Shattering Humanity-Chapter 97: "If You Follow Me..."

{10PM Mount Morta. A few hours after the incident within the Information Building.}

Tristan walks into the General’s Office Building wearing a grey sweatshirt, black basketball shorts, and black sneakers.

He walks down a hall then knocks on the General’s Office door and from inside, Nephilim can be heard.

Nephilim: "Come on in Tristan!"

He opens up the door and Nephilim is alone, sitting on his new luxury office couch, puffing on a half finished cigar.

The General is in a two piece pajama outfit, all red matching his left eye color.

Tristan turns and closes the door behind him. He turns back around and Silpheed has appeared, leaning on the corner behind the relaxing General. Their sudden appearance as well as seeing Silpheed without their mouth covered catches the visitor by surprise.

Nephilim: "Take a seat, young Tristan. There’s a few things I’d like all three of us to discuss."

Tristan sits in the closest chair next to the couch.

Nephilim: "That’s a recliner, get comfortable, and here."

He tosses a brand new cigar and small cigar torch that the eye user catches gracefully. Tristan looks at the General, unsure if he should light the cigar.

Nephilim, lying on his back with the cigar in his teeth, hands behind his head, looks over and notices Tristan’s scepticism.

The elder of the group then puts the cigar between his fingers.

Nephilim: "It’s not just tobacco in there, so go easy, don’t worry, I won’t snitch."

Tristan puts one end of the cigar in his mouth. He uses the cigar torch to light the other end, does a few quick puffs to ensure it’s lit and tosses the torch back to Nephilim.

The General, deep in thought, doesn’t even attempt to move as the small torch suddenly disappears out of thin air. Tristan gets surprised and coughs with his lungs full of smoke, which makes him cough even more harshly.

Silpheed, an azule blue aura coming from the eye patch, their mouth uncovered, stitches on the corners of their mouth, keeping their lips partially closed but enough for a straw, or cigarette.

While looking at their hand, the small cigar torch appears in Silpheed’s palm. They ignite the cigarette, look at the torch and it disappears.

After one loooong drag of the cig that completely burns the cigarette to the filter, Silpheed looks at the table with 5 stacked books and a cigar case on top, between the other two in the room. The small torch appears in an open spot next to the books.

Tristan recovers from the bad hit. He looks cautiously, back and forth between the torch on the table and the mysterious person in the corner who finally exhales an entire cigarette worth of smoke.

Nephilim: "First off, I want to thank you, Tristan. With the tragic event that happened earlier today, I know the shuttle stations are a hassle right now."

Tristan looks for the lever on the side of the chair to extend the recliner bottom for his legs.

Tristan: "It’s not a problem at all, General Nephilim."

Nephilim notices the young man struggling to find the reclining lever.

Nephilim: "Left side, son."

Tristan finds it and the recliner, reclines.

Tristan: "Thank you sir, anyways, since the only publicly accessible district within Mount Morta is her midsection, the Medical District, the special access shuttles between the top most districts of Morta and Decima are just as empty as they have always been. If you don’t mind me asking sir, why ’did’ you call me here? I’m not sure if I’ve done something wrong or-."

Nephilim blows out smoke and cuts off the disgruntled husband-to-be.

Nephilim: "Silpheed has told me you took a picture of the scene inside the Information Building. Were you able to piece together what happened with your ’Time-Lapse Eye’?"

Tristan takes a hit from his cigar and puffs out smoke too.

Tristan: "I did, and from what I had seen with my ability, I can only assume knowing of your ’Partical Eye’, you inflated someone with air particles. Presumably from ’both ends’ to not only save the woman inside from being raped but also give the twisted bastard a taste of how it feels to be unwillingly penetrated."

Nephilim grabs the torch and uses it to light the rest of the 3/4ths of his cigar.

Tristan: "Each end having differently charged particles and once your target couldn’t expand anymore, you had the two opposite charged leaders connect inside of him and caused a lightning explosion that ended up ’gibbing’ him."

Nephilim scoots up on the couch and looks at Silpheed, upside-down from the edge with his cigar still in lit. Silpheed nods and Nephilim goes back to his original position. Tristan looks completely puzzled.

