What we heard from the natives simply did not fit into our heads. We know for sure that our federal republic arose almost a thousand years ago, and to be more specific, on the First of April 2710 according to the Gregorian calendar and is currently the longest-lived state in the history of mankind, but who would have thought that those natives, with whom we tried to establish contact for the first time turned out to be representatives of a much more ancient state than we could even imagine.
Empire Antigone - the most ancient known state of this world and has existed for about ten thousand years and has been a regional hegemon for the same amount of time. I can’t believe that the native state is older than ancient Egypt itself, which raises the question: are the inhabitants of this planet really people and descendants of the lost ancient colonists of the golden era of space colonization?
Judging by what we heard, most likely not and we are simply very similar species to each other, but another question immediately arises: why on this planet are there varieties of the humanoid race similar to humans? As far as we know, everyone with whom humanity has come into contact over the past two thousand years has not been very similar to either humans or humanoids.
Fred's medical scans clearly showed that the Antigonians belonged to the human species, while the fugitive natives were viewed by the scanner as a completely different species, which actually begs the question: what are people doing here if they shouldn't be here?
It may well be that Fred's medical scan malfunctioned and he was shown completely incorrect data, or perhaps the ancient colonists replaced the real native population of the Antigone Empire and became the leading population of this state. This is also likely, but until we find out all the pitfalls of this question, it will be premature to ask new ones.
The Antigone Empire, in terms of its form of government, is an absolute monarchy based on the words of Granid, but power in this state is not inherited, but is granted directly from Sod. Granid did not explain how this process occurs, apparently due to the fact that he himself barely understands how this happens.
Again, according to Granid, several hundred million people live there, which in the current era is a very huge number of people. On Earth in the Middle Ages, barely two hundred million people lived around the world, and on this planet hundreds of millions of people live in one state, like in some kind of imperial China.
Considering that they do not have modern technology and they did not invent gunpowder, it is unlikely that they have the advanced knowledge of farming to feed so many people, and it is unlikely that they even have arable land with such a huge population.
Granid also did not answer our question about how Antigone feeds his population, but he did answer a slightly different pressing question about why we should help the kingdom fight this state.
The fact is that their deity, called Sod, is far from a fiction, but quite real and also truly influences this planet. This powerful entity, difficult to imagine and virtually guaranteed to have intelligence, appears to simply revel in its status as a God among creatures such as humans. We don't know if this is true or not, but his influence on the world according to Granid is absolutely undeniable.
Granid did not stop with the story and also explained to us that the people from the Antigone Empire are absolutely submissive to their monarch, elected by Sod, and do everything that the messenger of God commands them, be it a noble moral teaching or a cruel whim.
This leads to an assumption about the technological backwardness of the local civilization: perhaps Sod is doing its best to slow down scientific and technological progress, forcing the natives to get stuck in one era and not move, embodying a regime of stagnation. Most likely, in this way Sod supports all kinds of superstitions among the human masses or does this for another reason unknown to us.
It is also quite possible that Sod has the same species as Elarasia, which was once worshiped by people on the planet of the same name, but unlike Sod, Elarasia, in turn, did not limit people in their technological capabilities and was essentially a powerful energy entity powered by star energy.
Elarasia, however, treated people as their children, and Sod, in turn, treated people as disposable toys. Unfortunately, we will never know the whole truth about Elarasia since all information about her was lost along with her world, which she protected and was eventually destroyed by the Pantorians. It seemed to us that she was the last representative of her species, but apparently we were wrong.
We are, of course, not xenobiologists, but we also know how to make assumptions, and my assumption goes like this: some supernatural entity similar to Elarasia and known as Sod is trying in every possible way to somehow entertain itself by bringing down ships on the surface of the planet that were simply supposed to get into a stable orbit of the planet for repairs after a sharp ejection into real space from subspace.
