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CH989 Thera's Perspective
🕑 Added 2025-12-14 11:24:46 +0000 UTCFlying through the woods, Thera hopped between both the stone platforms and mana constructs that carried her, feeling on top of the world.
Everything just felt more natural. Her mana moved at her will, and she felt even less reliant on her staff than even awakening her magics had left her. For smaller, simpler spells she didn’t feel she needed it at all, only leaving it in her hands for the bigger ones as she rushed over the untamed lands, drawing all of the demons she could capture along the way as she did.
She could hear them, practically an army that was being lured by her charm, stamping their feet behind her to catch up to the magic drawing them, all of them left nearly mindless from the raw power behind it and she couldn’t deny that it felt good. That even if she didn’t end up getting the awakening she hoped for, she’d still grown substantially strong enough to make a difference.
Even what Ben had been most worried about for her, the senses she didn’t hold yet her new mental structure thought she should have wasn’t a problem. It was basically ignorable, only occasionally popping up in her thoughts in a mildly confusing way and once she was aware of what was happening it became easy enough to ignore too. Well worth the trade, she felt like she could take on the world.
But I’d better start with this group first, before any manage to shake the effect, she told herself, quickly turning back to face the swarm and casting as she did.
Life was warped to act as death and non-affinitied was blended into it, pulling from its more destructive aspects to make the monsters tailing her rot as they ran, their bodies breaking down and decaying even as they gave chase until they could move no more, only to finish rotting away to nourish the woods they’d fallen in.
<OVERWHELMING NON-AFFINITIED MAGIC LEVEL INCREASED>
<SPIRITUAL MANA ENHANCEMENT LEVEL INCREASED>
A sound that brought a smile to her lips for what it meant, more power to her name to be enjoyed, with hopefully more to come. Even if she couldn’t break through to the third tier in the end, she wanted her levels; the sooner, the better. There was plenty still she hoped she might grow and other skills she hoped she might awaken and with that thought, she let herself down to the forest floor below, putting up a simple barrier around her as she made herself traverse that dark woods.
With it holding its own natural beauty. Too often, when she went out to the untamed lands, she focused on training her magics and hunting what demons she could but out there as she was, there were skills she could work on while enjoying the environment for what it was, taking a stroll and enjoying what she found.
While that particular section of woods had clearly been marked by what remnants of the hundreds of worlds had made that one home, with trees and plants of such a mix that it was clear that they couldn’t have all spawned from the same source, there were standouts that she couldn’t help but enjoy. The bright blue bark of one tree that bore golden leaves, a flower whose petals glowed with a faint white light, a bush that almost looked like glass, see through in a way that she could only tell was alive thanks to a combination of the sense skills she held.
For better or worse, nature was calmer near any settlement she’d go to, be it a city or town or village. In cases of lands composed of a single people, what grew around them would typically be some of the plants that their ancestors had escaped with. That was true enough of Anailia at least, with its towering red trees filling even the nation’s capital city, and while mixed communities would have a greater variety, it could still end up being so much of what the people who would make it up had brought with them. Stonewall may have been on the edge of a forest itself, but the plants she or anyone else would bring into town were all things that people would see fit to grow.
Out there though, it had nothing to do with what any people would want to try and grow themselves; it all came down to what could survive and what could thrive, being true of the animal life around as well.
Most times, she didn’t even know which creatures she could see had belonged to that world before any of the refugees had arrived and which ones had been brought along, either intentionally or as lucky stowaways. There were animals all around so long as one looked carefully enough, sporting any number of eyes or limbs, flesh or scales or feathers or shells. She knew Ben would occasionally mutter in wonder about what the long-term environmental impact would be for the planet and while she supposed he was right to worry about it, she also couldn’t deny that that very chaos was part of what made it home and what made it worth protecting.
No matter how that world would resolve itself in the future as all of the different bits of life were forced to figure out how to exist in a larger ecosystem, that world had become the legacy of hundreds more that were all long since lost but that same legacy made it unique and special in its own way.
<DARK SIGHT LEVEL INCREASED>
<DARK SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>
<LIFE SENSE LEVEL INCREASED>
A few more notifications as she took in the world through all of the senses she held, she let herself wander for just a little longer before heading home, feeling just a bit more relaxed for the experience.
---
“Welcome home!” Ben yelled out from the kitchen, making dinner while her aunt played with Mora in the living room.
“I’m back,” she said as she made her way to his side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders while he cooked. “How was getting those two set up?”
“I think it went well. Hentath was acting unusually nice to Kalley, I’m actually kind of jealous.”
“Ha, maybe you should stop coming off so suspicious any time you see her then.”
“Very hurtful, I’m always completely innocent. And how about you? Adjusting well, I see.”
“I got a few levels, yeah,” she grinned. “I think the change is making it easier. Everything I have that’s magic related just feels so much more… I don’t know, natural? My skills just feel a bit more right.”
“Hey, but that’s great.”
“Yeah, but I’m still not sure if it’s going to get me to the third tier in the next couple months,” she sighed in his ear. “Don’t get me wrong, I think I’m going to be closer than I would have been if I didn’t get you to mess with my head; this just still feels impossible.”
“Well, if you’re worried about that then what a coincidence,” Ben started, sounding the exact sort of suspicious she’d just told him not to be around Hentath. “I’ve got a small favour I want to ask that seems like it would be good training for you.”
“... What sort of favour?”
“Nothing crazy. If you could spare some time, just help me make some more demigods.”
Comments
Mare Matthews
Thera: Ben, what’s different about the workshop? Ben: Oh, I just figured out how to extend my divine realm down here. Thera: *watching the fifty Actualized Bens doing stuff* Thera: Ah, so you haven’t been cheating on me and having someone else make you clone bodies.
Mare Matthews
From her perspective, her growth thus far has almost been crazier than Ben’s. Remember she could barely move her magic as a child? How much she struggled when she could move it to manage it, even when she met Ben? And despite knowing what her lifespan will be, she really is comparatively as old as Ben. In the years she’s known him she’s gone from destroying a staff per spell to being in complete control of her Charm - even before the brain surgery. We just need to get her min maxing her jobs a touch and we have another job grinder for the gods. 😊
blucube 14
Thanks for the chapter!
Jaklelope
Tyftc
the void
Thank you for the chapter! If Ben has multiple demigod bodies will he be able to train faster? Cause he is literally putting his soul in those bodies so he should then be a demigod several times over? Also if he’s using his hive mind and traps or cuts off a small piece of his soul into the clone will he be able to remove the distance limit and have many bodies? If he does that can he kill his main self and become a god while still having many mortal bodies? I love bens powers, they are so much fun to think about.
Shannon
This actually brings up a very important question. If both Ben and Thera are gods, and they both descend, and they make a child together, is it a Demigod, or a God? Have the gods not considered trying that to see what happens? I mean, in most cases it's immoral as hell, but let's face it, most gods aren't going to care about a little thing like morality.
Michigo
"Nothing crazy. If you could spare some time, just help me make some more demigods." Can mean two very different things, given the fact both of them are going to end up divine in the not to distant future. 😄
Barkeep
The fact she just said "I don't know if its enough to get me to the third tier IN A COUPLE MONTHS" 😭 thera is completely lost to bens ways. The old her would spit blood at the casual assumption. True character progression.
Thomas Issa
She really should choose her next job, she has a mind skill giving her a lot of new power, and she should qualify for some scout jobs at least with her super senses
