The laws of reality and nature are relative depending on where a person is nowadays ever since God gave humanity over to their sins after generations of trying to free them from their self-imposed chains. Now, each part of the world operates on its own rules. In one place, people can breathe underwater while in another part not too far from it, people can fly with no wings, able to consume fire, and change their appearance on a whim. Many other varieties exist and each reality changes as they change hands, and yet, one factor is the same. Each one is ruled by self-proclaimed gods or pantheons of gods that dictate how reality operates in their sphere of reality works and what is right and wrong.
Some gods are fine with keeping to themselves while others war over territory or out of self-proclaimed virtue or claim to the land because they think they’re the best person to rule the world. While the gods war, normal humans must either conform to their will, hide in the darkest corners of the world to escape the chaos or consult idols to obtain power and challenge the power of the gods. Many have tried to challenge the power of the gods, but few have succeeded and fewer still have done so without giving their soul to idols. Underground and in the unclaimed lands, there’s a Church that still worships the one true God. One young girl seeks this God as she is desperate to end the constant power struggles that are tearing apart reality and more importantly, the lives of people.
Currently, she is being chased by the faithful of one of the gods for not paying her proper respects to the goddess by giving her body and service to her. These guards have multiple eyes on their bodies that are as big as their heads and they are all undead. Their bodies are filled with maggots that feed on a meal that seems to never run out of flesh and rot to feed on. The young girl reaches a hidden church that lies within a mountain and is surprised and disheartened to see that the place is dilapidated and the only people that are in it are skeletons that have their heads, feet, hands, and necks chained. This scene suggests the faithful here were chained down and forced to starve to death, however, a quiet voice in the girl’s head tells her differently.
“Take up the chains and you will be freed,” the voice says.
Confused by this, the girl tries to look for the source of the voice and a possible exit but cannot find one. Seeing that the guards are breaking down the church doors and with no other reasonable option, the girl does as the voice says by first putting one of the chains around her ankles.
“You will not be able to go where you please or do what you want. With me, you will have unlimited freedom and control over your life, but with that God, you will only have chains and leashes,” the voice of the goddess tells the girl.
Looking around, the girl can’t see the goddess. The breaking down of the door by the guards has stopped and an eerie and deafening silence fills the church.
“I don’t care,” the girl says, “If these chains grant me something better than freedom, I’ll gladly wear them.”
She then puts the chain around her head.
“You will not be able to think or believe as you want. Those chains will instill an unmoving dogma upon your mind that dictates a rigid sense of right and wrong,” the goddess says.
“I’ve been unsure of what’s right to do my entire life, and this, for some reason, feels like the first decision I’ve made,” the girl responds before going on to put the next chains around her neck.
“You will not be able to love who and what you want. Your tastes will be defined by the chains and not by your desires and your heart’s innermost desires.”
“My heart’s been left empty by indulging in my desires like a wife after her cheating husband leaves her for another woman. People have been hurt because I’ve taken what I want from them without caring for them or what’s good for them or myself. I think it’s time I stop doing what I want to.”
Finally, the girl wraps the chains around her arms.
“You will no longer live as you wish. Instead, you will be what someone else defines you as. You will speak, think, and act according to their will for every second of your life.”
“I’ve been doing that for every god I’ve come across. This is no different, except for the fact that I’ll be doing it for the real God.”
The guards go back to breaking down the door, but when they enter the church, they find nothing but skeletons. Because they assume the girl is dead now, they leave the church. Meanwhile, the girl sees that the skeletons and herself are alive while the guards are nothing but walking rotting corpses. She sees that church is a place of adoration where an uncountable number of people and angels sing in joyful praise of the One True. Here, reality is consistent and acts as it should in harmony with its Creator and in stark contrast to the world outside of it. Here, in this place where the dead live, the sinners became saints, and where a lamb is suffering for the love of the world. Here, is where reality is true, where it began, and where it will be renewed from.
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