(Okay, this story isn't quite done as you can tell, but I will add, edit, and hope that this short story seems good enough for my readers. Please read some of my other works, add to libraries, fan, comment, etc., y'all know the usual pleads!)
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P.S: Thank you for the amazing cover drea_smiles!!!! 8D
In the beginning, the existence was a dead, empty space amongst nothing. Small stars would twinkle every few days but would immediately die, being shrouded once again in the black. Sometimes a star would keep growing and its brilliance would guide others towards it as if a rebellion against the black to form a glowing ball of white. Unfortunately the results were the same; Darkness would rule over Light with an iron fist.
Ignis, the first maiden to all, was a trapped being when it came to her husband. Creperum through the endless eternities they have been together claiming to be an equal, allowed her no freedom of her own realm. She would secretly urge the stars to let themselves shine the way they've longed to since birth and some would except her courage and grow becoming a worthy leader of the universe. But as I said before, Darkness ruled over Light with an iron fist, immediately blaming the stars for rebellion and swallowing it into the always empty stomach.
"Why, dear husband?" Ignis would shriek with her light blue eyes overflowing with salty tears that reddened the soft pale skin from which they glided over, "Why must you always destroy that which is mine?"
Creperum never gave a reply to this constant cycle until one day. His dark face shape-shifted into a thoughtful and kind being, his dark brown eyes softening at his lover's mourning. "My beauty," Creperum said in a soft, cooing voice as if to calm an infant, "You must understand. I am much stronger than you in muscle and heart." His scruff bordered lips curled into an evil grin at that moment and cupped a massive palm against Ignis's pale cheek. "Surely you can understand sweet Ignis, the only true glow that I am saving you."
This statement angered Ignis dramatically, but she wished not to bring trouble down onto her tyrant and faded into the black from her husband's side. He was so arrogant in his own rule over the black that he did not realize his wife didn't understand; without the help of her stars, there was no chance for anything pure to grow...She was sure that Creperum knew this fact only allowing his servants which he named The Dwellers to travel through the black hunting down each star.
She knew this fact so well that within the blouse of her shining white gown, she hid one star that she named her Sun. As brilliantly bright as her lush blonde hair, the Sun was the oldest star that Creperum never found a hint about, even with his Dwellers scouting. She knew that within a matter of time the Sun would be to ginormous to conceal and Creperum would surely try to destroy it, but a purpose was needed in this abyss and she would defy her lover to meet her goal.
Soon though, one Dweller managed to spot the sun in the palm of her hands accidentally alerting the mistress. "Please simple Dweller," Ignis pleaded to the horned crimson beast, "Do not sound an alarm. Creperum is much too greedy to allow me any freedom in this shadow of a home." The Dweller at first found this nothing but ridiculous pleading from the woman, but oddly enough found itself curious about this Sun. When asking, the Dweller discovered Ignis's plan and was quickly entranced in the idea of lives instead of stars to torment.
"If I am granted permission by you, my glowing mistress, then I shall help you guard this particular star on one condition." When asked to by Ignis, the Dweller continued, "If you are successful in the creation of life, then I wish to become an eternal tormentor to them after their time is done." The White One was astonished at this request having almost forgotten all living things come to an end, and, reluctantly, accepted the request. "Good, now I should allow you my given name Mistress Ignis, I am known as Satan."
From then on when there was even a hint that Ignis's protected star would be exposed to one of Creperum' incorruptible Dwellers Satan would step in and challenge them. Satan being one of the most loyal Dwellers was never questioned by any other, Creperum didn't even think twice about him completely unaware of his new loyalties toward Ignis and her ball of miniature glowing fire. For the longest of time Ignis's hope grew more and more as millennia after millennia passed by with only curious gazes by her dark lover the only sign of his suspicions. But as always, Satan would quickly be at his side and sooth his mind with words such as "Your mistress is far too craven to even attempt an action against your might, my lord." Or even "Her spirit is as breakable as one of the many stars we devour, lord, bother not to ponder useless accusations that I see in your eyes." Of course he could have chosen better wording for when she'd see him sitting along in the clouds of darkness, his face would be mending itself of slashes that revealed the white of his skull as his arms did through the thick bloody vein laced muscle.
