《Tribute: side one》


 Prologue

    Narration by: Great God of Loss, Preservation of Stories


    <hr>


    One man stood before another, a knight with set of pure white armor hunched over with his back facing the demon that would have killed the other man. Knights were made to protect the weak, even this pitiable one.


    Fire billowed around the two, the knight¡¯s broad stature blocked the flames from even touching the other. Anyone looking at this scene from a distance would no doubt understand the caring heart of the man''s defender, but even so if he could only defend, there was no need for him. That was right, the second reason for knights is to vanquish evil.


    It would be better if someone could have just stopped the demon¡¯s attacks by now, if he could not even do that, was he really saving anyone? While that knight was preoccupied, the demon pulled its attacks away from him, and towards the crowd he could not protect, and that¡¯s right, he hesitated, he couldn''t move. The very next moment¡­


    That knight checked his eyes, he didn''t know if he was dreaming, those who should have died due to his hesitation were still standing. Fate had spared them, so to speak, hey had no right to be alive, yet they were. The flames and claws simply disappeared, swallowed up by a greater, but invisible, force.


    A familiar choking sensation came over the the knight, yet no hands were around his neck. The mind held great strength over the body. It would be better to say they were his own but what wouldn''t be true either. The clouds of dust, grime and dried blood could not choke him either, it was a solitary state of mind that stuck the knight in place.


    "Elias" the first word the knight heard was his name, it brought him back to his senses, that''s right he was Elias, a self proclaimed knight. That snapped Elias out of his doldrums temporally, enough time for him to rise to his feet, and face the demon. Maybe the music.


    Coming face to face with a demon was hard for a human, something about the composition of their body or the way they moved unsettled them, still shouldn¡¯t a knight not be bothered by the likes of that, isn¡¯t it like an elephant being scared of a rat? Clouds of muck were kicked up as the demon scrambled and pulled itself away, crawling on four limbs and slinging balls of fire with two more. This what a matter of closing distance, if he did not, the demon would continue to backpedal while firing ranged attacks, the demon could easily sneak in an attack on bystanders.


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    Perhaps that¡¯s why Elias chose to jump on the demon, it was a surprise attack, and not very knightly. Before it could get away he built up speed and dove towards it, latching on to one of it¡¯s many limbs, a move that more fit a barbarian or savage. Nonetheless, it worked, and he kept grabbing, and almost crawling over the demon, his grip strength managing to break the bones of the beast.


    Bearing the flames the demon spewed in panic, the self proclaimed knight held either side of it¡¯s head in his hands, mounting the pressure. Eventually, the head of the demon could not resist the force, and Elias¡¯s hands soon touched one another. Lave and fire spewed from the cracks forming in it¡¯s head and soon exploded, in so many words, it¡¯s head was squashed like a grape. The way he fought was perhaps just as repulsive to humans as the demons, isn¡¯t that poetic?


    No, no it¡¯s not.


    The demon¡¯s many limbs squirmed and flailed through the open air, in it¡¯s death throes. Of course something that was designed with pain would do such a thing, Elias was contemplating if he would do the same on the brink of death, and there¡¯s only one way to find that out isn¡¯t there? But in the end it was the demon that died, not him, he had won, but there was one big outlier¡­


    Why he was here, why he helped. No, if it was who he thought it was there was not need to question that. A disgustingly powerful man, or a better word would be ¡®hero¡¯. Though he did not think it to be disgusting, Elias Idolized this man, supposedly someone who embodied every facet of the word ¡®knight¡¯. Elias repeated a phrase he had heard when talking about that man ¡°It was like violence was swallowed up by him, he would render evil impotent in his presence.¡± he looked up at his own hands, they were shaking. It seems that the mind still holds power over the body, funny how that works.


    As Elias stared at his hands, a foreboding dark presence came into his vision, this was none other than the pitch black knight known as Jupiter. He stood taller than humans, yet he still was one, he held a black obelisk of a sword, and a towering set of obsidian armor that gave any onlooker the frightful idea, that it would be similar to trying to fight a building.


    And that true knight held his hand out for Elias, saying only a few words. ¡°Elias, get up, you¡¯ve got better things to do¡­¡± a tone that wasn¡¯t too forceful, but strong, resonated within the confines of Elias¡¯ helmet. Elias took his hand shortly after, something made him believe the knight, what truly was he doing here? Killing one demon? Saving a few people? Maybe he didn¡¯t think of it that way.


    As he stood upright again, a body stepped out from behind Jupiter, small, tiny compared to Jupiter. Wearing large, dark, circular glasses, it was a girl. She talked fast and muttered, Elias couldn¡¯t make out anything she was saying but she kept poking his breastplate incessantly. He turned his head to look at Jupiter who stood beside him, when he did, Jupiter took his hand off his hips and patted Elias¡¯ back.


    ¡°Good to have ya, I bet you have a few questions¡­¡±

 Chapter 1: Meeting someone famous

    I am Elias, a knight, I am unnaturally tall, standing at seven feet tall or a little over two meters, I have great strength despite little training, and I don¡¯t remember anything before three years ago. I have been spending all the time I can remember, traveling, for some reason I cannot settle down.


    I wear a heavy suit of armor, it¡¯s completely white, like marble, the helmet comes to a point in the front and has a large horn on the top, like a beetle, and it has capes and banners flowing off of it. As far as I know I have never taken it off, and if I ever attempt to I feel an impending sense of dread, so I probably never will. I can still eat with it on, as well as anything else a human needs to do, it seemed to be designed to be lived in, I don¡¯t know where I found it either.


    I have no weapons, and I am poor at learning them, so I have been fighting with my bare hands. I experience plenty of difficulties but I always manage to come out on top, killing demons is hard, not many can do it, so I make a living off that. For three years I have been running around the world, killing demons and protecting villages, and I might have done that for the rest of my life, but it seems that fate had other plans with me¡­


    ¡°Jupiter, right?¡± I asked the knight who stood beside me, he was so imposing that I couldn¡¯t help but be a little afraid, he stood well above me. If I was the exception, he was the exception among exceptions.


    ¡°Indeed, surely that¡¯s not all you have to ask.¡± He pat my shoulder and sat down on the corpse of the demon I had slain, it was about the right size for him. He had a large burn mark in his helmet where I assumed his eye was, so I looked him in that.


    Right he was, but how to open was the question, would he get mad if I pestered him with too many questions? ¡±For now¡­ why did you look for me?¡± If I was being honest, a few more questions ached me more, but I would be happy if just this was answered. The person before me was a living legend, when the Gods declared war on man, Jupiter was said to protect entire cities from the storms and onslaughts, it was safe to say he was entirely separate from humanity in terms of power.


    ¡°Hah, that¡¯s a hard question to answer¡­¡± He seemed to be deep in thought. Did he forget? no¡­ then why the pause? He gestured to the girl that came along with him, apparently her name was Europa, a traveling companion. Though I found it strange she was never mentioned alongside Jupiter, she said she had been traveling with him for quite some time, she couldn¡¯t just be a leach right?


    "You¡¯re strong aren''t you? Do you think you could have saved them?" Instead Jupiter asked a question of me, I assumed it was a test of sorts. My worthiness of a traveling companion? or was I being sized up? While I pondered, Europa began to hack up the body of the demon, at the order of Jupiter. It seemed she was trying to dispose of the body, why else would they do with it?


    I gathered my words before answering. ¡°I was stuck defending one of them, no matter who I protected¡­ someone would have died.¡± Jupiter surely knew this, after all he somehow protected everyone, including myself.


    ¡°Right you are¡­ Elias, I arrived here in search of you, your talents are not ones to be wasted on the fringes of the world¡­ unfortunately I must drag you into a larger fight.¡± He stood up from the demon, as Europa dealt with the torso. Once again he was at his full height, I had to crane my neck to look him in the face¡­ plate.


    ¡°I¡¯d be glad to fight alongside you, Jupiter.¡± It was the truth, never did I think I would fight for something bigger, I always felt weak, but just strong enough that not using that strength would be a waste. But what was greater? The Gods have been silent, demons are sparse, and most nations are at peace.


    Jupiter spoke with a complicated tone.


    ¡°I was afraid you¡¯d say that¡­¡±


    2


    At Jupiter¡¯s request I repeated the words I have heard about man¡¯s history.


    ¡°In this world, there are Gods, Demons, and man, and one cardinal sin between them, Gods are the masters of the world, governing all of existence, Demons are agents of chaos, and are creatures without souls, Mankind is the weakest and furthest from Gods, and it¡¯s only Mankind that has souls, if any of the above were to ever return from death, the Gods would deliver punishment to them, more painful than that death several time over.¡± That was the idea I understood.


    "That seems a bit oversimplified, doesn''t it?" Jupiter asked, but I couldn¡¯t quite understand what he was getting at. It may be legend, but demons were common enough, and magic was surely the gift of the Gods, so what did he mean?


    "Well most of the knowledge about that time is lost, maybe things were different back then?" I responded, there was nothing to prove that story was wrong, then again, I have never seen a God, or witnessed a cardinal sin, I had only heard stories.


    ¡±That¡¯s not a bad assumption, all things will be lost to time, even the truth is no exception.¡± Jupiter began to walk past me and in the direction of a nearby road, those people who got attacked by a demon were initially part of a caravan, and it seems they had begun to return to the transport.


    Taking a moment to look at Jupiter himself, he had an easily recognizable appearance, that was because of the armor he wore, and like those heros of stories there were many people that had made depictions of him, most of these were those he had personally saved, from what I knew he had never requested them to do this, but I was thankful of them too, if not for them I might have not known it was him immediately, though that was mostly due to his power...


    His armor was comprised of mainly simple shapes, the helmet and cauldrons only modified rectangles, the breastplate made of a few triangles, while simple, it was distinctive, it helped that the man himself stood around 300 cm, or ten feet, a phenomenon that I did not understand, perhaps he was similar to me in that way, after all I had never met someone, a human, that stood over me, it only made his presence more intimidating though...


    A long sigh broke the tense air, for a moment I wondered how the air escaped his helmet but I pushed that thought aside "Elias tell me, what do you think about demons?"


    "I''m sorry I don''t understand what you mean, demons are..." I tried to think of what answer Jupiter was looking for, what I thought of demons¡­ "... they are violent beings, that will continue to reproduce until the very last one is destroyed, pure evil" I listed off the basic facts I knew about them, so far I had not been proven wrong about them, so I figured that would be enough.


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    "Well..." Jupiter seemed to be thinking of what to say for a few seconds, I let him continue ¡°It¡¯s remarkably simple, if we did not have to fight demons, how would our lives change? Think about it for a while don¡¯t answer right now.¡± He continued off as I followed, what would change?, well I have only had a hot meal because I used my strength to kill demons, and save people, but there are plenty of things you can do with strength¡­


    Jupiter''s words held a certain weight to them, I thought it was strange to tell me this now, but perhaps it was that I just didn''t know enough about the world, demons were a constant, life would surely be better without them, without so many lives lost in the fires¡­


    Those in the caravan welcomed us to join them, so I, Jupiter and Europa were led to the largest cart, one that was supposed to be for storage, Jupiter was simply too large and heavy to sit as a regular passenger, if you were to put words to it, he left tracks in dry dirt, and it would not be a stretch to say he could drag the whole caravan on his strength alone. It was not just that he was large, but also trained and honed, I could only imagine the muscle of a wild animal underneath that armor, to carry slabs of stone on your back and still be in fighting condition.


    Europa took the lead in trying to start a conversation now, as we sat down ¡°Say Elias haven¡¯t I seen you before?, no no.. nevermind, but that armor of yours is defiantly recognizable, not the exact model but that is unmistakably the work of Gavel the famous blacksmith nomad!, same one that made this hunk of junk.¡± she tapped the side of Jupiter¡¯s armor, it sound like metal scrapping against stone, Europa also wore armor of which it had metal gauntlets, the fingers of which looked like they had claws that extended an inch past the tip.


    ¡°You can still see out of that faceplate right? It covers your entire face, that was one of his gifts, you know he only made one hundred sets of armor? count yourself lucky, my armor wasn¡¯t made by him, still I want to know how you guys eat¡­¡± she talked a lot, but that wasn¡¯t exactly bad, she was trying to make me more comfortable, I could feel that she was pushing herself like this, maybe it¡¯s my fault of not relaxing. Otherwise, what she said about connection I have to Jupiter, however small, exited me, but not without confusion, why would someone like me have a set of armor from a famous blacksmith, they told tales of heroics about those people¡­


    Her armor though, did not share any of the same marks that I or Jupiter had, it was made of a pastel steel with a certain sheen, it had a large gem in the center that seemed to serve no purpose, as well as sharp bits all over, it looked like something meant to cut rather than to protect, could she use her armor as a weapon?


    Weapons¡­ Jupiter was known for using a halberd and shield, though it looked like he was currently using a sword, it looked to be as tall as me and as thick as a tree, it was as heavy as it looked, it shook the cart we were in when he put it down, even though it had just been resting on his back a moment ago, the blade of it looked a little dull and there were cracks all along it¡¯s surface with a dull golden shine coming from each one, even if it couldn¡¯t cut it was no less a dangerous weapon.


    Europa¡¯s weapon was even stranger, it looked like two serrated sickles attached by a long chain at the pommel, it¡¯s sharpness was no doubt, it looked properly maintained and looks like it would hurt to get hit by, but that wasn¡¯t it, it had rather large spikes lining either side of the blades that looked like they would hook into armor or skin if they could catch, a brutal weapon.


    ¡°Say, Europa I don¡¯t doubt that you have known Jupiter for a long time, but how come I have never heard of you?¡± I wanted to know, she seemed overly familiar with Jupiter, and he did not pay any mind to her comments, sure he seemed magnanimous but he made no corrections to her either.


    ¡°Have you seen him? he take all the attention, and he won¡¯t tell me the secret to grow taller¡­¡± Indeed, even compared to an average person she was quite small, was she eating correctly?


    All the while Jupiter, the person in question looked somewhat aloof, I wasn''t sure if this was because he was used to praise or he just didn''t care how people talked about him, and that featureless helmet made his emotions even harder to read, he only chuckled lightly to himself every now and then at her comments.


    I eventually resigned to not waste too much time worrying about it.


    3


    A common form of transportation was a line of carts, called a caravan, each of them were connected with cable and steered by a special cart in the front, normally a few strong animals would be pulling that cart, but this one was different, it was pulled by magic.


    The head of the caravan was the daughter of the previous head, he dedicated his life to this caravan trail, people didn¡¯t go hungry because of him, he made transport a craft and even brought supplies to and from cities during the God¡¯s war.


    Every human was taught was magic was, and it¡¯s dangers, that was because magic could only gather at corpses, that was because the soul turned into magic after death, because the only power could be found in tragedy.


    No one had a clear explanation, but one thing was thing that was everyone knew, do not reform the cardinal sin, do not wish for eternal life, do not wish to bring back the dead, do not disrupt the natural and divine order.


    A phenomenon as old as recorded human history, magic was boundless but temporary, no two were alike and only once a millennia where the world changing magic would rise to the top, founding a stronghold or kingdom.


    The fate of this world, and everyone in it, is tied to magic Because the King declared it so.


    4


    I pushed my faceplate in a bit, it wasn''t falling it was just a habit I had developed, wearing this armor felt natural, feeling the air on my bare skin, was a foreign sensation¡­


    Though Europa seemed to take notice of this, "Er... not to be rude but are you going to show your face?"


    She had a helmet as well, but it was currently in her hands at the moment, it''s design was simple but it had much more detail than both mine and Jupiter''s, it was only the bottom half of one though, seemingly as to not get in the way of her glasses, were they really more important than head protection?


    "I can''t do that, ....sorry" even I didn''t know why I did not want to part with it, even for a moment, it just felt wrong, like something bad would happen or I would be punished¡­ I had no past, what could be holding this over me?


