“-So anyway, to make a long story short, after figuring out how to make souls and using them to help me stage a jailbreak that ended up with me accidentally breaking everyone else out too, I saw what I thought was the trapped space spirit, broke him out, and convinced him to help save the rest of us while I connected to them and shoved over a bunch of mana too, landing me in my present state. My soul still hurts, I really don’t think they’re supposed to be doing that either, but…”
He trailed off as he noticed the looks he was getting with the rest of them only changing their focus once the life spirit Vividus left his side and tried to throw herself at the space spirit, who until that point had remained in silence.
The only reason she failed was the other spirits grabbing hold of her to keep her back, but that didn’t stop her from cursing him out.
“All of this! All this time, this entire galaxy’s been going to hell, all because you just had to go exploring! Are you happy! Did you get what you fucking wanted out of it!”
“I’m sorry.”
Its first words since coming to the world came out so small, but Vividus accepted none of it.
“Sorry? You think sorry can ever cover that? We lost our home, all of us left wandering through the void you love so fucking much with the few we could save until we were told about this place and now we find out you’re the reason behind it! How did you let it get to that point?”
“I tried not to,” It said in agony. “Back when I was just caged, I tried to direct them to worlds that hadn’t developed intelligence yet, but…”
“But then that just made their god stronger by giving them easy targets to colonize,” She told him mockingly. “Of course it did, you short-sighted idiot! And then what? It only got more power to use over you until it was picking the destinations itself? What an obvious outcome, and despite all of that, you still selfishly chose to live.”
“Vividus,” Salinoth began in a warning voice, only for her to turn her anger to him.
“What? You think I'm wrong? That every star in the sky wouldn’t have been better off if they hadn’t just made the choice to end themself?”
“I had to do it to protect the other space spirits,” It tried weakly, getting a sneer for its efforts.
“Not worth it. With everything that’s taken place because of your kind’s wanderlust, uncountable deaths have happened, and worst of all, to your own kin. You should have had the strength of will to sacrifice yourself and them and spared the universe some agony.”
It looked like others were going to try to speak up to that but none of them were able to, Vividus didn’t wait, instead turning and vanishing in an instant as the rest stood in the silence her absence left, none knowing what to say until Ben stood up, dusting himself off before he spoke.
“Okay, what’s done is done so unless anyone has more yelling they want to do, we’re going to look at the positives instead. The world has a new great spirit, that’s a plus, along with all of the space spirits. Speaking of, let’s get them freed.”
The space spirit released their cages when he said it but only seemed to retreat further into itself from there, quietly watching from the side as Ben did what he needed to, overfilling his soul and breaking the cages one by one as the air slowly filled with the imprisoned spirits, each hesitantly making their way out after so long to fly around their great one and the others there, showing just how many were trapped in each tiny container.
In an instant, the spirit population of the world had at least doubled. For those around who could see them, the sky itself was being covered as they slowly spread out, though nothing more as they waited there, betraying the very nature that got them trapped in the first place by refusing to go out farther.
Abrus was the first to speak up once it was done, looking between them all before sighing. “Alright, it seems like we still have a lot to talk about. Ben, Thera, you both go in and rest, we’ll… Well, you both go in and rest.”
There was sure to be a lot for the great spirits to say given what had happened and what they now knew and Ben was happy to take Abrus up on the offer. After everything he’d been through, he wanted the break. He wanted rest.
Thera seemed to want it just as badly but it was obvious she was fighting with herself as she grappled with her desire versus her sense of responsibility, with the latter winning out despite herself, leaving her to lean in to kiss him while she also apologized.
“I ran out of the hospital as soon as I felt you and people are going to be dying while I wait here, I need to go back.”
It obviously wasn’t what she wanted to do, but what she needed to and Ben understood, placing a gentle hand on her cheek.
“Go, I’ll still be here whenever you finish up for the day.”
“You better. If you manage to disappear again I’m going to have a breakdown.”
“Not to worry, a real bed is exactly what the doctor ordered and I need to pop up to see Myriad anyway since he hasn’t seemed to have noticed the return of his wonderful apostle.”
He kissed her one more time before she started going back and waited until she was no longer in sight to get up.
