"This is why we try not to jump to conclusions." ~Shallies, of the Eternal Myth

"Shallies?"

The Godkiller stood atop The Beatified Cradle, her sacred continental airship. A marvel of creation consisting of several Abyss Dungeon Gates and two Abyss Towers as its power sources. It currently hosted several kingdoms, who had gathered for the Divine War against Sulorf Orel, the God of Light.

Shallies turned to look for the one who called her name. It sounded both strange and familiar at the same time. For one, she recognized it. For another, it didn't belong to this era.

No, it wasn't Catelyn, nor was it Phey'lan. It was definitely not Valor'el either. It was a female voice, after all. But it wasn't Apple either. All of them hadn't been born yet during this era.

Stachie? No, it wasn't her System Assistant either. They sounded the same in the first place.

When Shallies turned again, she found a half-orc with fair skin, long black hair, and glowing green eyes.

"Grace?"

"Shallies! What's happening?" the half-orc asked. She was semi-translucent, like an ephemeral ghost that could fade away at any moment.

"Calm down. You're in a dream." Shallies reached out with mana-control, tying Grace's form to hers. "I think it's technically my dream, because you have a spirit form."

The panic from the half-orc immediately switched, the corner of her lips quickly rising with amazement. She, despite Shallies' cautions, did not in fact calm down.

"We are?" Grace gasped, jumping weirdly in place. Her lower extremities faded in and out of reality as she moved. "This is trippy! How did this happen? What's going on in this dream? Are we recollecting a Divine War? Which god? Is it Fello'resh? But we're not at the sea—"

"Slow down, Grace," Shallies said, yanking lightly at their mana-tether. "If you get too excited, you might wake yourself up."

"Oh, is that why my legs are disappearing?"

"No, that's different. But stop moving regardless."

Grace finally followed, but she still kept looking around. "So, where are we? Are we moving?"

Shallies sighed. This was as calm as Grace would get. "We're in my domain. I originally planned to introduce you three to this place after you've graduated. In any case, welcome to The Beatified Cradle, or at least what it looked like during the Divine War against Sulorf Orel."

As expected, it caused the half-orc to have another surge of excitement. Shallies could've simply allowed Grace to wake up, but she realized it would be a wasted opportunity. So she restricted her movements with mana-control.

"I said calm down, Grace," Shallies started, not exactly angry. "You can giggle or celebrate or do whatever you want after you wake up."

"But Shallies! This is amazing! Who's Sulorf? And I didn't know you had your own domain! Well, I should've expected it, but still! It's a little crazy to know that you actually have one!"

Again, Shallies sighed.

"There are multiple gods who keep it now, but Sulorf was the only God of Light during his era. He was Lorf's ancestor. We're here at the end of the Divine War, so this place is technically a bit empty for now."

"Oh, so that's why we're the only people in a huge place like this," Grace added, still struggling to calm down.

"Yeah. They're all currently below, probably recuperating during the aftermath."

"Can we take a look?"

Shallies looked at Grace. The half-orc was trying her best to hold it in, but she clearly wanted to go see the battlefield.

"We shouldn't," the Godkiller replied, deflating her student's smile. "It would be too much for you."

"But this is a dream!" Grace reasoned. "Worst case, I'll just wake up, right?"

At that, Shallies shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not."

In response, Grace narrowed her eyes. "You obviously know."

"Well, if you can answer my question, maybe I'll reconsider."

"What is it?"

"If Sulorf was the only God of Light during this era, what do you think would happen once he had died?"

Shallies observed as Grace slowly opened her mouth to reply, paused, and then slowly closed it. The half-orc blinked, then tried again, but shook her head in confusion, before withdrawing.

"We have our sun, our moon, and the light of distant stars can reach us," Shallies explained, as if to add a valuable clue. "We can even produce our own fires and craft our own lamps. So what use is there for a God of Light?"

Grace took her time.

In a dream, a pause in anything was not a usual thing. The mind couldn't stay still for too long. The haze would either fade, or force a change in scenery completely. It was an issue most practitioners of the Dreamwalk Skill faced.

But Shallies had not concerned herself with that problem for the longest time. She didn't even have to use Dreamwalk to enter a dream she could control. It wasn't on her Guiding Star Skillset, and definitely not on her Chef Skillset either. And yet, her involvement with the divine simply allowed her to interact with her dreams. Of course, even this, she had mastered over time.

A minute passed, and still Grace couldn't come up with an answer. At the very least, the question forced the half-orc to calm down. She shook her head, a little frustrated.

"I give up," she said, finally.

"Not even a guess?"

"Well, if your dream is accurate, then we're not losing access to light. Unless it's a slow effect, because Sulorf has divine residue or something?"

Shallies failed to stop a laugh, which came out as an undignified snort.

"Look, I don't know!" Grace admitted.

"Divine residue!" Shallies repeated, breaking into a full laugh. "Now that's something I haven't heard in a long time!"

"Wait! So I got it?"

