Divine Apostasy Book 9 - Revised Prologue

[Author's note-fixed the years in the mental step training error mentioned in the comments.]

Prologue

Rami exited Xavier’s energy chamber and transformed from her Celestial form into her natural one before tapping her chest with a claw, activating a hidden tattoo. A portal appeared that led to her lair, and she flew through it, exiting two hundred fifty thousand miles above the planet’s surface. Fractal had needed something to practice his tattoo crafting skills on and she had requested this. It only worked when near the Shattered Sun dungeon, but she loved it all the same.

As the coldness of space pressed in from all sides, Rami studied Grave from her vantage on the small tidal-locked moon—the only one that remained from the original thirteen. Pen’s disciples had consumed the other twelve moons for their essence since they’d formed from Pen’s Meridians. This moon consisted of rock and remained caught in Grave’s gravity well.

Rami had used a shallow cave formed by a meteor strike as the basis for her lair. She kept her favorite things on a single shelf and had a small nest made from scrolls and books. Fractal had asked her to plant one of the three spores from the Spiral Mass Fern Ruwen had brought back from his battle with the space plant.

To Rami’s delight, the spore had sprouted shortly after being planted in the moon’s soil and she took a moment to rub her cheek against the leaves of the hand-sized fern. It trembled and leaned into her cheek.

No one knew about the lair except Xavier and Sift’s bonded Elder Star Tortoise, Shelly. Rami wasn’t trying to keep it a secret, she just didn’t know how to answer the inevitable question—why? She didn’t know why.

This attraction to space had appeared during Rami’s time with Shelly. The silence, and weirdly, the emptiness of space, comforted Rami. She discussed it with Shelly, and they’d decided Rami should explore it to try and understand why.

Rami snuggled into the scrolls and entered her mind. Before she’d met Ruwen, her mental island had been just that.

After bonding with Ruwen and experiencing his mental growth, Rami’s mind had changed as well. The turning point had occurred because of her immense effort and personal sacrifice to rebuild Ruwen's shattered mind after he’d absorbed the chaos storm inside the Spirit Realm.

Ruwen didn’t know the price rebuilding his mind had required, and never would. Rami had done it gladly and willingly and telling him would only cause him guilt. And he carried enough of that already.

Rami’s island had become a large city, and she appeared in the town’s center plaza. She had arranged her knowledge into indexes and then grouped the indexes into stores, which all had their own place in the city. If she wanted to know the most profitable fish taken from the Frigid Sea, for instance, she could go to either her Sea shop or her Fish shop and find all the necessary links to the other stores required to answer any question.

Rami hoped that soon she would have the strength to allow Uruziel to visit her here. Rami practiced mental exercises whenever possible and continued to broaden her link with Ruwen. The pressure exerted by his mind forced hers to expand, a painful but rewarding process.

A massive terium-colored wall stood in the plaza, and its top disappeared into the darkness of the sky. Rami recorded Ruwen’s story here, and with access to all his memories, the history started before she’d met him. Someday others could read this account and understand the sacrifices it took to save this universe. Especially if the worst happened, she could still tell his story.

So much had happened to Ruwen before Rami had bonded with him. He’d suffered deep disappointment after Ascending as a Worker instead of a Mage, and before he could adapt to the surprise Naktos had tried to assassinate him. It had forced Ruwen to level up inside the Black Pyramid where he’d met Sift and her mother’s dungeon form, Blapy.

Ruwen had barely survived the dungeon, and when he returned to Grave, he began to accept his life as a Worker, while exploring what it meant to be Uru's Champion and the second Class it offered him.

Big D, the Worker’s Lodge Pit Boss, had taken advantage of the situation created when Ruwen accepted the Void Band. The soulbound bracelet provided him with one hundred percent weight reduction for all items in his Inventory and triggered a camping trip for all the recent Ascendants, regardless of Class. The outing was meant to shine a light on the inequities between Classes.

Ruwen had once again entered the Black Pyramid where he’d accepted the quest to become an Ink Lord and also formed a bond with her. During this camping trip, Tremaine, the librarian from Deepwell and the man who had taken care of Ruwen in his parents' absence had betrayed them for a book. Only later did Ruwen learn that Uru had directed Tremaine's actions, and necessary for Ruwen’s advancement.

