I was never super into religion. The stuff that did make sense all just felt super hateful, and the stuff that didn’t just had a whole woohoo vibe to it. It honestly just felt like the powerful’s way to control the weak. No, not weak. Just simply people searching for an answer to the chaos that is existence.

  We are all born and then eventually die, that’s the way of life. Which, if you ask me, doesn’t make much sense. Why live to simply just stop existing one day, like what’s the point? An eternal afterlife doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense to me either. So I just sit in my confusion, never choosing to believe one way or another. But, there are many who do. They don’t want to bask in their confusion and they want answers, or well, at least something to believe in.

  Everyone stares death in the face, and that terrifies us. So, religion is a way to cope with that, hopefully quell the fear. Men like Godrick thrive on that fear. The more we fear, the more control they have over us. They pull the puppet strings, and we dance at their behest. All to quell the fear of death and what comes after.

  The Zodiac, they are different though, they prey on the fear of life. The fear that it may not live it up to what we expected, or the fear that we may someday lose it all. We wake up every morning hoping that today will be better than the last, but often times it simply mirrors that hundreds of days that came before. We kick, and claw, and work to live out the life we feel we deserve, and the wealthy use that desire to control us. To make us dance like the pawns we are in their sick little game of chess.

  But what if we simply just accepted our existence. Accepted that we live and die and will remain ignorant of the truth of the universe. That our lot in life is something we can’t entirely control, and that simply our best is enough. We leave the rest to fate on both aspects and know that we lived and lived to the fullest. If we did this, then they would hold no power over us and could never make us do anything that we never truly wanted to do.

  In a perfect world, I would not fall prey to their machinations. I would stand tall, hold my head up with pride, and turn the other way and continue on with my life. That is not a thing I’ve ever been able to do though. I have continued to dance through life at their behest until I burst into flames and turned to ash.

  I allowed my father to run from his family due to their beliefs surrounding homosexuality. I allowed the world’s idea of what success and wealth were drive me into a corner of indecision. My entire existence has been dictated by men more powerful than me, I am no better than every other person living on this rock.

  But, now I have power. I have the ability to shape the world to my will, literally. If I can imagine a possibility where it occurs, I can make it happen. If I can imagine a world where I kill Godrick, I can find a way to make it happen. That possibility has now been presented to me on a silver platter by the other half of the proverbial equation, Ishta of the Zodiac family Leo. Which is a reminder that my power only extends into the physical realm, and nothing beyond that.

  I don’t have the power to sway the masses with my words. Or make them jump when I demand it of them. That is power that is still reserved for The Saint and The Zodiac. I am no different that the average person of this world, of Zodiac, of Gaea. All the power means nothing as I’m being dragged into a trial where I must make an impossible decision over another man’s life. This man may be extremely insidious, and I may one day decide to kill him, but it’s not a decision that came about because the powerful have deemed it so.

  “Well?” Ishta smiles softly as she struts towards me. Now that I am faced with her test, I see why the other three struggled so much, even against their own will.

  Ishta isn’t simply tempting us with some desire that we have, she is magically pulling us towards it. I can feel the invisible force pulling me towards her, but not specifically herself, but the option to kill The Saint.

  One part of me, the reasonable part, knows that this is not the way I want to do it. This is not the way to kill the Saint, in front of an audience, for the entertainment of the masses. The part of me that is pure desire, that part is being pulled in with a sheer amount of force that is beyond overwhelming.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  It’s as if I have never wanted anything more in my life than to take her up on her offer.

  I take a step back, physically distancing myself from her, hoping that it would make the pull less powerful, but it doesn’t. I imagine that no amount of distance will change the way this feels now that she has her hooks in me.

  “Yawn. Are you going to do it, or not? I don’t have all day and I’m starting to get bored.” Ishta rolls her eyes as she applies more pressure to her magic, increasing the pull.

  I force myself to take another step back.

  “No.” I whisper. “I won’t do it.”

  “So, no killing of the Saint?”

  “No. Not today anyway.” I force myself into a seated position, close my eyes, and I focus all of my energy trying to push her out of my mind and body.

