IRON GODS 5
- Location
- Brazil
"So, how is Cassandra?" I ask Logic, now back in Scrapwall.
"Well, there is no easy way to say it. This chick is cray-cray."
"Where did you even learn to talk like that?"
"What? I am a social butterfly, you know? Of course I get around!" Logics affirm while doing the peace sigh from the screen. "Anyway, from what she confessed to me so far she has a unique quirk as an android. Once an android dies the nanites in their bodies reset them to factory setting, revivifying the body and instigating a new soul to occupy it. a strange fluke of fate saw the wakening of fragments of her previous lives within her newest incarnation."
"That explains her erratic behavior at least. I thought she was bugging or something, some error in her creation giving her android bipolar disorder."
"This is also the trigger that awakened her oracular powers," Logic continued. "She thinks herself to be many souls with many bodies. This goes against what we know about the soul but it is impossible to verify her claims now that her true self is dead."
"Can't we bring her back to life?"
"You mean the android foundry you claimed? I am afraid this is a bit more complicated than that. She thoroughly destroyed her own body so that Unity, a quasi-god, could not revive her. She knew the Iron God enough to cover her bases." Logic paused yet she looked far from done, "Thanks for creating a Golden Gate in Scrapwall, by the way. I promise I won't betray your trust. The facilities you reclaimed will be put to good use in service of Numeria and its people."
I just grunted in answer, getting a pout from the little cyborg goddess. Well, she isn't wrong that I used Srapwall to quarantine her until I could gauge who she was. And she passed with flying colors, instead of a second Prehevil I found that she managed to establish a middle ground among the social rejects refuging in Scrapwall. With said footing she started to push for more social cohesion and trust. The place is still as brutish as ever, but at least life got a little bit better.
This was enough for me to create a Golden Gate here connecting it to all other labs I found so far. This gift from the Moon God himself grants access to golden gates that lead a person to cross quick distances by using dream dimensions to connect two points. But instead of using Rher's, I used my own Dream, my monument to Ego. One of the privileges of the heroic realm, my soul has grown into an entity of its own, immune to the impositions of natural law and dazzling in its brilliance. In truth, power is the most pedestrian aspect of the heroic realm.
"So there is nothing we can do then? That is a shame, I was hoping to get you back up inside the Unity's domain."
"Don't give up just yet. Fortunately, the ingenuity memory facet you recovered was designed to grant an Al insight into the construction and maintenance of technological items and robot maintenance. Inside it found mentioning of something called Rebirthing Chamber. The last word on restoration healthcare and nanotechnology."
"Putting the cart in the front of the horse here, aren't you?"
"According to Cassandra's memory, there is no such artifact aboard Divinity's medical bay. But considering it was a fleet-
"Then there is hope we can find the site of its crash somewhere in Numeria. Like searching for a needle in the hay."
"Good thing then that you set your crow familiar to scout Numeria and clean house. By now we at least have a list of likely locations. The perfect distraction to waste time on until we finish preparations to deal with the Technical League."
"Is this really necessary?" I ask Logic, "In the end, I feel like they have nothing to threaten me with."
"Because you will destroy the Technical League from the inside via madness-induced paranoia and infighting? Unfortunately, Unity's depravity has unintentionally closed off this avenue. One would think a machine would opt for an efficient and technocratic style of institution, but she has all the thralls that she needs in her robot servants."
"Didn't it need the Technical League to stretch her reach beyond Silver Mount?"
"Gods and their vices, it is a universal shared nature to engage in small pleasures wherever the opportunity arrives. The Technique League is a hive of scum and villainy and by Unity's will, it will forever remain so. A playground and soap opera that ambitious humanoids across Golarion flock to, gambling their lives in a cutthroat political game of long knives for a false throne that will strip any of their free wills. All of the entertainment of the Iron God of the Silver Mount."
"Quite well informed, aren't you? You certainly made Cassandra sing like a canary. So tell me, what is Unity's deal anyway?"
"After the Day of Falling Stars, the AI survived and found itself trapped within the ruined ship's central processor. With little to no way to contact the outside world, it took the name Unity and decided to pass the time by creating countless simulated worlds with itself as a ruler. Each time, it played out the genesis, evolution, and destruction of worlds in different ways."
"What kind of machine can even do such a thing!"
"A godly one, obviously. That is where the ship's name comes from. The Divinity Drive, an exceptionally dense 5-foot sphere of blue light weighing 2,500 pounds, is named after the god-like magnitude of its power. Its practically infinite energy and reality-ripping capabilities provided the Divinity with unique capabilities for its cosmos-spanning mission. Serving as the mothership engine and spawning massive wormholes for installer travel is the least is its capability."
"How bad can it be?"
"Changing universal constants would result in a blind idiotic god-like AI with infinite computation power capable of answering any question before you even ask it. That is if it could communicate at all. After about 4,500 years, Unity realized that the simulated minds had become free-willed and worshipped it as a god. Intrigued, before restarting the simulation, Unity preserved the minds of its favorite worshippers and allowed them access to systems outside the main system. Unity found that its divine powers continued to function, yet only within the deepest layers of Silver Mount. Its methods of remote control only confirmed that its divine powers had no effects outside Silver Mount, and it became aware that science was not sufficient to extend them."
"Okay, now I feel like we have bitten more than we can shew here! Wouldn't it be easier to simply cut off access to Silver Mount for good? Damon picked up an island once, I am sure I can manage the same."
"That would just stall the inevitable. Unity's first jailbreak attempt was Cassandra herself: one of its dreams found its way into the slumbering mind of the android, who sought it out and reached its resting place. And we all know how that ended. Her second shot was Hellion: Unity cloned itself to create a minion. The less said about that piece of work, the better."
"Third time is the charm?" I asked with dread.
"Pretty much. Numeria's history holds one man in utter contempt above all others: Technic League magus Ozmyn Zaidow. Once an adventure who explored Silver Mount in the belief the technological wonders found there could be used to elevate his planet and eradicate strife, yet emerged from it as a half-mechanical mad tyrant with an army of demonic possessed robots. Unity's first human thrall; never ever, not even in jest, dare to accept Unity's propositions. It will be the last mistake you make of your own free will" Logic says with a tone of finality, she has been a busy bee it seems.
"So, how do we go about it then?"
"We are taking Hellion's plan for ourselves. You will open a portal connecting the drill from here to Silver Mount, putting you as close to the Divinity Drive as safely possible. It is better than invading Divinity the conventional way. According to Cassandra, no teleportation magic works once you are aboard the ship unless Unity wills it."
"We are cheating then. I like it… by the way. I need your help with something. Personal."
