Chaotic Craftsman Worships The Cube

Felth stared at the necklaces on the ground, conflicted. He was being offered a chance. A chance to finally break that cursed connection between the two of them, a chance to stop dancing in the palm of Ben’s hand, maybe even a chance to kill him if he was lucky enough. All chances he didn’t want to give up, only holding himself back out of fear.

He’d seen what Ben had done in the duel with his son and he knew at least of some of his accomplishments, enough to doubt how much of a chance they’d stand and Ben, hearing all of that while he probed the other’s mind, smiled.

“Of course, I’m sure you have your worries,” He told them. “I’m sure you’re worried about the chance you’d accidentally kill me, I am talking about a duel where I’d be drastically outnumbered but don’t worry Felth, I don’t actually believe you’ll be able to scratch me, let alone hurt me. If by some miracle you do manage to land a killing blow, the church of Myriad won’t react. We’ll respect the laws of the land here.”

Ben’s words only made the other apostle grind his teeth, but still he went on.

“And as for the safety of all of you, well, I promise you that not one of you will die in the duel because of me,” He said proudly. “With how far beneath me you all are, there’s practically no risk to yourself. Now, obviously, you’ll probably get hurt a bit but that’s another matter entirely. You all worship a war god, I’m sure you can handle a little bit of pain, right?”

Again his words only angered those around him, making them forget some of their fear, even as they tried to hold it in. No matter how obnoxious he was, they couldn’t let themselves be baited, leaving room for Ben to continue.

“And when it comes to weapons, well, you don’t need to worry about that either. You won’t be seeing me use the thing I nearly killed your demigod with or putting up a barrier either so you all have nothing to be afraid of on those grounds either. Really, there’s no loss for you by accepting this.”

“Unless your statue falls while we’re out there,” Felth told him, feeling like he’d seen where the trick lied, with Ben acting surprised.

“Oh, that? Well, although it would be a bit disrespectful to Myriad, if we do this then I’ll let the statue rest on the ground while we fight, nice and easy and won’t destroy anything as a result. Isn’t that kind of me? I’m giving you nothing to worry about here.”

“...And what are you looking for if you win?” Eneth’s apostle asked, with Ben’s eyes lighting up at the question.

“There you go Felth, didn’t even need me to prompt you this time either! Now, I’m just a little curious about if I’ll be able to store something in the statue is all. If I win, you guys let me shove it in there and we see how it works out for all of us.”

So that was his game, Felth could immediately imagine that whatever Ben was going to try and fit inside of the statue would only raise its value while destroying what little collective wealth that church still had, probably increasing the mana cost to keep it lifted as well. His goal was to financially ruin them even beyond what they’d already gone through, not that they had any real wealth left to give. Combined with the question of if they’d win at all, it was a risk he wasn’t sure he’d be willing to take no matter the reward.

But while he hesitated, others within the faith did not, standing by their apostle’s side and speaking up.

“Honoured Felth, we must do this,” One spoke in firm resolution. “For what dignity we have left if nothing else, we can’t keep letting this stand.”

“He’s right,” Another said. “Not just for us, we need to do this for the church as a whole! This is finally an opportunity to rid ourselves of this blight! We can’t let this chance slip through our grasp.”

“No matter how strong he might be, we have numbers on our side,” A third told them, not just speaking to Felth but the surrounding priests as a whole. “No matter how strong he is, he’s just one man. This, right now, is how we mark our names within our church’s history! By freeing ourselves of this monster, even if it costs us our lives!”

“Uh, I was serious about making sure I don’t kill any of you,” Ben chimed in, not having expected the surrounding priests to get so passionate and being ignored as they spurred themselves on.

“They're right!” Another cried. “We can’t keep living like this! Living in fear of the next time the statue falls and the next time he returns! I’d rather die knowing I tried to save us than keep living with this evil hanging over our heads! It’s time we free ourselves from this nightmare!”

“...Okay, like, seriously, you guys do remember who originally started all of this, don’t you?”

Ignored again, one more walked over to the apostle, looking Felth in the eyes as he spoke.

“For whatever problems Ather had, he was one of ours. We can’t just let him go unavenged.”

“All of you…” Felth said, looking like he’d shed tears if his reptilian eyes would allow it. “And here I am, meant to be leading you. You’re right. All of you are right! No matter the odds, this is our chance to end things! This was always a threat we were going to have to overcome, if not now then when? We’ll do it! We’ll take him down here and now!”

