As You Will

The griffin apparition opens its mouth, and a large ball of energy begins to surge from the tip of its tongue. As Reze looks upon the dark clouds encompassing the lightning ridden sky, and especially the griffin apparition, he holds his hands out in the air.

In an instant, Reze divides into multiple versions of himself, surrounding the entire area around Kayin. All of the Rezes remain covered in a frightening black mist, and point their own versions of Itzli towards Kayin’s head.

“So it’s like that, then?” Kayin asks as he looks around towards all the different Reze’s.

“Well, you didn’t make it easy for me, so why wouldn’t I do the same for you?”

“This certainly takes me back…is this how you kept looping the death cycles back then?”

“...something like that,”

Kayin continues to search around through the different Rezes, completely unsure of where the real one may be.

“Not one to reveal your secrets, then, old timer?”

“I’m more of a hands on type of teacher…so I can show you again if you’d like,”

A bead of sweat drips down Kayin’s temple, “...I think I’ll pass this time,”

“It was a rhetorical question!!,” The Rezes aggressively shout, as they all rush towards Kayin.

The nearest versions of Reze jump into the air, while the rest all rush in from different angles to catch him off guard. However, as soon as they do, they notice Kayin reaching his free hand towards his left eye…

And rip it out from its socket.

As blood gushes out from the left side of his face, Kayin winces in pain; but soon after, the red ball of fire returns to replace his missing eye.

In less than a second, Kayin fixes his gaze onto the real Reze a distance away from his current position, causing the real Reze to appear stunned.

Kayin grins.

“Found you,”

With brutish strength equal to that of Shango himself, Kayin and the female forms of Oshé smash their fists through all of the fake Rezes, which results in shards of dark glass spilling everywhere around them. The real Reze quickly rushes in to try and pick up the shards, hoping to still be able to put them back together.

However,

As the real Reze’s hand is held out towards one of the larger pieces of glass now on the floor, he sees the reflection of Kayin standing directly behind him, with Oshé now back in battle axe form once again.

Kayin wastes no time in slamming Oshé through Reze’s skull.

But rather than blood, even the real Reze only appears to have been made of obsidian glass.

Laughter fills the air, as Kayin stands back up and peers around.

“You were so certain, weren’t you?!”

Suddenly another large mystical apparition appears above Kayin; but this time, instead of a jaguar, the apparition looks like Reze himself.

“Why do you keep thinking you can actually defeat me?! It’s pointless to try!”

“I am the god above the gods! The author of fate itself!”

Reze’s apparition grabs the large head of the griffin in the sky and closes its mouth shut, while pointing towards Kayin to assert his dominance. A ball of mystical energy begins to gather at the tip of his finger, opposite in nature but similar in size to the one that the griffin had been gathering.

“There is nothing you can do!...”

“But to kneel down and beg for my mercy!”

However, contrary to the expected reaction to his absolute show of divine force, Kayin laughs harder than he ever has.

“I see…” Reze adds, “So you’ve finally lost your head, then?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Kayin says as he continues to laugh, “It’s just…that I take back what I said earlier,”

Kayin smiles confidently as he stares up towards Reze.

“Between me and you…”

“You’re a lot worse off than me,”

Reze attempts to fire the massive ball of mystical energy towards Kayin to shut him up for good; but as soon as he does, the energy flies backwards through his apparition and through the hand…

That is covering the ball of energy that the griffin had already conjured up.

For the first time…

Reze appears frightened.

The ball of energy that he thought to have shut up swells up to such a great extent that neither he or Kayin could have ever imagined. The griffin’s fierce eyes fixate on Reze’s apparition, forcing Reze to finally let go of the griffin’s mouth.

The griffin’s roar across the sky echoes deeply across the heavens themselves, uniting the power of the gods watching as they fiercely glare down towards the one responsible for disturbing their peace.

“You’re not the god above gods, old timer,”

Reze’s apparition slowly glances back down towards Kayin, who points Oshé’s edge towards him. Massive waves of lightning encompasses the divine battle axe’s core, causing Kayin’s fiery eyeball to glow even brighter.

“Like me…you’re just a pathetic man that doesn’t realize when it’s time to give up,”

All at once, Kayin blasts a ray of energy directly from Oshé, and the griffin apparition blasts its own massive ball of energy.

At the last second, Reze moves his hands upwards to block the griffin’s blast, while Itzli appears and presses his palms downwards to try and resist Oshé’s. However, the energies smash through both of them, clashing the two together as they take the blasts at full force.

Reze screams, as his apparition scatters through the sky before it fades out, never to be seen again.

Kayin lowers Oshé, and stares toward the sky. The heavens disappear, along with the red sun, but the griffin apparition remains in place, staring down towards the victor.

Soon after, the apparition roars loudly for a final time, frightening everyone down in the mountainside venue.

Especially Narada.

Kayin slowly glances towards Temi, who also appears to have been victorious in her battle. Temi slowly glances back at Kayin, and with Ogun by her side, she slowly walks over towards Kayin.

After finally seeing Temi move a sizable distance away from Kimiko, Narada quickly rushes over and holds up her half-dead body. Kayin remains in place, but his eyes appear to have darkened after he notices Kimiko bleeding out in Narada’s arms.

“Did you kill her?” Kayin asks.

“...she’ll be dead soon enough,” Temi responds.

Kayin and Temi lock eyes as they stand only a few meters away from each other.

“Surprised to see me still alive, older sister?”

“That isn’t the word I would use, younger brother,”

Kayin throws Oshé to the ground.

“All this pain. All this death.”

Kayin’s expression hardens.

“Just so you could sit on the throne.”

Temi drops her spear to the ground, and pushes Ogun away.

