Chapter 36: Future Allies?

The first cottages had been made, much to Sia’s amazement. Though what surprised her most was the sight of Ogres, Minotaur's and goblins working alongside each other. At first, there was heavy tension, but over time it had softened significantly. At the very least there didn't seem to be the possibility of a civil war, though there were one or two fights between individuals, most of the tension had died. This was all thanks to Scitus, who all people in the colony had respect for, some more than others, but all enough to cease their bickering in front of him. Like the fights between goblins, the racial tension rose mostly from different cultural practices and beliefs. The minotaurs worshipped a being known as the Bulko, an ancient god with the face of a man and the legs of a goat. The ogres only worshipped Scitus but some needless jealousy arose between a few ogres and goblins after a few goblins gloated that they were the first to be chosen by God and therefore a part of a higher class. Scitus had to step in and stomp on those beliefs, explain to them all who believed in him were equal to him, regardless of race. Some goblins were upset but they kept it to themselves. Despite having such a small colony, there seemed to be so many cultural problems between them. Most of these problems stemmed from the many tribes, to begin with. Even the ogres and Minotaur's were not from the same tribes, so they too caused problems with each other, most times to a lesser extent than between the races.

Scitus knew that he would have to make a single cultural identity, or at least eliminate all cultural beliefs that collided with the others, soon or the kingdom would collapse before long. In his world, racial and cultural tension were eliminated because all people had a single string of base cultural beliefs that didn’t conflict with other beliefs, and when there was heavy opposition, most times it was accepted as a different set of morals. Though what truly held the fabric of society together was the eternal war. Their hatred and or fear of the enemy kept them close enough to not fight each other because it would weaken the country. Scitus didn’t want to go down that route, an eternal war was a waste of resources and cause hatred between nations. his desire was to teach the population to be more accepting of other people’s beliefs and eliminate any beliefs that hurt another being. So far there were no such cases, but he feared he would one day be met with a sacrificial virgin’s head at his feet. The process would be long and hard, but with Seresa’s help, the silver-tongued goblin, and other allies, he would morph society into something functional or at least, He hoped, for something that didn't destroy itself.

Sia was also a valuable piece of the country, despite her erratic nature, as long as he had something to satisfy her curiosity, she would aid him, with little abuse of favors. So far her request ranged from being allowed to read books held within Hera and Thoth and using the duffle bag as a storage space for her things. The simplest request she had was simply allowing her to observe him closely for a day. She wished to know how Scitus ran the country, she taught zero magic classes that day but her curiosity had been sated.

The population of the country had reached 947, this was because the elves had decided to join the colony after being brought back to life. At first, they were afraid of the abuse of authority; after they were revived, they decided it would be a risk worth taking because very few gods revive the dead, and fewer revive the dead as perfectly as Scitus did. Not only did he restore the magic power to their original state, all of their memories were intact. Normally when reviving non-military personal a god would just revive them without all their memories intact, because it would it was cheaper to do so. Of course their magic power would eventually return, but even so, it would take a long time to restore it to its original might. For this, they were grateful to him and joined the colony. Though their pride didn't allow them to look at monsters with any sort of respect and they lived in the forest far from the colony as they did before. Scitus didn’t mind this arrangement; since they didn’t live in the colony they didn’t cause many cultural problems, though he knew he would have to eventually deal with their attitudes along with the monsters. To show his trust, He also let the elves decide what punishment to give the corrupted drow, his sentence was slavery until he paid for all his crimes. He protested at first but with a single wicked smile from Sia, he obeyed, not that he had a choice since he was Scitus’s prisoner.

The day was going well, the hunters came with food in hand and the farms were being tended to. The construction workers were cutting down trees and setting the logs aside for future use.

It wouldn’t be long before things would get hectic again.

One afternoon after teaching a class to the children, he sensed Enemies approaching. When he used his divine sight to investigate further, he saw that it was a group of seventy men, all outfitted with armor and Military grade swords.

“that woman.” It was Selene and her Godless army. She wasn’t given command of many troops, only the ones willing to go with her, the rest remained at the base within the Tainted Forest. Selene beautiful face was tainted with a scarlet red, it didn’t take a genius to know she was full of wrath, the soldiers under her command understood why. The god had tricked them by giving them Kaya who was infected with dread Sickness. The doctors in the colony managed to slow down the sickness but it wouldn’t be long before she succumbed to the sickness. It was a miracle that only hundred men and woman were infected. Most would be fine after a few weeks of rest but for Kaya and some of the original infected, they would die and all Selene could do is watch her best friend slowly die in front of her.

