On top of a pyramid, an old decrepit priest was slashing the throat of a bound prisoner. After the act, he gently kicked the back of the kneeling prisoner on the ground where the blood started flowing in a weird circle.

The blood was possessed by a strange power as it completed the giant circle.

Soon more prisoners were executed and the following blood created a triangle in the middle of the circle. Each of the three edges of the triangle had a weird drawing accompanying it.

The old priest then started chanting as he gestured the guards to light the fires at the four edges of the platform.

As the fires lit, the crowd below started chanting as well. There were millions of them around the pyramid. So many that even the priest on top of the pyramid himself could not see the end.

As the priest finished chanting, he looked at the masses below, inwardly sighed and thought:” If this doesn’t work, we’re all dead. I am too old to keep them all safe. Since I failed in becoming a God for them, it is my duty to protect them until my last breath. Hope. All we need is a little bit of hope to see through this nightmarish future. This new traveler may become stranded in this world forever but I hope he grows to like it as his own and protects us all from those demons. Unfortunately, I won’t be there to guide him. I hope that my sons do a better job than I would have. After my departure, if the traveler rebels against us. But, it is unlikely that he does. This offering was prepared to even fill a God with greed…”

The old priest was conflicted at first but he soon gained the strength to join in the sacrifice. He cut his own throat and fell on the ground. His blood joined the circle, then the triangle. A new drawing appeared in the middle of the triangle.

As the old priest was drained of his blood and closed his eyes, he caught a glimpse of a three-eyed violet man appearing above the pyramid. The cloak turned more than half of the violet man’s body invisible and released a crystal-like presence. He was a witness to a true Godly presence.

He was happy as he died. He had succeeded in calling a traveler. This traveler looked strong as well. His people finally had a chance at survival.

“Where are we?” Alwyn asked Devinn as he used his spatial powers to scan the universe they were in. He said:” This is weird… I cannot see the end…”

Devinn who had used Aragil’s power of all-seeing first said:” I know…This universe has no end to it…it keeps expanding…It’s not like the custom made universes of back home. Without this All-seeing eye, I never would have noticed such a thing.”

“What happens if we leave the cloak? Can you see if other realities exist?” Alwyn asked.

Devinn used the all-seeing eye once again: “Nothing at all. I see that there is only a single inhabited planet in all this endless universe. This is impossible in itself. How many accidents could happen and wipe this place out of existence? What would be the point of having just one inhabited planet in all of this? And despite there being living beings, there are no other realities whatsoever. It is like this endless universe is entirely sealed from creating other realities.”

“No other God or almighty being around? It would explain why this planet is still around.” Alwyn suggested.

“Nothing. I see nothing but useless stuff. It doesn’t make any sense to be called here of all places. I can’t even tell where or when we are. This all-seeing eye is useless. We became useless the moment we got so much power. Damn the time element…Sending us in the middle of nowhere…How could Markus move around so well and leave whenever he wanted?” Devinn was enraged.

“It is not like you to lose yourself in anger so easily.” Alwyn reproached.

“ Sure. How about you? You always take things too lightly. How can you be so calm?” Devinn asked.

“I have experience in having no choice but to deal with what is before me. Losing my mind won’t help.” Alwyn bluntly said before he added: “Let's use this cloak as cover against any unknown variables. Maybe the Gods of this place use the same means to keep us from seeing them. Besides we do not know if we will open a breach in this weird universe the moment we leave the cloak and be forced to fuse with endless versions of us. Such power, no one can resist. Even us.”

“Let’s ask that dead old man about why we were called here.” Devinn said.

Alwyn descended on the platform on top of the pyramid and landed before the dead old man.

“How do you plan on talking to a dead man?” Alwyn asked.

“ The first Netherwyrm God’s nether fire could burn souls, Our variant evolution however could heal from almost anything. After the Cosmic god evolution, we created a new nether fire that can heal and recreate anything to its better version because the time element was mixed into it just like Aragil’s power. If you add all the fusion we made in the breach, the nether fire became a time variant that can turn back the time of a target. If we cannot even revive a dead human at this point….” explained Devinn.

“Alright I got it.” said Alwyn as he breathed a black fire on the old priest’s corpse.

The black fire engulfed the entire corpse.

It took the corpse and levitated in the air under the eyes of the closest onlookers on the ground. Their chant had been over for a long time and were watching the violet man from the moment he arrived.

The corpse slowly regained life and became younger but it could not yet be seen outside the darkness of the fire. Even the old priest thought he was in the afterlife as he felt younger and burning with more energy than usual.

“Take back the fire or else you will soon be talking to a kid.” Devinn said, amused.

Alwyn inhaled the fire back into him.

A surprised middle-aged man greeted their sight.

The priest was frantically looking at himself and touching his new face in disbelief.

When he saw Alwyn in front of him, he immediately bowed and suffered as his forehead hit the ground.

He was talking in another language that the duo could not understand.

The third eye on Alwyn’s forehead shined as he read the memories of the old man.

“I see.” Devinn said and added: ” No wonder such pitiful humans could have the power to summon us. They use the power of faith to power up their weird spells. They were not blessed by the elements like we are. Now that I think of it, there is no scrap of mana in this universe…Well, it's not like we need an external source of mana anymore.”

Alwyn who now had access to the same memories said: “It seems he wants us to play hero and save his people from the gods and demons in the other planes of existence. “

“ The other planes are somehow connected to this universe but are not that big. They are not pocket dimensions and can only be accessed by the mind for the weak humans or entire bodies for gods. The power system of this world lets the target of faith merge with the formless power of faith given to him to ascend to higher levels until his body becomes capable of completely becoming an astral being capable of entering the other planes with his full power.” Devinn added.

