Chapter Twenty One Junkyard of a Goddess
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As he knelt before the stone plaque suddenly a figure materialized seemingly in response to his prayer. She was small and lightly dressed. The clothes seemed to be a variant of robes worn by priestesses. They just covered significantly less skin,  only her boobs and crotch were covered. The cloth itself was of a material he hadn’t seen in this world. It was more like the synthetic materials common in his old one, and it was covered with simple gold patterns against a white and black background. Her face looked familiar to him, but what really drew his attention were her features. A massive pair of draconic looking wings, but covered in scale feathers spread from her back. Instead of feet, she had a pair of talons that looked like they could shred a person to pieces. Her arms and legs were covered with sturdy looking scales. Much thinner and finer scales coated her chest and stomach, but they could easily be mistaken for skin. The same was true of her face, but she had a cluster of thicker ones on her cheeks. He had half expected her hands to end with claws, but they looked like human hands albeit covered with a set of scaled gloves. Her mix of avian and reptilian characteristics was one he had only seen in the temples. He was looking at a Skylord, but for some reason, he connected the figure before him with Arlie. His brain kept telling him that they looked remarkably similar.

She looked around. Her gaze focused on Amy for a couple of minutes, and then she surveyed the water. Finally, her gaze returned to Hikaru. “Greetings champion. I see you managed to get yourself stuck.”

Still focused on her figure, he couldn’t help but ask the question on his mind. “Is there some connection between you and Arlie Contrey?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment or two. Then she replied, “I can’t allow you two to share this information. Especially with her, but yes. We have a very deep connection. She doesn’t know yet, but she is my conduit, my blood, my vessel. In a way she is me, and yet she is not. Anyway, I can get you off this shelf of rock, but the other exit terminates in Dragonsreach. Is that alright with you?”

Before he could even consider what she had said, Amy screamed in an almost panicked tone, “No! We can’t go there!”

  Turning around he asked her, “Why can’t we?” As if it explained everything, she replied, “I’m a mage!”

Still confused he looked over at the goddess, who snapped her fingers and then replied, “I just isolated us in a pocket of warped time. So I can answer the questions you are about to ask. For the first one. The dragon clans mistakenly see the dragons as gods, and their distrust of magic users led them to seeing all use of magic not granted by the dragons as sinful. Only their dragon priests or priestesses, depending on the clan, are allowed magic. However, they must first earn The Dragon’s Mark before they are allowed to cast a spell. Now the dragons are certainly powerful, and nearly as old as the gods, but they didn’t create this world nor were they the ones to recreate humanity the race that mainly makes up the dragon clans.

Yes, I do mean recreate. In this reality, unlike your old one, the original human race is extinct. We Skylords are one of the three races descended from ancient humanity, and we recreated our ancestor’s race on many worlds like this one. I could tell you the story, but it is a long one, and we don’t really have the time. What I can tell you is that the ability for magic was our gift to modern humans. Our ancestors the ancient humans didn’t have the ability, and we gained it from The Great Storm whose fires forged our race. As for dragons they were born from our blood, and are therefore our children. Anyway back to the dragon clans, as distorted as their beliefs are, you will find that they have kept to the old ways better than other clans in this world. By the way that includes the style of dress.”

Having just digested that, he looked around at the strangely still surroundings. Amy looked as still as a statue, and the water seemed solid now, and asked, “You just froze time! How do we not have time for a story?”

“I didn’t freeze time. Even for me, that is impossible. Before you ask, time is rather hard to manipulate. You will soon learn that no mortal has magic over time with one exception. There are only fourteen individuals aside from myself that can manipulate time, and it takes great energy to do it. As for what I really did. I simply sped up my time and yours to the point that the rest of the world seems to stand still. As for who else can manipulate time, well that would be the “Twelve Dragon Gods,” Xaros, and the Bykuru Kinsara. Although she can only do it when she channels the energy of the gods. Something the current one has not yet learned to do. That might change soon given what she is doing.”

“What about my other party members do you know what happened to them?”

