“Positive.” Iris could see the three as clear as day and was fascinated by the new sights. Three figures staring back at her, one cloaked tall feminine figure with long golden hair and elongated pointed ears wielding a wooden staff, she gave off a sort of… easy feeling?
The one standing next to her in full white armor and their sword and shield drawn heightened that feeling, wearing the suit was a male as tall as the girl but twice as wide, if the girl was a twig, this guy was the trunk.
Next, and a stark contrast to the others, a tiny man in leather armor with pointed green hair and small pointed ears to match. Curiously, he also had a crossbow drawn and pointed at Iris.
As to how Iris knew what any of their equipment was? The atlas filled her head with it before she could even wonder what it was, she just knew.
“They are pointing their weapons at us.” Iris huffed, bringing her attention back to Lily “get down and go to th-“ a whistling sound tickled Iris’s ear, and with a flick of her wrist she had caught something. She moved her hand to her gaze, greeting the freshly caught arrow.
“Woah- wait, why are they attacking us?!”
Iris felt Lily’s grip on her tighten, a smile briefly spreading on Iris’s face before she snapped out of it “Don’t know, didn’t hear, hold on tight! I’ll protect you.” She patted Lily, who loosened her grip momentarily but locked herself in place again, keeping her head up against Iris’s nape “Good.”
With Lily secured, Iris faced the group, seeing the armored man running towards them with his sword at the ready while the other two were shortly behind. She had no clue what their motives were, and she really didn’t want to harm them, but they had tried to harm Lily, her first follower.
And that was unacceptable.
Still, she was curious, why attack first?
“HAAAAA-huh?!”
Iris looked up from her pondering, a sword freshly caught in her tiny hand, further down was the man in armor, trying to free his thrusted sword from her grip. He had no hesitation to strike her and even did so while she was pondering… was this just how things went? “Hi, name’s Iris, creation go-“
“It has my sword! Ana! Now! I’ll try and hold it in place!” the man firmly planted his feet, no longer trying to rip his sword out from Iris’s grasp, instead he threw his shield onto his back and firmly grasped the sword with both hands “Go! Don’t worry about me!”
“R-right!”
Iris leaned over to the side, seeing the women hold her staff up high into the sky as it started to sparkle and the girl started to chant.
“Spirits of fire, heed my plea and strike down my foes with overwhelming power, heat down from below rise u- eh?” The women paused, at the start of the chant magic had swelled into her staff and expanded around her, but suddenly it stopped completely. She lowered her staff and scratched her head.
“Ana! What is the hold up! Hurry!” the man shouted, he was gripping the sword desperately, closing his eyes and clenching his body bracing for the impact.
“I’m not doing anything?” Iris said, confused. At first she was a bit angry but now, after seeing how much little threat they were, she felt kind of bad… was she the bad guy? Another whistle and a caught arrow later she shot a glare towards the smaller man, who immediately fainted, foaming at the mouth “…I’m not the bad guy. Right?”
“-freeze my foes in an endless bli- again?!” The women shouted, her other chant cut short “screw it.” She took a step back, magic swelling in her staff again “if spirits won’t co-operate have to go with standard magic! here it comes Greg! Fire-OMPF?!?!” the girl’s robe was flipped over her head and tied at the top, causing the girl to stumble around until she inevitably fell down.
“…guys?” the knight unclenched his body and looked back for his group, only to see the small one foaming at the mouth and the other flailing around on the ground with her bottom bare to the world, her screams muffled behind her inverted robe “…” he slowly turned and looked down at Iris.
“I didn’t do anything.” She answered, just as confused as he was.
His gaze drifted to Iris’s back, landing on Lily who had started watching since awhile ago. He gulped, releasing his grip on the sword and slowly taking a few steps back before falling to his knees, his forehead slamming against the ground “Please spare me and my teammates lives! We surrender!”
“I didn’t even do anything!”
“Wow, Iris you are strong…” Lily said.
“Argh! Whatever! Do what you want!” Iris threw up her hands, giving up “oh, oops.” She watched as the sword she had taken from the knight flew off, high into the sky, never to be seen again as it broke the planet’s atmosphere.
