Chapter 045: Man in a robe, claiming communion with the divine

I have to admit, Leria really tried to not laugh at me very loud.

How nice of her.

We retreated for another break. There was no need to charge blindly. It was better to retreat and recuperate. It was a brief and rather stupid battle but we still suffered some loses. And unlike me, both Kovacs and his necromancer slave suffered from death penalties.

It was during the break that Leria suddenly got an idea.

“Hey, now that I think about it... we are planning to settle the caves with people from the Sewers, right?” I nodded in answer. It would be best to do that before Red Mists visits them… or the witch-hunters ongoing investigation against them accidentally discovers the villagers true religions. “What about using the storerooms we recovered as shrines?”

… well, they were rather big. Sure, maybe not as big as the shrines in the sewer villages, but…

I mean, who said we couldn’t make them larger? We had pickaxes, then we just had to buy some bricks in the same color as the ones used by Ardent Flame to make walls of their bases.

“That’s an interesting idea.” I admitted. “We certainly have enough storerooms. I’m not exactly sure about making two shrines to monotheistic deities right beside each other, but… both communities seem to be close to each other so it might just work.”

Besides, I still swore to Overtyrant I was going to set him a shrine for saving my ass. This was a thing as well and I had to remember about it. He was patient and would wait for long, even for my whole life, but if I forget about the promise... it might end up badly.

She probably was anxious to spread khardism around, wasn’t she?

Makes me wonder if I qualify as a khardic adherent as well. I mean, I’m totally sure that Overtyrant exists, I work to purge the taint of Dragonspine Mountains from the world in his name, and am about to build him a shrine.

Probably not. Converting into different religion counted as a way out of Chosen One mantle. As long as I didn’t go through the khardism version of a baptism (one done due to genuine conversion rather than ‘I don’t want to be a Chosen One anymore’), it wouldn’t count. If I qualified as a khardic, I wouldn’t have Deviation’s blessing.

Made me wonder when Lena’s ‘baptism’ was going to be held. They were probably planning it already. Oh well.

“So…” Leria looked at me anxiously.

“Right, right. Unless we get a better idea… which is unlikely… we’ll set a shrines there.” She smiled widely. No wonder.

***

“You know, you are so absent that it feels like I’m masturbating.” I said to Simea. We were lying in our bed. She was naked and collared, obviously. We already finished our… evening, before I decided to say what I wanted for a while now.

“Well, it was… an interesting day.” She answered.

“I wouldn’t exactly call falling off a thirty meter high waterfall because of a damn slime an interesting thing. I would have started complaining about how much this game hates my guts, but it was totally my own fault for panicking.” I sighed. “Enough beating around the bush, you are obviously troubled by something.”

“Yes, I am. I guess…” She went silent for a while. “Lena’s decision caught me off guard a bit.”

Ah, so it was that thing.

“Well. You aren’t the only one to be surprised.” I answered. “While Syna and Leria are probably celebrating it… together with the priest… all Players are probably pretty shaken.” To say the least. “I guess that many of them, if not all, had similar thoughts. ‘What if this world is true? Does it mean that gods exist? And the afterlife? Shouldn’t we… do something about it?’ And so on.”

“I see.” We were silent for a while. “I guess it all hangs on the question whether everything around us is true.”

“Yes. Yes it does. But I’m not sure if we can find the truth any time soon.” I sigh. “If Robinson wanted to persuade us that it is a true world… then he did a damn good job.”

And, what I didn’t say, there was also another dilemma. What if it wasn’t a real world but a game… but Robinson managed to find a way to make us stay here forever? In such case, did the fact that local gods were hyper-intelligent AIs change anything if they required faith and being a certain type of person… and offered all sort of boons for fulfilling this requirements?

Including an afterlifes?

Heck, the philosophical dilemma went further. There was a theory that what we considered as real world (Earth and so on) was a perfect computer simulation of some higher universe, the one truly being a real world. The proof against it was that we failed to find the end of pi number. If that truly was a simulation, it would be a one rather badly written as an unending pi number would make calculations much more complicated that it should.

