Which David believed could explain why she had survived in mind and soul despite having her energy pumped out of her body for millennia. He had seen that information by analyzing her soul but he got very little information other than that.
“Do you understand you CLANKER! All that shit is your creators fault! And…”
David stared at the black pillar, from his experience with his wife Lan, he knew that cutting an angry woman while she was upset was like asking to be kicked. But, the insults were becoming very annoying. The wall came springing back to life, and completely cut off the noise coming from Saphyra’s voice.
“So that’s why they made this wall! Saphyra had most likely already pushed her soul inside a bulb and was bothering the researchers. Almost funny really. If we forget that her anger is justified.”
David re-opened the wall, seeing Saphyra’s soul still busy screaming profanities, more at the Protheans than him to say the truth. David decided that he would tempt the devil and try to interrupt the angry goddess.
“While I understand your anger, I am in no way responsible for it. Would you stop screaming so we can now come up with a proper solution to your..problem.”
Saphyra stared back at him. Her eyes which had been angry a few moments before were now perfectly calm. Making David quite confused. But as he stared at her eyes, which seemed to carry the weight of an impossible amount of years, he started to realise a very simple thing.
This was a goddess, even before her imprisonment, she had to have lived for centuries, maybe thousands of years, and David knew one thing about the gods from Earth’s mythology.
They were all crafty in their own rights. Saphyra wasn’t angry, she was just judging his temperament and most importantly his reaction.
“You’re crafty, Miss Saphyra.”
“And you’re not a Cygilites. You may have their bodies but you’re not one.”
“Why would you think so?”
“I’m a Goddess of souls, I might have lost most of my powers but I didn’t lose my eyes or domains. I can see the soul inside your body. Quite handsome I must say.”
“I’m a married man.”
“Shame. You’re not one of those Protheans or a Cygilites, so we can make a deal. Help me get to my sister, The Sun, and I can help you find a new body that isn’t a Cygilites, I can even make it a Beyonder or a Throne if you want.”
“Tempting but I doubt you could do that. The System leash you as much as it does the other gods. If the System doesn’t agree, it won’t allow you. And I’m absolutely sure my purpose wasn’t to bring you back to your sister.”
“I seriously doubt the System would let you do that.”
“You’re assuming a lot for a simple mortal.”
“And you’re very snarky for someone who’s body is being used as mushroom food.”
Saphyra looked slightly surprised at the answer, but overall not even one bit upset.
“I’d have expected an angry reaction, I have to admit.”
“I’m a Goddess, do you know the number of people that have cursed my name?”
“I guess that’s fair.”
Saphyrra put her arms over her chest, thinking, analyzing him. Mainly his eyes.
“You don’t look at me with the proper eyes. Even the most profound atheists of Zenthia would not stare at me with those. Where do you come from, to have such little belief in the gods?”
“Where I come from, gods like you and your sister, ruling over specific domains, have long since been forgotten and lost their places.”
“Ah-...a Tech-Civilisation then. You’re not the first ones to cast away your gods.”
“Is that the name you give scientifically advanced civilisations? And sadly those gods haven’t left any proof of their existence.”
“Then they still live.”
“On which basis do you propose such a conclusion?”
“On the fact I’m a goddess and you’re not. I assure you that if those gods were dead there would be artifacts and monsters roaming around your world. When divine energy dissolves it turns into Domain Beasts.”
“I suppose you mean monsters related to souls or the moon in your case?”
“Exactly. However, I suppose despite how much I despise the Protheans I have to be thankful that that shitty mushroom kept my Divine Essence intact and didn’t spill anything.”
“I suppose you might be correct.”
“Of course I am, I’m the goddess of knowledge. Anyway, can you give me your name?”
“Ah yes, how impolite of me, I’m David.”
Saphyra stared at David and as her eyes showed hints of what David interpreted as regret and pity. Two emotions he had seen in his own eyes and the one of others during the two years where he lost his family.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Saphyra’s soul suddenly moved and slammed into his body, forcing an entry. A pain so sharp it made David release a loud scream, sounding like a robotic screech mixed with a human voice.
His vision went dark and for the first time in a while David, when David opened his eyes he saw hands of flesh instead of cold silvery liquid, as he looked around, he was in a place of pure darkness.
