Victor had witnessed everything.
From the very beginning to the end.
From the first consumption, seemingly the result of chance, to the annihilation of an entire planet and its inhabitants.
Time and again, he was left speechless by the power displayed by the small creature whose body his soul had inhabited for an immeasurable span of time.
Sometimes, he found himself cheering for the insect, other times he felt sorrow when it was wounded, or joy when it triumphed against one of the most formidable opponents.
Several times, he almost lost himself, thinking that he himself had become the creature he inhabited.
But each time it happened, he simply thought of his parents and the suffering they had inflicted over the years. That alone was enough to bring him back to reason whenever he teetered on the brink of madness.
For the first time since his very first breath, he felt that his progenitors were actually useful.
The simulation ended when the fly, now as tall as a mountain, decided to conquer the only place it had never explored.
It disappeared into the far reaches of the starry sky, a place it could never have imagined flying before, guided only by its relentless hunger for power, leaving behind the small planet it now considered a useless cage limiting its exponential growth.
The last thing Victor heard was a name.
For all these years, no one had given it one, so it decided to give itself one.
A name that would inspire terror across countless worlds, whose mere mention would make many rulers die of fear.
Beelzebub.
**
Victor stood in an endless sea of darkness.
Back in his own body after what felt like an eternity, he collapsed to the ground like a lifeless puppet.
After spending so much time doing nothing but observing the life of a creature whose existence defied comprehension, he had to relearn how to stand on two legs.
Then, like a newborn, he slowly learned to walk again, regaining coordination between his brain and his muscles.
After several long hours, he could walk without issue.
Fortunately, his ability to speak intelligibly had not been affected, after all, that was all he could do during that time.
He spoke to the only interlocutor available, himself.
The number of internal conflicts he had unconsciously inflicted upon himself was unimaginable, constantly thinking and contradicting himself on every little thing.
One could almost say there were now multiple voices inside his head.
He simply hoped it wouldn't cause problems in the future.
« So… are you going to tell me what you want from me? Or are you going to stay hidden? »
The voice, once slightly high-pitched, was now rough. His words were slow and clear, far from the immaturity of a sixteen-year-old.
Technically, mentally, he was now over fifty years old.
« HeHeHe… »
A laugh, interspersed with strange buzzing, resonated shortly after.
It didn't sound like a laugh at all, more like a swarm of controlled buzzes perfectly forming humanly comprehensible words.
But the voice intimidated Victor in no way, having just lived an entire lifetime of combat and massacre. Not that the voice intended to intimidate him either.
« Tell me, little insect… what did you think? »
The question was both simple and complex.
He could not simply summarize in a few words what he had just witnessed, it defied all reason.
At least, the reason he had known before experiencing something so unique.
Having witnessed the fall of several civilizations comparable to humanity, his mind had been reforged. Every death, every surge in power, every genocide had hammered and sharpened his perception as well as his mind.
All the experiences he had witnessed as an insect had given him more clarity about himself than he could ever have had.
He raised his eyes to the sky, where he assumed the being awaited.
« What can I say? You may expect me to scold or praise you… but unfortunately, I will have to disappoint you. »
Victor paused for a few seconds. Receiving no reaction from his interlocutor, he continued.
« Everything I witnessed before my eyes was just a simple demonstration of the law of the strongest. Certainly at a level of power I cannot comprehend in my current state, but fundamentally, it is the same. You know, in my world, people also kill without mercy. Only their conception of murder is different. »
The being listened intently, as if the opinion of a human so insignificant carried more weight than it seemed.
« Earth is a capitalist world, ruled by the richest and those with the most political power. They do not hesitate to strip the poor of their possessions, leaving them in the streets as if they were no better than dogs, fully aware they wouldn't survive two winters. In principle, this is no different from what you did, even if on a much larger scale. However… »
Victor paused for less than a second before a deranged smile appeared instinctively on his face. His distorted mouth, stretched to the extreme, would surely terrify nearly all humans if they saw it now.
« This power you demonstrated, this pathological, insatiable hunger for dominance, the way you controlled every living being as if they were mere toys destined to be broken by your power… »
The young boy's teeth clenched in ecstasy, his face slightly reddening with excitement.
Honestly, over the years, he had often wondered how he would react upon meeting the being that forced him to remain trapped in the fly's body. He had imagined he would remain calm and dignified, but recalling the power displayed by the entity, its total, unequivocal planetary domination, the destruction of entire cities simply out of hunger, he could no longer contain his emotions.
« This kind of power… I want it! To be able to do whatever I desire, whenever I desire, for whatever reason I desire… That is the ultimate fulfillment of life! »
« So, to answer your question more simply… I would have acted the same way you did, but I would not have been driven by hunger, not in the slightest. »
Deafening buzzing echoed, the being was impatient to hear the boy's conclusion, as if it were the only thing that mattered.
The adolescent's ears bled, but he did not care one bit. He knew that no one would stop him from finishing his sentence.
« I would have done the same simply because I wanted to! »
The buzzing ceased instantly, as if a switch had been flipped.
A voice even deeper than before sounded, with a slight amusement detectable in its tone.
« Kid… do you realize what you are saying? Has your human ethics eroded over time spent in this memory? »
The being was testing the truth of the human's words. It had met many across the ages and knew that almost all possessed a morality. A strange and completely biased morality, but a morality nonetheless.
At least toward their own kind.
However, the one thing it did not expect was for the insignificant human before it to laugh, mocking it, one of the most powerful beings across all planes.
« Ethics? Eroded? Do not mock me. Humans possess morality because they are told to. They have conscience because they were raised that way. They feel empathy because it is the norm. And if you fail to follow the rules obediently… »
« But me? My parents never raised me in any meaningful way. I was always ignored and mocked, as if I were a stranger in everyone's eyes, no better than a circus freak, destined to entertain the crowds. Yet the only feeling I had was constant disgust. I thought it was the behavior of others, of society, and its citizens that disgusted me the most, but I was wrong in every way. »
Victor clenched his fists, his nails digging deeply into his palms, drawing a few drops of blood that fell into the dark ground like night itself.
« It was me all along. I was the source of my own disgust. Being powerless and forced to comply with their whims, having to wear a mask every second of my existence… all for what? To be allowed to live on a planet I was born on? To be part of a society that never interested me for even a second? »
Beelzebuth remained silent, savoring every word of the human before him with delight.
« So tell me, O Lord of Flies, why should I care about something as trivial as morality? »
« HeHeHe… HaHaHa…»
It had been a long time since it had laughed so much.
« Very well, kid, I understand your point. In that case, I will grant you my power… A fraction of it, of course, otherwise your body would explode, taking most of your little solar system with it. »