Chapter 189: The Day God Became A Demon (II)
The following years were eventful, to say the least. The child — now named Seth — was subjected to the ire of his father for the harm he had caused. Geb, the God of the earth, knew of the prophecy where his younger son would be the protector of the new Kingdom, and so he couldn't kill him. Nonetheless, that did not mean he couldn't pull him through endless misery when it came to training.
It didn't help his rage when Ra got interested in him, saying he would be a fine addition to his forces while on his boat. That, coupled with the seeking of approval his 'son' had, made him sick. He still didn't understand what went wrong with that monstrosity.
To add salt to his injury, Seth was, in his own words, a damnable prodigy. No matter the challenges, he always overcame them. Some with more difficulty than others, but the end result was the same. He learned everything quickly and seemingly without effort. He even learned how to gain a humanoid form from his animal one in only one year when others take hundreds to do the opposite.
What troubled Geb were the instances where he made him fight some of his servants. Specifically, the ones with more battle experience. For the most part, he looked like a kid doing his best at a task someone he wanted to impress had imparted on him; filled with determination. However, if for some reason he felt his life was being threatened, he would become a sadistic bastard that relished in their pain.
The new world valued individuality above all else. Each person had something that distinguished them from the rest and made them unique. And yet, Seth was able to take that individuality away, making them think that there was no meaning to their existence.
He beat them with their own battle styles, their own techniques, and their own mannerisms. He was stripping them of their sense of self.
The child always returned to normal after the fights, but that did little to calm him down. Geb was a hundred percent sure that was the start of his awakening as a proper God. He was beginning to develop his first Authority. It was not surprising since he was being trained quite harshly, but the rate of growth was the problem itself. The shadow was becoming too big for the light to properly shine.
He had caught both Seth and Osiris together once, and despite doing nothing more than playing, the disparity between them could be seen with the naked eye. If he did, naturally others did so as well. There were already people that were more inclined to support the younger brother more than the eldest one when it came to taking the Throne. Among those, Ra seemed to be the most outspoken one; already classifying him as the 'ultimate weapon' at their disposal, even though he was not more than ten years old.
Something had to be done to prevent that, and so he did. With the excuse of further development, he exiled him to the demonic wastelands in the far south.
Not one to complain, and wanting to prove himself, Seth merely accepted the orders and did as he was told... a decision he would soon come to regret.
What awaited him were the hardest battles of his relatively young life. A wild variety of powerful enemies made sure he couldn't take it easy even for one bit. Foreign Gods and Magical Beasts with the same level of power as them abounded in the thousands, making it so that he was always in constant fights.
As he didn't have a specific date to return, he didn't focus on that, choosing to increase his strength as much as possible instead.
Much to his — until then — undiscovered anger, that wasn't as easy as it seemed at first. He tasted defeat, again and again, something that had never happened before. The beings there were on a league of their own. Their moves were too fast to follow, their power too incomprehensible to understand, and their language too foreign to communicate.
His frustration kept pilling at the repeated failures. The only way he was able to come out alive was because he barely escaped or his enemies didn't see him as someone worth killing. It was certainly humiliating, but it had become a routine, so it was manageable somehow.
The continuous defeats were certainly painful. Nevertheless, they were not meaningless. He wanted to be strong like them, he wanted to have what allowed them to win over him; he wanted to possess that superiority they had when he laid defeated beneath them, and above all, he wanted to beat them at their own game.
Through the incessant losses, he learned a valuable lesson. After two years of being there, he understood that relying on strength alone wouldn't cut it. If he wanted to emerge victorious, he would have to study his enemies.
So, he observed them.
Be it day or night; sunny or rainy, it didn't matter. Seth kept hiddenly looking at their behavior. What they did and what they did not. How they reacted to certain situations. What sounds they used to communicate. What they feared and what they disdained. Even if it was a small and involuntary gesture, he noticed and registered it all.
He evolved to hunt.
