A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1385 - 1385: Brilliance - Part 4

"Time will remedy that, boy," Ingolsol said. "When you fix your weaknesses, you will learn the nature of the truth. You thought me to be a mere Dark God for the longest time – and look how the scales have fallen from your eyes."

"For all the good it has done me," Oliver said.

"All the good it has done you?" Ingolsol said, his voice loud and bellowing, even when he wasn't particularly trying to shout. "Do you not know the nature of the distortions I cause? You opened the door to me by the faintest crack, and the world you knew began to break. That man Zilan, he should not have lost to you. His power was, and still is, greater than yours. I know that better than any.

But just for a moment, you allowed the truth of me in. And in that moment, I, Ingolsol God of Power, would never lose to the likes of Icaron, merely the God of the Sun."

"A distortion…" Oliver murmured. "See, that's the issue, Ingolsol. I have no use for a distortion that I could only put up once. I can not stand with these Generals. It took putting my entire life on the line for my sword to reach Zilan, and even then, it did so barely… If he had not chosen to engage me himself, I would never have had a chance."

"Then do as the First King did. Build a bridge out of your men," Ingolsol said.

"He didn't do that," Claudia said. "I don't believe that he delighted in sacrificing his men."

"What is the difference, when they are sent to the slaughter regardless?" Ingolsol said. "They willingly give their lives for a better man, for the cause of his victory."

"Maybe they might willingly give their lives, but I don't think the First King sent them to their deaths willingly," Claudia said.

"I thought you didn't remember anything of him? Your reasons for choosing him and such?" Oliver prodded.

"I don't…" Claudia said. Oliver could practically feel her frown. "I remember very little."

"Because you are the weaker element," Ingolsol said. "Your divine will would not reach down here from the heavens, as mine stretched up from the deepest of darknesses, when it was called. And I had to overcome the likes of your petty seals. You have no such excuse."

"The Fragment responds to the wants of the Vessel," Claudia replied, parroting a phrase that she has said before.

"Meaning that, I am to blame for this?" Oliver said, his smile growing increasingly self deprecating. "I do apologize… Though he might have been a barbaric sort of terror when he was acting purely as a Dark God, it likely would have been better for him to stay that way."

"Ah, even the Vessel fears me, does he?" Ingolsol said. The words were low, spoken as a growl, but there was a hint of satisfaction in them. "Good. That is how it should be. I am a Fragment of the highest of the divine. If you did not fear me, you would be a fool."

"Ought I to fear Claudia, then?" Oliver said.

"If she had anything to her worth fearing," Ingolsol sneered.

"You knew fear, when we defeated you, I do suppose," Claudia said, as dangerous as Oliver had ever heard her.

"You knew fear when you united the heavens against me," Ingolsol said back, quite easily. "A pretty wench, you might be, from what I recall. But there was nothing about you that would ever make me fear you. You were one especially large ant amongst thousands of them. Next time, my boots shall not miss."

"There will not be a next time," Claudia said, but she didn't sound overwhelmingly confident.

"Do you suppose I should fear you, Claudia?" Oliver asked.

"It would be wise to fear a Goddess, Vessel," Claudia said. "Though, I can not force you to feel any particular thing. If I do not seem especially fearful, then perhaps I am lacking in some sort of way."

"Perhaps?" Ingolsol said.

"The First King built the Stormfront, out of nothingness, off the back of Claudia's Blessing, Ingolsol," Oliver said. "He was undefeated in all his battlings, no matter how dangerously he played… And still, the fact remains, that he did play… He was hardly the sort of hero that Arthur was."

Oliver had begun speaking, hoping to make a point, but had ended up only deepening his frown, as he fell into another line of thought. None of the pieces that he cast up seemed to fit together, and he was unsure whether he'd be able to fix them all in one night.

"Do you not condemn what the First King did, Claudia?" Oliver asked. "He fought with the lives of thousands, and seemed to think nothing of their deaths. How is he any better than the likes of Yarmdon, who kill the innocent?"

"…I find it hard to point out the exact distinction, but the two are not the same. For one, the soldiers have elected to be soldiers. They have chosen to fight, unlike the innocent that the Yarmdon target, with the whims of Varsharn as their support," Claudia said.

"Then why does Varsharn support their raiding and pillaging?" Oliver asked.

"Varsharn loves the chaos of warfare," Claudia said.

"Varsharn just wants to see blood spilled, no matter the form," Ingolsol said, sniffing distastefully. "She has no goals beyond the battle herself. A pitiful creature, like all the Yarmdon are."

"You look down on the Yarmdon as well, Ingolsol," Oliver noted.

"Their ambitions are laughable," Ingolsol said.

"You would have once delighted in the despair that they inflicted," Oliver said.

"It is something, but it is far from being everything," Ingolsol said. "If their methods do not seize any degree of power, then they are worthless. The First King, his methods, brutal as they were, they worked. Is that not the pinnacle of desirability?"

"I do not believe his methods were brutal either," Claudia said. "They were innocent."