Chapter 26 - The Old Gods

They were being hunted, and the hellhounds were hot on their tracks.

Already they’d killed one of the patrols and had narrowly avoided another, but no matter how far they ran the furious culn pursued them. For two days Trey and his minions rapidly made their way through the mountains, and for two days they slept restlessly.

Eventually Trey hit his stamina cap so many times in a row that he got an entire day’s debuff called ‘Fatigued’ - where his SP was cut in half and his breathing became labored at a much faster rate. So he was forced to slow it down and stopped pushing them so hard.

Rivia in particular was slower than the rest so she spent a lot of time dismissed into her nether realm, only to be summoned inbetween traveling or sporadically during the walks to at Napoleon’s request. The only one she really bonded to quickly was Napoleon, and otherwise she really didn’t talk much. The young culn woman didn’t like being sent to the nether realm, saying it was lonely and dark, but it was obvious she didn’t like being around Trey or Atharost either.

That next night after a slow monotone trudging throughout the day, they set up camp along a dark river winding its way through the mountains. Surprisingly enough, there were actually trees here... though they didn’t look like any trees Trey’d seen before. Long wiry leaves protruded from the bulbous gnarled branches and grew to be the height of the redwoods in California. Rivia had been adamant that this area of the mountains was safe for a fire, so taking her word under oath was good enough for Trey; and they easily lit a fire to ward off the cold.

“So… Rivia.” Trey muttered, pulling his hood down to where his horns protruded as the firelight flickered across his body. Shadows scattered in the background with every movement he made, putting him on edge. “Are you sure you know where the gates out of Oblivion are?”

The demoness nodded anxiously, pushing her hair out of her eyes but not making eye contact. “Yes. It will not be much longer, maybe another day or two of traveling by foot. The gates are not always open, we will have to activate them when we get there. That… could take a while if we don’t have the right reagents. But even if we don’t, it will still open if we activate the gate from this end.”

This answer was acceptable, so Trey dropped the subject afterwards. Rivia wasn’t overly friendly with him and it was highly likely that he’d killed either her friends or some of her family back at the fort. Not that he gave a shit, the bastards deserved what they got. He even smiled to himself thinking about the massacre that had occurred there, and frankly he couldn’t believe he’d gotten out alive. Not to mention the spoils-of-war hottie he’d procured and the ifrit badass who was now a minion of his. Trey’s luck was finally turning up for the better.

“So am I the first Earthborn any of you have come across?” Trey asked as a generalized question to everyone.

Rivia nodded, as did Atharost and Napoleon.

“Yes…” whispered Talsh’Noc’Un, otherwise remaining silent.

‘It appears that your kind is a rarity.’ Sithis remarked curiously. ‘It is strange to me that the All Spirit refers to all of this as a game though. To me, this is the only life I’ve known. I feel alive. I feel real, and I assume that the others feel the same way. To classify us as… what was it? NPCs? What does that even mean?’

“You were here for the explanations too, Sithis. You should remember.” Trey blinked a couple times trying to rid himself of a piece of ash that had floated up out of the makeshift fire pit. Cursing silently he succeeded and roughed up his hair. “NPC means ‘non player character.’ It’s a term we used to describe people that aren’t real but are still a part of the game, run by AI or Artificial Intelligence. In some circumstances the NPCs will have a preset list of options to choose from in a very limited way of conversing.”

“That’s all buffoonery.” Atharost spat irreverently to the side. “The All Spirit said that’s what we were? Really?”

Trey shrugged. “I mean, yeah. Apparently I’m supposed to be in some sort of alternate reality ‘death game’ where we all fight for our lives, but more updates on what exactly this all entails will come in later months. Or at least that’s what the system notifications said. You all seem real enough to me though.”

“Perhaps… this is how the old gods view us?” Rivia suggested softly. When the others looked over to stare, her eyes went back down to the little imp she was holding and she began stroking behind Napoleon’s ears nervously.

