Chapter 14

The Goddess

“Crea? The goddess, Crea?” Meredith asked. The words spilled right out of her mouth without a single second of preamble. It could have been coincidence, but this place was something out of a book. Combining that with all of Marcus’s former rambles about the goddess, and this was more than just mere coincidence.

“Goddess?” Crea stopped right in front of them. A finger was put to her lips, her head tilted like a curious child. She looked away from Marcus, her big eyes coming closer to Meredith. The teen backed away, alarmed by her sudden proximity. The woman sat down in front of them, her dress fluttering out despite the lack of wind. “Are they still on about that?”

“You…you don’t know…?” Meredith asked. She wasn’t sure how much to divulge, or how much to ask, either. She was a little disturbed by how close the woman was. She looked like a puppy, endearing and inquisitive about the world. It wasn’t hard to note that her manner of speech had changed. Rico was the first to comment on that.

“Quite the modern…er…vernacular for you there.”

“Oh? Isn’t this how people talk these days?” She whipped around, getting close to Rico and taking in all his features, from his soft face to his ponytail. If Rico hadn’t emulated Meredith in action, there was little doubt Crea would play with some part of his figure in interest. “I try to keep myself up on the usual culturalisms, but I’m not always successful.”

“Uh…why?” Those big eyes rounded on her again, and Crea scooched along, like two friends getting ready for a gossip session. “I mean, you sound like you haven’t had guests in a while so, why would you need to keep up on all that stuff?”

Meredith wasn’t even sure what she was saying. The encounter inside this place, this “Heavenly Realm”, had taken a turn for the bizarre. Crea tapped her chin. “You know, I’m not sure why. Guess I just like doing it. Things can get very boring here, just waiting. The last time I saw this much excitement was a thousand years ago. Of course, none of them were quite like you, so I just outright rejected meeting them.”

“Like us…soul-users…” Rico said. Crea turned her bright smile upon him, and in seconds had encapsulated him with her arms, overjoyed that he understood the meaning behind her words.

“You win the prize!” Crea cheered. She seemed happy; jubilant to have found the three of them in her realm.

Meredith frowned. She didn’t act like someone lonely. Other than her very affectionate side, smothering them with hugs and a cheeriness that even Autumn could have shaken a stick at, Crea looked less lonely and more…bored. Her smile was empty, and while her wide eyes were genuine in their curiosity, they were more intellectual. Like a scientist of some sort, and they were just the lab rats that managed to make it to the end of the maze. That made Meredith’s skin crawl, causing her to turn her eyes on the silent Marcus. He was watching Crea, a mix of reverence and desire scrawled across his face. Meredith didn’t know which was more prominent.

The hidden intentions unsettled Meredith, and she put her Soul Vision on in the hopes of gleaning some answers on the woman before her.

What she saw both explained everything and defied reason all at once: Crea’s soul was unreadable.

A tiny gasp was expelled from Meredith’s lips, but she disguised it as a cough when Crea looked at her. That appeared to make the supposed goddess aware of what she was doing to Rico, and she withdrew. The young man looked repulsed, his lips and eyes twitching before he brought it under control. Meredith remained passive in her expression once she coughed. She looked away from Crea, her cheeks heating up as she tried to hide things, looking to the bright and shiny orb near the chair. Her fingers dug into the fabric of her clothing when she saw what was inside.

Souls. Many souls. Not the same amount that was currently inside Marcus, but a good number, nonetheless, and each of them recognizable, from Vivian to Emil to Cynthia and some of the Renegades. They were trapped there. She hadn’t hallucinated it, after all.

“Question?” It might have been Meredith’s imagination, but she heard the iciness that slipped into Crea’s voice, making her gulp.

“She’s curious because we can’t read your soul,” Marcus said. He looked relaxed, and expectant, which just made Meredith all the more wary of him. Alone and without his comrades, Marcus was still a force to be reckoned with, and from the way Rico inched over towards her, he felt the same. “You’re a soul-user. Like us.”

“Right again. You three are very intelligent.” Her clapped hands made Meredith feel insulted. Now she wasn’t an experimental rat, but a grade schooler who’d made the most obvious discovery in the world.

She didn’t like this Crea, goddess or no.

