Chapter 167
Zairiel
I shed crocodile tears for this universe as I swallowed it in one go…. That hadn’t happened until now…
Because Now, I was Big enough.
No realm keeper could stop me, since I am so big, that if I were to encounter grandpa Arviel alone, I could probably take him…maybe. It’d be a long fight, but I know I can at least go toe to toe with one of them now.
After all, they were made to protect a corner. I’m sure I’m just talking hot shit because I’m getting a size increase.
When I was smaller, *everyone* was their strength to me… Now that I am Strong, I see that they were small fry, and I was too.
It took nearly a century to do this… Now I think nothing of it. There are countless multitudes destroyed for my progress, yet, I still honor the code I was raised with.
Only those realms who earn it. Mercy upon them, by making it quick….
I Will not play with my food.
I still see all beings who hold speech as people.
They are not just hamburgers with legs. This will be my fifth universe… Compared to the corner my family resides in, I’d say…. If that one is the size of a basketball, this one is the size of a golf ball.
None can stop me now, except another Realm Eater. Not with a bubble this big popped. It was five times the size of the last one, but with rending magic this one fit in my maw as I grew.
\[Objective complete! Size update: Increase 500%\]
I don’t know how I knew this, but this one was the size of the normal offering for the Infinity King….
“Can I fight Narru?”
\[It is unwise.\] She said cryptically. This blue bubble was my 4th one… I was already an adult size… this one fit in my mouth like a jawbreaker… the quarter sized ones…
I pulled out the recipe book, and now I could understand Time’s words…
I could understand!!!
‘If you are reading this, you are now stable enough to visit anytime you like, so long as you say ‘hi’ to me first. I bet you’re wondering so many things, especially why Xethia is in Narru’s territory, likely within his arm’s reach. It is because I purposefully interfered with your fate. Lulliba could never take an entire solar system, and transfer it across Infinity.
But I know you know that.
I’m sure you’d rather be out there, preparing to fight that insect than under your father’s boot.
And I know you’re probably going to argue with me with something along the lines of: ‘oh, I don’t mind being the Executioner blah blah blah.’ You DO…. Or would have. Stagnation would have turned you… You would have grown tired of it.
Tired as I did, except your father isn’t a tyrant anymore, so you wouldn’t be a ‘hero’. You know at first, they praised me, my siblings who were left. They licked my boots and I was so greedy I still didn’t let them live.
I bet you’re also wondering how I made a whole letter out of a single sentence, but for us, a single word can mean pages with the right inflection.
Don’t roar yet. I want to hear it first.
Don’t contact your family.
Come Straight here.’
With a teleport I was at grandfather’s door, and he was blue…. But grandfather’s power is known to me. I don’t think the others know just *how* fucked everyone is should he change his mind. But he welcomed me as a long lost grandson.
I kneeled as low as I could. Respect is given to the patriarch.
“Stand my son.” He said with a soft smile.
I stood.
“Think fast.” He tossed a chicken egg at me, and I scrambled to catch it!
“I still have muscle control!” I complained, catching it gently. I levitated it into the air, and deconstructed it to it’s base elements, and fried it at a molecular level. I learned that trick while bored, floating around Infinity.
“That’s why I wanted you to wait, because initially, you didn’t as a whelp Realm Eater. Go take a shower; wash the aches of lonely travel off your bones.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice!
“Oh, and I made your favorite ice cream and now you can taste my homemade stardust tea blend.”
“You Had Me At Food!” I yelled, stripping off those tattered robes before shedding my skin. One tug and it came off in one go. It turned to glitter, but thankfully that glitter disappears… Ziri’s glitter-fetti bomb still accents the planet… Pfft you can see his little planet sparkle as it spins.
The water came out the showerhead boiling, and I couldn’t help myself.
\[Tick Tick Tick Tock,
Come the roaring gnashing teeth
Scales of black
With a roar and a snap
He taketh the away!\]
“HA!! They sing of you!” He beamed. “Roar like you mean it boy!
“I don’t want to-”
“Let Narru Hear You!” He laughed.
{…..**YOU FUCKING BETTER NOT TOUCH MY MATE NARRU!**…..}
“He should hear that.” Said Calaxious.
He left me alone to shower and hum like a dumbass, but this was the first time since I left that I have spoken in the same room as my family… and when I got out, he had custom robes for me.
They were the finest black with no trim… just void black. The weave was tight enough to repel individual atoms, like his…. This was handmade…. Made of the finest dark matter and primordial energy.
I could tell that it was so tightly woven that to clean it, all I’ll have to do is beat it like a rug, or shake it.
“Thank you, grandfather.” I said putting it on. I honestly had no words for this.
Kindness feels foreign….
