God of Nothing

Aleph sat on the wall, peering out over the horizon. Below him were several children, freely chasing the 'hero' gauntlet, as it floated aimlessly around. Despite the commotion the other day, they seemed to still like being around him. They babbled on about various things, as children are wont to do. Things that adults thought would have gone over their heads.

He learned the name of this town now: Kyrios, it was called. It was an agricultural town, back before the demons came and trampled their crops. They provided grains, tubers, and even fermented greens across the country, sending their wares down the river that cuts through about an hour from here. It was such a large business that their entire town had revolved around it. Various wealthy landowners had sprung up here over the last few decades, eventually forming the bulk of the town's leadership.

All of that blew up on them when the demons arrived, though. The well-off folk had various men under them, of course, and even a bulk of the militia were paid with their coin. But alas, that all did not serve to deter the wave of evil. They fought for days, bitterly refusing to lose ground, but eventually, the endless tide of harbingers proved too much. Even with the soldiers sent from the capital, the walls became their prison, trapping them in as the enemy inched closer and closer to the heart of the city. If only they knew they were trapped in with aggressors as well.

Desperate for life, the merchants and landowners moved to bribe the remaining soldiers, giving them a handsome sum to attempt to break through. Seizing the sliver of hope as well as the promise of coin, the soldiers left with the nobility and left the townsfolk to die.

And so it went. A town that used to be much bigger than Hios, on its way to becoming a city, was struck down by the enemy. Four thousand citizens, reduced to barely a hundred. These people clung to life, lived in their own cellars for days, weeks until they were sure the enemy had moved on. 

When they finally poked out their heads, their town was not much more than rubble: The very roofs over their heads reduced to soot and blackened ash.

And as for the ones who escaped? Brig found them massacred on the way to the wharf, slashed and burned along with their wealth. Still, their deaths proved no consolation for the fury of those who survived.

Aleph shook his head, admiring just how familiar this all felt. Such stories had been common back on Earth, and that was even before Erebos sought to destroy them all. During his millenia alone, he would often wonder if humans, with all their atrocities, deserved to be wiped out.

"yiiieee!"

A shrill scream broke his thoughts, as one child was picked up by his force gauntlet and carried for a spell. He turned to the side, where he saw Rayse a distance away, holding his hand out towards his artifact and making it move. He caught Aleph's eye and gave him a smirk, before turning back to safely put the child back down.

He's gotten quite good at that, he thought. Rayse had shown a knack for his world's magic far more than the other two, but recently he'd begun to incorporate this world's spells, together with Erebos' attribute, creating a fighting style uniquely his own. The other two had similarly embarked upon their own paths, their wellspring of talent beginning to bear fruit. All for the defense of this world.

"I had forgotten." Aleph sighed. The best gift this world had given him was to show the beauty that resided in mankind. Kindness that his disciples had shown, beauty in these downtrodden children's laughter. Surely such things were worth preserving. Their lives were worth vastly more than his mortal life, at least. A life that gained the authority of a godkiller despite not even the one giving the killing blow. A life whose only redeeming quality was to be beside a woman that sacrificed her life so that he may live. This new life was good, but he was willing to throw it away for these people. He turned back over the wall, observing the massive energy that was coming their way. Looks like the time has come.

He stood at the wall, taking one last longing look at the town below. A mental tug brought the force gauntlets to his sides, glowing slightly as he prepared for battle. He saw his disciples coming to his side, along with young Eric, who had begun to bond with them over their time together.

"Master?" Brandon asked.

"The enemy has come." Aleph said, nodding over the horizon.

"Vaynard will arrive in a day and a half.  Stay here until he arrives. Protect the people with your life." 

"But–" Before they could process what was going on, Aleph stepped off the wall, igniting the gravity crystals in his armor. They propelled him forward, into the army of darkness. It was still noon, and the enemy was still forming up. Now was the perfect time to cull their numbers before they reached the Kyrios. Even with their fortifications, that place would simply fold in a fight with these numbers.

He sped towards them at an alarming speed, but it still took him fifteen minutes to arrive. Nevertheless, he eventually came across the first few harbingers.

He sliced through their midst as a tornado of death, each slice a calculated strike to the neck, spine, or a bludgeoning blow to their head. He went all out, killing anyone in his path as he  moved through them, zigging and zagging as he sought the enemy commander.

In mere moments, dozens of their dead lay scattered on the plains. The sparse vegetation around these parts made this a poor attempt at an ambush, but for his purpose, Aleph had no need for stealth.

