"This time we got some decent intel. This fort was set up to send raiding parties on the supply lines the 3rd battalion was setting up..."
Silence reigned as most of the people present were smart enough to read between the lines.
How can the enemy prepare to raid supply lines that haven't been established yet?
"We have a mole... perhaps in the 3rd battalion, or, more worryingly... in command."
After a short discussion, the captain swiped the air with his hand. "Enough, we make no progress by debating it here. We send what we know to command, and we let them figure it out."
"For now, grab all the enchanted gear and papers and take them."
"Sir!" Many voices shouted!
Sal frowned as he saw Kire not reacting to most of it.
"Hey, what are you doing just standing around?"
"What do you believe happens to us when we die?"
Sal froze. "Sorry?"
"What do you think happens when we die?"
"We die. Seems pretty straight forward to me. The body gets cold, you cease to exist, etc etc?"
"But what if you don't?"
Sal squinted at him. "You feeling okay?"
Kire didn't even roll his eyes, making Sal abandon his humor and sarcasm for a moment as he could tell how serious Kire was being.
"I mean... what if you don't stop existing? What if when your body dies, you just... go somewhere else?"
"That sounds completely and utterly insane."
Kire laughed dryly. "It would, wouldn't it?"
"It's a nice thought though, the idea that maybe our loved ones are still there..."
"What if a god told you they were? That death was not the end of your existence?"
Sal turned to Kire, doubt and a possibility lingering in his mind.
"Are you... talking about your 'Nameless God'?"
Kire stood up, and shrugged as a light entered his eyes. "I choose to have faith. What you believe is what you believe... but my god speaks of death being a door rather than an end, and I will believe that I will find that door open for me one day."
Kire left to follow his orders, leaving a man in his 30's to question.
'If the fog was a feat of Kire's god, then this god exists. But how can a Nameless god be real? I can't just... believe that! And a life beyond death? It's a ridiculous idea...'
The squad crept through the night as the fog faded, moisture left on the bodies and leaves as the only sign it had been.
~ ~ ~
Swimming is easy, fun, and doesn't involve being responsible for the souls and judgement of all life.
Hooray for swimming!
What? I'm ignoring the fact I was just handed the responsibility to create an afterlife for all peoples of this world?
Please that's just a coincidence. It's not a responsibility... it's not like anyone is telling me I HAVE to do it.
Surely I can just like... ignore it?
Be normal?
Can I just live a normal life in this world? I never asked to be worshipped damn it!
I save one kids life and suddenly I find myself being prayed to, and the more it happens the more my perception of the world seems to change.
Now I can... I dunno, tell what is and isn't?
It's complicated, but it's like how I could instinctually sense that trying to make "life magic" an element was a bad fucking idea.
I can... feel the world. The rules on how it works.
And I can feel exactly how much of an irregularity the elves are creating... and I'm pretty sure some sort of retribution will be coming for them.
I feel cheesy saying "is the world's will", but it kinda does feel like this world itself has... not a mind or conscience, but a will and rules.
So I'm still trying to avoid experimenting too much with this wood element, but I'm starting to think I can't avoid it forever.
First things first though: the reason why I am now in the ocean and ignoring the empty void I can sense that has about a dozen souls that cannot experience anything due to the lack of form.
Basically they can't even think and are unaware, as if actually dead.
I don't know what I can do about that, so ignore it for now, and focus on something I CAN handle.
All those fish and coral I totally awakened a few weeks back, and are now linking up to me after the connection slowly strengthened.
Bast has quite the scare finding a whole slew of tiny points of light appearing in the Galaxy, but I told her not to mind it for now.
I do find it interesting that all the coral seem to have somehow... linked?
They look like a chain of small lights with small streams of fire and water linking them from one to the next, like a constellation formed from many stars of the same race.
Do same-race awakened I make link together?
Or is it when they have the same element?
Bast and Kire are both "human", but they do have different elements.
Maybe both elements and race must align?
I don't know how this fucking works.
I'm not a god, I'm a reincarnated dragon that got a lotta crap thrown at me and shot myself in the foot.
...shush. I can't hear that low buzz of white power coalescing within my central star around my black pinprick representing my soul.
I don't know what your talking about.
Denial? That's a river in Africa.
I swam to the nearest coral I could find, and noted how the fire elements in the water around us began to concentrate around it as the yellow coral began to turn orange and then red, heat gathering to try and ward me off.
But as I got closer, suddenly this defense began to dissipate as the coral returned to its natural color, and now that I'm closer I can see streaks of blue and red like thin veins at the base of the coral.
[Do you recognize my aura, young one?]
I didn't get a spoken response by any means, but the welcoming intent the coral sent was clear enough.
So my awakened can instinctually recognize me at least even without the capacity to think properly yet.
That's good to know.
I don't know how awakened coral evolves to walk around like that Coral-Deer(I can't remember what it was actually called), so I'll just have to wait for these coral to figure it out.
I turned away and swam through the waters of the reef, noting quite a few... changes.
'Those clownfish aren't on fire while underwater. I don't see the lightning around that sea anemone. I haven't forcibly altered an ecosystem. Everything is fiiiiiine.'
If I could sweat, I think my back would be drenched.
Have I gone a bit... overboard? Perhaps?
This might've been a mistake.
Notably, every creature I passed seemed to put away whatever defenses it had.
At best it was recognizing me as their... fuck what do I call it?
Awakener? Sire? Magic Giver? God?
I dunno.
I get the strangest feeling that the act of dropping all natural and magical defenses to a predator like myself is somehow similar in importance and meaning to bowing for a two-legged race...
For the races that bow anyways.