Beelaques, in all her godly indifference, took a seat beside Han. Already, the reddened bruises on her neck were beginning to heal, and for a flicker of an instant, Han wondered if he too had been corrupted with this healing factor.
"The hive has chosen wrongly," she said, words as plain and blank as her expression. "I've sifted through your memories," she continued, plucking a flower from the ground beside her. "Your life was one of a drone, not a sovereign."
Han shifted an inch away from her. Confused and distraught as he was, this creature was still the same one that had murdered Chul. And for that, he would not forgive her. However, logic told him that now was the time to listen. He felt... no knew, the journey ahead would not provide answers as readily as she would.
And so, he held his tongue, watching as Beelaques plucked the petals from the flower with her two too many hands.
"But the hive has chosen you nonetheless. And such is the will of the world."
"There will be no changing back," she continued. The flower was now a petal-less husk, dancing to the cold breeze that wafted past them. "This you must understand, whisperer. Your life is no longer yours."
"Bullshit," Han spat. He had to catch himself from strangling her again. Something in him warned that she would not allow an attack like that again.
"Who are you to tell me my life isn't mine?"
"A messenger," Beelaques replied.
Han opened his mouth to shoot back a rebuttal; however, with a flick of Beelaques's finger, his mouth sealed shut.
"See how easily I impose my will over you? Even now in this ascendant form, you are a fragment of a meaningless cell in the vastness of the hive."
"But it does not have to be that way," she continued. "I know you, Han of Earth, I have watched your life through your own eyes, I have breathed your breaths, and fought your fights."
Now she seemed not to speak of herself, but on behalf of the hive. There was no true indication of this, but something in his core felt that it was them talking, and not her.
"We offer you what you have forever sought... power. And in exchange, we ask a price that you would have always paid."
Han wanted to ask what this price was. It sounded a lot like making a deal with the devil. However, his sealed mouth would not allow any interruptions to Beelaques's message.
"You, who are mouthpiece to the will of the Hive, will echo judgment onto these fallen lands. You, who has been made ruler among the peoples of the hive, will topple the tower from which the Great Mind rules over. And you, who is avatar of the silenced unity, will spill the ichor of the one named Architect."
"This you will do in the hive's name."
Han stared wide-eyed.
'They want me to kill a god?'
No. That was not all they were asking for. The hive... from what Beelaques was saying, wanted to replace the Architect. Why else would they want it dead?
He would've burst out laughing if not for the seal on his mouth.
Of course, they wanted to replace it. Why would these god-beings want to exist under the rule of another?
Was this what he had gotten himself caught up in? The in-fightings of immortals?
Still, something in him told him that this was not the full picture. That there was something he still did not know.
However, none of that mattered.
He could not slay a god. That much had been proven in his battle against Beelaques.
"You will... You must," Beelaques said.
"I am not long for this place," she said suddenly, floating up to her feet.
"Heed me now, whisperer, when you stand atop the tower and present the new ruler to your peoples. You will have a choice...
To ascend and become one with power. Or return to the weak, in mind and form."
Here was the answer he had been waiting for. There was a way to turn himself back human. A way for him to go back home and live happily with his family.
"I gift to you the drones I have conquered here. Do with them as you wish."
With that, the three headless corpses of his party members clawed themselves out of the ground in front of him.
"I leave now," Beelaques announced. "Until next we meet."
Her wings fluttered, and she began to rise towards the sky. "Until next, the hive demands you to prove yourself."
And in an instant, she turned to golden star dust, shooting up so that she may once again be one with the Hive.
Han was left silent, staring at the sky as the watchful gaze of the hive migrated, shifting through the dark of space like shooting stars.
Night surrendered itself to day, and the sun shed light on the field of flowers.
The rays were soothing upon his obsidian skin, the sun a beacon to his bee-eyes. A guide he did not yet know he would always follow.
His eyes strained, lowering to the 'gifts' Beelaques had left him.
『[X3] Fallen creatures have been summoned to your hive.』
'They aren't creatures,' Han shot back, uncaring that the system was not a sentient being that understood him.
His mind began to falter under the weight of control, and one of his new summons, Jen, was sent back to whatever void his unsummoned creatures were imprisoned in.
"Chul..." he whispered, standing up to gaze upon his fallen friend.
Wordless, he pulled a chocolate bar out of his inventory and instructed 'Chul' to hold out his hand.
He pulled another one out for himself, realising that even after all this, he still hadn't eaten anything.
He took a bite, savouring the sweetness of the treat. As he did this, the summoned Chul tried -and failed- to stuff the chocolate bar into its non-existent mouth.
For a moment, the two of them just stood there, enjoying their treats in the beauty of the field.
Han quite liked this. The 'normal' life.
"I'm sorry," he said finally, patting the summon on the shoulder.
No response came, for no response could come. His friend was long gone.
Yet still. "I'm sorry," he said once more.
He closed his eyes.
『Confirm disposal of Fallen Creatures [X3]』
"Yes," he whispered.
And in that instant, it felt as if a tether had been broken free from his mind.
When next Han opened his eyes, his friend was gone. All that remained was the chocolate bar...
Still uneaten.