Trapped in the Spirit Realm, Ruwen had taken his first steps down the path of Cultivation. In reality, because he didn’t mind killing anything that endangered him or his friends with his new power, he was referred to as a Harvester.

The Spirit Realm had also allowed for some dangerous mental acrobatics, which Ruwen utilized to compress four years of constant Step training, based on Sift’s demonstration, into a handful of hours. This vastly increased Ruwen's survivability.

They had encountered a Plague Siren named Simandreial who had tried to kill them. Ruwen had destroyed her center, which held her Core, crippling her Harvesting ability. Only later did everyone learn that this Plague Siren had a relationship with the god of the Infernal Realm, Lalquinrial, and they’d had a daughter named Echodriel, who wore the Infernal Aspect of Death. The Plague Siren’s lair had contained the Scarecrow Aspect and the Elder Star Tortoise that Sift eventually bonded to whom he named Shelly.

Eventually, Ruwen had led them out of the Spirit Realm, and they’d stepped into a war. He had barely restored Uru’s Third temple when Naktos and the neighboring gods attacked Uru's lands. Uru’s Champions whom Ruwen had rescued from the Spirit Realm, guarded the east, west, and north, portions of the country leaving Ruwen to protect the south.

They had won the war with a combination of sacrifice and intelligence. Hamma had exchanged her life to provide Ruwen the time and power necessary to save everyone's life, and he’d brilliantly created a type of focused light beam that proved catastrophic to Naktos’ army.

They had immediately traveled to Malth, the capital of the god Izac, Uru’s brother in an effort to save Lylan’s brother. They had used the Step Championship Tournament as cover to infiltrate the city.

Malth’s largest library was where Rami had done the most irresponsible thing of her entire life. Something she still felt deep remorse about, even though it had resulted in so many positive things. In fact, without that incident, Ruwen would have surely failed many times over. Still, the failure to control her desires which caused the triggering of the Literary Aneurysm trap, had nearly killed the most important person in her life.

In the end, at the top of the prison Legion’s Vault, Ruwen sacrificed himself to save everyone else. His nature embraced self-sacrifice, and Rami loved and hated him for it. It had taken the rest of them almost a year to find him. Sift and Shelly had navigated the vastness of space and greatly increased the strength of their bond in the process.

Hearing Ruwen's voice again after a year and seeing him standing on the planet he’d terraformed himself, had made Rami so happy she thought her heart might explode.

Not even an hour after finally making it back to their galaxy, the Infernal Realm struck again, yanking Ruwen into the Infernal Realm and a trap. It had required him to risk his life and severely damage the spiritual aspects of his body, but he successfully escaped by utilizing an incredibly dangerous teleportation method called the Smear.

The Smear had only become an option because of the incredible changes inside Ruwen’s mind. The Literary Aneurysm trap that Rami had triggered inside Malth’s library provided the raw material which combined with the nature of his mind after her reconstruction inside the Spirit Realm, created entities he called Narrators—beings that formed from the books inside his memories.

That same event had brought Overlord to life, as the identity Ruwen had created to manage his fear, splintered off his mind under the brutal effects of the trap.

The Smear had placed Ruwen inside the Third Secret where he’d learned another secret that had broken Rami’s heart. Every version she’d seen of her mom, regardless if that form appeared as the Dungeon Keeper Blapy, the Goddess Miranda, or her natural wyrm form, had been a clone.

Rami’s mother had remained trapped in the Third Secret, Pen's realm, since his death. A sacrifice necessary to keep the Realm from collapsing so that someday the Fourth Secret could arrive and remove all the Spirit hidden there and place it back into the universe.

Rami, inside her egg, remained dormant for thousands and thousands of years until, for a reason she didn’t know, she’d hatched and begun her life.

While in the Third Secret Ruwen had retrieved items Pen had left for him. Instead of returning to Grave, Ruwen had joined Sift at the Bamboo Viper Master's trial. While there Ruwen had deepened his understanding of balance and discovered Harmony, a powerful magic the deities had searched for and dismissed as impossible.

