“I can see that!” Aloran said, relief and joy mixed into his voice. Dei thought he’d say something else too, but there was just an awkward silence. Clever quietly spoke through their connection.

  “The air has become charged, the mana is tense. Don’t know why.”

  Dei put together that Aloran was made more of magic than physical material at this point, and Aloran himself was tense, but didn’t say why.

  ‘Is it because I brought Lani here? Is he embarrassed for not coming back or… does he also not know that they lived? Ah, I see, he wants to ask if Amaya and Moren are alive too, but doesn’t think he’ll like the answer.’

  “Amaya and Moren are alive too,” Dei said, and Clever told him the tension bled away quickly.

  “Thank you. I… don’t know what I would’ve done if they weren’t. If you don’t mind, I want to know the story, from the beginning, of what you’ve been up to and how you knew to rescue Lani, and how you know my name.

  Dei nodded, and started talking. He gave a quick summary of everything he’d done up to meeting Fendrascora, then the tracking marks he gained from disassembling her prison. He also went into detail what Fendrascora’s story was, even the year of solitude that almost killed her, and her truly apologetic attitude.

  He could tell that Aloran was a bit miffed, and he didn’t really forgive her, but he also understood where Dei was coming from. Moving past that, Aloran said.

  “Well, that explains the hundreds of tracking marks on you. I’m suppressing them as best I can, but my field is meant for hiding general searches. If someone already has a foot in the door past my barrier, I can't stop it fully.”

  “Can you guide me to the tracking marks themselves, and have me remove them?”

  “Yes, but that will take months, and I’d need to know your soul better than you. I can do a perfect soul scan to look through your soul, but I’ll need your consent, and I cant guarantee that we’ll get them all before whoever is tracking you gets here.”

  Dei nodded. “We can look into that later. I’ll finish the story with Lani.”

  Then he continued on, describing how he had a bucketlist of things to complete in this area before leaving, and one was checking out all the weak spirits. When he went to Lani, Dei described the horrible Wrath Curse that clung to Lani’s mind, and how he’d essentially pried it from Lani to lock in his mana storage.

  While the curse was transferring from Lani to Dei it created the massive fractaling scar on his skin, and gave Dei a summary of what led Lani to his current predicament, as it carried Lani’s will and anger within it.

  “Oh, that explains it. I was wondering what gave you that scar. Looks like a nasty lightning burn, but I guess copious amounts of mana can do that too, though this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

  “Really? I assumed mana just sort of did this if it had enough force and power behind it. What does mana usually do?”

  “Well, if there’s a large amount of it flowing through a material that isn’t meant to conduct that mana, the object usually just catches fire or explodes. My best guess for why it didn’t do that was because Lani helped contain it, but even that shouldn’t have been enough. The alternative is that your body was already made of a material that can withstand large amounts of mana, and as you rehealed the damage, this aspect of yourself was enunciated further, allowing for an even more efficient path than normal. Say, have you taken a Skill that rebuilds your flesh into something that contains mana more easily?”

  Dei scratched his chin. ‘No? I mean, I have one now I think in the form of Growing Rage, but the only other Skill that rebuilt my body was Growing Pains, and that just helped grow my muscles… oh wait, it helped grow them based on the template it found in my previous life. The life where I almost perpetually had small amounts of Wrath mana running through my body, invading my mind, and affecting my everyday life.’

  He quickly asked Aloran “Would my flesh become more mana conductive naturally if I constantly cycled mana through it for, say, around twenty years?”

  Aloran laughed. “Yea, that would do it, but aren’t you like a year old? Oh, unless you’ve been trapped in a time prison for a few decades… but no, wait, you look to still be a teenager according to Gem Dweller facial structures, I think. I never was all that good at differentiating though.”

  Dei shook his head. “No, you’re right, I’m not fully grown yet, though I’m surprised you’re not more… creeped out by how fast I’ve grown. I thought I’d be something of a freak by the time I talked to another human again. Or former humans for that matter, which I want the story to your transformation as well. Later though, I want to finish up describing what happened after I absorbed Lani’s curse.”

