CHAPTER 953

“Alright, and that’s us finished,” Ben said as he stepped out of the last church of the day, his work there complete. “No more awakenings to do, no more people to help, I’m officially free!”

“Considering you used your earlier freedom to try and invent the worst spells you could think of, I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” Thera said from the side, wondering where so much extra time was going to lead him in the months he had left, with Ben doing his best to ease her worries.

“It’s going to be fine. I’ll figure out ways to keep myself busy, and once I get a couple experimental results back, I’ll be able to progress with my projects in a way that will cause zero stress to anybody.”

“Mmh, nope, I don’t believe you.”

“Fine, with minimal stress to you or the gods.”

“More likely, but it still feels like you’re underestimating things.”

“But since we’re done here, I guess we’ll split up when we get back to a gate,” Amy said, with the town they were in a far enough distance from one that they’d need to teleport there. “Might be a while until we can see each other again, but since the three of us are technically expected to be at this all day, any chance you’d want to stop for a bite first?”

“Why, Amy, I do believe that Jake has been a bad influence on you,” Ben grinned.

“Ugh, you’re lucky nobody has any expectations for you. Even I’m getting sick of spending my last few months of life working and training and acting like we’re not probably going to die.”

“And pessimistic too, now you’re speaking my language. As for a meal, I’m down if Thera is, but if I could pull you for one other thing after, there’s one more favour I want to ask before we finish the day.”

“... Let’s hear it,” she told him, having her own negative suspicions after seeing the help he’d already asked of Jake and the bizarre and dangerous new spells that had left in his head.

“I already got Myriad to warn them we might be showing up if I could talk you guys into it, so we won’t be surprising them with the visit. Come with me to see one of the world’s mythic items.”

Reaching their destination and ensuring that the three with them were all given the necessary amulets, Ben and the rest arrived at the land of the sirens, getting to the church of their pantheon and meeting with the high priestess of Telenen who he and Thera had met in the past, Woszan.

“Ben, Thera, such a pleasure to see you both again,” the high priestess told them brightly. “Here to try your luck once more?”

“Ah, seems so. I’m not sure if your gods have mentioned some changes to my skills-”

“Not to worry, what I’d said last time hasn’t changed. The doors of our church will always be open to the apostle of Myriad, no matter how some of your skills might be named.”

“Okay, cool, and I do appreciate that, but I was actually referring to my mind skills. I’m a third tier for them, and not to sound conceited, but if I can't currently solve this thing after doing a few more tests on it, I don’t think anyone will be able to.”

“Ah, forgive me. As embarrassing as it is to say, I suppose that one awakening had made a bit less impact than the others I’d heard coming from you. Congratulations, by the way. It’s my pleasure to be in the presence of a future god.”

“Consider the pleasure mine. If you’re not going to forget what I’ve done with the braces, then I’m not going to forget that you all aren’t reacting poorly to the news. With that said though, shall we go give it a look? I’m anticipating having to do a bit more experimentation first, but I’ll definitely be doing an attempt or two today.”

“Of course, we all have our hopes for some positive results. Please follow me… ah, I’ll confirm first though, do you mind an audience? It seems our gods have high expectations too, their various representatives have been gathered in the hopes of witnessing it be opened and it’s been moved to the main hall as a result but if you’d prefer, out of consideration, we can make it a more private affair.”

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“That’s what? Twelve people and maybe a few extra priests on top of that? That’s fine. So long as everyone gives us enough space to work then they can watch as much as they want. Now I just have to really hope I don’t disappoint.”

“Ha, if you can’t then they’ll understand. In that case, right this way.”

They were all led inside to the main hall, seeing seated apostles, oracles, and high priests waiting for them with hope in their eyes and a few of the church’s regularly attending priests waiting too, but that wasn’t what caught Ben’s attention, nor what left a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. No, that result came from laying fresh eyes on the very item he’d come to work on. The great puzzle of Eletar, looking as it had the last time he’d seen it, floating in the air as a sphere larger than he was tall and pulsing with mana, was setting off one of his skills.

