Deus Ex Aleatorium

With the god of light being caught bending the rules yet again, a new set of rules were going to be applied to the situation. Since both gods had created an immortal, both sides could start out equally.

The first change made was that some of the offspring of the immortal children would inherit their parent's immortality. However, these children would be sterile. Only the mortal offspring could have children of their own. Some of these children would be mortal and some would be immortal.

In this way, two groups were created. The children of the god of light called themselves the illuminati, but the history books -- when noted -- called them zombies. This is because they would always arise from the dead. Further, they would remain the age of their first "death."

The children of the god of darkness did not name themselves. Labels were for rule-makers and followers. However, the history books called them vampires for their lawlessness and their appreciation of the darkness.

Another rule change was the creation of minions. These groups always would have followers and hangers-on, but any immortal member of the group could create an official minion.

A bite from one of the immortals was all that was required to create a minion. These minions would also be sterile, but would be long lived. Thus, they would have many of the powers of their masters; however, they would be much easier to kill.

The only way to kill one of the immortals was to separate the brain from the rest of the body. That is, to decapitate him or her. However, with the destruction of one of the major organ systems, a minion would die. I wound to the heart or the destruction of both lungs is the type of injury that would kill a minion.

One of these types of wounds would only immobilize an immortal until he or she could repair the wound. Thus, a wooden stake through the heart of a vampire would continuously immobilize an immortal until someone removed the stake and the injury repaired.

Another rule was for the gods. Either god could interfere with the workings of the world; however, someone would have to ask for the change. Further, the gods would be a long distance away. Hence, these "prayers" would take six trips of the moon around the planet before fulfillment. The gods could not answer any smiting of enemies requests or negative prayers of any kind.

With the propensity of the god of light bending the rules, the wager would be completely forfeit if any impropriety was detected. Both gods would watch each other very closely.

However, they established a time limit. With each generation of children born from each of the immortals, a few would be mortal. When the 666th mortal was born, this brought about the end of times. Or, was it the 616th? Neither god could recall the correct number. They thought they wrote it down somewhere, but they were not sure which copy was the correct one.

Nevertheless, whatever the number, this child would be the last mortal. He or she would bare the mark of the beast. Since only the mortals born of either group could have children, ultimately, only immortals would be left. It would be up to the remaining immortals what would transpire at this time.

They could play last one standing. They could decapitate every member of the opposition, and the remaining individuals would win the wager for his or her god. In this way, there would be only one winner, and it would definitely be determined.

If they did not wish to eliminate each other, they could call it a game. The gods could count the followers of each group, and the one with the most would be the winner. Minions and immortals would not count.

When the last mortal was born, the ancestors of the gods determined which course to take. However, the message of the god of darkness had infiltrated one group. The god of light was all about following rules. Its followers would have to follow a large number of rules written for them in a religious text.

The message of Judas was that only one rule was important. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This was his "golden rule". In a sneaky maneuver, he laced Christianity with this single rule. Thus, the god of light could not count all Christians in its number.

Those individuals that lived by the one rule would count towards the god of darkness because they were just dealing with the chaos of the universe. They would build their societies based on equality for all. They would not consider anyone as outside their group -- even non-believers. This caused contention within the faith. Hence, not all members of that faith could be counted for the god of light.

The god of light had established several rule-laced religions in many parts of the world. In fact, some of them did not get along with the other ones; however, they would all count in its count. That is, as long as the followers believed that following the rules was a big part of their belief system.

They did not have to follow the rules at all times; they just had to believe that it was important. After all, this is exactly how the god of light behaved. The god of darkness let the god of light set the rules, and then reacted when the rules were broken. The rules simply did not apply in certain circumstances, was the attitude of most of the followers of the god of light.

With this uncertainty in mind, the god of light's immortal ancestors believed that they had lost. Their only hope for victory for their patron god was to eliminate all of the vampires. Hence, it was vampires against zombies for the remainder of their time on earth. The last one standing would win the prize, and there could be only one.