32. Nemesis | Beyond The Firmament: Tales From The Cosmos

Beyond The Firmament

Tales From The Cosmos

32. Nemesis

- Written by Gift C Enyadike Jr

"Evil cannot create, only corrupt."

A great old saying, if not a bit cliché. Truth be told, there's a stubborn part of me that has always wanted to disagree with the first part of the sentence. Yet for all my wisdom and knowledge, I struggle to refute it. Many of the tales I have told you up to now have certainly proved this adage true, time and again. 

Listen to this one and decide for yourself.

Sevaasi's hatred for the Titaness, Fari Hasira, continued to grow. Like the humans, who to this day bear the bulk of his ire and the Jarwan peoples across the cosmos, she existed to mock him. 

An aberration, a mistake that was overlooked and "forgiven".

He sent a thousand of his Paadlan kin out into the farthest reaches of space for one purpose: Find a star on the verge of death, one that would not defy the cycle and would, therefore, be safe from Makar Joga, and enter it as they would sometimes enter the bodies of men and beasts to possess them.

They did so, going out to the ever-expanding edge of creation where the stars were fewer and farther between. They found what you know as a red hypergiant, the final stage of a star's lifespan. It was the biggest one ever witnessed. A... titan.

The thousand Paadlan dove into the very core of the star as it collapsed on top of them, creating a new, screaming black hole. These screams echoed throughout and reached Fari Hasira, who had remained steadfast and zealous, but still had her great rage. She was drawn to their screams, as she hated the Paadlan and was nearly swallowed.

Diohlatas pulled her out of the event horizon, sacrificing some of his wings, and so many of his eyes in the process. Much of her own essence, her white flame, was drawn in as well and they would both be permanently scarred. 

Another price for her wrath. 

It would not be the only one, because the black hole's hunger ceased, as hers once did, but the screams from the Paadlan did not. The Paadlan black hole was reborn into a being of blind, mindless suffering. 

As Fari Hasira's rage was pointed at the Paadlan and all other enemies of creation, this new titan's rage was pointed solely at her, as she was the reason for its existence.

It was never given a name, but my people call this beast Yenaati (Nemesis). We who know call it Chiliad (Thousand) for the number of demons and years that they battled in that isolated section of space.

Far, far away from Teyra, or any other world upon which life could be found.