Chapter 41 The Body of a God
The divine envoy lay motionless on the grass.
No blood. No visible wound. No sign of any struggle. The silver robes still shimmered faintly with residual divine energy, as if the fabric itself refused to accept what had just occurred. The body did not decay. It simply… stopped existing in any meaningful way.
For several long, heavy moments, no one spoke.
Even Veth looked unsettled. Her usual wild grin was gone, replaced by a rare frown as she gripped her axe tightly. Mara knelt beside the corpse, her golden eyes narrowed in deep concentration as she tried to sense what had killed the being. Solis stood a few steps back, her sorrowful expression deepening.
Darius stepped forward and knelt calmly beside the envoy. He studied the body with the same focused, methodical attention he once gave to old trade ledgers and supply manifests. No recoil. No fear. Just quiet, analytical observation.
That disturbed the others more than the death itself.
Mara glanced up at him. "Even I cannot identify what killed him. There is no poison. No curse. No external force or weapon. It is like something inside him was simply… erased. Wiped clean from existence."
Veth shifted her weight uneasily. "Gods do not die like this. Not from a whisper. Not without a fight. This is wrong."
Solis whispered, her voice heavy with unease. "He died the instant after asking the question. ‘What did they make you for?’ The moment those words left his mouth, he was gone."
Darius reached out carefully and touched the envoy’s silver robes. The fabric felt unnaturally cold, almost brittle. He lifted a fold and searched inside. Hidden within an inner pocket was a sealed scroll, glowing faintly with divine script.
He broke the seal and unrolled it.
The scroll contained only one line, written in elegant, glowing letters:
\[Do not allow the seventh bond to complete.\]
Darius stared at the order for a long moment, then folded it carefully and slipped it into his own journal for safekeeping.
Veth finally broke the silence. "They are scared. The gods themselves are scared of you finishing this. Enough to kill one of their own messengers."
Mara stood slowly, brushing dirt from her hands. "That envoy was sent to observe. Someone higher up did not like what he was about to learn. So they erased him. Instantly. Without warning."
Solis looked at Darius with deep concern. "You knelt beside a dead god without hesitation. You studied him like he was simply another puzzle to solve. That… is not normal, Darius. Even for you."
Darius rose to his feet, brushing dirt from his knees. "Normal stopped mattering a long time ago." He looked down at the envoy’s body again. "They made me to be weak. To break. To remain harmless. Yet here I am, carrying three of their weapons and still breathing. That question frightened them enough to kill one of their own just to keep the answer hidden."
The group stood in heavy silence around the corpse. The air still carried faint traces of divine power, but the body itself remained unnaturally preserved, as if reality itself refused to fully accept its death. No insects approached. No wind disturbed the robes. It was simply there. A silent, perfect warning left on the grass.
Veth spoke again, quieter than usual. "If they are willing to kill their own messengers just for asking questions about you… what will they do when you reach the seventh bond?"
Darius looked toward the horizon. "Whatever they do, we keep moving. Four more bonds remain. We finish this."
Mara stepped closer to him. "You are changing. The way you look at death… at gods dying right in front of you… it does not disturb you anymore. It interests you."
Darius met her eyes. "It has to. If I flinch every time something impossible happens, I will never reach the end."
Solis watched him with quiet sorrow. "The hunger inside you is growing. The emptiness. The instability. You hide it well, but we can all feel it reaching deeper."
Darius adjusted his pack with steady hands. "Then we move faster. The Pantheon is no longer content to watch from afar. They have begun to act directly. That means we are closer than they want us to be."
He gave the envoy’s body one final glance. The silver robes still shimmered faintly, but the luminous eyes were now dull and empty. A god, or something very close to one, had died instantly for simply asking the wrong question.
Darius turned away from the corpse and started walking down the trail once more.
The others followed.
Behind them, the body of the divine envoy remained untouched by time, decay, or nature. A perfect, silent warning left on the grass.
The Pantheon was afraid.
And they were willing to kill their own to protect their secrets.