After reading the final path, Maria was caught in a dilemma since the fourth path was the most obvious choice for her if she wanted to obtain strength that could help her break Paimon out of the Ziggurat.
Unfortunately, it meant that she had to abandon all of the normal quests she had obtained from the NPCs that didn’t hold any divinity. Her chain quest with Gaia was fine since she was a goddess and the ones from Death were obviously not going to be abandoned. However, the quest she obtained from Ash which was to help him exact his revenge would be abandoned since her subordinate did not possess any Divinity.
Maria thought long and hard about what she wanted to do and the second-best choice was the third path, the Path of the Monarch but compared to the Path of the Divine, it was obviously the inferior selection. If she chose the Path of the Divine, then she’d be going for a long-term goal but the Path of the Monarch was for the short-term so it was obvious which of these two paths she had to select. As for the other two paths, those had been tossed out of the window by her right from the get-go as she knew that these paths wouldn’t be able to provide her with the power she needed...also, she didn’t like the idea of her serving Death.
Of course, she was grateful to him for providing her with her legacy class and the amazing options to choose her own path forward but it didn’t mean that she had to be subservient to him. If anything, after the initial help he gave her with the skill books, class, weapon, and everything else, she had basically developed her character to this state all by herself while Death would come in from time to time to give her some unreasonable quest to complete though the rewards were always great.
She had been in his care for too long so it was about time she spread her wings and left the nest. For now, Maria wanted to finish her promise to Ash so she couldn’t pick the Path of the Divine just yet but it also didn’t mean that she had to choose right now.
“Death, I’ll postpone my decision. I still have something I need to do back on Vanhal...a promise to keep.”
“That is fine. Just summon me once you are ready to make your decision. However, I need to remind you that your level limit will be 150. Normally, it should be 100 but due to your legacy class and Ascension, it was raised by an extra 50 levels. Keep that in mind.”
“Thank you. For now, can you send me back to Gaia?”
Death’s Incarnation waved his hand and opened a dark portal that led to Gaia’s temple in Discordia. Maria thanked him before stepping through the portal and returning to Gaia. Death stared into the empty space before his incarnation’s body gradually dissipated.
******
When Maria appeared in the middle of Gaia’s Temple, the goddess quickly took notice of it and was a bit confused that she had come back so quickly.
“Maria? I thought you had gone to Eur?” Gaia asked.
Maria turned to her and clicked her tongue in annoyance before replying, “I wasn’t welcomed back on that planet so I returned quickly.”
“I see...so you still haven’t completed your Class Advancement yet?”
“I decided to postpone it since I still have a few things I need to do on Vanhal and here.”
“That’s understandable. However, your assistance still isn’t needed here since the players still haven’t returned from the Void Sea Realm. What will you do until then?”
Maria thought for a moment before answering, “I’ll return to Vanhal and check on my subjects there for the time being. You know how to contact me so just give me a message when my help is needed.”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Of course. I wish you well, Maria.”
“Mhm. Take care, Gaia,” Maria said before leaving.
Just as she was about to leave, however, she turned back and said to Gaia, “Gaia, since you’re a goddess, don’t you think it’s time for you to build your own faction? Having me as a helper and only your previous followers obviously won’t be enough to combat against the two factions that will go to war with each other soon.”
Gaia had a thoughtful look on her face before she nodded at Maria’s words and said, “Yes, what you said is true. I’ll start building a faction of players for myself in preparation for the inevitable war.”
Maria smiled before turning around to leave as Gaia heeded her suggestion. If the goddess recruited a few players to her side, completing the quest to rid her world of the two factions would be much easier since there would be more people helping out. If Gaia only relied on Maria, it would be very difficult since she still hadn’t class advanced so there was only so much she could do all by herself. If there were a few players to help her out with the quests, it could lighten her workload and help Gaia complete her objective.
Failure wasn’t an option since Maria would be heavily penalized if she failed her quest and she didn’t want that. Of course, this would come at the cost of other people failing their quests instead but it was better for them than her.
