Andrew Robinson Leinbach
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Chapter 351: Ya Savan
🕑 Added 2025-03-23 13:11:39 +0000 UTCSavan
“Is it true you once fought the Heavenly Spark Soul King?”
Ya Savan, former priest of the Lady of Hellwater, frowned slightly as he looked out at the three hundred or so students in his class, all sitting above him in the seats of the lecture hall, his electric green eyes focusing on the student who’d asked the question. “No.
“I led the Primordial Humans’ army in the War of the Chosen when the United Federation of Planets first competed, and we faced them in the finals, but I never fought the Heavenly Spark Soul King himself, nor his wife. I did lose to the Mistress of Oaths and Deception in tactics, however, and I lost to members of the United Federation of Planet’s original group of A and B rank talents, including True Dragon Isaiah, in combat.”
After the divine energy from his goddess stopped functioning several thousand years after her disappearance and the deaths of over half of the Prime Material’s gods, Savan hadn’t known what to do with himself, and he’d eventually wound up teaching at a college in one of the human empires which hadn’t formerly been under the Primordial Humans, giving him back his access to the System. His path had been cut off with the death of his god, making it impossible for him to ever advance past C rank, but he’d come to terms with his fate over the thousands of years that followed, and now, overall, he was quite happy.
His student’s question, however, asked at the end of their first Tactics 101 class, brought back some bad memories.
“It was a good learning experience for me in my youth, and a good example of tactics, something the United Federation of Planets leader has always excelled in, so we’ll go over it further in our seventeenth lesson.” Savan forced himself to smile. “Keep coming to class and keep learning and maybe I’ll even tell you some of the hidden information I’ve learned about the famous C rank Universal Tournament where the United Federation of Planets finally declared war.
“Class dismissed.”
The students left quickly, Savan having enough respect as a C rank, even a crippled one, that no one was willing to question him further, but two humans who were not part of his roster remained in the hall.
One, a man he didn’t recognize, was sitting in the back row near the door, slowly standing. But the other, a short plain looking woman with long azure hair and bright azure eyes, who’d been sitting near the wall in one of the middle rows, smiled at him as she carried a small one year old baby down to help him gather his things. She was Amalia Stormborn, daughter of the late emperor of the third strongest human empire, eldest demigod daughter of the Earth Mother, one of only two gods left in the Primordial Humans faction, and the half sister of the man most feared by denizens of the Prime Material, the Heavenly Spark Soul King.
They’d been married for thousands of years, and, just the year before, their first child had been born, little Daevic, named after Amalia’s brother who’d been killed by the Heavenly Spark Soul King just before their father.
Little Daevic hadn’t inherited either his mother’s azure coloring or Savan’s own green eyes and purple hair, as expected of a direct descendant of the Primordial Sovereign, but he had Amalia’s cute nose and Savan’s courser hair texture, and Savan knew he would do anything for the little guy.
So, when his son disappeared out of Amalia’s arms and into the arms of the man who’d been at the back of the room and was now right in front of them, with Savan only able to sense the after effects of the spatial element skills used, he felt himself quickly become terrified out of his mind.
“The two of you are former priests of the Lady of Hellwater, correct?” The man, plain looking to the point Savan was sure the appearance was a disguise, asked them as he looked down and smiled at their son, making faces that caused little Daevic to laugh.
Savan and Amalia quickly exchanged glances, thousands of words worth of communication passing between them in an instant, and it was decided Savan would do the talking. “Yes.”
“Good then.” The man started walking toward the exit of the room with their son. “You’ll probably be of use then. Come.”
He then glared at Amalia and a C rank aura of space and death emanated out from him, enveloping the entire room but completely bypassing their son. “And stop trying to contact for help using the System or that artifact in the princess’s pocket. Both have been blocked off and you’re just irritating me with your attempts.”
The coldness in the man’s voice was completely at odds with how he was still smiling down at and playing with their baby, and it was unnerving. So, without a word or any more attempts to call for help, they followed him to one of the college’s local teleportation platforms and teleported to the planet’s main hub. Then they teleported off planet to what felt like an F rank world before using another local teleporter to arrive at a different hub and then teleport off planet.
