Spiritually Driven 2 (Patreon)

Spiritually Driven 2 - or ‘The Traveler is ‘God’, but I am quite the Messiah in this Dark World’ (Destiny/Destiny II, Spirit!SI)

Krill are not pleasant creatures.

As mentioned before, it was not a matter of appearance, but they had a degree of emotional understanding that was deep and yet to brash. The three princesses I ‘took in’ were no different than the common ‘bug’, but they were granted a degree of humbleness from facing death at the young age of three.

To a Krill, life lasted up to 10 Fundament-years. It was the method I used to keep track of time, but I wasn’t sure how this translated into Earth Years. I could only assume it was just a few months more or less compared to each other but… nothing tangible allowed me to fully ponder on it.

Still, the children were already ‘ripe’ for adulthood. The year and a half I watched over them, witnessed their growth into adulthood and… ultimately, their developing drive to independence and revenge made me proud and worried.

I wouldn’t always be there, but the more time I got invested in this, the more I lingered longer to either educate them or keep an eye on them while they rested together. It was not how I imagined to deal with those that would have become the Hive’s highest elements but…

Emotions are a weakness when you are stuck in my predicament, but I failed to see how those polluted me as much as they rewarded the trio with the bliss of a stable tutor that wasn’t plotting to murder them or to sell them to some rival nation within Fundament.

Traveling, training, becoming more accustomed to their own flaws and qualities- I had many compliments to give where those were due.

Sathona was the one I was able to connect with early on. Mostly due to the fact she was a ‘bookworm’, keen to study and learn as much as possible while serving as the one with the means of the mind needed to formulate plans of all sorts. She sponged all the information I taught her about- stuff I knew could be used for the sorts of simple life but also in combat to help her sisters as they flourished more in the direct confrontation.

Xi Ro was the warrior, which was fair considering she would have become the ‘God of War’ for the Hive. Proud, quite vindictive but, sadly, simple-minded when it comes to anything that wasn’t combat. She was a tomboy, female but with interest in masculine circumstances while still favoring to be addressed as a female and planning to remain as such to ‘prove a point’ while also showing me her worth. Me, she wanted to show me her value.

It was at this point I knew that they were slowly latching onto me as a safe shelter from the dreadful world of Fundament. But it was Aurash that confirmed my suspicions as she was the more outspoken about it compared to her siblings.

Aurash was the ‘middle-ground’ between her sisters. Bold and yet restrained, calculative but also dim-headed when needed. She was the ‘dreamer’ of the group, the one that had her reasons to reclaim the throne to an extent her sisters paled to- she wanted to save the planet as she believed her late father’s will that a disaster would destroy the Krill Civilization.

Even when I told them that was not the case, Aurash was the one that stuck the hardest to this point. But the more months passed, the more the way she defended this took major developments. From harsh and angry, to genuinely sound hurt at the notion of their father having been wrong. This mellowing was followed also by her curiosity over the Ammonite.

One thing was for her, an explorer, to learn things she already had through the Krill culture, but she adored to learn customs and ideas that could be positive for her people. She was the one I saw best-fit for rulership and her sisters agreed to that thought.

Sathona was too much of a reader and a bit of a doormat when it came to favors, something that put her in a few bald spots as I led them around Fundament, keeping them as safe as possible.

Xi Ro was no better. Always seeking a new challenge, thirsting for the brawl and never once considering the implications some of those lead to. This bad habit had lessened in that year and a half, but it was still a prominent trait worthy of grimace from her family and I.

Aurash was someone that managed to take the lead when needed. Very forward, very aware of her surroundings and with experience of leadership spearheading a good future if she played her cards right.

That being said, time was ‘subjective’ to specific topics. Specifically, a year and a half for a Kril was the equivalent of roughly a decade. They knew me for ‘long’, and they were reaching the time where they had to make a move on what they had to be.

Aurash would become a male, as it was dictated by Krill’s biology at this stage of their lives that it was best to become males to attain power before traditional eyes, while her sisters were to become mothers in due time.

Not yet, not too soon. They had to conquer their old realm first… and they needed big help.

I provided the Ammonites, but they refused on the basis that it would be used by other factions to attack them as ‘unworthy’- plus, the subjects would see them as weak and in need of foreign intervention.

