Years passed and humanity continued to prosper. Stella was a kind ruler, who led humanity into continued prosperity. There were those, who claimed she was simply riding off the success of Minsol, and perhaps in a way she was. No new cities were established under her rule, but villages and roads were created, connecting the northern and southern cities intimately with the capital. She introduced the concept of currency, as previously, people always had to barter for goods. Now, bronze coins have become the standard. Stella also instated a formal military, the core of which were the lizard riders. In all previous military expeditions, the fighters were drafted from the hunters and craftsmen available. Now, the royal family had a force directly underneath them, skilled in combat and keeping the peace amongst the populace.
There were voices amongst the advisors that Stella shouldn't spend so many resources on amassing fighting power, as wild beasts could be handled by hunters or especially dangerous animals by mythical humans. However, it seemed like Queen Stella was doing so for another reason and would never take no for an answer when it came to the lizard riders. The city in the north was managed by Feidi and Inpar, while the city in the south was managed by Mundus. The northern city produced various bronze weapons and wares, while the southern city provided the capital and northern city with grain and other food. Due to the creation of roads and bridges connecting the cities, the travel time drastically decreased, now taking less than a week to travel in both directions by foot. However, trouble was brewing in the southern city, as more and more nonbelievers seemed to gather there. Whenever they showed themselves publically, they were quickly stamped out by the lizard riders squad sent there from the capital, but they often faced challenges during their investigation due to Mundus. As such a tense stalemate evolved.
All of this had nothing to do with God though, who spent His time at the continent's center. After many years He was finally done. He had created two special mythical life form templates. The first was the dragon, that He had created many years ago. The drake was the perfect blueprint, only lacking in mythical blood and wings. God had held off on creating dragons because he wished to save His power of creation for another project first. Now, it stood before him, a towering tree, hundreds of meters tall. With time, it would grow ever larger. This tree already stood above the tallest trees within the forest, and these trees were each over a hundred meters tall. This was a special tree. At the moment it was half complete and lacked two critical components. The first was a large amount of power of creation necessary to create enough divine blood for a being this large, and the second was a soul.
God looked over to the human world, his gaze piercing the distance, ending in a bedroom located in the palace of the capital. Surrounding the bed were Minsol, Caeluma, their children, and Apernora. In the bed lay the old and decrepit body of Spreta. Old age and sickness had driven her body to the edge, and it was evident to anyone, that she didn't have long left. Everyone wore solemn expressions, and a heavy atmosphere weighed on the room. Spreta, seeing their expressions, let out a deep laugh. This crisp sound reverberated within the room, until she had to stop, due to a coughing fit. She drew in an unsteady breath and let out a smile that didn't reach the eyes. "Why are all of you looking like the world is going to end? And you especially." She pointed at her dearest friend, who was currently sitting next to her bed. She held one of her hands within her own. Both hands were old and wrinkled with age. "You always keep talking about God this, God that. If you truly believe what you're saying, then you'll be happy for me. I'll finally reunite with Venator." Caeluma was unable to hold back her tears and broke down crying. Spreta smiled wrily while patting her on the head. The others present in the room shifted uncomfortably.
Spreta revealed another self-deprecating smile. "I don't know why you all assembled here today. Do you wish to hear some final words from me? So be it. I have lived a good and long life. I fear not what comes next." She gave a meaningful glance at Minsol while saying so. Minsol returned the gesture while giving a solemn nod. Spreta continued. "The greatest tragedy of my life was the loss of my husband, Venator. Yet even in that time, I had the support of two people. My dear friend Caeluma and my at-the-time unborn daughter Apernora." She patted once more Caeluma, who was still on her side, clutching her hand, while giving Apernora a warm gaze. Apernora had an expressionless face, a stone-cold mask covering her expression, yet a single tear rolled down her cheek, betraying her inner emotions. Mundus embraced her, while Apernora held her mother's other hand. Spreta leaned back in her bed mumbling to herself. "Hmm, this truly isn't a bad way to die, surrounded by friends and family."
She once more opened her eyes, her gaze landing on Minsol's and Caeluma's children. "You know, while I am not your true mother, I still raised you all as if you were truly my own. Maybe it's the old age talking, but it would be nice if you could all look out for each other." Saying so, she gave Mundus a meaningful look. Mundus wore a grim expression, and ever so slightly shook his head. A second tear rolled out of Apernora's eye. Spreta sighed heavily "Well I suppose it is how it is. It is time for you to go and allow these weary bones to rest." Everybody shuffled out of the room, except for Apernora and Caeluma who stayed behind. They shared stories and spoke of the lives they lived. All the while, Spreta noticed that Apernora was restless. After a while, she gently asked Caeluma to have a short moment with her daughter. Caeluma nodded and smiled weakly. She wiped the tears off her face and said she would wait outside. Apernora and Spreta were left alone in the room together.
