Serena, The Goddess of Knowledge looked out over the Pacific Ocean sipping her drink. I waited patiently sipping my own. A few moments later Serena turned back to me, “What happens to souls?” she asked rhetorically. “I am aware of the lessons my shadow and others within those shadow universes explained to you about what a soul is and where it goes and how they ultimately come back. What they described was not wholly accurate.”

“Are you saying souls don’t continue to reincarnate, trying to grow stronger and become Transcendent or higher, like I am?” I asked.

She looked at me and sighed as she smiled softly, “Not Exactly. What you were told or learned was true where you were. In that fractured Cosmos, the rules had been altered and changed.”

“Why did someone create that system? It’s almost like someone didn’t want souls to advance?” I asked

Serena cocked her head, let the idea swirl around for a minute then sighed heavily as she said, “Had you only been born a million or so years ago.”

“Why did you think the Cosmos had been fractured?”

“Consensus on the topic was that the Cosmos had been fractured to prevent a catastrophic accident from wiping out a Prime Cosmos within a Realm. One thing you were told is true. Normally only one Cosmos resides within a Realm. There are exceptions but they are few and far between. Your original Cosmos being one of them.”

“That makes a kind of sense. You were describing souls,” I said, trying to redirect the conversation back onto a topic I really wanted to know about.

“Souls, yes. I am what you refer to as a God. Within the rankings of Souls, I am above the rank of transcendent, yet I do not hold a soul rank, why do you think that is?” she asked.

“With what you’ve hinted at so far, I would guess that you don’t have a soul rank because soul ranks didn’t exist when you became a Goddess?” I said questioningly

“And you would be right,” She said.

“There were no soul ranks back then?” I asked

“None, there was simply the soul. Of course, it was thought that souls only manifested in creatures that were self-aware though.

“What happened when people died back then? Also, when was then?”

“Please understand, I came after the major change, but before soul ranks were added to the system. I was told that people didn’t die. It might take a while for a body to reconstitute. As for how long ago. The Cosmos has worked as you’ve seen for at least the last 14 billion years. I became a Goddess a bit before your Universe was first conceived.

“What about levels and character progression and the like?” I asked.

“The individual that shared this knowledge with me is far older than I. He said, ‘Serena, do you know what boring is? Boring is doing the same thing every day forever. Eventually, some of us with a little bit of drive decided to spice things up. From the source, we went our own way and created everything you see. How does one live forever without getting bored.”

“Your saying Souls don’t exist?” I asked

“Not at all, souls most definitely do exist, that was one of the first things they found out when they started messing with Universal settings. What no one, and I mean no one, understands is exactly what happens when someone gives up completely. The soul is energy after all.”

“You’re saying that the original state of those that had souls allowed them to automatically come back from death? That sounds a lot like what you’re saying?” I asked.

“That’s how it was explained to me?” Serena said.

“But that doesn’t make sense unless creatures that have souls were born with them to begin with. Everyone who talked about this subject with me to this point has implied, if not outright stated, that souls are only for those creatures that have a certain level of self-determination.”

“That is the current thought yes. What I’m talking about is before the current model. Somehow someone changed something, and the souls are not assigned at birth anymore. When that change happened, people stopped coming back after they died. My teacher said that was when Death actually started,” Serena said

“But souls can’t be destroyed so they don’t die. Both what you’re telling me now and what I learned before imply the same thing,” I said.

“They do, don’t they?” She asked.

“Why tell me this now?”

“Because at some point you are going to go after your daughter and I want you to be prepared.”

“Why?”

“Because I believe wherever you must go to find her will have different rules than those you find here. Older rules.”

“That is kind of you, and I thank you for the information but I’m detecting a ‘But’ in your statement,” I said.

“There is a “But” in what I’m telling you. If there are Realities outside of this one and structures repeat as the scale grows then our Reality must be inside something. The only energy type that traveled through the rift Pandora made as she was ripped away from you was Primal Chaos. While this is not proof that the substance surrounds this reality, it is highly probable that this is true. This means that only you will be able to pass beyond the walls of reality, and no, I do not know how to create a rift that will help you do this.”

