Factory Reset: Divine Corruption

Chapter Seventy-One

Chapter Seventy-One: The Certain Silence

Death.

The certain, immutable constant of the universe. Preventable, reversible, but ever looming. Like a great specter over all things living and nonliving. Entropy, decay, non-existence. The permanent festering plight upon the universe, ever encroaching, held at bay by flimsy science.

Ja'Kle felt death approaching. Like an awaiting feral animal, death jumped towards him as the Revaculant took his swing. A swirling blade, aiming to strip the Mosomarian of life, of existence, of conscious thought. And Ja'Kle could only watch on in requisite terror as the twang of the blade echoed around him.

It was as if the universe exploded. Heat bubbled to the surface in less than an attosecond. Reality was lit aflame as Ja'Kles instinct of self-preservation, mixed with his two abilities, manifested itself. The pressure created by his Blessing coating his body in that instant sent the Revaculant flying, impacting the black barrier around them.

Ja'Kle felt himself rise in the air, his wings long, glossy and reflectant. Coated in the substance, globs of the dark absent matter shifted off of his body. His wings flicked large slabs of the matter against the blessed walls. Ja'Kle felt the heat strike him, but it felt much more like a pleasant warmth after a cold shower than the hellish heat the Revaculant felt.

The creature burned. The long billowing pillars of smoke and flame charring his body in a near instance. The Hell Fire ruptured and destroyed his cells, burning them to an ashy dust within the first few seconds.

"Wasting..." Ja'Kle commented, pursing his eyebrows as he sought for what that could mean. He had been thinking of the blessing like a hard-light ring. He could create constructs from the absent matter. But, it appeared, he could do so much more.

And then, that same certain silence came to claim the Revaculant. With the blessing of a God, Ja'Kle could see the "reaper" come for the being. A force so omnipotent that it should have been impossible to view with the naked eye. And yet, with the blessing of a God, Ja'Kle could see.

Death. Maybe the God of Death or passing, whichever it was. A being itself enshrined in a cloak of dust and black smoke. It was in the corner of the room, observing the group as the flames licked the Revaculant, somehow still living despite the fires eating away. It stood there, unmoving.

It's cloak was of dust and blood and smoke. It's flesh was barely perceivable, translucent as the smoke that constituted it's clothing. It was rotting, decayed and black. It appeared bloody, and yet - it was not a terrifying presence. It was not even scary to glance at it. It was calming, even.

"Death comes to those that deserve it, and those that fate wishes." It pronounced, a bone-chilling crack of bones and solidified muscles resounding throughout the room, omnipotent over the sound of the flames, "You are not meant to die here. You are not meant to die."

Ja'Kle knew that he should feel terror, he knew that he should be freaking out - and yet, he wasn't. A feeling of serene calmness overshadowed his mind. The God's, or the Deity's, presence contained that calming effect, even as the Revaculant burned.

"More are coming. Use that blessing to its fullest. Laymen and Gods alike are unused to the power of a mortal wielding divine influence. Use it, and succeed in your mission." Death spoke to him calmly, slowly. There was no mistaking what he said - There were more coming, and there was very little they could all do to stop them.

In the next instant, reality shifted back. The black box he constructed disappeared without a trace, without a sound. The calming presence of death left in that instance too, leaving the paranoid fear of not knowing what to do. All that was left was screaming.

Screaming. They're screaming.