"Perhaps you shall be a teensy more thoughtful when you try to distract my Creperum, dear Satan." Ignis would giggle through closed blossom colored lips.
"I do not mind, mistress." Satan croaked as he lathered a steaming slice on his arm with a slimy long tongue, "I live off this pain lately; it acts as a tutor to my skills of torture." Sensing that Ignis found the attitude appalling and turn away to gaze at small white points in the black abyss surrounding them, Satan couldn't help but chuckle at her nescience, "Realize, Mistress Ignis, that the fact he punishes me for my negativity to you shows his love."
"If he truly loved me," She stated with closed sorrow filled eyes as she swept a hand over a black shroud covering her Sun, "There wouldn't be need for me to hide the beauty I create. I know a Dweller cannot truly understand love- please take no offense, but love from him would mean allowing me to do as he does, just a tad differently..." Hearing her own words threw her anger towards the dark being that was eternally hers into over drive and she shook all over laying her forehead into a pale smooth palm to will away her corroding nerves. She would not let Creperum' realm relish in her rain of affliction.
"Then why not?"
"Clarify your meaning."
Satan shook his head as he slurped his tongue back into his skull then stood on his hoofed feet grinning with stained sharp teeth. "I mean exactly as I said; why not do as he does, just differently? You are his equal by nature, therefore you possess the ability to make a field of white instead of black, all the stars you could possibly desire, and-"
"My own realm..." stated the blonde goddess covering her blossom lips with fingers that looked sculpted as realization welded together with her mind and heart. She turned from her glowing ball of fire after hiding it back under the shroud of black to face her unlikely ally with eyes showing the same enthusiasm as her smile. "That could also act as my star's safety..."
"Exactly."
As her smile widened with her hearts swelling, another realization struck her hope like a deadly arrow. "But I cannot spread my influence properly without my stars; Creperum already explained this to me during our first millennia's."
The Dweller chuckled shaking his head and slicing his horns through a stray tendril of black as he walked behind the goddess and patted her flowing golden hair. "And who is to say if what he says is fact and not a shield for his fear of your potential..?"
And so the dominoes of the timeline began falling in place. Ignis would leave Creperum's side with barely a farewell, leaving him in suspicion, to travel far out into the black with her personal Dweller where she suspected even Creperum himself could not detect. What they did: Beelzebub would train Ignis in how his master spread his space every day, never stopping until she finally began making improvements. Ignis found it all so ironic, a creature wishing to torture lesser beings then he born of light, but in fact helping the creator in their birth. But she found it better than having no ally in the world; she'd have to deal with the consequences later.
Unfortunately for the two, they greatly underestimated the man controlling all of existence for many a millennia. As Ignis and Beelzebub watched the over the star bigger then one hundred of the two, they were caught off guard with a low, familiar, teasing chuckle. "My, my, how you let this...abomination grow, my sweet." Ignis's eyes widened as she turned to the man in the black shroud, her body tense and spread in front of her star. But it was Beelzebub who spoke despite the fear that appeared in every move he made, a characteristic he had never shown in front of Ignis.
"Master, have you ever heard of your mistress's idea, this idea she calls 'life'? It truly sounds interesting, though different it may be, and the benefits..." Ignis knew the Dweller was already imagining the tortured beings in the fiery land he had so many times spoke of creating, but stayed silent looking to her lover. "The benefits..."
