Chapter 41 - Linked Worlds

They spoke for a while before he glanced down at her, his tone taking on the slightest tinge of admonishment, "You have not been taking care of your daily routines."

She glanced up at him a confused frown on her face, "Are they necessary? Since this isn't my true body…"

"Your body here is," he paused as if thinking, "Real enough to count," he finally said, "Though it is certainly true that it is in some ways not all here, for those of you that are here as Godsborn, we have the ability to keep you from dying and even from experiencing things like hunger. Your routines are just as important here as they are within your own world and only the same kind of hibernation spells you are using there will make it so they are not needed here."

She frowned slightly, reminded once more of her earlier observation, "This isn't a false world," she said, scowling up at him, "So why do you call it so?"

"Can you be certain of that?"

He was being cryptic, testing to be sure of her knowledge before he let slip something the gods had decided to hide for some reason, "If this was a game, then some of the details would have to have been provided by all of you," she referred to the gods, "Rather than whoever made it in my world. I doubt you would make that offer, make parts of your power into something tangible that someone else could perhaps find a way to use…I also doubt that you could, considering that sounds a lot like interfering in my world."

He nodded as if considering what she said, "Go on."

"There's too much detail, things that even some people of magical blood don't know, information that they wouldn't part with even to see all of you again," her gaze moved towards the door into the temple though she knew the lights swirled all around them just as they would when she stepped inside, "Like how the temple reacts to those created by your magics. There's also the Star Ash…they're not fully sentient but they are somewhat aware. This town's Star Ash shared with me the very creation of Redwood Stars and its development into what it is today. That kind of minute detail, something that likely only a handful of people would be able to access, is not something most would put in a game."

He sighed ever so slightly, "Astute observations…ones I'd hope you'd take a bit more time to make being enamored by the world around you and all."

"Why do you call it a false world?"

It was his turn to frown, "If we were to call it a game, we would be lying, fully and completely. To call it a false world is to shift the truth a bit, something that we are not entirely opposed to if it can gain the results we want. As Godsborn you are…false beings, you have no history in this world. The state of the dungeons, as well, is also unnatural to this world and was something we had to begin long before we were able to fully link the two worlds in order to get the inhabitants of this world used to the change. Events, as well, are being somewhat more influenced by the pantheon than they would be under normal circumstances."

He took a deep breath before explaining that the goal was to use the two worlds to save each other. Ash's world needed more than just her. Even if she was able to fix her magic, it likely wouldn't be enough and would just prolong things once more. They needed a permanent way to fix her world, something to cleanse magic that wouldn't be in danger.

They also needed a way to teach people that weren't experienced with the gods or magic that their perception of those things was incorrect. Thinking that the gods treated them like puppets and that magic and creatures made of it were an infinite resource without a balancing system had been what had caused the Great Hunt. They needed people to learn the truth so that whatever solution they were able to come up with would be protected, so that perhaps they could reach for the world once more.

Fantastoria was also undergoing the very beginnings of its own Grand Hunt. They needed extra manpower to stop it. They needed people that had lived through it, people that had seen what it did, to be able to spread that truth.

"Most of all, we need the Godsborn to think of it as a game because bolstering Lucrum's power is key to all of our plans, their entertainment is necessary. He needs to grow into his strength, to grow into what he is meant to be instead of the petulant child that he has been for some time now."

Lucrum, he explained, had been born on her own world: a lone god that was still somewhat able to reach the world around him. He was afforded that ability because he wasn't one of the specific targets, none of his magic was wound in that which bound the pantheon away from the world. He was part of the pantheon, still, and so his influence was limited. He was seen less as a god and more as a muse that helped others create and gain wealth.

Lucrum wanted to properly join their pantheon, to have the chance to exist in more than one world. In order to do that, he had to ensure he stuck around long enough to prove himself and become known.

"He was overzealous, though," Sidus said softly, "Not realizing that he was coming across to the people of this world as something he was not. I hate that you were hurt, even if most of that hurt was in order to heal you," he paused and continued, his voice growing even softer, "But your scolding of him has done what all of us could not and shown him that error completely. Our plan may yet work. We may be able to save these worlds. It is selfish, perhaps…But my greatest wish is to save you for you are the only one across all the worlds we govern that is like a true child to me."