-Fourth Gospel of the Divines: The humans of the lands created many wondrous things using the magic they had been given. And with time they began to mix magics and make even more new wonderful things. The Lord was happy. As a gift, he gave certain people portions of his power. This let them create items or modify items to give them thoughts and dreams.-
When the golem stopped pulling things from the shelves, he collected the large collection of items into his hand and walked over to a table. He waved his hand over it blow away the dust and dirt from the last few eons that the room had been sealed. He pulled a table out from the wall and put it in the center of the room. He pulled a crystal from the room and sat it on Ed's forehead. He then walked over to the table and grabbed a chain from the wall and hooked it to the top of the collar for the crystal.
A woman from the group looked at Ed's sad, dead, body. She removed her shawl and walked over quietly to lay it across him. This was shameful to her, the poor man was on display. Yes, he was essentially dead right now. But she thought he would have liked to have been at least covered.
While she did that Ko'loss began mixing things together in glass containers and heating them in his hand. He then began to change the heat level and pour out the mixture into smaller containers. He mixed old liquids and crushed bones together before blending in salts, bat droppings, and other items. One alchemist in the room was watching what he was making but the ratios were far to off to be anything normal.
Finally, Ko'Loss took the four smaller glasses, and then in an order known only to him, he began to put them back into the original container. The fluid changed colors, emitted smoke, and then heat before turning solid and then back into a liquid. It stopped as a pearl-colored semi-solid that was giving off steam at the top and frosting up the glass at the bottom. Ko'loss put the container into a brass loop on the wall. He took the chain from the wall and put the end into the solution.
He used a finger to pulse a small amount of stored up divine power into the fluid causing it to pulse wildly. The fluid worked its way up into the chain before falling down the long strand and flowing across the crystal that laid on Ed's forehead.
Everyone in the room was holding their breath. No one had ever seen this before, the demi-human alchemist was so amazed at what was happening that he was ignoring the signs of his own physical arousal. The people around him had all taken a step two or three feet away from him because of his own turgid nature. The man was one of the races of goblin people. They normally detested clothes and this man was wearing only the minimum to pass. He had been the only alchemist they could grab along the way. Anyone would have been a better candidate than him.
The fluid stopped on the crystal for a few seconds before working its way across Ed's body. The fluid acted like it was alive. It finally coated the body completely and Ko'Loss walked across the room. He took a small stick and lit the end of it with his own magic.
Ko'Loss held the burning stick up in his fingers and for the first time, he smiled. "Everyone cover your mouth. This is where the fun starts." And then he set Ed on fire.
Now in Ed's defense, his body was in a state of suspended animation. What Ko'Loss had created was called Alchemist Fire. It was a fire that was almost completely pure and sentient. The crystal that it was crawled across was a type of Philosophers stone. Where the philosophers stone could grant eternal life, this stone granted time. In the ceiling, Ko'Loss had about 10 of these different stones hanging from chains. They could grant life, stop life, take away mana, grant mana, one would let you communicate with the Lord God for a few seconds before your mind exploded, and others were there to do things like infusing special properties.
Ed's mind began to race again with life. The horrified crowd watched as the corpse burned inside the vibrantly purple flame.
Ed's mind was burning also. Ysennia had locked his head against being filled with any soul other than that of her long-dead lover. This fire was burning out that lock. When that divine power was reversed, Ed's mind began slowly flowing back into the body.
When he had been killed the oracle had used a trump card. The oracle turned Ed's soul into an object. This way his soul wouldn't evaporate into nothing. It bound him and his memories to the world. It had taken the oracle only a few days to find Ed's body and swap it with a specially created lesser version.
The oracle very rarely felt human emotions. It was a sentient system of control, after all. It existed solely to keep the world flowing according to the Lord God's whims. However, when Ysennia had attacked it a subroutine kicked in. It felt the need to defend itself, and a sense of anger that it had been defied. The oracle was taking what could be described as a kind of pleasure from robbing the goddess of her most prized possession once again.