Now, what if this world was a simulation, and somebody - for example in Long War or Vortex World, two high-tech worlds in Infinity - made similar highly detailed simulations? What if what we considered the real world was a simulation as well? An entire Existence an unending ladder of simulations leading who knows where?!

Philosophical and religious (both elements were rather connected) dilemmas kept multiplying. Every person capable of thinking about abstract things was probably suffering from a similar mindfuck as I was right now.

Let’s not think about it any deeper.

It’s seriously getting crazy. Or, worse, I’ll get crazy.

It won’t work though. It’s hard to not think about something consciously. Ugh.

“I guess I shouldn’t think too deep about it.” Simea was so busy in her own thoughts that she failed to side jab me for thinking too much. But she recovered somewhere around the time I did so. “So, did the enemies we fought today give you any clue as to what gods of Pentagram we are facing?”

What a jump. From philosophical questions about the nature of reality to this. Huh.

“You know that if I had an idea I’d share it. I talk too much.” She chuckled. “Unfortunately, the only Pentagram daemon we fought was the Eldritch Knight, and it’s pretty unaligned. The only god it’s existence crossed out is Extinction, but she was out of the question from the start.”

“Extinction? Now that I think about it, no one really told me details about the Pentagram.” It looked like she got curious suddenly. “Tell me more about them.”

Hmph.

“Are you ready for a lore dump? I promise I’ll try to keep it short.” She nodded. “Alright. So, there are four gods. Malice, Imperial God of Madness and Chaos. Discord, Imperial Goddess of Strife, Discord and Conflicts. Agony, Imperial Goddess of Pain, Sadism, Torture and Suffering. Extinction, Imperial Goddess of Destruction, Void and Annihilation. If you dig really deep you might also discover the fifth, yet unborn God of Pentagram. Imperial God of Atheism, Unbelief, Indifference and Ignorance. Yes, that’s DFI for you. Or Robinson.”

The combination of Ignorance and Atheism was obviously very DFI. Though Ignorance in that matter was more like one’s lack of interest in philosophy, religion, the nature of the world and so on. You could combine this ‘Ignorance’ with being the best educated person in the world.

“God of Atheism? Really?” I shrugged .

“They are all Enigmas. Aberrants ascended into godhood. They obviously don’t make sense to average person. They also couldn’t become a dominant religion in any place of the world since their worship is in its essence connected to dissolution of society and all sorts of law and order.”

“I see. Makes sense. Explains why anyone could possibly worship them.” I looked at her curiously. “It’s obviously a religion for weaklings that want to get powerful and think that the current society doesn’t fit them.”

Well, she nailed it mostly. Leria and her former cult was a great example. It wasn’t that different from weird sects in our world. One or two people in charge with their own mission to achieve, while the rest are brainwashed with a sense of belonging and mutual help in various things.

“Well, the Pentagram started when Death, White Pantheon Goddess of… well… Death and so on, had triplets. Shadow, Shimmer and Malice. Since the Gods knew Malice was seriously wrong in every possible sense of the word they tried to… abort him. It ended up rather bad. Not only did the other two siblings got slightly contaminated, but Discord, the Imperial Religion’s version of Loki with all weird and deadly jests and schemes, stole what remained of Malice. This myth is also used to explain why abortion is a nope according to Imperial Religion.” I added. “Discord’s jest turned out to be her last, since Malice ended up brainwashing her. Then either had her create the Agony and Extinction, or had them as his children in a rather old fashioned way. No one is really sure.”

“Wait a second.” Simea interrupted me. “I thought that Gods were omniscient and omnipotent in this setting, right?” I nodded. “So couldn’t they… I don’t know… do it properly and avoid having Malice born?”

Sigh.

