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Early Afternoon - Early Spring : The Tree of Prayer | Siratha

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*Vwoop* Instantaneously exiting the void, my body felt cold and tense, with the excitement of my achievement dwindling into nonexistence.

-W..what the fuck was that...- It was something staring at me from deep within the void with a predatory yet curious gaze.

. but instead of calling it a creature, it felt more apt to call it the void itself.

With no distinguishable features besides its huge, glowing purple eyes reminiscent of black holes, it felt more like a machination of my own exhausted mind than anything.

A mere misinterpretation of blurry shapes at the edge of my vision.

However, as I tried to forcefully ease my nerves, and the gate started dissipating... *WOOP* The beams of light shining into the gate suddenly vanished, and the gate was resealed.

*VWOOM* In a fit of panic, a colossal mass of mana exploded out of me, instantly blowing the gate to pieces.

But instead of seeing myself in front of the tree of prayer, I found myself once again listless floating in the void.

At that moment, all conscious thought purged itself from my mind.

I felt like a human who walked into a dragon's den...

Helpless...

And weak...

But as my panicked mind did everything it could to find the threat.. I found nothing.

-W..what...- There were no eyes.. and there was no creature.

It made me feel like an insane man fighting his hallucinations. -But that gate couldn't have closed itself...-

Continuing to look around, I started looking deeper and deeper into the void, trying to find anything that could resemble something like what I saw, but it did nothing except further cloud my mind with doubt.

But that was when I saw it.. the faint silhouette of a colossal 'thing' slowly winding through the void like a crocodile swimming through water.

It had to be at least a few hundred thousand kilometers from me, almost invisible thanks to the color of its body, but at the same time, it was so large it made my mind go blank.

With a long, dark body akin to a sea serpent, it had to be at least over ten thousand kilometers from head to tail. -I knew I wasn't crazy...-

Almost immediately, I recognized it as the thing that I caught a glimpse of.

.. -But.. it doesn't seem to know I'm here.

..- When I got dragged back into the void, I thought that it was the thing that somehow pulled me through, wanting to hunt or eat me, but instead.

. it seemed to pay me no mind, as if it didn't know I was there.

-But if it wasn't the thing to pull me through. . what was it?-

I knew for certain such a phenomenon couldn't happen on its own, but besides thoughtlessly throwing blame at the creature in front of me, I was at a loss.

At least that was before one name came to mind.

-Dagr...- "Tch..." Clicking my tongue, I snarled slightly.

-He must have possessed Ilios again and sent me back.

..- But at the same time, I couldn't understand why.

The only moderately plausible reason I could think of was that he didn't want me to see something in reality.

-Because he definitely isn't the type to throw his food to someone else. ..-

But even though I had my doubts, I didn't have a choice but to go with it...

-Let's just get out of here for now...- Looking back down toward the horrifyingly large creature still cruising through the void, I calculated where the Gods' Abode would be and began forming the gate to return. *Vwoom* -I shouldn't test my luck in here any longer...-

However, just as the gate was completed, and I compressed it on myself to return to reality, my senses suddenly blurred, vision ceased, and all conscious thoughts were drowned in a sea of static.

I was hit by something.

-H..huh...- By the time my consciousness started returning, my senses had somewhat returned, and I not only felt myself being moved, but I felt my disfigured face being dragged over small grooves in the ground, trailing blood as my exposed, shattered skull tried to dig into the wooden floor. -I'm.. in the Tree of Prayer..?-

I wasn't dead.. even if it felt like it. From what I could tell, I was actually healing incredibly rapidly, with my mind becoming clearer with each passing moment.

But no matter how fast my thoughts could move, I couldn't recall what happened. I simply felt like I was struck in the face by a massive sledgehammer.

I knew I was missing something though. -M..my divinity... Where is my divinity..?- As my mind continued to clear, I tried to find the divinity I had been accumulating for Father, but it was nowhere to be found, not floating as a liquid in the center of my reserve, or crystalized around it.

