“You know, I just want to say that the idea of doing this without any of my family present is horrifying to me,” Thera told him as they sat within Stonewall’s church for Ben’s god, waiting for their test subjects to show up. “Why again are we doing this?”

  “It’s going to be decent life magic practice for you, and it lets me get some personal testing done before we move on to doing this for my student and possibly her mother too.”

  “And if I mess up, someone could die.”

  “Not to worry, I made sure to pick out your first test subject so that it would be as close to a victimless crime as it could be. If they die then we can get you some help, but honestly, I’m not expecting it. You’ve done enough time at different hospitals to be able to work under pressure; you’ve got this.”

  “Mmh,” was all she managed to say before the doors of the church opened, bringing in their first four test subjects, with two of them looking far more uncomfortable than the others as Sachel’s party arrived, the oracle of Myriad dragging Skoe and Ralia behind her while Aso needed no persuading to come along.

  “Hey Thera,” Aso called out, waving happily while Sachel joined in.

  “So, what are we doing here? Myriad kept it brief when he told me, but he said it could make us stronger?”

  “And it absolutely can,” Ben answered, wanting to focus on the positives and not the exact details of what they were going to be put through. “By now, maybe you’ve heard of it, but there’s a way to turn people into demigods and having gone through it myself, it’s perfectly safe. As your friends, we just want to try it on you. So, who’s up first?”

  It seemed like Aso was about to volunteer, but without a word, Ralia covered her mouth and shook her head, forcing the girl, herself, and Sachel to all take a step back, leaving Skoe alone at the front.

  “Alright, looks like someone stepped forward,” Ben said encouragingly, forcing the man to look around to see which of his companions had been insane enough to volunteer, finding nothing but his own betrayal in the end.

  “Wait, no-”

  “Oh, don’t be like that, Skoe, you’re going to be perfectly safe,” Ben pressed on. “Don’t you want to be stronger for the next wave?”

  “Well-”

  “Don’t you want to be able to protect your team and the people you care about?”

  “I mean-”

  “With the world on the edge, don’t you want to be able to make a difference?”

  “Can you at least tell me what agreeing to this involves!” he finally managed to yell out, seeing Ben sadly shake his head.

  “Sorry, divine secret,” Ben lied, pointing to the sky to blame the gods above. “You think this sort of thing can be so casually revealed? Listen, there’s only one thing you need to know and one reason to trust me on this. Seems like Sachel did a good job and kept it secret, but the guy who modified yours and everyone else's souls was me.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, you’ve already trusted me with the most important aspect of yourself, so now trust me with this. You can still get stronger before the world ends, Skoe. You can still make more of a difference and you can still improve your odds of living to see this end. Are you really going to let this chance slip through your fingers?”

  “Can you not give me slightly more time here?”

  “Nope. So, what do you say? I’ll tell you now, if you back out here, I’m not giving you a second chance.”

  “... Ugh, okay, fine then. Let’s get this over with.”

  “Wonderful! You won’t regret this! Now, Thera, if you don’t mind?”

  With a slight nod, she cast a spell and knocked the man out, letting Ben catch him before he hit the ground while the rest watched before he materialized a thin wall to block their view, allowing them some privacy.

  Ben materialized enough meat for Thera to use to make Skoe’s clone, getting both it and the original set up on two tables in preparation to start, leaving only one question as she did.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “So, what god are you using for this?”

  She knew he’d slipped off to get another crystal in the morning but hadn’t found out which one until then, Ben giving a small shrug as he answered.

  “Quox again. As boring as it is, growth and gain really do seem to be the best choice.”

  The same one he himself had been modified with, he couldn’t deny that it felt like the best option and considering that it was already the one Delair had wanted, there was no reason to experiment. Considering that Haro ruled over insects, decay, and opulence, Nance ruled over passion and ice, and after talking to Myriad, Ben had learned the last one still within the succubi’s fields ruled over light, life, and bows, he couldn’t deny which of those was the best choice.