He leaned down and picked up the necklace at his feet, all of the other priests around following suit, all to form a united front against their greatest threat. Not demons nor gods nor monsters beyond the veil, but Ben, who was more than a little conflicted about how smoothly that had gone.

I was really expecting I’d need to work them a lot more to make that happen but whatever. What’s done is done, time to beat up these assholes.

He liked to think he didn’t have a problem with most of Eneth’s priests beyond the god they were connected to but after hearing not only all of that but how firm each one was in their minds about trying to go for the kill, they were collectively testing his willingness to show mercy.

Maybe I’ll make this hurt a bit more than planned.

After bringing down the statue like he said he would and confirming there was nobody left behind in the church, Ben slipped out with the rest, spending a bit of his mana to seal the doors shut so no one would be able to get back in while he let the priests grab their weapons, all of them holding either spears or staves to match the properties of their god.

Spears, earth, and war, Eneth was one of the lucky gods with three domains he ruled over, being strongest in those aspects and it showed in those who directed his faith, with the ones who possessed the right affinities focusing on their magic and those who didn’t wielding their spears, leaving Felth as the one most proficient in both.

Not that Ben was worried. He was strong. He was so strong that he didn’t mind raising their competitive spirits even further with what he did next, looking at all of them prepared to fight as he dragged his foot in the dirt in the middle of them all, making a circle a meter across.

“There,” He told them proudly. “I won’t leave this once so it’s all on when you lot are feeling ready then.”

He didn’t need to read the minds of the closer ones to see how ready to kill them they all were, their faces were more than enough, with Felth calling out.

“Call the duel to start already! You’ll see your arrogance can only go so far.”

“Sounds good, Thera, if you would?”

“I can’t believe I’m participating in this,” She muttered to herself before calling out for all to hear. “Bring the duel to a start already!”

That was all they needed. The surrounding priests released their tense muscles to both lunge with and throw their spears along with the magics on their fingers, all directed at their enemy with the sole goal of killing him then and there.

Having him surrounded, they still kept their expectations in check. Even in the spots he shouldn’t have been able to see them attacking from they didn’t think that any of them were guaranteed to land hits but Ben deflecting each one by grabbing hold of every attack with his own magic to make them fly past him was beyond their expectations, as was the smug grin he gave them all for it.

“Oh, it looks like a few of you dropped your spears. I’ll let you guys pick those up real quick, wouldn’t want you feeling like you lost because of a simple mistake.”

He was doing it specifically to get under their skin and it was working. They may not have known that he was figuring out how he was being attacked each time by both reading their minds and seeing through their eyes but that didn’t matter. It was an advantage he was happy to use while the attacks continued on, with him making each spell look close as he dominated their earth magic with his own power while countering the spears, dodging out of the way for the ones coming at him from behind while delivering powerful slaps to the ones coming in front, hitting them out of the way with his sheer strength and having a complete hold of the situation, only humiliating them further by not attacking once and doing exactly what he’d said, staying within his circle.

In only a few minutes he already felt them getting desperate, with a few of them changing their attacks to get what element of surprise they could. After all, just because they all worshiped an earth god didn’t mean they couldn’t access other forms of magic and the few with skills in other affinities began using them in force for whatever surprise they could get, with the answer being none as their minds were being read.

Ben ignored the dark spell coming his way, knowing it would be useless while he instead looked approvingly at one spearman who worked space magic into his form, increasing his reach and speed at the same time by bending the fabric of reality, even if it didn’t make any difference in the end. He still knocked it away with brutal efficiency, leaving only a fire mage left to try anything.

That one was harder to deal with but still manageable. As the attack came he raised the dirt at his feet to block, taking the strike with that while he remained unharmed, happy to continue on for as long as they all wanted while the minutes ticked by.

“Well?” He asked. “Are you all ready to give up yet? Heck, look at how generous I am, I haven’t even hurt any of you despite how clearly outclassed you are. Why not take my little bit of mercy and admit your defeat now.”

He didn’t want them to give up but he was willing to extend the offer at least, just so he could say he did, and to his joy, Felth stood firm in his rejection.

“No, we’ve worked too hard to give up now! Even if it costs me my life, we will kill you!”

“Kind of saying the quiet part out loud there buddy. Not that it matters I guess, it was clear enough from the get-go. Still, consider yourselves lucky, I’m a hell of a lot more merciful than you lot are.”

