Knosos walked towards Zodran's office, the sound of his quickened steps echoing through the empty halls. As he neared the room, he felt the air grow heavy with the acrid smell of death. The itch he had suppressed earlier took over in full force as he became intent on learning just how Zodran had achieved the feat of taking down a god, even if the god in question was consenting to the treatment.
The Gods of Elderiel were born of nature, personification of its very forces. As humanity grew more complex, more gods were born to fill the various niches that needed to be looked after by a living entity with a personal touch. As the personification of curiosity and learning, Knosos was happiest when he had something new to investigate. So despite the dire circumstance they were in, he found himself to be in a rather expectant mood as he entered the office.
He wandered about the room, his glasses scanning and taking in every minute detail. Everything seemed to be neat and tidy, except the desk and its immediate surroundings, so Knosos headed over to investigate it.
He noticed the large stack of paper scattered on the floor as if it had been dropped without a care. This irked him as he could not understand why someone would ever treat their precious research so callously. He picked up the chair that Lamira had tipped over and sat down at Zodran's desk. As he did so, he spotted the scalpel that Zodran had used on the floor next to the chair.
"Oh? So that's where you've been. I was losing my mind thinking I had actually forgotten something." He thought out loud as he picked up the tool and played with it his hands. This scalped had a particular design; slender handle, a fine point, and a conductive tip, making it ideal for inscribing miniature magical circuits.
"Since you are here, then Zodran must have used you to create an artifact. I wonder just what you cooked up." Knosos mused lightheartedly. He was not worried that Zodran was permanently dead, and was not an emotional like his sister; he understood there was no such thing as death for conceptual beings like themselves. Knosos had even checked his brother's body and seen that nothing other than his soul was out of place.
Therefore, he treated the entire situation as a fun puzzle to solve, and was confident in his ability to do so. Someone else may find analyzing thousands of loose and scattered pieces of paper an intimidating prospect, but he was well versed in how to handle such scenarios.
Relaxing into the chair, Knosos flexed his magical abilities. The air hummed with power as all the scattered pieces of paper were swept up by an invisible storm. Wardrobes flung open, and drawers came flying out of their desks, all paper within flying out and joining the assembly that had begun to circle around around the. Once all pieces of paper had passed in front of his eyes twice, the storm began to die down as the pages landed on the desk and organised themselves into a few orderly stacks.
Knosos would not need them anymore, as his glasses had already captured all their contents. Now, he simply had to read through and analyze his brother's work, and find some vulnerability he could exploit. He waited a few seconds for his glasses to compile and organize all the pages, and then he began to read. However, the slight smile on his face disappeared as soon as he read the first line on the first page.
"Project Godkiller" it read.
Knosos knit his brows as various thoughts flittered through his head. Was Zodran trying to end himself? Or was he creating a weapon to kill someone else? Was his death intentional, or was it an experiment gone wrong? He relaxed his browns and simply continued to read, believing that all his questions would be answered in time.
.....
Days passed as Knosos sat unmoving, only his eyes showing any motion. A thin layer of sweat had built up on his forehead, and a few strands of his dull grey hair clung to it. As he finished reading the last paragraph of the text, he closed his eyes and sighed. He did not understand half of what he had read, but he understood that Zodran had created something truly insidious and Knosos could not think of a single way to counter it with certainty. Moreover, he felt that certain key bits of information were left out of the notes, either deliberately or because Zodran remembered it by heart and did not feel the need to write it down. He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration as he felt a headache coming on.
"How am I going to explain this to Lamira.." he muttered, only to receive an unexpected response.
"Explain what to me? Did you learn something?"
Knosos opened his eyes and sat upright only to find his sister lying on the desk in front of him, curled up like a cat. She had arrived at some point and he had been too engrossed in his studies to notice. He could see an expectant look on her face, as sat up and turned towards him. Knosos hated to be the bearer of had news, but he had no choice. So, he sighed tiredly before he began to speak.
"It's worse than I thought. Zodran created a complex artifact from Underworld Obsidian, and trapped his soul inside it. He then had the artifact teleport to one of the lower worlds." he said in a steady tone.