Napoleon was enjoying the attention a little too much, giving off little purring sounds. The tiny imp was reminding Trey more and more of a house cat.

“The old gods?” repeated Trey. “What or who are they?”

Atharost and Rivia both looked shocked, and even Napoleon gave Trey a look like he was an absolute idiot.

“They… um…” Rivia clasped her hands together nervously and twiddled her thumbs. “Uh… you really don’t know?”

Atharost burst out laughing and Napoleon snorted, turning around in Rivia’s lap to adjust for a more comfortable position.

Trey merely sighed and placed his chin on his knuckles. “Please fill me in, if you wouldn’t mind, Rivia.”

“Um… ok. I’ll do my best… but I don’t remember all of them…” Rivia replied timidly. She cleared her throat one, two, and then three times before she worked up the courage to speak again while trying to avoid any and all eye contact. So there… I um… I think I’ll give you the short version, if that’s ok?”

“It'd take hours otherwise. Give him the short version.” Atharost agreed bluntly, laying back along the dirt next to the fire and crossing his legs.

“Sure.” Trey stated, motioning with his hands for her to continue and get on with it.

She took a deep breath and adjusted the black silk robes adorning her figure, looking up to the dark, starless sky in thought. “There are many different pantheons of the old gods. Don’t get them confused with Numen though. Numen are powerful beings that many cultures worship and work with prayer the same way gods do, but are much less powerful than a god. The old gods are on a scale that we cannot fathom as lesser beings, with their influence spanning different dimensions and across many worlds. Both the Nirvana Worlds and the Labyrinth Worlds are influenced by them, and the All Spirit is the most powerful of these old gods ever since Vehendratir, The Creator lost his mind and put himself to death.”

Trey held up a hand and interrupted her. “You know about the Labyrinth Worlds too?”

Again, Rivia looked confused. Her gorgeous features contorted and she raised her eyebrows. “Of course… why?”

“According to the prompts I had, the ‘Nirvana Worlds’ are supposed to be the ‘Beta’ for this… game. A Beta is kind of like an incomplete unperfected version of the actual release game, which is supposed to be the ‘Labyrinth Worlds.’ Apparently, the Labyrinth Worlds are supposed to be opened up whenever this Beta ends.”

Trey shrugged at the confused look Rivia gave him.

“Um… well... to my knowledge the Labyrinth Worlds are accessible even now.” Rivia said quietly, still petting Napoleon’s head to try and settle her nerves. “They are supposed to be plagued with creatures called the ‘Spree’ though, and in the past: the All Spirit quarantined these Labyrinth Worlds away from the Nirvana Worlds to keep the thirteen Nirvana realms free of the spree. That… is how the legend that I was taught goes. In order to access the Labyrinth Worlds, you need to travel there from one of the extra dimensional realms… Like here in Oblivion. The Void, Hells, Heavens and Spirit Realm are all realms like this one where you can travel to either Nirvana realms or Labyrinth realms.”

Now it was Trey’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure that people can travel from here to the Labyrinth Worlds?”

Rivia looked uncertain. “That... is what I was told. Though I have not personally been outside of this realm in Oblivion before.”

Trey glanced at the ifrit, and Atharost just shrugged.

“Alright Rivia, please continue on about the gods then.” Trey placed his hands further towards the fire and rubbed them together to keep warm. Another blast of cold wind chilled him to the bone seconds later, and he scooted even closer while wrapping his cloak around tightly.

She sighed at his request, but quickly tensed and looked to see if Trey’d seen her reaction. After she realized he hadn’t cared about it, despite catching her in the disrespectful act, she calmed down and relaxed her muscles.

