The chapel was full—of people, of prayer, of whispered words. But despite the resounding sound and presence, it was empty of the one thing all of them were searching for.

“God isn’t here.”

Chryssa Glasgow slid into the pew beside Lulu Flint , holding one of the eighteen legendary Plates of Arceus.

“We meet again, Ms. Mystery.”

God wasn’t here.

God was out there.

Arceus was in the moments when you made a choice you couldn’t turn back from. Arceus was in the first step on a path you never wanted to tread— and the last. Arceus was in first kisses and deathbeds, in tears and tragedy, and in temptation.

God was behind her. God was before her. But here, in the present, in a church which had already exploded on her once—a place where she’d signed a declaration of war with reality itself—

Well, perhaps the best place to hide was in plain sight.

“I didn’t peg religion for your weakness...”

In a room which brimmed with music and melody, Chryssa's voice cut through with a strange clarity. Despite her lack of reverence, she was no outsider here-- it was as if she knew the words, but was simply singing the wrong part of the song.

"Oh, really? First time, then?"

There was something a little darker, duller about Chryssa today. The clever gleam in her eye seemed flat, the usual note of challenge in her voice subdued. 

She looked down at her lap. She found herself reflected dimly in the metal tablet, faceless and forlorn. "Tell me... what brings you here?"

The girl looked up, eyes crinkling without humor. "Here, I mean."

She swung her legs on the edge of the pew, tilting her head upwards to gaze upon the huge mural which covered the ceiling of the chapel. The Original One's wheel-like insignia was emblazoned there, thorny and cruel as a giant eye.  "This isn't just any church, after all."

She wouldn't say his name.

Her hands tightened on the plate.

No. It doesn't matter. One way or another.

"What brings you to Arceus?"

“This church?” Chryssa tilted her head, eyes vague and unfocused. “Oh, it’s nothing. It’s like every other Church of Arceus. Just... a shell. Its ghost is long gone.”

The walls reverberated, as if they were trying to trap it all inside. The lights, the organ, the voices. They swelled and ebbed through the hall like water through cupped hands.

But even this song would not raise the dead.


“Do you think those people would hurt you too, if they could?” Chryssa asked suddenly, still facing forward in her pew.

“I wonder if they’re angry.”

She wondered if they’d strike back if given a chance. She wondered if they hunted the woman in black like predators hunting prey, following their own blood trail back to the hounds. She wondered if they could forgive what they found if they saw her here, searching for receipts of spent chances.

Chryssa didn’t know why she sought Arceus anymore. If she wanted revenge, or remorse. Compassion, or compensation. If she truly wanted him dead, or if she just wanted to live.

Killing him wouldn’t save her.
But it would make her feel better.

“If so, I think the fact that you’re suffering,” Chryssa said, “Would make them very happy.”

Instead of answering right away, Chryssa wordlessly handed Lulu her phone. The dark screen was awash with cracks of light, a grid of fractured neon trails that formed a composite, apocalyptic picture.

Red. Green. Yellow.

"You don't remember?" 

The girl's touch was soft as she pressed the image into Lulu's hands. Gentle, but unyielding. Uncompromising. "I remember you. Aren't you curious about what it means?"

It had been months since Chryssa had thought about the Beheeyem's warning. At the time, it had just seemed like yet another mystery.

Now, it felt like a prophecy.

"You asked me where God is," Chryssa said. Her eyes were gray as ghosts. "All these people will give you a different answer. In the church, in your heart, in your faith. If you ask me, he's right here."

She touched the spot of darkness on the brightly-lit globe. It was the negative space Beheeyem had drawn for them between teleports and flashes, as if something massive had obscured the light.

"The Eye is Closed," she said softly. "God is leaving, Miss Mystery.  The universe is expanding. Arceus is moving on. He bears no responsibility for the cruelty of creation."

She didn't know where the words were coming from. They fell from her lips like liquid. Chaos. Bitterness. Even in her darkest moments, knowing Arceus watched over her-- toyed with her-- had been a kind of comfort. Now after finding the Plate, spending weeks agonizing and wondering what it could mean, what God was trying to tell her--

It felt like static. It felt random. It felt like chance and happenstance, meaningless, irrelevant. Whatever happened to fate? To destiny? 

"This pain is his doing."

Maybe destiny and deities walked different paths.

"If you really want to make things right..." Chryssa started, speaking almost to herself. "What you've done, what's been done to you-- you'll have to bring him back." Her hands twisted in her lap, refusing to fold. "If suffering is a cycle, the cycle ends with him."

It all ended with Arceus.

If the world didn't need him...