All paths lead to a bed

Seth’s footsteps led him back into the forest, but Meg’s short feet barely carried him past its border, and orbs of life appeared to bar his path once more.

Seth didn’t stop, nor did the look in his eyes flicker for even a moment as he lifted his hand toward the orbs.

“Turn back…” Isabel’s voice resounded as an echo through the tall trees right as Seth’s hand collided with the cluster of orbs.

The sound of skin turning to ashes followed the echo of her voice, and the orbs moved back, but Seth’s hand had already turned to bone, falling lifelessly along his body.

“Seth!!!” a panicked voice came from behind. Pearl struggled against Lisa’s hold to move toward the forest, but Seth’s steps didn’t stop, even as blood soaked the previously white dress on his right side.

“There is no way for me to ever pay you back for everything, Isabel.” Said Seth, following after the ever-retreating orbs, heading deeper inside the forest. “But I’m not walking the same path anymore...”

“Turn back…” the echoes of Isabel’s voice returned as one of her orbs charged forward again, cleaving Seth’s leg clean at the thigh.

Seth finally stopped, having no choice but to fall forward, supporting his fall with his still remaining hand. Still, he took but a look at his missing leg and muttered a small apology to Meg in his head before slowly crawling forward again.

“I have cursed this world many times, and the desire to get out is still burning bright inside my heart, Isabel. My aim is not to be a God of a fake world. It is not to stand side by side with other gods; our powers lashed under wills outside our reach.”

“My will is to rise above even that. To be above everyone else and under no one.”

“My will pushed me to crawl my way to the top and carve a path of my own, a path made out of the bodies of both friend and foe.”

A sudden dizziness started to cloud Seth’s vision, the palace in the distance turning blurry. Still, he forced himself to push onward, his will alone driving his body to crawl on the soft grass beneath, leaving a trail of red to mar the evergreen of the Garden of Life.

“Your vision had never reached the end of my path, Isabel. You have yet to see the reward I received for all my turmoil. “

“I do not want to know what you saw at the end, God of Destruction. Turn back onto your path before you forfeit your life inside this empty land.” Isabel’s voice resounded again as the orbs of life appeared in front of his face, hovering a few inches off the ground, threatening to block his path once more.

Seth saw the road ahead of him was nothing but a bright light, a sudden death awaiting his pursuit, and he allowed his body to fall to the ground, his eyes staring into the orb closest to him.

As a subtle sigh of relief seemed to drift with the wind, Seth lifted his shaking hand, gently bringing it to touch the closest orb, like one would with a precious lover.

“You don’t understand, Isabel. You didn’t see the reason why I chose to come back. Why I threw it all away.”

Seth’s left hand also started to decay into nothing but pure ash as his eyes watched the orb move back again.

“This is my path now, Isabel. I will claim back everything I had to give away, everything I had lost, and everything that I had forgotten.”

The light began to dim inside Meg’s eyes, but Seth continued speaking: “I will crawl my way to the top again even if I had to die a thousand times before I reach it. Many were taken from me, a cruel game of fate that seeks to bring me back onto the same path I already threaded, but as long as my will stands, I will not let it control my steps again… I will not…”

The light faded from Meg’s eyes before Seth could finish his last word.

“Noooo!!” a pained cry came from far back, creation energy exploding outwards, covering half of the forest and Meg’s dying body.

The orbs trembled, removing the creation energy all around in but a few seconds, but they were still not quick enough.

The decayed tissue grew back in an instant, as did Meg’s missing limbs, and light returned to her eyes.

“I will not stop, Isabel. If there’s one thing my eons of life have taught me, it is to never give up.” Said Seth, slowly standing up and continuing to walk forward.

“My body might break, my soul might shatter, and even if my energy is gone, my will shall never wane.”

“I will tread this new path until I reach the end.”

As Seth resumed his walking forward, the orbs of life slowly began scattering back into the forest.

Soon, Seth disappeared from both Lisa and Pearl’s sight, entering the palace gates. Pearl turned her red eyes on Lisa and asked angrily: “Why didn’t you do anything?”

Lisa finally released her hold on Pearl’s body and sat down, sighing in relief while ignoring her question, her eyes fixed on the forest’s depths.