“You are still missing the point of how exactly the Dark is working.” I answered her. “Malice was probably born as an ultra-powerful Aberrant and then got dragged into an Imperial Religion. He was never ‘born’ in our sense of the word. But the moment this myth became a common knowledge, it become true. Go out there, get enough people to belief Malice was never born and is in fact outsider… and both Dark and his own nature will shift in a way that will make it true.”

I could see on her face that she was busy trying to process what she just heard.

“And that’s just an outer layer of this mess.” I continued. “Did you ever wonder how is it possible for two monotheistic Gods - namely Inri and Overtyrant - that are absolutely against lying, to exist simultaneously? While claiming that they were the ones to create the world?”

“Now that you say that…” She said slowly. “This does seem pretty impossible.”

“Well, there are no paradoxes in the Dark. Only conflicting truths.” I continued. “Both Inri and Overtyrant created the world. Just as the other… like… twenty major gods that claim to have created it. They are all speaking the truth. The whole Great Game is essentially a period of preparation before the End Times, a massive battle royale that will end when one Truth will win against the rest and become the Truest Truth Ever.”

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Which was precisely the reason why I wasn’t sure about putting chapels of Inri and Overtyrant in two neighbouring rooms. Well, they weren’t even nearly as volatile to each other as for example either of them to Pentagram… or Shimmer and Pentagram... or Shadow and Pentagram… or Shimmer and Shadow, to have at least one example without Pentagram. So it should work. Probably.

Even if they weren’t going to win the End Times, they could at least make it so that some quite similar deity won. For Inri it was better if the Overtyrant (and vice versa) won rather than Imperial Religion. Or Twice-Seven. Or the Seven. Or the Goddess. Or Shub. Or Pentagram. Or…

… well I could go like that for a longer while.

“On first glance it looks like mortals were the one to create the Gods in the first place, but…” I shrugged. “It is an established fact that Gods aren’t really bound by time. So, did Inri become God because people believed him when he said he was one, or did the God that he became ensure his own creation by becoming a mortal and spreading his teachings? Did the Prophetess create the Overtyrant when she started teaching the beastmen about the different way of life she devised… or did the collective faith of the future khardic adherents create him and make him engineer his own creation by speaking to the Prophetess?”

I must admit that I got some internal laughter after seeing Simea’s confused expression. Well, let’s drive another nail.

“There is also a question of whether they were truly created. I mean, can the being that can exert its influence since the creation of the world to its eventual demise truly be ‘created’? Maybe what we consider a creation was simply a moment when they began exerting their influence openly? A single, if important, move in a Great Game?” Alright, let’s stop, she is about to get mindbroken. “I think I already told you that trying to figure out the truth can and probably will drive you insane. It’s a thousand times better idea to stay on the surface and remain faithful to one religion and take everything your God says to you as a truth.”

“I… guess.” This time she spoke veeery slowly. “And… how many gods are there in Imperial Religion?”

“Sixty.” Aaand… her jaw dropped. “DFI loves making religions, I told you. Three whole Pantheons. White, Black and Elemental. The first for the generally good natured deities, the second for the bad ones, and the third for neutral. Mostly of nature and elements. But they obviously don’t give a shit about what we are doing, just as they barely give a shit about mortals as a whole.”

The Ore Golem we defeated was animated by an Earth Elemental, which was a far descendant of either Granite, an Imperial God of Earth and Stone, or Peak, Imperial God of Mountains. That was the closest contact we had with Pantheon of Elements thus far.

“The White Pantheon has its own Heaven, an infinite realm where the Dead live lives similar as when in life, but without death, pain and hunger. They also forget what they were doing there periodically, so they can discover the same things forever, never getting bored. Gehenna was supposed to be a similar realm for Black Pantheon, one of perpetual misery, but it kinda broke when Tyrant was overthrown.”

He had it coming to be honest. A major asshole. Imperial Religion equivalent of Satan.

