Something to Consider

Hubris was still laughing as he was carried through the depths of reality by the cascading mass of shadowy tendrils enwrapping his body. He may have lost the battle, but he planned to win the war. It didn’t matter that he had lost the crown; he had still made the impact he desired. He had fired the cataclysmic starting gun of an epic that would be written with the blood of his foolish family members. As his escort slowed to a stop, Hubris stepped out of his encasement into…
An area that certainly wasn’t where he planned to travel.
“The Void?” Hubris wonders aloud. After scanning the area, he sits down near the glowing white exit door of the paradoxical level. “That’s odd… I thought I had set myself a course to an abandoned street of Level 11… Well, I suppose this could be a blessing in disguise. None of my idiot aunts or uncles would have a shred of intuition as to my current location. And a bonus, that spiraled idiot isn’t here to endlessly yap at me about my place in the world. This isolation could be just what I need…” 
“You shouldn’t talk aloud to yourself, Hubris. You never know who may be listening.” A voice suddenly calls out from the depths.
“Could it be-?”
Hubris barely had time to finish his thought before the voice chimed in again. “You think I’m stuck up my own ass that much? Who do you think I am, you?” Two dim white voids of light appeared with the finishing of the response, and a familiar inky-black figure stepped into view of Hubris. “Let’s be reasonable here today. I came all the way here just to see you!” Kirai says, stopping just in front of Hubris.
“Kirai. I should have known this unexpected detour was your doing from the start. Where have you been all this time?” Hubris demanded, standing up and beginning to pace around the empty space.
“Oh, nothing much. Just… on vacation. Suppose you might say he owed me a favor after… well, never mind that. I needed some alone time with you to discuss your favorite topic: yourself!” Kirai replied, his white voids of eyes piercing straight through Hubris.
What is this guy’s deal? Hubris wonders to himself, before cutting off his train of thought.
Kirai tilts his head to the side. “My ‘deal’, so you say, is you, my dear friend! I believe I did you a favor in pointing you towards that crown you sought after. And in return, you promised you’d help me out with a small little task of my own. I’m just here to hear your account of how it all went!” Kirai sits on the “ground” of the space, looking up at Hubris who stood a few meters away. “Go on, spare me no details!”
Hubris smiles. Finally! This incompetent fool is letting himself be manipulated once again. He was a master of deception, he didn’t need to even think about how to twist his words. After all, if Kirai truly could read every thought he had, he wouldn’t have been duped the first time, right?''
“Well, where should I start?”
----
Hours later, Hubris finally wraps up his elaborate tale, Kirai on the edge of his nonexistent seat. “...and then I replaced my father's crown to its original position. That amount of power… it just wasn’t for me. Too much responsibility.”
Kirai nods. “That’s wonderful! I knew that the power was in good hands as soon as I directed you away.”
Hubris grins. He knew it. Kirai was just as gullible as the rest.
“I did just miss one small detail though, dear nephew.”
“And what might that be?”
“The part where you tell me what you really did with the power I gave you.”
“W-what?!” Hubris chuckles. “Come now, Kirai. I have no idea what you’re talking about. I did just what you asked, and opened the first seal.” 
Kirai shakes his head. “No. You didn’t. I checked it personally. In fact, I think you’ve been up to a lot more than we agreed upon! Enslaving Nunca’s mind, tearing up The Court. Smearing my name over everything.”
Hubris laughs again, but more genuinely this time. “Oh, you’re so pathetic! It was easy pickings, really. You’re already quite popular with everyone after your own failed attempt at control.” He says sarcastically.
“You know far more than our relatives about that incident. You know the true reason the events transpired the way they did. It wasn’t my doing. A failed experiment, really.”
“So, that’s your excuse for being sealed by such fodder? I knew I overestimated you. You’re nothing but a hack, desperate for power he’ll never achieve.”
Kirai rolls his eyes. “Oh, please. I had long abandoned that body by the time it was sealed. Prolonging that event was about as useful to me as this conversation with you. The point is, you’ve been running amok big in your britches for far too long without proper… adult supervision. I could care less about you failing at your task, but you need to answer for your exploitation of those privileges I granted you.”
Hubris sneers. “I don’t owe you anything. You were just another pawn in my plan, just like that useless Priestess and pathetic Jester. Another weeping moron sad that they got their comeuppance.”
Kirai tilts his head to the side. “I would strongly advise you against breaking the terms of our agreement even further. If you aim to manipulate your way out of it, scam me, whatever you want to call it, then I must unfortunately get my payment through… other means.”
“Other means?” Hubris sneers. “Do you really think I’m scared of what you can do? Even Claudius pales before me, what can the wimpy ‘god of chaos’ with a tarnished reputation do to inconvenience me in any way that matters? Oh how I’d love to put you in your place…”
“...The reputation that has been ruined exclusively by you, dear sir. If your only way to judge character is by how hard they can beat you into a wall, I suppose it's time you get some proper education.” And with that, Kirai disappears.
