Difference between revisions of "The Lonely God"

Latest revision as of 21:51, 25 June 2023

Prologue

"Quite the weather, eh, Garcia?"

A beam of sunlight shone, dividing the UN territory from the New Nation.

I managed a smile despite it all.

"Yeah," I muttered.

Parsa gazed at the distance.

"Hey. Do you remember when Guillaume used to shoot those cans with that dart gun?"

"Ha! Yeah. Of course! We ended up having to buy him lunch. Who would have guessed that little French nerd would have been such a good shot."

My chest hurt.

They could have been the worst enemy in the world.

I wouldn't even mind if it was one of those bullies back in high school who tormented us for being from across the border.

Why...

Parsa leaned back against the wall.

"And Tilly? Do you remember how she always got distracted whenever we walked by the tea shop?"

"Yeah."

My hand was trembling. The sun had shifted, sending a large shadow across the two of us, casting the divide even more significant.

Why...

Parsa looked me in the eye.

"In the New Nation... people like them, and people like us. Will never face oppression. This is what a nation is about."

If that was the case...

If that was the case...

Parsa extended his hand, as the sun crept past the horizon, illuminating the numerous corpses and destroyed buildings between the border that separated us.

The thousands of soldiers from the New Nation, and thousands of soldiers from the United Nations, backing their respective representatives.

Parsa glared at me.

"Please, Nathan. You don't need to pretend anymore. This is the only solution to this problem. You know that in your heart."

I slowly lifted my hand, pressing a relic to my chest.

"The ghosts of those who were killed in our war say otherwise."

Parsa clenched his fist.

"Then..."

KRA-KOOM.

A flash of light appeared in the distance, as time seemed to slow down.

But the ghostly apparition of Yuna Tetras appeared before me, slicing the bullet in mid-air with her knives.

Yuna then turned to Parsa, closing in and slashing at him with an animalistic rage, but Parsa's immortal body absorbed the slices like nothing.

Parsa pulled his rifle from behind his back and fired at me, causing Yuna to gasp.

Boss!

The spirit of Glob bounced in front of me, expanding and rebounding the bullet away.

I clutched the relic and shouted.

There was no more time to worry about myself. Or about Parsa.

Parsa had now become strong enough to fight off Yuna Tetras of all people. Humanity's strongest assassin.

He was too far gone.

Another spirit, different from the rest, ripped out of the relic and began flooding my body as it began possessing it.

Dark power surged through my body. My soul fighting for control.

Parsa flew back on his hoverboard.

"Bastard... You really went there... didn't you."

I will stop you...

I will be the one to stop you Parsa.

Because you are my blood brother, I am the only one who can.

"Beelzebub... this is my contract with you. Thirty years off my lifespan to give me the power to defeat Parsa Soroush, The Unstoppable!"

Parsa aimed his rifle again but was blown back by the winds of the forbidden power.

The Ghost King would go so far as to give away the remaining years of his life to stop you, Parsa Soroush. I hope you are worth this fight.

The King of Hell's voice rumbled across the battlefield, as the forces of The New Nation shifted uncomfortably.

Parsa glared at the apparition which had controlled my body.

"Nathan... I wish it didn't have to come to this."

Me neither.

Me neither, Parsa.

But just as I had sacrificed the last years of my life, you did too.

So you could become who you wanted in the end.

To become a god and bring your dreams of what you thought was true equality to fruition.

You became a god who has lost everything.

A Lonely God.

Nathan Garcia

Sike. There was no final battle. There was no divided nation or anything.

After all, this was just a dream. Haha.

Gotcha there, didn't I?

The sound of my phone alarm rang in my room, waking me up. I turned off my phone and glanced at the screen.

11 am.

Bright and early!

I opened the curtains to reveal the sunlight.

"Just a dream..." I muttered out loud.

After all, it really was just a dream, among the many others I've had.

I've had so many dreams. Dreams of becoming a successful biologist under the famous Stephen Grant. Dreams of marrying my high school friend, Tilly Garland. Dreams of moving out of my mom's and having a financially stable life, with kids who look up to their dad. Maybe even someday retiring...

I've had dreams like this ever since I was fourteen years old.

Hell, I've been working hard ever since I was fourteen years old.

But, in the end, I was so ignorant of my own shortcomings that I didn't realize just how flawed of a plan I had made.

Now I'm twenty-seven years old. Never had a girlfriend. Still living with my mom. Still unemployed.

I'm basically a loser.

"A big fat... loser..." I muttered.

"That ain't true, boss!" A raspy voice broke the silence. I slowly turned around and glanced at a misshapen creature who was lounging on my desk, eating my chips and fiddling with... something familiar...

Something extremely private!

"Dammit Glob! That's not yours!" I shrieked, rushing forward and yanking at the porno magazine, but Glob chuckled.