He stood tall among the corpses, looking around to see where these harbingers were arriving from. A stream of pale blue coming from the East gave him the answer, the direction from which one of the last few active portals were located. Aleph took a deep breath, checking on his own condition before proceeding. He had barely used any mana, while about a third of his artifacts' stores were used up. 

Judging from his speed, going all the way to the portal would be out of the question. He'd only arrive with little strength left to fight, far from the optimal conditions considering the recent herald activity. So he calmed himself down, preparing to make his stand here. The next wave harbingers would take a while to arrive, him having cleared the immediate area of them. He carved up the nearby ones' chests and gathered up their hearts. He gathered them up to absorb them, taking a page from his disciples' book for a change. He shattered them in his hands, breathing in the smoke produced as the mana made contact with the air.

"Breeze." He said to himself, conjuring up a pleasant puff of air that swirled around him, gathering up all the smoke into a cloud. He still couldn't absorb mana as well as his students, but he planned to stay here a while, so it wouldn't hurt to have an extra source. He breathed in the mana, letting it circulate and become part of him, all the while looking at the pale blue wave that slowly marched towards him.

He took some of the mana from the cloud and redirected it to his equipment, replenishing them for the coming battle. It was highly inefficient due to the varied attributes, but it was better than nothing. Aleph thought back to the bitter battles on earth, how lost they would be if their equipment had run out of mana in the middle of battle. It was a much more tedious affair to recharge them, requiring close proximity to mana hearts, or any thing or place that had a decent amount of mana. They normally resorted to replacing the cores outright, increasingly difficult as the battles became more chaotic.

He belatedly noticed dark shapes in the air, steadily growing as they reached his location.

"Reminiscing at a time like this? I must be getting old." He chastised. He took his stance once again, preparing for battle.

He could recognize the shapes in the air much clearer now: They were the same winged emissaries he had faced before. They tore through the air with ease before finally landing in his midst.

"Godkiller!" One of them shouted. "Your reckoning has come!"

"Kiiikikikik!"

The demons around him screeched in unison, their mana signatures starting to burgeon.

"I faced your master before and rebuffed him. What makes you think you are a match for me?"

The demon grinned widely at his words.

"You cannot fool us, godling. You are very clearly far from your peak, or you would have already sought to challenge Master Tiamat."

At the mention of the name, Aleph thought back to the dragon rider that so casually tried to block his escape.

"So, that Demon Lord is called Tiamat. Tell me, where is this Tiamat now?"

"So callous! If we knew who you were when Lord Agony captured you, you would already be floating in oblivion!"

"Enough of this!" Another one cut in, "Let's just shank him and go!"

Suddenly, the ground beneath him gave way as tendrils of flesh broke out of the soil, attacking Aleph with various torture devices. He leapt away just in time, but sustained some scratches as a result. He landed away from the surrounding demons, but he dropped awkwardly on one leg. He gasped, more surprised than anything at the disproportional pain he felt from a mere nick of the blade.

The creatures pulled themselves out of the ground, revealing themselves to be the nightmare creatures that resembled Agony. They advanced together with their flying brethren, joining in their cackling as they encircled him. He was facing six of them now, with more marching his way and who knows how many still lurking around.

Aleph roused his mana, circulating it around the wound to lessen the effects of Agony's curse. The pain abated immediately, letting him stand to face the demons once again. He steeled himself, retaking his stance.

"I am glad." He said to himself. He had made the right choice: letting these beings form up would have resulted in a lot of casualties.

"Huh?" Said one of Agony's spawn, "You're supposed to be in pain! Liar!"

It charged mindlessly at him, brandishing its deceptively troublesome saw. Aleph expertly swayed to the side, before delivering a clawing strike into the monster's chest. His hand broke through flesh with ease, coming out of the demon's back with a sickening splash of fluids. Aleph pulled away, revealing a metal covered hand holding the demon's core. He stowed it away before letting the glove float back into its place.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" He taunted, noting the hesitation that appeared in the emissaries' faces. The one that was doing most of the talking was stunned most of all, even turning his head to see how close their army was to arriving.

"What a cowardly bunch. Is this really the great Erebos' army?"

The enemies scrambled forward to answer him. Either in rage or fear, Aleph couldn't tell. But what he did know was that they would all die here today, along with whoever else dared to step forward; Be it harbinger, herald, or even Erebos himself.

"You will no longer steal anyone's lives today." he declared. It wasn't a command, but a promise. One that Aleph himself will see fullfilled before the day is through.