Chapter 2

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare! Don't you dare!" Arke shrieked.

Luke ignored her as he considered his options. Whatever his decision, he would have to make it, and fast. On one hand, the last person to possess the Seed had been killed. Right in front of him, for that matter. On the other hand, Luke was already dead. His fate was uncertain no matter what happened next. He had been pulled away from wherever he was going by Aeolus, to be eaten. Would his soul be free to resume the journey it started on with his death if he rejected the bond? Did he even want to find out what was waiting for him out there?

Glancing at the rage-filled expression on the crazy-strong winged woman hobbling toward him, he knew intuitively that if she got to him, he would regret it. Considering she had killed Aeolus and captured his soul, she likely had a way to take the Seed out of his. There was a high chance, Luke felt, that she would do it in a way that wouldn't leave him intact.

God Seed. What did that mean?

He remembered, before he died and blew himself up, the man had claimed to be divine. Even the name of the woman, Arke. It sounded like something he had heard in passing. She was a character in a story. A myth come true. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think of where or when he had heard her name before.

A seed. You planted it, and it grew. A god seed. Would it grow a god? Was that what the man had meant by his last words? That he was a god?

Yes, Luke decided, making his choice, the first one since he had been pulled into this mess.

Installing.

Installed.

Host in imminent danger.

Would you like to use a charge to escape?

Yes/No

In the distance, Arke seemed to have detected that something had changed.

"NO! If you leave, I will find you. Just like I found Aeolus. The fate that befell him will feel like heaven compared to what I do to you!"

Yes. Luke gave the command, committing to memory the names of the monster that had brought him here and the not-angel whose actions had inadvertently saved him.

Charges remaining: 9 of 10

Choosing Destination

Analyzing Parameters

Destination Set: Theos

A golden bubble originated from within him and wrapped around his soul. A now-familiar inky blackness once again surrounded him as he was carried into the Aether.

The journey felt a lot more relaxed this time. The direction of his travel, at the very least, didn't induce the same sense of wrongness and anxiety as it had when Aeolus had hijacked his previous trip.

It helped that this time, instead of the blackness, he also had something to attract his attention. A status screen, like in a video game.

Status | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: N/A

Rate: N/A

Strength: N/A

Agility: N/A

Constitution: N/A

Arcana: N/A

Stat Points: N/A

Charges: 9/10

All considered, it was interesting to look at, even with all his stats reading "not applicable," something he correctly attributed to not having a body. A problem he desperately hoped there was a solution to.

His tier being Mortal implied that there was something beyond it, and recalling the terrifying might of Arke and Aeolus, he guessed that was definitely the case. Mana, similarly, implied the existence of magic. Strength, Agility, and Constitution were easy enough to understand, even if Luke didn't know exactly what they meant outside of a game. The function of the Arcana stat likely had an effect on mana. What that effect was, Luke couldn't say, magic being a completely foreign concept to him.

The quests tab was empty, for the moment, at least. His inventory, however, was not.

Status | Quests | Inventory

Items:

God Seed (Soul Bound)

Tier—Primordial

An artifact forged from the primal energy of chaos by ⠗⠑⠙⠁⠉⠞⠑⠙. Guides wielder in their pursuit of godhood.

It was a sparse description, but useful nonetheless. It confirmed his suspicions about the purpose of the Seed. Arke had likely discovered that Aeolus owned it and had come to take it from him. Reading the description once again, his attention lingered on the black bar that was supposed to be the name of the Seed's creator. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He didn't know what the primal energy of chaos was, or what "Primordial tier" meant in the grand scheme of things. Something to look into in the future.

Luke's musings were cut short when something came into view. Unlike the bubble in darkness that was Aeolus's demiplane, the world before him just existed. There was no barrier separating it from the Aether. It was a planet, but calling it such felt like an insult to its sheer size. Orbiting it from a distance were nine large stars, and closer to the surface were nine smaller bodies Luke thought looked like moons. Like a picture of Earth taken from space, it was shrouded by white clouds that shone blindingly with the reflected light of its suns. Continents and islands peeked out of its oceans, barely visible under the cover provided by the clouds.