"It's mine now! I'm an Aspect of Gluttony after all! In exchange for the great honor of having me as your spiritual familiar, I must be treated with the utmost offerings!"

"Can't you settle for anything else?"

"Do I look like the Aspect of Sunshine to you? I feed off the essence of gluttony and libido, having you as my master is nothing short of fate. A master who can see spirits and is a horny virgin in his late twenties! Is that not a match made in heaven?"

I choked.

"Don't phrase it like that!"

"Am I wrong?" Glob asked.

I clenched my fist.

"N- No," I muttered.

Of course not.

I sat back on my bed and scrolled through my phone.

Parsa had uploaded another post on his IG. He was awarded an award of excellence at his company. That would be the third time he won the award from all three nominations.

In the photo was his girlfriend, Tilly Garland.

Yeah, Tilly Garland, the girl I dreamed of marrying.

I shouldn't have felt jealous or anything, but I'm not gonna lie and say I didn't.

Parsa Soroush, who once was the most bullied person in Saint Stephen Grant High School, had risen to the top from hard work. I still remembered when I used to defend him from bullies and encourage him all the time.

We were almost like brothers.

In fact, we basically were like blood brothers. When we had first met, Parsa wanted to push me away because he felt like he was a burden to everybody he knew.

I was the first person he could ever call a friend. To get him to really see that, I went to the extreme of cutting my finger and pressing my wound against his where the bullies had injured him, proclaiming we would be best pals.

Throughout high school, I was always his pillar of support. And I always wanted the best for him.

And now...

Now he didn't need me anymore. He had a hot girlfriend, and a high-paying job at the most elite tech company there was.

I should have been happy for him...

But this wasn't the happiness I was feeling.

"I can feel the jealousy radiating from you, boss," Glob remarked, as he munched on the last of my chips.

Thanks, Glob, real pillar of support you are.

I put my phone away and headed downstairs, noticing a suitcase that was next to the door.

"Buenos dias mami, why is there a suitcase by the door?" I asked, as I sat on the kitchen table and waited for my mother to hand me the oatmeal she would make every morning.

"Ah, well that's because this is going to be your last breakfast," My mom replied.

"Oh, that's nice," I said, munching on the oatmeal before spitting it out immediately.

"Wait what?! Last breakfast?!" I yelped.

"Yes, mijo. Starting today you will need to find a place to live on your own."

I stared at my mother, the spoon dropping into the bowl.

"I... I don't understand..."

"I'm kicking you out, Nathan."

"But why?!"

My mother showed me something on my phone. It was the post by Parsa.

"Your friend worked so so hard in high school and is now one of the most successful millionaires from your high school, but my own son lazes around in the house! Do you not realize how overworked I am to try to keep this roof over our heads? You are lucky I do not believe in ghosts or we never would even have a place to live!"

"Hey boss, your ma is starting to piss me off," Glob said.

"Shut up, Glob," I whispered.

"What was that?" My mother said, causing me to freeze.

"N- Nothing. Ma, I am looking for a job, I really am."

"You tell me this every single day! Yet every single day I see you on your computer playing videogames! I can't stand it anymore, mijo, I can't bear to see you waste your life away. You are twenty-seven years old. Why are you not married yet? Has your package shrunk?! Is that it?!"

"No! Mami that isn't true! I have been looking... I-"

"Mijo..." My mother's voice cracked, as I slowly got up, staring at the suitcase.

My mother was kicking me out of the house because I had been unemployed for years.

I... I knew the direction of my life was headed to failure, I know.

I know.

But between not getting a single job interview, much less a job offer...

And the unfulfilling end to my high school journey so many years ago...

Everything just felt so hopeless.

I was always the pillar of support for Parsa, I was the guy he could count on.

I was the guy who started the Freaks from the Border clique, where people oppressed by the people of Caneria would come together to form our little friend circle.

Yet now, now that I was in Parsa's shoes, to some extent... I couldn't even break out of it.

Yeah...

The tables have turned entirely, flipped right upside down.

I took the suitcase and slowly made my way out the door, my back turned to the cries of my mother, and headed out.

I had no plan, no idea where I would stay.

This was my mom's last resort, at least in her eyes, to force me to get a job and make something out of myself.

"Where to, boss?" Glob bounced next to me on the sidewalk, his presence completely oblivious to the people in the neighborhood, who gave me awkward glances. They most definitely heard my mom crying and her kicking me out since we had thin walls.

"No idea."

"Seriously? Don't you humans need shelter and food? You've been kicked out of your nest!"

"I don't need you of all people to tell me that!" I snapped.

Ah... what to do?!

I didn't know the very first thing to survive out there. Especially some loser who lived with his mom for twenty-seven years!

Maybe find somewhere temporary?

Somewhere temporary...

I glanced at the bench.

Hell no!

