White Flower, Black Feather

Interlude 16 – A Warning

To the gods it didn’t mattered if Miriam was asleep or not, they could do all their duties without problems, but Mordauntless did felt more relaxed when night arrived

It was less likely that something wrong were to happen, and he worried as much as Aufiea did. Therefore, when the girl was resting the two of them could truly relax

Which is why…

“What?!” the moment he noticed where he was, he couldn’t help it but feel surprised by the place and by the strong spell temporarily trapping his main instance and awareness, in that section of space

“It worked! Hahahahaha” the mortal in front of him on the other hand, was too normal looking for the circumstances

He looked to be in his mid-twenties and had a malicious smirk on his face once he stopped laughing. The mortal dropped a broken wooden statue on the ground while clumsily unsheathing a sword that made the god worry…

“Why do you have a radioactive sword…?” for the mortal…

His question was met with laughter, so he took a moment to look at the surrounding space… while frowning at the circumstances…

The two of them were on a platform the size of a dwarf planet’s diameter, orbiting a binary star system of a galaxy that he didn’t recognized, he also couldn’t determinate in what Layer he was…

What made him worry the most, was the fact that he couldn’t contact anyone, not even his other two instances, even after making sure that his bonds were intact

“What’s this?!” the mortal kept laughing, unaware of what the god was thinking “An evil god

, trembling in front of me?!” and kept laughing after talking in a mocking tone

“What made you think I’m trembling? Do you not know what radioactive means?” even if Mordauntless could tell that the man was faithless, and he never cared about that kind of things… he couldn’t help but feel irritated by the man

The magical platform maintained a stable gravity, atmosphere and temperature on all its surface, but it was made just by thin ceramic tiles that at a glace, were enchanted to maintain those things and be stronger than steel. There were no water sources, plants, creatures or food on either side of the thing, just the two of them…

“Who cares about that nerdy shit?!” but it was obvious that the man was just an idiot… “All I care about are the bitches I’m going to get once you die!” a twisted idiot… “Say! How many have big boobs? Answer me and I might kill you quickly!” he pointed the weapon killing him at the god…

“Ah…?” a god that was having problems understanding… “You were told that by killing me, you’ll get a harem…?” how mortals produced someone so stupid…

“Not any harem! I’ll make all your bitches mine!” he had no partners to begin with, but he didn’t felt like educating the mortal at all… “Even that whore mother of yours! As long they have big boobs I don’t care!”

But his anger was growing, making the fire in his eye-sockets intensify…

“First Mother…?” because only Aufiea carried the title of Mother among the gods of Yvni…

“Yeah? I might need kill her male bastards now that I think about it…” and one of the goddesses he saw as a niece…

The fact that he hadn't destroyed him already, spoke volumes about his thinning patience…

“Just because you have a radioactive sword?” but he wanted to know who had placed them there, giving him a good reason to withstand the stupidity…

“I also know your true name! You can’t do shit against me! Morgenster! Get ready to die!!!” the human pointed the tip of the weapon towards the god, but didn’t tried to move after boasting like that…

The god frowned, also not moving at all besides making that gesture. He was shocked that the idiot knew that name, but even if a small part of him had the idea of the whole thing being nothing more than a prank… he knew De, and his sibling would never reveal, or use, that name against him… which was also the case of all the other gods of Yvni. His name was all but forgotten, and was never mentioned to the gods of other worlds…

Which meant that what was behind all this…

Was stronger than all of them…

“You knowing that name means nothing, it doesn’t stops me from killing you” so, he stopped caring about the life of the human in front of him “But I’ll tell you this” he raised his hand, middle finger pressing against his thumb “I’m Morgenster, lover of the dauntless and the redeemed god of paths…”

The mortal shivered as a pressure coming from the god made him drop the weapon

“And in this place I don’t have to worry about collateral damage”

Snap!

