Elowyn Durn and Hercle just stare at Asterios on the ground.

  “So…” says Durn while looking at the colpsed body of Asterios.

  “Yeah” responds Elowyn while contempting their situation.

  “Huh” says Hercle, while looking at his god-colpsing shield.

  They all stand there waiting for something to happen, some type of divine intervention, but nothing does.

  Quickly Hercle picks up Asterios’s form and throws him over his shoulder, drool dripping from his mouth onto the rge man’s shirt.

  “What are you doing?” asks Elowyn while looking between Hercle and Asterios.

  “What else should I do?” responds Hercle, “Leave him here to wake up and seek vengeance? I don’t think you or Durn could carry this” he says while gesturing at Asterios.

  “We could drag him” suggests Durn.

  “We could” says Hercle, “But this is easier, doesn’t weigh much for a self-procimed god.”

  “Do you think he’s actually?” asks Durn.

  “Obviously not, a god wouldn’t fall to something so simple as shield.” replies Hercle.

  They all start walking forward into the portal, with Elowyn first, Hercle and Asterios second, and Durn taking one st longing look at the city before being third.

  ———————

  The walk back is long, partially due to their ntern burning out halfway through the journey.

  Instead of walking through the city gates as normal, they contact one of the guards and ask for one of the higher up’s due to an extremely important issue.

  As the guard unnamed guard walks away to find their superior, the group of adventurers begin some mild banter to ease their nerves.

  “Guess we’ll have to kick him out of our group” says Elowyn.

  “Didn’t he call it a party” says Durn while pointing at Asterios.

  “Yes” says Hercle.

  “What do you think they’ll do with him?” asks Elowyn.

  “Probably throw him in a prison to rot, or give him the chance to reform by joining the military.”

  Suddenly a more imposing guard walks up while saying, “you needed me?”

  “Yes” responds Hercle, “this guy has something to do with portals, he cimed himself a god and then was knocked out by my shield.”

  “We suspect him to be a cultist” expands Durn, “because when he tried to recruit us he referred to it as a cult before his correction.”

  “Is there anything else?” asks the guard.

  Elowyn is the one to answer, “There’s a portal about an hour from town, when we entered he went crazy” she gestures at Asterios.

  “He attempted to trap us there to py a game” says Durn, “something went wrong on his end and he let us out. At that point Hercle walked up behind him and Asterios with his shield”

  “His name is Asterios?” asks the guard.

  “Yes” replies Hercle.

  “Strange name, wonder where he’s from” says the guard.

  “Maybe he is from another world, just stupid” says Durn.

  “Give him here, I’ll lock him up and have the guard captain check. Finding a danger like this might be enough for a promotion. The high priestess might even check in if this guy is really important.”

  The guard captain walks away with their now ex-teammate, and the adventurers don’t know what exactly happens now.

  But they do know they need sleep.

  So they walk back into the city to find an inn to sleep in.

  …

  …

  “wake up”

  “wake up”

  “wake up kid”

  Wuh?

  huh?

  “I said wake up!”

  I suddenly hear a voice assaulting my eardrums.

  “loud…” I say, and then attempt to ask for five more minutes, but it comes out as “ive mo min tsss.”

  Then I feel someone kick me in my behind.

  “Ow!” I excim, now opening my eyes and looking for the evil bastard who awoke me from my slumber.

  I spot a woman, they are familiar.

  The priestess something.

  “You!” I yell while pointing at her, “what are you doing kicking and yelling at me?”

  “You’re in no position to talk” she says while pointing at a circle that surrounds the floor.

  “What?” I ask in confusion.

  “Idiots…” she says while brushing some hair out of her face, “this circle prevents the use of teleportation magic among others. You can’t get out.”

  She thinks she can just put me on a circle and that’ll trap me? She has another thing coming.

  But for now, where am I?

  What happened?

  I was…

  I was with those adventurers, and…

  My head hurts!

  How? I thought I was immortal?

  I project immortality onto my body once again, and my headache clears up immediately. But my mind is still a little fuzzy.

  I move my view completely outside of myself to reorient myself.

  The fuzziness is gone, but I’m still confused.

  How did I get knocked out? There was no fight!

  The st thing I remember is right before I was going to fix my problems.

  And them talking to me, then an impact on my head…

  That’ll do it.

  I forgot to make myself completely immortal again after.

  Wait, is she looking at me?

  I turn my attention to the queen priestess and find her attention fixed on my outside more ethereal form.

  What the fuck?

  How!

  “Quite impressive” she says while trying to lock eyes with me.

  Can’t really do that with a form with no eyes.

  Can I solidify my ethereal or whatever form?

  I try and find myself in a body, it’s shifting, but it maintains the important parts.

  “How can you see me?” I ask, although my intentions are louder than her’s were.

  After wincing at the volume of my intentions, she answers “I can see souls and other energies, the perk of being me!”

  “Anyway…” she says with a sly smile, “now that I’ve got you where I want you” she uses the stick that she apparently had in her hands to bst something at me.

  Something tries to encompass my form, trying to seep in.

  It does, sort of.

  It’s more like it goes in whatever is my mouth right now.

  It’s weird and tastes like metal.

  I spit it out.

  She looks confused at that gross stuff.

  “How?” she asks.

  I shift myself towards her, and then push her with my form.

  She is startle, not at my movement or the fact I tried to push her, but that it works.

  She falls towards a table, but catches herself before she hits anything.

  “How?” she asks again.

  I answer “I don’t actually know, I just sort of pushed you.”

  “Ghosts and spirits and souls cant do that!” she yells.

  “I’m not a ghost” I answer.

  She asks me, “are you saying you’re actually a god?”

  That’s a bit of a leap in logic, although correct.

  “Yes” I reply.

  “How did they defeat you?” she questions.

  “I wanted a fair fight, I was caught off guard.” I answer.

  She stares at my strange form.

  Can I project to my ethereal form?

  I try to project to myself, but it just flies through me.

  I guess a vase is immune to soul magic now.

  This conversation with the priestess hasn’t gone anywhere.

  I feel like I have to do something… but what?

  I spend a couple minutes flying around while my body just ys on the floor, soulless.

  Eventually the Queen priestess uses her stick to poke at my body.

  “Hey!” I yell at her.

  Immediately blood pours from her ears and she covers them, a probably blinding light comes from her hands.

  Ouch.

  I project healing very very very fast onto her ears.

  She continues to hold her hands to her ears, but she looks relieved.

  She did kick me though!

  But she probably doesn’t deserve to get injured in a very dangerous looking way.

  I move my body into my city and wave goodbye at the Queen priestess while projecting frequently loses left socks.

  I’m flying around thinking about what to do, I could check on Serne again, although he’s probably on his mission still.

  I could check on little me, wonder what he’s up to.

  Last I saw him, he was… accidentally revealing our secrets a bit!

  Ohh I need to check on what’s happening.

  I wonder how long I’ve been out

  I quickly move my outside soul projection thing to check on Aster again.