Chapter 35: Rules Of Engagement

The world of Orana was large, undiscovered lands were always the corner. The enormity of the world did not stop the gods from starting wars; some were for power other for land, and some even for safety.

At the beginning of the world, when gods had just begun to rise to prominence. Wars would often break out between two or more gods; during these times, the gods would engage in wars alongside their soldiers. The consequences of this action proved too great. In a matter of days, entire civilizations were slaughtered and erased from the face Orana. By the end of most wars during this time in history, only two gods would be left with nothing to their name. Their land was charred, and their people gone, and with their people, most of their power. From these terrible wars rose the [Rules of War] a rulebook made by hundreds of gods and compacted and rewritten hundreds of times over the course of millennia. These rules were to prevent casualties and more specifically, for the malevolent gods, to prevent loss of subjects.

The first rule, A god is not permitted to enter a fight unless directly challenged, in which case, they may only fight with the challenger. The second rule, before a war begins a god must declare war and announce it to the other gods. The third rule, if a god surrenders, he is permitted to flee without fear of being hunted for one month. The fourth rule, a god may not run if directly challenged. A god cannot challenge a god until after the war has been won or if the god in question has little or no land. The fifth rule, gods are permitted to aid their soldiers indirectly through their own spells, but a god is only permitted three spells per battle, passive abilities do not apply to this rule.

These were the original basic rules of engagement. These remained the same despite so many years since their inception. But Generation after generation, new rules were made and removed, many times in favor of larger kingdoms.

If a god breaks any of the rules, the neighboring gods will annihilate the god in question.

“are these all the rules?” Scitus asked Sia, who had been teaching him the basics of war between gods. The more he thought about it, the more similar it felt to the game. The game had similar rules, where one could cast a few spells per battle. At first, you would be permitted one spell and by the end, once a player grew in power, they would be permitted a total of 10 spells.

“These are the ones I know, and the most basic ones”

“So what happens if a god is so powerful that he doesn’t follow the rules.” Sia smiled and said. “We’d all have a single god if that was the case.” If there was a god strong enough to break all the rules without fear, he could easily take over the world, this was Sia thought.

Scitus looked in a random direction and his gaze grew glossy as if his consciousness had disappeared. Sia had seen this once before, he was thinking.

The night was growing long and the ogres and Minotaur’s were still unconscious, but when they wake, Scitus was certain that his kingdoms population would grow to 700. Scitus had a total of 133 soldiers. their training was going well but they were still novices in combat. Even the original soldiers were okay at best. Compared to actual soldiers they were still weak. Their training was incomplete, Robin especially knew this, for that reason he had been training with his core for a long time, longer than most soldiers.

Scitus’s thoughts were interrupted by the elf, who had been waiting for her turn to speak with Scitus. With a small yelp that was probably a cry for help, she startled Scitus and he turned around.

“Young, god about my family.” Her eyes darted from location to location, never resting for longer than a second. Her entire family had been killed the same night everything happened. His eyes turned to Sia and she sighed. Scitus gave her look that told her if it was possible for him to revive the dead, as she mentioned just before the battle began.

“well it should be possible with you, but I don’t think you should be using your mana left and right, unlike us mortals and monsters, Gods mana only regenerates once every month.”

Scitus beckoned a group of goblins, led by Maxwell. The goblins were of the older kind, a few of them were elders of their own tribes. Scitus quickly explained to follow the elf to pick the corpses of her family up. Just as they were leaving, Scitus gave them a strong gaze as if looking for something on their faces. Something was happening to the goblins, there was something different but Scitus couldn't yet put his finger on it, perhaps it was too dark, he decided to worry about it in the morning.

The elf trembled slightly, but with a pat of her cheeks and swipe with the back of her palm, to dry her wet eyes, she guided the goblins into the forest. They carried with them, hammocks made of hemp, purposefully made by the medical team to carry bodies out of the battlefield who were too injured to be carried normally.

“You're going to bring them back to life!!??” her eyes widen, she didn’t expect Scitus to be so willing to expend so much mana for dark elves who didn’t even worship him. She saw Scitus as a calculating man who she would have to wary about in the future.

