And (N)one Shall Remain

Is all this really necessary, Esperanza?

 

“No offense, Oldies, but I think everyone would think showing up naked to someone’s place to be either the height of rudeness, or the most blatant invitation to fuck, ever,” said Esperanza back as she tried her best to weave something that resembled cloth out of a many long strands of long, sturdy leaves. “It’s only polite to be dressed in society, you know? Going out butt nekkid is just no Bueno.”

 

We mean… it is not like there is anything to hide or be ashamed of with your current form.

 

“And you think your worshipers wouldn’t be screaming their pinche heads off if they see some sort of vaguely humanoid eldritch abomination just walking into their cozy little village?” she countered. Of all the discussions she has had over the past few weeks with the old-and-possibly-eldritch gods she had not expected that the idea of modesty was the one that it found hardest to understand.

 

Then again, Oldies used to be gods, and she guessed when you’re a god you probably would stop caring about such things as well.

 

Do as you wish, then. As we mentioned last time we talked, you are now very close to the hunting ground of that village. They rarely ventured deeper into the woods, as they are a mostly peaceful people, focused on concealment rather than power. Most of them would probably view a second-tier beast as a dangerous threat.

 

“Would they not need, you know, power, to be able to live so close to this place?” Esperanza asked. The question came naturally to her as she had experienced first-hand just how vicious the local wildlife was. A village that was located within the outskirts of the forest would by nature come under threat from such wildlife as well. “For that matter, why would they live in such a precarious place if they’re that weak?”

 

Because the rest of the world wished to eradicate every last trace of their existence. We have been vilified and used as the monsters in bedtime stories for countless generations by now, remember? Even the system would mention us only under unsavory terms, even if it was arguably the only entity that treated our remaining worshipers fairly in this day and age.

 

“Oh, right,” she replied before falling silent for a moment. She was familiar with the bias the current world had against those who worshiped the old gods. They were an element that the current gods had no control over, and thus wished to exterminate. As such, both the human kingdom and the demon lands hunted them down, any that were found killed on sight. “Even so, wouldn’t they then need to have power even more to deal with those who wished to hunt them down?”

 

Those who are affiliated with us are detectable by others through the system, Esperanza. You are an exception, and only because you had met us directly which allowed us to invest a stopgap measure to prevent this precise issue. Even so, when you grow too powerful, eventually others would be able to detect our presence within you as well, though hopefully you will have grown strong enough to take care of yourself by then.

 

“Noted. So potential trouble for later,” she said with a nod. Even with her current skill level in [Shifting Guise], the best approximation to a human form she could manage was pretty much a nearly featureless humanoid shape, with hands that were more claws than human. She managed to get two eyes and a mouth at the correct place at least, but could do little with all the others all over her form.

 

You had said that you had known some of the heroes prior to the summoning. If it was possible, We were hoping that you might be able to help them see what is wrong with the world. If they could see things for themselves instead of just what the gods saw fit for them to see, then they might have a change of mind. You being instantly noticeable as one of ours would have made that impossible as any member of the clergy would have sounded the alarm the moment you get too close.

 

“Got that part, yeah. Around how long do you think the disguise or cover or whatever you did would hold on for?” she asked back.

 

It depends entirely on the power you exude, so we expect it to hold until the late levels of your third tier, with the early levels of the fourth as a probable, but unlikely possibility.

 

“Gotcha. That’s a bit of time to spare, at least, especially since the leveling’s been slowing down quite a bit,” she replied. While the levels had come to her rapidly and easily during the first tier, leveling in higher tiers was a notably more difficult endeavor. For one she received little to no experience for dealing with anything a tier below her, and needed more for each level to boot. “Anything else you’d like for me to pass on to your worshipers out there?”

 

Your presence alone is plenty. The skill we gave you would prevent others from detecting our power in you, but those who are part of our worshipers would be able to feel it regardless. We just wish for you to see for yourselves what this world is like with your own eyes. To make your own decisions when the time for decisions comes eventually.

 

“Okay, got it. So see things for myself, draw my own conclusions, make my own calls. De nada,” said Esperanza as she finished weaving one part of the leaf-cloth and tied it off with a knot. The mundane work also helped her exercise with her more humanlike limbs, as she slowly gained more fine control over them. After all, it would not do anyone any favors if she were to accidentally maim somebody’s hand while giving them a handshake.

 

That is so. Our time for the week is up, so We wish you a pleasant experience with our people.

