Moria let her gaze wander over the still growing crowd that surrounded them. The tribal representatives had gathered at the top of the stairs, likely wanting some distance between themselves and the people they governed. They knew that whatever she had to say would not be good for them; doubly so because she had brought the corpses of the Ancestral Guard.

She understood their hesitation, but nothing she had to say was unknown to the people. They all knew that their leadership had been in a steady decline for generations, but most of them had not been hit hard enough that they would be driven to be the change they wanted to see. For her, that was no longer the case. She would bring the change the tribes needed. As their Goddess.

While Moria still had no idea when the System would announce her ascension, she could already feel herself changing. The conversations of the people around her that had been muddled before grew clearer by the second, and her eyes managed to pick up details that had been hidden from her sight just moments before. Even her sense of smell had evolved past what a Beastkin should be able to perceive. The most evident change, however, was her aura.

It had been rather meagre in this life, compared to the auras she had had access to in her previous incarnations, but if she were to compare it to most other mortals it would be better than what they could muster. Aperio had shared glimpses of what she saw with her in the past, the memory of those moments usually accompanied by a sharp pain as her mind tried and failed to make sense of the images it saw — while also knowing, but not comprehending, what they meant. That pain was no longer there when those memories came to the forefront of her thoughts, and her view of the world around her was slowly inching closer to how she knew her friend saw it.

"Would you mind making me a platform of some kind?" Moria asked as she looked at Aperio.

The All-Mother, possibly still in mental conversation with Ferio, tilted her head ever-so-slightly as she looked down at the Beastkin but nonetheless gave a small wave of her hand. A wooden stage appeared behind Aperio. "Is there anything else you need?"

"No," Moria replied with a smile, "I just needed a bit of help; can't loom over everyone without help like you do, after all." Can't demand respect by merely existing.

Whether Aperio intended that to be the effect of her current form or not did not really matter — she was very intimidating even if you did not know that she could erase you with barely a thought. But I guess that makes sense… Considering what she had been through during her mortal life, that was not such a foreign idea. At the moment, she looked like someone who would have never found herself in the position she had been in before.

Moria dismissed the line of thought with a slight shake of her head and stepped past Aperio, glancing at her daughter as she did, to climb the small stairway leading up to the stage the All-Mother had made. 

Neria’s brows were furrowed slightly, her daughter seemingly not quite happy with the events that were unfolding. Moria would have liked to offer her some comfort, but that would have to wait, for now she had a nation to address. A small part of it, at least. The rest would follow once she had actually become a Goddess and her means had grown a little closer to her needs.

The crowd quieted down as Moria reached the top of the stage, seemingly quite eager to hear what she had to say. Moria cleared her throat before she drew on her increased — and still growing — mana reserves to enhance her voice. She did not plan on infusing her every word like Aperio did, but to simply amplify her voice so that everyone present would be able to hear what she had to say.

"The [Ancestral Guard] has fallen," Moria announced and gestured at the covered corpses that still lay in front of the stage Aperio had summoned. "Whether they had been deceived or not no longer matters, as they have paid the price for their hubris. The guard was never meant to rule, or even suggest how those outside of it should live their lives.

"And yet," Moria continued, "the council has thought it their duty to meddle not only in the lives of those they were meant to protect, but reached so far beyond their station as to go against the precepts of the [Ancestral Guard] itself and attempt to resurrect Chellien; a task not only impossible, but explicitly forbidden by our fallen ancestor himself."

///

Aperio narrowed her eyes slightly as she felt more than saw how the people surrounding them reacted to Moria's words. Her aura dutifully informed her of how the mortals shifted closer to one another — some already seeking the embrace of a friend or loved one — and her ears could not help but hear their mostly meaningless whispers.

Even the non-Beastkin mortals that were present seemed to be a little shaken by what her friend had to say. It made sense; according to what she had learned, the guard used to treat everyone the same, as they were supposed to do. A neutral entity that simply mediates between parties. Why Chellien chose that as his legacy, she could likely never know, but neither did it matter. Moria would take over, and as the patron deity of the Beastkin, her will would guide them.

"The guard has not been its own for a long while," Moria said, taking Aperio from her thoughts, "and it pains me to admit that I have been powerless to change that. I was not able to stop what I knew was coming. But I can prevent it from happening again." She paused briefly, glancing at the All-Mother. "It has not been long since the Elder Gods have been cast aside by the Creator — since the rest of the world learned the plight we have lived with for generations — but as their time without their Gods has just begun, ours is about to end."

