A Boy As A Deity?

Footsteps began echoing across the translucent floor. Peroncerea's sharp eyes narrowed instantly, her demonic instincts screaming at her to flee, to vanish, to dig herself into the wall if it meant avoiding what was coming closer.

And then… the being appeared.

It was a boy.

Not some celestial knight wrapped in endless armor or a towering beast made of suns and black holes. No.

A small, barefoot child, maybe six years old. Pale peach skin, shaggy white hair that shimmered like starlight filtered through frost, and amber-colored eyes with pupils that spun.

He wore nothing extravagant, just a simple long-sleeved grey tunic and frayed at the ends, with a sash made of fine cloth tied sloppily around his waist. His smile was wide, bright and innocent.

"You're finally here!"

Eldrigan didn't answer. His body stiffened in front of Peroncerea, his stance angled, but not in aggression.

Peroncerea, meanwhile, screamed inside. Her muscles turned to ice. Her lungs clamped down like they were being strangled by invisible serpents. Her vision distorted. Reality around her bent like light seen through boiling water.

The child was not radiating energy. He had a lot of it. His very existence unstitched the rules of the world in every direction he walked.

The floor below him did not reflect his steps. Instead, it rippled. Reality rippled. One of the holograms accidentally flared to life and instantly exploded into motes of glowing white dust, unable to stabilize under his proximity.

And still… the boy smiled.

"Please don't be scared. I don't bite," he said, tilting his head like a curious puppy. "You're shaking a little."

He was looking at Peroncerea.

She was shaking. Her wings were curling involuntarily, her nails biting into her palms. Her vision was narrowing, tunneling. She couldn't breathe.

And Eldrigan moved.

Without hesitating, he stepped in front of her and snapped his arm out. His crimson essence bled from his fingertips, wrapping around her like a cocoon. It enveloped her in a barrier so thick it instantly canceled the shifting distortions around the boy.

Peroncerea gasped as air finally filled her lungs again.

She blinked, wide-eyed, the dizziness fading but she was still pale. Her tail curled against her leg, her fangs clenched tightly.

Eldrigan exhaled slowly.

"He's not suppressing his presence," he whispered to her. "That's just… him existing."

She couldn't speak. She just nodded faintly. Eldrigan turned to him slowly, voice as calm as he could manage.

"Who are you?"

The boy just smiled.

"I'm Nelayas, God of Secrets and Truth. And this place? It's mine! Well, technically, it's my prison. But the temple part sounds better, right?"

He grinned and a nearby stone fragment suspended in air for a split second before quietly disassembling into scrolls, then particles, then nothing.

Eldrigan's brows drew down.

"God of… Secrets and Truth?"

Nelayas nodded proudly.

"Yep! My Boon is that I'll always tell the truth no matter what. Lies make my body itch and then something explodes and usually that's someone's head. So I just stick to being honest!"

He spun again, this time clapping.

"Oh! And my Bane is… well… I'm a pacifist."

Peroncerea's eye twitched.

The God of Secrets and Truth, whose very steps warped time and unmade architecture, was a pacifist.

Eldrigan didn't laugh. He couldn't. His instinct, his very essence, screamed that even smiling too wide around this boy could draw consequences that could collapse a continent.

"Why would you reveal your Boon and Bane to us?"

Nelayas tilted his head again and gave an innocent shrug.

"Because I don't care? You're not gonna do anything about it. And if you do… well…"

He stared off for a moment.

Peroncerea followed his gaze and realized he wasn't looking at anything. He was staring into probability. Into futures. And what he saw must've been dull.

"Yeah," he said after a second. "Zero percent chance you'll beat me. Or even touch me. Even by mistake. So don't worry about my secrets. I am the God of them."

Eldrigan's expression hardened.

"You're a Major God."

"Yup. Last born child of the First Generation. I fought in the Destras Cataclysm and helped the old ones. They didn't like that very much."

He casually pointed to the fifth hologram.

"That one? That's about me."

They both turned. A humanoid shadow, featureless and empty, staring at an infant wrapped in a cloak of stars.

He was the infant, judging by the hair and amber eyes.

"I got sealed in here," Nelayas continued, plopping down cross-legged on the floor as if the weight of his power wasn't currently strangling half of Peroncerea's soul. "For betrayal. Even though I only ever told the truth. Weird, right?"

"Three hundred years," Eldrigan whispered. "That's how long ago the Cataclysm ended."

"Yep. Three hundred years of watching holograms play the same movie and sometimes reprogramming them for fun." He smiled sheepishly. "Oh, and… that island above us? The Imperfecta Magistra?"

They both looked up instinctively.

"Perfect in every way because of my presence. It leaks upward into the island's crust. It forces perfection. That's why nothing breaks there and why it is so perfect."

He tilted his head.

"And that's also why you've been dying, Peroncerea."

She stiffened again.

Eldrigan turned. "What?"

"You're a demon, a succubus and a winged breed. That's two Royal Demon bloodlines in one body. It is powerful but vulnerable to divine interference. You're standing in a temple soaked in divinity. It's a miracle you haven't turned to smoke."

Peroncerea backed up slightly.

"But I—"

"You survived," Nelayas said with a childlike grin, pointing directly at Eldrigan, "because he's here."

Eldrigan froze.

