Myriad and Helori were the only ones in the realm when he arrived, the goddess with her usual seat perched atop his god, being rotated as the cube turned to face him.
“Well Ben, anything happen today?”
“Thera adopted a child and I had another one sprung on me, screw you for that by the way, so it’s been pretty busy as a whole.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t try to deny it, Sachel already said you decided to not give me any heads...
2024-11-24 17:32:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
“And thus ends one task for the night,” Ben said as they walked home, trying to sound bright as they went. “Now all that’s left is to talk to Sonya and sort out Mora’s room, it will be great. Is there anything you want to have for it, buddy?”
“I don’t need anything.”
“Sure, but we’re not talking about need. Furniture you’d like, books or art or anything else?”
“...I’m fine.”
The kiddo’s definitely making this hard by keeping me fro...
2024-11-22 13:52:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Mora still seemed largely neutral to the game by the time they landed but Delair had been invested at least, cheering as she won the last round.
“Me and Mora are tied with two wins each! We’ll need to break it later!”
“Fine.”
“And Ben, you’re really bad at this! Even Sachel won once.”
“What do you mean, even Sachel?” The oracle asked. “Why wouldn’t I win once?”
“I’m just saying is all, Ben’s pretty bad at this.”
“Eh, game...
2024-11-21 15:10:35 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thera was more than happy to agree, wanting the change of pace that would come with a quick trip through the sky and with that sorted they grabbed the other three and went off, taking his gate to the magic towers from there and the world’s gate network beyond before Ben helped Thera spend her mana, working together to materialize a cart for them to use to take them to their final destination under her power.
Which only left the ride there to deal with. Sachel was fine, she could manag...
2024-11-19 13:51:08 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Good job,” Ben told his official apprentice, patting Delair’s back while she caught her breath from the work he’d just put her through before the two took in the sight of the newest mini-gate they’d made together.
Most of it had been Ben of course, Delair was nowhere near having the skill in enchanting she’d need to make it possible and plenty of the construction itself still stood beyond her grasp, but anything Ben felt confident she could manage he had her cover, ending w...
2024-11-17 10:20:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thera knew she wasn’t the best with children. It was something she’d improved on drastically since she’d started working at different hospitals and clinics but the concern about it still lingered and now here she was, having just taken in a child like no other.
She couldn’t help it though, hearing her aunt talk like that hadn’t given her a choice. The indifferent, dismissive attitude she’d shown her own child just because it wasn’t good enough in her eyes brought back too ...
2024-11-15 17:20:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thera didn’t know what to say, she was struggling to put any real thought together in the face of the two before her, ultimately ending with only a question escaping her lips.
“What did you do?”
“Really child, at least invite us in instead of leaving us standing out here.”
“Vividus, tell me what you’ve done here.”
“Hmph, I’d think that would be obvious enough.”
It was. After all of that time, her aunt had succeeded. From the conversation The...
2024-11-14 08:17:09 +0000 UTC
View Post
Guys, I’ve been a little dramatic before. I’d said that the chains had come off and that I was finally free, that I was crying tears of joy every time I finished paying out one of these patreon goals but it has never been more true than it is now. After two (non-consecutive) months of constant posting, plus the month before each one filled with non-stop writing and editing, I have never felt more free. This was my training arc. This was Ben reaching across the walls of reality to get reve...
2024-11-12 13:43:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
From the gate network to her family home, to her uncle's shop and from there the newest of Ben’s research areas, Thera found her uncle Ogilt exactly where she’d left him, sitting in a building filled with the trapped demons Ben was experimenting on the souls of.
The only real difference to be had was that there were more things around than when she’d last been there. It was obvious that Ben must have felt some guilt about leaving the great space spirit alone to stand guard for a f...
2024-11-12 13:24:12 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Thank you for helping us, Princess.” The spirit she’d asked to speak for the rest told her once she was done healing all of those who needed it.
“It’s no problem and if anything like that happens again I’ll be happy to help, but why did you come to me?”
“Because we believed you could help.”
“I mean, why did you come to me instead of asking one of the great spirits? They’d typically help you all, wouldn’t they?”
“Ah, ye...
