Hi Flamesparks7, thanks for the review. Zorian has been doing a lot recently, so I felt he deserved a downtime chapter to plan and relax and collapse again. What we know from canon about gods. 1. They were whimsical. 2. They randomly did plagues against people. 3. They didn't like necromancy much. 4. They were erratic. 5. They were immensely powerful, able to create things, destroy cities, grant random magical powers, and do feats that the limits of mortal magic could emulate. Part of this story will be exploring why I imagine this might be so, along with explaining some of the more insane powers of the gods and why they can't just win everything.

Lopova is very emotionally erratic, has odd priorities, and is very whimsical and so fits the characterization of the gods. There are also reasons she is intervening, unlike in the canon story- things that weren't supposed to happen did happen. Red Robe did something different he didn't do before.

The problem with the invasion of Cyoria that happened every month was that it was too good.

Quatach-Ichl was probably the most powerful mage on the planet, by a large margin. He had immense combat skill, counters for everything, and his speed was just so insane that he could remove any serious threats to the invasion.

There were a lot of skilled and powerful mages and necromancers from Ulquaan Ubasa, and a lot of bound monsters, trolls, and allies. Even if they inflicted some losses they had enough numbers to stop all but a concerted invasion.

If that wasn't enough, Sudomir had a vast army of undead and iron beaks to add to the forces, providing a huge amount of muscle that was locked behind powerful wards.

Of course, such a vast force would attract attention, except for the fact that the Mage Guild was covering for them. The powerful group of mages meant to be looking out for Cyoria were in fact preparing a ritual to unleash a primordial so they could be young and have larger dicks.

Zorian tipped his cocktail to Zach, who was getting roaring drunk with Raynie and Neolu and showing off some elaborate illusion, who tipped his drink back, spilling some on the floor.

He was sitting the corner, away from the party. Zach hadn't needed much convincing to teleport most of the class away from Cyoria to Eldemar for a wild party. Bribes and forged documents were enough to get them out of the dance, and out of the invasion.

Zorian wasn't sure he could take seeing it again. His hand shook.

The gods were real. One was in his soul. He was back in the loop. He had died. He had exploded his soul, killed himself in a way that he thought would be forever and then been yanked back to life.

Life isn't fair.

Spoke the voice in his head. He thought back at her.

Can't you solve this? You're powerful. You're around. You could kill Red Robe. You don't even have to do that. Tell me where he is, we can kill him. We can end this.

It's not that simple.

Then make it simple, he thought back, sharper than he should be against a goddess.

Gods can die. Some of us did die before we left. Trust me, if I did help you more it would be worse for everyone. There are contingencies built into the world, and they can detect me.

Plagues, fire, and toads everywhere?

Basically. Whole lot of trouble.

Zorian sighed, and swirled his glass.

Benisek was coming up to him. He didn't want to talk. He touched a spell item ring he had made, and channelled mana through it. He quickly teleported behind a large red potted plant on the other side of the hotel floor, and then touched a second ring, activating invisibility.

No one could bother him now.

Then he went back to thinking at the goddess. I just don't know if I can beat him. I killed him, and it wasn't enough. He's stronger than me. His primordial blessings don't have to be hidden, unlike you. I want this to work, but I am not sure we're good enough. I'm trapped. My soul enslaved to live and die again forever, to bash itself in against an unstoppable force till they end even that. I don't know If I can do it.

There was a long pause from the goddess. He could feel her, still in his thoughts.

Then in front of him- in his mind, he knew- appeared a woman. The sort of woman you shouldn't get near. She was beautiful, very beautiful, but beautiful like a tornado. The sort of thing you didn't want to see close up. She had a softness in her eyes now for now though, and red eyes, from crying.

She stepped close and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He could feel her short black hair on his shoulder, the scars on her face against his skin.

"I won't let them destroy your soul. I won't let the primordials destroy you. Even if I have to burn down this world, I won't let them." She said with a surety and purpose that was as hard as her.

He steadied his breathing, and relaxed against the illusionary body of the goddess for a few minutes till he felt normal again.

"I don't know why I am like this. I was stronger."

She smiled at him. "You are stronger. You spent months blocking off your emotions with mind magic, and you had some of Zach's soul in you, which changed you. When I restored you I restored you without his soul fragment. You're back to normal. It'll just take time to adjust."

That explained a lot. His personality did feel different. Damien had said that he seemed less whiny. His asshole brother. He shook his head.

"You're a lot nicer now than before. No surprise pranks."

She pfft'd at him. "Dude, I can read the room. I don't prank people just because I can. I prank people when it's funny. Necromancy isn't a joking topic, it's an abomination we oppose."

"Necromancers can make great friends you know." Her eyes narrowed, and he could feel the deadly steel as she gripped his arms tightly.

"What?" She said, one word carrying the weight of power of a being who could destroy worlds.

"They're great at raising people's spirits."

She stared at him for a long time, then grinned and laughed. "That was terrible." She shook her head, and went to sit on his knee. Forward, but he was used to his pervy goddess. He ignored it, and tried to talk of more important things.

"Do you think we can kill him next restart? With my mind magic?"

Little cartoon illusions floated in his vision.

"Red Robe has several enhancements, including one of regeneration and magic resistance. He's been made into a poison type monster, with about three times as much mana-"

Zorian cut her off.

"About?"

She waved her hands. "3.14 times more mana. The maximum you can do without altering the soul more radically." The ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter. Very geometric.

She continued. "Like many magical monsters you've met, he'll be much more difficult to hurt with mind magic. Zach's potent combat skills will help disrupt these, but I doubt you'll be able to do major damage, and he'll quickly adapt to any poison you use on him. Your fire magic will help- he's weak to fire spells and can be destroyed. His soul has various contingencies on it to make it hard to use soul magic on it- they were not expecting a soul magic grenade, but they'll be more sensitive now. You'd do better to focus on stealing a memory. He must have some grand evil plan."

He looked up at her.

"Why can you use magic on me? To make this illusion, to speak on me."

She spoke, not phased by the sudden change of topic.

"When this world is collapsed all souls are collected and reverted to an earlier state. This means that the systems that manage this world can collect all the memories of each person. Gods, primordials and other divine beings can query these memories and search for things like a random goddess invading a place she shouldn't be in."

He looked at her.

"So, that means they wouldn't be checking the soul of someone with a cracked temporary marker, would they?"

She blinked, thoughtful, smiled, and then straddled him, hands on his shoulders, eyes wide, grin heavy. She was very forward. "No, no they wouldn't. Poor Red Robe. We're gonna wreck him."

Next chapter- murder is attempted, and Zorian and Zach fight the invasion of Cyoria. Reviews, favorites, and follows appreciated.