Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn***

***Celestial***

“This is the newest rifle for my army.” Ascathon hands a short rifle to one of Jazira's soldiers. We are currently at the shooting range in front of his mansion. He built it solely to test his new designs.

We took Jazira and her entourage out here to demonstrate what our military is capable of.

There are Tjena, Sagittarius and two of Jazira's officers with us. The two soldiers from her staff voiced the wish to inspect our army's weaponry.

“The rifle is a short design with only half a metre in length. It has a range of about one thousand metres and a magazine of sixty bullets. I am using the railgun principle because it has proven itself.” He raises his own rifle to his shoulder and fires a bullet into a target dummy.

*Pft!*

The nature of the weapon eliminates the typical noise of guns and results in a rather unspectacular sound. “The recoil is quite strong, so it isn't recommendable to fire fully automatic. Single shots or short bursts are preferable.” He explains and turns towards the soldier.

The soldier nods and continues to study the weapon. Then he fires two shots of his own. He misses once and hits the second time, then he lowers the gun. “I can see the value of this artefact. If every regular soldier is equipped with one, the army's fighting power increases more than tenfold. The spell isn't flashy at all, but with this device it works without incantation. It can't break a proper shielding spell, but it doesn't have to. The more powerful mages can concentrate on destroying the enemy's shields. Once that's done, it's just a massacre from then on.”

Jazira nods and turns to me. “Don't you think that it's bad to boost this world's technology so far forward?”

I shrug my shoulders. “To be honest, I don't know. But Sarn is the best example that it works. The people here lived with magic all their lives. Science and technology are just another form of magic to them. And the public has a good opinion of the house Asceron. To them, it's simply a time of wonder. The biggest support comes from the people who can't use magic properly. The new artefacts enable them to use magic like fully trained mages. And their number is far bigger than the nobles'. It's always good to know the majority of the population is behind you.”

Ascathon nods enthusiastically. “I am currently working on some artefacts which automatically cast high grade healing magic. Once those are available to everyone, I am sure that our popularity will rise even more.”

I purse my lips and look at my husband. He is a deceitful snake. I’ve been pestering him about those artefacts for weeks. He would have been done already if he wouldn't put so much effort into researching his mana crystals.

Jazira attempts to say something, but suddenly a blinding white light appears above us. I shield my eyes against the light and look up.

The figure of a child is hovering above us.

“Behold mortals and watch me descend in awe! I am lowering myself to...”

*Pft!*

A hole appears in the child's forehead and a red cloud of blood spreads behind her. “... let you...”

*Pft!*

“... experience...”

*Pft!*

“... my godly...”

*Pft!*

“... self.”

*Pft!**Pft!**Pft!**Pft!**Pft!**Pft!**Pft!* *click!**click!**click!**click!*

*Plomb*

The child's body turned into a bloody mess and she dropped out of the sky like a rock. Now she is lying in front of our group and a puddle of blood starts to spread around her.

All eyes wander towards Ascathon and then to the red glowing barrel of his rifle. He looks around and then at his rifle. “Okay, I admit. There is still a little issue with continuous fire and overheating.”

“You killed the goddess!” Sagittarius gasps.

Ascathon shrugs his shoulders. “This is closed airspace. She could have knocked at the door. I won't allow a maniac to fly above my property and spew nonsense.”

Tjena shakes her hand at us. “You can't just shoot a child! HIIIIIIIIII!” She screams as something grabs her ankle. It was the child's hand.

Everyone’s attention turns back to the bloody mess on the ground. A marvellous scene is unfolding there. The blood is crawling back into the child and the bullets are pushed out of her body.

“Peace! I promise to take this seriously from now on!” The child calls out to prevent further attacks.

Ascathon grabs for another magazine from his leather belt, but I snatch the rifle from his hands.

“Hey! She is one of them! I recognize her! They destroyed my ship!” He points at the goddess on the ground.

“Let her holiness speak. From what I heard you already built plenty of other ships. She may be able to clarify a few things.” Jazira steps between Ascathon and the child.

The child gets on her knees and introduces herself. “I am Lidith. The goddess of peace. Nice to meet you.” While she was speaking, the last bullet popped out of her and the wound healed. Even her dress starts to assemble itself back together. It looked like Ascathon's regeneration spell. Just faster and more sophisticated.

