"Die?” he questions out loud in disbelief, the System must be buggy there’s no way-

“Yes,” Vae responds tense, “if something isn’t done, she will die.”

‘System Explain,’ he orders glaring at the faintly red text box.

[Festum, the eldest sister, and the muse of Festivities is going to die. It is a task assigned to System, so Host must follow.]

‘But why did the original novel never mention her death?’ He asks, still reeling with the thought that another god has to die today, ‘can the heavens even withstand losing two gods in one day?’

[System has no control over what the creator chooses to write, or what the Female Lead informs the audience about. And yes, the Heavens will not destabilize enough to warrant concern.]

‘But from what we know of Asterius why wouldn’t he help her?’ he questions, trying to think of any reason why the original Asterius would do this, it feel incredibly out of character, even for the villain Asterius portrayed in the novel. ‘Why would he let her die?’

[System has no relevant data on this question.]

‘Oh really helpful-‘

“I understand that the master of fate is busy,” Vae starts, anger poorly hidden in her tone, “but I beg you to help my sister-,“

“I’ll come,” he agrees, keeping the aloof mask even as his stomach knots in guilt, “lead the way.”

Vae stares up at him and disbelief and she quickly nods hurrying off down the road, breaking into a spirit before remembering herself and slowing down to a fast walk glancing over her shoulder every few seconds as if to make sure Asterius is still following.

As they are leaving it occurs to him that he should probably tell Pluma where he’s going. The little angel would be terrified if he woke up and no one was there, but Vae is in a hurry, and he doesn’t have time to get the seraphim.

“Angels,” he whispers holding out a hand. It takes less than a second for the stars to race down, swarming around his hand, pushing and shoving each other to rest in his palm, “I need a few of you to stay back and tell Pluma what happened.”

Their excited bubbly energy noticeably becomes less eager, but a few little stars blink their lights and float back towards the house.

Potential crisis adverted, he follows Vae in peace.

He’s never been to any of the rings of virtue, he never really had a reason too. It was where all the other gods lived, Asterius of course being the only exception (minus the God Emperor who lived in the Palace of the Sun). It was an unusual situation, it was never made fully clear why Asterius was the only Celestial allowed to live in the first layer, perhaps a way to keep Asterius segregated from the other gods? A result of him keeping a demon? A way to lessen the burden of his regency over the moon? Or maybe a combination of all three? It didn’t really matter the reason, he was living in the outcome of those choices after all. Hopefully the 6th ring wouldn’t be too unfamiliar.

----------------------------------------

The Ring of Peace is aptly named. A seemingly infinite quiet grove of towering bamboo. Wooden houses line the winding road they hurry down, all of them are dark and silent, their residents either still at the ceremony or peaceful asleep, it is the dead of night after all.

Vae has brought a lantern and it’s by its light alone that they are able to see, tonight is a new moon after all, the stars glitter too weakly to provide enough light to see by.

Vae stops at a large house, at the end of a side path from the main road. Bright light shines from within, and even from a distance, Asterius can hear raised voices.

“Festum is inside with my other sisters,” Vae explains as they approach the door, “we do not know what caused it, or how we can fix it. She suddenly collapsed after we got home from the Ascension.”

He nods in understanding and reaches for the door, before Vae’s hand clamps onto his wrist and stops him, her gaze is sharp and desperate, “Please save my sister.”

The System glares a violet red and flashes in front of his face several times before he shoves the thought of confessing the truth to her away. Revealing the system would only make things more complicated. Even if Festum was destined to die tonight, he could at least do his best to make that passing less painful. (Though he’s still unsure why Vae went to him instead of a god with medical talents-)

He can’t force his voice to work so he nods instead. Even under threat of termination he can’t make himself lie about this.

For a house that rooms 9 people with greatly differing artistic tastes, it’s no surprise that it’s a chaotic mess of color and style. The figures in the room are also a wild clash, all of them are wearing white togas, but the cut and design is different on each muse. Their skin, hair, and eye color are all unique from one another, but they all share the same worried frown, crowded around a doorway further into the house.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Follow me,” and Vae tugs his hand forward, pushing a few of her sister’s out of the way to make room.

“Vae, I told you-!” the woman cuts herself off, staring at him with a bewildered look, “FateWeaver?”

Asterius straightens himself up, trying to look mildly annoyed and not about to die from guilt, “Vae begged for my help,” he explains, not waiting for any of them to respond as he walks further inside, “Where is Festum?’

“She’s over here great FateWeaver,” one of Vae’s sisters says, pointing towards a door, “One of our other sisters, and Medicus are inside as well.”

‘Medicus?’ he thinks, trying to place the name, he knows he’s heard it before somewhere-

[Medicus,] the System says, [is the goddess of healers and medicine.]

Well, that certainly made sense, but if they already have the god of healing, why the rush to bring him? Asterius might be in charge of the muses technically, but he wasn’t close with any of them (not anymore), and he had zero knowledge of godly illness.

