Six Souls [Isekai/LitRPG] [B1&2 complete, B3 in progress]

It was remarkably similar to the Spatial Tear spell I'd gained in the Space affinity tree. This time, I used my aura to force open the gaps between the realms rather than letting the system shape my mana, but the effect was much the same. A purple-pink oval appeared, and I stepped through.

I kept my auro pulled close against my skin as I slipped into a teeming jungle. Verdant greenery echoed with the howls and screams of animals. Birds swarmed through the sky towards a point ahead of me that was hidden by the trees. Morana had told me what to expect, not that I particularly trusted her.

A leech tried to drop off a fern as I ghosted past it, but I used my aura to deflect it away without killing it. Nothing died here; this was Life's realm, and Death wasn't welcome.

Stepping carefully from rock to rock, patch of grass to open dirt, my focus was on minimising my impact on everything around me. In theory, Mater should be too distracted to notice me. The nature of my power meant that I was far stealthier than the other gods, but in their own realms, they had every advantage, and I couldn't take the infiltration phase lightly.

My human form slipped down a slope along the edge of a narrow valley as I moved toward the sound of the ruckus going on ahead of me. Life and Time were having an argument, and it wasn't being handled in a point-scoring debate format. By being incorporated, I was currently less noticeable than if I were disembodied. Mater's world was full of living things, so I was hiding in plain sight.

A real god wouldn't have been able to do this. They couldn't manifest a truly living body. The bronze statue Aresk favoured and the tentacle-legged avatar of Poseidon were just that: avatars. Power made manifest, not a living body. They behaved in much the same way, for sure. Wounding one as if it were flesh and blood would damage the god, but it was a metaphysical wound, not a biological one. They didn't have a real body anymore.

The implications of this revelation from Morana, and how it related to my own impending future, had not been comforting. Whether I won or lost, my body would cease to be. Hadesti gets every mortal in the end, even if we ascend to godhood, so he only gets our husk.

I shifted course, keeping my aura suppressed, just being a man. Skirting round a thorny bush that was the size of a house, I approached the top of the slope and paused, partially hidden behind a tree trunk. The bark was smooth and slippery under my hand, but where my fingers rested on it, the thing began to grow, bulging out like a bole. I snatched my fingers back and watched as the green colour faded from them, then reached and laid my palm flat against the tree.

The colour began to flow up my arm, gradually painting my whole body. As it spread, I surveyed the battle taking place in the next valley.

This one was low and broad; any flora that had been there before had withered away and been stomped underfoot. New life was pushing in from the edges, the plants trying to retake their lost territory, but as fast as they grew, they shrivelled and aged, never making any headway.

Beyond the greenery that was battling to re-invade the space was a morass of animals. Apes, ferrets, even bloody dinosaurs were charging back and forth around a central space that was strangely quiet. Faced off against all the forces of life was an array of floating timepieces.

Clockwork, water or sand. Every type of timepiece I had ever conceived of, alongside dozens that looked completely alien to me, flowed back and forth with the mob of monsters. A giant amoeba that reminded me of Mortimer's amalgams was shooting out pseudopods the width of my thigh at a waterclock that shifted and danced around the attacks. Whenever a limb smacked down against the device, the water sloshed slightly, and the tentacle dehydrated and collapsed.

A Tyrannosaurus Rex bit down on a single free-floating pendulum that hung in the air and yanked its head back to consume the simplest timepiece present. Even as it roared in victory, it began to wither and rot, quickly trampled into paste as a gorilla charged over its failing body to attack a sundial.

I slipped into the mass of living things, painted green by the tree and infested with Mater's power. It would fade quickly. I could feel my aura consuming her power with every second that ticked by. Stealing from her hadn't been part of the deal, but for now, I could brush against the frenzied animals without fear of being recognised as an outsider.

Bumping and pushing my way through the mass, I avoided the larger beasts who could squash my mortal form to paste through simple carelessness. I kept myself among the apes and big cats, animals that would pose a genuine threat to a normal human, but that couldn't squash me by stepping in the wrong place.

It took me a few minutes of frantic dodging to reach the edge of the quiet space at the centre of the battle, and I stopped in the shelter of a dead tree whose rotting trunk still stood thick and tall. A metronome and a green-skinned woman stood in the eye of the storm, glaring at each other.

