Chương 10: Soulblessed

Anadis's breath quickened as the implications hit him. His eyes had changed as soon as the bothersome mini-winged girl presented herself to him. What did it all mean? Was he going to turn into something weird? Was she… turning him into something she could control? Her vessel? Have I really become a vessel for her? Can she already control me? Anadis peeked at the floating little girl behind him. She was giving an annoying, superior look.

No, there was no way this thing could ever control him, and he knew she was no goddess; she couldn't be. Despite her otherworldly features and grand claims of divinity, she looked more like an insect to him. The way she had acted back in the Blessed Trial had revealed her true, sordid nature. Gods weren't like that. They were noble, righteous; they would never try to sacrifice a person, let alone a kid, for their own gain… right? Yes, right it was.

The gods were all supposed to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good. Besides, Goddess Helphrena was said to have died long ago. Was that wrong, then? He needed answers from this creature soon, and he also needed to figure out how to get rid of her.

"They look so unreal now," Nora said, her eyes brimming with curiosity as she couldn't stop staring at Anadis's new set of eyes.

"Could it be because of your Blessing?" Mother assumed, tapping a finger against her bottom lip.

"Wait, does that mean that your new Blessing has already merged with your Divine core?"

"Just imagine all the girls you'll get now," Nora said, clapping and bouncing on her bare feet. Then she winked at him with a teasing smile.

"What do you mean? They'll run from me, thinking I'll curse them or something once they see these freakish eyes!" he exclaimed.

"The nerve to call eyes as beautiful as mine freakish," the annoying mosquito chided, floating down to his eye level. Anadis had decided that was exactly what she was, a small, annoying mosquito that desperately needed to be smacked into a wall.

"I would have you burn for such an insult, were it not for the fact that I can't right now," the mosquito added menacingly. Relax… she can't kill me? Well, at least not yet. He needed to have a serious conversation with her, and for that, he needed Mother and his pestering sister out of the room.

"Alright, get out," he said, placing his hands on their backs and hastily pushing them toward the door.

"What? Why?" Mother protested, still resisting his push even though she couldn't quite stop it.

"This merits a celebration! You should go to your father—he's going to teach Albus and Aelia how to call upon their Blessings."

"Wow, you've already gotten much stronger than me," Nora said, as she also struggled against him.

"I've always been stronger than you, Nora. I don't need a Blessing to kick you out of my room," Anadis reminded her.

"Don't kick me out. I'm your older lovely sister who has always been on your side," Nora said sarcastically, and suddenly weaved around his arm and clung to his back instead, hugging him tightly.

"All you do is tease me and play pranks on me," Anadis shot back at her, trying to shake her embrace off.

"Heh, I do that because I love you, little brother," Nora said, waving a hand dismissively. Then she waved the same hand at Mother.

"Mom, you can go. I'll stay with Anadis. We haven't spent time together in a while."

"No!" he seethed. Nora gave him a concerned look and backed away.

"I, uh—I need to use the bathroom," he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"So, you know… don't take it personally. We can hang out later." Nora ruffled his hair slowly and smirked.

"Sure you do."

"What…?"

"It's okay, I get it. You're at that age where you need to handle that special business alone," Nora teased. Then she turned and walked away. Mother followed, both of them giggling as their footsteps faded down the corridor. Anadis stared at the empty doorway.

"What did she mean by 'special business'?" he muttered. The radiant mosquito huffed, her voice high and irritating.

"Your sister is too clever for you."

"I don't care about that!" Anadis snapped, pointing an accusing finger at her.

"You'd better start explaining right now. Just who or what you are, what you tried to do to my brother and me, what the heck you did to me before they entered, and what you mean by 'vessel'!?"

"You'd better adjust your tone, or are you forgetting you're in the presence of a goddess—""Blah, blah, blah," he mocked, waving his dominant hand dismissively.

"You sound like a cracked bell. Same ring, every time." Her eyes twitched, and a tiny vein bulged on her forehead.

"I see you want me to castigate you once again." Anadis lifted the book.

"Ha! You think your pathetic little book frightens me?" He made a mock swing as if about to hit her, and she flinched, lifting a tiny arm to shield herself and squeezing her eyes shut.