    "I see, well I can''t say I''m that disappointed, after all I haven''t even seen Jupiter''s face though that armor is cute enough isn''t it?"


    The last thing I would describe it as is cute.


    He gave a light pat on Europa''s shoulder, at that moment he almost looked like a parent, but that probably wasn''t the case, how would I even know what that looked like?, maybe that''s just how they acted around one another¡­


    ¡°There is something important thing we have to discuss, Elias" Jupiter''s tone was much the same, perhaps his voice didn''t change much with his mood, nonetheless I listened.


    "I saw you use magic during the fight back there, how long have you had magic?"


    There was no good answer other than the truth


    "I don¡¯t have any magic that I know of, I can¡¯t remember anything from before three years ago, apparently around the same time The Wrath had ended."


    I was conflicted on giving such a vague answer, but the only alternative would be to lie, but I had no reason, or want, to do that, especially to him


    "I see, but you seem to have some sort of experience fighting, that''s a start..."


    "Starting from today I''ll have to expand your knowledge on a number of things, but it''s best if you get the personal experience, to that end we will be setting off soon after we enter a particular stronghold, there¡¯s someone we should meet there.¡± I seemed to have been dropped in the middle of their plans, but nothing changed about them, how long have they known about me? and why?


    "I will not waste this chance, Jupiter, I will become as strong as I need to be." At that he nodded, seeming pleased with my answer.


    ¡±If only it were so easy¡­ hold out you hand¡­¡± Jupiter extended one fist to me, and I returned the gesture.


    ¡°Remember this feeling.¡± He bumped his fist against mine, it hurt, nothing compared to a demon, nor his true strength, but it was a solid hit.


    ¡±When you no longer feel pain from this, you will be ready, it¡¯s not something you need training for¡­¡±

 Chapter 2:Character development

    1


    The Solar theocracy is a reformed stronghold, strongholds are places that were meant to defend against The Wrath, heavily fortified cities as well as stockpiles of natural resources, in the years since the war ended those strongholds that had actually survived, had thrived.


    This one was special because the population¡¯s faith in the Gods never waned, even as their capital was assaulted by the harsh storms and those of the Gods, they simply accepted it as divine punishment, and saw their survival as generosity.


    It is said that an ancient holy rite that was performed in this land, and such it¡¯s inhabitants will always be the most devoted, for they had witnessed a Miracle.


    Europa was filling me in on all this, apparently this was her first time coming here, Jupiter had been here once before, they were here in search of a ¡®person of interest¡¯. Since I was already with them it had to be someone else, just who would Jupiter be seeking out? I cursed myself for not trying to learn more before I met him¡­


    Peculiarly Europa took of her glasses every so often when talking to me, I could only catch glimpses of them, every time I did they looked completely black though¡­ shiny like a marble with a tiny speck of blue light in the center, it didn¡¯t even look human¡­


    I figured I shouldn¡¯t bring it up, after all I could just be seeing things¡­


    2


    Even when I closed my eyes, I could still feel hers, I didn¡¯t mind it at first but I started to feel uncomfortable, maybe I was being sized up or analyzed, but she didn¡¯t look human, just stop thinking about it¡­


    What she was talking about, the Gods had delivered punishment to humans due to a recent sin they had committed, Jupiter supposedly knew what it was but said he wouldn¡¯t tell me, that was fine I had gone three years not knowing it it wouldn¡¯t hurt now, but that was the problem the moment I learned he knew what it was I wanted to know as well.


    ¡°Europa why won¡¯t Jupiter tell me what the sin was? is it that bad?¡± My question was only met with laughter, but she put her glasses over her eyes again, thank god, Europa and I had been sitting in a separate cart for a bit as we talked, Jupiter wasn¡¯t able to fit in the rest.


    If there was an emergency or something he would have to break down the doorframe, as well as his surroundings, being that large was something he could not control so it must have not been magic¡­ how could you achieve something like that naturally?


    ¡°Jupiter doesn¡¯t like to open up about a lot, and if you try to force him it¡¯ll to you as much good as you¡¯d expect, he¡¯s about as stubborn as that armor he wears¡­¡± She seemed to pause for a moment, seemingly biting her tongue before speaking again ¡°¡­ you know I was there when it happened¡­¡± she seemed conflicted about admitting it, but she doesn¡¯t look like she was even alive those years ago, so what did she mean?


    Thinking about it, I could see her face clearly at times, I could read the expressions, feel the joy and stress she did, but when she looked at me, there was nothing, I had no face.


    I have no face.


    Intermission.


    Four seats at a dinner table are currently filled, one more person should be paying a visit but for now it''s only them, two children sit across from the adults.


    Holding their heads in their hands, bags under their eyes and tired expressions on their faces, a sinking pit seemed to form in the stomach of one of the adults, and the other could not hold back the tears, they were at their wits end.


    Even if no one else were around to tell them they knew they had done something wrong, their children were cursed, they were surely to blame, treading so far into God''s domain that they were given such hurtful divine punishment.


    It was hard to pinpoint the exact moment when it all started, a prophecy, a brother, all the pain and enlightenment, every memory seemed to take place at the same time, in the end it didn''t matter, they found something forbidden and the repercussions were felt by their children.


    One of the children had a thick blindfold wrapped tightly around their head, they couldn''t help but cry and wonder why they weren''t allowed to see, the parents knew it would only be more painful to see, the whole of it and what they had done.


    The other was bound hand and foot by heavy metal chains, though they were still a child their body was that of a grown adult, more so than even their parents, the parents knew that the child would hurt itself or others, it was too strong.


    Each of them didn''t have the knowledge that their parents did, so it shouldn''t be right that they were the ones punished, but it was exactly that lack of knowledge that could protect them, keep them from learning more.


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    Soon, a brother would come, one that would take these children away and keep them safe.


    For what knowledge they knew that bore The Wrath of heaven they only wished they knew more, such is the true curse of the seeker of truth, not one placed by any God or creature, but the fault that lies in the hearts of all men.


    Otherwise known as The King.


    Soon, their children would be safe. That was all they needed to know...


    3


    At some point during the journey I had fallen asleep, Europa had dragged me all the way back to the cart with Jupiter in it, and now she was pouting, apparently I was very heavy¡­


    The people sitting next to me could be described as special, even if Jupiter didn¡¯t talk much, even if Europa was a kid, I had never met people with such life in them, it was hard to describe but they felt like the only people I could talk to, I no longer felt alone after three years¡­


    Jupiter, a towering knight, a legend to the people, there was rarely a soul that did not know hit name, it wouldn¡¯t be exaggeration to say the majority of people alive today owe their lives to him, such was his strength, such was his mastery over magic, no one would so much as feel pain in his presence.


    And Europa, who I have spent this trip learning about, lifelong at least for her companion to Jupiter, and fighter powerful enough to support him without being a burden, she bragged about her exploits and seemed to always try to put herself above me, which I didn¡¯t mind, it seemed like she earned it.


    Only I couldn¡¯t so much as look her in the eyes¡­


    A wide range of dry and unusable land now only stood between us and the heart of theocracy, such dry stretches were almost always the result of The Wrath, not much about the event is recorded, but the most people remember is the storms, the demons, and those who served the Gods, the very land had been torn up and thrown against the walls of strongholds.


    You wouldn¡¯t hear any of it from the people in this stronghold, there were too many of them that simply averted their eyes to the war, apparently not one of them had died during the whole ordeal it only affirmed their belief that the Gods were just testing them, Europa, who was telling me this seemed annoyed at that.


    A densely wooded area was maintained just outside of a wall that surrounded the city, obscuring it slightly, but most of the structures that could be seen stood high above the wall, most notably being the Holy cathedral, The World Turned Upward, said to be high above the clouds a holy place, entirely for the divine, it was said to also be where the Savior God resided.


    Thus the city at the center of Sol reached towards that place, with it¡¯s peak being the place of worship, the gratitude these people had towards the Gods could be felt in its very structure, I had never seen something on such a grand scale, but somehow it felt almost unsettling¡­


    It was the same as looking directly into Europa¡¯s eyes.


    4


    We had already disembarked from the cart we were staying in, the caravan had reached its destination, I made sure to thank the person who powered it, the other two just walked off, only waiting for me to finish.


    There was a special entrance for caravans which we had taken, luckily this was also the place with archways tall enough Jupiter could walk through the area fine, it was my first time in the city, I knew we were here to find someone but part of me wanted to look around with this powerful guide.


    Inside the walls of the stronghold''s heart was much the same, though the design was more like a maze, there were much more people around than I had ever seen as well, and more tightly packed buildings staggered with large pillars that supported structures higher up, making parts of the city in shadow even in the day, lanterns were the only thing keeping visibility.


    Those in the city cleared a path for us, even in this city that respected Gods more than anything, Jupiter was still the world¡¯s hero, though Europa seemed to be trying to stand in front of him, a smug look on her face, she didn¡¯t have the greatest opinion of these people on the caravan, so maybe she was trying to defend Jupiter from something? it was fun to look at her struggle¡­


    Though the two did not stop to talk to anyone here, only moving through the city with haste, Jupiter knew the rough location of our person of interest, and we were headed there right now, I guess we wouldn¡¯t be staying in this city for long.


    I tried to stop and ask some people questions, but Jupiter and Europa would just stop and stare at me, waiting for me to stop, without saying a word, was what I doing wrong? eventually I didn¡¯t stop anymore, it seemed we were in a hurry.


    Still, did we not need to talk to anyone? Jupiter seemed to know his way around the city so directions weren¡¯t a problem, but something felt wrong about it, surely they didn¡¯t think the people here weren¡¯t worth their time¡­


    Mindlessly following the two deeper into the city we began to reach the taller buildings and structures, small statues, since they didn''t depict Jupiter I assumed it was some God.


    All of the sudden, I felt sick to my stomach¡­ I wanted to throw up¡­


    5


    It all happened so fast I had began recounting the events in my head so I could process what had happened.


    Both Jupiter and Europa had stopped in their tracks the same time I felt that horrible feeling, they probably knew what was going on before I could begin processing it.


    They were fast, faster than me as I turned around to see a man, falling.


    He wasn''t screaming or making any noise at all, his eyes were closed, and for the brief moments I could see his face, he looked like he was in pain.


    Before long, and even before Jupiter could cover my eyes or Europa could catch the man, there was a sickening splat, the man was no more only gore and a puddle¡­


    Blood splattered across my armor, covering up its pure white with red, Jupiter and Europa wear covered in it too, she seemed more distressed about it.


    It was hard to think, my eyes wanted to clamp shut but they couldn''t be torn away from events unfolding in front of me, I had to see what happened next.


    Out of the viscera came a black ooz, one that started to warp into the human form, it climbed out of the corpse like shedding it¡¯s shackles, every step it took it threatened to fade way, in between heartbeats it stepped closer¡­


    Without so much as an utterance it walked, past Europa, past Jupiter¡­.


    It clung to me, and it held on tight...


    For some reason I thought Europa''s eyes grew even darker, so inky black they threatened to swallow my world whole¡­

 Chapter 3: Who was that?

    0


    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.


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    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...


    <code>"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."


    </code>


    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.

 Chapter 4: E-Y-E-S

    0


    I wasn¡¯t skilled at people things,


    ...or maybe ''reading the room.''


    1


    I felt a pain in my head as I had stood up, this whole day was too much for me, far to much to process, I wanted to go back to fighting demons¡­ not thinking, why was I even here? to do something better?


    But my body felt sluggish, I wasn''t moving anywhere like this, but I also couldn¡¯t help the words spilling out of my mouth, in fact I wanted them to be heard, I felt attacked, hunted when she looked at me, but nothing felt more comforting, it felt right¡­


    I repeated "why?¡± my voice nearly catching in my throat, even now I wasn¡¯t stupid enough to not know I was hurting her, but it didn¡¯t matter, I wanted to lash out.


    But this didn''t make her gaze any less terrifying...


    She pulled down a set of large circular glasses over her eyes, obscuring them completely, as well as her emotions "I..." she began to speak but it was clear she didn''t know what to say, I had backed her into a corner, this didn¡¯t feel like winning though, I actually felt worse, why?


    "I''ll try not to look at you then... it''s probably for the best..." with that, she turned away and with one swift motion threw a fist into Jupiter''s stomach, but of course the hit didn''t even scratch him, it felt more like she was hitting a wall, with a resounding clang.


    I had the unshakable faith that Jupiter wouldn''t get hurt, but should I have intervened anyways, Jupiter didn''t seem shaken up about it and just stared off between us for a while, but eventually he spoke up.


    "I''d like to see you two get along, but there''s something you need to do first, maybe that will straighten you out." he walked out of the room, and as he exited the broken doorway, I got the feeling that I should be following him, not from anything he said, but I could feel anger from him, as if to visualize it, the doorframe welded back together haphazardly as he walked past it.


    Shouldn''t someone clean that up?


    2


    We walked back the same way we came, but this time it was much more silent, the tension between us threatened to snap, I felt sick, Europa was ashamed, and Jupiter was smoldering with rage, at least that¡¯s how I interpreted it¡­ I had done something horrible, and had no room to bridge the gap, I felt worse.


    I wanted to get on my knees and apologize, I wanted to offer something anything for forgiveness, I wanted to punch myself in the face.


    Maybe I didn''t even have one under the helmet...


    Something else has always been inside me, I could never pinpoint it, it made me feel ashamed, it made me feel like I had to help those weaker than me, when I felt mad it calmed me down, when I was about to make a mistake it warned me.


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    That thing, it will surely mend this, right?


    I was an idiot without it¡­ I couldn¡¯t do this myself¡­


    3


    A few hours had passed after we left the city, Jupiter lead the way, we were going somewhere important, that was all I knew.


    The three of us had reached a graveyard.


    I didn¡¯t even notice, but Jupiter had been carrying his body all this way here, in fact there already was a fresh grave dug, they probably anticipated this, maybe they would have been able to save him if they did not stop to find me.


    "Who am I?, why did you stop for me?" I needed to know, I couldn¡¯t bear the thought that I was responsible for this person¡¯s death, not only that but his magic went to me, there was no way I could avoid blame for this, I was the only person that had something of his.


    ¡°Elias, you¡¯re an unlucky kid, maybe if everything was different you¡¯d be able to stay obscure and save everyone you could, doing things as you were.¡± Jupiter laid the man¡¯s body in the grave, the ground surrounding it burning and melding together, covering him completely, and with his index finger Jupiter carved a name into the headstone ¡°Orthosie, you know what his name means?¡± Jupiter looked over his shoulder, back at me.


    ¡°No¡­¡± I walked a bit closer, watching the stone come into view, the scorched earth covering his body still had small embers dancing and jumping off it, some were orange, yellow, blue, green, white, my eyes got lost in the dancing colors.


    ¡°Neither do I¡­¡± Jupiter sounded a little despondent, before speaking again ¡°I don¡¯t know what mine means either¡­ I never got the chance to ask.¡± He stood up and looked across the field at the few other graves there were, letting out a sigh.


    "By the way Elias, I have somewhat of a gift to you" Jupiter had turned to a somewhat distant gaze, looking at the sun barely over the world''s edge, it made the field appear a golden hew with the graves being a grim reminder of today¡¯s events, I turned to him ¡°A gift?¡±


    "I did not inherit the magic from these people, call it fate but, I need you to be as prepared as possible for what the world will throw at you." He pushed me on the back sending me forward slightly into the center of the graveyard, on all sides were the names and belongings of the deceased, namely, magic.


    That something was now screaming, that little voice I could barely hear in the back of my head, it had a simple request ¡°Use me¡±, and so I did. Was this magic? I couldn¡¯t have know if I ever had magic, my memory was just too spotty but I couldn¡¯t even put a face to this power, yet, I still flexed this magic like a muscle I always had.


