Time Unknown
The gods often argued and sometimes clashed, but they never seriously tried to harm one another; it served no purpose. They were all made from the same life force and energy. Among them were the elements of light, darkness, wind, earth, water, and fire, along with one non-element: balance.
They did not have names; they preferred what humans called them based on their elements.
After watching humans rise and fall through the ages, they realized they needed each other.
It was a humbling realization for the gods, but it helped them grow, not just in their relationship with humans, but also among themselves.
They learned that true power lies in collaboration, not in hoarding it for oneself.
Light remembered how frail and lost she felt, while darkness gloated for the longest time as he grew from the fall of men. However, even he faded with time, as all the others did; they did not know that humans had been praying to them all this time, giving them strength.
Their faith added to their lives; the more humans believed in the gods, the more the gods grew.
Years of ignoring humanity led to believe the gods had failed, except for a few zealots.
“Darkness?” Light asked in a low voice.
“Yes?” he replied.
“Are we wrong?” she wondered, to which he laughed in response.
“I’m never wrong.” After a brief pause, he added, “But about what?”
“We exist and are the source of all magic.”
“Yet we never really cared about the world.”
“That was born with us.”
“We always viewed it as a novelty at best.”
“And went on fighting for who was best.” Darkness looked off into the distance, staring into the abyss, which was him, but also not.
It was merely a cloak and shadow he wore, just as Light could be the rays from a sun; she was her own entity, as were Wind and the others.
After a long pause, as he kept staring, she thought he would ignore the question; he did that when his pride would not let him admit he was wrong.
She learned not to push the issue; she liked his company and did not want him to leave. To her surprise, he answered with a low “yes,” quickly followed by, “but not in the way you think.”
“Mortals are weak.”
“And we owe them nothing.”
“But when they believed—”
“When they gave us power—”
“And we still looked away… that was wrong.”
She was uncertain about how to reply to that;
“What should we do?” she asked.
“Hmm, nothing,” he said flatly, which shocked her.
“Nothing!”
“But they need us.”
“And we abandoned them for so long!” she said, getting exasperated. “No,” he said, “we cannot give them anything freely.”
“Even if they pray,” he said solemnly, “yet we need to gather everyone.”
“And work out a plan to help them,” he paused briefly as he thought.
“Perhaps that’s why Balance was born among us.”
“Only they would try to balance us all.”
“As they gain nothing from humans but everything from us.”
Light agreed it was wise to ask all instead of trying to make a plan among themselves.
It was one thing they fought about: who was in charge and who must follow.
Each felt they were greater than all others, but only Balance did not push that, as they knew they needed all the others.
In a sense, they were the most important, as Balance represented the energies among them all, preventing any from truly dying.
Just fading to near nothing.
Even assuming it could happen, it would only be from eons of neglect. Later that day, when all the gods had gathered to see what was so important.
“Why did you call us this time, Darkness?”
“Come to gloat some more?” Fire asked, already annoyed. Water spoke up first. “Let’s not fight.”
“I’m sure this is important.”
“He promised he would stop acting as if he leads us.”
“We should give him a chance,” Water said a little nervously.
Wind watched the world with Earth, both of them more interested in the mortals’ affairs than whatever the gods had to say.
Balance was crestfallen that, no matter their view, it would always be secondary to others.
After a few more talks among themselves, Darkness remained quiet to avoid fueling any anger, as well as to show that he will let another lead. Light spoke up.
“We need to help the humans,” she said. Wind got excited, and Earth smiled, while Fire frowned, and both Darkness and Balance merely looked on with indifference, waiting for what was to come next.
After a brief let them think about her words, she continued, a sigh escaping her lips, “For too long, we used mortals with indifference.”
“Since we now know, our powers come from them.”
“We need to balance this…” Her word choice shocked Balance;
“Is there a point?” Fire asked. “They're just little things that exist.”
“Why should we care?” Water chimed in before Light or the others could respond.
“Without them, we will fade.”
“And I don’t like the feeling, even if we can live without them.”
“I feel better now; a lot of humans believe again, and among us.”
“What is wrong with sharing that feeling with humans?”
“YEA!” Wind shouted excitedly despite the tense atmosphere, and Earth nodded slowly, agreeing.
While looking once more over the world mortals lived in, Darkness sighed in the background.
Sparking anger from Fire, “Go ahead,” Fire said, “Tell us the right way.”
“Tell us how this is best; we all know you want to…”
Darkness spoke slowly in a low voice, “How quickly you make me a villain.”
“Just because of my element.”
“Yet you ignore you burn and hurt a lot more than I ever could.”
Fire flared up at that, and all backed up a bit, readying for a fight. Even Light, who started this meeting, felt it was beyond her control and knew not what to do.
That was when Balance, meek as could be, spoke up as best they could. “Light was trying to help us and the humans; we should listen.” Both Fire and Darkness quickly jerked in her direction as if she were all but forgotten and they were shocked she was there, much less talking. They both quickly looked away, knowing that they both suffered from thinking they were better, and Balance was the weakest among them. Yet it was Balance that allowed them to coexist.