"No. Sorry, but no." Shallies wiped a single tear and caught her breath. "That's a topic that some scholars talked about way before I became a Godkiller. It's misleading, and absolutely ridiculous! I had to put a stop to any research involving that topic because it's such a waste of resources. There are no divine residues whatsoever."

"Oh, well. I've run out of ideas!" Grace sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "What happened after Sulorf died?"

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Shallies took her time to recover. This would've been the perfect moment for a sip of tea, so she manifested a cup of it in each of their hands. After one, long sip, she finally calmed down.

"What would technically happen, is that we would be slowly bathed in blinding light," Shallies started. "A god earns their domain—or domains—depending on the Concepts they're keeping under control. Without Sulorf, cosmic light would become unbearable, magical light would be out of control, even mundane light would have blinding bursts. It would be too much for Nildrem to eliminate and counteract the light."

"Nildrem?" Grace asked.

"The God of Darkness." Shallies gestured as if the answer was obvious. "Right now, in this dream, he's probably expending a lot of his divinity to hold back the Concept of Light. Buying me enough time to pull it under my Divine Authority."

Grace was obviously going to ask that next, so Shallies went on to explain.

"It's part of my duties as Godkiller. If there are no gods to take on the burden of the Concept, I become a temporary substitute. It takes a bit, so to ensure the safety of Ysvil, I always ask the god handling the opposing Concept to help me out, until I can have the stray one under my Divine Authority. Of course, it stands to reason that the burden of the Concept must be passed down to a new or different god before another Divine War occurs."

"That means you became the Goddess of Light until Lorf came around?"

"Well, we were lucky," Shallies started. "Sulorf's wife, Castorine, was willing to shed her mortality and ascend to godhood."

"Was that the Great Sacrifice?" the half-orc asked.

"No. Only Apple and I made our Great Sacrifices." Shallies turned to Grace's dream spirit, narrowing her eyes. "Where did you hear about that, though?"

"Umm… Valor'el and Phey might've casually mentioned it once or twice." Grace scratched her head. "I thought you're always aware of what we're talking about?"

"Not always," Shallies said. "That would be exhausting. Not in the energy sense, but if I keep my attention on you or Valor'el or whoever, I won't have time for anything else. I become aware of any intentions or discussions involving myself or whatever's been bonded with my authority, but just like other gods, I choose whether to take a glance or listen in."

"Oh, I thought, as the Godkiller, you were omniscient," Grace said, showing her immature shyness. "I thought all gods were omniscient."

"We can be," Shallies admitted. "But it takes a lot of effort. Doing so would be obvious to other gods, so it's only really used during emergency situations. And since I'm all about subtlety, I only tap into my omnipotence during a Divine War. Other times, I just observe very specific places."

"I see. That explains why some people can use a god's name in vain and get away with it."

"Yep." Shallies nodded, choosing not to let Grace know what she had done to Lorf when he had committed that exact sin. "That said, where were we?"

"Castorine?"

"Right." Shallies hadn't exactly forgotten about their main discussion, she just wanted to check if Grace wanted to continue on their tangent. "Well, there's nothing much after that, really. Castorine became the Goddess of Light a week after we sanctified Sulorf's resting place."

"He only has one? Resting place, I mean." Grace asked, not holding back her questions even if she sounded like a kid who asked anything and everything. Shallies didn't mind.

"Sulorf was a simple man, even in a maddened state. Unlike Fello'resh, he suppressed his divinity in his dragonoid form."

"Oh, I remember dragonoids. I think Ren mentioned something about them before. They're like the giantkin, right? Dragons who have integrated with the system?"

"Technically," Shallies began. "Dragons who are integrated with the system are still called dragons. Dragonoids, however, are people with draconic blood in them. Half-dragon, half-humanoid. It could be a human, an orc, an elf, what have you.

"Great dragons obtain the ability to transform into one of the humanoid species. Some of them push the boundaries of that form and begin families for one reason or another. Their bloodline tends to be extremely potent, with great resistance against dilution. This makes it so that even generations after, draconic blood is still apparent in a dragonoid descendant. Of course, given their natural disposition, integrating with the system doesn't cost them as much as their dragon ancestors."

Grace nodded along. She was absorbing the information, but her expression said that her mind was processing something else. It took her a second to piece the hint Shallies had laid out just a moment ago.

"Wait!" she started. "This dream isn't about Fello'resh?"

"That took you a while." Shallies giggled, then shook her head. "It might actually still be."

"What?"

"Let me show you. Hold on." Shallies flexed her mana-control, wrapping it around Grace's spiritual form. Two Sight Steps later, one to blink out of The Beatified Cradle and another to blink to the battlefield, they were hovering atop the Godkiller in the dream.

Dream-Shallies was standing beside a fallen warrior. Aside from his intricate armor and weapons, magnificent but broken, there was nothing divine or sacred about him. This person wasn't Sulorf.