“There are different pantheons or groups of gods,” Rivia began slowly. “Some gods don’t belong to any pantheon at all, these are called ‘The Outcast.’ They are gods that stand alone, and different texts that I’ve read talk about how there are likely somewhere between 15-19 of these Outcast gods… but not all the reports were able to be verified by the scholars and priests over the years. It is possible that some of the stories were fabricated. The Outcast also include the All Spirit, but because the All Spirit is by far the most powerful of all the remaining old gods - it is deemed as a separate entity entirely.”

“After The Outcast is a pantheon of gods called ‘The Infernal Crowns.’ There are four of them, and they often don’t get along... but they have banded together in their shared hatred of the light. Alkir, Mistress of Darkness is the goddess that I personally choose to worship. She is one of these Infernal Crowns. She has even blessed me with one of her miracles due to my faith… but getting back to the point, they are a group of gods aligned to the black magics. Alkir is worshipped by much of demonkind, as is Jehema, the Wrathmaker. Omastein, Sire of Devils is the same. Then the last of the Infernal Crowns, Tilukt, Bringer of Plagues is worshipped by many of the large undead factions.”

Trey raised a hand to interrupt again. “Wait, so that miracle ‘Immortal’s Infernal Blessing’ that’s specific to Alkir… she gave it to you?”

Rivia nodded, proudly even and smiling for the first time since he’d seen her. “Yes, I woke up one day and she’d gifted it to me after five weeks of fasting.”

“Did you talk to her?” Trey asked, intrigued by the information.

To this Rivia shook her head, her smile fading again. “No… to be able to talk to a god or goddess would require you to be in much higher standing than I am. The most I experience now is occasional dreams, directly talking to a deity would require a pledge. Priests and priestesses or other followers of the faiths are often given trinkets of abilities from the higher powers as a way of persuading them to follow that particular god or goddess. The deities feed off of prayer, and their priests and priestesses spread their words to convert others. The ones who have received pledges usually have high amounts of divinity points that the gods can draw on. For me… because I am a lowly priestess and only started studying scripture a few years ago, I have only had one goddess take interest in me. However... I am glad it is Alkir, for when I grow stronger and more devout in faith I will no doubt choose her as my patron goddess.”

“What’s a pledge?” Trey asked. “Sorry about all the questions, and thanks for taking the time to answer them.”

“She doesn’t have a choice…” Atharost muttered with a wicked grin.

Rivia ignored the ifrit and genuinely smiled for the second time ever in Trey’s presence. “You are welcome, master. A pledge is what you do to claim a patron god or goddess. When you grow devout enough and strong enough to undertake a pledge, either the All Spirit will contact you and let you know that you have the chance to do so… or one of the other deities will contact you directly if they are especially interested in you. Until this pledge it is very rare to speak with any gods or goddesses, and obtaining a pledge and a patron deity is a great honor.”

The culn woman stuck a hand into her silk robe, shuffled about a bit and then pulled out a small black book. It had a leather exterior and was very worn, bound by a strap around the middle. Rivia held it reverently and rubbed her thumbs over it with a look Trey’d never seen the girl have before.

“This book is called: ‘Alkir’s First Unholy Writ.’ It contains her scriptures and her commandments, but it is only her first book. Because of my standing in her order, I was only given the first of these writs... but I was supposed to get the second writ soon. Studying and learning the prayers and rituals in these books can allow me to learn more miracles… if I ever get that far!” Rivia said with a silly grin, then the grin faded and she put the book away. “I took it… before we left the fortress. It is important to me, and I wish to continue learning from it… if it pleases you.”

“By all means!” Trey remarked, curious and even a little excited at the idea that she’d be able to learn more miracles. “So just to repeat things and make sure I understand them, if I collected more of her writs would you be able to learn more miracles?”

“Of course!” Rivia replied excitedly, suddenly quite eager and leaning forward. “I would love that! It would certainly give me the opportunity to learn, but it would take time. The books hold rituals too, each ritual can do different things. I haven’t learned any rituals yet but I intend to learn them as I go. I currently know of one in this first writ that allows me to sacrifice another sentient creature to Alkir for a permanent increase in a stat amplification of my choosing! I’m excited to try it!”

