52 Ptah's Story

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(The Next Morning)

Steve opened the door to the living room to be greeted with the sight of his friends all sprawled out on makeshift beds in their underwear, sleeping away soundly as the morning sun rose. All but Alex were in there asleep as she had spent the night in his room while he worked on some plans for the next day and had put aside some powers for the War Game.

He'd also been spending more time with his skills and getting to know them better so he could incorporate them more into his fighting style. So far he'd come to the conclusion that his skill set for the majority was best used when he was fighting alone. But he did have a few that could do quite well when it came to being captain. He would only know how good they were when his Familia had their own Great Expedition.

Nodding to himself, he took one last fond look at them all before closing the door and making his way to Ptah's workroom. Upon entering, he found Ptah carving up one of his awful statues as usual. Having grown used to them though, he merely gave the structure a cursory glance and walked up behind Ptah.

"What is it?" Ptah asked him without even looking back.

"The War Game was issued last night." Steve said. "It's almost noon. Shouldn't you be at Babel, getting ready for that Denatus? You could end up becoming late and they will take that as a sign of running away."

"I shall be neither late nor early. I will arrive precisely at the time I mean to." Ptah answered. "And besides, I haven't just been absorbed into my work you know. I've been brainstorming wagers for when we officialise the game."

"Oh yeah?" Steve said as he pulled out a stool and sat down. "What were you thinking?"

"Well it's obvious what she would want." Ptah said. "I know Freya well. She's able to stick her fingers into places other people can't because of her power and authority in this city. Put her charms into the mix and she can get anybody to spill anything, even Royman. If she just hasn't believed me anyway, I can bet that she's gone into the guild records and looked up the information herself."

"But we burned all the status sheets. There is no way she can get ahold of those now."

"Perhaps not the status sheets. But I'm sure that even for people whom the guild promised they would keep their information secret, they would write it down somewhere in some highly classified documents. And I say that because Ouranos found out about us didn't he?"

"Oh yeah." Steve rubbed his chin. "I haven't thought about the old bag in some time. I wonder what his final verdict will be, because he still hasn't given it."

"Knowing him, he's probably eager to see the end of the War Game before he has the final say." Ptah shrugged. "But coming back to the main point, it's obvious Freya believes you're a level 9. She's hoping that if she can swamp you with her adventurers, they'll get the better of you and she will have the only level 9 to herself."

"I didn't think it was like her to do that." Steve said.

"Believe me, it is exactly like her. Any kind of soul she fancies the look of, she adds to her collection." Ptah looked at Steve and narrowed his eyes. "I don't really give much thought to soul-sight. I never understood why she worshipped that ability of hers so much, because it really isn't anything special. If anything, it just makes life disappointing. But I bet you have some one-of-a-kind soul she's drawn to, and she's eager to claim it for herself."

That had been something Steve wondered about for quite some time, even before he personally encountered Freya. It began from when he'd met her in her Syr disguise, but he'd wondered what his soul actually looked like. In his opinion, it couldn't really be anything special since he'd just been a shut in gamer nerd inserted into a game avatar. He didn't have any particular qualities that were heroic or fantasy like.

That being said, he had been going through a bit of an identity crisis these past few weeks. In simply becoming Minecraft Steve, so much of his original personality was gone, replaced by a surreal sense of confidence, nonchalance, bravado and overall just a really outgoing personality. He found himself doing things he would never have had the guts to do in his old life, chief among them being the fact he was in a relationship with both Tiona and Ais.

Less than two months ago, the idea of him even approaching a girl was something inconceivable. But now? Now he was all for it, and he was actively flirting with them and showing them deep displays of affection. So in light of that change, could certain aspects of his soul have changed as well since even now he was morphing into a completely new personality?

If he was changing into a complete different person, then surely his soul was looking a lot different to when he would have been on Earth. And since Freya displayed an obvious interest in him given her first words to him at the party last night, and given she built her world view practically and entirely on what she saw of the souls she beheld, it stood to reason there was something about him she liked very much to the point she would be willing to drag her own Familia into combat to take him.

...

Perhaps it was the only option he'd given her since her charm clearly failed to work on him. Steve didn't know which of his skills it was that made him immune to her powers or if it was just the composition of his being that created some natural defence or immunity...but it was clear as day that the power she was able to use to hypnotise entire armies into killing themselves, and possibly use to bring the world under her thumb if she so desired, failed miserably against him.

Of course, if she thought that he'd stick by the law even if she won the Game, then she was living in a delusion of her own. Steve had made it resolute from the beginning he was not joining her. While he'd liked her character and all beyond the obvious reasons, she was a person he knew it would be toxic working with. 

