Joy did not like Princess Dahlia very much. For all her skills and bravery, she did not have a verve for life that Joy respected. Say what you will about David, he cared about his life and the people around him. Maybe he had turned into a despotic god-king, but at least he didn't float through life, letting his privilege and luck carry him.

Maybe Joy shouldn't be so critical of her, she sounded quite a bit like him upon deeper thought. However, Joy dutifully ignored the feeble logic of his mind and went back to his inner tirade against his new boss.

After Lillian had provided such an amazing way for Ramses to get into contact with Dalia, she wasted no time in telling them all precisely what to do and how they would save the gods and the world.

Joy was pleased to have someone in charge. He was simply displeased that it was someone without a sense of humor.

She had informed Joy that she and Julia were on a mission to retrieve an asset that may help in the fight against David. It was a last ditch effort, but they needed some sort of edge and right now they really didn't have any.

Dahlia needed Ramses, Joy, and Lillian to stall for time and she had only been able to come up with one plan that would be able to stall David for long enough.

Joy, Lillian, and Ramses were going to kidnap King David's closest advisor, Rose. Rose had been instrumental in David's plans to get him to this point. If David was a castle, Rose would be the foundation. Her political maneuvering was instrumental in getting him the support which allowed him to move to the Frozen Continent. The Frozen Continent expedition allowed David to gain enough political clout to become a full contender for the throne again. Finally, the two of them had seamlessly and shamelessly used the most watched event in the world to push David in his final step to godhood.

David needed Rose at every step of his plans, and they were counting on the fact that David was still human enough to care about his friend.

The plan had not been elegant, but the three of them were in position, preparing to steal away Rose.

Joy was on lookout duty. He logically knew that it was the right decision. He was weaker than the other two members of his entourage and his skills were useful for large and showy events, not for these quiet missions.

Even Ramses was relegated to the illustrious job of backup. Lillian was just too powerful now. She could make anything if she had enough time.

Oh, you needed something to make yourself invisible? She would close her eyes and move into the dream world. After a few moments she would come back with an invisible poncho.

Joy didn't like watching Lillian move between reality and the dream world. It was like she had been three dimensional and then suddenly became a still image of where she had just been. It was impossible to describe the feeling, but Lillian became less when she moved into the dream world. Maybe her soul left? Joy didn't know.

The plan was simple out of necessity. Joy was watching the prince's makeshift castle from the outside. He was supposed to alert his teammates if he noticed anyone moving towards Lillian's projected path.

Lillian had dreamt up a button that when pressed would telepathically alert the entire team to an emergency. It was such a good item, Joy wondered if Lillian even really needed him to press it, or if she could have just dreamt up a small man to press the button for him.

He was being a little bitter, but what were friends for other than to be envious of each other's grand achievements?

Ramses and Lillian had donned invisible ponchos that covered their bodies entirely and were entering the castle. Joy watched their approach towards the castle. Well, he didn't watch it since he couldn't see them. But he imagined their approach with perfect detail.

They had planned their approach out carefully to avoid the guards posted around the structure. The guards were all Freer Men, so the infiltration duo did not have to worry about gifts accidentally ruining their invisibility.

Joy wondered about the Freer Men. There were many individuals that had migrated to the capital when they heard about a new king being crowned. Even more had flooded when they had heard tales that their king would free them from the pain of life and lead the to an eternal paradise. The Freer Men had always been there though.

Even on the expedition to the Frozen Continent, they were there. Their cult centered on the idea that the gods had put enslaved mankind for their personal pleasure and that every gift was simply a beautiful chain binding them deeper into their slavishness.

The cult functioned by making their members forswear their gifts and instead undergo intense physical training. The cult had also designed an anti-gift fighting style that all of their members were proficient in.

Many different types of people were drawn to this cult. There were those who were angry at the gods because they had received a lame gift on their thirteenth birthday. There were those who saw the cruelty in the world and wanted to hold the gods accountable. There were even those who just hated the world itself and wanted to lash out at it.