“All those preparations. All that planning.”

Temi’s expression hardens.

“They wouldn’t have been needed…if you were never born,”

Kayin and Temi rush toward each other, and unleash a fury of direct combat blows to gain the upper hand in the final hour. No matter the circumstance for Kayin’s mortal deity state, he still finds it difficult to catch his sister with a direct hit. But all the same, Kayin’s mortal deity state makes his body impervious to Temi’s quick strikes, leaving him mostly unharmed no matter how many times she lands strikes against him.

The exchange of blows only ends once Kayin finally manages to trick Temi into dodging one way, before carrying out a premeditated strike with his left arm. Unable to counter, the strike lands against Temi’s right arm, with such force that it completely destroys it.

Temi bounces against the ground, and holds her severely bruised arm as she winces in pain.

Kayin walks over towards Temi, forcing Ogun to jump in and save her. But as he does, Kayin grabs Ogun’s throat, and slams him into the ground.

With a look of extreme rage, Kayin glares deep into Ogun’s eyes.

“Eshu…that’s enough.”

Slowly, Eshu unravels its false appearance, and holds his hands out in the air to plead mercy.

Kayin walks over towards Temi, and with his left eye made of fire, he glares directly towards the high elder hiding in the distance.

“Your councilmen won’t help you. And you’re all out of divine saviors.”

Kayin stops directly over Temi, and glares down towards his older sister.

“So then…older sister…”

“How would you like to proceed?”

Temi grits her teeth as she looks up towards her younger brother.

“Under the mighty sun of Ra,” Kayin continues, “The enveloping moon of Khonsu. And the heavenly skies of Olorun.”

“Temi…daughter of Dayo…queen of Eydo…and wielder of the mortal deity Reze…”

Temi hisses.

“...stands trial for conspiring with the queen mother to kill the former king…”

“...for commiting genocide against vassal states and neighboring kingdoms…”

“...and for multiple attempts of murder against the crown prince…”

Temi attempts to launch a solid rock she finds amongst the debris, but Kayin immediately catches it, and slams his foot onto Temi’s left ankle, causing her to scream out in more pain.

“Are you guilty?!”

Kayin crushes the rock into gravel in his bare hands.

“Or are you not?!”

Temi continues crying out in pain.

“ARE YOU?!”

“Yes!” Temi finally responds, “It’s all true!”

“Now are you satisfied?!”

Kayin slowly stands up straight, and closes his eyelids. The adrenaline from his body finally begins to ease, as a tear falls from his right eye.

Images of his parents come to mind, giving him a sense of mixed emotions.

Finally…

And soon after, an image of Shango also comes to mind, making him a lot more emotional than he had expected to be.

…finally.

Far off in the corners of the mountainside venue, the witnesses to the events that transpired look around towards each other in complete shock at the revelation they had just heard. Some continue to deliberate amongst each other, while others quickly dash out of the scene in order to relay what they had just heard.

Narada runs towards Kayin and grabs hold of his muscular shoulders.

“My king!”

Kayin opens his right eye and turns towards Narada.

“It’s Kimiko!”

“She’s…she’s going to die!”

***

A month later, the citizens of Eydo celebrate the coronation of the man they once knew as a tyrant, as all manners of flowers and fruits fly across the capital. Children run around playing with each other, and adults sing songs and dance to the tune of the king’s ballad, newly constructed by musicians to pay homage to the king’s grand journey across the empire.

The sun shines down brightly onto the scene as the joyous day continues, and the same applies for those within the palace. Servants praise the kind nature of their king in comparison to the former queen, and royal soldiers praise the mighty power that the King had displayed, proving their service to the crown to be truly warranted.

The doors to the famous palace throne room slowly open, revealing a slightly injured king that had just received his official crown. Wearing a patch over his left eye, Kayin saunters into the room, and glances around to face all of the new councilmen.

At the foot of the stairs leading up to the throne, Taruk turns around and faces Kayin, while holding his personal book of divinity.

Kayin attempts to walk up the stairs, but immediately finds himself already in front of the throne. He then turns to his right and sees Narada smiling, holding his now recovered hand towards Kayin’s seat.

Kayin turns around and smiles at Taruk, who softly smiles back.

Finally, after a brutal year and two months of physical and mental suffering…

Kayin takes a seat on the golden throne.

It’s not as comfortable as I thought it would be…

“What would you like to do today, my king?” Narada asks.

“We should first address the proposed treaty with Laurania!” one of the councilmen says.

“I think it’s better to secure homes for refugees from fallen kingdoms! As soon as we can!” another of the councilmen shouts out.

Kayin hears the multitudes of pleas of the councilmen, and glances over towards Taruk.

Taruk shrugs his shoulders, and then points back to Kayin.

Kayin sighs.

He thinks back to the people he saved from Heitsi’s city, as well as the worn down soldiers on the front lines. He also thinks of the graveyard marketplace’s customs…

And especially thinks of Kimiko’s heartfelt troubles that she expressed when they first met.

Kayin pauses as Kimiko’s face remains stuck in his mind, and a tear wells up in his right eye.

Soon after, he shakes it off, and holds his hand out to quiet down the councilmen.

“For the sake of our people, our vassal states, and even our enemies…”

“...do as you will.”

The councilmen appear stunned by the king’s words, as Kayin stands up and grabs Narada to pull him to the side.

“My king! What is it that you seem to have your heart so set on?” Narada asks, clearly confused just as much as the councilmen.

Kayin. Son of Dayo. Avatar wielder of the late god Shango…

And king of the Eydo Empire…

…stretches his neck as he walks out of the throne room.

“My heart, huh?”

Kayin smiles as he looks forward.

“I guess you can say…”

“I’m in need of a general.”