Delphyne and Alfia were no more, and Erebus had been taken into custody.
Once this news spread to the surface, Orario's protectors let out a cheer that rippled through every part of the city.
Adventurers celebrated, while many gods breathed a sigh of relief.
Any remaining evilus cultists had either fled the city or gone into hiding underground, and there were not enough of them to stage a meaningful counterattack.
The rumbling from below had ceased, too, signaling an end to the worst of the fighting, at least within the city.
The dark, ashy clouds finally cleared above Orario, bathing the city of heroes in the light of sunset.
The rejoicing continued.
By nightfall, the civilians had been let out of the five strongholds, and they took to the streets in celebration.
Strangers hugged one another, and everyone praised the adventurers who had fought so hard on their behalf that their weapons and armor were almost broken.
The adventurers shed tears for those they'd lost; their brave comrades, and the nameless heroes who had come before and given their lives.
Eventually, joy turned to rage, and people flocked the base of Babel to bear witness to their foe's execution.
The Central Park was teeming with so many people that not everyone could fit there, and some had to climb atop buildings to get a good view.
Atop the tower stood two gods: one of justice, and one of evil
..........
"It's the first time I've come up here, you know," said Erebus, scratching behind his earlobe. "Just look at that view. There can't be a better one in the whole city, am I right?"
The night wind ruffled his jet-black hair.
Even from his position at the center of Babel's rooftop, he could see much of the lamp lit city beneath.
Beneath those lamps stood the people of this fine city, eagerly awaiting his death.
"…I suppose I do have one, tiny complaint," he said at last, returning his gaze to the two figures ahead of him.
"Hermes, my old friend. Why are you here? Come to make sure I don't weasel my way out of this?"
"Something like that," the messenger god replied.
"Sorry I couldn't leave you two alone, but hey, pretend I'm not here, and you got exactly what you asked for."
Under his watchful gaze, Erebus shrugged.
Then Astraea silently approached him.
"It's just the three of us now," she said.
"Everyone else is down there watching us."
In one hand, she held a silver straight sword modeled after a set of scales….a weapon that looked extremely out of place in the hands of one so benevolent as she.
"The blade of justice," said Erebus.
"Of judgment. Why, it's almost as beautiful as you are."
Then he spread his arms wide.
"Do it," he said.
"Make it quick. Don't think you get to torment me just because I'm evil. Even I feel pain…and I wouldn't be caught dead screaming like a woman."
He grinned.
To the very end, he seemed to regard justice with a sense of smug superiority.
But Astraea did not frown in anger, nor did she offer any judgmental words.
She only regarded him for a moment, then spoke.
"First," she said, "I have something to ask you."
"Oh, you do like to keep me on the edge, don't you? What could you possibly want to ask of someone as evil as me?"
Erebus received his answer soon enough.
"What is justice?" Astraea asked.
"...…"
That was the moment the dark god's smile vanished.
His eyes flew wide, and he stared at Astraea with surprise.
"Astraea! What are you…?"
Hermes was just as surprised.
But Astraea went on.
"You kept asking us that question, didn't you? What is justice? How far does it go? And if we know, then we should prove it to you."
Ever since the day he first appeared before Ryuu in the form of Eren, Erebus had been demanding to know the true form of justice.
Even after his grand reveal, he still came to Ryuu, seeking her answer.
He had asked many adventurers this, and even Astraea herself about this concept, which lay at the far opposite end of the spectrum of morality.
"It's almost as if," said Astraea, "you were guiding us. At least, that's how I saw it."
"And now your work is done."
Erebus remained silent and expressionless as Astraea spoke.
"Because you have your answer. You've seen them fight. You've seen them rise."
At last, Erebus gave a twisted grin.
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about, Astraea."
"Oh, no, Erebus. You're not talking your way out of this one, I'm afraid."
Astraea smiled sweetly.
"We can always do this down there, in front of all those people, if you prefer?"
"…Are you really a goddess of justice?" Erebus sighed.
"Because right now, you seem more like a hunter, like that Artemis."
Astraea's threats caused Erebus to wear a frown for the first time.
"That's rude to her," Astraea said, still smiling.
"She's far more innocent and pure than I am."
"I think you're both probably equally bad," said Hermes, off to one side.
A bead of sweat worked its way down Erebus's temple, and he let out a resigned sigh.
