When the Final Seal Breaks

Interlude- A Story

The goddess, having successfully made herself a wonderful little world, set it in motion and fell in love with it. After a while she decided to bless everyone with magic so it would be more exciting, but still found that it fell a little flat. She then sped up time, so that things would happen faster. But she still thought it wasn't exciting enough.

She came up with another idea. She found the ashen one, who had not made a world for himself, and opened a pathway to allow him to live in her world as the First Guest. With a second God, wouldn't things become more exciting?

But the ashen one wasn't interested in stirring anything up, he merely watched over the world silently, wondering what he could learn for the day he decided to make his own.

So, she tried again. This time she made a grandiose Sky Domain and opened a pathway to another world in it. In through that door came a young man with red eyes, who she blessed with magic and granted a wish.

She then watched as he used the gifts she had given him to make her world so much more exciting. She enjoyed it for a while but thought that perhaps the Second Guest was a little too unmatched.

Invigorated by the success of her plan, she decided the best way to make it more exciting again was to invite another guest. This time, she picked an unassuming forest, and placed a pathway to another world, and this time, a child entered through it. The Goddess blessed her with magic and a wish and sent her off into the world as the Third Guest.

Despite her unassuming stature, the Third Guest masterfully wielded magic, and overthrew the Second Guest after an epic journey that culminated in an exciting battle in the Sky Domain, sealing away the red eyed young man.

But, once the child had finished her quest, she merely returned home.

The Goddess was sad, but she now had a way to keep her world exciting. So, she opened a fourth pathway on the roof of the King's Castle and a young woman, the Fourth Guest, fell through it.

She blessed the Fourth Guest with magic and a wish, just as she always had, but realised she had made a terrible mistake. Her world could not support four pathways.

The fourth pathway collapsed on itself, leaving the Fourth Guest no way to return. The goddess wasn't worried though, she instead settled in to watch what excitement her new arrival would bring.

But, despite everything the Fourth Guest did nothing. She didn't fight anyone, she didn't start anything. She simply used the skills granted to her by her wish to live a quiet but fulfilling life. And the Goddess, who found that new pathways would simply collapse before any new Guests could join her, grew too bored. She herself eventually passed through the first pathway, back to the place she and the ashen one were from and hadn't returned.

So, the ashen one watched over the world, not as their god but as the First Guest.

***

"So, I Have Been Watching The World. And I Wanted To Call You Here To Help Guide You."

It was a lot to swallow, but it matched with what he knew... at least aside from the personality of the one he used to think of as the Goddess of the world. The Second Guest was the Demon Lord, and the Third Guest was Lil.

"Why did you stop me from entering Lil's world?"

"Time Flows Differently There, And I Was Worried That It Might Be Harmful For Inhabitants Of This World To Go There. Lil Mentioned She Doesn't Age Here, Right? I Believe You Might Have The Opposite Problem In Her World."

He pulled out Lil's cell phone and looked at the screen. She said one week in her world was a year in theirs, and the numbers on the screen had proved it to her. He wanted to believe it. "You mean I'd age quickly."

"I Can't Say For Certain, But Even If You Don't, Spending Time There Would Delay Her Rescue By A Lot. Since I Assume You Will Be The One To Do It."

Orleris looked back up. "Why me?"

"Do You Know Why Lilia Didn't Let You Finish Your Tenure As King Of The Sealed Forest?"

"Wasn't she just scared?" His younger cousin wasn't ready for the responsibility that came with guarding the forest. That was what the letter had said when she ran away from Central.

"Lilia Has The Power Of Foresight. She Foresaw Lil's Return. She Thought That Lil Would Return Before It Was Her Time To Enter The Sealed Forest, But As It Got Closer And Lil Did Not Appear, She Got Scared And Ran Away. When She Ran Away, She Told Her Parents That It Had To Be You In The Forest When Lil Returned."

Since Lilia had run away so early, and promised to come back in time, no one had thought it was necessary to queue up another King.

"So, what did you call me here to tell me? To go find Lilia?"

"Yes. She Said It Had To Be You, Because She had Foreseen You Saving Lil, Who Will Save The World."

He thought it over. "Well, that's some hope for us. I guess we just have to go search the whole world for my little cousin. We hadn't been trying all that hard but we didn't locate her before-"

"Not To Worry. I Oversee This World, I See All. I Can Send You Straight To Her, The Same Way I Guided You To Me."

Orleris closed his eyes, and just the same as the vision he had of the not-a-god in front of him, a little cabin in a small community appeared in his mind. It was in the southwest, as far away from the Sky Domain as she could have possibly run.

"Thank you, but couldn't you have just sent me there directly?"

"As Long As I Do Not Become The God Of This World, My Abilities To Interact With People Of This World Are Severely Limited. I Wanted To Tell You About The History Of The Guests, But Calling You Here Was My Utmost. I Just Didn't Want To Regret Not Being Able To Guide You."

"But if you're watching over everything, don;' you know where Lil is?"

"If I'm Being Honest, No. Once She Was Sealed In The Crystal I Tried To Follow Her But The Second Guest Had So Many Of Those Crystals, And He Started Teleporting Them Places Randomly. Rather Than Searching The World For All Those Stones, It Would Be Better To See How Lilia Saw You Save Her."

Just as he had feared. "Thank you for you help." Orleris was about to turn around when he decided the being in front of him was worthy of a few more questions. "With the Goddess gone, have you considered becoming the God?"

"The People Of This World Still Love Their Goddess. Even Though She Never Even Shared Her Name, She Lives On In Your Hearts."

"Name?" Orleris had never considered that their Goddess might have had a name other than Goddess.

"Prelude. In This World's Language, Her Name Was Prelude."

"Then, what's your name?"

"As I Have Not Made A World, I Do Not Have One. Ashen Is Just What Prelude Called Me When She First Invited Me. I Don't Think Of It As A Name, Just A Description."

It took a moment of thought, and later Orleris would wonder if he should have put a little more thought into it, but he ended up saying what came to mind. "That doesn't seem fair. Right now, you're more of a God than it seems Prelude ever was. How about you become our Hope?"

"Hope?"

"Yeah."

"I Understand. You Can Call Me Hope. Go Find Lilia."

He turned around, leaving behind their not-God, and thought about how he would explain everything to Navar and Eloitte. He didn't for a moment doubt Hope's words, considering the visons in his mind, but explaining the origin of their world to Navar and Eloitte seemed ambitious.

Oh, and of course, Navar would be so mad that he had missed it all.