    It was something like a blessing, light poured from the gaps in my armor, liquid light, my mouth dried and my legs nearly gave out, using this blessing nearly robbed me of all my stamina, I felt like I ran a lap around the world, it was a only by chance I was still standing as my legs were locked in place, even then, I couldn¡¯t handle the strain and went mostly limp.


    The glowing ooze poured and poured, being absorbed by the ground as quickly as it was formed, until finally, it took enough. And then they began to take form, sprouts of light shining from each grave like torch flares, providing light still, as the sun fully set.


    Out of their graves, they rose, but not as new life, as a shadow of themselves, a physical manifestation of magic pure and radiant.


    The legion bore their weapons, most of them seemed like warriors, a few ones among them seemed meek, some had no weapons but were just as ready for battle, and one¡­ one had a pickaxe¡­


    The ringing on my ears subsided, and I could hear my heart beating, beating and beating it was trying to keep up with the strain I put on it, I couldn¡¯t be sure if it could keep up, but I could move again, my limbs were responsive, but it hurt like hell.


    What was the point of doing this? I didn¡¯t really understand that tiny voice¡­ or maybe I did. I had to fight my way out of this, somehow, this was less mentally taxing.


    I could relax.


    SNAP


    Or maybe my body would give out.

 Chapter 5: Whats in Your Blood

    -----------------------Chapter 5------------------------


    ---------------Whats in Your Blood----------------


    0


    At least I''m a good fighter...


    1


    Without missing a beat, I lunged at the first spirit, a man covered head to toe in armor, ax in both hands.


    It wasn''t hard to imagine how this person had made it to consciousness, a warrior with a brutal style would no doubt take magic after the killing of another, that fact made me hesitant.


    Taking a life wasn''t so easy, I had trouble killing soulless demons, was that weakness?


    For some reason the magic inside me had not received my blessing, I found it strange but that meant I could still fight, with a small bit of channeling I could use magic. One efficient spell I knew came to mind, I was already weak from using my blessing so I had to work with what little stamina I had left.


    A regular punch is a essentially a short burst of explosive strength, this magic should function the same, it should only activate for a few moments. "One ton punch..." that was a good enough name, by subjecting only my fist to extreme gravity my momentum skyrocketed, with a downward strike the spirit was crushed, leaving a could of sparkling mist in its wake.


    I took a deep breath...


    2


    "A memory?" My surroundings had changed, I could see the armored barbarian in front of me, I was in a house surrounded by women looking at him as well. "...what''s going on?" I lowered my fist and walked up to him, now I could see his face, like his armor had melted off. It was a strangely kind look in his eyes, but his body still matched the one that would subject themselves to battle at any notice.


    "Yo, ferryman" the man spoke, staring at me "Take care of my soul... I can''t let my death be in vein so pardon my imposing but..."


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    For some reason he could see me, I had never experienced someone''s memories when gaining magic... then again I wasn''t sure this was even a memory. His face tensed up "There''s someone that''s been abusing their sentience, you don''t need to kill them but..." there was a complex emotion written on his face, something I had never seen before, I could hardly understand it "You''ll understand when you meet them... seek out the Dreg King"


    With that he began to fade "Later, ferryman, have a good one" he held out his fist, I returned the gesture this one stung...


    3


    Opening my eyes I found myself back in the graveyard, my entire body felt heavy and I could only smell and taste blood, I knew this feeling. Magic sucks out your stamina for it''s power, using it when you had nothing left is hell on your body, apparently I had passed out right after... or maybe before that punch.


    Nevertheless, the punch had gone through, but that was nothing to say against the dozens of spirits around me. That said, I couldn''t help but be curious what exactly I would get from this mystery of a warrior, I could see his magic rising from a grave, it gave off a gentle glow but its core was a violent fire, it was in the shape of man.


    I let the blood that pooled in my mouth fall out, now just left with the taste of metal and a stained tongue, moving my body hurt but I couldn''t help but wonder what magic he might possibly give me. Why?, why did I need to know so bad, sure it would probably help but that wasn''t it, there was something else. I looked around and sure enough Jupiter and Europa were still watching me, although it looked like he had needed to hold Europa back from helping me, that was fine, I needed to do this myself anyways, but...


    I was sure of it, it had something to do with those two, I didn''t know exactly why or how but I was sure, with that I forced my body to move using magic again, I knew it would hurt and my body would suffer more but at least I could get rid of this itch.


    4


    Jupiter looked on, unreadable helmet aside, his stance showed his trust, slab of a sword held in the ground and arms crossed, he had stopped holding Europa back at some point but she was staying aside anyways, both had to have known at some level that I would pull through, but I had no idea why.


    I had to punch a handful of spirits on my way there, without magic the best I could do was beat them off me, before I could reach there I had to crawl, even my skin felt numb, I was probably pushing my body past a breaking point, magic took your stamina, if it couldn''t take that it had to take something else. No doubt the wellspring inside of me had dried up, whatever a blessing was ate up more than magic, or maybe they were one in the same, in any case I had no idea what allowed me the luxury to think of such things during a battle.


    Maybe it was just that, a curiosity too strong, I wondered where I got it from, but there was thinking to be done later, I arrived at a grave marked "Herse." Though it was really just a rock with a name on it, surrounded by a set of armor and two axes, but something new as well.


    Magic, it was the only name we had for it and it could do anything, everyone knew that magic could grant them any wish, but the price was far to great for anyone, that was, their own death. But that''s wrong. There are some who have wishes that far surpass their life and even those of others, this magic would manifest the strongest, to die with no regrets and hope for the future, it was a difficult thing indeed...


    Digging my fist into the ground I had every intention to drag this magic out of its resting place, what held me together was my curiosity, and what I needed to do was fight, what came afterwards was the fate of every truth seeker.

 Chapter 6: Shear Wind Scraping

    -----------------------Chapter 6------------------------


    ---------------Shear Wind Scraping---------------


    1


    "Cmon cmon..." I started digging, tearing open this grave site, wisps of energy rose from the ground, I was in no condition to keep pushing myself before and much less now, yet...


    My consciousness started to fade, my body weakened, energy soaked my skin as I fell to the dirt. It could be said that the very ground was opening by itself to swallow me, only I could see what was actually happening, I was being met halfway.


    The spirit was a semi-physical being, and it had will remaining, that surprised me, but more so did the glowing hands that separated the dirt.


    I started to remember...


    2


    This happened before, from Orthosie, the man who fell to his death, both spirits moved of their own will to attach to me, it was like a strange force of nature that propelled both of them. Soon, we became face to face, but what stared back at me only vaguely resembled the warrior I had just met.


    My ears were ringing and my body was numb, only my vision stayed clear, but even my eyes started to burn and burn. Engraved on my mind was magic, like a scar or even tumor, nothing soothed the burning, yet it did not bother me, this had happened many times before, but I had never experienced it so vividly.


    Without words, I rose to my feet.


    3


    My body was distinctly not my own, I had nearly become my own foreign body, instead, magic swelled and filled the gaps, it pushed my lungs giving them air, so much that I coughed out dust and dirt. My muscles were unknotted and my blood was cleansed, I could feel every inch of my body dying and growing, even excess bodily fluids were expelled, I had been rejuvenated.


    I took a back seat in my own mind, I suspected this is the battle I was truly ment to fight. Magic grew in a torrent around the graveyard, in the distance I could see Jupiter shielding Europa as the wind picked up its speed. Soon enough it grew sharp enough to pierce the spirits, small as sharp threads of wind rending their blessed forms, and as more fell, magic started to soak the ground, rising from their graves.


    It was difficult to navigate my mind, the magic had swelled to deeply within it, leaving me with little space to myself. Each one of these swellings of magic was once a person, one who had gained consciousness, I could not blame them for wanting to hold onto any other scrap of it they could, but I needed my mind back. Searching and searching brought me nothing, I needed to look deeper, but there was an answer in front of me already...


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.    Approaching me was a man, he had no defining features, let alone a face, but I couldn''t have known what he looked like anyways. The only reason I could see him now is because I needed to "Ferryman, I have something I need to repay you for" I heard his voice, but it could have been anyone''s, I couldn''t have known what he sounded like.


    "Consciousness took its toll on me, without anyone I could talk to I slowly grew mad... but in here, so many voices and beings, it all became so overwhelming." I let him keep talking, I was not making any progress with my mind, and it was best to hear out the words of a dead man "You''ve given me my home Ferryman, and for that I give you a terribly useless magic, but it''s what you need to get your body back, I hope I''m of use to you, Ferryman"


    Magic is rarely a thing you can intuit, I would not be surprised if someone could never find out what someone''s magic is after they gain it. I don''t know what a Ferry is, but whatever respect it affords me has already saved my life, I better pay it forward.


    4


    "Magic eject" my body became my own in an instant, I had found the problem, one large heep of magic that refused to give up the reigns. Physically, I have never been better, and it seemed like I didn''t have to wait much time at all to test that...


    The wind had died down and surrounded me was a multicolored array of lights flowing from the ground into the sky, and in front of me was a sprit, much like the ones from my blessing, but this one was different, it had form. The shape of a man became clearer, so did the large feathered hat and pickaxe on his person, long flowing fur clothes and a pointed mask with sharp features engraved onto it, more like a demon than a man. But something about this man filled me with emotion, like nothing before, out of the corner of my eye I could see Europa fall to her knees and Jupiter step back in shock, clearly this man was a force to be reckoned with. "I''m sorry but I couldn''t let you control my body like that, use that temporary form to act out your desires" I spoke, now I could see him looking at me through the mask. "..." it was clear that he wanted to speak, he had no weapon drawn, only that strange huge pickaxe, I made an attempt to talk to them again. "I don''t have any memory of taking your magic, do you know what happened?" He lowered his stance "...", what was he trying to say?, Jupiter made no movements, so I stood my ground, with some distance between us I was ready to take on this spirt. "Elias" it spoke, my name no less "Oh how big you''ve gotten" "..." who was this?, they know who I am, was I someone to them? "I''ll make of this form what I can, Elias, find me, in a cabin deep in the forest where dregs gather" with that the sprit turned and left. With only one last remark "Elias, take care of Europa"

 Chapter 7: Now and Forever

    -----------------------Chapter 7------------------------


    ------------------Now and Forever------------------


    0


    "Oh know that one, he caused quite a few problems in his time." - Great God of Loss


    Well I don''t know if I should be proud of that or not, but that sure does explain a lot.


    1


    With the strange spirit making it''s leave I started to feel the strain the magic had taken on my body, my muscles were tense, but some were torn, and all of them were aching, I could even feel a broken rib.


    My eyelids soon became heavy "Jupiter... I did it..." my body went limp and my mind faded once again.


    Around me were dozens of faces I didn''t recognize, all swirling in a vortex, from all sides all I could see was magic, but soon it all subsidied and calmed.


    Next I was in a lake, a small boat under my feet and a oar in my hands, I was rowing without thinking and I didn''t feel like stopping.


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    A gental rocking in the boat was caused by small waves in the vast expanse below, pearing into the water produced no reflection, instead the water began to glow, the same pale sickly light of magic, but this time it was of many.


    Swirling around my boat I felt no malice from them, only a discord amongst them and by exention the whole body. "Oh lord of the Sea, we hear your call, in your strength we all rise" hundreds of voices pierced my head, the sea began to grow restless. "Etch this into your very being, struggle, fight, grow, in your strength we all rise, Oh Ferryman, covet strength, covet souls, the world is in your hands"


    2


    Hot.. to hot.. "Ow ow ow"


    Reflexively I shot up and smothered the fire in my arms, waiting for it to die down


    "Finally you''re awake" a voice spoke "Hey I told you that might have been too far, he''s still weak from that magic overuse" spoke another


    "humph!"


    Those being the voices of Jupiter and Europa, I could see them more clearly. Jupiter, a knight that stood taller than anyone, armor large to be a shelter for a couple people, all of it scarred raven black from battle, most prominently a melted right faceplate where I assume his eye would be.


    Nothing about him looked heroic, down to the sword, which looked more like a cracked obelisk, although despite all appearances he never betrayed an ominous intent, in fact the rattling of his armor provided a sense of security. "What''s wrong Elias? Don''t worry we are unhurt" he reassured me, kneeling slightly to meet me at head level. "Sorry for burning you, you just wouldn''t wake up" a smaller more emotional voice sprung from beside Jupiter. Europa was not wearing her glasses right now, her eyes...


    They shone brighter than ever, colors swirl around in them, reminding me of the Sea. Didn''t she look smaller than most people? Still she looked capable enough, I doubted the usefulness of a sickle in combat, but as long as someone was proficient in magic they could be useful in combat. "What do you see?" I couldn''t help but ask, I was rude before but I couldn''t help my curiosity now.


    3


    "Across the whole world, people will wake up, chaos will rein, power surging, masses of souls gathering... and you in the middle" she spoke "I''m sorry Elias, I don''t know what this world wants from you"


    Jupiter stood back up looking at the dawn "It''s starting... the Escalation"

 Chapter 8: Escalation

    -----------------------Chapter 8------------------------


    -----------------------Escalation-----------------------


    0


    Thinking of a quote to describe this event does not exist in my world, luckily a good friend told me "shits about to hit the fan", but that''s a bit to vulger, so maybe "metamorphosis" is better. But for some reason, he seemed to find that one vulger...


    1


    "Please explain..." I was back on my feet before I could think to ask, my body felt heavy, and my armor heavier.


    "Escalation?, Ferryman?, souls?, Sea?" Was there more to being strong than I first thought? How had Jupiter ever survived this long?


    "My name..." Jupiter began to speak "Nevermind, you trust us right?" His voice sounded uneasy and intimidating all at the same thing, there really wasn''t anything heroic about him


    "Aren''t you two the only people really here?" I could only think to prod them on their information, badly I wanted to fall to the ground and get some rest, but first I needed answers


    Jupiter looked back at Europa and stopped walking "Elias" he put a hand over my shoulder "You are part of a prophecy... I''ve been fighting alongside Eropa to find you, that armor was made to ensure your safety, that graveyard was built to give you power" there was a distinct sadness in his voice, why?


    "I don''t understand, I''m not special" the words hurt to come out, but I knew it was true, I had no past, no power, only a first name, and no one to protect.


    "That''s right Elias, that''s why..." Swift and sharp, a blow from Jupiter''s fist landed on my chest, knocking some of the wind out of me. "we have to toughen you up, no one needs you right now, but someone might need you tomorrow" He gave me a slap on the back making me stand upright.


    "Listen Elias.." With both hands on my shoulder his helmet came face to face with mine. "Starting now, the world won''t wait on you, riding the razor''s edge is all there''s left for you now"


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    Strangely my chest didn''t hurt, if anything Jupiter''s voice seemed strained, clearly he wasn''t enjoying this "Are you sure I can do it..?" I had to ask, if he said it was so then it was, I just had to know.


    2


    "Well, Europa?" At Jupiter''s call Europa emerged from beside him and looked me up and down. Soon removing her glasses and looking me over again, it was at least a little embarrassing to be inspected by a girl, but I had more pressing matters.


    "Well his heart is still beating, blegh weird...." she stuck her tongue out like she was looking at something disgusting, it stung a little.


    "That''s not what I meant, but being able to see his heart is strange in the first place, tell me how much magic he has" Jupiter crouched behind Europa as if trying to get the same view as her, seemingly to no effect


    "Hmm..." She now looked around me, yet not past me, the feeling send a shiver down my spine, maybe souls are shy. "A gross amount, he might measure up to you if he keeps growing like this" she seemed to at least be more respectful, or objective.


    "Good, I can''t have you dying on me Elias" Jupiter spumped slightly and flipped Eupora''s glasses back over her eyes, to which she did not seem to object to, in fact she breathed a sigh of relief. I decided to do the same, my mind could use a break from this all.


    With that, I drifted off once more...


