The princess and her party stepped into the cavern. They looked wearily at the shadows, knowing them to be the favored hiding spot of the undead that plagued these caverns at the will of their horrible master. over the next few hours, they fought their way through the cave system, killing thousands of undead with their blessed weaponry and armor. Finally, they found it.

A necromatic spirit standing in front of a large display board detailing things that she could not understand. Most likely it's newest abomination.

She strode into its cavern, yelling "I am Princess Saras, and I shall cleanse you from this world in the name of the Divine and my father, King Alucard." The necromatic spirit sighed, turning around even as it said "well isn't this ironic. The daughter of that traitor come to kill me, just like that traitorous bastard did all those years ago. It's almost funny. Almost." Saras's eyes widened in surprise when she heard this. She knew of only one group of necromancers that her father had personally wiped out. The Mavericks. "You are a Maverick? A heretic who seeks to kill the Divines?" The necromatic spirit sighed once again. "Yes, and no. We never believed in the Divines like the others on this world have. We also never thought to kill them or anything like that. We merely wished to stop their parasitic ways before they did irreparable damage to this world." Saras was furious "Parasitic ways? You truly are deluded and mad". Her tone dripped with scorn and venom.

The necromatic spirit laughed, saying "Blind faith. The chains of the fool." Saras was angry, her companions even more so. The priestess and healer of their group challenged the spirit. "Oh really? well then how about you explain the "Logic" behind your baseless claim." She stood smug in her presumed victory, her faith in the Divines nearly unshakable. Nearly. The Necromatic spirit sighed and asked a question. "Will you listen without attempting to disrupt my explanation?" The Priestess shrugged, even as Saras agreed to the spirits wish. It seemed to smile as it said,

"Do you know why the Divines support humans? Because they gain benefits from them. Mana. The next time you pray to a Divine, focus on your internal Mana. Disregard your status screen, for it is manipulated to ensure you don't notice. You will feel your Mana leave your body, collecting with all the Mana of the other believers in the Divine's well of power."

"But it doesn't end there. You see, when you die, you go to the halls of the dead if you were considered faithful, or you go to Tartarus. A terrible place of misery and horror."

"Get to the point" Saras demanded

"Patience" the spirit reprimanded.

"A soul not bound to a body does not need to maintain a Mana presence in the body, leaving a shocking increase in Mana for spirits and souls in the afterlife. This also means more Mana given when praying to a Divine. "

A screen flashed in front of the party. "Warning you have obtained Forbidden Knowledge" A spike of dread ran through them all as they realized this wasn't just the ramblings of a mad spirit.

"Because of this, a dead soul is worth more than that of a living person's. This is why even the most gentle Divines support war and combat. It is also why there are tales of Divines jealously guarding their Halls of the Dead from other Divines."

"However, Divines still want new souls to be added as time goes on, so they allow a growing number of followers to remain alive, so as to grow the population."

"The real problem with this is that the Divines aren't providing energy, the world is. However, the world can only support so much strain at a time. Dead souls increase daily and require a certain amount of Mana each, Mana that has a fraction of it fed to the gods every time they pray, Mana that the world is forced to lose until a Divine uses it, which rarely happens. In addition to this, the forging of new souls can be very Mana intensive. This drains more Mana from the world and ultimately is a big factor in the downward spin we are in. The amount of Mana the world loses is increasing with every passing day as more people are born, praying, and dying."

"As time passes on, the drain has slowly emptyed the stock pile of Mana available to the world. This has resulted in a breakdown of the protective barrier around the world, which we decided to call the "Atmosphere". As that happens, it thins and presents opportunities for foul beings like monsters and demons to punch through this barrier and enter this world."

"Now, you would think the Divines would stop this right? After all, it's killing their growing population of humans. But, with all the chaos and fear of those early breaches, people were more pious and faithful. They wanted a higher power to save them. And so, the Divines stepped back and did nothing, except aid and teach a few "heroes" which kept humanity alive and growing, if at a reduced pace."

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"Then, Tarturus came into existence. The stick to the Divine's carrot. Hel's creation. and a place where the "bad souls" went. In reality, it was only a place for the less faithful and the crippled to go. Those who lost their energy connection to the world and just could not provide much more energy. It became a symbol of what to fear and why the Halls of the Dead were where you should be hoping to go."

"It led to people following the Divine's ideals of war and combat, so that they might escape torment in Tartarus for all of eternity. No one wanted to go to Tartarus though, and someone had to go, so it was decided that those who did not die in combat or were crippled would be taken to Tartarus by force. The spell used to drag those poor souls to Tartarus makes a 10th level necromatic soul binding spell look like a candle compared to the sun."

