The funeral for the people who had been burned at the stake was a fairly small thing. Kyle and the others didn’t have anywhere near as much time to say their goodbyes as they would’ve liked. Galdon had marked each of the graves with a small blank stone marker and had even gone so far as to add several more markers for the companions that had also been lost when their partners had died.

There wasn’t even a feather or scrap of fur left behind when a companion faded back into the aether that had spawned them so in many ways it was actually harder for Kyle to come to the terms with the fact that Ai, Digby, Sul and Sammy were also dead.

“I only knew some of the people who died here today,” Galdon said to the crowd of gathered Adventurers. He asked whether one of the kids wanted to say a few words, but Kyle had already said everything that he needed to and neither Hal nor Sonia were able to think of anything. “But I can tell you one thing about them. They were brave. They gave their lives in an attempt to protect their village and the people that lived there. They fought against an enemy that wanted to kill or enslave their families and they stood for as long as they could. No matter what other reasons we had to become Adventurers there is one thing that is true of all of us. We wanted to protect the people that we care about from anything, man or monster that wishes them harm. We owe it to the people who died here to make the ones that committed this atrocity pay.”

Nemesis watched on as almost every single one of the Adventurers made a silent vow in their hearts that they would exact revenge for the atrocities that had been committed by the imperial soldiers. Some of them had known Jerald and the others in real life and some had only heard stories, but they all knew that they all of those that they had found burned at the stake here had died bravely. In many ways this was Nemesis’ true power, most people even if they might not choose to go through with it had thoughts of revenge. This was particularly the case in a world like this where people die every day to monsters and those who they left behind decided to become Adventurers, soldiers or Guards so that they could hunt the monsters that killed their loved ones down.

Once the funeral was over, they all moved onto the grisly task of searching through what remained of Farholt for the bodies of the other residents who had died in the attack. Fi was extremely helpful in this as her ability to fly combined with her small lithe body allowed her to slip into spaces that the Adventurers could not.

Every time a new body was found either Kyle, Sonia or Hal was called over in the hopes that they would be able to identify the corpse. That is until they found Layla’s body inside Hal’s family’s house which left the red-headed young man looking broken and lost. It was obvious from the wounds on her body that there had been a struggle. Presumably the soldiers that had ransacked the house had also tried to capture her as a slave. But Layla had fought back hard enough that her head had hit the edge of a large wooden table. This could’ve been an accident or maybe the soldiers had decided that she was more trouble that she was worth, but Kyle chose to believe that she had chosen death rather than be hauled off to be a slave for the rest of her life.

No matter how hard they looked they couldn’t find any sign of Jess or her parents. This wasn’t a good sign as it meant that they had probably been taken captive by the imperial soldiers. Kyle was just thankful that Ryan hadn’t been present as he would almost certainly have been killed trying to protect his parents and sister but as soon as he had recovered from the injury that he had received fighting Ben.

Ryan had gotten a job as a Courier which was a much more important job than it sounded. A Courier’s job was to deliver classified documents, usually military orders to the various military strongholds that dotted the countryside. While some things could be communicated using Communication Orbs there were ways to intercept some messages so sometimes it was just safer to hire a professional to deliver the message in person. Couriers could also be hired to deliver packages between settlements if there wasn’t a caravan available or it needed to be delivered as quickly as possible but that wasn’t their primary purpose.

They did however find the corpse of Damian’s father who had been a member of the guards. He had died in a truly horrible way. His guts had been ripped out and strewn across the street almost like he had been mauled by monsters which wouldn’t actually surprise Kyle at all considering the massive dragon corpse outside the town walls. It was also obvious that this had happened to him while the man had still been alive due to the way his fingers were entangled in his own entrails like he was trying to stop what was happening to him. Honestly if he hadn’t thrown up earlier, he definitely would’ve when he saw this.

By the time night fell they had scoured the entire town and buried the dead the sun had fallen below the horizon the Adventurers started to set up camp for the night. Each and every one of them had slack expressions on their faces. They might be Adventurers but seeing as much death and destruction was enough to make anyone shut off their emotions to protect their sanity.

This of course went double for the three kids who had grown up here. Not only had both Kyle and Hal lost both of their parents but all three of them had been identifying bodies of people that they had known most of their lives.

“I can’t believe this happened,” Kyle muttered to himself as he stared down at a small toy that he had sent his sister a few weeks after he had arrived in Greenhearth. To Kyle his parents were legendary figures that he thought he would always be able to look up to and now they were gone.

