A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Oliver sat on a stool, in the emptiest room in his house, on the very highest floor, intending to harness a quiet deep enough for introspection. He had tried once before, but the same result had come about then. Where the quiet was strongest, Ingolsol's voice was the loudest, and Oliver was having trouble quieting him.

"I will not be rid of Claudia," Oliver said emphatically. "You will talk me into no direction, Ingolsol."

"Why?" Ingolsol said. "You know the legacy that I have left. The Gods have cast a curtain on all of humanity for fear of me. They gave me the title of a Dark God for that very same fear – but you see past it. You have caught the first glimmer of the truth, Vessel. You wish to be powerful, do you not?

You wish for a path away from the path of the other Generals, do you not? Let me grant you that power."

"No," Oliver said. He did not know why he knew to refuse. The offer was too tempting, he supposed. Perhaps it was the presence of Claudia, still holding on, that provided him that insight. A fruit dangled with the foundations to back it up? The laws of progress could not be so easily defeated.

"Oh, they can be," Ingolsol purred. "Absolute power subjugates all. I am that very manifestation. Do you not think that power defeats progress? Do you not think that power defeats gravity? Have you not jumped to a height, beating such a natural force, and the God behind it?"

"I have. And then the pull of gravity exerts itself all the more viciously for it," Oliver said. Ingolsol's own argument provided him with the certainty. "Whatever you offer me, it will have consequences."

"Ah, but there are consequences for everything," Ingolsol said. "At the very least, I would ask that you cease with your naivety. You treat me with all the suspicion that you would a Dark God, when you know now that is not what I am. My only sin was to be the strongest."

"You tried to conquer the heavens, and supplant it under your rule," Oliver said. He found that story in his mind, with the breaking of Ingolsol's gate, and his entry into the Fourth Boundary. He didn't know the specifics, but he could see an image in his head.

Ingolsol doing war alone against the combined might of the heavens… But his power must not have been enough, for Oliver saw him in chains no longer after.

"Naturally," Ingolsol said. "Does that make me a manifestation of evil? Is a wolf evil, just because it is hungry? Who is more fitting to be called King of the Heavens than I?"

"…'Than I?'" Oliver repeated to himself with a sigh. "You are not even the God himself. You're a Fragment. You can't speak with the same arrogance as him."

Ingolsol chortled his amusement. "Indeed. But the more even I learn of myself, the more I grow to love it. The ways of the Gods even had me convinced. The higher you climb, Vessel, the more I shall discover."

"So it's that knowledge you hunger for, in truth," Oliver said.

"It's unification that I hunger for. The many subordinated under the one. There are all these ideas, scattered, unified. I would see them held together," Ingolsol said.

"It is talk like that which made the heavens fear you," Claudia murmured disheartedly. "You sound like Pandora."

"Come now," Ingolsol said. "That's a finger that you all pointed because you can find no other reason to stand against me. We all came from the same Three Old Gods. You can't suppose that I am more Pandora than any more of you."

"We can suppose that," Claudia said. "For we suppose the same thing for the other Dark Gods. They were all mothered by her."

"Perhaps she wasn't so bad, then?" Ingolsol offered. "Perhaps what was inflicted upon her was a cruelty. Chaos was what she ruled over. It is only natural that she carried herself as she did, is it not?"

"She brought monsters to the world of humanity, Ingolsol," Claudia growled. "That is unforgivable."

"A foe to stand against – a most motherly thing to do," Ingolsol said.

"The talk of a Dark God," Claudia said. "The only thing that Pandora is the mother of is monsters. She is the source of evil itself."

"Or perhaps, that is another lie the Gods have told, just as they told lies of me," Ingolsol said. "Perhaps there will come a day when Pandora finds herself a Vessel. Perhaps we will understand more of her then."

"The world would be a worse place for it," Claudia said. "Pandora has no more chance of finding a Vessel than you. Her affinity for humanity is even worse – the only thing she can afflict is the dead, with her Corpse Soldiers. Thousands of years have passed since her slumber. No more of her power will leak into the world than that."

"I wonder just how far this power extends?" Ingolsol said. Oliver could imagine the man gnashing his teeth, as he savoured the thought. "I wonder if she could stand against I?"

"You're a crude being, Ingolsol," Claudia said. "You think of nothing but war, and conquering. The breaking of your chains is not something that shall see humanity benefited."

"No," Ingolsol said. "Perhaps not. But our Vessel, the young Oliver Patrick? Why – I can see it benefitting him, if it has not already. Why not yield to it, Vessel? You have already found your way to be lacking.

Try something new. Learn from your Style of Overwhelm, and be Overwhelmed."

"There's no strength in it," Oliver replied, quite calmly.

"No strength?" Ingolsol's incredulity could be heard in his voice. "Did you not hear me speak of the power in it? You would have power beyond your dreams."

"Perhaps, but there's no strength," Oliver said. He could be certain of that. "Bricks placed without effort, progress reaped without resistance, there's no strength in it. No worth. It's a waste of my time."

The God of Power found himself stunned. "That is the last thing I thought you would say… For foolishness to have taken root so deeply in your brain. Indeed, it will take time for my power to work its way on you. For the disease that Claudia has put in your mind to be firmly ripped out."