Chapter 384 - Scripture’s old enemy (Patreon)

Sofia started walking through the office. “Thank you, but… Pretending to sleep?”

Richard kept looking into the abyss. “Yes. For myself, I act as if I was going to sleep. I lie down, cut my senses. It’s not real sleep, but it helps with organizing my thoughts, my wants, my memories. Sleep is important to the human brain. Cherish it while you still have it.”

“I never really saw it as something I could lose. Rather I have been happy that I can waste less time doing it now. But this does all make sense…” Sofia finally reached the desk, seeing that Richard wasn’t moving, she moved around the desk to look out of the window as well. “I see nothing.”

“There is nothing to see, right now at least. Sometimes a big creature swims by, if you don’t look, you might just miss it.” Richard turned his skull, he looked at Sofia with the dim lights within his eye sockets, “But today is a good day, other interesting creatures have made their way into my office. Are you not going to introduce them?”

“Them?”

“Yes, the skeletons. Two of them.”

Pareth… And Bookie? He hadn’t detected Bookie last time. Because he still didn’t have a body?

“Well, alright. Come out.” Pareth appeared on the other side of Sofia, and Bookie was just in his book form, in Sofia’s hands. “This one is Pareth, he’s essentially in charge of keeping me alive. And that is Bookie, he is… A book. A skeleton-summoning skeleton book. He has a more ‘regular’ body too, but I guess he is being shy today.”

“Most interesting specimens indeed. It’s only polite that I should reciprocate, then.”

Two skeletons appeared behind Richard. One looked like a regular human skeleton, much like Pareth currently, and the other one was a bit taller, which Sofia understood to likely be from an elf, and was wearing flowing purple robes and dark veils hiding its skull.

“I present Mountain,” Richard started, pointing at the regular skeleton, “He is my Pareth. Does not look like much, but his name is fitting, trust me. And the other one…”

“Florencia.” The skeleton presented herself with a nod. “Army general. Pleased to meet you, young necromancer.”

“Pleased to meet you too…”

The two skeletons identified as [Supporter - Lv.500+].

“You can go back to your things, Flor. Sorry for disturbing you.”

The lady skeleton disappeared as fast as she had appeared. ‘Mountain’ was still there, standing silently.

“Is she one of your summons?” Sofia asked.

“You could say so? I created her soul myself. She is like my daughter, in a weird way. Her existence is very similar to that skeleton knight of yours. False life, born out of a necromancer’s hands.”

“I never created a soul, though…”

“Well, clearly, you participated. You were not the one to craft the soul, perhaps, but it was created for you, sparked by you, and then, cherished by you. So it’s one and the same.”

“That’s… I don’t know. The ritual I used was one with Knowledge’s rune, so. If anything, his existence would be thanks to Knowledge. All I really did back then was to prepare the bones, carve the ritual, and offer some blood.”

“That is just as well. You were part of the creation and it is all that really matters. But I do have a question, can he not speak by himself?”

“He has never said a word. None of my skeletons have ever spoken, in fact.”

“None… Well, for the other ones, whatever type of skeleton they may be, that is unsurprising. But for him… He… He is a person. He should be able to.”

He should?

You should?

“Has he never written anything either?” Richard continued.

“Never a single word.”

Sofia and Richard both stared at Pareth.

After a long and awkward silence, Pareth shook his skull.

“No? You clearly understand us, Pareth. How can one understand but not speak? You have put a finger on an interesting matter, Sofia. Let us see this to the end. Is he able to read?”

“Without a doubt, yes.”

Three sheets of paper appeared on Richard’s desk, one said ‘Do not know how’, one said ‘Do not want to’ and the last one said ‘Is not allowed to’.

“Go on, point. You can shake that skull of yours to communicate, surely you should be able to point. Which is it?”

Pareth looked at the paper sheets, and after a few seconds, again, he shook his skull. Sometimes Sofia could feel Pareth’s emotions when they were very strong, but currently, nothing.

“NO?! Ho ho ho. I see how it is. Not allowed is correct. This stink, yes, this stink of divine intervention! Knowledge’s rune you say? I would narrow my eyes if I still had them. I think I understand exactly what is going on, Sofia. This is a solved mystery.”

“Is it? So Knowledge is forbidding Pareth from speaking is what is going on?”

“No, not quite. It is much more interesting than that!”

“I don’t get it…”

“Well, you see, for Gods to breach into our planes, there are costs. Heavy costs.”

“I have the sudden feeling that you are about to say something ridiculous even for someone of your level. And I’m not sure that I want to hear it.”

