MIND BREAK LEVEL INCREASED

Mmh, what happened? Quox wondered as he slowly came to his senses. I’ve been being used somehow but then-

A jolt of fear ripped through him, unbecoming of any god and seeming without source but it quickly faded, chalked up to a side-effect of his continued confinement. He knew in that moment he was nothing more than a trapped soul but he was less aware of how he was being used, only able to feel as he was stretched and warped with the demon he was trapped with, the knowledge relighting the hate in his heart.

I’ll get out of here, He told himself. I am a god, so long as my soul continues to burn, I won’t be contained! I’ll escape and get revenge on all of-

“Yep, looks like I’ve properly reset you,” An uncomfortably familiar voice said, bringing with it a new burst of fear before the god was able to squash it as he opened his eyes to see the mortal who’d murdered him standing there, looking curious as he went on. “The lingering fear is unexpected, did I do so much to you that it managed to imprint in your soul in a way I can’t remove? Interesting, this requires some further experimentation.”

“You-” Quox started, trying to bring some proper rage to his voice without letting whatever deeper feelings that came from seeing the boy again shine through but not getting to say more as the other held up a hand.

“Listen, I’m sure you have a lot you want to say about revenge and swearing to kill me but I’m going to be honest, since you can’t, I’m just going to get started here. Do your best to resist for as long as you can though, I’m hoping it will make for some good experience.”

“What are you-”

Another thought he didn’t get to finish. In the same instant, Ben was on him, a fist in the god’s face and the first of many in the millennia there would be to come, feeling through the connection as the other lit up in pain and leaving him to hope he’d get some progress for it.

----------------------------------------

Alright, may have taken a few real days but let’s see how this turns out. Ben told himself as he began the process of breaking Quox down anew, the god back to a place where he’d at least try to resist while Ben’s physical body continued his work for the day, honing his skills the best he could while Delair worked with Abel at the side, continuing on her own role of teacher while the other girl was there.

“Abel, you need to be patient and properly heat it up,” His student told the other girl. “It doesn’t matter if you can hit it into shape, if you don’t get it to the proper temperature then the entire blade is going to be weak.”

To drive the point home, Delair grabbed the last knife Abel had made and, taking the blade in her hands, snapped it in half with ease, the quality too low to withstand even the strength of the young girl who held it, leaving the one she was teaching to pout.

“I just tried to speed it up a bit, it’s fine. You gotta be willing to try things.”

“You can try what you want but you need to get practice doing things right first before you experiment,” She said firmly and leaving Ben to do his best to keep a grin from his face from the sight of Delair doing her best with her acting student, lest Abel take offence to it. Both were trying their best and that was what mattered, leaving only seeing how much either would get from it in the end as they went on while he himself looked at his own efforts.

Nothing feels close enough.

He had less than two weeks before he was going to need to start modifying souls across the world which meant less than two weeks to try and snag another third-tier awakening, something that was feeling more and more impossible with every failure he had. For days, he’d been almost constantly attached to a god, inflicting what misery on it he could while time itself warped within the confines of his mind yet it still wasn’t enough, forcing himself to wonder if it ever would be.

But as for anything else I can do… Options are slim.

Same with raising evil god of sacrilege, he’d reached a point in all of his more important skills that things like talent and effort had before significantly smaller factors than smashing his head against a proverbial mountain and expecting it to break first. Just endless, mindless training until at least one barrier would break for him.

And then I modify my own soul for some more power again for what that will give me, keep going with the face smashing and… Well, it looks like finishing up Abel’s job is going to be about a day or two away. Once that’s done then hopefully nothing else will be as long but even if my mind doesn’t give the sorts of experience I’m looking for for some reason, I should have at least three sacrilege aligned jobs to use to get through the next three third tiers which means after that I should almost, almost be done all of them and be able to finish all of my stupid jobs and then just maybe getting my other awakenings will be easier and… Ugh.

It was almost enough to make him want a vacation but a day off or three could be a little treat for himself if the war ended and he managed to live through it, in the meantime what mattered was practice and trying to pass those last hurdles, focused on that until Abel paused in her own work, looking up briefly before focusing on him.

“Well, it’s been fun but it looks like I’m off,” The other third tier told him, sounding disappointed and catching Ben off guard for the suddenness of it.

“What? Just like that?”

“Yeah, sounds like the perv got himself into some trouble so I’m off to save him.”

“Wait, you mean Foast? What happened?”

“Don’t know, I’ll get the deets when I’m there. Still, thanks for hanging, number two. I’ll come play again when I get the chance.”

It was obvious enough she wasn’t thrilled to go and it looked like his student was just as disappointed, reaching out to hug the older girl and visibly catching her by surprise right until Delair spoke up.

“But now who am I gonna be in charge of?”

“Alright, off of me pipsqueak. No one’s in charge of me.”

“Now who am I going to beat at games?”

“Hey, it was only a few times!”

“Delair, ease up on the teasing,” Ben told her. “And Abel, well, be safe. You can’t stay long enough to say goodbye to Thera and Sonya and Mora?”

“No, sounds like they want me now.”

“Alright,” He said, reaching out to ruffle her hair one more time and seeing how happy she looked for it. “In that case, be safe and if you ever want to come back for a while, well, you’ll be welcome.”

“Ah, this won’t be the last you see of me,” She said as she went over to his gates. “When this world is safe, maybe I’ll come retire out here.”

“Ha, you should. Stonewall could use another third-tier kicking around. Until then, take care of yourself.”

“You too, number two. Tell everyone else I say bye and try not to get offed while I’m not around!”

“Ha, you got it.”

She left from there, instantly making the shop feel quieter for her absence while Delair did her best to hide her own disappointment, even as she spoke up.

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Not only is she a third tier, she has the armour I specially made her, she’ll be fine,” Ben reassured, even if he wasn’t sure he believed it when he considered the reason she’d said she was leaving. If Foast’s own assignment had managed to be so bad that it now required the presence of a second third tier then he couldn’t begin to guess what dangers it held.