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I couldn’t call myself a God Slayer, much to the dismay of a few, I never actually killed one, in fact my mission was partly to stop them from being killed. Every God stood for something, something important to how people function, if they didn’t exist, people wouldn’t be the same, the world wouldn’t be the same.

I couldn’t let that happen for the obvious reasons, but, there will always those who want certain parts to be removed, suggesting “What if we only need half of them?” or “Wouldn’t humanity be better without them?” I don’t think I can be the judge of that, but I didn’t travel the world to let humanity regress or hide the ugliest parts of themselves, Gods are the medium to hold the world together, neither right nor wrong, and they aren’t really that different than humans.

So if you ask me, killing a God? That’s killing yourself, but fighting with a God? I don’t think that’s something bad…

1

I could hear the waves crashing against the hull of my ship, I could feel the ripples in the water caused by our movement, movement that spread across the whole ocean, eventually coming back to us, different. Water parted to make way for us, but things would not be so easy forever, the winds were in our favor, but the threat of a storm always loomed.

My crew was tired, it had been a while since they experienced something like this, they still didn’t have their sea legs yet, I almost felt like a bad captan, but the crew had my back, that much I was sure of.

I opened my eyes, but I was still on the ship, the pitch black darkness of the sky, broken up by the aurora-like ley lines, they illuminated our path. Looking down at the sea, I could see the swirling well of souls, faces fading in and out, little lights flashing and fading out just as fast, some pushing against the path of the ship, others pushing along from the sides, and I could see my crew.

It was the picture of humanity, some were pulling the sails with their strength, forcing the ship to sail in the direction we chose, others were patching up the holes that were punched in it along the way, some were pouring over maps or practicing their skills, it was anything but still, someone was directing them all.

Orthosie, he was no natural leader, but he was the only one with the power to unite the rest, I could finally grasp it, his magic was communication, not just in the literal sense, he is who let me communicate with the souls of the dead, without that, I would be in the dark as I was before. In life he had no one to talk to, no one who he could share something with, an experience, a memory, a laugh, here he shared my body with a plethora of souls that were gathered from the far corners of the world, and united under the goal of stopping one man.

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That was right, this wasn’t just a journey, I had something I needed to do, I had to stop the Dreg King despite the warnings, if I were the only one able to do it, I owe it to everyone else. I had no idea where this terrifyingly powerful man was, what exactly made him strong, or what I would have to do to reach him, even here I couldn’t see him, a blind spot that I couldn’t exactly pinpoint.

He was one of many, but certainly the more suffocating, I could feel his influence in this dream, like a dark storm just over every horizon, I needed to protect my crew from him, I knew that, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was steering them right into his jaws. That said, I was not just going to let him swallow them whole, so long as I am the captan of this ship no harm will fall to my crew, if my body could be the haven of the dead, I would gladly give it to every one of them, I do not ask them anything in return.

I stand up and walk over to the helm, my seat is at the steering wheel, I tell the ship where it goes, the crew keep my path steady, that is our relationship, and this was going to be one long boat ride…

2

I opened my eyes again, seeing the real night sky this time, bandages held my jaw in place so it was hard to speak, but I had something I wanted to say to them. “Can someone hold my hand?” I knew both of them were there, they wouldn’t leave me to die, no matter where I was, and as I thought, both of them reached the corners of my vision.

I couldn’t move my body, probably because it was broken at the moment, repair was looking grim, I’d probably be lucky if my left arm, right hand, and legs would even work after this, even one of them was a large ask…

They didn’t say anything, perhaps feeling guilty or some other emotion I didn’t know, but they held one hand on either side of me, I could see my hands were bandaged too, I couldn’t see Jupiter obviously… but Europa… she looked scared, why?

As if hearing my thoughts, Europa spoke. “Elias… there’s something wrong with your body, I didn’t believe you were able to defeat a God… but, this isn’t normal…” She was trembling, holding my hand, did I look that gruesome right now?

“We intended to provide assistance, but it seems that God was able to cut you off from the world temporarily, when you defeated it, you appeared right back here…” Jupiter more calmly described the situation. “About what she said… it’s difficult to tell you what’s wrong, but you shouldn’t get into any more fights until we sort out fixing your armor, these bandages are barely able to contain it…”

I looked at my hands.

“Contain what?”