* * *
“Now from the top! My name’s Iris, Creation Goddess, nice to meet you, and this is Lily.” After everyone had calmed down and reawakened, Iris had them all lined up in front of her at the edge of the forest sitting on their knees, while she had herself seated atop a tree stump with Lily right at her side. Their weapons (for those who still had them) confiscated and shoved into her inventory.
“Gregory…” The knight said, his helmet removed revealing his bearded grey face. Atlas had shown this one as a High Dwarf, a Dwarf that lives above ground, taller, but just as wide set. Very helpful Atlas. The man raised an eyebrow when she said goddess but bit his tongue out of fear for his life.
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“Ana.” The wizard, spirit mage, introduced herself as. She was an elf with no additional description, just elf, useful Atlas. “Goddess? Isn’t that-“Unlike Gregory, Ana tried to question it, but Gregory had thrust his arm out, stopping her from questioning it.
“Blasphemy, is what it is.” The third, a gnome, had spoken “I ain’t no devote but only fo-“
“Liam!” Gregory shouted, shutting him up and reducing his outburst to a mere angry grumble. He breathed a sigh of relief, turning to Iris “Sorry, his name is Liam.”
Iris crooked her head to the side “No, what did he say? Blasphemy?” she asked, confused. By her own experience, she *was* the goddess, this piked her interest.
“Ah, well…” Gregory looked away, not wanting to anger the person who casually threw his sword into orbit.
“It’s ok, I won’t bite.” She shrugged.
He stared at her, weighing his options and seeing none, he gave up “…I am no follower, but the only god I know is Luxia and their religion, calling yourself a god will probably stir up problems.”
“You’d be captured, flogged, burned at the stake, stoned…” Ana listed on her fingers, raising her hands up and stopping as Gregory shot her a glare.
“Ain’t the half ahv it “ Liam huffed “only an idjit wul do sumfin tat stuupid.”
“Hm.” Iris tapped her chin “what makes this Luxia a god?” she asked, trying to remember if anyone else was flying through space with her, and if there was… what were the odds they would end up on the same planet?
“Ah, she’s the god of light!” Ana spoke up “I mean, I don’t follow suuuuper religiously, but I pray sometimes, she heals the sick, provides the light in the sky, and with her army of angels holds back the god of darkness from awakening and destroying us all!”
“Eh?” first time Iris had heard any of this, god of light? God of darkness? Just how much did the world change while she was asleep? “And this person, god, is real?”
“Well, she is the main religion and is practiced everywhere, they are like, super chill and provide healing and other services.” Ana then perked up, getting excited “Course, they charge for any major healing, but catch a cold or a small cut or bruise? They might get annoyed but give them a few copper and they will begrudgingly do it.”
“You really bothered them for a cold?” Gregory asked “you did recover pretty fast from the last one…” his eyes narrowed as Ana just laughed him off.
“Hm…” Iris leaned back and stared into the sky ‘other gods huh… well, if they aren’t hurting anyone, oh wait-“ she sat back up, pointing at Ana “You said Main religion, there are others?”
Ana smirked “good catch! Yup, some people worship one of the four great beasts, the moons, spirits, or some even the dark god.” She then puffed up her chest, reaching inside her robe she pulled out a necklace that had a green gem and a symbol of a pair of wings attached to it “I mainly worship the wind beast and spirits.”
“Eh? Multiple? You can do that?” she had also mentioned she prayed to Luxia as well… just how loose were these gods with their followers?
Gregory raised his hand “Ah, she says worship but for one it is for her job and the other is just casual admiration.”
Ana huffed, sticking out her tongue “ah poo, no fun.” She giggled, at some point the restraint had completely washed away from Ana who began talking again “Yeah, apparently the beasts don’t like it that people worship them but put up with it. As for spirits, as a spirit mage you need to have some understanding with spirits to use their power otherwise, they won’t listen.”
