Author's Note

Shifting Light was a hot mess and I, at best, deem it an entertaining failure. If this gets past the first chapter I will be surprised but seeing as I have an actual computer now it should be easier to write more instead of suffering through using a phone.

Hopefully I stick with this because I honestly want too, but God only knows how long that'll last.

1. The Negotiator

I stare at the soft smile on Thaumiel's face, genuinely earnest and happy to be finally putting all the bad blood between us to rest. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Standing before me were the three people I hated the most, all rolled into one; smiling made me want to kick his teeth in.

"Surely, you agree," Thaumiel says with his smile becoming a self-assured grin that only Lucifer could pull off. Still, I considered the offer, The Well of Apeiron, a literal chance at infinite power and to explore eternal realities. It was about everything I've ever wanted since I first broke out of Hell.

"Hm, how did you make this? You said this is the centre of the universe, right?" I ask, curious about how Thaumiel had made it as it didn't seem like something Thaumiel would be interested in.

"Ah hah, of course, ever the curious one." Reaching into his body and his soul, he offers a small book. "There, everything you could ever want to know about creating a multiversal portal."

I gaze at the book, then back at the Well with furrowed brows before clenching my fists. Everything I've ever wanted, and all I had to do was abandon Earth.

It wasn't even a question.

"This is well put together," I note as I reach for the book.

"Of course it is; I'm me." Thaumiel states with absolute certainty.

"Oh? If that's the case, then why are you falling apart?" Reaching past his book, I grip his arm-

"What are you talking abou-"

-And rip it off.

"Oh no, my arm, how tragic."

"How vain do you think I am?" I question coldly. "How unbelievably selfish do you believe me to be that I would abandon Earth to you just because it's convenient for me?"

"Feh, please," The closest thing to an omnipotent god scoffs. "Let's not pretend you actually care about humanity; you are personally responsible for plenty of human deaths yourself. And let us not forget all the gods you've killed, all the devastation you've caused simply by ending their lives."

"Hm, your point?" I inquire. At least with me, you could rest easy knowing you would die. "Besides," I roll my shoulders as I feel a growing darkness pool within my mind. "I don't have to care; there are nearly eight billion people on Earth to do that for me." Feeling the presence of Satanael within my mind, I allow him control, and for the first time, I see a sliver of shock on Thaumiel's face.

"You were in him this whole time?" The six-eyed angel stated blandly with a hint of surprise in his tone, his arm slowly regenerating.

"Ahehehehe~ Sorry old man, it's a majority vote in Earth's favour." Giggling to himself in a semi-lucid state, I mentally wince as my face is forced into an inhumanly large smile. "Hey, dad, do you think we could play a game of hide and GO FUCK YOURSELF!" Blinking in surprise, I find it quickly followed by shock as he pounces on Thaumiel. Despite having an additional five arms to help brace himself, Thaumiel found himself off his feet and tackled directly towards The Well of Apeiron. Seeing this, I can't help but curse Satanael's obnoxiously lousy luck.

'Stan, you dumbass.'

I rest my head against the tree I was leaning against and shivered as I withheld my desire to slap Satanael upside the head for the millionth time. I couldn't fault him for being perhaps one of the vilest creatures I've ever had the displeasure of having inside me. It was his luck that actually stopped him from accomplishing most of what he wanted. It was almost funny, could have been too, but his few successes were far too terrible to allow me a chance to find any humour in him.

{Oi, I'm plenty funny. Also, hi and or where are we?}

"Good to see you're awake." Stretching my neck, I rub it in annoyance as if I feel a pulled muscle, a feeling that immediately after a brief flair of Satanael's power. "I don't suppose you can sense the souls of anyone nearby because I have no idea where we are?"

{Hm.}

Getting back to my feet as Satanael starts soul searching, I dust off my trousers and sigh when I see how worn down they were getting. Staring at my shoddy clothing, I ponder if this reality will even have life intelligent enough to make replacements.

Pulling down the blue and black striped scarf and barbed wire bone charm necklace around my neck, I grimace at the glowing gold angel blood staining it. With a click of my tongue stared at my clothing with a frown. My navy hoodie seemed to be in well enough save some minor tears and the angelic blood splattered across it, which was also staining my leather coat that fell just past my waist. 'Seriously.' I think with a frown at even more angel blood splattered across my trousers, wiping at it. I snort as I only end up smudging it even more across my trousers and staining my left fingerless glove. 'It's cotton too, for god-!' Sighing in annoyance, I inspect my jeans further only to reveal more holes, most of them burnt through. Looking further down, I glance at my basket shoes and grimace at how torn up they looked. 'They used to be white, didn't they?' I shrugged hopelessly; they were black now, whether I liked it or not.

Shuffling on the spot, I feel my brown leather backpack, and I remove it to see that it is mostly undamaged. However, I endeavour to see about getting a duffle bag as my pack was nearly bursting at the seems despite the chains and padlock I used to force it shut. Despite that, various tools were still peaking out, from a sickle to large pliers to hedge shears. None of which I was using for their intended purpose, save the barbed wire and nailed baseball bat, and were, as was apparently a theme now, covered in golden blood. 'I'm beginning to regret breaking into Heaven. These will rust into nothing if I don't clean them soon.'

{I think there's a party somewhere left of here. A bunch of weird souls are crammed together.} Perking up, I turn to the left and see nothing but more of the forest I'd woken up in. {There's also this other soul that feels super corrupted, smothering another more pure soul into nothing. They feel vaguely like, uhhhh...} Focusing my senses in that direction; I frown at the near god-like strength. {Khonshu? The big moon guy.} Humming, I ponder the issue of facing off against a moon god, corrupted or not, especially at night when the moon is... full. {Woah.}

Gulping, I look at the full moon that looks practically inside the planet's atmosphere with how massive it seems. If this was Earth, that probably would have been the case. Taking a deep breath, I silently hope the size of a moon doesn't equate to power and start moving. 'Let's see where we are first.' Crouching down for a moment, I flood my legs with magic, and with enough force to shatter the ground beneath me, I leap into the air. Getting high enough that I can see artificial light, I use magic to create a platform to stand on that appeared to look like a heatwave. Reaching back, I pull binoculars off my backpack and stare at the lights.
"Definitely a town, hm, village?" Thatch roofing? I'm not an expert on architecture, but that seemed like something a village would have. 'Well, we have a destination. Let's hope they're friendly; I'd hate to kill anyone today.'

{Ahhh~}

"What?"

{Hehehehe~ You're casual disregard for life is what.} Satanael breaks down into a fit of giggles. {You used to be such a prude. Now it feels like you're trying to flirt with me.} Hearing Satan's words, I feel my entire body contort in utter disgust.

"Everything you say makes me want to kill you more."

{Ahah! You are flirting with me, you pedo; I'm only two thousand years old.} Groaning in further disgust, I-

"Ah?" The platform under me collapses as my concentration breaks. Once more, I find myself cursing Satanael for distracting me as I plummet towards the ground, and with a crash, my body tears apart several trees before I finally reach the ground with a hefty thud. "Honestly, your a-son of a bitch!" Rubbing the back of my head in pain, I glared down at the offending binoculars resting by my side before sighing, picking them back up, and placing them in my backpack.

{Well, that looked fun.}

"Go fuck yourself."

{Fuck me yourself, coward.}

This was going to be a long walk, I could already tell.