CH862

“You give blessings with your soul?”

“Among other things,” Myriad admitted. “They go towards giving skills too, as well as placing covenants and, in our histories when we’d have the power for such things, some of us would place more powerful restrictions, curses on mortals we’d want to teach a lesson rather than sending them to the hells. In essence, it’s used to strengthen or restrict another.”

“Interesting, interesting,” Ben muttered, already reaching out to his god before him with hand and soul, his intentions clear. “Let me see.”

“So you’ve already gotten uncomfortably open about wanting even more access to our minds,” Helori muttered while Ben shrugged.

“It’s literally the most convenient way of gaining information. Besides, it’s for Myriad, why would he mind?”

Connect was derived from his god’s people’s way of linking their sub-brains for information, he was literally using it for its intended purpose with the being who was most suited for such a thing in all of existence, with the cube in question mostly fine with it.

“As long as you aren’t looking for unrestricted access to my thoughts then it’s alright. So I assume you want to access my memories of how I’d give my blessings, skills, and covenants?”

“And curses too now that you’ve told me about them, pretty please.”

“Well, unfortunately for you I’m wholly benevolent, I’ve never bothered cursing a mortal, at least not in any great way. Covenants are technically weak curses since they are a restriction but you won’t be getting anything like a curse of old from me. I do, however, understand how they’re done so I can pass that information along.”

Before he answered, Ben looked at the other two, both shaking their heads.

“I wasn’t one to curse,” Nare shrugged. “It seemed pointless.”

“And insufficient,” Helori added. “If any mortal were bad enough to be cursed it made more sense to either kill them or have them thrown to the hells, why would I waste parts of my soul just to spite an unruly believer?”

“Alright, fine. Myriad, give me what you’ve got.”

With those words he was instantly in his god’s mind, seeing the thoughts the cube was putting to the front of it that held some of his more recent memories of blessing his believers, creating and giving them connect, and placing his covenants on the demidemons, letting Ben understand the process of it as if he were the one who’d done it himself and leaving him to tilt his head as he processed all of the information he’d received.

“So you cut off pieces of your soul for all of that,” He muttered as he mulled it all over. “With blessings needing the biggest pieces and covenants the smallest, interesting.”

There was more to it as well, the pieces needed to be shaped, both with faith and mana to build the correct structures in the second two entirely, but overall he’d describe what he’d been shown as straightforward. Certainly something that could be understood, even if it left a different question in mind.

“But then, Myriad, why aren’t you the biggest god in the world right now?”

“As flattering of a question as that is, I have no idea what led to it.”

“Your soul is denser than any other gods I’ve seen and that should be shocking to no one given your nature. You have so much of it so you should be able to give so freely compared to any other god and I feel like I’ve been seeing that fact considering you make sure every one of your believers gets a skill and blessing, why aren’t other gods coming to ask you to also bless some of their believers too? Sure, it would spread your name and maybe risk some converts once word got out that you’re particularly generous but it would also help this entire stupid planet so why isn’t that happening?”

“Ah, I see. Well, unfortunately for me, it’s mainly to do with the fact that until recently, I was basically in poverty. Yes, I have more to give but considering the damage you’ve had to your own soul and what you’ve just seen in my memories, you should know that removing pieces isn’t pleasant and we use faith to heal the damage we sustain doing it quicker. It’s only recently that I’ve had a reasonable amount of the stuff and I don’t want to spend it all on constantly repairing myself just to get my name a bit more out there. Maybe in a couple centuries if I have a few tens of thousands of believers then I’d be able to justify a bit more extravagance to get believers thanks to the investments I’m making right now but as things stand, while I’m giving as generously as I can I’m forced to let myself heal from the experience with time which is all around a not ideal experience. Considering it’s only been a few years since I’d gotten you, even with all of my new believers and my name known to the world, I haven’t had the most time to build myself up.”

“Didn’t you get a lot of faith gambling on me when I was in Galwax’s tower?”

“Yeah, and you know what happens to most people when they win big? They spend it all and are stuck in poverty again almost immediately after, only with a couple extra doodads. You won’t be watching me make the same mistake after so long.”

“Okay, point taken I guess but still, all very interesting to know. So Yuzu and Elvat can both already do that, huh?”

