Brix’s hands danced with earth as he manipulated and shaped the rocks, coaxing them into graceful curves and sweeping arches. With each manipulation, the fissure transformed; the jagged edges softened into smooth outlines that blended seamlessly with the landscape.
It took them the rest of the day to finish everything, and their work had led them to the base of the broken mountain. Brix and Aqua wore smiles as they admired their work. Aqua looked at Ikem and said, "Your idea has helped us more than you can imagine."
That got Ikem’s attention as he focused on their presence. It was subtle, but they both emanated the same feeling as Wardenwild before he disappeared. Thinking back on the sight he saw when Wardenwild opened up his portal, Ikem asked, "How does Wardenwild know of father’s home?"
The question caught both Aqua and Brix off guard as they looked at Ikem. Brix wore a thoughtful expression before responding, "We apologize for not informing you, as it slipped our minds that the place also belongs to you. But I can assure you that your father is aware of everything, and it was done with his permission."
Ikem wore a look of confusion on his face as he didn’t fully comprehend what Brix was saying. "What does this have to do with the former demon knowing of father’s place of dwelling?"
Aqua and Brix shared a glance before Brix spoke up, "Our appearance with Wardenwild on this battlefield was not a coincidence. We were already informed of his goal to ascend into a spirit-like entity. Us following behind was also to confirm a few speculations of our own."
Just as Brix and Aqua were sharing the knowledge with Ikem, back in Ikenga’s realm a few hours earlier when Wardenwild became a spirit, information was shared from Nana to all her children, informing them of the lifeform that Wardenwild had become and his significance to their world.
The information entailed that Wardenwild became something of a spirit, or an extension of Nana herself, where now he has the power and duty to ensure the state of the world is pristine. This all pointed back to when they awakened and their world was almost torn apart, but because of Nana’s usage of her power, things returned to normal as if it never happened.
The information shared by Nana was that under normal conditions, her actions weren’t allowed, but because it was done unconsciously by the origin gods during their first deep sleep, she was allowed to perform damage control.
Now, if such a situation were to happen again or if their world were torn apart by war, Nana could do nothing but instead live with the wounds on her body and hope that they heal. This situation is where the existence of a spirit like Wardenwild becomes important.
Spirits are beings who have forsaken their own goals and taken on the selfless responsibility of ensuring their world is safe and functions normally. It is upon them to heal those wounds that the world itself, in this case, Nana, cannot do herself.
As the weight of Brix’s words settled on Ikem, his mind raced to connect the dots. "So, Wardenwild’s transformation into a spirit isn’t just happenstance," Ikem mused aloud, trying to grasp the full scope of the revelation.
Brix nodded and said, "It was more than that. It was also to confirm our next step in our next stage of power." Brix continued as Aqua took over.
"The nature of Wardenwild’s new existence isn’t that much different from what we do, only his is on a much grander scale."
"Spirits, while able to heal and ensure their world is safe, each have a different way of doing that. Like how myself and Brix manipulate earth and water to restore destroyed land. Wardenwild is unable to do that, as his role falls more under your aunt’s domain, which is more about deaths, in this case, renewal."
Aqua looked up at the sky. "We, at our current stage of strength, may not feel it, but with the ascension of Wardenwild to a spirit-like being, the workings of our world have changed with his birth."
"These were Wardenwild’s words and assumptions," Aqua said before continuing. "Before, if a being in our world died, their souls would make their way into the underworld realm on their own. This way works perfectly for now, but that was in the case we hadn’t had anyone capable of dealing with souls, like interfering in the soul’s journey to the underworld or many more possibilities like souls leaving the underworld because the gate is open all the time."
"With Wardenwild becoming a spirit whose service falls under your aunt and our world consciousness, the underworld’s gate will be closed off. Meaning that dead souls will now be roaming wildly in our world, and now it falls under Wardenwild to ensure those souls safely make it to the underworld. This means that the only time the gate of the underworld opens is when Wardenwild has to pass through it."
Ikem still wore a look of confusion on his face, but it seemed he understood what Aqua was trying to say. "So, is it right f
or me to speculate that you are also planning on becoming an existence such as Wardenwild, and my father’s home has something to do with it?" Ikem asked.
Brix and Aqua nodded. "Exactly."
Ikem said nothing back as he was deep in thought. Meanwhile, down in the underworld, where Keles could be seen back on her throne looking at a huge closed gate that only can be seen by those dead.
"I couldn’t kill the demon before my time limit," she thought to herself, remembering how close she was, at claiming the demon’s soul.
Closing the gate was of no benefit to Keles but rather a demerit, as the opened gate served her much better. With each soul that comes to her realm, she grows stronger. But the demon on the Southern part has been doing things lately that caught her attention, which was one of the factors she felt closing the gate was required.
It was unnoticed before because of the enormous amount of souls in her realm, but Keles noticed that there were a few souls coming from the southern continent. She paid close attention to this as she knew that there was a capable demon pulling the strings on that part.
Her observation led to her finding out thousands of humans whose soul signature felt weird to her. Their souls felt like an amalgamation of hundreds of souls put inside a body, and as a result, most humans she found with these traits all had the same physical deficiencies, which is that they were all mentally challenged.
Further observation led her to see that all these humans were marked. She had thought of possible reasons why the demon did this; she could only come to the conclusion that the demon knew it can’t claim souls that belonged to her but had instead found a way to make sure those souls didn’t reach her realm.
"It understands I can’t do anything to it without access to the mortal world," Keles thought to herself.
This put Keles on guard as she thought back on the demon’s behavior and Björn’s ascension. The possibility of the demon doing such things on a large scale was something she found disturbing, and she hadn’t shared this with her siblings.
The deer demon was an opportunity she hadn’t expected. She had been observing closely for a while, so she grabbed the chance when it came, which is why she made an attack on the demon immediately once she was back in the mortal world. She had hoped to kill two birds with one stone: gaining an envoy whose selfless service will empower her and killing the demon at the same time.
That didn’t work. The second reason for her closing the gate was because the demon’s actions showed her how bad it can be if the gate is open all the time. Their mother’s words have proven many times that there were many unreasonable existences in their universe. While her will is absolute in her realm, she doesn’t like to entertain the thought of someone walking through her gate just because it was opened.
The decision to close the gate worked best for her, and now with the existence of Wardenwild, actions such as the amalgamation of souls will not be possible again as the deer will know of it and take actions where she can’t.
"I hope the result your treemen got offsets me taking a capable subordinate from under your nose," Keles spoke out to no one in her empty palace, but hearing the chuckle in her ear, she knew her brother got her message.
Ikenga in his realm suddenly laughed, causing Red, who was close by, to look at him. Ikenga’s attention turned back to where his mortal home was as he responded, "Your envoy has done me a great favor too so I don’t mind." The only response he got was a scoff, but Ikenga paid no mind to that.