Chương 67: Facing the Dead

I woke up face-down in the Liminal Lands. I could sense it even before I opened my eyes. I'd felt a connection to the land the last time I'd been here, but now it was even stronger.

"Damn it, Mort," I muttered.

"Oh good, you're awake." Mort's voice came from somewhere to my left, far too cheerful for someone who'd kidnapped an unconscious god.

"We need to talk about getting our baby a bigger space."

"Fine," I said, not really happy, but knowing Mort had a point. Although I didn't like admitting it, even to myself, I'd sort of been avoiding the Liminal Lands. Part of it was because I had no idea how to deal with the problem Mort had brought up. Mostly, though, it was because I wasn't ready to deal with the spirits of the animals who had died protecting me. I mean, I'd claimed them and everything, but I had no clue what to do next. Sighing, I sat up and looked at Lifna. What I saw surprised me.

Just how much has he been feeding her? I wondered. Damn, but she's gotten a lot bigger.

"Hey Lifna," I said, waving to her.

"How are you doing?"

"Doing well," she said.

"I need… more space."

"Yeah, yeah," I agreed. I sort of had to since she was filling up most of the space.

"I'll think of something. Give me a minute." The last time I'd seen her, she'd been the size of a large beachball. So yes, she'd grown a lot. And yes, I had to do something. Fortunately, while I'd been… resting, my mana had recovered. It was all because of the animals I'd blessed. Apparently, my followers were ecstatic about their new powers. This had caused them to redouble their prayers and offerings. Their faith in me had hit a new all-time high. It refilled what I'd spent and added more on top of that.

Since I had plenty of energy, I wondered if there was a way to use it. Maybe I could pump some of that energy into the divine domain. I had no idea if it would work or not. However, it was worth a shot. First, I would probably need to connect with the Liminal Lands. With this in mind, I tried to reach out and touch the space. That was when I felt it. I hadn't noticed before because I'd never stayed in the Liminal Land long enough to sense it. But, part of me was... here. Actually, that wasn't quite right.

No, I am the Liminal Lands, I realized. It's part of me. It was sort of like not being aware of the hair that used to grow in my ears. I wouldn't know about it unless I specifically touched it or noticed it in a mirror. Now that I was aware, though, it was different. I wasn't just visiting the Liminal Lands or tied to it because I was its creator. It was part of me. I could feel the space now like I could feel my heartbeat.

"Abe?" Mort was staring at me.

"You've got a weird look on your face. Weirder than usual." The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I just realized that I'm part of this place," I said slowly.

"Part of my divine essence merged with the realm when I created it. I just never noticed because I never stayed long enough to feel it."

"Okay... and?" Mort asked, either not caring or not understanding.

"And I can feel it. The whole thing. Every boundary. Every limitation." I turned in a slow circle, perceiving the Liminal Land with senses I hadn't known I possessed.

"I can feel exactly where it ends, where the walls are, metaphorically speaking."

"Can you make the walls bigger?" Lifna asked hopefully. Can I? I gave it a try. I allowed some of the energy inside my physical body to pour into my divine domain. Surprisingly, I wasn't seeming to lose much as I continued pumping mana into the metaphysical me. That was when I realized that the animals were still praying, continuing to provide me with spiritual energy. All that power from prayers and offerings, I could use it.

I reached out, not with my paws but with my will, my divine essence, the part of me that was woven into the Liminal Land's fabric. The boundaries... shifted. It was like pushing against a heavy curtain. There was resistance, but the boundaries were not immovable. The walls of the realm could stretch if I applied enough mana. I pushed more divine energy into the expansion. The divine domain stretched, creating more room. Not much at first, maybe just a few feet in each direction. But it was definitely expanding.

"It's working!" Mort shouted.

"Keep going!" I pushed harder, pouring more energy into the expansion. The realm responded, boundaries stretching outward like an inflating balloon. The pressure on Lifna eased as space opened up around her.

"More... please…" she said, her voice carrying relief.

"Still... a little cramped." I kept going, feeding divine power into the realm's expansion. The space doubled, then tripled in size. At that point, I realized that, no matter how much energy I used, the Liminal Lands had reached their limit, at least for now. Well, at least Lifna now had room to grow. She could probably double in size again before running into the same problem. By the time I was done, I was breathing hard despite not technically needing to breathe.

"Thank you... Father," Lifna pulsed warmly, her glow bright with happiness.

"So much... better."

"You're welcome, sweetie." I felt a genuine smile forming despite my exhaustion.

"After all, I can't let Mort be the only one who takes care of you." Mort was staring at me with something that looked almost like respect, although mixed with annoyance.

"You couldn't have done that before? And are you trying to come between me and our daughter?" Mort then started saying all the things he'd gotten her, "Hey, I'm the one that found the steel rebar. I also located the cement blocks. I'm the…" He kept on, but I tuned him out. That was because I had discovered where the animal spirits had gone. The reason I hadn't seen them was because they weren't in the Liminal Lands, not really. They were inside me, somewhere in the depths of my soul. It was a strange feeling.

It was sort of like having intrusive thoughts that kept running through the back of your mind. No matter how much you tried to ignore them, they would still be there. Sighing, I concentrated on them, pulling them from the depths of my being. Then I poured mana into them. At first, they were wisps of silver smoke in my mind's eye. However, they quickly solidified into the shapes of the animals they were. Their presence gave off the scent of nature inside my soul.

I looked at them, Buck, with his translucent antlers shimmering and Almond, the squirrel who looked so much smaller in death, as well as the others. They weren't "intrusive thoughts" anymore. They were my responsibility. They'd died in my name, and I had kept them tucked away in the dark because I was afraid of the grief. Taking a deep breath, I channeled the last of the prayers, the faith of the living, and poured it into the souls of the fallen. I knew it was a solemn moment. I knew it was overdue.

But looking at my dead friends, I couldn't help but feel a spark of that old trickster ego. I raised a paw, and the words felt like thunder.

"ARISE!" Moments later, I saw their spirits hovering within the Liminal Lands. That was when Mort noticed. He took one look at the ghostly spirits and immediately fainted. I barely glanced at him. As for the animal spirits, they looked down at their own bodies and then bowed down to me. I smiled sadly at them. I knew that we had a lot to talk about. I also knew that the conversation was overdue.