"Your essence, Eldrigan… your blood? It's not just divine. It's eldritch. Half human, half Outer Goddess. Your mother disintegrates laws just by breathing. You? You destabilize energy around you without even realizing it."

"...."

Nelayas giggled.

"You didn't survive the Letian Diamond because of luck. You survived because the Letian Diamond couldn't comprehend you, just like the Divine Energy in this temple."

Peroncerea turned to Eldrigan slowly, her eyes wide.

"That's why you never get tired. That's why you're never affected by ambient counterpart energy."

Eldrigan didn't respond. He was still processing.

"I like you," Nelayas said, stretching. "You're like me. Weird. Hybrid. Misunderstood and born of betrayal. The best kind."

He smiled wide.

"But I also want to die."

They both froze.

"I'm tired, you know? This is a prison. No one talks to me. My essence is warping everything. I can't touch anyone or go anywhere without making truth bleed out of the air. And no one can kill me. So…"

He stood up again.

"I'm going to give you a choice. Stay here and learn. Ask me anything. Or leave, and take what you've seen to the rest of the Isles. Either way, the world's about to change."

A low hiss escaped Peroncerea's lips as she stumbled forward, her claws scraping along the temple wall. Her wings had folded in tight against her back, twitching sporadically, as if trying to contain the sheer agony radiating from every inch of her demon blooded body.

She hissed again, this time louder, her fangs baring as her knees buckled.

"I… I can't survive here, This whole place is saturated with Divine Energy. It's eating me alive."

Her skin, usually smooth and tinged with an obsidian sheen, was now cracked with pulsing lines of red as though her body itself was rejecting her essence. Even her pupils had contracted into dangerous slits, reflexively trying to shield her mind from the dissonance tearing her apart.

Nelayas, floating lazily upside-down in midair like a bored spirit child, twirled a golden strand of energy around his finger and sighed.

"Geez, you're such a drama queen. It's not that bad."

Peroncerea snarled weakly.

He dropped from the air and landed in a slow, spiraling motion, landing on the floor with a soft step as if gravity was still deciding how to work around him. He padded forward and stopped just before her, leaning in slightly with a devious smile curled on his lips.

"All you have to do is suck his vitality from time to time."

Peroncerea blinked.

"…What?"

Eldrigan asked flatly, cocking an eyebrow with mild confusion and just a little hint of amusement.

"Suck. His. Vitality."

Nelayas repeated cheerfully, jabbing a finger at Eldrigan like it was the most obvious solution in the world.

"It's easy! You're a demon. You're from a Royal Succubi bloodline. It's in your nature to absorb vitality, right? You don't just feed off desire. You feed off life. Vitality is what makes you strong, makes your essence stabilize. This temple's energy is divine. But if you tether yourself to him and siphon off just a trickle of his vitality, your demonic physiology will override the rejection."

Peroncerea opened her mouth to object but closed it again. The pain in her chest hadn't stopped. Her demonic instincts, sharper than most, were already calculating the truth in his words.

"…That's disgusting,"

"But it's also practical! And come on, Eldrigan has tons of vitality to spare. He can take it."

Eldrigan lifted his shoulders in a shrug, unbothered.

"Fine by me."

Peroncerea whipped her gaze toward him, eyes narrowed with disbelief.

"You're just… okay with that?"

"Wouldn't be the weirdest thing I've agreed to lately. Besides, if it keeps you alive and lets us move forward, then it's just another necessity. Not like it has to be anything awkward."

"You saying you don't want it to be awkward?"

Eldrigan smirked, nonchalant as ever. She muttered a string of demonic curses under her breath.

Nelayas clapped once, the sound echoing unnaturally loud.

"Great! That's settled. Now for the real reason you're here."

With a flick of his finger, the room morphed instantly. Above them, nine enormous holograms ignited one by one. Nelayas pointed up with both hands.

"Behold, The Nine Events Each one of them is going to happen. They're tied to the future unraveling of Spheraphase's timeline. And you two? You're the Ninth Lock."

"What does that mean?"

"It means without you two, the Third Generation is going to cease to exist. The events are like fractures, each one more unstable than the last. I'm here because I was appointed, long ago, to guide the Events in preparation. That's you."

Peroncerea exhaled through gritted teeth.

"So what, you're saying we're that important?"

"Vital. Which is why I'll train you every day in 2 years. You'll master everything that's hidden, everything forgotten and everything forbidden. You will not leave this temple the same as when you entered."

Eldrigan lifted a brow.

"Two years is a long time."

"Is it? Time moves differently here. You'll be in here for two years. But out there? Two weeks. Maybe two minutes, if we're counting before the temple's gate closes. By the time you walk out, it'll be nightfall for your friends up above."

Peroncerea looked at Eldrigan. He looked back. Without speaking, they exchanged a thousand thoughts.

"…Give us time," Eldrigan said at last, turning back to Nelayas. "We'll answer you tomorrow."

Nelayas gave a casual wave.

"Of course! No pressure. Just the fate of a generation hanging in the balance. Sleep tight!"

As they turned and walked toward the ornate threshold that had once barred their path, the air around them thinned. Their lungs filled easier. Peroncerea straightened slightly as her claws retracted.

Eldrigan pushed open the great crystal door.

"Goodbye for now!" Nelayas called from behind them, hovering once more like a feather in a divine storm.

Peroncerea didn't look back but her claws curled just a little tighter as the doors closed.