His friends weren’t far, but he got an odd feeling on the way back. He was alarmed for a moment as he realized it came from his [Vigilance] Skill, so he looked around him for danger, but found that he wasn’t as panicked as he should be. Vigilance hadn’t heightened his awareness either, so he wasn’t in danger, it just… poked him a bit.
When the feeling happened again, he realized it was a conscious thing. Something out there was intentionally poking his Skill, but did not mean him harm, so the Skill didn’t react to it. He could only guess that it was whoever he was supposed to meet, trying to give him a heads up, but he didn’t stop walking. He wanted to be back with his friends before meeting them, and it only took him a minute or so to find them again.
Fendrascora situated herself back in his body, Clever on his shoulder, and Perumah in his hand. Letting out a pulse from his [Soul Echo], he saw nothing around him for a moment, but that was rectified a second later when something started to react with his Racial ability slightly after he’d cast it.
‘I think my ability was unable to pierce their stealth, but they intentionally dropped it to give me a heads up.’
Not just that though, after the mana from Soul Echo faded away, the person still glowed to his sight. They were intentionally emitting the frequency that his ability was attuned to, so he could see them easier as they started walking toward him from down the hallway.
‘Dear God… Aloran… whichever. This person has to be skilled, because they’re dancing circles around me. Poking a Skill within my soul to inform me they’re here? Dodging my ability until they want me to see them? Somehow tapping into that frequency, after only a single glimpse of it? If Clever hadn’t said they were friendly, I’d be running… but what if they accounted for that? What if they could dodge Clevers time-seeing ability, and trick it into thinking we get along?’
He stood up to greet them, now much more tense. He wasn’t sure what to do. If they were significantly stronger than him, he couldn’t escape, but what if this was a trap? What if their “trick” to killing things was to get that thing to drop its guard?
He decided not to run, but remained cautious. The person, still visible to his Racial ability, walked very slowly down the tunnel, as though to give him time to think and decide. He spent a moment studying them.
‘Around six feet tall, humanoid, carrying a staff and wearing something rather casual. No armor? T-shirt, pants, socks and shoes. Hmm’
They didn’t look like a demon slayer. Just someone with a staff, out for a stroll.
Currently, Dei had over one and a half thousand Fortitude mana, so he tried something quickly. Compressing one hundred Fortitude down to thirty-six concentrate, he was tempted to compress it again with his music box but held off- he didn’t want to give this person a heads up.
Using the highly concentrated mana, he activated [Fortress of Denial] then quickly scanned his entire body, looking for any outside influence, and finding it. Small, hair thin tendrils touched on his mind and soul. As he was about to grab and shatter them, he saw them break off and slowly begin retracting, no longer affecting him.
“I apologize!” he heard a masculine voice from down the hall, where the man came from. “They were meant to relax you slightly, but I underestimated your abilities in finding outside influence, a mistake I shouldn’t have made considering you are a Slaughterer. Please, take a moment to study them and see they are not harmful.”
Nervously swapping his attention between the person who’d paused his walk and the near-invisible mana, he studied its properties.
It was of the Mind variety, and he delicately but meticulously went through each one, reading deeply into their purpose. As the man said, none were to control him. If he combined the force of every tendril, they wouldn’t even act as a sedative though. They did not suppress emotions, they simply acted as a gentle guidance towards a peaceful resolution.
Frowning, he pushed them out from his body and said nothing. The person, still slightly around the corner, raised his hands in a placating gesture and slowly, slowly continued walking forward.
He tried puzzling through the man's behavior, because this was not normal. For one, he knew Dei was a Slaughterer, but that could be explained by a potential Identify. Slaughterers were likely to have unusual souls, so maybe someone familiar with them could tell, but why all the extra stuff? When Dei discovered the man’s influence on his soul, the man didn’t retract the tendrils fully, giving Dei a chance to see that the spell wasn’t dangerous. If he’d quickly drawn away like he’d been caught, that would’ve incriminated him. He was approaching Dei like a wild animal, gently trying to not scare him off by making no sudden movements.
‘Oh wait, that’s exactly what he’s doing, isn’t he? If he’s familiar with Slaughterers, he’d be careful around them. Aloran talked about feral Slaughterers and how some lose their mind, perhaps he’s trying to gauge whether I’m sane or not. What he sees right now is a person, a Slaughterer, surrounded by beasts. It would be likely for me to take up beastial behaviors if I’ve only ever known them.’
