Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 248

Chapter 248: Beacon of Hope

Mirae continued pulling Lysette by the wrist all the way through Ciricu, neither seeming to notice nor care about the stares they were getting from several of the townsfolk as they made their way back to their cottage.  As soon as they had pulled Lysette inside and closed the door behind them, they pulled Lysette into their embrace and locked lips with her.  And they held nothing back as their tongue explored every bit of Lysette’s teeth, tongue, tonsils, and any and everywhere else they could get hold of.

“Love, I thought we were going to do some joint Cultivation.”

Mirae picked up Lysette and straddled her around their waist as they walked into their bedroom and lay on their bed.  “We absolutely will, my beloved fiancée.  But first, I need to relieve some pent-up tension after yesterday’s battle.”

“And I thought Solanna was the Demigoddess of Passion.  Are you trying to usurp her Domain?”

“Oh, my beloved.  I assure you, Marital Devotion— or soon-to-be Marital Devotion, in our case— falls well within the boundaries of my Domain.  In all of its forms and manifestations.”

“So, you literally gain power every time a committed couple expresses their Devotions to one another through–”

“Yes, I do.  And after yesterday, I’m a bit fatigued and need a pick me up.”

Some time later, once Mirae had had their fill of Lysette and the two had gotten a chance to share an ice bath together, the two changed into evening garments and sat side by side on the couch in their living area.  Lysette nuzzled against Mirae, closing her eyes and resting her head in their lap as she let all sensations except those of her love fade away.

A few moments later, Lysette and Mirae together reawakened within their shared soulscape.  It was the first time since Kristil’s death nearly a full day ago that the two demigods immersed themselves fully within their Cultivation realm, and as they arrived at a charred, broken, withering tree, the two paused to share a moment of silence.

“I want to try something,” Lysette said.  She reached out to what had been a manifestation of Kristil’s Spark and concentrated on the Essence flow all around, feeling for any remnant of her life and vitality.  She stood motionless, eyes closed, feeling every bit of that once-beautiful, caring, compassionate soul that had been slain by the cowardly Godslayer of Asterion.  And she found something, a small mote of silvery-white little bigger than a strawberry achene which luminesced from its own internal light.

“Why?” Mirae asked.

“Her pacts with us and Serrena provided her with this mote of Divine Essence— a seed for her own nascent divinity, should she have chosen to go down that path.  Though her ordinary Essence faded into ambience as her soul went off to wherever souls go, that tiny bit of Divinity seemed not to have been reclaimed by Omnia’s system just yet.”

“So what will you do with it?  Keep it for yourself?”

“No.  That doesn’t sit right with me.  Part of me wants to give it to Nicholas.  The other part of me wants Kiarra to have it.”

“I like that idea,” Mirae said.  “I think it’ll help bring the two of them closer together.  Just like your gift of divinity did for us.”

“I’ll do that.  But only after we talk to Kiarra first.  She’s agreed to and asked for help with her Cultivation, but I don’t want to give her this without her knowing exactly what this will do to her.”

“You were going to say that you were going to ‘look into it,’ weren’t you?”

Lysette sighed.  “I’ll look into my answer to your question later.”

Mirae cocked an eyebrow before lightly slapping Lysette’s cheek with a single finger.  The two giggled at one another.  Lysette stroked Mirae’s cheek before pecking their lips.

“Now then,” Lysette said, wrapping her arm around Mirae’s waist as the two stood up and looked at the increasingly elaborate starscape high above.  Three large stars, two of which were bound together by a trail of star stuff, spinning around one another, while the third revolved about orthogonal to the two connected ones.  Beyond those three sat five smaller ones along with a faint negative afterimage of a star that once stood among the heavens but now rested in Lysette’s hand.  She clutched it snugly, recalling Kristil’s face as she did.

“It’s beautiful,” Mirae said.  “Though, I’m curious.  Are our Stars bonded together because we now share a Domain, or because of Mirette?”

“I think those two are the same reason.  But we should be able to become Mirette in here, even if we don’t fuse our physical bodies on the outside.  That might provide some insight.”

“Let’s try it,” Lysette said.  She nodded toward the largest Tree among a vibrant and expanding Garden flowering before the couple.

Space and time twisted around the couple as they walked among the thousands of plants.  They were mostly small patches of various grasses, but also included hundreds of various shrubs, bushes, ivies, vines, and other plants as varied as the people whose Sparks they represented.  As they passed through the Garden, Lysette noticed that some of the plants had shifted positions.  Notably, there was a large and hairy barley patch standing triumphantly off to one side, surrounded by an arid-tolerant tree which wrapped around it.  The tree’s branches drooped in such a way that it almost seemed like it was crying, while the barley’s hairs reached up in what could have been considered a consoling gesture.

In the center of this Garden stood three Trees which towered above all others.  One, slightly off to the side, was a massive Willow with leaves in perpetual flame, the shimmering heat and resulting updraft suspending a large cluster of Cloudvine aloft.  And the other a rainbow Tree with leaves which shimmered and luminesced in every color of the rainbow and plenty more not.  The Tree itself— the metaphysical manifestation of Lysette’s Divine Spark— was surrounded by a towering Ivy that wrapped around it, nearly as tall and sparkling within the Tree’s glistening radiance.

