Superbia

As the vast majority of people across the tables began to dig into the drugged bread – previous exceptions remaining – James Buchanan, at the prompting of Darren Foster, spoke to the crowd.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a toast from Miss Lillia Bellon.”

I watched on as Lily stepped up to the front of the room. She took a deep breath in, and paused. She wasn’t nervous. Rather, she was scanning the crowd for her start signal. Likewise, Darren was watching on in interest. The more I see from that guy, the more twisted he seems. At best, he’s entertaining risks he doesn’t need to for no gain, at worst he’s self-destructing his own reputation. I took a deep breath in and out before finally glancing around myself. After a few seconds had passed, she spotted Jim Bolivar, who had jumped out of his seat.

“What the fuck?!”

Bolivar exclaimed in surprise as a woman next to him suddenly vomited where he was just sitting. Across the room, for person after person, unbidden by their mouths, their stomachs began to regurgitate. An amused grin was plastered on Darren’s face, which soon transitioned to him biting his lip to suppress laughter. For her part, Lily had a subtle smirk which she was desperately trying to erase. Both were throwing looks at me, to which I could only lightly shrug. They didn’t believe me when I told them. In her seat, Ella was still tapping at her E-watch. You could at least watch my last hurrah, Ella.

In that chaos, Lily simply coughed. While that in itself seemed to be a trivial action, it carried a certain aura to it – an unmistakable sense of rapturous command. Immediately, despite people still throwing up, the chaos in the room began to calm as attention focused on her. Everyone could sense the sheer presence behind Lily. For an instant, rather than simply a girl with authority beyond her years and capabilities, she gave the impression of a true leader.

“As you can see, the East Meryka Trading Company’s supply of black ice is tainted.”

Upon hearing those words, a chorus of discontent broke out. Lily silenced that with a glare, and she continued.

“I have reason to believe that Darren Foster used inferior product in the rush-job for this party.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“Oh, really? Then what is happening right now?”

“Well …”

Darren couldn’t offer an evidenced counterargument, as he would merely be providing Lily evidence of his crimes. Naturally, neither could Lily provide evidence for her claims. Their argument continued for a while. But personally, I couldn’t see it as much of an argument. On both sides, it was mostly meaningless argumentation, and, frankly, I don’t think Darren was trying particularly hard to refute Lily. He seemed to be more amused by the experience than anything else.

…

It was well past midnight, and almost every partygoer had left.

“The Bellon Corporation has direct contacts in the Resource Management department. We know about your funneling of cheap plutonium for your black ice supply.”

Did the Radium Girls die for nothing?

“Au contraire, mademoiselle. We purchase that for the purposes of refining it on our end of the chain.”

The final guest aside from Ella, Jim Bolivar got up to leave. He gave a wry grin to me, and waved on the way out. I waved back.

“Then why did-”

“Please, can you two shut up? You’re giving me a headache.”

Ella finally intervened, much to my relief.

“Ah well, I suppose the fun is over then. Don’t you agree, Lillia?”

Yeah… I feel like Lily was enjoying that a little too much at the end there.

“… I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Darren grinned.

“I suppose you win then, Lillia. I’ll cut off our ties to the Buchanans.”

James, who had been hiding in the corner the whole time, widened his eyes.

“Are you serious?!”

“Yeah, these kids were fun. I can fix up the damage this party caused to us without much trouble, so this kind of entertainment is far more important to me.”

I glared slightly at him. I hated him. He cloaked it in his relaxed demeanor, but he was a genuinely evil person. He was participating in a large-scale illicit drug trafficking operation, evil tended to come with the trade. Lily, for her part, had the look of someone who had just tasted a suspicious health product fed to them by a parent. Even though the Abyss embodies all of non-existence, I still find some of the things Father got out of there quite odd. While I was thinking that Ella spoke up.

“I’ll take Lillia then for now. As for you, Elysia… well, I’ll have Lillia contact you later about payment details.”

Wait, I got the money anyway? But before I could ask anything more, Lily was whisked away. The last thing I saw of her was her winking at me. I eyed Darren and James, who also seemed to be in discussion.

I sighed. It was time to go home to die.

===

On the way home, it rained a lot. I didn’t bother using my portable umbrella, as I didn’t feel it would have much value. On some level, I felt like I should be scared, but for some reason, nothing felt particularly real. The thought of “I’m about to die” was less of an immediate concern and more of a distant concern. It was the difference between seeing a bomb detonate in front of you and hearing that some terrorists on the Coast were bombing government buildings. The walk to my apartment from the train station was as if I was observing myself in the third person. Finally, I opened the door to the apartment.

Lying in bed was a withered old man, wide awake and coughing violently. The Lord began to shout at me.

“What… have you done?!”

“I put an end to this charade.”

The glare I received felt nowhere near as intimidating as it used to. The pressure felt less like I was being forced to hoist the sky and more like I was being shoved by a child.

“You… have no idea what you’re doing….”

“I do.”

“You are… my-”

“What’s my name?”

I had to ask. I needed to know if this formerly omniscient being even knew my name.

“…”

Huh. Indeed, the Lord didn’t know. I had spent my entire life being groomed for this role, and he didn’t even know my name. Truthfully, I wasn’t angry. If it had been any other time, then I would probably have felt something, but now? Well, I could only find it mildly irritating. I wonder what’s wrong with me? I feel… different.

“You are… too….”

At that, the Lord disappeared. I still don’t feel anything. I wonder why?

And then the pain came. Every inch of my body felt like it was being roasted in the core of a dying star, and my head felt as if it was being blended by a heavy duty woodchipper. Is this what death feels like? After a few more moments, I felt myself slip into unconsciousness. Will I meet Father again in the Abyss?

===

My head hurts….

I woke up in Everywhere. Not in the Everywhere of my apartment, mind you. It was distinctly different. It didn’t have the usual constant flood of information. If the Everywhere I knew was a white void, then this was black. Not in the sense of there being nothing there, but rather in the sense that the void wasn’t properly connected to the world. It’s almost as if… I’m looking at a different time…? I continued to look around, until I spotted three figures in the distance. I began to walk towards them.

“Let there be light.”

As one of the figures spoke in a booming voice, suddenly, Everywhere ignited. Everywhere’s expected bombardment of information flooded in… but it was different from usual. I continued onwards and began to make out the figures. One was a young man, one was a young boy, and one was… a pigeon. The boy and man were wearing grey robes. The trio didn’t seem to notice my approach. The man looked between the pigeon and the boy, before finally asking a question.

“Who are you?”

The boy scratched his head, while the pigeon cocked its head.

“I’m not sure.”

“Then, do you know who I am?”

“… My father?”

My eyes widened as I realized what I was looking at. But before I could do anything, I saw another pigeon beside me, staring me down. It ‘spoke’ to me in its usual indefinable manner.

‘Remember, Son of Man. Awaken and metamorphose into God the Son.’

All at once, the pain in my head swelled hundredfold.