[The Iron Jaw]

*Years prior - Incapacitated and writhing in relentless hatred within the depths of a vantablack abyss, an ancient's mind toils and wrestles with the tribulations of Meranthe, wrought upon it*

"How I try to justify the matters of Humanity deserving more..."

"Yet, trial after trial... They fail to prove redeemable."

"They decry monsters..."

"Yet lie before a mirror..."

"They praise their oppressors and call them heroes..."

"They step on the backs of the industrious and expect thanks in return."

"They boast their heroism as they dismember the innocent..."

"And I am supposed to wager myself as 'Evil' to this... 'Righteousness'?"

"They kill because they want to... Because they can..."

"I kill because I needed to... Because Fate dictated as such, in trade of my demise..."

"Yet, because such aggressor is Humanity... -I- am 'Evil'?"

"Am I truly charged with the mission to find this 'forgivable'?"

"Absolvable?"

"They are not mere sufferers of Sin..."

"They are the progenitors of it..."

"Of every Evil that exists..."

"Both Mortal and Beyond."

"They suffer only the consequences of their actions and dare to call the world cruel..."

"Yet, despite it all... Here I am, willing to save them..."

"One... At a time..."

"Their Gods must go..."

"Their ideologies must go..."

"Their world, their existence... Everything..."

"Must go..."

"But they always persist... Generation after generation..."

"It is for such reason the Cycle must End with me... By me... Through me..."

"I simply need to claim their power... To be such power..."

"...I Am Become God..."

"It was why I exist..."

"It is my sole purpose..."

"It is my Destiny..."

*The fluid stirs... What was that? Oh... It would seem as though one of the youth had snuck past some of the clergy and poured some lax essence into the alchemical preservative bath within one's shrine... It was doubtful it'd accomplish anything, but the gesture alone -- however, fruitless and hopeless an endeavor deserved something... Perhaps, a small blessing was in order.*

"Perhaps just a bit more time... Until The End..."