DIVA: End of an Era #2

[deucexm]

Originally, the DiVerse's Goddess of Destruction just sort of dissolved into a
particle version of personified entropy, without so much as a word.  This is not
that story, because that story was so /very/ unsatisfying when I mulled it over
in my head.

Have some /real/, unrestrained Parvait instead.  :)

End of an Era: A DiVerse Alpha Chronicle
by Felix

========

ACT 2

The Goddess of Destruction woke, for the Dream was no more, and faced the final
day.

She could hear the Pantheon's argument fall to silence as she swung her legs off
the couch, rose to her feet, and stretched with a little smile.  It was
satisfying, after all, to ruin the plans of the enemy; to seek out and destroy
what would have brought disaster to the entire universe.

The smile fled.  A pity that she'd had to sacrifice the greater part of the
universe to do it.  Too much of their garden had been built on the support of
the Dream alone, and without it...  She watched her fellow Deities' faces
touched by anger, shock, and despair - and worst of all, hurt and betrayal - as
they looked past her, into the depths of space, and saw All Creation crumbling
before their very eyes.  Stars were failing - quietly and explosively - worlds
were breaking apart into lifeless asteroid fields, mighty galactic empires were
collapsing as the hearts were torn out of them; and it was her doing.  Even if a
worse fate had been avoided, this was still on her shoulders.

"Parvait."  Dio's voice smoldered, even as quiet as it was.  She looked at the
God of Time, brow deeply furrowed, sitting on his throne - /as if he is above
the rest of us/, her inner voice spat, and for once it was not the Shadow
talking.  "Parvait, /what have you done/?"

The weight was too much already.  She would not take this from him - from
/anyone/.

"What have /I/ done?" the Goddess of Destruction snarled fiercely, her black
eyes glinting with the light of a dying universe.  "That which you /failed/ to
do, o /king/!  That which you /feared/!  Think you that I /enjoyed/ the task set
before me?!  That I /delight/ in the slaughter, in the senseless waste of life?!
 I- DO- NOT!"

There was silence in the Temple of Fortune - even from Dio.  But Parvait was not
done yet.

"While you were sitting on your /useless/ throne, /lording/ it over the rest of
us, I was dreaming the Dream - I alone!  While /all/ of you were playing games
with Reality, twisting it into unimaginable shapes for your amusement, I was
hunting our Enemy down and countering them at every turn!  And /still/ I
failed!"

She could feel the weight pressing down on her, the Enemy within yearning to
break free all the more now that she'd given voice to her passions - and so she
channeled all her rage and sorrow into her greatest weapon, her /only/ weapon:
the Arm of the Destroyer.

Dio's eyes widened in shock as the Goddess's right arm suddenly gleamed a
fierce, metallic red, its enveloping fiery aura so intense it distorted her
entire body.  Never before had she empowered herself within the Temple - and
never /at all/, to his knowledge, like this!

"With my own hands have I ended the Dream," Parvait growled, "/permanently/, for
the Enemy used it against All Creation and would have done the same to us, given
the chance.  The Dream is no more.  And now I hold trapped within me the very
One who devours," she hissed, "the One who eats away at my very Being, because
there was /no other way/!  /That/ is what I have done!  Now tell /me/, if you
can-"

She clenched her fist, only once, and the Temple of Fortune shuddered as the
base of Dio's throne burst into a cloud of alabaster fragments, the seat
dropping out from under him and crashing to the floor as he levitated in place,
still staring at her.

"-WHAT HAVE /YOU/ DONE?!"

There was a long and heavy pause, punctuated by the Goddess of Destruction's
labored breathing, and then finally the God of Time descended to the shattered
throne, stood upon the seat, and spoke.

"Not enough, I fear."

Parvait let out a long breath.  "Then /do more/," she returned, more evenly -
though her flame burned just as brightly - "for I will not be able to aid you. 
Any of you," she clarified, looking around at the assembled Pantheon.  "I have
but one task left to me, and I must see it through to completion."