  “Slaughterers are well-documented, but ask me about that later. Tangents, distracting as always. Please, continue.” Aloran said.

  Dei had a lot of questions he’d ask later. Aloran was a God, he was bound to know things that Dei couldn’t hope to.

  He explained that he’d found Amaya and Moren’s spiritual signatures and their physical, albeit damaged, bodies. Amaya was closer, so he went to her. Dei described the Geometry convergence, and what he’d found when they reached the center, as well as the fact that Amaya spoke to him, shortly before he was debilitated by the Accipere.

  “It’s a bit blurry after that” Dei said “but I had a couple visions which I’ll ask about later, woke up in a cave and found that Clever here saved my ass,” he motioned to the Korgonda on his shoulder, scratching his head.

  “Very well done!” Aloran said. “You haven’t rushed into conflicts unprepared, but you don't avoid them either. Still, I am more than happy to see you’ve reached level one hundred. I don’t know how common it is for Slaughterers to fail, as they die if they do, but I imagine that a majority of abandoned children do not make it, as sad as that is to say.”

  “Yea, I think it’s a miracle I’m alive, but there’s still a lot I want to know. Are you… limited, in how much you can answer? Will you go back to sleep any time soon?”

  “No, not at all. I slumber so I do not feel the passing of centuries. I believe it is one of the reasons I’m still conscious at all. As sad as it is to say, I would have ended up like… my friends, my family, if I could not blink from one event to the next. Even now, I… am trying and failing to get a response from Lani. I would rather not speak of this tragedy though. Please, ask your questions.”

  Dei mentally reorganized his thoughts. There were so many things he wanted to know, but it would be best to ask them chronologically from the time he thought of them.

  “The first one to ask is why I was abandoned in the first place. I’ll tell you the entire story and, maybe, you can figure something out?”

  Verbally agreeing, Dei told Aloran of what happened in the red forest, followed by Iora’s interrogation and what Dei assumed was the Council of Shamans agreeing to end him.

  Aloran was silent for several minutes, but Dei let him think.

  “Dei… I’m missing part of this, aren’t I? You just described something that happened to you, while only being a few months old. How would you remember it?”

  Dei considered the question. Iora dug through his soul, she knew he was a human, but Dei was still marked for death. The reason why was almost definitely something in his past life, but even if they knew he’d reincarnated, that shouldn’t mean they killed him.

  He wanted answers. Instead of trying to lie, Dei started from the beginning. The very beginning, and told Aloran of his previous life, as well as the journey through the Void and his meeting with the System. He skipped over what the System wanted completely, out of respect for its privacy and because he didn’t want Aloran panicking, knowing that the System was sort of collapsing in on itself. After that, he described his earliest memories, and what eventually led to Iora.

  “I… don’t even want to know what the System requested of you, but I believe I have found the issue now. To confirm, would you mind if I search your memories? Gently, of course, but I need to put myself in the exact situation of Iora before saying anything.”

  Dei nodded, getting comfortable against the wall in case he passed out. If there was anyone Dei trusted, it would be Aloran. Not because Aloran was a protector, but because Dei was Aloran's only hope of getting Amaya and Moren back. He wouldn’t kill Dei, because Dei was too useful alive.

  He sensed a gentle touch on the edge of his mind, and guided it to when Iora started rummaging through his mind. While he wouldn’t stop Aloran from looking over his every memory, he didn’t want him to.

  Aloran seemed to take this in stride, and quickly searched over the results of Iora’s interference in his soul, pausing at the various fractures and suppressed memories hastily brought to light and pressed into Dei’s mind. Initially, he sensed Aloran’s grimace with her handiwork, but with each shoddy application of her Mind affinity, that grimace turned into frustration, then anger. By the time he reached Dei’s birth, Aloran was furious that Iora would have tortured a young boy, so thoroughly damning him to either crippling agony or flat out death.

  As he glimpsed past Dei’s birth though, he paused, starting at Dei’s memories of the Void.

