Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 216:

Chapter 216: The Creation of Aimarion

“Alright,” Solanna said.  “I’m going to begin by explaining how this world of Aimarion came to be, as has been passed down from Vorcal to his daughter Sierra, and from her down our family’s lineage to me and now to you and Lysette.”

“Are you talking about the world of the Aestori?” Lysette asked.

“No, although the fact you know of the world’s destruction and second creation already will shorten my story at least a little toward the end.  In any event, I want to take you back to a time five-and-a-half million years ago.  It was a time before Aimarion, and before even the gods you know and hate existed in the world.

“There was a single god at that time so many, many years ago.  The one, true creator, who existed before all else.  Any who now exist can only speculate at what she called herself, but the gods refer to her as Omnia, the God of All.  At that time, she lived alone in a world of endless light outside of such concepts as ‘time’ or ‘space’.  But after countless eons of living in isolation, she decided she wanted a world of her own.

“So Omnia conceived in her mind a world of her own, one which would be populated by many, many people, not to mention all of the plants and animals and other beings which inhabit it.  And so she took bits and pieces of her body, and with them formed the ground upon which we walk, the stars over our head, the water, the air, and all of our physical reality.  By the time she finished her task, her body was completely gone, but being a deity, her existence endured.”

“Just like how our minds and Sparks aren’t tied to the existence of our bodies?” Lysette asked.

“The very same, and the reason we don’t need to eat, drink, sleep, and so forth.  Although we are but demigoddesses, and so we still can be killed by having our physical vessels destroyed.”  Solanna chuckled.  “Still easier said than done for most.”

Lysette recalled her conversation with Karchek’s will through the locket he left behind, as well as the Periapt of Stability hanging around her main body’s neck.  Both of those artifacts carried inside them a demigod’s will, the former even after his body’s death.

“Wait,” Lysette said.  “Demigods can be killed by having their physical bodies destroyed, but your phrasing implies that that’s not true of full gods.  How do you kill a god?”

“You have an easier time of it than most, being a demon.  Your demonic techniques to rip Essence out of your victims are similarly effective against gods.  For the rest of us, we have to cut off the source of their power.”

“In other words,” Serrena interjected, “we have to cut off the mortal worship which generates Divine Essence that sustains them.”

“Correct.  Let me return to my story from before.  After Omnia forged her body into the physical world called Aimarion, she then poured parts of herself into a number of caretakers for her world.  Those caretakers are what we know as the primordial gods, and include our lineage’s progenitor, Vorcal, God of Fire.  Some of the other primordial deities include Goleo, God of Earth; Thosse, Goddess of the Sea; Nairia, Goddess of the Air; Bionco, Goddess of Life; Thatara, God of Death; Luminia, Goddess of Light; Zarielle, Goddess of Darkness; and Asterion, God of the Moon and Stars.

The last two of those were very much not lost on Lysette, although it seemed strange that Asterion was here being referred to as god of both the moon and stars, rather than just the former.

“So, it seems that primordial deities received Domains over parts of the physical world, while those who came later became gods of more abstract concepts.  My Ambition, your Passion, Lyse’s Reciprocity, Mirae’s Devotion, Saffron’s Stability.  Even Domar, now a full god in his own right, has the less tangible Domain of Victory.”

“That’s because the primordial deities were created by Omnia to oversee the physical world of Aimarion.  But Omnia knew even before the first mortal walked her world that she would need further deities to provide guidance to the people and inspire them toward their potential.  And so she developed a metaphysical system of sorts, to allow for the creation of those additional deities as needed to represent the hearts and wishes of mortals.”

“So that’s what we are,” Serrena said.  “When our strong internal emotions or desires resonate with the seed of divinity we carry within us, we manifest that impulse as our Domain, embodying and epitomizing that aspect yet further.  We are empowered by those thoughts in others, so when someone strives for greatness or self-improvement, bits of Divine Essence trickle into me.  And if someone wants to repay a debt, positive or negative, some trace leaks into Lysette.”

“Exactly,” Solanna said.  “We’ll continue to replenish our stores of Divine Essence as long as two conditions are met.  First, we must continue to act in accordance with our Domain and maintain our connection with it.  As our minds and personalities are quite literally modified to do so by instinct, that is not a difficult task.  But it is at least theoretically possible— though excruciatingly difficult— to sever that connection entirely by sheer, unrelenting force of will.”

“Wait,” Lysette said.  “I was reborn as a deity before I awakened to my Domain, and before I started accruing believers, or worshipers, or whatever I should call them.  How does that work?”

“You were given a large quantity of Divine Essence upon your rebirth, enough to sustain you until you did as you said.  Presumably your patron could have given you more if needed.  In any case, you have a Domain and are regularly receiving prayers now, so the point is moot.

“Anyway, back to what I was saying before.  The second condition that must be met is, as I just alluded to, you need to have mortal belief supplying that stream of Divine Essence.  Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean people need to pray to you specifically.  If a person prays for help with their love life, and they’re not praying to a specific deity, it’ll default to me.  And the same thing is true for you and your Domains as well.”

