Chapter Text
How long has it been, they wondered; How long since they took their sibling’s place? They wondered still. Chains dug painfully into their sides, but they had long since grown used to the cutting pressure, grown used to the dull pain. Each second passing by letting them feel just a little less. Was this what their sibling had been going through?
They felt a bit sad, now that they had time to think about their actions, they realized that there was so much they had left behind. Their sister Hornet, now probably stuck in limbo once more, watching over a dying kingdom. Dirtmouth, where the few townsfolks left would surely miss them by now… or maybe not, they hadn’t spent that much time with them now that they thought about it.
“Could you stop thinking so loudly? I’m trying to sleep.”
They looked inward, and saw the moth god, The Radiance, lounging on a pile of pillows. It surprised them somewhat, could she sleep? Wasn’t she already in the dreaming world? How did that work? Why did she need so many pillows when she had so much fluff on her body that she probably felt like a cloud?
“I- What? I’m not that fluffy!” They doubted it, “Oh come on! First Grimm, now you! And, just because you were wondering, sleeping doesn’t necessarily need dreams. I need rest too, you know.”
That made sense, they thought. Most living things needed rest, gods weren’t counted out. They wondered what it would be like to be a moth… maybe they’d be as fluffy as The Radiance? If they could choose, they’d certainly want to be. What would it be like to fly? They had managed to acquire wings, but they weren’t much- only allowing one flap before needing rest. Maybe they could ride on top of Radiance to fly? Hopefully, the sexy moth lady wouldn’t mind-
“What did you just call me?!”
Huh, they thought they had made their thoughts private?
“You can’t. I just didn’t tell you so that I could spy on you. I didn’t think that you’d just- you-” They heard a loud inhale an exhale, odd since neither of them needed to breath, “I did not think that you would… comment on my appearance. In any case, why would you even think of me that way?! We’re enemies!”
It’s either fall in love with the moth lady they’d spend the rest of eternity with or fall in love with the pile of void and cloth that is now their sibling. They chose the moth.
“…Fair.” Radiance grumbled, hugging a few pillows.
Plus, they weren’t lying when thinking about how nice she looked. Maybe it was because they hadn’t seen that many attractive bugs in their life, or maybe it was because of the fact that she was a god. Either way, they could see the appeal.
“I-” Radiance stumbled upon her words, trying and failing to say something. Maybe that bright blush had something to do with it. “Shut up! I’m going to sleep now. Also, you should figure a name out for yourself, it’s annoying to not have one for you.” She turned around and sank into the pillows. They wondered just how she could sleep when constantly emitting light.
She’d asked them for a name. They thought back to all their travels, to the various names and titles they’d been given. Traveler was a common one, but not all that special. They should choose something else. A thought came to them, of something they’d been called by only one person before.
From now on, they would be Ghost.
Time passed, and Ghost grew bored. There was nothing to do! Well, nothing other than annoying Radiance; They were pretty sure she didn’t appreciate it. Still, it was rather interesting when they talked with one another. They could see a bit into the mind of the moth, see why she did what she did. Unfortunately, they still had yet to receive any answer to that particular question. She didn’t seem to want to tell them why the infection had been created. Years had passed by now, or maybe just a few days. It was hard to tell time in here. Time… well, that gave them an idea for their next conversation.
“Time?” Radiance gave them a confused look, all the while playing with a rather nice sounding harp. “What do you mean by time?”
Time, could they travel through it? Was it possible to go back or forward?
A high note played, “Well, not really. Not only would it need a large amount of power- which I have in spades, obviously- but you’d also need something out of time to anchor yourself to. Wyrms can look into the future, I guess, but that doesn’t actually go through time. It’s more like taking in all possibilities they can think of and making an extremely accurate guess.”
An anchor? Why would anyone need that? Couldn’t you just use all that power to fling yourself exactly where you want to?
This time, a low note, “You’d think so, but…” Radiance shook her head, “Think of time like an extremely fast river, without any borders to catch onto. No matter how much strength you have to launch yourself to another part of the river, it’ll never be accurate. You could overshoot drastically and find yourself in a spot where you die immediately or undershoot and waste all that power.”
Oh. Guess they did need an anchor. Well, that sucked, Ghost would rather like being able to slap the Pale King in the face for what he had done. They felt the distinct approval of Radiance in the back of their mind. It felt nice to finally have someone agree with them on something. Even Hornet had been a bit… well, she hadn’t really disagreed with anything they did at the very least. Now, back to the anchor problem. How could they get anything out of time? Oh. Wait. Wasn’t the void considered timeless or something?
