Chương 24: Prophet of Steel

Euripa stood at the edge of the city, her heart hammering in her chest as her unique senses suddenly picked up something. It felt different, yet somehow similar to the enormous hand she had seen in the sky. Her head shot upward, but there was nothing there. Even so, the fur along her body stood on end, and she could feel an immense gaze resting upon her. A power so overwhelming could only belong to a god.

The god of her world was a cruel, human-looking deity who mostly cared about the continent and treated mortals like pieces in some sadistic game. Maurapia had become a sanctuary for those who wanted to live outside his influence, a place where people of every race could pursue knowledge and freedom without being dragged into the god's schemes. Yet this presence felt different. Euripa had felt the aura of her world's god before, particularly during the times when she had been forced to hide her intelligence.

This was nothing like that. The presence surrounding her now felt curious and strangely warm.

"God?" She slowly knelt, lowering her head toward the ground.

"What happened?" She did not truly expect an answer, but she had no other way to learn what was happening. If a god was actually watching her, then perhaps asking was worth a try.

"You can see me?" The deep baritone voice came from above, calm and carrying the same warmth as the strange aura.

"No…" Euripa shook her head.

"But I can feel your aura." Realization struck her… she was speaking directly to a god. Euripa immediately slammed her forehead into the dirt.

"Forgive me for speaking so casually, oh mighty being."

"Nonsense. Raise your head." A massive claw gently caught her beneath the chin and lifted her face. The touch was surprisingly gentle despite the sheer size of the claw. Its scales were hard and cold against her fur, yet there was no threat behind the gesture.

"I am Joshua Steel, and for better or worse, I am now your new god. Please speak casually." Euripa's eyes widened.

"It is a long story, but since you seem rather unique, I could make you my prophet."

"Your prophet?" Euripa stumbled backward as she finally saw the being standing before her. Her breath caught in her throat. A metallic-looking dragon towered over her, massive enough to make her feel like a child standing beside a manor. He was not quite as enormous as some of the fully grown dragons she had heard stories about in the northern lands, but he was still easily the largest living creature she had ever seen.

His scales shimmered like polished metal beneath the unfamiliar sunlight, while his deep blue eyes were nothing like the cold, predatory eyes she associated with beasts. They looked almost human. Even his voice was strange… it sounded mortal. There was none of the unnatural reverberation or crushing presence that accompanied the voice of the god she knew. Joshua's words carried power, certainly, but they were approachable in a way that made Euripa almost forget she was standing before a deity.

"I… I am no one." Euripa lowered her gaze.

"I am only a lowly Baukk." She shook her head slowly.

"I do not deserve such a promotion." - - - - - - - - - - - - Joshua saw something in the cat woman that he had only ever seen in full-fledged gods: a literal thread of divinity. It was almost nothing compared to the divine beings he had encountered, but it was unmistakably there. Perhaps she had received some ancient divine blessing, or somewhere far up her family tree, one of her ancestors had been born from a divine union. Whatever the reason, her body was unusually compatible with divine power.

She could probably take on the Divine Ambassador title, becoming a true prophet whose body could safely accept a portion of her god's power.

"You don't need to worry about a thing. I am a rather chill god. In fact, I don't ask for any kind of sacrifice, nor do I expect you to act any differently from the people who live in my world."

"Your… world?" Euripa asked, glancing around her.

"So this really isn't Afan?"

"No." Joshua shook his head.

"I just made this world. Pretty neat, huh?" There was genuine pride in his voice as he gestured toward the endless grasslands and distant river.

"I, erm… yes. It is." Euripa nodded, though she remained rather confused. In her mind, she could not imagine a newly created world looking so… natural. Everything around them seemed as though it had existed for thousands of years.

"What is your name? Or was it Baukk?" Joshua asked, leaning back slightly. He kept himself and her invisible and blocked all sound from them. They were still close to the city, and he did not want their conversation to be overheard or his presence to cause a panic.

"No, great Joshua Steel." The woman shook her head.

"I am called Euripa."

"That is a lovely name." Joshua turned and began floating casually above the ground.

"Now come. Let's get a little further downstream. I know this sounds rather abrupt, but I could really use someone who can talk to these people. Just appearing in the middle of their city and saying, 'Hi, I'm your new god,' sounds… unwise."

"Considering this is the city of no faith, yes…" Euripa nodded.

"Acts of faith are outlawed inside it, so me acting as your prophet could cause issues as well." She glanced at Joshua, still feeling incredibly awkward about speaking so casually to an actual god. The dragon, however, did not seem offended in the slightest.

"Hmm…" Joshua scratched his chin.

"How about we change the title, then? Same divine messenger, but instead of prophet, we call you a Celestial Messenger. You don't need to do anything faith-based. You just tell people the facts."

"I mean… yes, but I really…" Euripa tried to backpedal once again.

"Perfect, then." Joshua clapped his claws together. Before Euripa could even ask what he meant, divine essence surged from Joshua and flowed into her body. Then Joshua's divine senses registered the amount of power her body was accepting.

