CH1136

With a clear sky above, the light of the stars made for a peaceful walk around that empty city, the population too low during even the day for him to casually run into anyone else taking a stroll at night. It was quiet, only the sound of waves on the coast to prick his ears, which grew ever louder as he made his way to them, the one he wanted to find already out there.

Sitting on a rock, staring out at the water, was Foast, the shifter looking deep in thought and didn’t notice Ben till he was already by his side, making the man jump when he did.

“Hey,” Ben smiled. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Ah, I got a bit while you were keeping Abel busy, but as soon as you finished with her, she was banging on my door to brag about how much stronger she’d gotten.”

“Ha, sorry. Thera thinks I’m too accommodating about giving her my blood.”

“You certainly spoil her a bit when you see her,” Foast chuckled back. “And you? Couldn’t sleep?”

“No, after I saw you last, I discovered that eldritch mind means I don’t actually need to anymore. Added that little discovery to my list of unhealthy coping mechanisms. Has it gotten easier for you?”

“Since you erased all of those demon minds from my soul? A bit. Still getting nightmares, and I still shift in my sleep, but less for both than before. There are at least a few days a week I get some proper rest.”

“That’s good. I’m glad things are getting a bit better at least. And since then?”

“Gave in to your advice,” Foast shrugged. “You were right after all. Even if not my third-tier skill, there’s a lot of good to be done with the life magic that merged into it and the light magic I’m a contender for. I’m pretty settled in at the hospital I’ve been working at; I get on well with the staff there too. They’ve been helping me adjust, and they seem to appreciate my work.”

“And are you okay with it?”

“Largely. On the one hand, it feels like I could be doing more, but on the other, I’m seeing that people who might have died otherwise are living thanks to my work. It’s not the same, but the fact that I can still contribute to the war is enough.”

“More than enough. I’m sure all of those people feel grateful for the chance to go back to their families after you treat them. That’s making a difference.”

“Mmh, it’s keeping more bodies ready to go back into the grinder during the next wave, but… this is a depressing topic. I’m doing what I can, and that’s enough. And yourself? Obviously, things have gone quite well for you.”

“Shocked when you found out?” Ben grinned.

“Who wouldn’t be?” Foast scoffed. “You’re too good of a young man to be fated to become our world’s most evil god.”

“I appreciate the vote of confidence, and I don’t intend on becoming some horrible monster or blight on reality when I ascend one day, but you did see what I was willing to do to Rook. My hands aren’t exactly clean enough to say I’m too good for this fate.”

“Pfff, Rook’s been a bastard for as long as I’ve known him, which means he’s been a bastard for centuries longer still. A few of those among us less used to violence might not have liked the display, but I say good riddance. If the man ever had any sort of morality, living so long rotted it all away.”

“Does that mean you wouldn’t want the chance to live forever?” Ben asked, feeling a small bit of inspiration on a different way he could use the man. “I can make him killable. If you’d want to take him out and make his soul your own, then I wouldn’t stop you.”

It was Ben trying to cheat his own sense of morality, just a little. Foast absorbed the souls of those he’d kill and would make their powers his own. While Ben wasn’t going to steal the skills a person held away from them, at the same time, he wasn’t going to fault someone else for their own power, and if Rook’s abilities could end up in the hands of someone more deserving, then it wasn’t a terrible thing to consider. He wouldn’t strip the man of his powers himself, but he was at least willing to let someone else contribute to his death after Ben had gotten all of the use from him he could, and if that meant that Foast’s power resulted in him getting those skills, then so be it. It would likely mean that Foast himself would then get two new third-tier jobs that Ben could use as experience sinks, and through that, continue to strengthen the wider world.

That was his thought, at least, but Foast just shook his head. “I understand where you’re coming from, but I’ve had more than my fill of mortal souls. Even with a bastard like him, never again.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“Don’t mind it; I can see why you’d suggest it. Even without that consideration, though, I’d rather not be unkillable. I’m rather looking forward to getting to join my goddess’s side one day.”

