From entities like Perseus and Heracles in Greek mythos to the likes of Cu Chulainn and Scathatch in Proto-Germanic lore, the concept of a demigod described those who were either born to or rose to great powers, then becoming a beacon of their era. A person who had accomplished deeds so great that it was easier to believe them to be of divine birth than to try and explain their unreasonable conquests.

That was what it meant to be a demigod.

Had he been back on Earth, Lukas would have laughed his head off and called Zuken a lunatic for suggesting something like that. But since coming here, he’d met an actual goddess, even if it turned out to be a tiny shard that took shelter in his mind. He could recall the utter devastation and power that Inanna had demonstrated while fighting the Frost, and that was at her lowest possible level of power. Sure, Lukas was stronger and more skilled than when he’d first started out in the Crypt.

But to be considered for anything remotely associated with godhood?

Even with a ‘demi’ prefix?

“You’re joking, right? Like, I mean sure, I have an unusually large soul capacity. But—”

“Does that make you a demigod?” Zuken finished, his tone curious. “I must admit I don’t know, but I would like to find out. For one thing, you aren’t of our world, yet you can speak all of our tongues.”

“Because of a translation spell,” Lukas asserted.

Every face in the room looked at him like he’d grown a second head.

“…What?”

“Does he not realize it?” It was Bergott who broke the silence. Tanya and Elena exchanged odd looks, but neither spoke. Finally, the brown-haired water spiritist let out a long-suffering sigh. “Well, damn. He really doesn’t get it.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and explain it to him, Olfric?” Zuken suggested.

“Me?”

Zuken helplessly shrugged. “I’m out of my league. Your grasp of Holy theory far exceeds my own.”

Bergott frowned at the Banksi, before turning it towards Lukas. “Truth be told, I have my doubts about the notion. It must be a very strange world that has someone like you as a demigod.”

Lukas arched an eyebrow, wondering where this was going on.

“The changeling—” Elena coughed in the background, “—informed us that you could, erm, eat monsters’ souls while in the underground anomaly. Given your abnormally large soul capacity, I’d rather believe that you’re some kind of eldritch demon that wears the bremetan form like a second skin, consumes other species, and adds their soul capacity to your own.”

Lukas mused that while he was not completely right, he wasn’t completely wrong either.

How frustrating.

“I sense a ‘but’ coming…” he pressed.

“But that translation spell of yours does not fit into my theory.”

“How come?” Lukas asked, utterly perplexed. “I mean, it’s literally just translation. You know, one language to another. How hard can it possibly be?”

Zuken let out a brief snort of amusement. “Demigod or not, he sure is ignorant of this world.”

“Unless he’s pretending,” Bergott retorted.

“Oh, I most definitely am,” Lukas whispered conspiratorially. “It bolsters my eldritch powers when people are confused by my actions.”

Tanya rolled her eyes.

“Your spell is wrong,” Bergott blurted out.

“Well, I don’t understand precisely how it works—”

“You misunderstand me. Your spell is fundamentally flawed. As in, it cannot exist. Or, should not, at least.”

“…”

Zuken sighed, before taking over the explanation. “Translation spells work in two ways. One, both languages are known and the translation device will use a guide to switch between the two languages in real time. Obviously, this can’t be the case for you since you have never come into contact with our language before. Not to mention you were able to, you know, talk to monsters.”

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That did make a fair bit of sense.

“Secondly,” he said, taking a dramatic step forward, “you could hijack the communication process. Normally, thought is formulated into language before it is said. High level psionics can simply rip the thoughts out of your head and interpret them in their base form. With this, however, you would not be able to reply in our language, but simply understand it.”

“And yet, I can. So what does that mean?”

“It means that someone is ignoring the rules,” he said, shooting him a flat stare. “I tried looking into alternate explanations, you see. But I found nothing. Despite consulting many experts, not one could think of any possible way to explain how your translation spell works.”

Lukas suppressed the urge to reach up and touch his pendant.

“You’d think magic is mysterious, but at the end of the day, it follows rules. It works in strict, defined ways, except when it doesn’t. When you exit the realm of magic and parlor tricks to venture into the divine.”

