Chapter 18

"On the way out of the Void Storage, they noticed the suspended figure of Light. I opted to ignored her entirely and I was getting good at that.

If not for Devotion and Life's chattering, I would have been able to make it all of the way out without giving the arrogant ass a second thought.

Life spoke to me first. "How long has she been in here, Clive? She looks terrible."

"Approximately the same time your lifeless bodies have been here. Now come on, we have a lot to do.

They both fell silent but I could feel their questions burning in their minds. Light spoke next, her voice weak, but surprisingly upbeat.

“You brought them back, Clive! It's truly amazing what you're achieving.”

I scowled over at her. "I'll do anything for my friends. No matter the cost, no matter what it takes. I look after my own."

"I can see that, yes," she sighed.

"Good, I want you to know what you missed out on by continually refusing to deal with me.”

“Oh, I understand now and I can only apologize.”

“Don’t waste your breath. Your apologies are worthless." With that said I turned and marched out of the Storage before anyone could say another word.

Peace stood waiting in the temple with Dawnsinger. They looked lost and worried.

"Is everything okay, Clive? Why did you run off?"

"You're about to find out," I replied, throwing a thumb behind me. “And for once it’s not bad news.”

I waited for a moment longer and the two goddesses still hadn’t shown up. That brought a groan from me. They were most likely still talking with Light.

"What do you mean?" Peace asked again. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, good as I can be. Would have been better if those two followed me out like they were supposed to. I might as well just tell you. After what happened with your core and our conversation I got to thinking. Could I use it to bring back Devotion and Life? I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up so I never said anything. Now I know."

Her eyes almost popped out. "Did it work?"

"Yes, it worked.  But now they're chattering on with Light, which is why I'm standing here like a fucking pillock."

Peace was past me in a heartbeat, entering the voyage storage without a second's thought.

Dawnsinger stood uncomfortably and smiled at me sheepishly. "Thank you again, Lord Clive, for everything. Our world owes you a great debt."

"I’m just doing what anyone would do given the circumstances."

She snorted. " Whether you care to admit it or not, there’s something special about you. To me, you are the perfect blend of morals and desires. Your goals are to survive and to protect. Not to win or dominate.”

“There’s plenty like me. I’m not special. Granted you get a few wankers who think success is possessing as much as they can possibly get their hands on. Then they look down their noses at everyone else, like Light in there,” I said pointing at the Void.”

“Survive and protect sounds about right. I like to mess around in the kitchen as well. Perfecting recipes, thinking of new things to cook and seeing the delight on peoples faces when I manage to surprise them. But even then, that’s pushing it. I love to see that expression of contentment of a classic meal that wraps you up in a warm hug. As soon as this is over, that’s what I’ll be going back to.”

“Really?” she said seeming truly shocked.

“You bet your ass.”

“You are, from what I can see, the most powerful person in the Universe. You are the god of gods now. Can you walk away?”

“if I can do all this, I think I can manage to walk away.”

“And you really would? Would the old gods continue to care for the universe?”

“They never did in the first place, Dawnsinger. Not that it was their fault, but I honestly don’t think the Universe needs looking after. I think that’s where the Alo-I went wrong. Sometimes you should just leave things be.”

“And if someone doesn’t want to leave things be? If they want to control things again?”

“Don’t say things like that, I’m looking forward to my retirement.”

“So you would act?”

“If the other gods can’t deal with it. Then I suppose they can give me a call. I hope not though.”

“Isn’t that doing what Hakan did though? Deserting everyone?”

“Not really. I’ve never called myself anything other than Clive and I’ve never said I was in charge. I’m also not going anywhere.”

She smiled and seemed to relax a little. “Will I be able to get a table at your restaurant? I imagine it will be busy.”

“For you, there’ll always be a table available.”

While we spoke, Peace, Devotion, and Life finally appeared. They were all looking at me like they wanted to say something. I figured I knew what it was and I didn’t want to hear it.

"Right you lot, let’s call the others together to let them know what’s happening, I’ll bring them all through and then you can plan how you want to proceed.”

“I will continue to supervise the arrival of our people into the Sphere,” Dawnsinger said. “Then I will join you later my Goddess to train.”

Peace offered a fond smile and Dawnsinger left.

Meanwhile, I contacted all of our groups and asked them to return to the temple. There was more than a bit of grumbling from Natom and Mal, but the others all returned without issue.

Of those who came through, only Sania and Destruction recognized the two new arrivals. Both of them were overcome with joy and confusion.

“How is this possible?” Destruction asked. “Are you real?”

“We are real,” Devotion answered. “All thanks to Clive and the teleportation Anchor’s he took from each of us.”

Destruction looked to me for confirmation.

“All true. Thise fragments were still alive and a full part of them. I just had to invest them with power.”

“Incredible,” Sania said, moving to embrace both Life and Devotion. Destruction never went that far, but I could feel the emotion coming along her bond. She was very happy.”

“I take it you’ve all heard what happened to Peace by now?”

“We have,” Destruction said, while the others all nodded. I knew Danivra was aware as she organized all of the portals to Elvia.

