Chapter 642

Chapter 642

“-So anyway, to make a long story short, after figuring out how to make souls and using them to help me stage a jailbreak that ended up with me accidentally breaking everyone else out too, I saw what I thought was the trapped space spirit, broke him out, and convinced him to help save the rest of us while I connected to them and shoved over a bunch of mana too, landing me in my present state. My soul still hurts, I really don’t think they’re supposed to be doing that either, but...”

He trailed off as he noticed the looks he was getting with the rest of them only changing their focus once the life spirit Vividus left his side and tried to throw herself at the space spirit, who until that point had remained in silence.

The only reason she failed was the other spirits grabbing hold of her to keep her back, but that didn’t stop her from cursing him out.

“All of this! All this time, this entire galaxy’s been going to hell, all because you just had to go exploring! Are you happy! Did you get what you fucking wanted out of it!”

“I’m sorry.”

Its first words since coming to the world came out so small, but Vividus accepted none of it.

“Sorry? You think sorry can ever cover that? We lost our home, all of us left wandering through the void you love so fucking much with the few we could save until we were told about this place and now we find out you’re the reason behind it! How did you let it get to that point?”Discover new chapters at novelhall.com

“I tried not to,” It said in agony. “Back when I was just caged, I tried to direct them to worlds that hadn’t developed intelligence yet, but...”

“But then that just made their god stronger by giving them easy targets to colonize,” She told him mockingly. “Of course it did, you short-sighted idiot! And then what? It only got more power to use over you until it was picking the destinations itself? What an obvious outcome, and despite all of that, you still selfishly chose to live.”

“Vividus,” Salinoth began in a warning voice, only for her to turn her anger to him.

“What? You think I'm wrong? That every star in the sky wouldn’t have been better off if they hadn’t just made the choice to end themself?”

“I had to do it to protect the other space spirits,” It tried weakly, getting a sneer for its efforts.

“Not worth it. With everything that’s taken place because of your kind’s wanderlust, uncountable deaths have happened, and worst of all, to your own kin. You should have had the strength of will to sacrifice yourself and them and spared the universe some agony.”

It looked like others were going to try to speak up to that but none of them were able to, Vividus didn’t wait, instead turning and vanishing in an instant as the rest stood in the silence her absence left, none knowing what to say until Ben stood up, dusting himself off before he spoke.

“Okay, what’s done is done so unless anyone has more yelling they want to do, we’re going to look at the positives instead. The world has a new great spirit, that’s a plus, along with all of the space spirits. Speaking of, let’s get them freed.”

The space spirit released their cages when he said it but only seemed to retreat further into itself from there, quietly watching from the side as Ben did what he needed to, overfilling his soul and breaking the cages one by one as the air slowly filled with the imprisoned spirits, each hesitantly making their way out after so long to fly around their great one and the others there, showing just how many were trapped in each tiny container.

In an instant, the spirit population of the world had at least doubled. For those around who could see them, the sky itself was being covered as they slowly spread out, though nothing more as they waited there, betraying the very nature that got them trapped in the first place by refusing to go out farther.

Abrus was the first to speak up once it was done, looking between them all before sighing. “Alright, it seems like we still have a lot to talk about. Ben, Thera, you both go in and rest, we’ll... Well, you both go in and rest.”

There was sure to be a lot for the great spirits to say given what had happened and what they now knew and Ben was happy to take Abrus up on the offer. After everything he’d been through, he wanted the break. He wanted rest.

Thera seemed to want it just as badly but it was obvious she was fighting with herself as she grappled with her desire versus her sense of responsibility, with the latter winning out despite herself, leaving her to lean in to kiss him while she also apologized.

“I ran out of the hospital as soon as I felt you and people are going to be dying while I wait here, I need to go back.”

It obviously wasn’t what she wanted to do, but what she needed to and Ben understood, placing a gentle hand on her cheek.

“Go, I’ll still be here whenever you finish up for the day.”

“You better. If you manage to disappear again I’m going to have a breakdown.”

“And if I manage to awaken it then you can give it another look.”

