The Burning saint: Ascended

Ascension.

The saint stood at the side of the mountain. Looking both ways, she did not see a good path to climb. Having no other option, the saint punched her fist into the rock wall in front of her. After leaving a hand sized hole in the mountain, she felt immense pain. Her fist was bleeding, and she couldn't heal it. All of this felt confusing, the heretic remarked, "He took away your wings, and your ability to heal, but you still have your strength. What is he testing?"

Being unable to fix her injuries was a serious problem for her, because aside from getting killed or incapacitated, she had never before had to worry about getting hurt. Now her hand was hurting and it would hurt all the way while she was climbing the mountain. She put her injured hand into the hole she made and pulled her self upwards. She then placed her unharmed hand to the wall and gripped the rock with force until she ripped a chunk out of it, leaving behind a hole to grab on to. The saint had finally started climbing with some efficiency and after having climbed almost an hour, she reached a ledge where a man was waiting for her. The man had glowing eyes, so it was clear he was possessed by god. He said to the saint, "I'm certain you have many questions, so let's start with the one most important to you. Where is Gloria? Do not worry, she is fine, I decided to bring her back home. You see, the possession process is not entirely voluntary, and people usually have things to do, Gloria has a family to feed, so I sent her back, with some gifts. She will never get tired, she is now physically stronger, and she will never get sick."

The saint stood up in front of God and looked at the human he was possessing now. God explained to her, "Do not worry, this human was not busy, he has no family or friends, he lives a lonely life, he prefers it that way. He will still get the same benefits as Gloria. His name is Brutus, if you're wondering." As the saint continued her climb, scaling up the cliff, making her path, God walked along her side of the mountain on his feet, completely ignoring gravity, while he talked, "I want to take this time to suggest some ideas to you. There was this demon you know as the demon king, when you entered his throne room, you were the one who attacked first. It makes sense, you believe demons are evil, I know they come here to kill and torment my people, but this one specific demon was holding back throughout the entire fight. I can't help but wonder why." The saint seemed to ignore what God had just told her and kept climbing.

On the way up, the heretic felt something strange and said, "This energy, coming from the top of the mountain, it's reaching us, I hate it." God continued his own side of the conversation, "I wonder how you feel. I know you haven't thought about it, but I want you to think about how you feel about yourself, the way you work. You didn't learn to care for mortal life, you were created to value all life and protect it from harm. You were not given a choice in the matter, and no matter how many times you are shown that they don't deserve your protection, or your love, you are willing to go back to hell and suffer so they don't have to. Mainly because of the protective instinct built into your mind. I wonder if you could choose not to follow that instinct, or even if you should."

The heretic replied to God while the saint tried to ignore his words, "Is this how you treat us!? You care about how she feels about her built in instincts, even though her instincts make it easy for her to live an easy life along with mortals!? What about us!? Our instincts drive us to kill everything that lives, and we're considered evil for it!" God understood why it was so frustrating and explained, "I assure, I do care, I have thought about it a lot. You know, I could change your entire being to be peaceful and loving, I have done something similar to some demons before. The first time I did it, a small hellspawn lost all desire to kill, and it still stands in the same place, completely harmless without any desire to do anything, because I did not replace its natural instinct with anything. I have thought about the implications of this experiment, and I cannot decide if it is better to allow them to be murderous monsters as they are until I kill them, or to force them to comply and take away their ability to choose how they live, and the decision is made even harder for me when I am unable to understand if they even have a choice to begin with. In the end, killing them takes much less energy on my part and my people can be safe for longer, and if I have to chose between my people and the monsters trying to kill them out of sheer bloodlust, the choice there is obvious."

The heretic was more angry and more confused than ever, and as the saint kept climbing, it felt something awful, it told the saint, "This feeling, the tool on the top of this mountain. You can probably feel something too, I'm sure it feels much better to you. I can tell that it hates me, just like you hate me." As the saint was climbing, her foot slipped, and she started falling. While trying to grab onto whatever small ledge she could, her hands and knees were bruised before she caught onto a small ledge. She remained in that spot, her body was trembling in pain. The heretic called out to God, "You could at least let her heal her injuries!" God was fascinated, "You actually care about her suffering? I thought you hate her." The heretic was angry, it felt like God was just playing with them, "She brought me into existence! A demon with only one sick desire to kill! Never understanding why I'm not allowed to control the body I inhabit! And despite her being responsible for my creation, she hates me and wants me gone! And despite the misery she put me through my entire life, I am the one who is evil! I know you agree, and while I never understood what makes you good and me evil, I always thought that good helps good."

The saint stopped shaking and extended her bloody hand to grip into the stone once more. She continued climbing. God told the heretic, "You know, I could return you to be the blood thirsty monster you were before if you want." The heretic simply told him, "Go to hell." God used this moment to mention, "Right, I expect you've were wondering why I haven't gone to the demon world myself and just wiped them all out. Unfortunately, that is impossible, I cannot leave this world, for I am tied to it by a force I cannot go against. A force that I do not understand myself. Perhaps I am this world, perhaps there is a higher power than me holding me here. Regardless, I cannot leave."

After several days of climbing, the saint was nearing the top, the light above was motivating her to move forward, it was making her feel stronger, and at the same time the heretic was feeling worse and worse. She pulled herself up and finally was on the highest point on the mountain. The tool, as God had called it, was on a pedestal in the distance. A large golden ring covered in eyes staring right into her soul, constantly changing its shape and size, emitting godlike power. Slowly, the saint stepped forward, and as she did, the heretic realized something, "This energy, this weapon, or tool, whatever you want to call it, it won't accept me." The saint stopped, which made the heretic even more angry, "You're hesitating now!? When you've come this far, you suddenly think you can change your mind about me!? It is way too late for that." Her eyes turned red, and the heretic forced her to go forward right up to the golden ring. The last thing it said to the saint was, "At least let me die doing something I enjoy."

A tear fell from her eye, before she placed her hand on the ring. Her body surged with power, her eyes began to glow the same way as the eyes of God, the ground started breaking apart. With shockwave of immense power bursting from her, the entire mountain collapsed. While the stones were falling like an avalanche, the saint fell with it, but before she crashed into the ground, she flew, as her wings returned to her body and the golden ring was now flying with her. While slowly descending to the ground, God spoke to her, "I expected this outcome, but I had hoped I would be wrong. I have gained no answers here." The saint appeared back in the middle of the village where the portal to hell had manifested. The humans around her were unable to look at her, for the power she was emitting was too much for mortal eyes. God stood in front of her and said, "You have been granted but a small aspect of my power, but do not believe it is infinite, even I have a limit."

The saint picked up her sword that had been lying on the ground ever since she arrived to this world, she stood before the portal. Before going back, she turned back and looked around at the people of the small village. The ring changed it's shape, it became a small golden halo levitating above her head, her eyes briefly turned light blue, it allowed the humans to look at her with without being harmed, she took a good look at the faces of these people, as she was not sure how long it would be until she would see anything other than demons again. With them all burned in her memory, the saint turned around to face hell once more.