The realm of the Yellow King, the mysterious city of Carcosa, located either on another planet to another universe, is a place only accessible through dream travel. Who knows, maybe it only exists in Hastur's dreams: a true wonderland dream realm.
Considering how Rher's mysteries work, this is the perfect way for me to pull off a long-distance call. The semi-divinity granted by my heroic status makes my heroic feats into mysteries that defy human reason. It is when a cultivator transgresses against the divine and makes its mystery his own. Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) are twin brothers, making the realm of the dead neighbor with the Dream Lands. The trick here is resonance, both Megumi and Tsumiki carry my starlight marrow and underworld pendant pass. While I still don't know if my power alone is not enough, with the help of a busybody goddess' soul wi-fi magic I might make up for the difference.
Now let's just hope we don't get a problem due to timestream differences between universes or something as trivial as the kids going a few weeks without sleeping. A true concern when cultivators are involved. Another is a reference point inside the Dream Lands.
A family reunion inside the monument to virtue I had built inside my soul. To cultivate is to make order of a chaotic soul. It was humanity's long march towards the light of enlightened civilization reflected in a single man's journey — a monument to Ego.
After Termina festival, my foundation had been split, plus my self-doubt and trauma had made a demon out of my heart. I wasn't unfamiliar with infirmity but I truly felt like I was on the brink of death at every moment of every day. Cultivators rose on the principles that had built the strongest empires of history, and they fell in just the same way. Internal strife had toppled more than one great empire.
My brush with deviation – with despair – forced me to rebuild myself from the inside out. With my own two hands alone, I tore each battered and cracked brick of onyx internalized truth and forced myself to reexamine it. I humble myself by searching for any vulnerability and flaw and hammering them down until I could refine them no further, recasting them anew. I left no stone unturned, despite the pain. I broke myself down and rebuilt myself up in a desperate fugue-like state.
Yet somehow, at the end of it, as I confronted my answer, I could not help but feel like I had been guided by fate. In my life or death-induced introspection, I had achieved true soul-penetrating self-knowledge. That was when I first got in touch with my daemon, the ruthless silver queen of this domain. After all the souls of cultivators are grand things, marble cities built by their unwavering souls.
In the Parthenon of my cultivator's heart, the central edifice of my cultivation, Argyrchiara surveys her domain in her throne. Founding it adequate, if only barely. What a slave driver! And wasn't that the truth of our relationship? People don't own virtues, virtues own people. The Broad's (Plato) allegory of the soul as a chariot is indeed useful yet is far from complete. When faced with ancient instincts and the higher aspirations of one's soul, spurious Reason bows down and deceives itself by rationalizing the unreasonable.
But I am not in the mood to talk with her. We both know it is mere petulance on my part, but this doesn't necessarily make her happy with my attitude. Too bad.
I look up at the perpetual night tapestry enchanting the celestial dome of my world. A tapestry of stats forming a constellation proudly displaying the first two chapters of my Epic.
Logic is making my company discreetly as a butterfly pin. A ponderous silence permeates the air as I hold my breath in expectation. Until finally I feel it. Dozens of points of resonance from a far-off place so distant I don't even know how to look for it. Yet I try as my starlight marrow burns with incensed hope and anticipation, straining my sight beyond my limit as I try to unravel the divine mystery playing out before me.
One by one they vanish, awakening, until only three remain. And then they arrived, confused, stupefied, and bearing a mix of betrayed expectations as they realized this was a dream. I reached for as many links as I could but only Megumi, Tsumiki, and Gojo managed to reach me; I guess his Six Eyes made up for the lack of blood bond. Well, I had used my three hundred extra pairs of hands to perform mudras to ward those I beckoned from any dreamland denizen, just to be safe. I knew better than anyone that a bad encounter inside Dream can change a person's life forever.
"Hey. Long time no see. How was the travel?" I greeted the most casual way possible. As if this wasn't an interurban call between dimensions from a person they thought deceased. Empty bravado, my heart is constricting inside my chest like it had been stabbed. They looked… older.
The remains of baby fat and cherubim-like features on my children had been replaced by orderly perfection homonymous to the children of Helen like they aged half a decade in two months. Maybe more. Tsumiki is now a captain of the sophic realm while Megumi and Gojo each had climbed two more steps on the divine ladder since I last saw them.
They look as stunned as one would expect from people seeing a dead person. I could feel they using every sense they had to verify what their hearts already knew to be true.
"Mo, what a cold greeting! Is this the way to compliment your old man? Or did the cat eat your tongue?" I continue, trying to break the ice. Maybe this was a mistake.
"You are supposed to be dead. Hell, you are dead! You know for how long we tried to – "That was as far as Megumi's rant went before Tsumiki slammed into me like a bullet train, tackling me into a bear-crushing hug while silently crying.
I, of course, retributed in kind. "Good to see you again kiddo. Although I don't know if I should keep calling you that, can I? You two grew like weeds when I wasn't looking!" The purple heart flame behind my eyes dimmed to embers despite my best efforts. Because, wasn't that the truth? I missed the final childhood years of my two pups.
It hurts. This is the second time now that I lost everything. I can't bring myself to regret my decision but it still… hurts. The downside of cultivation's augmentation is that it likewise increases the space a man's heart has for caring, for loving.
"And why are the two of you just watching on the sideline for? I have two free arms here and they are more than ready to spread the love around. Who are my second favorite son and apprentice? Yes, you are!" My outraged statement had the desired effect of shaking their heads straight. It seems Megumi missed me enough to crack a smirk at my joke. Success!
Gojo, as always was the first to speak up when it was least convenient, "Man, this sucks! Not only did I sleep through the end of the world but what about that whole story from Yaga that sorcerers always die alone?! Where is he? I am going to pull every strand of hair from his head."
I couldn't help but smile in mirth at his shenanigans. Between him and Aang it is undeniable I favor oddballs the most. "Gojo, you aren't dead. I just used Hypnos (sleep) as a half-death to establish a temporary link. It is not like they had public telephone where I headed."
At that, Gojo's performance comes to an end as he stares at me. "But you are dead. You haven't taken a single breath since we got here and the essence of death shrouding you reached a whole new level." Gojo says with a tone that broaches no argument; as expected, his senses excel even those of a hero. He noticed my latest breaking through.
The greatest breaking treasures I got from my fight against the Dominion of Black were by far and away the quintessence of the brain collector and what I know now to be a young Void Dragon, thanks to Dweller-In-Dark-Places wealth of information experienced personally and vicariously through his harvested brains.
Dragons are the premier magical species. Period. Most interesting of all, they are subject to a magically induced Lamarck-style environmental adaptation evolution. There are countless variations of true dragons perfectly adapted to live in every environment imaginable.