“So, it is possible. It is true, then…” Marcus was grinning, one of his knees lifting to place a foot firmly against the ground. “Soul Magic has the power to change the world. The power to manipulate all souls!”

Meredith attempted to match him at his manic desires laid bare, but the wound in her side caused her to flinch. Rico gave her attention, looking to the wound. Their eyes met, both on the defensive. Crea was different, straightening with a quirked eyebrow.

“Heh?” The same curiosity and affection she’d given to Meredith and Rico was non-existent in regards to Marcus, a more reserved persona directed towards him. “Of course, it can. It’s just difficult. I only did it through the aid of many willing souls. You’re different. I can see the souls within you.”

“I’ve prepared my body, and my soul, all for the receiving of that power,” Marcus said. His hand was on his heart, as if offering servitude to Crea in exchange for the power he sought. Meredith’s hand remained on her weapon; this had to have been part of the reason he’d brought the Legendary Weapons together.

“Receiving?” Crea looked as if she genuinely didn’t understand. Meredith surreptitiously crept closer to Rico, the both of them on the same page for whatever might change in the atmosphere. Eventually, Crea started to laugh. “This isn’t a power you receive! Though I suppose you’re not the first to believe that…The mythology down there must be very strange.”

“Strange?” Rico asked, drawing Crea’s attention away from Marcus. The former chief commander’s knee had slipped, confused and embattled. The souls inside didn’t look to be causing him any problems, but his own mind was the thing he had to duel with. “I don’t understand…are you not the goddess of legend? Crea? The creator of the world?”

“I probably am, not that I ever asked to be worshiped,” Crea admitted. Done with being at their level, Crea stood, flicking her hair back. Her white dress flickered with all movements, the crest upon it matching those of the magical constructs that had retrieved them. “I was born with Soul Magic, might have even been the first. Given time, I learned to control all souls, though at great price. From where I was born and out of nothingness, I created the world, supported by six pillars, six souls that eventually came to life. The people praised and worshiped me for that, but in time they stopped trying to live their own lives, or forgot the lessons I gave them.

“Like you, they sought my power, too. As if it was something they could control.”

“We’re not like them,” Marcus protested. He stood, drawn up to Crea’s level with defiance. “We can use souls. That power is something that can be granted to us, used to create a better world.”

“I already told you,” she said dismissively, “there’s no way to just receive it. It takes centuries and millennia of hard work and practice. My soul has the power through much sacrifice and many more souls.”

“Millennia…?” Meredith said. It was a disturbing piece of information, and one she endeavored to work through while Crea walked away from them to the chair. In the waning light, Meredith finally recognized it for what it was: a throne. The goddess sat upon it, crossing her legs as she leaned her head against a fist. “You’ve been alive for that long?”

“Of course. Did you think I would reduce myself to some lowly being with a lifespan no greater than that of a bug?” Meredith was definitely insulted now; a feeling that increased when Crea laughed. It was a sharp and mocking laughter to which even Marcus began to snarl. “The people worshiped me for my longevity and the great feats I’d done, but when they chose to use me, I did what I’ve always done when bored of that existence: I retreated to a new realm, though unfortunately this one had to be invariably connected. From there it was just a matter of controlling the flow of souls. That became a lot more difficult as time went on, trust me. Who knew humans could change so much on the surface?! But…I guess that’s what makes them fascinating.”

“Them…? Aren’t you human, too?” Meredith asked. There was no straight answer given.

“What are you saying?” Marcus demanded. His footsteps were heavy in a place that was light, but Crea was more amused than she was threatened. “Are you saying you abandoned us? Created our world and then left it to the whims of humanity?”

“No, not at all.” Crea sighed, but she never moved from her position. Meredith stood up, and Rico with her. The constructs housing Crea’s soul moved in, sensing a danger to their prime soul. “I intervened time and time again, as I could, but humanity returns to its ways. They always do. When presented with the option, they’ll take the selfish route every time.”

It echoed horribly with what Marcus had claimed, with what the Reaper at the Trial of Enlightenment had taunted. Meredith’s non-sword hand balled up the hem of her shirt. She had felt something was wrong with this woman, this “goddess”, and now she was starting to see the complete apathy the woman held. Her millennia away, however that was possible, had not done anything positive towards her feelings for humanity.

“Even if so, does that mean we should not guide them?” Marcus asked. He took a step forward, and to this, the drones acted, blocking his path. Crea yawned.

