Chapter 26.1 - The Old Gods
They were being hunted, and the hellhounds were hot on their tracks.
Already they’d killed one of the patrols and had narrowly avoided another, but no matter how far they ran the furious culn pursued them. For two days Trey and his minions rapidly made their way through the mountains, and for two days they slept restlessly.
Eventually Trey hit his stamina cap so many times in a row that he got an entire day’s debuff called ‘Fatigued’ - where his SP was cut in half and his breathing became labored at a much faster rate. So he was forced to slow it down and stopped pushing them so hard.
Rivia in particular was slower than the rest so she spent a lot of time dismissed into her nether realm, only to be summoned inbetween traveling or sporadically during the walks to at Napoleon’s request. The only one she’d really bonded with at all was Napoleon, and otherwise she really didn’t talk much. The young culn woman didn’t like being sent to the nether realm, saying it was lonely and dark, but it was obvious she didn’t like being around Trey or Atharost either.
That next night after a slow monotone trudging throughout the day, they set up camp along a dark river winding its way through the mountains. Surprisingly enough, there were actually trees here... though they didn’t look like any trees Trey’d seen before. Long wiry leaves protruded from the bulbous gnarled branches and grew to be the height of the redwoods in California. Rivia had been adamant that this area of the mountains was probably safe for a fire, so taking her word under oath was good enough for Trey; and they easily lit a fire to ward off the cold.
“So… Rivia.” Trey muttered, pulling his hood down to where his horns protruded as the firelight flickered across his body. Shadows scattered in the background with every movement he made, putting him on edge. “Are you sure you know where the gates out of Oblivion are?”
The demoness nodded anxiously, pushing her dark hair out of her eyes but not making eye contact. “Yes. It will not be much longer, maybe another day or two of traveling by foot. The gates are not always open, we will have to activate them when we get there. That… could take a while if we don’t have the right reagents. But even if we don’t, it will still open if we activate the gate from this end.”
This answer was acceptable, so Trey dropped the subject afterwards. Rivia wasn’t overly friendly with him and it was highly likely that he’d killed either her friends or some of her family back at the fort. Not that he gave a shit, the bastards deserved what they got. He even smiled to himself thinking about the massacre that had occurred there, and frankly he couldn’t believe he’d gotten out alive. Not to mention the spoils-of-war hottie he’d procured and the ifrit badass who was now a minion of his. Trey’s luck was finally turning up for the better.
“So am I the first Earthborn any of you have come across?” Trey asked as a generalized question to everyone.
Rivia nodded, as did Atharost and Napoleon.
“Yes…” whispered Talsh’Noc’Un, otherwise remaining silent.
‘It appears that your kind is a rarity.’ Sithis remarked curiously. ‘It is strange to me that the All Spirit refers to all of this as a game though. To me, this is the only life I’ve known. I feel alive. I feel real, and I assume that the others feel the same way. To classify us as… What was it? NPCs? What does that even mean?’
“You were here for the explanations too, Sithis. You should remember.” Trey blinked a couple times trying to rid himself of a piece of ash that had floated up out of the makeshift fire pit. Cursing silently he succeeded and roughed up his hair. “NPC means ‘non player character.’ It’s a term we used to describe people that aren’t real but are still a part of the game, run by AI or Artificial Intelligence. In some circumstances the NPCs will have a preset list of options to choose from in a very limited way of conversing.”
“That’s all buffoonery.” Atharost spat irreverently to the side and crossed his arms while sitting. “So the All Spirit said that’s what we were? Really?”
Trey shrugged. “I mean, yeah. Apparently I’m supposed to be in some sort of alternate reality ‘death game’ where we all fight for our lives, but more updates on what exactly this all entails will come in later months. Or at least that’s what the system notifications said. You all seem real enough to me though.”
There was a long pause, and a cry of some beast echoed through the demonic forest of Oblivion's mountains from far off in the distance.
“Perhaps… this is how the old gods view us?” Rivia suggested softly. When the others looked over to stare, her eyes went back down to the little imp she was holding and she began stroking behind Napoleon’s ears nervously.
Napoleon was enjoying the attention a little too much, giving off little purring sounds. The tiny imp was reminding Trey more and more of a house cat.
“The old gods?” repeated Trey. “What or who are they?”
Atharost and Rivia both looked shocked, and even Napoleon gave Trey a look like he was an absolute idiot.
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“They… um…” Rivia clasped her hands together nervously and twiddled her thumbs. “Uh… you really don’t know?”
Atharost burst out laughing and Napoleon snorted, turning around in Rivia’s lap to adjust for a more comfortable position.
Trey merely sighed with a light smile and placed his chin on his knuckles. “Please fill me in, if you wouldn’t mind, Rivia.”
“Um… ok. I’ll do my best… but I don’t remember all of them…” Rivia replied timidly. She cleared her throat one, two, and then three times before she worked up the courage to speak again while trying to avoid any and all eye contact. “So they’re… I um… I think I’ll give you the short version, if that’s ok?”
“It'd take hours otherwise. Give him the short version.” Atharost agreed bluntly, laying back along the dirt next to the fire and crossing his legs.
“Sure.” Trey stated, motioning with his hands for her to continue and get on with it.