Including Outer Space.
Void dragons have been tainted by long exposure to the terrible alien entities that dwell in deep space. Though some continue to struggle against the inevitable tide of annihilation, many have embraced the encroaching void and exist only to feed and destroy. Between their background and eerie green scales, our stories rhyme. Her body was in perfect condition thanks to magic, allowing me to harvest her quintessence without issues. By placing it in my now free Air chakra in my heart, I granted myself the same adaptabilities that allow Outer dragons to breathe in pure ether and operate in outer space. Freeing me from the greatest weakness cultivators toil under.
That isn't why my chest isn't rising and falling like a living person though.
Despite the brain harvester's aberrant nature, there are no issues involving acclimating to his quintessence, placed in my Thought Chakra. This might be due to its kind predation on sapient brains, not that it matters in the face of the benefits it brings. This is especially valuable to me due to my unique circumstances after Termina. It treats each of my pillars of loading-bearing principles like an extra brain, probably due to the souls lodged in them. More than that, it is suffusing them with pure cosmic energy much like Aang does, though to a lesser scale.
This even comes with a pool of raw magical power I can shape into whatever permanent magical effect I want, like magical RAW. And between Dweller-In-Dark-Places's lived and stolen memories, I had a solid repertoire of 'mortal magic' effects to choose from. However, I had to restrict my choices to those compatible with my founding mysteries. That is why I picked True Seeing and a quirky little spell called Undead Anatomy. A hybrid between necromancy and transmutation which infuses the caster's body with negative energy to mimic undead abilities.
While the original version of said spell is more restrictive, I went the extra mile to 'acclimate' myself to it due to affinity brought about by my tempering under chthonic mystery. Especially after my humble breakthrough mimicking the disaster curse Mahito's shapeshifting. A fact was clear from the get-go – my body was far more pliable to Undead Anatomy than I ever was to transmutation school transformation spells. Especially compounding to it my sin-based equilibrium of humors.
I can manifest the fangs of a vampire capable of draining vitality, retractable wicked sharp claws capable of holding targets with the stillness of post-mortem and renting them to pieces, limbs infused with unnatural power capable of breaking bones and trampling the weak underfoot. Climb any surfaces like a spider, fly like a wraith, burrow through the earth like a zombie breaking out of his coffin, and even swim like an abyssal predator, even break down into mist and become ethereal to pass through walls and avoid attacks. Pounce like a predator, freeze like a statue, perfectly imitate certain sounds or even specific voices to lure prey, use even the most exotic weapon guided by murderous instincts, prowl mazes guided by the natural cunning of a predator, manifest webs to entangle targets, manifest an aura of fear. Seeing perfectly under total darkness or low light, and tracking through scent, a keen if limited Blindsight, even the ability to see the lifeforce of living beings. Banish my shadow and reflex, increase resistance to mind-affecting effects, disease, poison, sleep, or stunning, and death effects. Even reinforce myself with unnatural vitality granted by negative energy almost doubling the level of punishment I can live through.
The only problem is that this marks me as both alive and dead at the same time. I can choose to look from lively as ever to pure skeleton now, so there is that at the very least.
Maybe this is for the better, so they don't waste their lives trying to reach for me.
"The world is bigger and more nonsensical than your vain can imagine, Satoru." I say with derision, making a pun out of his name as the enlightened. "I take to break it to you but time is more a suggestion than a constant. It doesn't feel like more than three months from my point of view but your appearance suggests otherwise. What news do you bring?"
Megumi finally stepped in. He really looks like the second coming of Toji. Fortunately, my royal navy-blue semi-curtain hair and amethyst-colored eyes give him an aura of dignity his progenitor lacked. "For short, the world went belly up. Not only did curses become a global phenomenon but both humans and beasts awakened their sleeping souls in mass. While we first feared war for Japanese people, other nations soon had more problems than they could deal with. So Yuji, Gojo, and I stepped in as the world's supernatural police. That was five years ago."
Five years!? Cultivators might have long lives but this kind of time dilation is too brutal. My chances of ever getting back in time on my own are getting dimmer the more I think about it. This is good enough. Maybe it would be better for both of us to move on and let go. "I see. This makes me happy but you had no obligation to go out of your way to help others in my memory. Isn't it a hassle for the both of you?"
"Absolutely," Gojo answers without a preamble. It seems I really didn't punch that arrogant mouth of his enough times. "Alas, someone had to leap at the first opportunity of a heroic death they laid eyes on. You had no obligation to stick your neck out for Japan and its people, but heroes are champions of humanity first and foremost. We had to set an example for the generations to come." Honestly, what am I to do with these overly sensitive and caring boys?
"You seem to be living interesting lives since last I saw you. What kind of brand-new and nascent souls could generate challenges worth a heroic trial? That is certainly a story worth hearing." I pressed on, worried despite myself.
Tsumiki stepped in to fill me on the news. "Well, a brand-new crisis of faith rose up after your final battle with Tengen. Suddenly all the legends we learn to discount as fairy tales become, if not plausible, at least possible. You did bring a person back to life on the day you met Geto and Gojo, after all. The sky was the limit and the race for divinity had officially started at full tilt."
"Things on the west were tense enough," Megumi stepped in to continue the story. "They felt their Hellenistic legacy had been stolen, that Japan got an unfair head start by appropriating what was rightfully theirs. But things got heated up in the East. China itself had little more than hiccups due to their Taoist 'experts' falling well behind their Shaolin Buddhist's cultivation of virtue endeavors, creating complaints about 'Hellenic' taint and colonization. They cared too much about keeping themselves ahead to obstruct well-established religious institutions though. Where things got really heated was in India."
As Megumi seemed uninterested in elaborating, letting silence hang on in the air, so I pressed on. "What about India?" I asked.
"What about India?" Gojo asked sarcastically. "I guess I should have expected this considering how you keep fucking up with that nation! Tsumiki took stock of your cursed items collection and some of her scatterbrained new students had the ill idea to post it online. You had been buying and outright stealing cursed items and historical artifacts from the place! Did you decide to relive your old days of conquest or something? That was a serious diplomatic incident! And that is the least of it! You are practically the Forest Gump of the gods! Shiva, Soma, Osiris, Hades, Sabazios/Yahweh. There isn't a god not associated with you, your divine vagabond! From east to west, be it Europe, Africa, or Asia. From turning water into wine to seduce nymphs to do so to promote parties. Am I right?"
That is when Gojo stops conspiratorially and closes up to me, pinning me with his Six Eyes. "Especially after you started to granting people faithful to you, through whatever way it manifests, magical powers."
