Pandora now sponsored the Kin. Her stores of Divinity, which I could only sense but not measure, plummeted as the energy was used to strengthen the species and grant better evolutions upon a rank-up. Or make it easier to achieve said evolutions. The process was subtle but the results tangible over a few generations. However, the blessed species generated passive Faith, even if they worshipped other deities. They usually didn't, as it was known that worshipping the species' deity granted better bonuses.
Now that the whole species and regions were blessed, the divinity "income" was constant. Only some spectacular feats like my concert during Mirina's declaration or Galbarar descent at the Pekothas arena could change that. Or catastrophic ones, but let's not jinx it.
I felt… perfectly normal. The Faith Attribute was utterly useless. Hooray, I could cast priest spells now but they did shit good to me. With an Attribute value of eleven, I'd rather shoot fireworks. Not to mention they were all prayers. Praying to myself or to pandora felt so awkward that I was glad I got another tail, another life, three more base Energy, and that's that.
The people around me, however, were walking on eggs around me. Not to mention class Light-1 was officially abandoned by the Headmaster, who now was also the court [Wizard]. Marlowe said two jobs were more than enough for him and promoted me to an assistant teacher.
I stood before the lectern, twenty-two eyes on me. One hand shot up. "Yes, Melania?"
"Why is the [Queen] here? Shouldn't she be, dunno, ruling her Kingdom?"
Mirina giggled, "I still need to finish my education, and with Vanagon, Julia, and Marlowe, I don't have much to do."
Another hand shot up. "Yes, Camilla?"
"Are you a god?"
I just shook my head. "No. I'm still as mortal as any of you. I'm just harder to kill. No more questions, please. Marlowe dumped this job on me, but I can't do it. The dragons--" Marisol raised her hand. "Yes, Marisol?"
"Zacheia spoke to me last night in my dream. She said you don't need to worry, the dragons won't attack for a thousand years."
Given Marisol's proclivities to add stilts to tall tales, I had to ask, "Was it exactly what she told you?"
"Erm… It was a dream."
I grunted, "Get ten more points in Mind, woman. You're a hybrid caster. Hold on, everyone. I need to make a call."
> [Administrator Hotline]
>
> CALL START
>
> Haru: Can I talk to Zacheia?
>
> Wyxnos: Ugh. Welcome to the God's Club. May I see your membership card?
>
> H: Look, she sent me some cryptic message through one of her priestesses, something about a unilateral thousand-year truce with the dragons. I need to confirm it.
>
> W: It is true. Thank you for contacting us, your call is very important. Please stay on the line after the call to evaluate our service.
>
> CALL END
Some people weren't born to make jokes.
> [Administrator Hotline]
>
> CALL START
>
> Haru: Hey, asshole, can we talk about your share of the guilt for torturing my wife's soul? Or do you want to see what the System will do when I combine Fate magic with my God-Slayer and Self-Sacrifice Perks? Or do you want me to bathe in the blood of gnomes? Some Horde streamers say it is very good for the skin.
>
> Wyxnos: It is true. The Pantheon conveyed, we talked, and decided a full-blown war between you and the dragons would do too much damage to the world. We agreed to wait a thousand years until we send…
>
> H: Get me Galbarar. I can't trust you, but the God of Truth literally can't lie.
>
> W: As you wish. Hold on.
>
> Galbarar: Haru. What is troubling you.
>
> H: Give me the truth about this unilateral agreement you reached regarding me hunting dragons.
>
> G: In a thousand years, the Broodmother will be outcast from her domain and forced to exist solely on the Material World. She can choose to descend earlier than that but she was the one that asked for more time. Whenever she descends for any reason, you'll be given a notification. If you go out hunting dragons, she'll descend immediately.
>
> H: That's it? Where is the stipulation she can't send dragons to attack Windemere?
>
> G: It does not exist. However, if that happens…
>
> H: You guys either didn't think it through or left it blank on purpose. I don't care. Give me a guarantee the dragons won't attack any of the Realms I care about.
>
> This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
>
> G: It is fair. Name the realms.
>
> H: Anywhere one thousand kilometers from the borders of any of these regions, including them: Barbarian Plains, Aquilonia, Fulgen, Windemere, Theiran, Atlantis, Ackerton, and Auvani. No dragon activity whatsoever, either directly or by proxy, no matter how many layers of detachment they may have. Any dragon or dragon-kin that tries to act inside this region or send agents shall be System-killed where it lies along with whoever they hired. Also, make sure the notification I'll receive fires even if I'm an infant. If that happens, I'm to receive an emergency activation and all the leftover Attribute Points from my Perks I'd get for the first rank. Do that and I'll forget and forgive the fact you guys conspired to have my wife's soul tortured. This regional protection will last the full thousand years, regardless of the outcome of our battle. Otherwise, the dragons may attack right as she descends to distract me. And she is not to mess with my magic. That too counts as an attack.
>
> W: We need to relocate some dragons. Give us a week to allow them to move out, but they won't attack.
>
> H: I want Lorna's soul. Intact. With her full Status restored. I know the System saves a backup of people somewhere (I bluffed). And it must be Lorna, my [Queen] and wife. With her full Status.
>
> G: Wyxnos?
>
> W: No. Not happening.
>
>
> G: Can it be done?
>
> W: Yes. It can be done.