At the Master’s Trial Ruwen experienced true loss for the first time, when all the members of his class except for Lalquinrial’s daughter Echo, Nymthus, a soldier from a demon-infested world, and Sift, had been brutally murdered by Aspects from the Infernal Realm.

Echo had shockingly stood beside Ruwen and her two classmates and threatened the other Infernal Realm Aspects. Ruwen didn’t know if Echo had done so out of loyalty to the Bamboo Viper Step Clan or anger at the other aspects for killing her team.

Those events had changed Ruwen and forced him to evaluate his good nature and desire for second chances. He struggled between being overly harsh and forgiving, and it had worried Rami immensely. He refused to talk about what had happened even though Rami had already seen the memories and knew exactly what had occurred.

Thankfully, Hamma had successfully reached Ruwen emotionally and had convinced him, in her gentle way, to open up and release his self-hate and guilt. He’d steadily gotten better from that moment as the healing process began.

That healing proved important because the cultural differences between those revived from New Eiru who had lived ten thousand years ago, and the present population had become hostile. A Bard named Gunder aggravated the situation because he wanted to unite Uru’s people and fight the deities in an effort to stop their destructive ways.

Ruwen needed the critical knowledge of music theory the Bard held so Ruwen could master Harmony. Complicating the Bard’s situation even further, Uru had made Gunder one of Ruwen's five hands, a person meant to help mentor and guide Ruwen.

The mark of the Hand had caused Ruwen to hesitate and not kill the Bard, and in the process, it had come to light that Gunder was Lylan’s distant grandfather, and she was the heiress to a southern kingdom. This heritage became even more evident when a hydra egg hatched due to Lylan’s presence and bonded with her.

Despite the chaos surrounding Ruwen, in typical fashion, he discovered a way to shortcut his advancement from the Gem Tier of Diamond to the Angel Tier of Divine. He’d done this by using her mother’s Divine Realm, which marched at a much faster pace than Grave.

Ruwen and Sift had both used this realm, in conjunction with some elixirs, to advance their Cultivation tiers. Rami had joined them, thinking she could use the time to perfect her indexes, but shockingly, she had lost consciousness and changed as well.

Ruwen had gained wings created from thousands of strings, like primal harps. As he explored their use, Rami had discovered that while her body had not changed significantly, probably because she was already a creature made of dense spirit, her mind had, and just like the first time he had made a tier transition from Metal’s Gold to Gem’s Diamond, her mind had expanded with power.

Rami’s preference for the quiet stillness of space had become much stronger after the transition. The emptiness had felt like an old friend. It worried her to have such feelings, but she didn’t know who to talk to, so she’d kept it to herself.

It had been around this time when the deities had struck again.

Naktos, Izac, and Lalquinrial, along with the deities from three neighboring countries, ambushed Ruwen to kill him or at least cripple one or more of his Meridians before locking him away to torture him for his secrets.

The entities inside Ruwen’s mind had continued to grow in complexity and sapience, and to everyone's surprise, Nameless, a narrator formed from a text on destructive nihilism, demanded Ruwen release him to Lalquinrial.

Ruwen had granted the entities inside his mind free choice during the seventh trial of his Bamboo Viper Master’s assessment. The resulting self-actualization of the Narrators within his mind had provided the necessary weight to achieve a balance between his inner and outer self.

Ruwen had calculated that Lalquinrial, not possessing the same mental strength as Ruwen, would die shortly upon assuming the nihilist entity. So, Ruwen had given Nameless up, and to everyone's shock, Lalquinrial had immediately disappeared.

The remaining deities, despite their shock, had attacked. Ruwen had utilized his complete mastery of the Bamboo Viper Steps including the Shadow Steps that hid within the other forms. He killed two of the gods and damaged Izac’s Light Meridian before all the deities had fled in terror.

Unfortunately, during the battle, one of the Infernal Realm’s Aspects had stabbed at Gunder, but Lylan had leaped in front of the blow and taken the sword to her stomach, completely impaling her.

Before anyone could react, Gunder, holding the blood-covered Lylan, had disappeared as Gunder’s Dimensional Mage teleported them to safety, and no one knew where they’d gone.

Fractal had the bodies of the two dead gods in storage someplace inside the Shattered Sun. Uruziel had assured them that the gods wouldn’t heal in the Material Realm—a cost of creating their own Divine Realms.

