Then Tgurneu found out about a strange fiend.
This fiend would be later named Cargikk. While Cargikk loved the Evil God as a fiend did, like a human would, it also loved other fiends. And so, pretending that it also loved the Evil God and other fiends, Tgurneu made contact with this creature, who had to be the happiest in all the world, including humans and fiends.
Cargikk was simple, straightforward, and having never been suspicious of anyone, it readily believed Tgurneu. It grasped the vines that grew from Tgurneu’s body as it cried with joy at having made its first friend.
Tgurneu had approached Cargikk because it had thought this connection might foster an understanding of love within Tgurneu. Tgurneu had hoped it might learn to love someone itself. But no matter what they talked about and no matter how Tgurneu listened to Cargikk’s words, it never came to know love. Though Tgurneu understood it as a concept and could grasp its nature, it could never love someone personally. All it got was the name Tgurneu .
Eventually, Cargikk gained a new friend. It was the insignificant weakling of a fiend who would later be called Dozzu. Being with Cargikk and Dozzu as they chattered together like friends made Tgurneu jealous. Tgurneu hated them for being so happy—so unaware of Tgurneu’s suffering for being unable to love. But Tgurneu never revealed its feelings. The two other fiends thought of Tgurneu as a slippery and evasive character, but they believed in its friendship.
As Tgurneu watched, Cargikk, who had been just an ordinary fiend, and Dozzu, who had been a little weakling at most, rapidly grew stronger. Their devotion to the Evil God and to other fiends had given them new powers. It was practically miraculous.
Tgurneu’s desire for love became more and more covetous. Only love would bring power. Only love could perform miracles. In Tgurneu’s mind, this became something like his religious creed, and it came to hate all creatures capable of love.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even now, Tgurneu could vividly remember that day three hundred years ago, when it had proven its superiority over the second generation of Braves of the Six Flowers.
There had been three surviving Braves: Marlie, the Saint of Blades; Hayuha, the Saint of Time; and Merlania, the Saint of Thunder. Tgurneu had predicted that the three would take advantage of an opening in the fiends’ forces to attack the Evil God.
But that moment, a thought had occurred to Tgurneu. I want to see the fiends wailing in despair. Half this desire was the hope that their lamentation might lead it to understand. The other half was motivated by revenge, to bring suffering to the fiends it hated so much.
Tgurneu did not share these thoughts with its allies. And just as Tgurneu had predicted, the Braves attacked the Evil God, and with Merlania’s strike, the Evil God was sealed away.
Tgurneu’s betrayal hadn’t enabled the Braves’ victory, exactly. Cargikk and Dozzu had been exhausted. With their leaders down, the fiends had never had a chance to win in the first place.
But the Evil God was defeated just as Tgurneu had wanted, and the Howling Vilelands drowned in the moaning of fiends. Listening to their wailing brought Tgurneu an ocean of joy. It had been two hundred years since its birth from the Evil God’s body, and now, for the first time in its life, it was feeling happiness. The discouragement and inferiority complex that had filled every inch of its heart vanished, replaced by the roiling sea of joy that came with accomplishing a great feat. It forgot its hatred of the fiends and of humans; instead, it was filled with a sense of godlike superiority.
Tgurneu had always hated itself so much for being incapable of love. But now, it could validate everything about itself. It couldn’t acquire love, but it could get something much better.
It could have the pleasure of crushing it.
✦ ✦ ✦
Thus, Tgurneu had gained its life goal:
To see those who wailed over the loss of their beloved.
To see those who suffered over the betrayal of their beloved.
To see those who were forced to suffer in order to protect their beloved.
Tgurneu was uninterested in watching meaningless suffering. They had to suffer for love . Merely watching was boring as well. The suffering had to be inflicted by Tgurneu personally.
Tgurneu had seen enough fiends in agony during the second Battle of the Six Braves. And besides, fiends’ love was simple; their minds all worked the same way. Seeing the same thing over and over wasn’t enough to satisfy Tgurneu’s heart, so eventually, its interests shifted elsewhere.
It wanted to see Cargikk suffer. It wanted to see Dozzu in pain. But most of all, it wanted to see human anguish. Their love was completely different from that of simple, dull old fiends.
When Tgurneu crushed their love, it would acquire the ultimate joy, one that no one else could ever taste.
✦ ✦ ✦
Tgurneu began pursuing its incredibly ambitious dream. To crush love, it would have to acquire incredible strength. Tgurneu was powerless with nothing more than a weak fig as its body and no one it could call a friend. And it couldn’t have the power of love, the strongest force in the world—the only thing that could cause miracles.
But Tgurneu figured this wouldn’t be a problem. It was certain it could acquire power.
If it couldn’t have love itself, then Tgurneu should just control another’s. That was all there was to it, right?