  “I see…” Aloran said, much calmer than the anger Dei still sensed from Aloran’s tendrils. While it was true Dei couldn’t sense mana outside his body, if even part of Aloran’s mana was within Dei’s domain of manipulation, Dei had no trouble reading his emotions.

  Nonetheless, Aloran quickly withdrew himself, preventing Dei from reading his emotions quite so thoroughly.

  “I believe I understand why you’re marked for death, and what they think you are.”

  Confused, Dei asked “What I am? Couldn’t they see I’m human?”

  “Yes, but… it’s a bit complicated. I suppose this starts around a millenia ago, during a golden age for research and discovery. There were very few limits on experimentation, and discoveries were made in all fields despite the… cost of each. I am not proud to admit I failed to step in or help those calling for reforms, and it is the inaction of many that led to such massive tragedies at the time. One such tragedy is that of Harum the Infected, a prodigy in the exploration of souls and the Soul affinity.”

  Aloran cleared his throat. “I will spare you the details of Harums experiments, but he managed to discover the Conceptual Plane of Void. According to his studies, any who visited the Void- for even a blink- would gain the ability to re-attune themselves to their affinities. Do you know what it means to attune yourself?”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “I think so,” Dei said, “But can I get a refresher?”

  “Attunement involves striking a contract with a certain affinity in order to gain Skills or boosts in that affinity, at the cost of debuffing your other affinities. How good of a contract you get depends on the strength of the connection of that which you’ve formed a contract to. Most people are stuck with their initial contracts, which are usually not that good, but required to advance at any reasonable pace in the affinity. What Harum found would have increased the power and strength of any who used the technique, and not by a small amount. If it worked, the tactic would have been implemented into every curriculum for being so fundamentally useful.”

  Dei read between the lines of what Aloran said about “Experimentation” and “Tragedies.” Kindness told Dei that before the demon, civilization was already infested with Vices, monster attacks, and war. Aloran probably described a lawless, anarchist-style society with few limits on anything and suffering around every corner for the sake of science. A perfectly efficient society, where morals held no place.

  “Ah, let me guess, the process had some horrible consequence that wasn’t studied properly?”

  “Indeed it is so. It was found that any who visited the Conceptual Plane of Void became unwittingly infected by things called Void Beasts. I imagine you’re familiar?”

  “Yes, those things between universes that tried to devour my soul? I’ve got a few good memories with em.” Dei said, thinking back to the time when he cut loose his Wrath affinity in the Void and hunted countless Void Beasts.

  “Yes, well, the experiences of others were not so positive. When a person left the Void, apparently, they carried along a passenger too. Void Beasts would find their way into the persons soul, devouring them from the inside out. Over the course of around six years, the person would slowly become sickly and lose all their memories. Once they completely forgot who they were, a Void Beast would hatch from their corpse, and begin devouring the material world. Of course, we only have a single case of this ever happening, but the others who’d undergone the process seemed to be much the same. No other Void Beast has ever been born, because we Gods ordered our followers to kill any who’d followed in Harums footsteps, whether they showed signs of infection or not.”

  “What? Why? Even those who were okay?”

  “Yes, even those who seemed unaffected. The risk was simply too high, and I do not mean that we were brazen either. This was the notification that the System sent out when the first Void Beast hatched from Harums rotting soul.”

  Dei saw a window pop up on its own, showing a foreign notification.

  [WARNING: A Void Beast has pierced the veil, entering your material plane of existence through an unwitting avatar. Slay it quickly, or its power shall grow until it has consumed your reality. All who are close enough to reasonably stop it before it becomes a universal-ending entity class have been pinged, and will innately know its location.

  May the Gods save you]

  “Oh…” Dei said, slumping. “I… had no idea. Do you think I might be infected?”

  “I do not, for multiple reasons, but we now arrive at why you are marked for death. I see in your memories that you crossed the Void to reach this universe, yes?”

  “Err, yes. I went there when I died, killed a whole bunch of Void Beasts, met the System, and was reincarnated by the System.”

  “This is the first reason I believe you are not infected. The System itself is responsible for your reincarnation, it would not have allowed for a Void Beast into the material world. These creatures only pierced the veil because we, the Sapients, let it through. The System likely removed any parasites you had before putting you into your new body, if you had any at all.”

