Standing on the deck of the quiet ship, the vast emptiness of space around me, I once again found myself wondering if I was as bad as people thought I was.

Piloting the ship wasn’t a problem, I’d steered ships before, though they were usually on an ocean. But some wackadoodle God decided to make a galleon their primary mode of transportation through space.

The huge ship moved through space via mana fueled rockets located at the rear, and near the top of the central mast, and was a textbook case of ‘doing it because we could.’ Even the life-support system, which appeared to my eyes as a transparent bubble of yellow energy, most likely served very little purpose beyond the aesthetic.

The only good thing to come of it was the autopilot was already engaged, and it was on course for a branch of Yggdrasil.

It took several days of drifting along at whatever pace the captain had set before I even set eyes on the branch… But when I did, all my tension simply fell away.

Looking upon the branch was always a sight to see. It was hard to describe, but it was like looking at a picture with the saturation turned up to max. The color was vibrant, and even made the empty space around it seem lively.

I placed a foot on the banister near the head of the ship and jumped off. The moment I passed through the bubble, I felt the icy touch of empty space; Ice crystals formed on my skin, but I hardly notice the cold anymore.

My momentum carried me the rest of the way to the branch, and I placed my hand upon its side to stop from moving any further. I watched as the ship made contact with the branch and vanished in a flash of light. Wherever the ship was going, I didn’t need to go.

Though the branches I’d come across varied in size, with this one being roughly as thick as a small moon, they always retained every bit of the awesome power of the world tree.

I placed my palm against the smooth bark of the branch. My arm tingled as divine mana traveled up my arm and down my spine. Without taking my hand off the branch, I closed my hand into a fist. My fingers sunk into the bark almost without effort.

Arcs of rainbow light spilled around my hand, nearly blinding me with its radiance.

I grimaced at the brightness but did not recall my hand.

I wasn’t sure if what I was trying was actually going to work, or what was going to happen. But it was either this, or blindly follow the branch to who knows where.

The Bifrost gates only existed near the branches’ ends, which were usually where they connected to a planet.

I focused for moment and allowed a trickle of my own mana reserves to connect with the rainbow light.

Since I was nowhere near a gate, I would just have to make one.

I ignored the words that followed and instead focused on a destination of my choice. While doing so, I allowed a little more of my mana to intertwine itself with the Bifrost.

“Take me to the silver city.”

A moment later, a torrent of rainbow light encircled me, and I was pulled inside the Bifrost. The warmth coming from the ocean of kaleidoscopic light relaxed me enough that a small smile found its way onto my lips.

I missed traveling like this. And I was glad my idea worked, because I didn’t think it would. To be perfectly honest, I was kind of expecting the branch to blow up or something…

Time flowed oddly inside the Bifrost. I could’ve been inside it for ten seconds or a hundred years, and I would never know the difference. No one would.

Granted, it made sense. If we took magic entirely out of the equation, the distance between planets is not small. But an ordinary human can travel between thousands of planets within moments while using the Bifrost, that speaks of a level of speed far beyond what should be possible.

And I’m not ashamed to say that the Bifrost is without a doubt, the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced. And I’ve fought dragons like a storybook hero and destroyed a planet like some kind of super villain.

Neither experience has, so far, topped traveling between planets in seconds.

A multicolored portal of light appeared in front of me, and I was, rather ungracefully, expelled from it. I only just managed to catch myself before I could face plant on the asphalt road in front of me.

I pushed myself to my feet and dusted off my hands without paying mind to the crowd of people surrounding me.

“Hi, would one of you fine folks direct me to the hospital, please?” I asked as politely as I could.

The responses I got in return were varied, with most leaning towards surprised horror, but I guess my charming smile melted their hearts enough that they told me what I wanted to know.

I left them with a smile on my face, and abject fear on theirs.

It was almost like they’d never seen a wanted criminal before.

It took some doing, but I finally managed to convince one of the doctors to tell me which room was Reina’s. They didn’t want to tell me at first, but I won them over eventually.

Now four out of five doctors can say for certain that you can, in fact, survive an encounter with me.

