Interlude Three: A Dying Shriek

“What would our Lady say, had she lived to witness your degeneration?”

“Yet again, we hit the same wall,” the doctor said, clenching his fist. “What sort of Divine has no Knowledge?”

“I-I’m sorry, Papa,” the abomination whimpered, lost in the torture’s aftermath. “I’m so s-sorry, I’m so sorry, I—I’m—Papa—”

“Shattered matrix, frayed surface, and still the damned lack of self-sufficiency… No doubt the subject will perish if we attempt another revision,” the doctor said.

The creature’s face froze at those words, and it seemed to consider them for a moment, finally ceasing its muttering.

“Another failure,” another voice said. The creature cocked its head as the doctor backed up against the glass. “I begin to doubt your faith, Doctor.”

“My Lord,” the doctor said, “this—this subject managed a Will output of .999081 Vz. I understand we have not yet met your expectations, but this subject has shattered all our records, and—”

“Tell me, Doctor,” the man said, “have I aimed to engender a mere Vaazen?”

“O-of course not, my Lord, but—”

“Nearly six million attempts, and this is the best you have managed? Not even a half-Divine?”

“M-my Lord, according to our simulations, the anti-suicide clause disrupts…” The voice trailed off as the man stood to his full, thirty-foot height.

“The control clauses are not optional additions, Doctor,” the man said. “I will not continue to invest in subjects that smite themselves the moment they realize they can; nor will I risk anointing another abomination that slaughters everything in sight with no regard for its betters. I expect more from you, Doctor. We both know it can be done. What I have reason to question, however, is whether you are the one to carry out my work. Do better or suffer. It is your choice.”

“I—I’ll mark Unit 5,805,413 a ‘promising failure’ and set it for extermination.”

The beast’s face took on a soft smile. The ceaseless agony, the infinite torment that it had suffered for so many millennia was nearing its end. Finally, it could rest—in death, it would be free. Free from the anguish of its own accursed existence, free from the searing pain in every moment it experienced.

“As for our next trial, we are considering burying the Kteki rune in a Hlayovrik clus—”

“No…” the man said, waving a hand.

“My Lord?”

“We shan’t be exterminating this one.”

The abomination’s grotesque features warped in terror. “Papa?” it said. It stood up from the table, stumbled up to the half-mirrored glass, and pressed its mutilated face against it. The man smiled on the other side.

“The beast’s forestalling wears thin… Though the depths of Ascension yet lie beyond my ken, I have observed a trend. You are correct, for once, that this model represents a breakthrough. Even as this subject still represents an outright failure—and I shall not have you question that, Doctor—its performance has highlighted a path forward… So, congratulations. The threads of fate do appear to have aligned around you for now. All futures depict this template becoming our first mass-production model. But first, I would say a field test is in order.”

“Papa, please, k-keep using the machine! I’ll do better next time! I swear! I’ll—I’ll make you proud, Papa! I swear I’ll do better!”

“Exile, then?” the doctor asked.

“No!” the abomination cried. “No, no, no, no, do it again! I can go again! I can do it, Papa! I can do it! Please, let me do it again!”

“By your expertise, Doctor,” the man said, “how many of En’Del’s mongrels might this child of mine match?”

“Six, perhaps?”

“Well-observed,” the man said. “Then let us leave a message on his doorstep.” For a moment, he stared into his creation’s eyeless face, then grimaced. “They never do turn out pretty, in the end,” he said.

“Never, my Lord,” the doctor replied.

The man tapped a glimmering button on the golden console in front of him and spoke into a mesh sphere gently floating above it. “Well, I suppose this shall be the last time you and I will see each other, my Little Sin. You have been quite a lovely subject, but it is about time Papa moved on. You understand, yes?”

“P-Papa, n-no, no, please, I swear, I’m good enough to go again! I promise I can! Don’t leave me alone, Papa, please!”

“When you succeed in combat, expect an emissary to enlighten you of your commandments. I expect only the finest of tributes from you, my dear. For you shall bear new children up to the heavens, and you shall groom them for sacrifice unto my name, and they shall become your kin and Ascend to higher peaks yet; for all things that live and breathe must come to serve the glory of the Golden Sphere. And so shall you, my Little Sin.”

“No, no, no, no, no!” the creature whimpered.

The man just smiled. With a wave of his hand, he banished the awful thing to a distant reality and shackled it there. It tried to resist, then to escape, but its foe was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. Eternal. It may as well have not struggled at all. After all, no half-formed Will could ever stall the unrivaled power of a true Divine.

Much less the Will of The Old Lord, God of Gods.

“Doctor?” the man asked.

“Yes, my Lord?”

“Begin preparations for Unit 5,805,414.”

“Of course.”

Well, well, well, the last of the Interludes has finally gone up! To be honest, I wrote these way before any of the rest of the book, so it’s a bit odd to finally see it posted. Even if this story hasn’t reached as many people as CaA!, I’m still proud of it. It’s my edgy, pretentious baby. Also, Patreon exists.