She gave him a sad look and replied, “Well they are alive, sort of. The soul snatcher got to them and took their souls. Before you ask, yes they can be saved. Assuming the soul snatcher is defeated quickly enough. In your case, you have about a year before they are permanently faced with the fate of a husk.”

“Could you help with that?”

“Not for free, but I can do it. Now I think this is best discussed with the both of you.” Then she snapped her fingers and the world returned to normal. Continuing she said, “Now if you want my help saving your friends, you will have to do something for me. The arrival of Xaros has been causing problems throughout the world, the soul snatcher you encountered is just one of them...”

Amy suddenly interrupted saying, “What is going on? One moment you were talking about Dragonsreach, and the next you are saying you can save my friends!”

The Skylord took a moment to explain what happened, but gave no details of the conversation while time was altered. Then she continued, “Now as I was about to say. Dragonsreach has also been affected by these anomalies. I want you two to clean up, some of Xaros’s mess in the region for me.” Pausing she looked at Amy, and said, “I know as a mage you would be in danger there, so I will grant you something that will protect you. I offer you my mark, the Skylord’s mark of Creation and Destruction. This will make you my priestess, and an instrument of my will.  Now, this mark is a type of contract, an exchange. You gain power, life, and divine protection, and in exchange, you carry out my will. Now, this doesn’t mean you lose your free will. You will still be able to make any decisions you see fit. In effect, you are effectively agreeing to be a servant if you take it, but the important part is that you will be able to travel in Dragonsreach without worrying about the priesthood. Most of them would not be foolish enough to harm someone who bears the mark of a god.” 

She turned to regard Hikaru, and said, “I can’t offer you my mark, but you don’t need it anyway. No magic to hide from zealous priests. I can, however, let you take one item from the junkyard on the other side of this wall. Well, most of it is only junk because it is broken, and by the way, the offer doesn’t include the broken starship in there.”

Hikaru was shocked to hear about a starship, as he was just getting used to this being a fantasy world, and suddenly someone was throwing something out of science fiction at him. There was also the thing about humans being recreated, and the gods descended from old humanity, but it didn’t seem like she was going to answer that question. Not being able to ignore it, he asked, “A starship? What the hell is a starship doing in a fantasy world?”

“I could answer that, but it isn’t exactly relevant to our discussion. Suffice to say, I am a bit of a collector. Any way as I was about to say, that one item I am going to allow you will be useful in completing my task for you. I want you two to cleanse several sites of corruption, and make a path through the mountains. The girl you mentioned earlier is taking the trials of the five temples, and will need that path I want you to make. Reason being that the tribes will soon go to war, and that will make the normal paths unusable. You will have plenty of time for this of course, as first she needs to complete the Red trial, and then visit the blue temple for the blue trial.”

Amy frowned and said, “I take it you want this girl to complete these trials?”

The girl nodded, and said, “Yes, because the Last First Lord can’t really return until a Contrey completes all five trials. As for why, it has to do with the family’s relation with the Last First Lord. Not to mention my own relation, but you two have no need to know the specifics.”


A few minutes of discussion later, Hikaru was staring at the water. While he had already seen them, he didn’t think she wanted him watching as she was marked. Apparently, a divine mark was typically burned into a person just to the left of the heart. Meaning the mark was being placed inside the valley of her breasts. The goddess had been kind enough to explain to him why it was normally placed there. Most of it went over his head, but apparently people had something like a second heart there, but instead of blood, it pumped mana. It regulates the flow of mana in a person’s mana pathways. He had initially thought the goddess had meant a core, but it turns out such objects only existed in the fantasies of his world. The closest this world has to a core was a special organ sometimes found in animals and monsters. It allowed these creatures to use magic, even if they were otherwise too stupid to use it.

Behind him, he heard Amy scream, and he resisted the urge to turn around. He knew it was just Amy being branded by the goddess, and fortunately, the scream didn’t last long. As soon as she stopped he heard the goddess speaking to her, but the words were strangely obscured. Then odd light reflected off the walls, and the water around him. The light reflected for a minute or two and then a female voice told him he could turn around.

