Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 171

Chapter 171: Into the Depths

Saffron took a long breath as she looked around the frozen peaks.  If it was cold in the post-midnight air atop frozen peaks, neither she nor Mirae were showing any signs of discomfort.  The former seemed lost in thought, as though she were trying to remember something.  And the latter was completely taken by their continued rage at seeing the core of their Domain mocked and twisted by the demon quite literally beneath them.

“I would suggest you take a moment to calm yourselves, both of you.  Karchek is, above all else, a master manipulator with literally centuries of experience.  He will, as it seems you’ve experienced, pick out your deepest fears, force you to confront those less savory sides of yourself, and use your discomfort and anger to make you sloppy in battle.  You mustn’t let his perversions cloud your judgement or dull your battle senses.”

Mirae nodded.  “It was more than that.  It felt less like picking at my fears and more that he was… taunting me.  He wanted to make me feel lesser, deny me, deny the affection Lyse and I have for each other.”

“Sounds like the Karchek I knew centuries ago.  Now then.”  Saffron pointed to the peak to the southwest.  “The entrance to the caves is buried under the snow on the peak of this mountain.  Both of you should stay close to me.  I can shield you two from Karchek’s influence, but it’s more taxing the further away from me you are.  And though it should go without saying, the two of you should gather what Essence you can along the way.  Even at our level, the slightest bit of additional strength could be the knife’s edge that separates victory from death.”

“One question, if I may?” Lysette asked.  “Why did you seal Karchek down here rather than killing him?”

“I didn’t have the strength to kill him.  My Domain is Stability, after all.  And the taking of life is inherently destabilizing.  Sealing him away, sequestering him, Stabilizing him within a prison of my own creation, on the other hand, is in accordance with my Domain.

“Now you might ask, but certainly, you have taken lives before over the course of hundreds of years.  You would be correct.  Although the action of taking a life is inherently destabilizing, there are times when other circumstances make doing so necessary.  And still others when I am forced to act against my very being to do what my country and my god demand of me.”

“It must be difficult,” Mirae said.  “Even thinking about abandoning Lyse, denying my Devotion to her and to our shared cause fills me with discontent to my soul.”

“It does for me as well.  Sometimes it makes me physically and spiritually sick.  Sometimes I have to recalibrate my understanding of Stability to compensate.  Sometimes I have to accept that my Domain has distanced itself from me.  But that is what responsibility entails.  Making difficult decisions, making sacrifices that I find personally distasteful to ensure the Stability of the nation I serve and oversee.

“But anyway, that’s enough philosophizing for now.  It’s best we make haste.  The longer this drags on, the more of a disadvantage we’ll be at.  And the more likely it is that he will continue to instill his disgusting seeds into the minds of his victims.”

Saffron strolled at a pace that exceeded even the fastest sprint, defying logic and common sense in the process as the world itself seemed to move to accommodate her will.  Lysette leapt into the air and arrived upon the peak a moment later, and Mirae followed just behind.  Saffron pushed a massive block of snow and ice out of the way with what appeared to be a wall of solidified air, revealing a set of stonewrought double doors that opened a second later.

“How did you move so quickly?” Mirae asked.

“I simply Stabilized my position relative to the cosmos and let Aimarion rotate underneath me.  Now then, we should proceed.”

The caves deep under the mountain were cool and surprisingly dry.  Less surprisingly, they were pitch black, with such a distorted flow of Essence about them that Lysette had difficulty seeing through it with her left eye.  Her and Mirae’s aurasight, on the other hand, seemed to both be working without incident.  And Saffron seemed to be able to see the walls surrounding them as clearly as if it were day, navigating with preternatural precision through the caverns.

As they continued along their journey, the temperature grew hotter and the pressure more intense.  Lysette was unbothered, and while Mirae seemed not to mind, their abilities would likely be a bit weaker in such an environment.  Around and down the three continued, wading hundreds of feet deep into the mountain through a series of passages that felt ominously reminiscent of the catacombs underneath the Shrine of Asterion.

Lysette wondered what sort of a seal was binding the demonic prisoner beneath them.  She spared a moment once again to curse her neglect of the more academic of Cultivation disciplines as she blazed forward in the pursuit of more immediate power.  Power which had saved her life and the lives of many others on numerous occasions, yes.  But also power that might have been better applied elsewhere had she been given any advice on how to chart her Cultivation path beyond base divine intuition.

“I’ve had a few hundred years to figure this sort of thing out,” Saffron said.  She abruptly paused.  “Apologies; the technique I am using shields both of your minds with my own, making it a little easier for thoughts to leak into mine.”

“Better you than You Know Who,” Mirae said.  “At least you aren’t actively trying to kill us.”

“I told Lyse before that I have need of allies for situations like these.  Situations I fathom will become much more common in the upcoming months and years.”

“If you don’t mind satisfying an idle curiosity, Saffron,” Lysette said.  “I’m curious why I haven’t run into any other Godslayers, present company excluded.  I was under the impression that there would be a lot more of them, given how imminent war in the Celestial realm seems.”

