The interior of the Temple of Tempest was as majestic as the exterior. It was as if divinity had soaked into the tower's very stones, becoming an inextricable part of them.
The ground floor of the tower was a large open space. Thick stone pillars formed a circle in the center, supporting the ceiling. Each of the pillars was carved with the image of a fearsome looking storm dragon. However, there were subtle differences between each one, giving them all distinct appearances.
In the very middle of the room stood a stone statue of Tempest, depicting him as a living storm in a vaguely humanoid form. Whoever carved this statue left Tempest's facial features vague and indistinct.
However, they put a lot of work into detailing the storm clouds that made up his body. They looked so lifelike that I could imagine them roiling and writhing like actual storm clouds. It gave the impression that Tempest was less of a man, and more of a force of nature.
That's when I started to feel nervous.
There were several priests and priestesses inside the Temple of Tempest. Like the ones in the courtyard outside, they all knelt in prayer, gazing upon the statue of Tempest. The only exception was Kaya, who climbed a staircase leading to the tower's upper floors.
Grand Priest Darius and I followed her example and started climbing the staircase, with the team of paladins in tow. The higher we climbed, the more nervous I grew. While I had consulted with gods before, I had been much more powerful back then than I was now.
Not only that, but my companions and I had decided to accept Grand Priestess Quinn's offer. If Tempest decided to hold a grudge against me because of that… Well, ignoring me was the best possible outcome.
Caught up in my own nervousness, I paid little attention to my surroundings until our group stopped in front of an ornate wooden door.
"We're here," Grand Priest Darius said. "Lord Gabriel and I will enter the prayer room. The rest of you will wait out here."
The paladins all nodded.
"I'm going in with you," Kaya said.
I looked at her in surprise. When had she joined us? I knew she was going in the same direction as us, but I hadn't realized that meant she would join our group. Man, I must've been more out of it than I realized.
To my surprise, Grand Priest Darius nodded in acceptance instead of rejecting Kaya.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked.
Kaya snorted.
"With the storm brewing above, it's clear that Lord Tempest is agitated about something," she said. "Or did you think that was a coincidence?"
I shook my head.
"Good. You're not an idiot. In that case, you'll want me there. If Lord Tempest is angry with you… Well, you'll want me standing between you and him. I can survive his wrath. You, on the other hand, can not."
My nervousness reached its peak, and I swallowed.
"Thank you, Priestess Kaya," I said, trying and failing to keep my voice even.
Kaya accepted my thanks with a nod. Together, the three of us opened the door and walked through, leaving the paladins behind. To my surprise, we found ourselves at the top of the tower. The view from up here was amazing, but I was too focused on the stormy sky above to care.
The stones here were scorched black and thrummed with power. I suspected that they had been struck by lightning so many times, they had been imbued with a little of Tempest's divine essence.
"I shall begin," Grand Priest Darius said, solemn and serious. "Kaya, keep Lord Gabriel safe."
Kaya nodded and stepped in front of me. Grand Priest Darius turned away from us and raised his hands, gazing at the storm clouds above. He started chanting a prayer. The moment the first words left his mouth, the wind picked up, whipping our clothes around. Lightning flashed and thunder roared. With each passing second, the brewing storm above grew wilder and wilder.
When Grand Priest Darius said the last words of the prayer, a bolt of lightning emerged from the storm clouds and struck him. I closed my eyes, but it was still blinding. Less than a second later, thunder roared, so loud that I felt the stones beneath us shake.
It took a while for my vision to recover. When it did, I looked at Grand Priest Darius. However, the moment I saw him, I knew it wasn't him. It was his body, but with a different person inside.
Tempest had possessed Grand Priest Darius.
His eyes blazed with lightning, and the space nearby seemed to bend and distort. It was as if his mere presence was enough to warp the world around him. The scariest part of all was that this was a mere fragment of Tempest. The rest of him was still in the divine realm above. If he ever descended down into the mortal realm with his whole being, he would be akin to a natural disaster.
