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Fate's Intervention

By Corvus no Genmu

A Word of Warning, A Promise of a Lifetime

It started with a sound of static. Short enough to not be an annoyance but loud enough to gather attention. The image sharpened into a dark and virtually empty room but for a single hanging lamp that swings slowly back and forth. The pale light does little to illuminate the small space but for the lone table beneath its beam and the young man sitting behind it. He sat with a tired slouch, his elbows resting upon the table and bandaged hands clasped before his face. The lenses of his glasses gleamed whenever the light shone across his face and his hair was hidden beneath the hood of a threadbare sweatshirt.

"Hero. Someone who commits an act of remarkable bravery, one who has shown an admirable quality such as insurmountable courage or strength of character, or one who is famous for possessing extraordinary gifts to protect and to serve." He reached out and tapped the table and a chess piece, a Knight white as freshly fallen snow on Christmas morning, appeared with a soft sound of an unearthly sigh.

"Sometimes a hero embodies all three definitions. Sometimes just one. Whichever element a hero is, there can be no argument that a hero is a guardian, a shield, to those who cannot protect themselves."

His opposite hand reached out and snapped his fingers loudly, summoning forth a chess piece black as the heart of a terrible midnight storm and a ebony crown with which to rule as a King upon its brow.

"Villain. An evil individual who oftentimes serves as the antithesis to the hero, a contemptible person regarded as evil who has committed crimes against their fellow man for their own personal gain. Just the same as a hero, a villain too can possess great power but where a hero can act responsibly, a villain holds no such limitations. They stand tall and proud, heedless and reckless of the terror they inflict on the common folk for they do not see themselves as protectors but as rulers."

A third chess piece appeared on the table between the White Knight and the Black King without the lad's beckoning. A piece that was neither white nor black but a perfect balance of the two, a sword in one hand and a crown upon the brow of a Grey Queen.

"Yet there is always the third player in this game of good and evil, in this senseless war between the Light and the Dark. They who commit acts of sin, staining their hands and their very souls, so that good may overcome the crimes they commit in its name. Those who know that sometimes, the only way to destroy evil are to become it. That the greatest acts, good and evil alike, require sacrifice, but unless it's self-sacrifice, evil is not destroyed. It is merely moved about. So they gladly allow the guillotine of the masses to fall upon their bared necks, just so that another innocent soul needn't do the same."

He leaned forward once more, balancing his chin upon the back of his intertwined hands.

"Each and every one of you, from the greatest heroes to the most wretched of villains, from the innocent and powerless to the damned and powerful… You are all so blind, so deaf, and so utterly ignorant to what is happening to the World. The Infection continues to delve deeper into Her Heart while the Parasites fester unseen. Each and every one of you, from the weak to the powerful, you are all a part of the most Ancient and most Powerful of Games. Conflict."

The table warped and changed as he pushed himself up to his feet. It became like a chessboard but one that was of utter impossibility for though it had not visibly grown, it bore an incredible vastness that exceeded well beyond the boundaries of the tiny ill-lit room. Chess pieces littered across it in a chaotic cataclysm of mish-mashing colors and shapes, white stood as unmoving legions, black as encroaching waves, and pockets of gray merely strived to move freely between the two.

"Conflict. Warfare between opposing forces, especially prolonged and bitter but nonetheless a sporadic struggle between ideas, principles, and people. Humanity as a species has always been a Child of Conflict. We were born and raised by it and for every hardship thrown at us by our fellow man and powers above and below, we overcame them, we surpassed them."

The board itself was composed of squares of white and black but for every instance that any piece met against another, no matter what color it wore or the shape it bore, the square beneath burned a bloodied shade of red that swelled outwards in a massive gush of bloodied waves. Those pieces towered over others, monoliths to meek figures and for as many that were saved, a great many more were drowned in crimson tides.

"But what happens when you raise humanity higher than the Heavens, grant unto them the powers of the gods, to bring Hell itself to the Surface of the World…? Well, the Conflicts of Humanity become something more than legendary myths and ancient histories doesn't it? Especially when one considers the lone piece that stays off the board."

The one lone piece that bore the same color as its own and was fully impossible to identify, appearing one moment as a pawn and the next a king, visibly swelled as the red tide continued to consume the chessboard below. It made no move to interfere with the battlefields below but there was no mistaking its keen observation with how it lingered above the greater conflicts.

"As a shield, I can protect you, but is it my responsibility alone to guide you to your own salvation, to hold your hands tightly in my own in prayer to the very gods that were slain so long ago? As a sword, I can enforce my will, but is it my right to drag you away from your stumbling path towards damnation, to force you down on bended knees?"

The young man walked in a slow circle, looking thoughtfully up at the swaying light bulb as though the answer could be sought in its faint rays. When it soon became obvious that none was forthcoming, he stopped, staring straight into the eyes of those who were watching in muted silence, the lenses of his glasses glaring like muted suns.

"Would you heed me for my wisdom? Would you listen to me and welcome my experience? Would you fear me for my power? Would you move aside or stand beside me and bring an End to the Apocalypse?"

He started to smile once more but it was far more dangerous than the previous one. A touch of deranged madness here a bit of primordial ferocity there and a whole lot of self-derision to top it off. He leaned in close across a now mundane and empty table, revealing at last the truth of his eyes beneath the reflective lenses. One eye was an ordinary if not vibrant shade of blue whilst the other was a shining gold orb upon which was inscribed something that shone with rainbow hued intensity.

"No. You will not. For as much as humanity has grown, some habits do not die so easily. So if I alone cannot convince you, then I shall call upon those who can."

Symbols and shapes that could not be and yet were lay upon that golden eye and though not a soul who saw them could even begin to guess what manner of ancient script they were, they knew however innately what sole word was inscribed upon the lad's eye.

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