Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Communion

Valen sat still as the doctor prodded his shirtless body with her stethoscope. Enid watched from a nearby corner with her arms crossed. She’d changed from her stolen hoodie and joggers into her favourite blue trench coat and some proper trousers during the 24 hours he was out. Her eyes were a tiny bit puffy for reasons he was sure definitely did not involve crying.

The doctor, a lamia lady with emerald green scales around her arms and serpentine lower body, pressed the cold chest piece of her stethoscope against his naked back.

“Your heart rate is rather fast but that’s probably just from excitement.” The doctor hung her stethoscope back around her neck. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Valen replied. “Everything aches. It feels like I just got up from a bar brawl.”

A faint throbbing pain remained in his chest where a spear had pierced him in his nightmare. It felt far too real to have just been a dream, but he wasn’t going to look a gift pegasus in the mouth now that he was awake from it.

“Not sssurprising considering what you’ve been through.” The doctor looked at his forearm where the faint red needle mark from an emergency blood transfusion still remained. “It seems your healing factor has been nullified for the moment.”

“I didn’t have much of a healing factor to begin with,” said Valen. “I stopped drinking real blood ages ago.”

A vampire’s healing factor was among the strongest of all races. They could survive just about anything so long as the heart and head remained intact. In return they had to drink blood from sapient races on a regular basis. 

Vampires like Valen who starved their thirst by only drinking substitutes healed barely any faster than humans. To make matters worse, sunlight turned from the uncomfortable annoyance it would be to a well fed vampire into a death sentence upon contact.

“Ah, my missstake.” The doctor’s long forked tongue lisped her Ses. “I had assumed Miss Flamel over here was your donor.”

“He wouldn’t drink my blood whenever I offer it,” said an annoyed Enid.

“I appreciate it,” Valen assured her, “but I practise abstinence on a matter of principle.”

“Well, whatever the case,” continued the doctor, “you seem fit enough to discharge now. I’d recommend you start taking her up on her offer though. It’sss a miracle your body was able to muster enough heal cells to keep you alive after that burglar ssslit your throat.”

Valen tensed up.

“Yes.” The image of the reverse flesh scorpion’s claws flashing in his mind. “I guess I’ve always been quite lucky.”

The doctor chuckled.

“Must be if you’re living with Dragon Rest’s alchemist princess.” She turned to look at Enid. “I’ll arrange to have him discharged right away. It was a pleasure to meet you, Miss Flamel.”

“Likewise.”

Valen waited for the doctor to slither out the room and shut the door behind her before speaking to Enid.

“You didn’t tell her about the flesh scorpion?”

Enid sat down on the visitor’s chair beside his bed. “I wouldn’t have been here waiting for you to wake up if they tossed me into the loony bin first.”

“What, is its electrocuted corpse not enough proof?”

“There wasn’t any of it left.” Enid tapped through a brand new phone she must’ve bought after the first one broke and handed it to him. “Its body dissolved into blood after it died. As far as the police are concerned, this is what happened.”

Her phone showed a recent news article from The Sentinel detailing what happened at her mansion. Three burglars were arrested, two who were currently in an electrocution-induced coma and one still in recovery for minor brain damage and ruptured testicles. There was no mention of a fourth burglar, or of the monster he turned into. The police declined to make a public comment.

“The bloke I knocked out, has he said anything about the Primordial Church?”

“He said he was just a regular burglar,” said Enid. “I’ve told the police to look into the Primordial Church but I don’t think they took me very seriously. The newspaper doesn’t even mention them.”

“We can’t just leave this at that, can it?” Valen handed her back her phone. “It’d be optimistic to think that the Primordial Church would just let us go like that.”

“I’ve arranged for us to live in one of my extra mansions in the meantime.”

Valen didn’t know she had any extra mansions, but her being her, he couldn’t even be arsed to act surprised.

“The potion that started all of this. Did you two manage to save any of it after the bottle shattered?”