“Do you need some help getting there, Ben?” Abrus asked him in obvious worry. “I could send for someone-”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m back to full health, minus whatever’s happening with my very sore soul and that’s more something that’ll heal in a matter of time, hopefully at least, but either way I’ll manage for now.”
He gave a small nod to the others before going in, being polite to the passing staff without running into Pelenia by the time he made it to Thera’s old room and went inside.
Sitting among her possessions was the miniature gate to Stonewall, offering him the chance to get to his real home, but Ben didn’t take it. How could he when there was a bed directly in front of him, practically calling his name? So instead he laid down, closed his eyes, and let his mind drift up to the realm of his god to the gloomy atmosphere it contained.
In it, Myriad, Helori, and Nare were all there, deep in their work like he so often saw them to the point that none noticed him arrive but the mood was undeniably dark. Myriad wasn’t floating, instead collapsed to the ground like he did any time Ben drove him to despair, while Nare and Helori both looked depressed. He was so much more used to the crafting god giving off a gentle amusement while the goddess usually showed her curiosity at best and neutrality at worst, not the heavy feelings that were flooding the space in a way that was making it hard to speak up.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
He couldn’t just not say anything though, not after so long, so he cleared his throat, feeling their attention dart to him as he finally spoke.
“Hey guys, it’s been a while. Guess who’s still alive?”
He didn’t get an answer. What he did get was his god, flying at him like an unpleasantly angular cannon and knocking him to the ground, sounding like he was weeping even without the eyes to do it.
“Ben! You’re alive! Oh, thank goodness you're alive! You were taken and then I couldn’t feel you and I assumed the worst and then-”
“I missed you too buddy,” He laughed, patting his god as the two others rushed over, Nare picking him up and slapping his back while Helori ruffled his hair, each of them showing just how thrilled they were to have him back in the end, with Helori’s eyes shining with the curious light they’d been missing only moments before.
“Alright, you’re back and alive so tell us exactly what happened! Did you somehow squeeze through the demon gate right before it closed?”
“Oh man, it’s a long story that I’m sure some of the other gods are going to be hearing about soon but for now let me catch you up on my little adventure.”
Once more he went over it all, giving the same story he’d given the spirits and getting to watch as their faces took on a range of looks with each point he hit, with the majority ending up as concerned, even if they chose to focus on one specific aspect.
“You materialized souls,” Helori said, looking at him blankly. She’d seen Ben manage the impossible, they all had, but that was another level entirely. Without even thinking about it first she was already sinking her arms into his chest to examine the changes. “This is… Well, you really do need to see a soul mage to get this healed, it’s going to be a couple weeks of pain otherwise, but this is a lot, Ben.”
“Yeah, and you’re skipping over the very cool part where I’ve almost completed my soul mage job too! Honestly, don’t want to brag but I really am the best at everything I do.”
“You’re underestimating the achievement,” Nare told him. “You said you got transgressor as a title? Seeing as how you got away without their god stopping you it probably wasn’t keeping an eye on you to give it so I’d say it’s a system-granted one, and a well-deserved one at that. Ben, that’s not even something I’ve heard of a god doing at the height of their power. In essence, you’ve transgressed beyond what’s possible for us.”
“Okay, sounds cool and I love having the bragging rights but what does that mean for me?”
“I have no idea. This isn’t something mortals do. That isn’t even something I would have considered to be a limit because the idea of creating one is so outrageous, who would think of it? You’re still mortal so it hasn’t changed you per se-”
“I can’t be so sure of that,” Helori cut in. “He awakened two skills so the nature of his soul has obviously changed a lot, but the total changes are massive even beyond what I’d expect after accounting for that. There could easily have been an equally huge change snuck in thanks to that skill, it’s not like I can pull them apart to see what did what. People don’t usually go through so many changes as that in the span of a month.”
“I also just got a new skill called soul expansion,” Ben helpfully added, getting him more looks as his god spoke up.
“No matter how shocking it is, there’s no reason to assume that gaining the skill altered his soul in some way. We haven’t seen it in other tier-one skills so there’s no reason to assume it isn’t just exactly what it says.”