He could call out and assure the person, but he wanted to see where this was going. He was excited at the prospect of talking to another human or at least human adjacent, but his experience with the Smiler tempered that feeling. Finally, the man came around the corner, and Dei was able to get a good look at him.
He looked like a Prime Human. Slightly tanned skin, blue eyes, dark blonde hair. All features that Gem Dwellers did not have. The staff in his hand was a simple wooden one, and was held in the man's left hand. The man showed his palms to Dei, only holding the staff by his thumb while all the other fingers were off it.
Dei’s companions were silent as well, likely studying him the same way Dei was. When he’d shown himself, he also paused to give them that time, not coming any closer.
After a few seconds of standing there, the man said “Hello there. My name is Justin, and I’ve been sent by your parents to help you. I take it you are Dei Grrata?”
His heart skipped a beat. ‘Help? I’m actually getting help?’
But he had to be cautious. He was still a wanted man, and this could be a trick.
“How do I know you tell the truth?” he said, his voice rumbling out. It wasn’t often that he spoke audibly these days, and his vocal cords had taken on a very deep, guttural nature.
“Your mother, she told me of your messages that you send to her sometimes. I was there when you sent the one about having a curse in your body,” Justin laughed. “She was stricken. Truly, you shouldn’t scare your mother like that.”
Dei’s face lit up at the news. ‘The messages! They’re really making it through!’
He hadn’t been sure, but he’d hoped. It was something to do that made him feel better, occasionally talking to her when he felt like it. Even if she couldn’t say anything back, if felt like he was on a call with her, telling her about his day. The loneliness he felt without other humans had mostly gone away, but it still hummed in the back of his head. Talking to her helped.
He still had to be careful though. Just as Justin might be sent by his parents, it was equally as likely that his parents might be in jail for protecting him, and they were being interrogated for any information they might have on him.
“I hope you speak the truth, but is there any way to know you didn’t forcibly take that information from her? I want to trust you, give me a reason.”
Justin smiled knowingly. “Well, many Slaughterers understand force, and no, I do not propose a spar. Identify me. I’m sure you can, you wouldn’t have survived this long without an Identify or Scan of some sort.”
Nodding, Dei sent out a Kindness net of Identify, searching for information about Justin. He kept it polite, only requesting Justin’s Race, Level, and Intentions.
Justin looked surprised, saying “That’s a rather gentle Identify for someone in the wilds.” before accepting Dei’s request.
[Human - Level 500
Justin Tabrey, rebellious member of the Shamanic Council. You are legally declared a dangerous monster and sentenced to death, Justin is disputing this on the basis of lack of evidence, and wants your testimony]
Dei sighed and sat back down on the ground. Level five hundred.
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
Justin was not only a Shaman, but one of the Shamanic Council. He was going to be as powerful as a Slaughterer of the same level, maybe more. Perhaps the Council had their own set of Achievements. It didn’t matter, Dei knew now that he couldn’t escape if Justin didn’t want him to. True, he had two monsters past level three hundred and a plasma lizard in his group, but each evolution became exponentially more powerful. Three hundred was a powerful monster.
Five hundred was a half-step into Godhood.
“I guess we can sit down and talk… I’ve got a lot of questions about my family, if you wouldn’t mind answering them?”
Justin smiled, genuinely this time. “Certainly. Do you know that you’re very reasonable for a Slaughterer? Your mother insisted you were smart, but you’re polite too. Why?”
Dei shook his head. He was tempted to lie, but Beastial Communication gave him a warning. Justin's body language was measured perfectly, and very neutral. It wasn’t able to pierce into anything he did not want to convey. It spoke of immense control over himself, and probably a warning to Dei. If Justin didn’t want Dei to know he was controlling his body language, Dei wouldn’t have known. Justin was sure to be able to read Dei’s, and tell if he lied.
“I’d rather keep that to myself.”
Justin nodded. “I understand, but you may not have a choice. Let me explain the situation.”
