The First Archmage

(Gavin)

"Are you the being that's popped in and out of this world twelve times in the last thousand years?"

I turn and face the two Divine Beings that appeared next to me. It's only been three years for me, but that's mostly because I rarely stay on a world longer than a day or three.

The Divine Being that spoke is the one who looked around twenty or so, with silver hair and golden eyes, dressed in white and silver robes, his skin as pale as this world's moon. Since he's Descended – and seems to always be here whenever I arrive – I'm not surprised by his companion, a Divine Being who looked around ten.

This one's a boy, like most of the Original Divine Beings, with spiky brown hair, his vibrant blue eyes wide with shock and awe. He's heard stories, hasn't he?

"You're Gavin, aren't you?" He asks.

Yeah, he's heard stories.

"Yes, I am," I answer. "I've been hoping to show up here when there weren't two Divine Beings around."

"We're always here," the younger Divine Being looks down at the Original Divine Being. "You know of him?"

"He's Nies's Hero," the Original Divine Being nods sagely. "What do you keep coming here for?"

"I'm looking for fragments of a Divine Soul," I answer. "I'm only missing probably twenty of them, after my searches the last few years and some drawing to it due to the collective amount."

"Oh, yeah," the younger one nods. "There are six of them here. They all coalesced together and are getting all happy and such. Why are you making a face like that?"

"Why is your outfit made entirely out of citrus peels?"

"I like fruit," berries grow on his shoulders. "So what are you looking for them for?"

I pull the Divine Soul out of my ring, and Litrar shifts uncomfortably next to me. The anger radiating out of it is pretty evident, and always makes the mortal next to me uncomfortable.

"Yeah," the Original Divine Being pokes at it. "They're this guy's soul. Why's he so mad?"

"He probably wants to kill me," I shrug.

"Uh," the elder being makes a horrified face at it. "He does know what'll happen if he does that, right? How stupid does someone have to be to anger Nies?"

"Pretty stupid."

"So Nies isn't the one who ripped him up?"

"That was me."

"And you're putting him back together?"

"I lost Access to the System for doing it."

Litrar has Access now, due to our ventures into a few worlds where it's automatic for everyone. He's a Level 19 Soul Mage and Level 2 Human, according to him, though I'm still blocked from Access.

"Yeah, give me a second," the two Divine Beings vanish for a few minutes, and when they return, the six fragments of the Divine Soul immediately rush to the fist-sized orb. "There you go!"

I begin working on the mending, taking five minutes to merge the six pieces back into the main. If I'm not mistaken, that leaves me with thirteen fragments, though with this much of the soul repaired, the others will draw to it across planes, realms, and worlds. I probably only need a few more fragments for the Divine Soul to enter full-restoration mode, which means my efforts won't be needed anymore. That said, most of them are actually in one place, and I think there's only one that's not there.

In fact, as I'm working, another fragment of the Divine Soul appears, giving me a few more seconds of work, and probably removing the need to go anywhere but the place with the rest.

When I complete it, I hold the soul out and watch the two Divine Beings discuss something in their own language. At some point, I became able to understand all languages, probably from having learned over eight hundred of them, though I'm not entirely sure.

A few languages aren't affected by this – the Runic Languages and the Divine Languages are the ones I've confirmed as not translating automatically for me.

The younger Divine Being probably watches over this particular world personally, likely interacting with his people on a regular basis, but still retaining his status as a god among them. The younger one likely comes here because of the huge limitation in that Divine Beings – except certain ones, like Ultarna – may not Descend without an Original Divine Being.

Which explains why he's been here each time I've come before.

"Do you two need me?" I ask, and they look at me. "Or mind if Litrar and I leave?"

"No, go ahead," the elder one says. "Tell Nies that Ulvar says 'hi', will you?"

Couldn't you do that yourself? He's in a much better mood, now that I'm a lot closer to having finished repairing this thing.

"I will," I wave to him, then look at Litrar. "Ready to go face the false Dekami?"

They have the remaining fragments, as far as I can tell. According to Nies, Twist, and Nahor, they managed to intercept thirteen fragments' scattering and pull them into their own realm. The conversation got pretty heated.

Nies apparently wanted to go in there and smite the hell out of the false Dekami, Twist wanted him to calm down, and Nahor kept giving cryptic messages about them meeting their deaths soon enough anyway. Hopefully, whatever kills them all either does it before I arrive, or arrives after I leave.

Litrar takes a few seconds to confirm he's ready, and once he does, I open a Rift directly into their realm, sealing it up behind me.

I'm greeted by the blond-haired, violet-eyed false Dekami gathered in the plaza we arrived in, and they looked stunned, to say the least. Before any of them can react, seven fragments of a soul whiz through the air, arriving and merging into the orb.

I did assist them, but they were eagerly merging in, the soul able to repair itself rapidly now. As soon as they're in, I can sense the other six fragments breaking free and making their way here. No matter what the false Dekami are, they are not gods, and cannot truly contain a Divine Soul. And with the bulk of it here, they can't stop the fragments from rejoining.

The soul swirls and shifts, beginning to glow, taking on a light blue coloration.

Sacred Title Earned!

(X) God Mender: One who has mended a Divine Soul which had taken damage beyond normal repair.

System Access Restored!

