Interlude V
Interlude V
Once Hermione had put her mind to it, she could do anything.
Of course, the young goddess of Moon and Knowledge wasn’t about to attempt something as dangerous as opening a way to see into the Purgatory, without taking all the precautions necessary for it. After all, they couldn't risk opening the way for anything to pass from the other side without any authorization.
She already had a good idea about where to start, using the Egyptian scrying as a basis for the seeing window she wanted to create to see inside the Purgatory. And find where Adrasteia, or rather Shadow, was and how far along her mission she was.
It took all she had for the goddess not to spend all her time in the Immortal Realms, and remember to head back to her own home world from time to time. Since she, like all the gods of her world, had no intention of ever forgetting their duties to it ever again. Not after Shadow worked so hard, going as far as sacrificing her mortal life there, to save them all!
But finally, after nearly a decade, and the help of Knowledge, Magic, Truth, and some others, she’d finally done it.
There were countless runes humming with godly power written all around the gigantic doors separating the Purgatory and the Abyss from the rest of the realms, repeating a bit further away all around a gigantic, silvery mirror.
Magic started to pour power around the runes of the doors – and the mirror’s surface started to ripple in waves of power, before projecting only darkness.
“You know,” Peace mused, “I had nearly forgotten just how dark the inside of the Purgatory was.”
“Now, how do we find my little sister?” wondered Chaos, clearly barely able to contain his curiosity
“Well,” Hermione mused, “that’s what the scrying runes are for,” she explained, pointing toward a console, engraved with even more runes, “though of course, given that we can’t allow too much magic to come and go from the Purgatory, it’ll probably take some time.”
¤.¤.¤
The gods, Old Ones and local ones alike, were fascinated by the peak into the Purgatory the scrying mirror was giving them, while the scrying, using a hint of Time&Eternity’s powers, retraced Shadow and War’s travel from the beginning.
“Uh, Old Ones inside the Purgatory?” Hades had been looking particularly intrigued by the idea – and by the fact that Peace herself came from the Abyss, just like most of the local world
After all – this would have been their fate, if Adra hadn’t fought for them!
And what they were seeing inside the Purgatory was so bleak that the few hints of hope here and there were all the more cherished by all those watching. As they couldn’t help but empathize with all those, gods and mortals alike, stuck on the other side of the gigantic doors.
It was Magic who recognized the large galaxy attacked by a terrifying creature as the one from which Lily Potter had chosen her daughter’s soul – and from them, they watched Arya Lunika’s life with curiosity.
Carter had been rather stunned to see how many gods, even among the First and Second Circle ones, were watching – it was Chaos who’d reminded him “While I can now incarnate just about anybody in the mortal realms, our Shadow was the first, so we all watched how she was doing attentively back then, since we didn’t have much else to do.”
“Somehow, even once Chaos managed to learn how to incarnate everyone, most of us have remained curious about your and Shadow’s progress.” Death added
“You are the youngest among us First Circle gods.” Order reminded him, “of course we care.”
“Uh…” the light spirit mused, “Suddenly I understand what my little siblings meant when I was Ryoichi.” he mused
“You mean about endearing but well-meaning older siblings?” Love immediately guessed – proving just how attentive they’d been about the two young deities different incarnation, and enthusiastically hugging him, “Of course we care!” she squealed, “While Death and Chaos have claimed Shadow, and Life you, we’re all family!”
“Even if we do occasionally have the same kind of deviance as Greek and Egyptian have, eh?” Life teased her brother, winking toward Peace, who sent a flirting kiss his way in answer
“The fact that this miscreant has any kind of relationship with Peace does prove we have nothing on the Old Ones.” Anubis agreed, clearly still amused about the way the goddess had seduced the other Egyptian
To be fair, it had been rather amusing, as Hermione didn’t think she’d ever seen anyone beat the man in a fight that easily in all her centuries of life…
¤.¤.¤
Grover/Pan, who’d been visiting to check on Shadow’s new life, sent a disbelieving glance at Carter when the man, seeing the lightsaber his wife of four different lives now wielded, mused approvingly, “That’s a good engagement present.”
Anubis nodding by his side made the Wild god throw his hands in the air, protesting, “Even you?”
“What?” the Egyptian god asked blandly, “I like those pureblood Sith wedding traditions!”
“You’re supposed to be the peaceful one!” the satyr all but wailed
“Well, I am peaceful. You know… For an Egyptian.”