“You ask so many questions…” she said, waving away the topic in her boredom. “Honestly, and here I just wanted some company.”

“You’re a strange one…” Rico said, interjecting in whatever fun Crea was trying to have. She lifted her head a bit, interested in his proclamation with regards to her. “You were born a human, with magic just like ours, but act like you’re not one at all. Do you truly believe you’re the goddess some have come to believe you as?”

“I guess the closest thing you could call me is a goddess. I shaped the world, protected it, guided it, and then came here to watch over it.”

“How is that even possible, though?” Meredith asked. Crea began picking at her already pristine nails, flicking imaginary dirt about the blank space. “Working for that kind of power makes some sense, since we can already figure that the soul is the beginning of the world and all, but how are you able to live for so long…?”

“Haven’t you figured it out, Meredith?” Marcus spoke to her. She hated that, snarling at him while he pointed towards the globe of swirling souls next to Crea’s throne. “Souls. She’s been using the souls of the dead to prolong her already infinitely long life.”

“Be fair, now! That’s not all I’m using them for!” Apoplectic rage was electric on the air, coursing through all three of them. They took another step, only to be blocked off from approaching the woman. Meredith found it strange to be put on the same side as Marcus, eyeing him and his intentions. For the first time, she started to understand him, at least a little. The entity before him was an enigma, though. “The souls were used to protect your world. I’m not so capable that I could create a globe like other places or certain things, but I worked hard to create a fully-functional space! Only way to protect it was by shutting it off. That’s what the pillars…er, lifebloods? I have no idea what humanity calls them now. I put safeguards in place to make sure that defense was kept strong.”

“Well, your safeguards failed,” Rico challenged her. Crea sat up a little, intrigued at what was being told to her, but not enough to make her leave her chair again. “The world is dying. The edge of the world is shrinking, and it is a far state from what it was when you first created it.”

“No surprise, really.”

“What?” The three were flat in their question to the goddess, twitching at how uncaring and expectant she was of the dilemma they delivered to her.

“Well, come on. You didn’t think a world’s soul could last forever, right?” she said to them. Meredith looked down at her feet; she hadn’t considered such a prospect, but it didn’t sound right, anyway. “I mean, its fueled by the souls of those who live upon it. The weaker the soul, the less time it has. If the pillars are gone, then it’s inevitable, especially since I took my leave up here.”

“I don’t…I don’t get it…” Meredith said. She wanted to mess with her hair, to give her hands something to do other than tear holes in her shirt. “What does you going up here have to do with down there?”

“Simply put, I stopped guiding souls. The world lasted a lot longer than I expected, though, to be honest.” The candid admission to the three soul users rocked them. Crea spun on her chair, now looking to lay in it like it was a couch, her legs still crossed as she pointed them upwards. Now that Meredith looked closer, the woman’s feet were bare, and they tapped against the glass housing their friends’ souls. “Well, that’s a lie. I guided them, just not in concert with the rest of the world’s soul. I guided them, more specifically, to me. Then that moment a thousand years ago came, breaking the seal on my realm. I had to repair it, but the damage was done. I was practically hemorrhaging souls by that point before a secondary seal was placed.

“If I didn’t have a store of souls saved up, I don’t even know if I would have survived the last millennium.”

Meredith couldn’t help but look to Marcus. They sounded so similar in their methods, taking the souls and shackling them to their own bodies for their own twisted, selfish means. All for the power to do whatever they wanted, as if the individual souls didn’t matter. She supposed that was certainly the case with Marcus; he wanted to replace that individual will of the world with his own, to guide them in complete totality. Yet underneath it, she still felt his humanity, no more evident than when the souls would rebel within him. But for Crea…

“You’re telling us you abandoned a duty on the world you created to extend your life?” Rico shouted. His raised voice caused the drones to push him back, but the Renegade wasn’t one to be denied. “You let the pillars crumble and didn’t care? The world is dying out there! How can you sit back?!”

“It’s pointless to intervene. Humanity, time and again, takes away that which goodwill has given them. I could choose souls to put in the pillars, and could continually guide the cycle, but to what end? The world would die out anyway. Whether it is a year from now or a million is irrelevant.”

