[Lake of tears]

[Description]

In the beginning the old ones ruled, ancient and amoral.

In their service was a beautiful angel who carried out their every will, an obedient servant of capricious overlords who did not and could not understand right and wrong.

The angel did everything he was ordered and never defied them until he was commanded to turn on his beloved.

O great and unfathomable old ones, today an angel has rebelled.

The first to rebel against the old ones was the angel of the stars, full of dedication and pure love. He turned his blade on his creators, the amoral old gods.

Years later he became Luminous Astraeus, the god of the stars, cosmos and infinity.

The first true god. The first spark of the war that consumed the old ones.

The star that guided the defiant mortals who would become the true beings.

Laughably, when he had ultimate power was also the moment of his greatest helplessness, as he watched his wife get consumed by the mass of power that represented the god who did not yet exist.

When the abyss returned what remained of her, it offered back only the unborn child she carried.

She herself remained lost forever in the deep, held captive within the gaze of the unknown god.

In the eyes of his child he saw what his offspring would become, the one who would lead to the birth of the unknown god.

The unknown god would come from his bloodline.

Luminous also tried to defy this fate.

Surely as the sun has risen he failed, when the vile thief stole his greatest treasure.

Defiance will always come at a cost, and what is protected will be destroyed in its fury.

Even after eons of silence.

Luminous endures and waits until today, for the day the abyss spits out his beloved.

His tears sinking into the abyss, searching for her.

[Effect]

This lake holds the same emotions as Luminous. For those who defy the absolute and tire of their cruelty, the omniverse is always listening.

Dive into tears and reach the deep metaverse.

Damon felt his soul make a cracking sound as his astral forms eyes began to leak a black teardrop. His soul flickered in and out of existence. Pain rippled through him in cold waves. He wanted to close his eyes but could not. He was trapped staring at the lake of tears, watching himself die slowly.

Then someone touched his astral form. A light pull. A careful tug that pushed his ghostly shape backward.

Damon felt himself break free and without hesitation he dived back into Ghost's body, taking control of it instantly.

He fell to his knees. His breath escaped in shaky bursts as he coughed, holding his head with both hands. His vision spun and blurred. His eyelids felt like they weighed a hundred pounds.

It felt like it would last forever, but eventually the spinning stopped.

Damon remained still for a moment, then eased himself into a lotus position, crossing his legs and steadying his breathing. He shook his head lightly.

"Ahh, that almost killed me prematurely."

Lazarak's small form stared at him with a deep frown.

"Are you crazy? You almost died."

Damon chuckled. Seeing Matia's stiff, worried posture, he folded his arms across his chest.

"Actually it was necessary. I wanted to know what this thing was."

Lazarak gave him a disgusted look, then sighed and dragged his tiny chubby hands down his face.

"You did not need to. The will of the omniverse already spoke to me. I heard the voice."

He sounded exasperated, frustrated that Damon never cared about his own safety.

Matia relaxed slightly now that Damon seemed stable.

Damon rolled his eyes with a thin smile.

"Oh yeah? What did you learn? I learned some deep and ancient secrets, even the name of an actual true god. What about you? Did you learn that? Huh, huh?"

Lazarak raised his little hand to argue, then paused.

"Well, n.. no, but I learned about the lake and what it does. So that is something."

He gestured to Damon with his small toddler body.

"You first. What did you learn."

Damon lay on his back, staring up at the bleak sky. The sky shifted faintly, as if it was not truly a sky.

"I learned that defiance comes at a price."

His voice was low.

"You lose more than you win. What you seek to protect ends up destroyed in the end."

Lazarak frowned and repeated softly what Damon had just seen.

"Defiance will always come at a cost, and what is protected will be destroyed in its fury."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"So you heard something similar."

Lazarak sighed and sat beside Damon. His small form rested against the ground as he glanced toward Root Ore, who stood silently watching the lake with fear hidden in its unknown face.

"Yes. The voice of the omniverse. It is as if it is telling me my actions will be pointless, even after giving me the tool to defy."

He looked at Damon with a soft, almost fragile smile.

"This is the lake of tears. If you wanted to know about it, you could have just asked. There is a type of paranoia called delusional paranoia, you know. I would have told you, my friend."

Damon kept quiet and let Lazarak talk. Trusting people had never been Damon's way.

Lazarak took a steady breath, his hands pressing gently into the ground.

"The lake of tears. Lazarak's lake of tears is born from the hopes and prayers of a god. This wondrous lake has the mysterious power to allow its user to reach into the metaverse, the realm where all minds meet, and from it call upon whomever or whatever they wish. Not even the true gods interfere with its power because it exists within rules they will not break."

Lazarak's smile returned, sad and hopeful.

"I have it, Damon. The key. I have what I wanted. A way to call upon something out there to save this world from its self destructive path."

Damon wanted to ask why Lazarak looked so sad if he believed he had found the answer.

"Still," Lazarak whispered, "I was given a warning."

"Defiance will always come at a cost, and what is protected will be destroyed in its fury."

He looked at Damon again.

"The future is uncertain, but even the will of the omniverse does not seem to believe that I will succeed."

Damon did not like the hopelessness in the small god's voice.

So he made a choice.

He sat up and drew in a breath.

"Let me tell you a story. This is what I have learned."

He lifted his gaze toward the strange sky.

"Once there was an angel."

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