Death of Truth

Within my primary workshop beneath the Shattered Mountains, I surveyed my domain with a mixture of pride and regret. Countless workbenches stretched across the cavernous space, each bearing the skeletal remains of ambition; projects abandoned midway as my mercurial intellect flitted to newer, more enticing challenges. A crystalline engine designed to harness energy from other planes lay partially disassembled beside a self-sustaining robot battery core. Nearby, a temporal displacement device waited for calibrations I would never complete.

The alien arm sprouting from my back twitched restlessly, sensing my unease. I wrapped it more tightly around my neck, the limb's strange musculature constricting beneath the fabric of my robe.

My surveillance network alerted me to movement in the upper chambers. The camera feeds showed Casper navigating the labyrinthine corridors of my sanctuary. The old Berserker moved with surprising grace despite his injuries from the battle with Chosun.

"Punctual as always," I murmured, activating the teleportation array with a thought.

The air before me shimmered, space folding inward as particles of light coalesced into Casper's form. The displacement deposited him gently upon the polished obsidian floor, his body materializing with perfect precision.

Casper immediately dropped to one knee, head bowed. "Lord Vardin, I have answered your summons."

I smiled at the formality. In ten thousand years of godhood, I had never demanded such obeisance, yet mortals insisted on providing it.

"Rise, friend," I said, gesturing with my hand. "Your loyalty continues to impress."

He stood, eyes briefly widening as they took in the vastness of my workshop. Though he had visited before, the ever-changing landscape of machinery and scientific instruments never failed to awe him.

"How fares the prosthetic?" I asked, nodding toward his right arm.

Casper flexed the artificial limb, the white material gleaming under the workshop's ethereal lighting. "Perfect, my lord. I feel no difference between it and flesh."

"Excellent." I moved toward a workbench where a small silver cube rested. "I have another task requiring your particular talents. There's a rare mineral deposit beneath the…"

I stopped mid-sentence, my entire being suddenly alert. The fabric of reality around my sanctuary rippled, subtle distortions that would be imperceptible to mortal senses but screamed danger to my heightened awareness.

Three distinct signatures penetrated my outer defenses. Three gods approaching simultaneously.

"Damn," I whispered, the alien arm unwinding from my neck, its fingers splaying in agitation. "I had expected more time."

Casper tensed, reading the change in my demeanor. "My lord?"

"It seems my colleagues have finally decided to address my... indiscretions." I turned to face him fully, golden eyes meeting his. "Casper, my end approaches."

The Berserker's hand flew to his greatsword, drawing it with practiced efficiency. His eyes darted around the workshop, searching for threats not yet visible. "Where are they coming from? I'll defend you-"

"No." I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Put away your weapon. You cannot help me in this battle."

"But, I-"

"Listen carefully," I interrupted, my voice hardening. "You must go. Return to Vardiel and continue serving it to the best of your abilities."

"I won't abandon you!" Casper protested, his knuckles whitening around the sword hilt.

"You must. Vardiel is the future; my future, in a way. Its growth is paramount."

The air behind me shimmered, reality bending as divine presences forced their way through my barriers. Casper's argument died on his lips as three goddesses materialized in my workshop.

Ayen appeared first in a cascade of prismatic blue light, her silver hair floating around her as if underwater. Where a face should have been, a single enormous eye swiveled to fix upon me, its dark blue iris contracting. Her fingers, writhing tendrils crackling with arcane energy, twitched with barely contained hostility.

Beside her, Kanis Rael phased into existence, her form flickering between moments in time. One instant she appeared young and regal, the next ancient and withered, never fully settling in the present. The Goddess of Law and Past regarded me with eyes that had witnessed the birth of civilization.

Last came Naori, rising from the ground through a portal of bleached bones that assembled themselves into a doorway. The Goddess of Death and Decay stepped through, her pale beauty terrible and absolute. Unlike her predecessors, she had been human more recently (a mere three hundred years ago) and retained more of her humanity in appearance if not in nature.

"Go," I told Casper quietly. "Now."

The Berserker looked between me and the three goddesses, understanding dawning in his eyes. He sheathed his sword, bowed deeply, and backed toward the exit. The goddesses paid him no attention, their focus entirely on me.

After Casper departed, silence reigned for several heartbeats.

The eons of solitude have dulled your mind, Vardin, Ayen finally spoke, her voice echoing from somewhere behind her singular eye. You support one of the Primordial beasts over the dignity of your own kind.

I smiled thinly. "My own kind? You mean humanity? I have done nothing to betray Mankind."

"You violated the Compact," Kanis Rael stated, her voice echoing from multiple points in time simultaneously. "You knew the consequences."

"The Compact," I repeated, contempt filling my voice. "That agreement we made to keep humanity weak and ignorant? To prevent them from challenging our stolen power?" I shook my head. "Perhaps I've simply remembered what you all have forgotten."

"And what is that?" Naori asked, her voice surprisingly gentle.

I gestured to my surroundings, to the countless inventions born from human ingenuity rather than divine power. "That we are still human beneath it all. That despite the stolen power we wield, we remain what we always were: ambitious, flawed mortals playing at godhood."