  Dei remembered Clevers notification from the System about “leaving System Bounds” or something like that. The System gave a list of all the benefits it provided for those within its care, one of which was this:

  [Parasitic Entity Repellant: Certain affinities are infested with Conceptual Entities, which exhibit adverse effects on any who come into contact with them. System Bounds repel such entities, so those protected may explore their affinities without risk.]

  The Void affinity had Void Beasts, which did that to people. This System gave him protection from the Parasitic Entities it spoke of.

  “You said there were multiple reasons? And that you thought I might not have been infected in the first place?”

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, after you spoke of killing Void Beasts, I’m almost positive now. You have a blessing from the Void affinity, which protects you from its adverse effects on people.”

  “A blessing?” Dei asked, confused. He’d only ever received a blessing from Wrath and Kindness.

  “Yes, though you might know it by a different name: an Achievement.”

  “Wait, what? I thought the System gave Achievements.”

  “It gives some of them, but Achievements are more broad than what the System can give. I think you’ll find the Voids blessing to be quite obvious.”

  Dei looked over his sheet, and Aloran was correct. Voidwalker was really the only Achievement it could be.

  “You see,” Aloran said, “Achievements are defined as ‘Blessings, provided by beings of higher magnitudes than mortal bounds, to those below them.’ They can be from the System, affinities, or even Gods. Each Achievement gives different boons, but rarely are every single one listed, other than those given to you by the System. Affinities enjoy being mysterious, so they don’t tell you all that they do. I can find at least two hidden gifts in your Void Blessing. Firstly, does it hurt to think about your time in the Void?” he asked.

  “Err, no, not really?”

  “Well, it hurt me just looking at it, and I’m a God. I think it protects your mind from the maddening effects of glimpsing into the Void. The second would be protection from Void Beasts. You see, when the Void Beast first manifested, it started to devour all reality, growing stronger as it went. We struggled to hurt it, because nothing we threw could really hit home. Anything near it was simply devoured, brought into its amalgamate formless identity. We were only partially able to damage it through sheer intent. If we just focused on hurting it, it was like the Void Beast took damage from our very ideas. We struggled to land even a single hit… yet, you’ve just said that you were able to kill ‘a bunch’ of them, in their home environment. The Void affinity itself must have been impressed with something you did, and granted you the ability to fight back, killing them.”

  “Well for one, that’s not a hidden benefit, it directly tells me that twenty percent of my physical damage carries over to intangible opponents. And two, I think it's actually the reverse. The Void affinity might have been impressed with how many I killed without an Achievement at all. I don’t think I conveyed properly just how murderous I was at the time. I wanted everything dead. I was angry at life, angry at my death, and most of all angry that these creatures wanted to leave me forgotten despite my horrible unsatisfying ending. I couldn’t, wouldn’t die, because I wanted a chance at a new life. The Void most likely saw me traversing its plane without any help, completely unprepared, and blessed me for my efforts to make traversing it again a lot easier.” Dei got a bit heated around the middle part, talking about his death. No matter how long it’d been, he was still infuriated with how and what happened.

  “Woah woah son, I didn’t mean to discredit your efforts at all, merely a theory, but yours makes a lot of sense too. If intent is all that's needed to kill them, enough should have carried you through the Void. This isn’t the point I was trying to make though, no. I was trying to say that you’ve traversed the Void, and nobody can check what the hell you did when you were there. We can only go by your words, but Iora didn’t hear your explanation. All she knows is that you’ve been somewhere she can’t understand, so she likely gave a mental report of that information to the Council. If that memory packet somehow made it into the hands of Oura, the strongest and oldest Shaman, that would lead to all your issues.

  “Oura was there. He saw Harum, personally, explode into that grotesque mass. Now, someone comes to him with memories of the Void? Oura would assume that you somehow rediscovered the lost technique of re-attunement, used it, and managed to place yourself in a child's body. He believes you are gestating another Void Beast, and seeks to kill you before it breaks free. If you want to survive, you’ll have to convince him that he’s wrong.”

