“Is this all of your combat-oriented gods?” Chel asked, blinking as she looked at a small lineup projected on the screen. Aside from Tsubaki, the only ones present in the lineup were Phisher, the God of Blades, Thessa Grid, the Goddess of Archery, and Jace Beldin, the God of Storms.
I shook my head at that. “Not… quite. There’s also Scarlet, the Goddess of Ki, but she’s been somewhat busy with her own matters lately, so I doubt she’d be able to attend. There’s also a God of Monsters, but he’s set up a ‘divine world’ far away in the Earth realm. I’ve got a God of Ice, too, but Accalia said he’s not a very helpful sort. Same with any other combat-oriented gods.”
Chel hummed, shaking her head. “Nothing we can do about a distant divine world. Even gods need special methods to cross space quickly. And I don’t want anyone on this team that we can’t trust. But you’re sure that we can’t get the Goddess of Ki in on this? Having a deity of a primary energy makes pretty much any task easier.”
I gave a small nod. “The country she leads has been going through a lot of changes lately, and her presence is needed there to stabilize things. She was originally a Martial Spirit.”
“Oohhh…” Chel gave an understanding look at that. Martial Spirits had an innate sense for violence, an instinct that Scarlet had been quelling in her people for centuries so as not to provoke the wrath of other races. From the look of things, Chel knew about them as well. “Well, I guess we can make do with these four. Thankfully, you’ve got a Light deity with a subordinate relationship to yourself, and she’s got those orbs.”
After she had completed the list and passed it to Dana, Chel smiled at Tsubaki and pulled her off to the side. “Let’s go ahead and get started. From what I understand, your little friend there should be more than capable of setting up some fourth-tier spells, right?”
Tsubaki gave a hesitant nod, glancing in the direction of Dana before looking back at Chel. “That’s right. How do you want to start?”
“Well, I’d like to wait until the other three get here, but we’re on a bit of a deadline. Since you’re the core of our formation, I need to get you started as early as I can. Tell me… what do you believe that a domain is?” Chel asked, looking straight at Tsubaki.
“It is the manifestation of a god’s powers, the channel through which they affect the world.” Her response was immediate, as if the answer was obvious.
However, Chel held up her arms to form an X in front of her. “Thirty points! A domain is a word, Tsubaki. That word is then imprinted on your divine power. Yeah, nothing you said was technically wrong, but you have to remember that the domain is a word. In order to maximize your power as a god, you need two things.”
As she spoke, she held up a hand, showing two fingers. “These things are creativity, and understanding of your word. The deeper your understanding, and the broader your creativity, the more power you will be able to unleash.”
“Let’s take you, for instance. I’ve looked at your battles, and you wield light in its simplest forms. You move at the speed of light or fire blasts of condensed light. That is such a waste of your potential, Tsubaki. If you fully grasped your power, you would be able to disintegrate matter or rearrange the stars themselves. In a battle against physical foes, your domain is potentially unstoppable.”
Tsubaki blinked, unsure what Chel was talking about. Seeing this, the shorter kitsune let out a sigh. “Okay… let’s get this started…”
Thessa stood on a high tower within the city of the twenty-fifth layer of Fyor. Her eyes lazily scanned the horizon, watching for threats. As the Goddess of Archery, this was where she was typically found when she was not exploring with her brother. Lately, Theon had decided that he wanted to stay in this city that was at the ‘top of the world’, so there wasn’t much else for her to do.
She held a wooden bow in her hand, one as tall as her entire body. Given that she was a halfling, however… that wasn’t exactly saying much. This bow was her divine artifact, a relic she had created rather accidentally. Its power was quite simple, the ability to create arrows from anything. These arrows could be made of water or wind, stone, even her own energies. Anything she nocked on the bowstring would turn into an arrow.
Thanks to this bow, she had been able to minimize her divine power usage over the years, silently building it up. In a way, this tower of hers was a shrine to Thessa, a place where the people would turn to and recognize that she was protecting them. Maybe that was why Theon wanted to stay here, so that he could let his sister become more powerful through the faith of the people.
Either way, she could feel her power increase by a small amount every day, with her job being rather simple. Whether a giant approached the city or monsters fell from above, she just had to shoot any enemy that appeared. As long as she used just a small amount of her divinity, her arrows would carry the property of ‘never missing their mark’. They would twist and even warp through space in order to ensure that they hit exactly where she was aiming.
Naturally, that was not the only ability she was able to bestow on her arrows, but it was in a way the most significant. Most abilities she could bestow were due to the Archer class, as opposed to her divine prowess. The weakness of this class was simply the reliance on being able to hit fast-moving targets at a distance.
