Chapter 87: Before

It was the 24th of February, year 1 of the guardian calendar and ever since the Meeting Of Gods, both sides had been at relative peace. The two gods had a vague idea that the other was planning something but neither could see into the other's plans. Mern couldn't send spies as his kingdom was not only small but comprised entirely of monsters, while Scitus had already infiltrated Mern's kingdom through his own methods but he couldn't overstep his bounds as he knew Mern would quickly discover his plot.

Although the two were at war, the two had made an unspoken peace during the winter, both knew that neither could afford a war during the winter in the oasis. The winter was even harsher than Scitus had expected, it had forced him to slow and completely halt some projects as he needed the excess energy to provide massive shelters for his people, much to the envy of many races. The Lamia, Medusa, Harpies, and Duergar were all protected underneath his massive spells which further solidified their alliance while the Fairies were indirectly aided by Scitus as they used the "divine world tree", as they called it, to shield their entire territory from some of the more terrible disasters such as void twisters which had ravaged their homes in the past.

The wyverns and wyvern queen made a temporary home within Scitus’s territorial boundaries during this period which terrified the citizens but after a while felt more secure having wyverns essentially guarding the outskirts of their kingdom

The godless had gone quiet, they had lost Rea, their only way of defeating Scitus without heavy losses and the winter hadn’t made it easier on them. They went quiet but rumors spread here and there about a big commotion and loud noises coming from inside the dead zone territory, these rumors were spread by the spider’s lesser relatives by his command. The purpose was unknown but Scitus worried the spider was attempting to get Scitus to free him from his prison and so ignored the rumors.

“you’ll regret this.” The spider said with an internal grin filled with mischievous amusement. “you’ll regret it and come begging for me to help.”

Terra had gone dormant ever since they last spoke, but rumors trickled down and soon there were talks about terrible trembles near the Lizardman territory. Scitus often suffered terrible seizures during this time as he was forced to suppress Terra's memories from invading his mind and soul. Sia continued to act strangely but only Seresa noticed her strange behavior and although she wanted to bring it up to Scitus, she never did do to her own personal embarrassment.

That winter no monster in the kingdom went hungry or died from starvation, they were content for the first time in their lives. They didn’t know at the time of the terrible thing that would happen. They didn’t know that, what would later be known as, The Battle Of The Mournful would soon take place and change their happy lives for the worse.

"it's painful to read this," Scitus said as he read the Book Of Gods which seemed to reveal unread pages whenever he went back to read it. At first, the book had only been 100 pages but now it had 100 chapters including things that he personally learned. The book had written down the things he had come to understand in the way he understood it; perhaps it was for future readers of the book.

During this time, Scitus had been looking for a specific passage, “Trials by gods” was what he was looking for or so Sia told him. She had actually found the page, but it was impossible to show Scitus as the book seemed to only function for the ones holding the book. She didn't know that the only reason she had found it was because she had some prior knowledge of what it was. Even so, Scitus did not relent and continued to discover new pages and with each new page, he felt a painful migraine which Sia called, "spell sickness. All magic is difficult to read and requires a certain mental fortitude which you can artificially increase with the use of mana but I digress. Soul magic is particularly dangerous because of that, instead of mental fatigue, the reader begins to suffer from soul fatigue instead which basically feels like someone is stabbing you in the soul. Not a pleasant feeling. ”

Sia continued to train Scitus but he was unusually slow to pick up some basic concepts while completely understanding other more complex subjects. Slowly, Scitus had begun to gain control of his power and began to learn more efficiently, during this time he even created his own spell.

“mana orb?” Sia said with a grin that she desperately attempted to control and when she couldn’t any longer, she used her pretty delicate hands to smother her giggles. She looked upon the strange glowing rainbow ball with fascination, “well it can certainly make for an interesting decoration.” She said between bursts of quieted giggles.

With a sharp remark here and there Scitus explained its purpose. "it may not be valuable to you but for a vampire?" he said with a sharp gaze that ridiculed Sia's lack of foresight. Sia raised her lips like some pompous aristocrat, "Hmmmmm. Indeed, indeed, it may be useful to those folks." Although she now understood its purpose, she couldn't help but throw in her own jabs to save herself from the shame.

Scitus created a few hundred mana balls and handed them to Eveline. They were a gift for her or rather a method of allowing her to separate from Scitus for longer than a few hours. Her mana hunger had only grown ever since her starvation and there was no known cure for her illness but Scitus could afford it and Eveline was a valuable warrior for him as her unique ability acted similar to a fairies anti-magic field. "I can't eat all magic but most creatures don't know how to contain all the mana inside them so I can usually feed off them even from a few meters." She said with a cold grin.