  “Oh… and how do I do that?”

  “In two ways. First, you bring undeniable proof or accounts from professionals that you are not infected. Or two, survive for seven years. After seven years, or maybe even eight, you will be cleared of any infection allegations, because the beast would have hatched by then if it were going to at all.”

  “Well, waiting is easy, but where am I going to find professional accounts?” Dei asked.

  Aloran laughed. “You’re talking to one, boy! Get my message to Oura and he’ll rethink his decision.”

  “Aren’t you a Garden now? Trapped in one spot, and helpless?”

  “Not quite. When I fought against ole Grim, I managed to be reborn anew. The problem? My rebirth is dependent on my family, my armor and weapon. When I woke up to find that I’d been separated from Lani, Amaya, Moren, and Jasmine, I found that my power was fractured. If you can get the four of them back together, back here, I’ll be able to ascend to one of the holy plains, and potentially reconnect with other Gods. I sent you out with Jasmine in the hopes that she’d protect you til you were stronger, then you’d come back to thank me and I could send you on a little quest. Of course, if you’d asked, I would’ve told you to absolutely not go seeking them now. They’re all powerful artifacts, and have doubtlessly attracted danger to themselves. I wanted you to be at least level three hundred before doing anything of the sort, because that’s the right level range for this area's top creatures.”

  “Can’t you just send me with a message now? And how are you supposed to ascend? I thought you purposefully made your divinity weaker when you were a human so that you could continue to intermingle with people?

  “I can’t send you with my approval now because a simple word isn’t enough. You need to carry my blessing, in the form of an Achievement, or they’ll never believe that it’s actually me. As for my power, well, I’ve grown stronger of course. I’ve gained many faithful that pray to me constantly, and my unified divinity is now concentrated enough that I would break down the physical world before too long and be dropped into one of the divine planes, probably a wild one.”

  “What?! Too many faithful? Who?”

  “Well, you’ve befriended a few of them, haven't you? One of my priests complained that a giant was bothering him, and asked me to get rid of you.”

  Baffled, Dei looked around seeing only… bugs.

  “The bugs are your followers?”

  Aloran let out a booming laugh. “Just so! Hundreds of years in my presence means that my divinity was written into their instinct, and they understood innately what I was. Now, all insects here are born as devout believers”

  Dei chuckled along with him. He’d never even considered that bugs could be faithful, but weirder things had happened.

  Basking in the light moment despite their heavy talks, Dei was reluctant to ask his next question. It was one he dreaded even speaking of, for fear of attention not even Aloran could save him from.

  “Ah, I see you’ve got something heavy weighing on you boy. Out with it, don’t leave me in suspense.”

  “Well, that's the next thing I wanted to ask. You see… When I took my contract with Soul, it gave me a… Skill. I won’t say what it was, because even looking at it told something where I was, but it seems rather dangerous, and I was hoping I could ask you what this Skill did, or at least where it came from.”

  “Opening the window told something where you were… hmm… That means that whatever the Skill is linked to must be a powerful God, as they work alongside the System frequently, and it would be able to find you through the System. I don't think just saying the name of it would cause such a reaction, but to be safe, let me figure out what it is first. Describe the Skill please.”

  “Well the Skill holds my soul together after Iora shattered it completely. These lines even manifest on my skin, too, which you can see.”

  “Hmm… Hmm… What happened, exactly, when you read the Skill?”

  “I was in here, and luckily you hid me from whatever God it was, but the entire Garden froze over.”

  “Froze? There were physical effects of its presence?”

  “Yea,” Dei nodded.

  “Ahh, I think I know what you’re talking about. It is the [Connection] Skill, isn’t it?”

  Surprised and scared, Dei nodded, looking around.

  “They won't find you here, boy. But you’re right to not open that Skill menu. Even using it will notify them, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You just gotta know when to attract their attention.”

  “Who are they?” Dei asked, suspense killing him.

  “That’s something of a complicated question, but let me tell you the stories of the Primordial Children, the Four Divine Races.