“What a loser. Probably running back to that stupid h-”
A loud crack rings out, and Hubris’ back arches in pain as Kirai’s fist rams into it with enough force to send him flying far across the infinite void-scape. As Hubris promptly eats dirt, he flips himself upright to see Kirai speed blitz in front of him, stopping just a few feet from where he lay.
“You should really reconsider your life choices. Basing your entire personality on mommy issues really isn’t a way to live.” Black armor quickly forms around Kirai, and a long black two-handed sword materializes underneath his folded palms, reaching down to the floor. The floor underneath Hubris promptly shoves him upright, the whiplash from the sudden motion throwing him back down again into a ball at Kirai’s feet. “Really? What happened to all that talk about putting me in my place a few minutes ago?”
Hubris coughs up a black and orange liquid, curling into a ball. “P-Please…”
Kirai responds by swiftly plunging the sword into the air behind himself, as he hears a cry of pain from behind. “You realize that I invented the whole ‘drop an illusion in front of your target and stab them in the back’ move, right?” Kirai asks, turning around to face Hubris pathetically bleeding onto the ground. “Why don’t we try this again?” he says cheerfully, as he snaps his fingers.
----
Hubris stands up in front of Kirai, sneering. “Do you really think I’m scared of what you can do? Even Claudius pales before me, what can the wim-” Hubris pauses. “...What have you done?”
“The better question, my dear friend, is what have you done? Or better, what have you been doing for the past four hours?” Kirai retorts.
Two shortswords imbued with orange fire appear in Hubris’s hands, and he angrily stabs at the dark god in front of him. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Hubris screams again, before getting knocked off his feet by a strike from a black tendril.
“I’m giving you what you asked for! A fight with yours truly, until you finally see the pointlessness of it all and agree to answer to the court for your crimes.”
“You couldn’t beat them, so now you’re running their errands like a lapdog?”
“I had no quarrels with my relatives – save one. And as I recall, that usurping went swimmingly until someone had to get his little EGO involved. Besides, I’m doing this of my own volition. It’s about time I publicly cleared my name.”
“Publicly? This is about as little public as you can get!”
“Are we going to argue, or are you going to come with me?”
Hubris responds by conjuring vines around Kirai, charging at him with his flaming blades.
Kirai shrugs. “It was worth a shot.” The vines explode off of his body into the abyss around the two. He waits for Hubris to approach, before flicking his wrist and sending Hubris flying into the ground once more. “You’ve tried that exact strategy over twenty times, and it hasn’t worked a single time. I was really expecting better from the great Hubris.” Kirai spits at him. The Avatar of Chaos blitzes the young god once more, as black ooze begins to slip throughout the level, with pillars of unstable energy shooting upwards into the infinite space. “Maybe this will finally knock some sense into you.” The energy in the room continues bursting around them more and more frequently. Kirai demanifests the blade in his hands and swinging his clasped hands downwards, sledgehammering Hubris towards the ground. The Abyssal Ooze catches him, and it springboards Hubris at breakneck speeds back up at Kirai, as the god delivers another blow straight into Hubris’ forehead as the unstable energy detonates around the two. Just before he’s obliterated, Hubris feels his skull cave in.
----
Hubris stands up in front of Kirai, sneering. “Do you really think I’m scared of what you can do? Even Claudius pales before me, what can the wimpy… god…” Hubris stares daggers at Kirai, before manifesting a few literal ones that he throws at the Avatar of Chaos’ head.
Kirai effortlessly bats away the blades with a tendril, before speaking up. “Why do you continue to persist in this pointless endeavor? Please, let’s just get out of here. We can stop the fighting and at the very least coexist like we used to.”
Hubris scoffs. “I think we both know that bridge has already burned long ago. We have gone down our own paths, and unfortunately, everyone else in this wretched court has taken the wrong one.”
“You just don’t get it, do you, Hubris? Do you even understand the futility of what you’re doing? Your revolt cannot happen. You will fail no matter the pathway that you take. You’ll be taken down, sometimes killed, sometimes worse.”
“Killed? By one of you lot? That’s rich. Even now, you can’t kill me. You don’t have the guts to do it.”
“I don’t want to kill you, Hubris. I don’t want to be fighting you right now. I do only what is necessary to further my own goals, nothing more. But I can assure you, if you continue down the path you’re traveling, it will lead only to failure. Come with me, and we can make this right.”
“I believe I made my intentions clear, Kirai. While I may not be able to put you down like the swine you are, eventually, you’re going to get tired. Maybe in 15 minutes, maybe in 15 years. But you’re going to slip up.” Hubris punctuates this statement by stabbing at Kirai with one of his blades.