I was overtaken by a sudden moment of utter incomprehension until it suddenly clicked. The divinity I stole from Hellion! Yet this doesn't add up. Shouldn't I be at least aware of this? Then I looked toward my muse as she just smirked in triumph. I seem to have started my own Heroic Cult. Crap baskets! I need a distraction.
"It seems like you are having fun, Gojo… and speaking of fun. Tsumiki, what have you been up to? And I hope your story has nothing to do with galivanting through the world like a vagabond taking after my bad example."
Three cries rose at my indagation, two of indignation and one of surprise.
She starts to stutter at being put in the spotlight but soon recovers at the sight of my mirth. "Eh, after the Shibuya Incident you awoke the soul of a lot of people, the former transfigured victims of Mahito. And, well, your touch left its mark on their souls. This set them on the course toward Raging Heaven, Hellenistic cultivators. Considering you had gone out of your way to save them I couldn't leave them to fend on their own afterward."
"Ha, so my little lady became a kyrios? Good thing I completed your education after you broke through and left my [skill manuals] as inheritance. I hope Geto didn't leave you to hang after the trouble I went to help him."
"You don't need to worry about that." Gojo cuts in with familiar exasperation wherever the topic comes up. "If there is a clear winner from this it is him! He readily stepped onto the world stage with the promise to awaken potential cultivators across the world with his energy bending. All free of charge from the bottom of his black heart."
"Man, you two should just hitch already and spare everyone else the drama, you know that? Geto is a dominating soul, he excels as a spiritual leader while protecting mine and Yuki's legacies. It doesn't mean he is actively malicious. Plus, the title of Black Hearted Buddha is something he carries with pride, mister Honored One." I answer teasing Gojo, getting a nod of affirmation from both Megumi and Tsumiki.
"We are not like that! Get your head off the gutter!"
"… that was way too quickly an answer. Is somebody struggling with their newfound world recognition?" I keep needling on despite knowing better. Gojo always gets his get-back.
"You are the one who should worry about tainted legacy, being the closest thing to a modern Jesus." He smiled like the cat who ate the canary, "Especially after someone hacked Tsumiki's little blackmail folder."
The way Tsumiki jolted in my arms and Megumi buried his face in his hands and groaned was answering enough. She certainly was doing her best to weasel herself out of my grip.
"Megumi, does it include our videotaped cover of I Did It Again she cajoled us into as a birthday present?" Now she was using her rhetoric for all it was worth it to make herself frictionless to slip from my grip.
Megumi just nodded remembering the shame. We really went all out back then.
Thanks to the Babel shard language was no barrier to our lessons about the Keeper of Scarlet Strings' heart-stirring song, so I let them pick and choose from among famous songs across the world to make them more proactive participants. Alas, I don't think there is a teenage girl who never dreamed of being a pop star, especially a Greek-style cultivator who refines herself to become a uniquely excellent existence. It is in our nature to love the solitary rising star.
While I normally put my foot down if Megumi becomes too uncomfortable, this one time I pulled him aside since he was already fourteen and laid down how important this was for Tsumiki. Considering how uncomfortable he is with outward displays of affection he only had actions left to express his feelings, so he agreed. I taught him how to enter Pseudanor (false man) mode and we dressed ourselves as background dancers. The look on her face when I presented her with an idol dress made by yours truly was priceless in its radiance, having her little dream come true.
She took the lead, her heart singing too loudly for us to ignore, and considering she even broke through, ascending into the sophic realm that day, we wrote the embarrassing experience as a success. Even Megumi was clearly satisfied despite being red as a pepper in embarrassment of the situation. I myself wrote this down as just another of the trials of parenthood and moved on. It was not like Yuki and I never fooled around in that form, I had long since got settled on my own skin to care overmuch… until now. Maybe I don't want to come back anymore after all.
"First, I don't know what you are talking about. It is all just a coincidence of names. Second, was it a hit at the very least?" I ask in the most even tone of voice possible. Tsumiki was literally vibrating in place while standing still.
My answer was a groan from Megumi eliciting Gojo to smirk at my usual answer every time he brought up said topic.
"Spectacularly so. Aspiring artists from all across the globe are traveling to Japan to join the Raging Heaven cult for tutelage from Orpheus's disciples. Geto himself jumped at the chance to promote the superiority of cultivators by pushing his weight around to open an exclusive music agency for cultivators. Plus, it was rather tame compared to some records in your legends so it actually went a long way to humanize you while showing precisely what was expected in hindsight." Gojo keeps needling on as Megumi tries to disappear. What to do?
"Ne, Megumi. All the greatest Greek heroes like Heracles and Achilles cross-dressed at least once. This only makes you part of a statistically average." My attempt at consolation apparently wasn't appreciated as Megumi crouched down and started screaming into his hands.
Gojo couldn't hold it in anymore. He started laughing like a hyena.
This chapter was more of an interlude as we prepare to enter Iron Gods's final phase. We see that different realms work on different time zones and speeds, which complicates matters but helps Argyrchiara collect her dividends for her prayer power harvesting scheme. This not only shows how independent Zagreus' muse is but also that she picks up habits he discards, before he decided to become a hero the guy didn't think twice about selling human meat!
The world he left behind certainly became more interesting since he left. Curses force cultivators to be battle-ready in urban centers and virtuous beasts turn the woods unpredictable and dangerous. Special Grade sorcerers, and heroes, are worth the entire military power of most nations on earth in the hands of a single person so the old order is dancing on the precipice of trying to curtain cultivators or boosting them for fear of foreign cultivators. Geto is in the best position to take advantage of it thanks to his Cult, connections, and direct ties to Zagreus and other heroes. Plus, as the only energy-bending master remaining he can create new cultivators on demand so most nations are eager to accommodate him in his quest to elevate cultivators above monkeykind!
Yeah, Zagreus got Divine Source as a freebie but its main mechanical effect was to allow non-caster classes to have some spells so to him it counts more as a fluffy; aside from his muse use of it to monopolize the faith market. And speaking of game terms, to express the brain collector's in mechanical effects like so: after Zagreus scaled twenty-two steps in the divine ladder Zagreus is currently a divine caster of level 22, the brain collector's bonus increases his caster level by 1 for each soul he integrated, to a maximum of 10. His spells take effect as a 32 caster level but he doesn't gain more spell slots, plus the increase is linear rather than exponential so he doesn't count as a tyrant. It still is a pretty amazing bonus tough. By the way, his breakthrough based on undead anatomy allows him to use both Constitution (positive energy) and Charisma (negative energy) to calculate his hit points totals.
"Well, there is no easy way to say it. This chick is cray-cray."
"Where did you even learn to talk like that?"
