Inactive - Chapter 5 Greed And Gluttony 2

Drifting within the sea of void, the twins were not able to get a grasp on anything, even their sense of self had been slowly washed away. Without even the ability to reflect on who, what, when or where they were, it was as though they were tuck in a trance somewhere between being conscious and unconscious.

Everything had become stagnant with even the flow of time becoming non-existent.

After what seemed to have been an eternity, one by one there were small stars beginning to release streams of light across the canvas of darkness. It was like someone had began turning the gears of time once more. It began slowly, with flickering lights only appearing every few minutes however as time went on, this increased rapidly until there was only seconds in between each flicker brimming to life.

This was the first thing that greeted their consciousness after an eternal sleep. These lights continued multiplying until their brilliance became blinding, their perception reeling in pain as he attempted to close eyes which were no longer there. There was no way to control their view of the scene before them as these spheres unravelled themselves while only rapidly expanding.

They had no idea what they was witnessing, these small orbs baffled them however as they began to focus on each of them independently, it felt as though they were sucked into them! There was no resistance or feeling of movement as their vision rapidly changed causing these orbs to rapidly expand in front of them.

Their consciousness blurred through space as they flitted between these orbs, each showing him a completely different scene of life and death. Some of the scenes showed villages much like their own, others forests, planes of fire or sheets of ice as far as he could comprehend. There were entire empires sprawled out beneath their feet along with creatures they could never have imagined.

It was as though he was taken back to his mother’s stories as he witnessed the scenes of war, grieving and festivity and prosperity. While was drowning in this feeling, his consciousness was expanding rapidly, without him even realising it he was suddenly able to taken in sights from multiple places at once. Bordering omnipresence, his sense of view eclipsed entire countries, taking in even the most minor details with just a glance.

All of these sights were being absorbed greedily as they craved to see more of these amazing worlds present themselves. This was short lived however, suddenly the streams of information came to a standstill after arriving in a vast wasteland. Bones and blood were sprawled out everywhere as it as evident that an overbearing war must have taken place. The ground was soaked in rot and decay with no possibility of life being able to manifest.

In the centre of this God forsaken battlefield, just one man remained at the peak of a mountain of corpses while taking his last breaths. His armour was entirely shredded with sections of the metal having been warped out of shape, protruding into his body and causing more damage than protection as his blood streamed down to combine with those below him.

One hand supporting himself with the help of a glittering blade, the other was clutching onto an egg which was only the size of a fist as though it was the most precious thing in the world.

Releasing the sword, he crumpled to the ground while gasping heavily. Using his not free hand, he began to painfully draw odd shapes and lines across the surface of the egg with precision that was unbefitting of his condition. His breath grew more ragged as time went on, only finishing after the egg was densely covered with fine lines. The once dull and plain egg now looked like an exquisite work of art as his hand once again dropped to his side, landing on the back of one of the brothers he had once fought magnificently alongside.

He was now incredibly weak as energy rapidly left him, any attempt to move only resulted in trembling. When recalling his life, his eyes were growing blurry as tears threatened to break lose as he recalled all the sacrifices made by those closest to him just for this moment. The death, the pain, the trauma. Generation after generation had paid the price and all that was left of their glorious history was this moment.

An entire people had been destroyed. A cosmos overturned. All for the blessing they wouldn’t get a chance to use.

As his consciousness gradually slipped away, a final declaration left his mouth so quietly it came out as a hum. “We are the father. We are the mother. We sacrifice our flesh and our world to give life. We sacrifice our souls to watch over and keep you safe. Live and never will our blood die.” As he breathed the last word, his head fell to the side as his eyes glossed over while fondly looking at the egg as though it was a loved one. Even in death, the tears hadn’t stopped flowing from his eyes despite his expression being seemingly at peace.

That marked the last trace of life within this world being extinguished. Silence descended as not even the sound of wind effected the unprecedented battlefield. This place had been ravaged over a period of millions of years, yet even the earliest of the corpses showed only the slightest signs of decomposition. This only went to show the power of the warriors which had stepped upon this stage.

Flecks of darkness pervaded the air as these immortal bodies began to crumple and disperse as had been seen within the room Rykar and Loki had been in. The scale of this decomposition was innumerable larger, as though comparing an ant with a dragon when looking at what had happened in that small room. Not only were the bodies of the warriors falling apart to form the mass of black cloud, the ground, water and rocks were all melting before the egg which was not glittering madly with a blood red light radiating from the runes which had been sprawled across its surface sending beam of light piercing into the cloud which revolved around it.

