boxfullofzeroes | then it becomes, it becomes, it becomes a problem, then--

then it becomes, it becomes, it becomes a problem, then--

Monzun watches over their people. They teach their Creature. That was all they knew and all they really wanted initially, when they were freshly-created, and perhaps it ever would have been if another god's cruelty hadn't cut in.

Their goal had never been to be the only god. It was that, and then it had been surviving to oppose Nemesis, and now he was gone, and it seemed they were the only regardless.

("Eh, screw 'em! What've other gods been but trouble for us, huh?")

("Well...It is a bit lonely. And Khazar's actions are the only reason we're around today, isn't that right?")

The power of the Creeds trickle back alongside the power of the people. And then torrents, and a flood. The Miracles they use grow stronger beyond even Wonders' assistance.

Generations of their people live and proliferate and die, and Monzun's strength doesn't waver, but increases even as the populations settle lower than the war efforts and post-war burst their levels to being.

("Yeah! We're badass! Even if it could use a lil more fireballin' to make all this peace more exciting, Boss.")

Their Creature and people are safe. They revel in being only gentle without consequence but worshippers' occasional disrespect, and they find they care little about that--unless they harm others in their village, and then Creature gentle scolding or abrupt relocation across the land tends to work nearly as well as lightning would have.

Their intervention is needed less even as they notice more. Little beacons where their people were, somewhere well beyond the seas, still worshipping where it once couldn't reach.

And something else. A shard of something.

Another...another god? Near their people? The numbers waver, some converting to the other, fewer converting to Monzun, as reasonable without them there to demonstrate their power.

They need to look.

("Could be a fresh threat we need to squash.")

("Or they may be a new god in need of a Guide?")

A fragment of them even hopes...

...

...Nemesis' brutality means their consciences say nothing while their Teleports are slowly practiced until they look something closer to a Vortex the old gods used.

It's not quite as large. Redder. But far more than a simple Teleport.

The day comes where they reach across the Lands and place it where they sense their lingering people and that god.

("Let's go!")

("It's so exciting! But we don't need to rush quite yet--")

Monzun takes some time to look over their nearest people and discuss. Khazar brought them Disciples; they could bring some possibly willing to convert to another, although they seem confused by the conversation. Do any of theirs know Miracles? Oh? Yes? One of Sable's decedents picked up the Wood Miracle, they hadn't realized that was possible--

A part of them is distant, distant, distant.

Monzun reaches for their Creature and finds they stare down into the Vortex.

Ah.

It seems their impatience was noticed and acted upon.

In another part of Eden, a Vortex opened on the side of a mountain that Monzun's old Temple still stands on. The air splits with a shocked bellow as a massive Leopard Creature steps onto nothing and tumbles down into the water.

Ouch.

Only a little ouch. It wasn't that far, but Sweetheart wasn't expecting it. She stands and shakes the water off a little--oooh, fish. Scoops up a handful of fresh fish to eat, and then turns around to claw up the mountain to peek over the edge.

There are a few people! Worshipping wrong, or maybe just frightened. That's okay. She's pretty different now. She doesn't mind when they take off running when they un-freeze.

...Most of the trees she grew are missing. She doesn't like that, she worked hard on those.

She climbs up all the way--oh, the Temple's smaller, or she's so big as to match?--and immediately gets to Miracle Watering the withered ones in the worship sites left.

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For decades following the thunderous implosion of silence that echoed from a distant place, Lethys was nothing if not cautious. This was nothing to prove Nemesis was gone; nothing to say this wasn't some newly-implemented skill in his arsenal to hide himself away and burn back down on Eden and itsremaining gods like a meteor strike the moment the world's guard was down.

Even so, Nemesis' hand might be stayed by proving his usefulness for a little longer. And beyond that, survival first. So in those first decades, rather than resting on his scant, pitiable laurels, Lethys picked up the pieces of his last bastion of faith, kept his guard up, and eventually ventured down from the lofty peak territory of his retreat.

The two peoples of the plains were few, especially those closest, but that meant they were amenable to what little aid and few boons Lethys could offer in his diminished state - and anyway they remembered him, in handed-down history. Perhaps some mortal guilt remained in their blood at their own conversion.