“About that.” Enid scratched the back of her head. “How serious were you about that whole abstinence thing?”

A moment of silence passed. The implications clicked inside Valen’s mind.

“Enid…” he started calmly. “I promise I won’t be mad. What did you do while I was out?”

“We force fed you the potion,” she said plainly. “A few drops of it were left on a glass shard so I poured it down your throat while Snowball held your wound shut.” There was a pause before she continued. “Looking back, we probably could’ve just fed you our blood but we were panicking at the time.”

Valen rubbed this throat. His slit throat had completely healed, but a long line of sore flesh remained where it once was. Byron’s words at the sermon echoed in his mind.

“Should your faith ever waver, the blessing you now enjoy will be stripped away…”

“Do I have to worry about the potion wearing off now?” asked Valen.

“Probably not,” said Enid. “It wore off halfway through your ambulance ride. A freaked out paramedic had to stitch your throat back together while his mate gave you a blood transfusion.”

‘Odd,’ Valen thought. A single drop back at the church was able to heal people for presumably months at a time. And yet his ‘blessing’ didn’t even last a full day.

“Well, what’s done is done. You were only trying to save my life anyways. Where’s Louise right now?”

“Right now she’s at work but I’m letting her stay at my mansion until we get this whole thing sorted. Her place was broken into around the same time ours was so the police are investigating it too. My guess is more goons from the Primordial Church.”

“That’s rather thoughtful of you.” Valen felt pleasantly surprised. “I was under the impression you didn’t like her very much.”

“I don’t,” Enid said bluntly. “But Byron already knows where she lives so I couldn’t just let her go back there. Besides, my mansion’s too big for me to notice her tiny arse anyways.”

“How’s she handling the change?”

“She’s been sulky since she got there. I think she’s worried about you.” Enid scrolled through her phone and handed it to him with the screen showing a contact simply named ‘Snowball’. “You want to give her a call?”

“You got her number?” 

Surprise and an odd sense of pride welled up inside Valen. In all the years he’d known her, Enid had always kept to herself whenever possible. To see her finally socialise with someone other than him made him feel like a proud parent seeing their child all grown up and going to college.

“It’s only practical considering we’re all in this mess together,” said Enid, sounding slightly annoyed. “Now are you going to call her or not?”

“I’ll call her.” Valen took her phone and tapped the call button. “Hopefully it’s not a bad time.”

The dial tone rang for a whole two seconds before Louise picked up.

“What is it, Thunder Tits?” came Louise’s voice from the other side. “I’m busy right now.”

Valen smiled. Some things never change. 

“Hey Lou, it’s Valen.”

“Valen?!” Louise’s voice perked up in an instant. “You’re awake? How are you!”

“Still a bit tired but the doctor’s cleared me for discharge.”

“That’s great! Now we can finally figure out how to get ourselves out of this shitshow.”

“We’ll find a way together. Sorry about your flat by the way. Enid told me everything.”

“Ah, it’s no big loss. Thunder Tits’ new digs are much nicer anyways.”

“I’m glad you think so. I’ll be-” Valen suddenly noticed the sound of a motorcycle engine revving at full power on the other side of the phone. He would’ve noticed sooner had he not been so eager to talk. “Wait, Louise, are you on your motorcycle right now?”

“Maybe,” Louise admitted. “I’m delivering a pizza right now. No biggie though. I’m great at multitasking.”

Screeching tires accompanied by half a dozen honking cars on the other side suggested the contrary.

“...Just call me back after your shift, okay?” said Valen after the honking stopped.

“I told you, it’s-”

Valen hung up the call and handed Enid back her phone. “Any idea when she gets off work?”

“She gets off at around midnight, so a few hours from now.”

“Let’s try calling her again then,” said Valen. “I don’t want her getting into an accident because of-”

‘RETURN TO US.’

