Chapter Twenty-Three
Non sat in Vester’s lap while his Party gathered around him.
Emma, Kimmy, Rachel, and Davis were in a cluster encircling Denny’s sleeping form, so Vester wrapped the lot of them in a cage made of thick iron bars.
They let out noises of shock, but his attention was completely focused on the women at his side.
It took him a moment to resummon his Grimoire, and then he began reading the details aloud to his Party. He found it took a mere whisper of thought to ensure the sound didn’t travel into the cage he’d created. It wasn’t even illusion—he was simply canceling the soundwaves.
And his mana reserve was not happy about it.
Non paused, chewing on her bottom lip and looking unusually solemn. “This could seriously alter the balance of power on Ordinal,” she murmured, though she didn’t seem to be talking to him, “we’ve never had a demigod who was already immortal before.”
“What do you mean d-demigod?” Krysta exclaimed. Her voice squeaked and she coughed mid-word, stumbling for a moment. “Wait, wait, Vester’s a god now?”
“No,” Non replied with a snort and a wave of her hand, dismissing the idea.
“Well, maybe a little,” she conceded, immediately contradicting herself.
“I know Vester has told you that the gods are just beings like you who have gathered more power and ascended to a new plane.” She paused; Vester watched her lift a hand and tap a finger to her chin.
“The biggest difference is quality of energy. Higher planes require thicker, denser energy. If mana on Ordinal is a gas, then the next plane up would be water, then syrup, then clay, then stone… etcetera.”
“Does it just keep getting more powerful?” Kora asked. The kitsune was leaning forward, resting on one of Krysta’s rock-cushions, and her tails lashed behind her in her excitement. Vester noted her ears were cocked in Non’s direction like the Elemental Knight might pounce. “How high up does it go?”
“We don’t know,” Non admitted quietly. “The gods believe the creator of our reality was a dragon-god named Azazel. Legend has it he came from another world after growing so powerful his own reality ejected him. He gathered the souls of those loyal to him—his lovers—and then willed a new reality into existence around him. Supposedly he slept for a thousand years while his harem crafted the first world for their faithful.”
Non turned back to look at Vester, her expression growing more serious.
“The problem with becoming a demigod is that your divine ability is meant to be powered by that denser form of energy. For new gods, you mix faith with your personal mana, and it slowly condenses into a true divine core. That’s the transition point between demigod and god: having a core that produces the deeper well of power you need.
If you overuse your new skill, you’ll be trying to push a waterwheel by blowing at it. ”
Vester grimaced. The worst part about that analogy was how accurate it had felt. The draw of mana through Trickster’s Domain varied wildly—some things felt easy while others, like creating an apple, took a big chunk of his power. “Does that mean I broke my abilities?”
To his surprise, Non burst into laughter.
“Oh, no, no no no, not at all,” she reassured him.
“If anything, you’re far more dangerous than before.
Using Trickster’s Domain the way you used Freeform Illusion and its passives should be almost free for you now.
But your power is reality alteration, which is always expensive.
The more you try to force Ordinal to bend to your will, the more mana you have to expend.
You’re not nearly famous enough to gain any real amount of passive faith, so you can’t enhance it. ”
“That’s why you said level 75,” Li Ra whispered, her eyes narrowing and her expression lost in thought.
“By that level, most Adventurers or craftsmen have built up a reputation. People like Elondolin, Tomlin, Arch Magus Colbert—they’re well known by those in power.
If their reputation gives them… faith… then they could start transitioning.
” Li had paused awkwardly when she’d mentioned faith.
Vester wasn’t even sure the oni realized she’d spoken out loud, especially since she looked completely absorbed with her own musings.
He turned his attention back to Non. “What do you think I can do, reasonably, if I want to stay in a fight for more than a few moments?” Because Vester was more than willing to kill himself to end a big fight if he had to, but he also knew that wasn’t a sustainable strategy.
“Well for one, if you practice your precision, you could use any spell you normally deliver through touch by just willing the spell to interact with someone inside your domain,” Non offered. “If you don’t try to affect anima, you could get away with small changes to existence.”
