Chapter 696

“Apologies for the delay,” Quilith said, gently bowing his head. “As I’m sure you can imagine, rearranging a schedule when someone comes back to life isn’t the easiest thing, especially when we didn’t immediately notice you lived.”

“No worries, almost dying is inconvenient for a lot of people,” He shrugged. “So how have you been? Did I miss any exciting news?”

“A bit. Shall I go through your usual reading and update you?”

“Sounds good.”

Taking a seat, the grey brought up all of the new information they’d learned about the universe in a series of rapidly switching slides, letting Ben take it all in while they talked.

“We still haven’t found a world we’d want to talk to if your planet fails,” He admitted. “It’s a big universe, there’s probably plenty that would meet our desires and be willing to help us but it’s a matter of finding them among everything else. If you lose and we keep not being able to find other options we might need to settle for picking the lesser evil.”

“And what exactly does that mean for you?”

“In general? It means limiting ourselves. I won’t lie, not many of us are attached to the thought of being ruled by gods who can force their whims and desires upon us, it seems like a recipe for stagnation in general. The fact that the gods of this world act through community makes it a lot easier to stomach when one can’t unilaterally decide that something is forbidden with no obvious reason.”

“Mmh, true, I don’t really know what things were like on a lot of their old worlds but I sure wouldn’t want to be under a couple of the ones I know about.”

“Ha, your personal issues are one thing but we’ve already seen plenty of planets I would describe us as being wholly incompatible with. Even aside from all of the ones I’m comfortable describing as evil gods, we’ve seen peoples who are forbidden from working metal or preserving food because of whatever strange sensibilities their gods hold, in essence stagnating their entire races. There’s an entire universe out there to explore but the sensibilities of the divine mean so many races will never get off the ground, even if it’s all just a step away.”

That had to be a particularly difficult idea for the grey as a whole. A technologically advanced race who could have easily gone out to conquer the stars of their homeworld if not for how incompatible their home universe was to the very idea of space travel, locking them all onto a single planet that was slowly dying after losing its sun. To escape that situation may have been the dream but no matter how better it could have been, they didn’t want to be once more trapped under a single world without even the right to leave it.

“Well, hopefully you won’t have to. If things work out here then we’ll get you settled and we can all live happily ever after. Speaking of, how goes trying to rip a hole in your universe?”

It was one of the many shortcuts they were trying to take to reduce the cost of the summoning spell and despite everything else, Quilith seemed pleased.

“We’ve had success in our trials, the only thing left is trying to keep it open for your gods to come through while making it safe for us to be close by. Viewing the effects of what happens when a body is exposed to the naked chaos is enough to make us want to avoid it at all costs.”

“What? Did you guys have an accident or something?”

Quilith shook his head. “Animal testing. The things that are exposed to it for long enough seem to mutate, we’re still trying to understand what happened to some of the bodies we’ve managed to retrieve, and those who stare into it go insane by all accounts we’ve seen so far. Bar one of course.”

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“Yeah, I’m a lucky guy, so some things have gone through it already?”

“Yes, we’ve pushed some test subjects through and observed them in the standard way we observe the multiverse, nobody wants to test their own, unexposed mind against it, with a variety of results. Really too many, no two have been affected the same. Most die in one way or another but some seem to continue to change and thrive, going off to become a part of the vaster interdimensional ecosystem by all accounts.”

“Interesting, and are there no variables that can affect it? No difference in species or genes or diet or age or anything?”

“We’ve tried to account for all of that but even the most identical clones we can produce experience the chaos radically differently. Unless it’s reflected in undetectable differences in fundamental atoms, we’re forced to conclude it may instead be due to either the random nature of the chaos itself with its lack of fixed laws or else an aspect of reality still hidden from us. Their souls.”

“That’s true, but… Hmm, you know, I never gave it much thought before but when creatures in this reality are cloned, the clones remain soulless and they don’t actually do anything unless directed by something else but I know cloning happened on Earth and now knowing it happens on your world too, I wonder what the difference is? What makes some clones ensoulable and others not?”

“A wonderful question for philosophers but nothing my people can help with. There’s already enough bothersome questions about the existence of souls as far as we’re concerned. The most important being where they come from and where they go. It doesn’t make sense that every life-bearing universe produces some that are compatible with every other life-bearing universe so long as they can get an appropriate vessel but it also doesn’t make sense to think that their existence is some sort of rule for the broader multiverse either, with what happens to them being a whole other question. Your soul mages and gods say they fade away when a life dies but is there some greater heaven or cycle of reincarnation or do they simply stop existing? At the very least they seem to reflect the nature of their paternal species given the innate skills some are born with on your side with the beastform holders being a perfect example but honestly, the entire field is a headache that has far too many of our philosophers excited to get over there.”

“Those are all very interesting questions I’m going to do my absolute best not to think about, I have enough stuff on my mind. When it comes to where they come from I already have an answer and it’s me, thinking about any of the theological implications beyond that sounds like it would carry a risk of making me stop.”

“So I’ve heard. You’ve been busy since you left, how many would you say you’ve created by this point?”

“I’ve stopped keeping track, I might be getting close to a billion by now. I’m sure if I keep going I’ll get a title for it eventually, or if I’m really curious I could probably get Verbum to check for me.”

“Mmh, I’ll admit that a few of my kind have begun to worry that there’s some greater power out there who rules over the creation and distribution of souls, I do wonder what such a being would think of you.”

“Hopefully it wouldn’t and it sounds like some of your people are reinventing religion.”

“Can you blame them? Our world is going through its slow death, we’ve learned that despite all of our study there’s a potentially immortal part of us we’ve only just become aware of, and we’re trying to make a new home in a universe filled with beings that identify themselves as gods. If that isn’t going to bring some thoughts of faith then I don’t know what will.”

“Ha, well if we do succeed in getting you guys over, do me a favour and spread the word to pray to Myriad. I can verify he’s a good guy, you’ll all like him. Plus, getting him new believers keeps me in his good books so gotta strike while you’re all still free.”

“Mmh, the question of who any of us might give our faith to among your pantheon is actually a common one these days and I’ll at least say that you make your god look like a good choice, although the common sentiment is that since you’d gotten so many third tiers from just two hundred being pulled over then even on our low end we should be getting at least a handful and so we should be prepared to have divinities among our own kin.”

“Eh, a couple, sure, but I honestly think this world has gotten unreasonably lucky with their pulls. There’s none among the grey and none among the humans. Who knows, maybe we just don’t have the talent?”

“Ha, a depressing thought but hopefully we’ll get the chance to see. I’ll at least say that no matter how things turn out, I’m willing to keep my options open.”

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