* * *
Almost an hour later, Dei finally got the scope of the entire problem. Oura, the big boss, thought he was an apocalypse-class monster but didn’t want to share what, exactly, he was. This frustrated Justin to no end, and led to him eventually striking out on his own. Council members didn’t quite “rebel” in the typical sense, but it was clear that Justin had no love for his coworkers' actions.
“They’re misguided,” he told Dei. “Lazy. They don’t want to get to the bottom of things because Oura is some odd nine hundred years old. If everything’s worked fine for nine hundred years, why change it? But I don’t like that. The world is not stagnant, new threats appear every day. We cannot simply say that it will all work out as it always has, so please help me here Dei. I want to know. Why does he hate you? Why does he want you dead?”
Dei sighed, and knew he had to spill some secrets, if only a few. Justin was his only chance at ever clearing his name, but he needed to give him something to work with. “I can’t say that I’ll tell you everything, but I will tell you some. Do you know the concept of reincarnation?” Justin nodded, so he continued. “Well, as far as I understand, it's real. If someone is not dedicated to a single God, their memories are wiped clean and their soul enters a new body.”
Something sparked in Justin’s eyes. “You were too smart as a new born, I remember that from your file. It’s what kicked it all off. You’re a reincarnated? But I take it you did something different, because you kept your memories. A Soul mage? Transferring yourself to another body?”
Dei shook his head. “No, as far as I understand, I didn’t do it right. Something went wrong. When I died, I had no magic. No spells, nothing to help me be reborn. To understand it better, know that I passed fully through the plane of Death, and into the plane of Void.”
“You passed through the plane of Death? Nothing passes the plane of Death and comes back. And I thought Void didn’t have a plane?”
“Well, that’s the issue, I didn’t come back. I fully died, and passed on. As for the Void thing, that’s where all the trouble started. It does have a plane, but it has some unique properties. There are creatures there, the System called them Void Beasts, whose entire job is to devour the memories of souls on their way to being reincarnated. Nobody is supposed to go to the Void if you aren’t ready to pass on, so the Void locks a lot of people out. It does this because, apparently, if a soul isn’t fully cleansed, the Void Beast can hitch a ride on their soul into the material plane. I met a manifested God recently, different story don’t ask, and he said the last person to suffer the fate of a Void Beast using them as a mode of transportation, was Harum the Infected.”
Justin was silent.
“Dei, I have no idea who that is.”
Dei roared with laughter. When his chuckles died down, he clarified “Sorry, that’s on me. I forgot the part about Aloran saying many Gods decided to erase the man from history, and any part of the Void was forgotten as a forbidden art. Harum the Infected died, the Void Beast hatched from his soul, and it nearly ended all of existence as the Void Beast started absorbing everything in reality, becoming exponentially stronger. They had minutes to kill it and luckily succeeded, but they wanted no chance of a repeat. Hence his work being erased.”
Justin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I see where this is going. Iora read your mind, and saw you have memories of the Void. Oura, one of the only people who would know about Void Beasts, saw those memories from Iora’s eyes, and concluded that you were a rogue mage who’d uncovered Harums work, potentially using it for your own purposes, and are now incubating the apocalypse. Hmm… yes, that would make sense for his actions. May I… and please don’t take offense to this. But may I ask how sure you are that you aren’t infected with a Void Beast?”
“No offense taken. Aloran, the God I spoke of, seemed very sure I was clean. On my way through the Void, the System gave me a mission for your world- which I will NOT be elaborating on. Aloran thought the System wouldn’t have sent me on my mission if I was doomed to die from the start, and would have removed any Void Beast that managed to attach to me. He still thinks there weren’t any on me in the first place, for other reasons,” Dei said, thinking of how he probably got an Achievement for repelling the Void Beasts and surviving without help, “but the System would simply have confirmed it.”
Justin nodded. “Thank you. Please give me some time to work through everything you’ve told me. I will ask more questions in a moment.”
“Gotcha.”
* * *
Nearly fifteen minutes of dead silence and a blank face later, Justin spoke up. “Do you genuinely care for your new family? Or is it out of duty?”
“I really care for them. I told you about how I reincarnated wrong? That led to a slew of issues, one of which is that I am mentally still a child. The body and soul are not independent things, and my new body influences me heavily. I’d formed a familial bond with my mother and father before I was abandoned, and I miss them deeply. True, it may be instincts talking, but this life feels new. I don’t feel like Leven, my previous Identity. He died, he’s gone. I’m Dei, with everything that entails.”