Nephilim: "You see my boy, when people commit heinous acts in front of me, especially to women, my inner ’God’ takes over my body and I black out. I’m completely unaware of what my inner ’God’ has done while in control of my body, but I trust it’s all righteousness and for the greater good."

Tristan: "I’m sorry Nephilim sir, I don’t really understand. I’m not really a believer."

Nephilim begins laughing and Tristan looks at Silpheed who has pulled out another cigarette and moved the torch/lighter to them and back on to the table.

Nephilim stops his hearty laugh and takes a drag of his cigar.

Nephilim: "To say you are not a believer in ’God’, young Tristan, is to say you are not a believer in yourself. *exhales* You see, I was raised without all the biblical nuances of religion. The phonetic wordplay passed down, translated and rewritten based on the effectiveness of the personifications of ’good’ and ’evil’ itself. It has been in advancing humans and their overall perspectives.

But just as much use those ’stories’ and the morals had in uniting people, it has not only made life, but also death, even more confusing and only created larger factions of believers." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Tristan thinks deeply and Nephilim quietly lets the young man think.

Tristan: "Isn’t it written that way, to make people more engaged though? I say I’m not a believer but I have read a couple passages and I get what you’re saying, General. It’s not fun for the reader to just be told ’this is the good guy and this is the bad’. They have to understand what each character from each faction has done, and base their opinion off of the results of the characters actions, individually."

Nephilim smiles and points the lit end of his cigar at Tristan.

Nephilim: "I knew there was an ’enlightened’ brain in there. The question has been for God fearing individuals, whose personification of ’good’ is the real meta to existence? When in reality the simple fact is I am ’God’, just as much as you are ’God’, Tristan. No more than our parents were the ’Gods’ that created us to live infinitely through them and our children through us and so on. Or how you and your lovely Stephanie are ’God’ to those ’crown siblings’ of hers. Are you following me?"

Tristan nods.

Tristan: "Completely following Sir."

Nephilim: "The problem is, the ’Sisters’ are also ’Gods’. In this case, they are the ’Gods’, with control over the government ’Gods’, that are in control of what happens within these Mountains, but even those individual ’Gods’ have their own ’God’ in control of their fate, happiness and wellbeing. Including Decima. He felt that he was the one true ’God’ over my poor sweet Persephone, who was unable to fight the power of her ’God’."

As Nephilim puts out his cigar and grabs another one from the cigar case on top of the books each labeled individually ✡️☪️☯️☸️✝️ and the torch to light it.

While he does that, Tristan cringes at the floor, thinking of just the act of rape and the horrifying experience it must be. He thinks to himself and he gets more angry thinking about it.

Tristan(thinking): *If anyone ever did something like that to Stephanie, or the girls, I- I would...I would...*

Nephilim grabs his attention back with a now lit new cigar.

Nephilim: "So in his position as ’God’ he controlled her fate. He controlled Persephone disparity and suffering. In the process of being ’God’ he met his own fate, disparity, and suffering from me. His ’God’."

Tristan gets a troubled look after giving a second to process the statement.

Tristan: "Sir, are you saying that the man you killed in the Information Building, was the owner of the mountain that specifically protects the housing districts? And, that there are people who are stronger outside of these Sister Mountains the other two are afraid of?"

Tristan’s eyes widen as he connects everything together.

Tristan: "The bombings that happened earlier today, were they orchestrated by the ’God’ or ’Gods’ you’re referring to?"

Nephilim looks over to Silpheed who is now back to covering their lower face.

Nephilim: "See I told you this kid was a genius detective in the making. Tristan, I have complete faith in me and Silpheed’s survival in any situation but I genuinely care about the people around me and don’t want innocent people to suffer anymore than they have in this apocalypse. I don’t have a family, except those I consider as such.

You however, have so much to fight for, I would be the worst General in existence if I couldn’t spot your potential from across an ocean."

Tristan: "General Nephilim, I appreciate your compliments, but the way you’re phrasing things is making me think the worst. Shouldn’t we be worried about more attacks on the civilians in Decima?"

Nephilim smiles and goes back to laying on his back.

Nephilim: "Don’t worry, Tristan, from now on you’re my closest ally behind Silph here. There’s perks to being the General ya know. If you follow me, I’ll make sure to treat your family, as if it were my family."