Arriving at the door to Reina’s room, I took a moment to look around. I doubted they would have booby-trapped the door, but you can never be too certain.

The door seemed normal; a cursory inspection didn’t reveal anything obvious. Which didn’t mean much, enchantments could render traps entirely invisible, so checking was more for my own peace of mind than anything.

I tugged on the door, and it swung open easily.

Inside was… Not what I was expecting.

I found myself in a pitch-black room of undetermined size. Suddenly, a light came on; the pillar of light illuminated three people, two of which I recognized.

The one I didn’t recognize was a lizard man, an extremely large lizard man. He wore a bespoke suit of red and silver, with large golden cufflinks that reflected light back into my eyes. The cufflinks matched the color of his scales, almost exactly. However, a scar large enough to cover one side of his face shone white instead of gold.

He had a pair of ivory horns that seemed to have been filed down, almost to the point of disappearing inside his skull.

The lizard man silently regarded me through dull red eyes, the kind only someone who’d survived untold horrors could acquire. His eyes more than anything told me that the being before me was ancient- more so than anything I’d ever met.

By his side stood Shazai; even now, the bastard couldn’t be bothered to assume a normal form.

Shazai was a being known as a judge; Judges were widely considered to be the only true form of law enforcement amongst the gods, and their words were seen as absolute. To that effect, they preferred to remain in indistinct forms in some sense of superiority.

Shazai preferred to appear as a massive blue light in the vague shape of a man… He was also the judge I’d made my deal with. In exchange for protecting my family, I would go along with the imprisonment sham.

I was foolish to believe any of them, I see that now.

Kneeling in front of them in a rich blue hospital gown, facing me with her arms bound behind her back, was Reina. Six

I looked between her and the two men several times before I stepped fully into the room.

“It’s gonna be okay.” I tried for a light tone, but I don’t think I succeeded.

“You’re right,” the lizard man said in a surprisingly smooth voice. “Everything will be alright. So long as you get on your knees, right now.”

“Okay.” I lifted my arms in front of me in a placating gesture and dropped to my knees. “See, I’m down. You don’t have to hurt her.”

“Torga… Don’t.” Reina whimpered.

“Shazai, what’s going on here? I thought you were on my side?” I asked, trying, and failing to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut.

“Your side?” He repeated incredulously. “Torga, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do to protect my people. You know that, right?”

“So why are you doing this? I pose no threat to your people-” my words were cut off as Shazai burst out laughing, even the lizard man smirked.

“No threat? You, who were solely responsible for killing untold thousands. You can’t help yourself, before all is said and done, you will drag all of Yggdrasil down with you. I can’t let that happen. Not now, not ever.”

“I’m not Orochi!” I hissed. I wanted nothing more than to knock his head off, but the lizard man had his claws just a little too close to Reina’s neck.

“You think I don’t know that? I would have preferred it if you were, but no- you’re something much worse.” Shazai shook his head. “I can’t take this anymore, tell him, so we can get this over with.”

I watched as the lizard man placed his hand on Reina shoulder and leaned over her, placing his claws dangerously close to her jugular.

“Don’t even think about trying anything. After everything I’ve done, don’t think I want to kill her at the slightest provocation.”

I grimaced at the certainty in his voice. He spoke nothing but truth, everyone in the room knew that.

“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you’re Orochi? Am I right?”

“Yes, I have been called Orochi. Though, originally, I was known as Níðhöggr.” Orochi chuckled darkly. “Let me tell you a story, Torga. The story of the birth of Yggdrasil, and the monster responsible for its death.

See, you think you know everything there is to know about me; you think me evil. What if I told you I was the one trying to save Yggdrasill? What if I told you that you were the one responsible for its death- and not just once? Since the beginning of time Yggdrasill has been in a constant cycle of life, death, and rebirth and you are intrinsically linked to this cycle. You are destined to destroy Yggdrasil, and upon doing so, you too will die. Upon your death, Yggdrasill will be reborn, and everything will be reset.

But so will you.

This is how the cycle has continued for an eternity and will likely continue for another if we can’t stop it.” He explained without allowing me a moment to interrupt.