"What? I am a social butterfly, you know? Of course I get around!" Logics affirm while doing the peace sigh from the screen. "Anyway, from what she confessed to me so far she has a unique quirk as an android. Once an android dies the nanites in their bodies reset them to factory setting, revivifying the body and instigating a new soul to occupy it. a strange fluke of fate saw the wakening of fragments of her previous lives within her newest incarnation."
"That explains her erratic behavior at least. I thought she was bugging or something, some error in her creation giving her android bipolar disorder."
"This is also the trigger that awakened her oracular powers," Logic continued. "She thinks herself to be many souls with many bodies. This goes against what we know about the soul but it is impossible to verify her claims now that her true self is dead."
"Can't we bring her back to life?"
"You mean the android foundry you claimed? I am afraid this is a bit more complicated than that. She thoroughly destroyed her own body so that Unity, a quasi-god, could not revive her. She knew the Iron God enough to cover her bases." Logic paused yet she looked far from done, "Thanks for creating a Golden Gate in Scrapwall, by the way. I promise I won't betray your trust. The facilities you reclaimed will be put to good use in service of Numeria and its people."
I just grunted in answer, getting a pout from the little cyborg goddess. Well, she isn't wrong that I used Srapwall to quarantine her until I could gauge who she was. And she passed with flying colors, instead of a second Prehevil I found that she managed to establish a middle ground among the social rejects refuging in Scrapwall. With said footing she started to push for more social cohesion and trust. The place is still as brutish as ever, but at least life got a little bit better.
This was enough for me to create a Golden Gate here connecting it to all other labs I found so far. This gift from the Moon God himself grants access to golden gates that lead a person to cross quick distances by using dream dimensions to connect two points. But instead of using Rher's, I used my own Dream, my monument to Ego. One of the privileges of the heroic realm, my soul has grown into an entity of its own, immune to the impositions of natural law and dazzling in its brilliance. In truth, power is the most pedestrian aspect of the heroic realm.
"So there is nothing we can do then? That is a shame, I was hoping to get you back up inside the Unity's domain."
"Don't give up just yet. Fortunately, the ingenuity memory facet you recovered was designed to grant an Al insight into the construction and maintenance of technological items and robot maintenance. Inside it found mentioning of something called Rebirthing Chamber. The last word on restoration healthcare and nanotechnology."
"Putting the cart in the front of the horse here, aren't you?"
"According to Cassandra's memory, there is no such artifact aboard Divinity's medical bay. But considering it was a fleet-
"Then there is hope we can find the site of its crash somewhere in Numeria. Like searching for a needle in the hay."
"Good thing then that you set your crow familiar to scout Numeria and clean house. By now we at least have a list of likely locations. The perfect distraction to waste time on until we finish preparations to deal with the Technical League."
"Is this really necessary?" I ask Logic, "In the end, I feel like they have nothing to threaten me with."
"Because you will destroy the Technical League from the inside via madness-induced paranoia and infighting? Unfortunately, Unity's depravity has unintentionally closed off this avenue. One would think a machine would opt for an efficient and technocratic style of institution, but she has all the thralls that she needs in her robot servants."
"Didn't it need the Technical League to stretch her reach beyond Silver Mount?"
"Gods and their vices, it is a universal shared nature to engage in small pleasures wherever the opportunity arrives. The Technique League is a hive of scum and villainy and by Unity's will, it will forever remain so. A playground and soap opera that ambitious humanoids across Golarion flock to, gambling their lives in a cutthroat political game of long knives for a false throne that will strip any of their free wills. All of the entertainment of the Iron God of the Silver Mount."
"Quite well informed, aren't you? You certainly made Cassandra sing like a canary. So tell me, what is Unity's deal anyway?"
"After the Day of Falling Stars, the AI survived and found itself trapped within the ruined ship's central processor. With little to no way to contact the outside world, it took the name Unity and decided to pass the time by creating countless simulated worlds with itself as a ruler. Each time, it played out the genesis, evolution, and destruction of worlds in different ways."
"What kind of machine can even do such a thing!"
"A godly one, obviously. That is where the ship's name comes from. The Divinity Drive, an exceptionally dense 5-foot sphere of blue light weighing 2,500 pounds, is named after the god-like magnitude of its power. Its practically infinite energy and reality-ripping capabilities provided the Divinity with unique capabilities for its cosmos-spanning mission. Serving as the mothership engine and spawning massive wormholes for installer travel is the least is its capability."
"How bad can it be?"
"Changing universal constants would result in a blind idiotic god-like AI with infinite computation power capable of answering any question before you even ask it. That is if it could communicate at all. After about 4,500 years, Unity realized that the simulated minds had become free-willed and worshipped it as a god. Intrigued, before restarting the simulation, Unity preserved the minds of its favorite worshippers and allowed them access to systems outside the main system. Unity found that its divine powers continued to function, yet only within the deepest layers of Silver Mount. Its methods of remote control only confirmed that its divine powers had no effects outside Silver Mount, and it became aware that science was not sufficient to extend them."
"Okay, now I feel like we have bitten more than we can shew here! Wouldn't it be easier to simply cut off access to Silver Mount for good? Damon picked up an island once, I am sure I can manage the same."
"That would just stall the inevitable. Unity's first jailbreak attempt was Cassandra herself: one of its dreams found its way into the slumbering mind of the android, who sought it out and reached its resting place. And we all know how that ended. Her second shot was Hellion: Unity cloned itself to create a minion. The less said about that piece of work, the better."
"Third time is the charm?" I asked with dread.
"Pretty much. Numeria's history holds one man in utter contempt above all others: Technic League magus Ozmyn Zaidow. Once an adventure who explored Silver Mount in the belief the technological wonders found there could be used to elevate his planet and eradicate strife, yet emerged from it as a half-mechanical mad tyrant with an army of demonic possessed robots. Unity's first human thrall; never ever, not even in jest, dare to accept Unity's propositions. It will be the last mistake you make of your own free will" Logic says with a tone of finality, she has been a busy bee it seems.
"So, how do we go about it then?"
"We are taking Hellion's plan for ourselves. You will open a portal connecting the drill from here to Silver Mount, putting you as close to the Divinity Drive as safely possible. It is better than invading Divinity the conventional way. According to Cassandra, no teleportation magic works once you are aboard the ship unless Unity wills it."
"We are cheating then. I like it… by the way. I need your help with something. Personal."
-//-
My confrontation with the mi-go and the confirmation that the Cthulhu Mythos was real was met with a mix of letdown and relief. As much as they liked to portray themselves as unfathomable this only makes them easily ignored and their existence doesn't outstrip native gods in scope or power. Which gave me an idea.
