“You will have to be careful while using that,” Sofia noted, looking at Pestle’s new skill, “It looks like it could be dangerous.”

“Hmmhmm, Pesle understand. Sofia not worry! Pesle not is Sofia, not kill self!” she enthusiastically affirmed.

“... Can’t really argue with that… Well, watch over me while I let the ring eat, alright?”

“Pesle protect!” the fairy declared, bringing out her golden knife and fork out of nowhere, brandishing them like war weapons.

“Thanks, don’t leg anything while I’m out, alright?” Sofia said, observing the frozen deity.

“No leg!”

The dead god frozen in dark ice had the appearance of a strict woman with sharp features. Her clothes were imposing but simple, they gave her the aura of a leader, someone with authority. She looked fully human aside from the two pairs of feathery wings behind her back, with no trace of her divine rune anywhere. As her extended hand seemed ready to cast a spell and blow up the stele, her expression oozed with both rage and sadness.

It looks like she did not even realize she died…

Sofia quickly shot a glance back at Pestle.

Halt, right..? What a terrifying way to go.

Raising her right hand toward the frozen goddess, Sofia could barely control her hand as the ring pulled itself toward it. Her hand touched the goddess’ shoulder, and Sofia’s mind was pulled somewhere else altogether.

She had been anticipating it, but it was still disorienting. Living the memories of someone else, her own thoughts nothing but a blip at the back of her own mind. Sofia focused, she hoped to remember as much as possible. To discover who that goddess was, and why she would try to erase the mirror left by a Lord.

The memories started in a great blur. Faces, places, melding into each other. Humans, lots of them. They had lived among humans, as one of them.

Then something changed, gradually the memories became clearer. A king, a throne, a court. The goddess was playing chancellor. By the side of kings and queens. Generation after generation. She watched with satisfaction and pride as the kingdom grew. There were conflicts, some terrible, others less so, but the goddess was true to her role, not once did she join the battlefield no matter how much each loss hurt her. She was the kingdom’s wise and unageing chancellor, nothing more, nothing less.

Until one day, a cloaked man came to seek an audience. Not with the king, but with her.

They exchanged hushed words that Sofia could not hear, but when the man left, the goddess was no longer the same.

No matter what she did, the cloaked man’s warning occupied all of her thoughts. In moments of joy, of pain, of rest, she could never forget it. She looked at her kingdom with dread and anxiety. She was afraid that all she ever Prided herself in, all that she had built, was destined to soon crumble.

The anxiety simmered into a vivid fear. The goddess sought out the man again.

There the memories started to contort. It was almost impossible to see or understand anything coherent, but every so often, they would align into an image. A picture, here and there.

An assembly of cloaked people in a world full of eyes.

Discussions with new people. New allies. Discussions that neither side seemed to enjoy.

Then, as fewer and fewer images managed to form, they started to follow a pattern. More and more, the new images were the same, all just the same goddess, staring at the sky. As if waiting for it to fall on her head.

After that, everything became black. Sofia felt her thoughts coming back to her, slowly. Yet she was still in the black void of memories.

Is… Is it not over?

Just as they came, her own thoughts faded away again.

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The memories were frenetic after that. A shower, a deluge of images and feelings. Agony, despair, resentment. The feelings were clear but the sights impossible to decipher, for they passed by too fast. Time flew by in an instant, then it all suddenly stopped. The memories stabilized into one place, in one moment. A strange room with metallic walls, a hundred or so cloaked people sitting around a table in a deathly silence

One of the figures spoke out. “Leaving them as is will only make things worse. We need to destroy them. Especially that one.”

“This is a suicide mission,” another one answered, “the Elder Beast will stand in our way. It cannot be convinced. And we cannot spare any of our fighters, not anymore.”

“Then one of the tacticians will have to go…” the previous cloaked figure continued, his tone somber. “If no one else will, I will go myself.”

“Leader… You can’t, how will we…” another cloaked figure protested.

The goddess stood up. “I will do it.”

“Are you certain, Pride?” The leader asked, “there is no coming back.”

“We have all sworn our life to the cause,” Pride answered without a shred of doubt, “Leave this mission to me. May my successor be gifted with a world free of this misery.”

The leader stood up too, and bowed to the goddess from the other side of the table. “We have witnessed your resolve. Death to the—”

The memories abruptly stopped.

Sofia was back in the black void, Pestle and Saria next to her. Under her hand the ice statue of Pride crumbled. Chunks of ice fell, one after the other, bursting open on the strange, undistinguishable floor of this peculiar space. That was the end of a goddess, gone from this world, leaving nothing behind but melting ice and an unfinished mission.

“Oh, hey, look who’s back,” Saria called out, “learned anything new?”

“A few things…” Sofia answered, looking at her finger that was wearing the ring. Now it only needed two more dead gods, and Sofia would have earned Edrazeketh’s essence. After all of these memories, as they slowly started fading away like a dream in the morning, she only had one thing in mind.

‘Death to the’ what?

Why would it stop there? I’m missing something crucial here.

Who was that cloaked man in the beginning?

Why was a huge chunk of the memories just missing?

And who were all of these people? Fighters and tactitians…

Saria pulled Sofia out of her thoughts with a pat on the back. “Well, you’ll tell me when you’re done sorting it all out I guess. Anyway, we’re done here, not sure I like what I got out of it, but it certainly has some interesting implications. Look at that.”

[Forget]: For you have chosen to never stop seeking truth.

Erase a memory for everyone but you.

WARNING: Essence of Edrazeketh required for safe use.

Using this skill without the required essence will instead cost mana.

In such cases, some of your own memories will be erased as well.

A higher number of your memories will be erased after each use.

“I see. I get it now. Interesting implications indeed…” Sofia commented. “A big organization, seemingly with the ability to stop time, the ability to erase me from everyone’s memories… An organization with enough power and influence to try taking over the system… Let me tell you what I saw.”

Sofia shared the memories of Pride with Saria and Pestle. Saria was quick to come to the same conclusion. The cloaked people, whatever their ultimate goal was, were their enemies. The very same ones who sided with Scripture, the ones who had tried all they could to stunt Sofia’s growth. Going as far as kicking her out of the third trial and erasing her from the memory of the world.

The ‘Voice’ with a clear disdain for the Lords.

Saria even pushed the reflection further.

“Sofia… I think I know these people’s name.”

“You do?!”

“Yes. I don’t even need to tell you, if you think clearly with less on your mind you will notice right away. But two words. War contribution.”

Sofia understood right away. It had been there, right under her eyes, ever since she had left the penthouse.

[WAR CONTRIBUTION BOARD]

- ‘The Watchers’ -

Top contributor: Cecless

Your Contribution points:

None

“It all lines up…” Sofia muttered.

“You said the crazy dragon was chasing a traitor, right? I think we for sure know where from, now. The kind of people who would infiltrate even the system from the inside to try to take it over. The kind of people who can get even Archangels and Gods on their side. But more importantly… The kind of people who would use the Lords’ mirror against their marked ones. Traitors, not even to us, but to the universe itself.”

“The watchers…”

Pestle called out to the two sisters from the top of the stele. “Raria think too much! Sofia worry too much! If we strong, traitor is kill. Very no need brain! Now time for out! I am die from boring!”

“Right, about that… How are we supposed to leave?” Sofia asked, looking around, seeing nothing but the stone stele, and an infinite black void.