    3


    No dreams this time, I woke up smelling the grass in the hot sun, something even smelled burt, but that subsidied with a tide and clouds of dust, I fell back asleep. No dreams, I could hear the clanging of armor into stone and snapping of bones, but no matter what I did, I could only strain my ears, I fell back asleep. No dreams, my tongue had long since lost taste, the feeling on my skin scraped off, my eyes slowly opened.


    Slung over the shoulder of the Great Knight Jupiter, my body laid limp, unable to move. Rain slowly ran down my helmet, my cape blocking the rain for Europa below, wherever we were going, I hoped we reached there safely. "Would you look at that." Stirred by Jupiter''s words, I opened my tired eyes to see a bolt of lighting split the clouds along our path, my skin started to tingle.


    "A miracle?" Europa''s voice sound strained slightly as she looked up at the newly clear sky. "Isn''t magic just one bundle of miracles, a whole person''s life leading up to this, should make you thankful."


    "No..." I spoke, both of them turned their heads as they realized I was awake. "Not just this, I swear I will live up to the lives of everyone who has blessed me, I will respect you by putting your life''s work to use" I had to get the words out, I''m already nothing, but if I let myself be nothing with the power of several someone''s withing me, I''ll be less than a person.


    As the gears slowly started to turn in my brain I felt I had graced something divine. "You needed someone to start a revolution?" I asked as the pieces slowly moved together "but for what?"


    Jupiter put a hand under his helmet like he was scratching his chin. "The world, it needs waking up, like you were, right now everyone is asleep, going through life without thinking, without feeling, I cannot do this myself, I have already sacrificed too much for personal power, it needs to be you." He let me off his shoulders, that was fine, I could stand on my own now


    "You are linked with the world on a fundamental level, whether by circumstance or fate, you must grow stronger so the world can too." In other words I have to pull everyone from the top


    "People will have to die for that" I responded, it was obvious, but I wanted to know what response he had


    "I know..."

 Chapter 9: Riptide

    -----------------------Chapter 9------------------------


    -------------------------Riptide--------------------------


    1


    No words, I did not know what I could describe this as, but a journey filled with power and bloodlust was what we were going on, magic, something that only manifested at the very end of someone''s life, to harvest and use it...


    "Hey hey snap out of it" a slight ringing of metal made me refocus, the sound of Jupiter''s thick gauntlets clapping "We aren''t doing this to kill, we''ll find another way, and she... is our way" he placed a hand on Europa''s shoulder, and her mouth curled slightly into an uneasy expression.


    It seemed that the world rested on the shoulders of this slip of a girl, although I was told I held the world in my hands, and I could only imagine Jupiter taking on the world. My eyes adjusted, against a newly formed world, with the power we have... surely it was a far off dream, I blinked again, vision returns.


    "I don''t have any plans for the world you know... I haven''t even seen all of it..." I blurted, if I had to hold the fate of the world I felt like I should know what it was like first.


    "It''s on the way"


    "What, the world?"


    "Yes"


    2


    It was a bit more complicated than that but the essence of it was a group of 14 locations all across the world, whatever was housed in each would supposedly help me come to my decision, I still wasn''t comfortable with all this resting on me, but I wasn''t about to voice that now...


    "Are you sure that by the end I''ll know what to do?" I had dug my hand into the soft dirt, carving the image of the locations into the ground, and lines between them.


    "If you don''t do anything, you won''t, but no matter how bad this plan might go, you can make up the difference with effort"


    That wasn''t very reassuring, effort could be directed in any direction, would he really be okay if I came to destroy the world as long as it took effort to make the decision?


    I thought I should not push it, I was at the beginning of the journey, no use worrying about the end...


    "What''s the first step?"


    "Why don''t you consult that map you drew"


    Jupiter''s words made me realize I was still drawing the symbols and lines in the ground, at some level I could understand the nature of the world, but there was still much that I couldn''t see.


    I stood up as the others circled around the map, First, a shrine dedicated to the God of the Just, its deep within a forest under the overhangs of cliffs.


    The second point, a vast city with a grand tower at it center housed the shrine to the God of Laws, it was a great distance from the last point. The next was far below the surface in jagged ashy caverns, the shrine to the God of the World Turned Downward, a maw of the earth seemed to surround it, I knew that this is where all demons came from.


    Fourth was another shrine to the God of the Just "Why is there two of them?" I crouched to get a better look at the two. "There are two Gods that have that title, you''ll soon find out why, as for how I know... I can''t tell you right now"


    It wasn''t surrounded by anything, just a shrine in the middle of a field, but it marked halfway to the other side of the world, something about that felt significant, how large was the world?


    The next and fifth shrine was at the top of a mountain of mountains, it''s peak reached far above the clouds, to the God of Power. I only knew of a legend that wandering souls gathered to the top of this mountain, but why hadn''t those of the graveyard gone? perhaps it wasn''t true.


    The God of Movement was next, its shrine was in a salt flat with mountains on all sides, almost shaped like a bowl with the shrine at the bottom, each of these shrines had to have been built by somebody... did they also travel down this path to make them?


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.On the other side of the world there was the shrine to the God of the Creations, I decided not to continue looking past, I would be a different person by the time I reached the other side of the world, it was a scary thought. The only thing that marked this shrine was a small cabin, was it inside? or was it the shrine? I would find out eventually...


    If I would... then what was the point of hiding anything?


    3


    Why didn''t we go the other way?


    For a moment the thought crossed my mind, somehow I knew we could do it, something like intuition guided me when I thought of the world, it was like I knew it inside and out. But none of this information would reveal itself to me, only out of the corner of my eye or straining my ears did secrets come to me. Sure I could wait till they revealed themselves to me, but I couldn''t wait, something like an itch kept me from finding peace in not knowing.


    "Hey can you keep an eye out?" My thoughts were interrupted by Jupiter and Europa talking, I could see her lift one lens away from her eye before dropping it back on "Ow ow, no good it''s too strong here" "Got it don''t push yourself" I decided I wanted to know what she was talking about too...


    "Er.. Europa, what is it that hurts?" I had to know, an itch told me to take her eyes for myself "No why would I do that?" I said to myself


    I noticed that the both of them were looking at me strangely "I won''t take your eyes" I decided to reasure them


    4


    "I told you I''m fine you don''t need to see here if it hurts" I protested, I was told to sit here while Europa looks over me again. "Don''t worry we''ve picked up a few ways to deal with this" Europa began digging around my armor, trying to take it apart at the joints, to no avail. I had no idea the sturdiness of this armor, nor even what it was made of, but it was clearly built to have no exposed parts, in some respects it was like a cage... what was it built to keep in? another itch...


    "There!" A glint in Europa''s eye shone as she reached a third, completely magical arm, through my chest. I looked up to Jupiter, he muttered something under his breath and his pitch black armor seemed to blot out everything, almost like it grew, with a mind of its own, it was hard to look directly at it but if I didn''t it would disappear, another itch... I wanted to know what it was


    "I can''t... reach" Europa struggled and strained against my armor, as if trying to reach deeper, I didn''t feel anything strange yet, it was all silent. "It''s stubborn, it clings to your life Elias" Jupiter began to analyze, maybe he had experience with something like this, or magic was always like this.


    "What does that mean?" As I asked Europa gave up and pulled her arm out, it faded away quickly outside of my body.


    "The soul doesn''t let go easily, if it was unfulfilled in life it may drive those who take its magic to fulfill their desires, Elias, you want to know our secrets right?" Maybe I was easy to read, but how quickly they found out my desires gave me a sense of unease "Yes, it''s like I can''t help but go looking for answers"


    Europa gave a playful scoff and knocked her hand against my helmet, of course it did no damage "First you gotta stop being so dense" she put her glasses back on, and Jupiter''s influence seemed to vanish as well.


    Jupiter added on soon after "In other words we can''t tell you, maybe you can''t see it now but deep down you understand why" Jupiter then cracked up a little, a small laugh before sighing and looking at the ground "or maybe you don''t know yet, figuring it out is your job after all, I''ll await your answer"


    I could feel an almost newfound purpose, I wasn''t being lied to, I was being challenged.


    I could rise to a challenge, I could do that.


    "Hey Elias"


    A somber voice called to me


    "..."


    "If I die you can have them"

 Chapter 10: Outside

    # Chapter 10


    0


    I had to ask for some help writing this part, sometimes all you need is a change of perspective¡­


    Forget what I said about being good at fighting¡­


    1


    I felt like we''d be making a lot more journeys together after this, didn''t make it any easier this first time.


    The three of us kept an awkward silence most of the way to our destination, maybe we should have made a plan to reach the center of the forest, but as it stood now it seemed like those two didn''t feel conformable speaking to me. So many possibilities ran through my mind, they didn''t seem to hate me, we''re they scared of me?


    I decided to push that thought to the back of my mind.


    The edge of the forest spread out before us, I was on firewood duty, but had no ax¡­


    I had felt like this quite a few times in the past few days.


    Whatever, I could take it as a test, incidentally I had no weapons to speak of at all, I could never choose what weapon to learn. ¡°Maybe a sword like Jupiter?¡± I wondered aloud, was it the weapons that made the knight?, was I being barbaric by using my fists?


    I don''t think either of them would mind, they always seemed to be talking about more important matters, most of which flew over my head. One day I would be able to decipher everything they said, but for now I aught to just listen. ¡°Any tree should do right?¡± The deeper I went into the forest supposedly I''d be likely to run into the shrine, and that if I did I should find Jupiter and Europa. I could handle that¡­


    ______________________


    This was about the samurai in the forest.


    Write here, remember to erase this when you start.


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    -Elias


    Yeah whatever, thanks for letting me see this project you''re working on


    When you get this back you should give it everyone I''m sure they want a say in history


    Well I should start explaining my part shouldn''t I?


    Then¡­ my name is Europa, and hey we didn''t know what a samurai was back then you''re getting sloppy!


    But I''ll tell you what I saw


    ______________________


    2


    Jupiter has just set me off into the forest, we had arrived at the shrine quickly once we entered the forest, but that was only because we knew the trick, Elias was supposed to make it here on his own.


    ¡°Things never go as planned do they?¡± I breathed a heavy sigh, I want a smoke, I rested on Jupiter''s shoulder, we did this all the time when we traveled but it was embarrassing to do in front of anyone else.


    I could walk on my own.


    ¡°We planned for this didn''t we?, please don''t lose hope so early in¡± Jupiter was always the voice of reason, but I didn''t want to listen to reason right now. ¡°He does even remember us.¡± At some level I felt cheated, I mean how could he?


    ¡°Why would he, he went through the same thing you did.¡±


    God I wanted to punch him in that big stupid metal faceplate, but every time I did he had to heal my hand¡­ so maybe not.


    ¡°So you don''t feel bad at all? I know you got some feelings in that old head.¡± I settled for wobbling his helmet back and forth like a joyst- fern. He still stood as stoic and motionless as ever, was it just me or was he colder recently?


    ¡°Plenty, what, you can''t tell by my face?¡± he turned that baking pan looking helmet at me, oh he''s got jokes now, maybe I was just imagining it¡­


    ¡°Fine fine, well what are we going to do, I didn''t know He was here¡± Sure I knew we kept plenty of secrets from Elias, but there were still a lot of things we didn''t know, maybe it was Karma¡­


    The most pressing being who was He?, a swordsman that has been following us for the past year, maybe even longer, normally we would take care of anyone that got in our way, but there was something different about him.


    He was obviously sentient, no average person could keep up with our movement patterns even if they were given orders to, even still we couldn''t rule out the possibility him being a pawn of someone greater. As far as we could tell sentience happening immediately and all at once, but if someone found a way to say, only give half, who knew what havoc they could wreck. ¡°So do we deal with him now?¡± I decided asking Jupiter was the smart thing to do, he was never wrong.


    ¡°It''s likely he followed us here to reach Elias, with unclear intentions it''s best to put him in the ground and ask questions from there.¡± Every so often a bit of brutal words came out of his mouth, I could never tell if he was mad or just didn''t know how to talk to people, well I guess there aren''t many people. Regardless what he said made sense, and perhaps crushing someone after Elias would help him to trust us more, but he always seemed so distant, should I warm up to him? no¡­ the thought of it made me shudder.


    3


    And so that''s why I was sent, alone, a girl in a dark forest with a questionably motivated scary swordsman, and a hero of prophecy. I would complain about it more but I had agreed to this a long time ago, without hesitation I let the magic seep out of my slowly, manifestations and spectral limbs surrounded me. They assisted with everything, movement, combat, all 6 senses, in truth I had to learn no skills, those within me were genius hunters. Still though, I was the only vessel they could act through, I didn''t want to disappoint, with that I laid as quietly as possible against the ground, I''m sure any passersby would think they''ve seen a corpse, that''s a rude thing to call a girl! You know I could kill you with the snap of my-


    Before my imagination could run wild I was interrupted by a voice from behind me. ¡°Excuse me kid, if you get in my way you''ll have to die, I don''t kid around.¡±


    WHAT A SHITTY PUN! GO DIE IN HELL DIE! DIE! DIE!!!


    Calm down, you got snuck up on it''s not the end of the world but who could it be?, no that was a stupid question.


    Encased within armor in the color of a feild of flowers, having only one arm and wearing a broad rimmed mushroomed shaped helmet, he held his arm on the hilt of his strange long curved blade.


    The person that had been following us¡­someone from Outside.

 Chapter 11: Sword Saint

    # Chapter 11


    0


    Hey its still me for this first part but don''t worry I''ll send it back to Elias for the end


    Gil should write a few of these but he''s hard to pin down


    1


    What he said really shook me, but I wouldn''t be taking him too lightly, sword in hand and leaning down to face me, his broad helmet casting a shadow over me, I hate when people do that.


    ¡°Missy, you''ll be in a whole world of hurt if you don''t tell me where the Hero is¡± he curled his other hand into a fist, even through his helmet I could feel his gaze sharpen. Even if he talks super lame he''s no less strong¡­ , still I didn''t want to give him the time of day, is everyone who wakes up weirdos? The ones in the graveyard seemed to be fine, why did Jupiter get all those ones!?


    ¡°I''ll kill ya, and I super mean it, maybe ya don''t get it¡± In the blink of an eye¡­ okay maybe not that fast¡­ but very quickly, he swung his strange, long curved sword right through the nearest tree, letting it fall to the ground with a massive thud. All I can say is wow, maybe I should keep him talking I get the feeling he''s not actually going to kill me, sure his blade was sharp, and he didn''t have any problems with threatening me, but I''ve begun to understand that the ¡®honorable¡¯ types like him wouldn''t really hurt a kid.


    Having said that I should probably play along for now, cutting a tree quickly wasn''t anything special, at least by awakened standards, but I had a sneaking suspicion that he was much stronger than that. He had never tried to launch a sneak attack on us, even after following us for so long, nor tried to hinder our journey, although that could have just been to get closer to Elias.


    Let''s test the waters ¡±I know where the Hero is, but let''s talk first okay?¡± maybe I should have put more fear into my voice, maybe I was staking to much into a hunch, but I wanted him to turn his back, to see what kind of magic he would wield¡­


    ¡°It matters not what you say, my will is as true as my blade, you can''t stray its path.¡± Part of me wanted to kick this guy where it hurt, but I knew that would only end badly, without any information and might cause Jupiter some trouble.


    By the way I wasn''t worried for my own life, Jupiter would protect me I had no doubt in that, even still I would only be a bother if I couldn''t handle things on my own, so I decided to persuade. But just in case I activated a bit of magic¡­


    Instantly I felt the stamina drain from my body, I felt like I ran a lap around a city¡­


    2


    It was like reliving a memory, I was familiar with magic, or at least the spells I had. That was enough, I felt the familiar warm sensation of blood on my back, although I knew it was not real, it brought me comfort, now I was no blood crazed murderer, the memory filled my mind with the bitter cold. It was about survival, the act of hiding in an animals carcass was the only thing Aunty could do live through The Wrath, a disaster that I had only heard about in stories, they say the gods had waged a war against man for ten years and that any area outside of the most fortified cities was wiped off the face of the country. Apparently Jupiter has lived through it, and somewhere along the way that magic Aunty had made its way to me, apparently it was her last wish.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    I knew, that was what made my magic strong Aunty had left her will to me and in turn, wherever she was, she gave it herall to help me. I said under my breath ¡°Mantle¡­¡± Cloaked in a coat of blood I got in a lower stance, perhaps the man found it threatening and he tightened the grip on his sword. ¡°At least tell me what you plan to do with him¡± despite myself I found a cold tone creeping out of my voice, as I held down one lens of my glasses to get a good look at him.


