I am not sure when I started crying or when I stopped, but all I know is that I was struck with a sudden sadness, that started to ebb away. I had blacked out till the point where I was already walking side by side with Aria toward the goddess chained at the altar.
After we approached her I noticed the chains a little late, so to ease the awkwardness just by a bit, I severed the chains and free the goddess. The goddess sat up and tended to her wounds and said, “You have gone through much pain my child. Right now, you may be questioning why you are calm right now.” She paused long enough for me to nod my head and proceeded, “Right now I am guarding your mind from falling too much into despair. I do this because you have a kind soul, and this may warp it if it is hit with the brute force of this tragedy. You done me a great service my child. I will hear to any request you may have.”
“Parents,” I want them back, it was too soon for them to leave this world. I can’t run things in their place, people rely on them… I rely on them. “I want my parents.”
The goddess’ wounds had all but disappeared and she had already wiped away her tears with her horribly stained dress that still looked like art. She paused for a moment and then replied, “Is this what you wish for? Right now, they are in paradise and to join my side upon my return, are you sure you want them to be brought back?”
Paradise? Out of everything they went through in their lives, they deserved this. I can’t take this away from them. “No, I can’t do that to them. I’d never hear the end of it.” I couldn’t help but give a bitter smile at my frustration.
“You can see them whenever you want, one of your skills recalls Void Demons of the past temporarily.” The goddess informed me.
“Really? I can? How so?”
The goddess thought for a while and then answered my question with another question, “What happens when you use your power as Commander of the Void Army?”
“It summons a skeleton.”
“What happens when imbue them with power?”
“They gain flesh,” seeing where this was going I continued, “more power means more flesh and if I use enough power I call back specific Void Demons.”
The goddess only smiled if to confirm this, she then stood up and came within arms distance of me. She started to stroke my hair as if I were a close relative. “You know, for the record I am allowed to dote on you.” I could only look at her, seeing my puzzled face she laughed, “I may or may not have had a hand in the creation of the Void Demons, so you can simply think of me as your third mother.”
“Third?” I was confused until I remembered that I did not start here.
“Yes, we haven’t had someone from the Creator’s realm come here in ages, all the souls here are basically recycled. Wiped clean, and put up for the market.” Did she really make light of reincarnation?
“So why are you allowed to dote on me now not and before? What happens now, that you can?”
“I wasn’t allowed to because, we never met in person. I use to dote on Aries, however he gave me the cold shoulder when he met that elf girl. He preferred her over me, and now that I think about it, I don’t know how I feel about that.” She puffed out her cheeks in displeasure.
The light conversation made me forget about my dead parents briefly, upon remembering I felt slightly guilty. It was a little aggravating not being able to experience the full emotion but I suppose it was for my good. I walk over to my parents and I remove a feather from my father’s wings and just stared at it. A few minutes later, I was joined by the goddess and I noticed that their bodies slowly sink into the ground until they were no longer seen.
I recognized it to be the goddess’ doing so I just grabbed the smoothest looking of rubble and etched an epitaph into them and set the gravestones where their bodies were. The goddess then spoke up, “The feathers… Do you know anything behind the custom?”
After mulling it over in my head I could come up with a few examples on what it could mean but I just left at, “My mother never told me, only that it was something you were supposed to do.”
“It was a tradition started by my family in a few generations before me. It was said, at the time, ‘a demon’s essence was left behind in the feathers if they had them.’ Some demons had done it for a while before my family, but we made it tradition.” She looked back as she reminisced in her past, “It was such a profound thing to do in my opinion, ‘to have your loved one with you at all times, and when your time was up, you could dance with them with your very own feather’, I made it instinctual when I created your race. So when you saw a dead member of your own race it was then made instinctual to pick one feather.” She smiled.
I could see that be a weakness of the race but it looked as though no one thought of it as one and I’ve never heard of anyone exploiting such instincts, so I thought that it was fine. Upon hearing the goddess’ fondness for the feather collecting traditions, I thought of my request.