“So, I have to find a Source of Primal Chaos in this Reality and I have to travel into that source or find a way to breach the membrane of this reality myself. That doesn’t sound like something you would need to worry about. What exactly worries you concerning my efforts to find Pandora?”

“One thing the shattered Cosmos had in common was that all the shadow Cosmos were linked in some way. For the most part, the rules remained the same. Some natural laws could vary but others natural laws could not be modified. It is my belief that if you connect to another Reality some of the base rules in that reality may change the fundamental makeup of this Reality. Such changes would affect all Realms and layers within this Reality.”

“If that were going to happen wouldn’t that happen because of Pandora?”

“I don’t think so. In her case, she was returned to what is now considered to be her original Reality. No link would be necessary. If she had not been a creature of chaos I think she might have been destroyed by the recall,” Serena said.

“So you’re worried that if I find a way to link our Realities I might create a sympathetic link or quantumly attach this Reality to that one. You think someone purposefully closed that door for this Reality don’t you?”

“I do. We still have no idea where souls go when they give up. Currently, when they die they do end up on one of the various layers.”

“Do they ever reincarnate?”

“No, not once since my rise to Goddess of Knowledge have I seen a single soul reincarnated. Some have been resurrected and brought back that way, but I have never seen a soul return to the mortal plane of existence as one of your fictional works describes it.”

“You control one of the Layers right? That’s what the Gods do, control Layers?”

“My Realm resides within a Layer. I control that layer and all souls that die and chose to serve me come to me but eventually even that becomes tiresome for them.”

“Why don’t you resurrect them yourself.”

“In the Shadow versions of your Cosmos, the Shadows of the Divine were a lot more active in meddling than we are allowed to be. I have noticed that you have closed the message offering you divinity and set it to never pop up again. One of the rules that true divines like me must adhere to is that we must spend Divine Points to influence Mortals. This is a hard rule. Those that violate this rule find themselves locked in, let’s just say that after one stay in that purgatory, no Divine in their right mind will willingly go back to it. Also, your length of stay is directly proportional to the number of Divine Points you should have spent. You could find yourself locked away for years, centuries or millennia. Also, if the transgression is large enough The God of Time gets involved, resets everything and you still get sent to Purgatory.”

“How many Divine Points are you spending to talk to me?” I asked.

“To talk to a non-follower is a flat 100 divine points paid in advance plus more divine points based on the length of time I spend with you. Because you were in my temple that cost would have been reduced by half. Of course, I teleported you to another Dimension attached to your Universe but still another Dimension so that was another 1,000 DP reduced by half again because you were in my temple. So right now, I’ve spent 550 DP to talk to you.”

“That seems like a lot, how would a Divine ever get followers if you have to spend DP to talk to them.”

“The rules become more strict as our ranks increase. As a God, I’m at the top. Neophytes pay nothing to talk to Mortals. That however is all they pay nothing for. Demi-Gods would pay half what I just paid.”

“Still, that seems like a lot.”

“It is, but you can’t become a true God without followers. When you first start out you must gain those followers. After that, the followers must gain more followers for you.

“What happens to those Gods that don’t have followers and generate no DP, what do they do?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Every God or Goddess I know of is active in some realm or other. It’s one of the reasons God’s create Realms. Where they make the rules they can have a much easier time earning followers.”

“Are you saying you have your own Realm out there with a majority of its residents following you?

“No, I do not. As I said I have a small area within a Layer. Instead of maintaining a whole layer, I have alliances with other Gods and Goddesses that allow a small following of my mine to exist so they may take advantage of my divine abilities. Knowledge is a good friend to have after all,” Serena said.

I laughed, “I can see that,” I said.

“This brings us to the reason I brought you here today to talk, before you search for your daughter I would suggest that you make sure everything here is in order because your efforts may produce unexpected changes that even the Gods cannot predict,” Serena said.