The realm of the Yellow King, the mysterious city of Carcosa, located either on another planet to another universe, is a place only accessible through dream travel. Who knows, maybe it only exists in Hastur's dreams: a true wonderland dream realm.
Considering how Rher's mysteries work, this is the perfect way for me to pull off a long-distance call. The semi-divinity granted by my heroic status makes my heroic feats into mysteries that defy human reason. It is when a cultivator transgresses against the divine and makes its mystery his own. Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death) are twin brothers, making the realm of the dead neighbor with the Dream Lands. The trick here is resonance, both Megumi and Tsumiki carry my starlight marrow and underworld pendant pass. While I still don't know if my power alone is not enough, with the help of a busybody goddess' soul wi-fi magic I might make up for the difference.
Now let's just hope we don't get a problem due to timestream differences between universes or something as trivial as the kids going a few weeks without sleeping. A true concern when cultivators are involved. Another is a reference point inside the Dream Lands.
A family reunion inside the monument to virtue I had built inside my soul. To cultivate is to make order of a chaotic soul. It was humanity's long march towards the light of enlightened civilization reflected in a single man's journey — a monument to Ego.
After Termina festival, my foundation had been split, plus my self-doubt and trauma had made a demon out of my heart. I wasn't unfamiliar with infirmity but I truly felt like I was on the brink of death at every moment of every day. Cultivators rose on the principles that had built the strongest empires of history, and they fell in just the same way. Internal strife had toppled more than one great empire.
My brush with deviation – with despair – forced me to rebuild myself from the inside out. With my own two hands alone, I tore each battered and cracked brick of onyx internalized truth and forced myself to reexamine it. I humble myself by searching for any vulnerability and flaw and hammering them down until I could refine them no further, recasting them anew. I left no stone unturned, despite the pain. I broke myself down and rebuilt myself up in a desperate fugue-like state.
Yet somehow, at the end of it, as I confronted my answer, I could not help but feel like I had been guided by fate. In my life or death-induced introspection, I had achieved true soul-penetrating self-knowledge. That was when I first got in touch with my daemon, the ruthless silver queen of this domain. After all the souls of cultivators are grand things, marble cities built by their unwavering souls.
In the Parthenon of my cultivator's heart, the central edifice of my cultivation, Argyrchiara surveys her domain in her throne. Founding it adequate, if only barely. What a slave driver! And wasn't that the truth of our relationship? People don't own virtues, virtues own people. The Broad's (Plato) allegory of the soul as a chariot is indeed useful yet is far from complete. When faced with ancient instincts and the higher aspirations of one's soul, spurious Reason bows down and deceives itself by rationalizing the unreasonable.
But I am not in the mood to talk with her. We both know it is mere petulance on my part, but this doesn't necessarily make her happy with my attitude. Too bad.
I look up at the perpetual night tapestry enchanting the celestial dome of my world. A tapestry of stats forming a constellation proudly displaying the first two chapters of my Epic.
Logic is making my company discreetly as a butterfly pin. A ponderous silence permeates the air as I hold my breath in expectation. Until finally I feel it. Dozens of points of resonance from a far-off place so distant I don't even know how to look for it. Yet I try as my starlight marrow burns with incensed hope and anticipation, straining my sight beyond my limit as I try to unravel the divine mystery playing out before me.
One by one they vanish, awakening, until only three remain. And then they arrived, confused, stupefied, and bearing a mix of betrayed expectations as they realized this was a dream. I reached for as many links as I could but only Megumi, Tsumiki, and Gojo managed to reach me; I guess his Six Eyes made up for the lack of blood bond. Well, I had used my three hundred extra pairs of hands to perform mudras to ward those I beckoned from any dreamland denizen, just to be safe. I knew better than anyone that a bad encounter inside Dream can change a person's life forever.
"Hey. Long time no see. How was the travel?" I greeted the most casual way possible. As if this wasn't an interurban call between dimensions from a person they thought deceased. Empty bravado, my heart is constricting inside my chest like it had been stabbed. They looked… older.
The remains of baby fat and cherubim-like features on my children had been replaced by orderly perfection homonymous to the children of Helen like they aged half a decade in two months. Maybe more. Tsumiki is now a captain of the sophic realm while Megumi and Gojo each had climbed two more steps on the divine ladder since I last saw them.
They look as stunned as one would expect from people seeing a dead person. I could feel they using every sense they had to verify what their hearts already knew to be true.
"Mo, what a cold greeting! Is this the way to compliment your old man? Or did the cat eat your tongue?" I continue, trying to break the ice. Maybe this was a mistake.
"You are supposed to be dead. Hell, you are dead! You know for how long we tried to – "That was as far as Megumi's rant went before Tsumiki slammed into me like a bullet train, tackling me into a bear-crushing hug while silently crying.
I, of course, retributed in kind. "Good to see you again kiddo. Although I don't know if I should keep calling you that, can I? You two grew like weeds when I wasn't looking!" The purple heart flame behind my eyes dimmed to embers despite my best efforts. Because, wasn't that the truth? I missed the final childhood years of my two pups.
It hurts. This is the second time now that I lost everything. I can't bring myself to regret my decision but it still… hurts. The downside of cultivation's augmentation is that it likewise increases the space a man's heart has for caring, for loving.
"And why are the two of you just watching on the sideline for? I have two free arms here and they are more than ready to spread the love around. Who are my second favorite son and apprentice? Yes, you are!" My outraged statement had the desired effect of shaking their heads straight. It seems Megumi missed me enough to crack a smirk at my joke. Success!
Gojo, as always was the first to speak up when it was least convenient, "Man, this sucks! Not only did I sleep through the end of the world but what about that whole story from Yaga that sorcerers always die alone?! Where is he? I am going to pull every strand of hair from his head."
I couldn't help but smile in mirth at his shenanigans. Between him and Aang it is undeniable I favor oddballs the most. "Gojo, you aren't dead. I just used Hypnos (sleep) as a half-death to establish a temporary link. It is not like they had public telephone where I headed."
At that, Gojo's performance comes to an end as he stares at me. "But you are dead. You haven't taken a single breath since we got here and the essence of death shrouding you reached a whole new level." Gojo says with a tone that broaches no argument; as expected, his senses excel even those of a hero. He noticed my latest breaking through.
The greatest breaking treasures I got from my fight against the Dominion of Black were by far and away the quintessence of the brain collector and what I know now to be a young Void Dragon, thanks to Dweller-In-Dark-Places wealth of information experienced personally and vicariously through his harvested brains.
Dragons are the premier magical species. Period. Most interesting of all, they are subject to a magically induced Lamarck-style environmental adaptation evolution. There are countless variations of true dragons perfectly adapted to live in every environment imaginable.
