Rafael's body still looked alive when his soul left it. His eyes looked dull and lifeless, but they could respond to stimuli.

Obviously he couldn't talk and couldn't do anything complex, but his reflexes were okay. When his soul left his body, he'd leave the cell, unable to watch the horrific scene that was an almost daily occurrence these days.

Then when he came back, he'd get everything Filoria said that day from his body. The brain still recorded information, and so Rafe always knew just what Filoria wanted him to.

"We have a great big spaceship. Only a few of father's followers will get on. You will too."

That was her most common message.

Rafe wondered why having a spaceship was that important. He remembered the Chosen once saying that the things were too expensive in the wider multiverse, and that was why he hadn't been able to bring one back to Primus.

After Rafael's second bout, the gods promised information about them. About how they became gods. This was one of the things Rafe had always been curious about, but now the information seemed rather useless.

Of course, he was still going to win the fight. And so he was going to get this information. Maybe if he ever got back to Earth it would be useful.

That day after the fight, he waited for Filoria to come before he could escape. And like clockwork she did.

He was just about to detach his soul from his body when he felt a stronger aura descending. Filoria didn't seem to notice anything, still talking to herself as she usually did.

"Why do you act like being with me is the greatest torture? You act like one of those things in father's tanks. Like you've lost your soul?" She waited for him, but Rafe had long since given up resisting. "Maybe it's better if you are like this," she mused. "You won't even care when you get transferred to the pod."

Rafe acted like the dead, neither reacting to her words nor to the presence behind her.

She reached for her belt loop, and that was when the chosen finally made his presence known.

"Daughter," he said in a low, dangerous voice. "What are you doing?"

Filoria froze like a deer caught in headlights. She turned around in a panic.

"F-father?" she said. "I was going to torture the prisoner a little."

It was a lucky thing she hadn't gotten to the point of forcing herself on Rafael yet. Lucky for her that was. Rafe was interested in seeing what her father would have done had he caught her.

"Torture him?" he asked slowly. Then his voice rising, he continued, "torture him? Torture him?!! Are you out of your MIND?! I've told you everything, and yet…"

He took a few heavy breaths, trying to calm himself. Filoria shook all the while, trembled in fear.

Rafe frowned at that, but he only felt mild curiosity. This whole father daughter dynamic had nothing to do with him in the least.

"You know how important he is to me," the Chosen said in a cold voice. "Don't you? Daughter?"

"I-I…I do," Filoria said, her voice very scared.

"Then why the hell, are you still so USELESS?!" he screamed getting into her face. "This boy is an important specimen. I'd rather take him than you. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, father," Filoria answered shakily.

"I doubt you do. It's fine if you hate him and want to torture him, but why are you allowing his wounds to fester? Why aren't you feeding him? Do you want me to lose this specimen before the next seven weeks is up?"

"No, father!" Filoria said in a panic.

"I will not slap you this time," the Chosen said. "Go to my office when you are done here. There is a ring with both nourishing and healing potions. Starting tomorrow, I don't want him injured after your sessions. In fact, maybe I should hire a professional torturer. You'll watch and learn from him for the next week."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Then the chosen left. Filoria stood staring at the place where he had been for a long time. When she was sure he was gone, she turned back to Rafe.

Her eyes were filled with tears, and her expression was defiant and filled with a hint of hatred. Without saying anything, she kicked out. She kicked him again and again, mostly under his ribs.

Rafe was only short of screaming, but he controlled himself. He didn't know why, but he didn't let his soul leave his body yet.

Then Filoria started to make a loud keening sound, like a kettle with boiling water. She continued to vent her anger on Rafe's already very injured body.

And then before he knew it, she was removing her leathers again, removing his own pants.

Rafe was so disgusted he wanted to hurl, but he held it in. He stayed there, he tried to hold on. He didn't know why, but leaving at that point would make him miss something important.

"Why does he care about you more than me?!" she screamed. "He is my father, not yours! Why?! Why?! Why?!"

She begun moving violently, but Rafe endured everything. He really wanted to kill her. He really needed to kill her. She was the most despicable person he had ever seen.

"This whole planet…he is going to kill everyone, and yet he has time to come looking for you!"

