[attr="class","top"]

[attr="class","lyrics"]

[attr="class","textbody"]

The CURSED walks up to the Dyna Tree. He recognizes the Calyrex immediately, of course he does. [break][break]

The question is: Does the Calyrex remember him? [break][break]

Beside him, the Ruinous Beast walks. Eyes the color of crystal-blue gems focus on the creature before them with a knowingness only a God can command; and of course, it should be Chien Pao. After all, was it not Calyrex who had been trapped in it’s cursed sword for so long? [break][break]

“I have a story,” Jayden says simply. He palms the spine of the book that he is holding and opens it. Slowly, surely, he begins to read.

[break][break]



[break]

In the beginning, the world was ruled by a singular being. Arceus. He who’s powers were so fast and great that he created something from nothing, that moved the heavens and earth to fill the void that was. He who’s word was absolute and who’s idealized version of the world was the only truth that needed to exist. [break][break]

Using that great power, he channeled some of his being into three vessels that he called his children. [break][break]

Dialga, who could wield the power of Time, to change the things that never were and create possibilities from within that change. [break][break]

Palkia, who could control the fabric of Space as her mortal instrument. [break][break]

And finally, Giratina. The child who’s own choices would once day become a harbinger of the disaster that was humanity’s own. [break][break]

To all his children, Arceus made it clear. Power was a strong, nearly impossible thing to wield - the right of Gods, and they should wield it with grace and understanding. After all, these powers are ones that had created the earth – and thus had an ability to destroy them. [break][break]

To maintain this Power, it was important to maintain the balance of understanding and order. [break][break]

“If there is anything that you will remember from me, my children, remember this. The world desires chaos, but needs orders to survive. Never forget that each action we choose will have repercussions that ripple outwards, forever, into humanity’s own.” [break][break]

Dialga and Palkia both understood, having the power to wield time and space in tandem with one another. It was Giratina, who lacked. Giratina, who always felt envious of his sibling’s bond and Giratina who always felt too sentimental, too human-touched to be able separate vision from knowledge. [break][break]

“Son, you must keep your distance,” Arceus warned. “Maintain the earth, soothe the skies, but avoid those who roam it.” [break][break]

“But father, they are my creations. I poured onto them as you’ve done to us,” his son pleaded, desperately seeking understanding. [break][break]

Arceus was firm. “We must respect the world’s order. Or risk upsetting the world’s balance." [break][break]

At the time, Arceus did not know. Or he did not want to see the tides that were changing in his son’s eyes. [break][break]

All this time spent on the world had touched Giratina with a Humanity that had poisoned him. As Giratina had watched something come from nothing, laying witness to the tempting hum of humanity’s emotions, he had been poisoned by their craft. No longer was he virtuous and holy, no longer was he immune to the sins of mankind. He had inadvertently accepted the human’s suffering as his own and thought himself too arrogant to be effected by it. [break][break]

But, as we all know, arrogance is a cruel beast. [break][break]

He had wandered too close. Once again, his son came begging, willing him to ideals for the sake of a misguided truth. [break][break]

“Father, if you return to the lands of which you’ve made, they’ll remember your name. All will be forgotten! Faith will be restored.” [break][break]

Parenthood is a graceless act, much more so if you are in the position of an absolute being. It pained Arceus to see his son act in such an oncouth manner, and he immediately hated humanity for bestowing this wickedness onto him. [break][break]

Once more, Arceus stood unwavering and resolute, embodying the apotheosis of his divine stature. [break][break]

“If they are lost, let them be. The damned will be punished when they come.” [break][break]

It may have seemed cruel, but order was needed to remain balance in the world. If he wavered, then it would beget a life of even more suffering. It was a paragon that he had told time and time again. [break][break]

Dialga understood it, so did Palkia. Why not Giratina? [break][break]

Against his will, Giratina defied his council. Arrogant and stubborn, he embarked on a foolish pursuit of his misguided truth, determined to prove his father wrong. Journeying to the farthest corners of the earth, he delved even deeper into the humanity that Arceus had said not to touch, to realms forbidden. At every turn, Arceus made sure to reinforce the weight of his warning upon him. [break][break]

Do not defy the order of the world, son. Or so face it’s wrath. [break][break]

Giratina did not listen. [break][break]

With each new interaction, the threat of imbalance surged, swelling to unprecedented levels of disaster. Arceus, typically known for his patient piety, grew increasingly resentful as he waited for son to learn his lesson. [break][break]

The godly stature that Arceus had bestowed onto him at birth began to waver, cracking at the seams, the longer that he entangled himself in humanity’s affairs. Pain, suffering, hurt. Empathy, joy, understanding. The tipping scales of humanity’s deeds came at a price – a price that Giratina would soon pay. [break][break]

And then it happened. [break][break]

Giratina committed humanity’s greatest sin. [break][break]

He fell in love. [break][break]

With a human, no less. A human who embodied the very meaning of spring and growth, empathy and compassion. His own ideals became unwittingly compromised, tainted by the spring that was her foolish humanity. [break][break]

So foolish, Arceus mused, to believe that a god could forge a connection with a human. [break][break]

But humans and deities were meant to be separate for a reason. [break][break]

The bonds between humans were weak, tainted by their own subjectivity, and so when Giratina eventually revealed himself and his heart to this human, she responded in kind. She betrayed him. [break][break]

She screamed, horrified as the revelation. [break][break]

“It was you,” she howled. “who heard my cries and did nothing? My daughter suffered because of your inactions! Where was my miracle?!” [break][break]

It did not matter the reasons that he gave. It did not matter the truths that he tried to speak. All that mattered to this mortal woman was that she was hurt, that she had suffered, and Giratina - a god - had done nothing in the face of all that suffering. [break][break]

She sought repentance. [break][break]

And who was Arceus, her almighty god, to deny her? [break][break]

As Giratina scrambled away from her screeches and acts of violence, Arceus watched as his pitiful son attempted to return to his immortal form. But it was too late. His own cries for help went unanswered. [break][break]

Order must be restored. Balance must be maintained. [break][break]

“This is your will. Now face your punishment.” [break][break]

As much as it hurt Arceus to do so, he knew better than allow his own ideals to bend that of his ungrateful son. [break][break]

Arceus watched as humanity enacted their own repentance, taking Giratina’s human form and attacking him with the local townsman. Pitchforks and swords awaited him in his death, as he was murdered in plain sight. Eventually, he was offered as tribute to the Gods, in an attempt to clear their pastures of plague and suffering. [break][break]

For while humans can be kind, they can never be pious. [break][break]

For while humans can be compassionate, they can never be virtuous. [break][break]

Arceus obeyed his ideals. He maintained the balance of the world by rejecting Giratina’s passage into the immortal realm and forcing him to die a normal death, his materials seeping back into the ground in which he had made his sacrifice. [break][break]

As one act of remembrance for the son that could not follow order, could not obey ideals, Arceus commits one last act of benevolence. [break][break]

Once a year, he reminds humanity of their suffering and hardships. He freezes the fields, veils the sky with darkness, and shrouds the sun in cold. All to commemorate the sacrifice made by his son, ensuring that with each winter’s arrival, they recall the gravity of the choice to preserve the world’s order. [break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]