Chapter 120

Sol knew she was being played by that slimegirl, but that did nothing to change the reality of the situation. She couldn’t let that walking producer of literally divine energy—the most incredibly potent essence she’d ever tasted—simply walk away and be lost to her. She had no choice but to follow the woman out of the shard and into the Fractures.

And it was for more reasons than just personal interest. The dark-haired woman was proof that her suspicions were correct: that there was, indeed, a second deity interested in this world. More importantly, one that didn’t seem interested in abandoning the decaying realm to its fate. The exact details of who and why, she hadn’t a clue. But for the good of her people, she needed to investigate. It truly wasn’t just her fascination in the party of three; this was as much a practical and selfless mission as anything.

The problem would be meeting Mother’s directives. She couldn’t reveal herself. Her people’s strategy was fairly consistent: gnaw on the edges of a world, weakening it over years or even decades, before swooping in and finishing things off when the world’s energy had been greatly dampened.

It wasn’t only a tactic to mitigate how many losses they would take in the resulting violence, but sometimes a downright necessity. While Sol’s people were far stronger than the average resident of this world, not only were there many times more of them than they, but the strongest of these individuals also seemed to be enormously powerful. These pocket-dimension shards were exceptional at imparting latent energy onto their delvers: the residents of this world could grow strong enough to cause even the elites among the Famished problems. Not Mother, of course, but Mother was bound by the rules of all divinities.

So revealing her people’s presence was something that couldn’t happen. It was Mother’s highest directive.

That said, clearly there were extenuating circumstances. And Sol could keep an eye on these three women without revealing herself—or at least revealing herself in truth. As much as secrecy was needed, so was discovering what was going on with another Prime’s involvement.

She would infiltrate their society and report back later.

It was, even she could admit, something of an excuse. She’d wanted to explore more of this society since arriving to this world—a desire she had for any world her people invaded, but especially this one, being so much more interesting than the others.

She’d always been more curious than her brothers and sisters. They were too occupied with their hunger—and so was Sol, to a degree, though by the standards of a Famished, she supposed she had far better control of herself. The excessive curiosity made hunger somewhat easier to stave off.

Plus, her thoughts were cleared after having been so thoroughly fed. That delightful load the slimegirl had poured into her mouth would last her days. She’d have to figure out how to extract more in the future, but for now, she was satiated. Divine essence went a long way.

The question was, how would she pull it off? Keeping her true nature hidden while infiltrating their society? There was a reason it wasn’t something her people usually attempted.

She imagined she’d have to masquerade as a human, and in a more direct manner than usual. While her people excelled at stealth, lurking in the shadows might not be the most tenable option. She was more than capable of evading the notice of these relatively low-powered individuals—though the blonde woman concerned her somewhat, especially as she would continue to grow and feed off the shards and environment like all residents of this world did—but Sol didn’t have total confidence in remaining invisible to other more powerful individuals. And since they were presumably headed back to their proper society, there would surely be those she couldn’t deal with so easily.

Hence, a more traditional sort of stealth. Masquerading as a human and integrating rather than relying on her abilities to stay hidden. It wasn’t something the Famished normally did, and especially not Sol, being the Fourth Daughter and prone to more restrictions, but again, there were extenuating circumstances going on—and Sol thought she could manage it. Though young, she thought she did have a better grasp on alien minds than most of her brothers and sisters.

It would still be tricky, though.

Her plan formulated as she followed the three women across the Fractures. Watching them was endlessly intriguing. Sol had cognitively absorbed a crude, if notable, portion of human culture upon taking their form, but it was unrefined and riddled with holes, so observation would do wonders for further learning.