The high inquisitor was kneeling down. In front of him was the man second only to the pope, high cardinal Arcaden, an Archmagus!

"Speak", Arcaden said.

"Object of great concern has been recovered from the cultists that worship God of Lies. A godless mana system!" The high inquisitor replied immediately. He sent forth the crystal with godless mana system floating towards Arcaden. "It was taken from a common cultist, several others were discovered. I believe it has already spread widely, if such people have it. Even if it turns out it can still be destroyed completely, this is a great concern. If someone was able to discover such method, someone else will be able to do so again."

Arcaden looked at the crystal for a moment.

"How curious method", he replied casually. "To think until now no one has discovered it." He then tossed the crystal back. "Have it studied. You are right, its out. We must know how it works in detail. How can we discover who have used it. Can we prevent its use somehow. Start random searches. Slow down the spread if possible." Then he turned his head slowly to the side. "Do you have anything to add, Yarreth?"

Another person seemingly just appeared from dark corner of the room and floated towards Arcaden and the high inquisitor. Another Archmagus.

"A godless mana system", Yarreth said. "I would like to meet the clever person who came up with it. Hand over the crystal for a moment."

High inquisitor did as ordered.

"Haha, are you going to use up some of that hard collected fate mana?" Arcaden said to Yarreth. "Yet, perhaps this is better use than the other ones that pope warned you of. Have you continued those studies?"

"I'm best at its use", Yarreth replied calmly. "As for this case, who else is going to find out who made it? You? You only sit here and try to break the limits of humanity? Are you perhaps going to secretly use this new mana system to do so? Even if you found its creator would you even do anything?"

The two old monsters were casually insulting each other. The high inquisitor was sweating hard. Such words were not usually so carelessly spoken. Yet, he dared not ask whether he should leave.

"Hoho", Arcaden laughed and rubbed his chin a bit. "Such interesting suggestion, but unfortunately I just tried, if it could do so. This is regrettably not the case. Will you have better success with your studies of fate, hmmm?"

"If you want to see, shut your trap for a moment, yes", Yarreth told Arcaden. For some reason Yarreth decided to start educating the high inquisitor. "Do you know how fate works? Every action causes brances of other actions. Even slightest change can cause chains of events. Yet, there are things that will always happen regardless what chain occurs. Well, at least within reason. Fate can be altered, avoided."

The high inquisitor listened as he watched strange mana appear from Yarreth's hand. To look at it was almost mesmerizing, like waking dream only to shudder free from it moments after.

"That is the future that most people think of as 'fate'", Yarreth continued. "As it happens, these branches that came to be also are fate. Things that already happened in the past. They have occured and no chain will change that. Again, within reason. Time mana, for example, can potentially alter it. At any rate, these chains can be followed back, but only to its start and its end. What is in between is only a mess of chains that the one we follow caused with its existence. Complex. Too complex. Human cannot follow these. Otherwise one could know nearly everything."

Around at that time the fate mana started to order itself into a shapes around the crystal containing the godless mana system.

"Here, as I hold this crystal in my hand, we are at its end point", Yarreth said. "I can look where the fate of this godless mana system started. Who was there at the moment of its creation. The first chain."

Yarreth's eyes started to glow with the same dreamlike appearance as the fate mana.

Arcaden was casually leaning down on his chair. He had sort of grin. Why? The high inquisitor couldn't tell. Perhaps he found something in the explanation amusing. He became a lot more serious at the moment Yarreth started to shake and sweat.

It seemed as if Yarreth was holding some enormous weight upon his hand. Like the crystal suddenly weighed too much for him to bear. He fell to his knees. He still tried to hold the crystal up. His body was shaking and shuddering at the exertion. Then Yarreth vomited blood and the fate spell seemed to end as the crystal clattered on the floor and the mana floated away, disapearing from the inquistors senses.

"A shame", Yarreth muttered. His blood disintegrated and disapeared as if it was never there. Only a moments later he was standing similarly, as if nothing ever happened.

Crystal floated back to the high inquisitor's hands.

"Yes, research it", Yarreth said. "This one is ... interesting."

"What exactly happened there?" Arcaden asked. This time he seemed far less casual and no mockery in his voice. The result was clearly something unexpected.

Yarreth seemed to stop to think for a while.

"At first I followed the chains as usual", he started to explain. "Nothing could be said from those. Then as I followed the main chain, it suddenly became... straight. Completely straight and thin line. No chains at all. No events tied to it, yet thin, as if it was just created. Very long such chain." Yarreth pondered for a while. "Despite that it is as if it suddenly just appeared, it is old. Ancient. I cannot look that far. It was created in such ancient past and then ... nothing. It interacted with nothing. Nothing interacted with it. Its next chain is in our time. As for how old it is. Beyond my age at least. Perhaps it predates the empires . Perhaps it was made during the cataclysm."

Arcaden frowned.

"Could it be that this is an early mana system created by the ancients before gods came to set the world back in order?" Arcaden wondered. "Did they start cultivating mana before gods taught it to them? That would be interesting change in books of history."

"I cannot say", Yarreth replied. "The great remnant was open just recently, yes? The one in Murika. Its old enough. Perhaps someone discovered it in there."

"Investigate everyone who survived it", Arcaden told the high inquisitor.

"Yes, high cardinal!" The high inquisitor replied. There was a potential lead. To spread the order also gave him an excuse to get away from the two monsters. Even if it didn't seem they would continue hurling insults to each other. The high inquisitor didn't wish to have any part of that.

Yarreth and Arcaden watched the high inquisitor scurry away.