With a deep sigh, Darkness said, “Sorry.” With an annoyed look, Fire said “Sorry” too, and they both calmed down a little. Water was the one who broke the tension’s last grasp.
“Light, do you have a solution?” Light regained control and shone a little brighter, feeling hopeful that this could work.
She spoke quickly before it spiraled once more, “YES!” she shouted, then blushed, not meaning to be so upbeat in a tense situation. Wind's joy was infectious. “Yes,” she said again, much calmer.
“We cannot give magic to mortals.”
“Least not directly or without cost.”
“Well, not all mortals; there has to be a balance.”
“So, Darkness and I thought we could reshape the world.”
“Slowly.”
“With power and blessing.” Wind was not as sure, nor were the other elements; none wanted to be the first to speak.
Because this was unfamiliar territory, they knew this change would be permanent.
Balance was the only one with no real stake in all this, as she had no element for it to matter, so she asked what others were afraid to voice.
“How would it work?”
“If not, just giving power to a mortal?”
“And what would stop a few from hoarding all the power?”
“I don’t know how to balance an entire world,” she said meekly.
Light smiled at that and said, “Dungeons.”
“Dungeons?” a few random elements asked, while the others all frowned as if it were an odd thing.
“Yes, dungeons.”
“It will allow rewards.”
“While keeping powers in check!”
“And it allows all of us to gain power.”
“Without a need to be forced to balance!” Balance became depressed at that; did she mean so little that they even made her worthless by taking away her only gift?
Nobody noticed Balance's mood, each being lost in their thoughts, but Water was the first to question.
“What about Balance?”
“That hardly seems fair to her.”
“To include all of us but neglect her.” Balance blushed at being acknowledged and felt like nobody would care.
It meant a lot that Water did. When all stared at her, making her shrink a bit, Light spoke up, “O, NO NO NO!”
“You misunderstand.”
“Balance, you would be in charge of balancing.”
The dungeon, and making sure none of us go too far! Balance was shocked that someone would give her the most important role!
She cried at that; Water, air, and earth came closer to console her. Light wanted to join but felt she had enough support. Both Darkness and Fire frowned at what they saw as weakness; they said nothing.
As they knew they had a hand in making that insecurity, they wanted a better relationship, so they did nothing and let her have this bit of glory.
They shared a similar thought: maybe she would give them an edge, feeling like they earned it, both getting smug in their thoughts.
After a bit of letting Balance recover, Light went on once more.
“We all want things that benefit us.”
“But we need to remember. "
“To have humans focus on our elements.”
“And we need to make sure we reward them.”
“When we can balance now, feeling better and more confident, she had a voice in this matter and spoke up, ‘If we do this—’”
“We must include monsters.”
“And anything that could become a spiritual creature,” Balance said, shocking all others. It was Darkness who first voiced an objection. “Why monsters?” he asked.
“We want to help humans, not kill them?”
Balance said, “Yes, but there must be a balance.”
She went on before she could lose her nerve, “Dungeons will be bound with whatever we add to it.”
“The creatures there will be mindless.”
“And any there will only fit the dungeon's needs.”
“Nothing more but monsters born from us.”
“As well as spiritual creatures.”
“Will be like humans and can grow.”
“And keep humans from growing too much.”
“As well as humans, keep monsters in line.”
Water hummed a bit and spoke first. “I like it.”
“So we can make elements like us?” Wind gasped and said, “We would.”
“Be part of the world and among humans?!”
“Well, not exactly,” Balance tried to calm Wind's growing excitement. Both Fire and Darkness were deep in thought or seemed to like the idea. Balance wasn't sure. Earth spoke up, “I like it,” while looking at the world once more.
“Even if we don’t inhabit the place.”
“We are a big part of it.” Wind jumped up and down and started running around, then flying with joy.
Water shared her joy and danced, but Fire and Darkness kept thinking to themselves, not adding any input. Light finally spoke up, “Assuming we all agree—”
“Too much too soon.”
“It will break the world.”
“It needs to happen over a long time.”
“Not too long,” Darkness spoke up.
“We saw a world with no magic.”
“It will be a better one with.” Fire was still annoyed that everything seemed to move along so quickly, and he did not even give any real input.
"So," Fire said to feel included, “what is the plan, Light, or Balance?”
“Whomever is leading this,”
I have no real objection as long as we achieve results.
Light spoke first. “It will cost over half of all our power to start the change.”
"From there, we will randomly lose the power of balance, allowing humans to be born with our gift."
Wind was the first to speak. “We're not helping humans directly?”
Why? Puzzlement clouded her expression.
“We cannot,” Darkness said before anyone else.
“But why?” Air persisted, not understanding. Balance spoke, seeing Darkness did not seem to care.
“I cannot balance so many humans.”
“Even if we did not have spiritual creatures.”
“And monsters; it’s why I wanted those added to help humans gain power and bless us.”
A few murmured, but none spoke. With that, the humans knew for a fact about gods and also monsters for the first time, so they marked it in history: the world before and after blessings.
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