BXBX NOVEL Chapter 89: A threat to all life.
"What are you curious about?" Ikaris asked, and Dina had a very unsure expression as she looked at her, and even more unsure after looking at Sol.
"You know mages are sensitive to mana right?" She stared.
"I am aware."
"At first I thought it was as simple as you being summoned and turned into a different race, or using [mimic] to alter your appearance, but the more I think about these things the less sense they make, whenever your hair and ears grow out, and your body glows, you become an entirely different entity, your attitude, your personality, your mana; everything changes." Dina sat forward making gestures as she counted on her fingers.
"...Ikaris, where did you meet Sol?" Dina asked when neither of them spoke a word, and at the question Ikaris\'s eyes shifted to Sol and her gaze slightly lowered while his arose to meet Dina\'s.
"It\'s this place called Atla." Sol spoke up. "Ikaris considers you her friend, so I don\'t see any harm in you knowing this, unlike in the past I can\'t ignore you either, you\'re a part of this just as much as we are now." He made mention of the fact that though he was immobile he still heard everything.
"There\'s such a place?" Dina asked, and Sol shook his head.
"On earth? No." Ikaris replied after regaining the confidence to share this openly with her friend. "You see, months ago on the day we met, Sol died-"
"Died?" Dina stared at him while Arla came and took a seat next to her, giving her a smile when she looked over. "You knew about this?!"
"I did." Arla nodded, extending a tray full of food to everyone.
"If we\'re trying to simplify what happened here for clarification; Atla is an alternate world, like Arkadia, it exists in a sister dimension, on the day we met I died, but that was ten years ago." Sol reached out and accepted the food on the trey.
"Wait... If it was three months ago then how was it ten years ago?" Dina crossed her hands pointing at the contradiction.
"Ten years ago, I died for real, my soul was summoned to Atla upon my death, and I spent that entire time in a bloody war that ended with me being the last human alive, I was then resummoned to earth in the past, right at the moment of my death; which was to everyone else, only three months ago. Does that make sense?" He raised a brow.
"So... You died in the past, got summoned and lived for ten more years, but because you were sent back... your death..."
"Was reversed," Ikaris answered. "I was glad when he decided to leave Atla, for a moment I thought he would have asked for death but-"
"You\'re not human." Dina cut her off realising Sol said he was the last, but clearly that is also where Ikaris came from.
"I am not." Ikaris nodded, shedding her appearance again and revealing her true form as she stood, except unlike the other times she truly revealed herself, the shimmer of galaxies in her hair, the eminent glow of her body, and the absolute terror of her divine mana spread around them like a fog of light, she had already closed off their space because she figured she would have to do this.
"Ikaris that\'s enough," Sol rested his hand on her leg and extended his other hand toward Dina and Arla who had gone silent from shock. [Heal] He cast heal on them, and both their noses stopped bleeding immediately and they snapped back to their senses.
"Sorry," Ikaris sat again, retaining her form but suppressing her power.
"She is the goddess of that dimension," Sol gestured to Ikaris. "Atla, and all the other galaxies in her universe were watched over by her, I often wonder why she came with me, I\'m not complaining, I\'m grateful, happy even, but I am also confused a lot of the times, and her response is always the same..."
"There is no better place to be than in the presence of the one you love." Ikaris lowered her gaze again with a blush.
"You\'ve been fu- ahem.. she\'s a Goddess..." Dina stared at Ikaris in utter disbelief.
"This is the second time you\'re hearing this." Sol raised a brow at her.
"Eh?"
"Your memories of the conversation were erased, everyone\'s was." Arla sighed, smiling at her pupil.
"And yours weren\'t, why do you know all of this anyway why are you here?!"
"She\'s a special case." Ikaris scratched her cheek. "The alternative to keep Arla quiet would either be to take her staff from her effectively halving her strength, or outright killing her, but I never had a reason to kill her, and taking the staff is the same as weakening Argom\'s military might; she is important to the survival of Arkadia."