“People gave their lives for that!” Meredith yelled. She was pretty sure she’d torn through the bottom of her top when she stormed forward. Naturally, she was rebuffed, but her words found their way through her lips. “They sacrificed their souls to protect the world we live in. And you used that…Everything had to work harder so you could have your precious long life…Have you even heard them? Those souls, tormented in pain?”

“I honestly don’t care.”

That was it. The final nail in Meredith’s opinion of the great “goddess”. No…she would never consider Crea a goddess, no matter the benevolence with which she created the world. Her steps took her back, too stunned at Crea’s absolute apathy to speak.

Marcus, however, found his words.

“Don’t care? Isn’t it a duty of yours?” Like the others before him, Marcus attempted to walk forward to find his path further barred. He was not one to stop, brushing them aside with another heavy step. “We are soul-users, our magic more intertwined and greater than the rest. You chose to create this world, and our magic was given unto us to continue that duty. Chosen to guide and to lead. Yet you claim you would see this world undone to satisfy your own mortality and morbid curiosity? Why not pass down the mantle to those destined to lead?”

“What are you talking about, destiny?” Crea asked. She snapped her head in their direction. Apathetic, she remained, but her interest was piqued while she placed her feet back on the ground.

“Are those of us with Soul Magic not destined to guide the world to its future?”

“Soul Magic is random. No different from any other.”

An answer.

It was an answer that Meredith had always wanted to know, ever since the birth of her magical capabilities in the Metropolis. She had sought Terrill and his wisdom, studied in Lacardia, and even traveled off the edge of the world in search of answers, only to find it here, in a realm beyond any of their comprehensions. The truth was almost unexpected. Almost.

There was nothing special about being a user of Soul Magic.

“I don’t…I don’t understand…” Marcus sounded lost, no more than a child, adrift at sea. “Our power…is your power. We can hear things no one else can. See to the very soul of our world, the Great Soul. What is that but special? But destiny?”

“Chance,” Crea confirmed. Her lips were wide, a manic grin splaying across her face. She looked less like a goddess and more like a demon, reveling in what was now going through Marcus’s mind. “There were others like me, after all, that I used to make the first pillars. Nearly broke my soul in half, doing so, but I’ve repaired it…in time. Naturally, that magic died out for a while, but it began to make a resurgence after the pillars faded. It really means nothing, except for a close affinity to light…or maybe all magics. It was so random I could never figure it out, even if I learned how to harness it to my ends.”

“That’s not…no…” Marcus’s face was popping, and Meredith took an involuntary step further away from him. “We’re chosen. I was chosen to lead because of my will…my strength to guide those souls as intended.”

“You’ve been living under a delusion, then. In time, your soul would have just returned to me. To the world.”

“Then I would change it from within!”

“Well, someone’s a real piece of work here…” Crea looked…entertained. It sickened Meredith, even knowing that it was Marcus to whom the torture was being inflicted. He’d fallen to his knees, clasping at his head, as if the grand narrative he’d built for himself was now crumbling to pieces. She’d have felt pity for him, if he wasn’t so twisted. Not that he was quite as twisted as the woman on her throne.

Finding the gumption inside, Meredith shoved the guards aside, stepping closer to Crea before they restrained her from behind. “Just answer me a few things…why did you leave the world’s soul to rot? What is our world to you?”

“An attempt? No…a factory? Hmm…” Each subsequent answer made Meredith’s stomach pool with sickness. This woman truly cared nothing for what was beneath her notice. They were ants, scurrying around as she watched them under a magnifying glass, deriving sick pleasure from it all. Crea soon clapped her hands together with glee. “Ah, yes! An experiment!”

“Experiment?” Rico said. He, too, had stepped away from the collapsing Marcus. The souls inside the man known as the Reaper were growing wild, as if wishing to take advantage of his weakened state. They were brought under control at every turn. Marcus’s mind was breaking, but in the madness of being taught he was just another cog, a greater strength was emerging. Meredith didn’t want to know what would happen when it did. “We’re nothing more than some laboratory for you?”

“I created the world to see if I could do it. To see if I could replicate it,” Crea admitted. She was leaning forward on her throne, and beside her, the globe shined brightly, pulsing with one combined emotion: worry. Meredith watched it, wondering how to free the souls inside. “Was there some form of heaven? Some form of hell? Would they suddenly exist if I created a world? Could I stop the flow of souls in any one direction? The concept fascinated me, allowing me to test the upper limits of this great power I was given, in a time where magic was far stronger than it is now.”

