As they made their way back to stonewall by carriage and only a few hours from home after long days of travel, Ben eventually nodded off, finding himself in Myriad's realm.
"What's up Myriad?" He asked, it being the first time in a few days he'd seen his god. "Manage to find a better quest for me?"
"You've got what you've got, I'll have more when you complete the next one."
"Uhg, but the options are lame. Why do I even have completing an achievement in your name again?"
"That's going to be a permanent option from now on, anything that spreads my name and makes me look good is worth rewarding after all."
"Fine. In that case, was there something up or were you just looking to hang for the last legs of my trip home?" The benefit of Myriad visiting him while he slept was that he got to squeeze a bit more time out of the day at least. He couldn't really do anything with it but at least his mind got to be active.
"Nothing too much, I was just hoping when you get back you'll make some time to visit Sachel. I was able to give her my gift skill a few days ago, I'm sure she'll be happy to receive some guidance on it from someone who's already managed to level it up a fair bit."
"Okay sure, but in exchange it's time for you to fulfill a promise."
Myriad could instantly tell what Ben wanted, it was positively leaking from his mind. A race once created an item that had managed to ascend to the realm of gods, and Ben had been surprisingly patient getting the story from him.
"Yes yes, you want the story of the race that got an item beyond mythic, and just what they made, right?"
"Yes please, your shininess."
Myriad didn't need the buttering up, but it was a nice change of pace compared to Ben's regular attitude. He could only imagine how his follower would react to the reveal.
"Well, the answer to both is you're looking at it and you're looking at it." The cube said smugly, pride rolling off of him,
"Wait you mean…"
"That's right! Mine was the proud race that pierced into the realm of gods! What do you think? Impressed at all?"
It was what Myriad was expecting at least, but instead he just felt pity coming from his apostle.
"Sure they did buddy," Ben said kindly. "I bet your race was great in their heyday."
"They really were! Is it that hard to believe?"
"Well before didn't you say your race didn't even produce technology? Seems like that would be kind of important."
"They didn't produce it the same way others did! My race were masters of ritual magic. We may not have had stoves or swords, but we produced a variety of things through magic you couldn't dream of!"
"Okay fine if you say so. So what did they make then that's so impressive?"
"Me."
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"Come again?"
"The body you see before you was originally a shell of sorts, meant to host the souls of the deceased in an artificial paradise. It took the collective brainpower and technique of millions of my kind to make it possible, and pulled from all branches of magic to boot!"
"Wait, so are their blueprints for you?" Ben asked, starting to salivate and staring at Myriad like he was a fine meal, or worse, something to be dissected.
"I mean, not really, but since the knowledge exists I'm the minds of the people who made me I could probably make some…"
As Myriad spoke Ben held his hand out, clearly indicating his desire, and Myriad broke down, trying to arrange the information on his own construction in such a way that it would be possible for the brain structure of a hominid type to understand it and ended up with a large book, as thick as Ben's head.
Ben immediately grabbed it and began to pour through it, still asking questions as he read.
"So how does something that sounds like a magic matrioshka brain eventually become a god?"
"Originally, it probably would have been considered an upper legendary or lower mythic item, but it, or should I say I, got two boosts that helped my development to godhood. As time went on the souls residing in me began to merge into one being due to the inherent properties of my race, and seeing this the original gods of my world decided to join with it too. This act pushed my being past something that could exist in the physical universe, while at the same time granting me divinity, and cementing my godhood."
It sounded to Ben like his gods' race had managed to make a mythic item, and their original gods had been the ones to actually push it past that, but making a mythic grade item was impressive enough. He felt a little bad for Myriad because now that he was aware of this he was going to be summoned consistently until he finished reading the blueprints and make sure his questions were answered whether his god liked it or not.
"So what's ritual magic anyway?" Ben asked as he tried to decipher some of the initial concepts that the entire structure seemed to be based on. "You're the only person I've heard mention it on the planet."
"It was more important to the various races across the Galaxy before they were all forced here and had the system put in place. It was basically a means of making more powerful and complex spells by having multiple mages construct them together. With the system though, individuals can gain immense strength through their own efforts and learn to manage more complex spells, so it's fallen out of fashion."
"Fair enough, if you can accomplish the same thing on your own then that's probably better anyway."
"Well I wouldn't say you could exactly accomplish the same thing on your own, and there’s no reason rituals can't be used in tandem with the system, it just adds a layer of difficulty. Sure mages now can definitely use their skills easier and better than a typical group practicing ritual magic, where they may have had to shaped spells with something like three to twenty people, but my race were experts of the craft. You could go so far as to say it was our specialty."
"What made you guys so good at it then?"
"A couple things. If we were to talk in terms of levels, a standard member of my race would typically have the zeroth or first in about five different affinities of magic by adulthood, with many having all of them. Second, compared to other races who would have to carefully plan things out and practice their rituals, we were able to link our minds unendingly as long as we connected our sub brains. Our rituals would involve hundreds to thousands of people working together to achieve our common goal.”
"No offense Myriad, but if your people were so great why did you have to destroy your planet instead of just fighting off the invaders?"
"Well first of all, most other races couldn't blow up their planet even if they wanted to, that's the biggest ritual my people ever managed. Secondly, that's how much of a threat they are. They can throw unending waves at a world and sacrifice untold numbers to claim it. No matter what we or any other world would try, eventually we'd just run out of people. Taking as many of them out with us as we could was the optimal outcome."
"And you gods don't know any race that's defeated them?"
"We know of races who haven't been attacked. Those living in gas giants, some that live in the hearts of stars, and the few that make their homes in the void between them, but none of us are aware of any terrestrial worlds that have held them off. If there are any, their planet would be deep in invader territory by this point, potentially still having to fight."
Then how exactly are we supposed to win? Ben found himself thinking. His god declined to answer despite Ben knowing full well he heard it, and he tried to put the matter to the side himself, instead focusing on the blueprints Myriad gave him to read and looking forward to arriving home.