No one could keep up with Ruwen’s power spike, but the fact all of them had contributed to a battle involving gods spoke for itself. Hamma had single-handedly shielded over fifty thousand innocent people from the attacks of a literal god. Lylan had stood up to the Infernal Aspects and might have died for it. Sift, along with Shelly, had faced a planet-ending blast, risking their lives to save the Black Pyramid from the Crossing Ring explosion Ruwen had placed in his Inventory.

Xavier had risen into the air like an angry god spreading plasma like divine fire and holding back a horde of demons. Even Lir had impacted the battle transforming Uru’s Third Temple into a battle spire and feeding Ruwen vast amounts of Mana.

Rami marveled at the immense changes in Lir. Fractal's God Stone research had enabled Lir to expand his storage banks and it had unlocked hidden memories. She had initially believed that Lir was a type of intelligent machine, but now she believed wholeheartedly Lir was a sapient being of some unknown type.

Ruwen’s transition to Divine had changed Rami in more ways than she’d realized. Her powers had grown to devastating proportions. So much so that her mental attack had affected all five of the deities and provided Ruwen the opening he needed to kill the first of them.

As if they didn’t have enough problems already, Ruwen’s transition into the Divine tier, because he already possessed an Architect Role, had caused the System in charge of the Universe to hiccup when assigning him what should have been his first Architect Role. It had caused a cascade of consequences that included the entire Universe leveling, which had unlocked three mysterious items: rifts, legacy shards, and paragon jewels.

The impact of those three things on the balance of power was unknown, but they might pale in comparison to the avalanche of System quests that Ruwen had received. The quests had contained a massive trove of information about the Outerverse and raised so many questions Rami and Lir had still not processed it all.

Ruwen, displaying immense self-awareness, had agreed to only receive this quest information in small pieces while he dealt with the aftermath of the deity attack and the ever-increasing number of priorities he needed to address. He wanted to avoid a catastrophic loss of focus.

An odd sensation rippled across Rami’s body, and she returned her focus to the outside world. She rose from her nest, gently brushed a claw over the fern, and flew to the cave entrance.

Only two miles above Rami, hovering like flies caught in a spider’s web, fifty deities had appeared, followed a moment later by of all people Rami’s mom. Her mom had arrived in her human form, although far larger than normal.

To Rami’s shock, Naktos floated into view. Her curiosity flared but she didn’t act immediately. She’d learned her lesson at the Malth library and thought through her options. Her second Perception Wyrm evolution had upgraded the ability Mind’s Eye to a more powerful version called Mind’s Window. It allowed her to view short-term memories and the current thoughts of a target. The battle with the deities had proven her abilities could bypass their mental defenses.

Of all the places in the galaxy where Rami’s mom could hold a meeting she’d chosen here, just above Rami’s “secret” lair. Ruwen’s rise had brought the Resonance Offset with the Universe to zero, which meant the area around their galaxy had become so tightly coupled with the fate of the Universe Architect Roles that allowed time travel and seeing the future wouldn’t work.

That wasn’t completely true. If a deity had enough strength, and the location wasn’t near Ruwen, and the distance into the future was small, decent predictions could be made. Had her mom done that? Rami didn’t believe in coincidence. Not when it came to her mom. It almost certainly meant she wanted Rami to know something. What though? Was it a type of permission to try invading Naktos’ mind?

Rami placed a claw against her chest. If things went sideways, she’d immediately activate Fractal’s tattoo, which had two functions. If she was near the Shattered Sun it would open a portal to this cave. If she occupied the cave, the tattoo instantly returned her to the Shattered Sun. It meant she could escape before anything bad happened.

Confident with that logic, Rami activated Mind’s Window and stretched her awareness toward Naktos. A heartbeat later, her vision shifted making her stomach lurch, and then, she became Naktos.

Naktos approached the meeting point the summons had detailed. He glanced down at the slowly turning planet of Grave, the vacuum and coldness of space irrelevant to his Divine body. Terror still filled him, and not only from the impending meeting with the adjudicator.

Less than a day ago, Naktos had witnessed two peak deities killed in moments, while a third suffered grievous spiritual harm, the damage beyond repair. Worse, he had no idea how it had happened, which made defending against such an attack impossible. Adding to the confusion, Lalquinrial had abandoned them almost immediately.

