Abyssal Archives (part 3)

     We ascended the library faster than we’d descended, now that I had some sense of the scale of the building. As I rose higher and higher, I noticed that the books were replaced with scrolls, then skins, then slabs of clay, huge chunks of painted or engraved stone, and finally, at the top, huge demon scales with pictures scratched or carved into them.

     I hovered at the highest floor of the tower with only a domed roof of colored concentric circles above me. I sighed as I looked at the scale art.

“I guess I should’ve expected this. Books about places I don’t know are one thing, but what are any of these pictures even of?”

“I got no clue. They don’t look like ants to me.”

“I was never any good at reading murals. They always just looked like pictures, but deciphering any meaning from them was beyond me.”

“You are relying too much on what you see. Have you learned nothing of demons in your time here?”

“What, you mean the Flow? Territories? I thought that was just for gauging power or something?”

“Perhaps that is the case now, but ancient demons were different, they were more similar to the Divinities, much as those in the Divine Realm would despise such a comparison.”

“Alright, then, how do I read these?”

“Close your eyes, shut off your normal senses. Focus only on the Flow and territories. What do you feel?”

     Following the goddess’s advice, I closed my eyes and focused. Once again, I could sense the Flow moving through me and around me. I could sense its interaction with Andre, with Goddess Venia, and with the scales. Each scale seemed to have its own small territory that occupied the same physical space as the scales themselves. As the Flow struck the scales, it would create clear grooves, tiny etchings that were much smaller than the actual pictures on the visible surfaces. The more I focused on a singular scale, the more I simply...knew. The information flowed into my head, not as if I was learning it, but as though I was remembering it.

“It’s...about Libero?”

“Indeed, this one tells of the times before Libero was sealed, of the ancient demons and original rulers.”

     I focused on the scales one by one as I took in their stories.

“

Depravity was chaos, as all things should be.

All were equal, all were vicious, all were cruel.

Each sought to consume, each sought to be avoid consumption.

A balance that existed before Divinity and Depravity were torn from one another.

But as the creator bore forth his Great Realms, order began to form.

Eight grand Sins rose above all others.

Lust sought pleasure.

Gluttony sought satiety.

Envy sought others.

Pride sought greatness.

Wrath sought carnage.

Sloth sought nothing.

Greed sought everything.

And Liberation sought more.

Each wallowed in their depravities. Each pursued themselves and others. Each was fueled by the virtues and vices of the Great Realms.

Each was not equal.

One sin desired freedom.

Freedom from struggle.

Freedom from desire.

Freedom from the depraved.

Freedom from the divine.

Freedom from fate.

Freedom from logic.

Freedom from time.

Freedom from weakness.

Freedom from creation.

Freedom from destruction.

Freedom from others.

Freedom from oneself.

To free itself from the shackles imposed upon all that is by the Creator.

Unbound by the constraints of other Depravities, the Sin of Liberation, Depravity of Freedom, dubbed Libero, devoured the chaos.

It ate and ate and ate. The other seven grand Sins attempted to stop Libero, but they too were devoured all the same.

Then one Depravity stepped forward and spoke:

'Great Freedom! Why do you stay here and feast only upon Depravity? You are free! Ascend, and taste the divine! We must stay here. We cannot escape. We are not free, like you.'

Tempted by those words, the Sin of Liberation ascended to the Divine Realm and began its feast anew. Though the divine sought peace, order, and cooperation, the divine were mere morsels.

The divine were more adept at hiding, and though carnage had been wrought, new meals were few and far. Libero grew bored, hungry, and angry. It was strong, greater than all, yet still far from the coveted freedom it desired. It was still far from defying the Creator.

The Sin of Liberation returned to the Depraved Realm, prepared to finish the feast it had started, but time had passed and all had changed.

Fueled by the Great Realms, seven new Depravities rose above all, founded upon the greatest sin: civilization.

Civilization disrupted chaos for all that was and all that would ever be. The natural chaos cannot exist so long as civilization stood. Civilization was the great sin that spread order throughout and allowed weakness, foolishness, and sickness to rise up against the strong, intelligent, and healthy.

Knowledge allowed civilizations to develop and improve.

Peace allowed civilizations to suppress the strong and bless the weak.

Equality lied to civilizations, speaking falsehoods that brought unity.

Medicine allowed the weak and sickly to prolong civilization and defy death.

Hope gave a unified vision of a greater civilization than the one before it.

Faith brought the intrusion of the divine into civilization.

Betrayal, the most heinous of sins, could only come to be by the trust within civilization.

The new grand Sins had gained power by tearing apart one of the Creator’s beloved great realms and sharing between them.

Upon Libero’s return, it was ensnared in a trap from which its coveted freedom was stolen.

Thus the Sin of Liberation, Depravity of Freedom, Libero was sealed and its power to be reclaimed by the passage of time.

End

”

I opened my eyes once more, then held my head as I contemplated what I’d just learned.

“Ugh. They...they destroyed an entire Great Realm…?”

“Indeed. The third Great Realm is a dead, demon-infested husk. No stars shine, no worlds live, and no humans exist in such a place.”

“And that’ll happen to the Hidden Realm if they can find a way in. To think they’d call civilization itself a sin…”

“The Depravities stand against all that is good, orderly, lawful, or just. Civilizations are founded upon and thrive under such virtues. It is no surprise that civilization is their antithesis.”

“Well, I don’t think I saw any particular weaknesses, but it spoke of a Creator. If the Creator is that much more powerful than Libero at his strongest, wouldn’t they be able to help us?”

“The Creator is indeed mighty. Stronger than the Depraved Realm or the Divine Realm. They were the one to tear the two realms from one another and form the Great Realms in the space between. However, the Creator does not intervene in the affairs of the Divine or the Depraved, or even in those of its own creation. The Creator simply makes and observes. But it is strange. These are the oldest records in the library, yet they speak nothing of the time of the tear, nor the time before it. We have records of those events in the Divine Archives, so why are there none here?”

“Such knowledge is not permitted to lesser demons.”

The new voice came in the form of a deep, low, almost creaking that rumbled and vibrated inward from every direction. I looked around quickly, no incoming attacks, but the opening in the center of the room had been sealed. Then I looked above.

The domed roof of the library had caved inward, its concentric circles expanding and contracting as they focused on me, taking the form of a giant eye.

“Human, goddess, halfling. I, Curson, Demon God of Knowledge, bear you greetings.”