-First Gospel of the Divines: In the beginning, the Lord Creator brought everything into existence. He then walked among those people. He stayed among the different bodies of his creation and enjoyed their presence. His first planet was his favorite. It was full of his mistakes and he had come to enjoy their flaws.-
When Ed died this time he was waiting to feel his spirit float out of his skin again. He was used to the whole thing now after so many times. He could remember that feeling from all the times of being disembodied. However, that wasn't the case this time.
The whole world went dark for him. There were colors and swirls around him, dark hues of black and purple swirled before his eyes. Flecks of light danced in the background like stars, or fireflies. He tried to reach out to them but his body refused to move or wasn't there. It was unnerving to him. But he refused to panic.
Time stretched out before him. He was either there for a few minutes or a few millennia. He was devoid of any indicators that would help him tell what or when had passed. The warmth of his body was dulling to his senses and he dropped in an out of coherent thought.
Ed's mind was out of it when the darkness before him opened up and two large hands grabbed his body and snuck him out. If he was awake at the time he might have been scared to see them. Or scared of the decoy body being placed back into the nothingness that he had just been removed from.
It was a risky move. It consumed a large amount of cosmic power to do what had just happened but Ed was a mandatory player in the game that was going on on this planet.
While he was kept away from the world several things happened. Unlike his normal time jumps Ed was only out of the world for about two weeks this time. His body was brought back into the real world quietly and partially revived secretly in a room that was as hidden from the divines as you could get.
Erust on the other hand was out doing what prophets do.
Shortly after Ed was killed at the hands of Ysennia, she fabricated a copy of Ed's soul and memories to implant within a new body. She used a fragment of Ed's original scroll to create the soul inside. She bound the rest of the soul with a deep devotion to the divine, and instructions on how to complete the tasks she wanted to be done. There were perks to being a goddess of creation and destruction.
First, though she let Erust and Ashra celebrate their reunion as a married couple. Now that Ed and his body were safely tucked away again she had no problem with this shell of Ed enjoying what she couldn't allow otherwise. The fact that the original body of her lover was safely stored again away from the scheming of the Oracle meant that she no longer cared what happened.
Ysennia had transported Erust body out of the ruins and set him on a path towards the rest of his party. He was weak, the body was new and the muscles were not hardened from the years of work that the original body had. Erust felt into the arms of Ashra who had rejoiced he showed up, not even thinking to ask what had happened. She knew something was changed when she saw him and no longer felt that deep aversion to even seeing his face.
The three of them rushed to get the weakened Erust back home to Ashra's home town. Erust sat in the back of the cart, being tended to by his enthusiastic wife. Rennish drove as fast as he thought was safe to get them back to the family home. The first few nights of their return Ashra had insisted on Erust staying in bed to recover strength. The three of them agreed to say nothing to the family about the visit. And so a wedding party was thrown to celebrate a safe return. The family didn't know how close they had come to disaster and they didn't want anyone to worry.
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While Erust and Ashra celebrated with family Rennish excused himself and walked away from the party. He took a small glass of stiff fermented milk and headed to the edge of town where the training grounds stood. He found himself a good spot, in view of the moon, and plopped down to think. Something felt wrong and he replayed the series of events over and over in his head.
He had sensed that the goddess had done something and he was ready to rush in to fight. The guardian must have felt it too because as soon as Rennish knew divine power had been used he ran off into the night headed away from their camp. It was shortly after that when his version of Ed wandered out of the ruins shaking and nearly dead.
When Erust fell into Ashra's arms Rennish winced at first. He was expecting the crying and wailing that normally came from even the slightest touch. To both of their surprise, nothing happened. Ashra took him in and loaded him into the back of the cart. They had rushed back to her family home as quickly as possible to nurse him back to health. The next 3 days had been the most time they had spent alone since before they made it to the towns of Northern and Southern Gate.
When the time came, Rennish was summoned into their room upstairs. He remembered the bed made out on the floor and Ed laying there on the floor. Ashra was combing his hair quietly and humming to herself. She was happy to be able to serve her master and husband again. The strange looks they got in the town would be over soon enough when the people saw them together for the first time.
Erust looked up at Ashra, "Will you give us a few minutes alone? I need to talk to Rennish about something only he needs to hear."
Ashra nodded. "I will see if we have more fermented vinegar and bread," she said and got up quietly. It was a dish that everyone in the family enjoyed. It was vinegar made from the rinds and flesh of sugary fruit. When you dipped crusty bread into it, it was an amazing treat.
"What is it, Ed?" Rennish said as soon as he could tell Ashra's footsteps were walking away.
"First, just call me Erust now. No more Ed. I have to let that go if I want to make this all work in the long run." He said sitting himself up and moving his blanket aside. "She really thinks I was about to die doesn't she?"
Rennish nodded. "When I felt that amount of divine power being used, I assumed that you were involved in something. I was afraid that you were killed also... When you wandered out of there, wounded and nearly devoid of any Mana or Divine power I knew something happened. What was it?"