“Make your crest, one to float between those horns.” He chuckled, taking the inert stone that floated between them, and crushed it… It became a halo of black dust, swirling in a circle… and an aura of black surrounded it.
A bull horned human skull surrounded by the Omega symbol was what I came up with. It floated between my looped horns now. I used my own magic to make a solid black iron ring to fit inside the smokey particles… and when they merged, the smoke from the darkness made my crest, while the crest emitted a dull hum of every magic.
“I cannot wait to make the silver bell for that left horn.” He smiled gently. “And to give you my third favorite ring.” He motioned a simple intaglio ring that had a meteor headed for a planet relief carved into it. My wax seals are going to look cool as fuck….
But I’m sure with him being so strong, that if he gave it to me now, the energy passively collected within it would kill me. His slight nod told me I was right.
“I can’t thank you enough. You take me in as your own bloo-”
He put both his hands on my shoulders. “You *are* the blood of my sons little one.” He pressed his horns to mine. I saw a few flashes of him raising Those Who Share One…
“I remember when I was a child… they were so great... so stoically untouchable…. How strange it is to be their equal.”
“Do you understand now?”
For a moment, I was connected to pure, unedited power…. What REAL power is, the kind that makes men go mad, the kind that makes you drunk.
Holy Shit.
I saw how frustrated, confused, yet happy he was dealing with THREE godlings who got into everything…. How he mourned the death of any worlds destroyed here, how he sees us as his grandchildren, the only true saving grace for this layer.
“I do.”
I was never meant to kneel to the patriarchs of our pantheon… he wanted me to lead somewhere else.
“Your heart is too noble to allow that level of stagnation. There is nothing for you here other than comradery.”
“There is nothing for me here other than my family that I love dearly, but for my wife, and the ability to move forward, you cast me out.”
If he did try sharing anything more, I couldn’t fucking tell. If my powers flowed like water, his was molasses.
It appeared on my robes over my heart, and I could feel a god’s brand. Mine glowed with Grandpa Time… and likely not anyone else here.
“Why’d you pick bull horns?”
“Zuviel, father, and myself all had those horns on our crests… I have your Omega…” I said stoically.
He put his clawed hands on my shoulders. I imagine now I’m only about as long as his forearm. “Did you know you picked my father’s symbol? Well, his favorite one.”
“Really?”
“You look so much like him, that I almost apologized to you for eating him… come have tea. I know you sense your family.”
“I should-”
“Zairiel you are about to embark on the last part of your journey… commune with them this year.” He said as a command, not a suggestion.
“Yes sir.” I bowed my head. He nodded for me to rise.
“I Hear Zairiel!” Yelled Chuck. He ran and bowed to me. “This place has been so *boring* without a sparring partner!”
I could tell the little shit was going to draw his blade or peck me like old times, but right now I was too far gone into a battle high to play nice. I’m glad his instincts picked that up.
It dissipated in waves now that I wasn’t touching the horns of the Infinity King… I get it. I get why Narru disobeyed but we’re too big to be unaccounted for.
“I’m sure my cousins are good enough!” I laughed.
“They aren’t! Take me and my wives with you!” He ‘cried’. “I swear I won’t kill any more of your lizard-birds with teeth!”
“You killed my dinosaurs?!” I yelled.
“LIKE THREE!!!!” he clucked.
“Oh, that’s not so-” Chuck cut me off.
“Thousand.” He admitted.
“CHUCK!”
“They Kept SHITTING in your yard! It was going to be 90% Dinosaur Piss when you got back!”
“The whole planet is my yard!”
“And one of them became a dino overlord!” he complained.
Oh gods damn it! The Red one I blessed had babies that tried taking over the fucking world. I facepalmed…. I saw Chuck’s memories…. They did, in fact shit everywhere too, but more importantly, they were messing up the food chain.
“Then you did me a solid.” I shook my head. I’ll take him with me *after* I kill Narru….
“ZAI!” yelled my sisters hugging me. They didn’t hesitate, knowing that I was a monster… It felt nice not being screamed and begged at… but I was nervous for their sakes.
I hadn’t touched anyone gently since I left… and I had real fear in my heart… My sisters smell like …. Food… and my claws cut through reality…. They are soft. I could understand why I couldn’t return… A hair to rough and I will kill them, with no way of fixing it…
I don’t know how I know… but it’s instinct. The only one I can heal is my mate, and it can’t be a Realm Eater wound.
“You look so… rugged.” Said Zohlliba.
“I got into a lot of fights.” I said leaving a lot out… They don’t need to know how many I’ve ripped apart because they wouldn’t just die peacefully.
“Brother, I want you to meet my mate.” Said Zulliba.
“Me too!” Beaned Zoh.