>
>
> G: Then right a wrong. Give Haru the soul she asks for. It belongs to her Domain now. I can call the other Gods and hold a vote if you want.
>
>
> W: FIne! Fine! Do we have a deal then, Haru?
>
> H: Deal.
>
> SYSTEM: Divine Negotiator active. Contested Charisma test won.
>
> G: Your terms were accepted. Farewell, Haru.
>
> CALL END
My legs failed me and I fell on my butt. "It's over. I made a truce with the Gods. Windemere is safe, at least from dragons and their machinations."
I didn't register the reaction of my classmates.
The best scenario for the Broodmother would be an attempt to descend when I was still a child, I was sure of that. But that meant I could live as Haru for as long as I wanted. And prepare. Oh, yes. Prepare I would.
I tuned out the cheering from my classmates slash students and did some math. Dwarves could live up to six hundred years. Kitsune, one-hundred-fifty. If I averaged it, I had three hundred and seventy-five years of lifespan. The damn System stopped listing it ages ago. Then my [Mental Mastery] extended it by sixty percent, back to six hundred years. My body aged at a tenth of the normal rate. Haru could live for six thousand years. I just had to stay alive and the Broodmother would face a very angry level 200 Haru decked to the nines.
Vengeance was a dish best served cold. And I had one that was just the right temperature.
----------------------------------------
A body and a soul. Together, they're a living creature, separate they are a lump of flesh and a congealed mass of spiritual energy. This spiritual energy holds memories, System Status, and feelings, in a tangle centered around a spark. That spark is indestructible and indivisible but it alone cannot empower a creature and bring it to life. The spiritual energy can be drained to empower several works of magic, most of them vile as you consume the very essence of an individual. Obviously, the stronger the person was in life, the bigger and stronger this tangle was.
Separating both was an easy task, also known as murder. The soul required a lot of energy and a functioning living body to remain attached. Once the body was damaged enough, it lost synchrony and departed. Some other effects could also damage that synchrony and kill without damaging the body. Like the Fate magic used on me.
Reviving the dead, therefore, was a two-step process. First, the body needed to be repaired and brought to a state where the soul wouldn't reject it. Then the soul had to be eased into the body and reattached perfectly. The former was a rather easy task but required the presence of the soul to use the memories as a template. The one conducting the resurrection had to be able to read the soul and perform repairs on the body. The latter involved a game of pin the tail on the donkey if the donkey was a sheet of bubble wrap and the tails were a sheet of needles you needed to stick on the bubbles perfectly without popping them.
My {Last Chance} Perk did all that automatically but cost an exorbitant amount of Energy to cast. At first twice the HP pool of the target, I brought it down by using a loophole that allowed me to pick higher-ranking Perks without a chance of failure. Now it costs half the target's HP pool. Not that it mattered, since I never attempted a resurrection in battle and my Energy pool was immense. As a side note, my Pandora-enhanced {Soul Shepherd} removed the time limit to raise someone.
In the basement of the Royal Castle, I did exactly that to a very peculiar person. The man was already dead but the crowds demanded justice. I took the cloth doll that held his soul and joined it to the body with practiced movements. The head reattached to the body and the neck healed.
He recovered consciousness with a start. Wearing his pajamas with a sunburst-like blood-dyed neckline, he opened his eyes and shouted.
"Cursed Gods! We're under attack!" He rose from the slab and looked around. Ominous flickering torchlight illuminated him from behind us but left the two females in the room visible as only silhouettes. He stared at us and asked, "Who are you?"
It was morbid teasing but it still satisfied my kitsune impulses. Torgo deserved to suffer. I shot a Light spell that made the room as clear as daylight.
"Welcome back to Windemere, Lord Torgo. I'm Mirina Locksley, [Queen] of Windemere."
Oh, right. Mirina decided to cast away her family name and take on the Locksley mantle. We were still betrothed and she was getting really cozy around me. I think once the wounds from my recent tribulations regarding Lorna's… who am I trying to fool? Galbarar promised me to heal Lorna's soul and deliver her to me. I was holding back in hopes she would agree to come back to life.
The fallen noble scanned Mirina and his eyes fell on the Tabard. He must've {Appraised} it because his eyes went wide as he'd seen a ghost.
"Impossible!"
"About that, your mages destroyed a simile, you buffoon. I'm Haru Stouthammer, biological granddaughter to Axejaw and former [Queen] of Vugh Tarim. All your plans unraveled, Torgo. Windemere prevailed stronger than ever. I killed you along with Sadian's army outside our western walls. Now I brought you back to life. Check your notifications. You should have the death message."
He did. His disbelief became dread. "What do you want?"
"A public trial and execution. We're going to kill you again but it will be painless. We brought you here to offer you a bargain. Play the part of the villain and confess your plans, shout, curse, cackle, curse us, tell how you hired the Lamia mercenaries to pose as our knights to steal Blackbrew's shipment, how you attempted to destroy the tabard, the involvement and funding from the dragons, the Adventurers to cause trouble, everything. Just don't ever mention Fat Felix. Do it right and convincingly, and I'll bring you back to life again after the trial. Screw this up and you are in for several lifetimes of torture. Trust me, for one once called the [Death Princess], I know excruciating ways to kill a person."
> Contested Charisma test won. Critical success.
He lowered his head. "I shall do as you ask, Your Majesties."