"So, all those things you say and all those times you were making a fuss about mundane things you were serious." Dina shook her head again and cupped her cheeks. "How does something like this even... No way... What?"
"Remember I said it, Sol and I were going to disappear." Ikaris raised her finger seriously. "All of this is a big tragedy in my opinion, but I am also glad we ended up on this accursed rock!" She looked at Dina seriously.
"What do you mean?" Sol was the one who looked at her this time.
"Small events and isolated happenings can be changed through manipulation, but something as large-scaled and controlled as a ritual summoning would never change, it is inevitable, which means Sol was always going to end up on Atla, and you Heroes were always going to end up on Atla.
"It is my guess that because we ended up changing his fate by returning at the moment of his death, he replaced someone else who was going to be summoned here when he showed up on your campus, but let me tell you, if we had not been summoned here, everyone would already have been killed off and Arkadia would have already been destroyed."
Ikaris explained.
"Destroyed?" Arla gasped.
"That demon-god has already amassed enough power to ascend several times over, in comparison the demon-god from Atla would have been killed by her \\\\ithout difficulty, it is unfortunate to say this but gods cannot fight them, I was powerless against him and it proved to be the same with Sitri as well, our divinity is nullified by their very presence -they come from a place where divine power does not exist; a dark universe without a true god."
"I figured." Sol narrowed his eyes. "For whatever reason Sitri chose to remain here even though she can easily kill the gods and leave whenever she chooses to. "When I first got here there were several advances on Argom that would have destroyed everything in about a month\'s time, but I intervened, and I suppose that\'s why she showed an interest in me...
After all, I have already killed a demon god, I can physically become one."
"You can what?" Arla dropped her trey out of stiff shock.
"Yes," Sol raised his hand and her and Dina watched with their mouths agape as Sol\'s hand morphed into a deep red shade and his nails turned black and sharp.
"One of the passively activated skills I received after killing the demon god was [demon-god transformation], and like the name suggests it literally turns me into a real demon-god for a duration, which makes me believe there are other types of demons... But let\'s not stray any further than we already have."
His hand returned to normal and he stared at Dina again.
"Ikaris gave everything up to be by my side, she wasn\'t kidding, she left a place where no being could ever reach her, and became subservient to me." He looked at Ikaris as he spoke and all she did was smile warmly. "I respect that more than I ever will anything else in my lifetime.
"So then the power you wielded...?" Arla led on.
"When I returned with him, I left an unconscious copy of his original astral self there, it is our source, unharmed and sleeping it constantly produces mass amounts of divine mana, my mana, and so long as I am with him I can channel that mana regardless of where I am, and grant his real self mana from my home dimension, that is the contract I made." Ikaris exposed the sigil on her neck.
"These are merely the gateways to our power."
"So, you\'re saying without Sol you will lose your powers?" Dina asked. "And without you he will also lose his?"
"Eventually yes."
"That\'s never happening." Sol crossed his arms. "I would never abandon her, every day is a gift, how could I ever?" He smiled, and Dina along with Arla\'s sighed. "Not even if I died and went to hell, I\'d find a way back."
"Are you jesting, I would find you first if your soul was ever dragged to that damnable place." Ikaris laughed as she nonchalantly talked about something so serious.
"You have truly sold your souls to each other." Dina finally spoke, and they looked at each other and nodded; admitting it to themselves.
"I hope that clears everything up, needless to say you aren\'t allowed to share this with anyone else I\'m only saying it because Ikaris trusts the sincerity she sees in you..."
"... Listen, if Ikaris is targeted again like that I really will just end this world," Sol\'s mood went dark as he laid a threat at the end of the explanation.
"You have that much power?" Arla gasped.
"It would take one strike to annihilate all life on Arkadia." Ikaris admitted.
"That\'s why I\'m confused about Sitri; upon arrival she was weaker than the first demon-god, but all of a sudden she is even stronger than I am, it\'s weird to say but she fooled me first." Sol dropped his fist in his palm with a dark expression. "She can\'t be allowed to live, she threatened Ikaris, she\'s a threat to all life here."
"That monster has to die."