  Admittedly, the one being used for the majority of the demigod surgeries in the world might have been better, with it holding the domains of magic, the self, and sight, but getting that crystal would have meant going to Vividus and considering the fact that he was helping to raise her son, he wanted to avoid having to deal with her until that option became inescapable. She hadn’t come to bother them about Mora yet, there was no need to bring them back to the front of her thoughts for as long as he could avoid it.

  No, he knew from his own experience that Quox would work well, leaving only to run his tests as he bound the crystal and the soul it held to the man’s flesh and tried to change the results they would get from it as they did. With the soul bound and embodied, the mind attached so thoroughly broken that there was no need to destroy any of its limbs to keep it contained, Ben then moved to try to alter the results he might get using one of his skills, applying his evil authority as they went.

  From all of the demigods that Vividus had already helped create, it had been found that there was only roughly a one percent chance of them ending with an integrated body skill instead of a partial body but, using the powers he held, Ben wanted to see if he could tilt the odds at all. He already knew that his authorities could help skills grow as well as help people gain the skills that fell under it and he was trying to apply them in every way he could, the fact that a conscious being was being used and broken in the name of empowering another despite how it would have felt and applying the power to Skoe as well for when the skill would manifest in the man’s soul, hoping he would get the most of it, needing only to see the results.

  Thera cut both open, taking only a kidney instead of a heart since he’d confirmed with the gods that would work fine and transferred it over, letting Ben slip away the man’s old one as well as the now unneeded clone at the same time the new organ was attached, allowing Ben to see the results that came with it.

  Success.

  Not just integrated divine body, the man had gained a bit of extra luck by getting a vitality enhancement as well, leaving only a single question: was that a fluke of luck or was that result going to be repeatable?

  Luckily for me, there’s plenty of other people to test on.

  The rest of Sachel’s party to go through, and Ceselee would want more power too if he asked her. Any demidemon was sure to be a yes as well, and when he considered the fact that he was optimistic about awakening Valaria to the third tier eventually too, giving her the same benefit would only help.

  Which means that all I have to do is pray this wasn’t just a coincidence.

  It wasn’t.

  His third level of evil authority was showing its value once more as, test after test, each person they modified gained integrated divine body instead of the partial version, leaving a different worry in his head.

  If the gods hear about this then they’re almost certainly going to try and get me to sit with Vividus each day while she does her modifying.

  A result he would flat out refuse if it came yet did leave him considering other ways to avoid it. He’d already made bracelets with the effects of his authorities on them after all, and he was updating the factory of them with each of his levels. Would anyone undergoing the surgery while wearing one not do the same, or at least yield similar results? That was something to mention to Myriad at least, but with all of those experiments done, it was time to finish up, even if there was one more thing that needed to be addressed.

  “So, where are you going to put all of those dying clones?” Thera wanted to know, having watched as Ben slipped them all away in his rings each time to keep them out of the way, getting a shrug in return.

  “Pretty sure I’ll just mulch them later. For now, we have something bigger to talk about.”

  “Considering you described everything today as a small favour, I’m not sure I want to hear about anything bigger.”

  “Not really bigger, work-wise, so much as a bigger thing for you to personally consider.”

  “Mmh, okay, let’s hear it.”

  “Do you want to go through this yourself? Pick a god and become a demigod?”

  “... You know, I kind of knew this was going to come up sooner than later, but I still felt unprepared,” she muttered. “And I don’t know. I mean, I guess it’s safer than what I had you do in my head-”

  “Significantly so. Like, I cannot stress how much safer I consider this.”

  “But still, this feels like an extreme choice.”

  “Which isn’t as remotely as extreme as getting me to modify your thought structure," Ben pointed out. “But I’m also not going to force the issue. If you want to then we should discuss which god you’d want and get Lux and Grace around to help, but if you don’t, then we’ll leave it, easy as that.”

  “... The end of the world has me making all sorts of crazy choices,” Thera sighed. “So fine, let’s do it and let’s set things up in a way where we can get this done as fast as possible, before I can change my mind.”

  “That’s the spirit!”