Intermission: God Talk
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Far beyond the mortal realm, where the heavens lay upon a kaleidoscopic mesh of colors, two beings could be seen sitting on a marbled bench under the canopies of what once was a world tree. One wears a black trench coat and grey sweatshirt, with black pants to fit his attire. With a man-bun and some shades, he could only be described as mysterious as he sits comfortably on the bench. A perpetual dark fog surrounds him at all times, giving him an air of death and danger any mortal would die from. However, the person next to him equally compares to his disposition. With rainbow hair that moves along a midday breeze, their appearance can only be said to be beautiful. They wear a white dress that compliments their pale white skin. A summer hat sits atop them, giving her a look of cuteness that would swoon any mortal man from their beauty alone, with their surroundings seeming to glow from their mere presence.
"I see you've gone for a female look, for now, IO. Looking good if you ask me." The man with the shades said.
"And it looks like you've changed your style too from the looks of it, Thelly. It suits you better than the drab of cloth you wore before." The lady with the summer hat replied with a bright tone. With a smile, IO removed her hat from their silky rainbowed hair and placed it on the head of the man sitting next to her. "That looks much better."
"Ouch?" Thellius answered with mock injury in his voice.
"Now, it is not often that the God of Death visits this realm, what with the corrupt enterprise you're running in your realm. Tell me, why have you called me, Thelly?" The pale woman pointedly said, her eyes shining a predatory glint.
"No need to feel threatened, IO. I'm just here to have a nice chat with an old friend of mine. Is it that bad that I haven't visited you in 5 millennia?" Thellius answered.
"Yes, it is! Friends don't ghost each other for years, you know?!" IO retorted with a pout. With a humph, her head turned away from Thellius, leading to her multi-colored hair swiveling and slapping Thellius on the face.
"Sorry for that," Thellius muttered with a wry smile. Taking a peak at the man next to her, IO looked at Thellius again and asked, "Why are you here? After all these years?"
"Like I said, I'm just here to chat with an old friend." Thellius replied.
"I've known you long enough, Thelly. You only speak to another God when you have a purpose in mind." IO said, a furrow forming on her golden brows. "And don't call me old." She added.
"I see that I just can't fool you anymore these days. But yes, I am here to ask you a favor." The God of Death said, looking at IO's eyes directly.
"That favor is connected to that poor soul who's been dragged into our world, yes?" IO asked, returning Thellius' stare with her own
"Precisely." Thellius said with a nod
"Not interested." IO answered with a turn of her head, once again slapping Thellius with her rainbowed hair.
"Huh?" Thellius blurted in confusion. His shades slipping off his face from the sudden rejection.
"It seems you've forgotten what my domain entails, Thelly." She said with a smile, warning laced in their tone.
"That soul is overflowing with fate so strong that it could change our world forever. Why would the god who rules over the fates ignore a boy such as he?" With a snap of her slender fingers, a haze of color danced in front of the two gods and formed into a scene of a white-skinned man swinging a sword in the rain.
"I'm not here to be your enemy. I'm just here to ask for a favor. Nothing more, nothing less." Thellius answered while looking at the boy in question.
The boy they are speaking of is none other than Callum, who seems to be in a trance while swinging their newly acquired weapon under the downpour of rain. Thellius met the man just a few days ago. He was notified of an intruder in their world and was tasked to investigate the matter since the invader in question was at death's door. Getting to the scene, he was baffled to see a soul trapped inside their own body. As the god who rules over death, the sight of a soul being trapped by their own mortal flesh was no rare occurrence. However, when he tried harvesting the soul to lead them into the afterlife, it retaliated and refused to join him. He had seen souls rejecting him from time to time, but from how the man has screamed for death multiple times, from what he heard anyway, it seems impossible for the God of Death to be unable to guide the man's soul to the great beyond. But looking more into the man's soul after forming that contract, Thellius came to an understanding. An understanding that made him feel relieved to have made the man in question his prophet.
The man's soul is to be feared. It holds such great potential that it could overturn their world for better or worse. If not for him chancing upon this encounter, the other gods would have gone and used Callum to further their entertainment. The evil gods in particular would see Callum as a treasure throve of destruction.
