Loss of Unity

I stared across the room at my fellow gods, all of them sending accusing glares in my direction. The air in our sacred chamber crackled with tension. The council of the Holy Twelve, now eleven, gathered in emergency after Kaldos's demise.

"You told us this Primordial was not a threat," Ayen's singular eye fixed upon me, pulsating with magical energy. Her silver hair writhed like serpents around her head. "Yet now one of our own lies dead, his Mantle passed to that... thing."

"I am not to blame." My voice echoed against the crystalline walls. "Kaldos was a fool who took it upon himself to challenge Vardiel to battle. He even lowered his power to level forty-one to match it. The idiot wanted a fair fight."

My body twitched beneath my robes, agitated by my rising anger.

Kanis Rael's hazy form flickered between moments of time, her movements jerky as she struggled to maintain presence in our current reality. "What you said is not in question, Vardin. What is in question is the fact that you told us this Vardiel was not a threat. Yet obviously it is. It managed to kill a God by itself, which should have been impossible under the System."

She drifted closer, her form solidifying momentarily. "There were safeguards to prevent mortals from harming us."

I sneered, my golden eyes narrowing. "I was not aware such safeguards existed. Had I known, I would never have helped construct this ridiculous System of yours."

"You were always too soft," Ayen's tendrils writhed as sparks of magic danced between them. "Of course we weren't going to tell you everything. The safeguards were of my own design, preventing mortals from even harming a god."

Naori, our youngest member, stepped forward. Her pale face, marked with the signs of death she commanded, contorted in confusion. "If that's true, how was I able to best Ignum three hundred years ago?"

"You were blessed by us when you faced the previous God of Death," Kanis Rael explained, her voice echoing from both past and present simultaneously. "The System allowed you and your fellows to harm him."

She turned back to me, her form flickering more violently. "What I want to know is how this Primordial could have bypassed the restrictions placed by the System in the first place."

I laughed, a hollow sound that reverberated through the chamber. "Perhaps your precious System isn't as infallible as you believed, Kanis."

"Or perhaps," Ayen's massive eye narrowed to a slit, "someone helped it circumvent those restrictions."

The accusation hung in the air between us. I felt the weight of their suspicion pressing down upon me.

I returned Ayen's sneer with one of my own, the alien body beneath my robes twitching with agitation.

"What frightens you most, Ayen? That your precious safeguards failed, or that you have no idea how they were circumvented?" My voice remained regal, but carried a razor's edge. "I see fear in that singular eye of yours. You all reek of it."

I swept my gaze across the chamber, taking in each divine face.

"Kaldos lies dead, and so you need someone to blame. Since the God of War is no longer available to shoulder your accusations, I've become your convenient scapegoat."

"Enough!" Mirrin's voice cut through the tension. The God of Peace stepped between us, his presence calming the volatile energies crackling through the chamber. "This bickering solves nothing. We are the Holy Twelve-"

"Eleven now," I interjected coldly.

Mirrin ignored my correction. "We must stand united in this crisis. Turning against one another only weakens us when we most need strength."

Altanava nodded, her radiant form casting prismatic light across the walls. The Goddess of Day fixed her gaze on me, her expression softening.

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"Vardin, you've studied this creature more than any of us. Do you understand how it bypassed the safeguards?"

I straightened my back, my scholarly robes tightening around my torso as my body shifted. "I have a theory, yes."

"Then share it!" Ayen's tendrils lashed out, sending sparks dancing across the floor. "Quit your insufferable stalling!"

A laugh escaped my lips, not the hollow sound from before, but something genuine. How amusing to see my former friend reduced to such desperation.

"It's quite simple, really. An oversight in your own design." I savored the moment, watching Ayen's massive eye twitch. "Your safeguards prevent mortals from harming gods. Specifically, they prevent humans from harming us."

I began pacing, my royal bearing on full display. "But the System, in its algorithmic wisdom, categorized Vardiel as a monster, not human. And therein lies your fatal error."

Kanis Rael's form solidified momentarily, her brow furrowed. "That makes little difference. Intelligent monsters are still mortal beings. The safeguards apply to them as well."