Seth went for the 'weaker' Magical Beasts first. Taking cover, he imitated the cries of distress of each individual race, making them rush to the aid of their 'companion.' Unfortunately for them, they found nothing on the location where the sound came from, only their deaths.
The pattern repeated itself, every time with more powerful creatures. Some of them were way wary, so he used different methods, but in the end, he still succeeded in killing them. The feeling of tricking them was beginning to elate him more and more.
Once he discovered he had a talent for deceiving others, he instantly unlocked his first Authority. That moment was possibly the one where he felt more elation in his life. Where before he had to physically fool those monsters, now he could do it with just a thought.
He could walk in front of them looking like their own species; make them kill each other by forcing them to mistake their kind for an enemy and even control them to his liking. The youth had never felt so good in his life, so... in control of himself and his actions.
There were more powerful Magical Beasts to kill, but through his observations, he came to a hard truth: he was not strong enough to beat them. The reason being they were on the level of High Gods.
That was why Seth decided to change his target to Minor Gods instead. As they were similar to him in appearance and habits, it was easier for him to replicate their doings.
He didn't go randomly, though. The kid specifically searched for those that had beaten him in the past and hunted them down one by one. He defeated them exactly in the way they had defeated him, and he spared their lives with eyes full of disdain in the same way they had done in the past.
The young Seth felt invincible. Each time, he battled a stronger enemy than the last, amassing victory after victory. His Authority made things so much easier than how they had been before.
He had conquered the wastelands as much as he could, and not counting those truly powerful beings outside of his scope, he had defeated everything that stood on his path.
The young Seth understood that he would not get stronger by staying there. Yet, he was clueless as to what to do to achieve that. That was the reason why he decided to come back to his homeland almost three years later after he left it. Surely his father would be proud for once the moment he told him of his exploits. Strangely, though, finally getting to hear his progenitor's praise didn't make him as excited as before.
However, as soon as he came to the decision of leaving that place, his whole being froze quite literally. His breath stopped in place and his shaking eyes widened. His evil side was recoiling in fear, while his good one was sending alarm bells through his whole being.
He had felt many negative emotions during his short life, but he had never felt fear until now. His mind was beginning to crumble down from the sheer intensity of the said feeling. Although unaware to him, he was still a mix of many different Magical Beasts. It was as if each of those were reacting differently and uniting that in a heightened sensation.
Along with fear, came despair. His mind was telling him he was going to die; his instincts told a similar story, and his core as a God had done nothing more than to give up to an unavoidable fate—one that would surely come to pass if the thing that just appeared out of nowhere behind him didn't disappear right at that instant.
"You do not have to be so afraid of me, kiddo. I assure you I don't bite." Those were the first words Apep directed at Seth. And yet, none of that was registering into his mind. He couldn't even turn to look at the speaker, still being frozen in place.
The Great Serpent merely shook his head in a mixture of amusement and exasperation, lowering his level of strength to manageable levels. Only then was the youngster capable of moving to see who was behind that enormous pressure.
White hair and pants that extremely contrasted with the evilness he felt coming from him. A naked upper body that didn't hide his toned chest, along with two extra arms. He also had a pair of black wings on his back, as well as another but smaller in the sides of his head.
Golden eyes stared at his own red ones, seemingly searching for something which, going by how his expression lit up slightly, he quickly found it.
The man nodded while stroking his chin as if praising himself for a work well done. However, in Seth's mind, it looked as if the person in front of him was deciding if he was going to eat him raw or use the surrounding plants as condiments.
Not minding his reaction, Apep picked the frozen Seth by the neck before disappearing from the place they were in.
They reappeared on a mountain cliff shortly after, causing a bit of dizziness on the younger God, who was not accustomed to speeds of that caliber.
Once he made sure they were far away from prying eyes, the Great Serpent let go of Seth—the said kid scurrying away faster than what he thought was possible. Unfortunately for him, there was not much space to run, so he didn't end up getting very far.