“Hey, goddess-”
“Anelia, call me Anelia.”
“Hey Anelia, I just thought of my request.”
The goddess perked up, “Oh? Then let’s hear it.”
“I want your feather… if that is possible.”
The goddess seemed stunned at first by the request, then she smiled a most pleased look I have seen her wear yet. “You most certainly may. Though, my original feathers have disappeared long ago, I will grant a few of your feathers my mark. They will look as mine had long ago.” Saying this, she ran her fingers through my feathers and a few of them changed from having purple tips to having a downward facing silver crescent. “There, and all of your descendants will have the mark on their body in some way.”
She smiled at me once more and repeated, “I am allowed to dote on you, remember that. Of course in me doing so, you have to answer my calls.” She left it as a deal, as if I had already agreed to it. Oh well, it was very mother like, so I left it at that.
I was considering Void Stepping after saying goodbye to Anelia, but then I was curious about a matter, so I stayed. “Umm, Anelia?”
“Hmmm, yes, my child?” She smiled.
“Creation. Not the very beginning, but the creation of my race and how you came up with it.” I said.
The goddess once again looked at me as if she was really impressed about something and continued smiling. “I am glad we have met today, let’s see creation of your race.” We had walked back to the altar and sat down with the goddess sitting across from me and Aria in my lap. The goddess then continued, “Long ago, there were a total of eight races; Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Night Demons, along with Humans and their powerful cousins, the Superians. There were Angels here and there, but they didn’t stay long.”
The goddess tilted here head up as she continued, “I am sure there was another race before that though, since there are now three of us. I’ve never seen him, and Icaldir won’t say anything, so that remains a mystery.”
I had to cut in, “Wait, there are three gods?”
She slowly shook her head, “I’ve never seen him, but I can sense him. Icaldir won’t tell me about anything before my time so I don’t know about it.”
I guess I understand, “Anyway, you said something about Angels?”
“Ah, yes the Angels. They had wings like demons, but had halos. They are supposed to be the handymen of the Creator and other gods. However, this world is really dense with magic and it pulled them from the realm the gods use to watch over Zugrielia, straight to Iacela. After whoever was in charge saw this, they stopped using Angels and just left the ones in the world be. I heard that from one of them when I was a kid. They disappeared when I turned twelve. I suppose they were recalled by the creator.”
I looked at her in amazement then I saw a little inconsistency, “Wait, you said there eight races, you included your own along with the race the Icaldir was a part of.”
“I am impressed you caught that. Indeed, we were mortal at the same time. I never saw him in his mortal form, because I was on the other side of the continent. His ascent into godhood happened when I was two hundred five years old, so he is one thousand years my senior when it comes to godhood, but I am older than him, so that puts us at a tie.”
“I see. So you lived to be over one thousand?”
She stuck her chest out proudly, “I lived to be one thousand two hundred fifty three years old, before I ascended to godhood. Not many got to be that age, I hear it doesn’t happen at all now, I also didn’t know that my race was being hunted either. You may not know, but the Night Demons’ biggest weakness was the inability to turn down challenges. I was married and I was challenged with never accepting another challenge, I came close so many times. My husband, his name was so hard to pronounce, everyone just called him General”
“Before I knew it though, I was the only Night Demon. The other one was my baby, which he died at the hands of my husband.” She looked stricken with unfathomable sorrow, and then continued, “He then turned on me and I ran for my life. I couldn’t trust anyone, so I kept running. I couldn’t sleep through the night, because of everything that just happened. When dawn hit I was standing in the presence of a god, Icaldir. He gave me the option to join his side in godhood, so I took it, having no ties to the world below.”
I couldn’t speak as I watched silver tears slowly form at the edge of her eyes. After a moment she continued, “It turns out he was after immortality, and I was going to be the last target to achieve it, because there is a grace period between being last mortal to being a deity. He didn’t get what he wanted, but I don’t know what became of him.” She wiped away the silver again, “So, remembering my loved ones I wanted to make a race in their likeness, but I forbidden in doing so. Next I wanted to make a race with no faults, yet again I forbidden in doing so. I had to make a race that had as many faults as did perfections.”