These people had followed King David into the depths of his plan. They believed that they were forming a god to fight back against the cruel gods who so callously abused them. The king was their messiah, and they would die for him.

Many of them had already died for him.

The coup against King Renoir had not been bloodless and there were many would-be-heroes that thought they could vanquish this new and evil king. They always fell to David's pseudo-divine powers, but not before wreaking havoc on the common people of the cult that stood in their way.

These people did not worship Justice, but they craved it. For them, life was misery, and humans should only blame the gods for their personal misery.

Joy felt that there was a certain defeatist nature in these people's opinions on life. They blamed the gods for their miseries but the price of doing this was that they also lost the right to see the beauty that humanity could wring out of itself. If you blame the gods for everything that was wrong with the world, you also had to give them credit for all the good in the world.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

It seemed a sad life to Joy, but maybe they were so full of injustice that they didn't care about happiness.

Joy imagined Ramses and Lillian sneaking by the guards. He was glad he wasn't going with them. He would have been far too tempted to try and trip them as he went by. He would have been a real menace to society if the gods had gifted him with invisibility; maybe that was why they didn't give it to him?

"Hello Joy." A quiet voice called out from behind him. Joy nearly jumped out of his pants. He barely managed to keep his cool. He recognized that voice, he would recognize it anywhere.

Standing behind Joy was the ineffable Sam. Their brown eyes bored deeply into Joy's as they stood there impassively.

"Are you going to offer me up on a silver platter to David?" Joy asked tentatively.

"Only if you annoy me." "Then… why are you here?"

"To explain choices to you, Joy." Sam gestured broadly to the world around them. "Every person gets to make choices; that is one of true gifts that the gods gave to humanity. You see, gods are different than humans. They are a concept given form. This gives them immense power as they are the arbiter and controller of their concept, but it also limits them."

"Humans think of the gods as free. They think of Water as the god who chooses how the tides push and pull the sea, but that isn't quite right. Water does not control the sea; Water is defined by the sea. The real water would flow with or without the god."

"Gods are figureheads, not masters." Joy chimed in. He was relatively proud that he was following along with this esoteric discussion. It seemed random, but Joy always loved a good chat.

"Yes. It is not in a god's nature to choose anything. They are simply swept by the tides of their concept, coming to a natural conclusion." Sam looked to the sky, as if speaking to the gods themselves. "People are infinitely more complicated. They get to choose what to do, and they have no one to blame but themselves after their choice."

"These ideas don't seem to align very well with your allies, the Freer Men. Honestly, I have been meaning to ask you, why are you even working for David? As I can see it, you've been instrumental in getting me this far. So, why play both sides, like you are doing?" Joy gazed at Sam's forlorn expression as he asked the question that had been on his mind since Sam had helped him through the wastes of the Dead Continent.

"I have seen the end of the world, Joy. And I refuse to let it end any way other than mine. If that means I must move people like pawns on a chess board, then so be it." Sam's eyes gleamed, burning with the fervor of the truly dedicated or the insane.

Joy looked in shock at this person. Sam wanted the world to end? Why? "David's plan has nothing to do with the end of the world itself. His plans revolve around freeing humanity from the clutches of the gods. What would that have anything to do with the end of the world?"

"Joy, you are thinking too small. David plans to kill the gods. However, you don't truly understand what a god is, do you? A god is a concept that represents something. You cannot kill Water unless every drop of liquid has been evaporated. If you tried to kill a god without destroying its concept, an identical god would reappear as soon as the first one died. David has to destroy everything to get rid of the gods."

Joy's hands started shaking as he looked over at the lunatic that was standing next to him. What was this? Sam and David and the whole cult thought that they could just destroy everything and that everyone would be hunky dory about it? The nerve of these people.

