Polymath Redux

Chapter 62: We can be both of god and the devil

"An offer?"

Tilting her head to one side in a rather seductive manner Xagon offered a curious expression as she repeated after Mordred. She was confused; certainly there must have been a reason that he had brought her here to this isolated mental prison. Yet after displaying his power and dominance over her in this territory all he gives is an offer?

Truthfully she was a little curious; of all the time she had lived in this world she had received countless pleas, countless requests and countless demands. She had never been the one to receive an offer from someone else. This being a completely new experience for the goddess she listened carefully with anticipation.

"That's right, an offer. I assure you that this is nothing to your detriment; I merely want to help you settle your little score with the Blood God of the Baliazoural Empire. 'Zoura'- was it?"

Hearing that hated name after all these centuries again the goddess' nonexistent heart started to beat violently. She clenched her fists as she made a sour expression, her shoulders trembled subtly as she hung her head low. After taking several deep breaths to calm herself down she turned to meet the gaze of this enigmatic man.

"Zoura... that was centuries ago, how do you know of him?"

She asked in a low growling voice, almost suggesting that if he answered wrongly she'd attack. Of course she knew that it would be futile to fight Mordred head on but she would still try.

With an eerily pleasant smile Mordred started slowly pacing around the edges of the platform with Xagon following shortly behind him. He took out a small handbook from the inner pocket of his overcoat, or at least that's what it seemed like. In truth he was taking the book out of his [inventory]. He waved the book around so Xagon could register its existence.

"This book belonged to a certain corrupt member of the clergy of this country. He was a terrible person; he committed many atrocities, voiced many antiquated values and manipulated countless people, but deep down he was doing it all for you."

"For me?"

Xagon repeated.

"That's right, he was obsessed with you; your stories, your exploits, your description, your radiant figure, everything about you. From a young age he wanted nothing but to find out everything there was to know about you. He traversed the world and documented every little thing he had learnt about you before coming back to this country and falling prey to a certain nefarious council. It's a shame though, even after 40 years of following your trails this book is still so thin. Regardless, while I couldn't validate everything in this book, when considering that man's obsession there is no doubt he scrutinized carefully every piece of information when it came to you. So I think it's fair to deem this book mostly accurate."

Xagon scoffed at the worthless attempts of such a man who was following in her trails. She felt neither pity nor appreciation for all the effort that man had put into documenting her life.

"Hmph~ he lived a useless life. So what does it say in that book of his? What about me... and what about Zoura?"

Mordred stopped pacing around to flip through some pages and recounted what the book had mentioned.

"There isn't an awful lot, like I said this book is rather thin. The time you had lived was over 500 years ago after all; I'm actually impressed that even this amount of information was recovered about you. It recounts a certain war, a 'celestial war' which led to the creation of the Sacred Weapons of today and that it was mostly your fault. What you were actually planning or fighting for is not written but it does say that the God Zoura was the one responsible for your defeat. That due to this 'celestial war' the physical bodies of all deities were destroyed requiring their souls had to be transferred to separate 'Phylacteries'."