Prologue

Thanks to km300 and PieForLife for your support!

Note: please read The Evil God first.

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Fireworks lit up the night sky in the god realm.

Joyously light music played on string instruments danced around the city of Esen, which was lit up at the center with floating energy lanterns in every color imaginable. Many of the outer streets were utterly abandoned, quiet but for the faint strains of music. Each resident had migrated toward the center of the city for the festivities, getting drunk on sweet wine and throwing flower petals in the streets to celebrate.

There was no darkness today, no sorrow. Today, the realm was celebrating. Celebrating the union of the Death god and the Light god.

Their marriage was a symbol of hope for the people. A sign that the realm was truly healing after the last catastrophe. Just moments ago, the ceremony binding them together for eternity had ended, allowing the real party to begin.

Esen’s center was loud with cheerful voices, toasts to the happy couple, the stomping of feet on the ground as dances began. The outskirts were dead by comparison. Quiet, and though lit up with a few stray energy lanterns that had managed to float out to the edges, it was still a bit dim. Shadows twisted between houses, clinging to the corners and waiting, listening with bated breath.

Such happiness. Such beauty.

What a joke.

In the city center, the Death god stepped down from the dais, hand in hand with the Light god, surrounded by cheers and whistles as they were ushered back to the palace to consummate their union. They walked there slowly, their path lined with lanterns and smiling citizens wishing them eternal happiness. Their family members remained behind, keeping the crowd in check while also partying the night away in celebration.

“Love god, please bless my marriage too,” one woman called out as the couple passed. And then like a wave, all the people around her latched onto her idea, throwing out their own prayers, shuffling closer to the couple. A few even got on their knees to peer up at the Death god’s astonished lovely red eyes. Only the stern expression of the Light god next to him kept them from reaching out to grab at his clothes and hair.

“Love god, please let my crush like me back!”

“Love god, all I want is for someone to love me. Please, let me find my soulmate!”

Similar prayers rose and fell around them, a wave of plaintive desire and yearning. It had been quite some time since any of the gods in the god realm had experienced such fervent worship. Although, it wasn’t particularly surprising, either.

Up until now, the god realm hadn’t had a deity devoted to Love. There was a minor goddess of marriages, and said goddess had actually just finished officiating their marriage, but she mostly received worship in regards to maintaining healthy relationships or securing divorces. She was not in charge of Love, just the legal union between two people. There were a few other local deities here or there that occasionally received prayers for relationships, but it was rarely their main realm of rule.

And it wasn’t the Death god’s realm of rule either, not originally, but given his whirlwind romance with the Light god, the people had unanimously adopted him as a god of Love too. He was overwhelmed by the sudden boost in power he received because of it.

Godly power was fueled by many things. It was first and foremost inherited from whoever had created the god, and considering the Death god was the second most ancient being in the realm, created by the universe itself, he was already quite powerful.

Power was also fueled by worship, and while the Death god received a significant amount of worship just by nature of being in charge of death, he was receiving almost triple that amount of power now as a god of Love. When people prayed about death, they very rarely invoked him specifically, their prayers instead being to help a loved one pass on without pain, wishing for their own death, or the death of another. The Death god fed off those prayers because they were about death, not because they were directed specifically to him. Some were, but most still considered it taboo to invoke his name directly in matters of death because of the stigma that had followed him for so long. That was changing, slowly, as all things were, but these new love prayers were addressed to him specifically without any taboo surrounding it. That, combined with the sheer volume of prayers, was giving the Death god a power boost he’d never before experienced.

He couldn’t help but find it simultaneously amazing and oddly depressing.

There were so many people yearning for Love, coveting it above all else. How sad that they were unable to find it, whether within another or within themselves.

The Death god was frozen on the path, surrounded by kneeling citizens begging for his help. He didn’t know what to say, throat clogged up tight.

Thankfully, the Light god knew what to do.

He stepped forward, helping to block the Death god from their view. “Be at peace. We will have time to listen to each of you later. But right now, I would like to be alone with my husband. After all, wishing for a happy marriage while interrupting his isn’t exactly the best way to get his help, is it?”

This was a very good argument, and the crowd quickly dispersed, several whispering apologies sheepishly as they retreated. Satisfied, the Light god grabbed hold of the Death god’s hand again, pulling him toward the palace. The Death god followed on stiff legs.

The crowd thinned the closer they got to the palace, which was lit up almost as brightly as the fireworks for the occasion. By the time they reached the front steps, they were alone, followed only by distant laughter and cheers as the party continued on.

