“You still haven’t told me what you found inside the tower.” said Zero
“Yes I know but you’ll see it for yourself when we go there anyway so think of it as a surprise until then.” said Yoko with a smirk
“So what have you been up to?” asked Zero as he turned towards Valna.
“My lord I’ve been busy constructing my own divine realm. I took management of the valkyries that my lord created for me so they are currently residing there. I can show you there if you’d like to take a look.” answered Valna
‘I didn’t really create them for you but we’ll just pretend I did. I was planning on devouring them in the end anyway so I guess this works better.’
“That good to hear I made them soon after you ascended so I wasn’t sure you’d know they were made for you.” said Zero with a smile as he lied through his teeth.
“Yes I understand all there is to know about you my lord.” said Valna
Zero felt uncomfortable being looked at by Valna that way so he turned to Yoko and asked, “What about the 3 goddesses of death? What are they up to?”
“Dahlia and Azalea are currently focusing all their efforts on their duties and with advice from Hel; they’re now able to collect souls from half the world. As for Hel she spends an hour or so in the Nether realm due to her body’s constitution so she should be there now.” answered Yoko
“Good then I’ll head over there I need to chat with her.” said Zero
Zero then thought of the Nether realm and he was instantly there. Since he thought of the temple, he appeared right outside of it and opened the temple doors to find the temple’s interior had undergone a massive change.
Although the outside of the temple remained the same, the inside had grown and now it looked a bit like an office building. There were what looked like desks with screens hovering on top all over the place being manned by the lampads. They seemed to be monitoring the world outside and the rooms that held the souls. Dahlia and Azalea were sitting on their thrones but Zero noticed that they looked haggard with bags underneath their eyes.
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“You 2 need to get some sleep.” said Zero as he walked over towards them
Dahlia got up and was flustered for the very first time to be seen like this by Zero. She bowed towards him before running into the depths. of the temple. Azalea on the other hand seemed normal as she yawned.
“What’s wrong? Why did she run away?” asked Zero
“Sister doesn’t want to be seen like this by you so she probably went to change.” answered Azalea
“Why aren’t you doing the same?” asked Zero
“I’m too tired to worry about stuff like that. I’m gonna go sleep now so wait for sister; she’ll be here soon.” said Azalea as walked away yawning
Hel showed up behind Zero and said, “Looks like you’ve woken up sleeping beauty.” causing him to be startled.
“Don’t do that!” yelled Zero as he clutched his chest
Hel chuckled at Zero’s surprised reaction and said, “So I’m guessing you came here looking for me right?”
Zero nodded and said, “I heard that while I was undergoing my change you helped out the other quite a bit. What I mean to say is I still don’t fully trust you but I’m willing to give you a chance to prove yourself.”
Hel laughed and said, “I didn’t think you’d come out and say that. I knew you were cautious of me because of my father but I expected it to at least take a year for you to trust me. So tell me what do I need to do?”
As Hel was saying that Dahlia arrived and Zero turned to face her. He paused for a few seconds before saying, “Lead us to where Sophia is being held.”
Dahlia had a surprised look on her face, as she knew that Zero didn’t really trust Hel but regardless she bowed and said, “As you command.”
Dahlia waved her hand and a black doorway appeared which she walked through. Zero and Hel followed after and walked through the doorway that caused them to appear in Dahlia’s room. The black gate was already there and Dahlia stood next to it and asked Zero, “Would you like me to enter alongside you?”
Zero shook his head, pushed the gate open, and led Hel to where they had sealed Sophia. Hel looked around and said, “It’s honestly a miracle that you guys won that battle at all. Even this seal should have failed. You’re lucky that it was her that you faced.”
“What do you mean?” asked Zero
“A seal like this shouldn’t be able to hold her at best from what I can tell the first sealing might have been traumatic for her so she didn’t resist this. At best this should work on a demigod.” explained Hel
Zero looked at the sealed Sophia and said, “Yeah we got lucky this time but I refuse to rely on luck again.”
“So you brought me here to make her fall yes?” asked Hel
Zero nodded and said, “Yes I did but rather than you do it is there any way that I can do it?”
Hel then grabbed Zero's hand, dragged him over to Sophia, and placed his hand on her chest. She turned her hand ethereal and this caused Zero's hand to do the same without his consent. She then said, “Rather than explain it; it’ll be faster to do it so try to remover her soul.”
Zero looked at Hel and nodded as his hand phased into Sophia’s chest and he tried to pull out her soul. There was a rejection as he tried pulling and her body began to release aether but rather than burn Zero to his core like before, he felt that he was simply dipping his hand in warm water. No longer bothered by Sophia’s defenses he pulled at her soul but found that his mana drain so rapidly that he would run out in 2 seconds. To his surprise mana entered his body and refilled his tank instantly and he heard Hel say, “Don’t worry about anything just keep pulling.”
Heeding her words Zero pulled. After emptying his maximum mana 12 times he finally managed to pull out Sophia’s golden soul that was surrounded in aether.
NAME: SOPHIA
RACE: AEON OF WISDOM
DIVINE SOUL: DIVINE AEON SOUL
DIVINE SOUL RANK: LESSER DEITY
LEVEL: 40
DIVINITY (DIVINE ATTRIBUTE): LIGHT, WISDOM, & ORDER
STRENGTH: 79,698
SPEED: 68,050
MAGIC ENERGY: 108,980,000
VITALITY: 105,000,000
SKILLS: ????????
PASSIVE SKILLS: ????????