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This made Akhenamen realise he was genuinely very, very far away from reaching the top. He could most likely destroy Earth, but in front of the truly powerful of this Universe he was just a newborn baby.
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The Moon Well had disappeared. Closed by the Guardian on purpose? Or was it one of those cases where the door to the realm only opened once, then got closed for hundreds of years before re-opening again? No point in thinking about that now.
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Akhenamen opened his Quest Journal. Checking his old World Quest.
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[Quest Giver]: Saphyra, The Moon
[The Felinid’s Last Hope] [World Quest]: The Felinids are a dying race, since the disappearance of one Half of the Reincarnation Twins, their children are often born soulless, and souls have become insane from the absence of the Blue Sapphire’s memory-whipping powers. However, this dying race now has one last chance to be saved. Bringing back the Sapphire would bring back millions of pure lost souls and the Blue Sapphire to the Felinids.
[Objectives] :
[Bring back the Blue Sapphire to Selinad and Rubi-Khion] 0/1
[Additional objectives added] :
[Bring back the four [Corphex Verrator’s Bulb] containing Sapphyra’s Divine Essence] 0/4
[Bring back the [Corphex Verrator’s Bulb] containing Sapphyra’s remaining Divine Soul] 0/1
[Obtain a Primal Source of Pure Divine Moon Essence] 1/1
[Repair, craft, or re-activate the Cygilite Obelisks] 1/1
[Possible Difficulty Raise] :
[Protect the city of Cygislax from the conjoined forces of the Brightheart Covenant, the Pyrax Empire, and the Gnomish Alliance.] 0/1
[Reward] :
Gain 10 LVL
[Unique Spell]: Twin Astral Resonance
[Title]: World Maker
[Trait]: Blessed by the Astral Twin
[Additional Reward] :
[Cygilites Divine Spell]: Molecular Collapse
[Title]: ???
[Trait]: ???
[Time Limit]: 1 year
[Time remaining]: 9 months
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Akhenamen had almost finished his world quest in three months. He had to admit that it was a record in any sort of media where a sort of World Quest was involved. He didn’t say he was better… but he had finished it earlier.
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And he also realised he had been in Zenthia for three months too. Everything that happened felt so… fast? Yet so little time had passed between him being reborn as a simple robot and now becoming a being able to interact with some of the most powerful beings of this Universe.
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It was now time to go to Selinad. He had completed every additional objective and didn’t really know what to do to resurrect Sapphyra. Her sister would have a better idea. He jumped high in the air, the sonic boom caused by his body blowing away a small wave of sand as he landed on a green platform summoned under his feet.
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An unknown distance between him and the desert below. Akhenamen flared his aura and pulled out the Blue Sapphire. Waiting for a few dozen seconds before he saw a small trail of sunlight start to appear in front of him, forming some sort of guide toward Selinad.
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He figured pulling out the crystal would be enough for Rubi-Khion to spot him, but flaring his aura would guarantee it. Now he had the personal guidance of the goddess to her temple.
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He followed the sunlight through Zenthia’s sky. Each step brought him dozens of kilometers forward as he used his aspect of Gauss Unmaking to erase the distance between each of his steps.
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This gave his walk a speed that should be faster than a normal human's walking speed, suddenly faster than almost everything bare with a few exceptions like a particle collider and this kind of extremely advanced machinery.
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He could swear the sunlight was much harsher than it should be, but he didn’t know if that was Rubi-Khion’s eyeroll at him flexing and showing off his powers or her warning any Transcendents or gods that Akhenamen was under her protection.
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Akhenamen saw that he should be somewhere above the Brightheart Covenant. A very tropical-looking forest with towering exotic trees, numerous massive temples all over the jungle, thousands upon thousands of worshippers praying in front of or on those pyramidal temples.
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Every god seemed to have their own “style” with some preferring open temples without any roof, a constant wind going through their priests and worshippers' bald heads. Some seemed straight out of an emo-teen’s most edgy dreams with skulls, dark tapestry, and pale priestesses. And the temple that interested him.
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As he started to descend, he quickly understood why Rubi-Khion had summoned this harsh sunlight on all but Akhenamen and her temple. A simple but very clear message that he was a guest here.
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And indeed, Akhenamen felt a good dozen Transcendents eyes watching him, coming from many different temples. Including an Authority. This had to be Lucius if he remembered the wolf man’s name right.
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Rubi-Khion’s temple was actually a twin temple. One side being themed around the Sun, war, honor, weapons, while the other seemed themed around the Moon, books, knowledge, and spirits.
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One side was glowing under a bright yet gentle red sun, while the other was bathed in a soft and comforting moonlight. The two stars shine down on the temple. Miniature version of the real deals.
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Every temple was pyramidal, and this one wasn’t an exception; however, it was made from dark, humble stone on one side and prideful, shining marbles with glowing golden veins going through it on the other.
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Rows of guards lined up on each side of the temple. All wearing red, almost blood colored armor and wielding sharp, dangerous-looking glaives. Their armor is made from a mix of chainmail and leather with a blue cloth wrapped around their waist.
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Some golden ornaments around their belt and pauldrons. Their helmets were a fierce, snarling tiger of a golden color. Two bright blue sapphires where their eyes should be, and a ruby in the middle of their forehead.
