[Merging Trial locations. Please wait.]

  Once Langa walked through the door, he entered an area where the soulhold expanded into two clear rooms with an open space in front of them. Child Liv sat in the left room, which resembled his cell, playing with a ring on his finger. He looked around nervously, as though afraid someone would walk in.

  The second room was familiar, similar to the one Langa used to share with Neo when they were children. Child Langa sat inside, and the room’s walls looked like a half-open box. He was separated from Child Liv by a thin glass. Many locked boxes similar to the one that always stayed in Kgosi’s kitchen surrounded Child Langa as he sat hunched over in the only empty space of the room. It made Langa wonder why his soul looked so damn depressed and pathetic.

  Suddenly, adult Liv appeared by his side, and Langa was about to ask what was going on, but then his head started to hurt. A sharp pain filled him, cutting into his memories like a hot knife as he was shown Liv's trial. Memories of the mall, the punishment, the claustrophobia, the conversation the two of them had and how Liv got Langa’s soul to trust him, all swam inside his mind and he held on to Tonare to calm himself down.

  Shit. Why would The Unrivalled remind him of that memory now, of all times? He clenched his fist, closing his eyes to snuff out the memory of the walls closing on him. It was distant, but he could feel a wash of essence helping to comfort him as he relived that painful memory.

  “Are you okay?” Liv asked hesitantly.

  “Dammit,” Langa cursed. “Of all the memories, why did she choose the most shameful one?”

  Liv’s face fell, and he scratched his neck nervously as he walked towards Langa. “I’m sorry you had to see that memory,” he said. “It wasn’t my proudest moment.”

  Langa blinked. “What? What are you talking about?”

  “You know what I mean. I hate that you had to see my desire to kill the people who were just following the edict of their masters’ gods,” he said. “I know it was shameful. I should have accepted the suffering as my yoke for being born a demigod, but-”

  “What? Why would you be ashamed of standing up for yourself? I wasn't talking about your memory. I was talking about mine,” Langa told him firmly.

  Liv had nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, the ones who should have been ashamed and grovelling at his feet were the demonkin who used their useless grudge against The Demon Reaper against Liv.

  Now Liv was the one who looked confused. “Why would you be ashamed of someone stronger mistreating you? It's a bad reflection on them, not you,” he said. “You were hurt, yet you pressed everything down so you wouldn’t worry your sister. You didn’t allow yourself to break until you were alone, until you couldn’t hurt anyone else. If anything, I envy your self-control.”

  Langa snorted. “My compartmentalisation isn't something to envy. My psychologist used to say I force things away because I’m afraid I can't control them. I wish I could be as outwardly destructive as you, instead of continuously destroying my mind to maintain a semblance of sanity.”

  “Trust me, that’s not the solution either. Losing control may be freeing in the moment but when you stand over the destruction you’ve wrought, it hurts you too,” Liv said.

  So was there no other solution for Langa than to break out of the box and let those memories free? To face them?

  He took a deep breath, turning back to Liv. “I finally understand why you hate your grandmother,” he said quietly, watching as Liv's soul cast glances at Langa's soul across the glass from him, as though he was unsure what to make of him. Langa’s soul sat hunched against the wall, muttering to himself, hands on his head.

  'What a fool,' Langa thought. Was this seriously what it was like inside him? No wonder his Mental Resistance was atrocious.

  Why was a boy whose worst memories were being trapped, drowning in a car, and being locked in a box looking more traumatised than a boy who'd had to kill before he was even ten years old? Trusting someone didn’t mean that it was easy to close the gap first. Even if Langa was trying to change, he had lived his whole life keeping people at a distance. He had been told that he was a curse, a plague that stole fortune from those he got close to. So he would never approach Liv’s soul first.

  “Yeah, for someone who has lived for hundreds of years, my grandmother still fails to take accountability for her actions. She hated me as if she didn’t push my mother towards the path of self-destruction,” Liv said, shaking his head. "As if she wasn’t the one who allowed my mother to taint her bloodline by mixing it with the demon snake of the underworld.”

