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The only name you know me as is “Elias”, I am writing this to show off to that god, or maybe just for myself, probably to remember my friends, I needed to record every event so that when someone read it they could see the full picture.

I don’t know what that means, or what you can gain from this useless story, so I’ll start with a quote from a dear friend “Hindsight is 20-20, the future is hazy, but the present is the only place you can be,… wait don’t write that down it sounds stupid.” To bad Gil, I liked it.

1

Different than a bug, small animal, dog, a human had died in front of me, I had seen corpses, plenty of people outside of strongholds died to demon attacks, the aftermath of which was a hard thing to stomach, I’ve had to clean vomit out of my helmet…

I couldn't make sense of what had happened, or rather I never considered this as a possibility, the term known as suicide, I had just learned today, it left a bad taste in my mouth. The only thing left of him was now mine, I wasn’t the closest person I did not know the man, why did his soul walk to me?

I wanted to ask Jupiter and Europa why, why this happened, but they didn’t answer my questions, Jupiter was silent and Europa was hiding behind him, apparently I had punched him, he wasn’t hurt obviously but I don’t know why I did that, everything was a blur my eyes were wet for some reason…

The corpse was being tended to, not a single person in this stronghold dared to think to revive the man, all but Elias, me. What if I brought him back? Did I even have that power? What would be the consequences of invoking the original sin? why was I so curious?

I began walking towards the body, if I had the power to revive him, I would. The Wrath was the consequence of the last time the Gods were defied, surely something worse would happen if I went through with this, why is living again after death so horrible?

“Don’t”

Who said that?

2

“I am at peace here, I don’t want you to bring me back.”

A voice, in my head, at some level I could intuit what it was, but that couldn’t be, you can’t talk to the soul of the dead. Once someone is dead, the only thing left behind is magic, otherwise known as a soul, this soul is required to perform magic, magic had no known limits to it’s possibilities only that some magic is inexplicably more powerful than others.

“If I had known then what I do now, I wouldn’t have jumped… it’s a shame, but I don’t want such a terrible thing to happen because of me.”

I could hear his voice clearly, and just as magic was described to me I started to feel the strain of it, only I could not pinpoint the exact part that was being used to perform this…

Then… I was walking with Jupiter, Europa was close behind, I had only just now noticed that my vision was blacking out when he spoke, now that I could see clearly… the three of us were on a path towards the top of the city, to the place that man fell from.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

I had to stay in the moment, I was lagging behind, the person who fell was the same one we were here to find, and we had to find why he did that, and where he was in the city. The magic was another problem, both of them knew it went to me but not what it did, so they though the place he stayed might give them a clue.

I could not make contact with the soul, I only heard it the few times, I still couldn’t imagine how to invoke the magic, so I decided not to tell them what had happened.

Still, his magic had to do something I just couldn’t think of what, I didn’t know him after all.

That was the part that irked me the most…

3

The city grew denser the higher we climbed, the housing district was closer to a more organized village, but closer to the citadel the more high ranked you were, judging by the hight and distance he might have held a mid level position.

The platforms and bridges grew more and more connected the higher we went, almost forming a roof over the city, though, I didn't have much time to worry about the construction as apparently we had found his residence.

One room, a few potted plants were placed around the front door and it was slowly rocking back and forth, still open…

The room looked lived in, it was something like a high class knights quarters, right out of my dreams, gear lined several of the walls and strange decorations were placed all throughout the room, presumably trophies.

Small ceramic pots were placed on nearly every surface, with what looked like a dedicated table for several others, Europa looked particularly interesting in these pots and Jupiter was only crouching outside the doorframe, his own large frame barring him from entry.

"What do you see?… This person was the in-building undertaker, as well as knight" So he worked with corpses… but that doesn’t feel like the reason he would kill- er… end his life, if he was a knight he probably didn’t want for anything in terms of status…

"Eh-" I had just realized my throat was dry, I attempted to clear it but ended up straining my throat.

I fell to the floor, dry heaving in my own armor, it felt like a death trap, but why did I feel like I couldn't take it off? I kept seeing the face of that man flash through my mind, why was he dead? Why were we in his room? What's wrong with Europa's eyes?

Some stomach acid leaked through cracks in my armor, being the only thing that had come up. I turned my head up to see Jupiter's hand, it was reaching out to me, before my vision blacked out…

4

My head was throbbing and my body felt light as I went through the motions, for a moment I questioned how Jupiter had gotten into the room but one glance at the broken doorframe answered that, he held me steady as Europa came to us holding one of the pots.

"I think it's safe to say he er... can I say this in front of him?" Europa was talking to Jupiter but stopped, was he doing something dangerous with these pots? could that be what killed him? I wanted to throw up again…

"Go ahead, the sooner he understands the situation the better, there is no point in hiding it from him." Jupiter's hand left my shoulder and he stood beside us both, something about this orientation just felt right...

"It looks like our knight here... Orthosie, had gained sentience..." she punctuated on that last word, *he could think? why would that be a bad thing? did thinking kill him? why is it so dangerous?* "That is to say, he passed the threshold of power that allowed him to resist the God’s curse of control over the mind."

That didn't help, but scratching my head about it wouldn't do much good, Jupiter seemed to trust her judgment and I had no reason to go against him, it’s blasphemy again? that means that getting stronger is against God’s wishes? I don’t know how I got a body this big… was I a horrible person? I didn’t mean to defy the Gods….

My head was spinning…

"I don't know if you noticed but his soul... his magic went to you, it's just unfortunate that we couldn't have talked him out of it, though if he was the only one like that here it would have driven him insane… probably…”

Jupiter and Europa share a look before she continues "er... Elias, you are sentient, Jupiter and I are as well, unfortunately due to a curse unless you are past a certain strength you are unable to freely think, I know this might be hard for you but I need you to trust us" why would the Gods do such a thing? maybe humans are too dangerous…

“I… when you look at me, why are your eyes so dark, it scares me…” the words spilled out of my mouth, no one ever looked at me like that…

Her expression was hard to describe.

But I could see shame, and betrayal.