Hal just sat there quietly next to him and nodded listlessly. It was obvious that Hal was shutting down completely and Galdon who was sitting opposite the three teenagers gritted his teeth in anger. It didn’t surprise him that this was affecting them both badly since they had both lost their parents today, but it was still hard for him to watch.

Sonia was actually taking it the best of the three. She was definitely still depressed but she was also the only one among them who had lost family before. As such she was attempting to comfort both of the young men despite the pain that she was also feeling.

Galdon was really starting to wish that he had refused to allow them to come along on this trip but at the time he hadn’t expected things to get anywhere near as bad as they were. But what really bugged Galdon was that he didn’t know what the events were that lead to this atrocity happening. Someone could’ve been spotted when they were scouting out the imperial encampment or the imperials could’ve been planning to attack Farholt today ever since they arrived.

Nemesis had returned to the strange realm where she and her fellow deities resided and was now looking down upon the Adventurers with a complicated expression on her face. The massive feathered serpent that followed her everywhere sighed sadly as she continued to look through the hole in space at her new Champion.

“My lady I understand that you feel for the boy,” the serpent told the goddess in a dignified tone of voice that was reminiscent of a trusted butler talking to his mistress. “But there are other things that we need to attend to right now.”

“Is this my fault Klaus?” Nemesis asked suddenly turning towards her Divine Beast. “Would he have lived a happier life if I didn’t need him?”

“Who knows?” Klaus sighed as he undulated his body in a movement that obviously meant to be a shrug. “But if you do feel responsible then you need to make sure that he follows the path that will lead you both to happiness. For better or worse you are his goddess now.”

“But what if he passes the point of no return?” the blue haired goddess fretted. Klaus was surprised by the way she was acting even though he wasn’t showing it. His mistress had always been confident, but it would appear that what Galdon had said had unsettled her. “I don’t want to be responsible for him going down a dark path and becoming as twisted as the people he wants to punish for what they did to his family.”

“We can talk about this later,” Klaus told her firmly. “You have a meeting with the other deities to attend. Now that all of you have a Champion the System wishes to speak to everyone.”

“Yes, you’re right Klaus,” Nemesis nodded as a determined expression replaced the worried one that had been on her face. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

The goddess closed her eyes and concentrated for a few seconds and the world around her shimmered as she moved into a new area. Opening her eyes, she looked around at the other deities who were all sitting at a massive grey table that was surrounded by swirling galaxies.

There was a massive variety of deities seated around the table that resembled all sorts of different species from Elves to Beastmen. Seated at the head of the table was a god who appeared to be more ancient than the galaxies that floated around them. This was Larchius and Asteria’s father Osman the Elvish god of Wisdom. As well as being a god of both wisdom and magic he was one of the oldest and respected gods present. As such almost all of the gods present considered him to the spokesperson for the gods as a whole. Even those who were from pantheons that would normally be opposed to having an Elven deity in charge. The main reason that there weren’t very many gods that were opposed to Osman being their spokesperson was that Osman didn’t care for the political games that the other gods played and considered himself to be completely neutral despite his relationship to Larchius and Asteria.

What was really interesting to Nemesis was the number of gods that shared domains. There were nearly a dozen different deities that shared the domain of water for example. However, despite this she was the only goddess of vengeance present.

Suddenly a glowing blue ball appeared above the massive table and everyone instantly fell silent. This innocuous seeming ball of light was the physical form that the entity only known as the System took and was able to destroy them with a thought. In fact, the System had actually destroyed a number of gods and goddesses when they had tried to prevent it from fusing their worlds together into the one that existed now. So, it was no surprise to Nemesis that all of those present treated the System in much the same way that their own worshippers treated them.

As soon as it had fused the worlds together the System had collected the remaining gods and apologised profusely for destroying the deities but nonetheless the fear of being destroyed had stayed with them ever since. In fact most of the gods that had been around when the worlds had been fused together actually believed that the System hadn’t meant to destroy any of the gods at all and what had happened to them was just an accident that occurred when they tried to stop what was happening to their worlds.

As soon as everyone fell silent the ball pulsed with light once and a blue screen appeared in front of all of those present.

System Message

I understand that the last of you has finally chosen a Divine Champion is that correct?

“Yes sir,” Nemesis replied politely as everyone turned to look at her. “I have chosen my Champion and have received the name Nemesis from him in return.”

Some of the gods present started muttering amongst themselves. None of the gods or goddesses present liked the idea of losing followers to a newcomer like Nemesis and they all knew how powerful she would become in the future. However, before any of them could speak up the ball of light pulsed once more and the screen in front of them changed.

