"How dare you… are you against honesty now… huh… some god."

Damon was appalled. His shadows tightened as he flickered forward, shadows curling around him in defense of Matia.

Lazarak sighed. The darkness around him quivered like a living thing.

"I already agreed. I will have you two know I am a nice god. Some gods have cursed people for less."

From the look on his face, Damon suspected Lazarak was about to act. That was fine.

He had conserved enough power by not ripping his chains apart with brute force….

"How do you intend to leave here anyway? Your form is mostly darkness, right?" Damon asked, curiosity slipping into his voice as he studied Lazarak's shifting silhouette.

"This is what I actually look like. This darkness is my true form, though I have other forms."

The darkness that had been hovering loosely around him began to solidify. It thickened into a swirling cyclone, its edges rippling like torn cloth caught in a storm.

"Hahaha. Tremble mortals at the true form of a god. Be amazed by my glorious divinity, my immaculate perfection."

Lazarak's voice boomed across the chamber, heavy enough to make the walls tremble. The cyclone condensed rapidly, shrinking and refining into something vaguely human.

"Hahaha. I am the great and wise Lazarak, god of darkness, peace, and serenity."

When the cyclone finally faded, Damon froze. He was gobsmacked, no gobsmacked was too weak. He was god smacked.

Standing before him was a beautiful figure with pale skin and long dark hair that spilled onto the ground like ink. Their clothes were woven from pure darkness that moved subtly, as if breathing. Their eyes held the color of a night sky, dark but not lifeless.

He… he was… Damon could not stop the thought from surfacing.

Yes. That was the best word.

Cute.

Why was a god cute? Beautiful might have fit. Ethereal, majestic, divine. But cute? And yet… with Lazarak… cute was somehow correct.

"Ermh… you…" Damon started, unable to finish.

"Yes, I know. Immaculate and all powerful. Transcendent. I am great."

Damon sneered, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Yeah. Greatly small. Or maybe magnificently tiny."

Lazarak scoffed, flicking his hair with disdain.

"My friend, I can see the green of jealousy in your shadows. I understand not everyone can be a god. It must be painful to be so ugly, so flawed. Could never be me."

Damon chuckled, his tone playful and dripping with mockery.

"I think you fell a little short."

Lazarak paused. Something was wrong. Did Damon not see how immaculate he was? How divinely proportioned? His perfect brows furrowed.

"What are you…"

Damon's shadows flickered in amusement.

"Take a good look at yourself. Matia, pass him my mirror."

Matia quietly lifted a large mirror from the pile of things Damon had tossed from his shadow storage. She angled it toward Lazarak.

The god froze. His eyes widened. His reflection stared back at him.

He was adorable.

No. Worse. He was a child. A tiny three-year-old toddler with soft puffy cheeks, sparkling eyes, and tiny hands. He looked like he was about to cry for his mommy.

"Wh… what is this… no. It cannot be. It cannot be…"

Damon burst into laughter. It rolled across the chamber until even the shadows seemed to shake with it.

Matia watched silently, though her eyes softened. Lazarak looked like he might actually cry, but he tried desperately to maintain whatever dignity remained to him.

"Ahem. Ahem. This was my plan… it seems time has made me a little weaker than usual."

Damon wiped imaginary tears of laughter from his flickering form and sneered.

"You look adorable, Your Godliness. I am so impressed. Will you bring down your divine baby tears, or should I rock you to sleep?"

"I get your point," Lazarak muttered, voice small and deeply offended.

"Or maybe I can have Matia awaken her maternal instincts. Do not worry, we are not heartless. We would be happy to adopt you."

Damon teased, finally gaining ground on the god who had called him ugly repeatedly.

"I said I get it." Lazarak flailed his tiny hands in frustration. "Let us proceed already. We do not have all the time in the world."

Damon scoffed, ignoring him now that the revenge was sweet. He turned his attention to something he had been blotting out since he first arrived.

The cocoon in the corner. Its chains were no longer intact.

"What is that thing anyway?"

He looked to Lazarak, who would surely know.

Lazarak's expression tightened, worry flickering in his eyes.

"I would not mess with that if I were you. That thing is no good, I tell you."

Damon's shadows stirred restlessly. His disembodied heart throbbed with a strange longing, a need to know.

"Ignorance is not bliss. I will risk it."

Lazarak placed his small hand behind his back like a wise sage, despite looking like a pretentious toddler.

Matia's lips twitched. The god looked painfully adorable.

"There are many horrible things in the universe, lurking beyond up in the stars." Lazarak gazed upward, as if seeing something no one else could.

"Many horrors hide beyond the veil. Pray they do not find this world."

Damon stayed quiet. He did not know how to tell Lazarak that it was already far too late. By the first epoch, the world had long been known to outsiders.

"Correct me if I am wrong, but is your whole plan not about calling forth something from the great beyond to fight the goddess? You sound kind of hypocritical."

"Ahem. Ahem." Lazarak straightened.

"Do you want to know what this is or not? I see a lot of attitude."

Damon would have rolled his eyes if he had any.

"My bad. Go ahead, oh wise god. I remain slightly less arrogant."

Lazarak smiled, pleased.

"This is one of four creatures that fell from the heavens in a meteor when the world was young. At first, we did not see them as a threat, only slightly gluttonous life forms."

He paused, as if remembering something far away and unpleasant.

"All they saw, they consumed. They fed endlessly until they produced spawn of whatever material they had eaten. Soulless at first, part of a hive mind. But with time, some gained souls. They threatened to devour everything."

He crossed his small arms.

"So we destroyed them. All except this one. The only one that had not hatched. We debated its fate. My brother decided to take it."

He shrugged.

"Honestly, I thought he destroyed it. You can imagine my surprise when it was tossed in here with me."

Damon's shadows stilled.

"Basically, you do not know what they are."

"Pretty much."

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