Chapter 236: Hello darkness my old friend
Cass felt himself shiver as he opened his eyes and couldn’t see anything. He hadn’t noticed the temperature here before, but it was a little chilly and he rubbed his arms.
Then, a warm, soft breeze carrying the scent of cherry blossoms filled the room and Cass shivered for a different reason.
"Our brave warrior. You conquered your first dungeon! Tell us, what do you think?" Cass didn’t need much experience to realise that he was speaking to the motherfucker who stole his emotions, promised him more magic, and was the ’manager’ to the other ’gods’. He felt his fists clench, wanting to just shout and scream and cause a scene, but he also kind of knew that it wasn’t going to get him anywhere.
Who else could the manager call? The owner?
Cass really didn’t want to meet the owner. He kind of felt like there was no turning back if that happened, and honestly? Now he just wanted to get as far away from them as possible, with as little interaction as possible. He had viewed them as like an annoying saving point before but now? Now they were like a fucking mico transaction game.
It always fucking cost him something interacting with them.
"It was fucking awful." Cass told them, his words dripping with anger. "Everything was fucking awful. Do you guys have a damn rat, or are the demons able to look into you and see your worse fear because I had to kill myself." Cass complained and the warm air stilled for a second, before it came back.
"Well, some are capable of doing so, but they shouldn’t be able to get through our barrier. What do you mean you had to kill yourself?" They asked, the genderless voice taking on a harshness that had Cass swallowing. Uh oh.
Was Cass right when he had thrown out those words in anger? Why was this continuing to happen? He was just speaking his mind, and yet it kept being damn accurate.
"Just as I said. I had to kill the old version of myself, the way that it happened." Cass told the ’god’. "It was the construction site remade into a mini boss room." Cass said, before he asked the obvious follow up question. "Are you...not allowed to see inside of the dungeons?" He asked and the wind whirled around him.
"Caspian, you should know that we can’t see everything. There has to be some balance to the world, which is why we brought you here. You are to help balance this world. Demons aren’t allowed to see into our temples, and we aren’t allowed to see into their dungeons." Cass was surprised that they were considered equivalent. Did that mean that dungeons could be places of worship for demons?
That was pretty strange to consider, and pretty...rad? Cool? Cass hated that he considered it that way, but that was the truth. The demons put in all the work to build a cool thing, themed it too, and the ’gods’ made other races build their places of worship.
The sigh blew through the void.
"Caspian. That’s exactly the point. We start at different points. We, as gods, need people to prove that they have faith in us by building things in our honour, while demons need to bring others to them to show they have honour. They are supposed to be the opposite. Neither is ’more cool’ than the other." It sounded like the god was chastising Cass for his thoughts, and while Cass thought it was pretty fucked up that they were reading his mind, he did appreciate the clarification.
"So did you always know I had demon blood? Er, that Lord Blackburn had demon blood?" Cass asked.
Silence.
The air grew still, the smell dissipated, and Cass had worried that maybe they hadn’t known? A god hadn’t known? It wasn’t like Cass hadn’t spoken about it before now.
"Mmm. Forgive us, someone else was in charge of monitoring you and hadn’t revealed that tidbit to me." The genderless voice spoke. They kept trying to be charming, to sound kind and caring. It was just giving Cass the ick.
Cass waved his hands absently in the void, pretending he was playing in the emptiness.
"It’s alright. I didn’t realise that was something you wouldn’t have noticed." Cass joked, poking fun at them. The gods temper flared for a second, the sound of chains rattling and Cass winced. He remembered what those felt like. It wasn’t something he had noticed before, but there was a fear that was inside of him that hadn’t been there before when he heard those rattle.
"Caspian, while we are greater beings than yourself, we are still beings. A punishment for some folly we had done in our youth means that we cannot tell the difference between demonic and holy powers while in this void. Unless you wish to meet us in truth and lose all sense of self, you would do best to mind your tone when speaking of such delicate issues." What a way to threaten someone.
Was it like seeing an angel back on Earth? Did you just go insane from the mere sight of them?
There was a small, small part of Cass that wanted to push their buttons more on the issue. See how far he could go. They needed him, after all, not the other way around. If he did go insane, would they be forced to rewind it? What did that even entail?
