The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]

Divine cohorts are common in the lower ranks. There are cohorts of minor spirits that number in the thousands or hundreds. Then, as the power and notability of the Divines in question increases, the amount of relationships they have slowly decreases. The phenomenon is common enough as to be undeniable, fortress spirits will make relationships with all their neighbouring fortresses, national Divines will be friends with how many people? And past Nationals, in the realm of ‘proper’ Divinity as Anassa and Irinika call it, how many of us actually get along?

There have been plenty of explanations that have attempted to explain this through a matter of needs and rules of relationships. The power of major Divinity inherently makes weaker spirits wary of us, and makes it difficult for them to drop their guard. Nevertheless, I do not buy this theory. I do not agree with it in the slightest in fact.

Major Divinity, simply put, does not need relationships to function. The rules of relationships are worthless, because they exist to facilitate something that none of us bother creating in the first place. And we don’t bother creating those relationships in the first place because they are not needed to us. There is a minimal amount of instances, at least upon initial reflection, where the company of another Divine improves the situation. Kassandora may be useful in a war, but that is where her use ends. Neneria is there to clean up spirits. Maisara is a basket-case in herself.

Life alone is simply easier when we deal with beings this powerful.

Thus, I have to change that.

- Excerpt from the private writings of God Arascus, of Pride.

Aliana smoothed down her coat before taking it off. She was the last one here, although that only made sense since she had the longest route to get from her frontline in Esberia back to Olonia’s home in the Land of Gods. The Goddess of Lubska had gone down the route of making it a homely homestead instead of an imposing palace, although Aliana supposed that make sense. The Land of Gods was no place to take humans to, it was an area restricted only to the Divine.

And it was almost surreal to see, Aliana had to admit. All the chairs and couches, the cups and glasses, even down to the bottles that measured multitudes of litres each were sized for Divines. A human here would feel downsized. Aliana, for once in her life, felt as if this was a space built for Divinity first. The huge glass wall at the end of the living opened up to reveal a mountain of snow that practically shone in the moonlight. The needled, evergreen trees all wore cloaks of the same cold material. There were a few tracks in Olonia’s massive field of a garden which revealed tracks in the white snow. Animals had been walking past.

Aliana’s four other friends were already there. Olonia, with her white hair and blue eyes, sitting in a shirt and skirt on the couch and cradling a large glass of vodka. Saksma was next to her. Of Doschia was larger in all ways, and she had a bottle of beer. Of Rilia lay down sprawled next to the fireplace as it crackled with flames. The fire blazed within it and Agrita lay snuggled with a large glass of wine. The caller of this meeting, Paida, was sat alone on the far end of the couch. Her purple eyes, framed by blonde hair, were the same colour as the wine in the chalice between her thighs. “Apologies for being late.” Aliana said, she retrieved her bottle of whiskey from her coat, everyone was supposed to bring what they wanted.

“Oh don’t worry, we were just settling in.” Olonia said from the couch.

“We were.” Agrita said from her position. “Waiting for you.”

Aliana quickly retrieved a glass from Olonia’s cabinet and went to the couch where she sat net to Paida. Of Rancais leaned on her for a moment. “What is this meeting about?” Aliana asked. “Because I can tell we’re not just here for chit-chat.”

“That’s for Paida to say.” Saksma said. “We don’t know anything either.”

“I…” Paida took a deep breath and then shook her head. “I just wanted to talk to all of you. I don’t even know what you can do to help me.” She pursed her lips “That’s the honest part of it. I don’t really… I mean, even Arascus didn’t know.” Immediately, the temperature in the room seemed to cool down when Paida mentioned that Arascus, of all people, didn’t know something. Aliana felt a chill go down her sline. How could Arascus, of all people, not know? Shouldn’t Arascus know everything? Wasn’t Arascus Arascus?

“What do you mean?” Aliana took the initiative out of the group of friends. If this was a problem, then they had to handle it in a non-idiotic manner, and to do that, they had to work through the problem step-by-step.

“I mean that no one really knows what is happening.” Paida said. She took a deep breath. “There’s monsters underneath Aris.”

That statement landed with the force of an O-Bomb. Every one of the four Goddesses listening to Paida suddenly stopped and held their breathes. Monsters underneath Aris. That was like… It was almost on the level of Continent Cracking. Maybe worse even. It was learning of Continent Cracking after Elassa and Kassandora had set off to the end the Jungle. “What do you mean?” Saksma asked. “Like actual monsters? From the Age of Monsters?”