"Whoa…" The system flashed a number in front of him. More than four hundred the system told him before he even met Euripa. His vision immediately became hazy.

"What the…" Black spots began spreading across his sight as the sheer amount of divine essence being absorbed through Euripa overwhelmed his senses. His knees weakened, and the world began spinning.

"Joshua?" Euripa reached toward him in alarm. Joshua managed to take one step, then everything went black. - - - - - - - - - - - - Euripa was panicking… why wouldn't she panic? Nothing about today made any sense, starting with the fact that she knew for certain this was not the so-called "today." That had to have been hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago.

Her body was glowing with strange divine light, there was a passed-out silver-looking dragon god lying on the riverbank not a fahroom away from Maurapia, and apparently she was a Celestial Messenger now.

"Eh… I erm, wha? What do I do now?" Her eyes darted around wildly before settling on Joshua. She grabbed his tail. Euripa was certain she would not be able to move such a massive body. Yet her arms pulled on instinct, and to her horror, the enormous dragon actually moved.

"Oh!" She nearly fell backward.

"I can pull him, how can I pull him?!" Her panic only increased. Euripa looked toward the city, then back at the unconscious god. If anyone saw him lying here, there would be questions. Lots of questions. Questions that she absolutely did not have answers for. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. She grabbed his tail again and began dragging. Somehow, despite his immense size, her newly empowered body managed to pull Joshua across the ground.

She eventually reached the first thick cluster of trees and dragged the unconscious god beneath them before scrambling back out. Then she looked at the bushes. Joshua's neck and head were still sticking out.

"Oh, no." She hurried back inside, pushed his head farther beneath the foliage, and rearranged several branches until only leaves and shadows remained.

"There…" She stepped back and admired her work.

"No one will see." Euripa giggled hysterically before slowly looking down at the enormous dragon she had just hidden like a piece of stolen meat.

"I am going to get killed by him, aren't I?" The dragon lay motionless among the bushes, his massive body curled up like some ancient beast brought down by a hunter. Euripa swallowed.

"Nope." She nodded firmly.

"I will just do a good job and he will be happy." She turned around and took several steps toward the city. Then she stopped to look back. The bushes moved slightly as Joshua breathed. Euripa stared at him for another few seconds, her left whiskers twithing.

"Mmrrowr…" She let out a small, frightened catlike sound before finally running toward Maurapia. - - - - - - - - - - - The city lord of Maurapia ordered every soldier to guard the city's perimeters. He was not panicking. As the highest-level magic user outside the main continent, he was quite certain that some form of divine intervention had occurred. His mind was already buzzing with theories.

One moment there had been a divine hand belonging to the faceless god reaching for them, and the next, his entire city had been transported to a completely different location. City Lord Xullias was ready for anything, even the end of the world.

"Get the magic orbs up high and scan the area using Farsight. I want to know whether we have been transported into a monster-infested region or not!" he shouted to his Future Makers.

"Agiro, Yerit! I want you two to scan for divine energy. Waentro! Calm the crowds with the guard captain and my personal guard. We have survived many disasters. This is not going to be the end of our utopia." - - - - - - - - - - - Aukkoo was not panicking either. He had complete faith in the city lord, and his shop had been among the first to make good money when more and more people began arriving in Maurapia. Still, he had that unpleasant knot in his stomach that appeared whenever something was terribly wrong.

He had never been kind enough to Euripa, but the young giantess of a cat was the first genuinely good worker he had hired in decades. She always arrived on time, never drank alcohol, and never caused any trouble, aside from a few misunderstandings here and there. If anything, he was worried about her. When even the caravan owner found his way to the shop, apologizing and asking for help, Aukkoo grew even more nervous.

Apparently, half of the caravan had simply failed to come with the city when it was displaced to this new area. By now, almost everyone had heard the reports from those who lived on the outskirts. The desert and the oasis that had surrounded Maurapia were gone, replaced by a vast, lush grassland. Euripa was jogging up the main street, looking more flustered than usual.

"Girl!" he shouted.

"Where were you?" Euripa stopped in front of the shop, her pupils wide, looking exactly like a Baukk on the verge of a panic attack.

"Don't worry. The city lord will handle things. He always does." Aukkoo patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"I erm... yeah, about that... eheheheh..." Euripa stammered, her voice several pitches higher than usual.

"You would not believe me if I told you what happened."

"Calm down. We all saw the hand. It's gone now." Aukkoo pulled a flask of strong kasheen from his belt and shoved it into her hand.

"Here. Have a drink." What he did not expect was for the massive cat to raise the flask to her lips and drain the entire thing of high-proof alcohol in a single gulp. Aukkoo stared at the empty flask.

"Okay... that was, expensive." He let out a nervous chuckle, but when he looked back at Euripa, he noticed that she was, slowly but surely, beginning to calm down. Euripa had never tasted alcohol in her life, but now she was apparently willing to simply down whatever was put in front of her. The kasheen was one of the strongest alcoholic drinks known in the land, quite literally flammable and explosive when stored in kegs.