    3


    Instantly I could tell two things, first, he had no souls besides his own, second, that his own soul was leagues more advanced and powerful than the average person, it was painful to look at. You know when you look at the sun for too long and you get a blind spot?, yeah that. It was hard to call it terrifying, but I had only seen this once before in Jupiter, it wasn''t reassuring, he had never told me the reason behind it, only that he should know right away should I ever run into another.


    It was settled, I would run to Jupiter''s side and he would take care of it, that''s how it always worked¡­ or at least it should have, there was one problem.


    ¡°Europa, is that you? I found the firewood.¡± Out of the woods came a boy with no sense, one that was reserved but talked out, and every other part mismatched, Elias.


    ______________________


    Elias.


    ______________________


    I''m lost I thought to myself at some point, I knew that finding my way through the forest would be my test, but did they expect me to just¡­ know the way forward? Thinking to myself I looked at the pile of scraps in my hand, it could only be called scraps and not firewood, I had decided on punching a tree down, the results of which did not leave much in the way of clean fragments. Nonetheless it would do the job, maybe I was the same, did Jupiter and Europa intend to punch me into the shape they needed to do their job?, at some level I didn''t feel bothered by it, I wouldn''t have to worry about my plans for the world. But no, I was told that couldn''t happen, that even if I was hammered into shape I would melt back down into my base components, I felt at a loss.


    Perhaps it was because he was my hero, but Jupiter always had this air of justness about him, it made following him much easier, but I couldn''t help but wonder what gave him such a high perspective. Maybe my screaming curiosity was the reason I could not, in the end, follow orders perfectly. There were always more strengths to a hightened perspective, just take one look at those who have not been stirred to consciousness and you''ll see.


    Clearing my mind, I also made it to a clearing, no no it must be a coincidence¡­


    ¡°Europa, is that you? I found the firewood¡±


    That''s when I saw Eruopa standing there, covered in blood¡­ and a tall man with strange armor pointing his sword at her, before I knew it I was standing between Europa and the man, ¡°Stay back, I''ll crush him¡± I felt the confidence in my words, but it wasn''t mine, borrowed power, borrowed feelings, I''m sorry but give me the chance to make use of you.


    Weapon, I need a weapon, my body screamed at me, and I decided to listen, I knew there was one voice that could use this. Well, they were now all my voice, through me maybe they weren''t really dead, magic¡­


    I rolled my eyes back in my head for a moment, I couldn''t use a sword, magic would take the reigns for a moment, but this time I wouldn''t let it consume me, if I just told myself that maybe it wouldn''t come true. Instead I stretched my soul to every corner of my body, if I got out of control I would shut it all down, that should work.


    ¡°Yo Hero man, I''ll give you one chance convince me with your blade, if your argument is insufficient I''ll snuff your candle.¡± The man in strange armor spoke, I didn''t know what he did to Eruopa while we were separated but she was obviously hurt, I didn''t want to listen to a word he said, yet he put them together with such power I felt my hands tremble.


    ¡°I''m sorry, I''ve got the chance to meet my hero myself, I can''t die till I get some answers.¡± So this was why I felt the need for a blade, I had nothing against a weapon, but I had never favored one. ¡®When learing its best to start early¡¯, now who had said that to me? That comes after I''m done.


    I knew my mind would flood with memories not my own by taking up the magic blade within me. So without missing a beat I slammed both my fists together, slowly ripping them apart, it took all my strength to separate them, but between them came a pitch black pillar with a white flowing cloth obscuring it, a sword about twice the size of Europa was born between my hands, it went by a name, Crownspliter.


    This would be my first real fight, I''d pull every bit of knowledge out of this batle I could, ¡®learning under pressure might stress you out.¡¯ Who said that again?


    ¡°Kensei, that is my name, carve it into your being if you know what''s good for ya¡±


    Threatening words would not shake me now, I decided this man was my teacher.

 Chapter 12: Smooth Skater

    0


    I have to lend this project to more people, they aught to not like the way I might talk about them


    1


    Heavy.


    My arms fell limp, strength was gone from them, I couldn¡¯t even lift a finger, I was paralyzed. A thick pure black blade slammed into the ground, twigs shattered and ground compressed bellow it, it was a magic sword.


    Most of the time, someone would have magic that increased the power of their weapons. It was something of a tradition, mastery over the blade was often something someone couldn¡¯t fully achieve in their life-time, often the most promising student would inherit their master¡¯s magic. My brain churned to find an answer, what makes a magic weapon?


    ¡°Something wrong Mr. Hero?, I¡¯ll cut your arms off, maybe kicks are more your style.¡± Kensei lowered his stance, keeping track of his movements took all of my concentration.


    He only had one arm, *that should make it easier right?*


    I knew better than that, I had to take this seriously. Concentrate, concentrate¡­


    Kensei¡¯s hand jumped to the handle of his blade, still in it¡¯s sheathe, then immediately slid off, not grabbing it and instead lunging towards me. I had to block, his hand was flat and he swung it like a blade at my neck, it was too fast, too fast-


    Clang-


    ¡°Hah, that sword, I can see why you¡¯re the Hero.¡± Kensei said as he slowly backed off, his hand still out in front of him ready to intercept any attack that might come his way. It took me a moment to realize what had happened. I had not blocked the blade, instead, the magic blade had leapt from the ground to take the hit.


    Without turning my head I looked down at the sword, a steaming mark was left where his hand crushed the blade, indeed, crushed. Gold liquid poured out of the black blade¡¯s wound, it started to solidify over it and made a jagged plate of gold scales in it¡¯s place. Magic held the life of one person, meaning that this sword did too, I knew who it was.


    2


    There was once a blacksmith named Gavel, he is the most famous weapon forger in history, they say every strike of his hammer was like lightning, and he would only make blades in the heat of a volcano, but that wasn¡¯t true¡­


    ¡°Elias, never take that armor off, no matter how inconvenient, you may never see your own face, you may never be able to feel the warmth of another, you may never be hurt.¡±


    Gavel was a human, with no magic, he was only dedicated to his craft, and craft he did. They say he forged suits of armor for 10,000 soldiers one weak before they went to war, that he could beat a stone into the sharpest sword, that wasn¡¯t right either¡­


    ¡°I am indebted to your family, so perhaps things could have turned out differently, maybe it isn¡¯t my right to protect you, still, He is going to be after you, best for you to lie low, you are Elias, remember that¡±


    He professed that he only ever beat things into the right shape, the metal did the rest of the work for him, the only power he said he had was to find the right metals. Yet legends spread about him, painting him in the place right next to the seats of every major society in the world. In truth he had only made 101 suits of armor and 100 weapons, they were all custom and all of them were gifts, he lived a nomadic life, refusing payment and traveling the world.


    ¡°If your metal should ever break, I wont scold you for not having your armor on, if that ever happens I worry for the world¡¯s safety, remember that this isn¡¯t your fight, that¡¯s why I never gave you a weapon, the Dreg King is not someone you should pick a fight with, I¡¯ll hammer that into you.¡±


    His fame was spread by those who received his gifts, it was the only compensation he asked for. Anyone that met him would know that he cared not for fame, yet he still asked for his name to be spread as far as possible, his gifts saved the lives of those who used them many times over, they were more than happy to oblige.


    ¡°Now, come round, I cooked some stew, make sure to eat every day of your life, even if you forget everything else¡±


    He used to pat my head.


    3


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    Kensei spoke.


    ¡°Hah, Gavel you bastard, I won¡¯t be listening to a word you say, but to see you again like this, I guess this is the only way you could have forged the God slaying blade, selfish of you to die before me, hah!¡± He yanked his sword from the sheath, thrusting it weakly at my neck.


    The blade rose to block it again, the black crystal of it¡¯s body shattering and reforming into more golden scales. ¡°Gavel, can you even hear me? nevermind, you were always this stubborn, listen Hero boy¡­¡±


    Suddenly he was talking to me, he seemed to be trying to pick a fight with the magic itself, does he understand that I am the one that made it? The way he puts it, it was a sword Gavel made.


    He died making this sword, *what changed his mind so late in life?* That was a question for later, for now, it seemed my opponent would start to take this seriously. Let yourself fall into a battle focus...


    Kensei sheathed his sword and began walking towards me, at the same time, my sword, Crownsplitter, rose slowly to my hands, bolts of black lightning jumped off of it, crawling first along the ground, then in the palms of my hand. I channeled magic into my arms and hands, specifically that of Herse, strength returned to my limbs, but I localized it, every ounce of strength into my hands and fingers, I was able to lift Crownsplitter.


    Finally I could match Kensei, it was now a dual.


    Kensei¡¯s armor was strange, I could only assume it was custom made from Gavel, that meant it was tough, and most likely had a special ability. Particularly his boots had wheels in the bottom, I had no idea what purpose those had in battle, but every step he took he slid forward, he was quicker than he appeared.


    Soon he got within range of my blade, I needed to steel myself, Gavel¡¯s crown blade broke under Kensei¡¯s fist, I wouldn¡¯t make it out of this unscathed if I got hit.


    ¡°Hey kid, what¡¯s your name¡± Kensei made no motion to attack, he only circled around me sliding around on those wheels. I made sure to keep track of him with my body, shifting to face him.


    ¡°Elias, no last name.¡± He stopped moving and faced me, I could feel his eyes through our helmets, he knelt down, not in respect. It was a battle stance.


    ¡°So it is¡­¡± He placed his hand on the ground, both of his legs spread behind him, it was a strange pose, almost like a frog getting ready to jump. This was as good a time as any to start¡­


    I took one large step forward, slamming my foot into the ground I pulled Crownsplitter back to my right side, I would be going for a wide sweeping strike. Sensing my hostilities, Kensei yanked at the ground, propelling him towards me without moving his legs, letting those strange wheels carry him, he crouched and pulled his arm close to his chest, making his body as small as possible.


    My arms were strong, I could use this sword, so I swung, starting with both hands I turned the bladed edge towards Kensei and twisted my body, bringing the sword sailing through the air, making a whistling sound as it flew, at the end of the swing I only gripped it in my left hand.


    I missed, so I let go and attempted to use my right hand to defend myself, I saw Kensei leap from below to above me.


    His legs were above him in the air, and his hand was below him, right in front of my face. Before I could react, his hand found purchase grabbing the bottom of my helmet, and he twisted his body right around. The momentum of his jump, around the axle of my head, caused him to land on his feet behind me, the whole of it left me to be dragged to the ground, being slammed on my back and nocking the wind out of me.


    I forced magic into my lungs, I gasped and sputtered but they pulled air back in and I could move again, I could feel the blood being forced out of them as well, apparently something had ruptured. Crownsplitter flew in front of my face, blocking an elbow drop from Kensei and sending him stumbling. I used the opportunity the best I could, I raised my legs and dropped them down with enough force to jump me to my feet, I lowered my body back down and faced him, thrusting my head into him. That seemed to catch him off guard¡­


    I could hear the snap and crunch, the horn on the top of my helm finding a gap in his armor piercing into his stomach, but before I could pull away his leg came soaring into my chest. On instinct I puffed out my chest to deflect it, and that it did, his foot hit the ground again, disturbing his balance again.


    ¡°Woah there kid-¡± Kensei gritted out the words, I didn¡¯t let him finish though, while my horn was still lodged in his stomach I arched my neck and back, throwing him reeling up into the air. Between my legs, Crownsplitter flew back into my hands, raising it high above my head I followed the arc Kensei had flew in, I poured more and more strength into my hands and eventually my swing caught up with his body, colliding with it, an attack in the air could not not be dodged.


    At least that was the idea.


    As Kensei flew through the air he twisted his body and threw his arm at the flat side of the Crownsplitter, sinking his fingers into the crystal of it¡¯s body and getting a grip on it. From there he used it as leverage to twist his body even further, twirling his leg into the tip of the sword, breaking the blade in half. Dodging the attack¡­


    Without the blade he could land, and he did so by catching his whole body with his hand, before letting his feet touch the ground again. He stood back and drew his sword with force, he kicked the ground lightly and his wheels slowly carried him away from me. His breathing was unsteady and his stomach was bleeding, was he on his last rope? No-


    He just now drew his sword, I only hit him once, and only with a surprise attack. It was a safe bet to say that he was just testing me, if so, I hope I passed.


    ¡°Kid¡­ do you know who¡¯s after you? he¡¯s not one to be messed with.¡± All of the sudden he began speaking, but I knew what he was talking about now. The Dreg King, a few people have mentioned it to me, and all of them seemed deathly afraid of it, why was I the target of someone so frightful?


    ¡°Is it because of the prophecy?¡± I asked, I said this man was my teacher, gathering information was just as important as learning how to fight. For now he made distance between us, as my sword had already regenerated in gold.


    ¡°Pff, prophecy?, what an idiot, it¡¯s in your blood, your cursed kid, heh.¡± He cracked himself up over everything he said, how was he that easygoing while bleeding?


    ¡°And why are you hunting me? Are you aligned with him?¡± I decided to prod further, and I did so while beginning to approach him, closing the distance even as he backed away.


    ¡°Ahahaha! Me? with that thing? Not in a million years, but as it stands you¡¯ll get vaporized if you ever meet him.¡± He cackled as he backed up to a tree. ¡°You could call it toughening you up, but if you happened to die during our fight I wouldn¡¯t be too broken up about it, kahaha!¡± He jumped off the tree, shifting his legs back and forth, moving on the wheels and picking up speed, he spun around and jumped on his way as he closed in faster than ever before.


    He kept spinning and twisting, holding his blade close before, in one motion, he spun into range and arced his blade with extreme speed. It was fast, so fast that halfway through the swing it turned into a blur, and it struck true.


    I could feel the cold steel of the blade on my neck, but that¡¯s where it stopped, dead in it¡¯s tracks all of the momentum behind it disappeared.


    ¡°tch- Jupiter, that magic of yours is really annoying¡± Kensei lifted his blade from my neck and turned around, not bothering with me. I couldn¡¯t move, it wasn¡¯t just the shock of an attack of that speed, but I had abused my body with magic. The moment I hesitated, it all came crashing down on me, my lungs burned and my arms were completely numb and unresponsive.


    Though I could still see, and in between the rows of trees, a towering knight, with armor as black as charcoal, emerged. The ground shook ever so slightly, his footfall was not light, especially now.


    ¡°Long time no see Kensei, I hope you know you can¡¯t win now that I am here.¡± I had never heard him talk with such gravity, clearly they were well acquainted.


    ¡°Jupiter, when will you take the training wheels off?¡±


    Kensei began approaching him.


    ¡°What? want to test your luck? I don¡¯t even need to use my weapon on you.¡±


    Jupiter perched his sword in the ground, and spread his arms.


    ¡°Go ahead use that blade you have such faith in.¡±


    ¡°Happily.¡±

 Chapter 13: Monsters

    Chapter 13


    1


    My ears rang with the sound of sraping metal, it reminded me of the time magic took over my body and made that slicing wind¡­


    Kensei, who was probably an exceptional warrior and skilled with the sword beyond my year, could not so much as lay a scratch on Jupiter. Okay that was a lie, he is being scratched, but that is it, just a scratch. Armor is meant to protect the person inside, so maybe it wasn¡¯t so shocking that it was doing it''s job, but he simply wasn''t being moved.