“That’s ridiculous. I would never-”

“You already have, and you’ll do it again. You can’t help yourself.” Orochi sneered. “Why do you think you have that cursed power within you? Did you never question why it was there, why you, of all people, was able to gain so much power so quickly?

I’ll save you the trouble. It’s because this is how it always goes; you are born, you rise to godhood, and then you destroy everything you love. Tell me it’s not true. Look deep within and tell me that you aren’t capable of it.”

I opened my mouth to disagree… But I’d lost my voice.

He was right. I did destroy everything I cared about, I’m a curse- a blight. I’m-

“Don’t listen to him!” Reina screamed. “You are what you choose to be, Torga. Nothing they say can never change that.” She tried to get her legs under her stand up, but the lizard man shoved her back down.

His claws pierced the thin fabric and drew blood.

“Silence. If this continues, everyone you love will die too. I’ve been there, saw my family erased before my very eyes. And with how quickly his power is growing this time around, I give us three months before we’re all doomed.”

“You’re a horrible liar Orochi.” Reina’s head remained facing the floor, but I could see her body shaking. “Torga isn’t like that.”

“Isn’t he? Would you bet that against the lives of every man woman and child he’s ever killed? Or how about the lives of everyone he will kill, he can’t help himself.

That’s the difference between me and the rest; I don’t care how many men, women, or children I have to kill to achieve true peace. I’ll slaughter billions if it means I can prevent the cycle from repeating. Wouldn’t you?”

“I would.” I said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “I would kill anyone if it meant you were safe.” My eyes locked onto Reina’s. “I would bring Yggdrasill to its knees just so you could live.”

“See? He’s a monster; Torga, the father of monsters.” Orochi shook his head angrily. “You’re right, Shazai. Let’s get this over with.”

Orochi shoved Reina towards Shazai, who grabbed her and held her down.

“Despite eons of research, I still don’t know how to stop you. Imprisoning you doesn’t work, we can’t make you fade, and there’s no way to depower you… Killing you is only a temporary measure, you’ll come back. Like a cockroach, you’ll always come back. Hopefully by the time you’re reborn, I’ll have a way to stop you for good.” Orochi was speaking quietly, but each word rang in my ears like a gong.

I stared wide-eyed at him. I was stuck; if I moved, Shazai would kill Reina. If I didn’t move, Reina would live, but I would die.

My eyes slid off Orochi and landed on Reina. She was struggling fiercely, but Shazai was too strong. No matter how much she fought, she was no closer to escaping.

Meanwhile, I was just trying to memorize the lines of her face. Would I remember her in my next life?

As Orochi drew close, Reina opened her mouth and screamed my name at the top of her lungs. And I watched, almost in slow motion, as Shazai twisted her neck until it snapped.

I saw the life drain from her eyes; eons passed in the blink of an eye as her eyes slowly grew darker until nothing remained. “No…” I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it; she couldn’t be dead. Not her; not Reina.

Everything suddenly froze.

Reina’s unmoving form became my everything.

She was my world.

And now she’s dead, because of me.

Before I realized it, I was sitting at her side with her head in my lap. My fingers lazily running through her hair, while my eyes remained locked on hers.

A sound reached my ears, and it took me a moment to realize it was Orochi’s voice.

I couldn’t hear what he was saying, he was speaking so slowly and so quietly, that it was almost impossible to make out any words. But I could tell they were directed at Shazai.

But it didn’t matter.

I felt my power swell within me. The black hole at the core of my being spun faster and faster, until the sound of it turning drowned out everything else. For the first time in so long, I felt hunger. Which should’ve been impossible, I hadn’t been hungry since my ascension to godhood… But now, of all times, I was starving.

Why not? I have nothing else to lose, might as well enjoy one last meal before they kill me.

My eyes broke contact with Reina’s and I looked at Orochi. His claws were mere millimeters from my left eye… But the moment I looked at him, he froze.

My aura exploded out of me, quickly filling the room, and even passing beyond the threshold. The aura continued to expand, even as seconds turned into days. My aura never wavered, never slowed in its constant expansion.

No matter how much I ate, the hole inside me was never filled. In fact, it only seemed to grow wider with every passing second.