1. Prologue The Birth of The Worlds
Chapter one
Prologue: The Birth of The Worlds
Before Time Begins To Move – Creation Of The Universe
Time was just now twisting, winding the stillness of the universe into a stream of consciousness. There was no turning back – its hands could not be reversed. Theos, ruler of the primordial triune godhead, stood staring into the black nothingness before him. His hands still glowed molten, flaming from the near soul-rending effort that forming the gridlock system of time’s gears had taken. The slow-moving gears were now solely responsible for the keeping of rhythmic time. His chest heaved, and his white hair clung to his forehead. Rising to his feet, his awareness shifted from the gears, shuddering before him, to movement behind him.
“Why?” Kheos asked, breaking the silence.
Theos closed his eyes. The energy between them grew heavier by the moment.
In the barren expanse of the empty universe, on the heels of the onset of time, two ancient gods glowered at their king. Theos turned to face his brothers. Kheos, segund primordial in the godhead, was closer to him. Regos, third primordial in the godhead, stood further off, sheathed up to his red eyes in the deep, formless darkness.
White eyes glowing in the darkness, gaze level with Kheos’, Theos extended a hand, sealing the vast system of gears behind the fabric of reality, outside the reach of any mortal hand – outside the reach of any hand except his.
“Tell me, brother ,” Kheos spat, “why should you be king over me when I decide the fates of all who will come? I am Fate.” Kheos’ voice dripped barely restrained jealousy and rage. His words fell, heavy like the weight of the mass that was sustaining the void they stood in.
“You know the answer,” Theos deadpanned.
Kheos’ fists tightened at his sides. “Remind me what the answer is,” he prodded, the deranged wrath in his blue glare fixed on Theos.
“You know the answer,” Theos answered again, his straining self-control surfacing in his voice. The heat of anger was licking across his skin from the unwavering intent of challenge in Kheos’ eyes .
“What makes you king over me when all the power is in my hands, brother?” Kheos snarled.
“You know the answer,” Theos growled.
The darkness around them shook.
“Untested strength is no concern of mine. You are unworthy of the seat.” Kheos seethed, every muscle in his body tense.
“Then test it.” Theos’ words were a whispered dare.
One foot sliding backwards and into a fighting stance as Kheos leaped into the air, Theos’ fists tightened. Flames exploded outwards, igniting across his skin in an impenetrable wall of heat and rage. Descending from the jump, Kheos roared, the sound reverberating through the emptiness. Driving his open palm downwards towards his brother’s face, Kheos twisted the molecules of fire shielding Theos’ skin and ripped a hole in his brother’s armour as he closed his hands.
Unperturbed at the excruciating shattering of his energy, Theos blasted fire into Kheos’ chest, sending him flying backwards. Twisting so that he landed on his feet, Kheos glanced down at the remains of his previously white, now singed-black clothing. The next segund, he was leaping forward, disappearing into the darkness around Theos, shielding himself in the ghostly nothingness to confuse his brother. Growling, Theos spun on his heels, leaping into the air to meet Kheos’ face with a flaming fist as he slipped back into the realm of the real from the vortex of darkness he had woven around himself.
Before Kheos could recover from the hit, Theos twisted his open hand, raising it high above his head as the invisible substance of the universe around him became electrified. It surged to his hand, writhing as it formed a bolt of white-hot lightning. Entire body electrified, Theos leaped into the air, amplifying the bolt that burned with the heat of a thousand suns with the unending source of life and energy inside his body. The universe warped and shattered as he forced his weapon down towards his brother, and Theos growled in frustration as the lightning ripped a hole in the fabric of the universe where it landed when Kheos dodged the attack. Mending the breach with his mind, Theos dove after Kheos again to impale him with a freshly formed bolt.
Rolling away as the point of the bolt surged towards him, Kheos tapped into the electricity bolting out of Theos and warped its molecules. Grunting as he strained under the weight of the exertion while his brother glared at him from across the distance Kheos had put between them, he shattered the bolt. A horrifyingly haunting sound ascended, surrounding them on all sides as the bonds that held the electricity together were destroyed .
The pressure of the dying energy around them was suffocating, crushing Theos as the weight of the sudden onset of absence barrelled through his being. Frustrated, white light burned outward from his eyes as he raised a hand towards Kheos’ feet. The blank surface beneath him twisted and morphed, and the next segund, the molecular makeup of the empty black void around them warped, stretching and sticking together as his power surged through them. Before either god could draw new breath, they were engulfed on all sides by a deep wet cold. The first ocean.