A fair point, but there was a reason I was keen to bring that offer up many times after that first rejection: that fucking worm. It was faking being dead and it had been trying to manipulate the three sisters. It was like in canon, tapping into their wills and trying to coax them to go straight to its Gods.

It was during that admission of manipulation that I gave the three siblings a hard lesson about Darkness. I told them what it was, what was its final goal and how no one that was touched by it could ever hope to come back. It was something powerful, but uncaring of those under it- willing to shatter it all for  the sake of leaving a ‘purer’ galaxy behind.

They listened to my words, the fright of such a future keeping those hopes of using the power promised by the worm back for a long time but… then they found the ship. Deep,

‘We should sell it,’ Xi Ro remarked with an honest tone. ‘The ship lacks weaponry and it would be a burden at best. We could make enough money to get a quality mercenary army.’

And one that would not be plotting to backstab you. If you play your cards good then-

‘No! The worm told me that the solution to the Syzygy is in the ship! We have to check there.’

Sathona’s own comment made me grimace inwardly. The poor girl had been getting troubled in her sleep and I told her to give the worm to another sister, but she refused and would always get belligerent when that was stressed for too long. Right now, I could see the end results of that mind-washing.

It’s not safe. I would suggest you to not do this.

‘...Can we at least check it?’

Only if it is just checking.

I had grown soft. I should have known that this was going to be a mistake.

They took the dive and reached the Ship. The first thing that came to them was the fetid smell left behind by the rotting nature of this ship- it was a containment chamber. One that still held mightily before the test of time. The guardian set by the Traveler to keep it from being breached ended up awakening too late.

The sisters boarded the ship when he started to plead with them. He praised them and gave them shallow flattery, none of which landed  with the girls and, worst of all…

That good for nothing shithead proved to be the very thing that fucked all of this! I had spent so long to convince them that the Worm lied to them about the blasted Syzygy disaster but no! He had to say that it was real when it wasn’t!

And that was the tipping point. Xi Ro was doubtful, but with confirmation that disaster was imminent she was willing to make the big jump as she ventured to find the Worm Gods with her siblings.

Sathona welcomed them with eagerness, the girl reluctant at first but utterly worshiping them. Likewise, Xi Ro welcomed their praise and flat ‘truth’. But when I managed to steer them to think of ‘how convenient’ all of this was, the bastards managed to sell their shit to the girls by telling them that ‘the power was going to be enough to beat the Syzygy and bring the peace of  the good news to Fundament’.

And in a moment that I would never forget, after so many decades where I held back my emotions from ripping through and showing my mortality, I…

Daughters please, don’t do this! I don’t want to see you damned forever- for that is the path welcoming you and your kin the moment you accept their fake promises of greatness!

I begged.

I never felt so much emotion in a single moment, and I never once thought I would be begging in an outburst like that. Anger? Maybe, but legitimate pain to see them hurl their lives to pure damnation? I was… I was too horrified by this.

I saw good people, a bit flawed, but still redeemable as far as I knew and-

Aurash hesitated. For a moment, I thought

‘This power! Father, this power is wonderful- we can- we can fix it all and-!’

Aurash’s proclamation died as the power-trip suddenly got reversed by the sight of something missing.

Me.

I didn’t bother keeping around any longer, my words being unheard before the worst happened and now mattering little as they were fully drowning in that pure corruption. But as I left, I failed to realize how my actions may have dictated a change into them that I would end up learning of many centuries later.

While the Worm Gods rejoiced at their victory, the trio felt a strange emptiness appear within their chests. The same cold they held before they ‘found’ me was back and, this time around, no amount of killing and worshiping the monsters will help them fill up that void.

But for me, that didn’t matter at the time. With a broken heart and a driven mind, I set to go through a contingency plan I had hoped to never have to call upon.

I had a few calls and conversations to make but… it was time for a drastic action to prevent the worst from happening.

—-----d-d-d-d—--------

AN

Sometimes, change is not that simple. Not when the Darkness is so good at seducing others. But… maybe not all is lost. To John, this is indeed a major defeat, but in truth… there may be chances for radical developments through his teachings to the three Hive leaders.

Next time, fate is still turned by a small margin, but the Hive is now born.