CH690 (Patreon)

“So, how was meeting the third tiers for the first time?” Myriad asked, not sparing Ben a glance while he focused on his work.

“Well, it turns out the guy who attacked me yesterday was the immortal and he tried to kill me again today after he raised a stink trying to get me kicked out of the meeting, plus I lost a fight to Abel and given the fact you haven’t mentioned her before I feel compelled to bring up that she’s the descendant of an outsider, but otherwise it was pretty good.”

Myriad crashed down as Ben was talking, creaking out a weak word by the time he was done. “Why?”

“Why’s she a descendant of an outsider? It’s actually really interesting. I was able to pick up the context while I was reading her thoughts but I really had to read between the lines a bit because it has to do with the sort of ancient history that basically became mythology by the point she heard it, but-”

“No, I mean why do these things keep happening to you. Start with Rook and whatever caused that… No, you already told me what happened yesterday and he has a… Well, history of getting in trouble so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising he’d be interested in a woman who both suits his preferences and is part of a long-lived race but the fact that he’s now done it twice is worrying. By virtue of his skills, he’s not an easy person to punish Ben, he’s basically out of reach of gods and mortals alike because there’s nothing any of us can really do to him.”

“Don’t worry, even if I can’t read his mind, he made his weakness overly obvious. I’m sure plenty of others have figured it out too, even if they’re less equipped to take advantage of it than me.”

“Which is?”

“Watch and see tomorrow. I may not be able to kill the guy but if you’re creative enough there’s fates worse than death, I’ll just have to leave a bit early tonight to get started on it.”

“...You know what? Fine, I don’t care and more than a few gods would be happy to see him put in his place since he’s hard to deal with. And what was that about Abel then?”

“Later. While we’re on Rook I have a couple questions. One, how old is this asshole and two, are there any other aspects of immortality and absolute defense beyond the obvious?”

“For his age, he must be nearing a thousand though I’m not sure the exact number of years, either way it's been a while. As for skills, I’d say they’re both rather straightforward by all accounts… Ah, but there was one small quirk of immortality.”

“Quirk?”

“He didn’t gain the skill in his mid-twenties, by all accounts he was an old man when he reached it. You’ve been told before that reaching the third tier can come with some unusual effects compared to a regular awakening, right? Getting that one remodeled his body, bringing him back to his prime.”

“Okay, and now he’s hitting on someone centuries younger than him. Gross. Even if I’m not killing him now I’m going to have to consider how I might do it in the future. I don’t care how good his skill combo is, it can’t be invincible.”

“Worry about that later. For now, what were you saying about Abel?”

“Right! It’s actually super interesting in a ‘my world really wasn’t that bad compared to a lot of the other summoneds were’ sort of way. I’m assuming you guys learned at least a little something when you grabbed her soul and the souls of the rest of her kind?”

“You could say that. Frankly, as bad of a situation as they were being brought into, I'm comfortable saying they’re better off here than they would have been if they hadn’t died the first time. Their entire universe was dying, post-apocalyptic doesn’t begin to describe it.”

“From what I saw in her head, I’m not inclined to disagree, though I’d probably call it grimdark more than anything else, to the point that just how well put together she seems is as strange as her other weirdness. Definitely too bright for that sort of setting.”

“And what exactly does this have to do with her being connected to an outsider?”

“Not just her, all of her kind. Her race, child of Sothoth? It’s named for one of the outsiders that broke through her universe and mated with anyone who survived witnessing him after he and the others killed the original god of that reality.”

Not just any god though, but from the context Ben was able to put together from her memories, the closest thing to a capital ‘G’ God he was aware of. While not omnipotent, it seems like it had been both omnipresent and omniscient in a way the ones of his current reality simply weren’t, at least as far as its home reality had been concerned.

Similar to the gods of Yuzu’s world, the original one of Abel’s reality had been a land god, though it had been alone, not even sharing its universe with any other worlds by virtue of the fact that there were none. No stars in the sky and no heavenly body to reside on, the land of that reality was an infinite flat expanse stretching out seemingly forever, both where the people lived and what they worshiped, kept safe by it as well until something it couldn’t see broke through from beyond the veil.

Hundreds of them flooded through at once, killing the world and then each other until the dozens of outsiders left made an uneasy truce and ruled over the fractured remains of that universe, even warping the races and playing with the corpse of the god they’d slayed.

One of those pieces being what gave Abel her weeping, a fragment of the being that should have been her god still crying tears long after its death, either for what happened to it or its people, Ben couldn’t say.

He explained all of that to Myriad, feeling the cube’s energy drain more and more with each word as he finally wrapped up.

“Really, whatever god grabbed their souls got lucky,” Ben shrugged. “It looks like she and the others were killed in a bit of interfaith conflict, the fact that they weren’t caught or followed back could be viewed as our good fortune, especially since it sounds like the fragment that came with Abel is probably both rare and valuable.”

“...I wish you hadn’t told me any of that. What am I supposed to do with that information, Ben?”

“Realistically? Nothing, I just thought it was neat.”

“I can’t do nothing! You know how much trouble the single outsider that got through caused us and now you’re telling me we have twenty on the world who share blood with one and one who’s going to become a god of this world eventually!”

“Yeah, but so what? They’re their own people and if they haven’t done anything wrong then who cares about whatever they share some blood with? I can at least say that Abel seems fine, even if a little off.”

“Ugh, there was some talk about what was going to happen when she ascends in proper. Given she has a wholly unique attribute there was obviously curiosity, especially from the knowledge gods, but what am I supposed to do with this information?”

“Again, nothing. It’s not like the attribute comes from the outsiders, it comes from a corpse.”

“Oh, because that’s so much better!”

“I mean, I think so.”

“There’s still the issue of her skills then. They’ve always been strange but knowing they come from her bloodline is significantly worse and given ascending means she’ll be able to create and gift skills to others then this world really could fill with people holding outsider abilities!”

“And once more, so what? As far as I can see, except for her outer ancestry she doesn’t have much that looks like it strains reality and everything else looks useful. Seriously, don’t sweat the small stuff and if it’s such a big deal then just keep it to yourself, no reason to get the other gods in a huff about her existence. They’re too reactionary about nothing most of the time anyway.”

“...Fine, you know what? Whatever. Just don’t mention this to Helori then, if she finds out I heard about this and didn’t tell her she isn’t going to let it go.”

“Yeah, can do.”

“Good, and in that case, anything else about the meeting I should know about?”

“Doubt it, it was pretty chaotic but I’m assuming you’re aware of all of the big parts. You know one of the summoned killed ten others?”

“Mmh, I’m aware. It was… unfortunate.”

“Pff, funny way of calling a big fucking blunder. Seriously, who thought it would be a good idea to bring two separate sides of a war? Didn’t look around here and realize what a terrible idea that was going to be?”

“It wasn’t ideal and after it happened we knew there could be some friction, but we never predicted that there’d be a third tier on one of the sides. Hell, we didn’t predict we’d get any third tiers. In the few worlds such a spell had been used in the past there’s never been anyone who ascended to godhood after they died. We got exceptionally lucky with who we got.”

“Lucky you, so what’s the take from everyone up here?”

“To defer the problem until after the war. Down there?”

“The same. As above, so below I guess. I just keep being proven right again and again that there’s no meaningful difference between gods and mortals.”

“Mmh, well whatever you say. And are you really going to be fine tomorrow? I’d really rather you not be around someone who’s already attacked you twice.”

“Myriad, don’t worry. I’m not the sort who lets that sort of thing go unpunished so if you’re really worried just watch.”