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The streets of the magic towers were strangely empty, with many of the mages who’d normally be filling the area off fighting and hunting what groups of demons they could while the ones that remained were on guard even as they walked around, prepared for anything to get through and rain down chaos with each of them having the responsibility to stop it, a feeling that tainted each of their thoughts as Ben reached out to connect to them in order to test and train his own skills.

Given his goals for raising deep connection, using it constantly was a must and it was seeing the practice, both from how far he was stretching it out to train with the various minds he was touching, but also by taking advantage of his new rings, linking up to them to make and break enchantments across the various bands hanging from his arms.

Every time he had the opportunity he was doing it for what practice and experience he would get but it served another purpose too, testing the effects of reconstructed alien thought structure and confirming a suspicion he had about the skill.

While it had no level attached to it, it still seemed able to grow due to its very nature, with the new minds he touched imprinting on the alien strands within his head, making them more complex from each interaction and ever so slightly growing how he could view the world.

It felt strange to go through and stranger to actively observe as it was happening but he didn’t let it worry him. Everything in his head was him, whatever aspects attached to his minds were just as much so no matter how alien any of them might have ended up being, not that he was particularly concerned about that. He’d already connected to mana and energy beings, along with forms of life that hadn’t evolved on a terrestrial world, the idea that he’d somehow have to worry about encountering anything stronger was basically unreasonable. It would be stranger if he somehow ran into something that didn’t fit into any of the categories he’d already encountered, better to accept himself as he was than worry about how he might hypothetically change still.

That was how he made his way to the library, ignoring the side buildings he still needed to explore and instead making his way to the main one, finding it like everywhere else emptier than usual as he made his way to the top floor, finding its usual occupant already there.

“Hey Verbum,” He said cheerfully, not getting the other to so much as glance away from his book.

“So you lived then?”

“I hit a couple unexpected rough patches but yeah, I lived. Things went well for you?”

“The benefit of having zero combat skills is I have no expectations on me,” He shrugged before finally looking over at Ben, seeming to be on the verge of passing out for a second before screaming at him instead. “It’s only been a month!”

“A very busy month and shh, we’re still in a library.”

“How could so much possibly change in a single month?”

“Man, I keep having to tell this story. Okay, let me get comfortable first.”

He took a seat across from him before giving the pleiaden the rundown on his last month, the other looking sick by the end of it.

“You have the worst luck in reality.”

“No such thing, I have it on good authority.”

“How did you manage to attach yourself to the only god that the demons would want to grab you for?”

“The odds are never in my favour is all.”

“That’s called bad luck.”

“Regardless, now that you know, I’m looking to get your help. I’ve got this fancy new blessing bound to my soul which just so happens to have come from what is likely the only demon god. I was hoping you’d be able to pull some info on it for me.”Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

The request got him a look that screamed Verbum was thinking he was an idiot.

“Do you have any idea how much information the system is going to pull for such an ancient being? Ancient and powerful I might add, this stupid thing rules over how many worlds? You’re talking about years of reading mostly garbage before striking any nuggets of useful info.”

“There’s only a few points I want you to narrow in on,” Ben clarified. “Why the demons invade the way they do and what Oaun is the god of specifically. I know I’m probably not getting anything else that would be useful.”

“...Fine, since that’s still probably going to take ages let’s just get started already.”

“Fantastic, thanks.”

Connecting to the other, Ben also used one of the original aspects of hive mind before it awakened, speeding up Verbum’s thoughts to let his fellow summoned scroll through the information he was seeing faster since Ben’s reading speed had only grown with his thought speed and unnatural mind both having raised so much. He could get through so much more, the only thing was making sure the information supplier could keep up, beginning his hours of reading.

Hours of reading with no satisfying conclusion, a fact that was leaving Ben to grind his teeth. When looking for why the demon god arranged each invasion like that, the answer seemed to be to get stronger without the context to explain that in more detail, and when looking for what that god specifically ruled over it spat out the oh-so-useless answer of everything, something that no god could possibly be.

So let’s think through this. He thought with a sigh as he pinched his brow. If the goal is to get the demons stronger then maybe this kind of makes sense? Plenty of people hone their skills through combat, maybe the weakest demons are sent through to hone themselves against the masses and the second wave go through to train themselves against anyone strong enough to survive the first and the third get to train themselves against anyone strong enough to last through the first two? It’s not the most satisfying answer given the sheer volume of demons that still die during all of that, it absolutely speaks of a god that doesn’t give a crap about their believers but given the race as a whole that wouldn’t exactly be surprising, would it?

I’m not sure how I’d go about clarifying beyond that so let's focus on the second question. There can’t be a god of everything, all of the natural gods within this universe rule over two or three concepts so the system has to be taking into account how much power Oaun has when giving that answer. With that much divinity, it doesn’t matter what he’s technically a god of, he really would be able to do anything so let’s try and narrow that down a bit more.

“Verbum, we’re going to adjust the second question. We’re not looking for what Oaun is the god of, we’re looking at what he was originally the god of.”

A question that led to more hours of reading but at least one that led to a straightforward answer, leaving Ben with the two concepts that overwhelming god ruled over.

Souls and survival.

The answer brought a deep frown to Ben’s face that he couldn’t suppress, even if it made too much sense to deny. The races gods ruled would sometimes take on traits related to their gods such as the succubi or dryads, with both of those traits applying to demons perfectly. He’d already been guessing souls was one, even if having it confirmed continued to be bad news, but survival made sense too.

Demons were quick to heal, but more importantly, they were adaptable. Within a single generation, there could be radically different body structures with examples to be found living in land, sky, sea, and deep underground as well, with them able to develop unique physical traits such as the ones he’d fought in the past that had been able to shoot at him with their modified scales.

If the principles of his original world applied where life was a battle for survival of the fittest then the demons stood at the top of a mountain of corpses without question, existing as one of the pinnacles of life in reality and proving it with every world they claimed.

Really, the only evidence to the contrary was their inability to exist in harmony with the worlds they inhabited, leaving them barren in their desire for violence and bloodshed but the fact that they were still even then able to survive on them served as only more proof to the point. The universe had birthed a god who’d created what could easily be called a nearly perfect form of life but was cruel enough that the god it brought forth held no value for anything else in reality sharing that same struggle for survival.

Still, he’d gotten the information he’d wanted so he waved Verbum to stop, the other looking just as tired from the ordeal.

“So did you get what you wanted then? Are you finally done?”

“Sort of and sort of. I at least got some info to tell the gods about later but I’m not sure how useful it will be to any of them and I want to keep you just slightly, slightly longer.”

“Rotten earth, why?”

“I’ve got just a couple skills I want to look deeper into and it just so happens that you’re the guys to help me do it.”

Not even trying to put up a fight, Verbum did as he asked, the two continuing their reading until deep into the night.

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