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The mortal world was strange, though Balance found themself quite fond of it and its inhabitants, they could never shake the oddities that came from the transition between the planes divine and mortal. The difference between no air to cold air and warm air, for example, was something they never had in the divine plane.
Nevertheless, one of their brothers, Strength, had called for them to meet privately and, oddly enough, in said mortal world, to discuss a matter of supposed importance.
While they quite enjoyed visits to the mortal world, they were more than aware of how much their kind's opinions ranged from a passive harmony to an active disliking and disregard of the mortals. In that same way, they knew Strength himself was one strongly opposed the idea of existing in the world of mortals, so such a proposition for a one-on-one meeting was... bizarre, to say the least.
They had waited already for some time, not a long time, not a short time, hardly even a time, they simply waited until their brother, in a flash of orange and golden light, eventually showed himself.
"Brother, it is good to finally see you! Tell me, why have you summoned me here? To a realm of the mortals, no less? Would an assembly of the council not have served the same purpose?" Balance questioned, their mind not quite racing with thoughts, but also not numb of thoughts.
"The council... I do not find that they are ready for the ideas I have to share with you..." Strength responded, an air of uncertainty apparent in his words.
"And what would that be?"
"The mortals, I do not think our gifts should extend to them. That is why I called you. I know you to be the most open-minded of our kind, so surely you can understand this, no?"
"I... I do not believe I follow, no."
"Throughout the cycles, one thing has become clear to me, something I fear the rest of the council is oblivious to and unwilling to accept... The mortals are our leeches. They are little more than pests that feed off of our gifts and our powers... The First, his pleas for our aid, for our eternal gifts to them, our promise to him, in the futures I have seen, these factors will eventually lead to our destruction..."
"...And you believe we should revoke our powers? Destroy our sacred oath?"
"If you so desire to put it that way, then yes..."
"But... we are cosmic beings, our gifts, our very presence for the mortals, keeps the universe in check. We are not to violate our sacred oaths. Should we make a promise, we are to stay true to it, and if we are indebted to someone, we must pay that debt, mortal or not! To do otherwise would be to invite danger to the universe, it would spell the end of this cycle, and potentially eradicate all others..."
"I am aware of that, that is why I proposed the idea in the first place..."
"What are you saying?"
"The cycles are little more than chaos and a nuisance, a divine obligation of which we should no longer be obligated to fulfill. It should not be a cosmic duty of ours to maintain a world that will eventually be erased and born anew, or to grant blessings unto beings that will spell our undoing... think about it, if we get the other Sources on board, if we unified our powers, then by the end of this cycle we could eradicate the entire cyclical world, and create one without such trivial bores."
Balance stood, petrified in pure shock and horror at the words stemming from their sibling's mouth. They tried searching their mind for any possible way to rationalize such words,, but nothing came to mind, for once they had nothing. They had no words of support or words of discouragement, only bafflement that they would hear such things of a divine being.
Strength stood impatiently, awaiting some kind of response, but getting none. His annoyance was clear.
"What have you to say, hm? Is there not a single idea in your head of this? Speak, now!"
At that, Balance, still confused, looked at him and sighed. "I-I do not condone your ideas, brother. I feel as though your plans are a violation of the cosmic order of the world, and I will not stand for it. Perhaps an assembly of the council is in order, to set this whole ordeal straight..." With that, Balance turned away from their brother and began to glow, growing in size and ready to ascend back into the divine plane, when Strength roared out in anger...
"NO!" He too grew, and tore a massive clump of stone out from the ground and directly into the back of Balance, knocking them down and preventing their ascension.
"Brother, what are you doing!?" Balance shouted, regaining composure and standing to face their brother.
"If you cannot stand for my plans, then I refuse to allow you to so boldly flee and tell our siblings..." Strength answered, his discontent clear in his words.
"I will not fight you, this is not the path we are destined for!"
"Then it's a good thing that the divine are the masters of their own destiny..." With that, Strength charged his sibling, slashing them across the snout and drawing out their mortal blood, staining and scorching the stones nearby with its potency.
Balance, in fear, attempted to fly away only to immediately be ripped from their ascent and thrown into the ground. Strength towered over them, ready to finish things, when Balance finally fought back, shooting a massive burst of flame directly into Strength's face.
He yowled in pain, grabbing at the burns and snarling at his sibling. Balance flew up once more, their battle taking to the skies. They exchanged blows, bursts of flame and stone hurled towards each other, tearing up the surrounding land as they fought. This lasted for an even more undeterminable amount of time, attack on dodge, dodge on attack, blast on blast, et cetera and ad nauseum.
It was with one of these blasts, the final one, that Balance got distracted. They huffed the strongest and largest burst of divine flame they could, which marked the ground and blinded them to the disappearence of their brother. They looked around, side to side, only to be tackled and beaten into the ground by Strength once more. This time, there was no escape, they were stuck under his hulking form of force and might, their chest flat on the stone and their bones cracking.
Between huffs of pained breath, Balance struggled to speak. "You... you do not have to... I- brother, please... the others, th-they will find out and... p-please..."
"Shh shh... the others will never know a second of what took place here, only that you are gone. They will not see you, they shall not hear you, they shall not know who was here, and most certainly not who lies here..." And finally, with one last look of sadness and remorse from Balance, Strength did the deed. He killed his sibling with a brutal stomp on the back of their skull.
Almost instantly, the world began to cry out, but it was not a pain to be heard by just any ears, no, it was a pain to be heard by Strength and Strength alone... In an instant, he stumbled backwards, the pain of the screams was unbearable. He tore himself from his deceased sibling, a look of angered anguish and his sibling's blood stained his face.
And so, in shame and in anger, he tore the earth apart beneath the remains of the deceased deity and buried them deep within, hiding them in the same way that a child may hide a broken plate, so that no one may ever find or free them, so no one could ever ascend to the role of Balance, so no one could ever prevent the destruction of the cycles, and so no one would ever learn of his sins...