Through all of this Scitus continued to read the Book Of Gods and it was on that day, the 24th of February, that he discovered the Trial By Gods which would inadvertently lead to the terrible event that followed. He had found shortly before speaking to valentine who had already returned to his more human appearance though it was obvious even by the naked eye that he was many times stronger than before. Even Robin and William could not hope to match up with Valentine's strength. "it felts as if some divine power flowed through me but it wasn't like yours, this one felt more," Valentine took a moment to find the words right words, "like a proud parent lifting his child in sheer happiness." He finally said. Sia who was there during the conversation said, "I see, so those old fairytales are true." She said with an enthusiastic tone as if her childhood dreams had just become reality. Scitus looked at her with pleading as if asking her to explain and she did. "there are 12 true gods in existence, the mortals like to call the true gods who created monsters The Great Evil Kings. The Great Evil Kings are said to have created all monsters, both celestial and non-celestial and unlike The Mortal Gods who allowed mortals to freely grow, The Great Evil Kings placed a limit to Monsters. Monsters are very strong at birth and can grow many times stronger, but they can never, no matter what they do, go above the rank they are born with. They can naturally gain ranks by being exposed to highly concentrated mana however this is a false rank up, it only remains for as long as the monster remains close to the source of mana. ” She looked to Scitus as she said this. "but one time I heard a story of the kobold king. It's about a kobold who had his tribe attacked by humans, he took it upon himself to fight the humans even though he was no match, even though the kobold knew he would die, he fought. He fought so that his family and friends could escape. Finally, as his body stood like a guardian over his tribe's sacred grounds a burst of energy entered the kobold's body, his mortal wounds sealed themselves and he regained his strength. The Kobold then managed to single-handedly defeat the human invasion. The kobold created a kingdom that he ruled over for 140 years until his death. ” Sia noticed Scitus was thoroughly unimpressed, she pouted and said. "a kobold's life span is only about 60 years."

"Oh," was his only response. Scitus had grown accustomed to her fanciful stories that she loved to tell, Seresa was the most entranced by these stories and as she was always close to Scitus and so she was often there when Sia told her stories. Seresa's eyes shined with a brilliant innocence. She was like a child with a basket of dolls heading to her evening picnic party.

Sia and Seresa got along very well like this and on occasion, Hera would sit through one of her stories though she simply wanted to understand the overall culture of the world.

"We are derailing for the main point here." Scitus finally said as a group of kobolds and other monsters began to provide them with dried meats and hot herbal teas so the 5 could make themselves comfortable and rest. On a normal occasion, Hera would have pretended to drink and eat but her body was simply too weak to do those things and so she simply got up and left.

Scitus continued, “Serasa,” she suddenly jolted back from her stupor, ”I want you to gather all the core leaders and any people you or the core leaders fined worthy. I putting all of you through a trial and hopefully by the end of it, all of you will be stronger." Seresa nodded and bowed before she left to find the core leaders. "If I can create trials to make by citizens worthy then perhaps, I can help them grow into higher ranks," Scitus said to Sia. "having a higher ranking monster army is nothing to scoff at that's for sure. Even if your population is a lot lower than everyone else's, your armies might serve as an equalizer. ” Sia said with a firm nod.

"While they are in their trials, I think I'll finally go for that gift that was left for me." Sia smiled and said, "you never said anything about a gift left for you?" her eyes shined with curiosity. "I didn't feel the need to," Scitus said as he roamed with his divine sight and searched for a suitable area for his trials. Once he found a free area, he began to cast the [Trial] spell which used god energy to cast.

Immense explosions of colorful powders and divine trees appeared and disappeared as the spell formed a block of would which layered itself and slowly revealed a door. Once the door had been completed, Scitus lay down with a case of mental fatigue but despite the pain, he was happy to have successfully cast the spell.

"The book says it will take a week to even a year to complete a trial, just a fair warning," Scitus said as he guided about a dozen people to the door. Among them was Robin, William, and all the other core leaders. Some lesser-known people were Meralith who was already close to becoming a leader of a core and Alexander was there too who served under the royal knights, formally the spartan knights, which was led by William. William had taken note of Alexander, especially during the War Games.

Sia looked at Scitus with some concern, “you’ve been using a bit too much mana lately don't you think?" she asked with a mild and awkward smile. "perhaps, but these are necessary for our preparations. Hera told me that Thoth has encountered some unforeseen variables during the winter. I need to make our army stronger before I can enact our plan otherwise it will simply end in a pyrrhic victory." The dozen or so goblins entered through the mystic door wat before vanishing from the world. "Seresa, you go too." Seresa dropped her pen and paper as soon as her ears heard these words. Her ears twitched slightly as if wondering if they had heard correctly. She looked up to Scitus who was no longer as tall as he had once been. "but you need me here." She wanted to say. Her eyes turned to Sia who had begun to stand unusually close to Scitus. Sia hadn't been standing much closer but even so, Seresa took note and she didn't like the emotion welling up in her chest. "Jealousy," she told herself. "I don't like it," she said as she stepped down from the small hill and headed toward the door. Scitus watched her go down with a downtrodden step but he didn't know how to cheer her up.

Finally, just as Seresa was about to enter the trial, Scitus said.

“When you return, you’ll no longer need to be protected by those you wish to protect.”

Scitus had been right, more than he knew at the time.