“Well, one of them is about a hundred feet below us.  And altogether, there aren’t that many gods.  Only around eighty in total.  The mortal realm simply doesn’t have enough mortals to create enough Divine Essence for more than about a hundred.  As for the gap, there’s various demigods both on Aimarion and in the Celestial realm who each take a bit for themselves, like Mirae and Miss Raesh.  And finally, some mortals have decided that none of the gods are deserving of their worship.”

So, there’s no…  “No way to make everyone on Aimarion a demigod, I take it?”

“I can’t even begin to fathom why you would conceive of such a thing.  But no, that’s simply not possible.  Only mortal faith can produce Divine Essence.”

“I see.”  Lysette and Mirae shared a forlorn glance.

“In any event, we’ll be there in a couple of minutes.  I suggest you make any last-minute mental preparations before we arrive.”

Lysette nodded and drew in what little Essence she still could as the three approached an even larger set of doubled stone doors.  The doors were sealed tightly, with no gaps wide enough even for Lysette’s aurasight to slither through.  And they were exceedingly thick and heavy, perhaps a foot or more in Lysette’s estimation.

Saffron traced patterns on the center of the doors, accompanied by a series of notes in a sweet and melodious tongue that Lysette had never before heard.  As Saffron carried on, a sigil glowed, one in the same shape as the marking on Lysette’s hand.  The cave itself rumbled, revealing a large cavern on the opposite side with a golden-red glow floating in the middle of it.

An opposing harmony filled the chamber, its timbre far gruffer and pitch far lower than Saffron’s angelic chorus, but undoubtedly of the same strange language.  Saffron entered the room first, with Lysette and Mirae drawing weapons of shadow and ice respectively just behind.

“Lady Ateni,” the voice in the middle of the room said.  “I guess that’s what you’re going by now, Saffron.  How things have changed so much in the last five hundred years.  And yet, I must say, you haven’t changed a bit.”

“You haven’t either, Karchek.  Nor has your sickening stench.”

“I would have thought Little Miss Stability would appreciate the strength of my convictions.”

Saffron didn’t move an iota at hearing that.

“Oh my, tough crowd tonight.  I was expecting at least a scowl.  Perhaps a clenched fist?  Damn, Saffron.  You’re far less fun than either of your friends.  Miss Retribution and Master Dedication?  I’m right, I’m right.  You don’t need to tell me, and there’s certainly no need to congratulate me.”

Karchek stood up.  His ankles were still chained to the ground by some sort of black shackles that flowed a sickly yellow, but upon a flex of his power, the bindings disintegrated.  He was handsome, with long, silver hair draped behind a shirtless and remarkably well-toned torso.  For having been sealed in this chamber for half a million years ago, he still appeared to be at the pinnacle of physical fitness.  Though, in a room with four deities, physical appearance was far more mutable than it was for humankind.

“Karchek, for your complete and utter lack of repentance, for your continued acts of cruelty and depravity toward all those who live under my aegis, in order to preserve the Stability of Domaria, I have come to put you out of my misery once and for all.”

“Oh, Saffron, dear.  You came to kill me?  And here I thought after five hundred years you came to introduce me to your friend.  After all, it’s been so long since I last got to meet a fellow demon.

“Oh?”  Karcheck chuckled.  “Your lack of response says wonders, doesn’t it, Saffies.  Oh, wait.  You really didn’t know, did you?  That your so-called friend, Miss Retribution over there, is just like me.  So please, do accept my thanks for allowing me to share a moment with one of my kin.”  Karchek materialized a blade of fire in his right hand.  “Of course, I’ll pay my thanks with your life.”

“Lyse, you aren’t–?” Saffron asked.

“I’m sorry, Saffron.  I didn’t mean to deceive you.  I didn’t know I was deceiving you.  The power to take the Sparks of the people I slay.  I thought you could do it too.  I thought it was what separated Godslayers from other demigods.  I didn’t realize that ability was regarded as demonic.  I–  I wish I had known.  Wish I could have told you on my terms rather than on Karchek’s.”

“You see… Lyse, was it?  Lyse, by our very nature, there are none who trust us.  As they well shouldn’t, given that we always seek to feast, to bolster our limitless potential in the way that comes most natural for us.  So what do you say?  You help me kill that pest Saffron once and for all and then work with me as my understudy, my trainee, if you will.  I’ll teach you all about how to make best use of our abilities.”

Lysette drew her tenebrous blade and pointed it at Karchek.  “No.  Saffron granted me wisdom and guidance when she could have given me death.  When I was fully at her mercy.  And Mirae, my love, has granted me their Devotion, their companionship, their love and support through challenges that none should ever have to face on their own.  And they did so with a smile and resolve second to none.

“And I am not the Demigoddess of Retribution as you have pervertedly made me out to be.  I am Lyse Barret, I am Aimarion’s Demigoddess of Reciprocity, and I choose now to Reciprocate the trust and understanding Saffron and Mirae have given me throughout my time in this role.  Just as I shall Reciprocate the fear, the panic, and the powerlessness you have instilled in the people under my aegis.  

“So make your peace with whatever god you worship, Karchek.”  Lyse turned to Saffron, then to Mirae, nodding at each of them.  “Because I’m going to see you dead before sunrise.”

Chapter 170: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109460507

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

Chapter 172: https://www.patreon.com/posts/109460518