The hairs on the back of Joy's neck started tingling and he whipped his head away from Sam. The insane person standing next to him would have to wait. Joy could just feel that there was something wrong. Some part of Lillian's plan had gone awry.

He scanned the structure looking for abrupt movements or maybe massive explosions, but everything was quiet throughout the house - almost too quiet.

Joy squinted as he looked through one of the few windows in the building and saw a flash of color. Joy had seen what looked like a multicolored dress through the glimpse of the window.

Rose had the ability to change the colors of the things she touched, and Joy assumed that the flash of color he had seen was one of her garish dresses that she wore around the capitol.

But she didn't seem to have been kidnapped by Lillian and Ramses. That was not good. If they had not kidnapped Rose by this point, where could they possibly be?

An explosion ripped through the quiet air. And the building that Joy had been perched on collapsed under the pressure. Joy felt the explosion of air start to carry him into the sky, but a firm hand grasped his by the neck of his shirt and held him down on the collapsing building.

Joy looked at Sam, who looked solemnly at David rising high into the sky, riding two of his slobbering mouths. David was not alone in the sky. Above David, Lillian was covered in an incandescent rainbow, and thousands of monsters and angels were appearing in the air beside her.

The two titans began to clash in the air. Lillian and David battled in the skies and Joy watched in awe as both of them displayed godlike abilities. David's impossible strength, speed, and mouths were still incredible, but the world around Lillian didn't quite look right. Every attack that David threw at her had to pass through her domain before it could touch her, and Lillian was the queen of the dream world, so nothing could touch her in there.

Sam touched Joy's face, taking him away from the fight. "Your choice matters, Joy." Then Sam stepped away and disappeared. Joy had no idea how it had happened or what powers Sam was using, because Lillian and David's battle was tearing the sky apart.

Their strikes left rends on the tapestry of reality. However, Joy noticed one important thing before he tore his attention away from the combatants. Lillian wasn't getting injured, which made Joy breath a sigh of relief, but David was also not getting injured.

No matter the injury, no matter the attack, nothing seemed to hold David back. This was not a fight that Lillian could win. Joy cursed himself for believing for even a moment that it would be this easy.

However, not everything was lost. Joy had not seen Ramses during this epic fight, but he could see a shimmering cloud zipping along the ground, avoiding the apocalyptic backlash from Lillian and David's battle.

The shimmering cloud had to be Ramses and he was making a beeline for Rose. She was standing in the courtyard, her attention completely on the fight in the sky. She was so engrossed that she didn't even notice as Ramses scooped her up.

She definitely noticed it once she was in the cloud. She started screaming and yelling for David, but Ramses moved quickly, gagging and tying her up.

With that, Joy and company succeeded in their mission. It was time to pull out of this unwinnable fight. Joy shouted for Lillian to run away and he himself started booking it out of the rubble.

No one took that much notice of another running and shouting person.

Joy watched as Lillian took a deep breath and focused. The air around her started to shimmer and glow as she pulled a monster out from the land of dreams. The monster was larger than any castle that Joy had ever seen before. It was beyond his comprehension.

It had the head of a walrus along the body of an octopus. It floated high in the sky and started battling in Lillian's place. Its tentacles ripped through the air and slapped David's mouths to the ground. The walrus head let out a miserable roar as David's full attention was placed on it.

Joy didn't have time to watch as the giant monster was ripped to shred. Instead, he ran as fast as his legs would take him to the rendezvous point.

Waiting there was Lillian who looked shocked and Ramses who looked triumphant. Sitting inside of a golden cloud was Rose. She looked at them with undisguised hatred in her eyes. Joy shivered from the accusations hidden in her irises.

"It is time to go. We don't have to leave the city, but David will be royally pissed when he finds that Rose is gone. Hopefully Dahlia will come up with a better plan than just 'ransom her off.'" Joy spoke with liberal usage of air quotes and sarcasm.

The group of three walked while their hostage floated behind them. All things considered, it could have gone much worse.

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