"That's Horfurel," the real Shallies began. "A human Favored Class holder. One of my students. He was also Fello'resh's reincarnation, but he didn't know that."

Grace gasped. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!"

"Are you copying Tayin?" Shallies mused.

"No, wait! I'm not! I just don't understand." The half-orc helplessly clutched her head.

"There'll be a lot of that as you continue being involved with me, Grace. I think you should try to get used to it, and just ask if something's confusing you."

"I guess reincarnating is a thing for gods," Grace began. "Do mortals get a chance at that, too? Am I a reincarnation? Why did Fello'resh reincarnate as a human, not as a seraph? Why a mortal? Why did he forget? Was that a choice he made in his past life, or is that part of the process? Am I a reincarnation? Did I just forget about it? Was I a goddess back then? Is that why I have a talent for The Perpetual Method?"

Shallies couldn't hold back her laughter once again at Grace's rapid-fire questions.

"Huh?" The half-orc stared at her. "Did I ask something wrong?"

"I don't think I'll have enough Stellar Mana to sustain you in this dream if you're going to have an existential crisis on top of being excited, Grace." Shallies was kidding, of course, but she wanted to poke fun at the half-orc.

"Sorry!" Grace said, panicking.

"That's three things I have to cover, if you're panicking, too," Shallies pointed out. "Just relax."

"Okay, okay." Grace took deep breaths, trying her best to calm down. "I'm calm. I'm relaxed. I still have a million questions in mind, but we'll take it slow. Neutral feelings, neutral feelings…"

"I suppose, while you're keeping that, I'll go through your questions." Shallies pondered for a bit, figuring out where best to start. "Once you've reached Favored Class, there'll be a way available for you to discover whether you've had any significant past lives."

She lifted a finger. "I should point out that you might have the common misconceptions with reincarnation."

"It's the soul returning to the living world as a newborn, right?" Grace said. "That's the common definition, at least."

"Yes, but no." Shallies crossed her arms. "The soul is different. You are your own person, after all. What gives an obvious indication of reincarnation is your Echo State and Divine Connections. They're both hidden traits just like Destiny Adhesion. You can gain access to them on your profile once you've become a Favored Class holder.

"Echo State increases as you regain connection with more of your past lives. Divine Connections will give you some indication if one or more of those past lives is from a divine entity. May not be a god, per se, but divine nonetheless.

"All of this is to say that you're not a repeat or a cheap copy of someone else from the past. Horfurel isn't Fello'resh, even though he was a reincarnation of that god. He has the same potential, but the path he took was wildly different.

"There are cases like Lorf too, who eventually follow their past life's path. He was Sulorf's reincarnation, and he ended up taking the mantle as one of the modern gods who keep the Concept of Light under control."

Shallies turned to Grace.

"That can be the same for your case, Grace. But in my opinion, if you're to trust my vast knowledge, it doesn't really matter if you're a reincarnation of someone great from the past or not. Learn from their mistakes, if you can figure it out, sure, but you should never let your past dictate your future."

"But…" Grace had that look. She had absorbed the information, and understood the point, but she couldn't let go of her curiosity. "But you can figure it out, right?"

Shallies pondered for a moment. Then she sighed. She had never blatantly lied to Grace before, only necessary white lies to help hide her identity, which were no longer important as far as the half-orc was concerned. She didn't want to start lying now.

"I can," Shallies admitted. "But I won't. It never leads to anything good, Grace. So unless there's an important reason for me to do so, I can't indulge your curiosity."

"I see. Okay, I won't insist." Grace smiled. "I suppose it's good to know that being a reincarnation won't force me into a single fate."

Shallies nodded. "That's the important part."

"I guess, in conclusion, this is another vision from Fello'resh, then?" Grace guessed. "It might not be him, but it's his reincarnation."

"Right."

"Isn't that too many visions now?" Grace asked. "Are we still just waiting for Thrush'ven Alir?"

"Yeah." Shallies nodded once more. "Training you three is now my priority. But I'll keep this vision as part of things to consider with regards to Fello'resh. It's technically involved in a different god now, too, which makes narrowing things down a lot harder. Still, this simply means I have to prepare you three more for what's coming."

"And that means the second Class, right?"

"Yep. But first, you need to go back to sleep."

Without waiting for another word, Shallies released her mana-control. Almost instantly, Grace faded away. At the same time, she forced herself to wake up.

While Shallies opened her eyes, the half-orc shot up straight instead. It had been a few days, but Grace had asked to sleep in the tavern again.

"Shallies!" she began, but the Godkiller pushed her back to bed with more mana-control.

"Go to sleep," said Shallies. Despite her instructions, she got out of bed and wore her apron. "It's just been a few hours. If you need help, just ask Apple."

"You're not going back to sleep?" Grace asked.

"Do as I say, not as I do," Shallies replied. A yawn escaped her. "I'll just be in the kitchen, don't worry."

Regardless, Grace ignored the instruction and joined her anyway. Shallies could only sigh.

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