Chương 1019

CH1019 Setting Mora down and ruffling the boy's hair one more time, Ben stood up, showing off his new leg as he stretched it out.

"Yep, works like a charm. Thanks for patching me up, guys."

"Just don't let it happen again," Thera told him, taking his arm to walk him closer to the door, whispering quietly enough to keep out of Mora's earshot.

"And you're sure you're okay?"

"Thanks to you," he whispered back.

"Mora's still taking things rough though, and I couldn't get him to open up while we were making breakfast together. Maybe you want to give it a try while I'm gone?"

"I will," she nodded before leaning up to kiss him.

"Just don't be gone too long today, okay?"

"I'll keep it to two hours, tops. It should be less though." Really, he planned on keeping it below an hour, but he left room for things to go wrong, even if his statement was still rewarded with a smile as he and Sonya left, the older succubus finally getting the chance to question him on just what had happened the day before beyond what she'd seen herself.

"I came the closest I've ever come to dying," he admitted, trusting a healer like her to be able to react to that without too much horror.

"You've had your heart destroyed before, how much closer could you get?"

"My head. A demon basically severed space through it and left it a severed pile of mush. Thera arrived just in time to save me." Sonya blinked, struggling to find the appropriate reaction before settling on a sigh.

"Well, I can see why she'd be bothered then. From how they're acting, the kids saw it too, I take it?"

"Yeah, I'm hoping Thera will have better luck trying to talk with Mora than I did this morning, but as for Delair, well, seeing that happen to me probably wasn't great but she also had her home destroyed and apparently a demon even pounced her. She's been through too much for a kid her age."

"You know, that goes for you too," she told him, reaching up to rub his head like he would for the kids.

"Losing a leg, losing a head, and still having to worry about the next day. Are you okay?"

"I'm always okay," he grinned, wanting to reassure her.

"If it's something I can walk away from, then it's not the end of the world."

"Mmh," she hummed, not believing him in the slightest but still let it go.

"Well, I know you have Thera and your god and other friends too, but if you're ever not okay, I'm someone you can talk to about it if you need to. You're family, Ben, and I want to be here for you." Family.

"That means a lot, Sonya. If I need to talk, I'll let you know." With the shop coming into view, they went inside, Sonya taking one of his gates to make it to her workplace for the day and deliver the bad news that she intended to leave early, leaving Ben to himself, sinking to the floor as he did.

His hand went to his neck, able to remember with perfect clarity the feeling of it being cut but he pushed it to the side to get his thoughts in order, something he'd dedicated large swaths of his mind to since the night before with little in the way of luck. Despite all the power he'd accumulated, he'd still almost died, and to something that may have only been a contender too. His goal was to kill the strongest god in the universe, yet there he was, helpless before a bit of space magic of all things.

He needed more power; he still needed to awaken connect too, and with everything that had happened, he was giving in. There were a couple ideas he had that he just hadn't tried, viewing them as either too dangerous or distasteful, but it was finally time to give in and do them to see if any option would finally click. Or at least, it would be in a few days.

There was no way he could immediately put himself back in harm's way right after what happened, not when he knew the effect it would have on Thera, Mora, and Delair if anything went wrong. They needed to at least have a little time to process what had happened first, and it gave himself just a bit of time to mentally prepare too, with a different project able to take up the immediate future. After all, he'd just died to space magic; he had no intention of letting that happen again.

How nice it would be if my resistances would just protect me, he mused, knowing that, in the case of what had killed him at least, it wouldn't be so. When a magical effect acted on him, so long as it wasn't on the level of a contender or higher, he had reached a point where he could probably walk away from it, but the spell that had killed him was different. While it had undeniably diced his head, it hadn't actually been acting on his head; it had been acting on space itself.

It was as if someone had thrown a rock at him with earth magic; all of the force was in the rock itself, the mana delivering that force wasn't what was going to be acting on his body. Which means that I just need to make something that can suppress the effects of space magic on the universe directly around me so that spells like that won't activate in the first place. Simple.

With the need clear, the design instantly came to his head, leaving him to place an enchantment on a new pendant before examining the end product. More and more, his enchantments looked like they could come from whatever mysterious group had left both the summoning and terraforming spells in the universe, with mana modifiers filling them to improve the designs of everything he made. There may have been no room for faith to add power to it like in those two great spells, but the result was perfect in what he needed.

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Clipping it onto his failsafe, his necklace that both slowed down time on his body in the event he found himself gravely injured as well as would hopefully create a link to the church's sub-basement if he ever found himself trapped in a lower realm, now it included a charm that would disrupt any space magic taking place around him, the pendant made to cause subtle ripples in the universe itself in a way that would be a challenge for any space mage to compensate for without first understanding just how it was being done.

It wasn't perfect; a hole could be opened beneath his feet to drop him somewhere else if it came down to it, but it wouldn't interfere with his ability to use any of his gates and, more importantly, it would keep anyone from tearing space apart through him again. That was enough. Given the chance, I can think my way through most problems now. I just need to be able to understand what's going on in time, he sighed.