None remained in the rest, as far as Lethys could tell from his probing. And probe he did, though caution kept any real godly actions close to his temple and away from the further villages, until more than a few generations had come and gone. No matter how much his proximity to the void chilled him, and no matter his fears of Nemesis somehow returning to find him idle, the thought of seizing villages in the same rush as before has been somewhat soured.

Lethys is not the only one with a change of habit. Laetes takes to roaming - or more accurately, pacing long, loping miles between the villages. He stops when his god orders him to, waiting with a distant stare and bared jaws, only to wander again, restless, when Lethys' attention is pulled elsewhere. Waiting for something, or perhaps worrying about something. Any similarities to Lethys' own behaviour is missed by both.

It is during one of these tense, explorative wanderings that Laetes' ears prick up in alarm and his head snaps around to pin his eyes firmly on the distant shape of the enemy's temple. After barely a moment's consideration, he begins a beeline - but a god is always faster than a Creature, and in top frantic form, an icy-blue streak passes overhead.

An intangible glow of belief and power does not skid to a halt, though perhaps a particularly eccentric poet might describe it that way when Lethys comes to an abrupt stop in the sky beside the Temple.

Several hundred thoughts and fears push to the front of his mind and begin to line up in order of likelihood as he simply hangs in the air and watches, laser-focused, as the gigantic Leopard gardens the Temple of Monzun.

Lethys is unable to come up with anything to say. Still, older Creatures are cleverer than to be underestimated. He manages something - eventually.

"You," he addresses her, "Creature." There is another long, cavernous pause, and the next part comes out far more uncertain. "What is your business here?"

The trees immediately start crowding each other between the Temple's spokes. She uproots a few and plants them further around the edges and repeats. A few brave little humans remain standing in the Temple's doors, mumbling in awe about it. Good-Girl-Sweetheart is particularly careful not to plant any in her pen yet and possibly crush them.

She waters a few more trees before turning to the shining blur of blue that arrives.

Oh! The Creature points excitedly. She remembers this one. Lethys. A little too fond of lightning, but that's easily shaken off now, and he shared his food in the end. She got to play with Laetes too after they both stopped being terrible jerks. She straightens up to wave at him, and in the very distance--there's Laetes, in fact, that she waves at too far far far away.

Monzun doesn't need much. They'd been forced to flee with less. A short consult with the disciples they'd already planned and some food, and they head on through.

They find this is a boon.

Monzun curses their shortsightedness and frantically snatches most of their still-screaming people from the air and set them gently down before they can hit the ground and sea. A few are too late, dead or close enough. With haste, they Heal what they can.

Above, Sweetheart and every single living thing within three villages' length light up with it. Monzun feels a flicker of something; the rush of the local god nearly atop them--an odd impression they must be leaving!--but also it seems at least one Wonder they built yet stands.

It cannot be.

And why not, the more rational part of him asks? He felt the loss of Nemesis' presence with all the solemn gravitas it deserved. Why would it be any less likely that this Creature survived the battle? What likelihood stands that this could be another Leopard?

Her head is almost level with where he hovers. At her wave, Lethys comes back to himself enough to realise this and subtly flickers back and rises a little.

Just in time to see the dizzying tear of a Vortex rending itself open beneath him. And to feel the presence of -

- Nemesis? No, no! Different. Less familiar, but familiar still. No.

Before the glitter of Monzun's presence can make it all the way through, Lethys pulls back even further, flitting quickly to "perch" over the nearest high point for a good vantage (and, in his wisdom, be further away from the enemy's temple when they come to survey their territory).

This turns out to be the roof of the Japanese Wonder, currently filled with the still-devout. He hears the whisper-murmur of their conversation below him turn to warm, pleasant surprise, and then excitement as a tidalwave of healing energy laps across the landscape and spirals up the tower floors, and finds its way to man, beast, and Creature abroad with a surge of power.

Lethys shudders.

Such a demonstration could only mean one thing. He begins to formulate his next move quickly: beg, or flee?

...Until Monzun notices him and reacts, he does neither. Better to watch, and wait.