This is what it meant to be a god.
A storm raged all around us, as if it had enveloped the entire rest of the world. However, the immediate area around us was calm. We stood in the eye of the storm. While it seemed safe, I knew it was the most dangerous place to be.
Kaya and I knelt.
"Greetings, Lord Tempest," we said in unison.
Silence greeted us in return. With each passing second, my nerves grew tauter and tauter, until it felt as if they would snap. My heart pounded in my chest and a bitter taste coated my tongue. The tension in the air was so thick, it was suffocating.
"So," Tempest said, his voice like rumbling thunder. "You are the anomaly that has been disrupting our plans."
What?
Before I could react, a force seized my entire body and pulled me towards Tempest. Kaya tried to grab me, but she was too slow. Soon, I found myself floating in the air in front of Tempest, looking him in the eyes. I tried to turn my head away, but couldn't. The same force that had seized me now held me in place.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
The force holding me in place made it difficult to breathe, let alone speak. Even so, I still managed to squeeze out two words through gritted teeth.
"Gabriel… Sturm."
The force holding me in place started to squeeze, crushing my body.
"Do not lie to me," Tempest said, his voice low and dangerous. "Gabriel Sturm died a long time ago. He was nothing more than a footnote in the history of House Sturm. You are an impostor who stole his body." The force squeezed harder. "Tell me the truth, or I will destroy this body and scatter your soul."
I felt my bones creak as Tempest continued to crush me. This must've woken Aurora up from her most recent nap, because she emerged from my chest and leapt towards him.
"Leave my human alone!" she shouted.
Tempest made a gesture and chains of lightning appeared out of thin air, before wrapping themselves around Aurora's body. They restrained rather than hurt her. She tried to break free, but to no avail. Tempest then flicked his finger and tossed her aside, out of sight. Through our bond, I felt her fury and fear.
Rage erupted inside me, overwhelming my own fear. I fought back against the force crushing me. A futile, useless endeavor. It didn't matter. Even in the face of divinity, I wasn't going to do nothing while some asshole messed with my loved ones.
"Fuck… you," I ground out.
Tempest snorted, before he snapped his fingers. A bolt of lightning shot out from the clouds above and struck me. Pain flooded my entire being as Tempest's lightning coursed through me. This wasn't just limited to physical form either. This pain went soul deep. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.
Worst of all, when the lightning disappeared, my body seemed fine. It wasn't scorched or burnt at all. This meant that he could keep hitting me with lightning without endangering my life.
"My lord!"
From the corner of my eye, I noticed Kaya kneel before Tempest.
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"I don't know what is going on," she said. "However, Lord Gabriel speaks the truth. He is not an impostor. Grand Priest Darius examined his soul. Check for yourself if you do not believe me."
Tempest narrowed his eyes at her.
"Truly?" he asked.
"I would never lie to you, my lord," Kaya said.
For some reason, I got the feeling that the relationship between these two was more complicated than I first thought. At the very least, they seemed closer than a god and his priestess. If I had to make a comparison, it was similar to my relationship with Leroy. Yes, he was my retainer, but he was my friend first and foremost.
"In that case, I'll trust your word, Kaya," Tempest said.
All of a sudden, the force crushing my body and holding me in place disappeared. The moment my feet touched the ground, I collapsed onto my knees. I knelt there, gulping air.
"Are you really Gabriel Sturm?" Tempest asked.
I glared at him. A part of me wanted to ignore him and check on Aurora. However, I held back. Right now, I couldn't afford to anger him. The gap between us was, well, literally the difference between the heavens and the earth. Besides, from our bond, I knew that Aurora was unharmed. Angry and frustrated, but unharmed.
After I gathered my breath, I stood up. My legs shook for a bit, but they held me up.
"Yes, I am Gabriel Sturm," I said. "As Priestess Kaya said, check my soul out for yourself. You'll see that I'm speaking the truth."
Tempest studied me for several moments, before he let out a sigh that contained more than a little frustration.
"I cannot," he said.
