《NO STRINGS ATTACHED》CH. 42
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Lera: Nothing to say? Really?
Shen: I was just thinking back on what you said. It brought me some memories of times long gone. That aside, all this speech is very pretty considering what you did to us.
Lera: ...All couples have their tussles.
Shen: Not all couple tussles end up with one of them being sealed for years. I believe it is something that doesn't exist in many places.
Lera: We both know that I wasn't the one to seal you. Nor did I ever want to.
Shen: But you were the trap.
Lera: I was the bait. That's different. I have been a victim too. They hunted me down, Shen. Over the entire world itself.
Shen: Yet here you are.
Lera: We know that they could have never killed me. It takes something they don't have.
Shen: Divine power. I know.
Lera: And I know you have them. Which is why I came here to ask for your help.
Shen: How could I have divine power? I am no God.
Lera: You are no God. That's true. But you stole so many seeds already. I can feel them. And i doubt I'm feeling everything.
Shen: ...I always felt like Titans could feel them. Now I am sure of it. Well then, what to do with you now?
Lera: Help me.
Shen: Or I could kill you and use your body. Giant flowers of your size make for a material usable for a long time.
Lera: What would you even use my true form for? A titan's dead body is, as its name implies, dead.
Shen: We were planning to fill up our ranks with a priest.
Lera: ...Holy shit. For real? You built them from dead titans?
Shen: So, considering I have a very rare material next to me, what should I do~?
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He took her hair in his hand and smelled it. The flowery scent both a wonder and a delight. The truth was as such. He could kill her and he was likely the only one in this world with this ability at the moment. And, if she died, she would return to her true form of a gigantic rafflesia. Her corpse would be big enough to use to craft a few more puppets.
Lera: I hate when you tease me with my own death. It's not sexy. It wasn't before and it still is not.
Shen: I'm sorry, I always had a certain attraction for the macabre.
Lera: Well, Atem certainly lives up to it.
Shen: True.
Lera: Back on topic. Stay here. Help me. Love me.
Shen: No. I have goals to reach.
Lera: You have already met them all, Shen. Stop lying through your teeth for once. I can see right through you. You have reached the end of the quest long ago. You just don't want to accept it.
Shen: Would you?
Lera: You know, you never told me what you found.
Shen: It might be better this way. For you and for me.
Lera: So, let me guess, you found that you could never go to the underworld with becoming a god but you could never become a god without having been to the underworld?
Shen: No. I found that there was neither.
There was a long silence before Lera began to hyperventilate. She slowly but surely asked:
Lera: What do you mean?
Shen: The Gods you Titans always thought you served... They never existed. Chimeras.
As he said so, he pushed the cover of the bed and sat. Then, he plunged his right arm inside his chest creating some sort of portal in the middle of it. When he took his hand back, there was a losange-shaped crystal in it. It was an amalgamation of colors moving erraticaly. And it was filled with a power like nothing else.
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Lera: ...A complete seed...
Shen nodded and sighed. He turned towards the window and looked at the sky. In this world, there were seven moons floating surrounded by thousands of stars. Then, he told her:
Shen: You know my story. But only a part of it. What I didn't scrub off when I built the other two mostly. Seeds, you see, are nothing more than a cumulative agglomeration of Chaos and Order formed through residual Magic that escaped from other seeds. Seeds that had already formed worlds. I saw how a world was born, Lera. It was just a seed like this one drifting in the void and slowly creating things as it diffused mana.
Lera: Are you serious?
Shen: Am I? The seeds left alone are strangely only able to create randomly. Which is why all worlds differ. There was Chaos in their Order. You, Titans, were a creation of it. After the world is stabilized, meaning the seed reached its maximum creation capability for its shell to stay afloat, natural laws appear fonction of the world itself. Is there water? Lava? What are the atmospheric components? How about the gravity and the outside void? So many factors... But regardless, the first thing that is created after all this is sentience. Not external but internal.
Lera: The seeds are alive?
Shen: I had always wondered why they were called seeds, you see. Turns out they were alive in some ways. With a single thought though. A basic survival instinct. Which means that you were created. As the world stabilize, the fruit, has matured. It starts working on its internal protective system. Antibodies and such? Anyways, it starts populating itself with living beings like itself. At first, to protect himself. Then, once one of those beings grasp consciousness, grasp what it means to be oneself, it learns. It learns that it can get more from them.
Lera: You can't be meaning...
Shen: Faith. What is faith? It is a transcription of the being's wishes. And it contains their essence, the essence of who they are. Something that the seed can consumme to grow the fruit further, boosting its immune system alongside with.
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The Last Breath
When Yezzu first sent his sons to the realm of men, they brought with them the magic of the gods. They created the three kingdoms we now have today being Dremshen, Ex'ol, and Kantillion. In the five thousand years since the gods left, much has changed. Great wars were fought, Universities were built, civilizations were created. One thing remained after the gods' departure though, their powers. Today, the balance of crafting the three gods brought has shifted. In the beginning, each had the same skill as the other, but the magic that was passed down through the millennia has diminished. The struggle for power that started long ago is coming to a defining moment. Plots of war and assassination are being weaved. Don't despair, for we may yet be saved from the disasters to come. Our hope lies in three young crafters. The first is William Divus, who sets out from his small village into the Dremshen Kingdom to study crafting after his father's passing. His questions about his father and his quest for knowledge drive him. Next comes Ehzahn Obasi, an Ex'olian thief with unparalleled skill. He steals for the thrill, no longer needing the rewards that come with it. He has just achieved his lifelong dream, but he will soon learn how much he underestimated the fallout from his daring theft. The last is Ki Soru, the niece of a powerful duke. She showed promise with crafting at a young age, so she had the best training the Kantillion Kingdom had to offer. Ten years have passed since her lessons began, leaving the king unsatisfied with the results. Her life is upended when her new teacher arrives, revealing a secret kept from her that changes her whole life. These three are our heroes. They were born in separate kingdoms under vastly differing upbringing, but each with their own part to play in the challenges to come. Here begins our tale of mischief and misery with only but a sliver of hope.
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