While the class had some methods to help with this, those methods always had their limits. Only her divinity could ensure that her arrows would never miss. Even if she unleashed her Arrow Storm skill, every arrow would strike the same point if she wanted.
As she contemplated her powers, she saw a shadow rising on the horizon, and let out a faint sigh. Another pair of giants, wandering aimlessly in their direction in search of the water source behind their city. “Well, let’s try to get creative, this time.” She smiled to herself, rising to her feet.
Thessa held her bow in front of herself, placing two fingers on the string and slowly pulling back. As she did not provide anything for the arrow, the wind kicked up around her. Air circulated, forming a thin line from the bowstring to its shaft. Slowly, a silver arrow began to manifest, its arrowhead almost translucent.
The giants, at this point, were still several dozen kilometers away. They were tiny figures, smaller than one of Thessa’s fingers in her view. However, their true size was massive, and Thessa was distinctly aware of that.
She gathered her divinity for a moment before letting loose her arrow, immediately taking aim at the second giant. Oddly, though, the arrow she fired did not grow smaller in her vision. When seen from the back, it appeared to simply be hovering in place and rotating rapidly.
When the arrow was viewed from the side, however… someone would see a thin line launch out from the watchtower, rapidly growing larger and larger as it moved into the distance. By the time that it had struck the giant, the entire arrow was over a kilometer long. It nailed the giant to the ground and pierced a large hole through its body.
The second arrow shot out much like the first, and ended up pinning the second giant in a similar manner. Thessa could tell that the two of them were dead, their health bars appearing over their head and emptying in the same instant. Nodding her head, she reached for a piece of paper near herself, writing down the location and number of the giants.
Once she had done so, she nocked that piece of paper onto the bow, allowing it to turn into an arrow as well before firing it towards a familiar window. This was how she communicated when she had killed monsters in need of harvesting, and the city guards had even been kind enough to place a target for her in front of the window to make for easy aiming.
As she was sitting back down to return to her idle watch, she felt the presence of someone ascending her tower. This was clearly not her brother, as she did not feel a divine aura, so she was confused. Nobody ever visited her tower aside from Theon. Tilting her head slightly, she turned to look at the stairway behind her.
Soon, a kitsune woman with short black hair could be seen, smiling towards her. “Thessa Grid?” She asked for confirmation, prompting Thessa to nod. “I apologize for coming on such short notice, but we need your help in Deckan. There’s a threat on its way, and your power is required to stop it.”
“Me?” Thessa asked in confusion, pointing at herself. “Shouldn’t you be looking for my brother?”
The kitsune blinked, unsure of how to respond. “You’re Thessa, right? The Goddess of Archery?” Again, Thessa nodded her head in confirmation. “Then there is no mistake, you are the one I was asked to bring.”
Thessa couldn’t quite understand what was going on. Ever since her brother had ascended to divinity first, she had been alongside him, following in his shadow. Nobody had ever come to specifically ask her for help, and would always speak to Theon instead as their de facto leader.
She knew that she was rather reliant on her brother, but she had never seen anything wrong with it. After all, he was the senior god between them, he had prompted Aurivy herself to descend and give him advice. Why would it be wrong for her to follow him?
“Oh… okay.” She nodded, thinking about it before writing another note on one of the papers provided. She then shot that note at the familiar window before moving to follow the kitsune. “Where are we going?”
“Deckan.” The kitsune responded with a smile. “All of the best combat-oriented gods are being called there. We have a… rather special trainer present that will help you maximize your abilities before the threat arrives.”
“You have someone that can train gods?” Thessa’s eyes went wide at the implications of that. “Wait, is the Keeper there? I’ve never met him before…”
“No, it is not the Keeper.” The kitsune said with a light laugh. “But it is someone far more knowledgeable about your powers than you might expect. I’m confident that she will allow you to reach a new height before you return.”
Thessa hesitated, before nodding her head. She wasn’t quite at the level cap for Fyor, so she could afford a little bit of training. “As long as it doesn’t make me unable to return, that’s alright.” She did not have any methods of personally bypassing Fyor’s level restriction, so she was rather nervous about not being able to get back.
“It should be fine.” The kitsune assured her as they descended the tower. The two of them made their way to the nearby church of Aurivy, paying to be sent to the fifteenth floor. This was the first time in a long, long time that Thessa was making a journey without her brother. Regardless, she felt an odd sense of… excitement at the thought that she was being needed.
Soon, the two of them arrived in Deckan, and she was guided to a large facility near the palace. Once she was there, she found two other gods waiting for her, both of them looking like kitsune. Was she the only outsider that was being brought in to help with this event?
