The first thing Percy did upon noticing the newcomer was to will his constructs to shatter, scattering the grey powder in the void. While he was open to the idea of sharing the secret of Crystallization if necessary, there was no reason to let the god floating before him know about the Vault’s magiscript as well. Luckily, the yellow-furred deity appeared too busy trying to make heads or tails of Tiberius’ unlikely survival to so much as glance at the destroyed formation.
Without warning, a tapestry of colours exploded out of the god’s chest, spreading in every direction as if it were some sort of three-dimensional painting being drawn in real time. The starlit void was replaced by an opaque orange background that enveloped Percy’s host in less than a second, complete with the acrid stench of sulfur and a wave of suffocating heat. Dozens of metres beneath the Violet’s feet, a bubbling lake of lava was growing and expanding outwards at the same rate as the sky.
‘Did he pull us into his internal world?’ Percy wondered, though he immediately realized that couldn’t be it.
He hadn’t felt being transported like when Lanthaniel had let him into or out of his internal world. More importantly, there was no impenetrable boundary blocking Percy’s senses – just a thin, amorphous membrane of space that his Sage’s Pond could easily penetrate.
‘Rather than sending us inside his internal world, he must have projected a part of it onto reality,’ Micky concluded. ‘I suppose that this ability is just an extension of how we mortals use our domains.’
The deity’s actions caused Tiberius’ shoulders to tense. Percy couldn’t blame his host for being wary of a potentially hostile god, but he wasn’t nearly as worried as the Violet. Had the Concept mage wished them harm, there would have been no need for theatrics. He could have killed them in an instant, or just ignored them and waited for starvation to finish the job.
Summoning a bulky apparatus out of nowhere, the deity donned it on his head. It looked like a cube-shaped helmet made of bronze, densely engraved with runes that Percy didn’t recognize. Brushing a palm lined with four long, bony digits over the left side of the object, the god illuminated some of the strange symbols, activating the enchantments.
“Thepp tar… mortal… jerr temes… air to breathe?” the god asked, making Percy understand why the deity had shrouded them with his internal world: they wouldn’t be able to speak without an atmosphere.
What Percy didn’t understand, was what exactly the god had said. Even Tiberius creased his brow in confusion, clearly unable to offer any insight. Percy had to ponder over the nonsensical question for several seconds before he realized what the bulky object was.
‘Is that abomination on his head a translation device? It barely works…’
Perhaps, Percy’s past experiences had spoiled him. Language barriers were probably a common problem across the universe, though Percy had never been affected by it too badly.
He could understand his hosts just fine due to their connection, and the translation device that Metatron had given him was more than good enough for every other situation. It was several times smaller and less intrusive than the yellow-furred god’s helmet, yet was far more effective at its job.
The pentapus’ handiwork could seamlessly translate even between pairs of languages that couldn’t possibly be stored in the Vault’s database. Nephthys had used it to talk to Percy’s main body right after her rebirth, even though Metatron was hopefully unaware of Remior or Amenthes.
Even on Marador Prime, speaking to members of other races hadn’t been a problem for Percy and Kassorith, as every faction affiliated with the Void Hand spoke the same standardized language. Evidently, lesser springs with underdeveloped branches of runecrafting weren’t able to produce devices that functioned nearly as flawlessly.
‘I hope the Sapphire Pavilion has a better model, otherwise getting through the auction will be a chore…’
“It’s my bloodline,” Percy replied through his host’s lips, unwilling to keep the god waiting. “It allows me to generate small amounts of elemental mana.”
This obviously wasn’t the full extent of what his bloodline was capable of, but the long-necked god didn’t need to know that. With his curiosity satisfied, the deity turned around to leave, prompting Percy to shout. “Wait! You can’t abandon me here! My mentor was killed by space bandits and I can’t reach civilization by myself!”
The deity paused for the briefest of instants, before shrugging. “Not my problem… Allthar me loog… mortal from a potentially hostile faction? Bez kalar Sapphire Pavilion… not allowed to harm you directly… sirit flagg el… no obligation to help either.”
Percy gritted his borrowed teeth. Part of him had hoped to hitch a ride to the auction for free, but it looked like he would have to part with one of his secrets after all.
“I can pay!” he hurriedly said, not wanting the god to leave his host stranded again. Replacing the formation would be an absolute pain in the ass, while the odds of getting noticed a second time would only decrease as the time of the auction drew nearer and most attendees arrived at the venue.
The deity turned back to look at Tiberius, an amused smirk plastered over his pale lips. “What payment… thepp lar… mortal possibly offer?”
Percy sighed, knowing that there was no going back now. “A method for mortals to cleanse their cores twice as fast. It can turn your world into a greater spring.”
The god’s smile froze as his eyes narrowed. “You’re lying. Even if you are not, this is too dangerous a secret to learn from an outsider… althar vok romek… blabbermouth telling everyone at the auction… semek laft har… bring trouble to my people.”
“Nobody will know that I sold you this information!” Percy protested. “I have a Decree that will bind us both to our word. You just have to swear to escort me safely to the auction and to do everything in your power to avoid leaking the secret I’m about to share in the next hundred thousand years. In return, I’ll say that you helped me purely out of kindness if anyone asks.”
The god didn’t reply immediately, but that was probably for the best. It meant that he was at least considering Percy’s offer. The good news was that the god was travelling alone, otherwise Percy might have had to convince multiple deities.
‘He’s obviously stronger than the ones who were escorting Tiberius,’ Micky noted.
The yellow-furred deity had only revealed a tiny slice of his internal world, but he had clearly ascended with a lava affinity. Even if he was merely at the bottom of the Self-Discovery stage, he’d still comprehended more concepts than the gods from earlier, and judging by his confidence and the sheer quality of his internal world, Percy had a hunch that the god was closer to the peak of that stage.
A minute later, the long-necked man nodded, much to the mortals’ elation. Before agreeing to Percy’s terms, he asked a few follow-up questions to clear up a couple of details that the patchy translation had omitted, but they were able to finalize the deal not long after that.
‘Kerfyl’s Decree is the gift that keeps on giving,’ Percy told his fellow aspect, once again feeling happy with his decision to pick the utility ability over an offensive alternative on Maradion. Sure, he had failed to end Machaon’s life in the Whistling Woods, but the soul contracts had completely revolutionized the lives of both his clones and main body. This was already the third time he had used it in this very trip.
Withdrawing his internal world, the yellow-furred deity dragged Tiberius and his spectral guests into his body, dumping them above a much larger lake of lava. Scanning the whole pocket of space, Percy noticed that it was shaped like a proper sphere, nearly two kilometres wide, bounded by a thick dimensional wall that completely blocked his senses.
More importantly, the place wasn’t empty.
A few islands of solid stone floated atop the surface of the roiling magma, with a group of four Violets and two Blues chatting on the widest piece of land. A Violet and a Blue were leisurely releasing air mana from their palms, presumably to fill the internal world with enough oxygen for everyone – including their god – while a second Violet was using his ice affinity to cool their surroundings to keep them comfortable.
Percy briefly considered whether it was a good idea to socialize with his fellow mortals. On one hand, they appeared to hail from a more developed faction than his host’s, so they might have additional information to share about the auction. On the other, the more he talked to any of these people, the greater the risk would be to reveal additional secrets that he wasn’t ready to share.
In the end, his curiosity won over his caution, leading him to approach. The contract was already set in stone, so their god wouldn’t be able to harm Tiberius regardless of what he said. The long-necked sapients had no choice but to safely deliver Percy’s host to the branch of the Sapphire Pavilion.