51 Sending Them Off
Minas watched as Eolia, Wurv, and Qori began their long ascent into the caverns of the first Geva Mountain.
His heart couldn't help but clench at the thought of the three of them experiencing some kind of acci... no, he would not think of this now.
Instead, he kept his face at an impasse as he watched three of his companions enter one of the most dangerous mountains of the entire God realm.
Minas took a deep breath and returned to his Godspace. He was getting tired, despite his best wishes not to.
A dark flash of light twinkled from behind Minas, however he was too preoccupied to notice it.
...
Laying on his bed, Minas thought carefully to his most recent dream of Mai.
He had seen her.
He had almost talked to her.
The excitement within his heart couldn't be contained, but he felt guilty for being so happy while his companions were risking his life to keep his beloved safe.
Despite this, Minas continued to remember. Mai looked a lot healthier than she had in her previous life. His heart warmed. Good, Mai shouldn't suffer more than she has to.
He remembered back to what Qori had told him about Mai's conditions for this lifetime.
She wasn't Mai anymore, instead she was 'Municia' now.
This lifetime would be significantly harder than the previous lifetime. Minas slowly shook his head in worry as he remembered back to how he had created the Gods test.
It was a whim, just like all the other things he did back then.
He felt as if it would be interesting if one of his creations could "break the mold" and become something they were never supposed to become... thus, a human could become a God. Or a God could become a human.
Either way, he did not care about the many successes.
He did not care about the many failures.
He did not care about the many deaths.
In fact, he had not cared about the creation of the test at all. Instead, he had created the God's test to be a living being. That way, Minas did not have to screen each participant himself.
Now, however, Minas thought back to Mai and her test.
He wished he could personally screen Mai's test.
He was afraid that the God's test would become interested in her. If it does, then the test would become infinitely harder.
If it became harder than it is already... then not even Mai would be able to make it.
He shook his head and laid down on his bed.
Right now, it shouldn't be interested. That's why the first lifetime was so incredibly easy to complete. What Minas doesn't understand, however, is why had Mai been able to survive her first lifetime despite Mai not accomplishing the most basic requirement- surviving until old age?
Despite the Gods test saying that she her contributions to that world was greater than the demerit of her death, there was no way for her to move past to her second lifetime.
The turbulence of the test manually passing her would have placed a great strain on her soul. Minas had already lost all of his privileges to protect her by then... so how was Mai able to survive the transfer when her soul was even weaker compared to other humans?
Minas shook his head once more and stared out of his bedroom window.
The sun of his Godspace had decided that it wanted to set, so its last rays were spilling into Minas' bedroom's floor.
He watched, mesmerized, as the dust particles in the room twirled around in the air.
He remembered back to his first waking memory, immediately after he had been cursed.
He wasn't supposed to have survived.
In fact, even Qori- who he had not recognized then- had told him that the pressure of all of the Gods' power should have been enough to completely cripple his soul, destroying whatever personality he had.
In fact, him losing his memories was a happy alternative from what could have been the destruction to his very being.
But what was curious, Qori noted, was that there was a drastic change to Minas' personality.
Before, he had been meticulous, calm, collected, but most importantly, he had been involved.
Although the memory-less Minas was also meticulous, calm, and collected, he lacked a very important element of his personality: his interest.
He had lost his interest of everything around him. And that made it easy for the Gods to prey on him.
Sighing, Minas thought back to his fleeting memories of The Great War.
It started with the color gold... the color of a Gods blood.
He didn't remember what he was staring at. He just knew that it was calming. He liked looking at it. Touching it. Watching it.
But it was when a god crushed it that Minas felt a shock from deep within his bones.
He had not known at that moment what 'soul-shaking' truly meant until that moment.
His very being had been shaken down to his core. He had shakily created a nymph from mid-air, not caring to see whether or not his chains that always kept him down were slack or not. Thankfully, however, they were. So he was able to exact vengeance.
He began by stopping the war in its tracks.
He didn't remember how, but he knew that it did not last long. All of the Gods had released their weapons and they clattered to a stop below their feets.
Then, they had kneeled to their king, him.
He spoke words. Yes, Minas remembered saying words. He was furious, then.
He remembered the feeling. It was a nice reprieve from the boundless bore he had always felt. But, it was awful at that moment.
His words boomed across the heads of all Gods, and he then uttered the Three Great Rules, imposing them onto the very fabric of the Gods realm itself.
Then, he didn't remember anything anymore as he had fallen into a deep slumber, his energy having been spent.
His next memory was fuzzy, but he remembered seeing dark blue eyes before he once again saw darkness.
........
Minas closed his eyes and almost immediately was swept into the darkness of sleep.
However, he felt a tugging sensation as his soul was whisked away to somewhere else... to someone else.
He was with Mai.
She was standing in a room with another two girls.
One of the girls wore very light green robes and had fiery, red hair. She was around the same age as Mai- 13.
The other girl was older and seemed to be perpetually angry. They were talking about another girl, a girl named Jaquine.
Minas watched Mai, his eyes looking to see if there were any side-effects of her being forcefully transferred to this world.
However, he saw nothing. She moved with ease. Spoke with ease. And even felt with ease. Despite Mai's attempts at controlling her emotions, Minas was able to see through her with a glance.
Even if she improved her acting skills to the level of the Goddess of Acting, Minas knew that he would always be able to tell what she truly is thinking deep within her heart.
Perhaps that was one of the 'side-effects' that Releva and Qori had told him of the potion that he had drank.
If it was, then it didn't seem to be so bad. At least through this connection, Minas would be able to assist Mai in any way that he can, even if it is only like this, in his soul form.
Suddenly, however, Minas was transported to a different room. The only reason why he could tell that it was different was because the three girls were no longer in there.
Instead, he could see a little silver hairpin peeking out from underneath a pillow.
Looking around the room, Minas had a suspicion that it belonged to Mai. Before he could be sure, however, a lurking shadow suddenly appeared before him, its dark hands thrusting through the door.
Minas was shocked as he dodged its flailing arms, watching as the shadow's face break out into a terrifying grin.
It lunged towards the hairpin and Minas had no time to stop him- he only managed to get a fist-full of the shadow's murky darkness before it entered the lilac hairpin.
The same lilac hairpin that Teacher Claire had given Mai.
Minas remembered it. He stared in horror as the shadow took the time to wink at him, and then he was ejected out of his dream, his sweat pouring in buckets down his face.
He had to find some way to warn Mai.
No, he had to find some way to save her.
Minas turned his head to look out of his window, noticing that the sun had long set. He no longer had Qori, Eolia, or Wurv to assist him. Lorna and Kirna were both out of the running as well; he would need them to use the scrying glass, which required them to be physically in his Godspace.
The only ones he could rely on are Noevl, Croepl, and...
Minas' eyes darkened as he said the next word aloud, "Ocis."
