IGIWS: FIRST DRAFT: Chapter 261

"Why are the Gods afraid of the Void?"

"Because the Void is a unknown thing that consumes deities... It probably consumes other things but stars and planets are the only things that can protect us from the void... As long as we still have Primordial Essence... Hence why we need followers to have faith in us," Iyomelka replied.

"Primordial Essence? What's that?"

"That is the lifeblood of the universe. It's a form of energy that flows through every being and living thing."

"So a Deity would be in trouble if they use up too much of their Essence?"

"Yes... A Deity can get more Primordial Essence through prayer, worship, and offerings."

"Hmm, that makes sense... But why does the Divine Three offer up their Primordial Essence to the Paladins?... It doesn't seem like you or any other gods are doing that. Unless I'm mistaken."

Iyomelka smirked and shook her head before she spoke, "It's understandable that you wouldn't know about how the other Deities work outside of Tertius or your old planet Earth... You see... Not all planets that have mortals can use mana like here on Tertius."

"Really?... That doesn't sound right," Rya replied as her brow furrowed in thought.

"I can understand your confusion... You see about 100 million years ago. After the War of the Gods where Deities of Virtue decided to cleanse the universe of Deities of Chaos which led to a lot of Deities' voices to be silenced by the Void."

"Ugh... Let me guess... Was it because they hated the Chaos Deities for creating demons?... Or is it dumber than that?" Rya muttered in annoyance.

Normally getting interrupted would have irritated Iyomelka. But she found Rya's reactions to the history lesson funny.

"It's a little complex but the short of it is the Deities of Virtue got mad when the Chaos Deities' creations were corrupting their followers and turning them into their Deities' worshipers. Stealing away the Virtue Deities' Primordial Essence factories..."

Rya started rubbing her temples. "You mean they were worried their followers would stop praying and worshipping them if their followers were converted into demon followers of the Chaos Deities? So the Virtue Deities tried to wipe out the Chaos Deities."

"Yes... It's what happened to you, yes?... You were a human male, and Nils influenced your body to turn into a Dark Elf female," Iyomelka responded as she raised a questioning brow.

"Huh?... But I don't do evil acts," Rya muttered with a frown.

Iyomelka chuckled, "Just because you are no longer a fully-fledged creature of nature doesn't mean the you are evil, Rya... It's what you do that makes you a good or evil person. Even if you were a Demon or Human... or a God. It's your actions and the intent behind them that matters."

Rya felt I bit relieved to know that she was not going to turn evil on a whim.

"So, the Virtue Deities tried to eradicate the Chaos Deities because the Deities were worried that their followers would be stolen from them weakening their ability to recharge their Primordial Essence?" Rya asked.

Iyomelka nodded wryly, "Yes, that is the gist of it. But the problem was that the Deities of Virtue were telling their creations to kill the Chaos's creations first. Unfortunately for the Deities of Virtue and the rest of us, we didn't know that beings created from Chaos could influence our creation to become corrupt. So, the Virtue Deities went to war and tried to cast all who opposed them into the Void. That included Deities of Nature who wished to stay out of the war."

"So you are a Deity of Nature?"

"Yes... I can go into greater detail about... I guess you mortals would call it pantheons. Anyway I want to stay on track before we go off on another tangent," Iyomelka commented with a chuckle.

Rya shrugged, "Okay."

Iyomelka's smile turned into a sad look, "After the war had gone on for centuries the Deities of all pantheons lost their lives to the Void. The Void became stronger, and we could no longer communicate with any of the Deities that are outside of this solar system. The only exception is when there's a Universal equinox, which only lasts for a short time. Anyway, are planet was one of the few that didn't go into an all-out war between the different pantheons, unlike our brethren that inhabited other worlds. We managed to maintain a balance between the Virtue, Nature, and the Chaos Pantheons, until the end of the war when something came from the Void that altered Tertius and so other Planets who didn't go to war either.

"100 million years ago, some asteroids came hurling towards Tertius. They came from nowhere and some of the Deities tried to destroy the most dangerous ones, but we didn't know what was contained within those asteroids until it was too late. They were filled with what our creation call, 'Ether.' That's when abnormal things started happening, the plants, the animals, the very ground itself, even the very air became tainted with this Ether. The creations that couldn't handle this Ether turned into monsters that Mortals hunted for their parts. And the creations that did survive this Ether grew mana veins over the centuries. Luckily these monsters absorbed most of the Ether and converted it to Mana, which was then released into the atmosphere, and this helped make it easier for more people to have mana veins. Giving every living thing the possibility to use power that not even a Deity could give to their vassels.