Justin nodded and again lapsed into silence, staring off into space.
* * *
When he was still, Justin was quite eerie. Like a statue that blinked, and Dei was reminded that all of his mannerisms were for Dei’s benefit, at least until there was an abrupt change seven to eight minutes after his second bout of silence.
His expression was twisted into one of pure anger. “Dei, do you want to know the funniest part of all this? None of this would have happened if Oura hadn’t gotten bored. The only reason he went out that day to handle your case was because he hadn’t been out in a while. If any of the other council members tackled your case, they wouldn’t have known what the Void was. It would’ve been chalked up to a magical phenomena, Iora would’ve been executed for torturing a child, and they would’ve waited until you were older to try and figure out what was so special about you. That’s the protocol for unusual children, to protect them from situations exactly like this. It’s been in place since before The Fall, tradition passed down from a time when experimentation and cruelty were the norm. From a time when Gem Dwellers were known to be unusually generous, rather than unusually cold as they are today.
“But that’s not what happened. Oura got bored, saw something that reminded him generally of something centuries ago, then lost his fucking mind. This is the exact situation the Council is supposed to prevent! If he’s spoken to us, if he’d asked, this could’ve been over so much quicker, but he didn’t. He looked too far into the past, completely neglecting the future.”
In his head, Justin felt vindicated. He was right. After working for months on this case, he was finally proven to be correct.
But being vindicated didn’t mean he was happy. There were still innocents that’d been suffering for Iora and Oura’s crimes, and he would draw no joy from their executions. “Take solace, Dei, in that both the shamans who started this will be dead, very soon. I will make sure they are executed for this. Iora will be hollowed out to become an Empty Staff, and Oura’s soul will be chained as a Bound Staff. His knowledge and experience are too great to simply hollow, but he will serve his purpose in death.”
The cold surety gave Dei comfort. Even if their souls being bound for eternity to serve after death was a bit intense, he wouldn’t advocate for them. It was their mistakes that led to this, and now it was time to pay the piper.
“There is one more thing I must do before returning back to the Council and beginning the long, arduous process of dethroning Oura. Would you consent to a Wordless Testimony?”
His knowledge of Undercant told him that was a specific process, not a regular testimony, but it didn’t say what. “What’s that?”
“It is when I collect evidence that involve secrets of the person. Many, like you, have things they don’t want to bring to light, but those secrets are required for justice to be served. I encapsulate the idea of evidence, pure and unfiltered, without any of the words. For example, you said a God has vouched for you, Aloran? A Wordless Testimony would go over those memories, gather the relevant knowledge for whatever my goal is, and show me what that evidence would be in support of if you’d told me. For your memories of Aloran, all it would tell me would be ‘A God agrees that Dei is not dangerous or a monster.’ More relevant though, are the words of the System. Everyone knows that it is absolute, so if it deems you clean, you are indisputably free. I could include an explanation about your reincarnation and the like, but that is clearly a secret you don’t want to reveal. The System and God in a Wordless Testimony will be enough to clear your name, it will simply take a while, if you’re fine with that.”
Dei nodded. “I am in no rush. As a matter of fact, I was about to disappear for a while anyway.”
Justin looked off into the distance for hardly a second before coming back to his senses. “You’re returning to your previous world?”
Dei scowled, “How did you figure that out so fast?”
Justin chuckled. “I saw your expression when you finally managed to teleport using Void magic. It’s clear you’ve been trying to get that spell for a while, and finally have. You got to this planet through the Void, the only path to return is the same way. Unfinished business I take it? Nevermind, I don’t need to know. Is there any chance of you becoming infected on your journey though?”
“None, I’m not even going to touch the Void. I’m skipping it entirely. Besides, if it was that easy to enter the Conceptual Plane of Void, I imagine more people would know it existed, yea?”
“I’d say so. Well, I wish you luck in that endeavor. I’m not in a rush to go back home though, would you like to stay and chat for a while? I imagine living in the wilds leaves you with a lot of questions.”
“You have no idea, but I really only want to know about my family. Would you answer some of my questions about them?”
Justin smiled. “Of course. I have no problem with that at all.”