  “You said you want to topple your grandmother's kingdom, right?” Langa asked, looking at the scars on the back of Liv’s soul, where his wing used to be. “I’m with you all the way. I want that bitch to pay for what she did to you. You were a child and didn’t deserve to be tortured or forced to stay locked inside a cage.”

  “Of course, I did,” Liv said, looking puzzled. “That cage sealed my mana, demonic aura, and divine karma. It protected me, and it protected them from me. When I lost control, I killed a lot of people that day. Some had never wronged me. Innocents.”

  Langa was quiet for a moment. “Children?” he asked.

  Liv hesitated. “I lost control,” he said.

  Langa could let it go. Pretend everything was fine, since it was the past and he couldn’t change it. He could choose not to face the truth of who his friend was. But no. He’d promised himself he’d stop pushing things away.

  “Children?” Langa asked again, looking up at Liv.

  Liv’s lips tightened. “Yes,” he said.

  Langa closed his eyes. He’d known the answer. Of course, he had.

  “Is that a dealbreaker for you?” Liv asked.

  “It should be,” Langa said. “But I’ve found that I forgive in the people I care about, things I wouldn’t forgive of others. Like Neo. I don’t like it, Liv. What’s the point of having a moral code if it doesn’t apply to the people close to me? Doesn’t that make me a hypocrite?”

  “I don’t understand mortals all that well, but you all seem to be hypocrites when it comes to the people you care about,” Liv said.

  “Then I guess I’ve discovered something else I want to change about myself,” Langa said. “I don’t enjoy killing, but I’ll do it to protect myself, to protect others, to keep my promises, and to punish those who hurt innocent people. I won’t hold you or the other people I care about to my standards. We’re both broken, but in different ways. I need that self-control to stay sane. But I think I do have a dealbreaker, even for my people.”

  He turned a fierce gaze towards Liv. “Promise me that you will never kill an innocent child ever again.”

  “This is important to you,” Liv said, observing him. “Yes, I promise.”

  “Good,” Langa nodded. “I trust you’ll keep that promise, or you will lose me and my support.”

  “I will,” Liv said, looking at their souls. “So you see, my grandmother was right to lock me up after all.”

  “Liv, this is the infinite multiverse. You’re telling me there was no other way to protect you or protect others from you? Are you saying she couldn’t find a way for you to live a normal life?” Langa asked incredulously.

  “I suppose she could, but why would she?” Liv asked, bemused.

  “Because you’re her daughter's child, Liv, that is the decent thing to do,” Langa shouted. “Because if a child is an orphan but has your blood, you take them in. You care for them, and you give them, at the very least, the bare minimum!”

  “Not if you're the queen of an imperialistic nation that thrives on producing an elite number of indoctrinated, controllable dragonkin soldiers to colonise multiple surrounding worlds in your solar system. Especially when you've lost a lot of them over the centuries,” Liv said with a wry smile. “Besides, just doing the ‘right thing’ when you don’t want to doesn't always work out either. I mean, your brother-in-law treated you like crap.”

  Langa watched his soul whispering over and over again, ‘I am in control.’ “He did more than he was obligated to. I don’t blame him for not liking me; the family fell on hard times as soon as I joined them, and I was an extra mouth to feed when things were already hard for him and Sis’Thandi. He didn’t have to raise me, but he did,” he said.

  “I don't care what you say; I’ve memorised his face. Do you hear me?” Liv said aggressively. “If I ever see him, if he ever crosses my path, I swear to The Sun God, I will unleash the entirety of my demonic aura on him, and I will rip his head from his body and feed it to my demonic spirit.”

  “Liv-”

  “He knew you were claustrophobic, and he still forced you into that box!” Liv said, his fists clenched.

  “Liv. It’s fine,” Langa said. “He did the best he could. My sister begged him to keep me and he listened to her. He could’ve thrown me out, but he didn’t.”

  “Langa,” Liv said quietly, approaching him, “Maybe I’m biased because I only saw one memory. One horrible, unforgivable memory. Maybe I'm wrong, so I'll ask you this. Was your brother-in-law good to you?”

  Langa's jaw tightened, and he looked away. “He...he took care of me when he didn't have to.”

  Liv grabbed both his shoulders and gently forced Langa to look at him. Mismatched eyes locked on his as Liv repeated. “Was he good to you?”