"She's working under the assumption I'm alone at this War Game." Steve said. "Not that it would have made a difference, but the fact that she doesn't know about out other members could provide us a significant element of surprise."

"I'm afraid that's not the case." Ptah shook his head. "When you bring your Familia to the war table, you have to present all your numbers. And after the terms have been written down, you can't go around collecting more children unless it is something allowed by the challenger party, since that party is the one making most of the rules."

'That is certainly not what I remember being the case.' Steve raised a sceptical eyebrow.

"Believe me, I know Gefn. She's cunning and wily. She'll leave nothing unchecked." Ptah said. "There's nobody who knows that better than me."

"Ptah, what is the history between you two?" Steve finally asked him after all this time. "I've let it go a couple of times now, but we are at war with these people. I want to know the extent of your relationship with their goddess because I don't want to transgress any lines."

"What is between me and her does not affect what you lot do. You just fight. That's all that is required of you."

"Respectfully, you're talking out of your backside." Steve said. "Of course it has an affect! I don't want to be making things worse by doing something irreversible to that goddess through her children. Come on Ptah, what aren't you telling me?"

"...Alright." Ptah put his chisel down and faced Steve. "Obviously you know how Lopt smashed up my temple using Ragnarök right?"

"I was surprised Surtr even existed in this universe."

"He's something we'd classify as a heavenly monster. Not a god but fit enough to dwell in the godly kingdoms. Anyway, I didn't immediately punish her Pantheon for her actions. Believe me, I was seriously pissed off but I easily recognised the folly of a young god who could not control her nature just yet...I certainly had my own fair share of misdemeanours. I would have let it go...if Freya hadn't riled me up even further and guilt tripped me into doing what I did."

"But how could she 'guilt-trip' you in the first place?" Steve made the signs of quotation with his fingers. "You're starting at the end of the story Ptah. Go to the beginning."

"I was already an old god by then." Ptah replied. "My name was quite well known since I was a prolific traveller and wanderer, picking up bits of knowledge where I went, and being one of the few with the guts to traverse the edges of our very reality. One day amongst the countless I had already lived, I checked up on the progress of the World Tree. I'd already visited Yggdrasil a few times but given its precise nature and how entire realms were growing on it, I saw it fit at the time to see if it had grown any more realms. And lo and behold, what new world did I come to see there?"

"Vanaheimr?" Steve suggested.

"Spot on. This realm was unlike the others ones that had grown there. It was warm, lush and green. And it brimmed with with life and magic. Naturally I was interested, so at once I descended into this realm to see for myself what it had to offer, what new secrets I could covet. And oh was it a good experience! Far form the desert emptiness of my own neck of the woods, it was fresh and lush and sang with the beauty of life." Ptah sighed as he reminisced his wandering days. "But none of that was quite so beautiful as what that realm had come to produce...a certain something that would go on to captivate the hearts of all those that came face-to-face with it."

"Freya." Steve said simply.

"Yes. A newly formed Goddess, with an appearance of what I guess would be a five year old human girl. And what was the first thing she saw upon opening her eyes but me, Lord Ptah. An Elder amongst the Eldest and a foreign god with little attachment to anything. Like a little bird, she stuck to me like I were her parent and she grew upon my heart. For a time, I had completely come to accept her as a daughter of sorts. I played with her, slept beside her when she rested, taught her magic and how to fight, taught her all that she knew really. But eventually the time came where I believed it best to move on. I'd already over-stayed my welcome. It never is a good idea for a foreign god to enter he lands of another pantheon. I thought she'd understood that...but I'd overestimated her ability to cope with my departure."

"What happened?"

"It was clear to me that her inherent Domain to govern was Love. Love goddesses are all too easily taken advantage of, which was why I taught her how to fight. I was convinced she was exceptionally powerful...in which I was both right and wrong. She could hold herself against most gods...but against ancients of a calibre similar to my own? What chance could she even hope to have? I was a fool."

"But what exactly happened?" Steve asked. "Why is she the way she is? What happened to her for her to become so...callous?"

"Goddesses of Love find it extremely difficult to find an eternal partner, since everybody comes onto them. To this day I don't know which ingrate it was that told her of that prophecy, though I have my suspicions, but hearing it was definitely the beginning of her fall from grace."

"Prophecy?"

"More like a fortune telling. The Odr. An individual of exceptional qualities, who can bear the love of the Love Goddess, and tame her wild ways. The perfect husband in the perfect matrimony." Ptah sighed, felling depressed. "To her, it would have been a dream come true. But it goes unsaid how much she was admired and desired by so many other gods, gods who did not take kindly to this revelation and quickly sought her flesh for themselves....in the end, under some circumstance she refused to tell me, she surrendered her purity which she had put aside for her Odr to take for himself, in a bid to protect herself. I still don't know who it was she gave it to...but again, I have my suspicions."