He could feel them around him, welling the last of their strength with their leader’s words, more than one thinking of trying to die if it meant dealing him even a single blow and lunging as one, dreaming of glorious martyrdom and having it crushed by Ben making his first attack, pulling forty-four metal balls from his spatial ring and firing each one with enough speed to pass cleanly through every leg around him.

It all happened so fast that many didn’t understand why they were falling. One moment they were running to impale him, the next they were on the ground in crippling pain, unable to stand up, let alone walk as the screams began from some while the rest were looking at him with eyes filled with either fear or murder.

Forget moving out of his circle, Ben had barely moved a step and none were more aware of that than Felth who wasn’t screaming in pain but instead rage and despair. Not just defeated but overwhelmingly so, there were still a few mages firing spells but Ben handled all of them with ease, forcing the reality to sink in. They’d lost completely and undeniably, not freeing themselves of the monster whose rage they’d provoked, only making their situation worse.

“You know, back where I’m from we have this expression about not flying too close to the sun,” He told them, sounding almost in sympathy that was only betrayed by the grin on his face. “I’m not going to explain all of the context behind it but it’s tied to the idea that people shouldn’t aim for too high above their station or else they're destined to come crashing to the ground. To be honest, I’ve always thought it was kind of bullshit. You should always aim for more no matter how impossible it might seem and I’ve got to say, you all crashed and fell beautifully. I’m genuinely touched by the display.”

“You bastard,” Felth spat. “I still haven’t yielded.”

“Huh, I see, but aside from casting spells you can’t really do anything else to me, can you?” Ben asked. “And we’ve already seen your spells don’t work so you’re out of luck there, but tell you what, if you can stop me from putting anything in Myriad’s statue then we’ll call it your guys win. God, I really am so generous, aren’t I? You’d never find anyone else with a heart as big as mine.”

His response only got more screams but it gave them the motivation they needed. Even if they couldn’t kill him, they’d stop him somehow, leaving some of the priests to begin dragging themselves to the church while others tried to put up walls around him to keep him in place, with only Felth seeing the confident look on his face and knowing something was wrong.

Still without moving from his spot, Ben pulled something new out of his ring. Something that only he and Thera knew about and recognized, what he had was one end of a miniature gate, with the other end having been in the statue of Myriad since he’d given it to the church all those months ago.

He felt Felth trying to fire spells at it to stop him from whatever he was doing, ripping away clumps of earth and pouring all of his power into it only for it to not be enough in the end as Ben held his hand up to the end and wearing a manic smile that only provoked horror in those who saw it, began his unnatural act of materialization.

Making sure his mana properly took shape within the statue instead of his side of the gate, Ben could still feel space itself warping through it while he compromised with himself, stealing the mana of the priests in his range since it was to try and raise his sacrilege while at the same time training his deep connection, all to get the power he’d need to create exactly what he wanted to. The foreign matter of his home reality.

With how much he’d leveled his material manipulation since he’d first done it along with the rule bender skill he’d gained for the first time pulling it off, it was already easier than it had been before, not taking nearly as much mana as atoms came into being and kept growing, straining space more with each bit he forced to exist within that incompatible universe until it became too much. When the warping or reality became too great it broke the statue’s gate, severing both the connection between the two as well as his mana from the alien substance, leading to its violent reaction.

The sound of the explosion was as loud as the force behind it was powerful, blowing out the church’s walls and leading to the total collapse of the building, breaking it down before the priests’ horrified eyes while Ben just sadly shook his head.

“Well darn, ain’t that a shame, I really thought that would work,” He said in fake disappointment, with Felth not even looking his way.

“What… what did you do?”

“Ah, it’s a real shame but I thought the statue might be able to hold an experimental form of matter,” Ben sighed. “I mean, you’ve all been praying to it as a representation of my god, right? I thought that would be enough to strengthen it to the point I needed but I guess it wasn’t meant to be. A shame though, a real shame. Still, we can’t leave things like this, can we?”

With his two perfectly functional legs, Ben walked over to the remains of the church before pulling out one final thing from one of his rings. A metal cube, about a meter in size that he poured a bit of mana into to activate with all of the priests watching in despair as it rose to the air.

“There we go, it wouldn’t be the first church of Eneth if it didn’t have a statue of Myriad, would it? Although I guess it’s not the first church of Eneth anymore. Eh, whatever, you guys will rebuild I’m sure. Ah, and as a special bonus, this one won’t fall so enjoy that, I’ll come back for the original statue bits, as per our original agreement. Okay, I think that’s it for me, you guys be well and remember, you can always count on the church of Myriad.”