I awoke again what felt like a couple of seconds later. I was lying on a large soft bed, in what looked to be the middle of a field. The headache was gone and I slowly sat up.
“Where the fuck am I now?” I muttered to myself.
“You are in my domain.” A feminine voice said from behind me. I blinked and was suddenly standing, facing a tall woman. She had long blue hair, average features, and was cloaked in long billowy robes of grey, white, and black
“Who in the hell are you and what the fuck has been happening?” I asked my brain trying to process everything. Where the fuck had that bed gone? It had felt so blissful after the cave floors.
The woman raised an eyebrow at me and spoke, “I the fuck am Cilendrial, I was finally able to contact you after you aligned yourself with my affinity and ideals.”
I turned back to her from examining my surroundings. “Okay, and that all means what exactly?”
I blinked again and was suddenly sitting across from her, both of us in some cushy armchairs. Fuck the chair felt nice, not as nice as the bed though.
“I am one of the deities that used to guide the human race long ago on what you now call Earth.” It was my turn to raise an eyebrow at her, I didn’t say anything though and let her continue. “Ages ago, your Earth was just one of many realms connected together to form a larger plane of existence. Back then the realms lived together in war and peace, trading and fighting just as humans do now. Eventually humans grew tired of the constant wars and wanted out. It took them two-hundred years to find a way, but eventually their mages found a way to seal the human realm from the others.”
“In doing so they also cut off a lot of other things from their realm. From what I have learned, all of you lost your ability to use magic, even if the genes for it were there. You also lost contact with many of the gods, like myself, that used to give you power and help you with life.”
I thought about what she’d told me for a moment, but there were some things nagging at me, “So, if the human race sealed itself off from the other realms, then why have humans been getting transported to this world?”
“The spell that your people cast cost a lot of mana to keep active, over time the mana that they used has been slowly getting depleted. They did include a safeguard though. Instead of the spell just collapsing and your realm just being thrown into the mix, enough people will be sacrificed by the spell so that your realm will be slowly merged back in.”
“How many people is enough people?” I asked concerned.
“I have no idea, I do not know how much dormant mana lies within your population, nor how much mana the spell will take. Only your mages of old knew that.”
“That still leaves me with several questions.” I muttered shaking my head.
“I will answer as best I can, it has been a while since I have been able to contact one of you, and I miss the talking.”
I tried to gather my thoughts into something more concise, then started digging for information, “If our realm was separated then why have humans been getting transported back before the spell ended?”
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“Probably to have some people on this side accustomed to the system before everyone else got thrown in. Some of those who were pulled back gathered a following, one was even on the brink of starting a kingdom.”
“So we got sent here by the spell in order to clear the way for a bunch of people that probably wouldn’t even listen to us? It’s not like the spell is choosing people of influence like the president or some Prime minister. It took a bunch of random people whose disappearances will barely be noticed if at all. Hell the spell didn’t even take people of talent, unless you count the little sparring that Sam did with his family. It didn’t take a scientist to study the world, it didn’t take an architect who could help build a stronghold, hell it didn’t even take someone who was strong enough to make their point heard.”
“The spell was set up long ago, who knows what guidelines its casters put on it. They may very well have chosen normal people as the target, so that when everyone else crossed over, they would know that they also could also survive in this new world.”
I didn’t feel like there was much else to ask about the whole world separation thing, but there was one thing that was on my mind, “You mentioned that I had aligned myself with your beliefs and values, but what does that mean moving forward. I know you said you were a patron of Earth at one point but does that you’re a god? If that is the case, I’m not exactly the religious type so you might be better off with someone else.”
She looked somewhat amused at this, “I don’t know what sort of religion you have back on ‘Earth’, but here the patron gods of humans acted more as a guiding force that was chosen based on the personality someone had or what they wanted to do in life. For example, one of my brothers is the patron god of farming would try and show farmers what traits they needed to help yield better crops, or how to ask my sister to send rain where there was a drought.”
“The reason that you received one of my skills, and that I was able to bring you here temporarily, was because of your strong desire to save the people you were with and also your resolve to not give up. This in turn means that, if you wish, I can continue to help you and those like you.”
“And in return you want what?” I asked the doubt clear in my voice.
“It's not something that I want from you in return, it's more so that, as more people are aligned with me, the more I can help them.”
“So the more people who follow you, the more powerful you are?”
“In a way, but the only way that the system lets me use my power is to help those aligned with me. So really by helping me you would be helping yourself.”
I was still suspicious about what was really going on, but right now I didn’t really have a reason to doubt her. “I guess it can’t hurt, is there some ritual or something that I have to do in order to fully align myself with you?”
“You really must have some amusing ideas of religion back on Earth.” She said laughing. I explained to her some of the older religions like the Egyptians and Greeks, then fast forwarded to Christianity’s spread and the rise and progression of Islam. I also explained to her how even though some evils had been done in the name of religion, it had helped humanity get through some times like the middle ages, where most people only carried on because of faith. “Well I can see where some of the similarities may lie, but those fanatics sound pretty horrible.”
“It's amazing what you can get away with in the name of a god or goddess, most of the followers have good intentions and just want to believe that there is something more than them, it just takes a couple of bad people to paint an entire section of humanity in a bad light, it's not necessarily that the religion back home is outright evil it has just been bent for the gain of individuals a few times.”
“Well I will have to warn my brothers and sisters of this possibility.” She looked into the distance for a moment, as if listening to something. “It appears your time here is up, your body has now sufficiently been healed and… Interesting.” She looked surprised, yet excited.
“What is it?” I asked, if it was something had happened with the party, I needed to help as soon as I could.
“You will see in a moment, your friends had to do something fascinating in order to heal the damage to you. It will just be interesting how this all plays out.”
I felt the color drain from my face, and I was about to ask what the fuck that meant when my vision once again fled and I was cast into darkness. Man I was getting sick of that.