I stared at him in disbelief.
"What does that mean?" I asked, flabbergasted.
Tempest gave me an annoyed look.
"It means that I cannot check your soul," he said. "You are an… Anomaly. I cannot perceive your soul or your fate. In fact, it is difficult to perceive you even now, though you are standing right in front of me."
My jaw dropped and my mind ground to a halt. A god found it difficult to perceive me?
A god.
"How is that even possible?" I asked.
"That is a very good question," Tempest said. "One I hope you can answer."
This was turning out very different from what I imagined. I wanted to speak to Tempest to seek out answers from him. I never expected our roles to become reversed.
"Don't ask me," I said. "I don't know. This is my first time hearing about this."
Tempest shook his head.
"Of course it would not be that easy," he muttered.
Silence fell over us. Tempest looked lost in thought, while I was still reeling from, well, everything that just happened. Meanwhile, Kaya continued to kneel in front of Tempest.
Okay. Focus, Gabriel. One thing at a time.
"Why do you keep calling me an anomaly?" I asked, focusing on the most pressing issue at the moment.
"Think of a person's fate as a current," Tempest said. "One influenced by that person's choices, as well as various other forces. When the fates of multiple people interact, it resembles a tapestry." He gestured to me. "Your fate, however, is invisible. In fact, you may not have a fate at all. You affect the world around you by your mere presence, changing it in dangerous and unpredictable ways."
I blinked at him in surprise.
"So, everything I've done ever since I transmigrated back to Lumina wasn't supposed to happen?" I asked.
"More like-Wait a moment." Tempest's brow furrowed. "Transmigrated back? What do you mean by that?"
I frowned at him.
"I mean exactly what I said. I transmigrated back to Lumina after transmigrating away."
Tempest's eyes widened and he reached over to grab me.
"Tell me everything," he demanded. "Now."
I stared at him for a moment, before I narrowed my eyes.
"No," I said. "Not until you apologize."
The tension between us ramped up again.
"Excuse me?" Tempest asked, an edge to his voice.
Kaya, still kneeling, looked at me like I was a madman.
"You wronged me earlier," I said. "It's only right to apologize to someone you've wronged."
Tempest stared at me for a moment, before he chuckled. The tension between us dissolved.
"You are a bold one," he said. "Foolish, but bold. Perhaps you are a proper Sturm after all." He nodded. "Very well. I apologize for my actions earlier, Gabriel Sturm. I was in the wrong."
Huh. I hadn't actually expected that to work. Gods were supposed to be arrogant and pride beings who would never apologize to a mere mortal. I thought Tempest would strike me with another one of his lightning bolts. Despite this, I demanded an apology because of the principle of the matter.
Oh well. I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"I accept your apology, Lord Tempest."
"Good. Now, tell me about your transmigration. And do not tarry. I am not the most patient of gods."
I nodded, before I gave him a brief summary of my transmigration. I started with my death, told him a little about my second life, before ending with my transmigration back to Lumina. When I finished speaking, Tempest rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"I see," he said. "Now, did you die close to when the regression happened? Or right when it happened? Be honest. This is important."
I shrugged.
"I don't know," I said. "I was a little preoccupied at the time."
Tempest nodded.
"Fair enough," he said. "In that case, tell me about the person responsible for your death. Was it a woman? If so, what does she look like?"
I gave Tempest a suspicious look.
"Why?" I asked.
"Simple. The answer to this question may be the key to your unusual existence."
I eyed Tempest with suspicion. Why did it matter who was responsible for my death? Still, remaining silent out of stubbornness wasn't going to get me any answers, so I relented.
"There were three people responsible for my murder," I said. "And yes, one of them was a woman. Her name is Aleah Jeffers. She's blond, blue-eyed, and fair-skinned."
A wry smile spread across Tempest's face.
"Does this Aleah Jeffers specialize in internal magic?" he asked.
I blinked at him in surprise.
"Yes, she does," I said.
Tempest threw his head back and let out a laugh that sounded like roaring thunder.