Naktos folded his stone wings around his body, providing additional protection against any kind of attack. The brightly glowing form of Miranda hung in space like a miniature star, and despite every instinct telling him to flee, he continued to a location just two miles from the serious-looking deity.

The summons had gone out to everyone because Naktos glimpsed many of the weaker deities he’d not seen for thousands of years. That relaxed him a little as it was unlikely Miranda would attack them all.

Izac hadn’t come, despite the danger of ignoring a summons from the Adjudicator created. Naktos had spoken with Izac briefly and would go to the god directly from this meeting to update him on what transpired here. Assuming Naktos survived.

Dozens of gods and goddesses hung in a semi-circle in front of Miranda, none of them closer than a mile. A sphere five miles in diameter surrounded them with air and warmth.

Miranda didn’t look at Naktos, but she spoke as he appeared. “The quorum is met, and I decree the ninth conclave in order. All present bear witness or state your objection.” She waited for ten seconds before continuing. “In direct violation of the Pact, members present and absent conspired with an outside force against the interests of a fellow Pact member. In addition, this same intruder orchestrated an attack on me directly, effectively keeping me from interfering.”

A chorus of gasps filled the space, but the revelation didn’t surprise Naktos. Izac had insisted Lalquinrial join them on the attack against the Starfield boy. Naktos had strongly argued against it for this very reason, but Izac wouldn’t budge. He believed Lalquinrial should only receive the benefits of taking Eiru’s lands if he shouldered some of the risk. Izac reasoned that with Starfield and those surrounding him dead, no one would even know of Lalquinrial’s involvement.

Eventually, they agreed on two mechanisms to make the plan safer. First Lalquinrial would create a critical distraction to take the Adjudicator’s attention, and second, they would initially send in the Infernal Realm’s Aspects. Based on the interaction with Starfield just days before on Savage Island, the Aspects alone should easily kill him.

Naktos had thought it worked, too. Eiru had appeared to protect her people, obviously weakened by the loss of her Architect Role, and Starfield had been with her in his Uru’s Shadow avatar. As expected, the Aspects had easily killed the disguised Starfield, and even managed to kill Eiru, the Material Realm depriving her of any regeneration.

That should have been the end of it, but Lalquinrial’s Aspects had moved to attack the gathered army, and everything had gone sideways.

Confusion and muttered questions rippled through the gathered deities, and Miranda held up a hand to silence them. “Izac, Naktos, Haffa, Quintyn, and Wenquian cooperated with Lalquinrial in a direct attack on Eiru.”

“They killed her,” Kartyr said, opposite of Naktos. “And why are so many of the accused absent?”

Wenquian, not hiding her shock and fear as well as Naktos, replied to the god. “Eiru’s death is not confirmed, and we didn’t attack her. Lalquinrial’s Aspects did. We were there for her Champion who is fair game, and not a violation of the Pact.”

Kartyr responded. “Fifty thousand witnesses plus the Aspects believed Eiru died. Multiple sources confirmed it, and you never answered why the others are absent.”

Wenquian stared at Naktos, obviously reluctant to continue, so he spread his wings and answered. “The answer to their absence lies at the heart of our actions.” Silence followed his statement as the deities focused on him.

Naktos contorted the truth with the facts they’d learned too late. Perhaps he could survive this conclave after all. “It is true,” he said, looking around at his peers. “We enlisted Lalquinrial’s help. My friendship with him is no secret, and considering the danger to us all, I felt compelled to recruit him. What danger, you’re asking yourself. What could justify subverting the Pact?” He paused for a few seconds to let the tension build. “You asked why the accused are not all here. The answer is simple. Eiru’s Champion, the Starfield boy, killed two of them and gravely injured a third.”

Disbelief and confusion erupted as the deities muttered to each other. Naktos glanced at Miranda, who stared at him with a grim face. He swallowed his fear and continued.

“It’s not impossible,” Naktos spoke over the conversations. “Eiru has secrets of her own. Behind our backs, she engineered a weapon to kill us all. You know how she holds herself apart from us, and now the reason reveals itself. She created a Divine Apostasy.”