Rya listen to Iyomelka with fascination. It was a lot to take in but she was interested to learn more.

"The other thing that started to happen was the appearance of these Dungeon Cores and Dragons..."

"Hold on... So, labyrinths weren't created by the Gods?" Rya asked.

"Of course not... Those things are abnormal, and go and reality... I have a hypothesis, of what Ether is but I don't have any proof to back up my claim," Iyomelka sighed.

The anticipation was killing Rya, "W-What do you think it is?"

"I believe it's corrupted or tainted Primordial Essence from all the Deities that the Void consumed. I don't know why but I believe the Void sent this Ether to the worlds where the pantheons were in harmony with one another. If there was a world that was a battleground and the Gods were at war, I doubt the Ether would've come to that world... I believe Void it trying to get us to fight each other, or it is hoping to wipe out our creations through the labyrinths and dragons," Iyomelka said.

"That's kinda creepy... Hold on... How do you know that dragons are beings of Ether, and not mana?" Rya asked.

Iyomelka smirked, "You would know, Rya... You have our eyes... You must have seen it when you were in the Tomb of the Horde, no?"

Rya was puzzled at first but then it hit her, "You mean the Ether flowing through the labyrinth? You are saying that I would see something similar for a dragon?"

"You are a bright one... Yes, hopefully you'll never have to encounter one of the slumbering dragons," Iyomelka stated.

Rya felt a lump in her throat, "S-So dragons are to be avoided at all costs, right?"

"Yes, dragons are too powerful for us Deities to kill and all we can do is put them into slumber... From time to time," Iyomelka replied.

Rya didn't like how nonchalant the Goddess was being about the subject.

Iyomelka continued, "Anyway, that why I conserve as much Primordial Essence as possible... So I can use it to put a Dragon back to sleep, if needed."

Rya was speechless. The Goddess was more powerful than she realized, and a slumbering dragon was a scary thought.

"I guess the real reason I am telling you all this is that you are special. And you weren't born on this world so it's only fair that I tell you. So you can protect those who are special to you," Iyomelka explained.

"I... I'm touched," Rya replied.

Iyomelka smiled, "Your welcome... Now was there something else that I forgot to tell you?... Oh yes... It's about the Ether and Mana Veins. Ahem... Unfortunately, this caused a dilemma with the Deities on Tertius. Are creations were getting powers that some saw as a threat to their own powers. So, some of the Deities tried to be proactive in destroying the Ether-powered beings."

Rya looked on with interest, "What did they do?"

"Well, the dragon destroyed two full continents before Glacia, was able to get one of the Dragons to slumber by creating a new Primordial spell. The other Deities joined in on by casting their own spells slumber spells. That's why most of the Dragons are located on the Continent of Laos which is far west of Agon," Iyomelka answered.

"What happened after the Dragons were put to sleep?" Rya asked.

"Some of the Deities left Tertius when their followers were wiped from Laos. While others tried claiming some of the other Deity's followers as their own. And this caused a small war that sent a few Deities into the Void," Iyomelka answered.

This caught Rya's attention, "You can steal other Gods' worshipers? Like how the creations of Chaos can?" She asked.

"Well... It's complicated... What I was referencing earlier about how the followers of Chaos can corrupt followers of the other Deities. That process takes weeks to months of turning a human, elf, dwarf, or angel into a succubus, dark elf, demon, or devil. You've been through the process yourself, but the influence of turning into a dark elf was sped up due to a few factors. One, you came from a world with on mana or a Deity. Two, Nils gave you that choker collar artifact that is stuck around your neck. It's apart of her and so it speeds up the corruption and makes it easier to transform your body. Lastly, being a Chosen One made so your body would become as your Deity see fit. Hence why, you have Omni Eyes... No other Dark Elf has those eyes except you."

Rya was confused, "That all well and good, but I don't pray or worship those two idiots at all... I get that I'm not human anymore, but I don't know how someone would abandon their beliefs even when they were to be transformed."

Iyomelka smirked again. She was starting to really like Rya. This mortal was asking the right questions in her eyes. Iyomelka knew that if the Chosen One didn't ask the right questions then the Chosen One would probably have died by the hands of a Demon Lord, Hero, or Monsters. It made it clear to her that Rya needed to remain by Quinus' side.

"Well... That's one of the rests why I stopped allowing anyone of my creations to speak to me through my Idols."

