The Vukanovi traveled furiously, and Li spent much of the night simply watching the screen projected within the pumpkin creature while everyone slept. Asala was the only one that stayed up, not needing to sleep as much as the others and acting as a guide to Li.

She made sure he traveled across the Midpath that her goddess had created so very long ago, in the dawn of magic. For even here, through the desolation wrought by the Triforge's world vein draining, there were still remnants of the Midpath that once guided mortals from the western continent to the southern and vice versa.

"Stop here," said Asala as she pointed to the screen. Her black, sharp nail poised itself at a diadem shaped indentation in the ground that still managed to glow with a faint white light. All around it was just wasteland.

With the Veinheld's destruction at the Triforge mountains coupled with the scorched earth tactics of the demonic invasion of the Third Darkening had left the vast stretches of land from the Triforge all the way presumably to the Shibboleth a desolate, lifeless waste.

But land that Li covered restored life everywhere, and though for now there would only be the occasional patches of green shooting up through the life parched earth, that was just the beginning. Like a rolling stone gathering mass, this initial burst of life would proliferate exponentially, and soon enough, life would return to this emptiness.

And with it, Li realized as he commanded the Vukanovi to stop by raising his hand, the necessity of something like the Midpath to guide mortals once more.

Outside the Vukanovi, Li stood by as he saw Asala slither towards the diadem indentation. The indentation in the ground was massive, easily capable of fitting in an elephant within its bounds. She lowered herself close to the ground, putting her hands slightly above the line in the cracked earth where the indentation began.

"What exactly are these?" said Li as he watched Asala restore the Midpath.

"Access points for divine power," said Asala. She closed her eyes and held in her breath. Her hands trembled, but as they shook, the light in the indentation began to intensify. "Mine goddess may channel her might through these points, and in doing so, the Midpath shalt once more be restored."

"Interesting," said Li. He knew that the three great gods were trapped in Valhul, unable to interact with the mortal world, and yet, it seemed that to a degree, the mortals themselves could still tap into their divine power.

Li saw as a jolt of light arced from Asala's hands like electricity, tapping into the indentation and causing it to grow ever more intensely. Countless sigils and runes became visible throughout the indentation. A whirring sound began to emanate and wind and pressure swirled up in a pillar-shaped vortex.

Sand began to manifest out of seemingly nowhere, sucking into the vortex and beginning to fill it out like colors filling out a sketched outline.

"Ah, so it seems like you simply channel a little spark of divine energy which activates the power dormant within the runes and sigils carved throughout the indent in the ground. Much like car keys starting an engine," said Li.

Asala raised a brow. "Car?"

"Something like a golem," said Li. He had slipped up in referencing the modern world. Probably because lingering thoughts still remained about //BEAST// and his past life. "Do not think much of it. The point is, I understand how this works."

"Hm. I shalt one day convince thee to enlighten me of thy vast stores of hidden knowledge," said Asala.

Li watched as the sand solidified into an obelisk that towered a dozen meters into the air. Runes and sigils started to line its length, and each letter glowed with a different but equally bright color that cut through the night.

So it seemed that the gods could leave 'access points', but that name was misleading. Nobody was accessing the gods themselves. Instead, it was more like the gods were leaving behind tools and trinkets that needed little shards of their divine energy to act as something akin to authorization codes.

Made sense, considering how distant the gods seemed to be in Valhul. And yet, there was one instance that Li still remembered.

"Asala, how is it that your goddess can see through your eyes?" said Li, recalling the incident when he had first met the Serpi, when they did not have any trust with each other and how she had attempted to cast divine magic that Li stopped.

"Ah, that," said Asala. She squirmed a little, embarrassed. "Forgive me for that outburst, twas' unsightly. But to answer thy query, it is such: the sisters of the sands hath a strong connection to our goddess, much, much stronger than any other race of mortal.

For it is only among us that Zahaka shares the brunt of her blessings. For the other gods that hath spread their power among many, even splitting their strength among varying forms to reach a greater breadth of peoples, divine might is spread thin, less concentrated."

Pride leeched into Asala's voice. "Alone among the races of this world do the sisters of the sands hold capacity to commune with a great god."

Asala then looked at Li and scrambled to correct herself. "Ah, nay, not alone. Thou art in direct communion with a great divinity as well."

"No need to worry about it," said Li. "I just find it interesting. So Zahaka can actually talk to you? And you can talk to her?"

"Nay, our communion is not as great as thee," said Asala. "Once, perhaps in a cycle, the sisters may receive whispers from Zahaka. We feel her presence whenever we cast our magic or call for her aid, but it is faint. See through us, mayhaps she can, but even that is rare – only when we doth channel a great amount of her divine might do our eyes light with the great serpent's wisdom, allowing her to see through us.

And as a high priestess, I am few among mine sisters that the great serpent even holdeth the privilege to use such might in the first place."

"I see," said Li.

The obelisk, now fully solidified, emanated magical energy, lighting up a glowing white path that stretched far behind it and far in front of it, indicating a path to the Shibboleth.

Li looked up at the sky. He figured he could get back to Valhul by tapping into his eldritch side. No, in the very first place, he came to realize now that he was better attuned with his powers, that was why he had been transported there in the first place.

Using eldritch power made him an anomaly in this world. A shifting mass of spatial and dimensional uncertainty, and the world had acted like a white blood cell fighting off an infection, immediately quarantining Li away.

Maybe, if he returned, Zahaka would have by now found out a way to free herself and the other gods from Valhul.

But did he want that?

Li glanced back at Asala, watching her clasp her hands together and close her eyes in front of the obelisk as she whispered a prayer.

Certainly, there would be many that would be happy the gods would descend. The gods might even help to right this world, surely dismantling the elves or helping against Noctus. Li knew Helios would gladly take up arms once more to fight his brother.

But no.

Not now, at least.

The three great gods were extreme variables, and their power challenged Li, and if he wanted to order this world as he wanted it, he could not have other deities interfering with him. A simple matter of competition.

If it came down to it, if he needed allies against Noctus, if he needed the gods to rally with him to restore peace, then he would not hesitate to try and free them.

But until an absolute necessity arose, he would hold off on it.

Not to mention there was no real guarantee that he could even free them without significantly deteriorating his sense of self by breaking the laws of space and time with his eldritch powers.