Episode 3

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"Why am I here? I remember dying. Shouldn't my soul...disappear?" Noah hit the nail on the head. This self-proclaimed deity of stories claimed not to have spoken to anything in millennia, so what made this omega different enough to make her do it now? He didn't think he was that special. It's not that he underestimated himself, but to have a deity talk to him because of his great charisma? It didn't sound very believable.

"You know more than how to cry," she said optimistically. "You're right, your soul was supposed to enter the perpetual cycle of reincarnation and go to a new life, but I intervened and locked you up here." Her voice was proud, as if she expected a compliment, which, of course, did not come. "By the way, you can open your eyes now. I reduced my impressive and wonderful aura so as not to, ash, blind you."

Noah opened his eyes and in front of him, he saw the most beautiful and terrifying woman he had ever seen in his life. Her straight, golden hair reached to the ground and dragged several meters behind her; her skin was literally gold; and her eyes were completely red. For clothing, she only wore a semi-transparent fabric that barely covered her body. And her entire presence emitted a slight warm glow. Noah had never felt so small and insignificant before.

"Why did you bring me here?" the omega repeated his question, forcing himself to maintain his composure.

She stared at the human and, after considering something, spoke.

"There are a couple of things wrong with your world," said the deity without restraint, pointing to the book that lay under Noah's foot.

"What?" Of all the reasons, this was the least expected.

"The end of the story, it's the one you read, but it shouldn't be that way. In this ending, the villains die and the protagonists live happily ever after."

"Too cliche."

"Everyone loves a good cliche," she muttered, shrugging. "It's true that in most cases, someone is destined to be the good guy and someone else the bad guy. But that's not the problem."

"So, what should the ending be?"

"That doesn't matter. The point is that in this version, the main villain didn't die after falling off that cliff," she reported, taking Noah by surprise.

"So, Jerome...!" Realizing that his concern was misplaced, the omega shut his mouth. So what if Jerome survived? Not that he cared.

The deity extended an arm, and the book slid under her foot as it followed her direction. It ended up floating on her golden hand.

"And five years later, he came back seeking revenge. In the end, he succeeded, and in the process, he destroyed the world."

"What? Is this some kind of metaphor?"

"No. Literally, the world was destroyed." Her voice was carefree, as if she were just talking about a beautiful sunny day.

"How can a simple revenge destroy a whole world?" Noah was beginning to think he was being scammed, and by a deity!

"You don't understand, what gives life to each world are stories. Especially, the stories of the golden children. If they disappear for no good reason and are replaced from one day to the next, the world loses logic and destroys itself. My job is to prevent that from happening and to maintain balance, so that stories and their worlds continue to exist."

"If... And, does this have anything to do with your reason for bringing me here?"

"Well, duh!" she said, as if it were the most logical thing in the world. "Everything was wrong in the story, to the point that... never mind. The worst happened after your death. The villain completely lost his mind and ignored the good things that life itself could offer."

"I still don't understand. Why would my death affect anything? Wasn't it my destiny to die?" This last assumption caused Noah's heart to race.

"The destiny of every living being is to perish and be reborn, in an infinite cycle. But in a more specific case, there is always an indicated time. And indeed, it was not yours."

"What do you mean? If I wasn't supposed to die... Why did I?"

"Could be a glitch with the golden child's halo. Maybe its light was too much and it eliminated you by accident. I still don't know why."

"Maybe? You're a deity and you don't know?" he asked angrily.

"I'm not omnipotent, okay?" she claimed. "But we're getting off-topic, the important thing here is that the villain caused the world to be destroyed."

"You could have warned him," Noah shot back scathingly. He felt cheated to know that he shouldn't have died at that moment. But even though he was reluctant in his heart, there was nothing he could do about it now. He himself had made the decision to step between Jerome and his lover.

"During his bloody path, he received warnings, but nothing mattered to him," the deity complained.

"Warnings?"

"Prophetic dreams. He was shown that if he continued on that path, the world would be destroyed, but he continued anyway."

Noah listened to the words, and he could perfectly associate them with the Jerome he knew.

"If your job is to keep the balance, couldn't you just get rid of him with a flick of your hand?"

"My job is to guide, not impose. I give the choices, humans decide which to choose."

"So that's it. Anyway, I wasn't supposed to die, but I did. What are you telling me all this for? It has nothing to do with me, I wasn't the one who destroyed the world. In that case, you should bring Jerome here, not me," exclaimed Noah. To tell the truth, his argument was very solid. Don't blame him for not being a selfless saint, it was just that he left that world behind, why couldn't he leave the world behind?

"I need you to fix this problem you created with your death," she announced.

"I already said it has nothing to do with me. Besides, whether the world is destroyed or not doesn't interest me."

At that second, a white light glowed around the deity and she seemed to read something in the air. An ominous feeling arose in Noah's chest. He sensed that this light was connected to him, and not in a good way.

"It's approved!" shouted the deity excitedly, making the whole space rumble. The boy was even pushed back a couple of steps.

"What?"

"You're going back!" The joy was obvious on the golden face.

"No! I want to go to the cycle of reincarnation. It's my right!" Noah shouted.

"You're a special case, you can go back. Don't thank me!"

"You can send someone else! There are hundreds of stories like that," he reasoned.

"Nope. It won't work unless it's you."

"I won't do what you want!" the omega swore. A strong essence of roses flooded the place. If a human were present and closed his eyes, he would perceive the smell and feel that he was in a beautiful field of roses; soon, he would be seduced and controlled by the essence, seeking to please and possess the owner of that smell. But there were only Noah and the deity. And she would never be tempted or warned by the pheromone of a human.

"Sorry. You won't remember anything from our talk."

"No!"

"Did you know? The human mind is not capable of handling information that exceeds its perception of reality, so when you go back, you won't remember me," she said with a triumphant smile on her golden face.

The next instant, she was standing in front of Noah, only inches away. She raised her hand and placed it on the omega's forehead.

"Just remember this: 'I don't want to die at the hands of the plot.'"

Noah felt his consciousness fading and although he wanted to fight, he couldn't do anything.

His human form trembled and turned into a warm golden light. The deity burned the book, and in its place took what was Noah with great care in her hands and looked at him kindly.

"Noah Ballestero, you are free to choose the path you want... just don't die. And that way, your world might recover. If you succeed, I will reward you."

She raised her hands upwards and the light faded away, until there was nothing left.

At that moment, a shadow appeared at the deity's side.

"It's just one more world. It doesn't matter much if it's destroyed. Why bother?"

"Arazthor... maybe you're right, I have millions of worlds to see, and losing one is nothing. It's just that I can't stand someone interfering with my work and changing the script. That system thinks it can make fun of me and fool me. But I know who my true golden child is."

"You could just report it. Why make a human relive his suffering?"

"This is more entertaining. After all, I am Fable, the deity of stories. And I love to see a good story.

...

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