“Good news, I got some more levels,” Ben told his god that night.

  “Which ones?”

  “Which do you think?”

  “Ugh, Ben, please stop being so good at this before someone gets it into their head that you’re too dangerous to be allowed to exist.”

  “I think some gods up here already believe that.”

  “Sure, but I more meant when they start thinking it to the point that anyone is going to be tempted to act on it.”

  “And if they do, then what? They kill me, shoot me straight to godhood, and then I use the soul crystals I’ve already been making to pray to myself to use all of the faith I’ll have waiting and the power I should be ascending with to immediately kill them. I’m now at the fifth level of evil god of sacrilege, I think it’s in everyone’s best interest that I don’t get up there anytime soon.”

  “No, technically it’s in everyone’s best interest to kill you immediately so that you can’t accumulate anymore skill and power before you die in the future. At this rate, it will be what? Another month before you level it again?”

  “Eh, hard to say. My authorities went up too and they drop sacrilege’s level threshold so I’d give an estimate of between three and four weeks, though if I get more levels to my authorities in the meantime then that might drop even lower, those skills do seem to like to level together.”

  “And I hate hearing that. You promise that whenever you die you’re just going to keep to the gods you like and whatever church you end up building, right? You’re not going to go and conquer the universe, are you?”

  “I mean, I think I’d be better than the guy currently doing it.”

  “Beeeeen.”

  “Don’t worry,” he laughed. “I don’t want to rule over the gods, even if there’s a couple I might make sure to keep in their place if I can, so you don’t need to worry about me playing conqueror. I’ll hang with you and whatever other gods I can get along with and hopefully spend some nice, quality time also bumming around the mortal plane at the same time if my skills let me manage it. Thera’s going to be down there for a long while and Mora’s going to be there forever, I’ll have plenty enough to keep me busy.”

  “Alright, good.”

  “And besides, why would I conquer the gods with threats and violence when I’m going to have a far easier job taking over the planet with the financial power I’ll leave behind and the political power that having control of so many of my inventions will give me? I can only do so much to earn you any believers with the lifetime I’ve got, but when I’m my own god, I think I can devote a few thousand years to converting believers away from any god I dislike to build my faith base. We already talked about the fact that I’ll be able to offer demigod surgeries to anyone who wants to convert to me and seeing as how I’m the only person able to create souls, I’m the only one able to grant powerful soul modification in godhood too. Let’s be real; any mortal who wants power is going to flock to me. It’s going to be great.”

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  “Not the word I would use,” his god groaned. “Let’s put a hold on the frighteningly realistic discussion of the sort of power and religious base you’re going to be able to claim for yourself as a god. Is there anything from today I need to know about?”

  “Not really. Changed out my god crystal for another, discovered that the new forbidden god I took was an evil god of his world who tricked the others he ruled with into killing each other, spent a bit of time pretending to be those gods back from the dead to mix some psychological torture into my physical torture. You know, pretty normal stuff.”

  “... Alright, I suppose it’s not the most shocking to find out that one of the forbidden gods was evil even before they abandoned their world but let’s not go over-sharing the rest you just said with anyone else, shall we?”

  “Hey, who else am I going to tell? And you? Any horrific nightmares going on in the world or with your faith I need to know about?”

  “None more than usual, although a request from the siren gods came for you.”

  “Yeah? What sort?”

  “They were hoping you’d meet with Mirrian again if you could make the time, Kalley too, I suppose. It sounds like she’s struggling with adjusting, and while her gods are trying to help, the difference between them means she can’t be fully comfortable no matter how much they’re trying to make her so. Even if she knows allspeak like everyone else, the chance to exchange some words in her native tongue seems like it might be good for her.”

  “Alright, I should be able to spare some time in a couple days,” Ben nodded, sympathizing with both the woman and her daughter. The two had been thrown into a new world completely unprepared, at the whims of a god they both should have been able to rely entirely on as both a partner and a father. Add in that their release came in the middle of an interstellar war and it was plain to see that the emotional struggle must have been intense. As the one who freed them, he could at least try to help a bit.

  “Thank you, I’ll let them know, but I’m sure Mirrian will appreciate it. I’ve been keeping up with them a bit, but, well, this world is different from the one they left, and Kalley’s been basically isolated since her birth. It’s an adjustment for both of them.”

  “Yeah, I get it,” he sighed. “A brand new world and what’s basically the apocalypse with it, I’ve got some experience figuring out how to adjust to it. If I ever figure out how to interact with that weird intangible mythic item and find out that it’s also holding people, I’m going to react poorly.”

  “Mmh, just remember that that one’s maker is currently dead as well,” Myriad pointed out, with the disastrous opening of the puzzle leaving that other item looked at with significantly more suspicious eyes, even if few in the heavens above were going to come out and say it. After what had just happened with the sirens, any mysterious item was bound to be viewed far less charitably than they had been before, whether that suspicion was justified or not. “And anything else then? Some horrific plan you want to give me a heads up about?”

  “No no, nothing like that, although I guess you should consider keeping an eye out tomorrow.”

  “Hate hearing that; don’t be coy.”

  “No, this really isn’t a big deal,” he sighed. “This morning, when we talked about plans to try and awaken connect? I’m just going to try one of the options I don’t actually think is going to work and I’m going to spend the day praying I’m wrong.”