Chapter 773: 773

The night deepened, and the party truly began.

The bonfire burned high, flames dancing wildly as Red adjusted the meat over the grill with careful precision. The scent of roasted meat mixed with Ikenga’s spices filled the air, rich and inviting. Aqua and Brix rolled the wine barrels closer, prying them open as cups then jugs were passed around without restraint.

Laughter came easily.

Red drank deeply, claiming it helped "warm him properly," though no one believed he needed help with that. Boros loudly insisted she would pace herself this time, only to be the first demanding refills. Tweet, after initial hesitation, allowed himself to be pulled fully into the celebration.

Even Ikenga drank.

At first, he merely sipped, listening more than speaking. But as stories were told of changes in the spirit world, of minor disasters narrowly avoided, of Boros many failed attempts to hide empty barrels, he let the wine take effect.

For once, he did not hold himself back.

His laughter grew louder. His posture relaxed. The weight he quietly carried as ruler of both realm and spirit world eased, if only for the night.

Red recounted exaggerated tales of ancient hunts during his previous awakenings. Tweet countered with embellished versions of his own travels, conveniently omitting the lonelier parts. Aqua and Brix added details that exposed both of them, earning protests and thrown bones in response.

At some point, Boros attempted to prove she was not drunk by standing on the edge of a barrel and declaring a toast only to lose her balance and fall directly into Red’s side. Red, tempted to push off her shook his head but refused to move.

Ikenga watched it all with softened eyes.

This, this chaos, this noise, this shared presence was what had been missing.

Later, when the fire burned lower and the sunligt dimmed as the moon hung clear above, the conversations turned slower. Voices softened. Some leaned against others without thinking.

Red sat with arms crossed, cup in hand, pretending not to listen while clearly listening to everything.

Boros had curled up near the fire, still muttering half-formed arguments even in her haze.

Aqua and Brix were deep in discussion with Osisi about changes in the spirit world, their words occasionally drifting into philosophical territory before dissolving into laughter again.

Tweet sat beside Ikenga, not speaking just present. Ikenga, slightly flushed from the wine, leaned back against a log and exhaled slowly.

As the night stretched on, the fire burned low.

One by one, the voices faded. Laughter softened into murmurs, murmurs into silence. Even Red, who rarely seemed tired, had grown quiet. The barrels stood half-empty.

Eventually, only the crackling of embers remained.

Ikenga sat alone within his thoughts, he replayed everything he had heard tonight.

The ascension of new gods. The spectacles left behind by their counterparts, events so vast they carved permanent marks into the world itself. Scars upon land and sky that would not fade with time.

The beastfolk and the rise of their god. Murmur then Osita. Each name carried weight. Each story carried consequence.

The world had not been stagnant in his absence. It had moved, climbed and had changed.

And yet Ikenga felt no concern, no anxiety. No resentment that events had unfolded without him.

What he felt was joy, genuine joy. Because the world was alive.

Also after what he had witnessed with Keles during their small adventure, one thought had lingered in his mind ever since: their world was too peaceful.

Not fragile, not weak but untested. Beneath the surface calm, there was complacency. Growth had slowed. Ambition had dulled. Without pressure, even the strongest roots grow shallow.

He had wondered, more than once, how conflict might be introduced into a world that had grown comfortable.

How to push it forward without breaking it, yet things were already fixing itself.

There were players more eager than him for this world to grow restless, only difference being that the chaos he wants is not for the end of the world itself

With his return and Keles return their world would no longer remain confined to its quiet orbit.

It was about to step onto a greater cosmic stage and once that happened, no one would be exempt not mortals, nor spirits or gods.

Growth would be demanded and growth, more often than not, was born from struggle.

It was an uncomfortable truth. Innovation had always risen from conflict. Kingdoms advanced after wars. Power deepened through opposition. Peace nurtured stability but conflict forged evolution.

Ikenga stared into the dying embers. It was not cruelty that stirred these thoughts in him.

It was preparation for the cruelty that would come from elsewhere.

From beyond. Blood would be shed, whether he wished it or not, so better that it be shed in a world ready to endure it.

Better that they harden now,better that they grow before they are forced to.

He exh

aled slowly.

Ikenga was not the only one delighted by his return. Keles, too, found herself astonished.

When she had first taken up dominion over the underworld, it had been a silent expanse, vast, solemn, and orderly. Souls drifted like mist upon still waters, each absorbed in fragments of memory and identity. It was not lifeless, but it was... suspended. Timeless.

Now, it was changing.

A sight she had always envied in the mortal world, movement, culture, shared purpose had begun to take root in her realm of the dead.

Before she left with Ikenga, the first signs had already shown itself. Keles had quickly understood the cause for the change then, the souls themselves were shaping the underworld. As their memories returned and their beliefs about the afterlife crystallized, those thoughts became structure. Expectation became landscape and foundation.

The earliest manifestation had been the River of Reflection. It had begun as a whisper, souls murmuring of a crossing, of a place where one must confront who they had been. And so, the river appeared.

Its waters shimmered with silvery light, flowing not with current but with memory. To gaze into it was to see oneself, not merely as one remembered, but as one truly had been.

After regaining their senses, the souls began to build. Simple bridges of pale stone arched across its breadth, each crafted from collective will. Walkways of translucent crystal stretched along the banks, allowing safe passage over its whispering surface.

And then something even more unexpected occurred.

Marketplaces, souls began to trade memories and experiences as if they were tangible goods. A mother’s lullaby exchanged for a soldier’s final sunrise. The taste of first love bartered for the echo of a long-forgotten victory.

There was no greed in it, only curiosity and connection.

Further beyond the river lay what the souls themselves named the Fields of Remembrance.

Here, they cultivated gardens.

Flowers of forgotten dreams bloomed in soft blues and violets. Trees of lost hopes rose tall and radiant, their branches heavy with shimmering leaves that chimed like distant bells when stirred by unseen winds.

The plants fed on memory transforming it. Grief became petals. Regret became roots. Joy became fruit that glowed warmly in the twilight.

Even more wonders had emerged since she was gone. Structures now rose in the distance, towers shaped from interwoven recollections, amphitheaters where souls gathered to recount their lives as living epics. Pathways formed naturally where souls frequently traveled, solidifying into luminous roads.

But what intrigued Keles most was something different.

Organization.

Certain souls had begun to gather with intention. They called themselves a clan.

A portion of her realm had been marked. The twilight haze parted differently there. The ground held a firmer texture, as though it had accepted a claim. Symbols unfamiliar to her older landscapes shimmered along the boundary, etched by the agreement made.

Ownership.

That word alone would have once been meaningless in the underworld.

Yet here it stood.

When Keles focused her perception more closely, she understood. The souls gathered within that claimed expanse had once been bound in life, by blood, by name, by shared ancestry. Grandmothers stood beside grandsons. Forgotten patriarchs conversed with distant descendants. Cousins separated by generations now recognized one another with tearful clarity.

Even in death, they had found each other and the source of that lay beyond her realm.

In the eastern continent of the mortal world, a profession had quietly taken root.

Death shamans.

Mortals who refused to accept that the boundary between life and death was absolute. They studied ritual, memory, lineage. They took the true names of their ancestors and whispered them beneath moonlit skies. They offered prayer not to the gods, but to their own blood.

And they had succeeded.

Keles saw the tether each time it formed: a thin, luminous thread piercing the veil between realms. Through it, a living shaman would reach into her dominion, grasping for the presence of an ancestor. In return for guidance, protection, or power, an offering was made.

An exchange.

The ancestors lent strength from beyond death.

The living gave sacrifice.

It was this exchange that had begun to alter her realm so erratically.