Hand still outstretched, Theos tightened his fingers, jerking his fist backwards and tearing the breath from Kheos’ lungs. Rendered powerless in the control of his own body, Kheos’ previously rapid ascent to the surface halted. Launching himself through the fluid at his brother, Theos tackled him at the waist, swimming into the black silence that encased the deep – dragging his brother down with him.
Kheos struggled against the arm banded firmly around his middle, suffocating and losing even more control of himself as Theos’ power bled through his body at their every point of contact, fundamentally marring his core as an entity.
Rage intensified inside Kheos, and blue light pulsed outwards from his eyes, increasing in intensity as he summoned strength from every atom in the universe. Wrangling Theos’ head back at an obscene angle, Kheos broke free of his older brother’s hold. Arching himself in a graceful swirl, he sent Theos spinning backwards into the abyss with a kick that crackled with blue electricity on impact. Clawing upwards through the water, Kheos’ lungs burned, vision blurring as he tried to reach the surface to take a breath.
Theos dove after his brother again, the raging electricity in one hand stirring the water far past boiling. The laws of viscosity, founded on the endless knowledge imbued upon the universe by its maker, Theos, shattered. The water thinned and expanded before rapidly shrinking in on itself as the pressure increased and the shear rate dropped as the water could no longer sustain deformation.
Bolt after bolt of white-hot lightning pierced the jelly-like water in their path towards Kheos, and Theos’ eyes smouldered all the more as he watched his brother dodge each wielding of his weapons. Twisting the thick water around his hand, Theos charged the sluggish molecules with his life force until they bounded around his fingers like a tightly knit vortex that collapsed in on itself with each movement of its individual parts. He watched Kheos swim for the surface as he poured more and more energy into the water moving in his hand. Static electricity sparked through the fast-moving maelstrom, surging and lightening in weight until the water molecules were eclipsed by the charge bursting through them. Until its sum compounded into a frantically blazing bolt of blue lightning.
Fear coursed through Kheos when Theos roared, and in his glance in his brother’s direction, the swift surging of a mangled blue bolt of lightning, bigger than any other he’d seen his brother create before, filled his vision. Launching himself upwards to move out of its range, Kheos’ heart lurched into his throat when he found himself unable to move. Theos’ open hand was twisting, and Kheos’ eyes widened as he felt the rest of his body freeze in place in response to his brother’s moving hand.
Theos had deformed the water around Kheos so that it was a coagulated, near-solid mass, and watching Kheos brace for the impact of the lightning, he knew his brother was out of breath, out of strength, and out of hope. Kheos’ head rocketed back, mouth opening in a soundless cry as the dually scorching and freezing cold energy of the lightning pierced his heart as it passed through his chest.
Pain coursing through him, his entire being teetering on the edge of shutting down, Kheos found himself falling through the air. Slamming into the surface under him hard, he gasped for air as the ocean that had been holding them suspended disappeared. Wet, aching, and trembling from shock, his chest heaved as he tried to orient himself with his surroundings .
They were back in the suspended empty mass of space, and Theos was storming towards him, fists ablaze with fire as he landed punch after punch to Kheos’ face.
“Stand up and fight me, brother.” Theos roared as Kheos blocked his punches as best he could, staggering to his feet before doubling over from a kick to the chest. He fell backwards again from a flaming uppercut that shattered every bone in his neck and jaw.
“Is this your limit?” Theos roared again as he manipulated the atoms beneath Kheos’ feet so he no longer stood on solid ground, but was encased in invisible quicksand up to the waist.
Theos rained lightning and thunder down upon the younger god, watching Kheos divert each blow, hauling himself upwards just in time to dodge another fiery uppercut from him.
Theos’ blows and punches were fast and hard, and Kheos struggled to concentrate clearly enough to manipulate the elements to launch an attack. His every ounce of energy and intention was focused on avoiding his brother’s offence. He was losing ground. Badly. Frustrated and embarrassed, Kheos snarled, twisting three of the bolts blazing towards him into one million megajoules of energy with his mind. Launching himself into the air, he grabbed its point and channelled it through himself towards Theos. The white light that entered his outstretched arm from the bolt poured out of the ends of the opposite fingertips, flaming blue and dark as his eyes.
The expanse of the unoccupied universe reverberated as Theos took the hit, absorbing Kheos mangled formatting of the energy Theos had created. His steps forward paused, head falling back in maniacal laughter as the contaminated energy flowed through him and out his fingertips back to its pure, white nature. His canines glinted in the blue of the electrical onslaught that Kheos was still channelling onto him.
“I am life itself,” Theos growled, hands balling into fists. “You are no match for me. You never will be.”
