Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 21 — Next Steps

Noah stared at Vix in surprise. A chime played in his mind, but he put the notification aside for later.

“Which god?” Noah asked.

“No one knows,” Vix said, leaning back. “Gods aren’t supposed to die in the first place. They’re immortal in the true sense. Kill one, and a new avatar will pop up in its place. They won’t have the previous avatar’s memories or personalities, but it will still be the same god,” Vix said, licking her lips.

“What do you plan to do with the Shard?” Noah asked.

“Sell it, use it, maybe hang it on my wall if it looks nice. There’s many options,” Vix said. “So, what do you say?”

Noah frowned, thinking over it for a moment. I could save Snow this way. But at the same time… can I trust her? This reeks of a trap. And I can’t give her the Shard either way.

He looked at Vix, trying to judge the woman. Was she someone who would give up what to her was a profitable tool? No, no she isn’t. And I have better ways to free Snow.

“I’ll pass,” Noah replied.

Vix looked at him, for a brief moment, surprise reflected in her eyes. “You’ll… pass? Why?”

“Just not interested in risking my life,” Noah said with a shrug.

Vix looked at him, her smile gone now, as the foxy tail behind her back moved around quietly. “If you’re not interested in Snow, I can give you crystals as well. Enough that you’ll not need more for years.”

Noah shrugged. “I don’t see why you don’t send your own men to get it for you, instead of me.”

“Because I need someone both low ranked and powerful enough. Do you know how hard it is to find someone like that?”

“No clue, but that’s your problem,” Noah said, getting up from his seat. “I’ll be taking tomorrow off,” he added.

“Hold on,” Vix said.

Noah turned, before catching a device she’d thrown at him. “If you chance your mind, use that to contact me.”

He looked down at the metallic cube, before storing it in his inventory as he teleported out of the chamber.

Making his way out, Noah opened his notification to check what he had gotten.

Quest: Shards of [???] updated!

There is a Shard of [???] in an Astral Rift Vault. Find it, and obtain it for yourself.

Difficult: Extremely Hard

Reward: Unknown.

The change was no surprise, but it was still good to have confirmation. “I guess the question now is… what do I do about this?” Noah murmured out loud. Tony sent a shiver of excitement to him.

Noah hummed, as he tried to parse what Tony meant. “You think I should accept the quest?”

Tony sent another shiver, this time more joyous.

“Tomes, is it? You’re not wrong. I do need more tomes, and fighting at the Pit isn’t working fast enough,” Noah frowned.

Perhaps he needed to have a talk with Aurelia and Erwest.

***

As the suns set over the horizon, Noah gathered the rest of his team-members together. He’d found Aurelia in a tavern, apparently cooking something for a group of drunkards. While Erwest had been, expectedly, at the church of hellion.

“So, why did you drag us both here?” Aurelia asked.

“We should move to my dimensional pocket first,” Noah said, extending his hand.

Aurelia grimaced, but didn’t refuse, and Noah teleported both of them in.

“I hate this place,” Aurelia said.

“Hey!” Noah exclaimed in mock hurt which prompted an eye roll from Aurelia.

“Enough fooling around, why have you brought us here?” Erwest said.

Noah gave a cough. “Right, so, I have some information that I have gathered, which I thought was worth sharing. But before I did, I wanted to ask what you two have been up to in your free time as well, and if you learned something.”

“Well, I’ve mostly been training, but in the evenings I’ve been crashing at multiple pubs, taverns, inns and so on, mingling around in all sorts of places to try and gain a feel of the place,” Aurelia said. “Honestly, I’m struggling to feel that there’s any cultists here. Almost no cultist activity seems present inside the city. Not in New Heartilia at least. This far south in the continent that’s almost hard to believe. Every city tends to have at least some people unhappy with the regime, or the gods, and looking for a way to feel included and to have meaning. To have nothing whatsoever is… somehow even more suspicious.”

“Matches most of what I saw. There’s a pretty evident division in the two halves of the city,” Noah said.

He glanced at Erwest next. “Did you find anything?”

Erwest looked back at them for a moment, before he gave a nod. “I have gathered information from my church. They have been looking for the source of the spell draining the life-force from the kingdom and… they have found that it isn’t on Erandir.”

“What?” Aurelia exclaimed. “What do you mean it isn’t on Erandir?”

Erwest gave her a flat look. “Exactly what I said. The source is not on Erandir. This is why no one has found it yet.”

“If… it’s not on Erandir. Then how come the spell works here?” Noah asked.

“Hold on, I think I get it. It’s not on Erandir but it’s tied to it,” Aurelia said, looking up at Erwest.

“Yes. The source spell is in a tied realm, similar to this place we’re in.”

“Depths,” Aurelia cursed. “How’re we supposed to find something like that?”

