When she left the meeting to attend to her work, Basmor let out a sigh of relief.

Even though reaping the souls of deceased people was literally a grim task, it was still a hundred times better than listening to the ravings of the other gods.

In the end, there would be no collective effort to eradicate the monsters. Davros, Surm and Jusel didn't seem to perceive them as a threat, heck, they didn't think of them as an annoyance.

The thought made the Goddess of Death quite disgusted. It was easy for them because they weren't the mortals that were eaten alive by those monsters. She had witnessed it happening with her own eyes, and it hadn't been a pretty sight.

To make things worse, even among the gods that opposed the monsters, only Baldith and Dagda Vi shared her point of view. Kima was on their side for the sake of antagonizing Surm: if Surm had been for the extermination of monsters, Kima would have been against it.

And Veneris... who could tell what he was thinking? He had spent the entire time smiling politely at his seat, without telling a word.

After what could have easily been hours, Basmor decided she has had enough and left. She opened a portal to Domir, and left for the mortal world.

She had an entire world's of souls to collect, and even a distraction of a few hours meant a lot of cumulated work.

So she made herself invisible and started traveling through the world with her portals, using her powers to sense upcoming deaths of mortals and reap their souls.

There were three major landmasses in Domir: the Western Continent, the Central Continent and the Eastern Continent. Although the majority of the population was concentrated in the Central Continent, small tribes of nomads had reached the others as well.

Basmor travelled to each and every one of them, in order to reap the souls of the deceased.

In the Central Continent, Basmor saw the conflict between the followers of the various gods. In the forests and plains, tribes were warring war for the control of natural resources. On the shores of great rivers that cut through the deserts, small city states, the most advanced civilizations of this world, were fighting for supremacy, allying and betraying freely with each other. The cult of Surm and Jusel was predominant here, and one city was rising in prominence among the others thanks to their favour.

The Eastern Continent was the most plagued by the monsters. Bands Orcs, Ogres and Goblins were razing the land, forcing the human tribes to flee. Only the followers of Davros, who had been turned into Beastmen, had the power to resist them. The only place where the monsters did not dare to go was the Island of the Dragons, where Amat, the Goddess of Wind, was nurturing the newborn dragons. Her job was quite important, because the presence of the dragons acted as a catalyst for magic, allowing for the gods to manifest themself on Domir with ease. Luckily the goddess loved her job and cared about the dragons as if they were her own babies, destroying any monster who approached her territory with immense abhorrence.

In the Western Continent although the population was scarce conflict was still present. Some tribes in the north had refused to accept the new Gods, sticking to the old worship of nature's spirits, but sadly they were being driven away but the tribes who did accept to worship the gods and had received blessings.

But the biggest (and nastiest) surprise for Basmor was in the southern part of the Western Continent, a place full of swamps and jungle forests, where only a handful of human tribes resided. She had gone there cause she had sensed the upcoming death of a mortal toghether with some prayers to the Goddess of Death, so she assumed that someone was celebrating a funeral. But when she arrived she found a very weird scene: in a big clearing in the jungle, the natives were sit in circle around a stone altar while singing in unison, surrounded by rudimentary statues of some female deity. A young girl was laying on the altar, as an old man with a weird mask decorated with gray feathers, obviously some kind of shaman, was looming over her with a stone knife in his hand.

Even an idiot could have understood that this was a human sacrifice, and the thought filled Basmor with rage, directed both at those cultists and the goddess they were doing the sacrifice to.

-Dammit! Who's the goddamn idiot that's accepting human sacrifices now!?! I swear, when I'll find to whom this sacrifice is dedicated, I'm gonna tear him a new one!-

The knife dropped suddenly on the girl's throat, ending her life almost immediately.

Soon, her soul left the body, and floated towards Basmor. It looked just like it had appeared in life, only a bit more pale and transparent... and of course as invisible to the eyes of the mortals as Basmor was.

-Oh great Goddess of Death!- said the soul, in a shrill voice, similar to a whisper, that still managed o soud both formal but and nervous -Please accept my sacrifice, and grant my people your blessing!-

-Wait, what!?!- Basmor was bewildered -You mean... this is a sacrifice to me!?!-

-Yes, oh Great Goddess. I apologize if it's not enough, but please accept my life as payment for your blessing!-

Basmor looked at the statues with more attention. Only now she noticed the rudimentary scythe they were carrying.

-Are you frigging kidding me!?!- the goddess cried -You can't be doing this! I never asked for this!-

-Is... is there anything you're displeased with, oh Great Goddess?- the girl's soul asked timidly.