Lamira tilted her head to the side as she gave voice to a question that popped up in her head.
"We can get it back, right? And free his soul?" she asked.
"Yes. In fact, we do not even need to bet it back, just destroying it is enough. But it is not so simple. The material this artifact is made of is perfectly attuned to Zodran and will hide his soul from all detection methods. The teleportation was random so he could be in any god forsaken part of the world, and we have no idea where. The artifact can also hijack and take control of souls.. allowing it to hide in plain sight as any random mortal." Knosos responded, the frustration in his voice building..
"So there's no way we can find it? We can't tell our temples to look for it?" Lamira asked back, a trace of panic in her voice.
"We can ask them to look, but we are not able to send them coherent messages. We can only send visions to our prophets, and we have no idea how those will be interpreted. Humans are also greedy, and may decide to intentionally misinterpret the message in a way that benefits them. Meanwhile, the artifact is intelligent and will actively hide and avoid crossing paths with the churches." Knosos went on.
"So there is nothing we can do but wait? and hope it somehow gets destroyed? That could take thousands of years." Lamira was on the verge of panic. If the cycle of reincarnation was stopped for that long, it would inevitably mean the end of all intelligent life.
Knosos also understood this and volunteered a solution. "Zodran has extensively journaled the process of rehabilitating and cleansing souls. I may be able to take on his role temporarily with the help of his subordinates, but I have no innate understanding of what to do and it is by no means a long-term solution."
Although after reading about Zodrans hardships, he also dreaded taking on this job, he understood that he was the only Greater God who could do this. His divine domain of gathering and compiling knowledge could take a break for a while, and he had enough competent subordinates who could keep things from falling apart, by granting blessings to mortals who had sacrificed their knowledge to their temple, and keeping up the appearance that nothing was wrong.
"My output will not be nearly as high as Zodran's. I can only put off the end of the world by a few decades at most. We still need to do what we can to maximize the chances that the artifact is found and destroyed before I reach my limit." Knosos continued in a grim tone.
Seeing the look in his calculating eyes, Lamira came to an understanding. "You have a plan, don't you?" She inquired.
"Hmph" Knosos scoffed. "It's not really a plan. More like a desperate last ditch effort that may or may not work. But it is better than sitting on our asses and doing nothing but buying time."
"What's your plan? Let's hear it!!" Lamira exclaimed excitedly... her anxiety making her act out of turn, but her brother didn't mind.
Knosos wanted to reiterate that it was not a plan, but he gave up after seeing his sister with a hopeful smile for the first time in a long while. He could exhale deeply as he elaborated
.
"We will need to call a general meeting and gather the twelve. We will also need approval and active participation from two thirds of them to carry this out, and Xendarr must be one of them. Since you and I are already on board, we just need to convince Xendarr and five others. It should not be too difficult if you are the one who proposes this idea.." Knosos was musing out loud when his thoughts were once again interrupted by Lamira.
"You can't mean.. such a thing could mess up the entire structure of the lower worlds!" she was stunned that someone as wise as Knosos would suggest such a thing.. her earlier excitement dying out.
"Indeed, but we have little choice. We either mess up the lower worlds, or watch it be destroyed.. and then follow along with it. We are the caretakers of the world, Lamira.. and since we were given such an ability, perhaps this is the best time to use it." Knosos said in a tone much calmer than he had a while ago. It seemed like he had made up his mind, and knew what he needed to do.
Lamira pondered his words for a while and came to the same conclusion. The cost of this action could be great, but the cost of inaction was potentially even higher. Perhaps this decision of theirs would not amount to anything, or perhaps it will be what makes the difference. Having found her resolve, she stood up and began to walk towards the door with large strides.
"Thank you for all you have done Knosos, but our work is not finished yet. I will call a general assembly, and I will see you there in two hours." she said as she left the room without turning her back.
Knosos could only smile, having seen the determined look on Lamira's face, and the spring in her steps. It seemed that she was back to her sparkling best, even if only for the moment.
"Yes Ma'am." he responded, despite knowing Lamira had already left and could not possibly hear him. He continued to sit on Zodran's chair and think on how best to convince the other gods to go along with his plan.