CH908

“Alright, you sure you want to come along, Abel?”

“Yeah, sounds like it’ll kill some time.”

“And you’ll be on your best behaviour?”

“When aren’t I?”

“...Good enough, then let’s go.”

Stepping through his gate, the two passed through to Anailia and the greater gate network beyond, making their way to the edge of the city holding Helori’s main church and finding many of her believers already in the surrounding area as they walked, all of them anticipating their goddess’s descent.

An event he’d been asked to help guard for what danger to the goddess it would create, for all of the anticipation in her worshipers, none were hovering around the church itself, keeping patient out of respect until the designated time came and let the two walk inside, finding two more already waiting.

“Xizle, it’s been a while,” He greeted the bright blue starfish happily, getting the same enthusiasm from the other apostle in return.

“It has. Nice to see you doing well, Ben. You seem much brighter now than the last time we’d met.”

“Ah, well, I’m in a pretty good place right now.”

“So I’ve heard. Congratulations are in order,” The other laughed. “I can now brag I lost a contest with a god.”

“Ha, I’ll have to make sure I’m an impressive one then, make the fact that you held your own an even bigger achievement. And how are the kids?”

“Oh, keeping us busy. They’re talking now so there’s always so much being said and they’re ravenous little things.”

“I bet,” Ben smiled, trying to ignore the fact that those very children had eaten their way through the flesh of the very man he was talking to when they’d been born. “And then this would be…?”

He nodded to the other in the room, a young woman who bore a far greater resemblance to his own kind than Xizle’s, with a pale complexion and two solid black eyes along with two glass-like horns jutting out of her head, making it clear that she was a member of Helori’s original race while he appraised her.

Her people really do resemble her, interesting. He thought to himself. Considering that the vast majority of gods look nothing like their race, I wonder if there’s some narcissism going on there?

“Ah, hello there, I am a priestess of Helori,” She said politely, not giving her name as her tone turned far more rapturous for what she said next. “I’ll be the one to act as her vessel for this.”

“Alright, nice to meet you.”

“And your own guest?” Xizle asked, looking at Abel. “She seems… Hungry?”

“Don’t mind her, she’s usually like that,” He said as he pulled a plate from one of his rings and handed it off to the girl. “This is Abel, another third tier and a bit of extra muscle in case anything happens.”

“Nice to meetcha,” She said through mouthfuls of food. “So, when’s this thing start?”

“Ah, our goddess was going to come down soon but before that I was told that Ben would be doing some more work on our church?”

“Yeah but I’ll make it quick. Give me a minute.”

He’d renovated that very church in the past and had no desire to destroy all of his previous work, turning it into an act of modification more than anything else as entire sections of wall were pulled away with his magic as the soul tiles were pulled from his rings, being set and covered again by what had originally been there with as few modifications as possible to keep the previous designs he’d worked so hard on as he went through the building to fit every soul in where he could, what scraps that created getting slipped into his rings until he’d finished up the building.

“And done.”

There, now you should be getting more faith. Happy Helori?

“I am,” The priestess said, now exuding divinity in a way that announced the goddess’s descent upon her believer. “But I did hear that little comment about narcissism before.”

“It was a private thought, it doesn’t count unless you want me to start judging you for what goes through your head.”

“Ugh, the scope of your mind reading really leaves something to be desired but fine. For now, can you deal with this before it becomes a problem?”

“He’s your believer,” Ben shrugged as he looked at Xizle in a deep bow. “If you don’t like it then let him know.”

“Very clearly not who I was talking about,” She said as she cast her eyes to the other girl in the room, Abel locked onto her and visibly drooling. “I’d asked you to come to help keep me safe, bringing along someone who’s going to want to eat me is an immediate failure on your part.”

“Okay, fair. Abel, can you chill?”

“But I’m going to be so good and helpful,” She said, not taking her attention from the goddess before her as her nose twitched at whatever it was she could smell. “I’ll keep you perfectly safe so just a little taste? A teeny tiny little nibble?”

