Alistair indulged in eating some of the Lom Lom dishes before taking the plate to his table and wasn't disappointed. Barton had outdone himself, or the practice had helped as the variety of dishes and their quality had increased. He froze for a moment when a literal gray alien took a plate next to him, not even wearing any clothing besides some jewelry that acted as its armor; it smiled and nodded at him before walking off.

Alistair shook off his urge to stop the gray and ask why they were famous for probing and took a plate; not wanting to ruin his appetite, he started heading to the largest table to join his family, though before he did, he spotted Enya. He had not met her since the initiation; they had gotten along well but were not exactly close. She was usually the person you would call when dealing with exotic animals, as she usually talked about little else. Her passion for exotic beasts had translated into the system as, from what he had heard, she was a beastmaster, which meant she did not just summon beasts to fight with her but also fused parts of her body with them and took on aspects of her summons to strengthen herself, an ability Alistair would liken to a blue mage, Alistair decided to approach her.

"Hi Enya, long time no see,"

"Oh, there is the host; I was wondering when you would seek me out," Enya responded, looking at him.

"Yeah, I have not seen you until now. How have you been doing?" Alistair asked genuinely.

"I have been doing fine, but let me cut to the chase; I have already told Simon I have no plans of joining you guys. I won't abandon Earth." Enya said resolutely.

Alistair was taken aback for a moment but returned her gaze.

"I understand; I won't waste time convincing you then. I presume Simon told you what situation Earth finds itself in," Alistair asked calmly.

"Yes, I know that Earth will most likely be invaded by whatever horror the other universes wish to unleash on us. Though it matters little, I will not abandon Earth. I stand with Sol," She proclaimed.

"Sol? as in the Solar system?" Alistair asked, confused.

"No, Sol is the natural god of the Earth. I met him, and he is preparing for what is to come; I am one of his chosen," She proclaimed as her clothing changed into a mostly white crusader full plate with navy blue, black, and golden decorations centered around an Insignia.

image [https://i.imgur.com/JcejEfS.jpg]

The Insignia resembled planet Earth as he knew it in mostly white and gold, though it resembled an eye looking toward the sky; it even had a little yin and yang going on, though he wondered if that had deeper implications for the yin portion of the planet.

"So, does your god have a message for me?" Alistair asked, realizing they were drawing a lot of attention again.

"Yes, he hopes you enjoy that little gift he and the wyvern lord gave you. He wants to let you know that he appreciates your contributions toward his cause and hopes you will join our next gathering for a private talk," Enya announced.

"Gift? Does she mean the Ring? Was that him in the Arena? And what contributions?" Alistair pondered his mind racing.

"I am unsure what contributions you talk of, and if I run the risk of turning a fanatic, I'd rather not meet Sol," Alistair proclaimed calmly.

Enya acted a little strange, and Alistair presumed she was angry at him for some perceived slight. She frowned and shook her head in disappointment.

"Sol does not force me to follow him. It's my choice, as he is the only chance for Earth. As for the contribution, natural gods receive contribution points from every individual originating from his domain, and while he can't make you follow him, he can prevent you from leaving if he puts his mind to it, so I recommend you take the invitation." Enya said forebodingly.

Alistair stood there frozen at her words, cursing internally. He had not expected to be interfered with by a natural god.

"Our next meeting will be at the [Nurturing Ward] in the Earth section two days from now; your sister should know where it is. As for any other questions, you can ask Sol yourself once you meet him. Lovely party. Apologies for disturbing it like this," Enya said before doing a salute, tapping her left chest with her fist. She stored the plate contents in her inventory before placing the plate back on the table. And just like that, she left, leaving Alistair and the rest of the gathering to stare after her as Alistair heard whispering and murmuring break out.

Alistair walked to his table and sat between Riseth and his mother, who looked at him worriedly as everyone started talking at once.

"That's some really bad news; we need to research natural gods and ensure they truly can't possess or mind control individuals," Riseth stated almost immediately after he had sat down.

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"Please don't go. It might be an empty threat," his mother requested.

"Inside the [Nurturing Quarters], no combat is allowed, period. This should include gods," Melissa offered, garnering surprised looks from most people at the table.

"Let's just enjoy the party. We can plan later, and we should not discuss this while there are guests," Nessyra proclaimed, shutting down the discussion.

Alistair gave Nessyra an appreciative nod as he tried to wrap his mind around what Enya had said and if he had missed something. Alistair started eating absentmindedly, and luckily, the rest of the evening went uneventfully. Once the majority of the guests had left, Nessyra immediately pulled Alistair and Riseth into her office.

"I'll keep this short, but tomorrow we all go to the library and learn everything we can about natural gods and Earth's religion and beliefs; we need to know what we are dealing with because I don't fancy getting shot out of the sky by a god." Nessyra proclaimed, and both Alistair and Riseth nodded in agreement.

"I think I met Sol during my arena match against King; it's the only place where I had to deal with individuals that could be gods, though admittedly, he felt powerful. It wasn't much more than what I sensed from Mitania; we should also talk to her." Alistair suggested.