The alien arm uncoiled fully from my neck now, extending to its full length behind me. I felt the familiar rush of power as I prepared for what would be my final stand.

"You've forgotten your own humanity," I told them. "You've believed your own lies for so long that you think yourselves truly divine and beyond human reach."

Ayen's eye narrowed. Enough philosophy. Your Primordial killed Kaldos and stands to destroy all we have built. Your interference ends today.

I laughed then, a sound I hadn't made in centuries. "My interference? I merely set events in motion. The rest..." I smiled, thinking of Vardiel and the future it represented. "The rest will happen with or without me."

As the three goddesses moved forward in unison, I activated defenses millennia in the making, prepared to sell my existence dearly for a cause I had long believed in: the liberation of humanity from divine tyranny.

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From the ceiling and walls of my workshop, concealed panels slid open. Dozens of automated defense turrets emerged, their barrels gleaming under the ethereal light. I had spent centuries perfecting these weapons, each containing mechanisms no human engineer could dream of creating. The goddesses paused, momentarily surprised by the sudden transformation of my sanctuary into a fortress.

"Begin defense protocol alpha," I commanded.

My alien arm twitched with anticipation as the turrets locked onto their targets. The sophisticated targeting systems, guided by quantum-state AI, hummed to life. For a fraction of a second, red targeting lasers danced across the divine intruders before disappearing.

Then came the thunder.

Thousands of rounds per second erupted from the rotating barrels, filling my laboratory with a deafening mechanical roar. The air itself seemed to vibrate as projectiles tore through space toward the three goddesses.

Ayen's singular eye widened before narrowing in concentration. Her writhing tendrils wove complex patterns, conjuring a shimmering prismatic barrier around her form. Bullets impacted the magical shield, creating ripples of energy but failing to penetrate.

Kanis Rael simply phased further out of reality. The bullets passed harmlessly through her semi-transparent form, her existence flickering between past and present moments.

Naori, however, had no such defenses prepared. She hastily summoned a wall of ossified matter (bones of creatures long extinct) but my specially designed ammunition shredded through her protection like paper. The goddess of Death screamed as her body was perforated by hundreds of projectiles, her perfect form torn to ribbons of divine flesh.

Yet she remained standing, her Mantle of Dissolution refusing to let her fall. Her ruined body began slowly reconstructing itself, dead cell by dead cell.

Your creations are impressive, Vardin, Ayen's voice resonated from behind her eye. But ultimately futile.

She thrust her tendrils forward, unleashing arcs of crackling arcane lightning that zigzagged toward me. Before they could strike, hidden emitters in the walls activated, generating phase-shifted force fields that absorbed her attack. The lightning dissipated harmlessly against the barriers, leaving Ayen's singular eye blinking in surprise.

Kanis Rael moved with ghostly grace, teleporting beside one of my primary turret clusters. Her ethereal hand plunged into the machinery, grasping critical components and crushing them with divine strength. The turret sputtered, sparked, and went silent.

"You've forgotten yourself, Vardin," she spoke, her voice echoing from multiple points in time. "You were once a king who understood the necessity of order."

Naori used the momentary distraction to dive behind a workbench, her body still reconstructing itself from the devastating damage. I could hear the wet sounds of divine flesh knitting back together.

Ayen gestured with her tendrils, frost suddenly materializing throughout my workshop. The temperature plummeted as ice crystals formed across my defensive systems. Several turrets froze solid, their barrels ceasing their deadly rotation.

Did you truly believe these little toys could match our power? Ayen sneered, her singular eye focusing on me with contempt.

I didn't waste breath answering. Instead, I reached for one of many specialized weapons laid across my workbenches, a modified shotgun loaded with pure iron pellets. I raised it and fired directly at Ayen's barrier.

The iron pellets, anathema to magical constructs, passed through her shield as if it were mist. They peppered her form, eliciting a shriek of pain and surprise as the metal burned into her divine flesh. I fired twice more in rapid succession, each blast tearing through her defenses and into her body.

Kanis Rael flashed toward me, her incorporeal form crossing the laboratory in an instant. I activated a ceiling-mounted device, a tachyon emitter designed specifically to affect beings existing outside normal time. The beam struck her directly in the chest, forcing her fully into the present moment.

For the first time in ten millennia, the Goddess of the Past experienced pain. She collapsed to the floor, clutching at the wound that leaked golden ichor, her expression one of utter shock.

"Impossible," she gasped.

Naori emerged from behind the workbench, her body mostly restored. She stretched her arms outward, her power of Dissolution radiating outward in waves. My machines began to rust and decay where her influence touched them, metal oxidizing and crumbling in seconds.

The alien arm sprouting from my back lashed out with impossible speed, its fist connecting with Naori's face. The impact sent her flying across the laboratory, crashing into the far wall with enough force to crack the reinforced material.

More of my defensive systems activated (gravity manipulators, temporal disruptors, reality anchors) but I knew it was merely delaying the inevitable. These three weren't fighting to kill me; they were too afraid of what might happen if one of them absorbed my Mantle of Machinery. They merely sought to weaken me enough that one of their mortal pawns could deliver the final blow.