"I should have known you wouldn't let me keep my dignity."
Compared to the smile of evil, this one was altogether different.
"I am glad you feel that way," said Astraea.
"Consider it punishment for all the trouble you've caused."
"…I should have asked someone else," said Erebus, looking into her sweet yet mischievous smile.
Her eyes were the same shade as the starlit sky above.
Erebus lifted his head and braced his eyelids against the wind, awaiting the moment he would pay the price for his sins.
.........
"Hrgh… Hrgh… Hrgh…!"
One man huffed and puffed his way up the seemingly endless stairs.
His wounds only partially healed, Vito trained his eyes on the top of Babel.
"Grh… My…master… Erebus!"
Having escaped the dungeon using his hidden passage, Vito emerged on the streets of Orario, careful to escape detection by its jubilant adventurers.
He sneakily made his way to the tower before slipping inside.
He had failed to stem the bleeding completely, and the arm that Kaguya had sliced off was still missing, but Vito pushed himself on to be by his dark master's side.
However, it was not to save him from the blade of justice.
"What are you doing…? What were you thinking…?"
Down on the eighteenth floor, when the two had locked eyes at the very end, Vito had seen something.
A look in his dark god's eyes, saying, Live.
He needed to ask Erebus what it meant.
Was he not evil?
Was his cruel and callous nature not precisely what had charmed Vito in the first place, and driven him to sacrifice so much when he refused to serve anyone else?
Vito had to know what it meant.
Though his body felt like lead, he dragged himself on, hurling himself up the countless steps, until at last, he reached the rooftop and saw his master standing beneath the starry sky.
"!!"
.........
"Tell me, Erebus. As the goddess of justice, I would like to hear what you think justice is." Seconds passed.
The wind blew.
Beneath a sea of stars, Erebus opened his eyes.
"…You told me there was no such thing as absolute justice."
"Yes, I did."
"I don't think that's right, Astraea. In fact, I think I see it now."
Erebus looked her straight in the eye.
"Now that I have stood for evil, I think I finally understand."
By living on one face of the coin, he understood its reverse.
By standing at one extreme, he had managed to see the other side.
"Understand what?" Astraea asked.
"Justice," said Erebus, "is a dream."
Everyone listening was struck silent.
Astraea, Hermes, and Vito, watching from the shadows.
"Our children come up with the funniest ideas. Take the Trolley Problem, for instance."
Erebus began speaking of the decision he had once presented to Ryuu.
"If you don't pull the switch, you're letting five people die. If you do, you're killing one. A simple choice that they believe forms the basis of all morality, ethics, and justice."
"But I don't think they're right. I don't think that's what justice is at all," he went on.
"Justice is not simply to choose. It is to take."
"To take?"
"Yes. To see beyond two choices. To produce a third. To birth a million answers, and pluck from them a single one."
The dark god nodded.
"Justice is to ignore the rules, to defy norms. To make the impossible possible. Sweep the scales aside. Whatever works."
"Erebus…" Hermes spoke his old friend's name with a surprised yet sorrowful tone.
"That is what mortals call justice…and what we call heroism."
That was Erebus's answer.
Dreams and ideals lay far beyond the reach of even the most ambitious mortal, farther still than the gods themselves.
Yet despite this, they still believed in them.
Anyone could claim that dreams were just fantasy.
Anyone could say they didn't help address the true injustices in the world.
Anyone could ask, If it isn't possible, then why even try?
And yet the world needed dreams.
Everyone knew this, and everyone knew what to call those who achieved them.
"And was that your true goal, all along?" asked Astraea.
"Think what you will?" Erebus replied with a familiar grin.
Just then Hermes spoke, trying not to let his emotions get the better of him.
"Erebus," he said.
"We may not have gotten along too well up in heaven, but I knew one thing for certain: even as a god of the underworld, you never liked seeing mortals die."
Erebus turned his head to look at the battered and scarred city below.
"Perhaps I wanted an answer," he said.
"A sign to show this world which way to go."
"Erebus…"
"I wanted to see the light of our children, of the dying breed called heroes."
That was the dark god's true desire.
That was the only thing he wanted.
"And that is why you chose evil," Astraea said.
"You led the darkness in an attempt to birth a future hero. You recruited champions to put Orario through a trial."
