Advent – Chapter 42: Harsh Lessons

Aperio hesitated, not quite sure if she really wanted to enter Natio's Dominion. If the System could classify it, she should have authority over it, shouldn't she? But what if I don't? ...How do I accept it, anyway? Her question was answered when a warm sensation enveloped her and another silver-framed window faded into existence.

Creator has accepted the transportation request. Preparing area for Creator.

What needs to be prepared? She thought to herself as she squinted at the System notification. Does it make sure that Natio won't be able to harm me or what?

Aperio looked down at herself and then back to the tiny window before tilting her head slightly. What? Will it break if I go there? Just get me inside! She did not quite understand how a Dominion could break with just her presence. Her Void seemed pretty unbreakable to her, but that was probably because it belonged to her. If it is my Dominion it has to be able to house me, after all.

Her thoughts were interrupted as a silver-blue glow surrounded her, one that she had come to associate with her own magic. It was accompanied by a foreign pull on the mana in her well, something that gave her the impression that it should feel wrong but, against all odds, it did not. Roots did say that the System depends on me. Did he mean this? That it needs my mana?

Before she could further follow that line of thought, her surroundings faded away only to be replaced by a dimly-lit stone chamber. The fact that she found herself in something that could only be described as a torture chamber only managed to gain a passing interest. Aperio had seen enough of them in her time before the sacrifice to know that this one was paltry at best in its offerings. Why does a God need one, anyway? What did get her attention were the flames flickering in the braziers in the corners of the room. More specifically their colour. Why green?

Welcome to 'Natio's Dominion'! The owner of this area has been informed of your arrival.

Aperio squinted at the notification before she dismissed it and glanced around the room once more, looking for an exit. The Dominion seemed to react to her behaviour as a door appeared in front of her. Not wanting to immediately leave and possibly run into a trap, Aperio first tried to alter the colour of the flames. Just to make sure.

It required more than the mere thought she needed within her Void, but with a slight flex of her mental muscles the fire obeyed. Another small exertion caused the entire wall opposite the door to disappear, revealing a swirling abyss of black and green. I like my Void better.

Satisfied that she would not be defenceless against the owner of this Dominion, Aperio turned around and opened the door. It swung open with a creak she had thought reserved for dramatic plays and revealed a narrow passageway lit by equally theatrical green torches.

Taking her first steps into the hallway caused the flames to flicker and change to a more normal yellow. Why does he like green so much? At least the stones did not break beneath her every step.

A shift in her aura caught her attention, causing her to stop and focus on the affected area. Someone was there; a tall, broad figure that moved its hands through the air in front of it as if tapping on things. The room he resided in had naked stone walls, lit by sickly green flames – almost the exact same as the one she had first appeared in. Is he really a God? Why would he want to spend his time in a place like this?

Aperio could only tilt her head at the strange behaviour and resume her journey towards the individual. It took her a couple more steps before she realised something that should have been obvious, especially after she had used her Void to teleport herself and Ferio to a different place in the mortal realm.

Closing her eyes, Aperio attempted to grasp the space behind the figure with her mind. Once she felt her mana take hold, she gave it a twist she was sure broke many laws of the universe. My laws?

With a tearing noise she had come to associate with the ripping of her clothes, Aperio found herself behind the hooded man she had seen through her aura. He whipped around to face the intruder, staring at her with glowing green orbs that hovered in an otherwise black abyss inside his hood.

Something told Aperio that the man – Natio, she had to assume – was attempting to be imposing and frightening with his dark grey robe and glowing eyes, but to her he felt surprisingly weak. He did not even manage to make half the impact in her aura that Ferio had. And he wants to kill me?

The tilting of her head seemed enough of a motion to break the tense silence that had settled inside stone chamber. "So, the 'The Sacred Goddess' thinks she can claim my Domain," Natio said, taking a step closer. "Awfully pretentious title for a new Goddess, is it not?"

Aperio did not answer his question, simply tilting her head to the other side. He did not strike her as particularly evil or godly. More like a pampered noble that thought the world belonged to him. Is that what my title means? Wait. He knows that, but not that I made the system? What did Vigil and Inanis tell him?

"The silent type? No matter, you won't leave here for a while." He took a few steps to the side to get a better view of Aperio, his gaze feeling distressingly similar to the calculated assessment of a slave owner. "Maybe after I break you I can give you to Vigil so I can get my Custodian access back. He does have a fable for deities of Moon Elven descent."

The statement caused her anger to rapidly rise to the forefront of her mind again and her aura to flare up a little, enough to make Natio take a step back. Her wondering about the nature of Dominions and their interaction with the System had been a good distraction from the rage that had fuelled her mad dash to get here, but now that the man had openly admitted to wanting to enslave her to get something back Vigil could not give him, it was back in force. "Why did you send your knights to kill innocents? Children?"