Apparently Granid knows well the character of this Sod and knows that this strange unknown and at the same time powerful entity will not let us out of this planet and that is why he immediately tells us that we will not get out of this planet until we help them defeat the Antigone Empire in presumably upcoming conflict.
Well, what nonsense... even if we gather our entire 127th army here in about six months and fight off Antigone’s superior army, then what about Sod himself? If it really exists and can influence life in this world, then it is possible that this entity will personally intervene to defeat the 127th Army and, unfortunately, we have absolutely no means to fight it, much less protect against a powerful energy surge which can even be plasma in its pure form.
I decided to tell Granid about this:
“We do not have a weapon capable of destroying «God», whoever this Sod may be. We cannot destroy creatures made of energy and we will not be able to protect ourselves from them either.”
«But they could be destroyed by the Pantorians.»
I added silently, deciding not to voice this part out loud, knowing full well what these monsters are capable of.
Granid, hearing my words, scratched his beard and after a few seconds of reflection said:
“So He does not care about the worries of the mortal world, for He rules in heaven, where the path is closed to mortals forever and ever, as long as human hearts beat in mortal shells.”
"Is it true?"
I grinned.
“But you yourself said that Sod influences this world, that is, it is quite possible that this deity will descend from heaven to defeat us.”
And not every God will like the fact that their followers, who carry their word and will, are interfered with by some foreigners and, moreover, crush them, and yet we must be prudent at any moment to encounter energy forms of life that are still very poorly studied and which, according to all known science, cannot exist, and yet Elarasia, the last species of energy beings known to mankind, is a vivid example of this.
“For a hundred centuries, no one has seen Sod with their own eyes.”
Meanwhile Granid continued.
“We only saw His angels, who, according to ancient tales and legends, descended from heaven in order to defeat the dark ones in an era of thunderstorms, that was ten centuries in the past. But you should also know that the angels of Sod then descended to earth and raised a shield covering a barrier to protect people from the dark ones, but the angels themselves never attacked the enemies of Antigone, His angels did not go beyond the borders of the Empire.”
“So if we just protect Lacuusa’s kingdom, that will be enough?”
I asked incredulously.
“Then how will we return to space if Sod still interferes with us? After all, heaven is his domain.”
"Heaven does not belong to Him alone."
Granid said mysteriously, making me tense involuntarily.
«What does it mean? Are there many more so-called Gods here?»
I noticed to myself, and in the meantime Granid continued and confirmed what I was just thinking:
“Our world is ruled not by one God or two, but by many, and we don’t know all their names as long as they do not like to walk on the lands of mortals and color our gaze with their splendor and at the same time frighten us with their nightmarish madness. Sod only commands people to live in his promised land, to feed on his flesh, and in return he only demands that people live according to the law and His word, and when the hour of danger and threats comes, he sends his angels to help protect those faithful to Him. Other Gods may never have appeared in the mortal world at all, while others rule over their people in other parts of our world or even wander in the bodies of mortals.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The very fact of the existence of even more so-called deities is a problem for us that is not so easy to solve. However, a very interesting question arose in my head:
“Is it possible to establish contact with the Gods?”
“Unfortunately, this is unknown to me,”
Granid shook his head.
“But if you show the deities your will, your desire to leave this world, then they will undoubtedly listen to your thoughts. Their gaze is great, as is their will, as are their whims.”
"Stop."
Fred suddenly intervened and judging by his face, he was clearly irritated by what he heard.
“You have just told us so many things, and you think that we will believe you so easily? Boris, he is blatantly lying to us! What the hell are “gods”? Okay, information about the Empire will help us, but Gods... are you serious? Absurd! Just pathetic excuses for not letting us pass through their territory without their knowledge.”
Fred was angry, he, as an ardent supporter of the materialistic view of the world, simply could not believe in the existence of Gods and immediately rejected this word as something that could denote the existence of these supernatural forces. I would continue to call them Gods, because it’s easier, but Fred, as always, would complicate everything, delving into the meaning of each word.