The Death god mounted the steps, lost in thought, and didn’t notice the Light god’s hand slipping from his until he was already at the top. He frowned and turned to see the Light god had gotten on his knees on the steps, peering up at the Death god with eyes reflecting the firework bursts above.

The Death god tilted his head curiously, heart throbbing as he took in the full beauty of his lover, from those glistening blue eyes to his soft white hair, which had been braided back intricately for the ceremony. He seemed to be kneeling before the Death god quite often recently, as if he felt he didn’t deserve the honor of his love.

Some might argue that he didn’t. His lover had gone through hell, lived within it for centuries and endured torture at the hands of demons. The Light god’s hand was one of many that had brought the Death god harm.

The Death god had forgiven him, however, and for that grace, he was blessed beyond belief.

The Death god descended the steps to reach his kneeling lover, wanting to pull him up. But as he stretched out his hand, the Light god grabbed it gently, kissing his palm, then the inside of his wrist. He drew his eyes up along the Death god’s arm, finally meeting those brilliant red eyes.

“What are you doing?” the Death god asked.

“Savoring this moment,” the Light god replied.

“Well, savor it inside, weirdo. It’s cold out here.”

It wasn’t. It was a hot summer night. The Light god smiled slowly, watching red dye the Death god’s cheeks, and pressed one more kiss to the ring on the Death god’s finger.

“As you wish.”

The Light god stood, and the Death god opened his mouth to make another comment, a quip to play off his embarrassment, but he stopped abruptly, eyes going to the sky as he seemed to listen for something. He frowned deeply.

“What’s wrong?” the Light god asked, unsure what had drawn his lover’s attention.

The Death god’s eyes snapped back to the Light god. He raised an eyebrow quizzically.

“Do you not hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“…Never mind.”

Hand in hand once more, the two entered the palace, slowly climbing the stairs to their room. As they did so, the Light god leaned over and pressed his face to his lover’s hair, inhaling the scent of him. The Death god was so distracted he barely noticed.

He suddenly halted on the stairs and the Light god ran right into him. They both stumbled, and the Death god made a deadpan face at his lover, rolling his eyes.

“Did you truly not hear anything outside?” the Death god asked, still bothered.

“Like what?”

“The wind.”

“The wind? I hadn’t noticed it. I’m simply too distracted by you to notice anything else. Why? Did our creator have something to say?”

The universe, which had created both the Death god and the Light god, often spoke to them through the wind. They were the only two beings in the god realm who were privy to its messages, the only two capable of deciphering its way of speaking.

“Yes.”

“Congratulating us, I assume?”

The Death god was silent, staring at his lover with an unreadable expression.

“…Yes.”

The two continued to their room, and the Light god very quickly used every skill at his disposal to make the Death god forget whatever had his brow furrowed so deeply. In fact, he was so good at this that the Death god forgot his own name for a while.

When the first faint strains of dawn’s light started pouring in the windows, they finally stopped, sinking back into the bed with gasps for breath. The Light god gathered the Death god close, and he quickly fell asleep wrapped around his lover.

The Death god, on the other hand, slowly opened his eyes after a moment, staring up at the ceiling of their bedroom.

Something was wrong.

Something was wrong with the Light god, specifically.

The Death god knew something different was coming, that some new challenge was going to bring chaos to their lives. He’d been expecting a new enemy, a foe to defeat. He’d expected battle, maybe even an uprising. After all, after the Light god merged the venomous forest with paradise, several rebel groups had popped up in protest, claiming that the Death god and the Light god were destroying the world.

And the Death god couldn’t truly fault them for that view. He was sure that the merging had caused them significant grief. But it was an unfortunate cost to righting the balance.

Even more unfortunately, that wasn’t the problem. The new evil that the Death god had been expecting wasn’t showing up in the form of a villain hell-bent on destroying them.

No. It was laying right beside him.

Perhaps that was a bit dramatic. After all, the Death god could be jumping to conclusions. Perhaps the Light god’s inability to hear their creator was exactly what he said it was. He was simply too distracted by the Death god and their marriage to notice it.

A sickening twist in the Death god’s stomach said otherwise. He turned his head to stare at his lover’s peaceful sleeping face, swallowing a lump in his throat.

He found the Light god’s left hand, encasing it in his own and rubbing his thumb over the gold and blue diamond ring he’d gotten him to match the black and ruby one the Light god had given him.

Whatever happened, they were in it together.

For better or for worse.