Chapter 97:

V3 Incline 24: Eqkilibral, the God of All

Dark Crow Rising


Finally finding the strength of heart to budge the door even the slightest, I get to it. Only for a wave of black energy rimmed with a thick, blood-red light to wash over me. The power of destruction should've seen me annihilated utterly, but, I am beyond it now. Mortal powers and their rules are useless, but, she still lashes out at me with them.

I stare at the outline of a woman with long scarlet hair that goes all the way down to her thighs. A mimicry of her old self, back from when we were all happy with what we had. Before I even became a king, when I was just a scared boy who fell from the sky. My memories do not matter right now, though, as she is nothing more than a mass of swirling crimson energy.

"Hello, Sair, how are you?" I start awkwardly as I gingerly close the door behind me, my powers doing some good by restraining her. I can't speak if she keeps firing off ineffective potshots at me. If she wants to vent some more, fine, but, I will at least speak. I too shall vent.

"Why haven't you died? Did you come here so I can fulfil what you only deserve!?" she spits out with a huff as she moves to sit behind her desk. Everything here was faithfully recreated down to the smallest detail. My omniscience also enlightens me to how even the dust was perfectly remade. Her chair squeaks as she sharply twists away from me.

I guess, I can understand why, who'd want to stomach the sight of me?

Keeping quiet, I move to the pair of sofas and the coffee table that separates them. Minding the state of the square carpet kept still by the heavy burden, I sit down and glance at Okena's work. With my powers, I pick up the teapot and a cup and let it all orbit me as I get to making it the way Sair likes it. The name escapes me, but, I know it's a fairly religious-affiliated tea.

"Same as usual?" I ask her after some time contemplating if I am allowed to speak.

"I don't want anything from you." is my answer as I feel her powers flare up under my divine grip. Either way, I place the filled cup on her desk and I slide it over. Then, it's merely a game of patience until she quickly grabs it to deny me the right of seeing her.

A satisfied sip bounces about the room.

"Okena really does know what I like." she remarks, depriving me of my part in making the brew.

I try to smile despite the pain, "Expected, you two have known each other for quite some time."

My lips straighten.

"And we could have known each other for longer if it weren't for you faking your death before us. That little show of yours, when we were dealing with pests somehow less vile than you... When you set up that barrier and attacked yourself in that stupid get-up of yours and that damnable broken mask. You... She... Drowning her in the guilt that she might be the cause of it, the one who triggered that barrier, and then -you- snapping her neck when we thought we had finally caught the one who we had come to believe killed you... Only, it was, in fact, you!" she growls out to me, making me sigh drearily. My cup of tea is transmuted into apple juice because I feel like it and I sip.

"I needed a way out of my oaths and promises, the ones you demons have bound to names, not groups. If I didn't do that then my people would never get back to their homeland, they'd remain on that reservation belonging to your grandfather." I explain to her again as rub my tired eyes.

"Then that shows how irredeemably stupid you are, Kyrvern. Kyrvern the Invalid, the Retard, the Impossibly Incapable. You could have worked with us so we could reintegrate your people back onto Earth, but no! You had to be impatient, you had to force it through in the aftermath of a terrible war. The Beast in the Gap was an evil you exploited to commit more evil!"

I scoff, "Wait? I did not need permission from the foreign powers who laid my kingdom low. My people's right to live in their land takes precedence."

"Plain and simple, you are an idiot, Kyrvern. No surprise there, you rarely think before you act and you hide your problems until they explode into something far worse." she tells me as she finishes her cup of tea, tossing the china aside before she tries to ruin her desk. All of it is protected by my superior strength over reality. The teacup settles back on the table with everything else.

"Perhaps I am, perhaps I am an idiot. But at least I am trying to make things better, at least I am trying." I say as my gaze lowers with my temper.

"Trying!? If you were trying at all you'd give me your powers so I can fix the mess along with purging you from every bit of it!" she encourages me to do as her inadequate strength tries to choke me into my son's cold arms.

"You know I can't just give you my powers, Sair..." I point out, trying to think more so about the burden that comes with it than the fact it will be used to kill me.