“As far as mortals go, yes, although their souls aren’t as equipped for it as a proper god’s, hence the partial blessings they give. Considering that they’re forced to do it entirely through mana without being able to spend faith as well, it was never going to be convenient for them but soul mages and gods genuinely do have an easier time with it because of their nature.”

Interesting.

“So, do you even feel the slightest bit of shame about constantly demanding blessings now?” Helori asked him from the side, getting a confused look for the question.

“Hmm? Why would I?”

“...You’ve been asking us to rip apart our souls.”

“And? I’ve been asked to repeatedly damage my own, in case my nine levels of soul expansion and eight of soul resilience weren’t being considered. Hell, now that I know this I think I might actually be even less sympathetic. Before, I could just imagine it as some big, pain in the ass thing. Now though? It’s something I basically put myself through daily. I’m asking for way more blessings the next time anyone tries anything on me.”

“Very much not the takeaway we were hoping for,” Myriad sighed. “But fine, now you know and it’s something you can look forward to doing yourself once you’re a proper god. Anything else?”

Well, there is one more thing to test I guess.

It was something that could only be tested up there in a god’s realm but rather than say anything he just did it, bringing his mental structure to the maximum of its potential as he began to walk around, seeing the realm and all within it frozen before him.

It had been something he’d tested in the past and been caught for immediately. Up there, he wasn’t limited by his flesh and attributes, he was in essence a mental construct and the speeds he would move were limited by the ones he would think at. Speeds that, by all appearances, the gods could no longer keep up with.

It was a discovery that made his sacrilege flare and brought a grin to his face for what it meant, even if he’d still need to be cautious. For all he knew, time gods would still be able to handle him and perhaps even some others if they knew to expect such a thing of him but as it stood, the bit of power he’d felt he had over the gods ever since his awakening could be properly exploited if he’d ever needed too, taking the one or two he might have been able to handle in any hypothetical situation where they’d try to attack him to a number he couldn’t guess at without any experience behind it. It was possible that the gods had other tricks they could use to defend themselves from a being like him or just other abilities in general that could help but as it stood, he’d be significantly more comfortable the next time anyone decided that his existence was a problem.

So do I go and treat myself a bit? Lightly murder Eneth and Olensia, just to test out how things go?

…No, I don’t need to awaken my sacrilege anymore, not giving in to any of my more murdery impulses. At least not unless a few other things I’m going to test work out in which case maybe. For now though, there’s one other pretty big implication of this.

If he could now exist at speeds so fast that the gods couldn’t perceive him then that means the weakness of connect among them was gone. He didn’t need to do it at speeds they could observe, he could do it as fast as he could think which meant he could flash out his soul to read their minds and memories and have it retracted before anyone would ever know, a result that could have a million little uses and he moved back to his original spot and connected to his god, letting the time pass as he measured how long it would be before he could feel the cube’s mind notice, being left entire perceived hours to poke around before his presence was felt.

“Ben, what did I just say?” Myriad said when he noticed, completely unaware of how long his mind was being read. “At least have a reason and at least give me some warning. Is there some purpose to this?”

“Not at all,” He lied. “Just feeling the thrill of being able to do something like this now and wondering if maybe more exposure to the divine will be enough to help me awaken my connect too. Any chance you guys could snag me some more volunteers?”

“Mmh, after what just happened I’m not sure if it would be a good idea if word got out that you were trying to get another awakening so soon but I could probably tell a few I’m familiar with that you’re trying to get some more experience with your new mind skill by connecting to other gods,” Myriad said after a moment, with the other two having options as well.

“If you don’t mind having your brain picked, I know a few mind gods that might be interested in having a chat,” Helori told him, with Nare speaking up after.

“And enough crafting gods have interest in you that I’ll be able to get some takers. Everyone has their own work of course but if you’ll be back tomorrow we can get a decent flow in and out to give you at least a few minutes of their time.”

“That sounds perfect, thanks guys.”

A small, defeated part of himself didn’t think it would be enough but that was just the pessimism. There was no reason to assume that even exposure to one more god wouldn’t be enough and even if he was wrong, the third tier was just a barrier to be crossed, same as the second was. A far grander gulph to be sure but something he could chip away at too, with the minds of the divine sure to take some mighty gouges for his ultimate goal.