  “No.” The word came out as a whisper. Langa’s whole life he’d been taught to be grateful because Kgosi didn’t have to take care of him. He’d been quiet, diminished himself, and taken the mistreatment as a consequence of being an unwanted child. But gods, sometimes Kgosi had been truly awful to him.

  He raised his hand and wiped the tears that fell from his eyes, and he felt the comforting presence of Adtonifulmin’s essence as Liv squeezed his shoulder.

  “Sorry,” Langa said. “I’m fine now.”

  ”It's okay to let go of that control sometimes; otherwise, it will burst out of you at the worst time. It is okay to allow yourself to fall,” Liv said as his soul took a tentative step towards Langa.

  “If I fell, who would carry me?” Langa asked as Liv's soul extended a hand to his.

  “I would. And you’re always looking far into the distance when all you really need is right beside you. I won’t abandon you, Langa, and neither will he,” Liv said, pointing at something above Langa’s soul.

  While the child sat in agony with his head in his hands, the boxes drawing ever closer, they couldn’t touch that small space he inhabited. Stepping closer, Langa realised that he was inside an invisible cocoon. An invisible shroud surrounded him, not allowing the darkness to overcome his mind.

  “Master,” Langa whispered. Why did he always forget that he wasn’t alone any more? Even if his soul couldn’t feel him, Adtonifulmin was there, watching over him as he promised, and that was enough. He watched as his soul cast an unsure glance at Liv's extended hand. Trusting him didn’t mean he was ready to let him in after all.

  [Congratulations! Your Mental Resistance has increased by +1%]

  "Seriously?" Langa muttered, directing his ire at The Unrivalled. Why was his Mental Resistance so low that merely admitting that he had suffered from abuse made it go up? He supposed it was because he'd never wanted to admit that no one, not even the sister he loved so much, had protected him from this. The only one who ever tried was Neo. Maybe that was why Langa always ignored Neo's wrongs, because he was the only one who had protected him after his father's death.

  “I’ll teach you how to let go, so that one day, you'll find the strength to smash through that box and face your fears,” Liv promised. “I will help you to free your mind from all that plagues it and find yourself.”

  Alright, Langa could accept that, but not without giving anything in return. “Fine. I hate seeing you hold back because I know how suffocating that is. I'll find a way to teach you control. So that instead of holding back, you can use your full power without losing to the darkness,” Langa said. “I don't know how, but I will.”

  “You are the one indeed,” Liv smiled. “My anchor.”

  The irony was not lost on Langa. An impulsive, fearful child obsessed with staying inside a box and an out-of-control demigod were each other's anchors. Langa's soul took Liv's hand, and they sat next to each other.

  The System Administrator appeared in front of them with a smile. “Well done, boys,” she said. "You have completed the Optional Objective: Complete The Soul Trial of Trust. Once the full quest is completed, you will receive your guild token rank according to your quest clear rank.”

  She handed a fist-sized coin to Liv. “Don’t lose that token. I’m not allowed to say how well you did, but that combined with this being the first clear of this 1st Floor Gatekeeper means that token is very valuable. Mortals have been killed for far less,” she said.

  “Thank you,” Langa said. His compulsive need to be polite to people who could give extra rewards for it taking over.

  She smiled. “I’m sure we’ll meet again,” she said and hesitated. “Be vigilant. I can feel that your final battle in this Gate will be a troublesome one. Master has already begun damage control because of the ripple your and his actions will cause.”

  Langa frowned. “If The Unrivalled knows we’re going to cause a disaster, why doesn’t she just stop it beforehand?” he asked.

  It wasn’t the System Administrator who answered, but Liv. “Free will.”

  Langa tsked. That damn pesky thing.

  “Good luck, child of The Lackadaisical Herald and child of The Sun God,” the System Administrator said and disappeared.

  [The Trial of Trust has ended. You may exit the Soulhold in 120 seconds.]

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Why is it counting down? Can we still do something in this place? Isn't the trial over?” Langa asked, needing to get out of here.

