Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 255

Chapter 255: Within the Medallion

Lysette ate her lemon custard slowly, relishing each and every sensation.  She let her tongue feel the creamy smooth complexion and taste the subtle combination of lemon with just the barest hint of vanilla.  The rich, eggy base, softened by cream and sweetened with just the perfect amount of sugar to render it sweet and succulent without being overly decadent.  As she finished her first custard and set her spoon aside, a smile forced its way across her face as she sated a craving that had been building for the better part of half a year.

“I think I prefer a slightly heavier custard,” Aurella said.  “But I will admit, the flavor profile is simply heavenly.”

Lysette’s entire face scrunched up.  “First, blasphemy for thinking these divinely-blessed delights are anything less than perfection.  And secondly, flavor profile?”

“Divinely-blessed?  Lysette, you are simply thinking too much of yourself on this one.  I’m not going around calling my shoes or my blouse ‘divinely-blessed’.  I get that you love these and I’m all about having good fun whenever possible.  But that’s a step too far even for me.”

“Hey, you called them heavenly too.”  Lysette and Aurella continued staring at one another in silence.  “Okay, fine,” Lysette said.  She shook her head.  Spoilsport.

“And regarding the term ‘flavor profile’, it’s just a term all the fancy cooks seem to use when they’re talking about all their super special dishes and bragging about ‘complex aromas’ or ‘secret blends of herbs and spices’.  I just thought I’d see your reaction, and the look on your face?  Yeah, I think the kids these days are calling that ‘worth.’”

“Is that what the kids are saying?  I’m so much younger than you, and yet I’m the one who’s apparently old and out of touch.”

“Well, yeah, because you look and usually act like an adult.  But if you spend a lot of time immersing yourself in their world and get them to accept you as one of them, then you start to learn how they-slash-we think and talk.”

Lysette sighed.  “I’m going to trust you on that and will instead focus on trying to understand this medallion a bit better.  It definitely is a powerful artifact, but until I attune myself to its will, I can’t know exactly what it does.  Besides, I want to know who made this talisman, why that merchant had it, and what led it to me.”

“You don’t think he made it himself?”

“Not likely.  This eye lets me see Essence all around me like a haze.  And my aura lets me estimate the Essence bound in a person’s Spark.  And the Essence from the medallion is much, much higher than the merchant’s.”

“Maybe a relative?”

“Maybe  I don’t think so, though.  He was off, in a way I can’t quite put my finger on.  If I had to guess, he didn’t find this item through means which were…”  Lysette switched to telepathy.  “Completely above-board.  Theft or graverobbing, if I were to guess.”

“Well, that sounds less than fun.”

“Agreed.  I’m going to try to attune with it.  Can you promise that you’ll keep at least a little of your focus on me, and get Solanna if something bad happens?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”  Aurella nodded as she began scarfing down heaping portions of creamy mashed potatoes drenched in entirely too much creamy gravy.

Lysette wasn’t fully convinced by Aurella’s words, but her intrigue into the mysteries of her new talisman outweighed her fears of some malicious agent at work.  And so she focused her divine will on the artifact and let all other sensations from the outside world fade away until she arrived back in the center of her soulscape.

She sat down cross-legged at the base of her Divine Tree and set the Lotus Medallion in her lap.  She pushed a bit of her will into it, and again, it pushed back with equal force.  But this time, Lysette pushed a bit harder.  And the medallion again pushed back against her.

“Do you have a name?  Or something I should call you?”

Lysette received no answer.

“Is there something you want?  I don’t know if it’s within my power to grant, but I’m more than willing to make a deal.”

The medallion again said nothing, but a subtle shift in its Essence made it seem almost as though it were considering something.

“Were you stolen?  Or otherwise taken from your creator against your will?  Or that of the Cultivator who created you?”

“I was.”

“Are they still alive?  Or perhaps have an heir or successor that you would seek to return to?”

“My master would not be so easily slain by the petty thief who stole me.”

“Can you tell me where they are?”

“You would return me?”

“I–  I would, at the least, like to know more about who created you, and why.  For what purpose did your maker Create you?  What did they seek to achieve?  I think I need to better understand where your creator and others have come from and what they sought to achieve with their Cultivation.”

“Your soul is tainted.  Tainted with grave sin.  My master would be displeased were she to see you.”

“I know.  I have killed many, many people.  Including many out of convenience rather than circumstance or necessity.”

“Look around you.  What do you see?”

“I see a garden of trees and other plants.  I see the fruits of many, many people’s efforts to build themselves as Cultivators.”

“Look in the outside world.  Tell me what you see there.”

Lysette recited from memory.  “I’m in a dining hall surrounded by other students.  I’m currently eating custard with my new friend.  We’re at the Domark Cultivation Academy, although it’s more of a military training facility.  Outside, students are engaging in drills to prepare themselves for the future battles we’ll face–”

“We are on a floating island.  A testament to humanity’s hubris.  The hubris of Cultivators who think themselves the masters of creation.  Those who defy their natural place in the serenity of Aimarion.”

