Maria arrived back at Discordia and immediately teleported straight to Gaia’s temple. She appeared in the air in the middle of the temple’s hall and thankfully, she did. Otherwise, she would’ve had to deal with the packed crowd of players and NPCs below her. She landed on an empty spot and it wasn’t a moment later that Gaia’s suddenly appeared inside of the hall, just behind the temple’s altar.
“Th-That’s the Goddess!”
“Oh, Great Mother Gaia!”
The NPCs in the hall who were firm believers of the Goddess, Gaia, immediately began prostrating in worship when they saw her. This was the first time that Gaia revealed herself to everyone else besides Maria and all of the players and NPCs received a system notice.
*DING*
You have witnessed the Nature Goddess Gaia’s magnificence and received her divine blessing! You have received the buff: [Nature’s Grace] Nature's Grace: All stats +5% and you will receive a bonus of 50% EXP gain for the next 3 days! Note: The buff: Nature’s Grace, is only applicable during the Main Story Quest: War of Astrals and Gods
Maria smiled when she saw the buff. Whenever Gaia did this, she would always receive some kind of blessing from the Goddess that will enhance her leveling speed for the next few days. The only problem was that this time’s buff could only be used during the Main Story Quest which was kind of a letdown. However, she returned today not because of the buff but due to Gaia having something important to announce.
“My children, it is a blessing that I am able to meet you again like this.”
“Goddess!”
“Oh, praise thee.”
Only the NPCs made a clamor while the players looked on in silence. It was the first time in the game that anyone has ever seen a god or goddess in the flesh so it was quite a monumental moment. However monumental it was, the players were silently waiting for Gaia to announce their Alternate Main Story Quest which likely had something to do with the original Main Story Quest.
“My Children, I have gathered all of you here today for one reason, and that is to prevent the tragedy of days long past from happening again. The world cannot bear the brunt of another clash between the Astrals and Gods so I ask of you all, will you go to battle under my name to save this world?”
*DING*
The Goddess, Gaia, has requested upon you to participate in the battle between Astrals and Gods in order to put an end to their long-standing feud that’s been destroying the planet. Another war will result in the destruction of Planet Gaia and to prevent this, the Goddess has a new plan contrary to her previous one. Will you accept her request and go to battle? Y/N
Everyone in the temple hall except for Maria received the same system message and all of them, without any hesitation, selected the [Yes] option. There was no need to hesitate, this was the exact quest everyone who joined the Goddess’s Faction was waiting for all this time. They had been almost free access to the Void Sea Realm and acquired a lot of summons, primarily the Primals, that were completely different existences than the Astrals and Gods.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The Primals weren’t stronger or better than the Astrals and Gods but they were easier to make pacts with than the Astrals and Gods who would only contract with players who they deemed fit to wield their power.
Most–if not all–of the players in the Goddess’s Faction were summoners while not every player in the other two factions that had exited the Void Sea Realm were summoners. Naturally, these players wouldn’t be able to get another chance to dive into the Void Sea since they were deemed as ‘failures’ by the NPCs of the two factions so the only way was to join the Goddess’s Faction for a second chance. However, this option wasn’t made available anymore since the Main Story Quest’s next stage had begun.
“Thank you for accepting this Goddess’s request. I have seen my faults in the past and now know that trying to prevent the war was a futile effort. So instead of trying to stop the war, we shall also participate in it!” Gaia stated, her holy radiance shining ever more brightly afterward.
“I have used my Power–my Divinity–to grant you all a powerful blessing that will transform the energy of any defeated Astral or God into lifeforce that will help rejuvenate the planet. Please, I beg of you all. Do not lose. Losing will mean the destruction of this planet and I cannot allow that to happen!”
Once again the NPCs began making a clamor as many of them stood up and raised their weapons into the air and pledged that they would bring victory for the goddess. Their fervent auras infected many of the players inside of the hall and it had them also roaring and cheering along with the NPCs.
Maria was watching all of this with an amused look. In the end, instead of preventing the war, Gaia was forced to participate in it instead. However, it was quite peculiar to Maria that the energy expelled when an Astral or God is ‘killed’ and sent back to the Void Sea, could be used to rejuvenate the dying planet. The energy expelled from killing was without a doubt death energy, an energy that was unique to her patron god, Death. Maria couldn’t help but feel that this new arrangement and plan that Gaia had come up with had Death’s name written all over it.
It was likely that her patron god had suggested Gaia do this instead of preventing the war from happening. Such a possibility was highly likely since it was in line with how Death operated.
“This planet was dying…so it was just another dirtball on the brink of apocalypse…now I see why Death sent me here but instead of hastening its destruction, he had me work with the goddess to prevent that from happening. Just why does he want me to save this place? It’s so unlike him…unless, of course, his end goal was never the destruction of a planet but the death energy the planet emits due to the impending apocalypse…”
Maria clicked her tongue when she thought that this was likely the case. In the end, it was all still Death’s machinations and they were just doing his bidding.
“Tsk, I should hurry up and finish all of the quests I have on hand so I can class change into a Divine Vessel… Once I become a Divine Being, I’m sure I’ll finally be able to escape Death’s influence…right?”
Maria thought aloud though she still had a frown on her face since it was unlikely that such a thing would happen. There was no way Death would just let go of a ‘convenient’ champion like her who was always moving around doing his bidding.
“Grrrrr…it’s not like there’s anything bad being under Death but I’d rather not have that idiot ordering me around all the time…”
Maria met up with her friends after Gaia finished announcing her faction’s Alternate Main Story Quest. It wasn’t only Lizzy and her IRL friends, she even met up with Lilith and her party members who had heeded her advice to join the Goddess’s Faction way before Lizzy and her guild switched sides. Sky was finally able to meet up with her and the two had a rather amicable talk with each other. Maria was always curious as to who this girl was since she had awakened way before she had. The two added each other on their friend’s list before Sky left and said that she would meet with them on the battlefield later.
With the Main Story Quest underway, all they needed to do was wait for the Celestial Order and Pantheon to open up the realm on Gaia where they would be having their war to settle their dispute once and for all. All of the players that were eligible to participate in the war were participating and it was such a big event that a few E-sports channels were broadcasting it. Many people were tuning in to see what would happen in the war between the two factions.
Most of the viewers, be they ordinary viewers or those that actually played Unitale, watched it because things were playing out exactly like a movie. The E-sports channels were smart enough to buy footage from all of the various guilds that participated in Gaia’s Main Story Quest and compiled them into a long video that was broadcast a few days prior so everyone that was tuning in knew what the war was all about.
However, they only acquired the perspective of the guilds from the two factions while they didn’t have anything from the new Goddess Faction. Of course, if anyone wanted to know about what exactly went down from the goddess’s side, they’d have to check with Maria because she’s been doing all of the Alternate Main Story Quests all by herself until now. She still hadn’t released a video yet about those quest exploits and she only streamed the moments when she was fighting in the Colosseum or hunting in the field.
Maria did this because she didn’t want anyone to know about her quests yet. She’d only release any videos about it after she had completely cleared her quest: [Gaia’s 3 Fiats].