Anom soon found the connection he was searching for as his soul came into contact with the familiar warmth.
"Anom!" An excited shout echoed as Della materialized in front of him and threw herself into his arms.
"Cassana told me that it has been a few thousand years, so the place I sent you to might have changed. After I checked down below using God's Eye, I confirmed that this place is nothing like it was in the past. I was so worried. I'm sorry, Anom," she said, looking guilty and worried. She thought her mistake might have endangered Anom's life.
Anom smiled as he stroked her hair to comfort her. "What are you worried about? It was normal that you didn't consider it, as your perception of time is different than that of humans. Furthermore, currently you are suppressing your powers, so making such a small error was nothing much." Then he teased her with a smirk, saying, "Of course, if you are worried about your lover, then that's something I can understand."
"Who's your lover?" Della pouted as her worries faded. She was relieved to see that Anom was not angry with her.
"It still feels like a dream to me," Anom said out of nowhere. All the things he had experienced after taking that last job were something he couldn't even have imagined before.
"What's that?" Della asked. Although she already knew, she still wanted to hear it, as Anom clearly wanted to share what he felt with her.
"Getting to such a mysterious world, finding out that your own world has such a deep secret hidden in its depths," he paused and looked at Della, "getting such a beautiful goddess as my lover." He sighed. "The past few days were some of the few moments when I felt like I was really alive."
As Della heard what he said, she realized that there were some worries from his previous world still lingering inside him. But she didn't ask, as she knew that Anom would tell her when he wanted. And she didn't want him to remember anything unpleasant anymore. Therefore, she changed the topic.
"Where are you currently, Anom? I didn't use God's Eye to search for you, as I didn't want to disturb you. I only knew that you were safe because of our souls."
Anom looked at her and smiled. "I met some of your followers. They are a bunch of small creatures that resemble the cats of Earth. They can vanish, and it's quite difficult to detect them while they are like that." Anom told her about how he met them and how they were offering fruits and flowers to Della's statue. He also told her about how they reacted to him and the thing with the leaf that happened at his current residence. As they were communicating with their souls, Anom easily transmitted whatever he wanted to her. That was how she could clearly see what he wanted to show her.
Della remained silent for a moment, as if she were reminiscing about something. After a while, she spoke, "They are called Shadow Sniffing Devils, and they are similar to the felines you were referring to. The temple you were teleported to was made based on the designs that were found in the tombs of primordial beings. Although it wasn't as good as the altars that were made by the primordial beings, it was still the best design made in the last few thousand years." She seemed to have remembered the place as she continued speaking: "I told you the place was peaceful because thousands of years ago, many races lived on this continent with that temple at the center. All of them came to me to ask for advice while they were still in the initial stages of their development. I never asked for any offerings. It was enough as long as they could provide the energy for the altar to work. But they would still bring some gifts with them."
"One of those races was the Shadow Beast tribe. They were a tribe made up of a mixture of beasts living together in harmony. Although not unique, it is still quite rare for such a situation to occur on any continent. The Shadow Sniffing Devils were considered a lower class in the tribe. All the tribes competed with each other while bringing offerings, and the Shadow Beasts were the same. But those little devils were the only group among any tribes who brought their offerings separately from their main tribe. Although it annoyed the other Shadow Beasts, they couldn't display their discontent, as I would always take any offerings given by the Shadow Sniffing Devils before any other offerings. And while I always told all the groups to distribute the offerings to the individuals or tribes in need, the offerings presented by the little devils were always brought with me to my dimension. All my spirits enjoyed them, as it was the only offering that was full of gratitude and didn't demand anything in return." Della finished with a smile, as she missed such purity, which was rarely seen. When people called for her, they always had an agenda to remember her. Although she didn't mind helping them develop, she felt quite sad when they thought of her as someone who could make them more powerful than the other tribes by giving them more powers.
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Anom listened to her quietly as he understood her difficulties. He had witnessed many similar cases and heard stories back on Earth.
He comforted her, saying, "You don't need to care what they think of you. Once people get stuck with such materialistic stuff, it becomes their nature, which is difficult to change. Besides, the little devils still pray to you sincerely. I really don't know what they are doing here all alone." Although they looked like they lived in peace, Anom could guess that they were restricted to this part of the forest.
"I also don't know about that. But those creatures seemed to have no knowledge of building an altar. So they cannot contact me, even if they want. Besides, I wouldn't be able to help them even if I wanted to, as I'm busy with my current cultivation," Della said as she looked at Anom. Her eyes conveyed her wish to help them.
Anom held her tighter as he replied, "I would have helped them even if you hadn't asked. They are such good hosts, after all. By the way, tell me why they were so attracted to me. It's because of you, right?" Anom was really curious about the reason.
"Well, as their name suggests, they are sensitive enough to smells, as they can even smell shadows. To be precise, they can smell souls. Something that might go unnoticed by even the strongest beings. They took notice of the soul imprint, which is inside your soul. Currently, you are not able to hide it. But don't worry; you'll be gaining some control over your soul very soon. And it's not like just anyone can recognize my imprint. The little devils were only able to do so because they had the leaf I gave them before. It contains some traces of my energy. I gave it to them the last time the altar was operated. They were sad as they were not able to contact me on their own and needed the Shadow Tribe's help. So I took this leaf, which was picked from their offering, and imbued it with some energy. It could allow them to contact me through the altar without having to wait for anyone else to operate it. But they didn't ever use it. In fact, no one else uses that altar anymore, so I assumed it might have been destroyed. I was sad, but I couldn't do anything out of the ordinary to help them. Oh, and the leaf also contains a skill that affects the soul. Any creature that gets within its range will subconsciously change direction, never reaching the place where the leaf is placed. I gave this to them so that they could protect themselves and live peacefully. I'm relieved that they are fine. But they seem to be on the decline." Della explained the mystery behind the leaf.
Anom listened to her explanation and couldn't help but be sympathetic to the fact that a goddess also has to follow the rules and couldn't just let anyone follow her whims. He then asked, "Why do you think they are on the decline?"
"Well, when they were with the Shadow tribe, their population was in the millions. Although it was hard for them to increase their level of energy control, they were the best when it came to collecting and distributing information from around the continent. They were skilled at hiding and stalking people. Some of their elites even had access to information from other continents. It was also one of the reasons why they were considered important in the shadow tribe despite their weak strength."
Anom nodded as he suddenly asked, "Do you have a way to help me understand their language so as to make it easier to communicate with them better?"
Della suddenly said in a guilty tone, "I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you about the languages spoken on this planet. I'm used to dealing with beings who can communicate with their souls and don't need a precise language. Even when we were together, I forgot to mention it."