Serena, The Goddess of Knowledge looked out over the Pacific Ocean sipping her drink. Adam waited patiently sipping his own. A few moments later Serena turned back to him, “What happens to souls?” she asked rhetorically. “I am aware of the lessons my shadow and others within those shadow universes explained to you about what a soul is and where it goes and how they ultimately come back. What they described was not wholly accurate.”
“Are you saying souls don’t continue to reincarnate, trying to grow stronger and become Transcendent or higher, like I am?” Adam asked.
She looked at him and sighed as she smiled softly, “Not Exactly. What you were told or learned was true where you were. In that fractured Cosmos, the rules had been altered and changed.”
“Why did someone create that system? It’s almost like someone didn’t want souls to advance?” Adam asked.
Serena cocked her head, let the idea swirl around for a minute then sighed heavily as she said, “Had you only been born a million or so years ago.”
“Why did you think the Cosmos had been fractured?” Adam asked.
“Consensus on the topic was that the Cosmos had been fractured to prevent a catastrophic accident from wiping out a Prime Cosmos within a Realm. One thing you were told is true. Normally only one Cosmos resides within a Realm. There are exceptions but they are few and far between. Your original Cosmos being one of them.”
“That makes a kind of sense,” Adam said as he tried to get back on the topic he wanted to discuss by saying, “You were describing souls?”
“Souls, yes. I am what you refer to as a God. Within the rankings of Souls, I am above the rank of transcendent, yet I do not hold a soul rank, why do you think that is?” she asked.
“With what you’ve hinted at so far, I would guess that you don’t have a soul rank because soul ranks didn’t exist when you became a Goddess?” Adam said questioningly.
“And you would be right,” She said.
“There were no soul ranks back then?” Adam asked
“None, there was simply the soul. Of course, it was thought that souls only manifested in creatures that were self-aware though.
“What happened when people died back then? Also, when was then?”
“Please understand, I came after the major change, but before soul ranks were added to the system. I was told that people didn’t die. It might take a while for a body to reconstitute. As for how long ago. The Cosmos has worked as you’ve seen for at least the last 14 billion years. I became a Goddess a bit before your Universe was first conceived.
“What about levels and character progression and the like?” Adam asked.
“The individual that shared this knowledge with me is far older than I. He said, ‘Serena, do you know what boring is? Boring is doing the same thing every day forever. Eventually, some of us with a little bit of drive decided to spice things up. From the source, we went our own way and created everything you see. How does one live forever without getting bored.”
“You’re saying Souls don’t exist?” Adam asked
“Not at all, souls most definitely do exist, that was one of the first things they found out when they started messing with Universal settings. What no one, and I mean no one, understands is exactly what happens when someone gives up completely. The soul is energy after all.”
“You’re saying that the original state of those that had souls allowed them to automatically come back from death? That sounds a lot like what you’re saying?” Adam asked.
“That’s how it was explained to him?” Serena said.
“But that doesn’t make sense unless creatures that have souls were born with them, to begin with. Everyone who talked about this subject with me to this point has implied, if not outright stated, that souls are only for those creatures that have a certain level of self-determination.”
“That is the current thought yes. What I’m talking about is before the current model. Somehow someone changed something, and the souls are not assigned at birth anymore. When that change happened, people stopped coming back after they died. My teacher said that was when Death actually started,” Serena said
“But souls can’t be destroyed so they don’t die. Both what you’re telling me now and what I learned before imply the same thing,” Adam said.
“They do, don’t they?” She asked.
“Why tell me this now?”
“Because at some point you are going to go after your daughter and I want you to be prepared,” Serena said.
“Why?”
“Because I believe wherever you must go to find her will have different rules than those you find here. Older rules.”
“That is kind of you, and I thank you for the information but I’m detecting a ‘But’ in your statement,” Adam said.
“There is a “But” in what I’m telling you. If there are Realities, or Realms, outside of this one and structures repeat as the scale grows then our Reality must be inside something. The only energy type that traveled through the rift Pandora made as she was ripped away from you was Primal Chaos. While this is not proof that the substance surrounds this reality, it is highly probable that this is true. This means that only you will be able to pass beyond the walls of reality, and no, I do not know how to create a rift that will help you do this.”