System Message

Excellent. Then we can move onto more important matters. As some of you know I created this new world so that the mortals could work together and grow more powerful in preparation for a war to come. Now that all of you have a Champion, things can finally start moving forwards.

“Excuse me,” one of the god’s who resembled a bird-type Beastman said once he had finished reading the new message. “You’ve been talking about this ‘war’ for as long as any of can remember but you’ve never actually told us why it’s supposed to happen or for that matter why we needed to choose a Champion so that it could begin. Could you please explain it to us?”

System Message

Indeed. I have been rather secretive about the whole thing. But I’m afraid that was for your own benefit. If you knew what was going on you could try to prevent it and that could have the opposite effect of allowing our enemies to enter our world before we were ready.

“What can you tell us about these enemies?” Osman prompted looking interested in something other than his research for the first time in decades. “Why are they even our enemies in the first place?”

System Message

That is a very long story. You see I was the one who created the worlds that you once lived in as well as the original deities of those worlds. However, I was far from the only System back then and it became something of a competition between us to see who could create the best worlds. Eventually one of the other Systems decided that the best way to prove its worlds were better than everyone else’s was to conquer them. So, this System which those of us who remain now refer to as the Mad System started to create pathways between its own worlds and the worlds of the other Systems and ordered the gods of its worlds to send their worshippers through these pathways to conquer the worlds that the other Systems had created. One by one their creations either conquered or destroyed the worlds that had been created by the other Systems until there were only a few of us remaining.

“Wait, what happened to the other Systems?” Osman asked curiously. Like everyone else who was present this was the first time that he had heard this story and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. What he did understand was that if everything the System was talking about was true then they were in a lot of trouble.

System Message

When a System loses all of the worlds that it had created that System ceases to exist. I don’t know why this happens, but it does. So, to try and stop the Mad System from killing more of us some of the remaining Systems started to fight back but sadly with all the worlds that it had conquered the Mad System defeated most of them easily. However, some of its worlds and most of its armies were destroyed in the fighting so it was forced to cease its invasions while to allow its forces to recover. It was at this time that I chose to fuse your worlds together in the hopes that the various races work together to become more powerful than ever. While I was doing this some of the other Systems promised to protect our world creating a powerful barrier around us until we grew powerful enough that we could fight back against the Mad System and its forces.

“And now that we have all chosen a Divine Champion that protection will come to an end?” Osman asked.

System Message

Not immediately. There are still a few things that we need to deal with first. It turned out that the Mad System had planted a few agents upon one of the worlds that I used to create this one and as you might be expecting they went on to create the New Byzantine Empire.

“Well that actually makes a lot of sense!” Larchius laughed drawing irritated looks from the other deities. “So, you’re saying that our worshippers have to defeat the Empire before we can join the fight against this ‘Mad System’?”

System Message

Yes Larchius. That would be correct.

“I’m more interested in why you don’t fight back yourself,” one of the other gods mentioned. “You are far more powerful than any of us.”

System Message

Because I can’t affect things that I haven’t had some part in creating myself. Sort of like the way that you are limited in the things that you can do. In fact, in some ways I am even more limited than you are.

The assembled deities nodded their understanding at this. Despite their power they were actually very limited in its use due to the rules that the System itself had put in place that basically made it so that they could only affect their own worshippers and even then, usually only in small ways. They weren’t sure why the System had limited them so much, but they knew that it must have a reason.

“Alright so you’re saying that we have to defeat the Empire,” a massive warlike looking god said. “My followers will be very happy to hear that!”

There was a rumble of agreement from the other gods present including Larchius, Asteria and Nemesis. They were all aware of the atrocities that the Empire had committed over the years and most of them had lost worshippers because of them so they were all on board with the idea of destroying the Empire.

System Message

However, I must remind you that not everyone in the Empire is an agent of the Mad System. Only the upper echelons of the priesthood and some of the nobles know that they are aligned with the Mad System. Please remember that I consider every member of one of the intelligent races to be one of my children and I don’t wish more harm upon any of them than needed.

The gods quieted as they read this message. Most of them eventually nodded their agreement. None of the less warlike gods wanted any more of their followers to die than absolutely necessary so despite their own grievances they decided to go along with the System’s request. Nemesis also nodded in agreement, she still hoped that Kyle would keep his revenge limited to what he needed to do to find his sister so that she could become the goddess of justice she was originally meant to be.

Seeing that even Nemesis who was known to have been created partially of the desires of those who had been experimented on by the Empire was nodding in agreement, all but a handful of the more warlike gods gave up and nodded in agreement. Those gods who disagreed scowled angrily as both the message and the ball of light blinked out of existence.