The voice from his dream bellowed without warning inside his head, nearly making him jump from the bed. He stopped speaking to listen to the air with pursed lips and twitching ears but only heard the nurse gossiping in the hallway. Apparently one of them thought he was cute.

“Valen?” Concern entered Enid’s voice. “Are you feeling okay?”

“Huh?” Valen pulled himself out of his focus. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just a little groggy from all that sleep is all.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Something still felt…off. It was hard to explain, but he could’ve sworn he felt his blood squirm in his veins at times. Like tiny worms struggling to break through his flesh. Still, it wasn’t painful so he simply chalked it up to his blood-starved body reacting to the transfusion.

“Are you sure? I could ask the doctor to extend your stay if you’d like.”

“It’s alright,” Valen insisted. “We vampires are tough and there are plenty of people who’ll need this room more than me.”

It was probably nothing anyways. A mild hallucination caused by the trauma he’d been through manifesting as something he’d seen in his comatose dream. Nothing a nice cup of tea on a soft couch couldn’t fix.

“If you say so.” Enid didn’t look convinced but seemed content to just keep an eye on him for the time being.

Once all the paperwork for his discharge was cleared, Enid pushed him to the parking lot in a wheelchair wearing the clothes Enid had prepared for him; black trousers, a white dress shirt, and one of the many red waistcoats that filled his wardrobe. She even brought him his earring, a single platinum fang encrusted with rubies that he’d inherited from his mother and his most prized possession.

It was odd being the one taken care of for once. Valen had told Enid he didn’t need the wheelchair but she’d have none of it. He couldn’t say he didn’t like having a beautiful woman push him around, but he felt a tad guilty making her have to look after him when he was already living rent free in the house. He’ll have to cook up her favourite meal to make it up to her later. Aubergine lasagne with extra cheese, just the way she liked it.

Enid parked his wheelchair beside the passenger seat of her posh luxury car. Valen climbed inside and leaned back on the soft leather while she started the car.

As Enid drove them down the winding ramps of the hospital’s interior parking lot, his mind wandered back to his dream. Now that he thought of it, was it really too far-fetched to think that it could be more than a dream? After the flesh scorpion attack, nothing should be too absurd to be out of the question.

Maybe the dream was some sort of premonition. Or some vague warning from the gods. Historical accounts suggest that the gods communicated with certain mortals through dreams during the age of gods. Usually it was either a royal being warned of dangers to come as part of their divine right to rule or a chosen hero being told they must go on some epic quest in the name of their patron god.

Valen entertained the thought for less than a minute before shaking his head. Now he was just being daft. He was just a regular bloke who stole from the wrong people. It was stupid to think he was some sort of chosen one destined for something greater by the gods.

He looked out the passenger seat window as Enid drove them off the hospital grounds. The sun had already set, but the city of Dragon’s Rest refused to sleep. Weathered brick buildings that had been there since the birth of industry stood side by side with sleek steel skyscrapers stabbing the heavens to advertise the latest craze on electronic billboards that bathed the ancient streets below with colourful lights.

The city’s inhabitants were just as diverse. Thousands of them scurried about the sidewalks on either side of the street. Although humans made up most of the world’s population as a whole, many demi-human races could still be spotted within the shifting crowd.

Orcs, elves, dwarves, and even the odd vampire or werebeast went about their chaotic lives within the amalgamated masses. Some were eager to get home after a long day at work or partying while their nocturnal counterparts’ night was just starting.

It was a familiar sight to Valen. He’d been part of the crowd itself many times before on account of not having a driver’s licence.

He was content to let his mind drift as he watched it all pass him by only to be jolted back to attention when Enid passed under a bridge, engulfing the car in shadow. 

The darkened glass showed him his own reflection. But instead of the weary expression he felt on his face, the doppelganger that stared back at him had a grim frown and eyes with cloudy white irises and pupils as if cataracted. Its lips opened, and he felt the voice from his dreadful dream echo in his head.