2024-11-11 14:59:35 +0000 UTC
View Post
Feeling the spell she’d placed at the beginning of the day start to fade, Thera reached out around her once more with both her senses and her mana to again cast her earth healing, a wasteful spell for most people that helped produce a mild healing effect for anyone who stood within its range.
Wasteful and mild for anyone else to cast of course, for herself, she barely noticed the loss and between both her mana and levels it drastically helped those who fell within it, treating their s...
2024-11-10 14:58:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
“...Okay, I’ll bite, what’s going on?”
Since he considered them among his friends he did them the courtesy of not immediately reading their minds for answers when they both looked the way they did. Worry, concern, guilt, and a bit of excitement from one of them in particular were all mixed together as they shuffled about, with Sachel being the one to answer him.
“Um, would it be okay if we came in to talk?”
“Alright, sure, make yourselves comfortable.”
...
2024-11-09 08:36:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Alright, and with that I’ll end here. If you’re interested in learning more about what we currently know about mana modifiers you can find a couple books on the topic I’ve written in the library and if you’re at all satisfied with my little presentation then do me a favour and shoot Myriad a prayer. Otherwise, thanks for having me, it’s been a pleasure talking to you all.”
He got a round of applause for his talk and while a few went off immediately, more instead went to h...
2024-11-08 09:33:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Thank you for joining us today, Ben,” Spoke Speni, the herring-like head of the mages’ guild once he arrived and told the front desk what he was there for, being led to the guild master himself.
As promised, back when he’d completed all of the available books at the magic towers’ library, he’d come to give a talk. An event that wasn’t the best use of his time that he’d nonetheless agreed to, if only for a change of pace as much as anything else. It was just one day but ...
2024-11-07 17:48:07 +0000 UTC
View Post
“And there we go, perfect,” Ben beamed as he finished tiling the main floor of the church, with it just being that floor. After having his idea he’d pushed his soul a bit to materialize all he’d need but it still left the walls and ceiling of that level bare of any new decoration, something he planned to slowly chip away at in the coming weeks and months as he spoke up to his god. “Feeling anything?”
<A lot. Mostly pain coming through from your mind, mind you, but there...
2024-11-06 17:13:24 +0000 UTC
View Post
Well, that was a freaking letdown.
While he still couldn’t say whether or not they’d done it, what he had found out was that none of them were home. Jake, Amy, and Yuzu had left the day before, sounding like they’d be gone for a few more, and by all accounts their teachers had left with them, meaning he couldn’t probe their minds for whatever he might find.
That left him making his way back to the shop, using the time he had left in the day to slip on his coat and...
2024-11-05 18:29:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Nati, Xilly, hey!” Ben called out as he arrived, ignoring the blatant discomfort of the two while he smiled at them both broadly. “It’s been a while.”
“It has, Ben,” Nati told him charitably, not making direct eye contact while Xilly kept her silence. “My grandfather said you wanted us so we could have another lesson?”
“Well, I was in the area and figured it would be good to get out of the way, but I see you both haven’t been slacking. Both of you got to the...
2024-11-04 17:46:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Hmm, you know, while I’m out here I suppose I could visit those three,” Ben muttered as he walked through the hot city, trying his best to ignore the nearby volcano as he went through the streets of Nare’s lands. “I could get them one more level of connect while I’m here, maybe even easily so long as they’ve been practicing.”
<There’s really no need.> Nare told him, gently trying to give a bit of mercy to his granddaughter and the summoned of his nation. <Nat...
2024-11-03 16:01:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
He didn’t bother hanging around once he was done, instead parting with Thera as she went to help at a hospital while he went through his newest mini gate back to the shop, slipping on his jacket to begin the long process of taking in mana to create new souls. A process that, while unpleasant, was going to be significantly quicker than it had been, either during his time working through world killer or his imprisonment.
While he didn’t know exactly how many, he knew that Elvat ...
2024-11-02 16:40:42 +0000 UTC
View Post
When he opened his eyes the next morning, he found Thera already awake beside him, staring at what had been his sleeping face.
“Hey.”
She didn’t say anything at first, watching longer until a small sigh broke free from her lips.
“The gods changed your mind.”
“They did.”
“Really got my hopes up that you might have given up on throwing yourself into danger.”