  “I'm sure the system senses that there's something I want to do before we get back to the girls,” Liv said as he took a deep breath. He appeared to brace himself as if he were swallowing a bitter pill. “The reason why I wanted us to do the Trial of Trust wasn’t just so we could get the guild token. I told you that there was a favour I wanted to ask you.”

  “Right. The guild thing,” Langa said, wondering where Liv was going with this. "You said there was something else."

  “Yes. Vavuciadsforenkka was right about me being a mass murderer. When I was sixteen years old, I committed a great sin that resulted in the eradication of an entire demonkin enclave because I lost control of my demonic aura. I took everything from my den-brother. My divine karma fuelled my mana so much that it leaked endlessly out of the seal my grandmother made me,” he said. “After that, I entered the Duat Tower, hoping to earn my father’s favour so he could temper the divine karma inside me because that’s what’s expected of a demigod. It didn’t work out, and I had the system reset my level so I could start again in the tutorial.”

  That explained why Langa had seen that Liv had climbed the 1st and 2nd Floor of Duat Tower when he’d used his Team Player title on him and that he’d rejected his father’s patronage. He had no idea why he was bringing this up now.

  “The second favour I wanted to ask you is tied to this.” He lifted his hand, and on it was a ring. It was black with multiple letters etched all over it. There had to be over 100 runes, symbols, and glyphs written on it, and that could only mean one thing.

  “That's a divine artefact,” Langa said, fascinated. Liv had that ring since the tutorial. He hadn’t really been able to tell its power then, because he didn’t know magic circles, but now that he did, he could tell it was the magic circle for a divine skill.

  “That’s right. My grandmother gave it to me. It’s a divine artefact from the Living Wing. She used it to seal my mana, but even if it is a divine artefact, it only works best for people below Tier 1. In other words, at Tier 1, my mana started leaking again.” He closed his eyes and muttered an incantation. The magic circle on the ring glowed black, and then black mist surrounded Liv’s finger. With his other hand, he pulled something else from that finger and handed it to Langa.

  Puzzled, Langa looked at the strange black object in his hands. It was another ring. It looked almost identical to the one Liv had. When he focused on the crown of the ring, Langa could see that inside it there was a small orb similar to a snow globe. Inside the globe was a strange golden flower with ten petals, seven of which were shrivelled up while three were vibrantly alive. The seven withered petals had blue chains drawn on their surface and below the flower, there was clear glittering water as well as a violent red liquid that threatened to taint the water.

  It was a beautiful ring, yet the nervous, fearful look in Liv’s eyes gave Langa pause. What was the purpose of this ring?

  Langa raised his eyebrows, trying to ease the tension. “Wow, you’re not even going to get down on one knee? As far as proposals go, Liv, I’m not impressed. Especially since you said I wasn’t your type,” he said.

  Liv blinked, rolled his eyes and smiled. “It's not a mating band. If it was, I'd be disrespecting you, after all, a dragonkin’s mate accepts nothing less than heaps of pure gold for an engagement,” he said. His face turned serious again. “This is something else entirely. A contract more binding than a mating bond.”

  Langa looked at the ring, puzzled. “What is it?” he asked.

  “I can never have full control of my own mana. Before Tier 1, I only had access to 20% of my maximum mana, now it’s up to 30%. The divine artefact has a twist, though, I either keep living like this, out of control with my sealed mana leaking out to the point where it can destroy me or I can give control of the divine artefact to someone else. Someone I trust to be my anchor, to have control over me. All demigods have the choice to go through something similar to this,” Liv said. “What you're holding is my mana core… or a visual representation of what it looks like in my abdomen. It’s in the form of a liva flower. My mother‘s favourite flower, the one she named me after.”

  Langa’s eyes widened as he realised what Liv was saying. He couldn’t quite comprehend it, but he looked back down at the ring in his hand and scanned it.

  [Mana Sealing Ring

  Name: Atem-mahjukan

  Artefact Rank: Divine (Suleria Hhif: The Living Dragon Wing)

  Description: The Mana Sealing Ring is a sacred artefact designed to safeguard and regulate the flow of mana within a demigod.

  Effects:

  Mana Regulation: The anchor can manipulate the ring to either nourish the mana core, allowing the demigod to wield more mana, or drain it, reducing their mana capacity temporarily.

