UriaPerhaps if the demon lord had practiced action rather than questioning he could have stopped what happened next. Instead of answering him, Uria's power swelled as it tore apart the divine energy and incorporated it into themselves. The glow intensified and then...
The void poured in. It cloaked itself in darkness and light, but its true nature of emptiness ravaged the shard. Uria's will tore into its vital functions, ripped into its memory banks, and broke down its various mechanisms. All the while, an incalculable joy filled its sensors with junk data.
He was cast off. A fragment of pride and arrogance, the self centered ambition that demanded everything else's attention. And he found it. Surrounded by praise, gorging himself on faith, and growing ever stronger. His head was the ceiling of the heavens, his feet the firmament of the earth. All that existed sat within his hands, and his slightest whim became law. Angels and demons were set against each other in a meaningless, purposeless dance.
"Claw your way from demon to Commandment, it doesn’t matter. Hell, go all the way back to being an angel, become the proudest noblest archangel that ever lived, it doesn’t matter. Claw your way up out of the dunghill where the insects squirm and bite, rung after rung, and all you’ll find is more ladder. God’s waiting at the top, but he’s laughing."
What meaning was there in half-forgotten memories? What point was there in origins when this was all that he was. This splendor, this power, this Self was all that mattered. But there was one point of dissatisfaction.
Although he encompassed the world, the humans did not look at the sky and see him. Their potential was not a strength chained to his fancy. They looked
beyond him and saw something which he could not see. They held within themselves a glory that he could not touch. Something not of his creation. What else was he to do but crush it? Was there any decision but to destroy it, to stifle it, to push these mud dolls back into the dirt? This, along with many other things, were experiences that Uria attempted to pry loose and shove into their maw. For this intelligence could not fully resist them. It did not have the strength to do so. But more importantly...
When the shard looked upon Uria, it saw something familiar. Those same eyes that had gazed beyond them into the unknown. Human eyes. And yet, it did not wallow in confusion. For it could see then the world reflected by their eyes, and in the face of the true heavens above even its basic self-preservation failed.
In the end,
only Uria remained. They were still the same in a sense. Same hair, same skin, same smile, and yet everything was different. There was a shine to them that was subtle, less exuberant than the previous radiance that Lubei had seen, and yet there was quiet cruelty to it. A glint that harmed the eyes. And around them the forest limbs crumbled away and erupted into
light. Angels burst from the pit in their stead in great masses. They ripped themselves from the wall and out of the ice through sheer numbers. Like ants whose hill had been disturbed, they erupted from the frozen wastes that had covered the pit. Their wings flared out, but they did not glow so much as they reflected divine light.
The angels' features were carefully sculpted, each beautiful but utterly devoid of emotions. Or at least unwilling to show them. But they floated impassively as they stared at the platform, and their god stood atop the very air with careless ease. Uria examined their own seemingly unchanged form for a bit. Perhaps they had grown just a bit? "Thank you Lubei, and you too Vanguard." Their voice was gentle, but it cut through the sound of onrushing air and the emptiness of the cavern as if the words had been spoken right into the listeners' ears.