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
That made sense; many games on Earth play the same rules when putting stats into character designs. She continued, “Playing with the DNA a little, I took my own DNA and altered that. I made the skin purple, the wings span wider, and the standard height a smidge taller. You already know about the abilities, which by the way stemmed from my love for travel, but I had to argue to keep these with the few faults I gave the race. The system requires a certain level of faults to balance out the advantages, the worse the disadvantage; the better you can make the advantage, but that is vague. So through some heavy negotiations, I got away with low amounts of faults.”
“So that’s how my race came to be. In a way, you really are my third mother.”
“See I told you.” She smiled, “Oh, and Icaldir was the one responsible for creating the lesser Demons. He got a creating rampage, and is responsible for all the ones you see today. He is a little miffed that despite being the one that created them, they worship me.” She giggled a little.
“Hey, goddess, I mean Anelia, can I make another request? I swear this is the last one for today.” I begged.
The goddess let out a loud chuckle before answering, “What is it, my child?”
I looked up at her and said, “I know that it would be possible for me to achieve this on my own, but it would very taxing to maintain. I would like the skill to open permanent and semi-permanent portal.”
The goddess took a moment to ponder, “I am allowed to dote on you, so why not? It will come with a price though.”
She stood up with me, “Then, I choose to not be able to taste things that are not meant to be eaten.”
“And how is this a disadvantage that would offset this skill?” She raised an eyebrow. Aria looked just as curious.
“I won’t able to taste poison. I could die you know, I would say that is a disadvantage.” I gave a sarcastic tone at the end to emphasis the last sentence.
The goddess looked at me in awe and said, “How clever, that’s the kind of negotiation I used. Very well, you pass.” She rubbed her hands together then pointed at me, instantly releasing a bolt of surprisingly painless electricity. With the bolt came a surge of energy.
*PING*
Skill Unlock
Structural Portal
This ability lets the user to create a portal that can be used by different entities at different times. You can even link place you haven’t been to, but this cost more Mana to complete.
Well, that felt awesome. After an hour of chatting with the goddess, I decided that I had better leave, but I had the sneaking suspicion that I would see her again.
I took Aria into one arm and the near lifeless body of Janus in the other and Void Stepped into the camp base. It seems the girls are asleep despite being evening. My guess is, they slept all day.
And then a few screens popped up before my eyes.
*PING*
End of Battle
60, 910 experience gained, 50,620 more till level up
You have leveled up, You have reached level 11
You have leveled up, You have reached level 12
You have leveled up, You have reached level 13
Title Change
Your title has change from ‘Punisher of the Wicked’ to ‘The Tormentor of Evil’
+15 Vitality, +15 Strength, +15 Dexterity
Title Gain
You have gained the title, ‘Anelia’s Favorite’
You have unlocked this title through various events, this title significantly raises the unseen pious stat. Religious figures will show more respect to you now.
That will be very interesting, and handy if I need to pull a favor from a priest.
Skill Unlock
Due to your meeting with a certain deity, you have learned the skill:
Structural Portal Creation
Alright, that will come in handy when I inforce some new laws I just thought up. I wave off the last two screens that showed an upgrade to some of my abilities and upgradable traits. I will deal with that later. My presence has now gone unnoticed; I only realize this as I am tackled by three masses. Looking at the pile on top of me I recognize the shapes to be Louise, Chloe, and Ashley.
“We were so worried, we didn’t know if you’d make it back at all.” Chloe looked at me with tears in her eyes.
Ashley slowly got off of me while leaving the statement, “I know it wasn’t your fault, but please don’t leave us like that again. It honestly scared me.”
All the while Louise and Maddison did not say anything. Louise did not let go, but I was able to sit up, and with them gathered around me, I said, “We have to return to Palace, and shortly after we will head to the Demon King. I need to set up a coronation, I have a kingdom to run.” A pang of sorrow hit me then ebbed away, thanks to the goddess. “My only question to you guys is, do you want to stay with me afterwards? It’s going to be a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, and quite frankly, I could use the help.”
