Jessie dodged backwards as he barely avoided the scythe that was aimed to decapitate him, his landing was unbalanced and as he stumbled backwards he felt a stinging pain run down his chest as Deaths follow up attack embedded the blade of the scythe in the ground. Before being able to counter attack Jessie dodged to the side as Death thrust the scythe forward bringing with it any sand that tried to keep the scythe stuck, regaining his footing Jessie swung his scythe for Deaths legs, only for the god to jump up and land on the blade trapping it under his feet.
“My win?” He asked as he held the blade of his scythe to Jessie's throat
“The fuck do you think.” Jesssie grumbled as he fell onto his back and looked up at the sky, the swirling nebulas and galaxies the crawled across the sky seemed to give him a sense on comfort, he had often looked up to the night sky on his way back from the nightclubs that he was dragged to, but seeing what lay beyond the murk of the city clouds that always seemed to blanket the skies was something he had always wanted. He had been training in the scythe for the past week while his soul reintegrated. The pain had been lessening over the past week and now he could fight against Death without him suppressing the pain, well, get beaten about by a god who wasn't trying but he did learn a lot about fighting with the scythe, there was an entire fighting style that surrounded the scythe, though it did mainly use magic to extend the range of the blade or send spinning versions of the scythe into hordes of enemies to kill as many as possible. There were a lot more variations to the magical and physical fighting styles of the scythe, but with the limited time Jessie did have, what he assumed to be a divine realm or something, Death just taught him the basics, use the scythe alike it was meant to be used by swiping at the legs and torso like you were harvesting wheat, or use it as a janky axe with a greater need for point control. With a sigh Jessie stood up and returned his scythe to one of the weapons stands that stood around the arena’s edge. As he was heading to see Osioglen to see if he was ready to return to the mortal realms he was joined by Ferindar, Death had vanished after Jessie had replaced his scythe and left Jessie to find his way to Osioglen by himself.
“By the way, where do you sit?” Jessie asked after a walking in silence for a while
“What do you mean?” Ferindar asked
“Well, where do you sit in the divine hierarchy?”
“Uh, somewhere.” Ferindar said. “I’m not actually sure myself, but I will say probably near top just under ancients but above primordials.”
“But, that doesn’t explain why you were welcoming people to the bazaar.”
‘Oh, right um.” Ferindar paused. “It’s classified?”
Jessie gave him a blank look as he muttered “Of course it is.” there was a moment's pause as Jessie thought. “Why don’t I have any skills?”
“Because giving them to you right away would be too easy, therefore you must unlock them yourself.” Ferindar said
“What are the, thresholds? Needed to unlock new skills?”
“Not telling.”
“You enjoy withholding information don’t you?”
“Indeed, I am only holding this conversation because you are considered a friend of Fulor’s.”
“Huh.” Jessie hadn’t actually considered that. “I thought he said he didn't chose that name though”
“No he didn’t.” Ferindar said. “But before he was given the name he didn’t have one of his own and everyone just referred to him as Death, it did get annoying, and while he doesn’t like it it’s the only one he really has. And this is where I must leave you.” he finished as they walked up to yet another corridor that branched off the one they were in. After saying goodbye to the god, Jessie walked the halls for a while longer. The roof of the halls curved to a rounded point at least 30 metres off the floor while the walls were lined with the exploits of heroes and gods from many millions of worlds, at least from what Jessie could see it felt like a million worlds, engaging in feats worthy of being commemorated, from battling rouge demons to a war with creatures that seemed to bend Jessie's mind as he looked at them these paintings and tapestries which were painted and woven with such delicacy and detail that they seemed to almost be windows into a frozen time were placed at regular intervals along all the walls of the halls, in between the paintings and tapestries were statues of gods and heroes who were depicted in the scenes, sculpted in such detail that it looked like they were standing there frozen in time. He finally arrived at the end of the corridor and stood before a massive pair of double doors that spanned the whole wall and was carved with intricate imagery of the creation of the worlds and different races, it seemed to depict a story too complex for Jessie to understand. As he approached the doors they silently swung open of their own volition and revealed a massive portal that led, Jessie guessed, to the realm of creation. Stepping through the portal Jessie found himself in a garden full of golden trees that seemed to radiate a sense of warmth and comfort standing in the middle of the cross walks stood three gods, Creation, Death and Fate, who all looked at Jessie when he entered.
“Welcome Ghost.” Said Creation as she looked at Jessie with eyes that seemed to pierce right through him. “It seems your soul has reintegrated properly and it is now safe for you to return to the mortal worlds.”
“Safe? I thought I was only being kept here so you could keep an eye on me.”
“Well, due to how your soul was taken, it was better to keep you here till it was integrated again.”
“What would have happened if I just went straight back?”
“You would have taken a one way ticket to my realm.” Death said.
“Oh.” Jessie had to think that through for a bit simply the way Death had said that made Jessie think that more was going to happen than a simple death.
“Enough of this depressing talk, the young ghost is healed and ready to re-embark on his epic adventures.” Fate said in his dramatic voice before turning towards Death. “But due to what has happened and what will happen due to your hastily bestowed blessing, we shall each offer one thing to him to assist him on his path.”
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Death had the nerve to look embarrassed when Fate said this, well, as embarrassed as a skeleton could be.
“I offer to you this orb.” creation said as she handed Jessie an orb of deep blue with swirls of silver flowing freely through it, as Jessie took the orb that creation offered he used inspect on it to see what it was.