Nothing but darkness and a bright light coming from his body. Yet around what had to be a hundred or so meters away, cracks in the darkness started to appear. Loud echoing slams were shaking the place he was in.
Saphyra’s huge body, and this time he meant it literally as she looked absolutely gigantic, started to come through the cracks. Her soul form shoving itself through the hole she had made in what David assumed was his mind. Her eyes met his.
“Names have powers David, you should not have given yours so carelessly. I really am taking no pleasure in this. Please forgive me.”
David saw her massive body lunge forward, her huge cat-like paws about to slam into his soul, no doubt to take over his body. He thought silently.
Fuck. I completely underestimated a god didn’t I?
“Yes you did.”
“Can’t even have my final thought for myself?”
“We’re in your mind, silly mortal.”
Saphyra’s face was almost amused, going through flashes of too many emotions to spot them all, amusement, anger, frustration, anger again, regret and pity.
David would have liked to say his Sight or Arcana stat could do…anything…to protect him. But he didn’t even have the time to think more than two sentences that he had been absorbed into Saphyra’s body, inside the blue sapphire encrusted inside her forehead.
So this was it for him? His soul stolen by a dead goddess, his body stolen and his soul stored in..what…her soul realm or something?
“Where the hell am I? Shit. Fuck. FUCK! Why was I so fucking stupid?!”
David was angry, not even at Saphyrra, she was just a desperate goddess using her strength to take over the only body she had at her disposal. If he could see his family again after ten thousand years of isolation he would have done the same.
No, he was pissed at himself. Angry that he had fucked up so badly just because his [Analyze] skill had told him the bulb had no effects on humanoids. Pissed that he fucked up the only chance he had to see his family.
Pissed that he might just cause Syllena’s death if she was linked to his soul!
[We’re not dead! You cursed a lot again…Are you okay?!]
“SYLLENA?! I’m so fucking happy to hear your voice! I need your help!”
[We don’t believe we can be of much help inside a god’s domain. But we’ll do our best!]
“Just hearing your voice is making me feel better, don't worry. Can you contact the System?”
[We have tried but every message was blocked. We believe that since we are inside Saphyra’s domain. She can block some of the System’s influence.]
“So the gods aren’t as leashed as Sceptus-Vector thought. Do you know what she’s doing with my body?”
[No but we know she’s not having a good time. Something is attacking her. Her attempts to take over your body are unsuccessful. We do not know what she’s fighting but it’s not the System.]
“Alright let’s try and find a way out of here!”
[Yes! We can feel a few other souls linked to the System floating around, very few. But there’s still some of them!]
“Guide me to them, Syllena.”
David’s soul started to float instinctually toward one of those souls, if they had been here for longer than him, they should know more than him.
“Do I still have access to my magic?”
[Only your Skills.]
“Alright, not totally defenseless but I still don’t like it.”
As he moved around, he realised that a bright light seemed to.. call him? From what seemed to be the center of where he was. Of course, having just been tricked once, he wasn’t gonna be tricked twice and prefered to stay away from things that would need to glow in a place full of soul for the time being.
And he wouldn’t need to wait too long as he saw the soft bluish glow of a soul not far from him. A Felinid. Or cat girls/boys as that is what they looked like, however they did seem to have actual cat-like paws for their hands, the fur moving up to their biceps. Their feets also replaced by paws alongside some slitted pupils.
The soul was dressed in a simple toga, with no shoes, the only fancy stuff on its body being numerous golden jewelry all over its tail.
“Greetings. I need your help. I’m gonna ask you three questions, you’re gonna give me three precise and clear answers. And sorry if this sounds rude but I’ve already been tricked once, I’m not in the mood, miss…or sir. Sorry I really can’t tell, your shape is too blurry.”
The soul turned toward him, the face and body still too blurry and the voice coming from the soul sounding far too distant to be given a proper gender.
“Ask… “
“Where are we and what is that light? How do we get out of that damned goddess’s domain?”
“We are in what was once the Moon Garden, Lady Sapphyra's personal domain that she built for her childrens. Us. The Felinids. It was once a place of immense beauty where all could rest and even seek the Goddess’s counsels. Your kind’s soul should not land here. You must have been directly devoured. I’m terribly sorry your first meeting with our Lady in the Moons was so… terrible.”
