Deus Didymus: Rend

Pt2Ch34: Dispersal

Chaeyeon opened her eyes, taking in IZLand's destroyed academy field. A large crater splintered the ground next to the academy tree, and a large hole broke into the building. With a simple inspection, she found out she stood not in her current body, but a body when she was much younger.

"Yo!" Ji Hoon greeted.

Chaeyeon spun around, widening her eyes as she met the tall boy. He too took the form of his younger self. It was clear this was the day Ji Hoon made a name for himself during an invasion on IZLand, but no one else was around. She couldn't sense a single wellspring except her own.

"Is this real?" Chaeyeon breathed.

Ji Hoon nodded, "As real as it's gonna get."

Tears welled in Chaeyeon's eyes. They streaked down her cheeks, shattering onto the ground before turning into stardust. Everything felt real. The smell of the grass, the gentle breezes, the warm sunlight--it was like she went back in time.

"You left us, didn't you?" Chaeyeon sniffled. "There's no way anyone could kill you."

"Am I that bad at lying?" Ji Hoon chuckled.

"Why?! Why did you do all of this? Why didn't you warn us? Why did you have to make everything so hard??" Chaeyeon snapped. Her voice cracked as she forced her words. "If you didn't leave, I could have left this stupid job! I never wanted it!! I could have lived happily with Sakura by my side--we could have spent more time together!!! Where did you even go...?"

Ji Hoon exhaled softly. He snapped his fingers causing the academy to fill with people Chaeyeon once knew. The pair rose into the air as a figure slammed into the grass prompting Chaeyeon to deduce Ji Hoon was replaying the events of the day he put himself on the board.

"It was this day that I first heard voices. I was told I was going to become a god--that I had to come up as soon as possible," Ji Hoon explained. "Through a deal I made, I was able to stay on the mortal plane for a handful more years. They told me I could stay as long as I didn't leave any lasting impacts that would tip the political scales. It turned out to be vague words telling me I couldn't take over the world or something."

"So that's why," Chaeyeon whispered.

"I really could have," Ji Hoon frowned. "I had it all. Immeasurable power, eyes that could see everything, and magic just in case I felt like fooling around. But I couldn't do anything with it because the gods feared me. They didn't want me breaking their game."

"What game?" Chaeyeon asked.

"This is all just one big auto-chess game. Each deity puts bets on what will happen during major events and can even influence the real world with some of their power." Ji Hoon watched his younger self sweep through the city. "The god of storms, Raijin, blessed IZLand which is why we have so many lightning alleles. The goddess of sleep aided in Orca's invasion to try to grab Y/n, and so on."

Chaeyeon furrowed her eyebrows, "Y/n. What was up with him? Why is he so important?"

Ji Hoon sighed, "Not that I really like playing this game of auto-chess, but Y/n can be thought of as my chess piece--or self insert. Through some divine bullshit, he houses twin gods: Malevolence and Benevolence--the sons of Takemikazuchi. That dude's the god of war, conquest, martial arts, swords, lightning, and many other things. It's really weird because some deities overlap their domains, but I'm rambling. He's my chance at ruining this whole game--maybe even restarting it so things are nicer down there."

With a snap of his fingers, the pair traveled back in time to Y/n's birth. "Y/n was supposed to come into this world with either invisibility or telekinesis--both pretty good alleles. However, the goddess of fertility looked away for just one second, allowing the god of trickery to slip the twins into Y/n's body. When this happened, they overrode his allele, creating the armament allele from their innate ability to make swords. Due to the divine nature of armament, it held potential to break the world--exactly what I needed to reset this whole game."