The platform was struck with enough power to destroy a dwarf planet, which would meant a quick death for the mortal. Hence, since both of them were in the middle of the place, he aimed the strike in such a way that only the structure was destroyed

Flinging the man into the vacuum of space, and he tried to hold his breath thinking that it was a way to survive, but that action just made the vacuum violently rip the air out of his lungs destroying his organs and making him spray blood with that air, that quickly froze on the void…

Mordauntless smiled when he saw the soul cross the mist without issues, but a sharp pain in his head made him miss what happened next

“MOR?!!!” and he found himself standing inside his domain, staring at De’s armored form that was holding his shoulders

“Ugh…” he was also fused with his instances, needing a millisecond to process their memories

All three of him were sent to a different platforms where they ran into mortals of similar personalities, weapons, and intentions. His other instances also killed them… with one of the mortals being particularly vocal about the things he wanted to do…

That one, died slowly…

And made him realize that each instance, was gone for different amounts of time, so, when he looked up and met the five static eyes of the Guardian, the god created a spark above his hand and transferred his memories to everyone in his domain

In the second they needed to see what had happened, he created his instances again and focused in his divine domain as he sent the instances to their proper locations, noticing that the two goddesses of Yvni also were in their armored forms

“Disgusting…” the Guardian declared once they were done, still staring at him “You were gone for zero point zero, zero, one second” his domain confirmed that time already, but he was relieved to have the Guardian’s confirmation “I couldn’t feel any spatial displacement at any point”

“What?!” but that information troubled him

“Is there any-?!”

The eyes of the Guardian moved sharply away, focusing three of them in different directions, while the other two moved between those points in space…

“Three galaxies just appeared in this Layer…” the gods froze with fear “No spatial displacement detected… Mother just finished with the three souls you killed. Individually they saw a doll, a tree, and a statue. They got the exact same information about you, weapon, summoning totem, and harem offer, mere minutes before you were summoned at the same time…”

If Mordauntless had been sent to different Layers, that would explain the time difference between his instances, because time advanced at different speeds on each Multiversal Layer. The fact that the platforms were inside galaxies hidden from Guardians, where time was unrelated to their current Layer…

“The Abomination…” painted an obvious, and terrifying, culprit… “Then…” Mordauntless raised his hand, aiming it at Miriam’s resting place

The other gods hesitated, unsure if the death of the girl would stop the Abomination from targeting them

“Don't…” but the Guardian was the one that said something, with exasperation dripping from every word “Let me think, damn it…” the Guardian looked at the string that they had removed from Miriam, it was just like the strings that the gods used to inspire mortals, the only difference was that the string wasn't connected to anything, and wasn't a part of the girl, it was just tied to her soul

Mordauntless nodded before taking his seat, with the others also taking their seats while needing more time before returning to their normal appearances

A whole minute later the Guardian crushed the string on his hand and made a sphere of energy that split into four, giving one to Lulu and the rest to the Triad. The goddesses waited before doing anything with them

“This Abomination must be in search for amusement, that’s what we are going to give it” they pointed to Lulu “Use that to separate your daughter from the rest of the trees, make sure she doesn’t realize that, at least, until Miriam is outside her range” the goddess blushed a dark green, mortified by that word “Also make sure that the trees understand this is for her own good”

She needed a moment to nod, unable to think of an alternative and let the energy enter her instance

“You three…” in the pause that came the Triad nodded “Make Miriam’s Gate of Evolution cover the whole peninsula”

“What?!” Aufiea was the first to exclaim her aversion to that order, but as the others did the same, the Guardian raised a hand

“Miriam has at best, a twenty percent chance of not becoming a Calamity. Once the creatures in the forest start evolving like crazy, I’ll point her to the ones she needs to kill, to ensure she gets close to that percentage”

An absolute silence surrounded all of them…

“Is there a guarantee that you can kill the Abomination?” and Mordauntless was the one that ended the silence

“I have no records of those galaxies existing before today”

De laughed at the absurdity of the situation, before looking at the Triad with a smile

“Do it~” then the lute playing mint plant turned to the Guardian “I have a few ideas to help~”

“Those involve summoning…?” the god nodded while laughing “I’m listening…”

With that, big changes started to take shape around Miriam and Brenna