The soul stopped talking, its eyes, the only clear thing about its shape seemed to show age beyond anything David had seen, even Saphyra’s eyes did not show this much… wisdom? Experience? Yes, experience would be the correct word.
“You were right to not go to the light. It is like… a door. A door to her very divine essence. Her core so to speak. Going inside would be like having your soul digested. Consumed.”
“So your “kind” goddess has a door where she shovels the souls of her childrens to consume them and make herself stronger? I wouldn’t call that “kind”.”
The old soul sighed, long, slow, tired.
“She does not know, she believes her garden still stands, she believes the millions of souls of her childrens that she safe keep to guide them through the cycle of reincarnation are still here.”
The voice started what sounded almost like a chant. He also realised he could understand this being. But figured it had to be related to soul-stuff.
“The Moon collects them. The Sun rebirths them.3
“I and ten other of my fellow priests cast a grand array. An array to hide the truth that we have opened a passage to her very core.”
“Our lady is powerful… but to survive thousands of years while having her Divine Essence drained out? She should have perished, we could not allow that. So we opened a path to her Divine Core, and every year thousands of us would sacrifice themselves to keep her alive. She believes her garden is still flourishing and full of our souls.”
“Really? Do you believe your illusion could trick a goddess?”
“If she was in her right mind, no, we could never. But she is feeling despair and grief. She knows many of us will have perished during her battle and capture at the hand of the Protheans. She believes our lie because she chooses to believe it.”
“The truth scares her. I will tell you a secret. Many see the gods so beyond us that they are impervious to our plights or even emotionless. But the gods are far more subjects to their emotions than mortals are to theirs.”
“A mortal who feels despair at his loved one's death can grieve and get over his anguish. A god never will. None can hate, grieve, fear, rejoice or even love more than a god does.”
David was listening silently, this old soul was definitely someone important, maybe even a transcended being at one point to be able to cast an illusion that could trick a Dominion ranked goddess.
“So your goddess wishes to take over my body, trap my soul inside her, find her sister to push every soul inside her back into the reincarnation circle maintained by her sister, The Sun?”
“Yes. However as you see, there’s none of us left, just ten old souls keeping up a charade that has gone on for thousands of years. I’m sorry to say this, but you will only be one more soul to grieve.”
“But why hold on then? You don’t sound very optimistic that your Goddess will succeed, even with my body.”
“Hope. Hope that our lady will survive. Hope that our race will not fall with us. If we die, then so be it, but if she dies, all Felinids are doomed.”
David was silent but his eyes showed he was clearly interested, mostly because he knew he was about to learn something big. Even the old soul seemed to hesitate.
“What I will say is a great secret, young human. Something the gods and their highest priests have hidden for generations. But you deserve the truth of why your sacrifice is worth it.”
“If a progenitor deity dies, all their childrens, every single one, start to mutate, becoming fiendish mindless monsters. The Protheans believe the war was stopped because the gods couldn’t fight anymore, the truth is that it is because of the horror that washed over the gods when they saw the childrens turn into mindless mutated beasts.”
[Quest updated] : [One Last Farewell] :
- [Discover ten secrets of this world.] 1/10
- Today’s monsters were the sentient races of yesterday.
[A great secret has been revealed to you. Obtained a new trait : Keepers of Unsaid Truths]
David felt joy, seeing this specific quest update, showing him that he wasn’t suffering for nothing filled his soul with renewed vigor. And a proof that despite Saphyra’s powers she couldn’t fully block all the System’s function helped him gain back some hope.
It was like being plunged in a dark cave for ten days and seeing the entrance we had gone through at the end of a thousand kilometers walk. The end was impossibly far, but he could see it now.
“Thank you for this secret, old soul. But it doesn’t tell me how to come out.”
“I told you from the start. There is only one exit from a god’s domain. For the god to release you willingly, be strong enough to break out. Or..”
He looked at the bright light in the center, the door leading inside Saphyra’s divine essence.
David looked at it too, he knew that going inside was like suicide at this point. He had been effortlessly bested by a Goddess’s soul who was barely trying.
Now he had to enter the very core of her being.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
As my main language isn't english, don't hesitate to tell me if you spot any mistake.
As for the System's current "appearance" I will try to see how to change the System's windows colors depending on it's content!
Have a great day!