Crusade – Chapter 63: Down the Rabbit Hole

Aperio and her group appeared right outside the house of healing, in front of the group she had recently displaced from Vigil's lunar hideaway. Laelia was rubbing the bridge of her nose, trying to keep the sizable group of people calm, as she noticed her Goddess' arrival.

The followers of the dead God also noticed, murmurs spreading as they eyed Aperio. Her attempt at venting had seemingly not gone unnoticed. She paid them no mind, however, instead focusing on her paladin.

That Laelia now had to look up to meet her eyes was a strange but oddly pleasant experience. Sadly, she could not say the same for the slight step her paladin took as she laid her eyes upon Aperio. It would seem that being taller and wreathed in her own mana also intimidated what she would have thought of as a veteran. Still, Aperio would not stop her continuous draw on her well.

While it might not calm her as much as being in her Void or blowing up part of a moon, it still did a good job of bringing a measure of tranquillity to her mind. That it also further enhanced her strength was just a nice bonus. The only bad thing is that I now practically scream Goddess at anyone who is looking at me.

"I hope you did not have too much trouble dealing with them," Aperio said, pushing her thoughts away for the moment.

Laelia hesitated for a moment before she spoke, seemingly unsure of what she should say. "Not really, most confused; not know where are or what year it is."

"They do not know what year it is?" The statement seemed weird to Aperio. How would someone not know the current year? Unless, of course, they spent a few millennia in a Void like I have. She doubted that they did that, though.

"Yes," her paladin replied with a nod. "They know their God fallen, however."

"They have more than just fallen. Both Vigil and Inanis are dead."

Aperio's statement caused the surroundings to quiet down, the last murmurs of the group stopping. Did the System not inform them of their deaths? Upon further reflection, it made sense. Why would the System provide a notification to everyone when a normal mortal died?

She clenched her fist as realisation set in. Aperio did not regret what she had done, as she still thought that death was perhaps too lenient for taking her memories, but the fact that she could cast down a God on her whim was not something she had truly considered before. That also means I could make one, no?

That Laelia, Caethya, and Maria could become Goddesses in the future was without a doubt. But, Aperio was also fairly certain she could pick any mortal and make them into a deity in a matter of moments, if she so chose. But why even have them? The purpose of the pantheon was not something that had revealed itself to her just yet.

"He is… dead?" Laelia asked, seemingly not caring that Inanis had also perished. "Really?"

"Yes," Aperio replied. Did she still believe in him? Or is she relieved? That her paladin questioned what she had said did anger her to an extent, but it was ignored. Quite easily so, if she considered the usual effort something like that took.

"Thank you," Laelia mumbled, her eyes glassy as she started at nothing in particular. "...Thank you."

Aperio ignored the chatter springing anew within the group in front of them, asking her daughter to take care of it with a small mental request as she stepped closer to her paladin. That a few people in familiar red clothing and wearing various sun-themed ornaments were already present furthered Aperio's confidence in delegating the task.

Laelia flinched as Aperio touched her, relaxing shortly afterwards as the mana of the Goddess spread through her. Aperio could not find anything wrong with the Human. Not that she expected to. Still, probing the mind of someone else was not something she wanted to try until it was absolutely necessary.

"Are you well?" Aperio asked as gently as she could, lowering herself enough to meet the paladin's eyes.

The Human just nodded absentmindedly, still staring at nothing. Aperio retracted her hand from Laelia's shoulder and tilted her head as she tried to find what Laelia was looking at.

Unsurprisingly, the winged Goddess did not manage to find anything in the direction the Human was looking in. An idea surfaced in her mind and, with a small mental nudge, her aura flared briefly, drowning everyone in her mana.

Aperio ignored the crowd's reaction, and how her daughter's followers tried to stem the rising tide of anger and renewed confusion, instead focusing on the trace of mana she found floating in front of Laelia. Then she found a similar one floating in front of multiple people in the crowd and some others spread around the city itself. She knew it to be mana from the System; from her.

In front of Laelia hung what Aperio guessed was her [Status], though it only showed her titles. There was the one she knew of — was responsible for — but there was also one that she did not expect, one that seemed to be the reason for the Human's stare.

[Sovereignty of the Mind]

The final shackles on your mind have been broken, set free from the influence of others; never to be conquered again.

I did not remove all of Vigil's blessings? How? Aperio was very sure she had purged all traces of the now-dead God’s mana from Laelia. ...Unless. There was something she had not checked, but would explain why his influence would still remain even if his mana was removed.

How she was supposed to check the soul of a living being without killing them was something she was not entirely sure about. A part of her wanted to simply act — go with her gut — but another part called for caution. While she had been willing to trust her instincts a lot more recently, she was not quite as ready to do so when it came to matters of the soul. If a simple touch can bring such change… She had an idea on how she could observe what she wanted without causing undue harm — Or give her even more of my mana — but she would only do so with Laelia's permission.

"Laelia," Aperio said, gently laying her hand on the Humans cheek. A tiny spark of mana jumped over from the Goddess. "May I inspect your soul?"