Teeth bared, he launched himself high above Kheos, crushing his head into the hard limits of the walls that contained time and their movements.
“Not now,” Theos landed a kick to Kheos’ chest and then another. “Not ever .”
Kheos snapped backwards, twisting the darkness of the void around them to shield himself. Theos laughed, pausing the onslaught of elemental attacks to throw his head back and let mirth pour out of him.
“ Coward .” He snarled, twisting his hand and ripping the disguise of darkness away from Kheos. “Face the light. ”
Fire engulfed Kheos. Yelping as the heat twisted itself up his legs and sank into his skin as with teeth, he fell backwards in a scramble to get away from the hellish flames. His body ached, jaw tightening to steel himself against the pain.
Theos’ eyes caught the movement. His head tilted to focus on the miniscule flex of his brother’s jaw, the bloodlust in his eyes flaring brighter as his grip on control faltered.
“What’s wrong, mighty Fate? You’re in pain already?” Theos mocked.
Lightning was ripping through the space-time continuum, pivoting around the elder god. Breath ragged and chest heaving, Kheos retreated, eyes widening in horror as the lightning storm around his brother increased until Theos could no longer be seen through the blinding haze of electricity and fire.
“I thought you were all powerful,” Theos whispered.
The energy storm expanded until the darkness around them was flipped inside out. Kheos shrunk back, falling over his steps as he retreated, limbs aching, body broken in multiple places. Blood dribbled down his chin from freshly torn slits in his mouth. His chest had been kicked in so many times that his ribs were mangled. He could hardly breathe. Heart staggering over its beats, he tried to increase the distance between himself and his brother .
The blue lightning that had pierced him in the heart – that Theos had forced him to bear the pain of as it sliced through his every cell – it was to blame. He was entirely disoriented – unable to focus long enough to manipulate the energy around him enough to beat his brother. His muscles trembled and shook. His heart beat slowly at first, then raced. It staggered over its normal rhythm, pumping the unmistakeable fear of death through his body in place of blood. If he died in this fight, Theos would not resurrect him. He would be erased from reality before their plans to form the worlds were even manifested. He could not lose.
Inside the storm of light and heat, Theos’ eyes were glowing so brightly that the fire around him dulled. His every cell surged with the expanse of his power as he summoned from within himself all the light that the pitch black of the world around them was lacking. Both hands raised, attention fixed on a point in the distance millions of syrises away in the darkness, he strained with the weight of the energy coursing through him. Eyes snapping shut, he trapped the energy escaping through them, forcing it down through the rest of his body and out through his hands.
Relaxing all his muscles, his restraint lowered the barrier that kept his power locked inside him, and a blinding bolt of light shot out from his hands into the distance, triggering the noise of billions of atoms of darkness giving way to light. The void shattered under the intensity, trembling as the light gathered into a concentrated ball.
Pushing all the energy out of him until he felt his energy dip into normal territory once more, Theos whirled on Kheos who was still retreating.
In a flash, Theos was in front of him, his hands tearing through the material of his shirt. The flames burning around them singed Kheos’ skin. As soon as his grip on Kheos was sure, Theos whirled, sending him crashing into the surface of the sun that he had created moments before.
Landing on the surface of the molten, burning mass of energy in front of Kheos crumpled frame, Theos sent his fists flying into Kheos’ body, rage sending his voice tremoring through the space around them.
“Yield,” Theos demanded as his fists pounded through rib after rib and shattered Kheos’ forearm.
Kheos rolled away from the descending punches and staggered again to his feet. Before he could raise a hand to influence the atmosphere around him, lightning pierced his heart again.
“Yield.” Theos roared louder as he hauled Kheos to his feet and pulled him up until they could see eye to eye. Blue haze bled into white as Theos ground his jaw and growled when Kheos refused to speak.
Kheos winced when Theos shoved him to his knees before him, biting back the desperate cry that threatened to betray his agony.
Left arm outstretched, Theos twisted the darkness and summoned the molten fire of the sun they were standing on to form a lightning bolt that was hotter and brighter than Kheos had ever seen. For the first time since he had challenged his brother, the inevitability of defeat coursed through him. It overwhelmed his senses, dulling the vicious throb of pain that was ringing through his entire being.
There was something wild in Theos’ eyes that sent chills raging through Kheos. An unhinged determination. A complete absence of the usual control he was used to seeing there. He tried to scramble to his feet and failed, crumpling from the pain of the weight on either of his shattered forearms. His efforts to get up seemed to push Theos beyond the point of return, and Kheos watched his brother’s pupils disappear as lightning spiralled out of his eyes. Fire completely engulfed him as the bolt he was wielding in his left arm grew and grew. Staring into the onslaught, Kheos finally understood that he had lost .
