There was a bare moment of silence while both parties processed what they were seeing. Dei saw that all of these souls, while conscious, were not in pain. They weren't having a good time to be sure, but there was no active torture going on.

"What happened to all of you?"

"Who are you?"

Both he and one of the masculine elven voices asked their questions at the same time, and Dei felt the deference between the other souls and this one. A spokesman.

"I'd like to know if Thadria is a soul-sealing-psycho so please answer my question first."

"Thadria is our only beloved, do not harm her. Who are you?"

"I am Dei Grrata, someone traveling to different universes. Would you mind if I included my companion in our conversation?"

"I would mind. Do not do that. How do you exist? Are there truly different universes? How?"

'Okay, so they definitely never branched out before their extinction. After their extinction, any who came to visit them would only be met with an insane elf, and either leave or die.'

"Not sure how to describe the process, I peel back the dimensional layers and enter some kind of spatial void, then a quick hop and I'm here."

"As in a parallel dimension? You do not… seem elven. We had no such beings as yourself before our fall."

"Not parallel. Supposedly, parallel dimensions don't exist; Where I'm from, elves don't exist either. I was once something called a human, but underwent several changes to the point that I am now a World that Walks, a being that is closely tied with souls, which is how I talk to you now. My companion sensed your emotions but I don't believe she tried to reach out…" 'And I'm not sure if she could. The Heart affinity can only read a subsection of the soul, not the entire thing, and these beings are pure souls contained within items. "...instead, telling me of your existences, and letting me do the talking. I'm pretty sure I can actually help you escape the items, if you'd like. Your world doesn't have spirits, but I have an internal world I can bathe in soul energy to help support structureless existence."

There was a flicker of hope through them all, but the spokesman decisively said "No. Not without Thadria. We are the only reason this bunker still functions. Even if she does not visit here often, it provides her hope to see that not everything is wiped away."

"Keeping it real here man… I'm not sure she even remembers those visits or understands them. She's… broken."

The man sighed, "Yes, understandably. She was one of my nine generals, and the weakest at that… it's clear that her own survival over everyone else has broken her. Nonetheless, she is the last elf, our last… legacy. Even in other worlds, elves do not…"

'Did he say she was one of HIS generals?' quickly scanning the location of this soul, he found that this person was imbued into a golden, gem-encrusted crown. 'Oh okay, king elf?' putting that aside, he cut the man off.

"I'm gonna stop you right now, there are other elves, just none on the planet I came from."

"What?!"

"Yea, absolutely. I'm not saying to give up on Thadria or anything, because she's definitely the last of your people, but elves as a whole still exist. Also, are you a king? I would think there'd be ways to save someone of your status."

"More elves… Where?" he ignored Dei's question.

"I'm not sure how to describe that. Other planets?"

"Are they… like us?"

'Hopelessly broken? Struggling against extinction? Titan slayers?' he thought, but instead asked "How so?"

"Behaviorally. The reason the elves resisted the Titans in the first place was because of our pride… the Titans were not always around. They simply descended from the sun and conquered our people within days. It took a long time for us to build the strength to defeat them, but our willingness to die for our cause meant we succeeded in the end. Are the other elves like us? Will they fight to the death to protect what is theirs? Will they ever kneel to another?"

'They came from the sun? Does that mean… there's something in the sun that The Champion is protecting? And this universe not having one has left it weak to Titanic incursions?'

Another thing to investigate later, but he finally understood the question, saying "They're exactly like you. From what I understand, elves are born monstrously stronger than any other Race, but their caveat is that they are not allowed to fail. They hold a close connection with the Pride affinity, or Pride magic, and if they are ever bested in their 'Domain,' they lose everything."

"That explains so much…" he mumbled. "I was the eighth king after the Titans Descent. I never understood why the first generation or the first queen in general were so pathetic. They must not have been ready for the Titans, and the loss at their hands would have caused them to 'lose everything' as you say. Even the second queen was noticeably better, but had not recovered from the loss we'd faced at the start. Each subsequent generation built upon the last, becoming more, until the final act landed at my feet, and the war was finished."