“No pressure then, got it!” I said flippantly

“None!” Serena sardonically.

“Do you think I should have my parents and friends accept the ability to become Neophytes?” I asked

“That is for them to decide. One of the bonuses is that they would effectively be immortal, but the downside is they wouldn’t be able to meddle in human affairs anymore. Also, they may be needed if changes are made. Finally, their souls haven’t advanced very far yet. I have no doubt that they’d make it into the afterlife but where they’d end up and how long you’d be able to visit them would be variable. My suggestion would be to have them remain mortal for now. They can do more for Earth as mortals,” She said.

“My thoughts were running parallel to yours on that subject. I must say it’s worrying to find out that the God of Knowledge doesn’t know what happens to souls after they die.”

“I don’t and It Is,” Serena said.

“Last question, why is the Labyrinth going nuts right now?” I asked.

“And ruin the surprise, I think you should go talk to Bri and find out.”

“Okay, real final question,”

“I know,” Serena

“Why tell me all this?”

Serena grew thoughtful for a moment then said,” It has been a long time since the affairs of mortals have impacted the Gods. Specifically, your actions led to the recombining of a Cosmos and my return to my true power level. My shadows had forgotten how powerful a God is. Those are both good reasons of course but not the true reason I am talking with you now. The real reason is my Purpose. My Purpose is to learn and share knowledge. Since I achieved the rank of Goddess I have known that something was lacking. It was an itch I could not scratch, A shadow I couldn’t pierce. When Pandora was yanked from this Reality I knew that the answers I sought were on the other side of that rift, yet I cannot go there because even Primal Chaos can hurt us Gods.”

“What?” I said alarmed. Being able to actually hurt the gods would pit them all against me, which I didn’t need.

“I said it could hurt us. In this Reality, your Chaos Blade could not kill us with just the Chaos, though the Aspect of Primal Destruction might do the trick. Better not to find out. Also, if I were to leave this Reality and the rules were different, the Primal Chaos outside of this Reality might modify or destroy me. So, I am talking with you, a Creature of Chaos that can probably survive such a trip through Primal Chaos. Also, you have a very strong interest in doing so.”

“I see,” I said. And I did see, from her standpoint this made sense, and if and when I returned she would learn what I had learned. Neat and clean.

“That is about all the time I have Adam, thank you for coming to visit with me,” Serena said.

“I stood and bowed slightly. Thank you, Serena, Goddess of Knowledge. You have given me the information I needed as well as a lot to think about,” I said as I stood and vanished to reappear in the temple where I’d been standing. I looked around to find no priest or clerics present. Nodding to the statue of Serena, I teleported to the Adamantium Doors over the Dungeon of Divine Elements.

The Captain of the Guard turned, saw it was me, and then asked, “Back so soon?”

“Yes, I’m going to head inside and try to find out what has happened in the Labyrinth. Lock the door behind me,” I said as I willed the doors to unlock and open for me. Once I stepped through the dark portal and found myself in the empty entrance chamber I walked over to the Travel Node and appeared in the exit room to the Labyrinth where my double was just finishing off another titan. The room was littered with them. If this version of reality was a video game, even my copies were way too overpowered for this content.

I focused my will and opened a portal to the entrance of the dungeon, just to see if I could. Moments later I was staring at the captain through the portal. So, I could portal out of the dungeon into Primore without little effort. Mana-wise, it hadn’t even cost a full one percent. Nice. I focused on the captain, “Hello Captain, Dungeon is still clear, I’m about to head into the Labyrinth. When I come back this way this is how I’m going to exit so please let your guards know. I’m not overly worried, just don’t want anyone getting hurt accidentally.”

“Understood and thanks for the warning. The King has ordered the Mages to do what they can so some might be in the area when you come through,” he said.

