"Many times I've seen Him extend his hand in mercy rather than killing, chief among those times is when we welcomed the Hivemind to our home a year ago, Freewill is his calling but lets no being alive or not say my husband isn't merciful, even if he will deny it if asked personally."

All-Mother in a rare interview for the Imperium.

Lucrezia coughed, her face beet red as the being that created her and nearly every living being on this planet sat at the head of the table, All-Father Faal had a caring smile on his face, ever the optimist as the stories said.

"The prayer, when you first did that prayer I knew something was up you know? very few have the right mindset to invoke it at the right time to be actually blessed by it" Faal spoke, his voice filling the room.

"But I must say, whoever did this hack job of a soul meld wasn't very good at it, they were very good at leaking confidential information to a quarantined reality but melding? low marks I must say"

Lucrezia cast her eyes to William who was smiling when he said "And if you get more of us that might become an Issue"

Faal waved his hand "Fixed already my dear boy, Lucrezia's little show with the Angels made sure that we found the loopholes in the system and plugged them right this time" Faal laughed "To think He would send two! Do you know He was among the first to agree with the Quarantine? "Lock it down" his words.

"I will not pretend to understand the motives of the Divine, even if my brain struggles to accept the fact it was all real" William spoke, his gaze far far away from the room they were in, there was sadness in his eyes, Lucrezia knew that was when a part of him he tried very hard to keep it locked away came out and yearned to return home, to Terra.

"Will there be punishment for my summon of the Terrors All-Father?" Lucrezia asked.

Faal rubbed his beard, a pensive look etched upon his face "Hm, honestly? I don't think it would be fair, If I do punish you two, I also have to punish Hope, the Queen, and quite a few nobles who also let loose a few minor invocations at the high point of the battle, it is a shame you missed seeing that lad leading them to the final charge William, Lucrezia. To elevate a common man through effort and grit to that position is nothing short of inspirational."

"Besides, Summoning an Avatar of that dreadful fellow is the bigger issue here, I'll have my daughter deal with that particular fallout after all..."

"Delegate and Mitigate" William spoke before Faal could finish and the All-Father laughed.

"You sly devil, How much do you know I wonder? I must say I am impressed with the ones responsible for the leak" Faal stopped himself "but I am afraid I have bad news for you William" Faal snapped his fingers and an image of the Monolith appeared in the middle of the table "As you can see here, whatever magick was weaved to merge your souls was damaged when you were called to my realm, yet the Monolith had a few self-defensive runes etched upon it that flared when Malphas struck you down"

He pointed to one William was intimated with, the rune of the second chance.

"Oh wow, a one-time resurrection" William spoke and Faal nodded.

"Indeed, but what you missed is that the Rune is meant to repair the entire Monolith, which means you are permanently bound to my reality, there is no going home for you anymore son, tainted as you are to your Gods they would rather damn you to oblivion at worst, or send you away at best"

Lucrezia was barely holding her tears when she saw Williams's face, resignation, acceptance, a longing for home "All-Father please, is there anything you can do for him?" she begged for mercy and prayed the divine would answer it.

Faal looked upwards to the void and said "A message from your benefactors" his voice grew in power and the language shifted, ancient, powerful, strong.

"William, Son of Ill begotten and Ill-fated parents, It is with a heavy heart that we deliver this message to you: Your soul is now bound to the well of life and death of the All-Father, take heart that your actions, small as they were not dismissed, for he who would shepherd the weak and the timid across the valley of death will always be in His favor, be in this world, on in ours."

"A kind message, from someone who's often not kind to transgressors of His laws" Faal nodded "and yet even knowing that as you do now I can see it in your face, that predisposition to self-sacrifice, a noble trait but one that often leads to bittersweet endings" Faal stopped. Lucrezia gasped, of course, she wanted to say but words failed to become manifest.

She knew him better than anyone, knew that he would always go above and beyond for the ones he cared about, and that he often cursed himself for taking her life, status, and power even if Lucrezia told him time and time again she was okay with it.

That tendency of self-blame, Lucrezia knew came from his upbringing, Ill begotten indeed she said to herself.

William sighed "Seems you can read me very well, for once I am stumped, there was very little in the game about soul melding magic and such, necromancy was more of an offensive attrition-based deal in there at least mechanically speaking, the references to soul fuckery were all in hard to find lore fluff texts" William smiled the thought of taking about the game's lore was one of the things he had the most fun.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Faal spoke "With good reason, that is not knowledge many have, as you know I personally ended the planet that created the spells that could unmake a soul, but this" He pointed to the image of the Monolith "This was made not with the intention of unmaking your soul but making it akin to a blueprint, it would copy it to Lucrezia's enabling her full knowledge and more important context behind said knowledge, while your own existence would become fuel to the spellwork, not unlike how a regular soul becomes another here, as they pass through the cycle of death and rebirth should they wish at the Queue"

"A superb job of optimization, letting the ones choose where to go instead of forcing them into an afterlife or rebirth," William said and Faal smiled again.

"Then I can see only a single path for the both of you, with my knowledge and power I can merge the two of you together, birthing a new person in the aftermath, instead of using William's soul as fuel, the two of you will be fused so to say, it is a painless ordeal but there is a side effect to the process"

Faal tapped the table and an image of Lucrezia's body appeared "Lucrezia's body and soul are the linchpins of the Monolith, which means she would be the one who would rule over the fusion of memories, emotions, and thoughts" he tapped again and William's image appeared "In theory, the spell would balance it out, but given the damage of the Monolith, and your brush with dearest Malphas we are looking at something less balanced"

"Either that or both of you die and are either reborn or sent to your afterlife of choosing" Faal concluded.

