[Admin Message]

Header: [Recompense for damages caused by one of my agents]

Sender: [Kaelzar — The Sovereign of the Fallen Skies]

This ought to be good. I wondered what Kaelzar meant exactly by damages, though. Only one way to find out.

I opened the message.

Message Contents:

[Mortal,

I am most grateful for the donation of part of your Truesoul. It is rare for prayers to include such a succulent offering these days. As such, I decided to glance at how my operator had handled your retrieval from the Void after that unfortunate teleportation failure.

It was to my surprise, then, that it seems the agent in question decided to shirk part of their duties, ignoring both the source of your restriction and the obviously fabricated record of your time in Eternia. This agent has been permanently terminated for negligence and breach of duty to myself.

Now, this meant we had two ways of handling this dereliction of responsibility towards our guest. One, handing you a reward and sending an agent to personally comb through the surrounding area around your spawn point, after handing you a small consolation prize for your troubles, of course. Unfortunately, there are difficulties regarding that choice that make it unfeasible. Or option two, I leave that responsibility to you and offer an even larger reward if you can find the source of the UTTER MONGRELS who have dared take residence within MY DOMAIN.

Cough, apologies, I am dictating this message and allowed my temper to get the better of me.

Whatever the case. Your feat—clearing a Zone single-handedly, where only a party managed it once before you, has shown me that you have a bright future ahead of you. Perhaps even under the service of one of my very own retainers, as such, I have magnanimously chosen the second option for you.

You may thank me at a later time.

I've provided your original spawn coordinates within the attached files below. Feel free to complete this assignment at your leisure. I've also added something that may aid you in this task. Think of it as an advance payment. You may accept or decline it. That is up to you. But if you do accept the payment, I expect you to treat this task as your primary goal.

Failure will be met with appropriate measures.

In the Shadow of My Light,

Kaelzar — Sovereign of the Fallen Skies

Architect of the First Radiance

Attached files:

Coordinates (1)

System upgrade (Minimap Addition)]

Accepting the attached files will bind you to the following Quest:

Quest Giver: [Kaelzar]

Tier: [Divine Decree]

Description: [An unauthorized group has violated the borders of my domain. Unfortunately, I am unable to divine their exact location. Some kind of fate-scrambling field they are using in the region that makes any attempts to locate them impossible. However, you have already tied your fate to theirs, so it will be trivial for you to find them again. You will return to that vicinity and locate the site of their interference. Once you're as close as possible, signal me through your system interface. I will handle the rest.]

Reward: [Something you would kill your little spriggan friend for. Once you have set your grubby little hands upon it, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. In addition to that, a set of coordinates that I believe you would like to have.]

Failure: [The pleasure of becoming one of my personal toys. You will become mine in both soul and body, should either remain.]

I took a deep breath, in and out.

I'd decide this later. I wasn't in the mood to deal with gods at this very moment, but I might need to play along in order to achieve future goals. I saw what Hazel meant when she said she didn't want to get involved with any divines. Now I was in this whole mess, and they kept coming to me…

I was kind of sick of it. It's exhausting dealing with beings who could kill me with a single thought.

At least Eryx was nice, meeting his memory fragment was kind of cool, I could still feel him in the ring as well, I didn't know what it was doing, but he was a part of me now. It sort of felt like there was an option to select his fragment, alongside puzzles and saving a design, like a secret level in a game that I had to do something specific to unlock. Looking through the rewards for completing levels, I didn't see anything, even when I had my Core rapidly run through them. I'd figure it out eventually, probably.

Kaelzar… Well, he seemed like the kind of guy who expects to get what he wants, and if he sees anyone not performing their assignments perfectly, well... Annihilating that angel was a little bit unnecessary, or at least it felt that way. Somehow, I could tell they weren't fleshy and therefore had slightly more value to my mind. It's just their condescension towards me, like my entire existence was an annoyance to them, was a problem. To put it shortly, they were a jerk to me, so I was not going to grieve their loss.

Let's see what my Runaspriggan Skills are, then we could come back to this later.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Seed of Finality] Tier: [Emblazoned] Description: [You have rendered death upon millions of those who would bring harm to Nature itself, an action that caused an observable ripple on the Thread. You are the reaper, the end of those who would harm the natural world. This will now be reflected in your Mana. Death is part of Nature's cycle, too, just as we all are in the end. You will find that your corruptive intent is far easier to channel when you have a desire for Death. Corruptive manifestations will carry a small fraction of Death itself.]

An Emblazoned Skill was the first on the list? What the hell were the other ones then? Also, Death didn't feel like a 'me' thing. I wasn't sure why I just didn't think I was interested. Though, obviously, I was going to get a Skill like this after I committed genocide against my Natural foe… That was weird. Why did I think they were my foe? I'm not a plant!

Whatever, just my mind doing something to me. The Skill revealed something else, the Thread. The system indicated that I'd caused a minor ripple, which suggested that large events may be detectable through the Thread. But what was it? I didn't think I'd be able to figure it out any time soon… Oh, wait, is that how divinations are done? By observing the Thread?

