Chapter 18: Villain

BELIAL

You humans love to blame me. After all, I'm a demon. I have giant horns, a long snakelike body, large teeth, and thick armor capable of stopping a small jet plane plowing at me at full speed. But I tell you, it is all your fault. You humans, with your prayers for dinner, prayers for good fortune, prayers for marriage, prayers even for politicians that you don't like.

In the beginning, there were God and the Reapers. Then God made the Nephilim, and we were sure that we were the favorite creation. We had long life, power even to move the stars at a whim. Then God made this world, an infinite plane that gradually expands out.

In the beginning, there was only the Ancient Earth, a connected land known as Pangaea, wrapped around a North Pole. Then it expanded from the center, the North Pole becoming a new Southern Rim for the second layer. I destroyed all humans, and tried to destroy the hybrids of this first world. I had a generation of beings that did not know Jesus and did not know of the other religions, so young were they to the new layer, that they were easy prey. But that damned accursed fox survived, thwarting my third plan to subvert humanity.

"But why?" you humans ask. Why would I empty the Ancient Earth of all life? Why would I work again on the Middle Earth, tempting them with a Ring of Power until all were corrupted. Oh yes, I imagine you thought Tolkien's writings were a fairy tale. But unlike his rosy story, the hobbits, elves, dwarves, and humans all succumbed to their darkest desires.

Why? Why indeed. In the beginning, we admired humanity, except for a few angels who were quickly banished from God's sight. It would not do to question God's creation after all. Satan (or as he was known then, Lucifer) had warned us, that it would not do to associate closely with humanity, for they were not like us. Nevertheless, I was fascinated with humans and their sexy bodies... I mean, their free will and their sharp minds capable of any sort of thought, not only that thought which we had known before (in service of God alone). And since humans liked to mate with anything, beings with ten horns, forty eyes, or eyes and hands where there normally weren't would only further appeal to them. The result were humans born with the power and ambition of the Nephilim, but the mortality and free will of humanity. These beings quickly set to work on science, particularly the construction of laboratories to make new life forms. The primary reason for such labs was simple, they wanted to become a creation of their own rather than of God. Secondary, but no less important was the depraved human desire to mate.

God simply destroyed these beings by flood, yet saved some of their creations. But to us, the penalty wasn't so wonderful. The Nephilim who turned away from God and did this (and those who rejected humans earlier) became Fallen, the greater demons. And every new Nephilim became split into one angel and one demon for balance. I looked at the sorry state that my kin had been reduced to, all because of humans. Meanwhile, they continued to pray their loud prayers, spiritual energy that now burned our skin and reminded us of what we had lost.

And so, pretending to be an angel of light, I introduced mankind to technology and science. I showed them how to understand the world so that they could control it. I also introduced them to the idea that religion ought not to be mixed, when I allowed religion at all. Each religion began to compete for the right to be considered the right religion, with all others being wrong. And so, religious wars started. But I discovered that influence of religion had an overall positive effect on world peace, all except the religion that I helped establish. And so, I spread a lie that religion was the cause of most of the violence in the world, when in fact, people were capable of evil just on the basis of land, oil, or gold. Or pretty gems.

I subverted both the Ancient Earth and the Middle Earth, and now was the third age. I was sure of victory, fox or no fox. One day, God would realize that humans were a poor fit for this world, that they were a virus or parasite, and that the climate needed to change to suit us. The Nephilim would once again be as God planned for them, and these humans would either cease to exist or serve us as lesser creatures. It didn't help that humans mistreated me when I visited towns. I would snuff the hope that these humans had and make the world descend into darkness.

GOD

You humans love to blame me, too. Ah well. Before I formed Belial in the primal essence I knew him, before he was created I set him apart; I intended him as a demon to darken the nations. This may seem strange that I would deliberately create a demon through sketchy actions, but humanity needs an evil to blame. Truth be told, they blamed Satan, who had actually never become Fallen, who was dutifully accusing humans, demons, and even me. Who I appointed over the lands of the demons to punish them with their own wickedness. As for Belial, I ordained it so that few people would ever have heard of him, even as he destroyed the Ancient Earth and Middle Earth. You may ask, "Why?" I had appointed Jesus even as far back as the Ancient Earth. Why had he not come to save all humanity? Why was this world destroyed not once, but twice?

All of this is based on an assumption. Human beings assume that I gave Jesus to save them from misfortune in this life. But the true purpose of his life, death, and resurrection was to merge with humanity. Just as humans, he lived and he died, and the humans in turn would be born again like him. They would receive an Afterlife, and they would be able to reincarnate if they desired. Death was now only an illusion where for a brief time, all suffering came from the idea that those who were not worthy (which included all humanity) would die, and everything they made would be snuffed out. Yes see, if there is an Afterlife, and not one only for people who are "good enough" but for merfolk, dryads, angels, demons, and even the worst sorts of people, then nothing that happens to this world matters.

John Forbes Nash Jr came up with game theory, known as Nash Equilibrium. The theory goes that a mixed result will exist for any zero-sum game with a finite set of actions. For example, if five men compete for the same woman, none of them will get the girl. None of them will also get the other girls, because they are now second choice. A zero-sum game ultimately arrives at the happiness of absolutely nobody. The guys don't get the girl, the girls don't get a date, and for the time being, none of them got what they wanted. Similarly, in the end of World War I, Germany was handed all of the blame and all of the war debt. This in turn resulted in World War II, and the massacre of millions of Jews.

Belial seemed to win twice, but in actuality, I had designed demons as sadists. Their real wish was to have a land where they could punish each other, and where any human visitors would find that their powers of prayer were greatly reduced. But they were not ready for this, so I showed Belial and the other demons the cost of total victory. They would try again and again, but the time was growing short for the ages of total destruction. Next time, I would act.

BELIAL

It was time to make a new plan. This time, I would come up with an idea to extinguish the light of humanity forever. If this world expanded outward, nullifying everything that I did, then I had no choice but to darken the core itself. It would make the Earth a land of eternal Void. In this way, no new life would be created, because everything born would start to disappear. A Realm of Void, I called it. I would thwart God's plans this time. Soon all would fall into darkness. I wish I knew what Rena had planned as well. I would not allow her to tamper with my ambitions.

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