“I’ll kill that fucker.” She shouted the words hidden deep in her heart, the words she knew a captain shouldn’t say in front of her troops.

“Sia,” Scitus called to Sia, who had at that time been speaking with Hera. She turned her head, slightly annoyed that her conversation was interrupted. She sighed knowing that if she did anything to Scitus, Hera would refuse to tell her anything from that point on.

“It seems some of the godless are coming this way, can you deal with them?” Sia smiled, "but don't kill them, it will only make their animosity grow." Her smiled shrunk but it was still happy, after all, she always enjoyed a good fight.

“they are that way, just keep heading straight.” Scitus couldn't help but think that the Godless marked a path to the colony since they seemed to know exactly where he was.

With a small spell, Sia flew into the air and headed towards the small army of seventy.

“Did you notice that father?” He looked at his daughter’s coy smile.

“I didn’t.”

“you lack human interaction father, and so does Sia.” Scitus turned his body to show his full attention.

“she is giving you fake smiles father, there is something that she is hiding from us.”

“I sugge…" before she can finish, "Leave her be Hera…" Hera gave her father a bewildered look. "if worse comes to worse I have a trump card." Hera wanted to yell at her father for suggesting such a drastic measure but chose instead to say, "I hope you aren't making a mistake father"

Whether it was intuition, blind emotion or something else, Scitus didn’t want to show Sia any sort of distrust towards Sia, he saw a bit of himself in her. The type that lashes out when a single thing doesn't go your way, the type of person that a single phrase can break their heart. Scitus hadn’t been there in a long time but he remembered those days like the back of his hand, they were excruciating. In laymen terms, she was unstable, dangling on a thin thread that if snapped would be more dangerous than most anything in the Oasis.

"DAMN!!" Selene chopped every tree in her path with relative ease. She wasn't the strongest soldier in her army for nothing. If she had killed him that one time, everything would have been fine, she shook her head, telling herself that the safety of the captured women and her soldiers was more important.

“Captain.” The anger flared inside her, she took it out on the solider that called to her.

“WHAT!!” his armor trembled along with him, he then pointed towards a particular tree, Sia was perched on when of the long branches, she held onto the tree with her left hand and smiled down at them. when they noticed her, she quickly dropped down fifteen feet with a regal grace, and with a puff of dust, she appeared before them.

“Hello.”

Selene froze, she was strong, very strong, in terms of ranking she considered a lesser Warbeast, but Sia was considered a lesser celestial by most who encountered her. She was several categories higher than her in terms of strength. This wasn't by fluke or chance, her mother was Alma, after all, the strongest demon in the world.

"What do you want red witch. We paid you with the dragon scale, didn’t we?”

“your correct, and I put good use to it, I promise you.” She smiled, knowing that the dragon scale was used to summon a god. Originally the plan was to use the summoned god as a power source to enter the cavern. New gods were weak and easily killable, so she would use that as a threat until she got her hands on the book. Though Scitus, being who was, avoided that fate by handing her the book she desired. He impressed her enough for her to decide to follow him for as long as he remained interesting.

“Don’t tell me, it's because of you…” Selene realized that Sia used the dragon scale to Summon Scitus, though it was the goblins who summoned him and she herself didn’t know the summoning ritual, she had gone out to search for it. But somehow, the goblins summoned him.

"I helped." She said with a snicker. Though after reading the third book of gods, she realized that a dragon scale was entirely unnecessary. All that is needed is a strong magic vessel, dragons scales held the immense magic power of dragons and therefore were perfect as a summoning tool.

"We have business with that god." She pauses as if deciding if it is wise to reveal her intentions. "We plan to kill him for attacking us.”Sia raised a brow and lowered her attack stance. Selene did not appear to be lying. But in the month she had spent with Scitus, she realized that Scitus held the philosophy of only striking when struck. Sia didn’t believe he did this out of honor, but rather as an excuse to obliterate the opponent with his retaliation. This way no one could call him a tyrant. Sia smirked, clever bastard.

“What did you do?” She asked, genuinely curious. “We did nothing!! He simply attacked us with dread sickness.” It was possible, she didn’t put it past Scitus to use biological warfare if facing a stronger opponent, and the godless were certainly a stronger opponent. But he didn’t speak of plans to attack the Godless, he even told her to not kill them to prevent animosity, poisoning the godless was certainly a way to receive their animosity.

"what sickness? I'll help, in return, you won't attack the god here."