“I get the impression she’s rather looking forward to having you,” Ben grinned, remembering just how much said goddess cared for the man. “She was incredibly worried about you when you disappeared."

“Ah, well, I do my best to be a worthy believer,” he said bashfully. “And I know she has her curiosity too. She may have been the one who created the beastform holders, but I’ll be the first to reach godhood with my skill. She’s rather curious about whether I’ll be able to gift different versions of it to any of my future believers or not.”

“Hmm, odds seem low, but I can imagine a couple of ways you might be able to make that work.”

Gifting the skill would mean that Foast would have to create the soul in question that he wanted to give in its entirety, something that really went far beyond the bounds of any regular skill production and entered a realm that only Ben had managed to walk before, but a potential path around that might have been for Foast to cut off the region of his soul that another one had been bound to in its entirety to transplant onto whatever future believer he might have wanted receiving it. It almost certainly wouldn’t be pleasant, but with the way other souls had merged into the shifter’s own, Ben was fairly confident that by becoming a part of the total whole, when the soul healed, those regions would regrow back perfectly, allowing them to be transplanted again. It wouldn’t be an enjoyable experience by any stretch, but it was a hypothetical way of creating more beastform lineages when Foast was in the heavens above, potentially in a far more controlled way than he could currently manage it.

“Velmet has a few ideas of her own,” Foast chuckled. “Given her own ascension, I get the impression that she’s been waiting for someone like me to appear for millennia so she can finally start testing her theories.”

“Well, if none of her ideas work out, I’d be happy to brainstorm with you guys,” Ben grinned. “Not to brag, but at this point, I believe I have a more complete understanding of souls than any god, and this is the sort of problem that sounds interesting. Of course, there’s obviously an easier way.”

“Get a living soul mage to do it, I assume you mean? Technically, yes, but there’s a reason it hasn’t been done until now. Let’s just say Velmet’s first time doing it was a proper act of desperation. She was fighting against the evil god destroying her world, after all, but even if it worked, it wasn’t pleasant for the original five she did it to. Not the sort of thing the gods of this world wanted to repeat.”

“I don’t know, I think it’s fair to say a proper act of desperation isn’t going to be misplaced right about now. If anything, I’d even say we’re due for a few.”

“You think so? I don’t see it. The gods talk. As an apostle, you likely hear more than me, but I get the impression that they’ve never felt as much hope about winning as they do now. Sixteen third-tiers, artificial demigods being produced every day, soul modifications and mass awakenings across the world. Hell, you alone. Forget all of your third-tier powers; Velmet has implied more than once just how much you’ve contributed to the war effort.”

“Well, as someone stuck on this world, I’d say I don’t have much choice but to do my best.”

“Then it seems the rest of us are better for your lack of choice,” he chuckled. “You should have a bit more pride. If we win, there’s not going to be many who can say they contributed to our victory as much as you.”

“Mmh, ‘if’ being the key word. Whatever I’ve done isn’t going to be worth anything if nobody’s around to appreciate it in the end.”

“You’re too young to be such a downer. Think about it this way instead. When we win and word of your efforts becomes more widespread, you’ll have quite the number of people ready to follow you when you ascend. Not a bad foundation for a new god.”

“Well, in that scenario, we have a different problem,” Ben laughed. “If we win and I live, then I actually have a pretty long life ahead of me by this point. Maybe even up to another four hundred years after all of my awakenings. By the time I die, everything we went through here might as well be ancient history to the majority of people who are going to be around.”

“Mmm, there’s a few long-lived races. Some will still be around to remember what you did, and some will have at least heard from their parents who lived through it.”

“But compared to dying during the war, my stock will have definitely gone down. If I don’t die during the war to be lovingly remembered immediately after, I’m going to have to focus on getting my god all of the believers I can and then immediately poaching a bunch upon my death.”

“From what I hear, it also doesn’t sound like you’re doing too bad of a job at that first part.” ℴ

“You’ve got me there. Just another way of being prepared.”