The Other God and the Lord of Light

In the dream.

On a vast, white ice field, a huge black maggot lay coiled. It writhed constantly, stretching its bloated body.

Gary stood before the enormous creature, but for some reason, his body was stiff and he could not move.

"Give it to me! Give me the Crystal!"

The Giant Maggot roared. Suddenly, it spat out countless tentacles, bound Gary like a tightly wrapped dumpling, and hung him upside down before it.

"Hand it over. Give it to me."

Its hoarse voice made it impossible to distinguish male from female. Though its pitch was very low, Gary found it piercing.

The voice sounded very familiar...

Could this huge worm be the Other God?! How did he end up looking like this?

Gary forced himself to calm down. "This is a dream. Wake up. Everything will be fine once I wake up."

The Giant Maggot gave an ugly laugh. "Hehehe, I can trap you here forever. Unless you hand over the Crystal, your body will remain asleep!"

Strangled so tightly he could barely breathe, Gary cursed, "What fucking Crystal? I've never seen the damn thing!"

"You're asking to die! Hand it over! Hand over the Crystal!"

The Giant Maggot grew agitated, and the tentacles binding Gary tightened further...

"I don't have it! Even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you!" Gary roared through the excruciating pain.

The Giant Maggot opened its mouth, packed with sharp teeth. "Then I'll keep torturing you in this dream and make you wish you were dead. A thousand years in the dream, one second outside. We have plenty of time together."

Fuck, seriously?

Gary had originally planned to stall until he woke up. He had never expected time to flow differently between dreams and reality. Why hadn't the Three-Eyed Crow used this trick when he entered his dream back then?

Was this the difference between gods and mortals?

Crack!

"Aah!!"

As the sound of breaking bones rang out, Gary could not help letting out one agonized scream after another.

The Giant Maggot seemed to control everything in the dream. Under its gaze, Gary's injuries rapidly healed. But that was no good thing, because another round of torment was about to begin.

"Next, let's crush some fingers."

Two thick tentacles effortlessly crushed Gary's left thumb. The flattened digit, wrapped around shattered bone, bled constantly.

"Ngh..."

Gary gritted his teeth and endured it. "Motherfucker, just kill me if you've got the guts!"

"Hehehe, no hurry. We still have nine fingers left to crush."

"Aaah!"

And so, Gary's body was restored again and again, while the Giant Maggot kept finding new ways to torture him. His gaze grew unfocused, and he gradually went numb.

"Give me the Crystal, and I'll let you leave."

The Giant Maggot's voice seemed to hold magic, continually eroding Gary's reason.

"No!"

Gary said firmly, "Even if I die, I'll never give in to you."

I absolutely cannot follow the same path and become the Other God's puppet again!

The Giant Maggot was unimpressed. It sneered, "How strong can a human's will be? No hurry. We still have a thousand years together. Let's take our time."

Fuck!

Gary's expression darkened, and despair could not help rising within him.

The Giant Maggot laughed wildly without restraint. It wrapped its tentacles around Gary's limbs and pulled hard in four different directions, intending to tear him limb from limb.

Just then, a ray of light suddenly fell on Gary's face, bringing him a trace of warmth.

He looked up. At some point, a crack had appeared in the dark sky, allowing sunlight from outside to shine through.

Crack!

A large hole shattered open in the black sky. A red sun hung above the vault of heaven, illuminating the previously dark dream.

Under the red sunlight, the Giant Maggot's tentacles instantly burned away. Its body, too, dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"R'hllor!!"

The Giant Maggot raged helplessly before finally turning to ash.

The sunlight did Gary no harm. He lay weakly on the ground, panting. "Finally, it's over. If I'd really been tortured for a thousand years, I definitely wouldn't have held out."

He eyed the enormous red sun suspiciously, his face twitching slightly. "What is this thing now?"

Amid the dazzling sunlight, a young woman in gold armor patterned with flames floated out from within the sun.

"Hello."

The young woman landed before Gary and gave him a stunning smile.

Although Gary was struck by her beauty, he felt more wary than anything else. "Are you here for the stone too?"

The young woman had beautiful red curls, and a small, upturned nose adorned her flawless face. She was very lovely.

Her crimson eyes were like two shining stars, bright and captivating.

The young woman nodded, making no attempt to hide it. She said bluntly, "Child, that Crystal is too dangerous for you. As long as it remains in your hands, the Other God will hound you endlessly. I can protect you once, but I cannot protect you for your entire life."

