There Mirae goes, calling Lysette a goddess. I can’t say she’s a goddess in terms of her strength. She’s strong, yes. In whatever time and place she hails, she may yet be revered as a goddess. But I remember the sheer overwhelming might that Madison displayed in her past life. She was so far above me that the idea of bridging the gap was unfathomable. Further above me than I am above the kids of today who’ve yet to unlock their Systems yet.
Lysette is not as strong as Madison was. Even comparing the two’s martial prowess in this manner feels like an insult to Madison. And yet, Mirae spoke of ‘their goddess’ with such conviction, I have to assume that there is some qualitative fact about Lysette, other than physical might, which makes them call her such.
Then again, Serrena claimed similarly, that she was a demigoddess. I wonder if the two of them know one another? They do have a similar style of dress, one more reminiscent of that worn back a hundred-odd years ago than the present day. More than that, though, it’s their mannerisms, the way they each eye me, sizing me up before the first punch is thrown.
They’ve definitely both been trained in a similar combat doctrine, at the very least.
“How much further?” Nicholas asks.
Mirae doesn’t answer immediately. I tense up, irritated that Nicholas can’t seem to realize the predicament he’s currently in. I understand his frustrations about how we’re being led along, about how frustrating it is to be walking up stairs for six straight hours, and then the person we’ve come to see demanding we follow her to goddesses only know where. But if he keeps up his acts of authority, he’s going to end up getting his ass smoked. And then Chloe and I will get saddled with all his responsibilities!
“Not much further,” they say. “Maybe five more minutes?”
“Five more–” Nicholas looks like he’s about to blow literal steam out of his nose.
I turn to him with the most indignant glare I can muster. “These two people are far stronger than anything we’ve faced up until now. And if you think Mirae is that much weaker than Lysette, you’re dead wrong.” I point to my right eye, emphasizing my ability to estimate people’s power with [Archangel’s Gaze]. “So don’t try it.”
“Your comrade is correct, Mr. Nicholas,” Mirae says. “Though my lady is still stronger than I am by a fair margin.”
“May I ask you something, Mirae?” Chloe asks.
“You may, but I may not be able to answer.”
“Why do you choose to serve Lysette? Surely you could be your own person?”
“Lysette is my everything. She accepted me for who I am, without hesitation or restraint. When I was at my lowest, she gave me kindness. When I was at my weakest, forced to grovel at the feet of giants just to survive, she gave me the strength to carve out my own destiny. She allowed me to share in her divinity, and to assist her in the goals we both share. I would not be here if not for her. For that reason, and many others, my Devotion to her is absolute. And my life and self are hers to do with as she sees fit.”
Something seems… off about Mirae’s words. And yet, I don’t detect a hint of a lie behind them. Still, I can’t help but wonder exactly what Mirae went through that would make them so subservient. I love Chloe, and I know Chloe loves me, but our partnership is as equals. We screw up sometimes, and we sometimes argue, or at least disagree, but we’re together, as a couple, because we love each other and want to support each other and be together. This one-sided, master-servant relationship? I just can’t see it as healthy.
Nicholas, however, seems almost more at ease after hearing their words. I guess, as a military man through and through, such values of loyalty, duty, and sacrifice for the good ‘of God and country’, as he might say, are the highest honors, drilled into him from the time he first joined the forces. It’s just not a feeling I’ve ever personally known or experienced, being or feeling loyal to a country or political entity for no other reason than having been born or residing within its territorial claims.
“We are just about here,” Mirae says, their words still completely void of passion or anything more than clinical detachment.
And sure enough, Lysette is already here, having traversed through the space in a blink of an eye. Immediately, I see a massive tree with leaves of every color on different branches. It’s like no tree I’ve ever seen before, and at least as large as the mountainous giant redwoods of northern California that I’ve seen pictures of online. Surrounding it, coiling around its trunk and entwined within its branches, is some sort of massive ivy, only with flowers of light blue in the shape of crystals of ice.
But that massive rainbow tree is far from the only thing of note. Surrounding it is a lush garden filled with various exotic plants. Some are just rich, vibrant grasses of green and silver and gold, with dew of liquid gold and silver coalescing on the tiny leaves. Others take the form of bushes with rich berries spanning colors from the natural— blueberries, raspberries, mulberries as well— to the very unnatural. Never before have I seen a berry clear like a sphere of solid ice, and yet most definitely not ice. Nor have I seen a berry that looks like it was sculpted of pure silver and then somehow grafted on. But these and others both exist.
I dare not touch them, much as I’m curious to know how they feel and taste, and not just because Mirae is looking at me, ready to strike the moment any of us does something they don’t approve of. It’s because, throughout it all, Lysette is… gardening.
She walks through the fields and between the bushes, selectively pruning branches which displease her. Then, with a wave of her hand, the pruned branches dissolve into some sort of sticky, amber-like compound. Another tiny flourish of her fingers, and the strange liquid flows back into the root network of the plants, seemingly nothing lost throughout the exchange.
“What do you think?” Lysette asks.
