The Judgement Of Divinity (TMOE #2)

Chapter 40: Not so different

"You don't get it." Lucius growled, still refusing to look at him. "You go on and on about how I can't understand the horror of immortality, but limited lifespans aren't so bloody great either, and I'm not gonna sit around and watch when monstrous vermin try to take it away from me. Not again. I had to put an end to it, and this was the only way to do it."

Anthony shook his head, still mortified.

"There were plenty in there who'd done nothing."

"They would have become a problem sooner or later," Lucius snapped. "They're all the same, and if I don't get rid of all the weed, it's just gonna grow back!"

An unexpected look of despair took over Anthony's face, and he squeezed his eyes together before pressing his hands around his head.

"It's going to grow back no matter what you do. How can you not get that? The roots of a system like this go deeper than just a group of people. The town itself is built on it."

"Well I'm the town now." Lucius curled his lip. "It's mine, and I get to make the changes. This was a necessary, grand start, and if others attempt to ruin things again, I'll handle that as well. The greatest threats are already gone."

Anthony looked at him for a good moment, and Lucius couldn't help but waver briefly as disdain burned his skin.

"Ethan told me what you did. That you asked him to get my portrait out of there and leave the others."

Lucius' eyes narrowed. He would not be reprimanded for what happened.

"Your father was evil. Even Ethan said so. That he'd finally given up on him after what he did to you, and that his death would be the best for everyone."

"Perhaps," Anthony said, voice dry and eerily similar to Damien's. "But Ethan, much like you, doesn't know what he's talking about. Neither of you have been around long enough to understand just what has happened in the past. You know mere glimpses at best."

He looked over his shoulder, up at the smoke filled sky that Lucius hadn't paid attention to before.

"But at the very least, I would have expected you to figure out that no eternal being would ever leave the source of their immortality for all to see, or harm."

Lucius blinked, unable to understand the words spoken at first, only for his blood to freeze in his veins once he did.

"Wh... What? No," he still whispered, body suddenly heavy again. "You— You said the paintings were the source. You said—"

"Regular paintings exist." Anthony's face didn't move a muscle. "Meant to be displayed, and without the ability to control someone's fate."

Lucius' gaze flickered skywards again, limbs numbing as the undesirable reality dawned on him.

"S—So..."

"So if I were you, I would get out of here very quickly," Anthony said. "And I would hide."

With that, it seemed as though all light and sounds had been banished from the forest, leaving behind nothing but blurred shadows of spindly trees and withering foliage. All Lucius' senses could discern properly was the breeze of smoke and ashes from the ruins.

Or from a person.

"... No, I killed him." Lucius' frail voice trembled while his heart wished to stop beating. "He— He's dead."

Anthony gave him another scornful look.

"You can't kill Damien. Not in a way that matters. He always comes back."

The cold air grew increasingly hard to breathe, and Lucius convulsed as nausea claimed his throat.

"No. No, I— I..." He shook his head, struggling to focus his gaze on one point. "I was done... I won. He s—saw me. He knew who I was, but— But it didn't matter, because I'd already beaten him."