No More Gods

Okkult IX: Spined Roses

Okkult I. - II. - III. - IV. - V. - VI. - VII. - VIII. - IX. - X.

Godslayer entered.
Seven grey gods expected him,
breathing fog.
At the window, Vindman watched.

Moments or aeons might have passed.
No stone moved. 
Trees stopped growing.

Imirdostan broke the silence:

What will be–
When there is more than grey?
When humans are born, not given?
Revenge is what must pay debt.
We killed time.
It cannot turn shards into glass.

Godslayer saw only the burning stakes.
Smoke. The smell of burning flesh.

The second, Anagostan:

No good can come
when everything is different.
War pretends to rest.
Peace is not king.
Smell or taste, even color
are metal for the forge.

Equaristhadan, the third:

The Grey remember what was.
Agur built the world.
Egir drowned it in fear.
Igar carved will to bone.
We crucified the mother of decisions.

Burning feet, dancing quietly.
All the pain, swallowed, mute.

The fourth, Norzostan:

Fire burst from titan bones.
All directions burned at once.
Chaos.
We, the Grey alone,
keep mortals safe
from joy and color.

The fifth of them, Mauauristan:

Madness.
As if we all deserve the same.
As if we were all the same.
You are a thief
who steals a slave's chance
to grow and prosper.
Tyrant dressed as a rebel.

The child is dying with its mother.
No sound.
There was never a chance.

The sixth, Xytholostan, spoke:

Slay us. Make room for the next.
What was, will be.
Life does not live in chaos.
The wise teach with pain.
Gods must be paid.
Destroy the Grey.
The next asks the same price.

A bird on earth dared to whisper.
It fell dead from the tree,
Vindman would not give it air.
Silence must be complete.

The newborn stars watched from above.
Godslayer had no tongue to answer.
He had no eyes to see a god.
All words were wasted upon him.

Imirdostan stepped forward.

Listen!

Godslayer grabbed the God by his neck,
tore off his head with a pull,
followed by a snakelike spine.
Convulsing. Blood spread far.

Down to earth, like rain,
a color returned,
touched the grass and gardens
painted flowers into life.
Roses, spined.

The first of the seven gods had died.
Silence died with him:
Bells sounded down on earth.
The end of an era had begun.
Blood drew roses on Godslayer's bones.
Burning spines.

The seventh God, Barabuktustan:

We are purity and order.
We prevent degeneration.
Women lie with women.
Men lie with men.
Different tribes mix their blood.
We alone know what—

Mutemaker fell. 
Barabuktustan's head split in two.
His eyes stared east and west.
Vindman understood.
Down on earth, a storm came up,
carrying no water—
a whirlwind of chaos.
Godslayer's right eye turned blind.
He did not stop.

Xytholostan reached for his sword.
Godslayer pierced him with all his strength.
Mutemaker tore through the body,
broke through clouds and winds,
and killed a valley far.
Earth trembled in pain, moved.
It never forgot.
All memories came to Godslayer;
he remembered every word
and every scream.

Anagostan shot a burning arrow.
Godslayer pulled it from his body.
With swift steps, he lifted the God
and rammed the arrow in her left eye.
Her voice turned into a Stitcher's blade:
Mountains lost their heads.
They spilled the burning bowels of Earth.
The heat burned the lungs of Godslayer
until he didn't need them anymore.

Stench of blood.
Mutemakers wailed in joy
while cutting Equaristhadan's limbs.
They broke through the walls,
fell into the ocean.
Waves built up as high as trees
and drowned many mortals.
Godslayer heard the screams of thousands.
He could not close his ears.

Norzostan attacked with claws,
like a bear, he grew beyond himself.
Godslayer got hold of his hands,
cut them off,
and slipped into them like gloves.
Then he opened the God's breast.
There was no heart—
but millions of locusts 
fled to feed on earth.
Never felt Godslayer such hunger.

Mauauristan trembled.
Her time had come. 
She knew.
Her mind grew dark.
Her body grew old.
And before Godslayer could strike,
she turned to wax
and died of fear.
And so did many of her heirs,
now and in future.
Godslayer coughed.
Blood stained his hand.

All bodies dropped.
Where the grey once stood,
balls of light grew.

Earth rumbled.
Ancestors had withdrawn their heritage.
The Gap widened, but there was no one left to eat.

Chaos turned to Kaoz.
Nothing kept its shape.
Fog turned to a dream.

Godslayer swallowed a seventh of each light.
He sent a seventh to the stars and made them eternal.
He sent a seventh down to earth and broke red into three.
He sent a seventh to the trees, and their roots grew deep.
He sent a seventh to the woman, and breath returned to them.
He sent a seventh to the world, but it was not enough to heal.

The rest he cursed and sent to earth.
To dwell in cats forever,
and grieve their sins
and seduce the weak.
Their era was forgotten.
They live as echoes of a dark age.

The seventh of the seven lights.
A light shone down on Godslayer.
He was no longer mortal, no judge.
No more gods.
Godslayer was dead.

He who gave birth to himself,
who ate seven shards of God,
became God.

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Artwork by Ashmore. Incorporates heavily modified Unsplash photography.