The oracle knew when the process began, it felt the change in the world. Again the oracle was THE world. It was not just a person but the personification of the whole damned planet. When the time was right, it released the bindings on Ed's soul. That power, the lost soul immediately flew through the world and snapped back to its body.
The Golem watched the burning body, waiting. Ko'Loss had developed and added unique tools to his large stone body. One of them was the ability to see divine power and mana like you and I might see color. When he saw the tendrils of divine power that made up Ed's soul sneaking into the room he told the other creations in the wall to let it through. Ed's soul soaked back into its body.
The people watching had no idea what was happening. None of them could see the soul as it passed through them or around them on its way back to its home.
When the soul snapped back into place the fire sputtered and popped a little. Like a fire that was running out of wood. Ko'Loss smiled and walked over to the body and using his one soft finger pushed down on his chest. When he released his finger Ed's body brought air into its lungs.
The fire lept up his body and into his mouth. The fire of life spread warmth through the body and kickstarted the adhesion of his body and his soul again. As his body and soul became one again Ed gasped for air and sat bolt upright. His eyes bugged out of his head. He screeched a noise as he sucked in as much air as he could.
Two females in the front row of spectators fainted from the sheer terror of the sudden change. The alchemist in the back of the room made a noise that indicated he had achieved climax from the sheer joy of watching life being given back into a body. This was a feat that had been lost to the ages and he had just witnessed it.
Ko'Loss walked over to Ed's body and put his hand on his back to steady him. Ko'Loss snapped his fingers and wiped the mind of the alchemist in the back row who had just had a life redefining moment. In just that second the whole experience, the whole process evaporated from his mind. As he stood there, his own juices running down his body, he snapped back to reality, suddenly terrified and ashamed of the state of his body. He was mortified to think what had happened that would have left him in this state.
Ed slowly felt his vision returning. His whole body felt stiff, he coughed as the air entered his lungs for the first time in a few days. "Not, **HACK HACK HACK** again." he croaked out.
"You are back... Ed." Ko'Loss said using the sheet to wipe his face and clean up the remaining fluid from his body.
"How... **Cough, spit, hack** long was I gone?" Ed said as he expected years of his life to have passed again.
"21 days," Ko'Loss said. "We stole back your body. Rest, you are... in my lab..." the golem searched for the right name. It had been so long since he had left. He used the last name he had known this building as in his previous life. "At Crystamoriam."
The name Crystamoriam was the name given to the capital in times of old. Those in the room were as confused as Ed was to where they were. Ed looked around and saw the giant golem holding his body upright but its face was running up and down its torso inspecting Ed for signs of distress.
People in the front rows were fanning the two fainted women with shawls and other forms of cloth to help wake them up.
The first person to regain his composure was the Knight. He had seen dead bodies before. He had seen mana used to heal men from the brink of death. This, however, was world-changing. He stepped up to Ed and held out his hand. "I am For'Ten Kirgas. Knight of the Order of Clear Glass. Welcome back to the world. I don't know who you are but I know some people who are going to want to meet the man so important that the oracle brought you back to life."
"Well shit," said Ed weakly. His mind was hoping that his death meant he was out of that save the world hero game. Nope, he was still here in it. "Where is... *hack cough spit hack* Rennish? Ashra?"
Ko'Loss face spun around his body looking at the people. "Do you mean the tall man who smelled of divine curses?"
Ed looked up at Ko'Loss head out of instinct. The face was currently mid-chest. He nodded slowly, trying not to agitate the massive headache he had as he searched for the face.
Ko'Loss sighed, it was the first time Ed had heard him do that. "We must talk. I will... fill you in?" he said hoping he had chosen the right phrase. Ed nodded, indicating that he understood. Ed's head was pounding, he was who knows where. And Rennish was off on his own unsupervised. It was like waking up to find that your kids had destroyed the house while you overslept from a nap.