“We may not have to,” Noah said. “Remember the astral rift Lord Krios talked about? I was told from another information source, what exactly can be found in there. It’s a Shard of a Dead god.”

Noah felt his two companions staring at him in confusion.

“Gods do not die Noah. Neither do they leave shards behind,” Aurelia said.

“Or so I was told, but… I think this one did die. I don’t know how or who, but it has left shards, and now, people are looking for it,” Noah said.

He paused. Now came the choice. How much should he say?

After a moment of consideration, he continued. “I have a Shard. In my soul. It’s why I came to this world. I’m not sure how it got there, but I know that there’s more around.”

Aurelia looked at him in silence, but it was Erwest’s gaze that he felt the most sharply.

“We need to tell the guild about this,” Aurelia said. He saw her taking out a familiar cube, as runes lit up on it. “I hope this works in here.”

A moment later, mana stirred bright runes flashing on the metallic cube, before a projection displayed itself.

“What is it?” Nae asked, before she noticed the two of them. “Oh, hello there, Noah, Erwest. Not quite sure why I can’t see anything but darkness around you, but I guess I won’t question it.”

“You guys can facetime?” Noah asked, baffled.

“Facetime?” Aurelia said. “This is a scrying tool. And it costs a lot of mana to use so don’t waste time.”

“Right right. Okay, effectively. We’ve found out that the spell source may be in a rift, that Lord Krios wants us to enter on his behalf. There are others looking for to enter this rift as well. It’s a vault, found inside an Abyssal Cult, and in there, is, according to someone I know, the Shard of a Dead God. I think that’s what the cult is after.”

“Hold on, hold on. The Shard of a what?” Nae exclaimed.

“A Dead God. Don’t ask me how, but I’m positive that the information is correct,” Noah said.

“By the stars. A dead god’s shard- and the abyssal cult is after it. But the rift explains why we can’t locate it. Alright, I want you three to accept the quest and bring the Shard back to us,” Nae said.

“Not to Lord Krios?” Aurelia asked.

“No. Not to Lord Krios. If it is indeed the Shard of a Dead God, then we need to secure it before it falls into the wrong hands.”

“The Church will not be willing to hand over something like that. If it is truly a piece of… a god, then it should belong with the gods.”

“We can discuss that when the Shard is away from the cultists Erwest. Right now, the priority is retrieving it,” Nae said.

“So we’re going in the Rift then?” Aurelia said.

“Try and scout out the cults in the area if you can too. Have you contacted the cultists yet?” Nae asked.

“Not yet. We decided to wait, and train Noah up a little,” Aurelia said.

“That’s fine, but make contact now. They won’t just let you in instantly. Try to find out what the cult is doing with this Rift and Shard. I’ll start searching from my end,” Nae said.

“I can ask the cultist chief?” Aurelia said.

Nae thought about it for a moment. “No, don’t bring him out. The less information he has, the better. Use him to establish contact, and then scout when you have the chance. The longer you take, the higher the risk is of them finding out. Assume you only have one chance, as soon as you know where their hideout is, move in.”

“Got it,” Aurelia replied.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I also had a request,” Noah said. “I’ve been fighting in this place called the Pit, not entirely legal but it was an easy method to get my hands on some Tomes. And… there’s a girl there, who’s not entirely human, there’s a monster that seems to be a part of her. She is being forced to fight after being enslaved. I want to save her.”

Nae frowned, before groaning. “Noah, trying to buy a Slave out from an illegal organisation- that’s a whole other mess. And I hate myself for saying this, I really do. But we don’t have the time right now. There could be an Abyss opening in Heartilia and that’s risking the lives of millions. Once this entire thing is done, we can talk about this girl.”

Noah found his expression darkening, but he didn’t protest. He understood Nae’s reasoning, even though he didn’t feel good about the choice.

“Alright, thanks for letting me know. I’ll be searching from my own contacts. Good work so far,” Nae said. Then with a flicker, the projection faded, as the cube turned off.

Noah let his own ability fade, as the three of them reappeared in their chamber. He glanced sideways.

“I’ll be stopping our training sessions from tomorrow. If you wish, feel free to continue without me,” Erwest said, getting up as he left.

“I likely won’t join either. I need to start reaching out to the cult, and it’s better if it’s just me for the start,” Aurelia said.

“Alright, I’ll continue how I have and try to gain more information then,” Noah said.

The three of them got up, and Noah watched Aurelia and Erwest leave.

A moment later, he sighed, sitting back down on his bed, as his mind ran through multiple thoughts.

Clutching the necklace he wore, Noah tried to focus on his next steps. The only thing he could do now was to grow stronger.

Opening his eyes, he reached out to his Dimensional Pocket, before taking out the tomes he had gotten.

[Tome of Harvest (Rare)]

[Tome of Perception (Rare)]

It was time to upgrade his abilities.