"Heh heh," he laughed.

"I guess knowledge truly is the most dangerous weapon." She grunted, her face reddening behind the overwhelming cloud of golden and violet glitter her wings expelled.

"Sit down, you insect," she ordered, pointing sharply at his bed. With clear reluctance, he obliged.

"The irony of calling me an insect," he whispered, low enough that she wouldn't hear.

"I heard that," she groaned, then exhaled slowly, bringing her arms down.

"I'll explain everything, and you'd better listen. Your life and mine are now bound, whether you like it or not." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Bound?" Anadis echoed, the word heavy on his tongue. She nodded.

"Your life and mine are one and the same. You live, I live. And the same goes the other way around." Well, that explains why she said she can't kill me… But what exactly did that entail? Did that mean she couldn't be apart from him? Was she going to stay next to him from now on? The horror of it sent a cold dread flooding through his veins, the cold of knowing something that could never be undone. It truly sounded like a nightmare.

"First, as I said, I'm goddess Helphrena… or," she paused, her brows knitting together in thought, "I am a fragment of her."

"Just what are you saying right now?" Anadis blinked rapidly, then jumped out of bed and rummaged through the fallen pile of books until he found the one he wanted. He flipped it open and pointed at a page.

"You can't be her. Look, page forty-two says Helphrena died right after the Age of Sorrow ended. There's even an illustration." He turned the book toward her.

"Does that look like you?" She glanced at the drawing, a towering, magnificent goddess wreathed in light, then back at her own palm-sized form. Something passed across her face too quickly to read.

"That illustration is flattering," she said at last.

"But largely inaccurate."

"It says she died fighting a Tyrant Grull named Belial fifteen hundred years ago," he added.

"When all thirteen gods descended upon Igindor." She scoffed.

"As if a mere Tyrant Grull could harm me." Her gaze sharpened, turning judgmental.

"I didn't die then. But now I am dead, and it wasn't because of a Grull. It was because of a little brat who couldn't just let me take his brother's body as a vessel. You killed me." She pointed a delicate finger at him.

"You killed one of the Thirteen Gods." The words hit him like a physical blow, then he let out a short, sharp, disbelieving laugh.

"That's insane. I'm just, I'm just a dumb teenager. I can't kill a god." She didn't laugh back; her gaze didn't waver either. And somewhere deep in his chest, some sort of dread took root. I killed a god… But no, that couldn't be possible. Then again… she had appeared to die. He remembered her body turning to ash. Yet there she was, right in front of him, which didn't make any sense at all.

"But if what you're saying is true, then why are you here?" he asked, looking her up and down.

"And why do you look like that? So small and weak."

"Mind your tongue, pitiful human," she warned, running a hand through her white hair.

"The ability I used when I tried to take your twin's body was called Soul Transfer. It allows me to move my soul from one body to the next, and it requires my full concentration, which is why, when you interrupted me, I attacked you. Somehow you survived, and then I couldn't stop you from interfering again." Anadis tried to recall the moment she had struck him with that golden beam of light. All he had done was raise—"The Weak Shield!" he blurted.

"Its skill was to stop a single attack. To think it could even block one from a goddess…"

"Because of a rotting, common-tier pity Boon, I am bound here… with you." She paused, disgust curling across her tiny face.

"Well, at least I can rejoice in the fact you didn't kill me with strength but with convenience, so do not flatter yourself, you vessel."

"I still don't understand how you can't control my body," Anadis said, eyeing her doubtfully.

"I'm guessing this isn't what you intended to do with Albus."

"Of course not!" she bellowed.

"Look at you—this vessel is frail." She pointed at his arms, and he instinctively recoiled them. He was proud of those arms. He had trained them every day since turning seven. He was not frail at all.

"Your lungs are inefficient. Your bones are underdeveloped," she continued, then darted toward him, phasing straight into his chest. He gasped as the air was violently squeezed from his lungs.

"And your core is… intolerable." Huffing, he glared at the talking mosquito the moment she reappeared before him.

"Would… you mind not doing that again?"

"I may do as I please," she said proudly.