Together, they had deceived thousands, sacrificed their allies, and in the end, themselves.
Erebus had cast aside his compassion and put Orario through a gauntlet.
This had been the goal all along, from the onset of the war, right up until the final showdown. "Was there no other way, Erebus?"
"I'm afraid not, Hermes. You know that as well as I. Zeus and Hera are gone, and in spite of the covenant, the promised time fast approaches. Time will not wait for us. The hands of the clock keep on moving."
What he spoke of, only the gods knew.
And so only they could truly sympathize.
Hermes voiced no objection, but looked down at the ground.
"Anyway, Astraea. I've caused a lot of trouble. So do what needs to be done" Erebus said shooting them one last mischievous smile.
"…You sent countless lives up to heaven. You selected your champions and presented them with trials. You transformed good and evil into a foundation for this city's future."
Astraea calmly listed off the god's crimes.
"That was your will," she said at last.
"That was your justice."
Erebus only grinned.
"That wasn't justice," he said.
"Like I said, justice is a dream. This was nothing more than the whims of a capricious god. There's a name for that, and it's evil."
The dark god had claimed so many lives, and he wasn't about to let Astraea have her way.
What he had accomplished was neither proud nor noble...it was despicable.
All his sins were his own.
All the people's hate was his to bear.
There was no whitewashing the things that he had done.
Erebus was intent on being branded as evil to the very end.
"Is that so? Then, as a goddess of justice, allow me to pass my verdict."
Astraea took up her sword of judgment, and without compassion or mercy, laid the dark god's heart bare.
"You," she said, "are a necessary evil, not absolute evil."
"You are a stepping stone that will raise our children toward heights they might never reach. You are the shadows that work alone, reviled by all. Our children may never understand you, the other gods may mock you…but I will never forget your sins."
The goddess's voice was solemn as she enumerated the dark god's offenses.
"…You're ruthless, you are," said Erebus with a grin.
"I wanted to go out like a badass, and here you are making me sound like a fool."
"I'm afraid I must have missed the part where that was my problem."
"Heh. Yeah… You got that right, at least."
Erebus couldn't help but laugh, seeing the sweet smile on Astraea's lips.
"I'll say it again: You're a fine woman, Astraea. I wouldn't mind waking up next to a goddess like you."
"Well, I would, Erebus. You're far too eccentric for my tastes."
"Ha-ha… Damn, you're really going to do me dirty like that, huh?"
Then Erebus turned to the other god present.
"…Hermes," he sang.
"This is why I asked Astraea to bring me up here. Don't go blabbing to others about what you saw here, all right? This is for the three gods…and one human."
He turned again.
To the top of the stairs, where his sole follower stood.
"!!"
Vito reeled with surprise.
He had heard his god's whole confession, believing they were all unaware of his presence.
But Hermes didn't even look in Vito's direction.
Unknown to them, two others watched from the corner.
"All right," Hermes said.
"I promise. After today, I'll forget everything I saw and heard here. It will be unwritten, absent from both our Oratoria and that of our children."
"Thank you…my friend."
The two gods exchanged no more words than that, as though none were needed between two so closely knit as they.
"Ah, that right. I still have one more favor to ask" Erebus said to Astraea.
"What is it" Astraea asked.
"Well, I need you to apologize to Bahamut on my behalf." Erebus requested.
Thinking about what the feisty dragon goddess would do if she had been the one to catch him, Erebus shivered.
"Hmm, you indeed have caused her a lot problems. I imagine that you would have been tortured for days if she was around" Astraea said with smile.
"Indeed, you should pray that she doesn't lose to Falazure or she might just hunt you done for a thousand years in heaven" Hermes added in agreement.
Erebus shook subtly at the mention of this, but quickly regained himself.
With no more regrets weighing on his mind, Erebus turned to Astraea.
"End it, Astraea. For real, this time."
He lifted his arms gently, welcoming her sword in his breast.
Astraea closed her eyes.
Not to doubt or reconsider what she must do, but merely to grant a moment of calm.
"Just tell me one last thing," she said, looking back into his eyes.
There was no good and evil now…..just one god speaking to another.
"Do you love this world?"
A shooting star raced across the sky.
The night wind whistled.
Erebus watched it all, as the breath of the world rustled his jet-black hair.
Then he turned his back on it all, and smiled.
"Of course I do, Astraea."
