Chương 34: Divine Discussion

"What are you?" Vin couldn't help but ask, all his previous thoughts vanishing in light of the woman's sudden appearance and hypnotic voice.

"That's a tricky question," she said, giving him a sad smile. Her hair seemed to float around her head as though they were underwater, and the effect was more than a little distracting.

"I can tell you what I was in the old universe. A powerful God with countless trillions of people spread out across untold worlds worshiping her. Now?" She sighed, and Vin watched as wrinkles seemed to spread across her face in the blink of an eye. Except instead of normal wrinkles, these seemed more like cracks in reality, each one letting him peek into a bottomless black pit far darker than the void surrounding them.

"Now, even I'm not sure what I am anymore. A fragment of my former self, willingly donated toward the construction of a new world in the hopes of giving life a second chance."

"You're a God?" Vin asked, trying to comprehend everything he'd just been told.

"And wait, what do you mean old universe? What happened to it?" Instead of answering him, the woman sighed again, and Vin swore he felt the endless void surrounding them expand ever so slightly as she did so. While he was still reeling from that, she asked him her own question.

"You seem to have grown a fondness for magic in the short time you've been on Edregon, Vin. Tell me… Unlike most life forms within the old universe, you come from a world almost devoid of magic. Maybe not the concept, but the actual form at least. Now that you've experienced it for yourself, what is magic to you?"

"It's a chance to create wonders beyond your wildest dreams," Vin found himself answering truthfully, as though the concept of lying didn't even exist in this strange black void surrounding them. From the very first time he'd tapped into his mana and cast a spell, he had become enthralled with magic's seemingly infinite form, and he struggled to find a way to put that into words.

"Endless possibility, limited only by the caster."

"Endless possibility…" the Goddess muttered, shaking her head.

"Oh Vin… you've blindly stumbled onto the root of all our problems. I knew I liked you for a reason."

"Magic is a problem?" He frowned, remembering the joy he felt every time he mastered a new runic formation and channeled his mana through it.

"How? Magic is amazing!"

"Magic is chaos," she said blankly, and the black void suddenly shattered around them, transformed into a prismatic whirlwind of color and sound that overwhelmed Vin in an instant and nearly drove him to madness. But before he could descend fully into insanity, it all vanished, replaced once more with blissful nothingness.

"You see, endless possibility means never ending change," the woman continued, as if she hadn't just peeled back the wallpaper of the universe and given him a glimpse at what lay underneath.

"It is only through strict control and regulation of magic that we Gods have been able to create anything close to livable worlds and functioning societies."

"Runic formations," Vin managed to mutter, his head still reeling from the explosion of color and sound.

"Precisely," she nodded.

"Scaffolding put in place by the Gods to prevent wild magic from transforming every world across the universe into a replica of what I just showed you."

"I can see why you put those safeguards in place," Vin said, his eyes finally able to focus on the woman once more.

"But why tell me all this? All I did was ask for your help in getting us away from that maniac who chopped my arm off."

"Oh? You're not interested in the secrets of the universe?" The woman asked, giving him a coy smile.

"You don't care about what happened to the divine classes like your friend's master? You don't want the location of a magic spell powerful enough to send your ghost companion to her final rest? You're not interested in sending a message back to those you left behind on Earth?" Vin stared at the teasing Goddess in shock, his thoughts reeling at the sudden possibilities. Before he could say anything though, the woman giggled, and the resulting quaking of the void around them nearly sent him sprawling to the ground.

"Can you actually tell me all that? Or are you just messing with me?" He finally sputtered, quickly growing tired of being a seemingly omnipotent being's plaything.

"In the old universe, I would have already given you those answers. Just because I find you entertaining," the woman replied with a sad smile.

"Unfortunately, it is exactly that mindset that led to the destruction of so many worlds. That brought us to where we are now."

"The reason I'm telling you all this is because I felt you deserved an explanation as to why I cannot wave my hand and help you escape Entais' Guardian of Relics," the woman said, causing Vin's hopes of survival to plummet into the void around them.