Mirae took Lysette’s hand, letting their betrothal rings touch one another as they took a seat at the base of Lysette’s tree.  Mirae took Lysette into their lap, wrapping their arms behind them, and the two opened their minds to one another, with a shared focus on the meaning of Hope and connecting to the Domain that Mirette had absorbed the day prior.

Hope was a blessing and a curse.  Hope was what allowed people to persevere against impossible odds.  It was what Kiarra and Lilia had relied on as they fought Rayleigh.  It was what empowered their bodies and spirits and Sparks as they pushed through their pain to keep fighting.  And what they clung to in vain, hoping in their struggle that Rayleigh might falter or take pity or make a mistake or somehow run out of strength because she was weaker than she had let on.

It was what the Domarian soldiers yesterday had pleaded for as the Elithrians and their artifice barreled down upon them.  What the Domarian commanders had tried to instill in their soldiers, succeeding if only just while opposed by the crushing weight of a deity’s Domain working to break their spirits and drive them into despair.

It was what Lysette had desired on the fateful night of her rebirth, back when she was still human.  When she Hoped that her sister Celica and their parents would find some way to survive the ransacking of Osstia at the hands of Asterion’s Inquisition.  It was certainly no small dose of irony that her Hopes and wishes and silent pleading were all perversely feeding the strength of the chief enforcer behind the entire operation.  Lysette clenched her hand, not even realizing the tension building in all her muscles until Mirae’s gentle stroking of the back of her hand helped her release that built-up rage.

But Hope was too a curse, and not just in the sense of the false Hope that Alan tried to elicit, and nearly succeeded if not for Solanna’s timely intervention.  Hope and Despair were two sides of the same coin, and even true Hope would not always come to pass.  It was a source of morale and power to persevere through all manner of adversity.  But it was also an invitation to only greater sorrow if— more likely, when, considering the current state of Aimarion— those Hopes fell upon deaf ears.

Her reflections alongside Mirae on the nature of Hope and how their meditations affected their twinning divinities all but confirmed their shared suspicions that the two had, in a bout of demonic absorption, seized Alan’s Domain for themselves.  Lysette knew now also that her responsibilities as a demigoddess had only grown as a result.

Now no longer did she merely have to embody the desire for Reciprocity held by all humans— for rewarding the righteous and punishing the wicked.  Now she, together with Mirae, had to reconcile their own Domains and try to figure out a path forward that reflected their shared desire for a reformed Aimarion.

Lysette sighed, slipping a bit deeper into Mirae’s embrace.  Her Reciprocity had not been unhappy with her, and her connection to her Domain remained as strong and empowering as ever.  In one sense, she had never raised arms against any who hadn’t first taken action against her or those she loved, or who threatened to do the same.  But that didn’t mean that every action she’d ever taken was as optimal as she would have liked.

Many, many lives had been lost by her hand over the past six months.  Some of them were deserved— Lacos and Alan were deaths she relished and the world was a better place for their absence.  Some of them were necessary, either to save herself, her friends, or because there were no other ways.  But plenty more were dead not out of necessity or greater good, but merely out of convenience.

Because it was faster or easier or— to be slightly charitable to herself— to give her a slightly higher chance of success in her long-term goals.  Or just because they happened to be in the way.  Because that demonic side of her personality could so easily twist any of those into enough rationale to take life and justify it to herself.  

It hadn’t really set in exactly what unbridled Reciprocity would lead to, although she and Dani had talked about it back at the Academy.  Not until last night, not until Kristil’s body burned on a funeral pyre and Kiarra consoled her brother until the embers dimmed from a roaring flame to a faint red glow and her body was naught but bone and teeth and ash.  But Dani was right, as she usually was, and if she didn’t change course, she might well supplant Asterion, only to become someone worse in his place.

She and Mirae slipped into Mirette at some point during their meditations, and as they did, their twinned divinities spun around one another, merging temporarily into a larger conglomerate high above.  Though, it wasn’t a uniform Star either.  When Mirette looked up they could see three distinct shades with an abrupt demarcation between the sections.  One was a bit brighter— nearly white.  One was an orangish-yellow.  And the third was a dimmer reddish shade, but which had grown brighter over the course of her meditations.

Mirette let go of the ties which bound Lysette and Mirae, and the two slipped back into their respective selves.  Their Stars likewise separated back apart, though not uniformly.  The brightest matter of Mirette’s Star formed back into Lysette’s, the next brightest portion became Mirae’s, and the dimmest section formed the bridge of matter which connected the two.

Lysette pondered the implications.  Would absorbing another Domain as Mirette cause her and Mirae to bond their divinities closer together?  And what would the side effects be if that were the case?

A knock came from the outside door, rousing both of the deific pair from their meditations.  Lysette enrobed herself quickly as Mirae took their time, and once the latter had dressed themself, Lysette opened the door.

Before her stood what appeared to be a young woman, barely a teenager based on her physical appearance.  But this woman’s strength was fantastic despite her appearance, nearly a match for Lysette’s own.  The woman grimaced, matching Serrena’s best grins in intensity and glee alike.

“I’ve been told that there’s a menacing demon lord living here,” she said.

Lysette looked around.  “I prefer ‘demon lady’, but yes, you found me.  And I’m hardly that menacing, am I?”

The woman grinned.  “Good!  Now follow me!  I don’t want to disturb the people of this village while I beat you down!”

Chapter 247: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114551144

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

Chapter 249: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114657812