"And why is that!? Hm!? WHY!?"

"Because I know exactly what you would do with them. It wouldn't be only me you go after, you'd go after everyone." I explain to her as dark memories come to mind. That one time I actually contemplated letting her kill me. If that is even possible nowadays.

Footsteps come closer and when I look up, my head turns with a fresh sore mark.

"The only thing I hate with every fibre of my being is you, do not lie. All I'll ever go after is you!" she drips out, soaking me in the venom born of her existence.

"I know." I go, standing up with quaking legs.

"Die for me, Kyrvern, let me tear your heart out a thousand times over." she whispers close as she tries to claw a hand into my chest.

"I looked into my omniscience, you know, I know how I can make everything good again." I remark as my front glows brightly with her malicious, ineffectual power.

"You know how to fix all of this, do you? Hah, I've already been telling you the answer to that. It's quite simple, die." she says, whispering the final word into my ear.

"I do... I do, every step of the way. No detail left untouched. I know what I need to do, but, I will not follow through with it." I sigh, shaking my head at what is so incomprehensible to anyone not in my head. Not even you.

"Take the plunge you piece of scum, follow through with it. Purge yourself from every second of time, every fragment of reality." she encourages with a liveliness I have barely seen from her.

"No."

"Why not!? You follow through with forcing your way to the end of the world, ruining all that was good with it for your own selfish reasons. You stopped being my lovable servant and became a tyrant that destroyed every world!"

"Because... Even if you don't anymore. I still love you, Sair."

"Do not ever say that to me!" she lets out as the room is blinded by a nova of her unrestrained power. I frown miserably as I hold back the tears. No, Sair, do not ever say that to me...

"I will not go through anything regarding you without your support. Even if you do not forgive me entirely or even more than slightly. Please, Sair, I am begging you, at least allow me the opportunity to start doing something!" I plead as I hold out my hand which she shirks away from in disgust. Touching me to hurt me is ok, but, me reaching out to her makes me nothing more than a plague in her eyes...

You turn away from diseased flesh.

Straightening my back out, I frown as my anger starts to build. I step towards her until she has nowhere else to retreat to, trapping her in the corner of the room. Reaching out for her, I place a hand on her cheek while she is stiffened up by her disgust for me. That pale skin of hers, her blue eyes, I can see them again...

"Please." I say with all I have left in me.

"Your love isn't worth anything!" she hisses as I allow myself to be flung away to the opposing wall.

Dropping with a weighty crash, I land on my fist and then frown, my eyes following the gaps between the floorboards. My mind... I can't focus. Can't do anything right!

"Even with the ability to give it all the meaning out there, your love is always hollow. It's only ever been." she tells me before cackling as the energy making up her body distorts itself like a pack of sparks. All because my grip is loosening, I don't want to restrain her power anymore. The room starts to vanish as this atom-destroying magic washes over me in pulses.

She strikes me directly and I am unmoving, again and again.

My love for her is hollow? No, it very much is not so, I love her so much and it hurts to see her like this... Yet, I can't help but despise her back, right now, for this brief moment. I catch her next blow as a glare sets itself on my features like drying, molten stone.

This thing, this Crimson Destruction flinches as I start to cut loose in an absurdly mild manner. Spite, Rage, Anger, Hatred, Destruction? I am All, I am Everything, I am the Equilibrium! Reality is a mistress I may mould, break, torment and build up to my heart's loving or sadistic content without interference.

All of this power, all of it focused on their, such limited mind. Crimson Destruction, huh? It knows nothing of the concept!

"The only thing I have -never- needed to consult my omnipotence or omniscience on is this one fact, Sair. My love for you is true, it always will be. So you best watch your tongue." I explain to her with the Old Building evaporating around us as we slowly rise into the air. She burns like a sun with all she has, but one hand remains crushed in my grip.

My children spot us, her creations spot us and the well-known beacon is lit. This remade portion of a world long gone hears the clarion call, the horns are sounding. Once again, it ends as it always does with violence that will shake this reality. And the encroaching thunderclouds made by my son will echo this call for all to hear.

Let even the mortal world in its entirety hear of Thurnmourer's wrath.