The party grew more and more scared as more and more prompts informing them of their acquisition of Forbidden Knowledge popped up one after another.

The spirit turned to Saras. "Your father was believed to be a genius tactician who could outplan anyone. He was not. He had a large, connected assassin ring and the help of my organization, The Mavericks. He used us to pry the secrets of his enemies from their dead souls, and would use those secrets to win his battles. We were an organization dedicated to halting, and later reversing, the damage done to this world. Your father stormed our compound and killed us on the eve of our success. We had just created a theoretical magic that would fix the damage done by taking the souls in existence and putting them back on the planet in the form of memory wiped souls being put into the bodies of the newly born, while using the excess souls as an army of guards against the beings which attempted to break through the Atmosphere. It was perfect. And the Divines hated everything about it, of course. Your father was the instrument of their will, and he didn't need much convincing. After all, if it came out that we helped him and HOW we helped him, He would have been seen as a charlatan, a fraud, and a horrifying person."

"In my time in Tartarus I learned other disturbing facts. This was not the first world the Divines have done this on. The rest had been left as magicless husks after they were done. What they are doing, according to what I could find, is apparently incredibly illegal by the laws that rule Divines. While they may appear powerful, they are more like bandits in Divine society. The demons are not truly evil. They are the autonomous watch dogs of the Gods, searching for rule breakers like the Divines. It is why they say a demon should never be allowed to leave, because it would report back to its masters. Humans attacked the demons at the insistence of the gods, and triggered their self defense commands, just like in our own golems."

"This is why I call the Divines parasites, and I stand by my clai-"

A golden portal appeared, and an Angel came out. It scowled as it said "You have Forbidden Knowledge. You shall be terminated for this and the humans will have their memories wiped of your filth. Stop trying to ruin my life you asshole. The last thing we need is someone to take notice of what we are doing. Damn lesser soul." It began to chant something in high Angelic, even as the necromatic spirit whispered in their minds,

"I shall ensure you keep this knowledge beyond your memory wipe. Please. Finish our mission." The party felt magic lay upon them. Just as it finished, the chant ended and the spirit screamed in agony as its soul was destroyed. The Angel turned it's attention to them, cleansing their mind of the Maverick Spirit's existence, but missing a cache of memories that the Maverick Spirit had constructed for them. 5 days later, the party woke from their sleep to find the memories in their heads. When they met up and discussed it, they swore to complete the Maverick's mission if they could.

15 years later.

Princess Saras was now in her early 30's. She looked like she just turned 20, but royalty always seemed to have the best luck. She stood above her enemy as the crowd of Divines chanted her name, and The Divine announcer Declared her the winner. It had taken work, sweat and blood, but she made it to the top of the Divine sector contest. She had won her world first place and ensured a happy life for herself. Later that night, She went to a party held in her honor, with her own party with her. They had been looking at the Divine laws in the time she had been fighting, and the laws were quite clear. The Maverick Spirit had been right. Her world's Divines were criminals. Now, she just needed to get that information to the sector lord.

Later, she was given a private audience with him. He was a fan of the games and loved to watch the interactions between the fighting styles of different worlds. She smiled as she used one of the memory related spells, Memory Transfer, to give the Sector lord her memories of the events. He paused. His face turned to shock, and then horror as he got further into the memories hidden in the cache. His thunderous roar for the guards had them teleporting into the room in seconds.

Only an hour later, she testified against them. For their crimes they were executed immediately. The gathered Divines were shocked when they heard of what happened. Nearly every Divine in the sector, including a Prince of the Divine kingdom that ruled this sector, came to the world. Their horror was interesting to see for Saras. New Divines were appointed to help this world recover from what the previous Divines had done.

Later

Saras smiled. She looked upon the new statue the Divines had ordered built after the world was fixed. They ordered it built even before their own. On it, over 300 men and women stood. It was a monument to the Mavericks, to those who had tried, and ultimately succeeded, in halting this world's decline, and in the end, restoring it. She smiled as she looked upon the recognition of those brave few. When she would pass on, 5 years later, She would smile upon seeing the Theoretical Magic of the Mavericks in use. It was an ingenious invention of magic that had rapidly spread across the universe, automatically doing the majority of the work that needed to be done by hand before its creation. She smiled, as she stepped into the magic, and Princess Saras ceased to be.