The smooth wood of the metronome was polished. It was perhaps a foot tall, and the arm moved from side to side at a perfect pace. The woman was tall and broad. I could only see her back, but I could make some assumptions about her appearance from that. Her hips were wide, and while she didn't appear to be fat, she would hardly be considered statuesque.

Perhaps I was wrong. She would be a perfect fit for those most primitive of fertility goddesses. Pendulous breasts, a wide, child-bearing frame. Her hair was a darker green than her skin and looked more like tightly woven vines than anything a human could produce.

"The offence was not intended," intoned the metronome form of Chronos. The voice was mechanical, and his words matched the rhythm of the clicks it produced as the arm swept back and forth.

"And yet Hadesti sends you to make his apologies, and you come with your devices and minions. Invading my lands and bringing Death's power with you!" Mater's voice was rich and ancient. She sounded like a great-grandmother rather than a young woman. For some reason, I'd expected her to sound young, and I guess, fertile. More Maiden than Crone.

"His champion acted without his permission. Hadesti has lost out as well. He is as weakened by this merger as you were," Chronos said in perfect rhythm.

"It was the fish-bitch who set it up. I don't even have a champion in this game, and yet my power is being sapped and abused, used to fuel a mortal's climb to godhead," Mater said bitterly.

"Poseidon has been acting outside the rules and has been chastised. There is no chance of undoing this now, so we must accept it and find a way to move on. Hadesti is willing to offer a compromise."

A centipede over four metres long clicked past me in a blur and threw itself at a floating hourglass, folding around the device. Dozens of legs punched into the glass, and the sand began to spill at the same time as the creature began to ooze grey fluids. Within moments, the empty carapace and the broken timepiece fell to the ground, making both gods wince.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Union. Marriage. We are the most ancient of enemies, and now, because that fish-breathed imbecile is frightened of a mortal, you expect us to come together?" Mater snapped.

"You are already like an old married couple! Your realm and his have always butted up against each other. You fighting to live, he fighting to claim what was always his," Chronos said with a mechanical chuckle.

"The Taker can get fucked. Persephone is long gone, lost in the choir in my head. Once bitten, twice shy. I've given you my answer; you're just wasting both our energies in this pointless conflict. Posedion isn't the only one who should be afraid."

"Why should Hadesti fear the Killer? They are like a hand in a glove. What Raymond does only gives Death what he craves," Chronos countered.

I pressed myself against the trunk and thought furiously. Death would be my natural ally in terms of the alignment of our influences. Killing would only feed death, after all. The animosity against Poseidon in Mater's voice felt like a missed opportunity, and the god of the sea was frightened of me? That was good to know.

"You know why he should fear the Killer. If that bloody mortal realises the full scope of his realm, none of us is safe," Mater muttered. The scope of my realm? What the hell was the green woman talking about?

"He won't. Plans are in place to channel him in the right direction. A Divine Alliance, of sorts. But alliances can shift, sides can be swapped. We won't need you, of course, but if you came over to our side, it would make the endgame less… messy."

"Piss off, Entropy. I am Verdant! I will not ally with Death against Ocean, despite what she of the murky depths has done in her madness. There is nothing more to say."

Time was running out, despite the god of it being present. The mob of beasts flowed around me, and I slipped into the torrent until I was completely behind Mater, using her to shield me from the metronome. I moved forward quietly, yet quickly; my own aura was held against the surface of my skin and pumped to its maximum strength.

As I came within arm's reach of her back, I took a small part of my aura and prepared for the final move. I couldn't kill Life, not that I would want to; I was only here to wound her and frame the god of the sun. One more step closer, and I could smell the goddess. It was subtle, and I realised it had been around me all along. The scent of freshly turned earth after a rain. It was overpowering now that I was this close to her.

The lingering elements of her power I had stolen from the tree surged within me, fighting back against being subsumed. I focused my aura, keeping almost all of it close against my skin, but using a tiny portion to open a rip in reality to the sun-god's realm. Blazing heat and blinding light erupted behind me. My skin burned instantly, charring even as the dagger that had appeared in my hand became a golden blur, burying itself to the hilt in Mater's shoulder.

My eyes melted, but before they flashed into steam, I saw the back of Mater blacken and char as well. I threw my body backwards, into the inferno. As soon as I crossed the threshold, I dissolved the tattered remains of my mortal form and let the portal snap shut. Everything around me was fire. Fire is too weak a word. Heat and light had become the universe. I turned my other-sense about, and all I could see was roaring gold in every direction.