She took a deep breath and adjusted the black silk robes adorning her figure, looking up to the dark, starless sky in thought. “There are many different pantheons of the old gods. Don’t get them confused with Numen though. Numen are powerful beings that many cultures worship and work with prayer the same way gods do, but are much less powerful than a god. The old gods are on a scale that we cannot fathom as lesser beings, with their influence spanning different dimensions and across many worlds. Both the Nirvana Worlds and the Labyrinth Worlds are influenced by them, and the All Spirit is the most powerful of these old gods ever since Vehendratir, The Creator, lost his mind and put himself to death.”
Trey held up a hand and interrupted her. “You know about the Labyrinth Worlds too?”
Again, Rivia looked confused. Her gorgeous features contorted and she raised her eyebrows. “Of course… why?”
“According to the prompts I had, the ‘Nirvana Worlds’ are supposed to be the ‘Beta’ for this… game. A Beta is kind of like an incomplete unperfected version of the actual release game, which is supposed to be the ‘Labyrinth Worlds.’ Apparently, the Labyrinth Worlds are supposed to be opened up whenever this Beta ends.”
Trey shrugged at the confused look Rivia gave him.
“Um… well... to my knowledge the Labyrinth Worlds are accessible even now.” Rivia said quietly, still petting Napoleon’s head to try and settle her nerves. “They are supposed to be plagued with creatures called the ‘Spree’ though, and in the past: the All Spirit quarantined these Labyrinth Worlds away from the Nirvana Worlds to keep the thirteen Nirvana realms free of the spree. That… is how the legend that I was taught goes. In order to access the Labyrinth Worlds, you need to travel there from one of the extra dimensional realms… Like here in Oblivion. The Void, Hells, Heavens and Spirit Realm are all realms like this one where you can travel to either Nirvana realms or Labyrinth realms.”
Now it was Trey’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure that people can travel from here to the Labyrinth Worlds?”
Rivia looked uncertain. “That... is what I was told. Though I have not personally been outside of this realm in Oblivion before.”
Trey glanced at the ifrit, and Atharost just shrugged.
“Alright Rivia, please continue on about the gods then.” Trey placed his hands further towards the fire and rubbed them together to keep warm. Another blast of cold wind chilled him to the bone seconds later, and he scooted even closer while wrapping his cloak around tightly.
She sighed at his request, but quickly tensed and looked to see if Trey’d seen her reaction. After she realized he hadn’t cared about it, despite catching her in the disrespectful act, she calmed down and relaxed her muscles.
“There are different pantheons or groups of gods,” Rivia began slowly. “Some gods don’t belong to any pantheon at all, these are called ‘The Outcast.’ They are gods that stand alone, and different texts that I’ve read talk about how there are likely somewhere between 15-19 of these Outcast gods… but not all the reports were able to be verified by the scholars and priests over the years. It is possible that some of the stories were fabricated. The Outcast also include the All Spirit, but because the All Spirit is by far the most powerful of all the remaining old gods - it is deemed as a separate entity entirely.”
“After The Outcast is a pantheon of gods called ‘The Infernal Crowns.’ There are four of them, and they often don’t get along... but they have banded together in their shared hatred of the light. Alkir, Mistress of Darkness is the goddess that I personally choose to worship. She is one of these Infernal Crowns. She has even blessed me with one of her miracles due to my faith… but getting back to the point, they are a group of gods aligned to the black magics. Alkir is worshiped by much of demonkind, as is Jehema, the Wrathmaker. Omastein, Sire of Devils is the same. Then the last of the Infernal Crowns, Tilukt, Bringer of Plagues is worshiped by many of the large undead factions.”
Trey raised a hand to interrupt again. “Wait, so that miracle ‘Immortal’s Infernal Blessing’ - that’s specific to Alkir… she gave it to you?”
Rivia nodded, proudly even and smiling for the first time since he’d seen her. “Yes, I woke up one day and she’d gifted it to me after five weeks of fasting.”
“Did you talk to her?” Trey asked, intrigued by the information.
To this Rivia shook her head, her smile fading again. “No… to be able to talk to a god or goddess would require you to be in much higher standing than I am. The most I experience now is occasional dreams, directly talking to a deity would require a pledge. Priests and priestesses or other followers of the faiths are often given trinkets of abilities from the higher powers as a way of persuading them to follow that particular god or goddess. The deities feed off of prayer, and their priests and priestesses spread their words to convert others. The ones who have received pledges usually have high amounts of divinity points that the gods can draw on. For me… because I am a lowly priestess and only started studying scripture a few years ago, I have only had one goddess take interest in me. However... I am glad it is Alkir, for when I grow stronger and more devout in faith I will no doubt choose her as my patron goddess.”
“What’s a pledge?” Trey asked. “Sorry about all the questions, and thanks for taking the time to answer them.”
“She doesn’t have a choice…” Atharost muttered with a wicked grin.
Rivia ignored the ifrit and genuinely smiled for the second time ever in Trey’s presence. “You are welcome, master. A pledge is what you do to claim a patron god or goddess. When you grow devout enough and strong enough to undertake a pledge, either the All Spirit will contact you and let you know that you have the chance to do so… or one of the other deities will contact you directly if they are especially interested in you. Until this pledge it is very rare to speak with any gods or goddesses, and obtaining a pledge and a patron deity is a great honor.”