“If Medicus is here, then why the rush to bring me?” he asks, both genuinely curious and dreading the answer. Hopefully, the original Asterius didn’t have some sort of skill or trick to help in this situation that he didn’t have. But as of right now, he has no idea why he’s involved in this mess outside of Vae, and if Vae never went to find him, then he never would have gotten this horrible mission in the first place.

The system is all too happy to remind him that’s not how it works, and that even if Vae didn’t show up he would still have to arrive at their house to fulfill the conditions.

The door creaks open and out steps a woman with long earth-brown hair, yellow goat-like eyes, and folded deer-like ears. Her lower half is that of an elk and thick antlers sprout from her head adorned with healing herbs. She is tall enough that she has to constantly bend to move around their house, “I imagine they sent for you because I could not find the cause.”

“You are the goddess of medicine, if you cannot find the answer-,”

“We aren’t looking for why or how this happened,” Vae cuts in, tightening her first to her side.

One of her sisters, gently touches her arm, tears shimmering in her eyes, “we just want to save our sister.”

“I promise nothing,” he warns, marching past the weeping goddess. He peeks through the cracked door, it is a small bedroom, adorned with hanging ribbons and string lights, stacks of posters and invitations line the floor, a table has been pulled into the room and set at the end of the bed covered in vials and crushed herbs, seems Medicus had been working hard trying to find a cure.

The woman at the bedside turns at his arrival, she is small, of a similar size and stature to Vae, with a shock of bright orange hair and a jagged scar under one of her eyes. A jeweled horn rests from her blet and half of a leather armor set is overlaid on top of her toga. Clearly, this is Bellum, the muse of war.

“I’m surprised you came FateWeaver,” she says coldly, but she still steps aside so he can approach, gesturing sharply towards the door, “I’ll let you do what you need, just save my sister.”

Asterius just nods, keeping his gaze fixed on the pained face of Festum. Her bright yellow, blond hair is stuck to her face with sweat, and her unfocused deep blue eyes stare up at nothing. She mutters to herself too quietly to make out any words, flinching and shivering at random intervals. She doesn’t look good at all, one shuddering breath away from falling apart completely.

‘Okay,’ he thinks with a sigh, reaching up and taking her hand in his for some pitiable attempt at comfort, ‘What do I do now System?’

[Host has already completed the first two missions, Host just needs to wait until Festum’s time is up.]

It felt cruel to ask, but he had to know- ‘How long?’

[How long?] It repeats, creating a confused emoji and orienting the text box so it looks like its tilting its head in question.

Despite it being far too cute, especially considering the situation they are currently in, Asterius still needs answers, so he continues on, ‘How long until she dies?’

[System database does not contain a date, but System believes with 93% accuracy that It will be done within the next week.]

“Week?” he hisses, glaring at the text box, ‘I can’t wait a week!’

[Host could try to speed up the process if he chooses-]

‘And I’m not doing that either!’ he quickly thinks, shutting down the System’s dark line of thought. ‘You don’t have any other-‘

“You’re here,” a soft ragged voice whispers. Asterius immediately turns towards the bed finding Festum looking in his direction, her eyes unseeing, “I had hoped-,” she breaks into a hacking cough, Asterius is quick to hand her the water resting at the bedside.

“You can rest now you don’t-“

“Please!” and with surprising fast reflexes for someone on their deathbed, Festum grabs his arm, locking him in place next to her, “please I need-“ she coughs again, iridescent blood staining her hand. Asteris reaches for the water again, but with a tug he’s focused back on the muse.

“Please,” she pleads again, her eyes a fraction clearer, “please forgive me.”

Of all the things he expected her to say, “forgive me” was not even on the list. ‘What was she even apologizing for?’ he thinks, ‘What creature could make a proud muse bow their head?'

[System has no data on this event.]

“Forgive me,” she repeats, “forgive me for turning my back on you-,” more hacking coughs shake her, blood spilling freely from her lips.

“Festum,” he warns, gently pushing against her shoulders so she has to lay down, “stay still you don’t need to keep talking-“

“Forgive me,” and tears spill freely from her face. Asterius is fairly sure she’s not seeing him sitting there, her unfocused cloudy gaze is a clear sign that whatever reality her frying brain can conquer it's not this one.

Still, if it is forgiveness that she seeks, Asterius can continue to play his role. He wishes he knows who he has been mistaken for, if only so he can bring the other recipient some comfort later.

“I forgive you,” he says, trying hard to keep his voice from trembling. It is not his place to forgive whatever hurt this is, “You are forgiven Festum.”

“Ah,” and her unseeing eyes widen, tears spilling over and down her face, “Thank you,” she whispers quietly, “even after our betrayal you are so kind and loving my-,” her breath stutters.

Asterius whole body tenses as he’s hit with a familiar wave of something. Can feel the power of the heavens ripple, can feel the power start to break. A dark shocking miasma leaks out of her, filling the room with a dark gray haze. It's painfully obvious, this is the end.

“Festum wait-,”

She smiles, a smile of painful acceptance, “I’m happy you are safe, and that I got to see you one last… time.”

Her unseeing eyes lock onto his form, as a window blinks to life in front of him,

[Host has completed Mission three!]

[Festum, the 1st muse, has died.]