    Jupiter had the liberty of wearing thicker and heavier armor due to his size and strength, so even the greatest of weapons had little to do against plates of that caliber, in a sense it was as pointless as attacking an actual ore vein with a sword.


    Only that this was the strongest metals known to man, refined, and built to withstand the Wrath of the Gods, there were so many parts of it that looked burnt or damaged, but it still deflected attacks. It was simply too heavy, dense, and ridiculously large, it was more like a obelisk.


    ¡°Kensei, why are you here, surely you don¡¯t plan on killing Elias.¡± Jupiter spoke, still taking the hits, it seems that he wasn¡¯t even feeling the attacks under all that armor. But who was I that someone would plan to kill me? maybe it has something to do with that ¡®Dreg king¡¯, or the prophesy¡­


    ¡°Hah, I don¡¯t kill kids, you don¡¯t know me at all Jupiter, you¡¯re no better you monster haha!¡± Kensei did not seem bothered that none of his attacks were effective, as if Jupiter not being able to be hurt was normal, I could believe that.


    ¡°Aha! I knew it!¡± For some reason Europa seemed exited to notice something, I could never get a read on her, she was always changing her mood, or at least that was how it seemed¡­


    I looked down at myself, I had sat down at some point, it took me a while to feel the effects of my magic taking it¡¯s toll, it was like my body moved out of sync. My eyelids were heavy too, but like hell I¡¯d miss this battle, a chance to see how Jupiter fights, most would call that a once in a lifetime chance.


    Jupiter had not responded to Kensei¡¯s provication, had it gotten to him? I imagined he would not get phased by words, but maybe that¡¯s the only thing that can get through that armor, I had been told that people who gain sentience often take advantage of others¡­


    Did Jupiter feel guilt? I felt close to an answer, but I couldn¡¯t place my finger on it.


    ¡°Kensei, you know you shouldn¡¯t call me that¡­¡± Jupiter¡¯s tone shifted deeper, his already low voice became more grave, even his posture seemed to grow more looming, looking like this, maybe monster was a actuate description.


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    ¡°Listen up boy! Elias was you¡¯re name right, I¡¯m here to warn you, don¡¯t get on this guy¡¯s bad side!¡± Kensei rolled his shoulders, even the one that had no arm, he seemed to be doing some sort of warmup, he stretched and cracked his limbs and back. All the while Jupiter hunched over more and more, craning his head to look Kensei in the eye.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need two monsters hunting your head do ya? Grahahahah-¡±


    Kensei¡¯s back was facing me, I could really sense the power in his posture, like the air around him was active, and in fact, light radiated from him. Floating an arms length from Kensei¡¯s back was a set of glowing symbols, a curved diamond, a vertical line with wings on either side, and a set of intertwined parallel lines.


    From this perspective it almost looked like he was the one protecting me, and from Jupiter no less. I already planned to not get on Jupiter¡¯s bad side, so why give me a warning? Was he worse before? a real monster? all I knew for sure was that he isn¡¯t a demon, but other than that, I have no idea what¡¯s under that armor¡­


    Was I about to find out?


    2


    ¡®Over in an instant¡¯ would not be the word to describe it, durring the battle I realized that Kensei excelled at decisive strikes, and probably ends fights within the first or second strikes, he most likely trained the speed and power of his strikes, such that when he hit something the very air crackled as it split and sent a small shockwave. The only problem was¡­


    Kensei¡¯s sword was broken¡­


    There was barely a blade left attached to the hilt, somewhere along the way the bump where his left arm used to be started to bleed as well. Kensei was completely worn out, and Jupiter was still standing¡­


    That¡¯s because the battle did not end in one strike, or ten, or 100, as the battle reached its fourth hour, Jupiter still steadily approached Kensei even as he backed away. Europa had sat next to me to watch, seemingly engrossed with the fight, excited.


    I, however, began to understand what Kensei wanted to warn me about, something dangerous lurked in Jupiter, and he could not be hurt, if he were to decide anyone his enemy, they might as well be dead. Perhaps his power has made him detached, when he had broken Kensei¡¯s ribs an hour ago, Kensei tried to surrender, but he would not accept it.


    In fact he had not spoken in quite a while.


    Jupiter was not using his sword, but it didn¡¯t seem like he planned on sparing Kensei, I could not even tell why the fight was still going on, all I could do was look on to fulfill the curiosity in my heart.


    ¡°Boy¡­ I don¡¯t plan on dying here, and I don¡¯t think the big guy could even understand the concept¡­ hah-ack¡­¡± Blood run from under Kensei¡¯s helmet as he hacked it up, it was surprising how much punishment he took, considering his lighter armor and previous wounds, in terms of body, he was a freak, muscle bulged from the exposed parts in his chain, and lacerations all over his body closed quickly.


    Something was different about him, he was stronger, faster, more durable, faster, and even after four hours he barely seemed slower, nothing about it seemed natural, the only answer was magic. Only, while Europa was watching the fight with me, she told me he had no magic to his name, only that his own soul was extremely powerful. Of course that had no effect on his own combat ability, or at least it shouldn¡¯t, so his power was an enigma.


    Eventually, more time passed, and more¡­


    Europa fell asleep long before I did, but in time, my eyes could no longer remain open, I stole one last glance at the forest around me.


    Every tree was cut down.

 Chapter 14: Lies

    1


    ¡°Wake up Elias, were not done here¡±


    A familiar voice, Jupiter, as deep and as coarse as ever, somehow even more devoid of emotion. As if stripped of something vital, and human.


    Yet there he stood, as tall as a building and unharmed, blood stained his armor, and embers seemed to cauterize the scratches sustained on it¡¯s metal, fusing them back together


    ¡°Is he dead?¡± I felt it would be best to ask, since the forest was gone, only the scorched remains of cut down trees remain, and only a few blood splatters remain, already being swallowed up by the flames.


    ¡°No, he sacrificed another part of his body to escape, next time we meet he will be much more dangerous.¡± He turned his gaze to far off, assumedly in the direction Kensei had left in, but what did he mean sacrifice?


    All of this had to do with the strange power of Kensei, or of Jupiter, the both of them held power over magic that seemed to contradict it¡¯s own laws. Perhaps this was the depths of mastery you needed to command to survive in this world, that which challenges the Gods.


    Suddenly a sharp pain filled my mind, like so many voices crying out in defiance. My magic pushed against the corners of my body, my skin felt like it would tear, are the Gods so terrifying? Did Jupiter feel this pain when he used his power?


    That wasn¡¯t something to pry on, I could tell that he wasn¡¯t in the best state of mind to talk, what had happened to the friendly and tough Jupiter? All that I see now is a broken and raging beast, words could cut that deep?


    ¡°Jupiter, our mission out here is to find the shrine right?¡± I wouldn¡¯t have forgotten something so important, especially not now, I at least needed to remind everyone of why we were here. Europa was busy tending to Jupiter, she had climbed on his shoulders and was currently caressing his head from behind, in any other situation it would have been funny, she was nearly the size of his head.


    ¡°Right, that was just a distraction, it¡¯s more important that you reach the shrine.¡± His voice was returning to normal, the emotion disappearing, leaving only the numb, and the tough Jupiter. With how quickly he recovered, you could barely tell that only an hour before he was more destructive than a natural disaster, and as heartless and aimless as one too.


    That was his power though ¡°no collateral damage¡±, somehow someway, no one he was defending was ever hurt, nor was he. It almost felt like cheat, someone reached from beyond the grave to stop harm from coming to him and whoever he was close to, the problem was that if he faced the same rules as everyone else, that protection would cease if he exhausted himself and passed out.


    ¡°Elias, I¡¯ll explain everything later, right now we need to head to the shrine, you can hear it from the mouth of that God directly¡­¡±


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    That¡¯s right, we were going to have a communion, and speak with a God, The God of the Just.


    2


    I thought for a moment, I was meant to get firewood in this forest wasn¡¯t I? and now the whole thing had burned down, I scoffed, under my breath¡­


    It was a little funny.


    That aside, the shrine was no longer hidden, the forrest was a web of lies, every tree looked the same and there were no landmarks, and indeed the influence of a God had warped it in such a way that only those with a completely clear mind could find what they sought.


    At least, that¡¯s what Europa had told me, she had also told me that the only way she could reach the inner clearing was by being unconscious, it was just that hard to completely clear your mind, but Jupiter had no problem navigating it on his own. The more I learned about him, the less I understood, like he was different, separate.


    Kensei was also different, but not in the same way, the both of them clearly shared a kinship in their outlierness, but neither were on good terms, if the world now was separated by the conscious and the unconscious, were they on another level entirely? it was certainly possible.


    All my theorizing had kept my mind occupied and before I knew it I was in front of the shrine, with Jupiter and Europa nowhere to be seen.


    3


    Before me was a dilapidated temple, clearly not touched by man in hundreds of years, its grand structure stretched and twisted in every direction, as if it were tree growing around an obelisk. Shards of broken glass were scattered across the dirt surrounding the shrine, almost like seeds¡­


    I approached the shrine, sweat drenched the inner lining of my armor, it was hard to breath, and my power threatened to rampage, surely as the night followed day, I was in the presence of a God. This shrine was built to hold a deity, something that governed the very principals that held the world together, it would not be wrong to say this shrine was built to contain a shard of the world. The God of the Just, a half of a full concept, the twin Gods sharing the same name, they form the basis of communication and they are said to be able to control the very belief that humans hold.


    Right, that¡¯s what I was facing in there, if I wanted to truly know what to do with the world when it wakes up, I needed to face what was kept deep within the earth. Despite myself I felt a smile creep onto my face, the face I¡¯ve never known, I couldn¡¯t emote because of how messed up my face muscles were, but nevertheless I smiled. A God, within arms reach, why was it me? why did my spine tingle like it wanted to jump out of my back? was I really able to handle this?


    My legs began to move, I wasn¡¯t about to let the fear on pain stray me from my path, I have been sick and hurt before, this was only stronger.


    My body screamed, my every hair standing on end, before I knew it I was at the doorway, long rotted away and wide open, the cavern that was the shrine to The God of the Just lie just beyond the darkness.


    ¡°What secrets do you have for me, God? I¡¯m dying to know.¡± Whatever creature a God was, it already knew I was here, I was sure of that. Honestly I only spoke out loud to calm my nerves, but I needed to speak to something that had no reasons to hide things from me, what better subject than The Just.


    Then, it spoke.


    A long sigh, the breath of a God, darkness descended from the roots of the artificial tree enveloping the world, a warm feeling accompanied it, but that wasn¡¯t all.


    ¡±Isn¡¯t a sweet lie, better than the bitter truth?¡±


    Cold


    Sharp wind escaped the crevasse that was the entrance to the shrine, and beyond it, A Pair Of Glowing White Eyes, And A Devilish Smile.


    ¡°Human, I have Lied, more than anyone else.¡±


    ¡°Elias, have you ever told A Lie?¡±

 Chapter 15: God of the Just

    0


    Narration by: Great God of Loss, Preservation of Stories


    My brother, are you watching this?


    In a forest like any other, a shrine was built to house the god who lied, nothing was special about this forest in particular, nor did it change when the god resided within it. The shrine was simply in the center, if someone were to walk in one direction from the outside they would reach it, yet the shrine remained illusive, just out of sight.


    It¡¯s because of the Liar, when the god lied, humans believed it.


    If a god willed it, they could kill any number of difficult humans, cull any that did not follow their commandments, but that was not the god¡¯s mission. Simply put, interference was not their goal, in fact the Liar¡¯s goal was to make humans prosper, and for that, the god made them believe a sweet Lie.


    Not just one Lie.


    There were plenty of things that humans were better off not knowing, but there was no way humans would understand that. In fact, it was that drive to understand that made them difficult, no matter what world they come from, humans will always thirst for knowledge, knowledge beyond man.


    But there was truly an ingenious solution, two Gods were born, one to spread the truth, and one to hide it, so long as humans believed something to be true they would not question it, it would become the truth.


    But it seemed our King intended to make our job more difficult, it was those humans, untainted by our meddling, from another world, who would not so easily believe the Truth.


    1


    ¡°No, it¡¯s just the opposite, you have only ever been Lied to.¡±


    My eyes adjusted to the darkness, but nothing changed, except for an itch. It was a familiar feeling, magic calling out and responding to my body¡¯s needs, this time it was my eyes, they strained and bulged before¡­


    The darkness started to fade, these magic eyes swallowing up all the shadows, they began to dry out faster, but I kept them open.


    ¡°Child, I am the evil God, soon the humans will hunt me for my sins, then He will come.¡± The God spoke with a sickly certainty, what was a lie and what wasn¡¯t? could I even tell if I already knew nothing?


    ¡°I will pay for all my crimes, but I will not die, in exchange for my blessing you will hunt Him.¡± There was only one person that everyone seems to fear, The Dreg King, that meant that whoever he was, it was certain he could kill the very Gods. But¡­


    ¡°A blessing? is that like my-¡± As the darkness was being eaten away, the first thing that was revealed was an eye, and unnaturally large, bulging and full of popped blood vessels, it was only an arms length from my face. This eye could only be one thing, a God, surely it had a body, but it was covered in a ashy gray cloak, the only visible extremities were a few dozen arms and legs of various insects, all poking out of holes in the tattered cloak.


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    ¡°No, you are mistaken about that magic, what I am about to share with you is a piece of my divinity, it is not magic, it¡¯s a force that can act upon the world, along with a piece of my conciseness.¡± My vision became more clear, but there was nothing more to see of the God, everything about it was obscured, even looking directly at it was difficult. It felt like the moment I blinked it would leave me, it was barely even there.


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t do this to the first person to pass by would you, tell me what makes me different.¡± I would rather hear something than nothing, even if this was the greatest of all liars. If I could just pull back the cloak and see it¡¯s face maybe I could tell¡­


    ¡°You are mistaken, it is simply too dangerous to remain here in full, I tried to reach out to the large one that accompanied you, but his body rejected me, it seems that they want you to take me with you, I have fallen into their trap.¡± I could finally see the walls of the shrine that surrounded me, walls lined with sharp points and larger spikes, four of which¡­


    ¡°They intend to bring me to him? or to amass the power of every God to fight him? That one you have with you is an exceptional Liar no wonder that monster needs such a heavy set of armor to hide that ugly truth geheheh¡­¡± A chill ran up my spine, that¡¯s the second time Jupiter has been called a monster, and this time by a God, but what is a monster? he certainly wasn¡¯t an animal, and demons can¡¯t talk.


    ¡°What is Jupiter? Why is he a monster? He¡¯s a hero and a knight, he is indestructible and protected the entire world when the Gods-¡± That¡¯s right, the Wrath, when humans did something so blasphemous that the Gods unleashed their divine rage on the whole world in a great storm of disaster, Jupiter was able to protect entire cities from the onslaughts of angels and natural disasters.


    ¡±Don¡¯t think we hold a grudge, in fact having such a strong human is an exciting outcome from such a war, but he would barely count, it would be better for you to believe that lie for now, my apologies.¡± The spikes on the walls¡­ they were piercing me, one in either hand and foot, my body contorted and twisted in an uncomfortable position, I was held in place.


    Escape, magic is what I needed, I still did not know all the magic I had grabbed from that graveyard, that required me to look inward, if I could just access what¡¯s already in my body, I had to reach out.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t need to impress me, I am already willing to give you this power, your escape is not necessary.¡± The God seemed to take a step back, only there were no legs it was standing on, it only moved back. Even if I would truly be safe, and I would have this power with no effort, I couldn¡¯t stand it, I needed to earn it, I had already been given enough of a head start with magic, any more and I would grow stagnant.


    ¡°Sorry God, it¡¯s a personal thing, and how do I even know you¡¯re telling the truth?¡± A familiar sensation washed over me, like an arm reaching back, heading my call, all I needed to do was grab them.


