Tony blinked in disbelief, staring wide-eyed at the notification. “I think my sword ate him.”

“Your think your sword WHAT?” Auren shouted. “How?”

“Well, I just got a notification that my Dreadblade consumed an Ascended Soul and leveled up a bunch. I didn’t-”

Awards Amended!

Quests Completed: Crimson Guard Duty

Sidequest: Whack-a-mole Completed! Check your Quest Log for rewards!

“Never mind, there it is, notifications about quest rewards.”

“Closing in on Ichor-Seeking Blade are we? Any specific intentions with that talent?” Auren’s tone sent a chill down Tony’s spine; his voice was cold and detached.

“Yeah, introduce my sword to Ignacious’s face, a lot.” Tony tensed. He didn’t like where the line of questioning was headed. He’d made the decision on the fly and it seemed like the best option.

“Check your rewards, we’ll talk about this after you sort yourself,” Auren ordered, turning his back on Tony and crossing his arms.

"What do you mean 'sort myself?' You're the one that's got me out here on a one-man crusade against the Cadre of Judgement!" Auren scowled at him from over his shoulder. "Of course I'm going to bee-line for Ichor-Seeking Blade, I'm going to need every advantage I can get to stand a chance, let alone win."

Auren whipped around and advanced, jabbing his finger into Tony's chest. "And what happens after? What if you win? You kill Ignacious, suck him up in that doom weapon, then what? You'll just ride off into the cosmos, never to be feared by mortal or god?"

Tony hesitated for a moment. He hadn't thought that far ahead, what would he do? What would be expected of him?

"Why would anyone fear me after all this? Ignacious is the one out there terrorizing the known universe, if we win, all of that stops. How do I become the bad guy after that?" Tony slapped Auren's hand away and shoved him. To his surprise, Auren staggered back a couple of steps.

Auren glared at him, scoffed, and stormed off.

Your Social Link with Auren has suffered

Yeah, no shit, Tony thought at the system as he willed his menus to open, focusing on his Quest Log.

Quest Rewards:

Crimson Guard Duty: 1200 XP | Select a Dread Knight Gear Piece!

Gauntlets Helm Cuirass

Tony focused on the Helmet option. He had nothing in his helmet slot and an improvement there would go miles. He was presented with two options:

Visage of the Forsaken: A faceless armored mask, once worn by a fearless swordsman Rarity: Unique Quality: Exceptional Defense Rating: +5 Slot: Helmet Effects: +15% Bonus to Stealth and Disguise Activated Abilities: 赤い川を走る “Run the Red River”

As appealing as a bonus to anonymity was, given his chat with Auren, stealth was way out of his wheelhouse.

The Doomed King’s Helm: Armor of a king who led his men into battle, knowing he led them all to their deaths Rarity: Unique Quality: Exceptional Defense Rating: +10 Slot: Helmet Effects: +5% Defense Rating vs Projectiles Activated Abilities: ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ “Come and Take Them”

Tony elected for the latter and a spartan-esque helmet appeared in his inventory. He hadn't interacted with the Inventory system before now, as most of what he had, he was wearing. The base inventory was limited to sixteen slots. The items inside were manipulated by will alone, meaning that if he had health potions or other consumables inside, he only had to think about using them to do so.

Tony willed the helmet out of his inventory and it dropped into his hands, prompting a system message to appear in the center of his vision:

Equip Helmets outside of Combat?

Yes No

(Any effects or boosts will be in effect outside of combat)

Tony selected the “No” option, the helm equipped in the formerly empty helm slot. He felt stronger, sharper, more aware, and decided that he would go over his character sheet with a fine-toothed comb later. The Pauldron had activated at the start of combat and made up for some of the gaps between Tony and Tolik. The disturbing thing was that the Pauldron had activated on its own. Upon examining the Pauldron of Vengeance, he noticed that there was no trigger, no command word, just plus twenty defense rating and level counters.

Level counters? What are those for?

Tony cruised through his character sheet; there was still so much he didn’t know about the game. What was Essence? What do Sagas do besides try to kill him? There hadn’t been time to sit and figure it all out since he arrived "in-game." Everything had happened so fast; it was a lot to take in.

Not actually being in a game, but having all of the same functions of one, having scores of powerful beings out for his head, the other two hundred allies that he was supposed to have had been killed by Tolik, allegedly, and D had sacrificed himself so Tony could live. For what?

Tony could feel a tightness well up in his chest, a swelling that was a tell-tale sign of a full-blown anxiety attack waiting to rock his world. Rationally, Tony knew he needed to take the time to break this down, process it, and accept it, but he didn’t. He put it in a box and stashed it for later.

As much as Tony was furious with him, Auren was his only source of information, and besides Maximus, the only one on his side. Even if the God couldn't, he needed to be the bigger person and make things right between them.