“All while being lorded over by their creators.  Who, despite not even living within the world, still seek to control it through their intermediaries.  There’s a certain irony in that, isn’t there?”

“Such is the nature of Life.  Humanity has, time and time again, failed to respect their place in the grand design of Aimarion.  They have sought more and more power, seeking to shape this world to fit their ends rather than living in harmony with nature, with their world.

“And what do they do with this power?  They war?  They fight for still more.  They fight and do battle and slay one another for control of land and territory.

“You are no different.  You too seek to upend this world and disturb the natural harmony of this world.”  The voice of the medallion paused.  “No, demon usurper.  I have seen into your heart and felt your malicious will!  You seek not just power, but to destroy the very foundations of this world.  Your ambition is tainted with the worst, most malevolent iniquity!  For the sake of the world which I love and the Life which I embody and preserve, your continued existence cannot be permitted.  I shall ensure that you can no longer defile the world!”

Lysette shifted the space around her and sequestered herself and the medallion to prevent any damage to her followers’ Sparks and readied herself for battle.  She conjured four fiery lances, holding one in each of her hands and the other two by vines which she sprouted out of her back.

The medallion spun wildly, and a spectral form poured out of it.  Bit by bit it took shape.  Whoever it was had a torso and legs like those of a human, but its face looked like it was carved into tree bark.  And its arms were like numerous branches of ivy all bundled together, forming a rough pattern of muscle striations with leaves that surrounded it like skin.  Its fingers were small twigs coated in numerous petals of golden lotus.  Flowers of every color imaginable, from the brightest white to the blackest onyx, formed in place of short, wavy hair.  And as the being finished taking shape, its entire body was cloaked in a thick, leathery carapace save two slits for the eyes and one for the mouth.

The being raised a single finger.  Lysette’s vines withered and turned to dust, and her two spears fell to the transparent ground with a loud clang.  Lysette again tried to summon more vines to do her bidding, but they refused her command.  The third time she attempted to summon an Icevine to aid her in battle, the plant attacked her on the orders of another will.  It assailed her with fist-sized chunks of ice and tried to ensnare her within its icy tendrils until Lysette finally dismissed what had supposedly been her aid.

The identity of the creature— the goddess— who created the Lotus Medallion was becoming clear, though Lysette didn’t want to admit it to herself.  That the entire plot with the amulet had all been an elaborate ruse to ensnare her.

The being before her laughed.  “Of course, of course.  You, a self-described herbalist should have known better.  Plants are beautiful things, are they not?”  The voice was soft and feminine, but with immense power lying just beneath the surface.  “Flowers blossom to spread new Life.  They offer their nectars to attract birds and insects to help spread that life.  But a very few use their honeyed scent for a more predatory purpose.”

“Carnivorous plants,” Lysette said.  “Now I see.  This medallion, the merchant, the silence from before.  All of it was just a ruse to bring us to this confrontation.  Using the one weakness I know I have.”

“You aren’t the first demon I’ve had the displeasure of encountering over the eons.  Each of you has a different vision for this world.  You all have different things you tell yourselves.  Different justifications, different sweet-scented words that you use to attract people to your causes.  But in the end you all have one thing in common.  A deep, unrestrained lust for power.  One that is all too easily exploitable.

“When the world was recreated, I was one of the few who lobbied against what you know as the Aestori Ban.  In large part because I knew that without a steady, watchful hand to guide the world, any number of pests would rear their ugly heads.  And if you do not rip out such blight at its source, and pull every scrap of its root to ensure that it can never come back, that pestilence will only spread until it fills the entire world with its fetid stench.”

“So, you handed one of your own artifacts to a priest of yours, disguised him as a merchant, and then built up an alluring story to get me interested in buying it.  A clever ruse, Bionco.”

Bionco, the Goddess of Life, laughed.  “Yes, at least I’m not dealing with an idiot.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t say the same.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been thinking about the gods and their role in this world.  And you’re absolutely right.  Humans do war.  They fight, they die, they kill each other.  And they even ruin the beauty of nature in doing so.  I can’t say I’m not the same.

“However, the more I fight, the longer this war drags on, the more I understand of Omnia’s system, the more I reach a single conclusion.  Humanity has no need of gods or demons.  They are stronger than their creators believe.  And, in the absence of said creators, I think they can accomplish any number of amazing things.

“They deserve a world for themselves, one where their creators merely watch without intervening.  And I think that’s why we demons exist.  To reflect the desire for a world of freedom, one where life is allowed to flourish free from the controlling, pruning hand of their creators.  Because we demons are born from that same system, we will exist as long as you do.  To serve as your enemy, to reflect the desires of mankind that no other gods ever could.”

“Oh?  You really think so?  Even with your little excuse for a kingdom, they all operate only by your leave.  They seek a guiding hand to look up, to give them peace and certainty in a hostile, chaotic world.  And as the world’s wellspring of Life and its divine caretaker, it is time for me to grant Aimarion the peaceful, loving hand it calls out for.  Perish, demon.”

Chapter 254: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114956947

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 256: https://www.patreon.com/posts/115093068