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Chapter 563 - My Conviction

"Do you know what god gave you the quest?" Sofiera asked out of simple curiosity and forgetting how high up GAIA is in godhood, Eldrian answered without thinking.

"G-ge-ga-g..." Sofiera stumbled over her words in utter disbelief. "I must have heard you wrong... Did you really just say GAIA?"

Nodding, Eldrian\'s eyes popped wide open as he finally realized what a blunder he had made. In ANW, on Gaia, it was said that GAIA was a god above all the other gods.

That they were a god of duality who looked over the entire universe. While the other gods simply looked after certain aspects on Gaia -one of the many planets GAIA maintained- GAIA looked after everything, even the other gods.

GAIA didn\'t even need believers either, their power was seemingly infinite and eternal.

"T-th-t-t-is..."

Smiling wryly, Eldrian wasn\'t sure how to get past this.

\'You broke her.\' Two commented, Eldrian didn\'t like the image that Two sent with those words.

Thanking her for her help, he escaped from the scene of the crime before he could be caught redhanded.

\'That is just going to make the next encounter more awkward.\' Two commented as they fled.

\'What would you have me say, that I misspoke after confirming it when she asked?\'

\'Well, that won\'t work. She won\'t believe you.\'

\'Then what do we do?\' Understanding that this could become a big problem, they stopped just outside the association. Recalling that they also hadn\'t even gotten the books they wanted.

\'We will have to explain more to her.\' They both declared in unison.

Turning back, Eldrian took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to share all this, without sharing that everything was just a simulation. Though, if it was still just a simulation was starting to become unclear to Eldrian.

Even though GAIA had confirmed it, his being able to enter through magic contradicted this. Or at least it meant it wasn\'t quite as simple as being just a simulation.

\'Which makes me wonder... If I were inside the game and Miracle closed the servers. What would happen? Will my soul become lost, will I return to Earth, or will I somehow keep the world running?\'

"Eldrian..." Sofiera blushed and avoided looking at him directly. Seeing this, Eldrian sighed.

"I ran because this is what I was afraid of..." Eldrian sighed again, "Sofiera, this shouldn\'t change anything."

"How can you say that?" She countered, strongly.

"Then tell me what this would change?" Eldrian countered, "The world is ending, likely quite literally. The invasion is slowly destroying the last bastions of order. The gods are quiet."

"But they aren\'t-"

"They are! I\'m sorry but the gods aren\'t what you might be considering them as. They aren\'t all-powerful nor do they actually know everything."

"I know that, but GAIA-"

"Is just the same." Eldrian took a deep breath to build up his courage. "I didn\'t just receive this quest from them, I actually spoke with them."

From there Eldrian decided to share everything he knew, while slightly altering parts to avoid spilling that this reality was \'fake\'/\'simulated\'.

If Sofiera could simply look at it objectively; as an outsider instead of someone inside of this world. She should be able to piece together certain parts of it herself, and indeed she slowly did. But she was unable to accept what her logic was telling her.

"Are you saying... No, what are you saying?!"

"I\'m trying to say that the gods don\'t really care what happens. GAIA gave me this quest because they are hoping they can make use of it, of me."

"Make use, for what?"

Spinning that they are trapped in this dimension should be easier to explain and make more sense to Sofiera. Was Eldrian\'s thoughts, and that was just what he did.

"You-u... It can\'t be."

"I\'m afraid that it is. They are hoping that through the conflict -which the gods of chaos fuel- that someone like me will come forth. And now that I am here, I need to decide if saving the world is worth the risk of letting them free from this realm."

"You\'re afraid they might invade your world?" Sofiera said this in less than a whisper, but it was heard clearly.

"Yes, and I have confirmed that our world would not be able to survive magic. If just one of the gods decides they want to show off, it will be destroyed. Unlike yours, ours is not protected and maintained by a higher entity."

"But... Then, how... How were you able to enter our world?"

Sofiera was shocked that she had never bothered to really ask this. She had simply accepted that the Chosen were summoned from another world. However, she no longer felt that this could be true. At least not fully.

"I think it was more an accident than divine intervention. Someone stumbled upon some type of tech that allowed the gods to reach out to them. Slowly, they opened this to more people. And... I\'m afraid they consider your world to be but a game."

Sofiera did not react to this, she just nodded. It all made sense, more sense than before actually. It wasn\'t just that the Chosen couldn\'t die and that was why they acted recklessly. No, they didn\'t even think of this world as a real world.

As such, they didn\'t consider the lives of those on the planet, nor their own, as important. That is why they could be more concerned with status and power than the survival of entire kingdoms. Or in some cases simply doing what they considered fun, even if it was completely meaningless and would lead to many more problems.

They weren\'t monsters, for there certainly were monsters who thought like this even when everything was real. No, the Chosen instead were simply ignorant fools.

"And you would have us rely more on you?" Suddenly, Sofiera looked at Eldrian like he was part of a disease.

"I would." Eldrian answered truthfully, "I hope that you can understand why I shared this. There are some of us who learned quickly that this couldn\'t just be a game. There were others who dared not entertain the thought."

"What you need to do is determine which of us is which, and use us appropriately."

Her look changed, slowly she started looking at Eldrian like he was a madman. "You would have us use... Trick your own people?"

"Yes. You cannot teach someone who does not wish to learn. If someone still considers this world just a game, then they have done so consciously. If they still consider your lives worth less than their entertainment, then they deserve being manipulated."

Eldrian paused, "So I ask you, please use us."

"Why?" Sofiera couldn\'t understand why Eldrian would go so far. She was certain that this should be considered illegal to share on his homeworld.

"Because I no longer have a place-- back there." Eldrian sighed and his eyes watered as a single tear slowly moved down his cheek.

"When they realized that magic could be brought to our world... They wanted to lock me up and experiment on me. They wanted to use it, without considering the consequences!"

"They didn\'t care for the warnings that they had witnessed themselves! They just wanted power."

"I can\'t have our world be destroyed by their greed... By their ignorance!"

Eldrian took a moment to recompose himself.

"Ignorance cannot be forgiven, especially not chosen ignorance."

After a few minutes of dead silence, Sofiera finally spoke up again. "When would you have shared this? If not for your slip?"

AN: A massive thank you to Cervantez91 for his super-generous gift.