This teleport, however, was different, and, upon arrival, Savan realized with horror that they’d just left the Prime Material for what he was pretty sure was one of the demonic universes.
There, however, they found something even more terrifying than an army of demons.
The Mistress of Oaths and Deception, or at least one of her clones, was standing in front of them, and the man they’d been following walked right into her, his body becoming illusory and disappearing, their son landing in her arms.
Then the world around them disappeared and the next thing Savan knew he was sitting inside a gold and silver cage hanging over a cliff on a C rank planet, his back next to the bars, his wife in another cage next to him.
Looking around desperately, he found little Daevic still in the Mistress of Oaths and Deception’s arms, the woman sitting on a rock jutting out from the cliff about two meters below their cages, and she was doing something to their baby, her mana, psyforce, and qi all somehow entering into him.
“What are you doing to our child?” This time it wasn’t Savan who spoke first, but Amalia, and Savan could feel the fear in her aura, at the same level he himself was feeling.
“I’m severing his karmic bonds to anyone still in the Prime Material.” The Mistress of Oaths and Deception made a face at little Daevic, causing their child to laugh, and the beautiful woman smiled. “It’s a lot simpler with him as he’s so young. But the two of you will require more effort and time, though the cages will help.”
She looked up at Savan in particular and smiled. “We wouldn’t want our mother-in-law to have the ability to use another bloodline curse, right?”
Savan felt himself start to relax slightly, as at least the current situation made more sense, though he still had no idea why his family had been kidnapped to another universe.
“Alright.” The Mistress of Oaths and Deception looked back down at Daevic, making another face. Then she held out his child to an open area of the rock she was on and Savan watched as a woman exited out of a newly formed portal and took Daevic from her. “Bye bye, little nephew.” Then the Mistress of Oaths and Deception disappeared.
The new woman was someone Savan recognized, but it took him a couple seconds for him to place her when it really shouldn’t have. With silvery semi-translucent hair, dark skin, and eyes that seemed to be entirely pupils, Krysta La’Vordi, the daughter of the Heavenly Scarab of Space and the Heavenly Spark Soul King’s former master, had a rather distinct look.
“Ms. La’Vordi,” he asked, “if you could, would you be willing to tell us what is going on here?”
The Daughter of Space looked up from little Daevic, a smile on her face Savan couldn’t quite read. “You’ve been kidnapped away from the Prime Material at my husband’s request, and you probably won’t be going back unless you want your entire family to die.” She looked back down at the baby in her arms, making a funny face which caused little Daevic to laugh. Then she looked back up at them. “But you both have some kind of faith energy based trap in your souls, likely a creation of the Duchess of Debauchery, so, while Mila’s pretty sure the activation condition is seeing her husband or mine, she still wanted to be on the safe side, thus knocking you unconscious, cutting out the parts of the traps she felt sure she could do safely, and putting you through the United Federation of Planets’ full decontamination protocols.
“She’ll have to look you over a few more times, and you’ll likely need the type of soul surgery only she and maybe one of our goddesses would be able to accomplish safely, at least from our force, but you should be free to move around the United Federation of Planets’ universes within a few months.” She looked back down at Daevic, her smile growing slightly wider. “And this little guy’s already safe.” She looked back up at them. “So, with your permission, he’ll spend the next few months with me and I’ll bring him around to see you every day.”
Daevic felt his heart start to beat faster for multiple reasons. First, the idea of a goddess setting a trap in his and his wife’s souls was terrifying, as was the thought of the Mistress of Oaths and Deception doing soul surgery on them. Second, he really didn’t want Daevic taken away from them. Most pressing, however, was the third item, probably the part which was causing his wife’s heart rate to rise even more than his. “You mentioned your husband, Ms. La’Vordi. Who might that be?”
“Oh?” The Daughter of Space looked surprised and her aura showed the same, mixed with a tiny bit of shame. “Given the information was available on the Prime Material’s System, I just assumed you knew. But you didn’t even know he was alive?
“My husband is Daevic Stormborn, your brother-in-law.” She turned to look at his wife. “And he’s been missing you.”