"I love all our children."
It was a smile unknown to all, beside the three who shared the rooftop with him.
"...…" Astraea cast her eyes downward.
When she looked up again, it was with the determination necessary to carry out her duty. "Erebus, you will face judgment for your crimes."
Right up until the blade fell, there was only the smile of one committed to evil.
.........
On that day, another god was sent back to heaven.
The whole city watched a golden pillar of light pierce the firmament and rejoiced.
The evil god who spread death, struck fear into the populace, and garnered so much ire was gone.
They would praise the blade that struck him down and ended the reign of absolute evil.
But the goddess would never forget his necessity.
He never asked for pity.
He never asked for praise.
What he did was evil.
The dark god had said as much himself.
Just as there were countless forms of justice, so, too, was his evil only one of countless many.
......…
"Hrgh…hrgh…hrgh…! Erebus…you tricked me!"
A man's screams bounced off the walls of a subterranean waterway.
"Absolute evil? Hah! Dreams? Hah! You knew of my defect and still you seduced me! Oh, how cruel! How barbaric!!"
He huffed and huffed, trembling with indignation.
He ran, hair disheveled, through the muck before suddenly coming to a stop.
"Heh… Heh-heh-heh-heh! This isn't over. Oh, not by a long shot! I swear on my hatred of the gods themselves that I shall see this world remade!"
He was crying.
But as he cried, he laughed.
He knew not why he cried, or even that he cried.
He simply gave himself over to the ruinous urges seeking to control him.
"I shall see this world's defects erased! Heh-heh-heh! Hee-hee-hee! Ha-ha-haha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
.........…..
"You'll pay… You'll pay… You'll pay for this, Finn!!"
In the dark depths of a labyrinth of stone, Valletta cursed her defeat.
"I'll never forget this pain…this humiliation! I'll get you, Finn! Just you wait!!"
Valletta clutched her wounded shoulder, eyes wide like a wild beast.
Her blood-soaked hand trembled with anger, feeling the brand left by her detested foe.
"Just you watch!!"
Only the walls of the man-made labyrinth heard her vengeful scream.
Evil persisted.
It slunk back to the shadows, spread its roots, and prepared for the day it might once rise again.
......…
Astraea stood alone atop Babel's peak, the city sprawled beneath her like a jeweled tapestry.
The execution of Erebus still echoed in her mind, a stark silence now where his presence had once loomed.
Her gaze, however, was drawn north.
Distant flashes of silver, like cruel lightning, rent the sky, followed by tendrils of smoke coiling upwards.
"Bahamut," she breathed, a knot of unease tightening in her chest.
She remembered their departure, the Bahamut familia, splintered from the main group after their ascent from the dungeon, vanishing into the unknown.
It was no secret they had pursued their goddess, a desperate chase into the perilous wilds.
Her own children, witnessing this, had followed, due to their sense of duty, leaving Astraea with a gnawing anxiety.
"I can only pray they make it back safely," she whispered, her voice a prayer lost on the wind. Then, a prickle of awareness, a wrongness in the very air.
"Who is there?" she cried, whirling around, her sword already a silver gleam in her hand.
"Achaaaa! Looks like we've been caught, my lady," a voice chirped.
Two figures materialized from dissipating wisps of smoke.
Though their faces remained hidden behind masks, Astraea sensed a stark duality: one mortal, the other divine.
"Foolish child, always disappointing me in some fashion," the goddess's voice dripped with an amused disdain.
"Hey, it's not my fault! How was I supposed to know this bitch would linger up here so long?" the mortal retorted, her tone laced with a defiant spark.
"Who are you? State your identities," Astraea demanded, her sword now a predatory extension of her will.
"Sigh. Restrain her," the goddess commanded with exasperation.
Astraea braced herself, but the next moment was a blur of impossible speed.
In less time than it took to blink, her sword was torn from her grasp, and she was forced to her knees.
The unknown goddess then approached, her masked face unreadable, and slowly, deliberately, removed her disguise.
"It's been a long time, Astraea. Do you remember me?" the goddess's voice, no longer masked, held a chilling familiarity.
Astraea's breath hitched.
"You… it can't be… Ti..."
Swish! Flash!
Astraea didn't get to complete her sentence.
In an instant she was silenced, and another brilliant pillar of light erupted from the very pinnacle of Babel.