Rivia was so pretty, and she seemed so enthusiastically happy talking about this that it took Trey aback when she admitted that it would need a sacrifice. The demoness smiled widely, displaying rows of perfect white teeth and emitting an aura of joy that made Trey gawk. Especially because she became this way over learning a potential ritual… that was downright evil.

“Is that so…” Trey muttered under his breath.

“It is!” exclaimed Rivia, now enthusiastically scooting closer to him and taking out her book again. She set Napoleon aside and opened the book by unlatching the leather strap. “I’ll be able to use it on you too! The ritual could be used on anyone, and I almost have it down! I’ve tried it a couple times and was able to feel Alkir’s presence, but the ritual would always fail at the end. If I’m able to keep trying and finally understand what I’m doing wrong, I’ll be able to do it whenever you’d like! Wouldn’t that be nice!?”

“Uh huh.” Trey said with a flat tone, arms folded and eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“My father let me try it on a couple of the slaves we had, but he was usually the one that finished it off because I would always end up failing.” stated the gorgeous culn girl with a shrug. “The part where the heat is taken out of the living victim and the soul is consumed by Alkir’s realm… I can never get it right.”

“... Your father was a priest?”

Rivia nodded to Trey’s question with another wide, brilliant smile. “Yes! He was one of the priests you killed at the fortress, but if you hadn’t done it then I likely would have anyways! He was a cruel man and murdered my mother years ago. Thankfully her soul is with Alkir though, so if I become devout enough I’ll be able to converse with her!”

She was so, so happy as she spoke the words... and her physique was perfect. Trey was captivated, torn between how amazingly pretty she was when she smiled and the fact that she was one bloodthirsty bitch.

“How are rituals different from miracles?”

Rivia laughed at the comment. It was the first time he’d seen her laugh. “Rituals don’t require an attribute. To use Dark magics or miracles I must have the attribute, while rituals are directly sourced to the gods. Would you like me to tell you about the other pantheons? Or would you like to read some of Alkir’s First Writ? It’s fascinating!”

She placed the book on his lap, but Trey just handed it back with a shake of his head. “I’ll leave that stuff to you, and I’ll definitely try to get you some more of those writs. But let’s just continue on with the quick, basic information for the other pantheons if you don’t mind.”

Napoleon started to snore on the ground where Rivia had placed him and Atharost chuckled at the sight, but didn’t say anything. He was content just to listen.

Rivia on the other hand openly frowned at his lack of enthusiasm about the first writ. She crossed her long athletic legs and sat indian style, moving slightly closer to Trey so that their shoulders occasionally touched. Trey wasn’t sure what she was doing and why... but he didn’t mind, and therefore didn’t comment. He’d assumed she’d outright hate him after what he’d done, but apparently that wasn’t entirely the case?

“Your minion Rivia has increased its opinion of you from ‘Terrified’ to ‘Wary.’ Your minion still suffers a 15% experience decrease due to it remaining in the negative category.”

The voice of the All Spirit filtered through Trey’s mind to cause him to grin. Yes, it was still in the negative category, but it was a hell of alot better than being ‘Terrified.’

“Do you think I’m weak?” Rivia asked suddenly. The concern was obvious. “I know that some summoners decide to… they use us as an exchange…”

The last statement confused Trey a lot. An exchange?

“I think your miracles are very helpful.” Trey said cautiously, the concern fading from her face to be replaced with another smile. “You… you don’t seem nearly as upset about being taken as I thought you’d be.”

The smile dropped again and she tried to speak, but the words wouldn’t come. She tried to speak again and still they wouldn't come. This was repeated a third time and she was now becoming outwardly nervous.

“You cannot directly lie to a master.” Atharost said evenly.

The culn woman froze, now turning out a look of fear as she glanced Trey’s way.

Trey just sighed. “Just tell me the truth Rivia.”

She said nothing.