The Lord of Auras was not hard to find. Tony closed his menus, and a few paces away, Auren's footprints had started to scorch the steel flooring. A couple of halls and turns later, Tony found him in a control room, reviewing the damages to the Flagship's systems. Judging by the sour look on his face, he was either still really pissed at Tony, or the damage was severe.

Not one for subtlety or great skill in starting the conversation, Tony led with a question that had bothered him for a while now, “Auren, what was D the god of?”

“Hmm?” Auren looked up at Tony from the terminal, his mind coming back to the moment. “Demnas was the God of Ascendants.”

“Wait, what? I thought the Ascendant Program was a new thing?” Tony couldn't tell if he was more confused or concerned by the revelation.

“New in implementation, not in concept. D was the first that we pulled through and into a compatible body. Thinking back that far, it was kind of strange. He took to the Program so fast." A note of nostalgia rang through Auren's voice.

"Were the two of you close?" Tony asked.

"Very," Auren started. "A decade after his Ascendance, Demnas went even higher, deifying. We didn't even think that was possible, but once we thought about it, an Ascendant becoming a god wasn't that strange. Demnas believed in the Program, not just beating Ignacious, but restoring freedom to the cosmos.”

“We?”

“Yes, Morkhan and I,” Auren answered.

“Morkhan, the Sage?”

Auren chuckled. "Morkhan has not been addressed as 'Sage' in more than two thousand years, but yes the very same."

Godmaker had been his go-to game, the first game he had ever gone full try-hard completionist on. Tony could feel the wheels turning in his head. There was more to the current situation, something that he wasn't seeing.

“Auren, how ‘true’ are the events that happened in ‘Godmaker?’ Like, is that the recollection of the war against the Titans or something more?”

“They should be pretty spot on. We used the game system’s onboard tech to turn play hours into ‘worship’ to leverage against the Titans and preserve the cosmos. While, yes, it was a 'retelling' of the war, the prison that the Titans are locked away in requires a lot of Essence to keep them there." Tony paced and nodded along with Auren's explanation.

“Did you know about the secret endings?” he asked, not looking up from his point of focus.

“There were four I think-” Auren looked up and away, counting on his fingers.

“There were five,” Tony corrected.

“Five?”

“Yeah, if you had Ignacious in your party for the final battle, and had his Guile higher than his Strength stat and a maxed-out Combat Trick Tree, there was a secret ending where Morkhan gave him the Mantle of the Gods. The net went crazy after it was discovered, and if what you’re saying about the worship-tech or whatever kept working after the battle against the Titans, that would explain why Ignacious has so much power for being such a shit-head. In all of the other endings, you were the one given the mantle, not him,” Tony rattled off.

Godmaker had gotten a random content patch more than three years after the release of its final DLC; no one could figure out what it added. Hackers that tried to access the game files in the content patch on the server-side ended up with wiped saves and the members of the Godmaker community who dropped leaks when new content released had known nothing about it.

Auren shook his head. “I wouldn’t be surprised that Ignacious would pull something like that, he is a vain asshole, but Morkhan was the one who stalled Ignacious so we could get the Ascendant program off the ground.”

"Who else has access to Ignacious and the Program?"

"I don't like where your head's at, Tony," Auren warned.

Tony ignored it. "Even with Tolik here as a mole, I have a hard time believing that if your fighters have long-distance cloaking that the Flagship doesn't, or at least a way to stop transmissions from leaving the ship from unknown frequencies? It would make sense that Morkhan's clairvoyance would let him keep tabs on you and report back to Ignacious-"

"Enough!" Auren shouted, Battle Aura flaring. "I will tolerate much from you, Antonious, but I. WILL. NOT. TOLERATE-"

Maximus barked, utterly halting the momentum of Auren's fury.

Soul Download Complete. Respawn Commencing. Warning: Spawn Table has been damaged. Please socket Genesis Pod to start Respawn

The message blinked on the terminal screen and repeated.

Soul Download Complete. Respawn Commencing. Warning: Spawn Table has been damaged. Please socket Genesis Pod to start Respawn

WARNING: Respawn Systems Critical. Current Queue will be lost without repair. Current Ascendant Souls in Queue: 227 Progress of Current Spawn: 17%

You have been offered a Quest!

Shepherd of Lost Souls: Find a way to get the Spawning Tables back online

Rewards: XP | Unseen Ally Background | Ascendant Military Force

Tony accepted the quest that popped up in his vision without reading the description. "Shepherd of Lost Souls" gave him all the context he needed. The quest arrow popping into his vision after accepting was all that he needed to take off at a full sprint.

That son of a bitch was bluffing, Tony thought. Tolik had managed to kill the other Ascendants on the ship, but he hadn't been able to kill them. Tony looked down to the sound of soft pads and claws tapping on metal; Maximus was keeping up with him easily. He couldn't help but smile.

The small dog met Tony's gaze for a moment, looking at him with all of the unconditional love that only a dog can have for one person.

We're gonna be just fine.