Nope, stop speculating, it isn't useful. Empty guesses will do you no good.

Okay, the Skill. I hadn't really used my corruptive Mana at all lately, but that's mostly because I had been fighting Mana sponges that would drink up my Mana like it was water. That one thorn filled with corruptive Mana just turned a little bit of black goo my doppelganger was made of into rainbow colours. But I never thought about manifesting corruptive Nature Mana. I'd have to think about it. Weirdly, I hadn't considered the applications of it… In addition to [New Growth], it could become something crazy. I think I need to work on my Skill Set. I hadn't had the time to sit and think about my actual capabilities.

Whatever the case, I didn't want this Skill. Something about Death just felt wrong to me. I wasn't sure why.

[Species Skill Option] Name: [Crown of the Final Grove] Tier: [Emblazoned - Growth] Description: [You have erased all life from this land—native or invader, none stood against your will. What remains is yours. Your Authority now bears the weight of absolute dominion made manifest and will be much harder to resist. Within ten metres of your Soul, any sapient beings that wish you harm will feel that weight press down on them. Your weight scales with your Spirit stat.]

So this Skill would allow me to squish people who wanted to hurt me? Cool… I don't know, I just don't see the value here. Like, yes, it was a Growth Skill, and maybe it would turn into something incredibly useful, but it just didn't stand out to me as something I wanted.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Maybe my Authority having extra weight would be useful? I could probably fight other people's aura a lot easier. Maybe even locking them down and preventing spellcasting. But that's not the style of fighting I wanted to encourage the system to lead me towards. I didn't want to dominate, I wanted to… If I could just fight from three kilometres away, that would be perfect. Could I get a Skill that increased the velocity and precision of projectiles I manifested? That would be great.

[Species Skill Option]

Admin intervention. One moment.

Would you like to cancel the Admin action?

Y/N

No thanks, I'd rather not tell the big god that I have special permissions. I didn't think that would go over well, so I hit no immediately. I guess this is the 'advance payment' he was talking about. It better be good.

[Divine Skill Option] Name: [Covenant of the Unbound] Tier: [Divine Gift] Description: [The One True Sovereign has found a way to dodge the restrictions placed on him and bestow a gift upon you. You may venerate him as you see fit for this opportunity, for he would only undergo so much effort for someone he's bet everything on, someone who he believes would serve as a useful tool. With his permission, you have been granted the ability to manipulate reality to your own whims. The world will carry out commands you speak with Authority. However, beings can resist this effect in a test of will. These spoken commands are unlike mage-speak in that they do not need to be cast through Mana. It is the world following your will, not a silly mageling's chanting. The language you speak affects the power of your words. These words of power can be used to create binding Oaths, should another party agree, or if you overpower their will completely. You cannot be bound by anything: chains will fail to hold you, prisons will open their doors for you at the most opportune of times, you will not even notice magics designed to bind you in place, and Oaths, except those you create yourself or those made through the system by divine entities or their representatives, are unenforceable. Prisons of your own making are inescapable without aid.] Condition of choosing this Skill: [You undertake the task he has given you to the utmost of your abilities. Once you complete the task, the Skill is yours forever.]

Oh. OH. This is. It's perfect!

It's weird, I thought I saw something else written in the second sentence, but it must have been a visual glitch or something. Obviously, he wanted to use me as a means to an end. But I thought I might like being his tool if he's handing out Skills like this one.

That explained the guy in a time loop! He'd got some god acting as his sugar daddy.

I had to sit down for a moment. Autumn noticed and gestured a question, asking if I was okay. Had they been using gestures like this the whole time? Was it just the translation from the system, or was I going crazy? No, going crazy doesn't happen like this. Don't denigrate yourself, you know what psychosis is like, and this isn't it.

"Yeah, it's just… Can I trust The Sovereign?" I asked Autumn. If anyone would know, it would be them.

They just started laughing, like the sound of several trees blowing in the wind, "Trust him? The Lord of Subterfuge? The man who cheated his way into becoming a god by abusing clauses in a contract? No, you can't. He will never break his word because of his Mythos, but that's not what you need to worry about. He will slide through every crack in the wording of deals made with him to get his way."

Tricky guy then, huh? Well, he didn't seem hostile towards me, and I didn't think I had anything he couldn't get elsewhere, except the ability to find this one manor in the middle of a forest… I kind of wanted to go, just for the forest alone. I bet there were so many different plants I could eat there, I could expand my repertoire of materials I could work with by an incredible amount if we did this.

I realized I was drooling and wiped my mouth off.

"He wants us to go to a Zone called the Sylvan Maw and signal him when I reach a specific location. That's it. You know, I bet that Zone would be filled with Wildegrafts if the name is literal." I said, getting up off the ground. "Let's get out of here, we can decide on the—"

I was interrupted by Autumn glomping me, their increased weight after eating the seed, threw me to the ground. "Can we go, please, please, please?"

Letting out a sigh, I accepted [Covenant of the Unbound]. I was way too much of a pushover sometimes. Rustling the leaves on Autumn's head, I told them we were going. They hopped off and ran over to stand by the door, impatiently shifting their weight from one foot to another.

