The Twelve Apocalypses: A Damned Soul's Path to the Abyss-Chapter 85 138: A Moment of Rest

"Divinity? Are you sure?"

Glaustro wasn't exactly shaking me around to demand an answer, but the way his gaze zeroed in on my face wasn't reassuring. There was an almost manic gleam in his narrowed eyes that made me hesitate, my mind replaying the stolen memories before I answered.

"Yes, I'm sure. I don't really think they know what it is they're doing, but it's Divinity. Here, see for yourself."

I offered up the three leftover souls. Mia had taken the fourth and planned to absorb it in a more private setting later, but that still left plenty of 'witnesses' to my claim.

Glaustro took the souls with a reverence that bordered on unnerving. Slowly, he chose one and offered it to Bronwynn. Slowly, the pink-skinned demon accepted it.

Then both demons threw the souls down the hatch, and I got to watch as they stood, transfixed, combing through the knowledge held within the sparkly treasure troves.

It was interesting to see the absorption play out in someone else. When devouring a soul myself, I couldn't trace the process with any degree of reliability. I was nearly hypnotized by the way Glaustro's soul rippled, harmonized with the yeti's, and then enveloped and dissolved it.

For something that was, by all accounts, the greatest injustice one being could inflict on another, the process was oddly gentle and beautiful.

Then Glaustro stirred, his expression morphing into one of the most sincere displays of joy I had ever seen on his face.

"It's true."

His voice was an awed whisper. The next moment, he spun away from us and began rummaging through the items on his desk, like he'd forgotten we were there. I had never seen him so distracted. Watching him pick up and then put down a leatherbound book three times, and then continue to repeat the action mechanically, would have been funny if it weren't so alarming.

"Glaustro?"

My voice managed to snap the major out of whatever had come over him. He turned to us, his expression startled.

I cleared my throat. "Sorry for interrupting, but I'm going to be honest with you. All I know about Divinity is how to recognize it, and to immediately alert the first commanding officer I come across. Why is it such a big deal?"

"You don't know?" Glaustro asked, baffled. Then a look of understanding crossed his face. "Sometimes I forget how young you are, and for what a short time we've known each other. I…"

He shook his head. "Bron, can you handle this? I can't stand still. I need to go… I don't know. Bother our guards, maybe."

Before I could protest, the older demon swept out of his tent, leaving Mia and me alone with a very amused Bronwynn.

"Is he okay?" I asked. "Because I'm getting worried."

"Don't be, Hayden. And I see that disbelieving look on your face, Mia. Glaustro's going to be fine. Better than fine, really."

Bronwynn settled into a chair, smiling.

"Divinity is… well, it's one of the most prized resources within the Abyss. Killing a god and sacrificing the corpse and soul as an offering, or capturing one and offering it alive to the Abyss, is one of the few surefire ways for demons to be promoted up the noble rankings. Yet, when presented with the opportunity, most don't do it. Can you guess why?"

I snorted. "If demons are giving up on benefits like that, then it's because keeping the resources is preferable."

"Correct. Divinity is pure Emotion and soul-stuff, distilled to a ridiculous degree into something of unmatched purity. It is the essence of all the thoughts, prayers, and devotion directed towards a god, delivered through the soul-shards mortals unknowingly offer up. This includes trace amounts of actual souls from all those mortals. Just tiny bits, but it adds up. Gods do not typically receive worship from a mere handful of mortals, after all."

My eyes widened, and I could feel a hunger deep within me rearing its ugly head.

No wonder all demons craved Divinity. Emotion and souls together… it was literally what we fed on, in condensed, super-charged form. If you got your hands on it, then why bother offering it to the Abyss for rewards, other than as a show of devotion?

By feeding on it directly, you'd be able to secure your own advancement.

"You get it." Bronwynn nodded, still smiling. "The thing is, gods are incredibly rare. They are also hard to defeat, since they can retreat to their divine kingdoms and hide out until the threat is over. On top of that, they guard and horde their Divinity as obsessively as demons handling souls. You can get some out of bestowed divine relics, weapons and such, but you need to kill a god if you want anything more than trace amounts."

"But…"

I paused. What I'd spotted in the yeti's memories suggested more than just 'trace amounts' of Divinity, but then again, I had no real clue about how to gauge those levels. And if Divinity was so difficult to come by, regardless…

"Why is Glaustro so excited?" I finally asked.

"Because what we're dealing with here are not gods," Bronwynn replied. "Or rather, we're not dealing with gods yet. What do you know about gods, anyway?"

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"Assume I know absolutely nothing. Mia?"

The cat demoness shook her head, eyes keenly fixed on Bronwynn and tail slashing through the air in agitation. The older demon took that as his invitation to continue.

"Alright. There are two types of gods. First, gods who ascend to their divine station through worship: emperors, kings, supposed divine beasts, and so on. They're existing creatures, mortal or immortal, who receive so much worship that they get deified. Some are powerful enough to create worlds and entire species of mortals, and that's why they become gods, but they didn't start out as gods.

"Then there are gods which are born out of worship. They don't exist, but generations and generations of people believe in their existence with such ardor that the universe finally gives up and conjures them out of thin air."

I raised my eyebrows. "Worship creates gods? How does that work?"

"Usually through totems," Bronwynn explained. "A tribe, or empire, or an entire race crafts some kind of totem in the image of their god. Then, through their worship of it, that object turns into a vessel for Divinity. Once the Divinity is concentrated enough, this totem then gains life, and takes on whatever traits the people believed it to have.