‘YOU CANNOT ESCAPE US.’

Chills ran down Valen’s spine. His lips trembled to muster a response that got stuck in his throat. He felt this heart threaten to burst out of his chest with every quickening beat that caused the blood inside him to roil in a heatless boil. Sweat formed around his pale neck despite the cool air conditioner.

“Hey, Valen, you alright?” Enid’s voice pulled him from his fearful stupor. “You seem a bit on edge.”

“It’s nothing.” Valen rubbed his eyes again. It did nothing to change the blood writhing to be free from his veins but at least his reflection returned to normal-or so he hoped. He didn’t dare to check. “Just my mind playing tricks on me. I’m still a bit tired.”

Enid squinted at the window past him. Then, she turned on the car’s CD player and pressed play. Smooth jazz sung by the soothing vocals of a talented man who’d passed way too song filled the car.

“Lewis Strongarm,” Valen commented. “Excellent choice.”

“I’ve heard you listen to his stuff while painting a lot,” said Enid. “Why don’t you just lay back and take a nap? I’ll wake you up when we arrive.”

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“Not a bad idea.” He adjusted the seat to lean back and made himself comfortable, pushing away the uncomfortable sensation inside his veins by relishing in the plushness of the high quality and probably overpriced cushion. “Thanks, Enid.”

“No problem,” she said. “Just take it easy, yeah? We’re both in this together.”

“Don’t forget Louise.”

“Yeah, yeah, I guess her too.”

Valen smiled. Enid might not know it yet, but he got the feeling that she was warming up nicely to Louise. Never in a million years would he have thought it possible, but the cold disregard in her voice sounded suspiciously familiar to the tone she used on him when they were just getting to know each other.

His eyelids grew heavy. His mind drifted somewhere far away, following the rhythm and lyrics of the soft jazz around until he was whisked away to a peaceful, blissfully dreamless sleep.

“WELCOME HOME, VALEN.”

Valen’s eyes fluttered back open to find himself standing on a ground of pulsating flesh. The cool air conditioner of Enid’s car had been replaced by the foul humidity of a nightmarish forest with trees of bone and a starless sky as red as blood. On the bright side, he could no longer feel his blood squirming inside him.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Valen brought his hands up in preparation for another fight, his eyes darting around him to look for the people and monsters that had killed him the last time he was there.

“BE NOT AFRAID,” came the voice of the nightmare from all around him, its tone lacking in any real warmth or concern. “WE SEEK NOT TO HURT YOU, VALEN.”

“The last time I was here proves otherwise.” Knowing that he would probably wake up after dying gave Valen the little bit of courage he needed to mouth off the formless evil around him just a little. “Also, I’m not quite sure we should be on a first name basis.”

“YOUR LAST VISIT HERE WAS A MISTAKE.”

“This whole place looks like a mistake of the gods,” said Valen. “And you’re a figment of my imagination.”

“YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT, VALEN. THIS IS NO DREAM.”

It was right. Valen was far too aware of everything around him, from the constant heat against his skin to the rotten stench stinking up the smell of blood around him. No dream could feel this real. If it was, he should’ve been lucid enough to change it to his will.

“What do you want?” Valen decided to entertain the voice for the time being, as if he had a choice. “Moreover, what are you?”

“I HAVE ANSWERED YOUR FIRST QUESTION ALREADY. THIS PLACE IS MY REALITY. YOU MORTALS WOULD CALL IT A HEAVENLY REALM.”

“Only the gods have heavenly realms,” said Valen.

Each god had their own heavenly realm from which they ruled the world. If one was particularly pious with a specific god, that god might even allow them to enter their heavenly realm after death.

Back in the age of gods, temples were spiritual portals where energy from a heavenly realm seeped into the mortal world, allowing communion with the gods and the receiving of blessings. Paladins and clerics drew their miracles from them, and when the temples lost their powers, so did they.