Turning around his eyes focused on Amy. Her robes had been changed. A V had been added to the cut, that showed off the valley of her breasts without revealing anything private like her nipples. Prominently displayed between her boobs was the goddess’s mark. Three concentric circles surrounding a pair of lightning bolts striking a central point on the bottom of the innermost circle. From that point, a fireball erupted upwards. Oddly the lines of the mark were silver, and yet they glowed a gentle blue. The robe itself had been separated into two pieces, the top only wrapped her breasts and showed off her stomach, and the bottom had changed into a flared skirt. Her traveling boots were mostly the same, but her socks seemed thicker and were definitely longer. The colors were all the same though.

The goddess smiled and waved her hand, his attention was drawn to the wall with the plaque. The stone simply slid out of the way to reveal a passageway into the rock, and away from the shore of this underground lake. “I’ll lead you through to the other side, and do be careful what you touch.”

The two without exchanging words followed the goddess down the passage. Behind them, the wall closed back up on them, but the walls themselves seemed to glow providing the light they needed to see. As for the walls they were polished perfectly smooth. Not a single blemish could be seen, and they were remarkably smooth to the touch.

The stone corridor quickly opened up into a large chamber. The room was nice and large. So big he couldn’t see the opposite wall, and the ceiling was very high above their heads. Seemingly at random columns were placed around the chamber. On the left-hand wall, he saw what was unmistakably a starship resting against it. It was not in the best of shape, as there were massive holes in her hull, and it looked a bit melted.

Not far from where he was standing was a haphazard pile of what looked like large missiles. Well minus an engine as both ends were rounded. He looked at the goddess, and asked, “So is this place littered with strange munitions?”

“Well, there are some torpedoes lying around. There is a pile of swords over there. That pile of crates next to it contains Solean PPBs. That other pile of crates over there is full of old armor. That pile of junk by the door is old engine parts. That pile of lumber next to the old armor crates are actually catapult pieces. You can find just about anything in here. Name an era, and there is at least one item in here from that era. Not to mention not everything in here is from this world. Hell some of them weren’t even made on a world, but in the great void that separates stars and planets.”

He wasn’t much of a science fiction nut, so he had difficulty identifying half of the things she had mentioned, but he did find the pile of swords. They weren’t exactly piled up with care, but given that most of them had broken blades he wasn’t surprised. A barrel near them had a few neatly standing in it. These seemed to be in better shape than the others, and he had actually lost his weapon to the river. So he was in the market for a new sword. Regardless he was curious about whatever a Solean PPB was. While Amy was looking around the chamber, he asked, “What exactly is a Solean PPB?”

“PPB stands for Phased Plasma Beam. PPBs fire a coherent plasma stream. They are quite popular because they combine superb range, excellent stopping power, and reliable penetration into a reliable and cost-effective weapons system. Not the fastest firing weapon on the market, but it does its job very well. Not something I can let you have though. If you want, I can find you magical Beam Crossbow. Also a good weapon, and something that mortals actually have. Not to mention more portable. PPBs are typically designed as ship or crew weapons. So they aren’t very portable.”

He had seen Beam Crossbows. He thought of them as the fantasy world equivalent to a laser rifle. They didn’t fire all that quickly, but they made up for it with stopping power. Hikaru knew that he wasn’t well versed in ranged weapons. Looking over he saw Amy was looking over the broken swords, and then said, “That’s a nice offer you have there, but I think I need a new sword more.”

She nodded, and then pointed out Amy, while saying, “Yes, well young Amy seems to agree as she had already gone blade shopping. Don’t worry too much about the state of the blade as I can easily fix one up for you.”

He nodded and went over to Amy. Together they looked over the swords. With Amy’s help, he was able to identify the materials of the various swords here. He was able to find an enchanted blade that while chipped and missing the tip was still in good condition overall. Any blacksmith would have been able to fix the blade. He really liked the feel of its handle, and found it had a good weight and balance to it. As for the enchantment, it was nothing special. Just a common sharpness, and durability enchantment. The kind that made the blade sharper and tougher to dent or chip. Liking the look of the sword, he picked it up and showed it to the goddess. Who took the blade from him, and ran her hand over it. Instantly the signs of age and use vanished. She then spoke a few words, and he felt power embed itself into the blade.