“Oh, don’t be scared now. I know they say Knowledge is a curse. But we both know this to be false, after all, Knowledge isn’t a Recessed. So, hear me out, young girl. Your skeleton…”

Richard paused for dramatic effect.

“Is a demigod!”

Sofia’s mind blanked a bit.

“This is not quite the reaction I expected. Are you alright? For what it’s worth, this does not change anything for you at all, honestly. It really just explains why he cannot speak.”

“C- Can you… Explain… A bit more?”

“It’s quite simple, really. Knowledge copied some part of your soul, added some of his being, just a speck of both, basically, and jammed that into a makeshift soul, which is much harder than it sounds, but it is the god of Knowledge we are talking about, then stuffed that into a skeleton. And there you have it: demigod!”

“Does that not… Make him special in some way?”

“It does. I assume he must be extremely hard to definitively kill. And then, considering that his penalty is communication, I assume he inherited from the opposite in terms of divine boon. It is from Knowledge, after all, so… Knowledge of some kind. Is he perhaps an expert in a specific domain?”

“Well… He has always been good with weapons but I thought…”

“Search no further, that must be his divine boon! The reason he cannot speak. He was gifted with the knowledge of weapon mastery, or something equivalent. Flor was born a blank slate. Much like a newborn. I taught her to read and speak myself. Pareth could have learned by himself too, but if you say he has always been good with weapons, you understand…”

“I- I do. Thank you, I guess. It went in a direction I was not expecting, but that does explain some things. Is there a way to bypass the restriction?”

“Not without erasing his soul and starting over, I’m afraid.”

“So he’s never going to be able to speak?”

“Probably not…” Richard stopped and looked at Pareth for a few seconds. “It might get better as he levels. But I would not expect much.”

Oh… That would explain a lot. This is why you’re so much more alive now. Some of the restrictions have been lifted. That’s great news! Still… “Are you fine with that?” Sofia asked Pareth.

Pareth shrugged. He looked at Richard, nodded, then turned his attention to the abyss outside the window.

“Looks like a happy skeleton to me.”

“A demigod though… How is it that no one else ever figured that out?”

“It’s not that easy to guess, look at Flor, she’s no Demigod, but her existence and Pareth’s are pretty much the same in terms of how they came to be. Knowledge helping create souls is not anything new either, but He just happened to add a little extra this time. Make no mistake, this does not make Pareth a divine being or close to it. He just happened to catch the whims of a God at birth and got some sneaky bits of ‘divinity’ right into his soul. Comes with some benefits and some restrictions, but that’s about it. There have been others before, there will be more down the line…”

“Other demigods? Like who? Any known ones? Does it mean they all have artificial souls?”

“Well… Elves, for example, all trace back to a common ancestor. A long-gone demigod created by the one and only.”

“Sun?”

“Right-o, this one. If there is one God who’s meddled extensively with artificial life, it’s Her. From what I know, spliced the genes of one of the oldest vampires; She tinkered with it until the first elf was ‘born’. Rest is history. And no, technically that does not have to be with an artificial soul, Demigods can be born from completely normal parents, but that does not tend to happen anymore.”

“Why is that? I know the Gods can nominate people to be their Oracle at birth, so is it different?”

“Much different, how ‘a demigod’ exists is somewhat of an issue with how the system is implemented. Messes with the scribes. So ever since the Gods have joined hands with the system, demigods have become rarer.”

“I see… Pareth does not really have a scribe of his own, so that checks out… And then… Do all elves have some tiny bits of Sun’s divine essence in them? Does Pareth already have some of Knowledge’s essence, too, if I understand correctly?”

“The elves don’t have shit, they’re a regular race now, a God meddling with your soul isn’t hereditary. As for your skeleton, it is not that he has Knowledge’s essence… More that… How to explain this in simple words… If people are books, Knowledge ripped off one of His pages and snuck it into Pareth’s book. Does that make sense to you?”

“It’s not exactly clear, honestly, but I think I get the gist of it. Thank you for taking the time to explain…”

“I just sated my own curiosity now, nothing to thank me about. Actually, I want more. Would you be so kind as to recount your chase after your sister? I have heard of the expedition from Nicet, and later about you and your sister’s presence in Exidia, but I am missing most everything in between. As If had only read the first and last page of a book. It is unsatisfying.”

“Certainly. My finding her was in part thanks to you and Nicet, after all. But that story might take a while.”

“I have the whole eternity ahead of me.”

“Were you not busy with the Phageid?”

“... Such a pain.”