Interlude - The Creation of Idonius part one

Excerpt taken from Pope Julius XV’s private Journal.

Juntos 16th, 25,789 S.C.

It was the day before the grand-ceremony of opening. Every year for the last 25,789 years, since that calamitous day so long ago, the church had opened the library of the most powerful human to ever live. He was known as a demon, a betrayer, and a destroyer; but despite all of that the Goddess still respected him. At first, I refused to understand why. All of the texts point to the mutual enmity, the hatred between him and the Goddess. It wasn’t until my elevation to Papal Seat that I understood. I can still remember that day, the visit from the Goddess; her beauty beyond measure, power beyond fathoming. It is no wonder that to this day she remains the one true god, no one can possibly rival her. It was on that day that I asked her, “Why do you allow the library of your hated enemy to exist? To pollute the world with his heretical ideas, and loathsome actions?”

She smiled so beautifully when I asked that question, that I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I nearly missed her response, yet her words were drilled into my very soul; changing my very outlook on life. “My son, there is the possibility for redemption in all of us. At the end of his life, I finally understood him. I finally forgave him for killing my son. He is the only human to have ever rivaled my power. Perhaps, it is time that I amend that little journal of his. To show the glory of his final moments, the truth behind the legends and myth. I allow his library to exist because I miss him; before he died he once said that I was his only friend, his only peer. At the time I thought him mad, but now I truly do understand it, the loneliness of power. It is my greatest wish that one day, someone will use the library he left behind to reach the pinnacle of power, to end my loneliness.”

Today, the Goddess came down to deliver to me a message. This was only the 2nd time I’d seen her humanoid form; she appeared before me out of thin air. Then, with but a wave of her hand a hole in space was rent; her power is beyond comprehension. She speaks but a single command “Follow”, before she walks forward into the hole and disappears.

O, the glory! The ecstasy! I couldn’t believe my luck. The church has records dating back to before the calamitous thunderbolt that marked the start of the new age. Since then, only three mortals had been graced with the opportunity to follow the Goddess into this wondrous place the records called The Realm of Gods’. Of course, the church had long since changed the records; for there are no Gods, only the Goddess! The Realm of The Divine Goddess of Dragons; Ruler of Ice and Fire. O, how I had dreamed that one day I too would be chosen to enter this place of myth.

So, imagine my shock when I stepped through the portal and instead of a beautiful mansion with perfectly manicured lawns and the remainder of her clan lounging about it’s grounds, I saw a line of trillions of weirdly shaped slimes going towards a courthouse that seemed to be bigger than Idonius itself. For some reason, the place felt vaguely reminiscent as I had a feeling of Deja Vu, but I was unable to truly absorb the seen before the Goddess’ perfect voice tore me away from the scene.

“Come!”

Just the one word, spoken quietly from nearly a mile away, and yet it rang through my mind with such force that I had no choice but to follow. Truly, the Goddess’ power is vast.

As I followed her, we began to walk past another line; but this time instead of slimes it was a line of creatures. At first, I couldn’t comprehend what they were, but when I accidentally stepped through the tail of a flaming Tyrannosaurs-Rex, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Spirits! My highly trained senses started to scream DANGER!!! Every single one of these spirits seemed to have enormous power, and all of them stood peacefully in line; almost as if they were in a trance.

“What could possibly have caused so many powerful Spirits to stand in line so peacefully?!?!”

Unfortunately, an answer was provided just a few minutes later when my Goddess and I stepped onto the top floor of the Courthouse. From behind the door I heard a voice filled with immense power screaming angrily.

“I don’t care what you have to do, but we need thousands of Immortal’s. I want Dragons, Kitsune, Spirit Kings, Dinosaurs, anyone who is a Legend at the Immortal rank! Don’t even think about coming back to work tomorrow if you don’t have at least 3 Immortals pledged to come when the world arrives!”

“Yes, sir!” came multiple voices, obviously chastened.

The scariest thing was that all of those voices also contained immense power. ‘What is this place that my lady brought me too?’ I thought to myself.