I felt my aura starting to fail. I was in the heart of another true god's realm. Life's realm was hospitable to living things, naturally. The Sun-King kept his home in line with the source of his power. Frantically, I tore open a portal to my own realm and shot through, snapping it closed behind me.

Blessed coolness took the place of burning agony as I dissolved into the misty shadows of my own home. It took what felt like an age before I could do anything other than bask in the sensation of not being burned alive. One thought ran circles in my incoherent mind: I really hoped I hadn't just pissed off Apollo.

You're back. And you came from another's realm. What have you done? Tezca's voice came from all around me.

Brought another god to the war.

Too weak to be playing such games so soon.

It needed to be done. Now there will be a true winter. Ocean will be weakened, for when the time is right.

Don't use her true name! If she is paying attention, she will find you.

Noted. I need to rest.

Use the merged sources. Your mortal form is permanently ruined; without it, you cannot complete the game.

They will kill me.

Not yet.

Path of Divinity. Patron: Aresk Foeslayer

Divine Ichor: level 5

Divine Physique: Level 4

Divine Intellect: Level 6

Assimilation of the Source of The Cycle: 27% complete

I'd gained more power on my divine path from my recent escapades. Some of it was probably Morana's teachings, letting me unlock access to other gods' realms. I suspected the ichor had increased as a result of my exposure to Life and Sun's power. I had eaten, for want of a better word, a decent amount of that green energy, and the lingering crispiness of Apollo's world was gradually being consumed as well.

I began to condense my mortal form, but a spike of soul-tearing agony stopped me. Something was deeply wrong. I fought through it, struggling with a process that had been so simple.

After the pain came a dull, lingering ache. I reached up to wipe away whatever was keeping my eyes closed, and heard my skin cracking, lines of new pain forming at my joints. Switching to my other senses caused what was left of me to emit a high-pitched wail of loss.

My hair was gone, and where there should have been eyes were just charred sockets. My ears had been reduced to nubs, flakes of charred skin falling away as I raised a burnt hand to touch them. The skin across the front of my body was a red mess of blisters and seeping cracks; my back looked like charcoal.

A ruined face, my nose reduced to a nub of cartilage and my lips pulled back into a permanent leer, sat atop a destroyed body.

Why isn't it back to normal?

Tezca gave a purring chuckle. You used your true body in another's realm. Look at your shoulders.

I directed my other-sense to my right shoulder, and sprouting from my ruined flesh were tiny green shoots. A single leaf unfurled, burst into flame, and withered against my shoulder blade.

Mater's power isn't dead. It wasn't a question.

You are the Killer. She is life. You both feed Death, and Death feeds Life.

How can the orb fix it? I demanded.

Life can rebuild you, but Death is needed to keep it in check. You are the End, he is the After. You must become the fulcrum between them.

But it will accelerate the assimilation.

What choice do you have? You are not yet ready for the next stage, but you can be, soon enough. You must heal yourself.

The next stage is beating the other challengers? I can do that.

You have a legend to build first. And legends require witnesses, in your case: survivors. An eyeless, floating, burnt ruin of a man is not going to inspire much worship.

I reached out to the hollow space next to my heart where the stolen power of two warring gods lay. Green and black, locked in an eternal duel. My aura slipped between them, driving a wedge in their war and making space for… me. I was the edge between them, the event horizon that separated knowing and being from whatever lay beyond.

I pulled from them both. My fingertips regrew first. The carbonised skin fell away and vanished as new flesh appeared underneath. The return to health spread like a creeping wave up my arms and across the rest of my body.

Blinking newly regrown eyelids, I smiled as my sight returned, and then hearing came back. A low rumbling purr surrounded me as Tezca made his approval known. As the healing reached my toes, I reached for Death's power and cancelled out the vibrant energy that suffused me.

I didn't let the Source return to its previous state. I'd changed it permanently by interfering. I had to keep a sliver of my power stitched into the swirling battle of opposites. Something else was left behind, though. I was hot, that uncomfortable feeling of heatstroke. Thirst dragged at me, distracting me.

Apollo's power wasn't gone yet. Bending my aura internally, I corralled the alien power and used it to form a bubble around the twin sources next to my heart. My blood pumped fiercely, seeming to draw off some of the heat and send it running through my arteries.

Imperfect at best, it felt like I had heartburn, a throbbing pain that came and went. But I was whole again, my mortal form repaired enough to deal with what was coming.

Assimilation of the Source of The Cycle: 44% complete

Shit.