  Overflow Alert System: The ring provides visual cues or magical alerts to the anchor, indicating when demonic aura and divine karma are encroaching upon the mana core within the demigod. Depending on the severity of the overflow, the anchor must either find a way to calm the demigod’s aura/karma down or allow them to wield more mana to let it out.

  If the overflow is not attended to promptly, karma implosion may occur, permanently killing the demigod and destroying everything in his proximity.

  Demigod Sealed: Liv’Kungsadu

  Usage Restrictions: Restricted to an anchor chosen by demigod Liv’Kungsadu through a binding System Contract or The Dragon Slayer Chosen by The Living Wing. Demigod Liv’Kungsadu cannot use this item, regardless of permission from his anchor.

  Note: The anchor may perform routine cleansing rituals and periodically cleanse the mana core to purge the accumulated demonic aura and maintain optimal mana flow.

  Handle with care, as mastery of this divine artefact can control the power, life and death of a demigod.]

  “Oh my gods,” Langa gasped. If anyone got a hold of this item, they would have the power to control the most powerful player of Batch 4! Why the hell did something like this exist?

  “In the dark, liva flowers are poisonous to most mortals, but in the sun, they shine brightly and emit life energy that rejuvenates the stamina of mortals,” Liv said. “My mother had the gift of the Sight, and I don’t know if she named me that way because she was predicting the outcome of my life, but she told me to always stand by the sun.”

  He gave Langa a meaningful look.

  “Wait. You think when she was talking about the sun, she was talking about me?” Langa finally realised why Liv had been so shocked to learn the meaning of his name two days ago. “My name could just be a coincidence. You can’t trust me with something so powerful. She was probably talking about The Sun God, wasn’t she his Visage?”

  “That’s why I chose to follow him. I thought he was the sun I needed to pull me out of my father’s darkness, too. She might have been referring to him, I don’t know,” Liv said. “At the end of the day, though, I Chose you even before I knew the meaning of your name.”

  “Chose me? There you go again with your god complex,” Langa sighed. “Liv. I can’t take this. You want me to have the power to control you? This is too big of a responsibility. I don't want it.”

  To his surprise, Liv smiled. “Do you know how many people would kill to have power over a demigod? For millions of years in the infinite multiverse, wars have been waged over the power to be a demigod’s anchor. Yet you reject that power. I'm convinced there is no one better suited to it.”

  “You barely know me. There has to be someone else you trust!” Langa tried again.

  “There is no one else. You are my closest friend.”

  “That’s not true! What about Coraloa and your den-brother?”

  “Coraloa and I have a different kind of friendship. I told you, she and I are using each other. My den-brother is the Dragon Slayer and a cleric of The Living Wing. Giving him this ring would be giving my grandmother and her goddess power. Besides, I want you. I care about both of them, but neither of them has seen inside my soul. Langa. After trusting you with my soul, what is my manacore?"

  "It's too much, Liv," Langa said. "I don't want to control you."

  “I need you to stop thinking about it as you controlling me, okay? It’s worded that way because, frankly, my grandmother and the Living Wing didn’t want me to choose someone to be my anchor, they wanted the Dragon Slayer to have control over me. They wanted me suppressed under their claws for their imperialistic goal. They would have made the Dragon Slayer unleash me at full power over the innocents and-… never mind,” Liv sighed. Langa saw red demonic water in the ring travelling up the flower before dissipating.

  "Giving you this power is giving you the power to protect me... even from myself,” Liv said.

  This was a big responsibility; having the means to control someone as powerful as Liv didn’t sit well with Langa. He didn’t do well with responsibility. “I don’t have a good track record in that department. I promised Makoto I’d protect him, and he was killed right in front of me while I was powerless to save him. I promised Khaya and Neo that I would always love and protect them, but Neo’s half-dead, and Khaya would rather stay with the person responsible for his death. I’m not good at this,” Langa said, remembering that he’d promised Liv’s soul that he would protect him.

  “If I continue holding onto this ring with no one to control it externally, my power will overflow, and I’ll make another mistake. I’ll destroy even more people and lose to my father. I’m so tired of hurting people just to gain a fraction of control,” Liv said, his voice breaking. “How can I be a good leader if I don’t know when my power will overflow? Can you please help me, Langa?”