"I don't like this. Was Enya always like this? You getting brainwashed would be one of the worst outcomes," Riseth said worriedly.

"Well, I did not know Enya that well. She was a work colleague I frequently met, but I could not even tell you if she was religious before the initiation. Also, I am unsure if that even matters," Alistair admitted.

"Would Simon know?" Riseth asked hopefully.

"I doubt it. Let's see what we can figure out tomorrow. We might not be totally screwed, and I'd hate to ruin such a nice evening. The longer we discuss, the more worried everyone will be, so let's reconvene once we know more," Alistair suggested, walking to the door and holding it open for them with a reassuring smile.

Once they joined the others, they were bombarded with questions. They had to placate them with the assurance that they would look into the situation; sadly, Simon knew about as much about Enya as Alistair did, except that she secretly had a thing going with her partner Ryan, so they could perhaps ask him once they found him.

Eventually, Alistair retreated towards the balcony, where he sat on the couch overlooking the lively [Trader's Market] below. The place truly never slept, as there were quite a few stragglers and nocturnal species out and about.

There were still many unknowns looming ahead, and the thought of confronting a literal god left him uneasy. Despite understanding that these natural gods might not possess the same power as self-made gods, it was of little comfort. Reflecting on Earth's various religions and beliefs, he couldn't shake the uncertainty of what he might encounter. While religion often preached goodness, it frequently resulted in the opposite. The crusader's armor and insignia held significant implications, though he felt relieved not to have spotted any crosses adorning it. Perhaps it was simply Enya's personal choice in armor, viewing herself as a chosen paladin of sorts.

Riseth joined him, settling beside him and leaning gently against his side.

"No matter what, I'll come to Earth, Sol be damned," Riseth announced resolutely.

"Let's hope it does not get that far. While we did receive a veiled threat, he also sought to talk to me in a supposedly neutral environment; perhaps it's not as bad as we think." Alistair suggested.

"Sometimes I envy you for your optimism," Riseth quipped.

They continued discussing their options and were sorely tempted to leave and immediately check on the library in the [Study Dungeon]. Still, they were interrupted by Zahtron and Desily approaching them hesitantly, Desily seemingly nursing a bad headache.

"We know it's not the best time to ask, but would you mind looking at the cores?" Zathron asked hesitantly.

"Oh sure, don't worry about it; what do you guys have?" Alistair responded he had almost forgotten about that bet.

Both Zathron and Desily placed three cores each on the table. Zathron's were: [Pain] [Diffusion] [Stability] while Desily had: [Sin] [Luck] [Denial].

Alistair mulled it over. Most of these could be useful; sadly, the cores were not that big, so they would take a lot of time to enrich a sufficient quantity of essence for him to use. If he was going to be honest, [Luck] was the most interesting one. He had not expected a core like this to be formed; from what he knew, it was firmly in the karmic magic school, though he was unsure just how effective using this concept was, and he picked it up.

"Where did you get this one?" Alistair asked curiously as he picked up the [Luck] core.

"Some weird pig with green plant-like markings over its body took me a while to kill it. It kept dodging my attacks. The slippery bastard almost escaped during the chase," Desily admitted, looking at Zathron.

"I helped her catch this one," he said casually.

"I'm not going to lie. This is the most interesting of the bunch, and I'm fine with buying all of these cores for your efforts," Alistair announced while rolling the core in his hands; the core had a deep green, bright red, and occasional golden coloration swirling in the near perfectly spherical core. Alistair suspected this was actually a very rare find.

The two of them exchanged looks before Desily let out a sigh.

"Let's call this one a tie, and we decide the winner with the next one?" Desily offered, garnering surprised looks from everyone at the table

"Next one? You want to do this again?" Alistair questioned with a smirk.

"I haven't had this much fun in a while, except for this party, of course. Although, I'd suggest hiring some security," she added jokingly.

Alistair took all the cores and left the payment for Nessyra to deal with, encouraging them to continue their hunt for cores. Alistair would hold off on putting the [Sin] core in his array but would definitely go out of his way to include the [Luck] core, as he wanted it to start accumulating as soon as possible.

Eventually, Alistair and Riseth excused themselves as they left for Alistair's quarters.

"When we talk with Mitania tomorrow, could we ask to put our rooms together? It is a bit annoying having to knock each time," Riseth requested as she appeared in his room, looking at him expectantly.

He thought about it for a moment; while he was a person who appreciated his privacy, he could still get that if he wished, and it was silly to refuse her request as she spent most nights at his place anyway.

"Sure, I don't see why not," Alistair exclaimed, smiling at her.

She let out an excited giggle as she hugged and kissed him before leaving for the bathroom.

Alistair went to his study room and modified his array to include the new cores he had obtained; it took him about half an hour, which was longer than he had planned, and he found Riseth lying under the covers, lounging about deep asleep. He shook his head before joining her and was thankful for his ability to fall asleep easily as he drifted away to sleep.