"There was one thing that concerned me even more than this anomaly", Yarreth said after the two were alone. "As I glimpsed the chains to the past, I could sense some great mass of fate just beyond my ability to see in the future. Something big is coming."

"Others have sensed those occassionally", Arcaden pointed out. "Rarely if ever we even know what it was about. Perhaps some remnant collapsed in some hidden dimension taking along with it something significant."

"This was different", Yarreth said and started to walk away. "Perhaps the pope should be informed."

"As you know, he in solitary seclusion", Arcaden pointed out. "He is not to be disturbed."

Yarreth shrugged. "Well, I'm going to watch and see what happens. I will not be caught unaware."

Then Yarreth seemed to disapeared in similar manner as he appeared.

Arcaden pondered the situation for a while quietly. Then he took out a red crystal orb. Suddenly an image of a person appeared on it.

"If it isn't the high cardinal of the wrong path, Arcaden", the person in the orb said. "Could it be that you have changed your mind about your gods?"

"I'm not here to argue religious matters with you, Sactus", Arcaden replied. "As I recall, its your people who were left at the great remnant after the dust settled once all the fighting was done. We examined our people for everything valuable. So, to me, it seems you have let something very dangerous escape from that place. How does a godless mana system sound like?"

Sanctus frowned hard.

"Explain", he then requested.

Arcaden told Sanctus everything relevant about what was just discovered.

"This thing might have just popped up from any remnant!" Sanctus told Arcaden after listening. Then there was a moment of silence. "But yes... it seems reports indicate that some of our people seem to have perished recently out there. It should have been basically closed at that point, though. At any rate, you have a point. This matter concerns both of our sides. I will act as neccessary."

Arcaden didn't like Sanctus. It was far more than them being on other sides and having different religious beliefs.

Arcaden sat down and sighed. "This is going to be a mess."

-----------------

Kaden rested for a few days. As always, he didn't wish to lounge about when his wounds had healed enough that they no longer bothered him. Due to this, the sings of battle still existed. The exhaustion was gone and pain was minimal.

"I need to get going", Kaden thought as he looked towards the desert. "I don't want stay in this wasteland for long. I'll try to fly over it as soon as possible."

Kaden had already seen many beasts pass by him. No Lower Cari or higher, though. Despite it being a desert, the number of beasts was still higher than in human territories. The beasts took a wide berth around Kaden, as usual.

It might have been just a matter of time until something strong came. What would happen then was questionable, but Kaden didn't want to try, if possible. He knew there would be plenty of fights, but he wanted to be better prepared and understand the Cari culture and systems before he acted.

Perhaps some Cari acting as a local overlord was keeping their descendants around and all that. Like human nobility.

It was just a good idea to see how things were before making big moves. Obviously Kaden was going to kill everyone who attacked him, but he wouldn't be the one to do so first until he knew the rules. If there were any, that is...

"There should be", Kaden thought to himself. "Humans wouldn't have so many troubles with Cari, if they were uncoordinated barbarians."

There was also the matter of beast gods. He still did not know in detail how beasts and their gods worked. Humans had known about it for ages and had it recorded up, but basically everyone lacked the actual direct experience.

"They probably are just like human gods", Kaden muttered to himself as he casually started to preen his feathers. "Deceptive bastards that leech off from mortals."

Then again, of the actual beast gods, Kaden knew very little. There was the dragon god. Only beast higher god. He did know that phoenixes had their own god, again, only what he knew as 'phoenix god'. If they had any names, Kaden had never really discovered them. It seemed humans didn't really care to note that sort of information. It was likely stored somewhere, but with no need to be seen by just anyone, it wasn't available.

Speakin of the phoenix god. It seemed some of the special Cari had one. Was this how it worked for beasts? Be of chosen race, get blessed?

Kaden for sure had not received any blessings, but nor did he worship this god. He pondered for a moment, if it would be possible to reject such a blessing, if this god decided to attempt handing out one. Perhaps he could discard it, such as blessed mana. He decided to think of it later.

The others species? This Kaden had heard to be roughly 'be strong, worship a god, if that god likes your strength, get blessed'. Perhaps worship some pathetic minor god and hope to get something.

Kaden's understanding was very shallow view on the surface. It was what humans cared to note of beasts and their gods.

To Kaden this seemed like a beast wouldn't care about using the godless mana system. It's not like it would stop them from worshipping their gods. It was just extra. As far as Kaden could tell. Yet, it could be seen disrespectful.

"Parasites or not, this method makes more sense, I think", Kaden had to admit. "Humans give a lot and only expect to get some crumbs from their gods. Beasts grow strong on their own and then, if the gods cares, they give some crumbs, if the said beast shows them some loyalty."

One could say the something like it existed among humans too. Such as the churches. The most loyal and devout members would receive huge gains. At any rate, Kaden was going to burn all that down. Perhaps it would turn out that, whatever Cari had, needed to be burnt down too.

Yet, it might be impossible to hurt gods directly. Beings of concepts. To get rid of all worship was likely a fools errand. Perhaps turning it into something more sensible could be achieved. Such as making the parasites to work hard for each morsel of worship.

"Sure they are powerful, but they decend upon the mortal world so rarely", Kaden thought. "Perhaps there is some limitation even they cannot deal with. They could otherwise directly control the entire world."

Kaden stopped those thoughts there. As a mere mortal, he had no idea what limitations gods might have. Perhaps even the churches didn't know. As long as they didn't descend upon him and annihilate his existence, Kaden didn't really care. The gods might exist, but if they never showed up, it was their followers he had to care about, not the beings themselves.

With his feathers in order and feeling ready, Kaden left his hiding place and flew towards the desert.