Laetes draws up beside the Wonder and keeps his gaze locked on the distant shimmer of their rivals, shoulder to shoulder with his god if they'd really been at the same level.

After their shaken-up followers are all gathered to rest and chatter (and commiserate) in their Temple's shadow, Monzun is instantly distracted by management. The nearest village is doing fine, but not as well as they could. What had they been thinking with some of their old field placements?

Sweetheart strides off towards the next village over, and Laetes. And Lethys. People scatter around her feet, and she picks up a few that aren't fast enough and set them closer to their houses.

Gods are indeed faster than Creatures, however. After feeding a few trees into the first Worshop, Monzun cuts across the sky to check on the next, and the God whose Influence is reaching across it--

They know that symbol.

"Lethys!" They alter their course from the Store to examine his shape up close. "Lethys? You live?" Disbelief echoes with hope overlaid with just the first stirrings of anger.

More they the fool to have believed Nemesis, weren't they?

It has been a long time since they saw each other, but even back then, the pinkish fuzz of his coat had given way to dark and ruddy, brackish grey from compelled malice. By now it has washed-out some, from decades of pacing and the occasional nudge from his master to try and break the habit of destruction and cruelty. Perhaps it was meant to be temporary; Laetes remains dull and slightly hunched.

He flashes teeth and rumbles with a low growl as Sweetheart approaches, his fur sticking up like pins - and perhaps tinging ever so slightly blacker at the ends, as if scorched by some unseen flame.

A subtle hand runs down the wolf's back, silently bidding him to stay.

To his credit Lethys does not move from his hovering perch above the Wonder. Even though the strength of their presence nearly blinds. Staring a more powerful god in the face unflinching is a skill he has had plenty of time to hone.

Disbelief, indeed, and they're not the only one. No doubt Monzun would have preferred to find him gone and his Temple razed.

"I am as alive as you deigned to leave me," he barks, only a little defensively. Caution, first. Quickly, he demands: "What of Nemesis?"

He knows. Every particle of his being knows. ...But he has yet to hear it.

Edited 2025-03-22 15:41 (UTC)

"You are," they say wonderingly, drifting up.

And then back down, alongside their voice. "That--that--all-burning, all-sacrificing--bare-Sited pile of Creature shit is gone with the power of the Creeds I wrested from him," they rumble.

Shining Sweetheart arrives with flicking ears, glancing between other-god and other-Creature. Monzun is angry? Monzun is using strings of words she's never heard before, in fact.

Only a little angry, as they drift back again to float above their somewhat-puzzled creature. "...He lead me to believe you--weren't, anymore."

Now Lethys pulls back: the power Monzun wields now is not to be made light of, and despite his best efforts to keep a stranglehold on the uncertainty and fear clawing its way to the forefront, Lethys' symbol and light wane to a thin and watery candle-glow in comparison to Monzun's. It takes all of his self-control not to act: reach for a Miracle, flee, beg. They've given him no reason to just yet.

But they have confirmed this at least: Nemesis is no more, and they wiped him off the face of Eden.

He has plenty of cause to believe them. A spike of - something runs through him, too close to the fear of a new unknown to truly be relief, but similar enough that the cogs begin turning regardless.

Nemesis is gone. Eden is forever changed. Monzun is poised to take his place as power-that-is. And so it goes.

"You and I remain," he declares out loud, affirming this to Monzun - and to himself.

His tone is pensive, slow, and deliberately unclear. He must choose his words with care. Below, Laetes holds his ground, still sustaining a low, rasping growl with pauses only to snatch a breath, eyes fixed up at the towering Leopard as though tasked with an unblinking watch over only one thing in the universe.

"What will you do now that you hold this power?"

Monzun hesitates over admitting they thought he was a young god in need of guidance. It's...well. Embarrassing. They'd warred against him for fewer years than Nemesis directly, perhaps, but long enough they likely should have recognized his presence if they hadn't taken the old god's word.

"I'll continue tending to my people," they say eventually, glow listing to the side, over the nearby Village the Wonder towers over. "There are fewer mine than I knew on this land, but still many scattered around--here, and the others I've travelled."

