It took some time for them all to be healed, and while just how to handle them all once they woke up was one question, what would happen to their gods was another entirely that Anailia seemed to be ready to answer then and there.
“Helori, what’s the current status of the five of them?” She asked the sky as the answer came down for all to hear.
“It would be a waste to let that happen. Given what they did, they need to at least die in a way that will aid the world. Send them down.”
All at once the five unconscious demons seemed to change. It wasn’t in a physical way, but it was enough to make it clear to Ben and Thera what had happened. As with the three people before them, each of them were giving off divinity as they were being inhabited by gods.
Um, Myriad? Maybe some context please?
Wasn’t it hard for a god to be in a body of a race that hadn’t worshiped them for a while though? I doubt the actual demons were giving them any faith.
Interesting.
“A shame we can’t deal with them here and now,” The god Baphel spat at their unconscious forms. “But I like my priest too much to get him any sacrilege levels.”
“I suppose we’ll have to take them to one of the trials,” Anailia agreed. “If we go to mine I can deal with them using my avatar, they should be too weak to do much about it.”
Wait, I feel like I just heard something even more interesting. Ben thought as he perked up while Myriad grew worried in his mind.
“Hey all of you, if you’re willing to wait a bit I have a great idea to get them dealt with fast while also making things easier for Myriad to deal with their believers if you’re all good with it?”
The gods looked at him in confusion, the mess that was his mind making it a challenge to get a clear image from his thoughts while Thera found herself uncomfortably sure she had an idea of where this was going, as Myriad was cursing in the meantime. None of it mattered to Ben though. After what he’d just been through he wanted to not only be stronger, but to feel secure in his strength, and he was sure he’d found the perfect way to make it happen.
----------------------------------------
“Only you would be like this,” Myriad complained in his realm between meetings while Ben was there beside him. “The others only agreed because they don’t think you’ll actually be able to do it. They think they’ll have to fake it in the end to help deal with the more stubborn believers.”
“Hey, it’s a good idea so why waste the opportunity? If it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. Speaking of though, are you sure this is working?” He asked as he held a rainbow mana battery in his hand, enchanting it as he did to have the soul-sealing properties he’d worked so hard to create. At least it felt like he did, but normally nothing he did in his god’s realm had any effect on the real world, the fact it did this time was entirely due to the request to see if it was even possible.
“It’s working. I’m setting up replicas up here and your body is in a sleepwalking state so you can get to your stuff and interact with it properly, but we’re not doing this again.”
“What? Why not? It feels so handy and now I can practice my skills twice as much! Hell, I wish we’d been doing this since I met you.”
“Look, doing this once is fine and we could probably do this every year or so without worries, but you really really don’t want to get your body used to sleepwalking or sleep casting. Moving around while you’re asleep is dangerous enough, but using mana? You could end up keeping yourself in a perpetual state of mana exhaustion and just not wake up.”
“Alright, point taken, let's never do this again if it’s not an emergency.”
He was sure Myriad would be able to wake him up if that did ever happen, but that was only if he noticed before it became a problem. His god was becoming busier and busier so there was always a chance a couple days could pass without being contacted. He didn’t want to spend that long unconscious.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Their discussion ended as they brought the next group up though, a family unit of the sleeping believers the forbidden gods had created, who immediately felt blinded by Myriad's radiance.
Ben’s bet had been right, the forbidden gods interacted with their believers as much as any average god did, meaning that despite how few of them there were they weren’t used to being in the presence of divinity, and even if Myriad would spend a lot of his faith, there was no denying that he’d clearly grown in power compared to when they’d first met, even if Ben barely picked up on it himself.
With the last family there, the two of them simply talked to them all kindly, explaining who they were, why they were there, the lies their gods had told them, or at least what they were able to pick up on based on what the prior groups had said, and most important of all, that they wouldn’t be harmed.
Ben couldn’t be certain of how their gods originally treated them, though Myriad was able to pick it up from their thoughts, with his initial reluctance to take them in weakening with each group. They could both tell that these were simply people who wanted to live and to never experience what they’d just gone through again, with even the ones on the attacking side begging forgiveness for their acts in the face of a real god.
Once they were gone, Ben took his knife in his hands that was used to house the soul-sealing crystals, adding two enchantments along its edge. Both his level eight sacrilege, as well as the aspects of his unending crafting that made tools easier to cut with.
Looking at him, Ben couldn’t help but get the impression his god was plenty uncomfortable with the minor alteration as the last group was called. Not a family this time, but the five priests of the five gods.
They were both prepared for a far tougher conversation than any of the last. These weren’t the garden variety believers that they’d just been dealing with after all, but the priests that would speak to the gods directly. What neither of them expected was that they’d all show the same reaction as the rest, prostrating themselves immediately in the face of Myriad’s divinity, with only the one who’d fought the other four so fiercely able to look up even a little.
What? Are you sure?
Jesus, so they took my faith generators to the uncomfortable conclusion, huh?
Huh? Ben thought back at the same time that the priest Caz called out.
“My wonderful lords! Just to be this close to you, what an honor you give us! To feel your warmth and love as I never have before…”
…Uh, huh? Ben asked again, looking directly at his god in question as the priest went on.
A floating cube? Ben thought back, doing all he could to suppress a laugh as his god ignored him.
“I’m not your god, Caz,” Myriad said, pulling his name from the thoughts of the others. “I have nothing to do with your gods. My name is Myriad, and I’m simply here to explain to you how you’ve been mistreated and hope you all might give me the trust that I’ll do better.”
Ben could see confusion in the eyes of four of them. It was only Toltho’s whose shone with relief as his god explained to all of them as he had to the others before just what really happened. He tried to be kind, but there was no easy way to tell someone that the ones they’d spent their lives worshiping were evil by all accounts, and by the end they were all handling it different ways.
Totho seemed like a weight had been lifted from him, as if the choice he’d made had been validated. Tears were streaming down the face of Pleht as Nata and Empa seemed to be in shock, a not uncommon response amongst the believers. It was only Caz who denied it, standing up before him and screaming.
“Lies! How dare the rest of you believe this nonsense! Can’t you see this must be a trick of the strange ones? Our gods warned us against them yet you all give in so easily!”
“Even if this is a trick, I’ll take it,” Taltho said as he stared the other priest in the face. “We were tricked enough believing in beings that would have us kill each other for their own convenience.”
It looked like Caz was going to lunge at him, only stopping when Myriad spoke again, not able to keep himself from yielding to the divinity he felt.
“You’ll see for yourself soon enough anyway,” His god said with a small shake, picking up on the confusion of the priests. “After all, your old gods need to be judged for their acts, but for now rest. After all that’s happened you deserve at least that.”
With those final words the priests vanished from his realm, leaving Myriad to collapse to the ground when they did as Ben encouraged him.
“Gotta say, I think you handled that real well man, very godly of you.”
“Mmh, thanks. Now to just see the chaos that’s going to come with what you're about to do. Honestly, it’s really the other gods fault that this is going to happen. You were the first mortal to escape that trial, not to mention your other nonsense. Don’t know what good will come from underestimating you.”
“Well hey, their mistake is my gain so let’s see just how much I’m going to get out of this. Who knows, if things work out you might just get to enjoy my company forever instead of just my short little mortal life.”
“I want to be sick just thinking about this.”