The entire planet was soon completely broken down into the finest of particles however this was only the start. The neighbouring planets began to break down with their particles then joining into the fray, the scale of the dark mass becoming more and more immense.

As the black hole exploded in size, hundreds of thousands of desolate planets and stars in the vicinity had been melded into the rotating mass of darkness. It then suddenly came to a stand still before contracting abruptly, drawing all of this energy into one point. The egg.

It was all absorbed rapidly with not ant sign of slowing. Until the very end, the egg remained the same size without even quivering while taking in an incredible amount of energy from the bodies and planets. It took only seconds before everything was once more reduced to silence. There was nothing in the vicinity of the egg except void. It was as though even some of the space itself had been eaten away.

Grey lights started appearing one by one while orbiting around the egg in random directions. These lights were similar to the darkness however they were much fewer in number. Despite this, there were easily hundreds of millions of these lights revolving while faintly pulsing. These pulses seemed insignificant to the eye but anyone in close proximity would be able to feel intense waves of emotion and longing being released with every beat.

These were the souls of the people who fought the war and won. The souls of a people that were now extinct, completely erased from the flow of time.

“We are the father. We are the mother. We sacrifice our flesh and our world to give life. We sacrifice our souls to watch over and keep you safe. Live and never will our blood die.”

“We are the father. We are the mother. We sacrifice our flesh and our world to give life…”

“We sacrifice our souls to watch over and keep you safe. Live and never will our blood die.”

The words of the final warrior resonated through space as it was replayed endlessly by his comrades, friends and family before they gravitated towards the egg, becoming one with it. Their bodies, their world, and finally their souls were poured into the egg, contributing to the new life within.

As the last soul flickered out of existence, a blinding light shone from the egg in the centre. Rather than the blood red that dominated it earlier, a grey light had mixed in, entwining and balancing the distribution causing grey and red to swirl across its surface.

BOOM

The void was torn open as the egg disappeared from its position. The special tears causing incredible amounts of turbulence which rocked the planets which were beyond the range of the dark vortex. All that was left in the space where countless warriors had raged for the last millions of years, was a vast cavity.

. . .

Wind blew steadily through fields of emerald green grass. The leaves above rustled softly as though trees were whispering tales to the wind while bird songs soothed the mind.

Without disrupting the peace in the least, an egg appeared out of thin air, sitting silently on the ground while pulsing. With each pulse, the egg showed a growth in size, slowly sinking into the ground under its weight.

Without any surprise or interruption, the egg grew all the way up to two metres tall before it halted. One final pulse caused an enormous tear to shred the middle before the cracks spread out like fractured glass causing the fragments to tumble down unable to support themselves while revealing a dark shadow within.

As light began to infiltrate the shell, the figure within seemed like a lump of grey and black at first. The skin was stony grey yet flawlessly smooth with the muscle underneath being defined, lean and powerful looking.

After being exposed to the elements, the figure shuddered strongly before unfurling, allowing the two teenagers within to separate from each other’s hold. These youths were identical, black hair cascading down to their waists providing the only contrast against their unblemished skin. Totally in the nude, they stared at each other vacantly.

Mirroring each other, they could feel an obvious bond connecting themselves as though being two parts of a whole yet they could feel that there was also a vast difference which they couldn’t interpret.

Eyes locked, their contrasting eyes blazed with curiosity. One iris was blood red while the other was soul grey, reflecting the same colours of the runes which encased the egg of their birth. Both cocking their heads slightly to the side, the silence was broken.

“Brother, who are you?”

“I am Greed. Brother, who are you?”

“I am Gluttony. Brother, what is greed?”

Greed paused for a moment, hesitating over the question before his eyes began shining resplendently in red and green before replying.

“Greed is the unbound desire to possess all. To make all your own. A being blessed by the law of greed will own everything, binding creatures and humans, demons and gods to your will. There is no possession that you cannot have, no person that you cannot own, only those that you are not wise enough to take. Tell me brother, what is Gluttony?”

Gluttony froze, taking a long moment to allow the concept of Greed to sink in before even contemplating his own answer. After mulling over and understanding the concept his brother had stated, his eyes began glittering wildly as he felt a sense of enlightenment.

The concept of Greed was similar yet completely different to the concept of gluttony and by separating them there were two laws which perfectly complimented each other. In that moment he came to understand the essence of gluttony, of who he was and his connection to his brother. Taking a breath, he replied.

“Gluttony is an undying hunger, the desire to consume all and the power to make all a part of yourself. A being blessed by the power of gluttony will never claim that there is nothing to eat, only that they are not powerful enough to consume it. To be a glutton is to eat. To eat is to become one with the world.”