«Or maybe these are really excuses.»
I listened to Fred's words and began to look more closely at Granid and the other natives behind him.
“Your doubts are clear to me,”
Granid said after hearing Fred's words.
“But you also understand that what I said is the truth of the pure river. The gods of our world create their will and change the world as ordered by their great plans, and we mortals are just dolls in their mighty hands. We are not strong enough to live free from their will, against their will and contrary to their ideas. We mortals can only live out our lives and leave fruits for our descendants so that they do not feel the same burdens as their ancestors.”
Usually those who say that they voice the truth are liars and my experience of watching Republican propaganda speaks volumes about this, but it is unlikely that Granid will decide to lie to us when he can kill us here and now at the touch of a finger. Why is he trying so hard to fool us? Is he just pretending that he is really strong? Or is he hiding something from us with his lies? Or maybe he's not lying at all. I can’t determine whether he’s telling the truth or not, trying to unravel the intonation and facial expressions of his face. He is literally impenetrable.
«And yet I can’t trust him.»
While I was thinking about many questions, Itami suddenly joined the conversation.
“I understand correctly that everything you know about the Gods you did not learn from your own experience? I mean, you learned all this from books and legends. I'm right?"
"Right."
Granid answered with a nod.
“These are legends of the past passed on by word of mouth, fragments of the stories of ancient times, carefully stored in our minds. Each of us has the right to believe or not believe in these words, but I personally believe, because in my lifetime I have seen darker and more terrible creatures; my eyes will never see them again in my life. And I also saw how the angel Sod dealt with the dark one, for any mortal does not have the strength to deal with the dark one and, moreover, escape from it. Consider this my experience, thanks to which I am convinced of the existence of Sod.”
“Speaking of the dark ones.”
I intervened.
"Tell me about them."
“Few people this summer know about the dark ones, so I will have nothing to hide from you. I'll tell you what I know about them.”
Granid further shared with us information about the dark ones. And although I understood that all his words were just a retelling of most likely far-fetched legends that might have nothing to do with reality, they could still give us some clues for finding answers to our questions.
So, from the story of Granid, a thousand years ago the dark ones attacked this world, unleashing the most terrible war in all known history. The war was so terrible that even the angels of Sod who descended from heaven could barely cope with the enemy and after ten months of conflict they were still able to defeat the dark ones. Granid did not talk about how the war went on, what was done during it and what legends have come from those times, but he talked about the fact that it went on literally everywhere on every corner of this planet.
After that ancient war, fragments of the invaders remained scattered on the planet, the so-called dark ruins, which most likely consisted of destroyed enemy bases or large ships. Over the last thousand years, the people of this planet carefully dug up everything they could and pulled out many interesting things from the dark ruins.
The artifacts found, however, were so dangerous that, as a result of improper use, they could destroy an entire country, which is why the Antigone Empire monopolized their possessions for everyone's safety. Any state that violated the ban was subject to a punitive war from the Antigone Empire, but only if their leaders learned that some tribe was hiding a dark artifact.
Nevertheless, the Empire could not reach everyone and some states still continued to keep artifacts as some unique relics, the effect and purpose of which remained a mystery to all other inhabitants of this primitive and backward planet.
From what I heard, an analogy with the Pantorians immediately arose. The invasion of the dark ones and the invasion of Pantora took place almost at the same time, almost a thousand years ago, and it was not difficult to guess who those dark ones could be.
«Most likely these dark ones were Pantorians.»
It was quite surprising to learn that a planet with pre-space civilizations was able to repel the invasion of the Pantorians, and the question also arose of why Pantora, after an unsuccessful invasion, didn't simply destroy this world as it did with Elarasia? Did they invade this planet weakened, or maybe they also fell into the same trap and tried to gain a foothold on this planet? Does this anomaly also affect ships that can travel through interspace?
