Mantle of the Gods [LitRPG / Slow Burn / FTB Harem]

Ether and Justia stayed.

Everyone else left, including Gesai, which I thought was strange. The silver woman was usually in all of our conversations, so either she had something very important to do or this was a very exclusive conversation.

My green Priestess moved into the seat that Oz had been sitting in.

"So…" The silence was raking my nerves. "What did you want to talk about?"

Trent got up from his seat and walked over to the head of the table and sat in Klix's chair. He folded his hands together as he leaned forward.

"You did what I explicitly told you not to do." The old man touched his nose with the triangle his index fingers made as he leaned forward.

"I know this probably doesn't help my case, but which time are we talking about?" I winced as I admitted to doing it more than once while he was unconscious.

Trent pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Atlas…" The old man sighed and looked at me. "None of that matters now. I was trying to keep you out of this fight until you were stronger. You haven't been doing this for three months and you're already making deals with Goddesses that were around before my father was born."

"I…"

"I'm not done." Trent cut me off. "I'm not saying that you made the wrong choice, and considering who we're dealing with, it might be the safest choice short-term, but now you're tied to Pixie, and that means when Klix makes her move, she's going to drag you, me, and everyone else into this mess."

"Wasn't that what you and Mavery were trying to turn me into?" I tried not to raise my voice. "Turn me into a weapon to use against the Primus?"

"Mavery has what, twenty years left for someone at his level?" Trent shook his head. "Even with all the best spells and enchantments to try to extend his life, he's got thirty at most. He could powerlevel you to fifty, but then what? It could take you a decade or more, and then you stall out again in the seventies. By the time he could make you useful to what he envisions, he'll be dead."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

That's why Trent hadn't been concerned about the contract. The ArchBishop would never be able to use me as a weapon in his lifetime.

"But that means that you'll be dea—." I realized for Trent there was a way around death from old age. "You're going to claim a Mantle."

"That was my plan, yes." Trent looked at me like I'd just stated a well-established fact. "The Mantles under the Temple cities are never claimed and not monitored by the Gods of the Wards." He eyed me as he waited for me to speak.

"You're planning on taking the Cathedral's Mantle." Ether looked around. "Should we be talking about this in here?"

"This is the second most protected room in the palace." Trent waved his hands around. "No one is going to be spying on us except Klix herself, and Atlas rolled us into bed with her, so why try to keep secrets from someone whose fate you're tied to?"

"Oh." Ether relaxed a little. Her face scrunched up in confusion. "Why are Justia and I here?"

"Because I needed to talk to the three of you about Godsired as well as that stunt you pulled in Mive, and I don't have the stamina to deal with questions from people who can't experience what we're going to be talking about." Trent held up a hand while he turned away from the table and had a small coughing fit. When he could breathe normally again, he turned back to us.

"Going into a God's Mantle like that is something that has changed you." Trent gestured at Justia. "That's not a skill you're supposed to pick up until the fifties or sixties." His tone grew serious. "I don't know what changes we'll see, but considering Atlas doesn't have a God's Mantle, it could range anywhere from nothing to class-changing."

"But isn't her class going to be Priestess?" I looked from Trent to Justia. "Do you feel any different?"

The green woman shrugged. "I feel the same as I did before we headed to Mive."

"What about your mark?" Trent beckoned her to come to him. "Let me see."

The three of us got up and walked over to our teacher. He waved his hand over the back of Justia's hand. The first seal I'd gotten flared to life, but it wasn't yellow like it had been back then. Now it was blue, and instead of having just a staff in the middle, it had all four of our weapons, like the seal on my chest.

"I was afraid of this happening." Trent sighed. "This is what happens when you mess around with stuff before you know what you're doing."

"You mean like trying to brute force an inverse trap?" Ether snapped. She raised an eyebrow when everyone looked at her. "What? We weren't the only ones who made bad decisions out there."

Trent coughed into his hand. "As I was saying. The fact that this seal has changed means that now Justia is bound as all four of your High Priestess."