“It is. However, our only source of void at the moment is you. Going back in time using you as our anchor would force my being to become linked and woven with yours in such a way that it would become almost impossible to separate us. It’s debatable if we’d even be a separate being at that point- well, maybe our minds could stay separate somewhat. But, still, that’s a rather large risk and-”
Ghost didn’t mind, the both of them wanted to slap the Pale King, right? So no matter what happened, they would still do that. They saw Radiance, swimming in a sea of pillows, with her mouth hanging down in disbelief.
“What? Really?” It didn’t sound that bad, “Alright… I don’t mind much either, not like there’s much left for me in this world anyway. With no one alive, there’s no one to remember me. This will most likely use most of my remaining power to do, so brace yourself. I should be able to recover once back in the past, what with having more followers, but it still won’t be pleasant.”
Light gathered around them, void clinging onto it desperately, it pressed into their body, their soul, and burned. They were wrapped in layers upon layers of light, silk like layers of glowing threads creating an odd cocoon. It burned hotter than acid and brighter than lava, it was light made physical, and it was the opposite of void. It burned, it burned, IT BURNED.
Their vision grew dark all the while light filled their view- the oddest contrast possible. Ghost wanted, needed, to scream out into the air; To let out the pain and suffering into the world. They couldn’t. Just as they were about to pass out, they felt something, felt a contrast to their body and soul that had never been before. Light and Void woven together into threads of darkness that lit up the world and then formed their body, soul, and mind. Their back tore, light blooming and forming into new appendages threaded through previously existing abilities. Cloak was shed and replaced, a now cream-colored coat of fluff acting to protect them from the elements. Horns reformed and grew longer, three spikes now decorating their head.
This really hurt.
The Pale King worked quietly in his office, signing off on different projects and spendings. Some new benches were being installed, and they needed the appropriate pay for the ones that would work on them. He sighed, leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his face. He had a terrible headache today, probably because of him not having slept for the last five days due to nobles pressing him on the infection issue. The thing had started a few years ago, first as just a few out of place bugs… but then it grew to a full-on plague. It stole minds and replaced them with instincts, driving once friends into death battles for their own lives.
He had already increased funding to the Soul Sanctum by fifteen percent this year alone for them to research ways to solve the problem. While they were working on that, he was putting into motion his own plans, created a pure vessel to train to maturity. No mind to think, No will to break, No voice to cry suffering… No cost too great. He looked behind himself, at the vessel standing in front of the door, protecting him by his order. He shuddered at those empty eyes, unseeing yet looking.
He was just about to order it to send a message to the ground floor, when the floor started to tremble. An earthquake shaking the earth like the steps of a giant. This, he recognized, was something rarely felt. This was more than the earth shaking, no, this was the birth of something new, the birth… of a god. The ground had trembled the day he had ascended to heights previously unknown, the earth had shaken and bowed to him. And now another was doing so in his own kingdom.
He rushed to the windows, uncaring of the times he almost tripped, and looked outwards. He spread his senses far and wide, he perceived and- Light and Void mixed together, Light and Void grew into one being, one god, one divine. It rose higher and higher up, it shone upon the land and yet made the shadows seem all the darker for it. Another of his senses, one of higher beings and gods only, shook him. His own sense of time stretched and thinned, space ruptured and yet stayed in place. This being, whatever it was, had made not only the earth bow, but also time itself.
With a shuddering breath, the world righted itself, and a beam of light frowned. The Radiance felt her domain tear, felt one of its parts fall away from her and into the hands of another. The realm of the unconscious, of those dreaming of dark, tore itself away from its master and into the hands of another. That was fine, The Radiance had no need for that particular part of her powers… but how had another being taken control of dreams? Even if it was only a small part of it, it shouldn’t have been possible, only those born to her parents could have been, and they were long dead. Perhaps her brother, Grimm, had gifted some of himself to a mortal? That did not explain why her own powers were dragged into it, but it made far more sense.
She frowned, someone else was entering this war, and she had no desire for it. She crushed another mind under her power, let it rise into mindless servitude, and took all of the worship now given. That newborn god could try to interfere, but she’d crush them, destroy them. They had no worshippers, no power, they wouldn’t be able to fight. In fact, maybe this could play into her favor, let the Wyrm panic and search for a useless god. It would only increase her own power.
Shades looked up, their dark forms staring without expression at the ceiling above. The Void sensed a new shade, and yet an old shade. The Void felt the union of light and dark, and felt the connection through time made within it. It twisted their arrival, twisted their destination, and landed them in the abyss, on the edge of the endless sea. It could tell, the new yet old shade was more than Void now, it was filled to completion, the hunger sated. It didn’t think, and yet it couldn’t help but give a slight gift to the one who had traversed time. A part of itself, the beginning of a true anchor, the gift of permanence.
Today, earth, time, and void bowed to a new god. Or, rather, gods.