“We can rely on our unlimited supply of mana to protect ourselves for now but how can we fight those astral beings? Can we even hurt them? If they find out that this priest used a forbidden spell to call on another being to be their God instead of just joining an existing one, they will all hunt us down and turn us into a lesson for the humans to understand not to look elsewhere. These demons and gods who were eying this island for a long time will not just call it quits.” Alwyn said.

The gods and demons who had succeeded in becoming astral beings, needed faith to keep living forever as well as protecting themselves and their clans from harm from other Gods.

The power of faith was gained through accomplishing feats that moved a group of people. Those people could choose to believe in someone or something and it would be automatically be given birth by the power of faith.

Faith was formless and could not be seen but could be felt and used.

A normal person who believed in himself could cast any spell and the corresponding power was proportional to the amount of faith that person could gather but it could never rival a king for whom the entire nation believed and entrusted their lives into.

As for gods, they had gained the faith of many followers, granting them the power to ascend.

A person could believe in many things which created a world in which the bizarre and the impossible could coexist and hate each other.

Gods mostly emerged through heroism or the personification of a specific personified concept that many shared.

It was the same thing for Demons as well with the minor difference that they gained their fame from evil deeds and the fear they induced remained firmly imprinted in the minds of a population for generations. The faith they feasted on came from that fear and faith that was born from fear induced a demonization.

A Demon or God could be a hero to his people but be acknowledged as a demon by others and vice versa.

Over the eras, two factions were created in the high planes. The Demon faction and the God faction.

Upon reaching the astral level, one had to choose which faction to enter, but sometimes it more than obvious which one to choose.

“Hum?... What is this?” Devinn said as he felt something weird attack them: “Is this faith?” he said as he looked at the priest who was now praying along with the endless crowd.

Devinn found that just like mana, the power of faith was modifying Alwyn’s body that was created from the body, mana, and their souls fusing together. Another transformation was occurring.

It looked like they were about to fade out of existence. Devinn could even feel and see a new world. The astral planes.

“Something wrong?” Alwyn asked.

“No. We are getting some faith out of these poor souls for free. All we did was appear and bring this guy back to life.” Devinn answered.

“Can you see the other planes now?” Alwyn was interested.

“When will you start using your all-seeing third eye instead of always asking questions. We share the same powers now even if I am slightly stronger than you.” Devinn said.

“It gives me headaches.” Said Alwyn before he continued “Can you see those planes now that we have acquired some faith?”

“Well, the smallest planes are three times bigger than this planet and if you add them all, there is an unlimited amount of them. This must be the only explanation why there are no other realities in this infinite universe. I still can’t locate any other astral Gods yet. They are still invisible to me.” Devinn said.

“For such a small planet to create so many astral planes without magic is insane. The power of faith is more dangerous than mana.” Alwyn observed.

“We can now use both powers and still can’t go back home. Sigh… This guy just used some unknown spell out of spite and we just happened to be the random target. We should kill all those astral gods for forcing him to do it.” Devinn said.

Alwyn said: “Can we even kill them without an astral body powerful enough? We just gained some rudimentary faith that some country king can only gather throughout his life. It is a far cry to dream about killing any astral god now.”

“One thing is for sure, they can’t kill us as well. Physically, I mean. With all those fusions we went through, it will take more than their astral bodies to do us in. If we go inside their astral planes where they are on their turf, they will be able to kill us as our astral doubles will be powered by the meager faith we have.” Devinn informed.

For a human to access the astral planes, he had to create an astral double of himself. In that world of dreams, the strongest were those who had more faith power. It was the only reason the gods and demons preferred to stay in their astral planes as it provided them with a huge boost in power.

The astral planes allowed for the imagination to run wild by consuming less faith than in the outside world.

Being killed in the astral planes meant death for the real body as well.

It was also possible to live in the astral plane as a deceased believer that the God allowed to keep the astral double in his paradise.

It was a common practice among gods and demons to keep their followers as they died. Astral doubles of humans provided even more faith inside the astral planes. In exchange, they allowed their believers to live in their paradisiac home.

Astral doubles did not need a supply of faith to live. They were frail but immortal. The astral bodies of the demons and gods and their half-astral descendants or believers needed faith power to keep their godly powers and the right to keep an astral body as well as being able to unleash more power when fighting.

Half-astrals were individuals who had received the grace of their God through dedication and bringing in new followers or oversaw a church of their god. The God could bestow an astral body to them and allow them to keep an eye to his believers both in the astral planes or the real world. They were astral gods by affiliation since they were in touch with the same believers as their god. Without the believers, half-astrals would revert to being human just like their astral god.

If the faith could be bestowed, it could also be taken away.The world of faith was fair that way.

Of course, the descendants of astral gods were also given astral bodies.

“We need to find a suitable universe for the humans inside the ring to live. Only an individual with the power of faith can live here. We just got lucky to be bestowed faith by all these people. Elementals cannot live here.” Said Alwyn.

“As long as the ring is safe, there is no safer universe than the one inside. For now, we should gather enough faith and visit the astral planes. This unknown spell used by the priest was found there. Maybe we can find another spell that can help us find a way out of this place.” Devinn said.

“Alright. But let me enjoy a peaceful life for a while.” Alwyn said.

“Play God as long as you want. It will benefit our plans, but when the astral gods come knocking at our doors you will once again have no choice but to fight.” Devinn said.