“Sorry about that, I’m now back to working as hard as I can for the sake of this...
2024-11-01 18:19:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
“You want to try and negotiate now?”
“Is there any reason not to?”
A good reason for Ben was that he comfortably felt like he already had a foot out the door when it came to life on that planet. Agreeing would mean staying and committing to helping instead of just taking whoever he felt like and running off to the first safe planet he could find. It would mean taking the hit and slowing down his growth where plenty of gods still didn’t like him and it would mean ultimate...
2024-10-31 16:59:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
“Alright, what the fuck did you guys want so badly that you couldn’t even let me have a few days to be pissed,” Ben said as he arrived, with Phixth getting most of his glare while Myriad floated to the side. “Seriously, if you know anything about mortals then you should know that plenty of us don’t like being disturbed while we’re in a bad mood.”
“I would just like the opportunity to talk, Ben,” The stone god told him.
“Well, I’m here so get talking.”
2024-10-30 16:01:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
Getting home led to cooking as he put his thoughts to the side. He had plenty of ingredients now and plenty to test, so before the others came home he devoted himself to making all he could, with piles of food ending up in his rings to be taken out in the next days and weeks while the time passed by.
He made mental notes of what he liked and what he didn’t and since he had all of the time in the world decided he’d go back the next day to grab a few more of the ingredients that parti...
2024-10-29 09:47:35 +0000 UTC
View Post
<THE GOD MYRIAD WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
<THE GOD HELORI WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
<THE GOD NARE WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
<THE GOD PHIXTH WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
Deny deny deny deny.
He woke up early the next day and left while both Thera and ...
2024-10-28 15:51:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey all, this month sure has flown by so as per usual, time for a new poll but first, a bit of rambling.
So, as I'm sure many of you saw I goofed up a bit with last month's poll, accidentally typing a wrong option for one originally and posting it and then realizing what I did and then panic deleting it and making a new one and with the benefits of hindsight, I'm not super thrilled with how I handled that, if that happens again I'm probably just going to leave it and if an option I hav...
2024-10-27 14:19:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
<THE GOD NARE WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
Deny.
While part of him continued his planning, thinking about how he’d escape the world if it came to it, the rest of him focused on his art. His pile of sketchbooks had long gone above his sitting height and the sky was beginning to dim, leaving him to take off the glasses he’d made as he switched mediums, materializing some wood but treating it like clay as he used his...
2024-10-27 13:26:10 +0000 UTC
View Post
He felt a line of thoughts he hadn’t previously let himself touch on burrow into his mind and whisper in his ear, a truth to it all he couldn’t escape. Saving the world was probably impossible. Saving himself and a handful of people who mattered to him though? Would that even be a challenge?
He even already had ideas that could work. When he’d discussed the prospect of some alternative other than killing Oaun when he’d gotten back with the gods he’d suggested a few he knew wou...
2024-10-26 09:57:04 +0000 UTC
View Post
The sun rose and Yuzu already found herself trapped, Amy’s arms locked around her waist and Jake’s at her shoulders as she alone needed to get up that day, her value as a soul mage meaning that her work was never done, even when the both of them had been given a long-overdue morning off for whatever bit of recuperation it would give from the constant fighting.
Day in and day out she watched as they were sent off to track and hunt what demons they could find, at least when other prio...
2024-10-26 01:02:25 +0000 UTC
View Post
The first thing he did when he got back down was use his sacrilege to block the gods of the world from his thought, trading whatever they may have wanted to say for a host of notifications.
<THE GOD MYRIAD WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
<THE GOD ANAILIA WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
<THE GOD HELORI WANTS PERMISSION TO VIEW YOUR THOUGHTS AND SPEAK IN YOUR MIND. ALLOW?>
2024-10-25 15:40:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
<Alright, Ben, if you’d come to my realm we can try to sort this out.>
Alright.
He forced his mind up as he’d done plenty of times in the past, making his way to his god’s realm where more than a few were already waiting.
It wasn’t the full pantheon of the planet but it was also more than just the small handful he’d had dealing with him any time he wanted to discuss payment, with the group ending with the gods he was close to, Anailia included, all t...
2024-10-24 07:03:17 +0000 UTC
View Post