He didn't know what to do in this situation. Prior to this, when he encountered someone he knew wouldn't win, he would try to escape as soon as possible without drawing their attention. But he knew it wouldn't be possible to pull that off since the individual in front of him was on a scale of his own.
His cautious nature seemed to only amuse Apep further. Nonetheless, he didn't 'kidnap' him just to enjoy his show of fear, and he let that be known to the youngster. He was there to train him into an absolute warrior.
Seth skeptically refused, saying that his father hadn't ordered such a course of action, hence, that would not be happening at all. What he didn't know, though, was that it was not up to him.
Apep explicitly told his future successor that they would be training no matter what. He appealed to his inability of battling those stronger than him while he was here...an argument that Seth quickly shut down by answering that they were way older than him, and so he couldn't be blamed for being on the weaker side.
The smug way in which he replied despite being filled with fear made Apep have tick marks on his forehead. The Great Serpent immediately knew that this kid had been born to be the death of him.
"One half of you does not want to fight, but you will have to regardless of your desires or standings. What the future holds for you is beyond your comprehension, so you will need the strength to face it. And, if you are still not convinced, I will promise to give you what you desire the most were you to impress me." Or so he said to the young God with a gaze that seemed to hold the knowledge of the whole universe within it.
Seth would have liked to deny his words right on the spot, but for some reason, he could not bring himself to do so. The reason why he disliked training was that it was the only thing he did on a daily basis. He wanted to do other things like play with his brother who he regarded very highly, but his father always got angry at him when he did, and so he tried to do it in secret.
It was always training this, training that for him. For some reason, his father insisted on it without minding his wishes. That was why he tried to impress his father through what was asked of him, but it was never enough...
It made him ask himself what was the point of going through that if the result was always the same. Seth wondered from time to time if there was a hidden purpose to all of this training he did, but he never got an answer, and when he insisted, punishment ensued. He wouldn't mind it if it was just himself, but his father always tended to involve his caretaker as well.
As a God, he was sturdy, but that couldn't be said about Anjed. He was one of the first perfect 'experimental slaves' as the older Gods called the newly created race who were meant to serve them. A punishment meant for someone like him to feel pain would be a nightmare for those weaker.
It was at those times were something pulsed within him. A surge of unknown emotions that wished for nothing but the destruction of everything. It made him think of himself as an entirely different person, and yet he did not know why.
His mind hurt and became confused from time to time. Young as he might be, he knew his condition was abnormal. There was no way wishing for both good and bad to happen in a certain situation was something typical. For him to desire for people to live and die with the same intensity, for him to wish the continuation of the world and the end of it with equal fervor when asked about it... It was not normal.
He wanted none of that. But, what did he truly want? Even he did not know about that. If he didn't know, why would the stranger do?
Once again, he found himself wanting to deny him, and once again, he found himself unable to do so. Those eyes had something that prevented any refusal from coming off his mouth: it was certainty. There was not a single shred of doubt in them.
Against his judgment that he had honed through his time in the wastelands, Seth chose to answer the white-haired individual's question with one of his own.
"What do I desire the most?" When he asked that question, he half-expected to be turned down—or worse yet: being told that he would know in the future only if he accepted his offer. However, much to his surprise, he received a clear answer.
"You desire two things; one tied to the other. But I can only tell you of the first, young one. What you wish for is to be free of the yoke the Gods imposed on you in the form of sweet lies. To cut off the strings that make you a puppet in this cage called the world. In summary, you want freedom." For the second time since meeting him, Seth found himself frozen in place. This time, though, it was not due to fear.
Freedom... He repeated that word over and over again in his mind. It was so foreign yet it seemed to speak to him on an unbelievable deep level. His chest felt heavy but in a good way. He finally felt as if he had recovered one of the many missing pieces that completed his persona.
If there was some hesitation before, now there was none. With an enthusiasm that overshadowed his previous fear, he spoke the words that would mark him for the rest of his life.
"Please teach me how to be free. I want to be able to soar the sky with my own wings."
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