“I have blessed this sword, it is now a holy weapon. It has three active spells imbued in the blade. The first is Dragonflame Strike. The spell wraps the blade in draconic flames which will leap from the blade and engulf the next target you strike with the blade. The second spell is called the Duality of the Cycle. Using this spell will change the form of the blade and the user. It will also make it impossible to use the first spell, but in exchange, you can now use the Third spell. The final spell is called Sun’s Healing Light. A healing spell of the highest order, it can heal any wound or even resurrect the recently dead. However do keep in mind that the soul starts to leave the body soon after death, and the longer you wait to resurrect someone the more they will lose. Also note that once the soul has completely left the body, you can no longer resurrect the person in question without the aid of a Soul Mage. Furthermore, keep in mind that the sword draws its mana from its wielder. Amy can teach you more about improving your mana pool, but this sword, and teachings from her would help you with your personal quest. Oh before I forget the only spell on it that doesn’t use your mana is Duality of Cycle. The blade stores divine energy for that, and recharges over time. Right now you can only use it about three times a day, but since it pulls that divine energy from you, you can improve the recharge rate by improving your connection with the gods.”

Amy glanced at the sword with a sparkle in her eyes. Seemingly curious, she asked, “You said Duality of the Cycle changes its user. May I ask in what way does it do that?”

The goddess took a mischievous expression, and replied, “I’ll do you one better, and show you.”

Suddenly Hikaru found himself engulfed in a light from the sword. The next thing he noticed was that the Sword was no longer a sword, but an elaborate metal staff. Then he noticed that Amy looked taller than him. It took him a moment longer to realize that he had shrunk. Before he could fully register his changes, Amy’s expression changed oddly, and he felt himself shudder. Then she suddenly hugged him exclaiming, “She’s so cute!! Can I keep her like this?”

The goddess giggled and waved her hand. As mirror appeared before her, showing Hikaru her new female appearance. The goddess then said, “I have to say, you look way better as a girl.”

Hikaru couldn’t help but agree. The girl reflected in the mirror wasn’t very tall, if he had to guess she was around a hundred and forty centimeters tall. She had a very cute heart-shaped Asian face with lovely eyes and a small nose. Long black hair hung loosely just past her shoulders. The girl didn’t have on the armor he was wearing before, but instead a cute but sturdy-looking dress. Her chest was modest, and fat clung to her in all the right places. None of his scars marked her skin, but he had kept just the right amount of muscle. If he didn’t look so much like his a younger version of his sister he would have dated this girl in an instant. His mind had difficulty reconciling that this girl in the mirror was him. At least he could reassure himself about it not being permanent.

“Oh, before I forget, as a female you are fully functional. As a safety feature you won’t be able to change back if you get pregnant, so do be careful.”

Hikaru was glad for the warning, but the shift in Amy’s expression had not escaped his notice. He had a strange feeling about that.


The goddess watched the two leave, and enter Dragonsreach. She actually felt a bit of pity for Hikaru knowing what was about to happen to her. Amy had a little thing about cute girls, and knew a couple things about female-female fertility spells. She had told him to watch his back, but all it would take is one careless misstep. Sure she could have given him a better warning, but she was under no obligation to do so, and she was generous already given his rudeness to her vessel. Speaking of her vessel she turned her attention towards Arlie as she dismissed her avatar. As it turned out Arlie had just finished challenging a boss, and her party was figuring out how to distribute the loot. This meant now would be a good time to use their mana for that task that she had been asked to do.

With a simple thought, she called down a thunderbolt to strike down the Soul Snatcher. Soon its victims would be free, well most of them. Some would remain as soulless husks, but they would no longer be controlled. She then cast another spell to put souls in those bodies. Given their original souls were gone, she had to make new ones. Meaning these were technically new people, but she was able to gift them with the memories and personalities of the originals. Not an easy task, but it would make the others feel better so it was worth it. Done with the task, the goddess settled down to wait for her will to be done.

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