A Hero's Sin: Tales From Archeleon's Willow

By Kouta

The City of Angels is a place of freedom of individuality, and few represent this better than the world’s Hero. Non-binary, pansexual, half shapeshifting human, half-demon, but all about peace; few are more “out there” than Alex James Elisia Kimera. But what happens when just using your powers causes you to fall apart? In Alex’s case, medicinal marijuana was the answer. The Hero’s body and powers may be more stable, but there’s a certain someone in their city that’s less so. Greed forces the Hero of this tale to act against destructive forces to protect the City of Angels, hopefully without destroying themself.
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Rated M for Mature!
This book deals with swearing, arson, and prejudice. Make sure you can handle these subjects before reading; thank you and enjoy.
-Creator

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 25, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304672148

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A Hero’s Sin

Written by Kouta

Copyright © 2017

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-304-67214-8

CONTENTS

Archeleon and Their Willow

Once flourishing with life and prosperity, an Earth, the size of Jupiter, fell into war and ruin after a battle between cosmic beings obliterated the balance between good and evil. A blast destroyed the duplicated and re-shaped Milky Way galaxy, nearly eliminating all possible life. But Eracort, creator of the universe, was barely able to save what mattered. Saddened by losing the galaxy based on their home dimension, Eracort cried out the Ocean of Forever Reaching Waves, a cosmic sea that stretched from one end of the ever-expanding universe to the other with an endless bottom.

Eracort punished those who destroyed their work, relishing their infinite pain and suffering but feeling empty nonetheless. After eons of torture, old friends came to give Eracort their support. After many condolences and a fantastic reunion, Eracort found themself struck with inspiration; and decided to remake the galaxy yet again, this time with far more amusing twists.

After a brief explanation, one of Eracort’s allies spoke up, hoping they’d be able to take on the burden of protecting this new galaxy. Eracort was pleased with and accepted the request; in return, they offered Archeleon the Ocean of Forever Reaching Waves to be the entity’s new home. The sea-like phenomenon had unlimited energy to keep Archeleon alive for many, many eons. 

As Archeleon took to the limitless ocean, Eracort used their power to make a willow tree sprout from the turtle’s shell. I can’t say how long this took, but when Eracort was done, a willow tree of galactic proportions grew from Archeleon’s back. Archeleon’s shell grew as wide as your Milky Way Galaxy; the tree stood taller than anyone could measure. The colorful leaves were filled with stars, suns, and moons; hemispherical worlds grew from the tree on vines, along branches, and even from flowers. Eracort filled the tree with many forms of sentient life once more, then ‘disappeared,’ excited to see what stories come from their newest creation. Their friend, the cosmic entity of protection, Archeleon, happily protecting the willow tree. 

Chapter 1; Prey?

Certain parts of the destroyed Earth were preserved and remade as worlds. The worlds were hemispheres with a flat top that hung from vines or lived on flowers or leaves. The City of Angels was one of the preserved worlds hanging off a branch from a vine. It had the best view of the cosmos outside the tree. Three suns and two moons decorated the sky in a pattern like the dots on a six-sided dice. These flowers bloomed on the branch by the world vine.

The West half of the world was a beautiful salty ocean with a few Islands towards the edge. The East was a horrible dry desert with a tall platinum wall blocking it off from civilization. The middle of the world had a huge city with a structure tall enough to reach the clouds; that was Justice Keepers’ Headquarters. That building was in the dead center of the world. The humanoid civilizations to the North and South were much less dense and resembled humble towns. 

The world as a whole is named after the central city, The City of Angels. Renamed after the blood bath called War of the Arts in which many celebrities laid down their lives to protect people’s right to express themselves.

This story starts in that city; specifically, it begins in Clover City Apartments. An open apartment complex with tall gates and a public pool in the middle. It housed many pure humans since they were rare on the world and in danger often. In apartment 667 woke the hero of this series.

The protagonist was still under the blankets on their mattress when the phone alarm went off on the nightstand. The sheets and comforter stirred for a few moments before a hand finally popped out and turned off the alarm. Then it plopped on the ground, still tired. The black nails were short and clean, but the darkening veins were abnormal, pulsing rapidly.

The protagonist stretched their wrists, getting them to let out a satisfying pop. A loud yawn could be heard as the blanket rose up from the middle and was tossed off. Alex Elisia James Kimera finally emerged, their sharp teeth and forked tongue showing as they finished yawning and smacked their dry lips. Alex brushed their fluffy, pink hair out of their face to show their vertical slit pupils and light red eyes. Alex wiggled their bushy blue tail and stretched out their legs.

Eracort decided to grant a new form for the humanoids of the universe who don’t feel comfortable as either male or female. I won’t get into specifics with how it works biologically; this third form became known as bio-queer for simplicity, though nobody was forced to use terms or label themselves. Bio-queers peed and could have sex like normal humanoids, and their physical features were either a mix of masculine and feminine qualities or neither, and they had breasts, though usually small.

I bring all this up because Alex is a bio-queer who identifies as androgynous. They had gentle eyes with long lashes, a strong chin, and cheekbones. Alex only stood sixty-three inches tall. Their torso had a feminine curve, while their arms and legs were more masculine. Overall, they were petite with an athletic build and light brown skin. Freckles sprinkled across the top of their arms, shoulders, legs, and face. Their ears, though hidden in their hair, were small and subtly pointed.

Alex noticed what time it was from the digital clock on their multicolored lava-lamp; they overslept. Damn it.

Alex quickly piled the blankets and sheets up in the messy room's back corner where the mattress sat. Alex went to grab something from the nightstand; their veins weren’t just darkening on their wrist. They were crawling up Alex’s arms and legs. Even forming between the cleavage where the heart was and down their spine. Alex opened the top part of the nightstand and pulled out a small, prepacked, cannabis-smoking pipe and a green-tipped matchstick. The pipe was only five inches long and blue with pink swirls, though the bowl, where the marijuana went, and the mouthpiece's tip were dark violet.

The red veins in their eyes were darkening and reaching for the irises. Alex took a few deep breaths before touching lips to the mouthpiece, lit the match, and put it to the ground weed with the pipe vent on the side covered. After a slow, drawn-in-breath, Alex finally parted, put the still smoking pipe on the nightstand, blew out the fire, and dropped the matchstick next to the pipe. Alex stood there in complete silence for a bit, focusing on their body and how they felt in the present.

Then let their breath out all at once and started giggling. Alex’s veins began returning to normal, no longer reaching around and strangling them. I shouldn’t have held for so long. Not sure that’ll have the desired effect… They grabbed the pipe again and tucked it in their tail. I gotta get to work!

Alex walked over to their closet and pulled out an all-black