He felt a line of thoughts he hadn’t previously let himself touch on burrow into his mind and whisper in his ear, a truth to it all he couldn’t escape. Saving the world was probably impossible. Saving himself and a handful of people who mattered to him though? Would that even be a challenge?
He even already had ideas that could work. When he’d discussed the prospect of some alternative other than killing Oaun when he’d gotten back with the gods he’d suggested a few he knew would be doomed to fail but that was only when working on the scale of trying to save the planet. On a significantly smaller scale though, would there even be any real problems?
Construct a vessel with time enchantments on it to keep the occupants frozen within while getting Ogilt to transport them to another galaxy and it might have actually been feasible. Ben would have to constantly move mana from the souls he created into the great spirit but there was no reason it couldn’t be done, and regardless of how wrong it would be, if Ogilt was against it, Ben was confident he could take him over with hive mind to force the other to his will.
There were other issues with it too, how long it might take to get somewhere safe from the demon’s god and gathering the people he cared about, with both being affected by just how many he’d be willing to bring with him and what he’d need to do to make it happen.
Thera and her entire family were obvious and without much thought, he knew he’d want to bring every human on the planet too regardless of how close or not he was with some of them, and if he was bringing one entire group of summoned then he might as well take another. It would do no harm for the grey to feel in his debt if he took every member of their kind he could off of that doomed world.
And who else? He liked Sachel and Ralia enough that he’d want to save them, really he’d choose to take her entire village, adding a few hundred dryads to the list and why stop at just one village? He’d obviously need to bring the demidemons too, with that thought growing to all of Myriad’s believers since there were still less than a thousand in total.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
That does leave the issue of whatever gods already exist on whatever world we’d land on since we’d need something that already has life and an ecosystem, but as long as we get somewhere that hasn’t started to uplift a group... Well, I’m confident in my negotiation skills, I’ll make it work. Especially if whatever gods are young enough actually, finding a planet like that should be the goal. Nare said they’re basically infants or animals, no reason not to let the ones I’d drag along raise whichever ones we find.
The more he thought about it, the better the idea felt. Let the people he loved live, let himself live, and abandon this planet that viewed him as nothing more than a resource. All at the cost of everyone he’d leave behind.
...
That was the key issue with that entire line of thought but one he was happy to try and ignore as a larger part of him tried to work out the logistics, even with one question still in his head. Could he go through with it?
...Deny.
Whether he could or not, he had months to decide and it was never too soon to start planning so as he continued to draw he refined the idea, feeling all he’d learned on the planet click into place so he could abandon it.