"Tell me Vin… I just explained how we Gods created rules and strict regulations for magic to prevent its chaotic nature from erupting forth and destroying everything. Other than runic formations, does that sound familiar to anything you've encountered since coming to this world?"

"The System," Vin said breathlessly, easily recalling the countless organized tables and numbers that appeared whenever he willed it. After all, what could mentally assigned numbers that adjusted one's physical ability be besides magic?

"The System," she nodded.

"The greatest joint working of the Gods to ever be created. It not only protected mortals from the chaotic nature of magic, it allowed them to tap into it and grow! It was a marvel of magical engineering, and it would have ensured growth and prosperity across the entire universe until the end of time… if only we had followed the very rules we'd put into place."

Again, the woman's appearance seemed to age another few decades, and Vin now found himself speaking with an elderly woman whose expression was that of someone warning their great grandchildren not to follow the same mistakes she had. Her expression was still filled with warmth and love, but her gaze had gone hard.

"While we Gods are capable of many great and terrible things, restraint was never one of them. The more people who worshiped us… The more mortals who looked up to us, asking for assistance or answers, the more we found ourselves nudging the scales just a little bit." She shook her head, a single, shining tear falling from her cataract filled eyes into the void.

"If only we'd realized what we were doing…" Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Every time we gave someone the smallest sliver of divinity, every time we tossed a mortal a boon for no reason other than their plight entertained us, we introduced foreign magic into the System that had been oh so carefully designed. Our downfall was our own impressive creation." The Goddess raised a hand, and the black void surrounding them changed once more.

Only, rather than a violent explosion of color and sound, this time, Vin suddenly found himself standing inside a runic formation more complicated than anything he could ever imagine. The runes varied in color and size, in shape and dimension, and the entire work seemed to stretch on an unfathomable distance. Somehow, Vin could feel the size of this impossible working, and he shuddered at the strange innate understanding that the runic structure he was floating within was larger than most planets.

"Is this..?"

"The runic formation comprising the old System," the woman nodded. As Vin hurried to take advantage of this magical marvel, his eyes trailing from one impossible shape to the next, he began to notice something unnerving. Many of the runes seemed to have almost… rusted, somehow. Their magic felt weak and unstable, forcing surrounding portions of the System to work harder and causing undue strain on the structure as a whole.

"The wear our actions had on the System was so minimal, and the number of redundancies we built into the structure so high, that countless millennia passed before we began to notice what we were doing," the woman continued, her own eyes drifting through the insane work of the Gods.

"Our meddling in mortal affairs had slowly but surely corrupted the old System. Monsters had always been a necessary byproduct of our efforts to restrain the chaotic nature of magic, and thus an increase in the number and power of monsters was the main way the corruption spread."

"All the world fragments I visited… all the people I spoke with… the one common thing I heard was a heavy increase in monsters in the years leading up to you snatching them from their worlds," Vin said as all the pieces finally fell into place.

"You keep calling this the old System," he said, gesturing to the planet-sized runic structure around them.

"If divinity ended up corrupting the old System… was the Great Reset due to you shifting the entire universe over to a new System? One without a shred of divinity to ensure the same thing didn't happen again?"

"Oh Vin," the woman said, suddenly standing directly in front of him, young and beautiful once more.

"In the old universe, I would have granted you a boon just for that."

"So your explanation… your answers… all… this," he said, waving angrily at the runic structure still surrounding them, refusing to take a step back from the Goddess standing in his personal space.

"All of this was just to explain to me why you're going to let me die once we're done talking here? Because this new System has rules against giving mortals any of your divine power?"

"I did not say I would do nothing," the woman smiled.

"I just said I cannot grant you a boon for nothing." She was standing close enough that a few drifting strands of her floating hair brushed against Vin's face, each one sending what felt like a small electrical jolt through his body.

"The old System was designed over a timeframe that would melt your brain if you tried to comprehend it. This new one, however, was built a bit more hastily. We were able to copy large sections of the old one to save time, but we've discovered a few errors we made in our haste here and there that we've had to correct on the fly. Such as the Explorer class receiving experience for discovering a new world when they first stepped foot on Edregon," she winked.