That got him more stares with Nare being the first to speak up that time.

“You’re planning on awakening it?”

“I mean, sure, why not?” He shrugged. “It’s ninth level and you genuinely wouldn’t believe me if I told you how many millions of souls I created since I’d seen you last and it’s not like I’m going to stop until I get the job done. Heck, it doesn’t even cost me much mana at this point, even if I slow down I’m still going to do it a bit, might as well see if I can cross the boundary and if I get the soul mages’ help when I go to visit them it might even be easy. Hell, I may as well even take soul defiling gardener as my next job seeing as how it’s both a job I’m curious about and a soul job, I should be able to finish it way quicker than a tier-three one and it might give the skill the push it needs to go over the edge.”

“...Just let me get a look at you after,” Helori sighed, her curiosity on the topic letting her brush past the insanity of what he was saying.

“You got it. Actually, how does awakening affect a slightly damaged soul?”

“No clue, get it fixed first instead of trying to find out.”

“Fine, now since I’m back, tell me the bad news already, how’d the wave turn out?”

“Better than we could have hoped yet still objectively terrible,” His god sighed. “I don’t think any that made it past the second wave on their old worlds had results nearly this good but the death toll was still high and the amount that got through is going to cause absolute chaos for the next year, whittling away our forces farther. All things considered, it could be a lot worse, but...”

He trailed off, letting the thought hang there. Compared to the past, things were excellent, but there was always going to be the lingering question of if it would be enough, something they could only wait and see as time went on, with Ben feeling like he had the answer already, placing it to solid no as things he’d seen and heard passed through his thoughts.

The dead one bound to you...

The one that looks just like Oaun in my eyes...

One answer for now, I’ll get the other in a bit. He told himself before looking once more at the gods around him before he spoke, seeking confirmation instead of an answer. He didn’t doubt he actually had the answer.

“Anyway guys, now that I’m back there’s something I wanted to discuss with you all.”

“Yes?” Myriad asked, not knowing where this was going till Ben went on.

“It’s just, while I was trapped I had a lot of time to think, you know? About all sorts of different things. Once you get the hang of making souls it doesn’t actually take that much mental power, for me at least, and it just made me a little curious about something. Something a little obvious actually, not sure why I never noticed it before. With the only exceptions being the mana-based life in reality, every world that develops life also has gods born to it. Kind of interesting, isn’t it? It does make one wonder about the mechanics behind it. Is there something about abiogenesis in this universe that generates divinity at the same time or does it have more to do with a world developing the necessary conditions for life also producing the right conditions for the existence of gods?”

“An interesting question, but one we can’t exactly answer,” Helori told him. “In the same way mortals typically can’t remember their births, neither can we. It’s, well, blurry for the first bit of our existence I suppose is the best way to describe it.”

“And that’s neat to know but not exactly the point I’m going for,” Ben said brightly, able to see from the look on Nare’s face that he at least realized where he was going with that. “But that’s curious, isn’t it? If every world that has life has a god unless it births something like spirits or elementals too, then that leads to a pretty obvious question, doesn’t it? As far as I’m aware, this planet doesn’t have native intelligences, all of them are refugees, but there should still be a god or gods from here at least that just hadn't reached the point where they were able to do such a thing, so why haven’t I heard of them? I’m admittedly not the most pious, but I feel like the names of this world’s native gods would have come up once or twice, right?”

Now all of them were silent, each knowing where he was going with that but none spoke up as he placed a hand on his chest and stared them down.

“It’s kind of embarrassing I needed a clue from the demon god that had me kidnapped to figure this out. If I cared about religion a bit more this feels like the sort of thing I could have gotten myself years ago. The dead one bound to my soul, there’s really only one thing that fits that statement, isn’t there?”

Again they were silent, having nothing to say to that and leaving him to spell it out.

“Alright then, let’s cut to the chase here. The gods currently ruling this world killed the ones they found when they arrived and broke down their souls to build the system bound to all of us to strengthen the mortals of this world from there, sound about right?”

He didn’t need an answer, their looks were enough, guilt and shame among them all as they waited to hear what he’d say next.