Natio raised an eyebrow at her question, seemingly unconcerned with the steadily rising pressure from her aura. "Vigil told me that you were interfering with his plans. And, since you already lay claim to my Domain, I saw no reason to deny his request. I also want my Custodian access back; not that you would know what that is."

"Do their lives mean nothing to you?!"

Her outburst was accompanied by a wave of mana that caused the braziers in the room to burst into bright silver-blue flames and Natio to take another step back.

"Do you think you are better just because you are strong?"

"I will not be attacked in my Dominion!" he yelled, pointing his hand at Aperio and yanking it down in a sharp motion. "Kneel before your betters!"

His words were accompanied by a subtle pressure at the back of her mind – one she knew all too well. One that made her disregard the last bits of calm that had settled on her mind since she had burned the knights.

With steps that sent cracks racing through the stone floor, Aperio moved towards her target. Unperturbed by the pressure building around her and the yells of the God that had come to realise his Dominion was no longer his own, the winged Goddess slowly lifted her hand. Then, with a sharp motion, she grabbed something only she could see and pulled it towards her.

A moment later Natio found himself sailing through the air, only to be stopped by a fist that impacted into his stomach far harder than mere flesh and bone had any right to. He crumpled at her feet, gasping for air that he did not even need. His reprieve was cut short as he was lifted to face the Goddess he had assumed to be new and powerless.

"You do not deserve to be a God."

As soon as the words finished passing through her lips, something cold and sharp pierced her abdomen and caused her to drop Natio in surprise. She had not seen when the other God had summoned a sword, nor had she expected any blade to be able to hurt her. With a grunt, she pulled the weapon free and threw it to the side, the wound already closed by the time the blade hit the wall.

The disgraced God had taken the time to distance himself from the now very angry Goddess, using the opportunity to also summon a wicked-looking scythe. Despite the fact that his sword had been able to hurt her, Aperio could not help but pause confusedly at the sight of the farming implement as his next choice of weapon.

With a wave of his hand, numerous sickly green orbs sprang to life around him. Their appearance was accompanied by a wave of disgust that was only rivalled by her memories of her dreaded collar. Whatever those spheres of green were, Natio would need to be punished. For using them, certainly, but also possibly for having created them as well.

Natio seemed to interpret her surprised pause as fearful hesitation as his lips twisted into a vile smile. "Not so big on words now, are we? Now tell me what you did to my Dominion."

"Nothing."

He only laughed at her answer, obviously not believing what she had said. "Are you Vigil's new plaything already? Did he mess with my Dominion?"

The spheres danced around him, flaring slightly at his words and lingering for just a moment longer before they darted towards the winged Goddess. Aperio was ready to strike them down with magic of her own, a blue flame already in her hand, but paused when the orbs slowed their approach. The closer they got, the dimmer the green glow they emitted grew. Once they had reached Aperio's side, they had turned into the multitude of colours she had seen before in her Void.

Souls?

She stopped her hand just shy of one of the orbs, remembering what her touch had done to Maria. Instead, she slashed her hand downwards, opening a rift to her Void. It required more effort than it usually did, but as soon as it was open the soul orbs rapidly flew into the opening and, for a brief moment, Aperio thought that she could detect something akin to gratefulness from those who were escaping.

"I am nobody's plaything," Aperio spat, closing the rift again. "Vigil will be dealt with after I am done with you."

Again, he only laughed, as if her statement was the funniest thing he has heard. This time, however, there was a nervous edge to it. A slight, unsteady shift in pitch that she would have never noticed before. No longer wanting to talk to the obviously deranged God, Aperio closed the distance between the two in the blink of an eye. Natio tried to cut her with his scythe, but now that she was aware of the rather unwieldy weapon it was easy to deflect it.

He took a few steps back, just enough to be outside her reach and summoned a green flame which he hurled at Aperio. She ducked low, not wanting to get hit by magic she did not know, letting the fire sail over her and harmlessly splash against the wall behind her. The flames had not felt particularly threatening, but after Natio had managed to embed a sword in her stomach, she was not as inclined to let herself get hit again as she was before.

Natio did not let up, summoning a wave of sickly green fire that swept her way, only for it to be parted by a thin silver barrier. Simply using her mana directly was proving to be the way to go for Aperio, at least as far as blocking the attacks of others went. Dealing damage herself was best left to her own blue fire; burning the soul out of a body was a sure-fire way to defeat your enemy.