Dei hadn't stopped watching Thadria take care of Jacob this entire time, and she'd just finished dressing him and tucking him in to the massive bed. "I don't mean to cut you off from telling me your story, but what's the plan with Thadria now? She's formed an insanely powerful Madness spell and is mostly disconnected from the world, but one of the people from my old planet have… somehow… managed to break through it. You're saying that you won't leave her behind, and I don't want to do that either. Jacob anchors her somehow, so if she ends up stable enough, I'd be more than happy to allow her into my internal world. If she goes, would all of you be willing to go as well?"

He hummed, "Of course. If Thadria leaves, there is nothing left for us upon this rock, though, if you are as willing to help as you seem, might I make one more request?"

He raised his eyebrow. "I'll have to hear it first."

"Could I trouble you to save the souls of all other elves, too? I do not know the power required to do so, but you've already achieved something we considered impossible by crossing into our… universe."

"All the others?" he asked, confused, "Isn't this everyone?"

"No? Why would it be? What an absurd notion to have such a small amount of artifacts after such a long history to our people."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

'Oh you gotta be…' "Are you telling me that every single enchanted item in the world has an elven soul in it?"

"Yes? How else would they contain magic? Mundane materials are unable to interact with mana."

'Different universe, different rules. Living equipment is the only way to make artifacts here, though that makes me question how Perumah's cloak is doing its thing.'

"I assure you, that is not the norm. Each universe has its own rules about mana, and this one seems to be on the more brutal end when it comes to item creation. I can certainly try, but I imagine it will be impossible without knowing exactly where everything is."

"Hm, the seventh queen will help you with that. You'll need to approach her first anyway, to get her approval, otherwise every elf will resist the escape. We were each given the task of maintaining these items in our death for the greatness of elvenkind and, while I see that it is a fruitless endeavor, others will not. It is not a failing to move on, it will be our strength."

'Ah, yea, their whole Pride thing. If they leave behind their duties to escape just because they're "Suffering," they'll lose all their Racial abilities and probably what little sanity they have left."

"Seventh queen?" he asked, "Shouldn't you have more say because you're the eighth king?"

He let out a barking laugh, "Of course not. A king cannot rule, even if he is the next royal. I'm merely a figurehead, my wife was the ruler, though her soul was unable to be captured after her demise, and I'm afraid she is no longer present. Only the seventh queen will be able to speak on our behalf."

"You know, this reminds me, why haven't you all been talking with Thadria!? She's been going nuts with loneliness!"

"Hm, not possible. The dead cannot speak with the living, it was one of the bounds we could not surpass. We could never recreate a body for someone, nor could we communicate with the souls imbued into runes. We never even knew if the dead were still conscious, but we gave them webs connecting each other on the off chance that they were. After my own death, I've never stopped thanking the engineer that came up with a system, as I do not believe I would have maintained my own hold on reality if I had to spend it alone, staring silently out into nothing."

'Really?" he asked, surprised, "No way at all? How am I talking with you?"

He scoffed, "Should you not be the one to tell me that? Didn't you just say that your race is all about souls? Wouldn't that be the reason?"

"Good point…" he muttered. Leviathans ruled souls, of course Connection would be able to do something considered utterly impossible according to the laws of this universe. He did wonder why they couldn't speak to the living though, as there was no way Grim was still blocking them. Their souls were still very much within the Physical Realm, so they hadn't ventured to the Plane of Death yet.

Since the eighth king said they didn't know whether the souls were conscious or not, it must've been impossible for them to visibly respond to stimuli. If there was any way at all, they would be able to communicate, if only vaguely.

'Actually, if it's impossible to witness a reaction, how did Perumah do it?'

"Perumah," he asked, "What do you see in the souls?"

Permah was looking around the room curiously, but answered him easily. "Nothing. They are blank slates. I can see where emotions should be, but there are none. I assume my perception is lacking based on your shifting facial expressions of the last several minutes, so I've been attempting all manner of searching to pierce whatever veil lies over them."

He nodded and considered telling her it was impossible, but held off. 'Maybe it isn't, maybe the people of this world were just too weak or didn't have the magic required. I'll let her keep going.'