Shouting erupted and Naktos let it continue for twenty seconds.

“It’s true,” Naktos shouted. “The proof is the death of Haffa and Quintyn, and the destruction of at least one of Izac’s pathways.”

Gasps of horror filled Miranda’s sphere.

Kartyr spoke again. “And you left them in the Material Realm?”

Naktos looked down for a moment before responding. “It is no secret I dislike direct conflict. I am ashamed to say I fled the Material Realm immediately, terrified I would be next. Even so, I returned an hour later to retrieve our brothers, hoping I could take them to their Divine Realms, but the apostate had taken them.”

“Taken them where?” Kartyr asked. “That much Spirit and essence should take weeks to consume? Perhaps you did find the bodies, and plan on Harvesting them yourself.”

Naktos didn’t react to the obvious baiting. He remained focused on surviving, and that meant not getting distracted from his narrative, so he only briefly answered the other god. “You all know I would find the idea of feeding on another deity abhorrent. I might be a coward, but I am no scavenger.”

Naktos waited a few seconds to see if anyone else wished to comment, and then continued. “With our brothers’ deaths, you can see the need for Lalquinrial. How better to fight a god killer than with another god killer. In fairness, Eiru’s creation of an Ascended Harvester trained specifically to kill us, had to be dealt with by any means necessary.”

“Such noble motivations, Naktos,” Miranda said. “What a pleasure to see your selfish nature mature into this valiant protector of your brothers and sisters. I’m curious. What happened to Lalquinrial? How did you convince him to help you? The Divine Apostasy sounds dangerous after all, and we all know Lalquinrial would not help you for free, friendship or not.”

“Indeed, Adjudicator, although the price was lower than you think. Lalquinrial’s wife was the first victim of this killer. As the vulnerable woman transitioned from Gem to Divine, this vile assassin ripped the Core from her body, destroying her center completely. An act of unheard brutality.”

Naktos waited for the alarmed conversations to quiet, before continuing. “I agreed to research an elixir to ease his wife’s constant spiritual pain, along with a small amount of personal terium.”

Naktos could see the gathered deities’ anger had turned to understanding and even sympathy. He had worried his fellow deities would demand his death for breaking the Pact, but now, he had likely gained many allies. They could continue to use the umbrella of the Pact to safely pursue their goals, protected by the same rules they subverted.

This victory would surely infuriate Miranda, and Naktos carefully kept his gaze away from her. She could still punish them for breaking the Pact but killing them at a conclave would require a majority vote, and his manipulation had circumvented that outcome.

Something about this bothered Naktos. Miranda hated, or at least disliked, all the deities here on Grave. She had never hidden that fact. Why had she allowed him to twist events she surely knew the truth about? Did she want all the deities here on his side? How did that benefit her?

Naktos frowned and risked a glance at Miranda, only to find her smiling at him. The expression of an apex predator finding her prey trapped and vulnerable.

“Is there anything else?” Miranda asked.

Naktos paused, desperately trying to understand how the wyrm planned to benefit from this. He considered telling the assembled deities that the apostate was also an Axiom, but his current story had already convinced them, and the revelation of an Axiom would likely scare them away from the conflict, not rally them to his cause. Eventually, he responded. “No.”

Miranda flicked her gaze around the gathered deities. “Are there any dissenters to this compelling testimony? Any who wish to exact punishment for these Pact violations speak now.”

Miranda waited a few seconds and nodded. “Let us move to the second item of business.”

Naktos felt immense relief, both overjoyed and worried at the turn of events. Somehow, he had turned his imminent death into uniting the deities against Ruwen Starfield. Did Miranda have some reason to hate that boy?

Miranda looked upward, and a scene appeared, the projection massive and visible to everyone. “This is deep within the Black Pyramid. Specifically, in the dimensional vaults I keep for your followers as part of my obligations under the Pact.”

The scene above Miranda flickered and came into better focus, the view from somewhere low to the ground. A gigantic crossing ring, leaning against several identical rings, suddenly came to life as a surge of white energy was sucked from somewhere above but not visible. The area inside the crossing ring glowed brightly.

An infernal Dread Lord stepped through, looked around, and stepped back through the portal. A moment later it returned, followed by a familiar figure: Lalquinrial.

