Chapter 208: INTERLUDE. Ask the maker
Chapter 208: INTERLUDE. Ask the maker
When it came to distracting God of Monks from seeking answers that would’ve sent him towards Devourer sooner than he would be ready, God of Rogues was ingenious in his methods, and as elusive as his name implied.
For two days, he researched the reports of his spies, checked on Devourer’s progress, and prepared for his next venture. Then, just as a loyal servant passed him a note that God of Monks was approaching his residence, God of Rogues descended to the mortal realm, “forgetting” to leave any hint of where he could be for anyone who might look for him.
The mortal realm was a vast place. Ten gods couldn’t find a single demon out there—what were God of Monks’ chances of finding him? If he even decided to search. It wasn’t hard to find out that, when presented with a choice between finding out an answer and staying to guard his appointed post, God of Monks chose the latter. Duty. Or maybe it was the unwillingness to leave his orderly realm.
But God of Rogues knew that the questions were still brewing in the man’s mind, and the longer they did, the higher was the chance of him leaving in anxiety and hurry, without preparations, when it would finally be the time for it.
Meanwhile, God of Rogues sought the person who must’ve had some answers, at least—Goddess of Wizards. Her notes he read without permission didn’t clear enough air. He had to talk with her face to face.
She wasn’t hard to find—when God of Rogues used a simple communication spell, she responded without delay, and when he told her he wanted to chat in private, she didn’t deny him.
They met in a quiet room in one of God of Wizards’ temples. A brief glance told God of Rogues that it must’ve been used as a working room if not by Goddess of Wizards, then by someone. The writing desk under the window was littered with correspondence and what appeared to be a communication magic item.
Goddess of Wizards had, besides agreeing to see God of Rogues, no hospitality towards him. She didn’t even offer him to sit, though there were enough chairs. Neither did she sit herself. Instead, she went straight to business.
“Why have you returned?”
“Why, you ask?” God of Rogues put a hand on his chest in affront, exaggerating the feeling that burned there. “Really? You not only found Devourer, you let him kill you—and then you ask why. As soon as I heard of that, of course I returned! At the very least, to ask about why I wasn’t told a thing.”
“Didn’t you meet with God of Monks yet? Didn’t he tell you why?” Goddess of Wizards threw God of Rogues a side-wise, haughty look. “Well, since you didn’t return because you found something useful, you might be just as useless here.”
God of Rogues had something to say about uselessness and who could talk about it, but instead he took a closer look at Goddess of Wizards’ countenance. It was gravely affected by her death, even more than he noticed originally.
She had another book with her now, which looked almost exactly like her previous one. Besides that, there were no surface changes in her. But she had a new gloominess set all over her like a cloak, and a bitter gleam in her eyes. The proud goddess looked like a pained beast, lashing out at everything and everyone to hide her vulnerability.
Which, in God of Rogues’ eyes, gave her no excuse to treat him like she did. But he had more important things to talk about than her behaviour. That went to his list of grievances.
To think, for so many centuries, gods were united, despite all their intrigues, in their unwillingness to die even one more time—but once Devourer arrived, it was all forgotten. God of Rogues wondered if the others would’ve been as eager to kill their competition as he was, if given an opportunity.
“But I did find something interesting in my travels, goddess,” he said aloud, smiling. “A most shocking piece of information, one that I never expected Hell to give me.”
“Truly?” There was plenty of conviction in the opposite in Goddess of Wizards’ expression.
God of Rogues snorted. “Would I lie to you? Well, not about this. Just listen. I’ve found a demon who told that the First God had actually come to Hell, and only recently! A century ago, I think. Hard to tell down there. And before you say that this must be just some mad ramblings, I will say that there’s been confirmation to that, too. Chaos beasts… I personally met one.”
Goddess of Wizards paled. “This can’t be. Why? What would he want in that place? He cannot step into our world. He told us himself! After employing us to protect it, why would he come in and threaten to destroy our hard work?”
“Well, from what I heard, he only appeared for a moment. Basically, just passed a message and left. You know Hell, I know Hell, he knew Hell—it would be fine. As for why, though—now that’s the best part…” God of Rogues grinned.
He retailed the story he heard from the demon sage. Goddess of Wizards listened with face, the expressions on which moved from shock to disbelief to outright denial to reluctant acceptance and back to the deep gloominess in which God of Rogues found her. She was looking down in thought, when God of Rogues hit her with the real question.
“But pray tell, goddess, how much of that did you hear already? Because it doesn’t feel to me like all of what was said had been a surprise for you… Also, you were the one who made the classes. Laid the groundwork for them, at least. And you made the draining curses, too. You knew, didn’t you? You knew that this was going to break something up, at some day, at some point… Did you expect it end up like it did?”