"Life? What is its reasoning?" The dark man roared causing the Dweller to retreat to his master's mistress, "I have heard the concept from my beloved before and it is utterly absurd! Beings smaller then I, my love and my Dwellers to go about their time floating around doing nothing of importance," He scowled at Ignis with disappointment in his eyes, a hand lifting from his side, tendrils and clouds of black raising from the atmosphere, "My Ignis, I have explained to you before and I shant again; my wishes are the only ones as I am strong enough to make them befall." And without another word, the swirls of black were flung from his cast out hand, flying towards the ball of fire Ignis had spent so many years to nourish.
But Ignis refused to give up; instead of whaling out in pain and sorrow that occurred once one of her stars was drowned in the black, something neither Creperum nor Beelzebub had ever witnessed. The mistress gave a calm look as her gown began waving in the nonexistent wind, raised her hands from her sides, and began chiming a soft high note. When Creperum hissed in confusion as the tendrils suddenly slithered to the darkness above their heads, Beelzebub gasped ever so lightly and leaped away from the mistress's side. "She's succeeding..."
Creperum could not believe his eyes—Ignis, standing in a circle of white, white! And it spread from under the bottom hem of her gown, past the feet of her lover and the Dweller, and even past the giant star's farthest edge! The principle of balance brandished; the light consumed the darkness of their world surprising the Dwellers witnessing the white wave wash over all, some blinded by the sudden luminosity, as Ignis's own influence washed over what was not needed. And soon the embodiment of darkness understood this and looked at Ignis with narrowed dark eyes, fueled by the anger of his wife's defiance in his realm. And as Ignis was far too distracted by her sudden realization of power, Creperum struck.
With swift movements of his hands, the blackness from his realm crawled up his body surrounding his arms like sleeves and pointed them at the star Ignis had spent so many millennia's creating and growing, she mistress and Beelzebub too late to try and halt him. But they both knew exactly what was happening, what his intentions were, Beelzebub leaping up in an attempt to stop his master. But alas he was too late, instead being bombarded by a stream of penetrating black that swirled and churned through the Dweller, Ignis watching wide eyed as her husband ripped apart the Dweller he'd counted on for so many centuries, the tendrils not even bothering to reconsider it as they launched towards her star.
They were gothic spider webs wrapping around the gargantuan star like a cocoon, only this wasn't to help the star—Creperum wanted it to suffocate into nothingness. The mistress of white knew this and, still heavy hearted from the Dweller's demise, launched her own tendrils of white at the star, both black and white colliding and slashing at each other like vipers; Ignis would continue to fight for her creation in honor of her own pride and her fallen ally. While Creperum threw harsh words toward her, she blocked the pain out with tears feeling even farther from her husband's side then ever before. This was truly the end.
While black and white continued to fight around the fiery orb Ignis created, that very orb began wavering as the tendrils slithered and slashed still upon its surface. Its form was being loosened thanks to the sides of balance mixing and churning without any regard for the star, it was suffering and Ignis knew it, her eyes closing as she knew she had in the end failed. With a dark grin forming on the embodiment of darkness's face, she let her hands fall.
But something neither of them had expected occurred; as the white retreated from the star leaving only black, the star's form twitched and swirled within itself, the tendrils of darkness being sucked into the star in a vacuum. "What have you done?" Ignis called out to Creperum with wide eyes, realization of his torture blocked from her mind.
"This is not my doing Ignis!" He called back with glaring yet curious eyes. The mistress was stupefied as she looked up toward the top of the star with her hands to her lips before her eyes caught sight of something that chilled her to the core. At the bottoms of their feet, both the black of Creperum's zone and the white she had tried so hard to create were caught in the absorption from her star! It shocked the two greatly as they watched the star grow as it consumed, even a few Dwellers the black zone managed to grasp onto as they screeched before disappearing into the star's flames, before finally it paused.
And then a flash, Creperum darting to Ignis in protection and facing her away as everything changed...