"And to answer your question, Soul Transfer does exactly that—it transfers one soul from one body into another. Once that soul is fully transferred, both fight for dominion of the vessel."

"Both?" Anadis repeated.

"So Albus would have fought back?"

"Indeed, but he wouldn't have lasted long enough to put up a fight—""You were going to take over my brother's body, and he would have fought you from the inside and probably lost." His voice had gone flat.

"And you're surprised I hit you with a book." She opened her mouth. Closed it.

"I was dying, and I needed a vessel," she said. For the first time, the words came out without the usual authority behind them. Just a statement. Just a fact she wasn't proud of defending.

"You still haven't answered my question. Why couldn't you usurp my body?" he asked, curious.

"Am I special or something?"

"No, you're not," she answered, her voice flat. He opened his mouth to say something that would probably prompt her to phase into his chest again, then quickly closed it.

"It was because once Soul Transfer is interrupted, the soul being transferred becomes shattered. A soul cannot be split apart. In that brief moment you pulled your twin free and took his place, my soul was already fracturing. I did what I could to keep myself from being lost entirely… and this is the result." She ran a hand down her body, her face utterly unamused.

"A fragment. But a fragment of a goddess is still more than any mortal deserves to encounter."

"Why…" Anadis started, then swallowed hard before continuing.

"Why were you dying? And why did the sky shatter like that? Were you cast out of Axis Mundi?" Axis Mundi was one of the few terms that held the same meaning across all the scriptures. It was supposed to be the center of everything: the cosmic pillar connecting Elandris—sort of like a heaven for righteous souls—Gaelora, the planet of the living, and Helheim, where the damned went. Most importantly, Axis Mundi was the place where all the gods and their realms resided.

Grandma had a whole set of books on every one of these subjects.

"That matter lies far beyond the reach of a lowly creature like you," she said in her usual tone of superiority.

"But… it's not like I could tell you anyway."

"Huh? And why is that?"

"Because in the process of reconstructing my shattered soul, I lost most of myself, including most of my memories. The original me was only able to inject the most important fragments to create a functional version of herself." Anadis stood there with his mouth hanging open, scratching the top of his head.

"You're telling me the very reason that put you in this condition wasn't important enough to keep?!"

"Well, when you only have fractions of a second to weave the intricate shape of a soul into a new life form, and you need to add the ability to think, to breathe, and basic motor functions… yes, I would say that exact thing wasn't as important."

"So what now?" Anadis stood up and began pacing around his room.

"Am I just supposed to believe everything you said? Are you going to stay here because we're 'bound'? I can't have that. You have to go." She chuckled.

"Oh, believe me, I want nothing more than to get as far away from you as possible. But I can't. I'm literally incorporeal now, and as much as it pains me… we need each other to survive."

"I don't need you," he shot back.

"My life was perfectly fine before you showed up. And I have no intention of helping a murderous goddess who tried to kill my brother and me." She hovered down and sat on his nightstand, crossing her tiny legs and resting her head on one hand.

"I believe there is a way to separate our souls again." That caught his attention.

"How?"

"I will explain it later, but know this: it will be difficult, and you'll need to listen to everything I say." He grunted in disagreement.

"I'll need you to become much stronger, stronger than anyone alive right now. You'll need to be a god if we're to succeed."

"What? A god? That's impossible! No sentient can achieve that. The highest a mortal person has ever achieved is the rank of Divine. That's the limit of mortal people. Archangels and Gods are reserved for… well, archangels and gods."

"I'm telling you it's possible. It'll be hard, about the hardest thing you'll ever do. But with me, a goddess, guiding you, it's possible."

"But just how am I supposed to do that? I don't even have a Blessing—" His words cut off as the realization hit him. If their souls were one and the same… did that mean…?

"Well, of course it'd be with the Blessing you stole," she said, floating upward, her wings fluttering and scattering gold and violet dust.

"The Blessing of one of the Thirteen Gods herself. If anyone can become more powerful than anyone else—to become a god—it's you. Especially with me to guide you."

"I-I have y-your Blessing?" His hands shook, and so did his mind.

"Yes." A small curl formed on her lips.

"You are Soulblessed now."