Moments later, running footsteps could be heard approaching the door from the other side, and I finally got a glimpse at the inside of the office. The too tall desk, with an enormous swivel chair turned to the perfect angle so as to block our view of its occupant. The astonishingly deep, base echo of his laughter, and then the most astounding event in memory occurred. The Goddess actually went to one knee! Bowing her head in supplication, and saying, “Melinda, The Lesser-Goddess in charge of the world Idonius reporting as ordered, with my most senior mortal vassal, My Lord.”

I had thought myself surprised before, but the reverence in her voice, the submissiveness of her posture. They were the exact tone that I took when greeting her. Who is this man, that the one Goddess revered as I revered her? With a glance from her, my knees hit the ground with a thud in the next instant. I could feel her anger; I acted with impropriety infront of someone whom even she kneels too!

“What?” The voice seemed surprised. Suddenly, I saw the edge of an enormous book appearing out of thin air on the other side of the chair.. “HMMMMM. O! I lost track of time, you must forgive me I meant to meet you at the gate.”

The chair started to rock from side to side, as he seemed to read from the book. “So… You sure have done a good job with the little world we left you in control of.”

Finally, the chair turned around, and I was astounded with the view of a dwarf with short, stubby legs sitting on top of a ten foot tall stack of books.

‘How the hell was he rocking that chair from side to side?!?’

He hopped down from his chair, and started walking in a circle around the Goddess; staring at her with measuring eyes. “Normally, when someone new ascends we send them off to an apprenticeship with some more experienced god; but frankly in the past Idonius was so small and weak that we didn’t really care about it. The decision was made to give you the chance to manage it for now. Mainly because the world was originally slated to be managed by another new God, but he went off and sacrificed his soul like an idiot…”

He seemed to break off for a moment; mumbling to himself. I didn’t catch much but did hear him say, “That addle-brained fool”, and “Solaris, you truly picked a fun one…”

Of course, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about, but after a minute or two the mumbling came to an end with a grunt of satisfaction, and a final sentence I just barely managed to hear.

“Yes, yes; I think she’ll do just fine. Maybe she’ll be able to knock some sense into that fool boy, and Fate will just laugh her ass off while setting this up…”

The dwarf then turned around and hopped up onto his chair; comically scrambling to the top of the heap of books.

“Get up already!” He shouted out while pointing at the Goddess; “Seriously, you’re a God now, even if a baby one. You need bow only to the Creator, and I sure as hell ain’t him!”

“Yes, Sir!” Said the Goddess while standing up; but I remained kneeling.

“Now, now. No need for such formalities! We might soon be family after all; call me Yama.”

It was then that it clicked; the trillions of blobs, the enormous courthouse, the immense power of the being called Yama sitting in front of me. One of the most heretical book in the Demon-Mage Freeney’s library talks about the Creator of the Universe; and his aids. Chief among them was Yama, The Judge. ‘O, Goddess, what have we done to be called into Yama’s office?!?!’

“Family?” Asked the Goddess, looking surprised

Yama suddenly jumped; sending books toppling from his seat as the Goddess spoke. “Crap, I wasn’t supposed to say that out loud…” He turned his head quickly from side to side; and I felt a great power emanating from him as he checked for something before sighing in relief. “Phew, no one was watching. If Solaris found out I was already thinking about arranging marriages my ass would be fried!”

I stood there, unable to understand a word that he had spoken, but apparently the Goddess understood at least a little bit. “Solaris?” she asked quizzically, “You mean the Overlord of Fire; The Divine Phoenix, Solaris?”

“Ahh, so you’ve heard of her I see. Well, that’s not too surprising seeing as how you are a Divine Beast of Fire and Water… Please, forget everything that I just said, and don’t tell Solaris I said anything. Anyway, it’s far too soon for you to start worrying about this."

He looked at her hopefully for a moment, but the quizzical expression didn't clear up. Sighing, the dwarf started speaking again hesitatingly, "I can see that you won't be able to forget that, so I'll just give you a hint. An old friend/rival of yours will be joining you shortly… or maybe I should say that you’ll be joining him. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

His booming laugh was suffocating, but infections. It was obvious what Yama was implying. But, how could the Demon-Mage Freeney and the Goddess be meeting again? She herself had said that he sacrificed his soul to bring about the Great Lightning of Calamity. ‘This is disastrous! We must prepare to destroy him before his power can become great once again!’