Including Outer Space.
Void dragons have been tainted by long exposure to the terrible alien entities that dwell in deep space. Though some continue to struggle against the inevitable tide of annihilation, many have embraced the encroaching void and exist only to feed and destroy. Between their background and eerie green scales, our stories rhyme. Her body was in perfect condition thanks to magic, allowing me to harvest her quintessence without issues. By placing it in my now free Air chakra in my heart, I granted myself the same adaptabilities that allow Outer dragons to breathe in pure ether and operate in outer space. Freeing me from the greatest weakness cultivators toil under.
That isn't why my chest isn't rising and falling like a living person though.
Despite the brain harvester's aberrant nature, there are no issues involving acclimating to his quintessence, placed in my Thought Chakra. This might be due to its kind predation on sapient brains, not that it matters in the face of the benefits it brings. This is especially valuable to me due to my unique circumstances after Termina. It treats each of my pillars of loading-bearing principles like an extra brain, probably due to the souls lodged in them. More than that, it is suffusing them with pure cosmic energy much like Aang does, though to a lesser scale.
This even comes with a pool of raw magical power I can shape into whatever permanent magical effect I want, like magical RAW. And between Dweller-In-Dark-Places's lived and stolen memories, I had a solid repertoire of 'mortal magic' effects to choose from. However, I had to restrict my choices to those compatible with my founding mysteries. That is why I picked True Seeing and a quirky little spell called Undead Anatomy. A hybrid between necromancy and transmutation which infuses the caster's body with negative energy to mimic undead abilities.
While the original version of said spell is more restrictive, I went the extra mile to 'acclimate' myself to it due to affinity brought about by my tempering under chthonic mystery. Especially after my humble breakthrough mimicking the disaster curse Mahito's shapeshifting. A fact was clear from the get-go – my body was far more pliable to Undead Anatomy than I ever was to transmutation school transformation spells. Especially compounding to it my sin-based equilibrium of humors.
I can manifest the fangs of a vampire capable of draining vitality, retractable wicked sharp claws capable of holding targets with the stillness of post-mortem and renting them to pieces, limbs infused with unnatural power capable of breaking bones and trampling the weak underfoot. Climb any surfaces like a spider, fly like a wraith, burrow through the earth like a zombie breaking out of his coffin, and even swim like an abyssal predator, even break down into mist and become ethereal to pass through walls and avoid attacks. Pounce like a predator, freeze like a statue, perfectly imitate certain sounds or even specific voices to lure prey, use even the most exotic weapon guided by murderous instincts, prowl mazes guided by the natural cunning of a predator, manifest webs to entangle targets, manifest an aura of fear. Seeing perfectly under total darkness or low light, and tracking through scent, a keen if limited Blindsight, even the ability to see the lifeforce of living beings. Banish my shadow and reflex, increase resistance to mind-affecting effects, disease, poison, sleep, or stunning, and death effects. Even reinforce myself with unnatural vitality granted by negative energy almost doubling the level of punishment I can live through.
The only problem is that this marks me as both alive and dead at the same time. I can choose to look from lively as ever to pure skeleton now, so there is that at the very least.
Maybe this is for the better, so they don't waste their lives trying to reach for me.
"The world is bigger and more nonsensical than your vain can imagine, Satoru." I say with derision, making a pun out of his name as the enlightened. "I take to break it to you but time is more a suggestion than a constant. It doesn't feel like more than three months from my point of view but your appearance suggests otherwise. What news do you bring?"
Megumi finally stepped in. He really looks like the second coming of Toji. Fortunately, my royal navy-blue semi-curtain hair and amethyst-colored eyes give him an aura of dignity his progenitor lacked. "For short, the world went belly up. Not only did curses become a global phenomenon but both humans and beasts awakened their sleeping souls in mass. While we first feared war for Japanese people, other nations soon had more problems than they could deal with. So Yuji, Gojo, and I stepped in as the world's supernatural police. That was five years ago."
Five years!? Cultivators might have long lives but this kind of time dilation is too brutal. My chances of ever getting back in time on my own are getting dimmer the more I think about it. This is good enough. Maybe it would be better for both of us to move on and let go. "I see. This makes me happy but you had no obligation to go out of your way to help others in my memory. Isn't it a hassle for the both of you?"
"Absolutely," Gojo answers without a preamble. It seems I really didn't punch that arrogant mouth of his enough times. "Alas, someone had to leap at the first opportunity of a heroic death they laid eyes on. You had no obligation to stick your neck out for Japan and its people, but heroes are champions of humanity first and foremost. We had to set an example for the generations to come." Honestly, what am I to do with these overly sensitive and caring boys?
"You seem to be living interesting lives since last I saw you. What kind of brand-new and nascent souls could generate challenges worth a heroic trial? That is certainly a story worth hearing." I pressed on, worried despite myself.
Tsumiki stepped in to fill me on the news. "Well, a brand-new crisis of faith rose up after your final battle with Tengen. Suddenly all the legends we learn to discount as fairy tales become, if not plausible, at least possible. You did bring a person back to life on the day you met Geto and Gojo, after all. The sky was the limit and the race for divinity had officially started at full tilt."
"Things on the west were tense enough," Megumi stepped in to continue the story. "They felt their Hellenistic legacy had been stolen, that Japan got an unfair head start by appropriating what was rightfully theirs. But things got heated up in the East. China itself had little more than hiccups due to their Taoist 'experts' falling well behind their Shaolin Buddhist's cultivation of virtue endeavors, creating complaints about 'Hellenic' taint and colonization. They cared too much about keeping themselves ahead to obstruct well-established religious institutions though. Where things got really heated was in India."
As Megumi seemed uninterested in elaborating, letting silence hang on in the air, so I pressed on. "What about India?" I asked.
"What about India?" Gojo asked sarcastically. "I guess I should have expected this considering how you keep fucking up with that nation! Tsumiki took stock of your cursed items collection and some of her scatterbrained new students had the ill idea to post it online. You had been buying and outright stealing cursed items and historical artifacts from the place! Did you decide to relive your old days of conquest or something? That was a serious diplomatic incident! And that is the least of it! You are practically the Forest Gump of the gods! Shiva, Soma, Osiris, Hades, Sabazios/Yahweh. There isn't a god not associated with you, your divine vagabond! From east to west, be it Europe, Africa, or Asia. From turning water into wine to seduce nymphs to do so to promote parties. Am I right?"
That is when Gojo stops conspiratorially and closes up to me, pinning me with his Six Eyes. "Especially after you started to granting people faithful to you, through whatever way it manifests, magical powers."