    ¡°Geheheh¡­ I hate your type, make this worthwhile.¡± The God probably expected this to happen, what would have happened if I just accepted without a fight? I definitely couldn¡¯t take one head on, I should thank my luck this one does not seem to be aggressive, just what you¡¯d expect from a God of solely subterfuge.


    Close your eyes, concentrate, grab those hands reaching back for you.


    ¡°No, keep your eye¡¯s open, that is your new burden.¡±


    ¡°Huh? did you-¡± -read my mind?


    Before I knew it I couldn¡¯t blink, the muscles in my eye wouldn¡¯t respond, they weren¡¯t my own anymore, and along with it, the magic straining my eyes didn¡¯t stop either.


    Maybe now I could understand the pain Europa went through¡­

 Chapter 16: Hide Your Wounds

    1


    ¡°¡¯Truesight¡¯?, your eyes often deceive you, it would be one thing if it was only the light and darkness, but people are the real liars, ain¡¯t that a bitch?¡± The shape of a soul extended before me, like the shadow from a nonexistent sun behind me.


    ¡°I am a doctor, and I have to say I lived quite the perverted life, I expected to be judged in hell, in contrast I cant think of a reason behind your ¡®Compress¡¯ it follows no logic, making something smaller but the density stays the same?¡± A second soul spoke behind me, they were having a conversation, I could feel my body being used as a sort of relay for them to talk.


    ¡°I just don¡¯t want to be a burden to anyone¡­¡± And lastly a third soul joined the conversation, all of them had been already inside me, and I could feel that I called them here, maybe using multiple sets of magic at the same time gave them a chance to communicate.


    ¡°Ferryman you know you can join in if you want, your body is in good hands.¡± The first soul said to me, I could just barely make out the shape of him, broad and bulky, but shorter than me, even still it was clear he was not weak at all, his figure was sharp in places and far more detailed, like a hardened piece of steal beaten and battered into the right shape.


    ¡±This is all new to me, could you give me a moment to adjust myself¡­¡± I could not answer them in confidence, the best I could do is ask for more time, that¡¯s right, the world was in my hand, but not just that, the hopes and dreams of every soul I absorbed, if I didn¡¯t know something I better learn before I make a horrible mistake.


    ¡±Seems you¡¯re quite worried dear Ferryman, I¡¯ll admit, as a man of science I too never thought I¡¯d meet a God, although it seems in this world things like that exist, I wonder what goes on in that brain of yours, Otherworlder.¡± I got a shiver though my spine, I got the feeling he meant that literally, there¡¯s something in my head?


    ¡°Jupiter didn¡¯t tell me about.. another world?, what does that even mean like *****? huh?¡± I only gasped instead of saying that word, the name of our world, it felt like a dream, I couldn¡¯t even think of it like it was slipping my memory.


    ¡±I doubt he would tell you about it, isn¡¯t life altogether too confusing? I could not wrap my head around this world either, even you Ferryman would have trouble understanding it.¡± This soul was a wispy shape, taller than the other, but thiner and cleaner a sterile being, he contrasted with everything around him.


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    ¡±Oi oi around here you¡¯re the ¡®Otherworlder¡¯, respect the Ferryman he¡¯s the only reason your soul isn¡¯t being used as fertilizer, though he¡¯s right, not much point in learning about a whole world you aren¡¯t going to go to.¡± The first one spoke, he used his advanced form to gesture while he spoke.


    ¡°So if you are here because I am using your magic, then¡­ what about you?¡± I faced towards the the third soul, meek and small, it¡¯s form was riddled with holes and gashes, the very shape of it threatening to fade away.


    2


    Steam rose from the wounds in my arms and legs, in an instant, my body tightened and shattered the spikes piercing me, and where a hole should have been left, my flesh and armor remained undamaged.


    I knew this was not the work of Jupiter, if he was nearby the spikes wouldn¡¯t have pierced me in the first place, this had to be something I possessed, or rather what possessed me.


    ¡°I got really good at lying, so that no one would worry about me?¡± I repeated the words that little soul had told me, that meant at some level this magic made me lie, how would a God of lying think of that? Whatever conclusion it reached I wouldn¡¯t give up a soul just to have it¡¯s ¡®Blessing¡¯.


    I lifted my head, my eyes were already feeling the strain of being open for so long, taking the God¡¯s word for it, I would never be able to close them again ¡°God of the Just, one of my friends happens to have the habit of lying, I¡¯m sorry I can¡¯t be the pure soul you seek, keep your blessing.¡± I moved my hand to wipe the blood dripping out of my nose, only to be blocked by my own helmet, using all this magic is making me delirious I thought, the pain throbbing in my head made it hard to think, didn¡¯t one soul say there¡¯s something sloshing in there?


    ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t think anyone is pure, to be human, to believe a lie, that is impure, to deny that would be to spit in the face of the King, who made you to be as impure as possible, so feel no shame in lying, only feel the weight of your lies each and every time you make them as I shall judge you.¡± The God move down, whatever was under it¡¯s robes touching the floor, with a sickening splat ¡°Oh it looks like your companion has come to get you, Jupiter was it?¡±


    I turned to look, *why? why would Jupiter come down here? didn¡¯t he say I was the one that needed to come down here? maybe something bad happened on the outside¡­ but then how did he reach the shrine? wait¡­ ¡°Wait, companion? what about Europ-¡±


    ¡­


    A spear, it¡¯s tip about the length of a person, pierced through my chest, I could feel the blood pooling in my mouth¡­


    ¡°Do I have to spell it out for you? I Lied.¡±


    ¡±See if you really deserve my blessing, see how far lying will get you.¡±

 Chapter 17: Kiss Your Fist

    1


    ¡°Our heart was pierced!¡±


    ¡±Shit¡±


    ¡±Lower our center of gravity, get our feet on the ground!¡±


    ¡±Can someone patch up the hole?¡±


    ¡±I¡­¡±


    ¡±Get on it, we¡¯re losing blood, what do we see? anything other than the spear?¡±


    ¡±It¡¯s laced, whatever is on it will infect our blood.¡±


    ¡±I¡¯m cleansing it right now, focus on the enemy.¡±


    ¡±We aren¡¯t breathing, someone get us breathing again!¡±


    ¡±The hole is closing but the heart stopped!¡±


    ¡±Heavenly thunder! I will not have us die to easily!¡±


    ¡±Puff out your chest ferryman, all of us are relying on you! SHOW. THEM. HOW. POWERFUL. YOU. ARE!¡±


    ¡±We¡¯re alive!¡±


    ¡±Breathing and heartbeat confirmed, turn off pain inhibition the body will go into shock but we¡¯ll wake up!¡±


    ¡±I thought you were supposed to be a doctor¡­¡±


    ¡±I¡¯m just glad I could help¡­¡­¡±


    ¡±It¡¯s not over! while consciousness is returning someone get on making that sword!¡±


    ¡±It has a name haha.¡±


    ¡±Crownsplitter summoned! but our arms are bleeding!¡±


    ¡±Keep the blood in! we can¡¯t lose more while we are cleansing!¡±


    ¡±I-I got it!¡±


    ¡±Numb the forearm! Flex it! Strengthen the bone too!¡±


    ¡±Sap the armor¡¯s power! let loose!¡±


    ¡±Ferryman! Get up! C¡¯mon I can¡¯t lose this chance!¡±


    ¡±Why don¡¯t we just pray?¡±


    ¡±A god is easy pickings, it¡¯s time to hunt.¡±


    ¡±Maybe my death won¡¯t be in vein¡­¡±


    ¡±Ferryman I swear I will get more souls together next time¡­¡±


    ¡±He¡¯s awake!¡±


    ¡±And on the seventh second¡­¡±


    2


    Gasp


    I sucked air into my lungs, heaving in and out, my eyes attempted to blink shut but I was still unable to control them ¡°Can¡¯t¡­ lie down now.¡± I banged my fist on the floor, the momentary shock of pain got me motivated enough to stand back up, only to look the God right in the eye.


    It now stood above me, the form of it¡¯s body still obscured by the heavy cloak, but now spikes and limbs poked out all over, something not human was hidden under there it was clear, more like a mash up random animals and insects, they took shape almost like a warrior, using an overgrown spine as a spear, a grotesque and malformed bone, covered in a rancid toxin, it could only be a weapon for murder.


    ¡°I said we are meant to let humans thrive, that is the truth, meaning that I must kill you before you become their lord.¡± It¡¯s eye squinted in a scowl, or at least the closest to that expression it could make, without a face.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to be anyone¡¯s lord, I don¡¯t know where you get your information from, but you¡¯re mistaken, I need your power to save the world.¡± I already knew that was my goal, but it was strange to say it out loud, I doubted I could even do it, I knew I was probably going to die if I kept defying this God, and yet¡­


    ¡°And yet¡­ there is one thing that is true, if I die, the souls of all those inside me will be lost forever, I already owe them more than I could give in my life, so for their sake¡­ get out of my way or help me.¡± I couldn¡¯t stop the trembling in my hands, maybe I was making it worse, maybe I would have had a better chance of living if I just ran away, but that wasn¡¯t their wishes, and now, that wasn¡¯t my wish either.


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    ¡°You should know how much words mean to me human, especially that word, True.¡± The God spoke with an otherworldly tone, Crownsplitter dragged itself up from the floor and returned to my side, I still felt the pain from waking up so violently, but it was starting to be consumed by the fighting spirt, I grabbed my sword, but bent my legs¡­


    ¡°The future is never True, nor is it a Lie, so back up your words with action, then we will see.¡± It grabbed a hold of my breastplate and thrust it¡¯s spear into my stomach in an attempt to pierce me again, but¡­ I jumped, the spear still hit, but it slid past my armor. More importantly, I have a horn like a beetle, I gritted my teeth and delivered a head-but right into the God¡¯s eye, I could hear the ringing of metal scraping against something hard though.


    It backed away, taking only two backwards leaps to clear the whole room and reach a wall, seemingly trying to recover from being stabbed somewhere sensitive, but that was wrong, I couldn¡¯t pinpoint what exactly was wrong with it¡¯s actions. I was sure I had done a reckless attack where we would both get hit, but I hadn¡¯t been so much as scratched, even glancing down towards my stomach was no mark left by the spear, maybe it only excelled at underhanded sneak attacks, though I just attempted a sneak attack against a God of lies¡­


    I tensed up and put Crownsplitter into a defensive stance, using the wide blade as more of a shield than a sword, I knew from the fight with Kensei that the base form of the blade was fragile, but would regrow stronger if it took damage, it was already mostly shattered, so I could only imagine it blocked a hit for me before I regained consciousness.


    If I continued to defend, maybe it would be able to block a few more hits before breaking, once I was safe I could come up with a better plan. Though, I was up against a God, I shouldn¡¯t have expected it to be that easy, the moment the sword began regrowing it¡¯s blade it lunged, clearing the whole room in the blink of an eye, I couldn¡¯t take a direct hit or I¡¯d be run through and poisoned.


    I couldn¡¯t think of something I just swung, using the hilt of the sword as a makeshift club, I couldn¡¯t even be sure it would do damage, I aimed at the eye again.


    ¡±What eye?¡± I couldn¡¯t be sure if it was me or the God who spoke, but there defiantly wasn¡¯t an eye there, it was the moon, but that wasn¡¯t right, we were underground. I didn¡¯t have the time to be confused, I missed the God completely even though I was right on target, and its spear pierced my heart a second time¡­


    3


    ¡°I didn¡¯t commit blasphemy for you to fall for silly tricks like that, Ferryman, if you would take a look at this thing¡¯s body for a second¡­¡± A soul appeared beside me, it was hazy and barely there, but it was slowly gaining more form, it placed an amorphous arm on my shoulder. ¡°And in my professional medical opinion¡­¡± his tone grew more grim. ¡°You will not survive another hit like that, hell, it¡¯s a miracle you survived this long.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve had to learn the hard way that biology doesn¡¯t really work the same way over hear, frankly your muscle structure is hard to believe, even if you were a genetic freak like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you should fell blessed you can hold your own against one they call a god, but that¡¯s because it¡¯s holding back on you, or at least I believe.¡± The name he said I didn¡¯t recognize, but he came from a whole other world, perhaps they had great heros over there as well, but I understood what he meant¡­


    I was strong, maybe I could harm this God if I swung my sword hard enough, but the problem was I didn¡¯t know where to swing. ¡®Truesight¡¯ is meant to see everything, and past lies, did that mean that Gods were above magic?


    ¡°Thinking here is as good as talking, so I¡¯ll try to explain it to the best of my ability, that god isn¡¯t using magic or whatever to hide it¡¯s form, it¡¯s using plane old magic tricks¡­ or¡­ well you don¡¯t know what that means¡­¡± The soul seemed to pause for a moment to think of his words, it really felt like I was talking to a genius, speaking in a way I couldn¡¯t fully understand¡­


    He had to dumb it down for me.


    ¡°When you see your reflection in the water, is that really you? that is what the god is doing, I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s my magic that is keeping him from using more advanced tactics, but all he is doing is tricking you, taking advantage of how you think you see things.¡± So my problem was found, but how would I change the fight by just knowing it was a trick? it still looked real, and having to discern what is and isn¡¯t real in the heat of battle was even more of a time waster, it started to feel like I was completely outmatched¡­


    ¡°Hah! you are completely outmatched, no use avoiding that fact, the fact that you even have a fighting chance is insane I can¡¯t stress that enough, I was never an emotions doctor so I not going to tell you it¡¯s going to be okay.¡± The soul started to fade, in the distance I could see my surroundings, like a surreal form of waking up.


    ¡°Your left leg has nearly succumbed to that toxin, your heart is full of holes and your whole body is screaming at you to stop, the only reason you can keep fighting is those who you¡¯ve picked up along the way, whatever this ¡®magic¡¯ is, they wouldn¡¯t want you too, but if you don¡¯t think you can win, run¡­¡±


    With that, he disappeared fully, I don¡¯t know if this was a dream but I did my best to repeat what he said to myself¡­


    ¡°If you don¡¯t think you can win, run¡­¡±


    4


    ¡°What am I putting myself through¡­¡±


    ¡°Want an answer to that?¡± The God of the Just stood over my body, a glowing white toothy grin emerged from the hood of its robe, it extended a hand to me as if to offer some help up.


    ¡°I have an idea already, plus¡­ I don¡¯t trust whatever you have to say.¡± at that the Gods grin turned into a smirk, but I still grabbed its hand.


    It was an obvious trap, once I grabbed its hand it would use that as leverage to thrust its spear, I would be stabbed in the heart again, it was as simple as that. But¡­ was it? My armor along with my wounds had been closed already, it was temporary, as soon as I lost consciousness all the wounds and gaps in my armor would reopen, I had to risk everything on a gamble¡­ no, a plan, there was no risk if I did it right¡­


    I didn¡¯t let go of its hand, in fact I squeezed it, harder, and harder, until I was squeezing it as hard as I could, and then I tightened my grip. I held on tighter, until my grip was locked like that, one of the souls had strong bones¡­ so make the bones in my hand bigger, make them oversized and bulky far too large to move¡­


    And like that, we were inseparable, I felt my fingers malformed like claws dug into the hand of a God, there would now be no way to deceive me, maybe this is what Jupiter meant by that fist bump¡­


    ¡°Interesting human, but do you think you can outlast me as you are now? how will you even swing a sword like that with when we¡¯re this close? is this one act of desperation good enough!?, TELL ME THE TRUTH.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll see¡­¡±

 Chapter 18: True Name|The God of Lies

    1


    It was hard to describe the exact feeling of having a hand made of bone, it wasn¡¯t that the whole hand was now a hard shell, more like a dense material was growing within my body and piercing out of the skin. The only reason my entire hand hadn¡¯t been shattered, is because of the hole in it from the wall spikes, it gave the bone a way to grow out without breaking the muscle and skin, mostly¡­


    It was still barely holding together, the pates of bone that had grown were now scraping against each other, and pinching my nerves, that ¡°Doctor¡± told me all about the human body, and it was more concerning to know exactly how horrible what I was doing to my body was, was winning this fight really worth it? I could only even determine that if I actually won¡­


    On that note.