“Those ones.” Paida said dryly. “Arascus told me not to tell anyone, but I thought I had to tell you.” Agrita swallowed hard.

“Why did he tell you not to say?” She asked, her face inches away from the gold chalice of wine although she didn’t drink from it.

“I don’t know.” Paida said. “Because it’s dangerous?” She asked. “Because it will cause a panic if the knowledge spreads?” She shrugged. “I had to tell someone though. I can’t…” She sighed. “There’s monsters underneath Aris. They venture out into the city, do you know that?”

Once again, the room collectively held it’s breath. No. Monsters venturing out into the city was something they did not know. “What?” Aliana asked.

“They venture out.” Paida said sadly. “I know they do.”

“Have you confirmed it?”

Paida sighed and shook her head. And she got into a retelling of a tale that took maybe an hour, maybe two. The snow flakes outside gently drifted downwards, tracks in Olonia’s massive lawn got filled in by the gentle white blanket, and Paida kept on talking. She began with the event that kicked it off, the succubi that disappeared into the catacombs. Then she talked of Helenna and Malam meeting with her and talking of monsters. Of what they had found in the library. Up until that point, Aliana didn’t see the point in the meeting. It was simply a bad event but they all had gone through their own hardships. If anything, then it should Olonia retelling a tale like this, except hers was of the journey in Arika with the One-Seventeenth. “And then…” Paida took a deep breath. “They asked me if I remembered that night. I don’t.”

And Aliana felt her thoughts come across a jam. How could a Divine not remember a night like that? It was one thing to get basic events confused, or maybe the continuity of mundanities but a night where the river ran red? “Was it a monster?” Agrita asked from the floor. The fire behind her crackled.

“That’s what Malam and Helenna said.” Paida admitted quietly. And then she launched into the truly terrifying aspect of the story. What Malam and Helenna had told her and how they pretended that monsters living under the capital city of the nation that Paida represented was no great deal. And then the journey into the catacombs. How Paida realised that Helenna’s blessing made her redundant, how she started relying on humanity. All the terrible things she saw.

But worse were the things she couldn’t explain. The poems or mantras or recordings or whatever they were carved onto cliffs in the walls. How they talked of things that Paida thought she recognised at first, but then came the slow dawning realisation that she was completely out of her depth. Aliana had to keep sipping her whiskey to simply be doing something. What Paida found was terrifying, it was terrifying to think that locations like that could exist within Allia too. Or maybe they were above a city of monsters right now? What an awful thought. “And that’s it.” Paida took a deep breath and relaxed, finally leaning backwards on Olonia’s cream couch. “Thanks for listening to me. Sorry for speaking so much.”

“Don’t worry.” Olonia said. Aliana didn’t understand how the Goddess of Lubska could take things so easily. “And how hard are they to kill?”

“They die to bullets.” Paida said. “But that’s only because the men had Helenna’s blessing, without it, I don’t think we’d be able to tell what is friendly and what is not.”

Olonia took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “I see.” She said. “So that’s what we are talking about.”

“That is.” Paida admitted. “They became human perfectly. I’m pretty sure they could even copy us if they tried.”

“But Helenna’s blessing can still detect them.” Olonia said.

“I don’t know.”

Olonia took a deep breath and took a swig of her vodka. “Well we’ve beaten back Ashen Skies, we should be able to defeat them too.”

“They’re underneath my capital Olonia.” Paida said. “What if they burst out? What if I disturbed them? We left the corpses behind.”

“That’s not good.” Saksma said. Aliana narrowed her eyes immediately. What an idiot to say something like that. It was obvious that Paida was worried and making her more worried was precisely the last thing they wanted to be doing right now.

“Saks!” Aliana hissed. “Don’t say that!”

“I’m just saying it’s not good.” Saksma said flatly. “What? It isn’t. Now they know something has been down there.”

Paida sighed heavily and threw her head back onto the couch to look at Olonia’s wooden ceiling. “I know Saks.” She said. “I know, that’s what makes me worried. What if I disturbed them?”

“I still hold that we have Arascus and his daughters on our side.” Olonia said. “So what if you disturbed them? Can they go up against Kassandora? Fuck that.” Olonia said. “Kassandora’s overkill. Can they even go up against Fer? Fortia? Maisara? Anassa? Any of them?” Aliana watched Paida answer with a sad little smile.