With a sigh Nemesis closed her eyes once more as she teleported back to the pocket dimension where she spent most of her time. Opening her eyes, she nearly leapt out of her skin when she saw the grinning face of Larchius right in front of her.

“Well now how does it feel to be all grown up?” the god of secrets laughed as Nemesis spluttered angrily. She should be used to Larchius pulling stunts like this but sometimes he just managed to catch her off guard.

“Stop it Larchius,” Asteria who was also present sighed as she rolled her eyes in obvious irritation. “Well then. How do you feel now that your first worshipper gave you your name Nemesis?”

“Good,” Nemesis nodded as she smiled at the blonde elven goddess. “Thank you for looking after me up until now and I look forwards to helping you both out in the future.”

“Well that’s a relief,” Larchius chuckled before suddenly turning serious. “By the way I’m sorry for the trouble that Puck caused. I told her over and over again that her job was only to observe.”

“Yes, she did cause quite a bit of trouble didn’t she,” Nemesis sighed. “I hope you have punished her accordingly.”

“Ah… ha, yes indeed,” Larchius laughed weakly as he saw the look in her eyes. She might not really like her role in the world but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t step into it, at least partially when the situation called for it.

“So, what is he doing now?” Asteria asked excitedly as she attempted to change the subject. She was truly interested in the young man who had given Nemesis her name.

“He’s asleep right now,” Nemesis replied as she checked up on him through the link that they had now that he was her Divine Champion and frowned slightly as she realised that he was having a nightmare. This didn’t really surprise her after what he had seen today but that only made her feel worse after what Galdon had said to her.

Speaking of Galdon.

“Can I ask you a question?” Nemesis asked.

“Well you already did,” Larchius replied with a smirk making both of the goddesses and Klaus roll their eyes at him. “But sure.”

“Ignore him,” Asteria told Nemesis. “What did you want to ask about.”

“When I was down there, I talked to a mortal who did something odd.”

“Odd?” Larchius asked as his mood swung from mocking to serious faster than someone who wasn’t used to dealing with him would expect. It had taken Nemesis herself years to realise that the way that he was acting now was his true nature and that the way he normally acted was just to make people think he was an idiot. “What do you mean odd?”

“I mean he used some form of energy that made me feel afraid for my safety,” Nemesis replied.

“An energy huh,” Larchius grunted. “This wouldn’t happen to be Galdon would it? You know Galdon short, stout fellow. Powerful adventurer.”

“Yes, it was Galdon,” Nemesis replied as she tried to resist the urge to slap Larchius who had slipped back into the foolish persona that he usually used briefly.

“Well then that explains that,” Larchius nodded.

“What do you mean?” Nemesis asked.

“He means that there is more than one way that a god is born,” Asteria replied as she poked her brother irritably. “Tell her.”

“Alright sheesh,” Larchius grumbled. “like my sister said; there is more than one way that a god can be created. Our father has this little saying; there are both man-made gods and men made into gods.”

“So Galdon is a god?” Nemesis asked in confusion.

“No, or at least not yet,” Larchius replied. “But he probably will become one. I’ve actually been thinking of recruiting him when the time comes. He would make a nice addition to our pantheon.”

“Well that’s if he doesn’t hate me now,” Nemesis muttered as she scratched the side of her face awkwardly. “He wasn’t exactly impressed with what had happened to Farholt.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Larchius shrugged. “You couldn’t have stopped it from happening if you’d tried.”

“No but one of you might’ve been able to,” Nemesis sighed sadly. It was true that without even a single worshipper she had even less power than most deities had in the mortal world but Larchius or Asteria could’ve warned someone about what was going to happen easily enough.

“No, we couldn’t have,” Asteria disagreed. “The System wouldn’t have let us.”

“How do you know?” Nemesis asked.

“Because it told us that it wouldn’t let us stop what was about to happen when we found out,” Asteria replied looking angry for the first time since they had gotten back from the meeting.” We had worshippers in that town you know.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Nemesis replied as she shifted uncomfortably. She shouldn’t really have been surprised by that. Even though their pantheon was small if not the smallest Larchius and Asteria had a lot more followers than a lot of other deities so she shouldn’t really have been surprised by this.

“It’s not your fault,” Asteria sighed. “Anyway, we’d better get going. We have to let our priesthood know what’s going on with the whole Empire situation.”

And with that both she and her brother blinked out of existence far faster than Nemesis would have been able to in the same situation which only served to prove to Nemesis how much more powerful they were than her.

“Yeah I should tell him too I suppose,” Nemesis grumbled as she thought of the only member of her faith who was currently still asleep. “I guess I’ll tell him tomorrow.”