64 A Road Trip

A/N: If you want to know what's going on with my move and future updates for the time being read the author's thoughts at the bottom.

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"How much longer until we get there?" Astur asks with one arm out the car window.

"Didn't you just ask not even half an hour ago? We are still about half a day away," Elizabeth says.

"But we've been on the road for almost twenty hours, why is this taking so long? I saw the map, why is the road leading to Dresuarstein so… poorly built?" Astur asks.

"Wasn't your trip to the northern border significantly longer than this?" Kretea asks while keeping her eyes on the road.

"Yeah, but I walked half the way there before I sto-- indefinitely borrowed a car."

"Although I'm not surprised, why am I only now hearing about this?" Elizabeth asks.

"I knew about it," Ystur says.

"Yeah, for some reason, other than Ystur, no one ever questioned where the car came from. I mean, I clearly didn't buy it," Astur says, before sticking her head out the window for a moment before it back in, "I think I swallowed a fly."

"I didn't need to know that… And regarding the road design, I agree it's not convenient, but it should be because a direct path would be through a disaster zone," Elizabeth says.

"That's right, the roads from Hadrow to Dresuarstein as they are because the land between these areas is hazardous. It's one of the areas prone to tornadoes, so that area and a portion of the land around it is usually avoided," Kretea explains.

"Ah right, sometimes I forget this planet is plagued by frequent natural disasters since the forest is relatively peaceful and free of such things. That damn God of Light ruined this world," Astur says.

"I do agree that the God of Light is a damnable figure, but what does He have to do with the disasters?" Elizabeth asks.

"Everything. Have you read the old scriptures of the Church, the ones that detail the first Holy Wars?" Astur asks.

Both Kretea and Elizabeth are aware of the stories through hearsay, neither is aware of the details. And no one expected Ystur to know anything regarding this topic.

"In the distant past, there should have been many Native Gods presiding over Vopal other than the God of Light. But through a series of wars, the God of Light killed them all. The Church scriptures claim He was protecting the world against Evil Gods, but I don't believe this to be the case. He was likely seeking to monopolise the faith of the people of Vopal. If I had to guess, the Native Gods that were killed were Natural Gods, born from either a union of two other Deities or from nature. But the God of Light is likely a God of Worship, someone who ascended to Godhood through the faith and worship of others," Astur explains.

"I think I can guess where this is going, the Natural Gods kept the balance of nature or something like that and killing them resulted in upsetting that balance thus the various natural disasters that plague the planet," Ystur says.

"Close, but that's not it. To my knowledge, not every world has Native Gods protecting them. Worlds without Gods to manage the elements don't have this problem. So my theory is that the previous Deities that the God of Light fought with weren't killed, but rather they were sealed. After all, I doubt the God of Light really had enough strength to stand up to all the Gods and Goddesses the scriptures claim he killed. Being sealed, these Deities' powers are likely in a state of flux, and it's likely this that causes the various disasters. And if I'm right, the disaster zones are likely to be close to where They are sealed."

"I was going to ask how you know about all this stuff related to Deities, but then I remembered that you're also one," Elizabeth says.

Kretea is slightly caught off guard hearing this, causing the car to swerve, "You mean the Oulvgar are actually being accurate when they call you a Goddess!?"

"Did you think they were bullshitting the whole time!? I'm a Natural God, albeit a Demigod, but my Authority is no weaker than other High-tier Deities! … When I'm at full capacity..."

"That's not the problem right now! Kretea, pay attention to the road or you're going to hit someone!" Elizabeth shouts.

"Wheeee!" Meanwhile, Ystur is sticking her head out the window, off in her own little world having fun.

This commotion in the car only lasts a few seconds before Kretea moves back into place while listening to the various shouts from within the car and the several other cars honking their horns at her.

But Kretea then proceeds to ignore the previous events and continue as if nothing happened.

"So what's this about actually being a Goddess?" Kretea asks.

The other three in the car give Kretea a strange look before the two in the backseat start whispering to each other.

"Is Kretea stupider than I thought? I mean, the Oulvgar constantly praise Mom as a Goddess," Ystur asks.

"Well… she's good at everything that's related to combat, history, and has experience with logistics, so she isn't a complete lost hope. But this is why we keep her away from anything on the administrative side of the State. I knew she was slow on the uptake, but this is just ridiculous," Elizabeth says.

"I can hear the two of you!" Kretea yells.

"Ignore the two gossip spreaders," Astur says, but inwardly she thinks, "Although it's true."

"I think you've mentioned it a couple of times in the past and you mentioned it just now, but what's Authority mean? The way you're using it, not the common meaning, I know you'd give that to me instead," Elizabeth says.

"Now that I think about it, I also have a few things on my Status listed as Authority," Ystur thinks.

Thinking over whether or not to give an explanation, Astur eventually decides to do it, figuring that there's nothing else to do.

"Divine Authority, it's the domain of power that a Deity presides over. For example, the God of Light obviously has Authority over the Domain of Light. To what degree, I couldn't say, that would depend on the comprehension He has over the Authority of Light. Natural Gods can't go beyond the Authority they are born with and the Authority can usually be described in a single word or short phrase, but their abilities within their Domain are at a higher fundamental level compared to other types of Deities. Other Deities don't have this limitation, but it's harder for them to grow stronger as well and due to the difficulty in comprehending an Authority, most don't try for any more than two at most. The higher the comprehension the more power a God can exert through their Authority. Low comprehension usually manifests itself as a single ability and the number of abilities increases with higher comprehension, but complete comprehension allows for near-complete control over the Domain. Although this is limited by Natural Gods and Deities with a high life order."

"So what's you're Authority?" Elizabeth asks.

"Let's just leave it as a mystery for all eternity," Astur says, avoiding the topic. "I'm tired after that long explanation, so wake me up when we arrive."

Astur moves the seat back for a more comfortable position as she falls asleep almost instantly. But the others are still curious as to what Astur's Authority is.

"I have some Authorities myself, although I'm not absolutely certain about one of them, the other two should be Life and Death. The last one should be related to the Astral or something, I'm not sure. They should have been inherited from Mom, so she should also have these Authorities" Ystur says.

"How can you not know? They're your Authorities?" Elizabeth asks.

"Don't get me wrong, on an instinctive level, I know what they are, I just don't know how to properly convey it in words. Like, your heart beats, you know your heart beats, but can you explain how exactly your heart beats?"

"Alright, I get what you're trying to say. I've also seen her do some things that seem to back up her being related to death, life, and the astral. But there is so much more than that as well. I'm fairly certain she has some relation to Space and Illusion," Elizabeth says.

"I'm not sure on the specifics but when we first met at the battle in Karthion Valley, but with just a few words she was able to completely stop the armies of the Kingdom. I didn't put much attention to it then, thinking it was some powerful magic. But having been by Astur's side for a while now, I know she doesn't know any magic, so that should also be related to her Authority," Kretea says.

After much deliberation, the three of them come to the conclusion that… they don't know. Having displayed a variety of different abilities, they have no idea what Astur's authority could be. From Astur's previous words, she is a Natural God, and their Authorities are supposed to be able to be explained with a single word or short phrase, but how could Astur's many abilities be summed up in a single short phrase.

But Astur is unconcerned about all this as she's in dreamland playing video games.