>>96338298
"I understand. I won't judge you, at least" I told him, following him even as the rest of New Genesis shied away as if from a leper. Worried about catching the stench of failure off him. "Spend the rest of your days however you like. It won't matter for much longer"

He stopped. "Because of your plan, yes?" he said finally.

"Because soon, I will finish calibrating the power required to destroy the Supreme Archetype and it's siblings and progenitors, yes. All of existence will soon be at peace"

"...you will bring destruction on a scale I can scarcely imagine by using-among other things-more Omega Energy than Darkseid ever had, to gods I've never met, and from the ashes you will raise a world without sorrow or pain" muttered Highfather, sitting down heavily. "Or so say the echoes of your will I've heard in the sessile husk of the Source. There is no further refutation of everything I once believed, than the fact that you are not only victorious but as far as I can tell the Source WANTED this. None of the others know, by the way"

"Are you at peace with that? Knowing the truth won't matter at this point, and I can tell this deception weighs heavily on you"

"I am not. But nor do I see the point in bringing them further anxiety"

Very carefully, as if I were catching an old and sickly butterfly battered by the rain, I squeezed his shoulder. "I do understand, you know" I told him gently. "This IS all wrong. I'm winning and you're sitting here because the game was rigged from the start. That's why I have to see this through to the end"

Izaya stared as some of the New Gods left in sleek ships, and others trudged back to the ruins of their city. He thought of better times. And wondered why with all the power he'd had, he had never thought of trying to resurrect his dead wife as Darkseid so casually resurrected his lieutenants.

Izaya wept.

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