This perplexed Rya at first but she kind of had a idea of why Iyomelka didn't want to be spoken to directly, "I can understand being annoyed with people bugging you to help them with every little problem. I know that you have a lot of responsibilities and I'm sure it can be tiring if all your creations just come to you for every little issue. But I feel like there's more to it than that."

"Well, you're right. There is a lot more to the story... To simplify it, I seen what happens when certain deities impose their will onto others. When I created my world and gave birth to my creations. I wanted my creations to choose their own path in life. To live their lives however they saw fit. But some Deities didn't feel that way and would have their creations live by a certain set of rules that had to be followed. And if the rules were not followed then the creations would be punished."

'Ugh... That sounds like Inquisition, bullshit to me... I hate fanatics and their bullshit!' Rya shouted in her head.

"And the one of the interesting things I found when creation of Virtue gets turned into a creation of Chaos. They really that all those rules and beliefs that were oppressing them were stupid and didn't matter at all. They willing worship their new Deities with open arms when they were forced to worship the other ones. But what I find the most interesting is how the creations changed the most when their belief system was challenged. Unless they aren't under an oppressive Deity like myself. Sure, I'll lose a follower here and there once in a while. But if they were influenced and turned by force. Then, they still return to me regardless thanks to how ruthless worshipping a Deity of Chaos is."

"Okay... It's starting to make sense now. So if a human was under a God of Virtue rule and get turned into a demon then finds out that it's the survival of the fittest it seems like a better way to live life. Even though it's still oppressive in its own right," Rya said with a nod.

"Right, and there are some that wish to go back from once they came from. But turning back into their original form is impossible... It's a sad fate watching a demon wanting to pray to a Deity of Virtue. But that's not the worshiper stealing that I was talking about earlier when some of the Deities tried to claim others creations as their own. And I'll give you an example."

Iyomelka waved her hand as all her Primordial Essence flowed around the empty space of her Astral domain until a replica of the world Rya knew popped into existence. "So, once we where able to stop the Dragons from destroying the rest of the world. Twelve Deities lost all of followers and creations. Trying to start anew was a Herculean task since the rest of us had our creations and followers at the stage of sentience and logic. So, four of them braved the void to find a new planet to start life over again. While the last eight wanted to stay. So, they used whatever Primordial Essence they had left to enter the dreams of similar creations of different Deities. So a Elven Deity would try to speak to another Elf that followed a different Deity. Then, the Elf would slowly fall for new the Elven Deity with they do enough for them and then that elf will spread the word to its community in hopes to convert others. Usually by performing a miracle for them to get them on the new Deity's side. And the long and short of it is that it's frowned upon to steal creations from other Deities."

"Is it really that easy to convince someone to switch religions?" Rya asked with a raised eyebrow.

"When there are weak willed and stupid enough people in the world, then yes it is quite easy," Iyomelka answered honestly.

"Ugh... Touche... But has that happened recently. I feel like you guys would notice when your followers start disappearing."

"Like I said, we're not omnipotent and we don't see everything all the time. But to answer your question. Yes, it has happened to my poor friend Vrune over a century ago. Those three assholes to the south stole his worshipers and kicked him into the Void. I fear that he didn't make it," Iyomelka said with clenched fists.

Rya noticed the anger in the Goddess's voice, "So they took someone away from you too... Tell me everything about them... If I'm going to get my revenge on the paladins. I may as well deal with the root of the problem."

Iyomelka unclenched her fist and glanced at Rya with a hint of curiosity. She saw the determination and fire in her eyes. It told her everything that she needed to know about Rya even when she was watching her from afar. This mortal was not to be underestimated. Iyomelka went from liking Rya to loving her. This girl was a breath of fresh air and she believed that Rya was going to change Tertius for the better.

"I don't wish to place such a burden on your shoulders. Trying to hurt a Deity is a tall order... And you will be taking on three of them," Iyomelka informed Rya.

The Dark Elf smirked, "Well... I won't make any promises but if it's in my power then I will deal with those bastards. Because I'm not afraid."

Iyomelka leaned forward showing off her gorgeous breasts that barely hid underneath her toga. The goddess gave her a serious look, "Don't underestimate them. It would be a shame to lose you."

Rya was surprised that the Goddess cared about her well being, "It's more of a possible long term goal, Goddess Iyomelka... My priorities is becoming Quinus' wife and strengthening my kingdom then I'll look into dealing with the Divine Three."

Iyomelka smiled and her smile alone brightened the whole room.

"Fine... But don't disappoint my Chosen One. He cares for you more than anything else in the world. And I don't want him to become depressed and lonely."

"Hehehe..."

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you have no idea how much I loves him," Rya replied with a confident smile.