Penitence Lost

Godking Gabriel

"Oh, Father... how are you feeling?" Guillermo, the eldest son of the Godking Gabriel, held his father's hand tightly, eyes focused on Gabriel's lips as he spoke.

"I am as well as I can be..." Gabriel took a deep breath, his chest lifting significantly before exhaling from his nose. "Is everyone here?"

The rest of his children, Gadán, Yaretzi, Gofri, and Yumel. Guillermo, who sat by his side, took one hand to part his hair to the side, letting go of his father's hand as he quickly began tying his hair, looking to his siblings. Gadán approached and the others followed slowly behind him.

"Father, are you well?" Gadán asked, leaning on Gabriel's bed.

Gabriel chuckled, "I've been better."

"I swear that I'll treat the kingdom well after you've passed."

"Depends on if you become the next Godking child," Gabriel placed a hand on Gadán's head before looking at the rest of his children with a sigh, "It's up to you all on who you decide to become the next Godking..." He looked at Guillermo, "How do you think it'll go?"

Guillermo looked at his siblings, "We will decide in time," The Godking shrugged, wincing as he moved. "Don't move too much, father."

"What sort of illness could it be?" Yaretzi questioned as they all walked through the hall leading to Gabriel's room, this being after they had just met him earlier. "I'd never seen such a thing," Guillermo sighed in response, no one else speaking on the issue and leaving it be. "No insight? We could save our father if we knew."

Guillermo stopped and everyone else stopped with him -- spinning on the balls of his feet to turn towards Yaretzi, "Do you not believe it is already too late?"

"We could at least try-- prevent it from happening to anyone else. I've even done some research-" She searched through a bag at her hip, pulling out multiple folded papers, opening them up and showing what was inside, "Blood samples, medications, we've-- I've tried as much as I could, along with the doctors but..." she sighed, "It isn't enough... we need-"

"No... we cannot have another country's doctor assist us here. You know why, yes?"

"Yes, but we need to try as much as-"

"Yaretzi... if nothing that we've done worked, then why do you think another country's efforts would work as well?" Guillermo sneered and Yaretzi's bottom lip quivered, anger boiling inside of her whilst looking at the ground. Guillermo sighed, crossing over to Yaretzi and placing his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sorry but... even you couldn't do it. If you - yourself couldn't do it... the best doctor... no... the best alchemist, surgeon, all of the above... the best one I know... if you couldn't do it, then I doubt anyone else can."

"If I can't by myself... then... and if I can't have the numbers I need then..." She pulled away from Guillermo, quickly making her way down the hall before turning the corner.

"Dvergur tech could help..." Guillermo mumbled, "Guess she realized that." Guillermo turned to his siblings, "What do you think this is?"

Yumel scoffed, moving past Guillermo and disappearing down the hall.

*****

Down in the deepest trenches of the world, one clad in armor lifts themselves from the wastes made up of the corpses of ancient gods or beings on the level of gods. Crawling and clawing out from the deepest filth of this land, watching beings from afar walking aimlessly as flesh falls off like they're decaying in real-time. The one clad in armor looked away from death and decided to look forward, moving through the slug-filled, gross remains of whatever had lived before.

As they traveled, the environment began to change. Instead of melted corpses making up the ground below them, trees made up of people long dead, the ground solidified and as hard as stone still showing the remnants of the life that was there before, frozen to make the ground below. The one clad in armor whipped their head around as the ground cracked and ground, something pulling itself out from the floor itself before panicking, breathing wildly, and running off into the wood before disappearing. The one clad in armor growled, shaking their arms and legs to get some flesh and liquids out of their armor.

"What are you?" The one clad in armor spun around to look at where the voice came from, visibly confused. "Calm down, but..." Something appeared from some foliage, a golden mechanical scarab, the size of a human's foot. "What are you...? I've been watching you for quite a while now and... who are you?" They don't respond, only staring at the scarab quizzically. "O-okay... uh... Do you have a name?" No response, "I'm guessing you can't speak then... um... can you?" They shook their head but it was barely noticeable, "Okay... um... are you a god? Where you were I'd assume you were."

The one clad in armor sighed, crossing to the scarab and kneeling in front of it.

"T-That's uh..." The scarab retreats a bit, "Will you hurt me?" They shook their head at the scarab again, placing both knees down on the ground and getting closer by leaning their body forward. "O-okay... so uh... what are you?" They didn't respond this time, "T-then how...?" They grabbed the scarab, "O-Oh s**t!" They then placed it on their shoulder. "Y-you- heh, you scared me."

They lifted themselves off from the ground, the golden scarab on their shoulder. With one labored step, the one clad in armor continued their journey.

"W-What's your goal here?" The scarab asked, visibly panicked as their shell continuously shivered and clicked, "W-Where are we going?"

The one clad in armor pointed into the distance where a massive gate was, the size of the Giants that could be seen from the distance.

"Oh... th-that's far... uh... why there?" The scarab paused, hopping to look at the armored one's head, "Are you planning to escape!? You're planning on leaving this place, right!?" They didn't respond, "But that could take years!" No response once more. "Hmmmm..." The scarab paused once more, with a hop, turning to the gate, "Alright... so there is the gate... and there is the-- the guardian and uh... if you kill the guardian..." The scarab groaned, body shivering violently, "Oh... what if the God here comes?" The scarab sighed, "C-Can I leave?" They shook their head. "W-Why...?" The scarab groaned again, turning to the armored one once more, "Uh... shall I give you a name? I-If I'm here for the long run, then uh... I kinda need a name."

The armored one stopped, turning their head to the scarab.

"What should I call you... uhh... what about..." The scarab paused and the armored one continued walking. "Almatarid?" No reaction, "Uh... how about, Mutarasid?" No reaction, again. "Taeaqub? Sayaad? Muraqib? Muqatil? Almunadil?" The armored one sighed, "Uh... well then... language change? What about the language I'm speaking now?" The armored one nodded, "Okay, okay. Then... do you want an actual name or a title?" The scarab paused, "Oh, yeah... you can't... uh, nod if you want a name and shake your head if you want a title." The armored one shook their head. "O-Okay, so... the stuff that I was saying before were titles so... I'll do the nice ones. Hunter? Pursuer? Tracker? Uh... Struggler?" The armored one nodded to the title of Struggler. "So... you like 'Struggler'?" They nodded again.