Somehow Steve and Ptah communicated through eye-contact a common thought, which both knew that the other was aware of. The name of a certain god king hung unspoken in the air...

"The experience broke her mind." Ptah continued. "She felt extreme guilt and remorse for what she had done...and it was my fault too. She had come to me for my protection. I thought that I was being a reasonable father. She had her powers and she was a grown woman, so I couldn't be holding her hand all the way...of course now I see how heartless and cruel it must have seemed to her. But the simple realization that she had given something to a possibly tyrannical god, which she should have saved for a loving husband made her numb. She became warped, seeking to better her existence at the expense of others...even going as far as to subject them to great torment at the hands of a Primordial just to prove a point. I will never forget the look on her face when Odin fell on his face and begged me to lift the curse...it was then I knew the condition of her heart and what I realized she was making me. I cut off all that I was doing. And with our relationship forever strained, I locked myself in my temple and locked her out forever as well. And it has remained that way still."

"...But you still feel guilt, don't you?" Steve asked. 

"...yes. Because I still love her Steve. She has hardened her heart against me so much that I can't even begin to make amends with her, even if I address her with the pet-name I made for her. And she has become so very cold...it's why I'm so afraid of confessing my feelings to Hephaestus. I hurt someone who loved me above all else as father, and someone whom I told myself that I loved too. What right do I have to take a lover for myself, when I destroyed the love-life of someone dear to me?...I'm just an absolute scumbag..."

...

"I had no idea it was this deep." Steve breathed. "I thought you were just scared of confessing...but it's really just because of old wounds."

"Wounds that never heal." Ptah sighed. "What's more, I know for a fact that she's still looking for her Odr, if he even exists out there, somewhere. Even now with how much she has changed, and with the kind of things she gets up to, she still believes in that peddling tale."

"What's so bad about it?"

"That it is so vague!" Ptah threw his hands up in exasperation. "Her Odr could be anybody. Nothing about the specifics of the prophecy pointed to a single person, a single identity. In my expert opinion, and believe me, my pantheon is filled with fortune telling and visions, her Odr could be anybody she chooses because those certain qualities he's supposed to have is really her own taste in men, the kind of things she'd want to see in a man. That's literally the whole point of this 'prophecy'. I tried to explain to her that her Odr is not a pre-ordained personality, a man with a certain name and a certain look to him. Anybody she chose could be her Odr as long as she made her choice carefully."

"So the average joe right across the street could be her Odr simply because she chooses him to be so? It doesn't have to be a specific someone?"

"Exactly! It could even be YOU. All you would have to do, is go up to her and woo her in the best possible way. Once she decides that you are the life partner she wants, BAM! You become her Odr. It was as simple as that. But she wouldn't hear of it. And this one tell-tale became the cause of all these problems." Ptah stuck his face in his hands. "I guess what I'm trying to say in conclusion is that I don't know what to demand from her as a wager. I can't bring myself to take anything more from her when I played part in much being stolen from her. I can't do it Steve...I just can't."

"Then 'I' will decide it." Steve said. "But before we do that, look at me."

"Hm?" Ptah looked up at him. Steve pulled out some little, round, black object and stuck it into his shoulder rest.

"Don't ask questions about this thing." Steve said to Ptah. "Put simply, it is a device that will record all sounds around you. Whatever this object picks up, will be transmitted to this..." Steve stuck another small round object into his ear, though this was noticeably firmer and more structured in its shape. "...it will enable me to hear what you hear. I will be fully aware of what will go on at the Denatus, and I can prepare accordingly."

"...I will not question anything." Ptah shook his head in exasperation.

"Good man." Steve smiled before he adopted a more serious look. "Question, what are the limits that your Falna can extend to?"

"Elaborate. That did not make any sense."

"Could you put a Falna on Bathsheba for example?"

"...There's no legal restrictions realistically that would stop me from doing so. It would certainly be frowned upon and plenty would raise their brows, but few would object if that's what you're asking. If you're asking whether I am physically capable of doing it, I can place it on mortals, monsters, animals and even objects if necessary. Of course between all of those things, the blessing would not be the same per se since the bearer has to be a living being to level up and stuff. But yeah, I could place it on the wolf. You want me to do that as well?

"Yes." Steve answered. "And also for this." Steve took out a large spawn egg and placed on his knees in front of Ptah.

The god jumped back and did a double-take as he saw the massive object. It was shaped like any egg but it was dark grey with ridged patches on it that were all black in colour. Faintly, one could see a blue glow pulsating within it. But the egg definitely looked reptilian in nature, that was for sure.