“Now we have four main factions that keep scheming between each other. Pentagram is the first one, they want to get their fifth god born properly, since it would break the Imperial Religion as a whole. No longer three times twenty gods and so on. Then we have the I Don’t Care faction that includes deities like Locust, Failure and Plague, that are pretty much Pentagram Lite. Very small good sides, most people that mention them in their prayers do that to make them go away. Then it’s a Shadow faction, that includes Shadow, Rage, Betrayal and Demiurge. They want to have Shadow overthrow Tyrant properly and become a head of Gehenna. There is obviously also a Tyrant faction, including himself, Fury, Dagger and Deception, that wants him back in charge. Last group would be Deviation, Hedonism, Bonehead and Munch, that pretty much want no one in charge and sat atop the barricade between Shadow and Tyrant, making sure that neither of them wins.”

“So, in the end, an utter mess of perpetual backstabbing, schemes and wars… between beings that could break reality with a snap of the finger.” Simea summed it up.

“I told you it’s pretty much a Cosmic Horror Story. Or, to be exact, it would be one, if there weren’t a shitload of good guys up there. And they are equally strong or even stronger than the bad guys.” I shrugged. “Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

She nodded.

Sigh, Finally. That was a short version. I could talk for a few hours about this subject. For example about Pentagram’s Corruption. About the Five Domains. About other religions. About the imperial system of Vassal Religions. About the way Inrithism and Khardism handled the existence of other faiths. About complex relations between the Imperium and said religions. About how Gehenna exactly looked.

BUT I DIDN’T WANT THAT. It was already enough. I’ll tell her some other time.

Though… it made me wonder if she was considering conversion as well and had begun looking through the options.

***

Next morning we all ate breakfast (Kytar started grumbling about the pantry running low on supplies) and geared up for another expedition.

First thing we did was visit the Storeroom again. After we made sure nothing terrible was there (something could sneak in), we let the non-combatants inside to clean the place properly.

Right after they constructed a wooden bridge. It seemed that the stone platforms on the support columns were once used for that purpose. You could practically see exactly where the wooden boards once were, allowing people to traverse through it between the two sides of the river.

“I think that if we want to make people live here…” Kovacs spoke to me when we were passing through the newly constructed bridge. “We should do something about that.”

I looked where he was pointing. The place where the river entered the cave. Hmph.

“You think something could sneak in?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. But we would have to be biggest fools ever to risk it.” He had a point. “Besides, the enemy that took down the first Ardent Flame… it somehow overran this place despite the tunnel leading being collapsed.”

I didn’t think about that.

“Well, there could be a passage in one of the facilities we are about to conquer.” I think I really like to play a devil’s advocate. “And there is also the fact that the fish that came from there weren’t corrupted. But if we don’t find any passage deeper in either Prison or Graveyard… I guess we’ll have to think about some protection.”

***

The decision whether we should enter Prison or Graveyard first was made in the most professional way that came to our minds.

We tossed a coin.

Prison won.

Well, tossing coin was kinda a tradition for adventurers in such situations. Commonly done right after a prayer to Audacity (a White Pantheon Imperial Goddess of Bravery, Courage and Adventurers) to choose the right way for them. But we had no Imperial Religion adherents (maybe beside Ytar, but he wasn’t participating in the raid and he knew very little about said religion), and Overtyrant worked slightly different…

Welp.

The door opened normally. Rather than another murderous slime we ran into Devoured.

A small group of Warriors. And behind it…

Torturer

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Daemon/Servile

Threat Grade: Silver V

A lesser servile daemon of Pentagram. A living beacon of pain that enjoys spreading the blessing of pain and agony.

It was tall. Slender but tall. Covered in rags and black leather. On his head - a sack. Or, to be exact, a head in shape of a sack with two holes for eyes.

Dreadful. But, ultimately, a World’s Requiem laughingstock of a mob. The most useless Pentagram mob. Sure, one that filled NPCs with dread due to their penchant to torture their defeated opponents to death, but… their relatively low damage meant they couldn’t do much to defensive magic.

