Caleb Pov
I stood before Narinder, frozen, the titanic cat analyzing me.
My eyes shifted from Aym to Baal, the promise to Forneus flashing to mind.
“Greetings, mortal from another world.”
My eyes widened and my breath… I wasn’t breathing?
When did I stop?
Narinder laughed, it shook the clouds drifting in the blank void we were in; “You are surprised?
Ha, I am death itself.
I know when a soul is added, and when they depart.
You, on the other hand, never began here.
You appeared fully formed, and you knew how this world worked, so either the mechanics were the same… or… this world was reflected there… that would allow you to know many things… such as my name.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh, please.
Forneus is a follower of mine, even if I cannot do much, I can see both her and the Lamb, but now I wish to know you.”
I blinked, “…
huh?”
“If you understand our world, you may know how it progresses, and thus, you know the final piece to my freedom.
A sacrifice…”
“You’re going to sacrifice Ceres…”
He smiled, his suspicions confirmed, “Indeed, now, I need your help… see, the Lamb has little to no interest in sacrifice, indeed, she loves life, and her followers.
So, you can see the issue..”
“You want me to turn her more like you.”
“By no means, if she is like me, then she would never submit, I want something far more, I want you to make her feel as though she must be a servant, more than a deity… but not to her followers, to me.”
“Why can’t she be a servant leader?”
“Because then she will feel as though she has a responsibility and a need to help them, if she doesn’t, then she will be more susceptible to me.
So, I give you this, the ability to call on my influence, the ability to… bend others.”
“Bend… others?
Like their minds?”
“Indeed, full mind control is impossible, of course, but that is not to say that you can’t nudge them.”
“Why would I want to do that?” I looked at him, not wanting anything to do with this.
He smiled, a dark expression, the corners of his mouth reaching his eyes that had become slits, “Because I told you to, and whether you like it or not, you are my servant, and you will remain that.”
I glared at him, “Is that so?”
“Resistance does nothing, which you will find soon, all roads lead back to me.
See you soon, mortal.”
Then my vision faded to black.
Ceres PoV
I return to the camp, thank the One who Waits, and I dropped Amdusias on his face.
“I have returned”
The camp was rushing around, looking for something.
“…
ok, what is happening, now?”
Felen ran up, “Caleb was being kept alive in the chapel, but something happened, a pentagram opened under him and a creature with a scythe reached out and grabbed him.
The others seem to think he may be somewhere else in the-”
I rushed forward, he was about to take his last breath.
“Everyone, get him to the Temple, NOW!”
They carried him, I myself held his torso up… I made a promise when I started this cult… no sacrifices… and no more loss… I would not break that today.
They placed him in the center of the temple, and I put the commandment shards together, and made a commandment stone, which I chanted too, then floated up, my eyes glowed, illuminating the whole room.
My followers shook as energy flowed from them into me, and I understood… the art of Life.
I dropped to the floor, and channeled life from my own self, and channeled it into the ground, vines shooting up, the whole temple becoming a sigil of nature.
Then I reached forward, and Caleb died at last, but I seized his soul, before it could depart, and condensed it into a ball, before placing my hand on his head, energy spiraling around me, and his soul flowed through me, and for a moment…
I saw another world, art, hundreds as large and larger than Caleb.
No, thousands… numbers I couldn’t count.
Life, childhood, teenage, and then a game, far more advanced than Knucklebones, and myself in the game, … it was too much.
A whole life shot through my head and I couldn’t comprehend it, it went by too fast, I caught only images as it sped up.
I felt severe pain and shook, but I had to focus.
I took his soul and the outside went dark, and I pushed it into him, life perfusing through every part of him, the patches in him fading and vanishing, Caleb floated up, shadow and light flowed into his body, as the ink of death left him.
Then he fell to the floor, as did I… then he coughed, again and again, before vomiting out a leather patch.
“I… where am I?”
“Hello Caleb.”
He blinked, exhausted, “Ceres, you’re okay.”
I smiled “yes, and so are you, sleep now.”
I stood, and my cult stared at me in shock, even Amdusias, who’d hobbled over was at a loss for words.
