Standing on the deck of the quiet ship, the vast emptiness of space around me, I once again found myself wondering if I was as bad as people thought I was.

Piloting the ship wasn’t a problem, I’d steered ships before, though they were usually on an ocean. But some wackadoodle God decided to make a galleon their primary mode of transportation through space.

The huge ship moved through space via mana fueled rockets located at the rear, and near the top of the central mast, and was a textbook case of ‘doing it because we could.’ Even the life-support system, which appeared to my eyes as a transparent bubble of yellow energy, most likely served very little purpose beyond the aesthetic.

The only good thing to come of it was the autopilot was already engaged, and it was on course for a branch of Yggdrasil.

It took several days of drifting along at whatever pace the captain had set before I even set eyes on the branch… But when I did, all my tension simply fell away.

Looking upon the branch was always a sight to see. It was hard to describe, but it was like looking at a picture with the saturation turned up to max. The color was vibrant, and even made the empty space around it seem lively.

I placed a foot on the banister near the head of the ship and jumped off. The moment I passed through the bubble, I felt the icy touch of empty space; Ice crystals formed on my skin, but I hardly notice the cold anymore.

My momentum carried me the rest of the way to the branch, and I placed my hand upon its side to stop from moving any further. I watched as the ship made contact with the branch and vanished in a flash of light. Wherever the ship was going, I didn’t need to go.

Though the branches I’d come across varied in size, with this one being roughly as thick as a small moon, they always retained every bit of the awesome power of the world tree.

I placed my palm against the smooth bark of the branch. My arm tingled as divine mana traveled up my arm and down my spine. Without taking my hand off the branch, I closed my hand into a fist. My fingers sunk into the bark almost without effort.

Arcs of rainbow light spilled around my hand, nearly blinding me with its radiance.

I grimaced at the brightness but did not recall my hand.

I wasn’t sure if what I was trying was actually going to work, or what was going to happen. But it was either this, or blindly follow the branch to who knows where.

The Bifrost gates only existed near the branches’ ends, which were usually where they connected to a planet.

I focused for moment and allowed a trickle of my own mana reserves to connect with the rainbow light.

Since I was nowhere near a gate, I would just have to make one.

Welcome to the Bifrost. Please select your destination from the list below-

I ignored the words that followed and instead focused on a destination of my choice. While doing so, I allowed a little more of my mana to intertwine itself with the Bifrost.

“Take me to the silver city.”

Destination selected. Commencing transportation to | The Silver City

A moment later, a torrent of rainbow light encircled me, and I was pulled inside the Bifrost. The warmth coming from the ocean of kaleidoscopic light relaxed me enough that a small smile found its way onto my lips. I missed traveling like this. And I was glad my idea worked, because I didn’t think it would. To be perfectly honest, I was kind of expecting the branch to blow up or something…

Time flowed oddly inside the Bifrost. I could’ve been inside it for ten seconds or a hundred years, and I would never know the difference. No one would. Granted, it made sense. If we took magic entirely out of the equation, the distance between planets is not small. But an ordinary human can travel between thousands of planets within moments while using the Bifrost, that speaks of a level of speed far beyond what should be possible. And I’m not ashamed to say that the Bifrost is without a doubt, the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve fought dragons like a storybook hero and destroyed a planet like some kind of super villain.

Neither experience has, so far, topped traveling between planets in seconds.

A multicolored portal of light appeared in front of me, and I was, rather ungracefully, expelled from it. I only just managed to catch myself before I could face plant on the asphalt road in front of me.

I pushed myself to my feet and dusted off my hands without paying mind to the crowd of people surrounding me.

Someone cleared their throat and I held up a finger in the universal sign for ‘one moment.’

This seemed to irritate them, which just made this whole situation even more amusing.

“Torga, what are you doing here?” The irritated man asked, refusing to even humor my request for patience.

My ears perked up at the voice.

“Leon?” I asked, unable to believe my ears.

The man standing before me was about six feet tall. He had dashingly good looks, broad shoulders, and nearly perfect hair.

I just wanted to smack him.

“Leon! How’re you doing buddy?” I held my arms out wide and beckoned him forward. “Bring it in.”

“No.” He replied without a change in his expression- which was currently set somewhere between annoyed and… No, just annoyed.

“Rude.” My arms fell to my sides, and I shoved my hands into my trouser pockets. “So, I take it what I heard was right; Reina's hospitalized here somewhere?”

“That’s why I’m here genius. How'd you even hear about it; I thought you were locked up in a hole somewhere?”

"They let me out for good behavior." I replied immediately. "Leon, tell me the truth, is Reina okay?"

He sighed. "We don't know. We found her laying in the snow a few weeks ago without a scratch on her. The Doctors can't seem to find anything wrong with her, she just won't wake up..."