“Yield or die. You decide.” Theos jumped, angling himself over Kheos and descending to drive the final blow through his brother’s heart.
He had lost, but he did not want to die.
“I yield.”
His voice was hidden under the roaring of fire, buried in the thunderous crackling of lightning; the ominous shattering of dark matter around Theos’ body where energy was surging from him outwards. Kheos closed his eyes, realizing that his words had gone unheard as Theos brought down the bolt towards him.
The blow never came.
Kheos eyes opened. The fire that engulfed his brother slowly faded. The lightning disappeared from his hand. His pupils returned. The brother Kheos recognized once more appeared, fists still tight at his sides, glare still burning down at him. Kheos watched all his muscles re-engage with restraint. The howling of the fire went silent. The breaking of dark matter disappeared.
Wincing as with every breath his broken ribs pierced his organs and ruptured the interior vessels of his body, Kheos faced the reality that he was already dead. He had lost. The injuries that littered his being were irreparable, and he let his eyes close, waiting for the surges of pain to dull and the silence of death to claim him.
Without a word, Theos reached for his brother, pulling his broken body upright until he was standing. Kheos grimaced, a miserable whimper escaping his lips as his body threatened to crumple in a mangled heap. Theos’ hand loosened from around his collar to tilt Kheos’ face up to his. Barely managing to swallow, Kheos prepared himself for the onslaught of gloating.
“Don’t ever drive me to hurt you like that again.”
The pain in Kheos’ body dulled as Theos spoke, and his eyes widened in shock. Theos was healing him – absorbing the pain from his body. His bones were snapping back into place. His ripped muscles were healing. His pride remained broken. Theos shook him, and his eyes opened again, blue meeting white.
Anger was still obvious in Theos’ low, measured tone. “Without life there is no destiny.”
Releasing him and stepping away, Theos stalked back across the vastness of the universe, raising a hand and conjuring up another bolt that blazed upwards around them as he went. Kheos sank to his knees, keeping his head up only long enough to watch the bolt of electricity combust and burst into innumerable pieces, each piece igniting and standing still. The birth of the stars. He lowered his gaze to his hands.
** *
As he walked forward, leaving the sun and the stars behind, the sound of clapping echoed, louder than the burning of the sun.
“Well done, brother.” Regos goaded.
Theos did not respond. He was noticing the way the universe darkened around him. The way the stars dimmed as he passed them by one by one. The surge of darkness that was trying to snuff out the light in the universe was coming from his brother.
“I suppose that now it’s my turn to unseat the king. Except that I will not fail.” Regos continued casually.
Theos turned to face him, eyes narrowed to angry slits. “You also dare to challenge me, brother ?” he spat. Regos’ casual shrug was enough to send fire igniting across Theos skin again.
“Death always overpowers life.” Regos grinned. There was no mirth in the gesture. Only arrogance and malice rang true in his gaze.
Theos’ jaw tensed, watching as his brother adopted a stance to fight. Anger surged in him as the stars around him were suddenly whisked away behind the veil of darkness that Regos was conjuring. Theos’ nails dug into his palms. Miraculously, his voice was still calm despite the boiling light and energy filling him from his toes to the ends of his hair once again.
“Death is merely the willing absence of life. Your power only holds ground where I relent.”
Theos raised an arm towards Regos, bolts of lightning, light, and fire crackling around his fingers as he aimed all his energy at Regos.
“But I will humour you, Death. Let’s see if you can take me.”
As soon as the sound of his words faded, the deafening singe of burning light echoed across the universe as energy burst out of Theos towards Regos. Anticipating the onslaught, Regos raised a dark vortex of black energy that absorbed all the blazing light that Theos was giving off.
Regos’ self-confident grin was fixed in place. “Is that all you’ve got, oh mighty King?”
Theos’ jaw tightened, self-control flickering like a diminutive fire in high winds. “There is still time to renounce your challenge and yield,” Theos answered, his body disappearing as the building presence of lightning and fire around him intensified. “There is still time for you to declare that I am king over everything.”
“Never,” Regos growled back .
Theos lowered his hand. “As you wish.”
The stream of energy flowing out of Theos faded. Focusing all his attention on Regos, Theos’ pupils disappeared into a haze of white-hot light and energy. Regos opened his mouth to speak, but his whole body was slammed into the ground by the invisible wave of energy that was rolling off Theos towards him. Moving swiftly to his knees with both arms outstretched, he formed a shield of dark energy around himself that immediately trembled, straining as it struggled to absorb the crushing energy that was building around him.