———

Inside Isabel’s chamber, a bloodied and disheveled Meg had just destroyed a hole through the door and was standing straight, looking into Isabel’s red eyes.

“I have come here because I need your help, but I also came here for you, Isabel. The first time and only time I had ever lost my will, my faith, your words were what brought me back from the path of despair.”

“I’ve hurt many people I love, both in the past and the present, and I’ll probably hurt even more in the future. Does that make me a villain? Heh, it might, it just might, but so what? That doesn’t make my love any less. “

Isabel looked into Seth’s clear eyes and couldn’t stop crying as she asked: “What do you want, Seth?”

“Everything.”

“I want it all, Isabel. I want to reach a new height. I want my lovers by my side. I want my friends to smile behind me. I want my parents to look proudly at me. I want my enemies to cower beneath my feet.”

“I will carve a way out of this fake reality we all live in. I will break the walls keeping us captive, and I want you all with me as I do so.”

Seth began walking forward, kneeling in front of the crying Isabel, gently bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it.

“Will you join me, Isabel? Will you let me give you what you ever wanted? Will you give me a chance to make everything right again?”

Isabel looked at her hand, feeling the strings of her heart slowly tingling with his kiss, but she fought against it as she asked: “And what if I say no? What will you do then?”

Seth released her hand and stood back up, the light of the orbs casting a mighty shadow over Isabel’s body as he said: “Then I’ll just have to ask you again. I’ll ask you twice, I’ll ask you thrice, I’ll ask you a million times until you finally say yes.”

“Don’t you understand already, Isabel, what I truly am?”

As Isabel’s face was marred by a confused frown, Seth’s hand gently moved through her dry, neck-long, auburn-colored hair. “I am a simple greedy man. Once something appeals to me, I’ll never let it go, even if I have to fight the entire world to get it.”

“And you are one of the first treasures to ever catch my eye, Isabel.”

A blush made its way on Isabel’s pale face as she lowered her head. She hated herself for it, but she had loved him for so long, and no matter how much pain he had brought her, she knew she had long been caught in his web.

Her strong facade slowly flowed away with her last tears as she rested her head in his palm and said softly: “I hate you so much. I hate this weak heart of mine that still craves your touch, even after everything that had happened….”

Seth smiled and bent forward, kissing her head as he softly pressed her body to his chest. “I missed you, Isabel.”

Isabel nodded as she slowly began closing her eyes, taking comfort in Seth’s warm embrace when the softness on her face made her blush, and she pushed him away, eyes wide as she stared at his face: “Why are you a woman now?”

Seth chuckled as he looked down at Meg’s body: “I did sully poor Meg’s body quite a lot. Would you mind making me a new one? This is one of the reasons I came here.”

“Hmph, already starting with requesting favors?” said Isabel with a snort, but Seth just shrugged and said: “I don’t mind sitting in this body since I’ve grown quite comfortable with it, but will you like that?”

Isabel scoffed again, and a small orb flew down from the ceiling, slowly taking the form of Seth’s body from Isabel’s memories. “Fine. You win again… sigh.”

Seth looked at the new body Isabel so effortlessly created and shook his head: “I don’t have a soul Isabel. I’m now leeching on Meg’s soul. A simple fleshly body won’t cut it….”

With a frown, Isabel looked into Seth’s eyes and asked: “What do you want then?”

“I can break a part of my soul away from this body and house it into the body you just made, but I will need a way to keep it from dissipating long enough for me to fix it.”

Isabel nodded in understanding: “You want me to keep a trace of your soul from dissipating? Sitting inside the faded treasure should be enough to keep that from happening.”

Seeing Seth’s face turn awkward, Isabel exclaimed with a skeptical look: “There’s more. What is it?”

“I’ve studied the composition of a soul and concluded that a soul is formed of four energies kept in balance. You already know life and death, but there are two more energies, which I have named lust and perception. Life and death only work on the physical link of a soul, while lust and perception form the astral part. Since you’ve already made me a body and death is irrelevant for an ascended, I only need lust and perception.”

“With me being the Emperor of Endora, I have no lack of perception energy either.”

“I don’t follow? What is this lust energy that you need?”

“It’s an energy created from the union of man and woman.”

Isabel’s eyes widened, and her face started to turn bright red.

“You want to sleep with me?”