The Forsaken Hero

”What is this?” I whispered, my fingers tightening around the shard.

The strange mana continued to flow into me, merging with the natural cycle of my own. Waves of tingling energy coursed through my body, sending shivers down my spine, but I couldn’t bring myself to pull away. It was like the intoxicating allure of mana when I first discovered it, awakening a deep-seated craving that could never be sated.

This power was distinct from the mana I knew, yet it felt natural the more I attuned to it. It was as if this new energy was the median point, with the familiar mana and infernal mana at opposite ends of a spectrum.

”Is this mana?” I asked, opening my eyes to look at the remnant.

Arantius raised his eyebrows, stroking his chin thoughtfully. ”Remarkable, you can already perceive it. What do you think of this power?”

I paused, letting another cycle flow through me before answering. ”It’s...right. It feels right, like taking a breath of fresh air.”

”An apt analogy,” he said, nodding. ”The mana you’re accustomed to is not true mana, no more than infernal mana is. It is as tainted as infernal mana, only in the opposite direction.”

”I understand!” I exclaimed, a wave of comprehension washing over me. ”It’s like sunpurge and corruption. This mana is the world’s natural mana, but the gods have corrupted it with their own power, using the shards to control its distribution.”

”Precisely,” the remnant said, looking impressed. ”It takes a rare soul to awaken mana on their own, so the gods provide the shards to grant access to everyone. This binds them to the shard, and every time they use mana, it siphons a portion to feed the Divine. The demons, in turn, feast upon this divine mana, hunting down worlds with shards to increase their power.”

”It’s the only way to ascend,” Luke added, drawing our attention. ”Shards of Omniscience can strengthen a demon’s soul up to the ninth level. From there, one must consume a world shard to gain the power to ascend and join the demon lords and emperors as equals in their realms. It’s the journey and struggle of every demon, and the only path I can walk to fight the gods on their own ground, to make them suffer as I have.”

”Quite right, though your desires are a little extreme, to say the least,” Arantius commented, a hint of disapproval in his ancient voice.

Throughout their conversation, I kept my hand pressed against the shard, allowing the mana to flow freely into me. It steadily surged within my soul, resonating with a harmony I had never experienced before. The pleasure of being filled with such pure, clean mana was indescribable, causing my horns to tingle and shivers to cascade down my spine.

The sheer volume of mana created an immense pressure within my soul, quickly reaching a critical point. The conversation faded into background noise as every muscle in my body tensed. It felt as though something within me was breaking, surpassing limits it wasn’t meant to, before the sensation abruptly vanished. I sagged against the Shard of Omniscience, panting from the exertion.

”Already?” the remnant exclaimed, his eyes wide with surprise.

Fate smiled proudly. ”See? I told you she could handle it.”

”Is it done?” I asked, gazing up tiredly into Arantius’s glassy eyes.

”Let us see,” Arantius replied, placing his hand on my head, his palm resting against my forehead. His touch was warm, like glass left out in the summer sun.

I gasped as a pulse of mana radiated from his hand, flowing through my body in a gentle wave. My soul resonated with it, echoing my connection with the shard. He nodded slowly, lowering his hand.

”It is finished.”

”What’s finished?” Luke demanded, stepping protectively beside me. ”What exactly did you do to her?”

”Calm yourself, Apostle,” Fate said soothingly. ”Do you truly believe I would allow anything to harm my Oracle?”

Luke’s gaze was unwavering. ”You’re a goddess. You wouldn’t hesitate to kill her yourself if it meant even a slight advantage.”

Arantius frowned. ”Your views on the gods are... surprisingly accurate.”

”But I am not a goddess anymore,” Fate countered. ”It is in my best interest to protect our dear Xiviyah until I regain enough power to reclaim my divinity. And even then, my gratitude runs deeper than that. I would not allow her to come to harm.”

”Fate...” I whispered, my tail swishing contentedly at her words. I turned to glare at Luke, wondering how he felt justified attacking her like that. Fate was hardly the one I was worried about.

He failed to notice my gaze, busy scowling at Fate skeptically. Eventually, he sighed and rubbed his horn. ”At least tell me what you did to her.”