“Then you should know that Hakan was able to use mind control beyond a servant bond. Peace is now free from all bonds and she will be taking her place among you with Dawnsinger and Inez but they will be concentrating on the defense of our minds but also attacks where needed.”

I could sense the unease across them all, but it was the frowning Destruction who was first to react. “Mind Control! We all need to develop this. We are too vulnerable otherwise.”

“You do. But right now - while we know more than you - we don’t know enough to teach and it would be too slow and take too much time away from other things. We need to develop our understanding of it first. Once we have, and worked out some teachable methods, we’ll make sure everyone can mount a basic defense and more if need be.”

She still wasn’t happy and it was never a nice subject to discuss, but they let it lie. “I suppose knowing that someone - especially someone as dependable as Peace is working on it, then I can rest a little easier. She looked around the others and nodded until her eyes landed on Life. “It adds another dimension to our team. I assume Devotion will be focusing on defense with the others, but I wonder, what about you, Life? Will you join team Kill Hakan? And if you do, what will you offer.”

“I will be joining you, and I can offer healing, for what that’s worth.”

“I don’t know if it’s worth anything, and I don’t really care,” Destruction replied with a flat expression. “I’m just so happy you are alive and back with us. Both of you. And if we do need healing then knowing you’re behind us will give me great confidence.”

Life beamed at the compliment, and a general air of positivity surrounded us all. Apart from Mal who’s brow was furrowed. “We’re not called Team Kill Hakan either,” Mal added. “That’s the worst team name ever.”

“Then what?” Destruction snapped.

“I dunno. But that’s shit. You mean to tell me after thousands of years of life that’s the best you can come up with?”

“I do not need flowery language. I make my point and move on.” She turned her back to him and faced me. “What of Death? Is there a way to recover him?"

The question had been on my mind too, and I had no good answers so I answered as honestly as I could. "If there is, I'll find it. But, with how he died, I don’t think it’s gonna be possible."

She slumped a little. "That is disappointing news. But considering what we are facing and what we've regained, I can’t complain too much."

“That’s it. We’ve gotta take the small victories. I’m going to start training with you all now. At least for as much as I can."

"You're no longer hunting Hakan?" Danivra asked.

"No. I’m just reacting at the minute and it’s making me feel like I’m chasing my tail. I’ll still have to react but I don’t want to blindly play into his hands. I need to put some focus into you guys and myself.”

"I am glad to hear it,” she said. “We will certainly welcome your assistance. When you can spare the time, of course. You remain our best chance of defeating Hakan.”

Peace cleared her throat to speak. “Before we all go off to train I must ask. At the moment our Sphere is at the Northern borders of Elvia. MY people will have to migrate to the safety of Knuntang. Life’s people are having to migrate North to Malatia, have you considered expanding again? We could potentially cover much of our own lands with the addition of Life and Devotion’s spheres to our own?”

“Life and Devotion’s powers are quite similar. We’ll be left hanging on, Dark, Decay, Stone, Gravity and obviously Void.”

Peace wasn’t deterred. “Which means we have to add the Spheres of others to balance that out. The demon Chosen have Dark.”

“Decay and gravity too,” Destruction offered.

“The Dokalfar have Dark, Decay and Stone too. But none of them are ready to create Sphere’s yet.”

“I have Decay,” Mal added. “And I started my Immortal Shell before the others. It’s at thirty percent.

“Which isn’t fifty, and you just add more Light to the equation. We just can’t do it yet. I can’t risk the Sphere we have.”

Peace sagged a little. “I understand.”

“But, I promise I’ll do everything I can to make it happen. With the amount of power I’m getting from all of the new followers, I might be able to put something together to make up for the shortfall. I’m just completely spent at the minute.”

Sania seemed irritated. “As long as it doing so doesn’t over tax you. We have to be realistic here. The main goal is to kill Hakan. In fact, that’s the only goal right now. As much as I want to save lives, a lot more people will die if we don’t succeed.”

Destruction clapped. “Well said Sania.”

Devotion Life and Peace weren’t quite so comfortable with the sentiment. I didn’t want to over promise so I remained silent, but I wasn’t willing to give Hakan free access to anyone of those people. I would expand the Sphere again, just not quite yet.

“For now we wait. I’m drained and so are Life and Devotion. We’ll look at it again in a few days. Until then, I don’t want any of you leaving the Sphere unless it’s to one of the Administration hubs. We don’t give that bastard a chance. If you have any problems, or need to leave, you come and see me and we go together. Deal?”

Only Life looked doubtful. The rest agreed with enthusiasm.

(Hey all, I just want to give you a little update: My son, William was discharged last friday, so I thought we were free and clear. Unfortunately we had to rush him back to hospital on Sunday. He's in a stable condition and we hope to have him home again soon, but needless to say it's been epic, and worrying. I'm running around like a blue arsed fly at the minute, but I'm sneaking in some words here and there. I'll be posting chapters as often as I can, but it may be a little chaotic for a little while. Thank you for your patience and bearing with me while i navigate this hurdle.)