It burned all the way down her throat, and she had to cough several times as the fumes rising from the drink made her dizzy for a moment. A smooth warmth spread through her chest, and her frantic heartbeat slowly began to settle.

"Wow... that is... -burp- strong." She winced as the heat continued building in her belly.

"Careful, you might want to sit down, girl." Aukkoo grabbed her hand as the giant cat began to sway slightly.

"Here, why don't you sit down for a bit?" He gently guided her onto a crate filled with raw iron. At least that would not break under her considerable weight.

"No... you don' underspand. Ivvve met a guud. Like, a witeral guud, all shiny en stuff." Euripa jabbered, her words already beginning to melt together.

"He... he meeed me into a... a whatsitcalled... thing? En passed oot." She managed to slur out the explanation before leaning back against the wall, which was probably the only thing keeping her upright as her head spun wildly.

"I did not understand a word of this..." Aukkoo shook his canine head.

"Look, you better stay still while you get better. I'm going to bring you some medicine, because I can tell you're not used to alcohol."

"Yeaaah... mevicime." Euripa gave him a dumb, blissful smile, apparently quite satisfied with this new word she had invented. - - - - - - - - - - - - The Starved Ones had learned long ago that gods were not always as powerful as they pretended to be. They had crossed dimensions where they had slaughtered pantheons until nothing remained. They had slipped through dying realities and devoured creators who had slipped up and lost the power to resist their attacks. To the Starved Ones, a creator god was food.

The newest world they had found was particularly promising. It was young, rich in life, and saturated with divine energy. More importantly, the god who created it was unconscious.

"Feast." The leader of the Starved Ones drifted through the darkness between dimensions, its enormous skeletal body twisting through the void as its countless mouths salivated. The others gathered behind it, their malformed bodies shivering with anticipation. Their claws touched the boundary and the Starved One grinned. Then suddenly the darkness beneath them moved and massive green tentacles erupted from the void. The lead creature barely had time to turn its head before one enormous limb wrapped around its torso.

Another coiled around its neck, while a third seized its arm and pulled it away from the realm.

"What…" A colossal shape emerged from the darkness and the Starved Ones froze from the only emotion they barely ever had… fear. There were things in the multiverse that inspired actual fear even in creatures that fed upon gods. Cthulhu's enormous green form drifted through the void, his ancient eyes fixed upon the creatures surrounding the realm. The lead Starved One screeched and tried to tear itself free. CRUNCH.

The creature's head disappeared between teeth the size of moons as the other Starved Ones stared in horror.

Cthulhu chewed thoughtfully.

"Hmm." Another crunch echoed through the void, not a real sound but reverbaration of essense.

"Not bad."

"RETREAT!" one shouted in a shreaking voice. Cthulhu swallowed the remainder of the Starved One, wiped his mouth with a tentacle and settled himself beside the boundary of the realm like an enormous green guard dog.

"Nobody eats my BFF." Inside it, Joshua remained completely unconscious, blissfully unaware that something had nearly eaten its way through the edge of his creation. - - - - - - - - - - - - Euripa woke with a killer headache, although, to her surprise, it faded rather quickly. When she finally opened her eyes properly, she realized she was sitting in a small but surprisingly well-decorated room with her arms tied behind her back. She could hear voices speaking outside the door.

Euripa shifted her shoulders, testing the thick rope around her arms. The bindings snapped instantly, breaking apart like a weak thread.

"Excuse me! Where am I?" The voices outside abruptly stopped. A moment later, the door opened and a royal guard stared at her with open disbelief.

"What? How are you awake already? And how did you get out of those binds?" His partner leaned into the room and stared at the broken rope.

"What? She was completely out cold from the kasheen. How is she up and about?"

"How long was I out?" Euripa asked, cracking her neck as she stretched her shoulders.

"If what your boss said is true, not even three mau," the first guard replied, shaking his head.

"The amount you drank would have knocked out four men for a day."

"Wait… why am I even here?" Euripa looked around the room.

"This isn't a prison. It's far too nice for that."

"The city lord and his Future Makers detected divine essence on you," the guard explained.

"And since we have something of a situation on our hands, you were brought here for questioning." Euripa's ears flattened against her head. The one thing she really did not want to happen had happened. Or, more accurately, it was about to happen. She was going to meet the city lord, and she was probably going to have to explain something that even she didn't completely understand.

"Yeah, this is gonna be just fine," she thought, letting out a long sigh. Then she straightened herself and dusted off her clothes as best she could.

"I guess let's get to him. I better not let the city lord wait." She followed the still-puzzled guards through the western wing of the palace. The building was breathtaking. Every foot of the palace seemed to have been decorated with purpose, yet nothing felt excessive. The interior garden alone was massive, filled with floating platforms and cleverly designed self-watering flower pots.

Small streams of water ran through channels built into the floor, feeding the greenery without requiring a servant to tend to every plant. There was not a single unnecessary piece of precious metal or gemstone in sight. And yet the entire place radiated nobility. Euripa's eyes wandered over the architecture as she walked. This was not the sort of palace designed to make its owner look rich. It was designed by someone who simply knew exactly what they were doing.