Aperio tiled her head ever-so-slightly as she looked at her friend. Whether the System had a sense for dramatic timing — something she doubted — or Moria had known on her own, the previously subtle change that had been happening inside her friend was becoming more and more obvious.

"I have lived many lives," Moria said, her voice reaching just a little farther with each word she spoke. "Have tried to guide the guard and my people from the shadows I had banished myself into, but that changes now. I have chosen to ascend; to take the place that has been empty for so long, because I need to. I have let corruption spread for far too long; let its roots run so deep that they have managed to damage the foundation upon which our society has been built."

There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch even for Aperio herself. She could feel — see — tiny strands of mana that belonged to the System thread their way through the seams of reality and flow into Moria. They slowly weaved their way through her body, changing her flesh and the mana running through it.

Aperio wanted to reach out to ease whatever pain her friend might be feeling but held herself back. Moria was not touched by her mana like Caethya was, and interfering with the System-governed process of Ascension might have unexpected results, which she would rather not subject Moria to. She would have to make do with simply watching and letting the System do what it intended to do. Let Moria's choice play out to the fullest.

The only time she would step in was if she felt her friend to be in actual danger; something that was not the case at the moment. If anything, seeing Moria ascend filled her with a sense of happiness and even a note of comfort. Perhaps there will be some sane deities now…

Only the Gods that had gained their power from her own mana seemed to have fallen into a winding labyrinth of their Domain that had twisted their minds. Natio had not been deranged like Vigil and Inanis, he had been misled. Of course, that did not absolve him, but it meant that System-fuelled divinity was not prone to the same issues as the divinity she could grant herself.

"No longer," Moria continued as more and more mana flowed from just beyond the fabric of physical reality. "I will no longer allow my people to be used at the whims of some maniacs!"

Aperio moved herself a little closer to Caethya, moving her left wing slightly to wrap it loosely around her love. The Demigoddess did not step on the road towards Ascension on her own but because Aperio had touched her Soul, making the All-Mother her source of power and therefore putting the first person she could remember feeling something more for at risk of falling to the same insanity that had come for the Elder Gods.

The All-Mother was taken from her thoughts not only by the comforting, if small, weight of Caethya leaning against her but also by a myriad of tiny tears in the fabric of reality. Her creation was not breaking apart — she knew that — but preparing to push Moria over the edge and into the realm of the divine.

Aperio closed her eyes, her view of the world unchanged as she could still see Moria lowering herself to rest on one knee as the mana the System commanded continued to flow into her. When she opened her eyes again, she was greeted by a silver System notification that looked just a little shinier than usual.

///

Moria shut her eyes tight as her mind tried to sort through the sensations that flooded it. She could hear every voice of every mortal that surrounded her; could hear their breaths and the beat of their hearts and the rustling of their clothes. Her aura reached past the bounds of Foderys, flowing past enchantments she could have previously never hoped to circumvent and telling her far more than she had ever wanted to know.

Before she could look at the notification she knew was waiting for her, Moria felt a hand on her shoulder. It belonged to Aperio, but she only knew that because the mana that carefully snaked its way into her body felt like that of her friend. Her aura no longer perceived Aperio as an uncommonly tall, winged elf but a radiant font of mana and something she could not quite grasp — a nothing, if she had to describe it — that was barely contained by a shell that was changing, growing stronger every passing second.

"Are you alright?" Aperio asked, the mana of her voice somehow causing her other senses to take a back seat, almost as if the words demanded to be heard.

Moria nodded and carefully sat herself down, leaning herself against the hand of her friend. "I am," she said and opened her eyes. The level of detail the world presented herself in had risen once again, but this was something she had experienced before. "The world just looks a whole lot different now."

"I bet it does," the All-Mother said, the smile she had on her face audible in her voice. "I was a little concerned with the amount of mana that you received, but I cannot find anything wrong."

Moria offered a nod at the words. "It's a lot more than I thought I would get. Almost like everything I had gathered in my past lives had been stored just for this moment."

"It probably was," Ferio said, speaking for the first time in a while. "Mother liked to give her friends little 'gifts' back then."

Moria only shook her head. Ferio was right, this was something the old Aperio would have done. She had always been looking for someone strong enough to entertain her a little, after all. With a small sigh and the barest of mental efforts, she pulled up the System notifications.

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