Erode
Eligor cut down yet another wave of armored puppets, looking over his condition as he finally earned a moments rest for himself. Gashes and cuts, arrows and spearheads all snapped and broken off into his flesh. He could feel the piercing pain of having his flesh torn and punctured, but he could not allow himself the pleasure of true rest. That was what the creature wanted. That moment of weakness and longing for a reprieve. A breath that allowed it to slip in. He began to wonder how long it had been. The reports from Novine seemed to have stopped, and the world has been silent save for the clanging of endless battle in the false world he found himself imprisoned in. Suddenly however, the world abruptly transitioned into a tranquil scene of what appeared to be a sea of glowing blue water. Sitting a small distance away was…himself, but not. The creature wore his face, adopted his mannerisms, but the tell-tale black veins on it’s face and the pale eyes gave it away as more than simply another illusion. The creature motioned to the empty chair in front of it, offering a welcoming smile. This was the trap. The welcome reprieve from battle. But there was also no other choice. The world was tranquil and empty, and the last few times he refused always brought about the same result: Battle. An endless horde reviving infinitum until it decided to extend the poisoned olive branch once again. Perhaps it was fatigue from the endless battles, or perhaps it was curiosity that made Eligor sit down and face the creature plotting to take his body for itself.
“Why don’t we stop this,” it said after raising its brows in slight surprise, making animated and seemingly compassionate gestures with its arms, trying to convey as much passion as possible. “You know how this is going to end. No matter how much you fight me, eventually I am going to snatch away control. You knew from the very beginning that you could not win this battle, which is why you even tried to lock yourself away in here—even at the cost of being stuck with me without escape.” It searched Eligor’s face for a hint of a reaction, and sensing his hesitation, opted to press on. “We do not need to be enemies. If you just give in to me, I’ll not simply give you the power you so desperately crave and more, I will absolve the family you so wish to protect. I only need one of you after all, and your body is…more interesting than I initially thought.” It leaned back into the chair, causing it to squeak slightly and smiled, awaiting a response.
Eligor said nothing for quite a while, still looking around the changed view as the creature spoke, testing a few things here and there. Eventually he attempted to conjure a glass of water out of the nothingness around them and finding that it actually worked, finally cracked a small smile. He looked the creature over again, this twisted version of himself—or so it would desperately wish him to believe. He calmly sipped is water for a while, speaking only once he felt his thirst sated.
“You seem to be under a misunderstanding,” he replied calmly, looking at the glowing water at his feet. “You misunderstand about a great many things indeed.” The creature opened its mouth to retort, but was stopped short by Eligor raising his hand, indicating he would continue. “I have a story for you. One that I am sure you will be interested to hear. Even if you are not…” Eligor gestured to the empty scenery, “We have time now.”
Eligor cleared his throat and conjured a bowl of stew out of the aether. “Long before I learned about you,” he began, stuffing a spoonful into his cheek, “I was quite obsessed with my research you see. I still am frankly, but this is relevant because of my chosen field at the time. I was…. irrepressibly interested in the existence of what are called primals in Eorzea. The thing is that primals are, at least to most who employ them, the physical embodiment of gods. I researched it thoroughly, and what I really found was far more interesting than a god come to life. You see, what they actually are is aether given purpose. A consciousness born from intent and passion.” He swallowed the mouthful and quickly began eating another, leaning back in his chair himself in mimic of the creature before burping. “These things…whatever you would call them, I personally would never define such flawed beings as gods. But then I learned something far more interesting! These summoned beings actually had memories! Imagine my surprise when I learned this. That people wholly unrelated could accidentally actualize the same being with naught but the prerequisite intent needed to mirror the very first summoning! It was such a wonderful find. Of course, the intent of the summoner always affects the summon, but at it’s core…this was not simply purpose given form. Primals are life given purpose!”