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Spreta gestured for her daughter to get closer and brushed the hair out of her face. A gentle expression twinged with worry and a cold mask, slowly slipping away faced each other in a wordless stare. One after another, tears started streaming out of Apernora's eyes, until sobs started to escape from her chest. Spreta shushed her daughter and embraced her in a hug, while rhythmically patting her back. The dam was fully broken now, gone was the cold and calculating woman and all that remained was a little girl, scared of losing her mother. Spreta's eyes were moist too, but never did a tear escape her eye. After Apernora had cried herself to exhaustion, she fell asleep leaning against her mother. Caeluma came back after a while and shared a wordless look with Spreta. She sat down next to her bed and once more held her hand. Spreta let out another sigh and closed her eyes, falling into a deep slumber. Later that night, she breathed her last, never again waking up.
Spreta's soul escaped her body when suddenly, she felt a tugging sensation. After being dizzy for a while she regained her orientation. She looked around herself and found herself to be in a big forest, with towering trees larger than she had ever seen before. One tree towered far above the rest and at the foot of that tree stood a person. This person was a soul similar to her and only took on the shape of a human due to his memories. Spreta immediately recognized this person and called out to him. "Venator... is that... is that really you?" Venator let out a reassuring smile and gestured for her to get closer. "Yes, it is me. Come here, we have an important mission." Spreta ran over to him, before collapsing into his embrace. When she used to be human, she was no longer able to move this quickly, but it seemed like after death all pains had disappeared. The pain in her lower back from all the times she carried heavy prey over her shoulder, the pain in her knees that came after she jumped off a boulder during a pursuit one too many times. It would be funny, however, if she still had back pain considering that she didn't have a back or knees, or any body for that matter anymore.
She could feel it in Venator as well. They were now more akin to sentient clouds of energy rather than humans with flesh and bones. Spreta clawed at Venator as if she were afraid he would disappear in a puff of smoke. "What do you mean important mission? We have each other now, isn't that enough?" Venator smiled lovingly and reassured Spreta. "Don't worry. I am talking about God's mercy for us dead. Up until now, everybody who has died would wander the earth, watching the world move on without them. However, the longer we wander the more we lose ourselves. I am the oldest, and I have lost all my memories, all except those closest to my heart, the memories of you. God is giving the dead a different option, and we will become the key to this new option. Follow me." Venator led Spreta to the great tree and entered it together with her.
God had watched all this happen while waiting from above. Now that the two souls had entered the tree, He could proceed with the next step. It was also God who had brought the two souls to this location. Once the souls entered the tree, God started his greatest and most complex work yet. He poured in a tremendous amount of power of creation into the tree, manipulating the two souls inside. First He fused the soul of Venator to the roots while fusing the soul of Spreta to the tree trunk and crown. He then fed both of them the power of creation, making their souls possess more energy, which he then manipulated and shaped. God then took the excess energy stored within the souls and started directing them outwards.
Invisible soul tendrils branched out into the ground from the roots and into the sky from the tree crown. God kept feeding them energy while pulling the tendrils further and further out. Over the course of a few days, the soul tendrils were stretched across the entire underground of the planet and the entire atmosphere. He then infused these two souls with special properties and authorities. All souls were a derivative of his power of creation, so He had a lot of influence that He could exert on those souls. All souls were made up of elements. The first was the energy and divine blood that made up the soul. The second was the personality inscribed into the soul. The last were the memories that the soul carried with it. The reason why the souls wandering the planet have been slowly losing their memories is because they had been consuming their memories to continue their existence and to fuel their movement.
God infused the soul of Venator with the power to separate memories from the souls. The soul of Spreta received the power to convert those memories into pure energy, similar to a lesser form of the power of creation. She also gained the ability to direct blank souls to suitable hosts. This formed the basic afterlife that God envisioned. Souls would get born, live, experience, and finally die. After death, Venator would use his tendrils to direct all the souls to the trunk, where he would then separate the souls from their memories. Memories only burdened the soul if they were to reincarnate. Spreta would then use these memories to convert them to energy. The blank souls would be brought to unborn children, where they then would inhabit the new body, once more gaining life. This was a self-sustaining cycle, that could over time generate near-infinite energy. As for what happens with the energy, that is where the tree and God's previous research comes in. The tree would bear fruits, from which new people would be born. The difference, however, was that these would all be mythical life forms, carrying divine blood. This was the second part of God's plan. God wished to create a race of mythical beings, to increase his production of the power of creation.