Uh, Myriad? We might have a problem here.

I don’t want to hear it.

Too bad. The puzzle of Eletar? I can feel it falling under my evil authority. Either the puzzle itself is evil or whatever’s inside it is of a societal level.

You’re kidding me.

I assure you, I’m not. What the hell do we do? We don’t just leave this alone, right?

What you’re going to do is explain to the others that there’s a problem and sit tight before you come up here while I gather the rest of the siren pantheon to discuss this because this is far outside the realm of what any of them were expecting.

Okay, you got it.

“Ahem, so a small hitch in my plans,” Ben said. “This mythic item appears to be activating one of my current skills in an unexpected way, so before we do anything, we’re all going to sit down and wait while the siren gods talk it out and decide what they want to do.”

Of the gods Ben would spend the most time with, none of them were part of a pantheon, at least not actively. Helori and Nare were both single gods of their old worlds, and while Myriad was the product of the few gods of his planet as well as the people who worshiped him, he was just one being. Even the ones he’d interact with to a smaller extent were somewhat solitary, with Jagal being alone as well and Anailia surviving her lost husband after the fall of her world, making the current meeting an interesting one to him beyond the topic as he faced the gods of the sirens.

The four surviving members of it faced him in Myriad’s realm, his god by his side while Ben examined them and the minds they held, making for a comfortable enough situation as well. While half of them held some discomfort over the skills he’d grown, none intended to be antagonistic to a person who’d helped their people as a whole, leading to the conversation between them.

“So, how certain are you?” Asked the god Woszan worshiped, Telenen, choosing to be direct about the matter.

“As certain as I can be. I don’t know if it or what it holds is evil but something going on with it is setting off my evil authority in a way I wasn’t prepared for, meaning it was likely either made with evil intent or the thing it holds is somehow evil. Now, I hate to ask you all this about Eletar but, by the current standards of this world, either its peoples or its gods, do you think that he might have fallen under that category? He was a god of both puzzles and pride, right? It’s not hard to see how that second category might have fit the bill.”

“Eletar’s pride led him to fighting to the end so that the rest of us could escape with as many of our people as we could,” one of the goddesses among the group explained, taking no offense to the question. “I won’t deny, there were times in his life he could be a bit obnoxious as a result, but his pride was largely directed to improving himself and being a god worthy of being proud of. I can’t see that as being enough to be deemed evil.”

“Then we’re looking at whatever it holds,” Ben nodded, even if that raised different problems that the third god brought up.

“But that doesn’t make sense either,” she argued. “This item was made long before the invasion of our world, and he was always playing it off as a simple challenge for our mortals. If he’d made it to trap something evil within, there’s no reason he wouldn’t have told us. In fact, if it was something that was both so evil and so powerful that all he could do was trap it, he would have told us, surely disguising his warning as a brag for his accomplishment but informing us, nonetheless.”

“But the fact of the matter is that he didn’t,” the final god of the group said. “He never told us anything, and with no other information, we need to operate on the assumption that Ben is correct, in which case, what do we do? Leave it and assume Eletar knew what he was doing or try to open it to find exactly what he’d hidden from us?”

It was a question that brought the group to a thoughtful silence, leaving them to go over it until at last, Telenen sighed.

“We’ve known each other for long enough that I can say with certainty that none of us could be satisfied with not knowing,” the god said, getting small nods from the rest. “It may have been a curiosity to us as something left from our lost friend before, but now there’s a genuine need to know. We can’t just let it be. All this means is there’s a risk that we’ll need to try and manage before opening it, if you all agree.”

The others voiced their consent, unable to deny that this was something they couldn’t just go on not knowing before Telenen went on.

“Alright. In that case, Ben, we’ll have to ask you to hold off on your attempt for just a bit longer. Since we don’t know what we’ll find, arrangements are going to need to be made.”