"You worship an angelic statue of some ethereally beautiful 'god' and think she's the bearer of light and goodness? She'll act that way, bringing peace and tranquility to all. You sacrifice blood and throw yourself at the mercy of a 'dark and horrible god' to appease them? The totem will eventually turn into an actual calamity that demands blood and flesh to stay its anger."

"All right…" I shook my head, trying and failing to put the pieces together. "So what does this have to do with Breskwor?"

Bronwynn's eyes were beginning to gleam with the same manic glee I'd spotted in Glaustro's. "Breskwor is young, too young to have finished that process. Trust me, if this world already had gods of its own, we'd know. But it's old enough to have gone through who knows how many generations of mortals, all worshipping their made-up gods. That means there are plenty of idols and totems around."

The pink-skinned demon's smile had turned into a radiant grin. "No actual gods standing in the way. Just lots of powerful totems, brimming with Divinity and waiting for us to find them."

My mouth had gone dry halfway through Bronwynn's spiel. The opportunity he was describing was exquisite. It was practically the dream of every demon alive. This was true treasure, with nothing between us and it except a few mortals.

Then a niggling thought emerged from the back of my mind and wiped the growing smile off my face.

"Do you think Wilhelmina knew?"

Bronwynn froze, hand reaching for a cup of some drink that had been abandoned on Glaustro's desk. "What?"

"Do you think Wilhelmina knew? Do you think this is why she was so set on coming here?"

The look Bronwynn shot me was one of slowly dawning horror. "She couldn't have known. No one could have. The general himself would have claimed this world if he knew. Who would say no to free Divinity? Especially when not every world's laws allow it to manifest in the first place! Breskwor is valuable on those grounds alone."

He was rambling at that point, looking more and more worried with every word. It was Mia who cut through the rising panic.

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"If Wilhelmina didn't know and she finds out, do you think she'll share the information?"

If it was possible, Bronwynn's face went a shade paler. "She wouldn't! The value of this world… she'd know that…" He trailed off, then grimaced like he'd bitten into a lemon. "She could run to her mother… And if we do manage to win, she could do it out of pure spite…"

Suddenly, he lurched out of his chair. "You two, go get some rest. I doubt we'll head out or do anything important without sufficient planning, so just… sit tight. I need to talk to Glaustro."

With those parting words, Bronwynn departed like a hurricane.

I stared after him in mild disbelief, then turned to look at Mia with a quirked brow.

"Does he seriously think we're going to be able to rest after all of that?"

Shrugging, the cat demoness gave me a dazzling smile. "I could use a nap."

"Brat cat."

Slowly, ever so slowly, she swept her eyes up and down over my body, then pronounced a single word with all the weight of a monarch declaring war.

"Pigeon."

"Hey!"

—

Despite my best efforts, I wound up in my tent a couple of hours later.

Bronwynn had rushed Glaustro back into the major's tent. Barring themselves from visitors, the pair then descended into a flurry of planning and panicking.

Though I didn't want to interrupt their talks, I also couldn't imagine resting. Instead, I tried to explore our rapidly forming city, only to find there was still absolutely nothing I could do to contribute. Besides, Imthala had everything well in hand. She never said outright that she didn't want me prowling around and disrupting her authority, but her subtle hints and cross looks weren't lost on me.

I could always spend some time harassing my troops. But while the Abyss may have messed with my empathy towards mortals, I was still perfectly capable of empathizing with demons. I could remember with perfect clarity what it was like to be a regular soldier, and all the anxiety I had felt when my superiors were hanging around. That, along with the fact that I couldn't really do anything with them, kept me from disrupting their rest.

I made a mental note to talk to Glaustro when things calmed down about the Abyss's potential mind manipulation, but that still left me with no demands on my attention for the time being.

In other words, for the first time in recent recorded history, Hayden Hall had the opportunity to rest. There was nothing hanging over my head, no existential dilemma lurking in the recesses of my mind, and no orders pressing down on me with the weight of urgent expectation.

I kind of hated it.

Being left to my devices allowed my mind to wander, and I didn't want that. Woe may have become a part of my identity, but it could very easily turn on me. The phrase "my regrets could haunt me" was way more literal for me than for most.

Speaking of 'haunting', though…

I did have a soul waiting in my sword's spatial storage jewel, not to mention the grimoire that went with it. I had resolved to consume the soul first, both for better context and to obtain the knowledge required to study my family's spells, but I'd been avoiding the idea ever since. It was hard to overcome the reluctance I felt whenever I contemplated devouring a relative's soul.

Now, however, as I paced back and forth in my luxurious tent, I couldn't ignore the reasonable voice at the back of my mind.

Mother explicitly left me a book to consult, and a soul to go with it. There's probably a good reason she did that, so…

I sighed, then looked towards Mia.

It was quite the rare occasion to see her on an armchair rather than draped across my back, but I wasn't complaining. I had caught her reading a book that looked suspiciously like a grimoire when I returned to the tent, and she hadn't seen fit to bother me yet.

I stopped my pacing and plopped down on the bed. Hugging a pillow, I made myself comfortable, then finally spoke.

"Come on over, you brat."

The cat demoness imperiously arched an eyebrow in my direction, then tilted her head when she saw me rustle my wings, settling them into a better position for her to lie down on. She scoffed, but still stalked across the room and sprawled over me.

I held back a smile, if only because she'd be completely insufferable if she saw it. Still, I was glad. I didn't want to be alone when I eventually had to eat the soul of someone I was related to.

Besides, I had to admit she was comfortingly warm.