CH297

At Ben’s prompt declaration, Myriad could only sigh. “There’s no point, and for a number of reasons too.”

“Cool, you can explain them to me after you teach me then,” He said, ignoring his god’s resistance. “Look, realistically I don’t think I can do anything to help, but I have to assume that they’re either hoping that they can make their way to this universe, that the gods here can somehow prolong the life of their star in their universe, or that we can somehow use our knowledge to help them break whatever cosmic speed limit they’re under, and of those three ridiculous options the first is sadly the most realistic, no matter how absurd it might be. I at least want to know what’s being worked with here.”

The floating cube before him just gently shook, giving off an air of exasperation before doing as his apostle requested, and before Ben’s eyes he watched mana form between them in ways he’d never seen, with a level of detail and care he didn’t think a mortal could replicate.

Not only did he not understand what he was seeing, he didn’t even know how to express most of it in words. There were occasional bits that seemed based on ways magic was cast he understood, with touches here and there resembling various enchanting systems as well, but in the end even then he couldn’t be sure he wasn’t just drawing conclusions that weren’t actually there, with his mind just trying to make sense of what little it could. Worse than that though, the scale of it just kept growing as he struggled to capture what he was seeing in his mind until it towered over him, an intimidating mess that he didn’t have the slightest clue of how to dissect.

“Uh, do you think you could present it in a book for me the way you did your blueprints?”

“I’d have to understand it to have any hope of doing that Ben. Besides, I could show you my blueprints because they were made by mortals. This is magic made by and for gods… Presumably at least.”

“Why presumably?”

“The few gods that used it in the past bought the method from different void gods that traveled through their system, and even then it wasn’t stated that any of them were its original creators. Frankly, none of us up here knows where it came from or how it works, we just accept the fact that it does.”

“That’s… mildly horrifying actually.”

As far as the thousands of gods of this world were concerned, they had access to a spell that let them reach across realities, something the grey hadn’t truly managed after untold thousands of years, and they were using it despite not knowing anything about it.

Well, probably not nothing.

“Okay, there’s no way you guys haven’t looked into it at all, you must know something.”

“Maybe some of the magic gods do, but there’s nothing I can tell you about it.”

At that Ben grinned. “Well well, isn’t it a good thing a goddess of magic and knowledge agreed to answer any of my questions then?”

“There’s no point,” Helori told him bluntly as soon as she understood what he was asking. “I can’t even begin to describe how nonsensical the idea is that this could be used to bring millions of people to this reality. Aside from the mana cost, which to be clear is astronomical, it’s also powered by faith. Multiple gods burned centuries of it to just get the two hundred summoned we have to work with. Even if every god this world has puts themselves to it, we could maybe, MAYBE save a few thousand. Admittedly it’s better than nothing and considering how much the greys have done to try and help this world we’ll happily put in the effort and take the hit to what reserves we have if the world survives, you also have to account for how much we’ll all lose trying to defend the world with the invasion on the horizon. Best estimate is that if we survive everything to come we might be able to save a hundred or so.”

“And that’s nice and all, but I was asking you to tell me what you know about the spell, not tell me why it’s pointless, so if you would?”

“Ugh, fine, it is an interesting enough topic anyway and it does no harm. From what the few of us who’ve taken the time to look into it on a deeper level have been able to figure out, it essentially has a number of parts, though all of them are massively complicated in their own way and bleed into each other on a level we don’t quite understand. For that matter, it’s not even clear which sections of the spell do what, but anyway, we have the part of the spell that opens a hole in our universe, the part that acts as a tether for the god leaving it, letting them access faith and mana even after passing the threshold to use, the part that hides us from any stray outsiders and protects us from the primordial chaos that exists between realities, the part that identifies life-supporting universes, as well as some of their properties, then the part that opens up those realities and the part that brings us back after souls were collected. Honestly, there’s probably more too, but it’s beyond complicated. I don’t think a single god on this world could have created a spell that houses just one of those aspects independently, at least not at the level of elegance this one has, so where it came from is a tantalizing mystery.”

“Alright, I think I got most of that, but what are outsiders?”

“Exactly what the name says, things that exist outside of the universe, or should I say things that exist in the chaos between universes? Either way, they aren’t much trouble for us, but from what the gods who’ve gone outside of the universe to collect souls have said it seems some realities are swarmed with them trying to get inside. Of course, from what I’ve heard the few times smaller ones have made it into this one have been world killers, but there’s nothing we can do about that.”

“…You know what, I think I’m just going to ignore that and focus on the rest. So can you tell me anything about how different sections of the spell control what parts?”

“At most we have theories and none of them are simple. Are you sure you want to spend months of your life learning things that could be wrong?”

“Hey, I’ve got you as a teacher now, might as well put you to use,” He said with a laugh as he stared up at the absolutely massive spell before him, trying to take it all in. “So teach away.”

<MENTAL EXPANSION LEVEL INCREASED>

Ben opened his eyes as they made it to the town of the Sobek, with Thera seeming in better spirits after their depressing conversation with Quilith thanks to the long drive.

“Already ignoring your girlfriend,” She tisked playfully. “Am I just a convenient shoulder to sleep on?”

“Ha, well am I just a convenient pillow during our hunts then?” He asked back, watching her face begin to twinkle as she turned away.

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“Really? I mean sure, you’ve only woken up ahead of me a couple times, but given how often it happens you must have noticed-”

He was quickly brought to silence as she threw her hand over his mouth. “Gods above, enough. I’m never sleeping around you again,” She muttered, mortified by the conversation. She was uncomfortably aware of the fact that whenever they had to camp out for one of their hunts that there was a better than not chance that she’d end up laying on him at some point and she’d been more than happy to pretend that it only happened on days she woke up first. Having it made clear that it obviously wasn’t the case was going to leave her embarrassed for a while.

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“Ha, it’s fine. Anyway, since we’re almost there you might want to keep your staff at the ready.”

“Oh gods, why?”

“Nothing immediate, just seeing how the last time went I feel like there’s a non-zero chance that someone might try to kill me.”