“If I can.” His response was called but not uncaring. With a firm hand on her waist, she exaggeratedly lowered her body, letting a long sigh out. “benevolent gods.” She said this with a small tone of annoyance but if one looked closely, they would see the one end of her lips turn slightly upward. It was that same mentality that ended the life of the god who had made the microscope, she knew that. Sia also knew that Scitus wouldn't fall so easily. In the month that she had been there, she saw how he trained and showed goblins an enlightened path. The goblins were growing so quickly so well that it was terrifying. Part of the reason, of course, was because one of Scitus’s passive skills was that subjects below certain intellect would have a burst of brain growth, similar to children to who learn an incredible speeds Scitus had sparked life back into the brains of his subjects.

“How do you bring someone back to life?” Scitus asked Sia, his face seemingly unconcerned.

The process wasn't as difficult as casting a spell, especially for a god. For normal beings, Resurrection was many times harder. But for a god who was capable of creation, it was a much simpler matter, though this did not take away from the immense magic power required to revive someone.

“do you know what the soul is?” Scitus nodded. “the soul contains vast information, it is all of us, now and who we once were. it even has information on our past lives. In some cases, a revived person remembers this past life, though that is rare.”

“The point being is that Revival is easy, especially if you have the body. The problem is the imprinting of the memories of the soul into the mind of the corpse.” When a person dies their soul goes through a reset. This reset allows for the soul to be reborn as a fresh slate, without the burden of its past lives. When a person is revived, the caster is essentially tying the soul to a corpse. The soul gives new life to the corpse but as a fresh slate, even if the person has memories of facts and places, they have no memory of who they were and in some cases act like children. The part that takes a massive amount of mana is imprinting memories onto the mind. After that, the second hardest part is restoring the bodies magical potential, to restore it, you need to fill the body with the mana its body held at its strongest point, otherwise, a strong soldier will return to being a novice in the battlefield, his skill would remain, but his magic strength would be gone. “

“That is why revival is costly, and why gods don’t do it for every single person that dies.”

“I need the dark elves, not just because of their ability, but to make future contact with other colonies of dark elves.” Scitus didn't mind the cost, what he needed more than magic power, was allies, he needed as many allies as he could grab a hold of, otherwise, he would lose a war with an established country with thousands of trained soldiers. This is what he told himself, but deep down there was a different reason he had for reviving them.

A few hours past, the night was already halfway over, most goblins had gone to sleep, the only ones left awake were the goblins who had arrived with the corpses. The bodies were haphazardly stacked on top of one another, two or three on each stretcher. The two elves that stood beside them looked as if they wanted to say something, but they didn't say a word. They knew it was simply the fastest way to carry them.

“is there a time limit to revival.” Scitus didn’t turn to look at Sia, he was too focused on the dark elf next to the elf he had come to know. “it depends on many factors but it usually ranges from a week to a year. Though I once heard of someone being revived after ten years of being dead.”

The goblins lowered the bodies in front of Scitus, they were afraid that they would be ordered to a dig a hole next, Scitus only smiled anScitusd told them to rest. The goblins weakly headed to their tents, semi-conscious, sliding their feet on the grass as they walked.

Scitus closed his eyes, Sia told him that he had to feel for their souls before he could revive them. after a few short moments, he saw them. white spirits floating above the corpses, a small white thread tied them to the corpses, Scitus could tell that the thread was growing thinner with time. the next step was to use the mana to grab hold of the souls. Normally he wouldn’t be able to do this, but with the help of the fairies that had remained with him, he managed to grab hold of the souls. The fairies softly flew around the souls, guiding Scitus’s mana to them. once he had grabbed hold of them, he dragged them back down to their bodies. The souls were now firmly locked into the bodies, the next step was to heal the bodies and restore the magic potential. Scitus poured his mana into them, it was so little to him that he didn’t feel any drain on himself. After ten long minutes, the ritual ended and the two elves saw that the chests of their fallen kin softly rose and fell, they were alive again. Scitus open his eyes and looked at the people he brought back to life. Using his left hand, he covered his eyes, Sia looked at him closely and noticed the few tears that leaked from the side of his fingers.

We are the same in that respect, aren’t we? She felt a wrench hit her heart, and her throat grew heavy. She understood the meaning behind his tears, like her, he failed to save the life of someone dear to him.

With that, the long night was over.