“Hmm, it is true that you’ll be helping out, a couple drops of blood shouldn’t be too much to ask.”

“BEN!”

“Come on Helori, aren’t you a knowledge goddess? You’ve gotta be at least a little curious about how that would work out.”

“I’m really not.”

“Consider the fact that it’s going to be for the good of the world then? Make her just a bit stronger with no effort on your part?”

“I can’t imagine any possible way this turns out well for me.”

“You’re a goddess of magic,” He pointed out as he materialized a cup and knife. “Just heal yourself after. Come on, it would be interesting to see what sort of attributes an actual goddess can provide.”

“...Falling stars, I wish you’d just brought your lover along instead,” Helori muttered as she took the knife. “At least she seems somewhat able to keep you in line.”

“I’ll let her know you think so highly of her but for now…”

“Fine, but if she goes for more, I’m going back up and you can both explain to my eager believers why I won’t be descending today.”

“Deal. Abel, you get what you get so be good afterwards, okay?”

“Okay!”

Pulling the knife across her skin and feeling its bite, she let her blood fill the cup she’d been given before instantly healing the wound and handing it over, Ben taking it before Abel could get her hands on it.

“Abel, let’s see your card. This sort of thing isn’t going to come up often so we should look at how much a proper goddess raises you.”

“Fine, fine,” She said, tossing it to him as she ripped the cup from his hands and poured it down her throat, licking her lips as she finished it and looking nearly as rapturous as the priestess had when she announced she’d be the one her goddess would descend upon. “Delicious.”

“And nutritious from the looks of it,” Ben muttered. “Roughly two hundred to your intelligence, two hundred to your mana, one hundred to your mana regen and then fifty to everything else. If all gods give these sorts of attributes then we really should just let Abel eat one. I vote Eneth.”

“Yes!”

“No!” Helori told them far more firmly, looking on the edge of a headache. “No cannibalizing gods for power, I can’t believe I even need to say that!”

“Fine, fine, this has pointed out a different area I can test with her later so it doesn’t matter. For now, Abel, you’ve gotten your snack so you’ll be good and won’t bother her for more, right?”

“Mmh, okay,” She told him, even if her attention hadn’t left the goddess before them after her warm drink and drove Helori to take a subtle step back. “You paid up well so I’ll make sure that nothing gets their hands on you and if anything does get through, well, I won’t let any of you go to waste!”

Not bothering to even reply, Helori just silently stared at Ben, looking for anything while he shrugged. “I’ll make sure you’re safe so there won’t be any chance for anything to harm you in a way that could leave any waste.”

“Good.”

“But for now,” He began, instantly breaking what faith in him she had. “My own testing! It’s not often you get to see a god on-world, this is my only real chance to see how my little skill is going to react with you!”

“...Myriad is right, you’re genuinely the worst.”

“Come on now, don’t be like that. You won’t feel a thing.”

Maybe.

He’d experimented enough on Quox’s soul, along with some smaller attempts on Myriad, to have a good idea of what would or wouldn’t cause active harm, he just wanted to see what other effects he might hold as he began, connecting to the goddess to see how she was feeling since he genuinely didn’t want to harm her as his tests commenced.

With immediate results. While he couldn’t block her from seeing him when he was literally right in front of her, it was quick to tell that not only could he block her mind reading but her divinity as well, the bits that were leaking out of her and filled the room vanished in an instant and leaving Xizle to look back up from his deep bow until Ben allowed it to return, with further testing continuing from there revealing a far grander ability. He could force the goddess back to her realm.

Nobody had been expecting it, the priestess left blinking for a moment in confusion until Helori came back down, an instant frown on her face.

“Don’t do that.”

“Just knowing I can is enough for now. I do have one or two more things I want to test though-”

“Which can wait. I came down specifically to motivate my believers and the crowd’s gathered outside to get exactly that.”

“Alright, I can hold back a bit.”

“Good, then come along, stand behind me and all of you, behave yourselves,” She told them both with a pointed look before opening the church door and found a crowd of both her believers and general members of the city had formed, all to hear what a goddess had come down to say.