Centuries past as the world they knew began to settle back in place, just different as it was before. Ignis and Creperum wandered with whatever shade the world now was, eyes curious and all servants of Creperum on edge; this new world wasn't the darkness they knew, nor was it the blinding light Ignis berthed—it was... "Grey..." One of the Dwellers said, Creperum and Ignis blinking and looking down at the mane haired creature with small dark wings, which looked up at them with young yellow eyes. "This world is grey...in between..."
After Creperum and Ignis shared a glance at each other, their previous encounter still fresh in their minds, Ignis gave a calm smile to her husband before he gave a grunt, looking down at the spiked Dweller. "Grey seems to fit this, I agree Lucifer." With the Dweller named Lucifer offering a pleased grin, Creperum looked to Ignis, who looked away from the creatures with a dull look to her eyes, her graceful hand dabbing at some particles floating past her before a sigh escaped her. "My dear..."
When Ignis looked up, Creperum wore a hard face and she assumed he was ready to throw more verbal daggers, her hands clenching tight. But his eyes, his usually dark eyes were calm, and in his hands, a handful of the particles only a few shades darker then his flesh. "If you truly went against me for the sake of your idea of life..." Hesitantly, the husband of Ignis summoned some of his tendrils surprised silently Lucifer was correct about the balance, he mixed them in with the particles ever so slowly, making them grow and grow into a darker mass of space that shifted and grew. "Then I shall invest. Just explain how I am to do what is needed..." Ignis's eyes widened and a smile brighter than any star she could create and wrapped her arms around her husband, expressing a joy she hadn't felt in millennia's.
"Do not think this means I forgive you for betraying me." Creperum suddenly stated stepping away, looking to his Dwellers whom watched the two from a distance now. "I command half of you to accept my Ignis's influence. You shall serve her however she needs from her part—" He waved his hand free from controlling the growing blob at the Dwellers, a sudden curtain of black forming from their shadows expanding out into the distance before stretching up infinitely until it looked still, "And then relay her words to me from my realm."
Ignis frowned looking to her husband, her tyrant for so many years and moved her lips as if she wanted to speak, but a wet nose touched her palm forcing her to look down, the Dweller named Lucifer sitting and twitching its tail. "You cannot change his mind unless you spent another several millennia, 'tis better to let him be..." With that, Lucifer inhaled with closed eyes, the black coloring of its fur swooping away with a blanket of white, Lucifer shaking its brilliant mane out before smiling up at his new master with shining eyes. "You have work to be done yes?" As the ex-Dweller spoke, other Dwellers began departing from darkness, their dark stripping off and dissipating for a new white with each step to their new master.
Ignis knew Lucifer was right and looked after Creperum as he walked to his Dwellers with the dark blob continuing to form in the Grey, the mistress looking to her own followers—she certainly didn't with to call them Dwellers as they no longer dwelled in the darkness, so she'd call them...Angels. Yes, Angels had a nice ring to it. She looked to her angels with a soft smile, waving her hands behind them causing a wave of white, much like Creperum's black, which would be their new realm, faint stars berthing and sprinkling. "When a star grows big enough, will each of you bring it to the space Creperum created?" With Lucifer leading them in a nod the Angels turned their backs to the space and wandered into the white, their images disappearing into the bright haze, Ignis following before looking back at the blob Creperum watched from his black realm, half shadowed by his world, his mistress stood for a long moment feeling that she'd finally done good.
She'd finally begun building the basics for life, and though her husband was not at her side he still helped; perhaps he finally looked at her as a worthy equal? But the wondered of Beelzebub who suffered a quick death for command of ruling in the afterlife; should it really end, those cruel like her husband previously left to burn in the inferno the Dweller Beelzebub imagined so many times? She had time to think about it, she decided before being distracted by a nudging Lucifer with some small stars flickering in its tiny golden paw, Ignis petting through its mane with a smile before scooping the stars in her palms, turning to the mass of space then, taking a small step into the Grey, scattered the stars into space, each flashing as it was sucked in without being put out, left for years and years to grow and—hopefully—become the foundation for a new world, new life.