“Orb of divinity concealment: ???.
Effect: ???"
“Uh, what does it do?” Jessie asked as he realised he couldn’t get any more information out of his inspect skill other than the name of the item.
“The orb of divinity concealment is as it says, it conceals any divinity that you possess, it is mainly used by priests who wish to wander the worlds without being targeted by opposing factions. well , they use lesser ranked ones but they all have the same effect just with varying degrees of effectiveness. The one I have given to you is of the divine rank and will effectively hide your blessing from anyone who might wish to take it from you.”
“Will it have any side effects on me?”
“Well, aside from being able to wield divinity without anyone noticing, you will suffer no side effects even if you wish to remove this artefact.”
“Side effects?”
“Well, don’t worry about it, it won't affect you.”
“Okaaaay.” Jessie sounded as though he didn't truly believe the goddess. He turned towards Fate. “You giving me anything?”
“Usually people have more respect for the gods.” Fate said as he looked at Jessie. “But I do have something for you.” Fate withdrew a very plain staff that seemed to be half made from a sull silver wood and the other half from a green alloy. The alloy on the staff had the appearance of a swirling mess of mid to dark greens with a sprinkling of gold haphazardly glinting throughout.
“A very fancy broom handle?” Jessie asked in a sarcastic tone. “You going to give the the broom head next?”
“This ‘broom handle’ as you call it is a morphic weapon.” Death and Creation both looked at fate sharply. “Before you complain, it’s scaled to his level.”
“Okay, but, i wanted to give him a weapon.” Death complained
“Give him magic or something, I don't care.” Fate said as he looked at the sulking god who seemed to brighten up after that comment. “WAIT! No, within the bounds of not ruining his fate you can give him something.”
“Damnit.” Death said as his plan was ruined. He seemed to think for a while before pulling a bookshelf out of a spatial tear and began looking through it. “Would you like pure destruction, pure creation or a combination of both?” Death asked as he pulled more bookshelves out of the tear till he had a literal library surrounding the group.
“Uh, a combination of both?” Jessie said as he looked at the bookshelf in confusion. The other two gods just shook their heads as they saw the bookshelves.
“A combination huh.” Death muttered as he started to take many hundreds of books off the shelves and placed them on a large table Jessie hadn't noticed appearing. After Death had pulled books from the last shelf he began to combine them all into one, the whole process took about an hour, or so it felt to Jessie who had to watch this performance, but when he was done there sat on the table a rather dull looking leather bound book. The only thing on the cover of the book was what it was, curious Jessie used inspect on it.
‘Spell tome of magic: Divine
This tome contains magic spells from many different trees and disciplines of magic
Error
Error
Correcting.’
Jessie just stared at the message as he wondered why the system was giving him an error
‘Corrected
Abyssal grimoire of divine magics: divine
The abyssal grimoire of divine magics contains many spells, trees and disciplines of magic known, unknown and lost to time. Due to the unforeseen mutation that has occurred because of the merging of so many different types of magic a trace of abyssal magic has been combined.
Once used this grimoire will dissolve to ash and the path of the unknown will be opened to you
Soulbound to Ghost’
“Uh, that wasn't meant to happen.” Death said as he stared at the book in shock. The plain leather bound book had transformed slightly and now contained an outline of black leather.
“So. you can take the grimoire.” Fate said as he looked at the book carefully. “But please refrain from using any of the abyssal spells, especially those related to soul removal.”
“Yea, I understand that.” Jessie said
“Can you put your library away now, Fulor.” Creation said, she seemed to be getting annoyed.
“Yes, yes.” death muttered distractedly before returning all but the book and table to his spatial storage. Picking up the book he carefully handed it over to Jessie. “I won’t be able to assist you as much as I would like due to this incident.”
“Maybe Order could assist?” Creation said. “Or Chaos, or Destruction.”
“The last two might be useful later on.” Death said. “But for starting Order is probably the best option.”
“Indeed.” said Fate. “but it will have to be after the young ghost here takes more than his first steps on the path for he must start forging it himself.”
The gods continued this conversation for a little while longer, but ultimately decided to try to get Order to help him once he reached apprentice level spells.
“Well, it's been a pleasure being here.” Jessie said. “But i would like to return to the mortal realm.”
“It is indeed time to return.” Fate said. “We will meet again in time, though not under the best of circumstances I fear.” Creation and Death both looked at him strangely. “The seal is getting weaker, I’ve already had Ferin dispatch several of Lizels legions to reinforce the forces of the Eternal Flame in case it breaks early.”
As Jessie looked between the faces of the three gods he suddenly felt very out of place and out of depth.
“I feel like this is something I shouldn't be involved in yet.” he said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. “Could one of you open a portal somewhere not the emerald creek?”
O”of course.” Creation said as she opened a portal right behind Jessie. “I would advise that you consume the artefact I gave you as soon as possible. oh. and before i forget.” Creation handed Jessie a ring. “This is a very basic spatial artefact, the inside of it is only about 1 metre cubed but it contains what you went to the emerald creek from. This portal will take you to the whitewater lake where you will be able to gather the lilies.”
Jessie thanked the gods and stepped through the portal. It was a weird feeling of weightlessness followed by a sensation that he was going to vomit everywhere, which he very nearly did as he exited the portal on the lake side of a rather large but shallow lake that was filled with thousands of lilies of different colours and sizes.