Kirai no-clips backwards. “You are presented with a choice, Hubris. You can either learn from your failure, or you can keep smashing your head into a brick wall in a feeble attempt to break it down.” Kirai swipes his arm in front of him, and a black crown of pure energy appears. “On my left, half of your final goal. The power to erase those before you, a “cheat code” to your final chapter. On my right, a way forward to a brighter future for not only yourself, but everyone involved in your futile scheme. Choose wis-”
Before Kirai can even finish, Hubris has already clipped in front of him and grabbed the crown, becoming imbued with its power and glowing with unlight. “I don’t know how you managed this stunt Kirai, and I thank you for finally completing my work! I know just how to celebrate the occasion… BY TEARING YOU APART!” Hubris looks down upon Kirai, now pathetic in comparison. “What’s wrong? Mad I didn’t go for your olive branch? Mad that in five seconds I’ve mastered this artifact better than you ever will? Let me make this clear: I WILL NEVER STOP THIS WAR!”
Kirai simply shakes his head. “I’m not mad. Just… disappointed.”
“Disappointed your story ends with pathetic failure?”
“No… I’m disappointed that I have to do this.”
Kirai flicks his wrist, and the Defiled Crown forms black spikes that latch into Hubris’s head, causing the latter to groan in pain and fall to the ground. “Did you really think that I’d just give you the crown after everything you’ve done? You’re supposed to be smart, Hubris, but that was quite dumb.” Kirai stretches his hand out, and Hubris’s neck flies into it. “I think it’s finally time you properly understood the scale of what it is you are.”
Hubris struggles, but he can barely move. He looks back down at Kirai, but what he sees is not the god he remembers. It is instead an infinite void of endless stars and galaxies, being created and destroyed in a constant loop circling across his skin. The voidscape of Level Origin shatters, and the two find themselves floating through the infinite vacuum of space. No, more like ascending… but that’s impossible. Kirai isn’t moving, and in space there is no up or down… The black flesh of chaos continues to strip away, replacing itself with the galactic pattern of infinity over and over, until the being with its hand wrapped around Hubris’ throat is completely alien to anything he’s seen before. Hubris is too shocked at the overload of sights before him to resist as the being that was once Kirai continues to drag him upward… 
Until they rip through reality itself. The two pass through layer after layer of infinitely packed realities, until they break past the concept of existence itself, beginning to ascend through narrative space after narrative space, ascending faster and faster. Hubris’ eyes glaze over, as he is ripped past comprehension. The Omniverse is but a spec of dust in comparison to what lies beyond. Hubris is dropped onto a soft fleshy ground, and he looks up to see that his assailant is gone. He falls to his knees and looks up at the ultramassive black hole dimly illuminating the infinite galaxy around him.
But no… that shouldn’t be possible. The last material universe he passed through was hours ago… or was it days…Black holes have never been that big either… Hubris feels emotions he hasn’t felt in his life before… insignificance, and something else.
Fear.
A massive glowing blue eye opens, the sheer size dwarfing even the largest of star systems, and Hubris realizes that he hasn’t been dropped on solid ground, but is being held aloft in complete nothingness by a tendril of a gargantuan entity, the scale of which even a god like him has trouble comprehending. The creature speaks to him in a deep bass tone, but Hubris can understand every word. And what the being says begins corrupting his brain like a cancer, until Hubris screams into the uncaring void, finally having been made aware of his insignificance. He doesn’t even control his own actions. He never has. He’ll always be the tool of another in order to spin a tale of rebellion and ironically, hubris. A cautionary tale at best. A joke at worst. 
Hubris tries to speak, but can’t. He tries to think, but is unable.
 
He falls on his side, convulsing and frothing at the mouth.
Hubris sees himself approaching the brink of death.
How is that possible? He wonders. Feeling the onset of death is one thing, but this is different. As if his death had already happened, but was being delayed…
And then he understands.
Somewhere far underneath this place, but just above his home, a measly human sits at a computer. A sentence typed in a simple document. A sentence now deleted. The human steps away from the computer, and turns around, revealing their face to be an amalgamation of mass in a reflection of the very being upon which Hubris resides. They give a slight wave, and sit back down at their desk.
Hubris is flipped around to face the unknowable creature’s face once more, and the being speaks its final words. “Get out of my sight.” Kirai appears in front of Hubris once more, grabbing him by the collar, and throwing him off the edge.
----
Hubris abruptly awakens in the sky of level 11, plummeting into an alley and bashing his head against the lid of a dumpster, before splashing onto a dirty puddle. He tries to recall the past few days, but seems to be unable. As he climbs out of the piles of trash bags, all he can think about is this gap. 
“Yes yes, I escaped from the court, and met Kirai in level Origin… and then, dumpster…”
“It doesn’t make any sense…”
Hubris shivers at the recollection. Whatever happened with him and Kirai in level origin, it left a bad taste in his mouth. Whatever it was, he’s done dealing with that god for a long, long time.
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Category:Tales
Category:The Royal Court
Category:Kirai
Category:Hubris