“So anytime someone wishes to get back at someone who has wronged them, or to repay the kindness of others, it counts as a prayer to me?”

Solanna nodded.

“How does it work for primordial deities?” Serrena asked.  “Do people pray to light, or air or soil or death?”

“Not in such words, but people pray for their loved ones to stave off death.  For help in conceiving new life.  They give thanks to fire and water and the rich soil and the bountiful fish in the ocean for providing them food to eat.  They give thanks for the hearths which heat their homes, for the trees which give them fruit, and they sing dirges to mourn those who have passed on.  And each of these thoughts and prayers, through Omnia’s system, filter through to their respective deities as a form of worship to sustain them.

“Now, because mortals are reliant on the bounties of Aimarion to sustain their physical existence, it is virtually unheard of for a primordial deity to ever be vanquished.  And even then, always by the hands of another.”

“Has it happened before?”

“Twice that I can speak of.  A bit over three million years ago, Stellaria, the original Goddess of the Stars, was slain by Asterion, who absorbed her and subsumed her Domain into his own.  And even further back, Luminia did the same to the original God of the Sun, whose name has long-since been forgotten.”

“So what exactly is the Mantle of Creation?” Lysette asked.  “I’ve heard that Asterion is trying to gather strength to wield it.  I know it is some sort of powerful artifact, but how does that factor into the story of creation that you’ve told?  And what about the re-creation of the world following the destruction of the Aestori three million years ago?”

Solanna’s eyes grew deathly serious.  “The Mantle of Creation is Omnia’s artifact, both the original and the final artifact.  It is, quite literally, the beginning, as well as the end.  The core of Aimarion, as well as the lingering will of Omnia herself.

“After using her body to construct Aimarion and pouring the remainder of her immortal soul into the primordial deities, she used what remained to construct the system of deities and Divine Essence that I’ve explained before.  But even then, she devised one final failsafe to ensure the longevity of her creation.

“In her wisdom, she understood that, even as the creator and architect of our world, she was not all-knowing, nor could she foresee how the mortal inhabitants of Aimarion would grow and develop after she Created it.  So she left behind the Mantle of Creation as a way to restart the world and restore it to its initial state if ever the world were damaged beyond the abilities of the gods to repair it.

“Of course, even that required failsafes to ensure that the Mantle could only be used when it was truly needed.  It required, in effect, enough Essence and Divine Essence alike that it could only be used when a supermajority of the gods agreed that the Aimarion needed to be returned to its initial state.”

“So that’s what happened three million years ago?”  Lysette asked.  “But then, how did the Aestori manage to leave records of their existence behind?”

“The body of Omnia— the physical structure of Aimarion itself— is not affected by the restart.  Rather, it initializes life back to its starting state, and allows the system of deities and mortals to be reset and reconfigured.  By sealing their memories and will away in artifice to be reawakened by Essence over the following eons, they were able to end-around this limitation.”

“Reconfigured?” Lysette asked.  “So when the gods re-created the world, they changed the world’s system, as you called it?  By implementing the Aestori Ban?”

“That’s right, Lysette,” Solanna said.  “It was a change made to the Omnia’s system during the reset to try to forestall the need to reset the world a second time.  It is worth noting that, though the primordial gods are incredibly potent, they are still creations of Omnia’s system with overseer authority, so to speak.  And fundamentally, they rely on that system and Divine Essence to sustain themselves just as we three do.  So resetting the system and life on Aimarion exacts a real toll on them.”

Serrena nodded.  “So Cultivation is, in a real sense, connecting to that system of divinity and wielding the power of Omnia?”

“I couldn’t have described it better myself.”

“So, correct me if I’m wrong,” Lysette said.  “But if Asterion carries out his stated intentions to slay the other gods one by one through a combination of backstabbing, subterfuge, and influence, he would eventually be able to wield the Mantle of Creation by himself.  In doing so, he could restart the world once again, but rather than a coalition of gods, he could cement himself as the unitary deity.  In effect, he would claim Omnia’s place for his own, dominating her will within the mantle and would then rule unchecked, with no opportunity to oppose him.”

Solanna lowered her head.  “Yes, I am afraid that your hypothesis is a valid one, as is your conclusion.”

“So what can we do about it?” Serrena said.  “I may not share Lysette’s burning hatred and unquenchable thirst for vengeance against Asterion, but I will be damned if I allow Asterion or anyone else to deprive me and my followers of the opportunities to reach the limits of their Ambitions and push beyond even those!”

Solanna stood up and stared up at the sky.  “Damn you all,” she muttered toward the heavens.  She then turned back to Lysette and Serrena and opened a path leading northward, out of the Forest of Feelings.  “For now, the two of you need to return to your base of operations.  In the meantime, I will commence with my own preparations here along the border with Valdora.

“If we are to have any chance at saving this world and preserving a future of freedom, we must first win the war on Aimarion.  And Serrena?”

“Yes, Solanna?”

Solanna flashed her great-granddaughter a grin and a thumbs-up.  “Let’s show these damn bastards the true might of the Raesh lineage.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

Chapter 215: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112940063

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 217: https://www.patreon.com/posts/112940070