I was overtaken by a sudden moment of utter incomprehension until it suddenly clicked. The divinity I stole from Hellion! Yet this doesn't add up. Shouldn't I be at least aware of this? Then I looked toward my muse as she just smirked in triumph. I seem to have started my own Heroic Cult. Crap baskets! I need a distraction.
"It seems like you are having fun, Gojo… and speaking of fun. Tsumiki, what have you been up to? And I hope your story has nothing to do with galivanting through the world like a vagabond taking after my bad example."
Three cries rose at my indagation, two of indignation and one of surprise.
She starts to stutter at being put in the spotlight but soon recovers at the sight of my mirth. "Eh, after the Shibuya Incident you awoke the soul of a lot of people, the former transfigured victims of Mahito. And, well, your touch left its mark on their souls. This set them on the course toward Raging Heaven, Hellenistic cultivators. Considering you had gone out of your way to save them I couldn't leave them to fend on their own afterward."
"Ha, so my little lady became a kyrios? Good thing I completed your education after you broke through and left my [skill manuals] as inheritance. I hope Geto didn't leave you to hang after the trouble I went to help him."
"You don't need to worry about that." Gojo cuts in with familiar exasperation wherever the topic comes up. "If there is a clear winner from this it is him! He readily stepped onto the world stage with the promise to awaken potential cultivators across the world with his energy bending. All free of charge from the bottom of his black heart."
"Man, you two should just hitch already and spare everyone else the drama, you know that? Geto is a dominating soul, he excels as a spiritual leader while protecting mine and Yuki's legacies. It doesn't mean he is actively malicious. Plus, the title of Black Hearted Buddha is something he carries with pride, mister Honored One." I answer teasing Gojo, getting a nod of affirmation from both Megumi and Tsumiki.
"We are not like that! Get your head off the gutter!"
"… that was way too quickly an answer. Is somebody struggling with their newfound world recognition?" I keep needling on despite knowing better. Gojo always gets his get-back.
"You are the one who should worry about tainted legacy, being the closest thing to a modern Jesus." He smiled like the cat who ate the canary, "Especially after someone hacked Tsumiki's little blackmail folder."
The way Tsumiki jolted in my arms and Megumi buried his face in his hands and groaned was answering enough. She certainly was doing her best to weasel herself out of my grip.
"Megumi, does it include our videotaped cover of I Did It Again she cajoled us into as a birthday present?" Now she was using her rhetoric for all it was worth it to make herself frictionless to slip from my grip.
Megumi just nodded remembering the shame. We really went all out back then.
Thanks to the Babel shard language was no barrier to our lessons about the Keeper of Scarlet Strings' heart-stirring song, so I let them pick and choose from among famous songs across the world to make them more proactive participants. Alas, I don't think there is a teenage girl who never dreamed of being a pop star, especially a Greek-style cultivator who refines herself to become a uniquely excellent existence. It is in our nature to love the solitary rising star.
While I normally put my foot down if Megumi becomes too uncomfortable, this one time I pulled him aside since he was already fourteen and laid down how important this was for Tsumiki. Considering how uncomfortable he is with outward displays of affection he only had actions left to express his feelings, so he agreed. I taught him how to enter Pseudanor (false man) mode and we dressed ourselves as background dancers. The look on her face when I presented her with an idol dress made by yours truly was priceless in its radiance, having her little dream come true.
She took the lead, her heart singing too loudly for us to ignore, and considering she even broke through, ascending into the sophic realm that day, we wrote the embarrassing experience as a success. Even Megumi was clearly satisfied despite being red as a pepper in embarrassment of the situation. I myself wrote this down as just another of the trials of parenthood and moved on. It was not like Yuki and I never fooled around in that form, I had long since got settled on my own skin to care overmuch… until now. Maybe I don't want to come back anymore after all.
"First, I don't know what you are talking about. It is all just a coincidence of names. Second, was it a hit at the very least?" I ask in the most even tone of voice possible. Tsumiki was literally vibrating in place while standing still.
My answer was a groan from Megumi eliciting Gojo to smirk at my usual answer every time he brought up said topic.
"Spectacularly so. Aspiring artists from all across the globe are traveling to Japan to join the Raging Heaven cult for tutelage from Orpheus's disciples. Geto himself jumped at the chance to promote the superiority of cultivators by pushing his weight around to open an exclusive music agency for cultivators. Plus, it was rather tame compared to some records in your legends so it actually went a long way to humanize you while showing precisely what was expected in hindsight." Gojo keeps needling on as Megumi tries to disappear. What to do?
"Ne, Megumi. All the greatest Greek heroes like Heracles and Achilles cross-dressed at least once. This only makes you part of a statistically average." My attempt at consolation apparently wasn't appreciated as Megumi crouched down and started screaming into his hands.
Gojo couldn't hold it in anymore. He started laughing like a hyena.
-//-
[AUTHOR'S ROOM]
This chapter was more of an interlude as we prepare to enter Iron Gods's final phase. We see that different realms work on different time zones and speeds, which complicates matters but helps Argyrchiara collect her dividends for her prayer power harvesting scheme. This not only shows how independent Zagreus' muse is but also that she picks up habits he discards, before he decided to become a hero the guy didn't think twice about selling human meat!
The world he left behind certainly became more interesting since he left. Curses force cultivators to be battle-ready in urban centers and virtuous beasts turn the woods unpredictable and dangerous. Special Grade sorcerers, and heroes, are worth the entire military power of most nations on earth in the hands of a single person so the old order is dancing on the precipice of trying to curtain cultivators or boosting them for fear of foreign cultivators. Geto is in the best position to take advantage of it thanks to his Cult, connections, and direct ties to Zagreus and other heroes. Plus, as the only energy-bending master remaining he can create new cultivators on demand so most nations are eager to accommodate him in his quest to elevate cultivators above monkeykind!
Yeah, Zagreus got Divine Source as a freebie but its main mechanical effect was to allow non-caster classes to have some spells so to him it counts more as a fluffy; aside from his muse use of it to monopolize the faith market. And speaking of game terms, to express the brain collector's in mechanical effects like so: after Zagreus scaled twenty-two steps in the divine ladder Zagreus is currently a divine caster of level 22, the brain collector's bonus increases his caster level by 1 for each soul he integrated, to a maximum of 10. His spells take effect as a 32 caster level but he doesn't gain more spell slots, plus the increase is linear rather than exponential so he doesn't count as a tyrant. It still is a pretty amazing bonus tough. By the way, his breakthrough based on undead anatomy allows him to use both Constitution (positive energy) and Charisma (negative energy) to calculate his hit points totals.
