《Myth Online》Chapter 65: Branding karma
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Isis's main body sat within her marble room, quietly meditating when suddenly she opened her eyes. "Hmm? Zaran is summoning me? Now that is something new.
Hmm I could the shard of me that is on earth visit him but... it'll be more fun if I personally visit him."
She stood up and casually gave a flick with her left hand which caused a golden-coloured portal to open before her, which she immediately stepped through.
A golden-coloured portal appeared before Zaran and Isis soon stepped through it.
"Oh my, summoning me in your room? With the door locked? My my... how daring." Isis said as she seductively walked to his bed and laid down on it. She softly patted the bed and invitingly winked at Zaran.
Zaran facepalmed and shook his head. "Isis, please be serious."
"Puuh... you're no fun." Isis muttered in a dissapointed tone.
"Sigh." Zaran let out a deep sigh and said. "If you'd really want to have some 'fun' you could just abuse your power for that."
"That's cheating. Plus you'd actually hate me if I do that. Still, are you suuuure that you don't want a bite of me?" Isis said as she let her hand slide all over her body.
"Very sure. So you can quit the act."
"Fiiiiine. But I was not acting!" Isis pouted. While she initially had not been interested in Zaran and really had just been teasing him, the more he rejected her, the more Isis wanted him. Still her mood had grown cold. She had almost literally thrown herself at him and he did not even bat an eye while refusing her advances! If Zaran was not so darn important to her she would have long since erased his karma for refusing her. "It better be important!"
"It is. One of Akhuath's scions wants to seek refuge under another god. I think that's important enough to summon you?" Zaran calmly said.
That one sentence had instantly captured her full attention and her carefree nature had instantly switched to a serious one. "OH? Which one?"
"Nekorath. He's just below the high priority targets."
"Hmm. Why does he want to change his allegiance?" Isis asked as she flicked her hands a few times, golden numbers and letters appearing in the air before her.
"He has failed his last mission for Akhuath and his last mission was to kill me. As his next mission will be undoubtedly harder or impossible... he came to me in the game to beg me to talk to you." Zaran calmly spoke.
"Eh. He wants to kill you and now comes to beg you? And you actually summon me... Aren't you a strange one. Hmm let me see." Isis flicked her hands a few more times and more golden letters appeared. These golden letters and numbers were detailed information about Nekorath's karma. Akhuath's and Isis's karma was gained in a different way. As the goddess of life she solely wanted people with a certain number of positive karma, while Akhuath solely wanted people with negative karma. Thus at the moment Isis was checking Nekorath's positive karma... While his negative karma was enormous, he still had been able to acquire quite a bit of positive karma.
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This was due to 'cause and effect'. Even if you kill an innocent person which would result in negative karma, one could save another person's life because of it. For example if one kills an innocent person that had caught a plague, another may not get the plague and not die as a result. Or if someone is currently innocent but his fate had already determined that he would kill, interfering with that fate means another person does not die, thus resulting in a lot of negative and a little positive karma. The gains in such a case would never be equal because while every person has a fate, it is still not something that is set in stone and everyone and everything has the ability to create their own fate.
As only the gods who align themselves to that type of karma can extinguish it, every scion eventually ends up with both positive and negative karma, but that doesn't mean they have gained enough karma over their lifetimes to qualify to be a scion for a different god. However in Nekorath's case, he had accumulated enough to qualify as Isis's scion.
Even though his skill was not high enough to be considered a good scion to Isis, it would weak Akhuath just ever so slightly, making it more than worth it.
"He has barely enough of my karma to be acknowledged as one of my scions. Are you sure you want me to help him? You know I won't do it for free... rebranding someone's karma is no easy feat. I will need a favour in return."
Zaran nodded. "Please help the guy, fundamentally he's not all too bad... he just made a bad choice when he became a scion. As for the favour, I will do anything that is not against my convictions."
"Hmm... very well." Isis said. She raised herself from the bed, spiritually contacted Nekorath and explained what she would do. A few minutes later she made a grabbing motion with both her hands in the air, then slowly pulled it back. In her left hand a small white energy globe appeared and in her right hand a large black energy globe appeared, which had Akhuath's mark on it.
