A brief silence consumes the area, mother staring at us. She smiles and turns towards the wood cabin in the center of the clearing.
"Come, we can talk inside our house. I'm sure you have questions."
She starts walking towards the large cabin, humming quietly to herself. Blankk and Zero follow her swiftly but I follow cautiously, still wary of the situation. She holds the door open, allowing us all to walk in before herself. I look around, noticing the handcrafted furniture and decorations around the room. On the back wall is a floating image, seemingly made from magic. I walk closer, seeing the five elders before they were named and assumed their true forms. In the middle stands the mother, smiling with her arms wrapped around her children. The sound of chairs sliding back draws my attention.
A square table has now appeared in the middle of the room, a chair at each side. Blankk and Zero sit down, followed by mother. Blankk and Zero stare at the table, both of them seemingly terrified. I shake my head and speak up.
"I'd rather not."
I lean against the wall, the woman nodding understandingly. She looks to the others, then to me.
"So, questions?"
Blankk speaks up first, the blue tattoos fading.
"I've reflected on it a lot, especially while merged with this human. What are we? I know you say we are your children, but what are you? And where is our father?"
She chuckles and closes her eyes, a wide smile covering her face.
"Well, to put it simply, you are gods. You each have an aspect that sets you apart from all other beings. Xa'gorthep, or Blankk, you have always had a high affinity for history and understanding complex tasks. Nevereth, or Dante, you surprised me by having an extremely high affinity for reality manipulation. Zero, you have an extraordinarily strong gift, the ability to cancel other gifts. But I'm still most impressed with Dante."
She stands up and starts walking towards me.
"You have a gift as well, something no other human has shown me. Due to being born with no abilities in Neverth's system, although it was his plan, it had an unintended consequence."
She waves her hand, a strange image appearing over the table behind her. It has fullness, not just a flat object. It also has movement, not a single part of it being still.
"I can see souls, and thus, I can assess their potential. This is the soul of the man you know as Kain. I can see the age at which he will die, his maximum strength, or any other stat quantified by Nevereth's system. Really, Nevereth made it a little easier, putting real numbers alongside it."
I quickly interject.
"Those are no longer his stats; the system has been undone. At strongest, he will be marginally stronger than an average human."
She shakes her head.
"No, that's not how it works. But I never did really explain it to anyone, so I can't fault them for being wrong. Your max potential exists whether the system is in place or not. It is the physical limitation that you could never overcome. You may believe that the system strengthens them, but it only allows them to tap into a strength locked behind the thickest of barriers. But I digress from my earlier point."
She points to Kain's soul, then another one appears beside it. Kain's looks like water rolling in all different directions, but the other seems dead still, just gray strands floating with no movement. She talks again.
"Potential determines the shape of your soul, alongside personality and a few other minor factors. Here, you can see Kain's soul, the constant motion is his personality of never dwelling on the past. The shape formed from his unrelenting nature. Now here, we can see your soul from when you were still living with your family. You were born empty, no form for your soul to have, due to what Nevereth did to you. Now, here is your soul now."
Another image seemingly appears above the other two. A gray core being circled by 3 rings, each aligned differently. A gold and silver ring, purple ring, and a black ring circle the gray core. She speaks up, a wide smile once again on her face.
"Each of you is truly gifted, but you can fully inherit the gifts of those that came before you. An unintended fallback of Nevereth's plan, he created a sixth gifted being. If the cards were to fall differently, you could've made your way to me with the gifts of all five of your siblings."
I stare at her, at a loss for words. She spins her attention to the others.
"But you all did so well! You all became so strong! Finally, I can give you your final test, to see if you're ready for your true destiny."
We all look to each other, confused. Even Zero, who seemed to know everything just a brief time ago, seems completely lost. She laughs as Zero speaks up.
"But, what about the outside? You told me you would allow me to see it."
She sighs.
"You are a fantastic son, doing everything I've ever requested of you. But the outside you look for isn't how you think it is. Beasts lurk beyond those boundaries, monsters that would pose a challenge to even me. But if you pass this test, you will be allowed true freedom."
In an instant, she dashes outside, the grin on her face comparable to the grin of an excited child receiving a gift. We all quickly follow her, seeing her unbuttoning her cloak.
"Long I've waited for this, oooh, I'm so excited to see how far you've come. The fruits of my labor finally at hand."
Blankk speaks up, but she interrupts him.
"I don't-"
"Understand? That's to be expected. Allow me to tell you why I called you home after all this time."
She takes a deep breath, everyone on guard as she starts to drop her hooded cloak.
"I have guarded over this world for so long, so awfully long. I have defended us, fighting the unseen threats. But now it's your turn, to defend everyone. To rule the world. To make this planet how you want it to be."
She spins around, a strange magic wrapping around her forming a set of heavy white and gold armor. She extends her hand, a scythe forming.
"It's your turn, my children, to play God."