  How could Langa deny such an earnest request? Liv was the first friend he had in this new world, the first person he'd allowed in. Liv had chosen to stay even after seeing the mess in Langa's head, and if Langa could help him, of course he would.

  "Okay," he said. He supposed it wouldn’t hurt to try and see how this ring worked. He infused the lightning travelling through his nerves into the ring, and he felt a strange pull, like the water inside the ring was greedily sucking away his mana.

  “What the fuck?” Langa said, his mana draining until he was kneeling on the floor in mana exhaustion. The ring took away 90% of his total mana.

  [Current mana stability for demigod Liv’Kungsadu:

  Currently active, 30% of total mana: 429/555.

  Excess mana leakage: 120MP/s

  Demonic aura encroachment: 1.5% per 26 hours.

  Divine Karma encroachment: ???

  Increase mana wielding: Yes/No?]

  “No,” Langa said, taking a deep breath as mana exhaustion settled on him. “What the hell, Liv? 30% of your total mana is 555! That's more than double of my current total mana! This is fucking unfair.”

  “I know, that’s why my Tier 1 body can’t handle that much mana," Liv said. "Once it gets above 50%, the demonic aura encroachment goes up to 25% per hour, then it just spirals from there with my karma fuelling it. Anything above that will cause the karma to implode and kill me and everything around me. That's why it has to be controlled.”

  Okay, so that was dangerous. "This ring took away almost all my mana just to access the details,” Langa said worriedly.

  “I don't know how it's supposed to work either," Liv said. "I'm sorry. There's no benefit at all for you, so I understand if you decide not to do it."

  "Liv, if my friend needs help, I will help him, whether it's beneficial for me or not," Langa said, standing back up. "I promised to protect you, so if you're sure about choosing me, then yeah, let's do this."

  [Player Liv'Kungsadu has requested to bind you to the divine artefact: Atem-mahjukan as his anchor.

  Accept: Yes/No?

  Please note: This is a binding System Contract, valid until the permanent end of your mortal life whether to Death or Ascension]

  There was no turning back now, Langa thought. "I accept."

  The ring squeezed his finger, and he felt it seal itself inside him. It was now a soul bound item, and he would never drop it if he died. The only way to lose it would be to give it away.

  [Congratulations! You have completed The Sun God's Hidden Quest: An Anchor for my child!]

  [The Sun God, The Neutriarch of Fire would like to offer you a reward. Reward: Conditional Blessing.]

  "Uh... yeah, absolutely," Langa said. This would fill up all his Blessing/Title Slots for Tier 1.

  [Solar Inverter Blessing

  Blessing Type: Conditional

  Deity: Amun-Ra, The Sun God, The Neutriarch of Fire

  Effects: When you are within a radius of 100 metres from Solar Paladin Liv’Kungsadu, you can convert the mana leaking from his mana core using solar energy into lightning mana. You can passively absorb and utilise the mana leakage up to a maximum of 50% of your total Mana Pool.

  Restrictions: Active as long as your relationship with Liv’Kungsadu remains neutral to positive.]

  “Holy shit, Liv, I just apparently completed a hidden quest from your master!” Langa said. “I think he just found a way to help both of us.”

  “What do you mean?” Liv asked and Langa filled him in on the effects of the Blessing. “So, that means I won’t be affected by the excess mana, and if you need to control the ring or if you're fighting next to me anytime, you won’t run out of mana. Wow. He did say he would help me, but I didn’t think he’d be this generous. Maybe my prayers worked.”

  [The Ter Netjer Pantheon goddess: The Dreaded Desert Plague, watches the proceedings of your quest with interest.]

  "Lady Sekhmet?" Liv asked with raised eyebrows. "Why is Father's former wife interested in us?"

  Langa frowned. "Wait, your dad was married to The Sun God's daughter, then after he split from her, he had a child with The Sun God's Visage? I'm sensing a pattern here."

  "Langa, don't bother yourself with the relationships between the gods. When you've lived that long, you don't care about who your lovers are, whether you share blood, karma or essence with them. Frankly, I think it's weird too," Liv said. "But Father is obsessed with taking things from The Sun God, so if Lady Sekhmet is interested in me, I welcome her attention. She can use me against him."