“YOU HAVE ANSWERED YOUR OWN QUESTION, VALEN.”

The fleshy ground beneath Valen shook, or rather, convulsed like spasming muscles.

A gaping wound split in the flesh before him, widening until it stretched into a great cavern. The smell of rotten flesh and fresh blood exploded into the air. Valen took an instinctive jump back and waited for a monster to crawl out of the crevice. Considering the other abominations he’d seen here, it could be any number of disturbing things and he mentally prepared himself for it. 

However, the thing that did emerge put every horror he’d ever seen to shame.

First he saw what he thought was the white carapaced limbs of an arachnid and steeled himself to fight another giant scorpion or spider. But then was joined by a giant tentacle slimy with yellow puss, followed by an ape-like arm with bloodsoaked fur, the bony talons of a bird of prey, and many, many more.

Valen thought he would have to fight multiple monsters again and resolved to go down swinging, but the thousand limbs only served to pull up a single enormous beast from the hellish organic depths of the nightmare he now realised to be reality, or some warped alternate version of it.

Before him towered a twisted amalgamation of living things cobbled together into one indescribable organism that could hardly be called ‘alive.’ Every organ and orifice and extremity ever evolved by a living creature made up its writhing form, beating and grasping blindly at the air despite the countless red-white eyes dotted all over it.

At the very centre of the squirming mass of mismatched flesh was the vague shape of a genderless human fused in such a way that it was impossible to tell where it started and the rest of the monstrosity began.

But despite or perhaps because of its horror, a strange and terrible majesty radiated from its very being.

A hidden part of Valen’s brain retained from his primitive ancestors sent an electric chill through his body that left him staring awestruck at what he now knew to be something beyond his understanding. Something more than the biological sum of its bestial parts.

It was the embodiment of life manifested in all its stark, visceral horror. A deity forgotten by history, dead before it could be named and known to those birthed from its amorphous corpse by a single title:

The Unborn God.

Valen’s mind struggled to process what he was seeing but his instincts sensed enough of its hideous divinity to know to be afraid. They screamed at him to kneel. To beg for forgiveness for whatever blasphemous transgression he’d committed to bring him here before its presence.

But if being raised in the Nocturnal District had taught him anything, it was how to stand his ground against monsters.

A sudden surge of willpower allowed him to clench his fists tight, and the pain of his own black claws gouging into his palms jolted his mind awake from its horrified stupor.

Valen looked the Unborn God in the eye, or at least the one closest to him, and tried his best to ignore the headache splitting his skull with every second he didn’t look away.

“What do you want?” He spoke with a low growl, hoping to hide the trembling fear in his voice.

“YOU,” echoed the Unborn God’s voice through a million gaping maws. “THOUGH YOU MAY NOT KNOW IT, YOU ARE A SPECIAL MAN, VALEN.”

“I don’t know many chaps named Valen in this city but I’m quite sure you’ve got the wrong one,” said Valen. “Whatever you’re looking for I’m sure Brother Byron will be glad to volunteer.”

The Unborn God made a noise that almost sounded like a cacophonous scoff filtered through far too many lips to sound natural.

“THAT MAN IS AN INADEQUATE EXAMPLE OF MY FOLLOWERS.”

“Then why do you let him run one of your churches?”

“HE IS BUT THE MEANS TO AN END, ONE THAT YOU NEED NOT CONCERN YOURSELF WITH.” 

“Do you really expect me to trust you after your lot broke into my home?”

“THAT ATTACK WAS A…MISUNDERSTANDING. NOTHING MORE.”

“Enlighten me then.” The initial fear Valen felt subsided. Looking at the Unborn God gave him a headache, but the throbbing pain mercifully dulled his ability to comprehend its form enough for him to not go mad.

“BYRON ALLOWED MY BLOOD TO BE STOLEN AND CLAIMED YOU WERE TO BLAME. RIGHTLY SO, IT APPEARS.”