But, then I noticed the look of pure joy on the Goddesses face, and that made me remember her talking about how lonely she was. ‘Well, maybe we should just let the Goddess deal with him.’

"So, he did survive. I had always hoped that he would."

“Yes, he did! Looking at you I think that this will work out even better than I could possibly have imagined! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

The floor seemed to shake; through one of the windows I saw one of the blobs fall off the edge of the land to his doom. ‘How is this place still standing?’ I thought, as I saw cracks begin to form in the walls… Then, his laughing fit finally subsided into a coughing fit… his long beard had somehow gotten in his mouth and down his throat. The sight of THE YAMA rolling around on the floor, choking on his own beard…

Anyway, it was after he finally recovered that he told us of the true reason for our visit today. That he warned me of what was to come, and my service to the Goddess was forever terminated. It was the worst moment of my life.

*COUGH* He manages to pull his beard out of his throat. *COUGH COUGH COUGH* He spits out the final few hairs; then starts laughing again. “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA”

Thankfully, he managed to get himself under control quickly this time, and with only a few “HA’s” he finally told us why we were there. “Well, I’m running out of time. I have to be a press conference announcing this in a few hours. I just wanted to let you know that the council is taking over management of Idonuis permanently; we thank you for your service, and promise that you’ll be rewarded.”

“What?!?! Why?!?!” For the first time since entering the office, the Goddess’ power seemed to return as she stared indignantly at Yama.

“Well, the council has something special planned for that planet, and despite how good a job you’ve been doing there so far you lack the strength to carry out this plan. In fact, the entire council including the Creator will be involved in this effort. Don’t worry, I said you’d be rewarded, and I meant it!”

“Now, for you.” For the first time, he looked at me; speaking before the Goddess had the chance to object. “You will gather all of the people on your planet above the rank of apprentice mage and 5th rank warrior; as well as anyone with an affinity reaching High or greater in one of the elements. You will bring them into the library of the Demon-Mage Freeney, and you will live there for the next thousand years. Food, water, and other essentials will be provided for by me. Anyone not inside of the library within a year from today will die, we are moving you’re universe and anyone not in a dimensional space will be killed instantly when we begin. Repopulating a world from scratching is such a hassle!”

His gaze suddenly became even stronger, and his words began to echo in my soul. Burning a curse into my very being… “If you fail in this task, then I will personally ensure that you spend the next ten-thousand years as a slug! Now, get to work!”

With a wave of his hand, a doorway back to my office was opened, and with a nod from the Goddess I began to walk through the portal.

As I left, I heard Yama inviting the Goddess to dinner, “My sister Solaris and brother Raiju would like to meet you. Tonight, a dinner-party will be put on at my place and I would be honored if you attended.”

Juntos the 16th, 25790 S.C.

Pope Julius the XV

Thus began the worst year of my life; every time I even thought about taking a break, I would hear that bastard’s voice ring through my head. “Ten-thousand years as a slug!”.... After time, the threats became worse and worse as other voices entered my head… A disembodied, fiery voice threatening to, “Purify my soul with heavenly flames…” Worst of all, a heavenly beauty dressed in leather, and holding a whip began to appear in my dreams… At first, I thought I was just repressed, but one night I woke up and the lashes on my back didn’t go away…

Even worse, I started enjoying it...

Finally, tomorrow is the day. The Library of the Demon-Mage Freeney will be opened; and all of the talented people in the world will be hidden within. Avoiding the calamity brought upon this planet by Yama and the Council; whatever that is. Everyone except me that is. Even if it means that I will spend the next ten-thousand years as a slug; I refuse to survive by hiding myself away in that heretical place. No, my place will be taken up by a child from the orphanage whose talent was too low to garner a spot. I couldn’t live with myself if I abandoned my duty to the Goddess, to the people, to the planet, and survived while they died.

This will be my final entry into this journal; hopefully it’ll provide some insight into the events to come. I find myself, in my final hours, finally understanding why Nicholas Freeney created the library and wrote that journal of his.

Pope Julius XV