Without moving from his position, Theos shattered the atoms of darkness around Regos’ shield. Wielding his brother’s darkness into comets that rained down destruction upon him as his new shield creaked and shuddered, Theos’ eyes narrowed as his patience finally snuffed out. He raised a hand once more, twisting his fingers and tightening them into a fist.
Far out of reach from the warring energies, behind them, Kheos winced and shielded his face as every atom of darkness around them was suddenly charged with energy that came pelting down onto Regos’ shattering shield.
Underneath the disintegrating vortex of darkness, Regos strained to keep his hands up as his entire frame trembled. The shield cracked, and he found that he could not create another one. There was no longer even a morsel of darkness in the universe for him to pull on its absorbing capabilities and expand them to meet his current need. Without a defence, the heat and light that Theos was directing at him seeped into his body. His jaw ground together as the hot flare of pain surged through him, the very cells in his body breaking down from all the light that he couldn’t absorb.
“Yield.” Theos roared as he intensified his attack now that his brother’s shield was useless.
Regos glared at him, frozen on his knees twenty paces across. His body was beginning to disintegrate, but he narrowed his eyes and tightened his fists, trying to resist. Light surged until it surrounded Theos in an opaque wall.
“Would you rather I snuffed out the life in your chest to show you that I am life and death belongs to me? To show you that I have simply given you dominion over what is mine?” Theos asked calmly, watching the defiance in his brother’s face refuse to break.
Regos’ eyes searched through the energy around him, desperate to grab hold of something, any atom that felt like darkness, any spot of energy that wasn’t completely light. He came up short. Theos’ words continued to ring through his mind .
“Would you rather I murdered you in cold blood and reset the time, only without you?”
Regos seethed, teeth in a gridlock as he forced his eyes closed and cupped his hands together, pulling the darkness out of his own cells to form a vortex that was steadily building to the point of being able to withstand absorbing Theos’ crushing energy onslaught. Before it could get big enough to warp into a portal that could absorb any energy, Theos snorted.
“You don’t know when to quit.”
A deafening cry cut through the universe as Regos’ head flung backwards. His spine snapped from the weight of the energy bearing down on him from above. He crumpled into a heap, writhing and screaming, his portal fizzling and disappearing as his bones continued to break.
“Yield or die .”
Regos closed his eyes, but the light seemed to still bleed through, seeping into his mind and streaking through the darkness in it that made him who he was. He gasped. His brother had broken his body – that pain he could bear. But now he was breaking into his mind and erasing his very essence.
“I yield! I yield. Fuck . You’re breaking me.” His voice cracked .
Theos’ hand dropped, and the crushing pressure bearing down on Regos disappeared. In three steps, Theos was kneeling next to his brother, who lay crumpled. Defeated.
“Regos,” Theos called, reaching for his brother’s arm.
Regos’ eyes were pressed tightly closed. Inside himself, he could see the singed marks of light that streaked across his mind, permanently marring the makeup of his being.
“Regos,” Theos growled, wrenching his brother’s arm away from his face when he was non-responsive.“
Have you come to gloat, brother? Is your victory not enough for you?” Regos responded bitterly, his voice breaking as he tried to prevent the pain from breaking the dam of tears behind his eyes.
He tried and failed to pull his arm away from Theos’ grip. Theos stood, reaching down to pull Regos to his feet by the lapels. His eyes still flamed white, hot, and angry, with no sign of the familiar tolerance in them that Regos was used to seeing.
“I am not victorious until I have healed you.”
Icy, cold air washed over Regos, and he flinched at the freezing air before relaxing as it flowed over him. His body returned to its previous state, and as his eyes fluttered closed from the relief of the easing physical pain, he watched as the swath of white light that stained the darkness he saw when he closed his eyes retreated until he was left with the darkness once more. His brows furrowed.
Theos released Regos, and the two gods looked at each other without speaking for a long moment. Theos’ eyes still hadn’t returned to their usual form, and Regos gulped down his fear. Theos stepped past him, shoulder knocking into his so he stumbled backwards. Regos watched him stride past Kheos towards the sun. The blinding light in the atmosphere retreated in swathes as he walked away from them.
“There is only life,” he declared loudly into the listening universe. “Where life relents, there is death. Where life exists, there is destiny. There is life, then there is everything else. Without me, you do not exist, and I could make it so. Focus on holding dominion over the realm of power that I have granted to you. If you challenge me again, I will not relent.”