Chapter Seven

Melsa the goddess who was in charge of Okami's reincarnation had just wrapped up a consultation with another deceased soul. She was naturally surprised when the emergency siren blared which never happened as it meant there was a potential threat to the balance of the multiverse.

Melsa could only watch as half her office crumbled away into the void only to be replaced by the scene of the current supreme deity Cernos standing in his own office but there was something off that Melsa couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Greetings my fellow deities, an event has occurred that may potentially threaten existence as we know it," Cernos said

Melsa wanted to ask what this threat was but it would be pointless as every other deity would be asking the same question at the same time, so she'd just wait for Cernos to answer.

"The Cores of Mortality have sought out their hosts," Cernos said answering the question that was on everyone's mind

Melsa was a young deity so she did not know what The Cores of Humanity were and wanted to ask that question but knew Cernos would explain.

"Many of you might not know what The Cores of Mortality are, so I shall explain we deities exist with a divine core at the centre of our being which dictates what we are deities of and grants us immense power not present in other beings," Cernos explained

He created a holographic image of a divine core an egg-like construct filled with white light.

 "The Cores of Mortality are a similar but entirely different existence when we first began reincarnating humans we needed a way to wipe the soul clean so to speak so we created The Cores of Mortality a set of seventy containers each designed to absorb their respective concepts from the souls that we reincarnate," Cernos continued to elaborate

He generated another hologram of an egg-like construct this one filled with light that changed colour.

"but there was a problem just as the cores drew away these concepts from mortal souls so to were they drawn to souls in which these concepts were exceptionally present, It was hypothesized that if these cores found and merged with a compatible host that host would have power equal or above that of a deity, a chaotic existence we could not allow so we tried with our collective knowledge and power to find a way to prevent the cores from finding hosts but still be able to absorb their concepts from mortal souls,"

Cernos this time generated an image of a mortal man and the Core of Mortality attempting to move towards the man but being held back by a cage of white light.

 "We eventually came upon an idea there was one core that never attempted to find a host so using our collective divine magic we bound all the cores to this one core which never moved, as long as it did not seek a host none of the others would, that core was the core of sloth and it should not have moved for anyone but the most perfect host passing through reincarnation, and sometime in the last few days whilst I was too busy to notice that perfect host passed through the reincarnation process and the core of sloth went with them and thus all the other cores have scattered themselves across the multiverse looking for their own perfect hosts,"

Cernos now showed the Core of Mortality merging with the man and filling the man with its colour changing light.

 "Unfortunately there is nothing we can do as the cores will likely remain dormant until the host they possess reaches a certain level of power and will be undetectable until then" Cernos concluded his explanation

Melsa was terrified at what Cernos had just revealed there were seventy mortals scattered across the multiverse with the potential to kill her and other deities like her. She was also worried by the thought of what if she was the one who processed the mortal currently hosting the core of sloth and doomed them all. She could only watch in shock as the scene of Cernos office disappeared and she suddenly realised what was different about his office, the egg-shaped lights that used to line the bookshelves of his office were gone, so they must have been The Cores of Mortality. She could only hope that the hosts of the Cores of Humanity would take forever to achieve the level of power necessary for them to unlock the core's power.