Part 2
Once they arrived in the throne room, Xellma understood immediately. There in front of all of them was Vordea, fully mantling her purview of Insanity. Her normal black motif replaced with a dazzling array of blue and yellow. Her hair was best described as bright green, but her eyes were clearly looking through Itar and not at him.
"Black Angel! I have come to deliver your sentence!" The memory of Vordea shouted at Itar, as her tentacles squeezed him tightly. "Your punishment is death!"
"What was my crime, old friend?" Itar asked with a calm voice, staring her down and refusing to look away from his doom. "Demanding justice for those Eigengrau drives to madness? For refusing to punish those the Gods murder? For insisting on the right of all living things to control their fate? Are those my crimes, Vordea?"
"Shut up liar angel!" She screamed, and squeezed him tighter. "Just die!"
In a horrifying display of raw power, they all watched as Vordea squeezed Itar so tightly he turned into a black puddle on the floor. Vordea then knelt down before the puddle, and in mere seconds drank it all. She stood and flexed her hands, before beginning to laugh maniacally.
"Yes! Yes! Hell is mine once more!" She yelled, looking up at the ceiling as she laughed, her tenuous grip on sanity snapping in twain. "Begone Itar, your purview has been reclaimed!"
At this moment, the memory of Eigengrau arrived, and she looked beyond horrified at what had occured. Looking down at the few black drips remaining on the ground of Itar, she held her hand over her mouth as if she was about to vomit, before looking back at Vordea.
"Vordea, what have you done?" Eigengrau's memory asked her, her face a mixture of rage and sorrow. "I cannot allow this! Tempus Prohibere!"
At this point, everything around them turned grey and stopped moving.
"One day I'll work out how to escape from a time stop." Vordea said with a small smile. "You've witnessed the event that started sixty kalpas of misery. What say you? What say all of you?"
None of them said anything at first. Seeing that nobody else wanted to be the first to speak, Xellma eventually said something after a couple minutes.
"There's more to this." She said, crossing her arms. "What happened after she came back?"
"Very astute." Vordea answered, clapping her hands twice. The scenery around them shifted slightly, and the memory of Vordea was now surrounded by Eigengrau, Agbus, and 6 others. "Watch and learn."
"No no no no no no no we can still fix this!" Eigengrau's memory yelled at the others.
"What's there to fix, Eigen?" A bearded man asked her. "You said so yourself, she ATE him!"
"I reclaimed the purview that is rightfully mine!" Vordea's memory shouted, her hair at this point once more black, but her tentacles still covered with blue rings. "Hell belongs to me and me alone!"
"She fucking what?" A tall, thin man asked. "She can do that?"
"Shut up I can fix this!" Eigengrau yelled.
"I think this is beyond even us." Agbus's memory said, shaking his head. "She's really done it this time."
"No I'll just walk back to the moment and-"
"And what, Eigen?" Vordea asked mockingly. "Undo it? You know yourself the death of a God is retroactive. Once I killed him, he never lived!"
"They're panicking. They're all in a frenzy." Vaust whispered to himself. "This isn't what I expected."
"Interesting, isn't it?" Agbus asked, as he motioned back at the scene.
"I don't want to get eaten by her!" A young girl screamed, on the verge of tears.
"You know what must be done, Eigen!" The bearded man yelled at Eigengrau.
"She's a danger!" The tall thin man shouted. "She'll kill all of us in time!"
"You dare?" Vordea asked, her voice calm and steady. "Godlings dare to threaten my life?"
"Vordea restrain yourself." Agbus's memory said, moving between Vordea and the other Gods in an instant.
"Agbus, it's too late." Eigengrau said, moving next to him.
"You would side with that monster?" Another God asked, the anger in his voice clear.
"I am siding with her, yes. None of you can even hope to understand what she means to the entire universe." Eigengrau said, her voice much calmer than even a minute ago. "You've all set a divergence point, and the best ending no longer features any of you."