The word comes with some irony, being such a mild word for being forced to flee from and chase gods so much.

As things are, though, they can travel when they please.

Sweetheart slowly crouches until she reaches nearly Laetes' eye-level. He, too, seems angry. She dips forward to tap her snout to his in askance. He doesn't need to be angry, she'd rather have that stop.

Laetes snaps at her -

- and a Leash whips into existence, snapping taut and yanking him back so his jaws clatter shut on thin air, causing him to stumble off-balance. He whines, then, and turns seeking eyes up to Lethys.

My people, Monzun said. Lethys knows their symbol is still seared into the hearts and minds of this Village, as with the one by their temple. As it was, as it still sometimes lingers, in the Villages he's reclaimed, inch by anxious inch. Fewer mine than I knew...

He knew nowhere else to run, but was a mistake to stay. He doesn't know their plans for certain, but - in case they wield their power carelessly, they should know what they'd be doing:

"I have no other Temple," he states, matter-of-factly.

Normally this would be a foolish admittance. But their power eclipses his so completely, the time for strategy has long passed. The truth is the only option left. Perhaps knowing they would be wiping him off the face of Eden might give them pause. It did last time...

"Your battle here is already won. My lands are forfeit. Give me time," he asks, in a way that feels familiar. "I will find another Land far from here, but I need time."

Sweetheart flinches back a little. Monzun flickers back over the Creatures, likewise tugging her back a few steps.

She rumbles and jabs a claw forward, arm still long enough to nearly reach the wolf if she leans. Don't they notice how he's acting? She just wants to do something about it!

Monzun swiftly pulls further away, nearly across the Village itself. "Those aren't my people any more." (They are, but Lethys seemed to take care well enough when they weren't raining flame over them. They can stay his.) "I did not plan on taking from you," they say tightly, finally realizing what this may be looking like.

Edited 2025-03-23 12:30 (UTC)

At once the bottom drops out of Lethys' careful treading-on-glass approach. Monzun does not want this Land.

Some small part suggests anxiously that perhaps what Monzun means is—

—they don't need to take from him, points out the long, tired part of him that bent to Nemesis. They already have more power than this Land could afford them. He has been thinking too small. The quaint game of taking Villages, back and forth across the board, cannot mean anything to them now; the power of the Creeds puts them above that. No, they don't care. The rules are thrown away and do not matter. (Such rules were all that amused Nemesis.)

If ichor could run cold.

Laetes, sensing something from his god, begins to slowly back away, the Leash falling slack. His eyes dart from Lethys to Sweetheart to Monzun.

"What will you do?"

His voice carries the usual echo of godhood, but it sounds hollow.

Monzun is familiar with...finding things unfamiliar. Having a lack of understanding where many but a treasured few followers expected them to be all-knowing, merely because they could hear their simplest collective prayers.

Sweetheart, as she tends to, begins a Gesture--a Gesture she considers of Water, but then changes to a greater one, of Healing. There was already Healing done, but she knows this one is best, and perhaps Laetes could use it. She doesn't need to be all that close to do it.

Monzun darts back a little in the direction of their Temple, cutting a sharp line of red shine in the air. "You asked and I answered this moments ago." But they're missing something, and they despise it.

("Perhaps he thinks you're lying, Leader? We know Nemesis liked to twist words, after all...")

"And I am not lying about it!" they add roughly.

"What will you do to me?"

His tone is genuine, and his symbol flickers back to full brightness.

His voice is urgent and to be heard! and there is a ripple of pausing and muttering across the Village as, unintentionally, mortals catch the echoes.

Yes, Nemesis lied. But he had no need to lie to Lethys. His most faithful; his right hand. His god of least concern. Nemesis could crush Lethys like a bug. Why waste the energy lying?

Lethys expects the truth — he does not expect it to be kind.

Laetes flinches back, dragging his feet to shuffle away, covering his face for a blow that does not come. When the Miracle hits, it hits a cringing thing, and Laetes' eyes flick wide.

Laetes dares a questioning stare over the pointed fur of his arms, peering at Sweetheart in shock.

Edited 2025-03-23 21:18 (UTC)

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sweetheart the lucky cat.........

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