A golden coloured fire appeared in both her hands and completely covered the two globes. The fire in her left hand seemed gentle and caring, while the one in he right hand was domineering! A huge surge of heavenly aura burst forth from her right hand and Akhuath's mark visibly grew dimmer and dimmer.
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Within Akhuath's own dimension curses could be heard as he noticed what was going on with Nekorath's karma. He muttered an incantation and made a grabbing motion in the air with his right hand, in which a large black energy globe appeared. Pitch-black flames spurted forth from his hands as he started to crush the black energy globe.
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A growling voice resounded through Akhuath's dimension. "You want him Isis... YOU CAN HAVE HIS CORPSE!"
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As soon as Akhuath started crushing the globe, Nekorath's head started to feel as if it were breaking apart. Isis had already warned him as to what could happen so he was prepared for this event.
"NOT ON MY WATCH!" Nekorath yelled as he calmed his mind and kept remembering all the atrocities he had committed one by one. As long as he kept remembering them vividly, his karma would slowly increase. It was not much but it could allow Isis to finish her branding!
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Isis's face turned grim as the black globe started diminishing in size. "He has already noticed. I might not make it in time."
More holy power burst from within Isis and the speed at which the mark diminished increased by tenfold. Still, the black globe kept growing smaller and smaller. Isis increased the output of holy power once more and the mark finally started flickering, showing that it was about to disappear.
Seconds swiftly passed and the once large black globe was now the size of a tennis ball. The mark on the black globe flickered one last time before it disappeared and a golden coloured brand emerged almost instantly on the white coloured globe.
"Puuuuh..." Isis let out cute sigh and then looked at Zaran. "That used up a fair bit of my power. He better be worth it."
"He will be. He'll be bound by blood to me in the game."
"Hmm.. so a pawn? Nevertheless, I will find a way for him to repay me. Do tell him what I expect of him on my behalf though." Isis calmly said. "Mmhmm... By the way, do you want me to heal your legs? I will do it without you owing me a favour."
"No need. I am already used to living without them. Plus how would i go about explaining it? 'I miraculously recovered my legs?'"
Isis shrugged "Your choice. Call upon me for some fun soon okay?" Isis winked, walked over to Zaran and firmly embraced him before opening a portal and stepping through it.
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"So that's the situation." Zaran said as he explained Akhuath what was expected of him now that he was one of Isis's scions. At the same time Zaran pulled out one of the spare blood contracts that he had received from the recruitment agency. Both sides swiftly signed the contract and after a mere second the blood link between the two of them was established. After that Zaran also invited Nekorath to the guild.
Sylphie and Irina both had already logged on. Zaran invited the two to the guild and gave Sylphie and Irina an officer position. Zaran had instructed the girls to buy the necessities they needed, safe weapons for Irina, and told them to head over to the mansion as soon as possible.
An hour later the two girls arrived at the mansion and Zaran promptly took out the two Hellweaver queen daggers and handed them over to Irina.
"Oh my god they are amazing! Thanks Zaran!" Irina said as she jumped forward and hugged him.
Zaran wryly smiled. "It's no problem but ehm... could you let me go?"
"Ah... uh.. sure?" Irina muttered with a disappointed expression.
At this moment Florance and Nuvahn walked over. Florance took position right next to Zaran and stared at both Sylphie and Irina. She had a rather sullen look on her face as now would be the start of her acting. If she had the choice she would straight up confess that they were lovers but they couldn't possibly explain how so it was better to act for a bit more.
"Zaran, all guild members are ready to move out!" Nuvahn said.
"Good job! But before we leave, Florance, this is my sister Sylphie and her friend Irina. Irina and Sylphie, this is Florance our vice guild master."
Florance curtsied and said, "Pleased to meet the both of you."
The two girls on their turn bowed and said "Pleased to meet you!"
"Say Zaran, how did you end up setting up a guild with Florance?" Irina asked.
Zaran made a dismissing gesture with his hands and said. "It's a long story, I'll tell you on the way to our quest."
Zaran walked up to the members of the guild who were orderly lined up along to Nuvahn and Florance's instructions and yelled. "We will now proceed to the quest's designated area! It is about one day distance from this mansion. Our guild's merchants are bringing their wagons with them so if anybody needs to do any real life stuff but still wants to go with us, they can log out while in the wagon! With that said... Move out!"
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