A sound similar to a gunshot shook the air. A whip, the Torturer carried. It hit the Warforged. Well, good luck with that, no way the simple whip can break through an Aura Armour! It would take a hundred h…

Warforged screamed.

What the…

He dropped his weapon. Another lash made him collapse on the ground. Third lash was different, the weapon coiled around Warforged’ leg and pulled him towards the Devoured Warriors… were sharp blades awaited.

They buffed him. He was too weak in the last game so they made him stronger. They made the pain go through personal defensive magic. At least the pain his weapon caused. It probably wasn’t very dangerous on its own, but with sidekicks…

Fuck it.

“KILL THE DEVOURED!” I shouted. “KILL THEM ALL!”

They bursted out of the Prison, pushing us back into the central cave. Small group of Warriors? My ass. I could see a Devoured Knight marching right beside the Torturer. And I think there are more Warriors marching out of a prison.

That’s just getting… urgh.

You know what, forget it. I’ve already got used to it.

Our warriors charged. Especially Leria seemed to cut them down by the dozen. She got scary each time she drew her sword. Especially since I wasn’t 100% sure she wouldn’t cut me down if she thought her god wanted her to do that.

No wonder she became the whip main target. If I were the enemy, I would focus on taking her out as well.

First hit almost made her drop her weapon. But I managed to disorient the Torturer with a Destroyer Lance to the face, for long enough that she recuperated. His Bend Reality didn’t seem too strong, but it held.

I should probably get myself a stronger offensive hexes. The Destroyer Lance starts getting less and less useful recently. What’s the point of getting a portable annihilator spell when it can’t pierce through a shield?!

I summoned a Fiend, while our Necromancer called her undead.

It slowly escalated into regular battle.

After five minutes of a massive murderfest Devoured Warriors fell. But it wasn’t the end of a fight, as more and more daemons started creeping out of the Prison.

Pain Adherent

Category: Eldritch/Pentagram

Type: Daemon/Dead

Threat Grade: Iron IV

A soul of a dead Agony worshipper, conjured in a partially-daemonic form to fight alongside forces of their infernal goddess.

They looked like humans. Only one covered in black leather (what is this, a parody of BDSM?) in a slightly straitjacket-looking fashion. Their main weapon seemed to be their teeth, since they got… augmented with a jaw that opened unnaturally wide and closed with great strength.

With their arms bound, they could barely do anything. Their faces even with augmentations were rather terrible weapons. But there was an army of them. One after another they emerged from the Prison.

Just how many of them were there?!

Their biggest advantage - besides the number - was their complete invulnerability to pain. They were screaming something. Something incoherent, that sounded partially like they were in pain… and partially like there were very busy orgasming.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely aware that causing pain can be pleasurable. I know that all too well. But that was seriously too much.

Another sickening bunch, my hatred to Pentagram just keeps growing.

Their infernal choir didn’t stop even for a second. Even when eviscerated by Destruction Magic, chopped into pieces, exploded or set aflame, they still screamed. And they didn’t stop even for a second.

The Dead. An end result of a Pentagram cultist. Souls lost to one of its gods, cursed and Depraved all the way into this sickening form. Most of the Black Pantheon gods used the Dead as foot soldiers, grouped together under a name of Accursed Legions. Said souls were totally fine with that. They ended up in Gehenna for a reason.

Even our Necromancer’s undead were classified as a Legionnaires. Though, to be exact, they were abandoned corpses of the Dead fallen in the never-ending wars in Gehenna, that were taken to Black Tomb, domain of Bonehead, to be raised as an undead. While their original owners resurrected in their god’s domain. But their fundamental nature was very similar.

These guys weren’t classified as Legionnaires, but were every bit as annoying as them.

Alright, I don’t know how big that fucking Prison was, but there is no way that so many daemons were there to begin with. Is there an active portal there?

First the slime whose reproduction rate put rabbits to shame, now this. Why does every damn location we open seemed to be ready to overwhelm entire Tyrant’s Hold with murderous things?!

Alright, time for a change in tactic.