Chapter 228 Orion

Joseph turned to Stella.

"What do you want to do with it now? It will probably keep healing until all the divinity he had accumulated is used up. I bet we could eat it."

Suddenly, from both of them, a weird greenish-purple light emerged. NURKONG's body stood back up.

"Host has given System a body! System is free!" yelled the former NURKONG, before he shook his head, as if he didn't realize he had even said that.

"YAY! Don't worry, I won't stiff you on the life points you accumulated. I want to be friends with you, too. Hey, can you make me a Wizar?" asked the system, looking down at himself excitedly, as he shrunk in size to be closer to six foot tall, instead of forty.

"System?" Stella asked confused, sharing a look with Joseph.

"I don't think I want the Wizar to have a racial god besides me, system. Here," said Joseph.

PERMANENT SHAPESHIFTING - WIZAR.

"There. You should probably change your race a bit though. Even if you are a Wizar god, you would still have to obey me as king. I don't mind that; you can't hurt us."

"Wait, I may have not thought this through…what's this memory?"

An illusion appeared in front of them. It looked like Joseph, but much older and rugged.

"HAHAHA! Screw all you gods! You think erasing me from ever existing was enough to stop me, EMIT?! I made plans and contingencies for even that. Who cares if I was disrupting the other realms trying to save my own? It was my realm!"

The figure turned from making a rather rude motion to the sky, towards Joseph.

"You should have been able to solve the problem easily. I made sure the system I made would favor you, and be installed as soon as you turned seven. I made sure you would have a desire to be a mage. You should have been able to purify the curse on the world tree by the time you turned eight, once the system taught you META, and you secured that fey girl who was the guardian of the tree. Just drain her blood on its roots, and bam! Bonus if you find her sword to do the bleeding."

He shook his head at the news and looked at Joseph again. Everyone was stunned, but Joseph could tell the illusion was preprogrammed to look at him. It didn't matter that he wasn't a child, and that Stella stood next to him.

"Damn, I tried everything to fix the world tree, until I figured that out. I'm sure they didn't sacrifice her to finish its corruption, or you wouldn't even be seeing this message."

He turned to look up, as if someone else had just appeared. "Oh, and ENACRA? I won the bet. You can indeed, as just a mortal mage, create an entirely new soul from nothing. I didn't make it to pinnacle mastery in thaumatology for nothing. My little system here is proof."

He turned and looked back at Joseph.

"Damn, all the trouble I went through to make sure this time would be smooth and none of the gods would interfere before you could sneak to the world tree and cleanse it. Well boy, I bet NURKONG's gonna be pissed, that dick, but don't worry. Tibbles should be released from his seal in the world tree now, and he'll beat his dorky twin brother up for you. Go do all the things I wasn't able to do, since that sexy bitch killed me when I was a prince. Have a hot wife. Hell, have a dozen. Hell, just get a bunch of concubines, now that I think about it.

"I can't recall anyone I know who was happily married. The system I made should have given you magery even though we weren't born with it, without the searing pain of being drenched in dragon blood, like I had to go through. You should thank me for that, alternate me.

"Well, that's about all I've got to say. Oh, system. I know you probably can't forgive me for making you, and then disappearing and all that, but always know, you are the most fantastic creation of magic and science that ever has and ever will be made. It took 200 years to perfect you, so that you would continue to grow after I was erased. You don't take any lip from any of those whiny gods. Especially EMIT!"

They all shared a look as the illusion disappeared.

Stella looked at Joseph with an eyebrow raised, and he shrugged.

"So, in order to cleanse the world tree, I just what, bleed on the world tree, and you cast remove curse, and this is all done?"

The system nodded. "My newly unlocked memories show that should work. Less than a pint of blood is all that's needed actually, since you aren't human anymore. It would have taken all your blood as a child, because you were mostly human and smaller and weaker. As you are now, less than a pint should work. Then the world tree should cleanse the corruption and repair the fissures between realms that the demons are trying to open to come through."

Stella turned to the new system. "What should we call you now?"

"Call me Orion. Joseph, don't get me wrong, and I'm thankful I can use it, but why did you go through the effort of keeping NURKONG alive?"

"Oh, I didn't destroy him because I was planning on using him for parts. You saw how well he regenerated and how useful the eyes of destruction were for Chuck, right? If I left his followers in all the other worlds alone now, he would keep being filled with divinity and it would take centuries before the cults fully gave up on him. Unless one of the weakened gods offered me a better deal for his divinity of course…"

"Wait, you were going to keep him and harvest chunks off of him like a…a…" Orion trailed off as he seemed lost for words.

"Like a lab specimen, yes. I could have learned more about how to kill gods also, just in case I need to again in the future," confirmed Joseph.

"And that was if, after you auctioned him off to the other gods, you didn't like what they offered?" he asked.

"Also, if one of the kids couldn't use magic, like Stella, there was the option of making them a god. I can do a lot with a dead god, but I can do a lot more with a living one. I'm charging you for that body, by the way. Don't worry. We're friends so I won't charge interest."

Joseph smirked at the look of uncertainty that passed over Orion's face. Actually, being able to see him was much more satisfying.

It took an hour to get the rest of the way to the world tree and then to find Sylva's sword. Just in case something surprising happened, Joseph had Chuck remain on standby with Joe. He had to be cautious in case there was something else about to happen.

"Nothing is happening, Joseph," said Chuck.

"Maybe there isn't anyone else trying to stop us, but I would rather be overprepared, than not prepared enough. They might try to do something as soon as Stella starts bleeding on the world tree."

"That sounds awful," Stella grimaced as she pulled her old sword out of the wall of a trunk before them. As it was tied to the world tree, its current state was appalling. It was pitted and corroded.

"I'm amazed this is still in one piece. Stella, I'm glad we're immune to disease, or you would be about to get tetanus," said Joseph with a grimace. He wasn't sure he could watch her hurt herself.

Stella cut herself with the god slaying dagger, and her blood began to drip on the decrepit blade, but her healing was so high, she had to keep reopening the cut to keep the blood flowing. The blood that didn't land on the sword, landed on the root of the tree, that they were standing on. Once she decided the sword was completely covered, she thrust it back into the world tree.

FLASH!

'Hmm. I'm in a black space,' Joseph tried to think to the others through his mind link.

There was no response. Stars were winking into and out of existence in the distance. There was the feeling of a massive oppression. Joe appeared in his mind, having returned to him, and started analyzing the space as Joseph kept his focus on his surroundings.

"This must be a divine realm," he muttered.

"YOU INSUFFERABLE HUMAN! WHAT DID YOU DO TO NURKONG?!"