The Maelstrom Serpent
After all we’d been through, we finally confronted him. The monster who’d killed hundreds of innocent people, ruined countless lives, and planned to do far worse. We were going to stop him from completing his twisted apotheosis.
He didn’t even have to turn to face us. With a stray thought and a flick of his finger, he knocked us all off our feet. Evil, so concentrated I could taste it, pounded away at us. We were all inches away from death. I watched as his form grew larger and even more monstrous; eyes, limbs, tentacles,claws, and horns all appearing where they should not. I watched him as he held that crystal aloft, it slowly becoming a part of him. And something inside me said “No.”
Just a small voice, at first. Just disbelief at what I was seeing. But then I realized. This man was going to destroy everything I ever loved, everything I believed in. He wasn’t going to stop at destruction. He’d mold the universe into a twisted vision of himself. Righteous, protective rage spread through, as that small denial turned into a raging yell against a destiny that led to such horror. I could not let him win.
He’d already forgotten us, fully engrossed in his growing power. He didn’t notice as I pulled myself to my feet. The rage passing through me gave me strength I didn’t know I had. An energy boiled through me that I couldn’t identify. Green mists began to coalesce at my feet, and although I could not see it at the time, I began to change as well. I grew taller, and my clothes took on the appearance of seaweed. My hair looked like great waves, tossing in the storm of my fury. My eyes glowed radiant blue. In a way, I became the ocean itself.
Now, I had the monster’s attention. He swung around, attacking with all of his might. The blow struck me to the core. His evil was so strong, it pervaded every sense. Looking upon him, my vision faltered and failed, only seeing a terrible warped something. My hearing was filled with the screams of the dying. I could smell and taste the horrible, familiar reek of blood both old and freshly spilt. My skin crawled, and my sense of balance left me. I nearly fell then, but I couldn’t allow it to happen. I gathered my will, and somehow, I weathered his attack.
My revulsion and disgust mixed with my fury and fear. Suddenly, I lunged, grabbing him by two of his horns. Another wave of his corruption washed over me. And I changed in form again, this time into something far more monstrous than some man of the sea. I became a titanic serpent forged from flesh, lightning, wind, and sea. I grew so large, that I seemed to fill the very skies themselves. In my mind was only one thought.
Destroy the unclean godling.
I struck back, with a force that shook the both the earth and the seas. Even on the brink of his godhood, the monster was no match for me. I utterly crushed him in that one single blow, tearing him asunder and destroying him forever. No longer a man, he didn’t even receive an afterlife. There was none that could give him the torment he’d earned. He went into the void, and it devoured him, even as he would have devoured the universe. In the end, nothing of him remained. He had no soul to pass onward.
The danger over, I diminished back into my human form, just barely aware of what I had just done. I saw a bright flash, and instinctively, I caught the crystal the beast had gained his power from. It looked like a single, large teardrop. I paused for an instant, took in a breath and held it to my heart. And time stopped.
A vast voice, ancient beyond imagining, said to me “Look upon your misdeeds, sinner, and despair.”
I thought for a while. I wasn’t a bad person. Sure, I’d done a few things in my life I wasn’t proud of, but nothing I could really say I hadn’t come to terms with long ago. Mostly, I’d just tried to live my life the best I could, and treat others the way I wanted them to treat me. I hadn’t really ever thought of it, but I wasn’t really much of a “sinner”.
“How can this be? This world is corrupt and dying!” The voice sounded shocked.
Corrupt? Dying? What about common decency? I couldn’t believe that the world as a whole was an evil place. Surely there was more good in the world than evil.
“Perhaps… I was wrong. Maybe there was hope, and I saw incorrectly…” The voice faded.
Suddenly, I felt power rushing into me. Instead of holding it in, I simply let it flow through and out of me. I’d had enough of supernatural might for one day. Still, the power continued to flow without ceasing. I realized it was flowing from me now. I was the source. The crystal was no longer in my hand. I realized that I was now a god myself. I couldn’t stay among humanity now. I was too powerful.
So I left my companions, and live alone on the sea now, fishing. It’s the one thing I have left from before all the excitement and danger began. The years come and go. Occasionally, I cross paths with other fishermen in the night, far from shore. We talk about the state of the world. I was correct, it is a better place than the god’s tear thought it was. And though I may spend an evening with them, I’m gone before morning.
After all, it’s not a god’s place, to meddle in the matters of mortals.