When the day ended, Ben shoved crates and crates of weapons through his personal gate to Anailia to let them handle their transport and distribution while at the same time making room for all that was sure to be sent over the next day before he gathered everything he needed to and went off to his god’s church, ready to make an idea a reality.

And to start that, he made a necklace when he arrived, using his magic to shape and blend the various materials he had as needed to end with something designed to hold some planned enchantments in the future before heading down to the building’s sub-basement.

At one time, it had been a place to store his various books which now lay empty, with all of them being moved up to the top floor to act as a library for any in the town to enjoy at their leisure.

Originally, he’d planned to leave the new space as a storage area for any future projects he didn’t want to sell, but with the main basement still having plenty of space and him having enough wealth to buy entire buildings for storage should he need to, that meant he could use the private place for something slightly different. Preparing against his paranoia.

Using a combination of magic materials, Ben essentially painted them onto the surrounding floors, walls, and roof with his magic, leaving a thin layer of each to match his planned enchantments later as he began his base one, something designed to help ensure his privacy from what prying eyes he could. Throughout the room, he applied some of the effects of king of sacrilege.

Well, what do you think?

<I think I hate it.>

Oh, don’t be like that, it’s fine. Anyway you know that’s not what I’m asking.

<Ugh, while I can still detect the goings on in it to an extent, it would be significantly less likely for any other god to peek in. It’s already under my domain but the fact that even I’m feeling some resistance means you’ll have some privacy. Though I’m more than a little concerned about what you could possibly plan to do in here that could require this level of potential privacy.>

Oh, you know, nothing too crazy. Just gonna prepare to open a gate to the infinite hells.

<...How am I even supposed to react to this?>

More than anything else, there was a sense of defeat in Myriad’s voice. A feeling that in every way that mattered, he really had failed to raise his apostle into someone half-decent, even with Ben rushing to defend himself.

There’s a very good reason for this, I promise. Myriad, we both know there are more than a couple gods who’d be happy to see me tossed into hell, and until recently I’ve felt at least semi-safe thinking they couldn’t. With king of sacrilege, the idea that they’d be able to rip my soul from my body seemed unlikely enough that I didn’t really worry about it, but now I’ve seen that they don’t have to. Anyone particularly motivated enough would be able to rip a hole under my feet and drop me in. I want to make sure that can’t trap me.

<I think you’re seriously underestimating how hard it is to open a gate to hell. That’s not something a single god would be able to do casually. It would cost a lot of faith. A positively wasteful amount given that we have an entire world to look after.>

Okay, then I’ve gotta say that you’re overestimating how much effort it would take. Myriad, I’ve seen how the ritualists managed it and based on that I’ve looked at how I’d modify the process. If I was either a non-affinity mage or an archmage I could do it by myself. Maybe even a space mage if I was around the fifth awakened level.

That statement was met with a moment of silence, Ben letting it hang in the air an Myriad taking it in for all the horrors it was worth before speaking again.

<I’m not sure what I hate more, that you’ve been thinking on how to improve the process or just how much you think you could improve the process. Are you really telling me you think a single mortal could open a portal to hell?>

Yeah, and honestly rather easily. Well, not exactly easily, the spells themselves would be complex and each would require a bit of rather esoteric knowledge with a few extra minds to help out but if I were Jake I could do it right now with mana to spare. Hence why I want a way to pull myself out of the infinite hells if anyone ever pushes me in.

<Ah, so this is an escape plan.> Myriad sighed, sounding relieved. <Paranoid but acceptable as long as there’s no chance of it accidentally opening on its own.>

None and I’ll be building in a variety of failsafes to go with it too, but that’s why I’m keeping this secret. Obviously, the other gods wouldn’t be thrilled and it wouldn’t be much of a safety net if any other god knew to clip it if they wanted me gone.

<Still not thrilled that by doing it in my church you aren’t giving me even a hint of plausible deniability, but fine, get your mad project over with already so we can both move on and pretend you never made this.>

You got it.

With his god as pacified as he was going to be, Ben was finally able to get to work.

Really, he wasn’t creating a single enchantment that might be able to pull him out of hell if need be, but several, all of them configured in different manners to give him the best chance of success given that the only way to test it was to actually be in that lower realm, something he was specifically hoping to avoid.

But without testing, the only thing he could do was try to be broad about it and hope that should the worst come to pass, his clever mind and his planning for the worst would have been enough, with the core of each enchantment going down.

Despite the number of ways he was doing it, some containing only non-affinitied mana and others being mixes of affinities, with everything else he could think of in between, they all had one other skill tied to them.

Bind. In each instance of the spells he was creating, it was acting as one of the main markers, typing the necklace that would house most of the enchantment with the room where the gate to hell would open, with activating the necklace being the signal he’d need to get out of there as he once again looked back on his past self with appreciation for taking the time to figure out how to use that difficult skill in such a way.

When he finished with those core components though, there was more for him to build on top of both the room and the necklace after to help perfect them.

The room of course got a combination of death and light enchantments to deal with any ghosts that might make their way out with him. While there was of course the worry that there could be other things stuck in the hells like the outsider he’d witnessed before, given that only one had come through when the gate had been opened for so long, that wasn’t an immediate concern. If something else did manage to escape then he’d simply deal with that when the time came.

That left the rest to apply to his new necklace, with his enchantments of choice there being largely life and time affinities, though enhanced with non-affinity options to dampen the effect his resistances would have on what was by and large being designed to help save his life if need be.

Their purpose was simple. In the event of an emergency, they could be used to force some general life spells on his body while at the same time slowing down the time his cells would experience, giving him a better chance to get help.

It was the exact sort of thing he would have wanted when facing off against Ather or really for any emergency when Thera wasn’t around to help put him back together, and while it wouldn’t be pleasant, his minds would still move so much faster that if need be he could strain himself while under the effects.

Of course, such a thing would only leave him with more injuries to deal with but he decided to not dwell on that. If things had reached that point then he’d simply deal with it and figure out the best option he could in the moment, and by the time the last enchantment was down he received good enough news that the worry ceased to matter as his eyes told him he’d made another lower-legendary item.

Unnamed talisman from the craftsman Ben huh? Not for long.

“From here on out, you are officially named failsafe.”

Seeing the information update before his eyes, he slipped it on over his neck to sit beside his other necklace, feeling a newfound level of security in its place.

He didn’t care if his god thought it was over the top or paranoid. He actually agreed, but it was a comfort in a world that seemed to want him dead far too often, one he wasn’t going to deny himself the pleasure of.

ProbablyATurnip

I already went and made a joke about leaving loaded Chekhov's guns around just a couple chapters ago too.