"That explains everything," Tempest said in a tone that sounded… Self-deprecating? "That meddling old hag is on the move again."
Kaya gave him a sharp look.
"You don't mean…?" she asked, before trailing off.
Tempest nodded. I looked between the two of them in confusion.
"Okay, what's going on?" I asked. "Someone explain things to me."
Tempest and Kaya shared a look.
"Should we?" he asked.
"She already got her hooks into him," she said. "If you try to keep things from him, he may end up resenting you."
Tempest nodded, before looking at me.
"The woman you call Aleah Jeffers is not who she pretends to be," he said. "She is old, far older than many of the gods. She is also the only master of soul magic in Lumina."
I stared at Tempest in shock. A part of me wanted to believe that he was joking. However, from the expression on his face, I saw that he was not. When I realized this, a chill ran down my spine.
While Aleah Jeffers and I weren't close, I had known her for all of my life. It hurt when I learned that she had betrayed me and participated in my murder. At the time I thought she did it out of loyalty to House Sturm. However, I was beginning to think that there was more to it than I realized.
My emotions became a disorganized mess. I didn't know what to think or feel.
"Why…" I stopped and swallowed before trying again. "Why would someone like that participate in my murder?"
Tempest snorted.
"Knowing her, she didn't just participate in your murder," he said. "She orchestrated it. She must've seen the regression coming and used it to perform an act of soul magic, one that would sever your fate."
"What does that even mean?!" I said, raising my voice. "And what the hell is soul magic?"
The part of me that remained rational knew it was a bad idea to yell at a god. However, I was in too much emotional turmoil to care at the moment.
"I will leave her to explain soul magic to you," he said. "It is clear that she has plans for you. Sooner or later, she will approach you. Or perhaps she is waiting for you to approach her. Either way, the outcome is the same."
He paused for a moment.
"As for what it means to have a severed fate, well, you become an anomaly. As I said earlier, a person's fate is like a current. It is influenced by a number of factors. However, one can circumvent this by severing one's fate, because at that point there is nothing to influence. In fact, severing one's fate is one of the final steps to becoming a god."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Considering how often I get hurt, I don't feel like much of a god," I said.
"I said it was one of the final steps," Tempest said. "Instead of taking the proper route, you took a short cut. Rather, Aleah Jeffers forced you into it. As for why she did that, you would have to ask her. Perhaps she wanted a pawn, a tool, that even the gods have difficulty perceiving. That is another effect of severing one's fate."
I clenched my fists, trying to come to terms with everything I just learned.
"But why me?" I asked in a pleading tone. "Before my death, I wasn't anyone special. In fact, I was the shame of House Sturm. Neglected by my family, mocked by House Sturm's vassals, drowning in envy and resentment." I paused as an unsettling possibility came to mind. "Unless she orchestrated that as well."
Tempest shook his head, his eyes filled with sympathy. I hated him for that.
"I don't know," he said in a quiet voice. "It is possible, yes. Likely even. That woman is cunning and ruthless enough to do something like that to a child."
I struggled to maintain my composure after hearing that. Memories from my first life came rushing in. I relived the pain, loneliness, and despair that I felt back then. I thought I had healed from those wounds. Rather, I liked to tell myself that I had. However, I knew the truth. Deep down, they remained. I had just hidden them beneath a mask.
Finding out that all of that might've been done to me on purpose was almost more than I could bear. I was on the verge of falling apart and breaking down. However, right at that moment, I felt warmth and comfort coming from my bond with Aurora.
I looked over and found her gazing at me with love in her eyes. That love, that bond, grounded me. It was like a lifeline, one that helped ground me again. I closed my eyes and breathed in an even pattern. Little by little, I regained control over myself. While my emotions were still a mess, I no longer felt like they would overwhelm me.
I opened my eyes and looked at Tempest.
"What happens now?" I asked, my voice calm and even.
Tempest smiled and looked at me with approval.
"That depends on you, Gabriel Sturm," he said. "What are your plans going forward?"