Rafe's ears perked up at this. He tried to dissociative himself from the rest of his body and focus only on his hearing. He needed to know what she was talking about. It was extremely important.

"He told me all the gods are just fodder for the great one's pet. The pet will come once the effect of the boundary weakens. And it will eat all the gods, effectively killing the planet. And only those of us in his spaceship would survive. And that includes someone like you!"

There was too much information, but Rafe was sure this was all he would get from her this day. It was a lucky thing this was almost all the information he needed.

Someone strong in the multiverse was in contact with the Chosen, and had gifted him a spaceship. This someone also had a great pet that was going to destroy Primus according to Filoria's words. And Primus would be destroyed after the gods were killed. Rafe wondered what that was about.

Anyway he had been promised information on the gods during that day's soul strength training session. He directly escaped from Filoria after that, not waiting for her to finish her ministrations.

The Chosen said he wanted Rafael tortured and healed daily, and he would even provide a professional torturer for it. Rafe well knew the implications of this whole endeavor.

His body was going to get destroyed sooner or later. When someone as heavily injured as him kept taking healing potions daily for weeks, or even kept using healing magic, the body would gain resistance against these things. Gradually, he'd need higher quality potions or high level healing magic to heal.

And yet from what he knew, Rafe was the gods only hope to fight against the Chosen. Now he knew why the gods wanted him to fight the Chosen. Or at least he had a rough idea. He just didn't know how it was going to be possible.

His soul once again travelled to another cell a little distance away. Sometimes he used his soul to tour the spire in preparation for his escape. There was no use going too far. He was limited in terms of time, which was why he could only leave after Filoria came. After about forty minutes at a minimum, every extra minute he stayed outside strained his soul, and at first he thought that was the whole principal of this new training method.

Straining his soul like someone straining his muscles during intense physical exercise.

But this day was one of a lot of discoveries. When he reached the cell, the first thing he noticed was that Goleon wasn't there this time.

Instead there was a vaguely feminine outline of a brown creature. It was made of Earth, and had grass for hair, and green amethysts for eyes.

"My name is Terra," she said. "Mother of the Earth of Primus."

Rafe tilted his shimmering head. "Okay?"

"I'm here to teach you about us gods, while also leading you through the next step of your soul strength training. The divine empowerment. This was supposed to be Ma'la's task, but well… See that array over there?"

Rafe looked toward the centre of the cell, and indeed there was a magical formation there. It was too bad he couldn't use his skills just then, otherwise he would have tried to see how this thing worked.

"Don't worry," Terra said. "We will give you a manual with this formation and with materials you can use as substitutes for us when the time comes."

Rafe frowned at that. Ma'la and Goleon had been telling him all the gods would die. And the way Terra spoke, like as if the gods were merely materials for Rafe's growth.

But how the hell was a mere Chosen qualified to act against the gods? This question kept confusing him, and hopefully he'd get an answer soon.

Rafe went and stood in the array formation. He noticed that the goddess was sitting in a smaller, connected array as well. That was a bit curious, but he threw it to the back of his mind.

But then the array was lit, and he noticed something flowing from the goddess to his soul. At the same time, keeping his soul away from his body got exponentially hard. He doubted he would even last thirty minutes today.

"Once you are able to last more than an hour in this state, we will move on to the third stage."

"Are you sacrificing your Essence to make my soul stronger?" Rafe couldn't help but ask.

"Only just recompense," the goddess said. "Pay it no mind."

Rafe did not intend on changing his stance about killing these gods. He wanted them all to die, but people sacrificing themselves to make him stronger felt a bit…

"Pay it no mind," the goddess repeated. "Now, I will tell you about us, planetary deities. As you know, we are born of the Essence, but it's much more than that.

"Do you know the last stage of a truth? What am I saying, of course you don't. But you know of insights at least, because you have some of your own. The Essence gets a lot of its power from memory, right. But also belief."

Rafe remembered hearing this, a long time ago now. He remembered Liam and the other gods of Skyholm hinting at it. They kept on emphasizing the connection between Essence and memory and belief.

"We are concepts created from the belief of millions. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.