Godslayer Lysette: Chapter 225

Chapter 225: Ari's Initiation

Chapter 225: Ari’s Initiation

Ari again lowered her head slightly at Lysette’s proclamation.  “You said that you would consider taking me as your pupil.  Forgive my being forward about this, but is there something I can do to assuage your concerns?”

Lysette moved toward the north, back toward their base, and Ari followed her as the two moved on at a light jog.

“You said earlier that you wanted to ‘make something of yourself’ with the power I would grant you.  But there are a lot of ways to go about doing so.  Some of them are laudable.  Some are reprehensible, even anathema to the principles I seek to embody in all aspects of my life.  What do you want to do as a Cultivator?”

“What do I want to do?  I don’t understand the question.  I will continue to serve His Majesty and my homeland.”

“Even if it involves the wholesale slaughter of innocents?  Even if it includes children and other noncombatants, who have no ability to fight back?”

“I–”

“Please, follow me. We’re going to take a small detour on our way back to the garrison.”

Ari nodded as the two headed slightly eastward until arriving at an all too familiar collection of destroyed buildings, rotting woods, and the creep of fungus and grass slowly reclaiming what was once Osstia back for nature.  Lysette held back her tears and lingering human sentimentality, but Ari grew weaker and weaker at the knees as she saw more and more scraps of clothing and bits of ceramic and little metal trinkets which once belonged to the kids of Lysette’s former hometown.  It was scarcely ten minutes of walking through the harrowing memory etched into the former village and the belongings left behind before she could not restrain herself any longer.

“This is… where you grew up?”

Lysette nodded.

“How long ago?”

Lysette shook her head.  “Not quite half a year now.  I was away from the village at the time, so I wasn’t able to stop the perpetrators.  By the time I arrived the following morning, everyone was dead.  Over a thousand people in total, including both my parents and my younger sister.”

“Celica, right?”

Lysette nodded.  “I burned all the bodies just a few feet from here.  I don’t know if I did everyone justice with their funeral rites though.”

“Just by the way you speak about them right now, I think you did a far better job than you seem to think you do.”  Ari looked skyward.  “I’ve lost my share of friends and comrades as well.  Lost a friend not two weeks ago.  Buried him a week before you arrived.  Stefan was his name.  Kind, caring…”

Ari choked up and sniffled.  “Always the first one to charge in if one of his friends was hurt.  Gave everything he had all the time, promising that as long as he was alive, he’d give every ounce of himself to bring back his fellow soldiers.  Ensure that none of us would be left behind.  Ultimately, he was the one who gave his life for all of us.  And he went with a smile on his face.”

Ari clenched her fist and screamed.  “Damn these Elithrian bastards!”

“You want vengeance for your friend?” Lysette asked.

Ari nodded.  “Not just that, but I want to carry on his legacy.  To be as great of a soldier as I can be.  A soldier who’d make him proud.”

Lysette nodded.  “There’s nothing wrong with vengeance.  I seek it as well.  But I brought you here for another reason.  The people of this town— Osstia, it was once called— were not Cultivators.  Most of them lived completely ignorant of the world of Cultivation altogether.

“But they were slaughtered by Cultivators all the same.  Soldiers of Elithria who did exactly what you aspire to do.  They fought, they carried out orders, they completed their mission, and my family died for it.  They were completely powerless to defend themselves.”

“But that’s–”

“I’m guilty of it as well.  I’m trying to be better about it, trying not to kill innocent bystanders.  But I’ve realized something since then.  The soldiers we fight, the people we kill?  They have friends too.  Not just friends, but families, partners, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers and every other relationship too.  And if we allow our darker impulses to completely control ourselves, to overpower our better natures, the people we leave behind are going to seek vengeance against us.  And they’d be justified in doing so.”

“But those soldiers–”

“Yes.  I killed them.  Enjoyed it more than I wish I did as well.  And maybe I too easily justified it to myself— we could have tried to run, taken prisoners, let them flee.  I dismissed all those possibilities to myself before I did what I did.”

“You saved the lives of potentially hundreds of Domarians who might have been slain by them.  I would hardly consider that a reprehensible act.”

“I might have.  I might not have.  The point I’m trying to make is that the path of Reciprocity is one fraught with any number of dangers that you’ll have to navigate.  It’s a balancing act, using your power to protect yourself and those you care about, while not succumbing to the desire to simply purge everyone who has ever wronged you.”

“How do you handle it, Cadet Tronete?”

“The same way I’d ask you to do so, if you truly desire to train under me.”  After Ari responded with a nod, Lysette continued.  “Reflect upon your actions and constantly ask yourself if there was a better way forward.  Understand and learn to accept yourself completely, including those darker sides of yourself that you might so badly wish to suppress.  And finally, continue to Cultivate and train, gaining strength, for strength is the gateway to kindness.”

“Strength is the gateway to kindness?”

“It was something I realized some time ago.  If everything around you is a threat, then everything must be met as such.  But if you have no fear of others’ retaliation, you can more easily show mercy first.”

“I do not understand.”