“So, I have to find a Source of Primal Chaos in this Reality and I have to travel into that source or find a way to breach the membrane of this reality himself. That doesn’t sound like something you would need to worry about. What exactly worries you concerning my efforts to find Pandora?”
“One thing the shattered Cosmos had in common was that all the shadow Cosmos were linked in some way. For the most part, the rules remained the same. Some natural laws could vary but others natural laws could not be modified. It is my belief that if you connect to another Reality some of the base rules in that reality may change the fundamental makeup of this Reality. Such changes would affect all Realms and layers within this Reality.”
“If that were going to happen wouldn’t that happen because of Pandora?”
“I don’t think so. In her case, she was returned to what is now considered to be her original Reality. No link would be necessary. If she had not been a creature of chaos I think she might have been destroyed by the recall,” Serena said.
“So you’re worried that if I find a way to link our Realities I might create a sympathetic link or quantumly attach this Reality to that one. You think someone purposefully closed that door for this Reality don’t you?”
“I do. We still have no idea where souls go when they give up. Currently, when they die they do end up on one of the various layers.”
“Do they ever reincarnate?”
“No, not once since my rise to Goddess of Knowledge have I seen a single soul reincarnated. Some have been resurrected and brought back that way, but I have never seen a soul return to the mortal plane of existence as one of your fictional works describes it.”
“You control one of the Layers, right? That’s what the Gods do, control Layers?”
“My Realm resides within a Layer. I control that layer and all souls that die and chose to serve me come to me there but eventually, even that becomes tiresome for them.”
“Why don’t you resurrect them yourself.”
“In the Shadow versions of your Cosmos, the Shadows of the Divine were a lot more active in meddling than we are allowed to be. I have noticed that you have closed the message offering you divinity and set it to never pop up again. One of the rules that true divines like me must adhere to is that we must spend Divine Points to influence Mortals. This is a hard rule. Those that violate this rule find themselves locked in, let’s just say that after one stay in that purgatory, no Divine in their right mind will willingly go back to it. Also, your length of stay is directly proportional to the number of Divine Points you should have spent. You could find yourself locked away for years, centuries, or millennia. Also, if the transgression is large enough The God of Time gets involved, resets everything and you still get sent to Purgatory.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“How many Divine Points are you spending to talk to me?” Adam asked.
“To talk to a non-follower is a flat 100 divine points paid in advance plus more divine points based on the length of time I spend with you. Because you were in my temple that cost is reduced by half. Of course, I teleported you to another Dimension attached to your Universe but still another Dimension so that was another 1,000 DP reduced by half again because you were in my temple. So right now, I’ve spent 550 DP to talk to you.”
“That seems like a lot, how would a Divine ever get followers if you have to spend DP to talk to them.”
“The rules become more strict as our ranks increase. As a God, I’m at the top. Neophytes pay nothing to talk to Mortals. That however is all they pay nothing for. Demi-Gods would pay half what I just paid.”
“Still, that seems like a lot.”
“It is, but you can’t become a true God without followers. When you first start out, you must gain those followers. After that, the followers must gain more followers for you.
“What happens to those Gods that don’t have followers and generate no DP, what do they do?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Every God or Goddess I know of is active in some realm or other. It’s one of the reasons Gods create Realms where they make the rules which makes it easier to earn followers.”
“Are you saying you have your own Realm out there with a majority of its residents following you?
“No, I do not. As I said I have a small area within a Layer. Instead of maintaining a whole layer, I have alliances with other Gods and Goddesses that allow a small following of mine to exist so they may take advantage of my divine abilities. Knowledge is a good friend to have after all,” Serena said.
Adam laughed, “I can see that,” he said.
“This brings us to the reason I brought you here today to talk, before you search for your daughter I would suggest that you make sure everything here is in order because your efforts may produce unexpected changes that even the Gods cannot predict,” Serena said.