“It’s a beautiful garden, I will admit,” I say. “But I am curious why you’ve brought us here.”
“This is a representation of my soul,” Lysette says. “A projection of who I am at my most fundamental level. And a testament to how far I’ve had to come to get to where I am.”
“And these are?” Chloe asks.
“A spiritual representation of all the many adherents I have gained over my travels.”
“Ms. Lysette,” Nicholas asks with a small bow. “I do not understand why you have brought us to this place.”
Lysette sighs, walking away from her garden. Mirae motions for us to follow, which we do, despite Nicholas’ hesitation yet again.
“Mirae and I have been wondering why you would have subconsciously summoned me here. It doesn’t make sense at first thought. Or second, for that matter. But then we thought about it some more. You had mentioned a dungeon that brought you three here? Is that right?”
I nod. “Yes, Lysette.”
“In other words, some sort of greater intelligence? A force of the world that is controlling these dungeons? These monsters, or whatever other force directly summoned you here?”
Chloe nods.
“And, if I may speculate a bit, you are trying to grapple with this intelligence… this System, and are trying either to undermine or destroy it?”
“Exactly,” I say.
“Perfect!” Lysette’s chilling amethyst eyes brighten ever so slightly. “Now it all makes sense. You want to know how to destroy a god, then?”
“Destroy a god?” Nicholas asks. “But God is all-powerful, omnipotent, omniscient. Even the idea of–”
“You think far too small, Mr. Nicholas. Gods are powerful. They are knowing, observant, capable of influencing the world to a vast degree. And their followers can cause untold damage beyond what they themselves are capable of. But gods can be killed. And the System above them can be destroyed. Anything that exists can be made to cease.”
“But–” Nicholas stammers, but a single look from Lysette gets him to wisely keep his further comments to himself.
“However,” Lysette continues. “It will not be easy. Never before have the gods voluntarily ceded their power. And the System you speak of will seek to perpetuate itself by any and every means necessary.”
“So, we just have to overpower it?”
“Maybe, if such a thing is possible. But sometimes a subtle approach is better. Rather than striking at this System, it is best to find out what supports it, and then work to undermine it bit by bit.”
“I’m not sure I understand how we would undermine the System?” Chloe asks.
“I must admit I have a similar reservation,” Nicholas adds. “Even if what you say is correct, how do you fight against something intangible like a System?”
“That’s not something I can answer for you. But I can give you an example. For me, when I set out to slay the gods of my world, I learned that they subsisted on the faith and worship of their mortal adherents. In order to defeat the gods, I had to take away their worship. Best their champions in combat, destroy the monuments and temples that served as their points of power. And only then, once I had utterly broken the faith and the faithful, would the gods be debased to the state where I could finally put them out of my world’s misery once and for all.”
There’s a certain degree of… I’m not sure if it’s bloodlust, passion, or vengeful intent, or maybe all three at once. But the way her eyes light up as she speaks on all of this, and the way Mirae looks at her with so much awe in their eyes. There’s something not entirely healthy about both of them, and about the relationship they share. They’re both definitely sworn partners, but the look Mirae has as Lysette talks about killing gods and defiling their religious iconography… That’s the same look Chloe and I share when we’re in the throes of passion.
“So, to summarize,” I say, mostly to escape the awkward silence that’s taken hold now that Lysette has finished up her grandiloquent speech. “We need to find out whatever is empowering this System, and then find a way to undermine it?”
Way easier said than done. Defeating the gods of her world is one thing. It’s conceivable, even if it would be unfathomably difficult to think of what it would take to kill a creature strong enough to be considered a god. But destroying the System which operates over an entire universe seems so much more difficult than that. Like, where in the galaxy would I even start looking?
At least I have sixteen thousand years and change before the annihilation event actually occurs. That’s… Enough time to fight back. At the very least, it better be. Or else.
“There is one last thing,” Lysette says. “Even all of that knowledge will be insufficient to get you to your goal.”
“Please explain yourself, Ms. Lysette,” Nicholas chimes in.
“I was going to. Before you—” Lysette glares at Nicholas— “rudely interrupted me. In all of the history of my world, not once have the gods and their proxies, the nobility, the kings, and anyone else in power ever voluntarily given up that power. The only way you will succeed in your endeavors is to seize the power necessary to destroy the System and those who would try to stop you.”
Lysette slips off her cloak and flares out her aura, filled with an intensity and ferocity I’ve never before felt. “I would be willing to lend you a little of my own to assist in your journey, just as I was lent power when I started my own. But you must demonstrate that you are worthy of that power, and that it will not go to waste.”
The ground shifts. Gone is that wondrous garden of exotic plants deep within Lysette’s spirit. Now there is an idyllic plain that seems to stretch on to and beyond infinity. Above is a bright clear daytime sky illuminated by nothing in particular, not a cloud to mar the sight.
Lysette floats off the ground. A vicious smile stretches across her face, and four wings like those of a butterfly sprout from behind her back, made of vines and diaphanous petals woven together.
“Now then, Seraphina. Chloe. Nicholas. Show me that you are worthy to borrow the power of one who has slain a god.”