Side Story - Moric 4: Tipped Scales

AN: This one kind of feels bad. Probably gonna take a break from Moric for a bit.

"Could you run that by me again?" Moric asked as he lowered the scroll he had been reading. "I am not quite sure I understood that correctly."

Haiwa gave a small laugh in reply, the noise somehow sounding like chimes gently blowing in the wind. "Our Goddess wanted to make a place for us mortals to become stronger. She wants us to ascend."

"So she can fight you…?" Moric asked, repeating what the woman had told him just moments ago. "Why would she do that?" And how could anyone ever fight the literal Creator of everything?

"Because she is lonely," Haiwa replied with a shrug. "And because she likes to fight."

"Why?" Moric asked, the words leaving him with his last bit of breath. "Why would anyone want to do that?"

The Human woman raised a brow. "Some people like to fight, and many more like the idea of growing stronger. The people can say what they will, but if you are strong enough, you do not have to care about their opinions — or even laws — anymore.

"The All-Mother might never be eclipsed," she continued, "but that should not stop people from trying to reach her heights." Haiwa snapped her fingers, the air in the room growing cold for a moment before a bundle of scrolls appeared in front of her. She ruffled through the small mountain of parchment for a moment before pulling one free. It looked old, its edges frayed and the parchment itself having changed colour so much that upon further reflection Moric was no longer quite sure if it even was parchment.

"While I have not witnessed such an event in person," she said, carefully unfurling the scroll, "there are accounts of mortals challenging the All-Mother and entertaining her enough to gain something from it."

The Lich hesitated for a moment before he leaned himself forward a little. "How old are you, exactly?"

"I don't know," Haiwa replied, looking up from the scroll and fixing her eyes on Moric for a moment before she sighed. "Before we left this world — before we died — I was nearing my second century. Xiu had just been born when the All-Mother left." She tapped her finger on the scroll, Moric wincing slightly every time she did. "I know it has been many millennia since then, but not exactly how many. And the memories of our previous life are a little fuzzy. Everything that does not relate to the All-Mother, that is."

"That makes no sense," Moric said. He knew Souls lost their memories when they died — that was how things worked — but that process was not selective. The Souls simply forgot things at random. "Or did she give you a title that caused your memory of her to be protected?"

"It probably had to do with our Classes," the woman replied, her eyes again fixed on the scroll in her hands. "We might not have those anymore, but I would not be surprised if their effects still linger."

"You had Classes?"

"We did," the voice of Beilo replied from behind. The man stepped next to Moric, pulling out a chair for himself before he sat down. "Both Haiwa and I were [Guardians of the All-Mother]."

Moric stared at Beilo, the fire in his eyes twisting as far as they could, almost forming the question marks that filled his mind. The Human gave a chuckle at his reaction, giving the Lich a few all-too-heavy pats on the back.

"Think of it as a cross between a cleric and a guard," he said. "We protected and healed those that couldn't while also studying the arcane as best we could."

The Lich rubbed the sides of his skull. If he were still alive, Moric would have a raging headache. He was sure of that. What the Humans had told him thus far simply made no sense to him. Apparently, they had had Classes. Sure, he had heard of those, but nobody knew how to get one anymore. Though, some people say the System turned it off… What really got Moric, however, was the fact that the people he had revived had apparently met the literal Creator of the universe. He still had trouble coming to terms with a being like that even existing, much less walking around the world and just meeting some random Humans that followed her. Wouldn't she be so strong that her mere presence kills you?

Sure, the Gods might have been lying, but it was not hard to believe that some people would die in their presence. The Great One could force people onto their knees with his aura already, after all, and he was 'just' a Demigod. And apparently they are two centuries old. As Humans. That at least explained their frankly frightening strength; the stronger you got, the longer you could live, after all.

"And then you started building a dungeon?" Moric asked, trying to steer the conversation to the other topic he had trouble believing. "I'm sorry, but what you are telling me is… hard to believe."

"Well," Haiwa began, "you pulled us out of the Beyond after Aperio-knows how many millennia and brought us back to life." She paused, tapping her chin. "We did have to make our own bodies, but I suppose we can't expect you to do everything, now can we?"

What? Moric asked himself as he watched both Haiwa and Beilo chuckle. He tried to make sense of it all, but nothing he could think of got him even a single step closer to understanding. Maybe believing in the Creator drives you insane?

"The dungeon," Beilo eventually said, "was meant to be a place for mortals to prove themselves. A challenge. Nothing more, nothing less." He picked out one of the scrolls and handed it to Moric. "It was a duty the people of Ardynshaide gladly took upon themselves, even if it drew the ire of some other nations."

"Wouldn't the All-Mother defend her followers?" the Lich asked, unfurling the scroll as carefully as he could with his bony hands. "Seems like that would be easy for her."

"It would be easy," Haiwa said, "but she wasn't the protecting type. Building the dungeon was not something we had to do; we wanted to. Aperio made a new part of the System for these challenges and built a few places of her own. We asked if we could make one as well, and she agreed."

Moric glanced down. The scroll he held in his hands was not written in a script he recognized, but somehow he could still understand what it said. A brief pass over the contents caused him to look up at the two Humans with incredulity. "A story? Written by the All-Mother?" Did she just make stuff up because she felt like it?

