CH866

He was back at Pelenia’s residence by the time the god he wanted answered, Ben left sitting outside to stare at the buildings as he waited, only perking up to the sound of Nare’s voice in his head.

<Myriad said you were looking for me for something? What can I do for you, Ben?>

Alright, so this is kind of a tough ask and if you don’t want me to then I won’t, so just keep that in mind.

<An immediately worrying statement.>

Yeah, maybe. You know I brought back one of your people with me when I came back from the demon world, right?

<…I do. Where is this going?> The god asked him, sounding far more serious now that a believer of his who’d been left to go insane for thousands of years was being brought up and was at the crux of what Ben had wanted.

He and so many others are being sealed away right now for their own safety as much as anyone else’s and I haven’t been able to do anything to help them until now. I’ve tried talking to them and I’ve tried strengthening their minds with my own but nothing was able to fix the things they went through. Now though? I just spent the morning figuring out how my mind break works by testing it on demons and I can destroy memories with it-

<And you’re hoping that destroying memories of their time on the demon world will be enough to stabilize their mind.> The god finished, with Ben nodding in the world below.

Basically. It’s a bit more than that, I’ll also be trying to strengthen their original memories too, kind of forcing them to mentally relive their lives if I can and with eldritch mind it shouldn’t be hard but this is the best shot I’ve had so far to genuinely help them.

<And then what are you asking me for?>

Permission. These people, I can’t just leave them like this but compared to anything else I’ve tried, this feels like it will leave the biggest room for problems. I don’t know what deleting thousands of years of experience from a mind will do to a person. Compared to the tests I was able to run on some demons, I have no clue if this is going to be safe for them but the only way to know is to try but… It’s not like any of them are going to have any surviving family to consult about how they’d feel about this, they only have you. So Nare, knowing there’s going to be some risks behind it, may I please try to help one of your believers?

<Mmh, you know, I really wasn’t prepared for a question like this when I started the day.>

I know but I don’t know who else to ask. You’re one of the first gods on the world, right? That means your world was invaded early enough that if there are going to be some negative effects for this, they should present most strongly in the ones who’d been held the longest and you’re the god I’m close enough to to be comfortable asking. If you’re against it then I won’t. There’s always a possibility that some other option will present itself if I have more time to work through it or I can get Myriad to look for other gods who’d be willing.

<…You can do it, if anything goes wrong then the guilt can lie with me.>

I wasn’t asking to pass on the blame, Nare. I just want to do the right thing.

<I know, which is why you’ll be guiltless. Do it, Ben and if it doesn’t work then at least make sure you learn all you can for the experience.>

Alright. I hope I’ll be able to give you some good news.