“Do it now.” The last word was laced with anger and the contract compelled her to speak.

She stammered going into the sentence. “I-I didn’t… hellfire… I am scared of you. I… I even hate you. I am upset that you would attack my people… I’m angry. But part of me understands why you did it. I saw your body, hanging up in the feasting hall before you showed yourself again…”

Trey nodded for her to go on without blinking, remaining stone-faced.

She looked fearful as the words were spoken but eventually they picked up. “You attacked my home, killed my friends, broke my nose and arm, then forced me into a minion contract. You took me as your minion, a slave. Summoners are not known to treat their minions well, at least not in the stories I have heard. I am… I am afraid that if you tire of me... that you will sacrifice me for power.”

Trey was taken aback. “You can sacrifice your minions for power?”

Atharost gave him a snarky look. “Yes... you can. You don’t know much about being a summoner do you?”

The ifrit laughed at Trey’s expression and motioned lazily for the girl to continue.

She exhaled sharply, now very nervous. “I didn’t realize you didn’t know…”

“And now you REALLY think I’m going to do it.” Trey said flatly, a smirk coming on.

“Well.. it wouldn’t surprise me. I cannot fight and you killed many of my people. It is apparent you think little of our lives.”

Trey just rolled his eyes. “Play stupid games and win stupid prizes. If you don’t want a madman running through your house killing people, don’t kill him first.”

Atharost sputtered a laugh at the comment but Rivia didn’t find it funny at all. Napoleon just kept trying to sleep, being curled up next to the fire. Napoleon had been sleeping a lot lately and Trey felt bad for the little imp, having exhausted him through their trials quite a bit over a short period of time.

‘Capitalize on her fears to spur her to greater lengths.’ Sithis said internally, not letting the others hear. ‘It will push her harder. Unless of course, you really do want to sacrifice her. She doesn’t appear to be a kind person given what she’s told us. She was planning on murdering her father and sacrificed slaves for ritual practice.’

True enough.

So he played the part. Whether or not he would do it would truly depend on how she behaved, now that he knew he could sacrifice minions for power it really opened up a whole new avenue of retribution for ones that were assholes. If she really had sacrificed people in the past, then her value as a person went way down in his book.

“Well that all depends on how much you please me.” Trey said truthfully with a thoughtful head bob. “If you do well, then I’ll keep you. If not, you’ll join your father and mother in death. Sound like a fair trade?”

Rivia nodded anxiously with a forced half-smile. More than anything, she was just trying to avoid making him angry. “Yes! I am just glad to be given a chance! Thank you master, I will not disappoint you!”

Over the next two hours she described the other established pantheons of gods she knew about. This included primarily what were called ‘the old gods,’ and ignored the ‘new gods’ that would occasionally pop up only to be squashed and deep-fried by the ones who’d been there longer. The death of these ‘new gods’ was almost guaranteed 99% of the time, because the older pantheons didn’t want more contenders to deal with and acted swiftly to bring them down.

To finish off the information on the four Infernal Crowns, they were almost always opposing other gods of all sorts outside their pantheon. So often in fact that it was hard to keep up with their edicts on who the new enemies were. When they weren’t waging wars or casting plagues on the civilizations of other gods, they were stealing and wreaking havoc against one another. Didn’t sound like a solid alliance to Trey, but who was he to judge? Two of the four infernal crowns: Alkir, Mistress of Darkness and Omastein, Sire of Devils in particular had a longstanding feud over something called the ‘Orasmus Stone.’ Both of them were heavily worshipped by demons. Jehema, the Wrathmaker, was worshipped by both the Demon and Fallen races, but moreso by the Fallen. Tilukt, Bringer of Plagues was once an undead himself prior to ascending into godhood and is one of the two most common figureheads for undead civilizations.