All of this brain power, but it sure would be nice if it translated to a bit more real-world power too. While his authorities and his sacrilege all had external applications, he was comfortable saying that all of them were largely skills with internal functions, or at the very least, intangible ones.

He could think better, empower himself and the world, and even defend himself from the divine, but after the day he'd just had, an ability that would let him throw a bigger rock than anyone else felt like it would have been a comfort.

Maybe, if I finally do manage to awaken connect without killing myself, I should put some effort into seeing if I can get my material manipulation to the third tier as well in the time I have left, he thought with a sigh, able to tell by himself that his goals were constantly getting more and more unrealistic. It's getting the bonuses from world killer and I can make it benefit from both of my authorities. Really, it's probably a lot more possible to try and awaken than connect is.

Connect was going to continue being the main priority of course, but having a magic he could properly attack with would lend itself no end of comfort and considering that awakening connect would grant him a bit more leeway as far as his lifespan went, it was worth properly considering, leaving his mind to turn over ideas on just how he might make it happen for that particular skill, right until he heard the shop door open, his student making her way in.

Before she could say a word, he was already in her head, examining her mental state for any issues, and it left him biting the inside of his cheek in frustration. She was better than he'd hoped, but at the same time, he'd been wrong. Delair was probably the most adaptable of the dryads he knew. Even as a young child, she'd decided on a path for herself that went beyond what everyone she had known had followed.

Rather than devoting herself to her grove and the safety of her people like the rest of her kin, when given the chance, she'd decided to become a craftsman, to make things and enjoy life her own way. Having to move because of a disaster was uncomfortable, and seeing her family put so close to harm was a trauma, but both were manageable for her. Even the reassurances of her goddess seemed like they'd been unneeded when Jagal had spoken to her in her dreams.

No, what really lingered was seeing someone she cared about die, with what happened to him before her eyes becoming a far deeper mental wound. Which I have to address.

"Delair," he said gently, walking over to her side and creating two chairs for them to sit down on to talk.

"Looks like you've grown."

"Ah, yeah," she agreed, still lacking in energy as she looked at his neck. Jagal had paid out the reward and with the blessing came levels to her core skills, bringing her to the initial goal he'd had when he started training her, with both her crafting and enchanting reaching their sixth levels.

For someone so young, it was a level of mastery that would go rarely seen and deserved to be praised, especially given the short time she'd achieved it in, but he could see she wasn't in the mood for that and instead chose to save it for later, instead reaching out to take her hands and brought them to his neck.

"Delair, I am okay," he told her, wanting to sound kind and confident yet firm.

"I was hurt, but I got better. That isn't something for you to dwell on."

"... You got lucky," she told him, the bit of argument and rebellion making him smile.

"You're only okay because Thera showed up."

"Yes, and what's wrong with that? Life's a series of lucky and unlucky moments; what matters is the outcome. I'm still here and you're still here and so is everyone else."

"But next time-""Next time, everyone you care about is going to be here in the safest town in the world."

"You might not be. You're always going off to do something."

"True, but you also know that even if worse comes to worst, that's not going to be the end for me. Delair, even if I'm living on this world, the second that stops, I'm going to be a god. You won't have to miss me because I'll still be here."

"No, you'll be somewhere else, doing god stuff. You won't be here to teach me and help me and make me snacks, or play with me and Mora. I don't want that." Hearing her speak, Thera's words from the night before filled his mind, along with Sonya's that same morning. My family here just keeps growing. I guess I can't let them down.

"Alright then, in that case, I'll just have to make sure I live a good, long life. I'll live so long that I'll be old and wrinkled and I'll be able to see you having some cute little apprentices of your own training under you. If I make sure to die of old age, then you'll be able to see me off with a smile, right?"

"You get hurt all the time, you're not going to make it to old age."

"Ha, painfully direct there, but you know what? I'm still going to try that and more. After yesterday, Thera's asking me to live forever so I need to make sure I enjoy my natural lifespan at the bare minimum, don't you think?"

"And when you get hurt again?"

"I'm going to get even stronger so I won't. I'm already plotting my dastardly revenge against the demon who did that to me so don't worry, I won't let myself be hurt the same way twice."

"Really?"

"Really really. Come on, you wouldn't doubt the words of a god, would you?" That finally got a small laugh from her.

"If Thera doesn't want you to die then you're never going to be a god, are you?"

"Eh, semantics. I'm pretty confident I could already take a few of them up there in a fight; if I'm more powerful than them then I can call myself whatever I want to down here, and for that matter, what I want to call myself is a guy taking the day off. Come on, we can get back to it tomorrow, so for today, let's go play some games. I've got another kiddo at home that I think will enjoy your company too."

"Is Mora doing okay?" Delair asked, her thoughts turning to him now that he'd been brought up.

"He didn't seem too good yesterday either."

"He's going to be fine," he told her, scooping her up to sit on his shoulders.

"Even if it takes a bit, I have absolute faith that he'll seem better by the time you see him." After all, while he was trying to take on a fatherly role with the boy, whether she wanted to admit it or not, Thera was doing an excellent job of taking on a motherly one and as the first person to take Mora in and show him love, he had complete faith that he'd be more willing to open up to her about his own trauma from that day.