“Oh, okay.”

“Ben, this demands slightly more of a reaction than just an okay!” Helori yelled at him, getting a small shrug in return.

“I mean, I started giving off divinity when I became the demigod of growth and gain, didn’t I? Speaking of, now that I’m at the ninth level of that, how much am I giving off there?”

“When did you reach the ninth?” Nare cut in, Ben’s growth in that particular skill just as much of a cause for curiosity.

“Both authorities came with a level to it; it’s not important. Now, Helori?”

“Currently? Significantly more than a naturally born demigod, but that’s not the point. You couldn’t use that divinity, Ben. At least, not with intent. The bit you got from replacing your heart has basically just gone to strengthening yourself. What you currently have though? You’re using it.”

“But how is that possible?” Nare asked. “Ben is… mortal?”

The three gods turned to him as it was said, none appearing entirely convinced by the statement before turning back to each other, leaving Ben mildly offended as they did.

“Regardless of whatever Ben might be right now, it doesn’t matter. If I had to guess, I’d say it likely comes down to the nature of those skills. When he dies, he’s going to be a proper god of evil and destruction.”

“I see,” Nare muttered, Myriad instantly in agreement.

“When you put it that way, it might make sense.”

“Then maybe explain it to your still entirely mortal apostle here, who doesn’t instantly have the context for this?”

“Ben, I told you before when discussing Oaun and the soul mages, there is technically a difference between a god of souls and a god of soul magic,” Myriad explained. “Although in this case, we can now use you as an example. If you were to awaken your material manipulation to the third tier and then die, you could argue that you’d be a god of destruction magic since that skill merged into it. At the same time, what Helori is getting at is that you’d also become a god of destruction that would rule over that domain in a far more conceptual way. Technically, any destructive skills or acts would fall under that umbrella, same for your evil skills.”

“It’s a level of broadness that mortals simply don’t reach,” Helori explained. “And to be fair, many gods don’t hold such broad domains either. While not necessarily better than other divinities, you trade the broadness for a weaker overall power compared to a more narrow field, it’s the fact that a mortal managed it that makes the difference. You said you think inclinations as a skill class are uninclined to awaken? Well, seeing this, I agree because, while any awakening would change the nature of your soul, it looks like the nature of those ones might have changed it to the extent that you now have a minor bit of access to such things.”

“Okay, interesting. A few questions then. One, how comparable is it to the amount of divinity from my demigod nature?”

“The same, which would imply gaining that connected the two, perhaps making these awakenings easier than it would have been or even just possible at all or maybe it’s just linked your demigod qualities to your authorities to allow you to grow the bit of divinity you have without having to level those two skills, which I will admit is worrying to think about. If your divinity is already usable and above a normal demigod’s, how might it grow if you were to awaken your divine body or level those authorities? An uncomfortable possibility considering that you’re going to continue to do the very things that awakened them in the first place.”

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“Okay, something to look forward to then, seeing if it grows the next time I manage to pull off either tantalizing option-”

“Not the words I would use to describe such a thing,” Myriad muttered.

“But, that brings me to my next question. What’s powering it? You guys power your divinities with your faiths, right?”

“Short answer?” Helori told him. “It’s complicated.”

“Slightly longer answer?”

“That while we use our faith, for you it will take more study to be sure but I think it’s going to be a combination of things. Some of the faith you naturally produce might be being siphoned off towards it, though since Myriad didn’t seem to notice a reduction it would be a small amount, or you may potentially be using a minor bit of mana instead, just at a low enough volume that you aren’t feeling as it’s spent when compared against your recovery rate, making it feel like there’s no cost to you. And then when it comes to using connect with it, you said you feel like it’s more effective, so I suspect you’re bypassing any cost to it altogether by directly touching a target’s soul. Really, it will be hard to know with any certainty without a fair degree of experimentation overall, but something is certainly going towards it, perhaps even a combination of mana and faith to keep the cost down.”

“Huh, interesting. Well, if I make any exciting discoveries about it while I’m trying to figure it out then I’ll let you know, but for now, we have something else to talk about too.”

“Why?” Myriad groaned out, not ready for any more reveals after everything Ben had already done, even if his apostle just waved him off.

“You already know about this one, you should be emotionally prepared. Me and Myriad already informed Phixth that I’ve leveled my sacrilege so that he could try and prepare for the inevitable reveal of it, what I want to do is inform him of my new level to it and two awakenings too in order to make a proper reveal to the gods about it, the sooner the better.”

“Rather than holding off on it for as long as you can?” Helori asked him.

“Yeah, because ‘as long as I can’ probably isn’t going to be for much longer no matter what I do. It’s probably clear to anyone trying to keep an eye on me that I’ve been trying to hide my current status and with there having been witnesses to my awakenings yesterday that might get caught thinking about what they saw even though I was blocking them from the gods with my sacrilege and considering that one of the god crystals in Anailia has obviously been swapped out, someone’s going to get suspicious. Considering how many are probably watching the people around me since they can’t keep an eye on me, there’s still plenty that’s gotta be raising some worry and curiosity up here and, if I was in that position, I already know how I’d try to find out. There’s going to be some massive crowds for all of the soul modifying I’m about to be doing, if I was in the position of any god looking to raise a fuss about me, I’d find any awakened analysis holder there might be around to take a peek at my skills or, just as likely, wait for Yuzu and Elvat to slip up and look if I’m going to be around them all for a prolonged period of time.”

“Even if it will still be bad, a controlled reveal would still be better than an uncontrolled one,” Nare agreed. “Leaving only one more question to consider. Who among us is going to break the news to Phixth?”

“I mean, I really don’t mind doing it myself,” Ben offered, only to be met with immediate denial from all three deities.

“We really don’t need you doing anything to give him any more stress when we’ll be relying on him to try and arrange things to end for you in a somewhat reasonable manner,” Helori told him. “You just go down for the night while we talk to him and arrange to have a meeting started immediately, after we discuss strategy a bit of course, and try not to get in any trouble in the meantime.”

“Okay, okay, but to be clear, you think you’ll have your meeting started by breakfast time for me?”

“I’m sure it will have been going on for hours by that point. Why?”

“Because I promised Thera I’d tell her what happened, so I don’t want me revealing it to her to reveal it to the other gods beforehand too in case anyone’s been poking around her head when I’m not around. In that case, I’ll leave you guys to it. Good luck.”