To his untrained eye, it looked vaguely like one of those old models of the solar system, before they had figured out that the Earth wasn't at the center of the universe. This place, in contrast, was.

Theos. That's what the Seed had called his destination.

Entering Theos.

Environment inhospitable to noncorporeal entities.

Recommended action: Possess recently deceased body.

Cost: 2 Charges

Yes/No

Luke considered what it was asking. So, there was a way for him to get a body. Except he wasn't enthusiastic about taking over some dead person's life.

Are there any other options? He directed his thoughts to the Seed.

A Mortal-tier body can be constructed.

Cost: 8 Charges

Yes/No

That would leave him with one charge. He'd already used one, and it had been a massive help. It had quite literally saved his life. Spending eight more, while he could get away with spending two, didn't seem wise.

Can I get more charges later?

Negative.

Luke frowned, just now realizing that he could communicate with the Seed with his thoughts alone.

Are you alive?

Negative.

The God Seed interfaces with the user's soul and possesses information-processing and scanning abilities. Designed to guide the wielder toward godhood. For more information, contact ⠗⠑⠙⠁⠉⠞⠑⠙.

He read over the message carefully, frowning at the pattern of seemingly random dots that was either the identity of the Seed's creator—or was hiding it. Even if he had known their name, there was no way he would go and seek them out. In any case, it was a relief to him that the Seed wasn't alive. He wouldn't quite know how to feel if the Seed had been some strange being that he had to share his soul with. Not that there would be anything he could do about it at this stage.

Do I have any other options besides creating a body or possessing one?

Negative.

Possession it is, Luke decided after mulling over his two options. Not knowing what else he might need the charges for in the future, it was best to conserve them.

Affirmative.

Scanning.

Compatible bodies found: 1,356,087,873

Analyzing.

Defining parameters.

Optimal host selected.

Rerouting.

Abruptly, the speed he was traveling at increased. The distant world became larger and larger to Luke until it encompassed the entirety of his vision. Then he was there, bursting through the clouds, with a clear view of the world's continents and oceans.

He flew at blistering speeds toward the surface of the planet, to an ocean in between two large continents. A moment later, his destination became visible: an archipelago with each island surrounded by beautiful blue-green water and sandy beaches.

Before he could accurately judge the size or even the shape of the island he landed on, he found himself hovering before a body. It was a kid, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. Dark hair, pale skinned, and dressed in ratty clothes. A body that was soon to be his.

His vision faded to black as a message appeared in front of him.

Stand by.

Luke rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before abruptly getting to his feet. He stood in a clearing and took in the sight of the leafy trees and the sounds of the forest, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

Sitting back down a moment later with his back pressed against a tree, he closed his eyes to think. He took a moment to just breathe for the first time since he'd landed in this mess.

He wondered how his parents and friends would take the news of his passing. Someone would have rummaged through his belongings. Gotten into his phone. Made the appropriate calls. He smiled lightly as a tear ran down the side of his face. Hopefully his roommate, once he heard the news, would close all the tabs he had left open on his laptop and get rid of everything even remotely embarrassing that he saved on his hard drive. A promise made in jest not long before his untimely demise.

Besides, he thought, I have a real chance of becoming a god. If those two could move around in that weird space, so can I. Once I get strong enough, I might even be able to go back to Earth. Wouldn't that make a mess? He smiled as he imagined the looks on everyone's faces once he came back with crazy-strong powers.

Calling up his status, he looked over his attributes.

Status | Quests | Inventory

Name: Lukas King

Tier: Mortal

Mana: 0

Rate: 10% per hour

Strength: 8

Agility: 9

Constitution: 13

Arcana: 0

Stat Points: 0

Bloodline: Locked. Conditions not met.

