I was alone. I stood in the middle of a vast empty darkness with no sign of anyone else. Since I’d been here once before, I knew exactly what this meant. I was dead. Again.

This was the same place where I’d found myself after Nadine had murdered me, the place where I’d first met Maelyne. However, this time, I hadn’t been murdered by an enemy. I’d been killed by someone I trusted.

“Jeri,” a voice said from behind me.

Turning around, I saw Maelyne standing there, though something was obviously wrong. She still glowed, but it was fainter than normal, and she was…transparent. I could see right through her. In fact, I could barely even feel that aura of power she usually radiated.

“You killed me,” I accused.

“To save you,” Maelyne responded with a sad smile. “To protect you from something far worse…”

“Arakthiel,” I whispered, shuddering a little as I did so. “He’s… Scary…”

Maelyne nodded. “His power is…an abomination. If he’d killed you, he would have destroyed you utterly. Your soul would have been consigned to oblivion. But by killing you myself, before he had the chance, I have the opportunity to resurrect you…to restore you to life.”

“So, you can bring me back again?” I asked in relief.

I knew that patrons could bring back their champions, but that they could only do it a couple times. She’d already brought me back once, in Heather’s body, but I had no idea how many times she may have brought Heather back before then. During this whole game, it had seemed safest to just go with the assumption that I didn’t have any more chances.

“Yes,” Maelyne told me with a pained expression. “One last time. I can even restore you on your own world, since this is one of the few ways through the veil between worlds, albeit, a way that my own kind cannot use.”

I let out a sigh of relief at that, then stared at Maelyne. She looked bad. Really bad.

“What about you?” I asked, feeling worried for her. “Will you be all right?”

“No,” she answered quietly. “You are not the only one who died.”

“WHAT?” I gasped in surprise.

I’d seen Maelyne being injured by that purple cloud, and had seen her dying because of it. But she was standing right in front of me, so I’d assumed that she’d somehow survived.

“I have taken my last breath,” Maelyne continued, “and have spilled my last drop of blood. Arakthiel’s power has destroyed my body entirely, leaving nothing behind. I am here with the last vestiges of my life and power, a brief pause on my journey to the hereafter.”

“But you’re a goddess,” I protested.

Maelyne gave me another sad smile. “Even my kind can die, though it is normally very difficult to kill us, and even harder to destroy our souls. My end was certain, the moment he struck me with his blade. At that instant, his power began to consume me…to eat away at my life. Once that began, nothing in my power could stop it.”

“But can’t you just rez yourself” I pleased with tears in my eyes. “If you can bring me back…”

“I fear that is not possible,” Maelyne answered in a gentle tone. “If my body remained intact, there would have been a chance, but Arakthiel ensured that this was not so.”

“But…,” I tried again, feeling almost desperate to find a way to save her.

“There is no need to fear death,” Maelyne assured me with a gentle smile. “It is merely the next state of existence. However, your time has not yet come. There is too much for you to do, to learn, and to live for. One day your time will truly come, and when it does, I hope we will meet again. But for now, there are people who require your protection…”

I stared up at Maelyne, still stunned and shaken by what she’d told me…and incredibly sad. I hadn’t known Maelyne all that long, but in that time, she’d become very important to me, and not just as a patron.

“But how can I protect them?” I asked with a grief-filled resignation. “I can’t fight them. I’ve tried. They’re too powerful.”

“You cannot fight our enemies directly,” Maelyne agreed with a faint smile. “They are far too powerful for you to face directly. However, you can use their own strategy against them. While they ride mortal bodies, they are vulnerable and can be injured.”

I shook my head in disagreement. “That doesn’t work. They just shake it off and heal…”

“They are gods,” Maelyne said, stating the obvious. “Even when riding mortal flesh. Truly injuring them requires something…special.”

I blinked at that. “Something special?”

Maelyne stared down at me with a strange smile. “I have one final gift for you, my former champion,” she announced, her odd smile deepening for some reason. “One that will allow you to retain your abilities, even when you no longer have a patron. One that will allow you to defeat our enemies and protect your people.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly, not sure how I should respond to this. Maelyne was basically on her deathbed, saying her final words, and we both knew it.

“Destroy their host bodies,” Maelyne instructed me. “That will drive them from your world and leave them severely injured and weakened in mine. That will give my allies the opportunity they need to defeat these treacherous creatures for good.”

“I’ll do my best,” I promised, not bothering to wipe away the tears that were running down my cheeks. “It’s…It’s been an honor, being your champion.”

