“The question remains, should humanity be spared or destroyed all together?”

It has been a mere thirty minutes traveling through the sewer maze and already Nova’s patience began to wear thing. Following the current of the water only to find numerous dead ends, loops, and grates blocking the way. She wondered about what Robert and Margarete doing at this hour, however, she focused more on the question of how many lives were taken in town. Why would the Legion massacre innocent, let alone its own citizens, just to get to a Goddess? Even if there was a war with the gods then why sacrifice innocents to do it and at what price? What good was there in waging war if it means killing off your own citizens? Thinking about it made Nova even more upset, and the Goddess must have picked up on it, “Mortal, why have you risked your life for the sakes of a Goddess?” From the sounds of it, the Goddess seemed to be feeling better, “Do you not fear death?”

Nova was silent for a time, but then finally answered her, “If anything I don’t care if I die anymore.”

“Oh, yet you fight with such fury. As if you wanted to live another day. Am I wrong?”

Nova again remained silent, “If that isn’t so,” The Goddess continues, “Then why do you continue to fight?”

Angrily Nova replies, “Because I couldn’t stand by and watch all those people die! Who are they to go kill innocent people? Families, children, friends! Who am I to just allow that to happen?!”

Hesitantly the Goddess says, “With such strength comes burden to be of service to others… you did save the children and woman.”

“Yeah, then what about all the other people? Why did they kill countless just to get to you? Where were you when it all started?”

“I am-!” Pyrium paused realizing that she was still weak and hadn’t the energy to even scold the mortal, “The Legion must know all too well my obligation to a sense of honor… perhaps it really is my fault.”

Nova held in her anger, wrinkling her nose from the anger, and tense silence hung between them.

Hours have passed wandering the sewers, hope of getting out seemed to slowly diminish. Nova still carries the Goddess, much to both their surprise, they even came so far. The repeating rush of water and dark tunnels drives Nova mad, yet she still presses on. The same sound of dripping water, the flow of the current, and most of all the sound of her footsteps. To add to the list of causes of her insanity was the cool moisture mixed with her sweat from carrying the Goddess of Fire. The pounding of her heart from exhaustion, and the sound of her own breath made her lose focus. Carrying the Goddess, Nova couldn’t help but curse in her mind. Pyrium finally breaks the silence, “Let me down mortal.” Without hesitation, Nova gladly lets her down.

The Goddess walked a few feet ahead until she stopped. She clenched her fists weakly and raised her rights arm forward. She closed her eyes in focus, gathering her strength. The air became slightly warmer, gradually getting hotter as time passed. Nova backed away as she noticed the heat caused the concrete to faintly glow and the waters lightly boiled. The Goddess slowly turned into a light shade of orange and her black hair gave off embers. Pyrium opened her eyes and flicked her wrist out, shooting out what seemed to be a shard of flame that flew down the sewer in front of them. There they stood for moments waiting for something to happen. The space around them cooled back to normal and the Goddess returned to a normal state.

The Goddess turned towards Nova, “We follow our current path for the remainder of the trek. We should arrive before midnight if we don’t stop.”

“You could tell that from shooting out fire, then what time is it now?”

“The sun is near setting. Much time has passed since coming down these sewers.”

“So much for a good morning. Can you walk now?”

Pyrium nods, “I can manage that, however, I would still need sometime before returning to my full strength.”

Without saying much else they begin to continue their walk. After a few moments carrying on, Nova asks the Goddess, “How come you are so exhausted. I thought the Gods are supposed to be all powerful beings?”

After a moment the Goddess shakes her head, “Strange forces pollute the essence of magic, even in the Gods. We notice our strength diminishing over the years since the passing of the Oracle long ago. In a sense… it seems similar to that of a disease weakening the body, but in our case it is as if there is something poisoning the magic in this world, yet even us Gods cannot find the cause. Some believe it is the cause of human pollution gripping the world, but I don’t know what to think of it. All I know is that if this keeps up then eventually the Gods will be nothing more than mortals waiting for the day we die.”