Valen’s eye twitched when he resisted the urge to avert them. To be entirely fair, he and Louise did steal the Unborn God’s blood from the church. He just didn't know it would lead to all this.

“NO MATTER. THE SACRED BLOOD MY FOLLOWERS SOUGHT NOW FLOWS WITHIN YOU.”

Valen touched his own throat, recalling how Enid fed him the Unborn God’s blood to save his life.

“What’s happened to me?”

“YOU HAVE TAKEN THE FIRST STEP TO BECOMING ONE WITH ME, AS ALL THINGS WILL IN TIME.”

“I didn’t want this,” said Valen. “Your people were willing to kill me and my friends.”

“THERE IS NO POINT IN WALLOWING IN THE PAST.” The Unborn God’s cold tone cut through the humid air. It spoke matter-of-factly, as he was the unreasonable one for being angry at the attempt on his friends' life. “VALEN, I OFFER YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE SOMETHING GREATER THAN YOURSELF.”

There it goes again, using his name like it knew him. A paltry trick of psychology, trying to make him let down his guard by pretending to be closer to him than it really was and hoping he’ll play along.

“I didn’t intend to get involved with your lot,” said Valen in earnest. “Why do you want me?”

Valen focused his attention to the centre of the Unborn God’s amalgamated mass. The vague humanoid shape there allowed him to almost pretend like he was talking to something like a person if he squinted real hard. Almost.

“ALL WHO CONSUMED MY BLOOD ARE CONNECTED WITH EACH OTHER THROUGH THIS REALM, BUT YOU ARE THE FIRST TO RETAIN THEIR SENSE OF SELF HERE-OR TO COMPREHEND MY VOICE WHILST ALIVE.”

“Why me?”

The million eyes narrowed at him all at once, each gaze sending sharp pain into his skull like tiny needles. Valen blinked and looked away in a fruitless attempt to alleviate himself.

“THOSE RED EYES MARK YOU AS ROYAL BROOD. THE DIVINE RIGHT TO RULE FLOWS IN YOUR VEINS, DRAWING YOU CLOSER TO THE GODS THAN THE COMMON RABBLE.”

Valen wasn’t sure what the hell it was talking about. He knew his mother was a noble who immigrated from the Necropolis Empire as a refugee, but not much else. She always told him that she’d tell him more about her homeland when he was older but died before that could happen.

Whatever the case, he wasn’t just going to forget what happened when he first arrived in this nightmare.

“Is that why you had your followers kill me last time?” Valen forced himself to look up at the thing calling itself a god. “Why the change of mind?”

The Unborn God shuddered. The flesh ground beneath it shook. Valen couldn’t tell whether it was angry or amused at him mouthing off, if it could even feel such emotions.

“ROYAL BLOOD OR NO, I HAVE NO USE FOR COWARDS. THAT WAS TEST, TO SEE IF YOU WERE WORTHY OF SOMETHING GREATER.”

The flesh under Valen’s feet undulated in its closest approximation of an earthquake, forcing him to take a step back to steady himself. “What are you talking about?”

The appendages of every animal that ever existed raised itself high into the blood red sky in rapturous prayer.

“O HOLY DAY!!! FATED TO COME WITH NO SEER LEFT TO FORETELL IT. I HAVE GLIMPSED INTO YOUR MEMORIES, VALEN VASILIS. ALL THE STRUGGLES YOU HAVE GONE THROUGH. THE TRAGEDIES YOU HAVE ENDURED. THE PAIN YOU HAVE SUFFERED. THEY ALL SERVED TO BRING YOU BEFORE ME.”

“What do you want from me?” Terror reignited inside Valen, only kept in check by confusion.

“YOU WALK AMONGST THE MORTALS, YET ARE ABLE TO SPEAK TO ME WITHIN YOUR DREAMS. I SEE NOW THAT YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO BE A MERE SERVANT STRUGGLING TO HEED WORDS WHISPERED FROM HAZY DREAMS.” 