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Akhenamen had to admit it… they looked really cool. And they wielded a glaive! Each of those fighters was a powerful mortal. No Transcendents apart from two Ancestors at the end of those lines.
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They all slammed their knees into the ground, bowing before Akhenamen. No. Not Akhenamen, before the Sapphyre he was holding. Welcoming their lost brothers and sisters and thanking their goddess for protecting them with her last drops of strength. Akhenamen couldn’t tell, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they were releasing tears of relief from knowing their race would be saved.
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A few soft steps soon attracted his attention. As he looked toward the new arrival, he spotted a priestess moving toward him. Long golden and red clothes surrounding her body, holding an incense burner in one of her hands, releasing a constant cloud of golden gas around the temple’s floor. A small band of cloth over her eyes.
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Two priestesses, in fact. One was hiding in the other's shadow using some magic, but Akhenamen could easily spot her. Each was a Beyonder.
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“Greetings, Lord Akhenamen. We hope the travel was pleasant with one of our Twin Stars' guidance. Allow us to take you inside Selinad.”
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That had been bugging him a bit. He was supposed to reach Selinad, the city of the Felinids, but while walking above this forest, he had seen only temples. Not a single city in sight. He didn’t mention the second Beyonder as she was no threat, and if she was hiding in the other shadow, he suspected that she was most likely a hidden protector.
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When they stepped through Rubi-Khion’s temple gates, the priestess’s shadow started to shift and rippled as an almost fully identical twin literally rose from the other’s shadow, but her clothes were blue and silver, while she held an incense burner that released a silver fume instead of golden.
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Bowing down respectfully toward Akhenamen, and even lower toward the Sapphyre in his hand. Her eyes are also covered by a cloth. It made sense that the Twin Goddesses priestesses would also be twins.
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Something did bother him slightly, though.
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“Excuse me if that sounds unrelated, but… what is it with so many priests and priestesses having their eyes covered?”
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“It is to hide our eyes from the common worshippers. As we must talk to our gods so often, our eyes are modified and given special properties to be able to “see” our gods. But those same eyes can be quite disturbing to the faithful. It’s not very pretty.”
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The one he believed to be Rubi-Khion’s priestess answered. She sounded extremely calm and kind, lifting the band over her eyes, slightly showing him a rather… grim sight. Burned flesh surrounding a purely black eye made of what seemed to be the same crystal the Protheans and Cygilites used for their machines: Karadium.
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The eyes did have a small glowing light acting as a pupil, but Akhenamen could definitely understand why it could frighten a simple visitor.
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“You do not seem that disturbed, Lord Akhenamen. It’s a pleasant surprise.”
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“Is it? I did not believe they would be considered this scary in a world like Zenthia. Far worse injuries must exist.”
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Yet, just as Akhenamen finished his sentence, a realization struck him, one he was surprised he hadn’t noticed until now. Everyone was beautiful. Not metaphorically. Not subjectively. Simply… factually.
Across the entire continent of Zenthia, he could not recall a single person he would describe as truly ordinary in appearance, much less ugly. At the very least, everyone, man or woman, had pleasant features. It was unsettling.
Was this the System’s influence? A side effect of Project Rebirth? Or perhaps the gods themselves, unwilling to tolerate imperfection among their creations? Akhenamen didn’t know. But the moment the thought formed, something else fell into place.
He finally understood why that injury was considered scary by those priestesses. In a world where beauty was the baseline, grievous scars, burned flesh, and warped features were a lot more unusual and “ugly” than he would consider them to be.
Akhenamen had witnessed far worse in his previous life as David. On Earth, where healing magic did not exist, burn victims and old photographs of World War I veterans bore injuries far more harrowing than anything he had seen here. Faces twisted by fire and shrapnel, bodies permanently marked by courage and survival itself.
And yet those people deserved nothing but respect. Care. Dignity. That truth had not changed. Not on Earth. And not on Zenthia.
“I have seen far worse. It is simply a bit of burned flesh. It does not stop you from being beautiful or loved.”
This made both priestesses silent, but the slight blush on their cheeks suggested they liked the compliment. Akhenamen didn’t mind doing this as he was pretty sure his wife would have been the first to compliment them to make those girls feel less self-conscious.
Akhenamen couldn’t help but see them as younger than him, despite their Beyonder ranks that could make them thirty times his age. The temple’s inside was like the outside, marble with glowing veins through it, beautiful sculptures and statues not of Rubi-Khion but of Sapphyra with two rivers of a red liquid going on either side of them, leading deep into the temple.
Akhenamen hoped it wasn’t blood, as that was quite unsanitary, but it might very well be. Soon they reached a humble room, empty except for a set of stairs going down into the earth.
“Please keep going, we shall follow behind you. These stairs will lead you to Selinad and the underground capital of the Brightheart Covenant.”
So that was why he didn’t see any cities. They were all below ground!
“So it’s underground! How interesting! I wonder why…. No point in waiting then, I’ll be going down.”
He had to admit that he was eager to see what Selinad and the Brightheart Covenant’s capital looked like. Or even learn why it was put underground.