I closed the portal and reabsorbed my copy. I already had a plan on how I was going to seal this entrance from the other side. I stepped through and found myself in a giant cavern. A travel node rose from the ground before me as a camp of Titans jumped to their feed and moved to attack. I released a fountain of mage bolts that destroyed all the Titans and other monsters within a half-mile radius of me. This was a big cave. I even saw where the titans were stepping down from outside the cavern to enter the camp set on the edge of this Dungeon portal.

I placed a wall of force over the dungeon entrance then floated up through the hole in the ceiling to find myself on an open plain of grass that went off in all directions. The other thing I immediately noticed was the Army of titans that was gathered around the hole and the number of titans that picked up rocks and hurled them at me. Rather than get bounced around, I modified the Chaos of my body to convert and absorb all of the attacks. The new fluidity of my body was becoming a great boon. Boulders would hit me and disappear as they were sucked into me. This bombardment went on for a full minute before a Huge Warrior at least 110 feet tall charged forward and tried to cleave me in two with a Titan-sized Two-handed sword. I caught it with my thumb and finger and stopped the stroke as his hands broke the hilt from the blade

As the Titan looked at me in disbelief I said, “Hold or die!”

He didn’t hold, of course, he didn’t hold. I expanded my physical body out to a size that encompassed all of the titans and killed then converted them all into more mass for me. A half minute later the plains were clear of the titans.

“Bri, I know you saw that, can we talk please?” I asked out loud.

A portal opened before me that led back to the center of the Labyrinth. No node path this time. Damn. Getting a node path from Earth to Primore would have been awesome. I stepped through the portal and found Bri standing there looking at me angrily, “I thought we had an agreement!” she stated flatly.

“We do, and I have not broken it, in fact, you should have been receiving some experience back from a cursed ring I placed on the perpetrator of the original problem,” I said.

“Then why is over a million experience being drained from me every second again? I made adjustments to allow for the loss of experience from the first ring. When we made our agreement I reverted back to the way I’d been doing things and new dungeons I’d opened or helped began to flourish again. When the experience started getting taken again the instability caused multiple dungeons to collapse and wither away. They are gone, if not forever, for the foreseeable future.”

“Bri I swear to you that neither I nor my family had anything to do with this.

MESSAGE FROM SERENA, GODDESS of KNOWLEDGE

One more thing, Apolyn created a ring that started stealing XP from the Labyrinth again. It’s much more powerful than anything his shadows created. Also, the next day he was elevated forcibly into the ranks of Divinity. He is now a Neophyte, though he is no longer in the mortal realm. He has been moved to a Layer where his alignment is better represented.

I refocused my eyes on a very angry Bri, “I hope that was important, Bri said scathingly.

“It was actually. I just received a message detailing who did this to you?”

“Really, and why would you get a message about something that affects me?” Bri asked.

“Because I was just talking with someone who would know. We were discussing other matters and the topic never came up.”

“Very well, who is doing this to me?”

“Apolyn,” I said.

“I see, and what will you do about it?

“I will do what I should have done the last time I met with him,” I said.

“See that you do, I need whatever this Apolyn created destroyed. I am losing way too much of my resources to sustain that type of XP drain,” Bri said.

“I’ll be back,” I said as I teleported to Apolyn’s Abode to find an unclaimed Hearth Crystal in the Library. When the Black Knight appeared this time I froze him in place with thought and contemplated what I could do next. I’d traveled to other Cosmos, another Realm even but I’d never been to one of the Layers. Then how did I find him? I could just try to Teleport to him. Crossing Realm barriers would be expensive though.

I focused my mind on holding an image of Apolyn in my mind. Then I focused my will and teleported. I felt something go wrong with the spell as I was yanked to one side and found myself on a marble dais with steps leading down to a flat plane. I could see creatures flying with wings and others with purely skeletal features. As I looked around Messages started populating my vision.

WARNING you have tried to teleport to a location that is locked. You are being redirected to one of the only entry and exit points to this Layer.

That first warning explained why Apolyn was nowhere to be seen. The second message though brought me up short and let me know everything I needed to know.

Welcome to Hades