The tiny arc of mana and frankly weird request caused Laelia to wake from her stupor and set her eyes on the winged Goddess. "Inspect my …soul?"

"Yes, your newest title warrants my attention," Aperio said. "Should you not be comfortable with this, however, I will not force you."

Very slowly, Laelia nodded. "Do I need do something?"

"No, just stay calm."

With those words, Aperio stood up to her full height again and closed her eyes. A moment later she felt the calming presence of her Void settle around the two of them. After taking an unnecessary but calming breath, she brought forth a tiny thread of mana in the palm of her hand. Ever so slowly, it began to drift towards Laelia; sinking into her skin as soon as it touched her.

Aperio pushed aside the influx of information that wanted to tell her everything about the physical health of her paladin's body and, instead, guided her mana towards Laelia's heart to keep it beating, no matter what. A part of the tendril split with a thought, heading towards what Aperio could only describe as a passage of sorts. It was a small opening, carefully framed by the tiny threads of her mana that made up everything surrounding them.

The winged Goddess knew that behind this wilful imperfection in the fabric of reality was Laelia's well. She did not truly know if she would be able to find her soul there too, but it was the only place she could think of that would make sense. Or at least give me a clue.

Guiding her mana through the tiny hole was harder than she was expecting, but, in the end, it only required a fraction more concentration than it had before. Once she passed the threshold, Aperio was presented with a tiny pool of mana that flowed out of a tiny red and white pearl. Nothing like my well… She had no source of mana, just a bottomless bit of energy that begged for her to use it.

...I don't have a soul?

That's what the pearl was: Laelia's soul. Why don't I have one? It was possible that, given the vastness of her well, she had simply not searched enough to find her own. Or, something Aperio considered more likely, she truly did not have one. Why would she? She did not belong to the normal cycle of life and death; she had created it herself. Still, despite knowing the likely answer — that a soul was something she had made so that others could live — she could not shake the cold dread that slowly spread through her mind.

With a firm shake of her head, Aperio focused on Laelia's soul again, ignoring the gasping breaths of the woman herself. How exactly the Human managed to be short of breath in a space that had no air whatsoever eluded even Aperio, but she didn't take the time to question it. The most recent shocking revelations took much more precedence in her mind.

As carefully as she could, Aperio guided her mana towards the lightly glowing pearl. Even now she could already sense the small cracks on its surface, and a closer inspection showed them to be tiny markings — Runes — that had been etched into Laelia's very soul. It only took her a moment to recognize some of her most hated words. Servitude. Obedience. How could he do this? How could he do this?

The anger she had felt on the moon was incomparable to the rage that was starting to form inside her. She wanted nothing more than to find Vigil's soul and tear it apart; remove any trace of its existence. The mere fact that he had dared to mar a single soul was already reason enough, but from what little she had seen of the people that had resided in his temple, Aperio suspected that Laelia was not the only one whose soul the dead God had defiled.

She took another breath of the calming nothing that filled her Void as she, very gently, wrapped the red and white pearl in her mana. Aperio no longer cared if Laelia would gain more of her mana in the process; she wanted to fix the damage done to her soul. Something that only happened because I was gone.

She was under no illusion that her absence played no part in this — if she had been around, she was certain that neither Vigil nor Inanis would have done such a thing. Someone messing with the souls of mortals was something she knew to be wrong. And yet, I did it myself; I am doing it now.

Much like the time she had healed Laelia's foster children, Aperio let her magic follow the guidance the other provided. She did not truly know what she had to do to heal a soul, something the glowing orb luckily seemed to have an innate knowledge of. All she needed to do was to supply it with enough mana to carry out its repairs. How many people will I have to heal this way?

Even if only Vigil had done this — something she heavily doubted — there could be millions of victims of soul tampering. Did he have followers on other worlds? ...How many worlds are there? The questions kept piling up in her mind as she watched the scars on her paladin's soul slowly fade.

Aperio could already feel, and see, the change in the Human's soul her mana brought. The dance of red and white turned more and more to a dance of silver and red, the glow radiating from the orb growing stronger with each passing moment. Even the mana that endlessly poured from Laelia's soul into her well took on a silver sheen, one Aperio was intimately familiar with.

There was no longer a pool of mana for the Human to draw on but a sea, one that only continued to grow as Aperio provided more of her own to heal the damaged soul. In the back of her mind there was a tiny voice, asking if she was doing the right thing; if Laelia even wanted this. Aperio did not know if the Human desired any of this, but once the knowledge of the soul runes was acquired there was no way the Goddess could let Laelia's soul remain as it was. Doing so would be an affront to everything she had ever done, ever created. That, she knew.

If Laelia wanted to hate her for what she had done, she would live with it. But Aperio would not — could not — let her soul remain damaged like that; even if it meant breaking her rule of not forcing her will on people.

With grim determination, Aperio urged more of her mana to aid in the soul’s reconstruction, ignoring the ever-expanding ocean of mana residing in Laelia's well. Ignoring how Laelia was grinding her teeth as her body broke and rebuilt itself over and over again to accommodate the strength Aperio forced on her.

GamingWolf

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