“You can’t help!!” her face was now red and her body hot. “They were infected with dread sickness!!” Selene, in a moment of wrath, raised her sword and swung as hard as she could. The attack that had sliced entire trees in half was easily stopped by Sia’s palm. Sia lowered her fist and punched Selene across the forest, she flew several feet before hitting the stump of a tree she had cut down earlier. Her armor, armor that was considered top military armor, now had a large fist size hole in it.

"Captain!!" One soldier yelled as three other soldiers ran to their captain to check her condition.

“she’s fine.” She made these words clear and crisp for all to hear, it was curt and to the point. They knew it meant she had become irritated.

She walked towards Selene, many soldiers made a path for her, but one or two soldiers stood in her path with a trembling hand, they raised their swords. When Sia got to them, she gently pushed their chests away from her and continued walking. The two soldiers that stood up to her fell to the ground, their legs unable to bear their weight.

She lowered her body to meet with Selene’s eyes, who were hazing in and out of consciousness. Sia put a palm to Selene’s armor and cast a healing spell.

“It wasn’t Scitus who poisoned you, it was a horde of goblins.” Kaya was infected when she met the goblins, she didn’t know they were sick and when she returned she spread the infection. Fortunately, only a few were sick long enough for the sickness to be incurable.

"Goblins?" Selene asked her breath a bit haggard from her ordeal.

“a while ago, I met a horde of goblins who were infected with dread sickness. It’s a good thing you guys didn’t fight them or your entire colony would have been infected.” Selene remembered Kaya words on her bed.

“It’s my punishment.” Her voice was weak, Selene felt the tears fall from her face and onto the bed. Kaya had gone through hell and now she was dying, so shortly after she was freed.

“What are you talking about Kaya.” Selene lowered herself and kneeled in front of the bed. She grabbed Kaya's sickly hand.

“I let them go, I let them find him.”

“Who?”

“The goblins, I let the goblins go, I couldn’t kill them.” these were her last words before falling comatose. The other members of the colony decided it would be best to kill them for their own good, but Selene insisted that she would look for the fairies, they could save the sick. They found the fairies. But they didn’t agree to help, they were too busy moving to the holy land as she recalled. This enraged her to the point of deciding to kill the god who had released Kaya to them. but she was wrong, Kaya’s experience with Scitus, saved the entire colony. If it was the old Kaya, she would have announced to base that a horde of goblins was looking for Scitus, they would have attacked, unknowingly spreading the sickness to every soldier and by extension everyone in the colony.

“Then what am I supposed to do.” Her tears marked her beautiful face. She almost looked like a painting of a woman who was losing someone dear to them. Kaya was Selene’s best friend. they had been together for a year and at first, they fought and brawled with one another, but they grew to be great friends. They were so close that there were rumors that they were more than just friends. This, of course, was a rumor spread by some of the more mischievous soldiers who knew that Selene already had someone she loved. Kaya was simply her best friend, the person she told everything to, the person she would risk her life for and now he couldn't save her and couldn't take her anger out on anyone.

Sia smiled and wiped Selene’s tears with a single finger. It wasn’t a compassionate smile and it was her regal and clever smile.

“would you like to make a deal with a demon” Selene’s tears stopped. Her eyes widen and her mouth formed a small terrified frown.

“can you save her?” Sia smiled smugly. Behind her, she could hear some soldiers saying “captain?”

“yes, just bring her and all your sick here.” The whisper grew louder, they wondered if the red witch had the power to cure the dread sickness, one of the most fearsome sicknesses in the continent.

“but this will only work if you agree to not attack Scitus.” Sia knew that Scitus could heal the dread sickness with his passive healing ability. An ability that shouldn't be capable of healing broken bones in seconds. Only high tier spells can do that, but because Scitus knows how illnesses' are born, his passive ability became something far more potent than any other gods passive healing ability. Though it would only work on neutral and people who support Scitus. People who were antagonistic would never be healed by his power.

“You’re not lying to me tiefling.”Selene’s tears were dry and her fear had subsided, replaced with blooming hope. Her face was serious, she wouldn’t allow Sia to play with her heart, if it was a lie, she was prepared to attack and die in the process.

“I don’t lie… much.” Her smugness irritated Selene, the small smirk she made angered her, but she didn’t have a choice but to leave her. Kaya only had a few days left to live.

“I’ll be back in three days.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Sia waved goodbye to the soldiers. “And remember…” Selene didn’t look back, she knew what Sia was going to say.

“Now you owe me."