While Sky and her friends were having an adventure of their lifetime, on another part of Gaia, Maria was having a small adventure of her own. A few days had passed since her friends had contacted her and told her that they’d help out a little with her quest by instigating a bit of conflict among the two factions that had an alliance with each other against her who was sabotaging their quests. Things worked out well for a while but after the two conflicting sides negotiated and called for a ceasefire, the alliance was upheld once again and Maria was back on her own.
It wasn’t a problem, however, because she had her fun. The opponent she hadn’t been able to fight in the IGC, the third Awakened Player, Eos, had appeared in front of her a few times and they duked it out whenever they did see each other. Maria naturally came out on top as she was just on another level compared to her peers. The difference was quite great as well and this was Maria restricting herself by not using any of her signature skills or weapons. Instead, she was only using magic spells and her shadow puppets to do battle.
This was a large handicap she gave to her opponent but even then, Eos time and time again failed to overcome her. Naturally, she was never able to deal a decisive blow to Eos but if she were to get serious, that would be a different story. Her quest ended once the contribution points of the guilds were enough to open up the Void Sea but it didn’t mention that she failed or completed the quest. She received no penalties whatsoever and instead, received a few rewards from Gaia according to the number of sabotages she was able to successfully carry out.
With this, it could be said that her quest was a success since she received a lot of gold, a few precious materials, and quite a lot of EXP. The amount of EXP she acquired managed to elevate her level by 2 and with the second main objective of her quest finally finished, all that was left was the final main objective before her quest, [Gaia’s 3 Fiats], was completed. Once she was finished, Maria expected to return to Vanhal which was something she was looking forward to. Many months had passed in-game and in reality since she last saw her faction so she wanted to see how much it had developed.
Once she returned and nothing unexpected happened, the war to conquer the Blood Continent would start immediately. However, Maria felt that her preparations weren’t good enough as she feared that the Vampire Lord would be quite powerful. She had lost her fight against Thor during the IGC and had to rely on her subordinates to come to bail her out and they treated the powerful primal, or at least the incarnation of it, like a child.
Carmilla hadn’t acted against the Vampire Lord for so long and Ash had lost to him in the past. Even though he may have lost due to an underhanded method, it still attested to the current Vampire Lord’s strength and resourcefulness. The worried teenager was currently contemplating her future actions inside the Temple of Gaia. The broken-down interior of the temple had acquired a few minor upgrades so unlike before, it wasn’t as shoddy and destroyed.
At the very least, the place was clean and felt a little more holy than before. Naturally, the exterior was still as run-down as when Maria found it but this was necessary because the Goddess still didn’t want to announce her revival to anyone just yet. The Goddess didn’t want her enemies’ underlings, the Pantheon and the Celestial Order, to know that she had recovered. If they found out, she’d immediately become a target and so would Maria who was helping her.
“Hey, Goddess...when are you going to give me my last task?” Maria asked as she floated around the center of the temple bored out of her mind.
The temple’s center used to be just a dilapidated room that led to other chambers but now, there was a majestic fountain situated in the middle of it that contained [Gaia’s Blessed Waters]. Just standing nearby the fountain would give a player or NPC [Gaia’s Blessing (Minor)] while drinking from the water would give [Gaia’s Blessing (Major)]. She had been idling around the temple for a few days since her quest had been completed and after finding out about the effects of the waters, she had taken a few bottles of it and sold it in the player market for quite a large sum.
The [Gaia’s Blessing] that the water gave was a degraded version of the [Gaia’s Blessing] that she received directly from the Goddess herself, however, the extra drop rate and EXP gain was something that would attract any player so she was able to accrue quite the fortune. However, after spending the past few days doing literally nothing besides hunting, dungeon raiding, and exploring, Maria was growing a little impatient now. Gaia could sense her impatience but right now wasn’t the time yet.
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“Not yet, child…” Gaia answered her question while she continued to tend the grapevines that were growing within the temple.
The Goddess was going to make some wine and Maria already had thoughts about taking a few jugs to sell them to the public since the wine was bound to have some blessings. The wine was a good thing but when Maria heard the Goddess’ reply, she clicked her tongue and said, “Tsk, you may have my help but don’t expect me to wait around for an eternity! I have things to do and I’ll abandon you immediately if you’re only going to waste my time.”
She had spent much too long away from her nation back on Vanhal so, at this point, the penalties for abandoning the quest were something she no longer cared about. The Goddess stopped what she was doing and turned to her, “The time will come when I call upon your assistance. Right now, my people are building up our forces in preparations for the eventual conflict that will occur in the future.”
When she heard the word ‘conflict’, Maria immediately had her interest piqued so she asked, “What conflict? Are you perhaps talking about the war between the Pantheon and the Celestial Order?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm, so even with their masters locked up, they’re still thinking about waging war, huh?”
Gaia sighed before saying, “Well, with them gaining access to the Void Sea, those Gods and Celestials won’t be locked up for long. Once they find suitable warriors to attach themselves to, they’d be able to exit the Void Sea.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes.”
Maria rubbed her chin, thinking about something for a moment before she eventually shrugged.
‘I guess only the Primals can’t have their true bodies exiting from the Void Sea Realm. In the end, those so-called gods are just powerful beings, they probably can’t hold a candle to the Primals who are True Gods…’
Gaia was very worried about the gods and celestials that would exit the Void Sea once they contracted with a player, but Maria wasn’t too worried about them. Odin did say in passing that those troublesome beings had become rooted to the Void Sea Realm like all the other primals so their true bodies wouldn’t be able to get out of the Void Sea, only their incarnations. With only their incarnations being able to get out, Maria wouldn’t have to worry because Bahamut’s incarnation would definitely be stronger than any of those gods’ incarnations. That was her reassurance that in the coming conflict, she’d be the one that would stand out on top.
For now, she only needed to wait until the players that entered the Void Sea Real came out. Once enough players accomplished forming pacts with the Pantheon’s gods and the Celestial Order’s celestials, it was safe to assume that the war between the two sides would start again but instead of the gods and celestials facing each other head-on, it’d be the players instead.
Since it was a conflict between players, Maria was on an even playing field, or better yet, she had the advantage. She knew that she stood at the top of the food chain so as long as she wasn’t ganged up on, she’d be able to quite easily complete the mission that Gaia would give to her.
Her reassurance was once again Bahamut but now she also had Gaia’s forces that were secretly developing in the shadows at her disposal. Maria only hoped that the final objective of her quest was something within the lines of annihilating the enemy. If it was something cheesy like finding a peaceful end to the conflict, she’d be very mad as that would require more brains than brawn. Maria wasn’t stupid, but in Unitale, she adhered to the belief that if a problem could be resolved with violence, then it wasn’t a problem at all.
Since she didn’t need to do anything, for the time being, Maria decided to leave the temple and go do something.
“Since I only need to wait now, just call for me when I’m needed. I’m gonna go...do something fun while I wait.”
“...What are you going to do?” Gaia asked.
“I don’t know...maybe I’ll just find an impossibly strong monster and pick a fight with it. I need something interesting to do…”
“...”
“This planet, other than the Colosseum Arena, everything else is dull...there’s not another continent to explore or any other civilization except for the one on this continent…”
“Well, that’s because―”
“The Gods and the Celestials wiped them out, I know, I know. Anyway, I’m going. Save me some wine for when I get back, ‘kay?”
“Take care.”
“Mhm.”
Maria walked out of the temple before taking off into the air, flying in a random direction. As usual, the city’s guards chased after her because within the city was a no-fly zone but with her speed, she just left them behind in the dust before they could even get anywhere close to her.
"Now...where should I go?"