It was around this time too, that Asha'rah approached Zurvan and spoke to the failure of Gods.
How they should have, in the beginning -- hindsight being what it is -- crafted their works in such a way as to
limit mortals ... Who after suffering the ravages of time and tide and... Life strove to improve their lot. And in the moment of perceiving it, the irony of Asha'rah's words stood against her ethos plain as day. Not solely for that ethos but for what it was, truly, she was saying; and in the end as the golden-eyed Oni twisted it over in her mind, again, and again, she recognized something. Perhaps something she might not have realized until far later had this not have happened ... and provided her threat to murder Chrona with the Hakai she stole not come to pass some months prior.
And that realization was that Asha'rah was a...
"Hypocrite."
Ishtar voiced somewhat conflicted, as she made her approach.
"Has that not been offered, time and again from your own tongue? All things strive ?" The question was rhetorical. After all, all who had spoken with the ruined goddess knew without qualm, that that was a phrase offered up time and again. "So what then, is this lamentation of yours. That you wish you would have bound the hand of mortal-kind so that they might not what? Perform the exact thing you champion, and strive ? ... So is there a limit to this striving of yours, then?"
The Oni stopped an arms length away and eyed the Goddess curiously, conflict falling away as she worked through it aloud; even as the understanding danced behind her golden eyes.
"Or is it that you lament that this chance to strive, and despite it all come to bend time.. was ever an option ? "
All questions to be answered at another time perhaps, and things that could perhaps be answered. Asha'rah's lament perhaps being that Time could be manipulated by those for wicked ends, and yet that did not speak to the underlying hypocrisy. No, it did not at all come close... Though that hypocrisy was a thing Ishtar was more than willing to utter, now that Asha'rah had opined on the subject of Time.
"... Do you feel similar, in regards to Hakai?"
Once more, the answer did not matter. Not now, perhaps not ever.
"Yet how could that be ?" The Oni asked herself, a thing she pondered a moment before continuing down the path. "You slaughtered your friend to strive, Asha'rah. Your
friend. All so that, in your own words; it might 'aid in your rebellion'. And to 'ascend beyond what any God of Creation or Angel was intended to be' ... and for
what ? To fight a battle, you knew you would lose. Simply to prove you were justified ? ... and how many did that cost ? What has become of the Universe, as a result of learning you could obtain Hakai by stripping it from another?" Ishtar allowed those questions hang in the air for a moment, before continuing on to her point.
"So for you to stand here and tell Zurvan that you regret that something that one might use — Time itself — to "undo the striving of countless trillions" is being used for such, and wish it had been created differently ? It is nothing short of blatant hypocrisy. After all, despite disagreeing with this Doctor, this Alternate Jinzi, in his quest to rewrite time... all he is doing now, is what you did one-hundred thousand years ago. Striving, to make things right as he sees — and as you saw — fit."
The Oni resisted the urge to turn away... at least for the moment.
"And... before you start. That your cause was proven proper in the end, is not some ... saving grace. Though perhaps, in a way that you did not intend... it is justification that the balance you perverted, when you killed Indar'en, is in dire need of reinstatement." It was then, the Oni turned and walked off, away from Asha'rah the Fallen, to prepare for the wedding ... though not without a parting jab.
"And it is a shame that you prevented that from coming to pass, by proving to the Multiverse that the balance you created was flawed from the start."