Kyle struggled between the two paths. The mortal coil stood in conflict with divine will. This instant felt momentous and yet he couldn’t have said exactly why. He simply knew that it was a turning point for him, if not why.
Then the lie became clear to Kyle. He had thought he was meant to be the war god of Verden. He was a reincarnation supposedly of that figure who amounted to one eighth of the reality around him. Krig had always been content with that. But Kyle wasn’t Krig. He was the best at what he did.
A new idea formed in his mind. The gods of Verden, brothers and sisters of Krig that they might be, were not worthy of such titles. The flashes of memories he had from Krig and the tales from Hilde made it clear that they were all corrupt and unworthy. They lorded it over mortals but never really cared about those that they were responsible for.
Kyle had played baseball to be the best. The money was nice, he wouldn’t lie about that, but he didn’t play for money. It was great having fans, but he hadn’t played for the fans. Oh, sure, he spent more time doing public signings and other glad-handing events than anyone on his team. His agent continually got mad at him for giving away his time. So, yeah, he liked his fans, but he still didn’t play for them.
He had played for himself. He played because of his innate desire to be the best. Now the field was different. It was so much more serious than a game, but that didn’t change his desire. He still wanted to be the best. He wasn’t perfect, but he could hardly do worse than Krig and the other gods had.
So, he would keep fighting to be the best. Not the best war god, no. He was going to be the best god of Verden. The difference, though, was that he didn’t ever want to do these things alone again. He was going to build a team around him that he could care about and that would care for him in turn. That team was going to shake the heavens and when the dust cleared, there would be one god over all of Verden. He would build a better world, but to get there, he first had to be the best.
This commitment made within himself showed him the path. He learned how to both yield and let the Earth Essence become a part of him and at the same time force it to serve his will. He formed a sphere of that will and forced it to compress the misty essence within even as he funneled in more raw essence.
Kyle pressed and pushed and felt as though he was turning coal into diamonds in his hand but still, he kept at it. He had no idea how long he was at it, but when he finished, the Earth Essence spoke was larger, the essence within it moving like a liquid now rather than a gas, and he saw how much potential there was for growth.
Finally, he heard a voice yelling in his head. It took him a second to realize it was Hilde calling out to him.
“Kyle, are you there? What are you doing? You’re worrying me.” The celestial’s voice sounded almost frantic.
“Oh, I just figured some things out, but what is so urgent?”
“You managed to condense the Earth Essence. Oh wow, you increased your potential too. That is impossible,” Hilde said and then added, “Sorry. I was trying to alert you because the guards dropped the ladder down. They said that Soren was handing out prizes to the winners, but you didn’t respond to them. I was worried that something happened when you were trying to work with the Earth Essence.”
“No, everything is good. I just have a lot to think about for the future. Thanks for getting my attention though. No point in winning if we can’t get the prize,” Kyle said as he quickly ascended the ladder.
Once at the top, one of the guards said, “You better hurry. Lord Soren isn’t going to wait much longer.”
Kyle didn’t even answer the man but instead strode with purpose toward the normal meeting room where they had done their testing. When he arrived, he heard Soren explaining that all seven of the slaves had been bought and so to celebrate the profits, he would provide a reward.
Just the way the man spoke made Kyle feel sick to his stomach. As though he had done anything. He had played no part in training these fighters. He hadn’t stepped into the arena, risking life and limb. And he most certainly had not fought the Aekor and its minions.
That said, Kyle’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to a group of people against the wall. There was a robed figure that he had never seen before. She was dressed in pink and silver with a hood up to hide her face, but the cut of the robes put her feminine charms on display for all to see. It lacked a certain subtlety. There was too much cleavage showing and the slit up the side of her leg showed all the way up to wear panties should have been visible, if she had been wearing any.
With the hood over her head, hiding her face, it only drew more attention to her other assets. Without seeing her face, it made her appear more as an object of lust rather than a person. Hanging down on a heavy metal chain was a necklace in the shape of a crescent moon with a snake curled around it.
The talisman was not anything that Kyle had seen before, but he still instinctively knew what it represented: Begaer. All sorts of emotions about the