“The honor was mine,” Maelyne responded with a smile.

Maelyne was even more transparent than before, and I could barely even feel her presence. She was fading fast.

“I no longer need a champion,” she told me with a gentle smile, “though your friends and loved ones do. Go back and protect them. Protect your world.”

With a nod, I promised, “I will.” Then I tearfully added, “I’ll miss you…”

The dying goddess crouched down in front of me and gently took my face in her hands. In spite of what she’d done the last time she did this, I wasn’t at all worried or afraid that she’d hurt me.

“And I will miss you too,” she responded in a whisper. “Until we meet again…my daughter.”

With that, she bent down and kissed my forehead again, and suddenly, everything changed.

--------------------

I was alive. I was also stunned, confused, and…sad.

I remembered the vast darkness after my death. I remembered my conversation with Maelyne…and her kiss goodbye. I remember being filled with energy and life, with a bright light, and then the feeling like I was being born all over again.

When I opened my eyes, I was bombarded with new popups, but I was still too dazed to make sense of that now. I pushed that aside for the moment and just tried to deal with things one at a time. The first thing I needed to deal with was the question of where I was.

“JERI!” an excited voice suddenly yelled.

“Teri,” I responded at seeing her run into the room.

It was only at this point that I my senses came back to me enough to realize that I was laying on the floor of the living room, in the house I shared with Lauren and Cassandra. I was home. I was also completely naked, except for a silver bracelet on my wrist.

“You’re back,” Teri exclaimed as she rushed over and grabbed me in a hug, which was a bit awkward sine I didn’t have any clothes on.

“Yeah,” I said, sitting up and looking down at myself. “I guess I am…”

I ran my hands over my body, letting out a sigh of relief. It felt good to be alive again…to have a body again. I hadn’t been dead for very long, but it had been long enough to remind me just how much I preferred being alive.

And as I ran my hands over my soft skin, then my breasts, I let out a sigh of relief. It was nice to have my body back. However, a moment later, I suddenly wondered when I’d begun to think of this as ‘my’ body rather than Heather’s.

My thoughts were interrupted by several more people rushing into the room and crying out variations of, “You’re back.”

“And you’re naked,” Matt blurted out in surprise.

“Watch it,” Lauren exclaimed, punching Matt in the arm and giving him a firm glare while I tried covering myself up.

“Are you okay?” Cassandra asked as she took a blanked that was folded over the back of the couch and draped it over me. “We were worried…”

“I’m…fine,” I lied as I got to my feet, pulling the blanket around me and holding it in place.

“What the fuck happened?” Cassandra demanded with a worried look. “Did you just get rezzed?”

I took a deep breath and tried to center myself. I was still a bit shaken up by everything that had happened. “Yeah, I was just rezzed.”

Matt’s eyes went wide. “That’s why you suddenly popped up naked…”

“Who did it?” Teri demanded angrily, as if she was already planning to hunt them down for revenge. “Who killed you?”

“Maelyne,” I answered, earning several looks of surprise and confusion. “She only killed me to keep Arakthiel from doing it first…”

“What’s been going on?” Matt asked me with a worried look. “What in the world happened to you?”

I let out a wary sigh, then looked around. Everyone was staring at me expectantly, with a lot of questions burning in their eyes. This was going to take some explaining and I wanted to get my head together first.

“I need something to eat first,” I announced. “Then I’ll explain…”

Lauren nodded at that. “I’ll get you something then.”

“Thanks,” I told her, sitting down on one of the chairs while being careful to keep the blanked wrapped around me.

While I sat there waiting on my food, I asked a few questions of my own and found out what had happened after the failed raid. Since the attack had been such a failure, and because all the survivors were afraid that Harker had compromised the hideout, the whole ‘rebel army’ had broken apart, and everyone went their separate ways. All my friends came back to the house since Armestia had at least provided a little protection for this place.

Lauren came back with a cup of tea and a plate with a couple sandwiches, which I quickly began to devour. However, I took my time as I sipped the tea, especially when I saw how impatient everyone was to hear about what had happened to me.

“You never came back with us,” Teri blurted out first.

“They got the Cleaner,” I responded, pausing to take a sip of tea. “All his portals vanished, and I couldn’t get through the last one in time…”

“I can’t believe you even survived that shit,” Cassandra said. “But how the hell does Maelyne get involved?”

After taking another sip from my tea, I began to explain what had happened. I told them how I’d rescued the Cleaner, then went into the world of the gods in order to try rescuing Maelyne. I got some skeptical looks at this.