"Not sure about how you'll do it, but yea, they're thinking and talking. Once I'm in contact with them, I can even verify that they have emotions to read, so keep at it I guess."

"Mm."

Turning back to the eighth king, "By the way, what's your name? You never did give it."

"I am Aias Erdria, but please, call me Aias. The time since I was a royal is long past."

"Alright Aias, where can I find the seventh queen? The capital? On the other side of the planet or something?"

"What are you saying?" he asked, baffled, "You are in the capital, and you are in the royal bunker. She is in the next room. This room is dedicated to all nobles or accomplished warriors of the eighth generation."

He couldn't hide his relief, "Seriously? That easy? But why not connect all the rooms together?"

"Security reasons. If one web of souls is compromised and power drains from it, the others will remain stable. In my life, the second, through fourth generations were stable, but there was an accident in the fifth that left the web broken. Generations six and seven were also stable. All of this may have changed, but it proves the soundness of our methods."

"That does make sense. Alright, after Jacob wakes up and I explain some stuff to him and go start planning to rescue your people."

He felt displeasure emanate from Aias, and he said "Why not now? It is clear Thadria will not harm him."

"Not that, I want to explain to him that she's suffering from severe PTSD and that he's the only thing keeping her sane. If I don't he may push her away in fear, and that could exacerbate the entire issue."

"Maybe…" he conceded, and said nothing else.

* * *

Dei wasn't sure how long it would take to talk with the queen, nor did he want to briefly return to Earth and explain the situation, because missing Jacob waking up would be catastrophic. Instead, he sat silently on a chair he'd found, with permission from the soul inside, and waited.

He left the connection to Aias and the rest of the souls open, but they did not seem all that interested in talking with him. They were more than willing to talk about elves, but could not possibly care less about his own Race. He got the sense that, because he wasn't an elf, they saw him akin to something uncivilized. A barbarian with incredible godlike powers, if you will.

They respected him, but that was only because he was strong enough to justify it. If he were weaker or they didn't need anything, they probably wouldn't even deign to speak with him.

'Aloran was right, they really are just instinctively racist. That's crazy.'

Even trapped in a chair he was sitting on, they still wouldn't hesitate to call him a scrub. He didn't take offense to it though, because they were elves. Being haughty was their whole thing, especially when they were so close to the Pride affinity.

Thadria sat quietly beside Jacob's bed, studying him.

'I'm really glad the man doesn't have a wife or girlfriend back home, because this is gonna turn romantic so fast it's not even funny. I just hope Jacob is up to snuff…' he thought, chuckling.

Almost four hours later, the man finally stirred, groaning. His eyes fluttered for a moment before suddenly opening wide, and Jacob shot up, leaning forward in his bed and letting the covers fall.

He glanced around frantically at both the room, Thadria, but ultimately landed on Dei. He'd transformed back into a Union and shrank himself down so that he could both comfortably sit on the chair and be recognizable by Jacob, so the man knew who he was.

Thadria still hadn't said anything, content to watch him get his bearings, but Dei wanted to speak before Jacob did.

"Jacob, I don't know where you've been, but what's important now is that you say nothing to me. Look at the woman right there, and don't look away while I explain some things."

Quick on the uptake, he did as told.

"You've traveled dimensions somehow, and that woman is the last surviving native of this planet. You know the Madness affinity? She's gained it because of the tragedy she's suffered. For some reason, you're able to resist being pulled into her world, where I am not. As such, she doesn't think I'm real, but she knows that you're real. Your presence continuously dispels her delusions, and I want you to keep doing that. She is not a bad woman, and she is not evil, so please don't push her away or anything. She's hurting, and you're currently the only person I know capable of rendering her any aid. Don't respond to me or say okay, because I don't want her to know I'm real just yet. I need to leave for a bit, but I will be back. Spend the time getting yourself acquainted, I suppose."

Jacob slowly relaxed in the bed as Dei stood up. Right before he left the room, he heard Jacob ask "Uh, hey? Who are you?"

"Thadria, you?" she asked, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

'She's recovering so much faster than I thought she would after realizing everyone she knew is dead, but that's a good thing I suppose?'

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