Gary stood and scoffed. "All those high-minded words, but you just want that lousy stone, don't you? For all I know, you're another incarnation of the Other God, staging this whole thing yourself."

The young woman's smile froze, and she suddenly grew angry. "How dare you compare me to that filthy, ugly monster! This is blasphemy against a god!"

The temperature within the dream rose rapidly. Countless cracks split the ground, spewing jets of flame.

"You're not the Other God? Then who are you?" Gary was not buying her act and questioned her unhurriedly.

"Let me think... You're from Westeros. The people there seem to call me the Red God," the young woman said after frowning in thought for a moment.

The Red God? Why have I never heard of that?

Gary sneered. "Most people in Westeros worship the Seven, the North worships the Old Gods, and the Iron Islands worship the Drowned God. Where did this Red God come from?"

The young woman paused, then explained, "I don't have many followers in Westeros, so it's normal that you haven't heard of me. But on the continent east of Westeros, I have a great many followers. There, I am called the Lord of Light."

"You're the Lord of Light?" Gary stared at the young woman in astonishment.

In the storyline of Game of Thrones, the Lord of Light could be considered the god with the greatest presence.

That was because one of his priests had resurrected the dead Jon Snow, the male lead, in the latter half of the story.

Bringing the dead back to life was undoubtedly a miracle.

More importantly, the Lord of Light was the enemy of the ancient Other God. In the original work, he had sent his priests to Westeros precisely to deal with the White Walkers in the north.

As the saying went, the enemy of one's enemy was a friend.

"To be honest, I don't know what that Crystal is, or where it is."

Gary lowered his guard and smiled bitterly. "I'll be direct. I'm actually not from this world. I came from another world, and coming here was never my wish. All I ask is that you use your divine power to send me back."

The Lord of Light looked thoughtful. "Hmm? You're not from this world? Could the Crystal's power be responsible?"

She suddenly smiled and waved her arm, actually slicing open a spatial rift with flames.

"I can send you back, but you must leave the Crystal behind. That thing is useless to you, and it might very well transport you back here again."

Gary had already begun to trust the Lord of Light, but by opening a gateway so readily, she had exposed a flaw.

"How strange. I haven't even said where I want to go, so how have you already opened a portal? What's behind that door probably isn't my home, is it?"

The Lord of Light dropped her smile, her embarrassment turning to anger. "Mortal, you talk far too much. Forget it. I'll find it myself..."

With a casual gesture, she sent out a streak of deep red energy, attempting to imprison Gary.

But just as the deep red energy was about to touch him, his left eye suddenly turned dark green.

Immediately afterward, green energy spilled from his eye and devoured the Lord of Light's red energy.

"Yes! That's it. Come, give it to me."

The Lord of Light stared ecstatically at Gary's left eyeball and impatiently reached out.

Feeling the surging power inside him, Gary had the sense that he could now control everything in the dream.

"This is my dream. Get out!"

The Lord of Light seemed to realize something. "No! Give it to me! Give it to me!"

Poof.

Her body crumbled inch by inch, turning to dust that dispersed into the air.

Gary touched his left eyelid and murmured, "So you've been hiding in my left eye all along?"

He moved his left eyeball from side to side, wanting to find out just what this crystal could do that made one god after another flock to it and lose all composure.

"Ahem, Gary..."

A voice called from behind Gary, startling him into turning around at once.

"What the hell? Has another god shown up?"

He looked closely. Floating behind him was a White Walker with only half his ruined body remaining.

The White Walker had only a right eye. All four limbs were severed, and wounds covered his body. He was in a terrible state.

Gary recognized him. This White Walker was himself from another timeline.

"Hi, other Gary." He forced a smile.

White Walker Gary smiled too. "Hello, Gary. I'm truly happy to see that you're still human."

Gary scratched his head and said awkwardly, "I saw those memories. Thanks to you sending the Three-Eyed Crow to save me, otherwise I would've... Um, are you... dead?"

At the end of the memories, White Walker Gary had already been slain by the Other God.

"Yes, I'm dead. This is the last trace of power I had as I lay dying. Through the wisp of magic left in the Three-Eyed Crow's wound, I managed to connect with you. But this power won't last long. I'll disappear very soon."

Although White Walker Gary was about to disappear, he appeared completely at peace.

"You were the one who showed me those memories? Ahem... I thought I'd gotten some kind of cheat ability. So it was you." Looking at his White Walker self made Gary uncomfortable all over, and he could only smile awkwardly.

White Walkers Gary did not want to waste time. "Gary, I have something extremely important to tell you."