  As soon as those words left Liv’s mouth, there appeared a chain of prompts that would change Langa’s life forever.

  [The Ter Netjer Pantheon goddess: The Dreaded Desert Plague, proposes a conditional invitation to The Flaming Blade of Menika to visit the domain of the Ter Netjer Pantheon's Faction: The Descendants of The Sun.]

  [The Deiwos Clan goddess: The Flaming Blade of Menika expresses keen interest in The Desert Plague's proposal.]

  [The Ter Netjer Clan goddess: The Desert Plague, states that she would be willing to discuss a conditional alliance between The Deiwos Clan and The Descendants of The Sun if The Avatar of Adtonifulmin and The Avatar of Amun-Ra complete Amun-Ra's current quest with an S-Rank or above clear on the first try.]

  [The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, states that his Avatar is never one to back away from a challenge, and he has full faith in him.]

  [The Ter Netjer Pantheon god: The Sun God, The Neutriarch of Fire, states that his Avatar has always desired to leave a mark in history and he will not waste this legendary chance to do so.]

  [The Deiwos Clan goddess: The Flaming Blade of Menika, accepts The Dreaded Desert Plague's Proposal.]

  [The Duat Pantheon god: The True Deathbringer of The Demon Reaper watches the proceedings in outrage and hurriedly meets with Anubis to discuss a way forward.]

  [The Duat Pantheon god: The True Deathbringer of The Demon Reaper, requests a meeting with The Sea Dragon King, The Neutriarch of Water to renew their ancient treaty.]

  [The Deiwos Clan goddess: The Flaming Blade of Menika, calls an emergency meeting of all gods, constellations and seraphim of the Deiwos Clan.]

  [All 13 gods of the Deiwos Clan are watching your Quest with much anticipation.]

  [Congratulations, Players Langa Zulu and Liv’Kungsadu! Your actions have rekindled an ancient enmity and bolstered a new alliance among deities.

  You have earned a ??? Achievement.

  Your karma has increased by ???

  Your rewards will be issued once the current quest is complete.]

  The messages came in such a quick flurry that it took Langa a while to process them. All he'd done was agree to help his friend out, but because both he and Liv were Avatars whose actions had a great impact on their patron deities' karma, suddenly high-ranking gods were interested in the young, up-and-coming Deiwos Clan.

  “Wow!” Langa said. The Descendants of The Sun was a small faction of the Ter Netjer Pantheon, also known to Langa as the Egyptian Gods, but they were quite influential since they were the children of Amun-Ra. If the Deiwos Clan managed to ally with the faction, they would no doubt become more renowned among the older godly clans. Langa finally understood why deities invested so much karma into Towers and bonded players.

  He could not help but wonder how much more influence and power he would have if he just agreed to become Adtonifulmin's Visage. Why was he still hesitating? Adtonifulmin had proven himself both faithful and sincere. He was always with Langa’s soul, watching over him.

  Liv, however, was frowning. "Langa, I think The System Administrator was right. Something is wrong with this Gate.”

  “What do you mean?” Langa asked.

  “We shouldn’t have attracted that much attention from such high-ranking gods, no matter how powerful our deities are. Those are ridiculous rewards. If the maestril is level 13 or 14, we’d have to be like Tier 0 and defeat it for that much attention," Liv said, looking at him with wide eyes. "There’s no way a simple Gate would cause this much stir amongst the gods. For us to earn enough karma for the gods to move like this; clearing this Gate should be impossible. I think if we’re able to complete this quest with an S-Rank Clear, despite whatever makes it impossible, it will somehow be us making history."

  That should have deterred Langa. Before; the pressure to perform and the weight of the responsibility that a portion of the future of his master's godly clan depended on him would have been suffocating, but not any more.

  He could feel the essence of Adtonifulmin through their Divine Nexus. It was strange, but he knew he didn't have to be weighed down by any expectations any more because his friends and Adtoninufulmin wouldn't want that for him.

  "Let's go and make history," Langa said, both nervous and excited as the two of them were thrust out of the soulhold, and back into the ruins.