Charges: 7/10

It had updated when he'd possessed the body, and he was relieved to see he finally had stats. Disappointing as they were, he had plenty of room for improvement. Something that he was looking forward to. The Bloodline was new, though, and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

What is a Bloodline, anyway?

It was at that moment disjointed fragments of memories belonging to the body's original owner hit him with all the grace of a bag of bricks. Aside from painfully filling his head with the knowledge of this world's language, they didn't paint a pretty picture. The kid, Max, had been an orphan. When he was younger, five, maybe six years old, a fisherman had found and rescued him. Max himself didn't remember, but he had been told when he was older that they found him alone on a dinghy floating listlessly in the sea, dehydrated and on the verge of death. The old fisherman and his wife had been kind to the original Max and had raised him as if he was their own son.

Things had been good until the fisherman had an accident at sea and perished. Not long after he passed away, Max and the fisherman's wife had been harassed over his debt—a debt that Max was sure didn't exist. The wife, already old, and weakened by the death of her husband, had passed away not long after. The creditors, seeing an opportunity, used the alleged debt as well as the fact that Max wasn't the fisherman's actual son as an excuse and took possession of the couple's property, every single thing they'd owned, from the boat to their small house.

As if that hadn't been enough, the creditors had decided that Max was too much of a nuisance to their claim and had chased him out of town. Without any food, water, or even appropriate clothes, he had succumbed to the environment and died. Moments before Luke's soul had occupied the vacant body.

Which led Luke to his current predicament. The island he was on was big. If the jumbled mess that were Max's memories painted an accurate picture, the island would be the size of a continent, at least, if it was picked up and dropped into one of Earth's oceans. The level of technology on the island also wasn't great. If Luke had to guess, what did exist would be comparable to what was present in the preindustrialization period on Earth. They had trains that ran on steam, but the most common modes of transport were various beasts of burden. Giant four-legged lizards and flightless birds that reminded Luke of ostriches pulled carts and carriages, taking people where they needed to go.

At least the weather is nice year-round.

His stomach grumbled painfully, reminding him that he didn't have the luxury of time. If he just stayed here, he would only succeed in reenacting Max's death.

Luke thumped his head gently against the tree, at a loss for what to do. He didn't know what direction the town he came from was, nor did he particularly want to go back there. Compared to his modern sensibilities, the place might as well be a backward and lawless hellhole.

In this world, it was common for the average person to never leave the place of their birth. Max himself had never been possessed by a desire for knowledge and hardly knew a thing about anything other than his own little part of town. He'd fully planned on inheriting the fisherman's boat and supporting himself the only way he knew how.

Quest Alert: Acquire Bellerophon's Blade

Luke stared at the message. This is what a god had died for, a vague clue? He opened his status.

Status | Quests | Inventory

Acquire Bellerophon's Blade:

Over five hundred years have passed since Bellerophon's infamous attempt to reach divinity was thwarted by Zeus. His armaments fell with the rain over all corners of Theos. His blade is on the island of Carim. Found by members of the Luminous Sky Society, it resides in their armory till this day. Ignorant of the treasure they possess, or how to use it, they leave the blade unused, hanging on a wall.

That was better, Luke thought as he carefully read over the description of the quest. There was a sword on the island. The Luminous Sky Society, whatever that was, had it. He just had to find a way to retrieve it, and he'd be well on his way to his own apotheosis. One that hopefully went better than Aeolus's—or Bellerophon's, for that matter.

All he had to do was find a way out of the forest and then find a way to the society. Sorely wishing that Max's memories had provided more context, he got to his feet and looked around. Picking a direction that he thought and hoped led to the town Max came from, he began walking.

A few minutes later, he heard someone sneeze behind him. Jumping two feet in the air at the sudden noise, Luke came face-to-face with a sturdy-looking elderly man dressed in bright-red robes. He was floating lazily above the ground with his legs crossed.

Luke started at him, and he stared at Luke.

"You wouldn't happen to be possessing that body, would you?" the man asked, his hands combing through his long white beard as he stared at Luke, an unreadable expression on his face.

Fuck.