At most, they’d just lose a quest line which they can get after switching factions and helping out the goddess instead while she would lose levels and stats. It was recoverable but still, it was a very large penalty for Maria considering that it was so hard for her to increase her level. Maria quickly returned to the first town on Gaia and stepped into the world gate, teleporting herself back to Vanhal.
When she emerged in Death’s temple, Maria’s faithful subjects quickly took notice of her. She only waved at them before walking out of the temple after having a brief talk with the temple’s priestess telling her to keep watch over the dark portal. She didn’t want anyone to accidentally move into it and be teleported off of the planet. She quickly returned to her castle where all of her close subordinates were waiting for her already in the main hall.
They had been immediately notified of her return and were waiting on her. When Maria entered the castle, she noticed that it had become much grander than before. Many antiques, paintings, and other treasures of value were decorating the hallways as soldiers were stationed in every corridor, keeping a tight watch of the place. The throne room had undergone the most drastic change of them all. Previously, it was mostly empty with only the throne and a few decorations placed here and there but now, there was a large portrait of her at the wall in the back as chandeliers created by some precious crystal hung from the ceiling with light stones installed on them, lighting up the entire hall.
The motive of the main hall was black and purple since Maria wore clothing mostly of those colors so everyone thought that it was her favorite. They made sure that the color theme aligned with her likes so that she would find the transformation pleasing to the eye.
Unknown species of black and purple colored flowers decorated the walls and it made the hall look more mysterious. The hall could be described as looking dreary and ominous in other people’s views but Maria thought that it looked pretty cool and solemn. She rather liked the new throne hall so a slight smile blossomed on her face which didn't go unnoticed to her subjects who immediately began cheering inwardly since it was a sign of approval.
There was a gilded maroon carpet spread on the ground from the hall’s entrance leading up to the black crystal throne that she knew wasn’t previously there before and her subordinates were on either side of the carpet and they were either bowing down or kneeling as they welcomed her back. Maria said nothing and walked up to the crystal throne that was exuding a dark purple aura that was spreading across the entire hall before sitting down on it.
“~~Welcome back, Your Majesty!~~”
All of her subjects greeted in perfect unison and this caused Maria to smirk a little as she found it quite nice and funny.
“Hm, I’m back...I see that everyone’s made a lot of good changes to the castle. Well done,” Maria said as she looked around the throne hall once more.
Maria was a little nonplussed by the large portrait of her that was hung on the wall behind her throne. She would already be in the throne hall so what use was there for the portrait to even be here? She thought that it would be better if placed near the entrance of the hall so people coming and going would be able to see it and admire the masterful workmanship of the painting...as well as her image.
She quickly beckoned for Ash and asked, “Who drew this?”
Ash immediately answered her without delay, “We hired one of Carmilla’s painters to create this grand masterpiece. We hope that it is to your liking, my Queen.”
“It’s really nice. Make sure you properly reward this painter, but I do have a question, why put it in the throne room?”
Ash was glad that his Queen liked the portrait so even without her telling him to, he'd make sure that the painter who drew it would be rewarded heavily for their service, but he was a little caught off guard by her question though.
“S-Should we have not put it in the throne room?”
“I'm already here so what's the point? Put it somewhere where people can see and admire it...like at the entrance of the castle! We can just replace the painting with the symbol of our Dire faction.”
Ash quickly nodded at her suggestion and said, “We will have that done immediately!”
“Don’t do it right now. I have something more important to discuss.”
“Yes.”
Ash was very pleased that his queen was back. He had so many good things to report but he also took notice that Maria had undergone a few changes. Her black wings had changed and were now a dark crimson which was also the same color as the halo floating behind her. She had also grown another pair of wings which could only mean that she had gotten stronger again. This was great because the preparations for their war against the Blood Faction were all but ready and they only needed to wait for Maria’s command to initiate it.
However, she was still off-planet and had been busy with Death’s request so they could only continue to bide their time as they further bolstered their forces.