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

This would have been the end for me if it wasn't for that incident that had changed my life so many years ago.

Concentrate.

A human being is said to have five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing.

But that day, when it happened, I, among several other people, was affected by a wave of radiation that altered our genetic structure, granting us what you would call superpowers.

Apparently, the government had told me that the chances our altered DNA would produce something like this was one in a trillion and that we were basically "miracle children".

And that was what we were called.

Eh.

All in the past anyway. This was many years ago.

Seven years ago, as a matter of fact.

But now that the Great World War was over, we went back to our normal lives.

And if you're wondering why I don't have like a horde of government agents after me, the reason is simple.

My powers are lame.

There was a woman that was a miracle child who had the power to influence gravitational fields. She mastered this power to the extent that she was able to alter the very atomic structure of literal molecules, in a sense, being capable of transmutation and converting a rock to anything she wanted.

Now that is worth government watch.

You might have already guessed what my "superpower" is if you could even call it that.

Yes.

I have the power to see ghosts.

That's it.

Hell, seven years ago, I thought being able to see ghosts automatically made me a necromancer or a super cool ghost overlord. But that never happened.

You see, just because I can see spirits, and can talk to them, doesn't mean I can command them.

It's no different than seeing people, or animals.

If you saw your neighbor taking out the trash, would you go up to them and demand their servitude and have them refer to you as their master?

Of course not.

And that was the same with me.

Even if I was affected by the radiation and became a miracle child, I was the furthest from being a miracle child there was.

When we were in The Great War, I, among the other miracle children, was grouped together by the Canerian forces to become a "Special Unit".

But since my powers were next to useless, I was next to useless. I frequently was kept in the holding unit while the others went out on missions. The only reason I was even kept around was because they wanted to experiment with my DNA.

And the tests were inconclusive, so not only were my powers a pile of hogwash, so was the data I produced.

Anyway, that's enough sulking.

Concentrate.

My head filled with the voices of the dead. Most of them were complaining about it being cold, or loud. Some were in denial they were dead.

You would be surprised how many restless souls there are on this planet.

"How could a survivalist like me end up a ghost? This is an outrage! An outrage I say!"

Bingo.

I made my way to the source of the voice, as I ventured deep into a forest until I reached a memorial. It was a framed picture of a man along with several flowers seated neatly on a tree.

Next to it was a ghostly apparition who was banging his head against the trunk.

"Unbelievable... unbelievable... How could I... How..."

"Howdy," I interrupted the ghost, who spun around and stared at me.

"A living person, bleh. The idiot probably got lost and is talking to himself." He muttered.

"Hey! I'm not an idiot, I have a college degree," I exclaimed.

"And now he's talking nonsense, that's great."

"I can hear you, jackass. I need your help."

The ghost froze.

"Wait, you can hear me?"

"Yes, moron. And what made you think I got lost?"

"Well, you're carrying a suitcase in clothes that are clearly not sufficient for this environment. Did your house burn down or something?"

"Yeah, it was quite a tragedy, actually. I had to crawl out of the destruction through sheer willpower." I said.

I was obviously not gonna tell this guy it was because my madre kicked me out of the house. How lame would that be-

"Master Nathan's mami kicked him out of the house so now we're in the woods looking for help before we freeze to death," Glob said, proudly.

You ethereal asshole!

The ghost blinked.

"Wow."

"Wh- What's your name, bud," My voice cracked, trying desperately to change the topic.

The ghost sighed.

"Brandon. Brandon Stoke. As you can see, I was a camper... but one day a bear infiltrated my camp and mauled me while I was asleep."

"I'm sorry."

"Nah, it's not like you were the bear. But... I guess I'm just upset that I died in such a stupid way. I had a YouTube channel following and a whole career and stuff. Now I lost it all because I was careless."

Brandon sat in front of the grave.

"I don't have nowhere else to go. Or anything else to do. I'm dead now, so I'm naturally gonna be immortal anyway. This whole survivor persona I built up was all for nothing. I guess I should probably let it go but I can't. It's just what I do."

We stood in silence.

God, I was so damn awkward!

No wonder Tilly didn't end up with me!

Either way, this guy was clearly not in any shape to help us. I guess I had to find somewhere else to crash in.

Glob and I turned around and walked in the other direction out of the forest. The entire time, my mind was preoccupied with something.

"It's weird," I muttered.

"What is, boss?" Glob asked.

"This usually isn't enough of a reason for a spirit to be restless. Everybody dies with regrets to some extent. But spiritual restlessness is usually caused by lack of closure over something."

"But I died with no regrets and I was restless."

"No regrets my ass, the day I found you, you were pillaging a nearby 7-11 and complaining that you couldn't eat their pizzas because you kept passing through them. If anything, your restlessness was so bad that you ended up an Aspect of all things!"