"The main difference between the new System and the old are the ironclad rules against us Gods interfering with mortals at a whim," she explained.

"Despite how much I want to make you one of my chosen ones, granting you a slice of my divinity and power beyond your wildest dreams, the new System prevents me from doing that. And for good reason. However, we Gods did not abandon you mortals entirely."

"So you can help me," Vin asked, trying to cut to the chase. Not that he wasn't interested in everything she was saying, but he had no idea how much time was passing in the real world while they chatted away here inside this strange void. For all he knew, when he finally woke back up, it would be just in time to find his head being sliced clean from his body.

"We have devised a method to regulate divinity within the structure of the System," she nodded.

"A way to allow mortals to use our powers that does not result in corroding the System itself. Unfortunately, the only way this was possible was to make it completely tied to the System this time. Entirely regulated; fair and available to every capable mortal who chooses to discover one of our holy sites and ask for our aid. No more playing favorites or bestowing power at a whim."

"Assuming a mortal fulfills the strict requirements, and vows to continue to fulfill them, we can grant them a divine boon," she finally explained.

"These boons are as varied as there are Gods in the universe, but each one contains a power any mortal would be happy to possess. And you, little Vin, with your actions mere moments before contacting me, have finally fulfilled the final requirements of a boon I believe you will find quite useful in your travels." With a wave of her hand, another glowing, golden System notification appeared before him, just like the one notifying them of the Divine Sanctum.

Vow of Benevolence: You vow to attempt to solve problems with peace before violence. You will not attack other sentient beings unless attacked first, or in order to save the life of another. Reward: The Grace of Gods (Boon): Once a day, the first attack that would kill or severely maim you will be fully negated.

"Wow," was all Vin could say as he stared at the golden notification. A single get-out-of-jail-free card each day was a useful boon indeed.

"... This would have been great about ten minutes ago, you know."

"It was your unconscious decision to give up a part of yourself to save your friend that earned you the right to take this vow in the first place," the Goddess giggled.

"Our divine power is not something we can just hand out to anyone anymore. Only your internal aversion to unnecessary violence and active act of sacrifice were what granted you the right to this boon in the first place."

"Fair enough I guess," Vin said, rereading the notification before accepting it. A gentle, warm wave of air seemed to pass through his body, rejuvenating him and causing him to sigh with contentment. It felt like he had a small spark of fire burning within his chest, and with a start, he realized what this meant.

"So wait, just to confirm, I have some divinity within me now, right?"

"That is correct," the Goddess said, giving him a sad smile.

"Unfortunately, your boon is one purely of defense. You won't be able to use it to bring your friend peace."

"Damn it," Vin swore, his hopes sinking just as fast as they'd risen.

"... And there's nothing you can do?"

"I have already explained how my hands are tied," the Goddess said, shaking her head.

"I will even tell you that your hunt for a divine artifact will never bear fruit. Any divine artifacts that were located on our chosen fragments were converted to pure magical energy to help drive the creation of this new world. If you wish to use divinity to put your friend to rest, you will have to find someone with an offensive boon somewhere on this new world willing to help you, or find a spell powerful enough to accomplish your goal.

Though with your friends at your side, I don't think you'll have any problems finding what you seek..."

"Well that's something at least," Vin said, meeting the Goddess' eyes and bowing for the first time in his life. For some reason, it just felt right.

"Thank you for everything you've done. I guess you can throw me back out there now, and I'll just pray the crazy guy with a sword only tries to stab me a single time."

"Oh, my little Vin," the Goddess said, shaking her head with a grin.

"I can't grant you any more of my power than I already have, but that does not mean I am planning to abandon you. Especially not when you're so entertaining to watch."

"There is one final thing I'm going to tell you. This knowledge will not only give you a chance to escape the Divine Sanctum of the Relic Guardian, but also offer you the possibility of saving many other lives you are not yet aware are in danger.

"Now, listen carefully…"