A Tale of Forgotten Gods

Chapter 45: The Divine Serpent

The white Serpent coiled around the throne before its body unwound. Its head rose toward the ceiling, staring down at Mo Fei.

Mo Fei stepped back and then took a step forward. He would not let fear control him. ”What are you? What do you mean?”

—

Hiss

The Serpent hissed once. Mo Fei’s eyes found its tail. Mist emerged from its tip, the end vanishing into infinity. Finally, the pale Serpent spoke with another hiss. ”What am I? – is not relevant. I exist where faith, meaning, and destiny are stripped away. I’m nothing but everything.”

Mo Fei’s throat dried up from the words he couldn’t comprehend. The words it said sounded almost illogical to him.

”That didn’t answer my question.” Mo Fei remained stubborn. Its reptilian-gold eyes narrowed at the figure of Mo Fei, as if trying to recognize something forgotten. Mo Fei asked again. ”Why am I here? What are you?”

”The curiosity...” It paused and then said again. ”Curious, fearful, and pitiful expressions.”

Crash!

A pillar fell on the ground, shattering. The Serpent looked at it before turning its head toward him. ”Another time... I have lost.”

Mo Fei’s eyes widened as he looked at its expression. The Serpent’s eyes softened as if it saw something it had been waiting for. Then the serpent spoke again. ”You’re not what I expected to be here. I misunderstood.”

Mo Fei clicked his tongue. ”It is not answering the question...” He murmured before he pointed his Glaive toward the Serpent.

”Send me back.” His hand trembled, and he clenched the Glaive tight, trying to stop the tremble.

”You are leaving yo...” The Serpent paused, as if it had forgotten something. Then it closed its eyes and opened them. ”You aren’t worthy... Neither strong enough to hold the Lightless realm.”

”I didn’t ask to be here.”

”Your first descent will be complete in a while. Without a God, how are you going to remain sane?”

Mo Fei’s expression went quiet. Yi Jyuhan said something similar. An Authority without a God was not less dangerous than the world itself. The Glaive lowered to the ground before Mo Fei began. ”If you are only here to tell me my value, then you are no one to decide that.”

The serpent hissed again before its body left the throne. The whole place changed; that was the moment when Mo Fei truly saw the place.

Twenty-four pillars, six of them already broken, including the recent one. Two had large scratches, barely holding them together. The Serpent kept its voice calm and said, ”You won’t remain sane. Most likely, you will be long dead if you leave now.”

Mo Fei’s grip loosened on his Glaive when he heard the words. That was the reason he was here? To not lose himself and die? But why would a divine being care about someone’s life?

”Lightless, follow the light. I won’t give you full control over the Lightless Realm.” The Serpent writhed toward him. ”Prove yourself. CAN YOU CARRY THE THOUSAND OF SPIRITS?”

Mo Fei braced himself, gripping the Glaive. The floor turned to glass beneath him and then shattered.

He fell. Wind passed by his ears, but no bottom came. Just the endless depth and the white Serpent diving after him like a spear.

”If I return, I’ll die.” He twisted in mid-air. His body tried to balance, and he raised the Glaive with both hands. ”Then I must fight.”

The Serpent struck. Its jaws closed around the haft. The impact slammed Mo Fei downward faster, his arms screaming. For a second his hand trembled, failing to hold the Glaive. The pale Serpent coiled against empty air, Mo Fei hanging off his weapon.

Then the Serpent opened his jaw and shot him upward.

Mo Fei got launched upward before gravity pulled him toward the bottom. The Serpent dove again to crash into him. He swung the Glaive, catching the Serpent’s head across the snout. White mist bled out, but as quickly as the mist came, the scales regenerated.

The Serpent hissed. Its half-visible tail shortened, narrowing into a slender, delicate ribbon. It wrapped once around his waist and yanked him down.

Mo Fei spun, blind, gasping. He had already realized. He couldn’t beat this divine being. ”What do you want from me?”

The Serpent’s face filled his vision, golden eyes that were close enough to burn. Its voice came from inside his skull, only two words that meant nothing more than an order, not even a suggestion:

”CARRY THEM.”

Then it let go, slamming him into the bottomless pool.

Mo Fei felt completely alone but was still falling, the Serpent’s words rattling through his bones.

The Serpent flew back to the sky. ”Lightless, sorrowful, Lightless.” It descended toward him. ”What is your destiny without light? Give that to the spirits.”