 

“Hasta Luego, Oldies.”

 

Esperanza continued her weaving after Oldies’ presence left her mind. Dali and Gordy occasionally came back with more of the long, thin leaves she used to weave the cloth in their mouths, before running off to hunt whatever local creature was nearby. She was not worried about them in the least, as the area of the forest she was currently in rarely had beasts of even level 20.

 

While she thanked the basket-weaving experience she had done in home economics class as a traditional arts and craft project, Esperanza patiently wove the slender leaves into a cloth that resembled an extra-large poncho, a large square sheet of cloth with a hole in the center to fit her head through. It was not much, but it was at least better than having nothing to wear.

 

True, like Oldies said, she no longer exactly had bits to hide or be ashamed of in her current form, since even her best attempts only managed to form a featureless mannequin at best, a facsimile of the human form. The presence of the many eyes and mouths all over her body still betrayed her true nature as something inhuman, but at the moment there was nothing she could do about it yet.

 

Maybe in the future when [Fleshweaving] and [Shifting Guise] evolved once more, she might be able to pull off a more convincing human form, but for now, the humanoid mannequin with far too many eyes and mouths where they should not be was the best she had. She had learned to work with what she had over her stay in the forest, so she made do with it.

 

Esperanza also wove a hood-like structure to one side of the makeshift poncho, to hide her head and face from sight. Even if the villagers could detect her as one of Oldies’ people, her current appearance was still one that would likely make a child cry. She was sensible enough to realize that and do something about it. It would not do for rumors of Oldies working with inhuman monsters to spread amongst his people and further give them a bad rap, after all.

 

She realized that her attempts at covering herself up would naturally draw suspicion from others, but it was something she could live with. The possible consequences of exposing herself as what she was gave her a headache, and she hoped that the people in the village were reasonable enough to at least be willing to talk with her, and if possible, give her some better clothes to wear and cover herself with.

 

When she finished her work the next day – one good thing about her current form was that she barely needed to sleep, with a couple hours rest a night being plenty for her – Esperanza stood up and held her handiwork with her hands, the woven leaves looking almost like a pale green fabric with a light checkered pattern on it. The piece of cloth was long enough to cover her all the way down to her shins when she put it on, with its hood hiding the upper half of her face.

 

For the lower half of her face, she had woven a smaller piece of leaf-cloth that formed what looked almost like a mask, if a makeshift one. In that way, all that was revealed of her face was her eyes, which in itself was probably disconcerting enough, given that they were black where the white parts should have been and reddish-purple where her pupils used to be. Even so, they were the most human-looking ones she found out of the many eyes that dotted her form.

 

So dressed, she made her way further towards the outside of the forest. While her knowledge of this world’s geography was near-nonexistent, Oldies had given her the gist of the situation. The world was roughly split into two halves, with the human lands to the north and east, while the demons ruled over the south and west.

 

The forest she had been thrown into was located in the broad no-man’s land between the human and demon lands. The area changed owners far too often in its past, and as such most of the battles had taken place over them as well. The heavy usage of magic and other weapons of mass destruction had poisoned the lands over time, made them grow all sorts of plants that were hostile to other lifeforms, and caused an outbreak of monsters in the area.

 

As a result, those lands were abandoned by both sides, which made them a perfect hideout for the remnants of Oldies’ believers to hide in. According to Oldies, the width of the no-man’s land had continuously widened over the past generations, which was a state of affairs that could easily render the whole world uninhabitable over time.

 

Not that the current gods would care, beyond the temporary loss of their source of entertainment.

 

Esperanza made her way to the outermost regions of the forest, in the direction Oldies had shown her. Dali and Gordy scouted ahead of her, as they used their keen sense of smell to look for traces of other people in the region. Their trek took up the entire night, and well into the afternoon of the next day before she heard Dali’s barking from further ahead.

 

She rushed over to find three people – all of them looking like humans, albeit with long, pointy ears and tusks jutting from their lower lips, with a slight greenish coloration to their skin – who eyed Dali with extreme wariness. Two of the three looked like youngsters, a male and a female, while the third looked older from the facial hair that grew on his upper chin and lip.

 

Careful so as not to surprise the strangers too much, Esperanza slipped out from behind the trees with Gordy next to her. She knelt down next to Dali and rubbed his head affectionately, even as she raised her other hand to show the three hunters – they carried bows and were dressed like one, at least – that she meant them no harm.

 

“Umm… We come in peace?”