Thellius shivered at the possibility of Callum being whisked away by the Goddess of Chaos. The mere thought of it is already giving him a headache.
The soul is inviolable, yes. But it can't just ignore my core rule of leading the soul to the afterlife. Even those who rejected me couldn't even last a minute. But Callum completely ignored death's rule. His rule.
No soul has ever done that before. However, those only apply to mortal souls.
There is that chance. But it's such a minuscule chance that it's unbelievable even to me.
With a shake of his head, Thellius came to and continued his conversation with IO.
"The favor I speak of would be beneficial for you too." He said, waving his hand at the image of the boy swinging his sword, making it dissipate in the air.
"And why would that be? Do tell." IO replied, turning to Thellius with a dangerous smile forming on her beautiful face.
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"I ask of you to keep your meddling to a minimum. We wouldn't want the Goddess of Chaos to give her attention to the boy now, do we?" Thellius said with a smirk.
"Is that a threat?" IO said, eyes furrowed.
"No, it's an inevitability. What I am doing is buying time. The stronger the boy gets during his travels, the better his chances to reject Katra's interference."
Silence followed as IO thought over the benefits the favor would bring.
Favors between Gods are unlike the favors mortals think of. A favor formed by Gods is akin to a binding, no different from a contract. Each favor must be beneficial to the one who gives it, a rule of the heavens, one that could never be broken. Not only that but the God who asked for a favor must give something equivalent to the magnitude of the favor asked, and that something is usually a privilege to use one of their rule for a time. The God of Fates using a rule from the God of Death could mean that they could lead any mortal or lesser god to a fated death. Hence, the God of Fates is mulling over the favor Thellius asked of her.
"Isn't this too good to be true?" IO asked, raising an eyebrow at the man beside her. Skepticism is evident in their tone, however, their eyes speak of curiosity for the man sitting next to her.
"I don't think so. I know how much you hate Katra. With this favor, you wouldn't have to deal with her for some time. It's a win-win situation for both of us."
"Why is that? The only one benefitting the most here is me. That just seems fishy for a sly old fox like you to propose." IO replied, squinting now to examine Thellius's face. With a grin, Thellius obliged.
"Well, the guy was uncharacteristically unafraid of my presence, see. And he seems like a pretty good-natured man. I can kind of relate. He has been through so much during his time in his world and is now left to rot in this one. I thought that it was such a waste for a man such as him to just decompose while being conscious of it all."
"Wait, he was still aware?" IO said in bewilderment, a bit of shock tracing her beautiful appearance.
"Shhh, I'm getting to the good part." The God of Death said with a shushing gesture.
"Of course, I tried to guide the poor soul to the afterlife, but no matter how hard I coaxed the soul to pass on, it just never followed my rule." He said. IO sat wide-eyed at the mention of the God of Death unable to fulfill his purpose, his rule, on a foreign soul.
"But that's not the end of it. It seems that the Cult of the Far Ones made his transmigration possible, and I've got their general location after examining the boy's soul." Once the words Far Ones left the mouth of Thellius, IO's mouth gaped open. Shock now in full display from the information Thellius just dropped upon her.
"With that, I made a deal with the soul. In exchange for saving a couple of his friends from certain doom, he gave me his loyalty."
"WHAT?" IO screamed.
Transporting mortals from another world is no easy feat even for a God, but since Callum has already punctured a hole from their world to this one, it would make transporting them much more easier. But multiple transmigrators are already a headache to begin with. If they were to be summoned here, it would only take a few years for this world to change.
"Well, I only plan to transport those who give their consent, so there's no need to worry about that. And it seems that only a few would believe their world to be dying anyway. I mean, who would believe some guy giving them a speech about how their world is about to end from an eldritch horror, and that they could be transported to another world if they follow them?" Thellius said with a shrug, a grin still plastered on his face.
"That doesn't mean that you could just give those people a ride to this world!" IO frantically said.