"IS THAT A DRAGON EGG!" Ptah yelled.

"Nope." Steve said. "It's worse."

"Is that supposed to console me?"

"Yes and no. You see, putting your Falna on this thing would simply designate this little bastard as our property. Me hatching what's within it will automatically have it loyal to me. I intend to use him in our War Game. Not entirely for combat, but as a demonstration of our colossal might and how we excel even the Ganesha Familia at keeping monsters under our thumb."

"Steve, my eyes have seen many things in life, which has given me good appraisal skills. And that..." Ptah pointed at the egg. "...is definitely a world calamity."

"He's a part of my family." Steve said. "I've released him before with the others. He's a big brother to Bathsheba. He was simply put back in his egg for convenience. And he will only be a world calamity if we make him so. I'd wager he'd actually be great deterrent for the ACTUAL world calamity out there. The one eyed winged lizard won't be coming round here when this alpha lizard is prowling the province as his home turf. It's an unspoken law amongst reptiles that you don't enter each other's territories. Come on Ptah. Have a little faith."

"...First show me what he looks like."

"If you mean to ask me to spawn him here now, the whole city will probably start collapsing like dominoes and the people will start panicking in mass hysteria. But, here's a picture of what he looks like..." Steve held up a fine drawing that Noor had done for him of the precious lifeform in the egg.

Ptah's skin almost turned white from the image, which said a lot since his skin was tanned golden.

"You're trying to convince me that THAT is going to be a peaceful monster to us?"

"Just do it." Steve said before he leaned forwards. "Or I'll teleport right over to Hephaestus with all those little marble figurines of her that you made, along with the practice love letters too."

"You little...FINE." Ptah took out a needle and pricked his finger and let it drop onto the egg. He did nothing more as the drop of blood seemed to absorb into the egg and a ripple of blue light akin to that of an open Falna passed over the eggshell. "But you'd better be responsible with this thing. I already have one hellspawn lurking outside my window every night. I don't need one accidently stepping on my grotto and crushing us all inside. One experience is already enough."

"Relax." Steve slapped his bald head, making Ptah splutter in rage. "I've got it handled."

"Pfft." Ptah folded his arms and turned away. Steve's smile dropped as he noticed Ptah's shoulders droop.

"No seriously, I've got this." Steve put a reassuring hand on Ptah's shoulder. "Freya will have to accept her reality once she loses. I won't be doing anything to create venom between you two. Hopefully from this, you both can start to reconcile." Ptah's silence gave away his disagreement. "Look Ptah, if you love her as much as you claim, then surely you can at least try from your end. Mortal fathers mess up all the time because they think they're doing the best for the ones they love. But the best fathers are those who try and fix their mistakes. How can you know that she won't accept you again if you haven't even tried? Have you considered that maybe it's because you're staying away from her that your relationship continues to stay the way it is?"

Ptah tensed for a second, giving Steve all the answers he needed. 

"Just consider it Ptah. You have an invaluable opportunity. We mortals only have so much time to set our records straight before we come to regret them on our deathbeds. But you have eternity. There will always be a chance for you to fix things with her. You're not doing any good by hiding away in your hole...now, let's discuss what wager to demand from her."

---

Steve flung open the living room door to greet his still sleeping friends.

"Alright you lazy ponces." He shouted as he picked up a pillow and slugged it into Zuri's face. "Wake up! It's time we got to training you idiots to live in this city! Hurry up!"

All the players groaned as they hugged their pillows to their faces and refused to get up. Steve grinned evilly as he outstretched his hands.

"If you lot don't get up within the next two seconds, I'm going to lock you all in a world border, set up a jocky and then blast Caramelldansen in your ears for 24 hours straight!"

""NO!"" They all shouted as they immediately stood up and saluted him like he were a commanding officer. "GOOD MORNING CAPTAIN!"

It was quite a comical sight seeing them all greeting him like that while their hair was ruffled and they stood in their underwear. He laughed at them and clapped his hands.

"Get your asses moving then! Your new friends will be coming to see us soon. Do you really want to be seen like this? Fix your appearances and be outside immediately! We're going to be busy today like you've never seen before!"

"You'd better do as the captain says." Alex suddenly said as she appeared from behind him. "Before I decide to take the matter into my own hands."

The players suddenly went white with terror and quickly looked around for their discarded clothes. Steve raised a brow at his best friend.

"Damn, Alex. What exactly did you do to them while I was away?"

"Taught them the one thing you didn't deign to properly instil in them." Alex cracked her knuckles. "Respect to Authority."

"Right. Well vice-captain, how about we go outside and have a little fisticuff like the old days? That way we can also greet the Loki Familia outside once they turn up."

"Sure."

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