"Technically it was not written by her, but by one of her earliest followers," Haiwa said. "It's an account of how this world came to be, and what Aperio wanted to do with it."

The Lich's eyes lingered on the Human for a moment longer before he turned his attention back to the scroll. He skipped past the first few paragraphs; he did not desire to read yet another version of ‘nothing existed and suddenly stuff existed because this deity did it’. At least they might be right with this one. He was not quite sure if a single being could have made all of existence, but if the All-Mother was what Beilo and Haiwa said, he could see it.

From what they had casually revealed, she did not seem like any other deity. For one, she did not seem to care for followers, or anything else for that matter. She just did whatever she wanted, which according to the scroll in his hands, included making magic, this world, and life itself. There was nothing but the All-Mother, and then there was the world as Moric knew it. Bar the few million years they did not write about. He might not know how long it had actually taken, but from his few tries at anything related to the stars, he knew that anything above their world moved very slowly.

Once he had reached the bottom of the page, Moric's eyes were drawn back to the top as the letters began to morph and shift, slowly changing into something else. For a moment he hoped that the scroll would somehow tell him why any of this pertained to him; why he was now on a floating island with a family that wanted to rebuild an entire nation on their own. Sadly, his wish went unanswered, and instead the scroll showed him a depiction of what he assumed to be the All-Mother. The only problem was that the image always changed when he looked away for even a moment. Why would anyone make this?

He put the parchment down, setting his gaze on Haiwa. "What is the point of this? What you are telling me makes no sense, and neither does this scroll thing. Why do I feel like I should help you? For that matter, how did your children fly around this world as a Soul?" He hesitated, not certain if he should ask the other question that was on his mind, but it came forth anyway. "What are you?"

Haiwa heaved a sigh as the scrolls, including the one Moric held, disappeared again, flooding the room with an all-encompassing cold once more. "I am not sure how to explain this," she said, shifting in her seat to sit cross-legged, "but we all know that you are more than you think, and that change is coming. You can believe it, or not, but the world as you know it is coming to an end.

"Neither Beilo nor me is good at sitting around," she continued, giving a half-hearted smile. "It was our job to protect those who needed it, and we're eager to pick that back up again, but aside from trying to shelter you from the incoming changes to the world that would sweep you aside, we cannot do anything substantial at the moment."

"So you thought confusing me was what? Fun?" The feeling that he should help them was still there, but now he was no longer sure if that was actually something he felt and not something they made him feel. Maybe I died, and I am being punished for trying to bring back Souls?

He shook his head. What a silly idea. The Great One had been doing this for centuries — if not longer — and he had always been rewarded by the System for his endeavours. Even Moric himself had been awarded titles and other bonuses for his efforts in saving the Souls from the Beyond. At first, he had done it because he had been saved and he felt he should give back in one way or another, but as time went on, he had come to fully see what befell the Souls if they lingered in the Beyond for too long. To forget was normal, but lingering in your mind would be the eternal, inescapable knowledge that you should know — that you did know — but you could never recall what that was supposed to be. It was still better than turning into a demon, but not by much.

"Not fun, no," Haiwa said, taking the Lich from his thoughts. "But we did hope to distract you." She motioned for Beilo to leave them, likely not wanting the man to ruin her explanation with yet another anecdote about the All-Mother. "The truth of the matter is that we need you to stay here. For the moment, we are bound to you.

"Not your will, or anything like that," she added as the fire in Moric's eyes flickered ever-so-slightly. "It merely takes a while to build bodies that can sustain themselves without the help of our Classes."

"Then you are responsible for this need to help that I feel?" Moric asked, standing up with his hand wrapped tightly around his staff. He was already calling on his mana, ready to strike at the woman in front of him if the need arose. "I have no problem sending you into the next life."

"There is no need for that," she said, holding up her hands slightly. "We are doing nothing to you. Manipulating you that way would go against the very basic principles of the All-Mother."

"But lying is fine?" Moric asked, still holding onto his staff and channeling his mana. "Why should I believe you? I brought you back from the Beyond and you try to use me? You could have just told me that you needed me to stay here, but instead you tried to make up some bullshit to lure me in." I sure hope the All-Mother herself isn't like this.

Haiwa was about to reply when Moric felt a ripple run through reality itself, and a moment later a notification appeared in his vision.

"And the first one falls," the Human mumbled, obviously having seen the notification as well. "We weren't lying when we said that the All-Mother is angry and that the world will change. I don't know what the Gods did during her absence, but given her reaction it could."

The Lich remained quiet for a while, simply looking at Haiwa. She seemed unconcerned by the fact that a God had just been cast down or that Moric was still holding himself ready to strike at a moment's notice. Though, if he thought about it, why would she be worried? She followed the one who had presumably thrown Natio out of the Pantheon and she was most assuredly stronger than Moric. The amount of mana he could feel flowing through every single one of these Humans was not something normal.

"What would you do if I were to leave?" Moric asked, taking a slow step backwards.

"Follow," the voice of Beilo said as Moric bumped into him. The Lich had not noticed the Human re-enter the room, as he had been too focused on Haiwa. "We would follow you."