Chapter 83: Compromise
"You can't keep me here forever," asserted Vali, crossing his arms as he warned, "And if you don't let me out soon, you'll regret it immensely once I escape."
"Why would you want to?" asked Vahn, sporting a half-lidded glower as he pointed out, "You said your goal was to become stronger. Well, you can become infinitely powerful here. The only reason you would want to leave is because strength isn't your goal..."
"And what's your goal?" asked Vali, arguing, "You're not even from this world, so what gives you the right to influence it, much less become its God? Your mere existence invites conflict..."
"You're wrong..." responded Vahn, his frown deepening as he reasoned, "People provoke conflicts because they choose to or because they have convinced themselves their actions are justified. My existence alone isn't a threat to anyone, but because of what I can do, those who seek power and control feel threatened. Because they understand, deep down, they don't deserve their position. So anything that empowers others to oppose their tyranny is labeled a threat by default..."
"Do you honestly believe you're opposing tyranny?" asked Vali, snorting in contempt before contending, "So long as there are inequities in the world, and there will always be inequities, those at the top will always be viewed as oppressors and tyrants by those who desire more than the lot imposed on them. Even if you eliminated and replaced everyone in the world with a clone of the same individual, they would eventually separate into factions and oppose one another despite having the exact same starting point and memories. People crave individuality, power, and comfort, and since there will always be roles that people covet and essential but degrading jobs no one wants to be consigned to, delegation becomes necessary, sowing the seeds of inequity anew..."
"What's your point...?" asked Vahn.
"My point..." emphasized Vali, frowning as he explained, "...is that joining hands with the Three Factions just ensures they remain at the top while others stay at the bottom. I won't deny you could do a lot of good, but is that objectively the best thing for the world? Since the start of the three-way deadlock, humanity has exploded from what was already considered a problematic population of three hundred and fifty million to an excess of seven billion. That's a twenty times increase, and unless there is a sudden and drastic decline in the rate of births, the majority are fated to perish or become fodder for the Gods..."
"And, I assume you have a solution...?" asked Vahn, sporting a half-lidded, unconvinced expression as he felt Vali was simultaneously oversimplifying and conflating things out of proportion to justify his actions.
"There are no solutions, only stop-gap measures..." stated Vali, shaking his head before meeting Vahn's gaze with resolution in his golden eyes, asserting, "But restricting those at the top to protect those at the bottom only exacerbates things. God came into existence to bring balance to the chaos of the primordial world, but chaos is the natural state of things. His many failures and eventual death are the greatest evidence of this. Every effort he made to fix things only made him appear increasingly oppressive and tyrannical to those who didn't receive his grace. If people hadn't lost their faith, it wouldn't have mattered if he was simultaneously pitted against every Devil and Fallen in Creation. They were his creations, and as long as the majority believed it to be true, his power was omnipotent..."