It had been 2 weeks since Kyou first left the town. Or was it 3? He couldn't really tell - the day-night cycle out here was very different from inside the city.
It was bright out nearly all the time. It only turned night three times in total, and it felt like the duration of each night changed. One time, there were 2 back to back nights an hour apart from each other. Some nights would end in under 6 hours, others lasted over twice of that.
When asked, Elyon simply told him that there were 2 moons in the divine realm. It seems like even he didn't entirely know how it worked.
"The barriers are made from divindum. You can't get in currently."
There were still hitches in Elyon's plan, even if Kyou was willing to help him out. The duo rested just outside of Alleria's many barriers and from here, he could tell that it was no lie.
It was hot - extremely hot. So unbearably hot that Kyou thought his skin would melt off at any moment. Divindum itself was a form of energy, or as quoted from Elyon, 'a higher form of energy'. One that cannot be obtained from lesser forms of energy.
The heat it generates is one of the many byproducts of that. The average temperature in the divine realm, according to Elyon, was over ten thousand degrees celcius.
Kyou's perception of heat was rather distorted - he always felt cold no matter the temperature back in the Respite. Temperature meant nothing more than numbers on a graph to him, but even he could tell ten thousand degrees was radically high.
And Alleria was actively funneling divindum into these barriers. It was no wonder why they were so hot. He'd be torched alive before he made it back into the city, but it was neccessary to escape the barriers.
While they were in his barriers, Alleria had eyes everywhere. Elyon would be swarmed my dozens, maybe even hundreds of his guards. Without a way to kill them in the confines of the barrier, his best course of action would be to escape outside of it.
"If I can't get in, what's the point of asking me to help you then?"
"Humans will die instantly if they leave Alleria's barriers of protection."
Kyou held his breath. He had a faint feeling that he was different from everyone else since he was young, but now Elyon was about to tell him directly.
"You're no human. You're a god."
He recalled the contents of Yulleria's diary once more. There was a distinct feature every god had that differentiated them from humans.
"But I don't have a stigma."
The marks on their bodies, the symbol of their authority and divine powers.
"Not yet."
Elyon pointed to the blind spot on Kyou's face. Kyou brought his hand up to the spot he was referring to and found his fingers stabbing into the hollow socket where his other eye would be.
And that conversation brought him to where he was now. Kyou sat cross-legged on the ground with his eye closed.
His body was created from divindum, as with all other gods. He just had to learn to absorb the ambient divindum in the air and create his missing eye - with a completed body, he would be able to withstand the heat. In theory at least.
"It still bothers me though…. If I really am a god, how come I didn't know about it?"
"…."
In the time that Kyou spent with Elyon, he learnt a few things about him. One of them being that he was a horrible liar.
In fact, he couldn't lie at all. Whenever he was asked a question he didn't want to respond to, he'd just keep quiet.
"Come to think of it, dad said something about your appearance throwing the town into a panic…."
"…. Residents of the Respite are weak. They'd be scared if any of the 7 came."
"The 7?"
Kyou opened his eye a slight bit and peaked over at Elyon. Elyon glanced back and something suddenly hit him on the back of his head, forcing him to close it once more.
"Concentrate."
And once again, he avoided a question he had no interest in answering.
Kyou had been meditating like this for sometime now. It had been at least 2 weeks since he left the barrier. It felt like he wasn't making any progress, but chose to believe Elyon's method of practice.
As a higher form of energy, one could not grasp it normally. They had to close off all other, lower forms of energy to sense divindum. That was why he was meditating.
Most of the time, he was left alone in the darkness to dwell in his own thoughts, which was why the occasional question would escape his mouth.
He tried to make sense of them on his own though, and most of it boiled back down to Alleria's barriers.
Why did Elyon enter the Respite through that side of the city? Why did Alleria separate the city into two? Why were people getting sick as they approached the other town gate?
He'd be caught right away by the hordes of guards. The temperatures the the two species lived under were different. They were probably getting affected by the ambient divindum radiation from the barriers.
However, there were still a ton of questions he couldn't make sense of, for instance-
"Why is Alleria…. Sheltering humans? And why would he lie about the truth behind this world?"