“No pressure then, got it!” he said flippantly
“None!” Serena sardonically.
“Do you think I should have his parents and friends accept the ability to become Neophytes?” Adam asked
“That is for them to decide. One of the bonuses is that they would effectively be immortal, but the downside is they wouldn’t be able to meddle in human affairs anymore. Also, they may be needed if changes are made. Finally, their souls haven’t advanced very far yet. I have no doubt that they’d make it into the afterlife but where they’d end up and how long you’d be able to visit them would be variable. My suggestion would be to have them remain mortal for now. They can do more for Earth as mortals,” She said.
“My thoughts were running parallel to yours on that subject. I must say it’s worrying to find out that the God of Knowledge doesn’t know what happens to souls after they die.”
“I don’t and It Is,” Serena said.
“Last question, why is the Labyrinth going nuts right now?” Adam asked.
“And ruin the surprise, I think you should go talk to Bri and find out.”
“Okay, real final question,”
“I know,” Serena
“Why tell me all this?”
Serena grew thoughtful for a moment then said,” It has been a long time since the affairs of mortals have impacted the Gods. Specifically, your actions led to the recombining of a Cosmos and my return to my true power level. My shadows had forgotten how powerful a God is. Those are both good reasons of course but not the true reason I am talking with you now. The real reason is my Purpose. My Purpose is to learn and share knowledge. Since I achieved the rank of Goddess I have known that something was lacking. It was an itch I could not scratch, A shadow I couldn’t pierce. When Pandora was yanked from this Reality I knew that the answers I sought were on the other side of that rift, yet I cannot go there because even Primal Chaos can hurt us Gods.”
“What?” Adam said alarmed. Being able to actually hurt the gods would pit them all against him, which he didn’t need.
“I said it could hurt us. In this Reality, your Chaos Blade could not kill us with just the Chaos, though the Aspect of Primal Destruction might do the trick. Better not to find out. Also, if I were to leave this Reality and the rules were different, the Primal Chaos outside of this Reality might modify or destroy me. So, I am talking with you, a Creature of Chaos that can probably survive such a trip through Primal Chaos. Also, you have a very strong interest in doing so.”
“I see,” he said. And he did see, from her standpoint this made sense, and if and when he returned she would learn what he had learned. Neat and clean.
“That is about all the time I have Adam, thank you for coming to visit with me,” Serena said.
Adam stood and bowed slightly, “Thank you, Serena, Goddess of Knowledge. You have given me the information I needed as well as a lot to think about,” Adam said as he stood and vanished to reappear in the temple where he’d been standing. Adam looked around to find no priest or clerics present. Nodding to the statue of Serena, he teleported to the Adamantium Doors over the Dungeon of Divine Elements.
The Captain of the Guard turned, saw it was him, and then asked, “Back so soon?”
“Yes, I’m going to head inside and try to find out what has happened in the Labyrinth. Lock the door behind him,” Adam said as he willed the doors to unlock and open for him. Once he stepped through the dark portal and found himself in the empty entrance chamber. Adam walked over to the Travel Node and appeared in the exit room to the Labyrinth where his double was just finishing off another titan. The room was littered with them. If this version of reality was a video game, even his copies were way too overpowered for this content.
Adam focused his will and opened a portal to the entrance of the dungeon, just to see if he could. Moments later he was staring at the captain through the portal. So, he could portal out of the dungeon into Primore with little effort. Mana-wise, it hadn’t even cost a full one percent. Nice.
Adam focused on the captain, “Hello Captain, Dungeon is still clear, I’m about to head into the Labyrinth. When I come back this way this is how I’m going to exit so please let your guards know. I’m not overly worried, just don’t want anyone getting hurt accidentally.”
“Understood and thanks for the warning. The King has ordered the Mages to do what they can so some might be in the area when you come through,” the Captain said.