-Of course! This... this human sacrifice thing is repugnant! It's horrible! How could you let them do this to you!?!-

-I-I volunteered f-for it, oh Goddess. - the soul was stuttering in fear -My tribe is being attacked by monsters, and they pretend a tribute to let some of us live. T-they take our food and provisions... and sometimes they e-even take people with them. They killed my father and took my mother and my little sister... a-and...- the soul looked like it would have shed tears if it could, as her voice was filling up with pain -We c-couldn't stop them. We tried p-praying to the other gods, but none answered us. S-so we thought that you, the Goddess of Death, would come if... if a sacrifice was made. I volunteered, because... because now that I'm alone I wouldn't be able to survive anyway, so the least I could do was helping the village.-

The words of the soul shook Basmor badly. The disgust she felt for the human sacrifice and the pain and desperation in that soul's voice were torning the Goddess apart. And to add fuel to the fire, she had just came out of a meeting where the gods pretty much decided to let the monster be.

She stood silent for quite some time before taking her decision.

-Fine. I will help your tribe. But in exchange, I want something from you.-

-Oh, t-thank you, oh G-great Goddess!- the voice of the soul was almost pathetically glad -I-I'll do a-anything! Anything you wish!-

-Well then... I want you to tell your tribe that if they try to do another human sacrifice, I will wipe out the village myself.- Basmor said in a ice cold tone, the menace in her voice almost palpable. -Is this fine for you?-

The soul shivered at her rage, and she answered quivering.

-O-of course, my G-Goddess!- she stuttered -B-but... how will I be able to s-speak to them? I-I am dead after all.-

-Yes, but that's not a problem.- said the goddess, dead serious -I don't want to be responsible for this senseless sacrifice, so I'm sending you back. Oh, and I'll be giving you a blessing to fight off those monsters yourself. So, live and do something about it yourself.-

The soul was stupefied, and it stood silent for a moment, before starting to thank Basmor with a voice full of excitement.

-Oh thank you, oh Great Goddess! Your mercy know no bound! I will be forever in your service...-

-Stop it.- orderd Basmor, closing her eyes in annoyance -I'm doing it just because I don't want any sacrifice, and I want your tribesman to know that. If you really want to thank me, make sure this won't happen again.-

-I-I'll do that, my Goddess!-

-Well then, let's get on with it!- Basmor let out a sigh -Come with me... what is your name, by the way?-

-C-Cala, oh Great Goddess. I am called Cala.-

-Well then, Cala. Take my hand. I'm gonna send you back among the livings.-

And with these words, Basmor extended her hand. Cala took it, and the soul was dragged back to her body.

Cala opened her eyes.

All around her, her tribesmate were murmuring in amazement.

When she lifted and sat on the altar, the old shaman shrieked, jumping away while keeping his ceremonial dagger, still covered in Cala's blood, between him and the girl.

-W-what are you!?! How are you alive!?!- cried the old man.

Cala looked at him with just a hint of aversion. Although she did indeed volunteer for the sacrifice, it had been the shaman's idea to sacrifice someone, and he had made clear that the best sacrifice would have been her.

But it didn't really mattered now. In the end, that gambit worked, and now she was alive and with the power to stop the orcs.

-The great Goddess Basmor listened to our prayers.- replied Cala to the crowd around her -She has sent me back to the world of the livings and she has given me a blessing to stop the monsters that are plaguing us.-

The tribesmen were incredulous, but after a moment they started cheering wildly. At last, a ray of hope shined upon them.

The old shaman raised on the altar, arms high as he was speaking.

-Glory to the Goddess of Death! She has accepted our sacrifice! Now we are saved!- he said with fervor.

-Yeah, about that...- Cala interjected -She didn't accept the sacrifice. Quite the contrary, actually.-

The old shaman stared at her.

-What do you mean?- he asked.

-Well... she actually hates people being sacrificed, and agreed to help us as long as we don't have any more ritual like this.- she looked at the shaman in the eye -She brought me back to life specifically to tell you this, and that she will personally destroy us all if we disobey.-

The old shaman looked nervous. He owed his position of renown in the clan for his willingness to sacrifice animals, and now people, to the spirits before and now to the god. The forbiddance to carry any more rituals meant that he would have to relinquish his influence among the tribesmen.

But that was not important right now. After all, what good is influence in a tribe if there is no tribe? And those monsters would soon eat all of them if something had not been done about them.

However, the shaman was still dubious.

-So... how is the goddess gonna assist us? You said that she gave you a blessing. What powers does this blessing gives you? How will it help against the orcs?-

-Oh, that's simple.- Cala smiled, almost ironically -To beat the orcs we just need to keep doing what we have been doing.-

-What do you mean by that?-

-We just need to spill my blood.- aswered Cala in an icy, cold tone.