from her story.

Apollo ruffled his brown hair with his hands. He was vexed, incredibly so.

Finally, he took a deep breath and looked into the dark eyes, suppressing his raging emotions.

He stated, "I am a part of the light."

"Yes." Death nodded contentedly. "You are a part of the light. The light that brought forth the creation. The light that forced the darkness to slumber. The light that is the source of all things."

She eyed him up and down. "Your every action and choice has an impact on the grand scheme of things; you may not realise it right now, but it has an influence on everything in the substratum of reality."

Death continued, her tone actually became heavy.

"I choose to reveal all of this to you, so that you can prepare for the inevitable."

"You are an outsider, an anomaly, something that shouldn't exist in the first place, but here you are, a part of light itself, and your presence is making the light brighter, brighter than it should be, and the balance that has existed since the beginning of creation is slowly breaking."

"The darkness is stirring..." Apollo muttered, looking down.

Death approached him, encouragingly patting his shoulders.

"I know the truth puts a lot of pressure on you, Apollo, but you've got plenty of time, so don't let it get to you."

"Thank you," Apollo said as he looked at her. "for revealing the truth."

Death nodded gently, retracting her hand. Then she added. "Never forget, Apollo, that you are not alone on this terrible path; you can always ask for help."

"Yeah..." Apollo smiled weakly as the weight in his heart lifted. "I could really use a hand or two against the 'Great' darkness."

Death smiled and lightly patted his shoulders again.

"You recovered much faster than I expected."

"There is no point in wallowing in Despair," Apollo said ruefully, shaking his head. "I choose to walk on this path and I will see it through until my end, no matter how wretched and hopeless it appears to be, and maybe, just maybe, I can truly attain what I Desire."

Death looked at him deeply, sighing.

Apollo suddenly asked. "Who among all knows this truth?"

Death sat in the chair next to him, facing him.

"Not a lot, my family, including my father and mother, some of the old celestials and archangels of heaven."

Apollo could tell she avoided some, but instead of pressing, he asked. "Your father and mother?"

But then, recognising his bluntness, he clicked his tongue. "I am sorry, if I…"

"No..." Death said, waving her hand. "It's fine."

"My father is Eternity, and my mother is Infinity," she said simply, but it was enough for Apollo to understand a lot.

'So, the Endless are the children of the cosmos itself. As ridiculous as that sounds, it does explain why they are so absurdly overpowered.'

Death took something from his gown, making him focus on her. It was a sigil of life, similar to the one she wore around her neck.

"Take it," she said as she handed it to him. "This is my sigil. You can contact me through it."

After Apollo accepted the sigil, Death rose from her seat and pointed upwards. "Duty calls, Apollo."

"The universe you created?" Apollo inquired, finally seizing the opportunity. "What became of it?"

Death chuckled. "It was added to the multiverse after it was given a stupid code name."

"Does every universe get a code?" Apollo asked.

"No," Death responded. "Only the exceptional."

She went on, noticing his interest. "My creation was named Universe- 199999."

Apollo blinked. After this, he may never be able to see things the same way again.

"See you next time, Apollo," Death said as she waved her hands. "At least then, I hope that we can talk about something less depressing."

Then, she was gone.

"I hope so too, Death…" Apollo whispered, taking the divine wine from the table and drinking it in silence.

Looking at the wine, he thought, 'I need more of this.'

'Much more of this...'

______________

The sun chariot approached the horizon, with Nicholas at the helm and the reins. He heralded twilight, tinting the sky orange, red, and dark. The air was filled with a sense of repose and silence, marking the end of the day.

The twilight sun slowly faded into the horizon, leaving the last rays of twilight that illuminated a materialising figure.

The figure was blurry and fuzzy, pulling out a dark and gleaming blanket and tossing it onto the world.

The last rays of twilight had faded. And the night flooded the world with millions of stars.

The cycle of day and night continued as always, unaffected and unabated by the drastic changes of times.