Timeless Hero Without a Goal

47th Tick: Immortal Episode 7

To be immortal.

What was it, rather, how was it that someone who was originally mortal is able to become immortal? Demons, humans, Angels are mortal. Divine spirits, the souls of humans who managed to ascend to Heaven. Lower-tier demons, the souls of humans who were condemned to Hell. Even those souls were not immortal, they could still die, and they would start to fade if no memories of them remained in the human world. Mortality was something no one could escape, there is a beginning and there is an end. It is common knowledge that mortals should not play the divine and proclaim themselves immortal, for they will soon prove their own weakness.

Still, despite that, there were immortals. These immortal beings embodied the heart of mortals, they exist because mortals exist. Myths, as they are called, were immortal. They were the only existence to ever achieve immortality. They would live for as long as they liked, when they are ‘killed’, they will simply reborn. And there is no way to properly remove a Myth, for they are the representation of mortals. For example, the first Myth, the ClockKeeper, he is the one managing the time in the world. Without him, time ceases to flow, the world would be sent into disarray. Or the third Myth, WishEarth. He is the representation of the physical world, without him, nothing around us would exist.

These immortals had coexisted in the mortal world. They only exist because of mortals. The very fact that mortals needed them to live created them, Five Myths.

The ClockKeeper.

JoyRide.

WishEarth.

TruthDevil.

GodSend.

They were the only one to achieve complete immortality, having existed countless years.

Episode, a mortal demon, needed to overcome that barrier of mortality, he needed to ascend to immortality to help the Devil achieve his dream. He pondered the question, just how was he supposed to do it? He researched books and went on expeditions throughout Hell in search for some kind of item to grant him immortality. He continued searching, he continued testing various concoctions that nearly killed him. Episode, age 102, started to get desperate, the other demons had looked at him, they no longer feared him as much as they used to, they assumed he was insane. Episode tried his hardest, asking the pure demons who ran away, and the lower-tier demons who ignored him. Episode desired immortality to get a purpose in life. However, the older he grew, he felt his body decaying, he was indeed aging, proving that he was not special at all.

Age 130, he sat on his couch, depressed. Not only to achieve his purpose, not even to help the Devil, he wanted immortality for something else. He had wasted seventy years searching for immortality to no avail. And as his body aged, he started to fear it, he was terrified of it.

Time.

Time was taking away his life, he was dying because of time. He heard of a Myth called the ClockKeeper, he could understand that he was like the Devil, a Myth. However, no one in history had been seen making contact with the ClockKeeper.

Episode, for the next ten years, tried reaching towards the ClockKeeper. He wanted the Myth to stop his aging. As expected, there was no hope, and at the age of 140, he sat on his couch once again.

A demon who had lived for the sake of living, struggling each day to see the next, he was afraid. He was afraid of death more than anything in the world. He did not want to die, at any cost, he wanted to live. His darkness, able to consume, unable to grant life. He was desperate, he was too desperate when he decided on a plan. He started writing furiously, penning down every moment, no matter how embarrassing or trivial, he wrote it down. Episode had a good memory, some would say his memory was too good. He wrote it all down, all 140 years of his life. He was basically insane when he thought up the idea, and he was determined, he was going to achieve immortality.

Countless books scattered around the building, he went around the demon realm, searching for something. A child with the same features as himself, he took the child away when it was unable to remember. He kept the child, and from then, he spoke to the child.

Episode would never be seen leaving the castle he built for years, and years. Until a younger version of himself walked out, smiling and proclaiming, “I have gained immortality.”

But how was that immortality gained?

From young, the demon child would be fed the same diet as Episode, he would live with Episode. Every day, every night, even in meals, in baths, in battle, in sleep, in play, in work, in casual conversations. Episode, without rest, repeated his life to the child over and over and over and over again. Again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again...

The result?

The young demon, memorising it to heart, embraces the memories. The young demon would think he actually lived through those moments. Episode even transferred all the souls, his ability of darkness over to the young demon, killing himself. He did that so that ‘he’ would live. Episode would be ‘revived’. He lived on that way, his memories passed down from one generation to another. The memories stacking with every demon, stacking and stacking. The demons after Episode, technically Episode, were not Episode, but had his memories and looks. That was how a demon became ‘immortal’.

His predecessors were never truly as strong as the original Episode was, at least, back then. With a hundred thousand years of memories with him, more than 40,000 ancestors behind him, the strongest Episode was created. He may not have fought in any wars, but he had achieved something no other demon could achieve.

He merged the human world and the demon realm, truly, Episode was the strongest demon in history.

Episode stepped onto a mountain, the wind blowing against him slightly. He smiled gently, watching the sun dip below the horizon.

“I did it, after one hundred thousand years, I did it.” Episode muttered, tearing up. “A new Era will have to start.”

He wiped his tears away. He looked into the sky.

“Is it over...?”