The human shape at the centre of the Unborn God shivered in apparent ecstasy as its million mouths screeched its words into the warped heavens above. 

“YOU WILL BE MY PROPHET, VALEN VASILIS! WITH YOU AS MY VOICE IN THE MORTAL WORLD, I WILL NO LONGER HAVE TO WHISPER IN THE DARK CORNERS OF MORTAL MINDS. YOU SHALL DECLARE MY GOSPEL LOUD AND CLEAR FOR ALL TO HEAR! REJOICE, FOR YOU ARE TO SIT AT THE HEAD OF THE PRIMORDIAL CHURCH, THE RIGHTFUL FAITH OF MY WORLD!” 

“Your world?”

“ALL LIFE ON YOUR PLANET SPAWNED FROM MY BLOOD. THE OTHERS GODS WHO FILLED YOUR HEARTS WITH GREED AND SIN HAVE WITHDRAWN THEMSELVES FROM THE WORLD. ONLY I REMAIN TO RECLAIM MY BIRTHRIGHT, AND I SHALL REBIRTH THIS WORLD IN BLOOD WITH YOU AS MY VOICE! IT IS YOUR DESTINY.”

Again Valen was reminded of just what he was talking to. This thing was a god. The very first one, born from the Divine Mother and Father long before the fourteen gods he worshipped even existed.

Fear froze him in place. But there was something else too, keeping him from falling to his knees and accepting the grand calling being offered to him.

Valen had grown up hearing stories of the gods. His mother, a noblewoman forced to flee from her motherland, told him the romantic tales of knights being sent on divine quests. His older sister Vivian, a pious woman who would’ve made a fine priestess had their mother not died, taught him the holy teachings of the gods left behind in sacred text. In his darkest moments he’d wonder why they refused to answer his prayers.

Maybe they did give him the opportunity to achieve his goals but he was just too stupid to see it. Or perhaps they wanted him to help himself so that he could be stronger in the long run. Tough love and all that.

But standing before one of their ilk, a god in truth, a single emotion overwhelmed his awe and terror. It wasn’t reverential joy for being chosen, or anger at the failures of the gods.

It was disappointment.

The Unborn God spoke with childish entitlement, laying claim to a world that has had to survive without its help and acting as if being forced to serve it was a privilege. If this is what a god was really like, then maybe it was for the best that they all left the world.

“...No,” Valen whispered under his breath after a long pause.

“NO?” The Unborn God repeated back to him. It almost sounded offended.

“Just...no.”

A tense silence fell between them, disturbed only by the soft squishy squirms of the slimy tentacles among the Unborn God’s myriad limbs. 

The primordial god and the failed medical student looked at each other in disbelief at what the other said. After an eternity of waiting for someone to speak, it was the Unborn God who finally let out a long, million-mouthed sigh that made the flesh beneath them to shiver from the vibrations.

“SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT.”

A shard of white cut through the air. Valen didn’t even have time to process what it was until he felt the warmth pour from his body. He looked down and saw the white barbed tail of a stingray sticking out of his chest. It led back to the Unborn God, into a writhing menagerie of other writhing limbs.

The stingray tail tore itself from his chest, its barbed tip ripping away flesh and bone as it did. Pain shot through his nerves. His knees gave way under him, no longer able to support his broken body.

He fell onto the fleshy ground. The living flesh burned against his cheek as he struggled to look up at his killer.

The Unborn God glared at him with disdain in every single one of its innumerable red-white eyes. The last thing Valen heard before his consciousness drifted into darkness was its voice echoing all around him.

“YOU WILL DIE A THOUSAND DEATHS SHOULD YOU CONTINUE TO REFUSE MY CALL. MY FOLLOWERS WILL NOT OFFER THE COMPASSION I HAVE SHOWN TODAY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.”

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