Twilight of the Gods

“You need me,” Odi said, wrapping his black, scaly body around Haydn’s torso. “With my abilities and your wit, we could restore things to the old order.”

Haydn sighed, carefully scraping the shaving cream off his chin. He had heard every version of the same speech from Odi and quite frankly, he was getting sick of his old master’s megalomania.

Knowing Evelyn’s new name didn’t make tolerating Odi any easier. He wanted nothing more than to reveal himself to her and then whisk them away to some hidden corner in the Mortal Realm. If he felt like it, he’d even create a separate reality for them, far from the nonsense of Gods and Elysians.

“You would rule over everything,” Odi said, doubling his persuasion. “You’d still have my power, but I’d only advise you. I simply want things to go back to the way they were.”

He dunks his head into the sink, rinsing his face so that the old God couldn’t see his expression of disbelief. One didn’t spend centuries as one of the masters of the universe to give up absolute power that easily.

“Alright,” he said. “Let’s say I agree to this. What is the first step in your plan to ‘restore the old order?’ And massacring all of the Elysians doesn’t count, by the way. They have Nyx’s protection while her game is still going on.”

Odi paused for a moment. “Killing everyone in Otherworld isn’t a bad idea. We’d slay the traitor, Iris, and make my former angels pay for their insolence with eternal suffering in the Underworld.” He hummed thoughtfully, already thinking of the fallen angels’ punishments in the afterlife. “The Elysians would have equally awful fates, especially Ezra. That creature is simply too cunning and cruel for his own good. Your soulmate would be spared, of course. She can even rule at your side as queen if that makes you happy. If I remember correctly, she was just as power-hungry as you were before that unfortunate incident. What a great idea, killing all of the Elysians. I didn’t know you had such a natural thirst for blood. Perhaps I was smart to make you my Chosen One all those years ago.”

Haydn let out a sigh of exasperation, taking in Odi’s enthusiasm. Leave it to a God of Chaos to twist his words into a speech about committing violence. It was truly a shame that the other eight Gods had perished to the sands of time. They had infinitely more sense than Anhel and Odi combined.

“I’m not sure my soulmate wants anything to do with me. You know as well as I do that she is nothing like my Evelyn. And there’s still one key flaw in your plan. How do you intend to get rid of Nyx?”

A strange look comes to Odi’s eyes. “She’s not someone you can get rid of. Just as the twin suns and the moon belong in the sky, she is a fixture in this universe. The only thing we can do is put her to sleep.”

Haydn nodded in understanding. “Like I did to you?” He had long learned his lesson about trying to kill Gods.

Odi’s hold on Hayn tightens, nearly suffocating him. “Exactly as you did to me. Traitorous dog.” His hissing intensifies.

If that meant exactly what he thought it did, that meant that Nyx was a God, or to the very least, God-like. Somehow that didn’t make him feel any better about going up against her.

“You know her,” Haydn said, grabbing Odi’s head right before he sank his fangs into his flesh.

“I know how to weaken her. Hardly the same thing.”

Knowing that Odi wasn’t going to budge on Nyx’s real identity, Haydn shifts the conversation back to the plan. “She expects my treachery. My agreement with her is over now that I have Evelyn in my hands.”

“It’s not over yet. You still need to play the last round of the game. Maybe you’ll even get the Board. For such an ordinary, plain-looking thing, it has devastating power. It destroyed our whole pantheon and put these incompetent Elysians in power. Maybe we can use it to our advantage.”

He sincerely doubted it. Nyx had rigged the game in favor of Daeva. There was no chance the Board would ever fall into his hand, not unless he killed her before she was declared the victor.

“I could forfeit. We could plot Nyx’s downfall instead of playing into her games. Wouldn’t that be wiser?”

Odi shook his head, disappointed in his question. “You know better than to ask that. It has never been wisdom that allowed men to conquer and rule. The very foundations of this universe are built on Chaos, the unpredictable dark energy that governs us all. Why else do power-hungry people succeed? You will continue to play the game and I refuse to hear any excuses. It is your turn to pay up your end of the deal to me.”