"…."
It was said that humans and gods didn't originate from the realm, but rather imaginary planes. According to the diary, the gods ruled over these imaginary planes and were worshipped as the greatest existences of them all.
It's unclear how they ended up in the divine realm, but Yulleria had made it clear through her diary - humans were dying out. As Elyon said, they couldn't survive in the harsh conditions of the divine realm.
It was actually one of the most interesting parts of the book. Her one and only companion was a human child she kept under her protection. If Alleria were simply carrying on Yulleria's legacy, then helping the humans out would make sense. It was the second question that bothered him more.
After a long period of silence, Kyou reopened his eye. It was nighttime, a rare occurrence in the realm.
"Some call it deceit. Others, salvation."
That was all he heard his master say.
***
"What do you get out of helping me?"
The question struck Kyou like a bolt of lightning. It was always at the back of his mind but he tried not to think about it. Helping a stranger and betraying his father just to get a few answers…. It was too weak a conviction to drive him this far.
In truth, he already knew why, but whenever he thought back on it, he'd promise himself never to do so again. It was the most unpleasant memory he had after all.
"….."
He took a page out of Elyon's book and chose to stay silent.
"Every barrier is centered around a core right?"
"Yes."
"What happens to a barrier with a broken core?"
"The barrier goes with it."
Considering the line of questioning, Elyon figured what Kyou was implying and promptly shook his head.
"If the wrong core is broken, the humans would lose their protection and get burnt alive."
"…. Then where do you reckon the book will be at least?"
"With Alleria. He can't sustain the barriers without a constant supply of divindum now, so he won't be able to return to the human side."
"Then he's keeping it next to him for protection?"
"Most likely."
Kyou thought about the situation for a brief moment. It was a complete deadlock. Neither Kyou nor Elyon could retrieve the book currently.
Kyou would perish under the heat of the barriers if he tried to enter. Meanwhile, Elyon couldn't reach the book with the newly erected barriers around it.
The silver lining was that Alleria couldn't visit their home on the human side of the Respite. He didn't know what he was up to just yet.
The only way out of the deadlock seemed to be constructing his eye and passing through the barrier, but at the rate he was going, he'd never be able to sense let alone manipulate divindum.
Elyon wasn't much help in this process either. It was an innate ability all gods were born with, not something they could learn and teach.
"Is there any other way to bypass the barrier…?"
He asked blindly. Kyou wasn't expecting much of a response, but it didn't hurt to ask.
"….."
He remained silent. Suddenly, a sharp object hooked his belt and tore it off his waist. It then flew through the air and disappeared right as it got close enough to Elyon.
Elyon's outstretched hand caught it and unsheathed the blade that was on Kyou's belt. In truth, it was the first time Kyou had seen the sword. It's hilt was completely black but the blade itself was even darker.
It shimmered under the sunlight. A beautiful, smooth blade curved to one side for ease of slicing. The other side was thicker - meant to be used for blocking and deflecting. A katana.
Elyon inspected the blade carefully and on a part of the metal close to the hilt, found a symbol, much the same as the one on Elyon's scythe. Unlike most other markings, this one was very simple in design. A horizontally inverted 8. The sign of infinity.
"It's a Kleidos."
"Kleidos….?"
"Divine instruments. Like my scythe."
"So this thing can teleport around like yours?"
Elyon ignored Kyou's snarky remark.
"You can cut through the barriers with this but only under certain conditions."
Kyou looked at Elyon, puzzled. He could tell all of this simply by touching his blade? Could he do the same with Elyon's scythe?
"What are the conditions?"
He probed further. There should be no reason for Elyon to hide it.
"Telling you would make it harder."
And he did so anyway. Talking to Elyon was a Herculean task. At this point, Kyou wondered if asking even Alleria would be better. It was too late to turn back now though.
Between the sword and meditation, he'd rather try the sword out. He had already invested enough time into divindum manipulation and it got him nowhere. It would be more productive to work on something that could show some actual results.
Elyon threw the sheathed blade back at Kyou and he caught it. It was time for him to use his own Kleidos.