"Where is she?" I said after taking a moment to settle my thoughts. She was alive, that was the important part. And as long as she was alive, I could do something to help her.

"There's a hospital two streets that way-" He pointed in a vaguely northwestern direction. "Just ask someone which room is her's, they'll let you in."

"Thanks Leon. I owe you one."

"No, you don't. This all happened because we couldn't protect her properly-"

"Stop." I interrupted him. "I know you, Leon. You would've died for Reina to prevent this. Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault... But I'll tell you one thing. I'm going to find out who is responsible, and when I do; everyone will know the lengths I'll go to protect what's mine."

Reina

I was in an endless expanse of darkness, and unconquerable void of nothingness and isolation. I didn’t know where I was or how long I’d been there. The only thing I knew was the biting cold that constantly bombarded my senses and numbed my body.

I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was. Every time I tried to think about how I wound up here, my head felt like someone had driven a spike through my brain.

It was maddening.

“Reina, I’m sorry.” Muttered a tired voice. “I tried to warn you, but I’m just so exhausted. I don’t have the strength to hide what I’m doing from Shazai anymore, so this will be my last message to you.”

“Who are you. Can you help me get out of here?”

“If only… Listen closely, Reina. Everything is going to be okay. Torga is on his way here, and he’s bringing change with him. Your future will not be an easy one, and I know that you want to give up, to wash your hands of it and never look back. But if you just stick with it, I promise it’ll be worth it.” A shimmering form of orange light appeared in the darkness, when I recognized.

“Pthelios?” I asked, surprised by his appearance. Pthelios was a judge, more specifically, he was the judge of fate.

Unlike gods who were as innumerable as the stars in the sky, there were only five judges, and I’d been told that they were voted into their positions by the leaders of the various pantheons. Once a judge was chosen, they could not be voted out, they had to willingly resign and give up the power that came with such position.

Or so the rumors led me to believe.

Pthelios was a pitiable existence. Even before he’d been selected as a judge, he was a God of Fate; cursed with the ability to watch the fate of everything unfold before his very eyes, Pthelios could not escape seeing the horrors of the universe.

Every living creature possessed a destiny, and no matter how terrible it may have been, Pthelios had to watch their past, present, and future unfold. And his claim was that he saw the fates streams of everyone at once.

I’d met him not long before Torga was arrested, though I was the one being questioned at the time. Apparently there was only one instance where Pthelios couldn’t see someone’s fate; anyone near Torga was rendered invisible to Pthelios’ sight.

This, more than anything, was the reason Torga wasn’t believed when he pled innocent to Orochi’s crimes. Despite multiple people testifying to his character, there was ultimately too much evidence against him, and he was forced to cut a deal.

“You remember me? Ah, it hasn’t happened yet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That’s not important right now. I only have a few moments to tell you that you can’t trust Shazai, not now, not ever… I only wish I’d been able to see it sooner.”

“See what?” I received no answer. “Pthelios, see what?” I screamed into the abyss.

My eyes opened, and I shot up right. I tried to move my arms, but they were heavy and felt like something was holding them down.

As it turned out, there was, metal manacles were latched around my wrists, connecting me to the metal arms of the bed I was sitting on. I tried to free my arms and only succeeded in loudly rattling the chains.

“So, you’re awake.” A voice said from directly beside me.

I twisted around and saw a mass of swirling blue lights in the shape of the humanoid sitting in a leather chair beside the bed.

“Shazai…” I whispered. Pthelios’ voice rang in my mind, his warnings not to trust Shazai.

“I’m honored that you remember my name. That makes this easier. I need your help to convince Torga to turn himself in.”

“Torga? I thought he was still locked up?”

“He was, but that changed recently. Several staff from the prison have gone missing, and it’s assumed that Torga is responsible. Now, I made a deal with him. As long as he gave us the time to investigate properly, I promised that we would give him his freedom. And I meant that… But it’s going to be difficult for me to convince the other judges of his innocence if he goes around killing indiscriminately.” He said in a voice practically oozing sincerity.

“I’m not sure how you expect me to do anything. I’m a little tied up at the moment.” I said, motioning to the chains with my chin.

“Ah, yes. The doctors said they were worried you would hurt yourself in your sleep.” He snapped his fingers and the chains fell off my wrists. “I know he gave you a way to contact him in case of emergencies. Use it, tell him to turn himself in. That’s the only way I can help him.”

I felt the urge to glance down at my wrist, where a bracelet used to sit. Torga gave me that bracelet the last time I saw him and said that it would protect me. And at first, it did so. But lately the bracelet had seemed duller than it used to be, I could no longer feel Torga’s presence through it.