  Her magic feels as though it has merged with my muscle fibers, forcibly controlling them against my will. Slowly squeezing them, pulling them, manipulating them to be used by her and however she sees fit.

  As I surround myself with more and more magic, I feel as though more and more hands are being placed all over my body, pulling me towards her. The harder I push, the more she pulls. I start to condense the energy around me, imagining it as a barrier, a wall preventing the hands from breaking through.

  But I can’t thicken the barrier fast enough, a seemingly countless amount of hands rush through, clawing after every inch of my body, trying to pull me away from my own will. I open my eyes to view my enemy.

  “Ishta.” Dai grabs at her arm, trying to pull her back as she stares me down. “That’s enough.”

  “Dai, sit.” Ishta gingerly waves her hand at Dai who promptly steps back and sits. “Citizens of Zodiac, close your eyes and ears.”

  I feel the hands of Ishta shoot out through the walls in every direction, reaching out for the citizens of Zodiac. As her immense power becomes all consuming, I lose control of any power I had drawn in and it collapses.

  “Now that we are alone.” Ishta takes several steps forward, kneels down in front of me. “You walk into this world with the hopes that you will gain access to The Saint. As the days ticked by, you wanted to gain access to the Zodiac.”

  “Ishta.” Dai pleads.

  “I’m talking.” Ishta turns towards him and his mouth instantly snaps shut. “Some asshole thousands of years ago granted you this power, and you suddenly thought you had the ability to walk through the world like you could make a difference. Like your opinion, wants, and desires mattered. Like you somehow had say in the matter. You don’t. Your feeble little mind can’t possibly comprehend what the world is, or how it’s put together. You can’t fathom true power, because you don’t have it and you never will. Your fancy little magic tricks will never even come close to true power. So, turn around and return to your world and pretend like this never even happened. You can simply wake in your bed, pretend it was a dream, and go about your technologically heavy life without a care in the world.”

  “I will do no such thing.” I struggle against her power, forcing myself to speak. With every word that fell from my mouth, her power felt more intense.

  “You will stay this course, knowing that you walk among titans who would squash you the moment you stepped into their shadows?”

  “I will. I refuse to let than man, or anyone else, continue to cause this world harm.”

  “I see.” Ishta stands up, slowly one by one the hands of power slowly disappear from my body, no longer holding me in place. “Good. Now we don’t have much time.”

  Ishta stands up, waves her hand at Dai releasing him from her spell. Avis immediately rushes to my side to make sure I was okay.

  “My magic, while powerful, can’t hold the entire population for very long. Things are not what they seem in Zodiac, they never have been. The world thinks the Order of the Saint doesn’t have a foothold in Zodiac, but they do. With the Zodiac themselves.”

  “What are you saying?” Dardania looks at Dai and then Ishta. Dai looks just as confused as the rest of us.

  “There’s a reason that Zodiac is the only country in the world untouched by the Order. That is because Godrick didn’t do it on his own, his master plan will come to fruition with the help of the Zodiac. They helped him crack the world in two, and they will help him complete his mission. No matter the cost.”

  “Why? Why are you telling us this?” Dardania asks. Ishta looks to Dai and then back at us.

  “An unfathomable amount was lost when the world split in two. Members of the Zodiac suffered at the hands of the rest of the families, and that man. There are those of us who want to see them punished for what they have done.”

  Ishta stands up and claps her hands as she plasters on a smile.

  “Oh my god! I can’t believe all four of you passed the trial! In the entire history of this shindig I don’t think an entire group has passed a Zodiac trial! Gasp, that is amazing!” Ishta steps back as a set of stairs appear behind her throne. “Just follow those nifty little stairs and you can continue your journey on in The Tower. Ta-Ta.”

  Ishta bows, flips her hair over her shoulder, and vanishes into thin air leaving us alone.

  “They will hear us. Say nothing.” Dai says before standing and making his way towards the stairs.

  “Oh great, another revelation filled with a plot twist, and some more insanity. Sounds like another fun day in Zodiac!” I mutter sarcastically as I make my way towards the steps and to continue up the tower.