“To be honest, I didn't expect to be shot, so I didn't bother with a barrier spell. This hurt my pride as a goddess.” She starts to retch and spews another bullet onto the ground.

“You are the one who is responsible for the volcano!” I point an accusing finger at the child in front of us.

“No. No. That was Aneth! I was responsible for the lightning bolt! I helped you! I am one of the good guys!” She explains hastily while waving her hands.

“Then you'll have a long story for us, I assume?” Jazira crosses her arms in front of her chest and grins at the child.

The child nods and gets to her feet. “Could we talk inside? There is much to tell and it will take some time. On top I need to set up a good barrier, in order to prevent them from listening in on us.”

Nobody objects and a few minutes later we are sitting with everyone in our living room. From then on Lidith gives us a lengthy explanation on the current state of the world and the relationships between the gods.

She ends with an explanation on why they started to play their stupid game and how it works. Apparently she is only allowed to visit us once. Then she has to get back to the game to make sure that the others don't start cheating.

Ascathon started to scribble some notes at some point and stopped to listen.

“And that gets me to the reason why I am here. I wanted to warn you guys of a full scale attack by Mislow and the Nation of Mist. Both nations are preparing huge fleets against you. The Nation of Mist has four hundred ships at sea and the Kingdom of Mislow has three hundred air ships floating above their capital. They will move together as soon as they are ready. They are bringing everything they have.” Lidith ends her warning with a final line. “The Inquisition is moving too. They plan to infiltrate Sarn on the ground and cause chaos while you battle the fleets.”

I puff my cheeks. This is quite a handful to take everything in at once. “I am not even sure if we can trust you. If your story is true, then you are to blame too. Playing a game for several thousand years. Do you think that you are above other people! You guys are just idiots with too much power!”

Lidith looks down. “It is as you said and I am trying to stop this. But I can't go alone against three gods. And I always tell myself that it's better than having the four of us fight it out.”

“Then just fight it out yourself and leave us out of it!” Tjena interjects.

“Bad idea. The last time we almost destroyed the world. Gods have almost limitless access to mana. We lay waste to entire continents before we even start to damage each other.” Lidith shakes her head.

“But Ascathon wounded you with a few bullets!” Sagittarius looks confused.

“I am suppressing my powers. If I power up my battle aura to the maximum, everyone in this city would drop to the ground foaming at their mouths.” Lidith waves her hand. “Oh, and before you ask. I changed my outer appearance with transformation magic.”

“I see...” Ascathon is mumbling in his corner. Then he disappears from one second to the next. Everyone is gaping at the empty spot where he was a second ago.

Then the space in front of Lidith distorts and he reappears in front of her again. “Those pathways are very convenient! What else can you do with them?”

Lidith is just gaping at the black dressed figure in front of her. Ascathon is looming over her with demanding eyes.

“I was seeing these strange strings for quite a while now, but I didn't realize what they were. Who would have thought that they are the web of reality itself. No wonder that gods have access to huge amounts of mana. Although it seems that handling so much mana is quite difficult. I'll need some training to become a god.” He stops and grins at Lidith. “And I think I found the perfect advisor.”

Huh!? Ascathon? A god!? I jump up and grab his arm. “One moment! You can't become a god!”

He furrows his eyebrows. “Why not?”

Lidith finally closes her gaping mouth and scratches her cheek. “Ascathon and Jazira seem to be on the brink of transcending to godhood.”

“Eh? Me too?” Jazira looks surprised.

“Of course! Where do you think all your mana comes from. Ascathon sees the pathways and you managed to partly access your mana pool. It would be right to call you two demigods right now. Unfortunately I can't train you. I can only give you the advise to train the thing you are good at to utmost perfection.” Lidith smiles at us. “Maybe we can beat the three fools into submission if we work together and you two become full gods!”

“How would doing something with utmost perfection help to become a god?” Jazira wonders.

“Just think of it as meditation training to find yourself. We don't really understand why we are gods ourselves.” Lidith grimaces. “Try to hide your training. I'll do my best to give you as much time as possible. If the others find out, they'll get rid of you.”

She jumps up and bows to us. “My time is up. Proceed with care, I'll be watching.” The space around her distorts and she is gone.

Ascathon continues to scribble on his sheet of paper while I cling onto him. What happens if he becomes a god? My brain feels mushy and then I storm out of the room and towards the training hall.

“I won't be left behind.”

.