“God of many what?” Amon asked, bewildered. Before I could answer, he closed his eyes and focused on the memories he had inherited from me.
“No, I don’t remember,” he said.
“I awakened a new Authority - God of Many Faces.”
“Really? What does it do? Can you change your appearance? Mine?”
“It doesn’t do much. It is still incomplete,” I replied. I had been enjoying listening to him. Even if I had already experienced having an avatar, Amon was far more peculiar than Avenor. It felt like speaking to a different version of myself.
While Avenor had always been on guard around me, Amon seemed unbothered. But what intrigued me most was his thought process. I could see myself in him, yet there was something more. Unlike Avenor, Amon was not an exact copy.
Perhaps, even in its failure, Astral Rebirth had still altered him in some way.
“Verde, are you going to make me a wand or not?” he sighed, as though growing impatient. “I know you’ve never experienced it, but… your dominion is somewhat hostile to me. I feel danger all the time and would prefer to leave as soon as possible.”
As I tried to understand what he was sensing, I noticed that Amon was already planning how to gain believers for me.
“Do not try to convert humans aggressively. First establish yourself, and only accept those who come willingly. Even then, test them,” as I instructed him, I stirred my divinity and began shaping a wand. The wand was not eye-catching. It was straight, carved from dark wood, with a slightly thicker handle.
I engraved two spells into it - Wind Slash and Wind Barrier. I had not seen wind magic among velmoryns, so I assumed it would not make finding any connection between Amon and my believers easier. I also wanted to teach him the spell Mel had created, but I had no idea how engraving runes onto living flesh worked, so I decided to leave that for later.
[Warning: Creation consumed 2 Divinity Points!]
As the wand materialized, I made it float toward Amon, who had been watching me the entire time.
“Thank you,” he said as he caught it. “Oh, two spells? You are oddly generous with me, Verde,” he added with a chuckle.
“How could you tell I engraved two spells? Can you also use Guidance?”
“No. I can just… feel it. The moment I touched it, I knew what spells it could cast.”
Strange…
I reread his status window once more, searching for a skill similar to Guidance, but found none.
Perhaps it was his high magical affinity, or even his perception. Either way, Amon was clearly talented.
“Now I understand why everyone feels oppressed when they enter here,” he said grumpily, rubbing his shoulders.
“Why?”
“Your presence - and the dominion itself - is very unpleasant, to say the least. I constantly feel like this entire place is about to attack me.”
I had no way to confirm what he was describing. My attempt to grasp what he was feeling had failed. I could sense his emotions whenever I wished, but how my dominion physically affected him was beyond my reach.
“I’ll move you to Eriavel. Aurelion will later take you to a human city. But first, I need you to teach Thread of Fate to Karla…”
“Okay. And I’ll ask her to teach me magic,” he said, visibly excited. “I always wanted to live in a world with magic. And now I can cast spells…”
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You always wanted? Well… in a way, my past is your past too.
Listening to someone claim my memories as their own felt strange. But perhaps it was for the best. If Amon identified himself with me, even on some level, it would likely turn his loyalty toward me into something absolute.
“Verde,” he called again, a strange smile forming on his face. “Can you create a griffin for me? I need a convenient way to travel, don’t I? Wait, no! Make a dragon instead…”
“You didn’t want a staff because it would make you stand out, and now you’re asking for a dragon?”
I was amused, but there was no chance I was creating a dragon. It sounded expensive and unnecessary. But more importantly, I was certain there was a God of Dragons. A creature as powerful as a dragon would almost certainly have an absurdly powerful deity behind it.
Creating a dragon, even if I somehow succeeded, which I sincerely doubted, would risk provoking such a deity. Compared to the Night God, whom I already considered a dangerous opponent, the God of Dragons was an insurmountable barrier. I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if a being of that magnitude - the kind whose subordinate could erase the Netherworld deity with a mere touch - ever decided to turn against me.
“Athena’s believer rode a wyvern, so you might be able to obtain one,” I added before he could argue further, and stirred my divinity to send him into the mortal world. “Try to learn the spell Mel created. It may prove useful.”
Despite the protest written all over Amon’s face, I forcefully moved him into the mortal world.
As his figure disappeared, I realized just how much progress I had made in the span of a few days. I had forced a contract upon another god, obtained a velmoryn who likely knew a great deal about the human world, discovered the existence of a velmoryn vampire, created an avatar, and even gained a new Authority.
Oh, right. My Authority.
Excited that I had achieved in a single day what the Goddess had taken decades to accomplish, I had nearly forgotten about the questions surrounding my new Authority.
First, I wanted to identify those twelve avatars.
Focusing on my connection with Amon, I began tracing similar threads. It wasn’t difficult. Every connection I shared with my believers, or even with Huanir - the very first beast I had branded - felt like extensions of my own being. It was no different from sensing a limb. Subconsciously, I already knew of their existence. Even if I couldn’t feel them constantly, all I needed to do was stir my divinity and brush against those threads to make the connection tangible.
Now, I followed each one of them. Eleven threads in total. Apparently, Amon was the twelfth.
Avenor’s connection was the most distinct. He and Aria were still traveling toward the nearest settlement beyond the forest.
To my surprise, the tiny clones I had created were not included. It seemed that only a conscious mind could qualify as an avatar. I assumed that because those incomplete creations could perform only a single task and lacked analytical ability, they were not counted among the twelve.
The basilisk and the kelvarins, however, were included. And so were their offspring. Of the two eggs, the basilisk had successfully hatched one. A small one, barely larger than an adult snake, was slithering around it as they moved through the forest.
The kelvarins appeared to have done nothing but reproduce as six more were flying above the vast green sea of trees. The mother was in the nest, sitting on the eggs. Another wave of newborns was likely coming…
As the excitement of gaining new avatars without spending divinity dimmed, I began to ask questions again.
How?
Reproduction was one thing. In the case of the kelvarins, I had chosen them precisely because of their fertility. But why were they connected to me? I would have understood if they had simply given birth to a new generation. That would have been nature taking its course. But a connection to me? That implied a fragment of me existed within them.
I focused solely on the newborn basilisk and the young kelvarins, searching for any difference. Only then did I notice that the threads linking them to me were weaker compared to their parents.
Does this mean my avatars can divide themselves and regenerate? Is Astral Rebirth passed down to them?
Guidance offered no answer. And unfortunately, I had no way to confirm anything. Perhaps I was right. Perhaps not. Either way, I would eventually find a chance to test it.
Still, even through this uncertainty, one thing felt clear. My connection with my clones’ progeny would grow weaker with each generation, until eventually none of them would be born as my avatars.
Was that a bad thing? Did I need to worry about a new generation that might inherit power but not the restrictions? I wasn’t sure. And since it was far in the future, I chose not to think about it for now.
Besides, just because the birds and the basilisk could reproduce didn’t mean the humanoid avatars could. And those were the ones with real potential.
For now, I would need to restrict the kelvarins from growing in numbers. Otherwise, I would reach the maximum of 18 avatars without creating more useful ones.
But before that - before Amon left for the human nation - I needed to decide what kind of god the God of Many Faces would be. And whether I wanted to make alliances under that name.