I had prepared for this day for centuries, but preparation didn't make the reality any less bitter. For a moment I looked upon Ayen, at the monster she had become. I remembered the woman she used to be: the wise and beautiful elf queen who garnered the respect and love of her people. Now she was this twisted being of anger and vice. My old friend had become a stranger after eons of suffering through guilt over what she had done to her people. We had been friends, comrades, during the Second Crusade. Now here she was, invading my home, trying to kill me.

I gritted my teeth as I activated more of my creations. I would die today, but I would not make my death an easy one for my killers. Of that, I swore.

For ten hours we fought across my sanctuary, transforming my meticulous workshop into a wasteland of twisted metal and shattered stone. The battle had long since breached the confines of my laboratory, expanding outward until the very mountains themselves became our battlefield.

The Shattered Mountains earned their name anew as divine powers collided with my technological marvels. Entire peaks crumbled under Ayen's arcane bombardments. Valleys filled with rubble as Kanis Rael manipulated reality to accelerate erosion and collapse. What had once been my impregnable fortress was now an open wound in the earth.

They thought exposing me to the open sky would be my undoing. They were wrong.

As the mountain collapsed around us, I activated contingencies centuries in the making. Orbital platforms, hidden in plain sight among the stars, awakened to my command. My enemies looked up in horror as the heavens themselves turned against them, lances of concentrated light slicing through clouds to strike with surgical precision.

"Impossible!" Ayen screamed as a beam carved a molten trench mere inches from her position. Her eye widened in fury and fear as she erected magical barriers that strained against my orbital assault.

Drone platforms, concealed in remote valleys, launched salvos of guided munitions. The sky darkened with projectiles, each one containing payloads designed specifically to harm divine flesh. Kanis Rael's form flickered as she struggled to exist in multiple timeframes simultaneously, desperately avoiding the barrage that pursued her through each moment.

Naori fared worst of all. My specialized field generators had systematically targeted her throughout the battle. Now, her divine form was a patchwork of half-healed wounds and exposed divinity. With a howl of rage and pain, she tore open a portal and retreated, unable to maintain her presence in our reality.

"One down," I muttered through bloodied lips, directing another wave of orbital strikes against my remaining opponents.

Ayen and Kanis Rael fought with renewed desperation. Ayen conjured storms of elemental fury that intercepted my missiles mid-flight, while Kanis Rael began to unravel the very history of my creations, causing drone after drone to disintegrate as she erased their moments of creation from the timeline.

But I was winning. I could feel it. My systems reported critical damage to both goddesses. Just a little longer and-

Pain erupted through my chest. A blade of shimmering, ever-changing energy protruded from my sternum, dripping with my golden ichor. I hadn't heard him approach. Hadn't sensed his presence at all.

"Hello, old friend," came the soft voice of Lakosh behind me.

I collapsed to my knees as he withdrew the sword of pure causality. My systems flashed critical warnings across my vision. The weapon had severed connections to half my remaining defenses and introduced chaotic variables into my tactical networks.

Where have you been? Ayen demanded, her form battered and bleeding as she approached.

Lakosh merely smirked, his features shifting subtly with each passing moment. "I've always been here."

They surrounded me now: Lakosh with his sad smile, Kanis Rael's ghostly form radiating relief, and Ayen's singular eye gleaming with vindictive triumph.

I spat a mouthful of golden blood at their feet. "Which pawn have you groomed for my replacement?"

Ayen's face split into a victorious grin as she gestured, opening a shimmering portal. Through it stepped a girl, an elven child really, barely into her teens. Her silver hair framed a face trying desperately to appear brave despite the terror evident in her sky-blue eyes.

"You've fallen further than I thought," I sneered at Ayen. "Using children as your instruments now?"

Ayen ignored my barb, placing her tendril-fingers on the girl's shoulder. Queen Bethani Morne is a loyal servant of the gods and the perfect vessel for the Mantle of Machinery. At just fifteen years old, she's already reached level fifty. Imagine what she'll accomplish once she hatches your godseed.

I studied the young queen's face, seeing the conflict behind her eyes. Not a willing participant then, but a pawn maneuvered into position through manipulation and fear.

"I don't blame you, child," I said softly, offering her a genuine smile. "This isn't your doing."

Tears welled in Bethani's eyes, her unicorn horn wand trembling in her grip.

Snap out of it! Ayen hissed, squeezing the girl's shoulder until she winced. Finish this!

Bethani wiped her tears with her sleeve, then raised her wand toward my head. I nodded once, granting her permission to end my ten-thousand-year existence.

The young queen's face hardened with resolve. Light gathered at the tip of her wand, coalescing into a spell of pure destruction.

I smiled one final time as my life flashed before my eyes; not the millennia as a god, but my human life. The golden spires of Ispara where I had ruled as king. My beloved wife's face as she cradled our sons. Mulmin's laughter around campfires during the Crusade, his strong arms around me in the quiet darkness of our tent.

Not a single memory of godhood appeared. Perhaps that was fitting.

The spell struck, and I knew no more.

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