Seeing that his magic showed no effect, Natio closed the distance with a dash that Aperio was quite sure was only possible because they were in his Dominion. Not that it gives him an advantage. If he had tried to use whatever authority a Dominion usually had, she had not noticed it.

The blade of the scythe struck at her neck, only to be deflected by a raised wing. The defence cost her a few feathers and a slight nick in the bones of her feathery appendages. His next strike was cut short as Aperio grabbed hold of the weapon with one hand and ripped it free from his grip, causing him to stumble forward only to be sent flying by a punch delivered from her free fist.

He crashed into the wall of his Dominion apocrypha, but did not break it. A silver-blue film of mana had spread over every surface of the room, stopping the self-proclaimed God of Death from breaking through its walls.

Before his feet reached the ground, Aperio was already next to him. She delivered another punch that sent him into the floor with a wet crack. A spark of joy flashed through Aperio's mind as she flung the now bleeding body of Natio across the room into the other wall. Letting out her frustrations on someone who more than deserved every bit of pain she gave him felt good — almost disgustingly so — but she did not want to stop.

She would continue her onslaught until he was broken, until he was dead, until he was...

A glimmer of doubt surfaced in her mind and Aperio, seeing what it was, embraced it. It was true that killing Natio here and now was what she wanted to do, but if she went through with it, it would only mean that she was more like him than she would be able to accept. It would be an act of doing what she wanted merely because nobody could stop her. No. No, there had to be another way. With a shake of her head, she grabbed the limp body of Natio and hoisted him up.

His head hung to the side, the man clearly no longer conscious. The vicious part of her psyche flared up again, gleefully pointing out that killing him – as he so rightly deserved – would be so simple. Just grab his head, and pull. Just that one simple task, and people would thank her for ridding the world of a vile evil. A good portion of her wanted to do exactly that, crying out for the death of this foolish God who had dared to question her – dare to see her as anything less than perfect.

Another part rebelled against that notion, not because she wanted to spare the man, but because she did not want to give in to the feelings of superiority. No matter how good and right they felt, Aperio wanted to reject them. She wasn't perfect. The fact that she was struggling to find the right choice right now and the cut in her dress where Natio had stabbed her showed as much. And yet, it felt so right to think of herself that way.

She shrugged the thoughts away as, suddenly, she had another idea. One that might be crueller than simply death, but also fairer.

Slowly she pushed her mana into him, trying to find the foundation that Ferio had described. If that was indeed the key to his Godhood, she would take it from him. Force him to live the life of a mortal and be judged by those he wronged. If they decided he should die, he would. If they wanted him to endure what he had inflicted onto them – he would.

It was not long before she found something within the mana of Natio that felt familiar. Not in the way of the blessing she had given to Laelia or the bond she shared with Maria, but more of the foreign feeling that she had felt when the System had transported her here. Aperio grabbed hold of the seed of mana, a tiny fraction of what coursed through the man's body, and ripped it out.

A moment later Natio's eyes shot wide open and he let out an agonising scream that would have caused Aperio rush to his aid had she not known what he had planned for the children and herself. Serves you right.

She could feel the mana rushing out of his body, the System-given seed seemingly the only thing that had allowed the man to amass that much in the first place. The fact that the System had given something like this to such a person gave Aperio pause. Who else might have the ability to become a God like this? She considered trying to do something about it, but realized that changing anything in the System was not within her ability's scope at the moment. She simply didn't know enough about it. Vague feelings of wrong and right were not sufficient for her to tamper with something that this world – and possibly others – depended on.

A new window that appeared in her vision diverted her attention from the screaming man she held and the possibility of more Natios running around in the world. The notification had turned fully silver, somehow managing to look official even though it was just a tiny window hanging in the air.

Natio, God of the Underworld, has fallen from grace.

Any blessings or curses given by this deity will lose their effect.

Aperio squinted at the window for a moment. Did only I see that, or...? A new window did fade into existence, but her unspoken question did not receive an answer.

The owner of this area has lost all rights of Dominion ownership. This space will be discarded once all residents and guests have left.

As there was no longer any reason to remain where she was, Aperio tried to move back to the mortal realm in the same manner as she did from her Void. It seemed that Natio's removal from godhood had also removed whatever had imposed the higher effort of her magic within the Dominion, as now it only required a thought to twist reality apart and form a rift back to the house of healing.

She threw the still limp body of the fallen God through first before she stepped through herself. On the other side she was greeted by an unnaturally happy Ferio, who had immediately bound Natio in flaming ropes that seared his flesh. Next to draw her attention was the weary, quiet presence of Laelia, followed by the assortment of people who had watched her kill the knights.

A mere glance at any one of them was sufficient to answer the question she had had earlier. Without a doubt, they had seen the silver notification.