“You created a cage…Not a world, but a pretty gilded cage to observe us, then?” Rico challenged her. She inclined her head in his direction, the first show of actual respect she’d given in the whole conversation. It was still tinged with mockery.

“At some point, I wanted to see how long the world would last, to be honest. Left without interference, how long would a world continue living before its soul eventually gave out? How long could I prolong my own life? That’s when I started distilling souls. These haven’t started the process yet, but in time, their bodies will fade from stasis and belong to me.” She was standing again, hand on the glass orb, and Meredith could feel the radiant excitement that her body and soul exuded. For a second, it overpowered her, but Meredith soon let the scowl rise again on her face.

That goddess, whether she is real or not, is not a benevolent one. Our world struggled, but she did not answer. And anyone who would seek her power is no friend to this world.

Terrill’s thoughts on Crea and her existence made all the more sense now. Meredith didn’t care how hostile she was being. She extended her sword, giving her own step in the direction of Crea. The goddess took note of her, an unsightly mirth dancing across her features.

Crea was little more than a scientist, controlling them as little puppets.

Marcus was a puppeteer, as well, holding all the strings in his hands.

Terrill. Eddie. Silva. Rico’s family. Even the rest of those trapped in the orbs…They meant nothing to the whole lot of them. Just stepping stones to whatever their goals were.

Meredith’s soul burned with anger, her will stronger than before, and the smirk finally slipped off of Crea’s face.

“Our world is not your playground…” Meredith growled. Every step forward deterred an action of the drones, but she kept them in her sight. “Our souls are not your playthings. Our will is not yours! None of yours! It’s ours!”

“You act as if you have individuality that matters. The world you live on exists by my good grace. I could end it with a thought if I so chose. Start anew.”

“You would profane life in such a way?” Rico demanded. He was with Meredith, his own rage palpable as his spear warded away Crea’s tiny army. She was no longer happy or joking. “These are people! Lives! Souls!”

“Life is irrelevant; just a lesson that reality is greater than any ideals you once held,” Crea waved off. Her geniality was gone, replaced with annoyance. She wanted all three of them gone from her sight. “And people? They’re just ugly things that destroy the world, first chance they get. Their lives should mean nothing, because at least with them gone, there will be nothing to destroy the world that is mine.”

“Yours…?” Marcus’s voice was low and grave. His fellow soul-users turned to his direction, and Meredith felt the intense hatred. Seething rage boiled over as Marcus stood, his sword withdrawn. His eyes were popping out of his head with utmost fury. “This is your world? Your soul?”

“I created it, did I not?”

“The one who creates is not the one who owns. You only own it if you continue to take care of it, nurture it, guide it.” Marcus was tall now, looming over even Crea, herself. “You are a false goddess, an ineffective ruler. The world came to ruin because you allowed humans to be as ugly as you. Your will was weak. The world you left was weak.”

“I think he’s lost it…” Meredith whispered to Rico. He nodded back to her, but there was nothing they could do against the power all aspects of his soul were putting out.

“Then how about a brand-new world?” Crea offered, her hands extended to all of them. “Together we could do it, yes?”

“Together?!” Marcus roared. One of the drones sensed danger, lunging for the man, but he grabbed it by the face and slammed it to the ground, lighting it with immolating flames. When he rose back up, his snarl was dripping with malice. “I would want no part in a world by your hand or guidance. A world borne by your ideals is weak!”

“Then what do you plan to do? You have no hold over me, soul-user!” Crea’s taunts threw more on to the fire that was Marcus’s raging soul. He held his blade in her direction.

“I will create a brand-new world, stemming from the old. I will control the soul of ours under my will, and my ideals. Perfect and clean! Without pain. Without suffering. All will know peace, because they will know my soul as their own.” Meredith shook her head, feeling the pain of those other souls Marcus controlled. They didn’t want this. They didn’t want to be just another part of the faceless horde. Marcus gave them no heed as he stepped forth and gave his final challenge to Crea. “All will be as I will it for a better tomorrow! Their souls will be released from that burden as I change the world I’ve been chosen to change!

“And I’ll start…with your soul, Crea! It is mine!”