He offered the creature his bowl, but it smiled and politely refused, prompting Eligor to continue. “When I learned that, the flaw became apparent and everything began to make sense. Such imperfectly fashioned beings require more aether to fuel them. They lack a vessel capable of sustaining them. Tempering is a phenomenon some summons employ where they coerce other living creatures into supplying them with the sustenance, they need to survive you see—ah, but I am getting a little sidetracked. I got it into my head that I could create a true god. A real one, free of the shackles of intent nor the need for a sustained vessel. I gathered what I believed to be the prerequisites and excitedly got to work. In my foolishness, I used my own aether; I’d gathered it into a containment unit in my laboratory and fused it with the aether of the shapeshifter, as I did not believe my own aether sufficient and her particularly isolating skillset proved more than useful for my ambition. After much painful work, I’d finally managed to complete the fusion. But that was where I’d made what I consider to be my second greatest error in this endeavor. I did not think to scrub our essence from our aether until after life had been confirmed. But no worries,” he smiled, “that will come back up later.”
“Once we confirmed life, we moved the little godling into a separated space and isolated it from everything else. Should the theory have proven true, then with but the necessary components to survive and grow a true god free from the ties to the world of man would spring forth.” Eligor crossed his arms and went silent. After some time, the creature leaned forward in its seat, still offering a gentle smile. “So what happened next?” It asked politely for him to continue, but there was a cold edge to its voice. It was actually interested in hearing the tale more than it wanted to let on.
Eligor shrugged and continued on, conjuring another glass of water for himself. “It was connected to us both. There was no isolation whatsoever as we’d intended. We knew something had gone wrong when we noticed that the child suddenly became a little girl, but we thought it might be a natural evolution of sorts. We hadn’t even imagined that by even beginning our experiment from the first, we’d become the very intervention we were aiming to prevent. With only us as a connection to the outside world, we had simply created a prison and placed a newborn soul within it.” He drinks his water. “That was when I’d resolved to undo my mistake, but the shapeshifter that should have been the mother…complicated things. So I had to improvise. The end.”
The creature frowned at the abrupt end to the story, clearly disappointed with the outcome. “You know I could look for more. Why would you stop the story there?” It snapped it’s fingers, and the glass in Eligor’s hand vanished into smoke. “This also had nothing to do with what I wanted to talk about either. I’m…disappointed in you.” At this, Eligor simply raised his hand again before sitting up in his chair, looking off again into the scenery before continuing. “You are a bad listener, and you still do not understand. I learned from that failure, and I’ve kept what I learned quite close to my heart. I admit I glazed over it, but my point was still quite clear. What is a god? A created thing? Perhaps…but no matter what, the criteria for a true god remains clear. The thing about real gods is that they cannot be observed you see. I suppose that might be a bit difficult for a creature so old, so I’ll try to walk you through it.” Eligor displayed his palm, and a droplet of water froze in it’s center. “Let us say that this bit of water was a god. No matter what we intended of it, this water droplet would always be a god and free of our intervention. But what about now? Now that you see the droplet and I can see it as well, we can observe that it is there. Through observation, we can then proceed with a method to interact with it. I can freeze it here, or perhaps you can boil it. No matter what we choose to do, the fact that we have a choice at all means that this water is no longer qualified to be a god. The moment something can be observed in any form is the moment that god ceases to exist.”
“You like to think of yourself as a god…as this omnipotent being playing with us all in the palm of it’s little hand and you might have been for me…until you made yourself known to me. Just look at all the information you have given me. You need a body to survive, you have desires and emotions, and you can apparently exist in more than one place at once. That makes you quite irritating, but in no way would I consider such a being a GOD of all things.” Eligor reached down to the glowing water, scooping some up into his hands and letting it slip through his fingers. “You don’t even know everything. You need me to explain stories to you, or what I am thinking. You require communication. In other words, I am your food, but only as long as I realize your inability to truly devour me properly. I said you misunderstood a great many things because you made the mistake of believing I came here out of desperation. That I somehow did not expect these coercion tactics when they have been the main tactic you’ve employed from the beginning. You made the mistake of believing that I am actually trapped in here with you.” The glowing water turned red, accompanied by Eligor’s glowing eyes. “Above all, you actually dared to involve my family in your parasitic mess. I’ve no need to negotiate with my next victim anymore than you have a need of this façade of empathy.”
Eligor gets up from the chair, adjusting his still damaged clothes before looking again at the creature. “So, do you want to continue exchanging pleasantries and faking civility, or would you like to put me through another battlefield? If I can leave a request though, perhaps somewhere with cooler weather at least this time? Battling under the sun is boring after a while.”
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