“Let this be a day of rest, you all have done well, thank you.” I lower my head in respect, and my people bow before me… is this… what being a god is like?…
helping people, having them follow you as you guide them to rightness?
Perhaps… this won’t be as bad as I thought it’d be.
…
I laid in my sleeping bag, then walked up to the statue of me… I looked around furtively, ensuring no one saw, then I dove into the Devotion.
It flowed into me, a raw pool of white glow, flowing like liquid.
It fell against me, and I absorbed it, then it all shot into me, and my mind opened.
I saw one of those things… from Caleb’s memories… a larger man, massive, shaped wood, and built a house that could fit one of us comfortably.
I saw the process, and knew then how to build it… but… in that memory, I saw Caleb’s viewing him… an overwhelming sensation I’d never felt… it was warm, and smothering, like a torrent.
It was… nice.
Something about that man made Caleb feel warm and nice.
Odd…
… But, of course, I had to try this new construct… a play house…
I’ll remove the play part when pitching it.
Caleb PoV
I woke up and walked around and I saw Ceres building… a play house?
Not even a market playhouse but one with the setup my dad used to make… how on earth…
“Caleb, perfect, I was hoping you would be the first one awake.”
I approached the lamb “Hi?”
“Listen… you’re from another world, aren’t you.”
I blinked, “What makes you say that?”
She looked at me with an eyebrow raised, “When I resurrected you, I saw your memories, way too many mind you. The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
I could only make out a few images, but in your world I saw a lot of technology that was intriguing… and I also saw me, on something, a box of some sort.”
“A monitor.
A computer monitor.
And you got that house schematic from my memories too?”
She nodded “yeah, I realized it could fit someone my size comfortably, so I thought why not build some of these for our people.
But, still, how did you see me on a… monitor in your world?
It must be a seer tool… are you a seer?”
I smiled, “No, it..
it’s something to play games, see, from my perspective, until recently, this whole world was a game.”
She blinked, before smiling, “that means you have knowledge that we wouldn’t be able to get otherwise!
That’s incredible!”
I put my hands up, to slow her down, “No… I thought I did… and I do know some things, but my meeting Valefar and nearly dying cemented how different this is than the game.”
She thought for a moment, “How different?”
I sighed “Amdusias and Valefar were tutorial bosses, basically guys you mow through.
Even Leshy was casually beaten in the game…”
She blinked, “Yeah, I can see why you can call this place a bit different.
Well, I mean, at least you can know some topography.”
“…
no, not really, the game wasn’t open world, we couldn’t explore the lands of the old faith, just a few zones that we could move around and the dungeons.”
She put her hand on her face, “Okay, so out of world advantage isn’t effective, except for blueprints… that is useful.”
I nodded, feeling useless… I thought my knowing the story would help me… but all it did was cause trouble… now Narinder is interested in me, I’m stuck in a deal with Forneus, and… I really need to clear my head.
“Hey, mind if I go on patrol?”
“So soon?
Caleb,”
“I’ll be fine”
“Caleb you died.”
I froze, my knees turned weak, and I fell to the ground.
“Caleb… are you… okay?”
“What do you mean, I died?”
Ceres sighs, “You… had too many injuries, and we had no way to patch you up.
The job we did only delayed you until I could find commandment shards, the one you gave me helped…”
I looked at my hands, my vision blurred, then I went numb, I stood up… “I need to clear my head…”
I walked, as Ceres asked me not to go, saying that I could still have remaining harms, but I turned back one last time, “Trust me… I’ll be back, I just need to calm down… please”
She looked at me, “Fine, but please come back.”
I walked, for a while, not knowing where I was heading…
I died… I was actually dead… how… how did I die… I was revived… but… this world wasn’t safe, this world wasn’t a game, this world was real life… and I-
As though it was scheduled, I bumped into something large, and fell.
I looked up, and I saw Leshy, and he looked at me with the bandage over his empty eye socket, and sniffed the air.
“Hello, mortal, I see you are well.”
…
…
I didn’t know what to say, did it even matter?
“Lord Bishop… have you ever died before?”