There are certain immutable truths throughout every universe. For instance: everything is frequency and energy, or that “cold” doesn’t actually exist as it is simply an absence of heat, or that any diet begun before a holiday will fail. There are many things that can--and have been-- debated for the entire timeline of the multiverse (and its infinite predecessors,) by every drunk, philosopher, and first-year Political Science major, however…

Sometimes, something so momentous occurs that, whether for bad or good, it forces action. Truly, this is one of the immutable truths, much like any other.

A being that is incensed, reacts.

---

“MEAT!” Snooze screamed again, and crumpled to the ground. Never in her two lives (that she knew about,) had she ever felt such agony. The colorless shape of Meat’s corpse had etched itself into her mind, so that even if she closed her eyes, Snooze could still see it. She grasped her chest and could have sworn she heard the sound of glass shattering, a sound that was not unlike the echo of her broken heart.

The reincarnated, humble god dug her knees in the sand and wept.

“I AM THAT WHICH DEVOURS, GODLING!” Perth declared, wagging her tendrils menacingly through the air, “WHAT DID YOU BELIEVE WOULD HAPPEN? I HAVE CONSUMED THE ESSENCE OF EVERY ARCHANGEL I HAVE EVER ENCOUNTERED. I AM THAT WHICH IS IMMUTABLE. I AM A LAW OF THE MULTIVERSE! NOW, BEG FOR YOUR--”

There was a flash, and suddenly, Riff was standing in front of the creature.

However, she appeared different now, no longer was she wrapped in the mantle of dark mist and shadow. No, instead, she was a glittering beacon of bright light and energy.

Perth observed her god carefully, apparently thrown off by this new effect, and even took a cautious step backward.

“WHAT IS THIS?” she demanded, recoiling in horror at this strange turn of events.

“Come, Perth,” Riff’s voice announced, matching the magnitude of the dark Archangel’s. But where Perth’s tone dripped with wickedness and corruption, Riff’s was filled with a calm evenness.

Riff raised her hand. The Tome of Smoke appeared before the both of them, and it chirped, then, text floated above the formerly hazy god.

GOD PATH: VILE

The letters of ‘VILE’ began to crumble suddenly, and then, as though they had been struck with something heavy, shattered and reformed to spell something new:

MEASURED.

“WHAT?!” Perth demanded, but Riff’s raised hand sparked, and a dome of crystalline energy suddenly formed in the air and surrounded Snooze, who still hadn’t moved from her position of bleakness in the sand.

“Enhance.” Riff said simply.

The inside of the structure energized, filling Snooze with a light that grew inside of her, blossoming into an all-encompassing warmth. Snooze lifted her gaze, and her eyes were now glowing, brimming with the energy that she’d been reinforced with by Riff.

Perth tried to take another step back.

“I WON’T BE FOOLED BY THIS FARSE! I COMMAND YOU TO DO MY BIDDING, RIFF. YOU CANNOT DEFY ME. I AM MUCH MORE POWERF-- UUGGHHG!”

Perth stopped in her tracks. There was a gurgle from deep within her, and a groan, and she quivered in apparent pain, her eyes suddenly frantic.

“WHAT? WHY?!”

Something unpleasant seemed to be transpiring within her. There was another loud gurgle, and it was not unlike the sound of supreme indigestion.

“What’s the matter, old friend?” Riff asked in an even tone, “was it something you ate?”

“HOW?!” Perth demanded, but the groan within her had become a roar.

“Silly old Perth,” Riff responded, her glowing form shaking its head slowly, “You of all people should know that Archangels shouldn’t eat Elements.”

Yes, Riff was correct. One of the unknown variables of Meat's separation from half of his Seed of Life was that while the life spawned from himself was half of his own essence, and half of Earth, so too was his lifeforce combined with Earth, to reinforce his own existence. That interaction was powerful. While Archangels, by whatever design flaw or oversight, could indeed absorb the energy of other Archangels, and if powerful enough--gods, they could not abide the consumption of something as old, ancient, and powerful as the Elemental magic of Earth. It would be like a poison to them, boiling away their insides and causing no end of gut discomfort.

Perth howled in agony, and her whole silhouette began undulating as her celestial body tried to reject what was currently inside of it. With another cry, she opened her mouth and a flood of energy blasted out. It was a myriad of colors and intensities and it seemed as though the whole spectrum of existence flashed out of her in her purge. Her vibrance paled and released a hiss as it began to fade.

There was a snap as a magically-enhanced foot stepped on a twig. Snooze was standing. But as Perth viewed the god, expecting a limitless and unending rage to be boiling over her visage, she could see something… odd.

Kindness.

Snooze’s tears were evaporating where she stood, flecking off of her cheeks and fizzling into nonexistence with a sparkle. Her face was drawn into an expression of placidity, and a caring smile plastered on her face.

In all existences and all the many multiverses, there was another immutable truth that was perhaps the hardest of all to swallow.

Our natures beget our actions, but our choices define our natures.

Nothing was harder than to not react to that which ties us to strong emotion, to a situation that seems wildly juxtaposed to our wants, needs and desires. To lay aside anger, grief, and pain was truly difficult, and the immutable truth was that it took a fantastically humble person to truly forgive.

Snooze raised an open palm to Perth, and the creature shuddered. No longer the mighty Devourer, she now looked like a scared child, fearing the reprisal of a parent's admonishments and scolding. Inside her core she twisted still with the pain of her ill-conceived luncheon, her body rebelling most abhorrently from the consequences of consumption. She cried out.

“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!”

“You will not die,” Snooze said, her voice strong and sweet and so very kind.

Riff turned to the other god, and nodded sadly. She knew what needed to happen, to save this world from Perth, and the Archangel from herself. But it would come at a cost…

She closed her eyes.

“Now, Snooze.”

Snooze lit up, her entire body enveloped in the crystalline light gained from the dome, and directed her gaze to Perth, the warmth of her smile calming all, even the chaos within the Archangel. Snooze accessed something within herself, a power she’d not known was there until she needed it. It was a power that existed only circumstantially for gods, but it was a necessary tool.

“You need to go home, Perth,” she said, “and rest up. You’ve had a rough patch.”

Then she leveled her gaze and raised her fingers.

“Banish.”