IO's concerns about multiple transmigrators coming to this world are valid. A single transmigrator could lead to a world revolution that would change the very fundamentals of how people view things. Not only that, but the evil Gods wouldn't stand by when multiple people from another world come over with potential knowledge of destruction. If it was one transmigrator, then it would have been manageable. Even six people are already pushing it. But for the Gods, a couple could mean dozens or hundreds of people, and that number could lead to this world's destruction.
With these thoughts swirling around the woman's head and clutching at the strands of her rainbowed hair, she couldn't help but be annoyed at the nonchalant smile on the man beside her. With a huff, IO gave the God of Death her barrage of lectures.
"Are you out of your mind?! That boy is already enough to cause this world to change, permanently. And I mean it, Thellius! I know the fates, and his fate is already such a mess as is! Are you trying to kill me with stress alone?!" With these cries, the God of Fates' one-sided barrage devolved into a whirlwind of insults and complaints at the God next to her. From how the man looked, to his own personality, nothing left the ire of the God of Fates.
Thellius, the one on the receiving end of the woman's anger, smiled his calm smile. Minutes of insults later, IO finally came to and calmed herself. Combing her disheveled hair back in order, she asked the man which led to her heated state an important question.
"So? Are you going to destroy the world or what?" She said in a serious tone. So serious that their surroundings stilled to a stop.
"You know that without a world to watch over, my rule would cease to exist, IO. I don't have any plans on using that boy to lead this world into ruin. If anything, I want him to be a focal point to change this world when that happens."Thellius said with the same tone as he did before.
With an audible sigh from IO, the world returned to its course. A few seconds of silence later, the God of Fates replied.
"You really like to abuse your own followers, don't you? Now I feel sorry for the boy." She said with pity in her voice.
"Well, he's my prophet now, so he has to follow my orders." Thellius pompously answered nose held high from his overflowing pride, laughing like he had won a contest that was never issued.
"Have you ever given the boy your blessing?" IO said in a monotone voice.
Hearing IO's reply, the God of Death halted their laughter and a second later sweating bullets. With another sigh, IO replied, hanging her head low from disappointment.
"I knew it. It seems that you have gone senile from your reclusion after all.'
"Hey now, I was going to give him his blessing after he was reborn as an undead, but he just fell asleep as soon as he was revived! You can't blame me for that" Thellius frantically explained. However, no amount of excuses changed IO's deadpan expression.
"Fine! I forgot about it, sure. But that contract I made with him is still a form of binding, so it still kinda counts as a blessing."
"Yeah, sure." IO replied with the same monotonous voice as before.
"Stop giving me that look...please?" Thellius pleaded, getting no reply from the God next to him. With a heavy sigh, Thellius continued their conversation.
"So, the favor I ask for?"
"I'll take it, but make sure that you won't regret this." IO said with a bit of heaviness in their voice
"Have I regretted anything before, IO?" Thellius replied with a bit of a chuckle.
"You have. For 5000 years." She answered, a look of worry laced on their pale face.
"You really know me too well, IO." With a look of melancholy, Thellius reached out to shake IO's hand to receive her favor.
IO took Thellius' outstretched hand, sealing their favor. The world around them was overcome by a blinding light for a moment, the kaleidoscopic colors their world was sitting upon became frantic, the air stilled, and the earth slightly rumbled.
"I'll make sure to keep my interference with the boy to a minimum, Thellius Bas Thorum." IO said, voice resonating. Her eyes turned back into its original draconic form, a mishmash of colors that swirls around a dark slit in the middle.
"In exchange, you have the privilege to use my domain for once, Iefir Othim." Thellius replied with a resounding voice of his own, his form changing to a more imposing figure, shadows swirling around his body and covering his features.
With the favor sealed, the surroundings returned to their natural state, and the gaze of the heavens left them a moment later.
"Pleasure, doing business with you." Thellius said with a wide smile. His form returned to his coated attire, shades covering his eyes.
"Likewise." IO replied with a smile of her own.
This moment of two Gods chatting about a mortal undead would later cause a series of events that then turned into the tale of the corpse paladin.