"Ah, but you've forgotten what monsters truly are." I smiled, pleased at having knowledge that eluded even the Goddess of the Past. "Monsters are the descendants of creatures created by the Primordials to guard their domains. They were birthed from the same power we now wield."

I gestured to my grotesque body. "The System's internal logic doesn't recognize monsters as mortals. They exist in an entirely different category, neither god nor human. This is precisely why monsters aren't constrained by the class limitations we imposed on humanity."

The chamber fell silent as the implications sank in.

"A loophole," Naori whispered, her voice carrying the chill of the grave. "We created a loophole."

"Not we," Ayen snarled, her singular eye completely focused on me. "Vardin did." She stood up and pointed an accusing tentacle my way. "You were the one who created the system's interface, intelligence, and logic! You put such a loophole in place, didn't you!"

My smile vanished, and my golden eyes met her single one without fear. "You're not the only one who made safeguards, friend." I almost spat out the last word.

"Enough!" Lakosh's voice thundered through the chamber, his form shifting between countless possible futures. "This bickering is embarrassing. We're beings who have lived for millennia, yet you squabble like children fighting over a toy."

I crossed my arms, looking away from my former friend. Lakosh had always been one of the more reasonable among us, despite being the God of Chaos.

"What's the great concern anyway?" he continued, his form stabilizing momentarily into that of a tall man with constantly shifting features. "Gods have died before. I'm living proof of that, as are Kaldos and Naori." He gestured toward our youngest member. "Why can't we simply welcome this Vardiel into our number? The Mantle has chosen its new bearer."

Kanis Rael's fragmented form solidified enough to shoot him a withering glare. "You weren't a first generation god, Lakosh. You never fought a Primordial. You never witnessed what they truly were."

Her voice echoed from both past and present. "These were beings of unfathomable power, completely unpredictable. The Nameless One nearly destroyed reality itself before Binar struck it down. Who knows what this creature is planning?"

"I do," I interjected, drawing all eyes to me. "Or at least, I have some insight. Vardiel carries fragments of my younger self's memories. It's confused, lost, trying to piece together an identity from shards of consciousness that aren't its own."

Ayen's massive eye narrowed to a slit. "If it has your memories, then you should know where it's headed. What it plans to do with its newfound power."

I shrugged, not willing to reveal more than necessary. "Memories are not the same as intentions. I'm not privy to its every thought."

"Convenient," Ayen hissed, sparks dancing between her writhing tendrils.

Jothas, who had remained silent until now, rose from his earthen throne. His insectoid body twitched with inhuman movements, antennae waving wildly as he looked around at each of us. The Lord of the Terrene's voice rumbled from his mandibles like tectonic plates shifting.

"There's another concern we've overlooked. As a reborn Primordial, Vardiel still carries a remnant of the Mantle of Machinery within its being. The Godseed of Enmity currently lies dormant within it, but should the two powers mix..."

He left the thought hanging, but I understood his concern. Even I couldn't predict what might happen if those powers combined.

"The results could be catastrophic," Jothas continued. "None of us knows what might occur if Primordial essence from two different Mantles were to merge in a single vessel. Such a thing has never happened before."

"All the more reason to eliminate this threat now," Ayen declared. "We should destroy Vardiel and have a human of our choosing take on the Mantle of Enmity. Someone we can control."

I laughed coldly. "And I suppose you, of course, have already selected a successor for the God of War? Some elven puppet you've been grooming, perhaps? Another experiment to correct your past failures?"

Ayen's massive eye swiveled toward me, and though she had no mouth, I was certain that if she could have grinned, she would have.

"As a matter of fact, I have. A most promising candidate who understands the value of loyalty." Her tentacles curled in satisfaction. "Unlike some among us."

"How predictable," I scoffed. "Always scheming, always manipulating. Some things never change, even after ten thousand years."

And so the council fractured before my eyes, voices rising like a tempest, fists pounding on ancient wood, immortal faces contorted with millennia of grudges and suspicion.

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