Stats/Skills Adjusting to match actual values based upon actions during block.

Please wait 10 seconds.

Some may not register until use.

Fina-fucking-ly.

"Hi," I wave to them. "I just needed those things. If you don't mind, I'll be leaving, once he finishes healing up."

"You really think we'll let an intruder leave?" A false Dekami – their Status registers them as the Kumadi – steps forward threateningly. "Just because you've reached a high Species Tier doesn't mean you can take on a Celestial Species. And we really needed those soul fragments."

"Yeah," I say. "Well, so did I, and are you threatening me?"

He opens his mouth to continue, and a Blood Smite later, well, there's nothing but a shower of blood left in his place. My barrier deflected it, protecting Litrar and me, but the rest of the Kumadi in the area?

They got soaked with their man's blood.

Oops?

Several of them snarl and attack, and I unfold my wings, taking off into the sky after ensuring a barrier's around Litrar. Up in the air, I begin attacking, bringing nothing but death and destruction to these beings.

They are nothing compared to me. None of the Kumadi I face even start to stand up to my power. The ones that manage to resist an attack die with the next. A few manage to escape an attack or two, but never survive past the third.

The Kumadi continue to attack, more drawing in from the nearby areas, and I continue to fight, slaying them all. The Kumadi are evil, and the Divine Beings do want them wiped-out. Some of the things Nies has mentioned to me about them in the past only fuel my rage.

While they don't do it anymore, due to being sealed into this realm (mostly), they were huge on slavery, and would still follow that if they weren't here. That's probably one of the reasons they helped those Elves, all those times ago.

I suppose this is what Nahor meant about the false Dekami meeting their deaths soon enough. His power to know the future probably told him I'd end up killing all of them. And if I'm not mistaken, Nies, Twist, and a few others are currently watching. I know for sure that Nies is, because he's cheering me on in my head – and has assured me that he's placed a Divine Protection around Litrar – as he eats what sounds like popcorn.

When I finally finish killing the Kumadi, I extend my mental and soul-sensing powers, triggering my Skill of Mind-Soul Blanket, as the System calls it. The Soul and Psionic cost is heavily decreased, now that I have the System and it as a Skill, and the ease of using it has increased.

Confirming there's nothing left, I grab the healing Divine Being and bring us into Nies's Realm, along with Litrar. He'll recover faster, there.

We appear right in the middle of a room with more than two hundred Divine Beings eating popcorn and watching me on a three-dimensional screen. I look at the screen, then back to the Divine Beings, then back to the screen, then back to them.

"Uh," Nies blushes, then waves a hand, the screen vanishing. "Nothing to see here, Gavin. Nothing at all."

"Nies?"

"Yes?"

"You're in your older-teen form again."

"It's comfy."

"What happened to your childish form?"

"It's napping."

Napping? Nies, your form can't nap while you're not napping. That's not how it works.

Then again, it's Nies. He's probably just created a Divine Avatar of his child form to nap.

"Bye, everyone!" Nies says, and everyone but Twist vanishes from the room.

That was probably by force, too – I'm sure they're all just as surprised as I am by their sudden absence.

"You didn't have to stay," Nies mutters to Twist, then looks at Litrar. "Hi, Litrar. I'm Nies, Gavin's patron deity."

Nies then shifts into his kid form, climbing onto a tiger that appears out of nowhere, two more taking up their guarding positions beside him.

"Going to go nap?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "Though he's going to finish healing here in a minute. I've unfro-you can return to Eisnar, now."

"You do know that I know you froze the entire realm in time, don't you?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Did not."

"Nies, Nahor told me."

"Bully."

"How am I bullying you?"

"Nahor."

"I'm not bullying Nahor."

"No!" He pouts. "Nahor's bullying me! Telling you my darkest secrets. I bet he told you that I secretly like eating lemons raw, didn't he?"

Uh…

"No," I say as Twist does his best not to laugh. "You're a Divine Being, aren't you supposed to put on some air for the mortal in your presence?"

"I've never done it for you, though."

"I meant Litrar," I gesture to the stupefied Human standing beside me.

"Oh, him," Nies looks at Litrar, then back at me and shrugs. "Too much work. Besides, that's only gods that really care about that, and they're in the minority."

"You're a god, too," I point out.

"Maybe," he shrugs. "But I'm not one that cares about putting on such airs. The whole 'divine air' of theirs is way younger than me. Hell, there are poop piles older than that."

I'm not going to ask. I'm not going to ask. I'm not going to ask.

"Poop piles?" Litrar asks.

"Yeah," Nies mumbles into the tiger's fur. "Poop piles. Giant piles of poo."

"Anyway," I say before this topic can go further. "I'm going to return to Litrar's world, to free those slaves and move them into Haivural, then I'm heading back home. Since you've unfrozen time and I have Access again, time will pass at the same rate between Eisnar and wherever I'm at."

"Alright," Nies yawns. "I'll watch over this guy. He's reforming."

The Divine Being I attacked reforms in front of me and smirks. He's going to rub one in and ignore the fact that Nies is right here, isn't he?

"Everyone dies, buddy," he tells me, glee in his voice and on his face. "And once you're dead, your Order is mine. I'll have so much fun with it-"

Rage boils up within me as Twist slams his head into his palms.