    I was being flung around like a doll, the God¡¯s first judgement was to start trying to shake me off, first, this was extremely painful, my wrist felt like it was going to pop out of its socket, but it stayed attached. Second, it proved that grappling it like this was something it wanted to avoid, which only meant I had discovered a way to put this God at a disadvantage, the concept seemed silly, but I wasn¡¯t going to beat a God by thinking Gods couldn¡¯t be beaten¡­


    That said, things were looking grim.


    2


    ¡°My my, it seems I won¡¯t be able to shake you off without cutting off my own hand, that was your goal right? then I won¡¯t fall for your trap.¡± The God yanked me to my feet, but kept its spear in between us, right at my heart. I never planned for something like that, in fact I didn¡¯t consider that possibility, maybe for a human caught in the jaws of a demon or a large animal, but not a God.


    ¡°That wasn¡¯t my plan, I just wanted to trap you in close range, you can cut off your arm, or mine for that matter, I am so weak now I¡¯m sure you can kill me with one hand, even when you¡¯re holding back.¡± That, seemed to provoke the God, so I moved the blade of Crownsplitter between its spear and my chest, I hadn¡¯t looked at it much, but now I could see the sword was almost completely replaced already, and some spots looked even denser than others, even if the original form of the blade is fragile by sword standards, breaking it so many times proved that cutting an arm would be a simple task.


    Still, If Crownsplitter wasn¡¯t permanently broken, then I didn¡¯t need to worry about overusing it, as long as it had time to regrow I would have a chance to block or attack at a strength comparable to this God. Though it seemed it would need to be broken quite a few more times before it was on par, as the God dragged the tip of its spear along the blade, shattering the golden scales all over it. ¡°Holding back? You jest, you¡¯re half dead, and I have suffered a small amount of damage to one of my hands, are you really underselling yourself that much?¡± It thrust the gruesome spear past me, and pulled it back, the flare of the blade catching on my armor and attempting to rip it off.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think I¡¯m strong enough to fight a God, I think you¡¯re lying to me.¡± I strained to get the words out as I could feel my shoulder close to becoming displaced, even if I let my arm pop out of the socket to gain an opening, I couldn¡¯t take advantage of it because neither of my arms could hold the blade then. I attempted to roll back my shoulder to push back against the pull of its spear but¡­ CRACK


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    My left arm went limp, this is bad, my right arm was preoccupied, as it was locked to the God¡¯s left hand, meaning I couldn¡¯t put it back where it was supposed to be. Crownsplitter disappeared as this happened, having no hand to be wielded in, I no longer had a weapon, while the God had not lost anything from this exchange, think¡­ think!, what do I have to fight back now?, how do I still win this? I still have my legs¡­


    I also have my¡­


    3


    ¡°RAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± I didn¡¯t think I could make a sound like that, but I didn¡¯t have time to think about that¡­.


    ¡°Elias, have you finally stopped holding back?¡± The God of Lies made attempts to dodge the horn attacks, but each time, the hand that was grappled didn¡¯t let it get the full range of movement, leading to multiple slashing and piercing attacks from the horn, as my head thrashed around, focusing on strong, and repeated upward lunges, attempting to impale the God with each one. Though I did not suffer no counterattacks, even as my hits landed, each one was met with one or more stabs from its spear, I tried to use my limp arm to block, or my horn to parry, but some still hit their mark, my chest felt like it was on fire.


    I was on the verge of a heart attack, a very specific part of my breastplate was being stripped away, and as the God took one lunge back, the farthest it could be while still attached to my arm. I made myself smaller, hunching over to block my chest with my shoulders and head, I kept my eyes sharpened to a razors edge, the razor being the tip of that spear, a dirty spear, rife with poison, made of sharpened bone and connected with a brainstem, this murder weapon could kill me right now, or the next moment¡­, I needed to stop it before it reached my heart, since the God¡¯s body was injured I hoped that would slow it down, and since it couldn¡¯t get the full distance for a piercing lunge, this was the best chance I had.


    I could only think of one way to grab the blade¡­.


    And then I would counterattack¡­.


    The tiniest point of white light shone for a moment, just a little light was enough to make the movement of the spear clear, I knew when it started, I pulled my head to the side, keeping it in corner of my vision the whole time, I had barely a fraction of a second to react, what exactly would I put in between the spear and my heart?


    My mouth of course¡­


    In one motion, the spear shattered the bottom half of my helmet, it hit the right side, exactly what I planned for.


    Without stopping, the spear tore and ripped the muscle and skin in my right cheek, then right through to my left cheek, showing no signs of slowing down, except¡­


    I bit down, hard, harder than I ever have before, my teath started to bend and shatter under the force, but I just bit down harder, the bone growth kicking in and stopping them from completely falling out, but that just meant I could bite down harder, before I knew it, the spear had stopped moving, stuck in place.


    Not wasting my chance, I released my bite, sliding the holes in my cheeks up the shaft of the spear, advancing rapidly towards the God, I lowered my head and readied one, last, headbut.


    I could hear the sound, a sick sound, the sound of killing, but I had done it, I ran the God straight through the eye with the very horn on my head, it did not make a sound after that.


    I lifted my head, lifting its impaled body along with me, letting out ragged breaths, in a pool of blood and toxin, both of my arms were broken, my mouth was screaming in pain, but made no sound, only my legs worked, so I walked. I walk up the stairs, back into the world outside, and fell to my knees¡­


    I had killed a God.


    I passed out shortly after.

 Chapter 19: The Sea

    0


    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.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    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?¡±

 Chapter 20: Walkabout

    1


    There was no power besides magic that could do something like this, it¡¯s like I was cursed, before I could get the words out, it spoke. There in my mind, as if I was thinking but in another voice ¡°You are cursed, kid.¡± The God stated simply. Just when had it invaded my mind? I checked my surroundings, even the corners of my vision, the spaces in between, my truesight never deactivated, but there was no sign of it.


    ¡°You must really have no idea who you are, just how much have you forgotten? how much have they lied to you?¡± The feeling of another person thinking in my brain was so uncanny I couldn¡¯t focus on anything else, I didn¡¯t know how I was supposed to communicate with something like this, or if I should even listen to what it says, it is the God of Lies after all.


    ¡±Believe whatever you want, kid, I can function just fine in your body, but that can¡¯t be said for every human on this planet, just as much as I am here, they are as well, your body is simply trying to find a more fitting form to compensate for your power, that is your curse.¡± My body was always different, bigger, stronger, I never knew why but I was born this way. I was cursed since birth to contain the power within, Jupiter and Eruopa told me that my armor was built to contain the curse¡­ yet it still manifested.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    And yet the question remained, who cursed me? and why? ¡°That¡¯s simple enough, we did.¡± The God spoke, admitted fault¡­ no not fault, guilt? no¡­ truth?


    ¡°As the God of Lies, my role was to obscure, after all, there are some things that humanity is better off not knowing, yet those two always strived to break every rule, uncover every truth, break the very world they were but a guest in, outsiders all the same, they think this is some sort of game or a toy to break, if I had one question for the King I would ask why they exist.¡± The God spoke with contempt, this group somehow earned the ire of the Gods, especially whoever the ¡®two¡¯ were, and this was the second time it mentioned the ¡®King¡¯, I couldn¡¯t imagine he was talking about the Dreg King, so what was it?


    Then it went quiet. ¡°Do you think I would tell you? my words are measured and you¡¯ll never get the whole truth out of me, though.. maybe that¡¯s a lie too, from inside your body I can make sure you never uncover a single truth in my presence, if you offer me shelter from a single human and you believe me to be on your side? you¡¯ll be sorely mistaken.¡± It made threats towards me even though it held back against me in that fight, is it just another lie? I feel like I am starting to feel the effects of having this God inhabit my mind¡­


    2

 Chapter EX: Christmas

    EX


    1


    There was no power besides magic that could do something like this, it¡¯s like I was cursed, before I could get the words out, it spoke. There in my mind, as if I was thinking but in another voice ¡°You are cursed, kid.¡± The God stated simply. Just when had it invaded my mind? I checked my surroundings, even the corners of my vision, the spaces in between, my truesight never deactivated, but there was no sign of it.


    ¡°You must really have no idea who you are, just how much have you forgotten? how much have they lied to you?¡± The feeling of another person thinking in my brain was so uncanny I couldn¡¯t focus on anything else, I didn¡¯t know how I was supposed to communicate with something like this, or if I should even listen to what it says, it is the God of Lies after all.


    ¡±Believe whatever you want, kid, I can function just fine in your body, but that can¡¯t be said for every human on this planet, just as much as I am here, they are as well, your body is simply trying to find a more fitting form to compensate for your power, that is your curse.¡± My body was always different, bigger, stronger, I never knew why but I was born this way. I was cursed since birth to contain the power within, Jupiter and Eruopa told me that my armor was built to contain the curse¡­ yet it still manifested.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    And yet the question remained, who cursed me? and why? ¡°That¡¯s simple enough, we did.¡± The God spoke, admitted fault¡­ no not fault, guilt? no¡­ truth?


    ¡°As the God of Lies, my role was to obscure, after all, there are some things that humanity is better off not knowing, yet those two always strived to break every rule, uncover every truth, break the very world they were but a guest in, outsiders all the same, they think this is some sort of game or a toy to break, if I had one question for the King I would ask why they exist.¡± The God spoke with contempt, this group somehow earned the ire of the Gods, especially whoever the ¡®two¡¯ were, and this was the second time it mentioned the ¡®King¡¯, I couldn¡¯t imagine he was talking about the Dreg King, so what was it?


    Then it went quiet. ¡°Do you think I would tell you? my words are measured and you¡¯ll never get the whole truth out of me, though.. maybe that¡¯s a lie too, from inside your body I can make sure you never uncover a single truth in my presence, if you offer me shelter from a single human and you believe me to be on your side? you¡¯ll be sorely mistaken.¡± It made threats towards me even though it held back against me in that fight, is it just another lie? I feel like I am starting to feel the effects of having this God inhabit my mind¡­


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 Chapter 21: Sometime Around Midnight

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    Perhaps this newfound awareness would set me straight, thinking about things more deeply, not taking everything at face value¡­ no¡­ I was already doing that. I respect Jupiter, and Europa by extension, so I am more willing to accept what they say, but everyone else I was suspicious of, at least I didn¡¯t feel like I could trust just anyone. I have never been attacked by a human though, demons are so far removed from even being animals that it just couldn¡¯t be compared, so it felt a little weird to put humans¡­ potentially¡­ in the same category. But there was no doubt about it, the person hunting me used to be human, a fairy tale creature that shouldn¡¯t exist, let alone for this long, like a flame, the brighter one burns diminishes how long it can stick around for, but from the age and time of death of the souls inside of me¡­ there¡¯s just no way it should have been able to survive this long¡­


    Then¡­ a sort of tugging sensation, like a cord was wrapped around my finger and being weakly pulled. I could only think of one thing that would cause something like this, the link between the magic and me that let us communicate, usually in dreams, and rarely when I was awake. It occurred to me that maybe dreaming had something to do with magic, after all there was nothing else like it, and it certainly felt like a magical experience sometimes, good or bad.


    However, there were two reasons I knew that it wasn¡¯t magic, the first being the immutable rule of using magic. When you used magic, it was like flexing a muscle, and producing an effect, like when you think about a muscle and make it pull, your arm lifts, where the pull of the muscle is the signal, and the arm lifting is the effect. For example, when I make my sword, Crownsplitter, I have to create it between my hands, meaning it is similar to working out your hands and arms, only much more extreme. For the average person, tapping into magic that powerful might cause permanent damage, but for people who are used to to magic, or have a strong body from training.


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    Consequently, when you train for extended periods of time, you might end up exhausted, using strong magic, or lots of magic over a long period of time, produces the same effect. Normally after I summon my sword, my arms are sore the next day, not even including the injuries I might sustain on them. However, there are some effects that magic can produce that do not require a limb, or are too specific to be generated from one, in those cases a muscle is still used as the conduit, it is located in the lower right of your torso, apparently this is the same for everyone, as such it is known as the ¡®Magic Organ¡¯. So while other muscles can be used as a conduit for magic, it seems to be common replacement, but in both cases the magic takes great effort and physical exertion to be used, which dreaming does not.


    The second reason was a lot more simple, there were some souls inside me that insisted they were from a world without magic, and they still dreamed. At first it was hard to believe that there was no magic there from the few things I heard, but every one of them insisted that they had nothing like magic. So instead of having to do with magic, it had to do with being human, yet apparently animals could dream too, it started to make less and less sense,

 Chapter 22: Anything but Fine

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    There was now little reason for me to continue to stand still, now the ability to move around without the curse running rampant was within my grasp, if only temporarily. Still, it hurt me a little to realize the only way to subdue it after the armor had broken was magic, meaning if someone else were in my place, without the soul and magic to tame the curse, someone¡¯s death or murder was the only solution¡­


    I am sure others have thought it before me, but the awesome power of magic couldn¡¯t be fully enjoyed when you understood the price, it didn¡¯t help that a majority of these people did not seem to be fully ready to embrace death, what would they have been like if they just lived ten more years? The questions circled around in my mind for ages as I finally decided to rise to my feet, for the first time in a few days. Even my cursed body wasn¡¯t immune to the aches and pains of everyone else, and combined with not eating properly¡­, I only felt fatigue, for the first time in my life my armor felt heavy¡­


    Though that last part was mostly because the broken parts had to be sustained with magic, a feat that required a decent amount of concentration as well as physical effort on the behalf of my appendix. But this was the only solution I had, and it would have to work, I would have to constantly keep this up or my curse would destroy the armor entirely, and from there¡­ cause much more problems. I started by moving one step at a time, still focusing on keeping the fake armor intact as I moved, it was almost like carrying a huge bucket, filled to the brim with water, and being tasked with not spilling a drop¡­.


    It was unlikely that breaking concentration would make it fall apart completely, but if I left it alone for too long the replacement pieces would return to being mundane objects before I could react and try to fix it. Something about it reminded me of learning to walk for the first time¡­, only, I couldn¡¯t actually remember the time I had done that, I guess my memory is still full of holes no matter what¡­


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    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? it looks like you shit yourself.¡± Europa prodded me with a rather large stick as I was making my way out of the tent, she seemed to be eating a strange white cloud off of the stick as well, and talking with her mouth full. Something about that made me feel like I should correct her, but I was letting my focus wane for too long¡­


    ¡°I didn¡¯t¡­, but this magic is too difficult to control and move at the same time, I don¡¯t know how useful it¡¯ll be¡­¡± I stumbled slightly as I spoke, trying to keep my balance with quick feet movement in heavy armor was no simple task, it took almost all my prowess just to stay planted. But Europa spoke again before I could fully regain control¡­


    ¡°Well it seemed like you were using it pretty well in that fight, it was only after you came to us and passed out that your replacement parts disappeared, I think it¡¯s just your state of mind¡­, take my mantle for example, it should be always active when in a fight, but if I could only pay attention to keeping it active I would never attack¡­¡± Europa started to pause as I had a particularly difficult time listening to her and using magic. ¡°The point is, even if it¡¯s still tiring, you need to learn how to use magic subconsciously¡­ like walking, keeping up your replacement armor should be as natural as breathing, and you can give it a rest when you have to sleep¡­¡±


    Clank-


    To be frank, I fell flat on my ass.


    ¡°Ow-¡± But what she said was right, looking at someone like Jupiter, his protection had never once failed, and it seemed to work at every distance, using that magic must be as natural as breathing, or even just existing. That was what it meant to be a true knight, a real hero, he was powerful enough to never give his magic a rest, that was strength. I wanted to be like that at one point, and I still do, but I didn¡¯t know how hard it would be to get there¡­


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