He stared at Zuken, tongue-tied. Everything the earth spiritist had said was more or less logical. He was right, it had been a goddess, even if it was just a shard of one, who had performed the spell.

But there was something still nagging at him.

The pendant belonged to Inanna. Only she could use it. Its powers were hers to wield, hers to comprehend, hers to discard at will. So when the goddess had vanished, the pendant should have been silenced as well, its powers no longer effective.

Instead, it pulsed with power. Lukas could feel a strange, familiar warmth emanating from it.

It made no sense. None at all.

With that in mind, Lukas began to weigh his options. He could go ahead and call their conclusions utter bullshit. That would probably lead to more questions about the nature of the translation spell. However, it wouldn’t actually explain his unusually large soul capacity unless he agreed with Zuken’s idea about him being a soul cap devourer.

Only, he wasn’t interested in the soul capacity. Or, at least, not only interested in it.

He was in it for the whole lot.

“What… does this information mean to you?” Lukas carefully asked.

“It lets us know where we stand, and whether your presence remains a welcome one.”

Ah. That kind.

Sighing, Lukas gave in to his urge and wrapped his fingers around the pendant. It shone an unholy prussian blue “You’re right. It was cast with someone of divine powers. But it wasn’t me, it was a goddess. A goddess from my world that never existed in this realm.”

“Must have been somebody special to cast something like this,” Zuken softly offered.

Lukas’s lips curled into a smile. The man had no idea.

“And yes, I do absorb monster souls into myself, a side effect of which is their soul capacity merging with mine. But I’m not some sort of demon or monster. I’m just a human.”

“And all humans can do what you can?”

Only if they merge with an anomaly. “Not to my knowledge, no.”

It was several seconds before the silence was broken again. “He may be speaking the truth,” Bergott offered, actually helpful for a change. “He must have been a High Priest or someone of similar rank to be awarded with the blessing of the goddess.”

Lukas thought back to the shenanigans he’d had to face because of his open rejection at Inanna’s offer of becoming her priest. He wondered what these people would say about that. Would they call him a fool?

“So… consuming monsters at will.”

“Right.”

“More than one?”

“…Yes.”

“An Outsider who kills and absorbs souls as a parting gift.” Zuken snorted. “If I might ask, exactly how many such souls have you consumed thus far?”

Lukas proceeded to rattle off an obscenely large number.

“…”

“This won’t end well, will it?” he asked as calmly as he could manage. He was honestly not surprised at the direction of this conversation, nor the actions Banksi took. The man had kept him inside his mansion while his body drank in the power of its enchantments like a thirsty traveler in the desert. It was only natural that he used the opportunity to know all he could about the unknown presence in his midst.

That demanded the question. What did Zuken Banksi now intend to do with this information?

“That depends,” Zuken said, eyeing him. “While the Cobalt Army would love to have you on the vivisection table, I believe you're a great deal more profitable than that. Avriel and Meciel are quite accomplished kami, and yet they are pedestrian compared to the likes of Ezzeron or Tanya’s ice kami, who I am told is surprisingly shy.”

The scene between Inanna and the Frost replayed in his mind.

Shy indeed.

“In our shared time in the Class-3, you have proven yourself to be a useful crew member, not to mention any children you might sire in the future would likely possess exceptional talent. If you truly have nowhere to go and wish to stay here, you can rise to great heights within this guild. You would lack for nothing in life— gold, power, respect, whatever you desire.” Zuken pinned him with a heavy stare. “However, rest assured. If you attempt to lie or cheat me, I will react… appropriately.”

Somehow, he doubted Zuken’s definition of ‘appropriate’ was in line with his own, but he wisely kept the thought to himself and his lips tightly sealed.

“Well, Aguilar?” he asked. “Do we have a consensus?”

Lukas took a deep breath. He thought of his own world— possibly destroyed, with no clue of how to get back. He thought of Tanya, with whom he had recently shared a bed with. He thought about Inanna, and his wish to get her back somehow. And finally, he thought about the weird sensation of hunger lingering at the back of his mind, exhilarated at the thought of consuming new species and expanding his array.

“Yeah,” he said. “We do.”