Sharp Teeth - Sleep Token/Vessel FF

Chapter XX

Sleep moved first, the sky splitting open as he raised his hand, and a storm of obsidian thorns rained from above. I dashed forward, blades whirling and cleaving through the air like firelight. The thorns shattered around me, sparks and shadow dancing in my wake.

Sleep's next strike came from within. He whispered in tongues lost to mortals, and illusions flared: Ava's broken body falling into my arms, my brothers dying in agony, my own soul dissolving. But I had drunk the blood of The One Below, his illusions could not drown me now.

I roared and leaped forward.

Even in this garden of gardens, I am the god of the gaps

I am the demon of Sodom, I am the blood of an angel

The fate of the fallen, nobody knows where I came from

One of my swords sliced through a dream-beast he summoned, its scream like wind across broken bones. The other blade found Sleep's shoulder, and he staggered, retaliating next.

The ground fractured beneath me, the garden erupting around us. Trees shattered and starlight rained like fire as the ground opened into pits.

Sleep unleashed his next weapon: An absolute silence that strangled the world itself. Air thickened in my lungs, my vision swam, and all sound vanished until the searing pain came. A branch speared through my shoulder, its splintered end protruding from my back. Hot blood flooded through my chest, the agony profound and relentless.

Still, I pressed forward, eyes locked on his with one blade raised in defense and the other ready to strike in vengeance. I couldn't afford defeat, not with Ava and my brothers destined for his mercy without my protection.

More branches shot up from the ground, this time grabbing at my legs. I dodged most of them, but even with my inhuman speed, I couldn't avoid them all. One branch caught my ankle, and the next thing I knew, I was face-first in the dirt.

"Foolish Golden Soul," he murmured as he approached me, voice thick with something close to grief. "Even with another God's power, you were never my equal. How it wounds me to end our story like this." A single tear tracked down his cheek, a proof of care he'd never admit.

"Then do it," I spat blood, yanking his wrist against my chest. "I'll take oblivion over another century as your puppet. You make me wish I could disappear. End my suffering."

"Surrender, Vessel! Don't force me to end your existence this way." There was sorrow in his voice, but it wasn't enough. I refused to back down.

His hesitation lasted only a heartbeat, but it was more than enough for me. I reached for one of my swords, and steel flashed, his severed fingers hitting the dirt. The vines convulsed, their grip failing as Sleep's power faltered.

Fueled by every shred of love, rage, and defiance left in my battered body, I struck. One blade drove cleanly between his ribs, the other tore through the sinew of his legs, pinning him to the ground in a twisted kneel.

The power within me surged: Feral, ancient, divine.

I roared and plunged my fist into his chest, shattering bone and flesh until my hand wrapped around the core of him. In my palm pulsed his heart, a gleaming orb of gold light, radiant and alive with every soul he had consumed, every dream he had devoured, every stolen breath he had hoarded to fuel his reign.

"Vessel, please..." he rasped, his voice a ragged whisper of fear. For a fleeting moment, I paused.

Mercy. Could I offer it? Should I?

The thought vanished when I remembered what he'd done. My fingers tightened around his heart, feeling its radiant shell crack—first a fracture, then a collapse until I felt it shattering in my grasp like glass under pressure.

Sleep let out a sound that was not a scream but something older. The light left his eyes as his body collapsed, graceful and defeated.

It was done. Sleep was no more.

I sat on the grass, sweat and my own blood covering me, when I heard a humming sound coming from the ground. Sleep's power did not die with him.

It surged into me, searing down my throat, into my bones, my blood. I fell to my knees as the energy filled every hollow I had ever carried. The realm shifted, the trees bowed, and the stars blinked, recognizing its new God.

I am the final dawn, I am the flood

And what was missing from those scriptures will be written in my blood

I was no longer just Vessel. I was the realm itself.

But I had no desire to keep it, not like this. Not as a prison of forgotten souls, not as a throne built on stolen dreams. I couldn't let another spirit suffer here. The cycle had to end.

Still catching my breath, I rose and lifted my hand toward the sky.

"The One Below," I called, my voice rippling across every inch of the garden. "The pact is complete. Come claim your reward."

The air rippled. From the void, The One Below emerged, his golden eyes burning with amusement.

"Well done, my Invoker," he purred. "You've bled, burned, and broken yourself beautifully. I've never seen anything quite like you."

I gestured toward the trembling heart of the realm, now pulsing like a wounded organ. "Take it. This realm and the souls within it are yours. I have no desire to rule. I need to leave this part of me behind."

The One Below grinned, baring too many teeth. His four arms opened in a sweeping gesture of acceptance.

"Are you certain?" he asked. "What will you do now, Godling?"

"I want to live a simple life," I said. "With Ava. With my brothers. No throne. No worship. No dominion. Just the sun, the wind, and a chance to walk free again."

"You would make a good God," he said, almost wistfully. "A wise ruler. Why not stay and shape this place to your will? I'll take the souls, as we agreed, but you could mold the realm however you desire. I don't need it, I only wanted to see if you could defeat a God. And you did."

Was he trying to trick me? Or was he truly offering me something... genuine?

"You helped me just to watch Sleep fall?" I asked. "What's the catch behind this generous offer?"

"There is no catch. I've lived long enough to see pantheons rise and crumble. The old is predictable. But the new?" He smiled faintly. "The new is always more interesting."

He regarded me then, not with mockery or manipulation but with something far more unsettling. Reverence. And beneath it, perhaps envy.

"The pact is fulfilled," he said. "Keep the realm or discard it, it's of no consequence to me. The souls are mine to tend, and I will tend them. Do not worry, I am no Sleep. I'll show them mercy."

The shadows around him thickened, swallowing the last traces of his presence. His golden eyes lingered for a breath longer, ageless and knowing.

"The night belongs to you now, Vessel."

And with that, he vanished in the blink of an eye.

I must be someone new

So if your wings won't find you heaven

I will bring it down like an ancient bygone