Reunion (Part 3)

[POV AQUILES VIRIDIUM – YEAR 271]

They continued down the tunnel until they finally reached a huge gate made entirely of Valyrian steel, and when they stood in front of it, they stopped advancing. "Just before the volcanoes erupted and Valyria was destroyed, the Blood Mages locked themselves in there with everything they had to try to protect themselves from the disaster," God spoke, and upon seeing Aquiles' uncertain and tense expression, quickly understood why he frowned and decided to reassure him. "Don't worry, the Blood Mages are not alive. When they locked themselves in, their priority was to guard all the magic they had taken millennia to develop, and they succeeded, it is 100% preserved inside thanks to the spells and runes they used to build this place. However, at the same time, there was little space left for food; at the time, they thought they would be trapped there for a short time, but the great cataclysm lasted for a long time, and the food quickly ran out. With no food to eat and unable to leave due to the infernal heat outside, they died of starvation; nowadays, they are nothing more than just bones or dust." God spoke with the utmost certainty.

Aquiles sighed with relief; he didn't want to release Mages who could easily kill him. Without wasting any more time, God moved his right hand and pointed to the ground, attracting Aquiles' attention as he spoke: "The door has two ways to be opened, one is from the inside, but since they are all dead..." God didn't need to continue to say.

"The other way is through sacrifices of human lives, do you see this hole?" God inquired as he pointed to an immense circular hole, and as Aquiles approached the edge and looked down in an attempt to see the bottom of the hole, God continued speaking: "You must cut their throats and throw the bodies of the sacrifices in there!"

Despite the brightness permeating the cavern, Aquiles couldn't see the bottom and soon took a few steps back. "How many people should I bring?" Aquiles inquired with curiosity as he turned to God, in his mind, hoping for few sacrifices.

Then God spoke again: "As soon as you gather 10,000 humans, you must come here, do it as quickly as you can, even with your photographic memory, the knowledge contained within the vault is vast and will take many years to be fully learned."

"10,000 people..." Aquiles said with some apprehension; he had no problem killing a few bandits, but sacrificing 10,000 people made him hesitate and feel like a villain. "God. Can't you just snap your fingers and open the door? Or even snap your fingers and destroy the Night King?" Aquiles questioned as he looked at God.

"I do not have the authority to intervene directly in this world. And if I could do that, why would I need you?" God queried, his indifferent tone changing for the first time to a sarcastic tone.

"But you are God, how can you not have authority? In the books, it is said and shown by your followers that you can even bring the dead back to life." Aquiles retorted with some uncertainty and doubt.

God spoke again: "Actually, I am one of the Gods and not the true 'SUPREME GOD'. As for why some of my followers can bring back some of the dead, it's based on equivalent exchange magic. Take 'Lady Stoneheart,' for example: To resurrect her, Beric Dondarrion kissed her to give her a part of his life force, but since she had been dead for a few days, and since he himself had died many times before, he had little life force left in his body, and this act caused him to die permanently during the equivalent exchange magic!"

"So you're basically telling me that you deceive your followers into believing that you bring them back to life, when in fact it's your priest conjuring a magic that drains part of their life force and passes it to the dead, thus bringing them back?" Aquiles inquired with a disappointed and accusatory look towards God.

Aquiles, for a moment, swore he saw the cheek area of God's entirely light-made body blush, but judged it to be just his imagination after blinking and seeing that it had returned to being as white and pure as he remembered. Since God didn't respond, Aquiles set the matter aside.

The thought of having such power momentarily deafened Aquiles to the warning of its steep cost. "And could you teach me that magic?" Aquiles inquired as a greedy expression adorned his face, the thought of how such magic could be the perfect complement to his {Gift of Healing} ability. First, he would multiply his future dragons with his ability, as he had done before with the rabbit and the servant, and then bring them back to life with this magic, thus forming a great army of dragons.

Looking at Aquiles's greedy expression, God shook his head negatively as if seeing through him and exclaimed, "Don't think that equivalent exchange magic can be used like that. You can bring their souls back to the body and give them your life force to resurrect them and give them more time to live, but you cannot bring the second body back to life. For that, it would be necessary to create a new soul to inhabit it, and only the 'SUPREME GOD' has the power to create new souls!"

Aquiles was disappointed, surprised, and confused, wondering if God could read his mind, and then mentally asked God one thing, but as he did not respond, Aquiles began to mentally curse him, and as the being also did not respond to the provocations, Aquiles judged that he must have simply seen through his greed. "Well, it doesn't matter. I still wish to learn this magic!" Aquiles spoke calmly, his greed having previously prevented him from hearing about the cost of using such magic.

"I will send one of my servants to find you and teach you in the future. But I must warn you again, this magic will drain your life force enormously, and if you still haven't understood, your life force is equivalent to your lifetime, it grows from the day you are born until it reaches its peak at 30 years old. After that, it wears down over time until it completely extinguishes at 120 years old, that is if the human doesn't die earlier from illness or anything else." God spoke, and Aquiles's expression immediately sank.

"Then it's better to let it go." Aquiles affirmed. Now that he understood that by using this magic he would literally be spending his lifetime in exchange for another person's lifetime, such power seemed far less extraordinary and much more of a great burden.

Changing the subject, Aquiles spoke: "So there are other Gods, does that mean my plan to create a religion will offend the other Gods?" He would already have to face the Night King; he didn't want to end up offending another God by stealing their followers and adding a new enemy to the list.

"Don't worry, there are no other Gods besides me on this planet." God spoke as he approached Aquiles.

"None? But what about the Seven? And the Old Gods?" Aquiles questioned, tilting his head slightly to the left.

"None of them truly exist... The Seven are just a religion created by you humans. As for the so-called 'Old Gods,' they are nothing more than the very nature of the world, not a true God like me!" God spoke indifferently.

"If that's the case, I suppose I should ask for your permission. Do you allow me to create my own religion?" Aquiles questioned with hesitation, fearing God might refuse.

"Child, I don't care what you do as long as you save my world. Even if you want to convince all the people of this world to believe that you are the very God and decide to rule over them, I wouldn't mind. Either way, when they die, believing in a God or not, they go to the same place to sleep eternally anyway." God spoke indifferently, shrugging, and Aquiles's countenance brightened as he bowed and thanked.

"Lord, I have a question. You had told me not to choose the {Voice of Nature} ability because the {Lord of Magic} ability could achieve the same, but how do I do that?" Aquiles inquired as he looked at God.

"I am not permitted to provide you with complete information on spells, enchantments, or magic. But I can say that you were heading in the right direction with the horse; you just missed the target slightly. I'll give you one last hint that will help you. You should try to infuse your eyes with mana. Now, it's time for you to go." God spoke, and Aquiles was about to open his mouth to protest; however, before he could have the chance, God snapped his fingers, and a flash of light engulfed everything once again.