A small group of demons exited the portal and the ten of them waited on Lalquinrial, who had stretched his hand upward in the direction the energy had originated. He clenched his hand, and the scene shook as if an explosion had occurred. Lalquinrial nodded at the demons, who rushed away, and Lalquinrial stepped back through the portal, disappearing.

“Moments later,” Miranda said.

The scene changed, this time the view showed a massive group of people. In the distance, six deities appeared, including Lalquinrial. A lone man strode toward the deities, and Lalquinrial moved forward to meet him.

“The attack on my domain was coordinated to distract me from the battle that occurred on Grave. Naktos and Wenquian along with those absent, whether knowingly or not, participated in this event, making them guilty by association. This conclave, having been informed of the Pact violations, including a direct attack on the interests of the Adjudicator, chose to enact no punishment.”

Dread filled Naktos, as Miranda emotionlessly delivered these facts.

“As such, in accordance with the Pact, the Adjudicator is powerless to overrule the conclave’s will. However, the Pact offers relief to the Adjudicator when a clear violation exists against said Adjudicator and no punishment is executed. I hereby invoke section one hundred twenty-six, paragraph fifty-seven, line thirteen of said Pact, and dismiss myself as Adjudicator, dissolving the Pact.”

Shocked silence met Miranda’s statement.

“I forced this Pact on you long ago,” Miranda continued, “to save what remained of Grave. The Pact no longer serves its intended purpose, and in fact, sheltered many of your misdeeds. The time for refuge has passed. War has arrived once again, and we all need to pick a side. I’ve chosen, and those of you who move against Ruwen Starfield or Uru’s lands will meet me on the battlefield. In addition, you will find the dimensional storage for your followers revoked immediately.”

Miranda disappeared, and Naktos stared dumbfounded. The bubble of atmosphere disappeared, and the coldness of space wrapped them all.

The Pact had kept Miranda from directly acting. Now that she had found a way to dissolve it, her claws were no longer tied. It meant circumstances had become even more dangerous if that was possible.

Worse, Miranda had played Naktos beautifully and outsmarted him using his desire to avoid punishment. It reminded him, a reminder he shouldn’t need, of her brilliance and cunning.

Naktos had intended to rally his brothers and sisters, urging them to band together against this Divine Apostasy. Now, with Miranda’s warning, his pleas would fall on deaf ears. Only overwhelming force might succeed now, and Naktos worried even that would not suffice.

With the Pact dissolved, Naktos no longer needed to hide his movements and planned to visit Izac to better understand the extent of the god’s wounds. Lalquinrial had deserted them before the fight with Starfield, which had resulted in, among other things, Izac’s devastating loss of a Meridian.

Izac would never forgive Lalquinrial for his actions and the resulting injury. Naktos hoped talking with Izac would vent some of the god’s fury before he talked himself into attacking Lalquinrial in vengeance. The last thing Naktos needed right now were his two allies locked in a death match, which is why he would visit Lalquinrial after seeing Izac.

The deities around Naktos rapidly disappeared, and helplessness briefly smothered him. Now, in addition to that cursed boy, the ancient wyrm stood in their way. He prayed whatever had taken Lalquinrial away proved to be the miracle they so obviously needed.

Inexplicably, Naktos’ thoughts turned to his library and the most important books there, quickly followed by his theories on what books the other deities owned that he wished to acquire. He frowned and scolded himself. How worried had he become that his focus slipped to reflections on his library of all things? With a shake of his head, he created a portal and left before any more disasters occurred to him.

Rami’s connection to Naktos severed the moment he disappeared. She stood just inside the entrance to her cave, heart pounding. It was strangely exhilarating to become another person so completely. She had been Naktos.

Just before Naktos departed, Rami had, as lightly as she could manage, planted a desire to think of his library, not wanting to pass up the opportunity to learn what it contained. When that worked, she’d immediately added another desire for the books he wanted from others.

Rami had seized all those memories, copying them to an isolated portion of her mind she’d prepared just for a situation like this. She couldn’t access the memories yet as their arrangement followed the mind of Naktos. She’d need to study them so she could create a way to translate them. Lir would help her. She couldn’t wait to learn the results.