CH926

In those first milliseconds, Ben did all he could, pulling the rest of the adventurers with him into his head to tell them what he’d found and how that was going to change their plans while also not bothering to call out to Myriad, instead directly sending a part of himself to his god’s realm and connected to him to force the deity’s perception of time up to match his own.

“We have an emergency.”

“We already had an emergency.”

“Okay, a worse one! I was wrong. Mostly wrong. Wrong where it mattered.”

“Ben, take a breath.”

“Foast isn’t under anyone’s control,” he told his god, ignoring that advice. “At least, not in the way I’d been expecting. He’s become a demon.”

“Alright, I need you to explain what you mean by that.”

“The thing he was out to hunt? He killed it. Easy, no problem because of course he could. He’s a third tier and he’s decked out in some of the best armour I could make! The problem is what he killed and how it integrated with him. God, does this explain where at least some of what I’d been assuming was PTSD was coming from and why he couldn’t get past the sorrow?”

“For my sake, please try to think and speak in a somewhat linear manner.”

“Foast absorbs souls,” Ben went on as he started to pace. “Everything he kills becomes a part of him, which normally seems pretty fine. I mean, as fine as something like that could be once you get past all of the pesky ethical issues that comes with it, but demons are different. They’re natural soul magic users and hell, I’ve seen firsthand what using their souls could mean! You remember the first time I tried using a demon’s soul with an enchanted beastform skill? It took control of my arm and tried to kill me and that wasn’t even for one of the sapient ones! Meanwhile, Foast has been killing who knows how many, adding them to his collective soul each time and basically slowly infecting him like a toxin building up that finally reached its tipping point! All of them, every demon soul that’s ever become a part of him has been leaving a strain on his mind and soul and then he went and absorbed one from a demon that was a contender for their soul magic of all things and, like with the demon and my arm, it took over but completely. It looks like it has access to everything Foast was as far as memories go but it’s absolutely the demon contender in control and lucky it, because it passed the step where it needed to awaken first and jumped straight to godhood!”

“Oh, empty skies,” his god muttered, the weight of what Ben was saying inescapable. “I have to ask, but are you sure?”

“I’m the greatest mind reader on the planet, of course I’m sure! Which just leaves what to do.”

“…Ben, I’ll set up an emergency meeting and inform the others, but there’s only one thing you can do.”

“I’m not killing Foast.”

“No, because you also have to seal his soul away or condemn it, whatever choice is easier on you,” Myriad told him, his voice showing an equal level of disdain for the idea that Ben felt hearing it. “We can’t have a newly ascended demon god on the planet, especially not one like that. If what you’re telling me is right, then even if he’s been taken over, he is Foast too and he is globally known. I don’t know how much, but he’ll immediately have access to faith and it might only get worse from there.”

“I’ve got other options to test out.”

“And how sure are you of them?” his god asked. “Ben, it’s in his nature to absorb souls of the things he kills and we don’t know how that’s going to present itself when he gets up here but if I had to suggest the worst-case scenario, if he kills a god then he’ll absorb and become that god too, gaining access to whatever faith and domains of power they have to make him immediately, substantially stronger. Maybe strong enough to kill more too, repeating the process. Getting their names and divinities and sources of faith from their worshipers, it would be a chain reaction where every kill would make him significantly more powerful to kill even more until no one up here would be able to handle him, and then what? This planet is left with a singular demon god of everything and the mortals of this world are left to see what that means for their future?”

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“Don’t know, but I can tell you this. Sealing his soul isn’t a guarantee when he’s a shapeshifter. Sure, I can do my best to shove a soul crystal in him, he has some exposed bits of flesh around the far too good armour I made him that I’m already going to need to contend with but if he gets it out of him without me knowing and we kill him, then he’s instantly going to be your problem. That makes killing him a far worse choice than trying to find another way.”

“Which still leaves condemning.”