Questions sharper than the fight itself. More of that he couldn’t understand. What was the Lightless? Did he really choose the wrong authority?

Splash

He landed in the pool from an endless height. The water felt like concrete, shocking his bones. They felt like they had broken into hundreds of pieces. His breath couldn’t escape his lungs.

Mo Fei drowned inside it. Behind him, invisible hands caught him, slowing him, then pulled him deeper.

The cold wasn’t cold enough to freeze his heart. He looked around.

Faces pressed against the inside of his skin, all of them opening their mouths to speak. Voices he didn’t recognize. Laughter he couldn’t feel. Weeping, he couldn’t sympathize. Prayers in languages that he couldn’t understand. The very ancient languages that had died before his grandparents.

”Lightless,” they whispered the ancient title of the Authority that had yet to fade. They all said it in the same ancient, graceful script. ”Tuó wú. Tuó wú.” (”Carry them.”)

Those spirits must not be hostile; they were waiting for a place to rest. For someone to carry them, thus, they prayed to their God that had vanished long ago.

Mo Fei thrashed them, but the spirits clung. His body grew heavier from their weight, even though they had no physical weight but only existential ones. Decades of grief. Centuries of abandonment. Everything became so heavy that any Lightless couldn’t hold onto the expectations... but there were none in the first place.

”Okay I understand...” As Mo Fei said. He tilted his head to see the serpent descending toward him.

Mo Fei braced himself again. But it didn’t attack. It paused, those golden eyes soothing and gentle.

”You asked me, who am I? And why are you here?” The Serpent coiled in the void. Its white scales reflected the faces he didn’t know. ”I answered, I’m nothing but everything. This realm couldn’t sustain itself without me. I’m the Mythical Creature, a manifestation of this realm.”

The Serpent leaned closer. ”You are the first, but also not the first to come here. You aren’t the last, but you stood here. I ask again... this time not with fangs that cut you, but with a truth. Can you carry them?”

Mo Fei’s hair and clothes flowed in the pool. He narrowed his eyes. Yes – he couldn’t fight it; there was nothing that seemed to be a win condition.

No, it didn’t matter. I was here so I wouldn’t die; the corruption would catch me if I left. Tch, every single day some other bullshits. Mo Fei’s hand loosened on Glaive, and he stopped struggling. ”I don’t know.” His voice came out raw and honest, with no bravado.

”I’ve been running away from one world to another, telling myself I just want to go home. I don’t know if I will make it. Even if I do, who knows how much of me will go back?” He looked at the serpent that let out a hiss. Then he began to speak again. ”You are asking me to carry them. To become something I don’t want to. I’ve been doing everything just to survive these worlds, but why always I do that for just a small thing that I deserve. Do I have no value? Do I look like I’m ready for the horror? I’d never get used to it, I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to fight at all, then why must I...”

The Serpent swept its tail, hearing his words.

”Whatever then. So what’s one more weight...?” He paused, grunting his jaws. ”I’m Lightless then.” He reached his hand toward the Serpent. The mask fell in the lake, floating in the water. ”If they need a place to rest. Let them die in my heart.”

The Serpent’s eyes blinked slowly. ”The Spirit World needs a God, be one.”

The pool scattered into mist before he fell on the heavy floor. The surrounding mist lunged toward him, bursting inside the mask. The Serpent unwrapped itself from the Lightless Throne. It bowed its head slightly. ”The Great Master of the Spirit World. Welcome to your domain.”

Mo Fei looked at his mask that fell on the ground. His hand reached out for it and held it in his grasp. The Serpent tilted its head before announcing. ”Before you go back to the living realm. You must fight my avatar and win.” The pale Serpent lowered its gaze. ”If you can’t win, you will never return and fight for eternity.”

The words hung in the air like a death sentence. Fight for eternity and could never return if lost.

Mo Fei looked down at his hands. The silver threads barely clung to his wrists. He pushed the mask and put it on his face. The realm didn’t change, but the Serpent did. Its body evaporated into the mist, beginning from its half-visible tail. The Serpent was no longer a Serpent.

The avatar of the Serpent was Mo Fei himself; the mimic’s eyes were different from his. Golden eyes, a face that was ancient but young and empty. The avatar stood in front of him.

It held the same double-edged Glaive but glowed like the sun.

The mimic waited for Mo Fei’s answer, which he sensed, and said, ”I’ve already given the answer.”

The mimic grinned before it lunged toward Mo Fei.