"It is not an easy decision to make" the Divine spoke his voice heavy "but one that needs to be done nonetheless unless the alternative is preferable"

Lucrezia sighed, resignation hanging over her head like a noose, a small part of her wanted to end it all, it spoke to her trying to sway her thoughts and feelings, like a snake it coiled around her heart.

Could she? there was too much left behind, too many people who relied upon her and William, it would not be fair, to die and let all that responsibility fall upon her aides and friends.

Ah the word stung in her mind, a crack of lighting against the snake coiled who lashed out, she knew well who had instilled that sentiment on her, once fair rulers of the mighty Wulfgren duchy, now laid low by her hands.

"There's too much to be done, we can't, we must not give up now" William spoke and she raised her head, his hair glistering in the unnatural light of the room they were in, cold fire in his eyes as they locked straight into Lucrezia's

So much said with no words exchanged, Faal's face became a mask as William's turned into a smile "Ah all this talk of responsibility is a...open wound still, forgive me All-Father" he stopped talking and gave the Divine a slight nod.

"What? what are you on about William?" Lucrezia was puzzled for once, the comment quite literally taking her out of the somewhat heavy atmosphere.

"He means my troubled relationship with my own parent's dear girl, not a topic you will see the priests talking about on the weekly mass, after all, I am not a fan of it" the Divine sighed "But to not leave you in the dark, My parents are well...Divines of a higher order, of magnitudes higher than even the terrors that wage their war against Terra, they are sticks in the proverbial cosmic mud and were not fans of me going about my way to forge a path and dominion of my own" Faal smiled, it was the first time Lucrezia felt fear in her very bones.

That was the smile of evil deeds.

"But enough about me, I will give you two some privacy to hash this out, once you are done, Call me."

----------------------------------------

Richard had regained some of his strength when Hope nearly collapsed "ACK!" she screamed and he rushed to her side, grabbing her the same way she had grabbed him before, the balanced shifted as Hope's eyes rolled into her eyesockets and back.

"Too...much...rage used" she was gasping for air at every word, they could see Lucrezia in the distance, her chest rising and falling at a steady pace, Richard nearly cried but managed to hold the tears in.

"Steady yourself, friend, we are nearly there" he spoke trying to help her Hope nodded and said "Well ain't this funny, seems the roles have changed" she tried to laugh but a nasty cough came instead "Fuck me, no laughing until I'm healed"

Richard stopped "Can't you change to whatever God blessed Vivienne? cast a strong healing spell on both of us?" Hope shook her head, her face a bit red with shame "I am afraid my blessing is on some sort of blockage friend, seems that summoning the one God who dared raise a hand against the All-Father was not that wise"

Richard laughed "I am sure she will have a fix for that, I wonder if Kaine and Gwenarius know something about her frankly freakish solutions and knowledge" Richard laughed "And do not beat yourself over that particular fact Hope, powerful as you are you were no match for that thing, it would've killed everyone here and beyond I am sure of it, Malphas really was ready to destroy it all to avenge her son"

"I talked with Saa'ryu you know" Hope spoke after a while, having digested Richard's words her face lit up a little, and he saw that familiar cheer returning and smiled to himself, "She told me...she told me Lu was ready to die today, the Queen would've never raised her hand against anyone else, even me since Arthur loves me, she told me that ever since she started to work towards freeing her lands from her parents there was this how can I put it? an impetus in her actions, the way she threw herself in combat that screamed..."

"Deathbound Oath" Richard's lips moved fast, as a friend of many a knight and mercenary in his pub-crawling activities he was familiar with the term, a peculiar quirk in Vermilion's culture, fully endorsed by the gods, so much in fact Morugarius herself had said she placed those under the oath in her most important ranks in the war over the cosmos.

It made...too much sense now that he thought about it, her skills, the way she fought, how much mana she wasted on those ridiculous leaping and crash attacks, even the battle lust granted by the Greater Blessing of Saal'Xhir fitted to a perfect T, never mind the fact the northern raider God also blessed her.

Hope broke his thoughts with her voice, a sadness ringing from the fair's woman throat "My parents as you know lead a mercenary band, in one of their least talked about campaigns against the Elven Menace had my uncle Y'tan raid a village..., the information he had gotten from the allied forces was wrong and the man massacred civilians that night"

"He was a good man Richard, but also a very pious man, unable to forgive himself even after the superior was punished he volunteered himself to be in the tip of the spear when we broke through Grannarius's final line of defense, and he died that day"

It was a story Richard had heard many a time while sharing drinks with the fighting folk of Vermilion, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, seeking forgiveness via the ultimate sacrifice, leaving the bitterness of death upon their friends and family.

"We might wanna have a sit down with her after this is over" Richard spoke and Hope nodded "You more than everyone I reckon, given your declaration that the entire Kingdom heard" Hope spoke and she smiled again.

"Imagine, 30 years from now "Duke Richard celebrates his declaration of love in the middle of the largest battle the new world had ever seen!" in the journals and criers when I become Queen, I will make it a national holiday!

Richard's face went red up to the ears "Godsdamn it Hope don't make me blush after such a heavy topic, ye gods I am in for round two when my mother finds out about this..."

Hope laughed, little tears falling from her face "Oh my friend, I am sure she already knows!"