They all look at other with their mental communication and looked back at me and all exclaimed in unison, “Of course.”
“Alright, to the Palace. Grab unto me, I have to carry this one.” I say as grab the lump of nearly dead flesh at my feet. We fall into another Void Step before arriving inside the throne room of the palace back home.
I quickly take notice of the busy surroundings. Maids were scurrying everywhere, when caught sight of me, they rushed over and I quickly found out that it was Melinda, the head maid. She looks me up and down frantically and yells, “Where have you been? Oh, never mind that your parents are gone. Help us find them!” Her yelling caused all the maids to stop momentarily.
Another quick pain of loss hit me, “I am sorry, I cannot do that. They are dead.”
Melinda stopped dead in her tracks, “What?”
“They are dead, they died in Void at the hands of this scumbag,” I say the last with as much disdain as I could muster while simultaneously throwing the near lifeless corpse on the ground.
“Is he?”
“No. Does the Palace have a dungeon? If so, take him there. I want him bound up to where he can’t move a muscle. I will deal with him later.”
“Are you going to kill him?” She asked, expecting a yes, but when shook my head, she asked astounded, “Why not? He killed your parents!”
“Oh, and I do intend to make him pay. By rotting in the dungeon and being physically and mentally tortured for the next few centuries. It’s a fate worse than death. And when I find that he grows used to one form of torture, I will come up with another one. His mind, body and spirit will be decimated, completely obliterated with no chance of mending in the slightest.”
Melinda seemed pleased with my sentencing, though a little horrified that I could come up with such things, she dragged the body to a hall that jutted to the left of the room. I walked to wing at the right and made an immediate left that was something like that of a meeting room, I will have it later remodeled to be a receptionist area. Toward the farthest wall, I activated my newly acquired skill and made archway outline in the middle of the room.
I turned toward Chloe, “We are about to enter your father’s throne room, but in order to that I need you to place your hand on the wall and picture with as much detail as possible.” She nodded her head and did as I said. While she was concentrating, I fed my Mana into the archway until a blue glow formed and spun faster and faster toward the middle of the archway. I felt my mana sapping away very quickly, until I barely had any left, did the image of room on the other side appear.
The room was splendidly grand, with red carpet that trailed to the center of the room, walls that seemed to never end going up, and a giant trail of fire behind the throne, setting the room aglow. We all stepped through the portal and looked in awe as we instantaneously arrived from side of the country to another. We were surprised but not as surprised as the Demon King, whom was slack jawed since the portal opened.
“Evening, Father.” Chloe bowed to the Demon King.
“Evening, Daughter. Why are you here, and how- never mind I don’t want to know that answer. So, why are you here?” He said as he recovered a bit.
“I have some bad news. My parents are dead, I have captured the culprit while he was in the Void, put not in time to save my parents. I have him in my dungeons and will deal out the sentencing tomorrow at the earliest. But moving on to the subject at hand, I don’t exactly know how to set a coronation, so I wanted advise from you.”
While the Demon King pondered for a while, he looked at me and said, “You first send invitations to everyone you know. Whether they show up or not is completely up to them, unless it is your vassals, they are required by law to show up. The only way for you to be recognized as a King by other Kings is if you get crowned by a Pope, though not mandatory, it is tradition.”
The Demon King then continued, “Next you set a date, and then on that date, when the Pope enters your throne room, you kneel before him he shall crown you. He will leave, and you are a King. At least that’s how it’s been for me, afterwards I throw a ball dance.”
“Ah, thank you. Consider yourself invited, oh, and I hope this portal doesn’t bother you. It allows instant travel between your Palace and mine.”
“I will attend and indeed? That will make it a lot easier to visit, if only we had this convenience earlier. Oh, well. I have a meeting here in a few minutes, so can I ask we adjourn?” With that we bid each other good bye, seeing that people were entering the throne room.