“Of course they can’t.” She said.

“Paida isn’t worried about whether we can defeat them Olonia.” Aliana had to intervene, Olonia was only making the situation worse. The woman had spent so long in Arika and fighting against Tartarus that she had forgotten what it was like to have the common worries of leadership. “The question is if they charge out, how many people will die.”

Paida took a deep breath, she drank her glass of Rancais purple wine in one long gulp, then set it down on the table. “Why is it always me?” She asked quietly, pulling her legs up to her chest. “Why?” She mumbled into her knees as her arms wrapped around her legs and she hugged herself. Immediately, Aliana put her arm around Paida to hug her. Agrita was quick on her feet to, she sat down on the other side of Paida. Even Saksma and Olonia came close. “It’s just not fair.”

Aliana said nothing. She didn’t know what to say exactly frankly. Paida was correct, it was not fair. “But you can do it.” Agrita said quietly. “Because you’re here and because you have us and because we’re here.” She hugged Paida from the side.

“It was Anarchia first.” Paida said. “And then that civil war. And then Ratsweeper. Arseille. Now Aris.” Aliana kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t her place to talk. None of them had it as bad as the nations that were swallowed up in the Ashfront true but…

“I know what you mean.” Agrita said. “It’s not like the war.” She spoke quietly, as if choosing each word carefully. “No, it’s one thing, then another, then another. Just unending.”

“Unending.” Paida mumbled and then sniffled. She was crying. She was actually crying. Olonia looked to Aliana then stood up.

“I’ll make something to eat.” She said.

“I’ll do it.” Aliana stood up. She knew what Paida liked better than Olonia did.

“You sure?” Olonia asked. “I’ll help.”

“You two go, me and Agrita will stay.” Saksma said as she moved to sit by Paida. Aliana was already walking to the kitchen, Olonia followed along. Here, the kitchen was a separate room, Olonia apparently did not want the smell of cooking to waft into the couch. Of Allia didn’t bother to critique it, everyone had their own style.

“That’s a mess of a situation.” Olonia said as Saksma got to work. She retrieved potatoes and stock, oil and meat and vegetables.

“Cut that.” Aliana said, passing Olonia the carrots and parsnips and onions. “That’s correct though, I don’t know what to say. She’s had it rough.” That was all Aliana could say frankly. “I’m glad you didn’t press her.”

“Why should I have pressed her?”

“I was worried you would tell her there’s nothing to be worrying about.”

“You’re an idiot.” Olonia scoffed as she finished slicing the carrots into small chunks. Aliana got to work mashing the potatoes to make the fluffy top of the shepherd’s pie. “I’m not that horrible.”

“Saksma scared me with her reports about how much you’ve changed.” Olonia took a deep breath and began dicing the onion.

“Saksma panicked.” Olonia said. “We’ve all changed, I’ve just changed the most. But I’m still me.”

“I can see that.” Aliana said. “But still…” She shrugged. “You know, you have to see it to believe it.”

“I know what you mean.” Olonia said. The chatter descended down into lighter topics, mainly of food and the pie they were making. “This is a big meal.”

“It feeds a whole family for a day, two maybe.” Aliana crouched down to watch the pie bake in the oven. “And Paida likes it more than your cuisine.” Olonia scoffed.

“My cuisine is fantastic!” She said. Aliana rolled her eyes. There was only so much cabbage, potatoes, buckwheat and meat one could eat before they grew sick of it, and yet Olonia seemed to be able to cook only that. But again, Aliana would not argue. They could agree to disagree. And besides, Allian cooking was the best in the world, the only reason others joked about it so much was to cope with their own inferiority. There was nothing as warming as a good meat pie, or a haddock fried to perfection, or an Allian savoury pastry.

“It’ll take a while to make. An hour maybe.” Aliana said. “Let’s see how they’re going.”

“I hope she’s not crying.” Olonia said.

“She probably will be.” Aliana expected the breakdown sooner rather than later. Hopefully, they could cry now and the food would cheer everyone up.

“I don’t know how to handle that Aliana.” Of Allia stopped and looked at Olonia upon hearing that. That was the mark. Olonia had actually changed. The old Olonia would never make such an admittance so openly.

“Then we sit, like good friends, and we’re there for her. Come, you don’t need to say anything. You just need to be there.”