I thought that only starships moving through subspace could fall into the same trap as us, but it turns out even the Pantorians most likely fell into it too. Even if Pantora, capable of crushing any planet in a matter of hours, could not capture a primitive planet in ten months, then how are we even going to get out of here, having learned that one unknown being of the divine level is capable of straightening out the path of weakened, but still Pantorians? Yes, this is simply unrealistic!
"Boris?"
Alza called me when she saw my thoughtful state.
"You feel bad?"
Looking up at the pale-skinned native who was looking at me with concern, huddled in her jacket, I returned to reality and remembered that everyone was expecting an answer from me. I was too deep in thought and didn’t even notice how the sun began to roll towards sunset, painting the sky orange above the treetops.
«The Pantorians were here, they lost the war, that's a fact.»
I noticed to myself as I continued my thoughts.
«But what can we do here? How can we leave this damned planet if the Gods are stopping us? Make an agreement with them? Hah~! Will you also decide to come to an agreement with the insects under your feet? Damn it! We have no chance of survival if we encounter this deity if it really exists.»
"Oh shit!"
I swore, gritting my teeth with anger.
“Our situation has become much worse than we could have imagined. So how do we get out of here?”
“We’ll have time to think about this.”
Will patted me on the shoulder, stood next to me and turned to the old man.
“The more important thing now is to know what to do right now. We kind of agreed to help you.”
Granid, hearing Will's words, replied:
“I will take you to the royal capital. I suggest you talk to His Majesty about your problem and agree on mutual assistance. As I previously suggested, you protect the kingdom from the servants of the Empire, and we return you to your army and that’s it. The question of how to obtain from the Gods the right to soar in the skies is no longer relevant to us.”
The guys and I looked at each other after hearing the old man’s words, and in the meantime I decided to ask him:
“So you are a very important person in the kingdom?”
It doesn’t matter what kind of civilization it is, feudal or democratic, but not everyone can arrange a meeting with the head of state.
“Dear, but not so important.”
Granid answered and Incartia immediately intervened, addressing the old man.
“Teacher, will you prepare the rings for them?”
"Rings?"
I asked and Granid answered.
“Rings with the spells of Babylon. They will allow you to speak the language of Lakuus and nothing more, but I advise you to study the language of Lakuus if possible, because the magical power of the rings is not limitless and can dry out. In this case, the rings will become just useless trinkets.”
«Wow... they can do that.»
I was surprised at the abilities of the magicians and asked:
“So you will make something like translators for all of us?”
I clarified and Granid nodded.
It was difficult to take in so much information at once, much of it was even difficult for us to believe, and yet we had no other choice. We got caught on the way to the magicians and we can say we were lucky that we did not come into contact with the natives prematurely. The information received literally made my brain boil, one theory after another and one terrible fact after another. This planet turned out to be not just anomalous, but a whole arena of forerunners, a cemetery of powerful forces, or even its concentration and arena.
Even if the Pantorians fell into a trap and were unable to escape by flying through interspace, then the only way for a ship to fly from this system is through pure movement through real space, which could take decades. How extensive this anomaly is is unknown, and it may be more than several tens of light years, and in this case, even in a thousand years of flight we will not leave this space.
Either we are looking for a way to jump into subspace and escape from this trap, or we go to bed in a lethargic sleep for a thousand years and it is not a fact that most of us will survive such a flight.
«It’s too early to think about this, first we need to return to the army, and only then we will think about how to build a ship, how to launch on it, how to fly through the domains of the so-called gods, and in the end we will look for the answer to the question: how to leave the anomalous space.»
“It’s a day’s journey to the nearest city, but it won’t be the capital.”
Granid answered, already preparing to set off.
“I will cover you with warmth this night, and at the next sunrise I will lead you into the city.”
"I guess I should thank you."
I said somewhat impolitely, still feeling negative prospects from the upcoming journey.
"It's not worth it."
Granid answered with a slight chuckle.
“I haven’t helped you in any way yet. First, give me time to make the rings. With them you will occupy your way with conversations.”