“And if I manage to awaken it then you can give it another look.”
That got him more stares with Nare being the first to speak up that time.
“You’re planning on awakening it?”
“I mean, sure, why not?” He shrugged. “It’s ninth level and you genuinely wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many millions of souls I created since I’d seen you last and it’s not like I’m going to stop until I get the job done. Heck, it doesn’t even cost me much mana at this point, even if I slow down I’m still going to do it a bit, might as well see if I can cross the boundary and if I get the soul mages’ help when I go to visit them it might even be easy. Hell, I may as well even take soul defiling gardener as my next job seeing as how it’s both a job I’m curious about and a soul job, I should be able to finish it way quicker than a tier-three one and it might give the skill the push it needs to go over the edge.”
“...Just let me get a look at you after,” Helori sighed, her curiosity on the topic letting her brush past the insanity of what he was saying.
“You got it. Actually, how does awakening affect a slightly damaged soul?”
“No clue, get it fixed first instead of trying to find out.”
“Fine, now since I’m back, tell me the bad news already, how’d the wave turn out?”
“Better than we could have hoped yet still objectively terrible,” His god sighed. “I don’t think any that made it past the second wave on their old worlds had results nearly this good but the death toll was still high and the amount that got through is going to cause absolute chaos for the next year, whittling away our forces farther. All things considered, it could be a lot worse, but…”
He trailed off, letting the thought hang there. Compared to the past, things were excellent, but there was always going to be the lingering question of if it would be enough, something they could only wait and see as time went on, with Ben feeling like he had the answer already, placing it to solid no as things he’d seen and heard passed through his thoughts.
The dead one bound to you…
The one that looks just like Oaun in my eyes…
One answer for now, I’ll get the other in a bit. He told himself before looking once more at the gods around him before he spoke, seeking confirmation instead of an answer. He didn’t doubt he actually had the answer.
“Anyway guys, now that I’m back there’s something I wanted to discuss with you all.”
“Yes?” Myriad asked, not knowing where this was going till Ben went on.
“It’s just, while I was trapped I had a lot of time to think, you know? About all sorts of different things. Once you get the hang of making souls it doesn’t actually take that much mental power, for me at least, and it just made me a little curious about something. Something a little obvious actually, not sure why I never noticed it before. With the only exceptions being the mana-based life in reality, every world that develops life also has gods born to it. Kind of interesting, isn’t it? It does make one wonder about the mechanics behind it. Is there something about abiogenesis in this universe that generates divinity at the same time or does it have more to do with a world developing the necessary conditions for life also producing the right conditions for the existence of gods?”
“An interesting question, but one we can’t exactly answer,” Helori told him. “In the same way mortals typically can’t remember their births, neither can we. It’s, well, blurry for the first bit of our existence I suppose is the best way to describe it.”
“And that’s neat to know but not exactly the point I’m going for,” Ben said brightly, able to see from the look on Nare’s face that he at least realized where he was going with that. “But that’s curious, isn’t it? If every world that has life has a god unless it births something like spirits or elementals too, then that leads to a pretty obvious question, doesn’t it? As far as I’m aware, this planet doesn’t have native intelligences, all of them are refugees, but there should still be a god or gods from here at least that just hadn't reached the point where they were able to do such a thing, so why haven’t I heard of them? I’m admittedly not the most pious, but I feel like the names of this world’s native gods would have come up once or twice, right?”
Now all of them were silent, each knowing where he was going with that but none spoke up as he placed a hand on his chest and stared them down.
“It’s kind of embarrassing I needed a clue from the demon god that had me kidnapped to figure this out. If I cared about religion a bit more this feels like the sort of thing I could have gotten myself years ago. The dead one bound to my soul, there’s really only one thing that fits that statement, isn’t there?”
Again they were silent, having nothing to say to that and leaving him to spell it out.
“Alright then, let’s cut to the chase here. The gods currently ruling this world killed the ones they found when they arrived and broke down their souls to build the system bound to all of us to strengthen the mortals of this world from there, sound about right?”
He didn’t need an answer, their looks were enough, guilt and shame among them all as they waited to hear what he’d say next.