“There’s no chance that I will win. Nyx has me in the game as a placeholder to give Daeva the illusion of fairness. I’m a pawn, nothing more.”

“Poor Haydn. You still act as if you are mortal, bound by rules and agreements. Why do you pretend to be an honorable man even after everything you’ve done? Obviously, we will take the Board by force. Or better yet, we could steal Iris’s and still seek to covet the other one. She certainly isn’t in the state to use it.”

He briefly remembers Iris’s punishment. The image of her dark corpse was still burned into his mind. Would he be forced to do the same thing to Nyx? He wasn’t cruel, at least not as cruel as most Gods should be. But if he didn’t comply with Odi’s wishes, Evelyn would be gone from his life again.

And that was something he couldn’t bear.

He imagined this scenario more times than he liked to admit. Evelyn had returned to him after years of difficult searching. Sometimes he rescues her from a tower, other times he frees her from a prison in the sea. He always played the knight in shining armor, slaying dragons and sea serpents to reach her. And every time, the scenario ended with her being taken away again. Sometimes she was snatched away by another knight, a worthier man than he. Other times, she’s crushed by falling rocks or eaten by a monster he had forgotten to kill. Again and again, he would subject himself to the same mental torture. In some ways, it had been better than not finding her at all.

He glances down at his wrist where his soulmate mark was engraved. The black crescent moon seemed to mock him, teasing him for the bit of hope he had left in finding his Evelyn. He still remembers the first day they met and discovered their matching marks.

It was a beautiful moment. At last, there was someone in the universe who truly understood both of them. They were like two lone moons from different planets that finally faced each other, basking in their combined lunar glow.

And he had to ruin it all.

But the universe must have thought he was worthy of a second chance. Surely that was why he finally found her.

“Haydn,” Odi said, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Did you hear what I said? We need to act fast. Securing Iris’s Board is only one piece of the puzzle. Transferring its magic into your body is going to be much more essential. Once we flood you with power, we can destroy Nyx.”

“You mean we’ll put her to sleep,” he corrected. “But wouldn’t doing so destroy me?” He gestures to Odi’s snake body.

“You will destroy Iris’s Board and any magic she possesses. You won’t be harmed. How else will you continue to serve me?” Odi wraps his body around Haydn’s arm, taking the shape of a serpentine manacle.

What makes you think I will continue to serve you? “That’s a good plan. Maybe we start after I receive my last quest for the game. We can catch her by surprise before she announces the winner.”

He moves out of the washroom, wiping his face. From his periphery, he spots Daeva and Uriel by the hearth. While their bodies were hidden by gray and brown furs, he could clearly make out what they were doing, or more accurately, what they were doing to each other.

“It’s not uncommon,” Odi hissed, sensing his discomfort. “Gods are known for using their angels in many ways. But they never see them as equals. We did domesticate them, after all. Think of them as extremely sophisticated animals, no different from the people that populate the Mortal Realm. They are lesser creatures who still have their uses.”

I used to be one of those “extremely sophisticated animals.” You probably don’t even think of me as an equal. Maybe you see me as a bishop, a chess piece slightly better than a pawn, he thought.

As expected, Odi’s words did little to soothe him. Grunts and moans come from the other side of the room, leaving little peace. He cringes at the noise, but he can’t tear his eyes away from them. His gaze moves to Daeva’s bare wrist, scanning the blank skin where her soulmate mark was supposed to be. He stares at his own mark again, feeling the sting of the mocking crescent moon.

His Evelyn certainly did change. She didn’t even bear the same matching mark anymore. But there was no doubt that was her.

She had a new name, a new face, and a new body, but somehow it was still her soul. They had returned as incarnations of the Gods they had served in their previous lives, trapped together in the same karmic loop. She became as polluted as he was, clouded with sin and bearing the same permanent stain of violence. Of course, it had been her, the other unfortunate soul forced to follow the same strand of fate.

