44 Three Gifts

I could finally observe my surroundings. I guess I just needed to cry my guts out first before the pain in my head could start giving me a break.

It didn't take me a while to realize that I'm in a room, an empty one, with stone walls and barred windows. Water trickled down the walls with wet moss and darkened mold sticking out of it along with wilted flowers and a handful of dark violet dust piled up on the ground. The smell of urine soaked throughout the room, making me wince upon imagining where those waters came from. Roots and leafless stems stuck out of the small cracks on the wall, but it didn't take a genius to know that al plant life here is either dead or dying. The rank stink made me feel slightly reluctant to touch my surroundings until I realized how rancid and greasy my body is; I immediately realized that this room is unlucky for having me in it and not the other way around. What shocked me more is the fact that there's even life blooming in this place. The only object in the room is a wooden table with an unlit lamp on top of it, a velvet chair, and the bed I'm sitting on. Other than that, there's nothing here but a suffocating sizeable empty space and the ghost of a once-thriving ecosystem.

'Where are we?'

< Skystead Keep. We're already here.>

'Good... Ha... That's good. What happened to the three Vyurs?'

<They're fine. None died just as you wanted. The Vyurs huddled up in these stone walls must have seen the wall of fire at the mouth of the ravine since they managed to send a horde of soldiers to save all four of you on time. I don't know what happened next, though. You already blanked out around that time.>

'I see. As long as nobody died, I'm good to go.'

'Here? No, no, no, no! That's not it; I didn't save them just because I wanted to. There's a reason for it.'

'Well, I can't just storm in here, tell everyone I'm their new god, and expect them to go along with it. I need to win their hearts first so that I wouldn't have to worry about convincing them that I'd be a good dog first. Luckily, we have three credible people who could attest to my heroic deeds as their new benevolent god. It's all just marketing, really. It's the three Vyur's job now to spread the word of my valiance in battle. That's all.'

<HAHAHAHA! Are you serious?>

'Yeah. Times and his daughter still has some use to me, but the other soldier can go run straight into enemy territory and die already for all I care. I only allowed him to survive to show every citizen of the Keep that I care about their well-being. I hope the trust and admiration the three of them bring will compel everyone to die for me.>

<HAHAHAHAHA! I know your words sting like thorns, but I didn't think you have a knack for conceptualizing cruel plans too! Not that I mind it.>

'No. It's not cruelty. It's the right thing to do. Anyone with a half-decent and sane mind would do the same thing if not better. Of course, I'm not planning on sending thousands of them to their deaths, but at least now, if one of them died out there, they wouldn't point the finger at me. Why do you think I kept the warlord alive?'

<Alright, alright, if you say it's not cruel, then it's not! I just think an overly-serious-man like you would resort to such a high-risk plan-high-reward.>

'It's not like I have much of a choice. Hmm... What's this?'

A feather?

There's a large brown feather on my lap. I think it had been there the entire time. It looks a bit scuffed now, probably because Dominion sat on it earlier, but it didn't look like the kind of object that would break easily.

<Oh, that? Eagle gave it. It said it's a gift or something. He told me that you must keep it safe as much as possible.>

'Eh? Is that so?'

I do remember Eagle saying something like that when I was in that dream-like room earlier.

"How about you keep this feather? Use it when you want to touch the clouds." That's what Eagle said before we bid farewell.

'What does it do?'

'But I thought you guys are just divided forms of a single consciousness? Wouldn't you guys have the same thoughts?'

<Nah. We may be entities that originated from the same source, but we are entirely different people with divergent minds. We don't share our thoughts or anything like that; we like to keep our privacy.>

'But it's okay for you guys to invade my mind and memories?'

<Yeah, I mean, why not? We own you. You're working for us; we need to keep you leashed up well, or you'd start running around like a fucking idiot. If we think your performance is below our preference, we'd just chain your soul and take control of your body.>

'You guys can do that?'

<Uh-huh. But we reserve your right to prove yourself first. So far, we're like what you're showing us.>

'Huh. Oh well. I guess I'll have to keep this feather safe then.'

"HARVEST," I whispered while looking at the large brown feather, and it immediately disappeared.

A text then popped at the bottom left side of my vision. "+1 Vestige of Ascension"

Vestige of Ascension, huh? That's a rather impressive-sounding name.

<Ugh. What a fucking edgelord. I bet he just finds the coolest shit in a thesaurus, rammed it together, and created that abominable name. Vestige of Ascension? What is he, a thirteen-year-old?>

'Can't he hear you badmouth you?'

'Right...'

'Ah... You're right; there's something there. I can't see it well, though. This place is way too fucking dark, I swear.'

It's true. The only thing giving a semblance of light into this room is the smiling moon outside of the window. What's her name again? Frederica? I don't even know why the moon has a name, but hey, who am I to complain? All I know for sure is that the light it shed is nowhere near enough to dazzle the darkness away from this place, even with all its brilliance. I shook my head and stood up, wincing as I felt my wounds sting, but fortunately, the pain is not strong enough to paralyze me. I sluggishly dragged my feet towards the table.

I took the unlit lamp on the table and cast a weaker version of a fire Projectile spell and let it burn at the tip of my forefinger. I then saw the single mana bar on the upper right side of my vision deplete a little bit continuously every second. With a shrug, I stuck my finger into a small hole on the lamp and set the small wick on the candle inside ablaze. I then shook my hand till the fire disappears, and only a thin line of smoke remains. I placed the lamp back on the table and looked at the two objects on the table.

A gigantic book and a steaming bowl of vegetable soup.

I can already guess which gift is given by which Dominion.

I immediately took Ox's veggie soup and inhaled its earthy aroma with closed eyes and a tight smile; I chuckled a bit when my stomach suddenly let out a monstrous growl. There's no reason for me to ask how it got here or what it was made of; I inhaled that damn soup and slurped it in one go in less than a minute.

"PHUAAH! That's some good shit!" I bellowed with a large grin as I slapped my tummy. For some reason, that small bowl of veggie broth is more than enough to make me full enough as if I had just gobbled on three servings of steak. "What the hell is inside that damn thing? That's amazing!"

'Ah, right. You guys don't like sharing thoughts, my bad. So what about this one?'

I then looked at the humongous book beside the bowl. It's so big that it could barely even fit on the table.

'I remember this one. Isn't this the book Lion was reading when we were hanging out in that room?'

<Yep. The exact same book.>

'Wouldn't that be a problem for her? I mean, it looks like she's enjoying reading this book seeing how focused she was in reading this.'

<Nah, don't worry about it. She already made the exact same copy. She's reading it at this very moment.>

'Ah, okay.'

'Huh. Well, that's very, very useful. It's one hell of a book, though. I'm not sure if I can carry it around.'

'Ah, I guess you're right.'

"HARVEST," The gigantic book then disappeared.

A textbox popped in the lower left side of my vision. "+1 Catalogue"

'A very concise and straightforward name.'

'I gotta say, you're not as stubborn as you were when we first met each other. You're actually answering my questions before I could even ask it now!'

<See? I can answer your goddamn bullshit if you just have a semblance of patience in you. I did tell you that I'll explain everything once we arrived here in the Keep. Now we're here. And I'm nothing more than a ball of answers!>

'Well then, can the ball of answers tell me what we should do next?'

<It's simple.>

Dominion chuckled.

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