Erust leaned forward. "The Oracle is a traitor. She betrayed all of the people on this planet. She has to be destroyed and those who follow her also."
Rennish had a hard time running this through his head. He had met the oracle before. The oracle was no more than a sentient form of control to make sure the planet followed along in a fluid set of rules designed to promote life. She made sure there was wind, water, and earth. She also motivated most living things to want to eat, drink, and reproduce.
It was hard to reconcile that the oracle would have gone rogue, but it was as old as antiquity, a system installed and created by the Lord himself. Rennish had heard of things developing quirks the longer they worked. Much like wagon wheels or gears getting unusual flat spots or things with age and use.
"We will start by heading south to the border towns. We will stop along the way and speak to the tribes about the love of the divines. Ysennia told me that the false god is near the very southern lands. We will head that way to defeat that threat first." Erust said slamming his hand into his palm. This was the most gung ho that Rennish had ever seen. It was a good sign but slightly unnerving for some reason.
"This sounds like a great plan old friend. But what about you? I am not sensing much of your old power. Do you need time to recharge?"
"That will come back with time. According to the goddess the battle below left my soul damaged and I will slowly get my powers back." Erust shrugged.
"Okay, as long as you are okay with it." Rennish smiled and patted his friend on the shoulder before getting up. "You should at least practice little things for a while. Try to build your reserves back up by expanding them."
"Not a bad idea! Thanks, Rennish. You can be useful when you want to." Erust said smiling.
"Don't get used to it. I don't want nasty rumors about me!" He waved as he opened the trap door to the room and walked down the steps into the kitchen.
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At the home of the divines on the planet, Ysennia was in her office. She had put her prized possession into the most secure spot she could find. She created a void between realities and worlds. Somewhere in a dimension hid among the infinite other variable dimensions the body of her lover was hiding, waiting for her to resurrect him and resume the life that her ascension to the heavens had robbed from them both.
Normally she would have put his body on another world, but that seemed to not be working. She wanted this body as secure as possible. There was no way in her mind that anything or person could find him there. Her plan now was to fix everything. She needed to restore peace in the south. The new Erust would head off and make sure that happened. They needed to wipe out any new divines and use Erust as the way to spread the power of the divines. With his lack of power, they could now perform miracles through him. That was their way to exploit the loophole left in the wake of Jessios mistake.
She smiled to herself. This plan was working better than she expected. She was slightly sad that she couldn't see her lover become the hero of the land. But she had was she needed to make sure they would be more than just normal mortals in their next lives. They would be the parents of a god.
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Far away, in the Glass Capital, a man was brought into the capital building. He was carried into the building inside a wicker basket, naked and asleep. Ko'Loss brought him at the instruction of his master. Many hours had gone into getting this man back into the world where he belonged. There was anger on Ko'Loss part because he remembered Ysennia as a girl. Even though he had turned himself into a Golem 3000 years ago he had lived for a very long time as a human before that. He was old enough to know the full history of the planet.
This man was going to help undo the damage done by this system. His master, the oracle, assured him that what he wanted most in the world would come from this near corpse in the basket. He walked slowly into the middle of the town, ignoring the looks and stares from the peoples as he passed through each gate. He came to the building of the central government and opened a door slowly. The building normally rang with the sound of government happening and people talking.
As soon as the very old creature walked through the doors the sounds stopped as if all air had been removed. He rotated his face around his body to get a good look at the interior. The building had changed in the last few hundred years but the layout was still similar enough that he knew what to do.
Ko'Loss walked through the large reception area and watched as people parted for him, part fear and part reverence for the ancient being. He found the area where men and women of all races sat waiting to assist people. They called them receptionist now, he thought to himself. He found a girl whose features looked honest and she radiated a calm peaceful light blue aura. He walked over to her and stopped.
"Tell the generals that Ko'Loss is here to see them. Tell them to bring an Alchemist. I am in need of the workshops." he said to a receptionist.
The poor girl was already terrified that this mountain of walking clay had walked into her office carrying an oversized picnic basket. It was even more unnerving when its face had moved off its head to be at eye level with her. She would have taken any command to just be out of his presence. "Yes sir! Right away sir." She said scrambling out of her chair and into the back rooms. She had no idea who the generals were, or where the workshop was.
She ran into her boss's office, throwing the door open and breathing heavily. "Someone is here about generals and a workshop!"
The man behind the desk was of the snow owl clan of bird folk far to the south in the lands of ice and snow. Owls do have a remarkable memory, this one was no exception.
"You said it asked for the generals?"
"Yes sir, a huge mass of stone with a basket asked for the generals and a workshop."
The owl stood up and walked around from behind his desk, He swung his head out the door to see what she was talking about.
The feathers on the back of its neck stood up on end. "Oh good gods, do you not know who that is? Get him out of the damn waiting room and put him in the Noble reception hall! We can't have the protector of the oracle standing around outside like a commoner!" He shooed the girl out of the room and towards the back hallway. Ko'Loss rarely left the side of the oracle and when he did it was important. But why would he show up here at the center?