God of Grief – 002

Chapter 002 – Inheritor

Shadow Beast, Ruler of Darkness, Ancient Evil.

These names and a myrad more had been used to describe him. Not only by mortals, but by other fellow gods too.

He had been the first to reach Godhood though and was also the most powerful Divine Being.

Sadly mortal greed wasn't something that his fellow gods were immune against, and so they plotted his demise to attain a chance at standing at the peak themselves.

Inciting the Dragon God to enter a berserk state, before using their combined divine power to force him out of his Shadow Dimension and into a confrontation with the Beast God.

Due to his overwhelming battle power though, they realised quickly that they had to enter comabt themselves to have a chance at taking him down.

At the end their battle ended in a tragic victory.

The had succeeded in their attempt to push him from his eternal throne, but they had a heavy price. None of them had escaped unscathed, while their most powerful combatants had even died themselves.

The Ancient Evil meanwhile had been severly injured, though he managed to excape by sacrificing any chance of recovery with his fate beign nothing but certain death.

They remaining Gods themselves weren't sure that they would recover from their injuries and losses, so at the end they were uncertain if it all had been worth it.

…

The God of Shadows and Ruler of Darkness, on the other hand, didn't plan to die quietly. Vengence burned in his heart, as a plan formed in his mind.

After an eternity alive, death didn't scare him, as he still remembered its taste from his mortal days. His only remaining goal was to ensure that the plan of his fellow Gods wouldn't succeed, which left him with no other option than to find an inheritor to his power and position. He wanted another Ruler of Darkness to climb above those greedy God's heads.

And so the Ancient Evil used some of his last remaining powers to search for a soul compatible with his own to pass down his knowledge and power.

It was on a primitive world with undeveloped spiritual potential that he finally found the one he was looking for after what felt like an endless search – a soul capable of carrying the weight of his inheritance.

Descending onto the world wasn't possible as such a world wasn't capable of housing a transcendent existence such as him, so he decided to pull the mortal into the Shadow Domain to offer him his power.

…

As the grieving man's world suddenly turned silent and a shadowy fog appeared in the surroundings, a smidgen of surprise appeared in his mind.

At this point the overwhelming sorrow had practically crippled his other emotions, so the man didn't fear the unknown changes happening around him.

He simply waited patiently for a few moments until a figure made wholly of shadows with bright violet yellow eyes appeared and just stared at him.

“ *Sigh* What a cruel twist of fate, that the only one able to inherit my power, couldn't care less about them … You don't have any ambition in your heart, Mortal. In fact you are more dead than you are alive … Ahh, the loss of loved ones, I do understand that sentiment … Do you want to have them back, do you want to be reunited with your family?“, a dark and aged voice echoed in the man's ears suddenly.

A spark of vitality reappeared in the man's eyes, as he asked in a voice that was more whisper than normal speech: “You can do that?”

He didn't bother asking for the others motive, nor about the obvious price that had to be paid for such a request, as the man didn't care about neither of those.

“As I am now? No, I cannot. I am already at death's door and my powers are limited … But you can, by becoming my inheritor and ascending to Godhood yourself. I will not lie to you, it won't be an easy path to take, but once you succeed you will be able to revive them.”

“I agree.”

“While I am glad for you enthusiasm, there will be no going back once I start. So for both our sake, I hope you are prepared.”

“If your words are true, than I will do anything necessary to see them again.”

“I believe you, Morta-”

“Lucius. My name is Lucius.”, the man interrupted.

“Lucius, huh … My name is Nox, don't forget it, Lucius.”

“I won't.”, Lucius answered with finality, before the shadows rushed at him and a sudden excrutiating pain made him lose consciousness.

…

As Nox felt his power slowly waning, he decided to move Lucius and himself towards world, where he would begin his quest for ascension. It was a peak-level world with great potential and no living gods.

To avoid the world rejecting Lucius after the inheritance process, he would have to carry the 'scent' of this world.

Nox direclty appeared in a forest near a small settlement, where he felt the presence of a young child. The small boy didn't even sense something wrong, before Nox managed to surround him in his shadows. Directly afterwards, he used the devouring properties of his darkness to engulf most of the boy's soul, leaving only his spirit intact.

Nox then forged a connection between the boy's spirit and Lucius soul, infusing both with a healthy amount of divinity so that they wouldn't be damaged by the process. Having this spirit would be enough to be recognized as an inhabitant of this world.

After inheriting his power and knowledge, Lucius would then wake up in the boy's body, but without the child's memories. Though Nox made sure that Lucius had knowledge of the boy's past, so that he would be able to handle the situation.

Lucius would have to make do from there, because the path forward would only be more difficult. Reaching godhood and then climbing through the ranks of divinity, could only be an arduous task.

Fortunately from Lucius' memories Nox knew that this world seemed to be somewhat familiar to his inheritor, as he seemed to have read about it in his long-forgotten youth, which was one of the reasons he had chosen it.

More and more, Nox felt the drain on his origin. Death was approaching rapidly, though there was one thing he had to do before it claimed him.

Gathering the last remaining vestiges of his divinity, Nox poured it into a pendant Lucius had worn around his neck.

“In the endless years to come, remember what it is that your heart yearns for.”, he whispered, as he left this message behind, sealed in the small pendant.

It was a reminder, that would hopefully help Lucius to stay true to his initial goals and keep him from straying off his path.