Chapter 103: Worship (P2)

Lotar's wide toothy grin irritates me to no end. Pray? It wants me to pray?

"What gender are you even?"

It loses its smile and tilts it's head to the side, "What an odd question to ask. Well, I can be any gender I want."

It then proceeds to cycle through all types of genitalia, at some point even turning into some kid of tentacle monster.

"It all comes with the new powers."       

I scoff, disgusted at it, "You seem really happy about these new powers of yours, you were more of a grumpy old wolf when I met you, now you're like some cherry peppy kid high on sugar."

It giggles. "Well, they say power makes you young."

"Do they?"

It ignores me in favour of prancing about the scene, "So, what do you say to prayer? I mean, surely, you're a believer in gods, you've met quite a few already haven't you. And now you're meeting me for the first time as a deity."

It chuckles dryly, "You're certainly special in some way, I haven't heard of any mortal that has come in counter with so many deities in such a short period of time. To be honest, when I ascended to my new…" It flips its hair back, "…status, I immediately thought it must have had something to do with you."

"What are you talking about? What gods have I met?"

Lotar gives me a pouty look, "You mean you don't even recognize the gods you've come by? You should really pay attention, Asher."

"Just tell me already, you weren't this talkative." I groan, irritated still.

"Well, you've stared in the face of Anera, the very goddess that rules the continent you're on, and you've met Phien, although he's a fallen god, he's still much more powerful than I am, you've also met Ferth, the twin of Anera and god of…no…I'll keep this one a secret."

Ferth? What god is that? "You're playing a lot more games, Lotar. When did I ever meet Phien?"

I can remember the instance Lotar is talking about with Anera, if I were to count, I'd have met her twice, both times my Sense Death skill was interrupted. But Ferth? Anera's twin? Gods can come in twins? And then there's Phien, all I've met are the Cultists. I'd think I'd be able to feel his presence if he were to be right in front of me.

"See? You don't pay attention to your surroundings. I told you last time that Phien has fallen. He's just weak enough to stay in the material world and not destroy it by his mere presence, but strong enough to wreck untold havoc upon the land."

"You still haven't told me where or when I met him. I'd think I would be able to tell too, that a god is standing right in front of me."

Lotar wags a finger in my face and falls flat on its back, choosing to stare into the blank white sky, "No, you wouldn't, especially not if he doesn't want you to know. He's a fallen god but, some powers over mortals you just don't lose."

"Then tell me, next time I see him I'll-"

"You'll die the next time you see him and the appearance he worn then isn't necessarily the one he'll have now. It's difficult enough for us deities to track him despite all our power."

I shake my head, not understanding one bit, "That's what I don't get, if Phien is such a problem then why don't you gods take him out? Why don't you find and kill him?"

Lotar sighs deeply, as though immensely saddened, "We don't have the power to do so."

"What? I thought you said Phien is just a fallen god."

"He is, but the deities with the strength to take him and all the followers he's integrated aren't many and more importantly…they can afford to abandon this world."

Afford to abandon this world? "What does that mean?"

Idly pulling out the green out by the roots Lotar says, "Well, it means gods and goddesses like Anera and Ferth, the gods that cast Phien down in the first place…they truly can't be bothered."

They…can't be bothered?

"It's up to us lesser deities, great spirits and intermediate deities…beings who have a stake in this world to fight off Phien."

Something isn't right, these guys are…insanely powerful, why are they all having trouble with a single fallen god? How powerful is Phien really?

"Why not just band together and kill him…permanently?"

Lotar toots, "Too many questions, and I've been far too loose lipped. You'll find out when you get more power, speaking of which, I'm sure you'll be excited to learn that the strength of spells I can give you are now raised accordingly."

"Because you're a lesser deity now?" 

It grins widely. "You're lucky you know? If you wanted to talk to me before you'd need to carry out some complex ritual that could potentially turn you into a wolf if you failed to do it properly."

What the heck…

"You should also know that I won't answer all prayers. I'm quite busy now you know?" It still never loses that toothy grin.

"You're a lot prouder than I thou-Argh!" I scream, clutching my head in my hands as a spike of pain runs through my head. "What is this!"

"Oh…" Lotar hums, "That should be the mark I carved into your forehead. It makes sure your soul isn't out of your body for too long, you can't go losing such an important thing, now can you?"

Right…I used my soul as a final weapon to take down the Gamma. It was surprisingly a lot stronger than I originally anticipated, I didn't factor in the fact that it would have adapted to the skills of a B-rank Mage before lunging in.

But then again, I was terribly hungry.

"Argh! There's still a lot I have to talk about with you."

Lotar tuts again, "How touching, it's like we're going to be apart for a while and you can't just bare to be without me."

This bastard. Becomes a deity and changes entirely? What the heck?

"I need to know how to get rid of the hunger faster, I can't need to fight a Cultist every two freaking weeks, it's not efficient-Arghhh!"

Lotar hums, walking over to me, "You know what I think you should do? Get your soul back in your body and then..." it smiles, "Pray about it."

"God damn you Lotar!" The joyful wolf deity pokes my head gently and I find myself falling over until the white of the world turns black…it's disgusting grin the last thing I see.

***

I wake up staring at my empty palm.

And slowly I realize…my soul was in there. I'd thrown it with my open right hand and retrieved it with the same hand.

Soul Invasion.

The attack variation of Summon Spirit, it follows in the same pattern of dealing mainly with making the ethereal physical. Soul Invasion weaponizes any soul up for grabs and turns it into a target seeking spear that never misses its target.

Once it strikes the weaponized Soul begins to attack the Soul inhabiting the body it struck. Two souls can't coexist within the same body as it turns out, this leads to further damage, impairing the target physically as their organs begin to melt and bones crack the long the number of Souls in the body exceeds one.

The spell carries great risk though…I can vaguely remember how painful it truly is to use. The target isn't the only one being damaged after all.

There's also the chance of the caster…me, not getting the Soul back. I can't use my Soul for it any more. Even with Lotar's mark now on my forehead…speaking of which.

I carry my empty hand and feel around my forehead, unsurprisingly, there isn't a mark there. I suppose it's an ethereal thing then. 

With that done I intend to move on, even though Lotar tossed me out before I could dig more about the Gods from it. Ferth…who the heck is Ferth?

With a sigh I set it aside on the list of things I need to talk to the Wolf deity about and look forward.

Ahead I find…notifications. Lots and lots of notifications. 

Several level up, proficiency and skill notifications. This pleases me. 

With this improvement I can undoubtedly unlock the bone and blood spell series. Which means more variety to my attacks, exactly what I need, Death Grip is getting a bit too stale.

The normal notifications aside, there's something else that catches my eye.

[Soul Manipulation Unlocked]

[Soul Manipulation Level 1]

If that's what I think it is…

For now, I set aside the alerts and take note of my surroundings. 

My body aches like hell and my arm hurts. I let it down so it hangs limply by my side like it's been dislocated, it's not but it hurts just as much.

Frankly, I don't remember how I got here. The carriage is no where to be found, Anselm is…I can't feel him right now and I can barely recall fighting the Gamma. 

I'm surrounded by snow, a white horizon marred by the large walls of a city dead ahead.

But aside from the gorgeous white view of the snow filled sky and earth…there are two men sitting right in front of me, gazing up at me as I marvel and chuckle all on my own.

"Who are you?"