Adam closed the portal and reabsorbed his copy. He already had a plan on how he was going to seal this entrance from the other side. He stepped through and found himself in a giant cavern. A travel node rose from the ground before him as a camp of Titans jumped to their feed and moved to attack. Adam released a fountain of mage bolts that destroyed all the Titans and other monsters within a half-mile radius of him. This was a big cave. He even saw where the Titans were stepping down from outside the cavern to enter the camp set on the edge of this Dungeon portal.
Adam placed a wall of force over the dungeon entrance then floated up through the hole in the ceiling to find himself on an open plain of grass that went off in all directions. The other thing he immediately noticed was the Army of Titans that was gathered around the hole and the number of Titans that picked up rocks and hurled them at him. Rather than get bounced around, Adam modified the Chaos of his body to convert and absorb all of the attacks. The new fluidity of his body was becoming a great boon. Boulders would hit him and disappear as they were sucked into him. This bombardment went on for a full minute before a Huge Warrior at least 110 feet tall charged forward and tried to cleave him in two with a Titan-sized Two-handed sword. Adam caught it with his thumb and finger and stopped the stroke as his hands broke the hilt from the blade
As the Titan looked at him in disbelief Adam said, “Hold or die!”
He didn’t hold, of course, he didn’t hold. Adam expanded his physical body out to a size that encompassed all of the Titans and killed them as he converted all of them into more mass for himself. A half minute later the plains were clear of the Titans.
“Bri, I know you saw that, can we talk please?” Adam asked out loud.
A portal opened before him that led back to the center of the Labyrinth. No node path this time. Damn. Getting a node path from Earth to Primore would have been awesome. Adam stepped through the portal and found Bri standing there looking at him angrily, “I thought we had an agreement!” she stated flatly.
“We do, and I have not broken it, in fact, you should have been receiving some experience back from a cursed ring I placed on the perpetrator of the original problem,” Adam said.
“Then why is over a million experience being drained from me every second again? I made adjustments to allow for the loss of experience from the first ring. When we made our agreement I reverted back to the way I’d been doing things and new dungeons I’d opened or helped began to flourish again. When the experience started getting taken again the instability caused multiple dungeons to collapse and wither away. They are gone, if not forever, for the foreseeable future.”
“Bri I swear to you that neither I, nor my family, had anything to do with this.
Serena’s voice entered Adam’s mind as she said, “One more thing, Apolyn created a ring that started stealing XP from the Labyrinth again. It’s much more powerful than anything his shadows created. Also, the next day he was elevated forcibly into the ranks of Divinity. He is now a Neophyte, though he is no longer in the mortal realm. He has been moved to a Layer where his alignment is better represented.”
Adam refocused his eyes on a very angry Bri, “I hope that was important, Bri said scathingly.
“It was actually. I just received a message detailing who did this to you?”
“Really, and why would you get a message about something that affects me?” Bri asked.
“Because I was just talking with someone who would know. We were discussing other matters and the topic never came up.”
“Very well, who is doing this to me?”
“Apolyn,” I said.
“I see, and what will you do about it?”
“I will do what I should have done the last time I met with him,” Adam said.
“See that you do, I need whatever this Apolyn created destroyed. I am losing way too much of my resources to sustain that type of XP drain,” Bri said.
“I’ll be back,” he said as he teleported to Apolyn’s Abode to find an unclaimed Hearth Crystal in the Library. When the Black Knight appeared this time Adam froze him in place with a thought and contemplated what he could do next. He’d traveled to other Cosmos, another Realm even but he’d never been to one of the Layers. That brought up the question, how could he find him? He could just try to Teleport to him. Crossing Realm barriers would be expensive though.
Adam focused his mind on holding an image of Apolyn. Then he focused his will and teleported. Adam felt something go wrong with the spell as he was yanked to one side and found himself on a marble dais with steps leading down to a flat plane. Adam could see creatures flying with wings and others with purely skeletal features. As he looked around Messages started populating his vision.
WARNING you have tried to teleport to a location that is locked. You are being redirected to one of the only entry and exit points to this Layer.
That first warning explained why Apolyn was nowhere to be seen. The second message though brought him up short and let him know everything else he needed to know.
Welcome to Hades
“