“Anima?” Reve asked, looking confused. Vester was glad she’d asked, though he wasn’t sure what Non had meant either.
“Anima,” Non repeated, nodding. “Things that have an awareness of their own existence. This includes biological instincts, elemental awareness… planes, animals, constructs, spirits, undead, people. Anima is the spark that separates a golem from a rock, or a slime from a sneeze. A rock isn’t alive, but a rock elemental is.
The difference is anima. It won’t guarantee a thing can do anything with their life force, but it does give them the ability to resist being changed. ”
“I assume the more powerful the anima, the harder it would be to interact with?” Skylar asked. Her eyes went to Ripper, and Vester saw that she’d commanded the golem to curl around her back and form a seat for her to lean against.
“Exactly,” Non agreed. The goddess pointed at Ripper.
“Your golem, for instance, has anima. The more you develop your skills, and the closer they get to true life, the stronger its anima. Those basic-bitch statues most golem makers use have almost nothing, but some golems acquire enough anima to gain sentience, even sapience.”
Oh yeah, Skylar now has a new life goal, Vester thought in amusement.
She’s not going to stop until her golems become living creatures.
I wonder if that would be the next step from Artifice Maker?
Her new class is about reproducing biological creatures in artifice, and she and Krysta got those combined skills to link artificial limbs to living bodies.
Will Skylar be able to do the opposite? Give life to artifice?
Vester’s musings caused him to miss some of the questions his Party had started shooting Non, and the Goddess of Chaos was being suspiciously informative. Normally she’d have given him an enigmatic comment and vanished by now… which led him to asking: “How are you still on Ordinal?”
“Rude!” Non yelled, jabbing him in the stomach with her elbow. “Are you trying to get rid of me already? Besides, I’m not on Ordinal—I’m in the Great Dungeon, which is a nexus between dimensions and thus a gray area.”
“Does that mean you won’t get in trouble from the other gods?
” Vester asked with a narrowing of his eyes.
Then he had to bite back a sigh when he realized the damned mask stopped Non from seeing his expression.
The porcelain was so light, warm, and formfitting it was easy to forget it was on his face altogether.
He was disappointed she couldn’t appreciate his side eye.
“I mean…” Non’s hesitation saw the Party giggle, even Li Ra and Reve cracking a smile at how guilty the goddess looked.
She let out a huff, crossed her arms, and pouted.
“I can be here if I want to,” she muttered.
Then she relented. “Technically I am here for two reasons, because Vester is my Avatar and I’m allowed to interact with him while he’s channeling the ritual, and because gods are allowed to interact with any divine sparks—demigods—so since Vester is both, I can hang out more than normal. ”
‘Hang out’, Vester thought in amusement, she really has absorbed a lot of Earth culture. He wrapped his arms around Non and gave her a tight hug. She went in for a kiss, then let out a loud groan and resumed pouting when her nose hit the mask over his face.
“That’s going to get old fast,” Vester grumbled. “Any idea how we can earn the privilege of kissing?” he asked. Non’s father had mentioned something about Quests, and Vester had accidentally achieved one when he’d gotten Tawny’s blessing, though he had no idea what the other requirements might be.
Non was poking the mask like she wanted to put her finger through it—not a pleasant thought for Vester, since his face was underneath. “I. Hate. You. Already,” she hissed at the Soulbound artifact. “Dad gave me a Quest, but it’s going to be tricky. I can pull it off… I just need some time.”
“What kind of Quest did you get?” Krysta asked. The pandali was leaning forward so far that she had to extend her huge tail out behind her to stay steady. She’d probably have fallen on her face without it acting as a counterbalance. But curiosity had her vibrating. “What do gods do to gain power?”
“Stuff,” Non said with a shrug. “We don’t really have the same kind of interaction with the universe you mortals do,” she continued.
“Most planes don’t have a System for Quests that spoon feed us our development.
I call it a Quest, but really it’s more like a two-part magic I have to master before I can unlock Vester’s mask.
One part is a skill issue for me, a technique I need to perfect.
The other part, however, is satisfying trigger conditions my dad left in the spell.