The system windows I had open flashed for a moment, and suddenly, I had a map of everywhere I'd been in my head. Including my old spawn point, which was marked with the coordinates Kaelzar gave me. We had a bit of a trip to get there, but that was fine. I wanted some time to level up and work on puzzles anyway. We didn't need to stop in every zone to complete the quest. I wondered what time it was right now.

As if on cue, I was greeted with a ding. It had felt so long since I last heard this for some reason, even though it had only been a day. I guess a lot happened, though, so that made sense.

"Heeeeello residents of Eternia, it is your favourite imp Nyxie back for your daily evening broadcast!" Nyxie's voice echoed directly in my mind, "We have some special news tonight, but before I get to that, I'd like to congratulate Ellie Winters, who is the first individual to complete a Zone all on their own! From the report I have here, the Zone was designed for those who made it to their Fourth Ascension! Wow! How did she manage it while still in her First Ascension? We may be getting a chance to find out how, as I plan to bring Ellie on tomorrow night's broadcast to talk about their experience so far!"

An applause effect was being played over the connection, but I barely even heard it because my mind was somewhere else.

They're bringing me on their show? Does that mean I get to go back… No, that would be too easy, don't get your hopes up. Kaelzar still has a task for me out here anyway.

I realized I had started tapping my hands together rhythmically out of… was that excitement or fear? I couldn't tell.

Part of me really wanted to meet Nyxie, but I have literally no idea why. It was like her presence was addictive or something, even listening over the telepathic transmission felt like balm being applied to my shredded and torn apart soul.

Another part of me was completely terrified at the thought of speaking in front of a ton of people. No, they're not people, they're fleshbags. Remember that, Ellie, just imagine those disgusting masses of meat pretending to be people are listening. Not real people, with actual bodies, not made of putrid meat. I took another deep breath. Autumn was starting to get impatient and was pointing at the door. I signalled to them just to wait a moment.

I suddenly realized she was still speaking, but I had completely missed what she was saying, "...system update that will be released tomorrow! So when you get that notification that your system is rebooting, please don't be alarmed. We have identified a few major flaws in addition to those helpfully pointed out by our User Base, and our Dev team is working on them right now. Let's give those hard workers a round of applause."

I gave a golf clap for the fuck I'm going to send to hell. Maybe I could make a deal with Kaelzar and have him given extra special treatment.

Actually, wait, did demons and angels even get sent to Hell? What had happened to the soul of the angel that Kaelzer had killed? Were they sent to become Mana generators that get stabbed to make the Mana come out as well?

I hope so.

"Patch notes will be available with the update tomorrow. Anyway, that's all for tonight. Thank you, everyone, for listening. This has been Nyxie your favourite imp signing out," FUCK I missed most of it. I really like listening to her… But I would get to meet her tomorrow holy shit, I'm going to meet Nyxie in person. I felt a shiver pass through my body.

Why was I getting so worked up about this? There was something about her voice… Whatever, I didn't care. It didn't matter to me. I can't wait to see her—NO BAD. I slapped my wrist.

After getting my thoughts back under control, I went to check on Autumn, but they weren't by the door anymore. Confused, I looked around the room but couldn't find them.

Suddenly, there was a pop and Autumn appeared by the door, "Come onnnn let's goooo."

"Sure, but what the hell was that?" Obviously, it was something related to the seed, but I couldn't tell what they were actually doing.

"Just wanted to check ahead a bit. You know, get the lay of the land. And it's a good thing I did too, because oh boy the entire place is fucked," they replied, and I decided I didn't need answers. It wasn't worth the effort trying to obtain them.

I let out a sigh and walked up to the door that should have been unlocked. I tried pulling it open, but it was completely stuck without any Mana powering it. "Hey, how do you do that thing where you infuse your voice with Authority, by the way?"

Autumn explained the process while twitching on the spot, bouncing from one foot to the other. Basically, I had to converge Authority within my throat, then begin folding it over itself along my vocal cords until it reached a point where I couldn't fold it anymore. Then, as I spoke, I released the folds so that they were evenly spread out over the entire statement. This meant longer statements were harder to say because you had to ensure each syllable was given an equal amount of Authority.

Otherwise, you risked hurting yourself with some kind of rebound that I didn't understand. That didn't explain the people who exerted Authority just by speaking, but I didn't bring that up. Autumn was starting to look like a kid who really needed to use the bathroom but refused to ask the teacher to let them. I felt it would be cruel to send us down another rabbit hole when they clearly wanted to get moving.

I decided the easiest way to start this out was just to choose a one-syllable word in English and blow the entire load of Authority all at once. I wasn't going to try Rootspeech until I got a handle on the system. As for how much Mana I wanted to dedicate to this, I figured like ten percent of my reserves was enough.

Looking towards the door to leave the room, I spoke. Holding exactly what I wanted to have happen in my mind, "Yield"

The doors blew off their hinges and flew out into the darkness past the range of my lights and Autumn's glowing body.

"Alright, now we can go," I said to Autumn while walking out into the hallway. A smirk made its way onto my face when I noticed their wide-eyed expression.

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