“That reminds me,” I told Cassandra as I removed the silver bracelet and handed it to her. “Armestia asked me to give this to you. It makes it so people…and gods…can’t really sense your presence. I gave it a trial run for you, and it definitely works.”

“Really?” Cassandra asked, staring at the bracelet before putting it on. “You really met Armestia in person?”

“Yeah,” I responded with a chuckle. “She seemed pretty nice. Anyway, I ran into her, then she introduced me to a couple other gods, and they helped me rescue Maelyne. Well, they gave me the key to free her, then let me sneak in since I wasn’t powerful enough to trip any of the sensors around her prison.”

“So, you risked your life to save Maelyne,” Teri exclaimed, “and she goes and kills you?” She snorted at that, looking angry. “That’s just lame… If I ever see her…”

“She’s dead,” I blurted out with tears starting to form. Everyone stared at me in surprise. “Maelyne died saving my life.”

“What?” Cassandra gasped. “But she’s a fucking goddess…”

“Arakthiel got us with some kind of alpha strike,” I explained quietly, shuddering as I remembered it. “Maelyne…she killed me to keep him from doing it… The last thing she did, was rez me and send me back…”

“Holy shit,” Cassandra whispered, obviously stunned by the idea that a goddess could be killed.

“I’m…sorry for your loss,” Lauren said in a gentle voice. “I know she was important to you…”

“She was my patron,” I responded quietly, though that was an understatement. Maelyne had been my patron, but she’d also become something a little more, though I didn’t know how to describe it.

“Fuck,” Cassandra gasped.

“Are you still a champion?” Matt asked, giving me a worried look. “Do you still have your abilities?” He paused for a moment to look at his own screen. “I still have mine…”

I blinked at that, remembering what Maelyne and I had talked about before she’d faded away. “She said she was going to give me some kind of gift that would let me keep my abilities…and let me beat those bastards.”

“That would be useful,” Matt commented wryly.

“What is it?” Teri asked.

“I…don’t know,” I admitted. “I haven’t really looked yet.”

With that, I finally turned my attention to the pupups that had appeared when I first woke up again. I’d pushed them out of my mind and sight, but it only took a thought to bring them back.

YOU HAVE BEEN RESSURECTED.

The first popup was pretty obvious and not even worth the effort of reading. I didn’t need any popup to tell me that I’d been resurrected. However, the second popup caught my full attention.

MAELYNE, GODDESS OF PROTECTION AND LOYALTY CONSIDERS YOU AS A DAUGHTER AND HAS GIFTED YOU WITH MAELYNE’S GREATER BLESSING.

MAELYNE’S GREATER BLESSING: YOU POSSESS A DEVINE SPARK, A SLIVER OF MAELYNE’S ESSENCE. DIVINITY AND DIVINE POWER HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED.

“What the…?” I gasped, staring at my screen in stunned amazement.

“What’s wrong?” Teri asked with a worried look.

I read through the popup several times, trying to make sense of what it said. Then I looked at the next popup, which was nearly as surprising.

YOU HAVE ACQUIRED DIVINITY 1: +1 TO ALL ATTRIBUTES. +100 TO ALL RESOURCE ATTRIBUTES.

My eyes nearly popped out of my head as I read this. That explained why I felt so good and energized. I’d thought it was just a side effect of being resurrected. I gulped and looked over my stat sheet.

NAME: JAERI
GENDER: FEMALE
AGE: 18
TITLE: DEMI-GODDESS OF LOYALTY AND PROTECTION
HEALTH: 100%
MANA: 100%
STATUS: NO INJURIES, ILLNESSES, OR NEGATIVE STATUS EFFECTS.

DIVINITY: 1
-
STRENGTH: 10
STAMINA: 11
ENDURANCE: 12
-
AGILITY: 13
REFLEXES: 10
DEXTERITY: 11
-
INTELLIGENCE: 14
CHARISMA: 15
AWARENESS: 12
-
MANA POOL: 700
MANA RECOVERY: 537
HEALTH: 390
REGENERATION: 390
DIVINE POWER: 100

“No way,” I gasped with my mouth just dropping open. This wasn’t possible.

“What’s wrong?” Cassandra asked.

“Nothing,” I responded with a shaky voice. “Maelyne gave me…” I paused at that, not sure how to describe what she’d given me. Tears ran down my cheeks as I said, “It says she thought of me as her daughter…”

Cassandra didn’t say a word to that. She just reached out and gave me a hug.