A few moments later, the couple was sharing a bloody kiss on the scrying mirror, and Love squealing about how cute it was, and how the heartbreak of Shadow getting kidnapped would make their bond all the stronger.
With a roll of his eyes, the Wild god gave up, and took out an amphora of wine, deciding he was far too sober to listen to these people!
“ You know,” Chaos mused, stealing a cup from his drink, “you’re far too reasonable for a Wild god. Live a little!”
“I live!” he protested, reminding the other, “I’m the only one of this bunch who's even tried incarnating yet! Twice! I had nine children the second time around! ”
“It’s not a bad suggestion…” the young looking Old One mused, “I’m sure they would love sister’s world.”
“They would.” the satyr agreed, wondering, now that wine had made its job, why he’d expected to hear that bunch say anything reasonable
Suddenly feeling mischievous, he shared a glance with his fellow god, who just seemed to guess what he was thinking about.
A few days later, all having caught up with the moment Arya had entered cryostasis, both gods enrolled Dionysus into throwing a gigantic party in the immortal realm. Dream, Luck and Emotion hadn’t needed much to be convinced to help…
And a few more hours – or maybe days, time wasn’t really significant in the immortal realm – later; Chaos, Grover/Pan, Inari and, surprisingly, an amused looking Order who’d somehow gotten wind of their plan, were pushing a bunch of snoring gods toward the path between worlds that led to Shadow’s own world.
Istya, who’d been warned ahead of time, watched with some amusement as Dream kept the gods asleep while Chaos bound their soul, and dropped them into the world of shinobi.
“You know Naruto is going to complain.”
“Bah, even pushing three centuries old, the brat still loves chaos.” Carter contradicted, some amusement in his voice while thinking about how much the hanyou’s character hadn’t changed despite the passing years, “Worse come to worst, if he really can’t stand it, he’ll finally retire; like he’s been talking about for a few decades !”
“Well,” Inari mused, “Konoha’s in for some lively years with these guys incarnating all at once. Maybe I should pose as a child again and spend some time there… It’s been a while, after all.”
¤.¤.¤
Hades' scream of rage had been heard several dreams world over, making his mortal father eye him why curiosity before asking him if his reincarnation had been accidental. The god was so surprised, he calmed down – and quickly found that the Nara weren’t a bad clan to have been incarnated in.
Dionysus had been surprised when he’d woken up in another world and a mortal body, but had quickly decided to go with the flow, as those Akimichi people he’d been reborn among seemed like great fun.
Loki had been rather vexed about having been played so easily, but had been curious about Shadow’s world anyway. And being reborn in a clan of illusionists, like the Kurama were – suited the mischief god just fine.
Anubis and Hermione hadn’t so much gotten caught, as gone voluntarily, as the goddess was, of course, rather curious – and wanted to compare the experience of an incarnate goddess to that of her previous mortal life. The fact that the two had been born in clans that had a long story of rivalry, even if they’d gotten better about it over time, was a bit annoying during their younger years. But as years went by, the Uchiha and Hyuuga soon came to the conclusion that the two of them would be together, no matter their opinion about it.
It had been pure bad luck for Set, Hermes, and Odin that they got caught in Grover/Pan and Chaos’ plan, since they weren’t quite as obsessed about Shadow as her most fervent suitors, but they still enjoyed the unexpected vacation.
Persephone had managed to slip through the two gods' pranks, though neither really understood how.
Paradoxically, the Chinese Bureaucratie leaders, who'd both been spared the prank simply because they'd been a bit late, both felt rather disappointed to have missed on the experience. Naturally, Chaos hadn't wasted any time in correcting this, and the two had been born a few years later than the rest, as twins in the Uzumaki clan.
But the stranger had probably been Carter, who’d somehow hijacked the prank – ending in an entirely different world.
By the time he was back in the Immortal Realms, centuries had gone by, the galaxy where Shadow was incarnated was out of the Purgatory and back among the multitudes of worlds of the Mortal Realm. As for Light, he had saved multiple thinking species from extinction on an Edge world in its apocalyptic stage, coming into his powers as the god of Survival along the way.
Watching the chaos unfurl, Grover/Pan had felt rather satisfied. Knowing how long some gods could hold on their spite, the Wild god didn’t doubt that even though they were actually enjoying themselves, there would still be hell to pay once all came back from their incarnations…
But hey, this was a problem for future Grover/Pan!