Functionally, it’s not much different than a Quest. There’s an objective, I have to accomplish it, and to do that I need to do something new. ”
Krysta nodded. “That’s more like the academy of magic I was attending before I ended up reincarnated here.” She flicked an ear, finally leaning back enough that she wasn’t at risk of toppling over, and sighed. “Sometimes I miss that school.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” Non suddenly exclaimed. “Dad says hi and that you were the best waitress at the Bronze Lounge.”
Vester blinked, his eyes going to Krysta. The pandali flushed red, then curled her tail around herself to cover her face. “That was not my fault!” she sputtered. “I just wanted to see the world, and it was just a dare! It’s his fault for having sex in public!”
“Wait, did you sleep with Non’s dad?” Skylar demanded.
The djinn whipped around so fast her braid slammed into the side of Li Ra’s head and almost knocked the oni’s hat off.
Reve reached out with a hand and helped Li get the hat back where it belonged.
It took a second, since the brim had snagged on a horn tip when it was dislodged.
“Sorry, Li!” Skylar said in a rush, then she pointed at Krysta. “Spill!”
When Krysta didn’t look ready—or capable—of answers, Skylar turned that finger on Non. “Goddess girl, spill!” Skylar demanded. Vester choked back a laugh. The look of confused outrage on Non’s face was priceless, and he saw Kora’s lip twitching with restrained laughter.
“Di-did you just tell me to gossip about my dad’s sex life?
” Non gasped. Her dark face had turned red and she looked ready to blast Skylar, or turn her into a frog, or something.
“How dare you!” Non managed to hold the righteous look of fury just long enough that Skylar had begun to sweat before the goddess started giggling.
Non held up a hand, silencing everyone, and the Party went quiet. It took nearly a full minute for her laughter to subside enough to talk. That time was incredibly awkward, no one sure what to say, and Vester had to resist the urge to tickle her until she explained what was going on.
“I did not sleep with Non’s dad!” Krysta had insisted during the laughter. She crossed her arms, her tail covering most of her body, and the way she stuck out her bottom lip to sulk made Vester want to cuddle her all better.
“She didn’t,” Non finally agreed. “Mom told me the story once. She said she convinced Krysta to flash Dad to confuse him, and then a grimalkin showed up to cause some problems. Dad had to bargain with the damned thing to get something back, and somehow that led to Mom and Dad getting frisky on the beach. Your lil pervert over there saw everything, and something about the interaction she eavesdropped on led her to the temporal trap that killed her… and that’s how she got reincarnated here. ”
What the hell is a grimalkin? Vester wondered.
Kind of glad Krysta didn’t sleep with Non’s dad, though, because that would be awkward as hell.
I’m going to put this entire weird story in a box of things I don’t want to think too hard about.
Though considering how many times Li Ra had overheard us having sex before she and I got together…
I can’t really blame Non’s dad for getting caught in public.
“That would have been so weird,” Skylar said. “Also, what’s a grimalkin?” the djinn added, her brow furrowed.
“They’re quasi-divine cats, connected to fae, and they’re constantly causing problems,” Non complained.
“The one who messed with Krysta is named Jareth, and he was competing with Dad’s divine familiar Zuzan for popularity by screwing with residents of a lower plane.
Grimalkin don’t need faith energy, so they don’t have to worry about their reputations…
which means they act a lot more chaotically than most of the gods do. ”
Kora cleared her throat, her milky eyes running over everyone as the conversation drifted to a stop; even Non reacted to her quiet authority.
“While I am very glad to know that Vester hasn’t broken his class, and even more glad to have the benefit of your wisdom, goddess, we do need to focus on the next step of our journey.
I believe we should continue to the island located in the blood elfling city and complete Non’s divine Quest, as well as the secret location Quest. While we likely won’t have the Hero’s Party competing with us anymore, other groups from the Church of Light will be trying to claim secret rewards. ”
Non didn’t speak, though the way her lips compressed suggested she really wanted to. All she did was give a tiny nod. Then she turned her eyes to Vester. “Looks like I get to accompany your Par—” Then she vanished mid-word.
Vester blinked, looking around, but there was no sign of Non. The goddess was gone and the ritual underneath him had gone dark. He had plenty of mana left…
So where did Non go?