Then there were The Fae Mothers, 2 sister goddesses named Avastia and Netitzi worshipped by the fairies and the vast majority of elves. They were almost always at odds with the celestials as well as the infernals. It interested Trey to know that the Fae and Elvish races hated the angels, he hadn’t expected that one. He understood why they’d hate demons and undead though and at least that matched up with his assumptions from lore back on Earth.

Next up were The Holy Trinity. When he’d gone to church as a child, back when he’d been religious, the Holy Trinity was the father-son-ghost combination. Here however, the Holy Trinity was a group of 3 gods aligned with the celestial powers. One of them was called Jehavis, while the other two were named Weouix and Juez. They tried their best to truly do good and bring happiness to the mortal races, but in the past millennia Jehavis had been lost to his worshipers - losing contact with everyone while Weoux and Juez failed to confirm what had happened to him.

Another pantheon of 2 celestial aligned gods were called The Alminost. Borendel, Sire of Light was absolutely hellbent in his vendetta to purge demons entirely from existence. Vetria, Mistress of Light was Borendel’s wife and was subservient to his wishes. These gods were purists, and after Rivia described them Trey got the impression that they were ruthless cutthroats that tried to destroy or subjugate everything that wasn’t angelic in nature. They thought the celestial angels were the purest forms of life, along with all the angelic-associated creatures, and they especially hated the infernals. Many of the crusades from the Heavens that lead to the genocides of demon clans or species came from edicts passed on by The Alminost. Trey was surprised to learn that these gods also sent crusades out into the Spirit Realm to attack and enslave the fairy races… which in turn explained why The Fae Mothers despised the celestials.

The Buddhas were a pantheon of two pacifist gods Rivia couldn’t remember the names of that were geared towards helping whoever prayed to them regardless of species or affiliation to light and dark. Rivia didn’t know much about them and didn’t have an opinion, she just knew they were influential in certain parts of the Labyrinth Worlds and Nirvana Worlds.

The Eternal Spirits had once been powerful elementals that had ascended to godhood. They were an enigma to the rest of the pantheons and it was thought that there were 7 of them, but nothing solid was known about their motives or philosophies. The only thing that was known by most was that they existed, and their priests would usually vanish soon after making the pledge. Many who chose the path of the shaman or elementalist would often contact them for greater power, some of whom would succeed to become prominent figures in the histories of the worlds.

The Forgotten were a pantheon of 5 gods with a small cult following that’d vanished without a trace thousands of years ago only to reappear in the last century. They were said to have left to try and find relics of the creator, and it is uncertain whether or not they succeeded. They rarely spoke with any of the races, but when they did... catastrophic events would usually occur immediately after.

Other than that, Rivia covered some of the prominent gods that had no pantheons: part of the group labeled outcasts. Jer’akak was a very well known god devoted to the undead. Jer’akak had been offered a place within the Infernal Crowns but had declined, the reason for this being unknown. Nipherestine, Watcher of the Everliving Grove, was usually a neutral goddess that handpicked worshippers and focused more on improving her grove in the afterlife than she did anything else - with the main goal of creating the perfect paradise. Iseliaz, Fairborn was a god championing Humans, Merfolk, Gnomes, Dwarves and other mortal races having pitied how the higher powers often ignored them to fend for themselves or even preyed on them. The exception to this was Elves. For whatever reason, Iseliaz didn’t like elves very much and it wasn’t understood why... but scholars and holy men often thought that it was because the Fae Mothers put the elves on a pedestal and made them out to be superior. The greenskins and beastmen often worshipped Heieititi, which was a warrior god that was said to have fathered the greater breeds of orcs and goblins in ages past. Lastly, there were a small number of other established gods or goddesses not worth mentioning by name that didn’t have as much of an impact or didn’t insert themselves into the lives of lesser beings... but occasionally they made an appearance that signified their existence.

It was all a lot to take in, and by the end of her lecture Rivia had slightly opened up to Trey… but not by a lot. He also got the unnerving feeling that if she ever got her way: she would stab him in his sleep.