I nodded, more than a little curious myself. My soul felt open and free, responding instantly to my will, but there was also a newfound depth I couldn’t quite explain.

”Ordinarily, the Fate Hero gains the Divine Ability to summon this realm upon reaching the eighth or ninth level,” Fate explained. ”This ritual is normally completed the first time they open it, granting full ownership and control. Xiviyah took a more...unorthodox path and managed to open a gate here on her own. If she hadn’t also somehow found a suitably powerful spirit to bond with and stabilize the realm, she could never have exerted any influence here.”

”So it was all luck?” I asked, tilting my head.

”I prefer to call it fate,” the goddess replied with a smile. ”Regardless, you’ve been forced to rely on Haven to sustain yourself. That will no longer be the case. You have inherited this realm in full, something that will be recognized by all its inhabitants. You are no longer the interloper who almost brought ruin, but the rightful heir to everything the remnants stand for. You are their proxy in the world, and in time, you will be able to wield their strength as your own.”

That last part caught my attention. We had witnessed firsthand how devastating the remnants could be upon escaping the realm. They were far stronger now than they had been in their fallen state, the weakest I’d seen being at the sixth level.

Still, if Fate’s words were anything to go by, that was far in the future. So, turning to her, I asked the other question that had been weighing on my mind. ”Why did you show me the true mana? It didn’t seem to have anything to do with the rite.”

”Ah, that,” she said, nodding slowly. ”That’s more of a coincidence than anything. Until now, I, too, have employed Divine Mana. However, the usurper now claims the faith generated from casting Fate spells, so it’s pointless for me to continue. True mana is superior in every way, except it doesn’t generate faith. We have begun converting all of Haven to true mana, rejecting the taint of both demons and gods.”

”So it’s possible to change the mana of an entire realm?” I gasped, the concept almost too vast to grasp. ”You can just remove the gods’ influence like that?”

She smiled faintly. ”I wasn’t certain either. In all the millennia I’ve been a goddess, I’ve never seen it attempted. But your little realm proved the perfect testing ground, and it’s proven plausible.”

”And you’re using the shard to do so?” I asked, looking up at the gleaming pillar of crystal.

”Indeed. I’ll admit, I found it a little too convenient that you happened to acquire a shard. Undergoing this process would have been impossible otherwise.”

”So when you said you were distracted and let the rift spread...” I trailed off, understanding dawning on me.

She cringed, her usual tranquil expression momentarily faltering. ”That...may have had something to do with it.”

Arantius barked a laugh. ”And here we thought the spreading shadows were all this child’s fault. I suppose I’ll inform the rest of the remnants so we can properly assign blame.”

”That won’t be necessary,” Fate interjected, her eyes narrowing. ”Everything’s in order again, is it not?”

Despite the lingering tension, I couldn’t help but smile. Fate, noticing this, relaxed slightly, and Arantius chuckled again.

”Is there anything else you wish to ask me at this time?” Fate inquired.

I nodded, then hesitated, then nodded again. ”Too much,” I admitted. ”Like about this realm. Why are there so many buildings? It feels so lonely.”

Fate sighed, her gaze growing distant. ”There was a time when many lived under these starlit skies. Men and women worked, and children played in the streets.”

”But that was long ago,” Arantius added. ”Since Fate’s decline in power and the subsequent suppression from the other gods, it has been many long years since a hero has accessed this realm. That is why it has fallen into disrepair. We remnants have drifted, waiting. Imagine our surprise when it was a young girl like you who stumbled upon us. None of us would believe you were the rightful hero, not until that spirit of yours took over and stabilized the decay. It gave us quite a strict warning that we weren’t to approach you yet.”

”And you listened?” I asked, surprised.

Arantius shrugged helplessly. ”It wouldn’t be wise to provoke something capable of merging with the realm itself. Even in my prime, when I was still alive, I wouldn’t have considered battling it. That spirit was practically monstrous, existing at the peak of the ninth level, and I’ve lost much of my power throughout the ages.”

I stared at him, my eyes widening in shock. He was more powerful than the Pope, meaning he was at least ninth level. Just how vast was that level if he could lose so much power and still remain at the ninth?