I wasn’t sure whether it was because he was too far away, or like a battery without a charger, it was simply running out of juice. But the bracelet had failed to protect me from-” A spike of pain shot through my brain, and I winced violently.

“Mortal, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said through gritted teeth. “I just really don’t think I can help you.”

“Oh, but you can. You must.”

“Yeah… I don’t think I’m going to do that.” I grabbed blindly for something to throw at him and was glad when my hand landed on a bedside lamp. I hurled it towards his head and made a break for it- only to be snatched back immediately.

“Now why would you go and do that?” Shazai breathed into my ear. “And I asked nicely too.”

“Enough.” A silky-smooth voice muttered from across the room.

With my head pressed against the cold floor, I couldn’t see who it was- but something at the back of my mind told me that I recognized the voice.

“Torga is here, and we have to prepare the welcoming party.”

“Already?” Shazai growled.

“Yes, he’s remarkably annoying that way. So, stop playing with the mortal and get ready, you know what’ll happen if we fail.”

“Yes, unfortunately, I do…”

Torga

It took some doing, but I finally managed to convince one of the doctors to tell me which room was Reina’s. They didn’t want to tell me at first, but I won them over eventually.

Now four out of five doctors can say for certain that you can, in fact, survive an encounter with me.

Arriving at the door to Reina’s room, I took a moment to look around. I doubted they would have booby-trapped the door, but you can never be too certain.

The door seemed normal; a cursory inspection didn’t reveal anything obvious. Which didn’t mean much, enchantments could render traps entirely invisible, so checking was more for my own peace of mind than anything.

I tugged on the door, and it swung open easily.

Inside was… Not what I was expecting.

I found myself in a pitch-black room of undetermined size. Suddenly, a light came on; the pillar of light illuminated three people, two of which I recognized.

The one I didn’t recognize was a lizard man, an extremely large lizard man. He wore a bespoke suit of red and silver, with large golden cufflinks that reflected light back into my eyes. The cufflinks matched the color of his scales, almost exactly. However, a scar large enough to cover one side of his face shone white instead of gold.

He had a pair of ivory horns that seemed to have been filed down, almost to the point of disappearing inside his skull.

The lizard man silently regarded me through dull red eyes, the kind only someone who’d survived untold horrors could acquire. His eyes more than anything told me that the being before me was ancient- more so than anything I’d ever met.

By his side stood Shazai; even now, the bastard couldn’t be bothered to assume a normal form.

Shazai was a being known as a judge; Judges were widely considered to be the only true form of law enforcement amongst the gods, and their words were seen as absolute. To that effect, they preferred to remain in indistinct forms in some sense of superiority.

Shazai preferred to appear as a massive blue light in the vague shape of a man… He was also the judge I’d made my deal with. In exchange for protecting my family, I would go along with the imprisonment sham.

I was foolish to believe any of them, I see that now.

Kneeling in front of them in a rich blue hospital gown, facing me with her arms bound behind her back, was Reina. Six

I looked between her and the two men several times before I stepped fully into the room.

“It’s gonna be okay.” I tried for a light tone, but I don’t think I succeeded.

“You’re right,” the lizard man said in a surprisingly smooth voice. “Everything will be alright. So long as you get on your knees, right now.”

“Okay.” I lifted my arms in front of me in a placating gesture and dropped to my knees. “See, I’m down. You don’t have to hurt her.”

“Torga… Don’t.” Reina whimpered.

“Shazai, what’s going on here? I thought you were on my side?” I asked, trying, and failing to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut.

“Your side?” He repeated incredulously. “Torga, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to protect my people. You know that, right?”

“So why are you doing this? I pose no threat to your people-” my words were cut off as Shazai burst out laughing, even the lizard man smirked.

“No threat? You, who were solely responsible for killing untold thousands. You can’t help yourself, before all is said and done, you will drag all of Yggdrasil down with you. I can’t let that happen. Not now, not ever.”

“I’m not Orochi!” I hissed. I wanted nothing more than to knock his head off, but the lizard man had his claws just a little too close to Reina’s neck.

“You think I don’t know that? I would have preferred it if you were, but no- you’re something much worse.” Shazai shook his head. “I can’t take this anymore, tell him, so we can get this over with.”

I watched as the lizard man placed his hand on Reina shoulder and leaned over her, placing his claws dangerously close to her jugular.

“Don’t even think about trying anything. After everything I’ve done, don’t think I want to kill her at the slightest provocation.”

I grimaced at the certainty in his voice. He spoke nothing but truth, everyone in the room knew that.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you’re Orochi? Am I right?”

“Yes, I have been called Orochi. Though, originally, I was known as Níðhöggr.” Orochi chuckled darkly. “Let me tell you a story, Torga. The story of the birth of Yggdrasil, and the monster responsible for its death.