Iris was interested, but felt a nagging tug in the back of her mind “Hmpf, how do you even know they are even real?” she asked, crossing her arms. Here was an actual god sitting in front of them and they are talking about others? Others that she didn’t know about? It was starting to not sit right with her. She felt a tapping on her lap, glancing down at the source she saw Lily.
“It’s ok, I’m sure you’ll find people who will follow you.” She said.
Iris felt her heart melt, the nagging feeling gone, Lily was right, all she needed was to amass a following herself and everyt- wait, did Lily not think she was a goddess?
The three stared at her, exchanging glances between each other before Ana spoke “well, if you are lucky, you can see them.”
She perked up “Oh?”
“Yeah… at their capitols, you can usually catch a glimpse of the beasts now and then, as for Luxia… go to their capitol, Luxia, she performs miracles there.” Gregory spoke.
Iris grinned, if she wanted answers then she’d just have to head there and speak to these gods themselves “Alright, will do, where is the nearest one?”
“Do… do you even know where you are at right now?” Greg asked.
“Nope!” Iris shamelessly admitted “I slammed myself into a wall and dug up to the surface.” She then pointed to Lily “and she came from a nest recently.”
“Don’t question her, she’s strange.” Lily said.
“Yeah, about that…” Ana sheepishly said.
“That uh, Arachne… she isn’t hypnotizing you or anything, is she?”
“You think after all that I can hypnotize her? I am not my mother.” Lily huffed
“Arachne can hypnotize?” Iris asked.
“”“R-right…””” the three agreed with Lily.
“Oh right.” Iris hit her fist into her open palm “We got distracted, why did you guys attack us again? That was rude and uncalled for, you could have hurt Lily.”
The three stared at Lily, inspecting her closely. Lily recoiled a bit, snuggling up to Iris “I-I am not a monster!” she insisted.
“…” Gregory heaved a sigh “this place has been having trouble with the Arachne nest for a decade, kidnapping women, raiding fields, over hunting wildlife, we were going to thin it out a bit, saw you and your Arachne friend, thought you were a new victim and attacked.”
“Didn’t know she was a risen…” Ana added.
Iris nodded “All right, no harm done.” She shrugged, after speaking with them for so long she could tell they didn’t mean any harm, and since there was no harm, all is forgiven. Plus, she really didn’t want to hurt anyone. “Oh, what is risen?”
“Aren’t you one?” Greg asked.
“If she was, then she wouldn’t know what that was.” Ana said.
“I am not a monster.” Lily reasserted.
“A risen is…?” Iris asked again.
“Right, where to start…” Gregory shifted his gaze to Ana.
She shrugged “Risen is what everyone calls monsters ‘rising’ from the status of monsters. Apparently in the teachings of Luxia and the beasts, everything was once a monster or something, even if the monsters we originated from are still around today.”
“Lik husks an’ humans.” Liam said
“Cave dwellers and Dwarves.” Gregory scoffed “Some keep the monster name though, you’d still be an Arachne, Lily.”
“And what ever you are, Iris.”
“Hm.” She looked down at Lily, who was snuggled up against her “So, you attacked because you thought she was a regular Arachne, but because she can speak and reason, she’s fine?”
“I mean, as long as she doesn’t side with her nest.” Greg said.
“NO!” Lily screamed “They are bad! Horrible! Never! Mother is dead anyways! I won’t go back!”
Iris placed her hand atop her head, rubbing it gently “Shh, you won’t, you don’t have to, I’ll protect you.” She then looked up at the three, who were now standing “So, what happens now?”
“Well, finding a risen like this… usually she can come to town and seek asylum with the church until she is used to civilized life, but…” He scratched the back of his head, finding this incredibly awkward “that town did spend the last ten years fighting with her nest, I don’t think it would be wise.”
“Hmpf, suicide maybe.” Liam spat.
“The next town over is closer to the capitol, that place should be safe for her.”
Iris frowned, she wanted to see the town but if it could cause harm to Lily then it was out of the question. Was a shame though, she wanted to treat Lily to the food she had mentioned, have her sleep indoors, and maybe even get a closer look at these churches and religions, if only there was a way to make everyone not recognize her as an Arachne?
“…I can do that?”