Gasps and shocked shouts were heard from the other six when Eigengrau said this, and once again everything turned gray and stopped moving.
"They talked themselves into it." Sargon said, to which Vordea nodded.
"Tempers were running high after my mistake." Vordea began, gesturing at the three Primals in a stand-off with the 6 Inner Gods. "Once they convinced themselves I needed to die, there was no walking back their mistake."
"Wait, you said Eigengrau was furious with you." Xellma said, interrupting. "We haven't seen that."
"Yes we have." Zalas said, "When she came upon Vordea and Itar. She looked mere moments away from killing Vordea on the spot."
"Indeed she was." Vordea answered, still smiling. "That was real, genuine anger directed at me. Well deserved, I'd say."
"She seems a lot more animated in these memories. Is this how you see her?"
"Not at all." Agbus said, answering before Vordea could. "Before the War, Eigengrau was a lot less reserved. Six billion years facing the onslaught of Mira took its toll on her. She never really recovered, and after the new rules, she felt it her duty to embrace stoicism."
"Ultimately, there's a lot of regrets in these memories. Regrets from me. From Agbus. From Eigengrau." Vordea said, sighing. "Still, it was nice to see him again."
"Who?" Vaust asked.
"Itar." Vordea said wistfully. She then turned to look at Xellma. "Daughter."
"Yes?" Xellma asked. She was a bit concerned, Vordea never referred to the demons as sons or daughters.
"Honour Itar's memory. Hell never really belonged to me. The Black Angel would be pleased with both you and Xolarand." Vordea said, her eyes teary.
"Hang on." Vaust said. He couldn't let it slide anymore, it kept bothering him and he didn't want to spend decades waiting for Eigengrau to return. "This feels forced. You're pretty much appointing her to the position. You've spent untold billions of years barely telling us anything about Hell, fuck, about anything, and now you've chosen a successor to the entire purview, have taken us to see painful personal memories, and more. Give it to me straight Vordea." Vaust came over and stared Vordea directly in her bloody red eyes. "Are you dying?"
"Something far more important. I've grown to like all of you." Vordea said, giving a gentle smile. "Vaust the gentle, curious God of Luck, whose calm demeanour is a credit to us all. Sargon the stalwart God of Justice, the first one to understand the responsibilities of the role."
"First one?" Sargon asked, but Vordea ignored him and continued.
"Zalas the blushing bride, so full of love, yet so consumed with lust."
"Well I do my best." Zalas said, batting her eyelashes as a green dress flowed around her form.
"He may not be with us at the moment, but the Raven King... or should I say the Sleeping King? He understands the role of God of Nature perfectly."
"Nature? I thought it was creation." Xellma said, interrupting. "I even looted several of his temples so I should know."
"What's the difference, o daughter?" Vordea asked calmly. "There is yet one other. She has not yet ascended. I will refer to her only as... the Celestial Sailer."
"Her? Really? But she's so... gauche!" Zalas said, covering her mouth with her hand and looking both disgusted and shocked.
"Oh yes, her." Vordea said, smiling a toothy grin that showed off her mouth full of far too many sharp and pointy teeth. "She'll be wonderful."
"Vordea, I have a question." Sargon said, after thinking quietly.
"Yes, Sargon?"
"We've talked to Mira's memory many times before, sometimes at length on many subjects." Sargon started, his fingers locked together.
"Go on."
"Can we not do the same for Itar?" Sargon asked, in as diplomatic a tone as possible.
Vordea flashed an angry look at Sargon for a brief second, but then softened her expression. She had perfect recall. Itar was a good friend and they spend many years together. He never lived, except in the memory of the Gods. It should be possible, she thought. Turning her attention to Sargon, she regarded him with a kind expression.
"You so casually asked me such a blasphemous question, Sargon." Vordea said, her words sweet like honey. "But yes, I could create a simulacrum of Itar. However. Let's reconvene somewhere else first."
"Where?" Sargon asked, as everything around the Gods and Xellma melted away into a black void.
"Nowhere." Vordea said.