See, you think you know everything there is to know about me; you think me evil. What if I told you I was the one trying to save Yggdrasill? What if I told you that you were the one responsible for its death- and not just once? Since the beginning of time Yggdrasill has been in a constant cycle of life, death, and rebirth and you are intrinsically linked to this cycle. You are destined to destroy Yggdrasil, and upon doing so, you too will die. Upon your death, Yggdrasill will be reborn, and everything will be reset.

But so will you.

This is how the cycle has continued for an eternity and will likely continue for another if we can’t stop it.” He explained without allowing me a moment to interrupt.

“That’s ridiculous. I would never-”

“You already have, and you’ll do it again. You can’t help yourself.” Orochi sneered. “Why do you think you have that cursed power within you? Did you never question why it was there, why you, of all people, was able to gain so much power so quickly?

I’ll save you the trouble. It’s because this is how it always goes; you are born, you rise to godhood, and then you destroy everything you love. Tell me it’s not true. Look deep within and tell me that you aren’t capable of it.”

I opened my mouth to disagree… But I’d lost my voice.

He was right. I did destroy everything I cared about, I’m a curse- a blight. I’m-

“Don’t listen to him!” Reina screamed. “You are what you choose to be, Torga. Nothing they say can never change that.” She tried to get her legs under her stand up, but the lizard man shoved her back down.

His claws pierced the thin fabric and drew blood.

“Silence. If this continues, everyone you love will die too. I’ve been there, saw my family erased before my very eyes. And with how quickly his power is growing this time around, I give us three months before we’re all doomed.”

“You’re a horrible liar Orochi.” Reina’s head remained facing the floor, but I could see her body shaking. “Torga isn’t like that.”

“Isn’t he? Would you bet that against the lives of every man woman and child he’s ever killed? Or how about the lives of everyone he will kill, he can’t help himself.

That’s the difference between me and the rest; I don’t care how many men, women, or children I have to kill to achieve true peace. I’ll slaughter billions if it means I can prevent the cycle from repeating. Wouldn’t you?”

“I would.” I said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “I would kill anyone if it meant you were safe.” My eyes locked onto Reina’s. “I would bring Yggdrasill to its knees just so you could live.”

“See? He’s a monster; Torga, the father of monsters.” Orochi shook his head angrily. “You’re right, Shazai. Let’s get this over with.”

Orochi shoved Reina towards Shazai, who grabbed her and held her down.

“Despite eons of research, I still don’t know how to stop you. Imprisoning you doesn’t work, we can’t make you fade, and there’s no way to depower you… Killing you is only a temporary measure, you’ll come back. Like a cockroach, you’ll always come back. Hopefully by the time you’re reborn, I’ll have a way to stop you for good.” Orochi was speaking quietly, but each word rang in my ears like a gong.

I stared wide-eyed at him. I was stuck; if I moved, Shazai would kill Reina. If I didn’t move, Reina would live, but I would die.

My eyes slid off Orochi and landed on Reina. She was struggling fiercely, but Shazai was too strong. No matter how much she fought, she was no closer to escaping.

Meanwhile, I was just trying to memorize the lines of her face. Would I remember her in my next life?

As Orochi drew close, Reina opened her mouth and screamed my name at the top of her lungs. And I watched, almost in slow motion, as Shazai twisted her neck until it snapped.

I saw the life drain from her eyes; eons passed in the blink of an eye as her eyes slowly grew darker until nothing remained. “No…” I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it; she couldn’t be dead. Not her; not Reina.

Everything suddenly froze.

Reina’s unmoving form became my everything.

She was my world.

And now she’s dead, because of me.

Before I realized it, I was sitting at her side with her head in my lap. My fingers lazily running through her hair, while my eyes remained locked on hers.

A sound reached my ears, and it took me a moment to realize it was Orochi’s voice.

I couldn’t hear what he was saying, he was speaking so slowly and so quietly, that it was almost impossible to make out any words. But I could tell they were directed at Shazai.

But it didn’t matter.

I felt my power swell within me. The black hole at the core of my being spun faster and faster, until the sound of it turning drowned out everything else. For the first time in so long, I felt hunger. Which should’ve been impossible, I hadn’t been hungry since my ascension to godhood… But now, of all times, I was starving.

Why not? I have nothing else to lose, might as well enjoy one last meal before they kill me.

My eyes broke contact with Reina’s and I looked at Orochi. His claws were mere millimeters from my left eye… But the moment I looked at him, he froze.

My aura exploded out of me, quickly filling the room, and even passing beyond the threshold. The aura continued to expand, even as seconds turned into days. My aura never wavered, never slowed in its constant expansion.

No matter how much I ate, the hole inside me was never filled. In fact, it only seemed to grow wider with every passing second.