“Die? I thought you are all immortal. Can the Gods… can you even die?”

The Goddess laughed, “Perhaps mortals no longer understand the Gods like they used to. Yes we Gods can die, however, we are also immortal. You may see the contradiction in that, but it very much will make sense. We have been around since the beginning of the comets fall, we were born of Year Zero when humans were in turmoil, not to emerge until after the bloody wars of man, when the First Kings declared their rule. It wasn’t until then we deemed humans ready to face the new world. That generation existed in times when this world was once called Earth and witnessed its change into Gaia Novum, where magic flourished once again.”

“This doesn’t really answer my question. You mean there was a time where magic never existed?”

She nods her head, “It seems the Legion no longer cares for educating history. The Age of Old was a very primitive time where first civilizations rose and magic was wild and uncontrolled in those times. Mythical creatures are not mere fable if the world, coincidentally, all were familiar with their being. Creatures such as the dragon or unicorn were very much real in those time before the world began to advance in its technology and humans expanded their civilizations. Before physics and sciences were, for a time, used to control and comprehend the powers of magic, however, as time passed and science became more developed, magic diminished and soon forgotten or dismissed as scientific laws took their place. Then came the Age of Ill, similar to the state of the world today, with technology taking control of the land making life easy for humans as the earth payed for it. The Age Uncertainty came when the comet crashed and shook the earth for days, this was a time when chaos ruled until the First Kings returned the peace under their rule, balancing their old lives with the magic of the new. In our times… it would seem that we are reaching… an Age of End. I know all of this even though I have died time and time again. So to answer your question, yes, we Gods can die but not as permanent as you may think. As we were born we all choose our existence, our very being from our actions and as Gods we can be reborn, continue our lineage through a new body.”

“So reincarnation, so you can die and be reborn. That makes sense, but how would that work?”

The Goddess let out a brief sigh, tired from the talking, “Usually our deaths would occur when killed in battle or, in rare cases, if severe harm or ailment came to our bodies. Each of the Gods have their own weapons, forged from their very being, my blade is an extension of myself and so are the weapons of the other Gods. As we die we reside our spirit to our weapons until a wielder worthy and willing to host our being is found.”

“So these hosts… what happen to them when you host them, do they… die?”

She laughed, visibly amused from the idea of such a thing, “Such a cynical way of viewing it! No, instead we become one being. A God being hosted in a mortals form, our minds become one as do our body, no matter who it is I will host, we will always be Pyrium.”

“You mean you will always be you? So what of the other person? Are they just destined to no longer be themselves then?”

The Goddess laughed again, “When mixing herb and water to make tea, is the herb and water no longer there? Of course tea will always be tea as long as the herbs and water are mixed correctly, hence is why when mortals stumble upon my blade I must judge them worthy of my power. In my case… I suppose you can think that Pyrium will always reside in this blade, but for every mortal to take up my responsibility they would then be considered the herb. The power remains constant, but who I become in the next life depends on whoever takes up the title, if that makes sense.”

Nova pauses to think on the idea of it, “It makes sense. So what did you mean by the person being the herb, would you change personality?”

Pyrium pondered on the idea, “That’s a good question actually. I would definitely change in form, but usually my being remains constant. I am Pyrium and I stand for honor and will always stand for honor, however, depending of the host mainly the only things would change would be attributes such as our talents and fighting style. One host could mean I would be good at hunting while another could mean I could be good in art or music. As far as fighting would go Pyrium would always fight with this blade, but depending on the host it could be used for fencing like techniques, thrusting, stabbing, or just as slicing, it all depends on the host. Although there have been some hosts among the Gods that have mainly just used the weapons as an instrument for magic.”

The more Pyrium explained the power and structure of the Gods the more sane and calm she got. In fact while listening to her explain everything she didn’t even notice that they had finally made near the exit of the sewer labyrinth.