The question was, did she deserve to know what he knew?

He never doubted whether he was good for her. He was her other half as the Gods intended. But it never occurred to him that she could forget him and lead a complex life on her own. He couldn’t picture her as anything other than a damsel in distress, perpetually waiting for him just as he did for her. It was a silly dream, crafted by years of pain and yearning.

She didn’t need him. He would only make things worse for her. That was how he ruined everything all those years ago.

He spies a terrible scar beneath Daeva’s collarbone, the sight of the raised flesh sending chills through his body. He was responsible for that mark and every pain that came with it. He killed her.

There was no running away from the awful truth. Being Odi’s Chosen One came with a base level of violence he needed to commit and he excelled at going beyond the standards. He always made sure that the killings were necessary. He put himself on the frontlines of every war and fought for Myrania or Ylivia, depending on his mood. Thousands of soldiers fell at his blade, but his bloodlust was insatiable.

He became an assassin during periods when the feeling was almost unbearable. He paid for Evelyn’s gowns and flowers with blood money in those days. And when she found out and saw through his charming facade as she always did, he became an executioner, chopping heads off for her family.

She suffered through the same pangs of violence, but she always possessed greater control over her emotions. The bond she had with Anhel was almost harmonious compared to the constant bickering he endured from Odi. At least she had more choice with who she could kill. Such was the burden of being Chosen Ones for two primordial Chaos Gods.

Her family thought it was a great honor. They took it as a blessing that their daughter was gifted with so much power, ignoring the way that it broke her. He was the commoner boy who was a nuisance until he proved that he possessed the same abilities. But they hardly welcomed him with open arms even then. Not that it mattered. Anything was worth enduring for his Evelyn.

Or so he thought. What the Gods failed to mention when they had claimed them were the side effects of holding excess magic. If they both hadn’t killed enough, they would be sent into a violent frenzy that neither could control. Evelyn had destroyed a small village when she was in her mania. He tried limiting his madness to herds of animals, to the dismay of several farmers in the countryside.

One day, he had gotten careless and decided to stop killing. It was a decision he made with Evelyn. They wanted to be better people and live their lives with clean, unstained hands. And for a while, it worked. They lived a peaceful, idyllic life, far from the politics of Gods, mages, and royal families.

They should’ve known better. It had been a terrible risk. Delirium descended upon him first. By the end of it, he was left with her bloody corpse. He kept it in the house for days, trying to pretend that things were normal. All he needed was a good necromancer. Death was a minor obstacle. He knew she wouldn’t be the same after, but he was hoping for a miracle.

It was difficult finding someone with that kind of magic on their little island, but he was desperate. He eventually sought the counsel of a mage and decided to perform the rites himself. Luckily, he had been successful. Unfortunately, shortly after her revival, she ran away. That was where his long search began.

No, she didn’t deserve his presence in her life again. He was bad luck at best. But if she did remember him, he needed to apologize to her. He sincerely regretted ruining their life. But he didn’t expect her to forgive him. She could spit on him if she’d like. He would give her full permission to destroy him.

It was his fault that she became vulnerable to monsters like Ezra. If he went through with Odi’s plan, he would have the pleasure of killing the man himself. The Elysian had caused most of her present suffering. The least Haydn could do was get rid of him.

But Ezra was a slippery man. Whatever magic he possessed made it difficult to track him. Maybe it was because of Nyx’s protection or something from his extensive spell book collection, but Ezra was a hard man to kill.

He knew this because he had already tried many times. Haydn considered himself an expert at violence. He could make death seem quick or endless depending on his victim. But Ezra refused to die.

He sighed in frustration. He needed to get Iris’s Board and make quick work of Nyx. But before he could do so, the bell rang in the distance, signaling the final round of the game.

Time to play.