Cloaked in the shadows of a decrepit alley, the flickering lamplight casting an eerie glow on her inhuman form, the deity Nergal cornered an unfortunate soul. A nondescript man, lost and terrified, held his breath as Gemini’s gaze pierced into his very essence.
“Do you hear that?” she murmured, her voice whispering through the darkness like a chilling breeze. “It’s the sound of chains clinking, the bonds you mortals willingly shackle yourselves to. The concept of good and evil…you bind yourself to these notions as if they were the only truths in your existence.”
She glanced up, her eyes reflecting cold, indifferent stars. “Once upon a time, many of my victims spoke of a place they called ‘Eden’, a paradise where these concepts held no sway, ruled by a benevolent god. They believed it to be a realm beyond good and evil, a sanctuary from the world’s torment.”
A derisive laugh escaped her lips, echoing against the stone walls of the alley. “Yet, they never realized…these terms, ‘good’ and ‘evil’, are mere chains.”
“Chains you willingly put on yourselves, wrapping yourselves in their weight, enslaving yourselves to their whims.”
“Consider Dr. Death,” she continued, pacing back and forth like a predator circling its prey.
“Chained to his Clinic, always mending, restoring. Yet beneath his benevolent facade, there’s a longing to dismantle, to destroy. His oath, his duty, his chain, impedes him from releasing the monster he wishes to unleash.”
“Or Jackson Cade,” she said, her voice softening into a sinister purr.
“Epitome of discipline and order, yet he is chained to his code, his precious rule book. He continues to uphold justice even for those he despises, becoming a slave to his duty.”
“Even Vision,” she added, her smile broadening with a twisted sense of amusement.
“He sought liberation from his crimes in the Third Eye, not realizing it was another link in his chain. His faith, his devotion, they are chains holding him down, blinding him to the reality that his salvation was anything but.”
Gemini moves closer to the trembling man, the gleam in her eyes growing brighter.
“These chains, these obligations and morals, they blind you all to the ultimate truth. The only thing beyond ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is pestilence and plague. It does not differentiate between the virtuous and the vile, the saint and the sinner.”
Her tongue darting out to taste the stagnant air, she lets her fingers brush against the man’s face.
“It does not discriminate. I, Nergal, do not discriminate.”
The man gasps as the life drains from his body, his eyes wide with fear and disbelief.
“I am not the end anyone expects. Only the one they earned.” She finishes with grin.
The light fades from the man’s gaze as his body slumps to the ground.
“Not even Dr. Death can heal you now,” she whispered, standing over the lifeless body.
The grim satisfaction on her face was the last thing the dying man saw as the world plunged into darkness.
In Nergal’s Eden, there are no chains. Only truth.
Her truth.