"Caspian Spencer." The ’god’ rumbled. "This was not what we wished to discuss. Focus, child." The god was scolding him. Cass was almost impressed with the change in behaviour, even if he fucking hated it.
"Are you feeling pity for me now that you know my situation is worse than we all thought?" Cass asked. "Maybe you should have considered that before thrusting me into this world without much of my consent and blackmailing me." Cass said cheerfully.
"Caspian..." The genderless voice held a hard note to it and Cass felt another shiver run down his spine. Man, he really should learn not to flirt with danger, but when he knew that they were practically powerless to do anything to him, it felt reeeeeeeeeeally good.
A huge wind rocked through the air, knocking Cass off of his feet and his but didn’t hit anything, but he knew he was on his ass.
The voice grew closer, feeling focused as it grew louder.
"The outcome of this world still has not changed, Caspian. While we are aware you have only been here for a short time, you need to remember you have a mission to accomplish to go along with why you are here. Behave. Don’t make us drop you back to the world again." They warned and Cass shrugged. Whatever.
He was pretty sure this was what teenagers felt when dealing with parents, but he wouldn’t know. He didn’t have any parents, and didn’t get to have this phase of his life. He spent his time working to help his sister out.
Not that he minded, he just thought that it was probably similar. Lord Blackburn didn’t have it either.
"Whatever." Cass muttered, not really interested. "You said the outcome hasn’t changed? What has changed?" Cass asked and the ’god’ sighed.
"You’ll see for yourself once we finish our chat. Did you have any questions for us?" They asked and Cass took a moment to seriously contemplate that question. Did he have anything that he wanted to ask them, that he thought they would answer seriously?
He wasn’t sure.
Honestly, he felt like he had a few questions that he wanted to ask, like about the benefits of being a hero, if he was right about what he considered they wanted him to do, things like that. But what would it cost him to get those answered?
"Nothing. We aren’t here to hinder your job." The voice told him and Cass gave a dry laugh.
"Really? Then why did you take my emotions away?" Cass snapped, angry all over again at that. The wind wrapped around him, as if attempting to soothe him. It did not.
"We were worried you would act rashly. You were, as the others pointed out, not adapting well in certain aspects. You are partially bonded to a dragon right now, Caspian. Of course there were a few options, but that felt like the less invasive measure we could take. It also faded once the magic we had given you had settled." Cass glowered at the void around him, swinging his head around to glare in every direction.
"You couldn’t have told me that?" He snapped and another wind filled sigh filled the air.
"Would it have made a difference?" Cass froze. Would it have made a difference? Cass wasn’t quite sure. He was uncomfortable with how casually they said that, and how uncomfortable it made him feel.
"Telling someone what is about to happen to them when you’re the one doing it is a kind thing to do!" Cass ended up saying, flustered, and the ’god’ chuckled.
"Understood, Caspian. We will make sure to do that next time." Cass didn’t like that answer, but he had a feeling there were very few answers from them that he would like. "To answer some of the questions you thought, normally, being a hero would benefit you by giving you a safe place to stay, a home to call your own, and honour. Given the current state of the family we had entrusted this task to, we can understand why you are hesitant to say there are any benefits to it. We believe we have compensated you for that. You will understand when you wake up."
Cass really didn’t like the sound of that.
"And what about my hypothesis? Are you trying to rebuild Lord Blackburn’s image?" Cass asked and the ’god’ chuckled.
"Hmm? Well, that is one way to put it. We would be delighted if that was the case, but...there are more pressing issues. We too, have several questions we would like the answers to. Like how you got demon blood in you in the first place." The tone shifted slightly and Cass grew concerned. "Don’t worry. Our time for discussion has ended. We don’t want to take up too much of your time, and all temples should feel much safer now. We have adjusted your body to be so." Cass hated that even more.
"Adjusted my body? What the hell does that mean?" Cass demanded but the soft tinkle of laughter filled the air as Cass felt two hands press on his shoulders, pushing him back.
"It’s but a gift, Caspian. Get some rest." Cass fell back slightly, closing his eyes as he did so.
When he opened them again, he was before the statue. His heart was racing in his chest. That was...new.