“I could have spared the soldiers from earlier.  Perhaps that would have been the best course of action.  But that would have meant nine Elithrian soldiers would have known of my capabilities.  Nine Elithrian soldiers who would have reported that intelligence back to their commanders.  And maybe I could have defeated their commanders, but at some point up the chain, there’d be someone who I could not defeat.  And so, to protect myself and preserve the goals I fight for, I had to take their lives.”

“But if you had no one to fear on their side, you could have let them go and been none the worse off for it.”

“Exactly.  It’s a balancing act, and I’m not always sure I’m doing the right thing.  I don’t even know if there is some objective capital-R Right thing a lot of the time.  I wish I did know what those answers were, so I could better teach my disciples.”

“Disciples?  So, I wouldn’t be the first?”

“No.  I have at least six at this point by the strictest definition.  By a loose definition, the number might be in the thousands.”  Lysette paused.  “I’m afraid I can’t speak more on the matter.”

“You don’t trust me to keep your secrets?”

“It’s not a question of whether I trust you.  It’s whether I trust you, and whatever specialist might probe your innermost thoughts and any secrets I tell you, and whatever commander receives that information, and whoever they might choose to tell.”

“Is there no way around that?  No way you would accept me as one of your students?”

“I need to know though, why me?  I am not as strong as the vice commandant.  Based on his ranking, the commandant himself is certainly far beyond me as well.  If you wish to get stronger, certainly training under one of them is an option.”

“It is not.  Both of them are busy in their duties and have not the time to specially train a lowly lieutenant.  But it is more than that.  There is something about you— something I do not understand myself— which compels me to seek your tutelage specifically.”

Lysette nodded.  It was far from the first time she’d had someone express similar sentiments about her.  Her mind drifted back to Mirae.  Back in Ciricu, she pulled them into a long, warm embrace as memories of both their first meeting and their first night as a couple flooded her mind.

It would not and could not be quite the same for Ari— the resonance of Reciprocity and Devotion between them ensured that Lysette had not even the slightest inkling of desire for anyone but Mirae in that regard.  But that lingering pull that Lysette had as a demigoddess still endured.  And Ari certainly had both the potential and the desire to be a powerful ally.  But Lysette needed to ensure that Ari both knew and consented to exactly what a pact with a deity would entail.

Before then, she sent a quick mental message to Mirae and Serrena informing them both of her intentions to accept a new disciple.  With neither objecting to her plans, she continued.

“There is one way.  But it is not a way that comes without strings.”

Ari seemed far too excited at hearing those words for Lysette to feel entirely comfortable.  But she continued as Ari filled even more with anticipation.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t explain exactly what those strings are and give you one final chance to back out.  If you wish to be my disciple, you will have to first form a pact with me.  A pact which will be binding upon both of us, enforced by the very Essence which is bound to us and which surrounds us.

“And what would you demand of me as part of that pact?”

“I would tell you who and what I am, and offer you my assistance with your Cultivation.  But you would be bound to silence regarding my true identity.  Even if you tried to speak my identity, you would be unable to.  Your mouth would open, but no sound would come out.  If someone tried to read your mind, your very Essence would suppress those thoughts on your behalf.

“In addition, you will need to strive to live a life in accordance with my tenets and values.  That doesn’t mean you can’t make mistakes— I do as well.  But you must always try to do better.”

“And what are those values and tenets which I will be beholden to follow?”

“You will live your life in accordance with the principle of Reciprocity.  You will use the strength I offer you to continue to train and uplift your allies.  And you will assist me in reforming this broken world.  Away from a world in which gods and kings war for profit, in which hoarding resources and depriving others is rewarded with more power and influence.”

“Reforming the entire world?  Is such a thing even possible?”

“I don’t know.  But doing so is my reason for being.  It is my own compulsion forced upon me by the tenets I will ask you to uphold.”

“And if I say that I cannot?”

“Then we continue on with our lives as though this conversation never happened.”

“There are no other terms or conditions that I have to agree to?  You’re not going to suddenly reveal yourself as a demon and devour my soul or anything?”

“I have absolutely no intention of devouring your soul, Ari.  The terms are as I’ve laid out, in their entirety.  I might ask you to do other things from time to time, but it isn’t as though I would be able to override your will by our pact.”

“But–”

“The pact itself, yes.  On a very high level, it will change you.  But those others with whom I have forged pacts?  None of them have mentioned any negative repercussions with their lives or abilities on a day-to-day account.”

Ari let out an exasperated sigh.  “I’m about to forge a pact with a demon, and it feels like the rightest, most natural thing in the world.”

“I never said that.”

“But you ominously didn’t deny it either, did you?”

Lysette smiled.  “Do you agree to my terms?”

“I do, Mr. Tronete.  Even knowing I’m selling my soul to a demon, I still feel that this is the path where my future lies.”

Lysette took Ari’s hand in her own.  “Then, Ari Rothiel, under the terms we have agreed, close your eyes.  Open your mind and soul, and accept your pact with Lyse Barret, Demigoddess of Reciprocity, humanity’s Godslayer, and demonic bane of the gods themselves.”

Chapter 224: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113256865

Table of Contents: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101896170

Chapter 226: https://www.patreon.com/posts/113256877