It seemed to have just vanished.

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As I slowly started waking up though, close to two weeks after the incident, I found it.. crystallized.. and non-uniformly layered around the inside of my skull in a manner that didn't look natural.

It looked more like it had been deliberately layered to try and form a shield, and sure enough, much of it was damaged as if it had received a serious impact. -Just.. what the fuck hit me...-

There was only one thing I knew of that was capable of damaging divinity, but the damage I saw wasn't something like a few strands being sheared off.

It looked more like a huge block of divinity hit me in the face.

And sure enough.. as my vision started slowly returning, my blurry gaze landed on a black sphere laying at the end of a trail of partially dried blood.

A sphere of crystallized divinity.

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Early Evening - Early Spring : Voldukirk | The Holy Kingdom

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- Astren Ravenna ~

*Clop-Clop-Clop-Clop* Returning home alone.. was an odd feeling.

After spending so many years with Elizabeth, we had become something like family. -But for her to give me such a serious farewell right after we reached Sol...-

She had a flame of determination in her gaze I had never seen before, so I simply told myself to trust her and didn't even think of stopping her.

But at the same time, as more time passed, I couldn't help but dwell on the fact I didn't even try to convince her... The more time that passed, the more that farewell felt different from normal, like a parting of ways rather than a temporary one. -But.. I have no right to stop her...-

"Identification, please."

Looking down at the knight standing at the western gate of Voldukirk, I nonchalantly pulled open my jacket to show him the insignia on the hilt of my sword before continuing into the city with a heavy heart. "Haah..." -Now I have to think of how to explain things to Katherine...-

Continuing up the long road, I took my horse deeper and deeper into the capital before turning into the courtyard of The Church of Eir, hopping off and tying my horse to the stable near its entrance before taking off my jacket and continuing inside.

Like usual, the hall was full of people and surrounded by the scent of fresh flowers, but it was so silent that I could hear the echo of each and every step.

*Vwoom* As I finally passed the front row of people, the sound of my footsteps ceased, and a familiar presence exposed himself behind the leg of Eir's statue. "You seem different from before you left."

It was Hephas, my fellow apostle of Eir. "If you experienced what I did, you wouldn't be the same either..."

His expression stiffened with seriousness in an instant, as I swiftly walked past him. "Were you perhaps.. unsuccessful?" His tone felt like it set a blade at my throat.

But I ignored it in its entirety. "If you wish to volunteer to face a god that could destroy the world, be my guest." Momentarily breaking stride to look back at him, my dark and somewhat emotionless gaze landed on him.

"That place from a different realm than ours.

If we poke that nest the wrong way, the Holy Kingdom will be wiped off the face of Delphi, and there is nothing we can do about it besides continue hiding behind the silhouette of our gods. "

His expression quickly darkened with anger. "Are you implying the Aesir is weak?"

Not making any response, I turned back toward the wall where I was to step into Eir's throne room. "If our gods could do what I saw, we would have dominated the world long ago..."

Continuing forward, all the way to the back wall of the church, I felt a hint of lethargy come over my mind before the wall opened up to let me through.

Inside, there appeared to be nothing; a complete, indescribable darkness.

But deep down, I knew there was a massive throne before me, with a woman sitting atop a grand throne.

*Pat* Lethargically kneeling down, I lowered my head. "I am sorry, M-"

"~Don't be.~" She spoke bluntly in a fashion that sounded stressed. "~I am simply glad you are alive. However, you must explain what happened in detail...~"

I tensed slightly as I tried to look up toward her. "Were you not.. looking through my eyes like you said."

"~How could I...~" Her tone slowly warped with a mix of worry and fear.

"~Had I used my tether connected to you, you would have died, and I wouldn't have escaped harm either.

~" I felt as if she leaned back and interlocked her fingers as she spoke.

"~As much as it may seem that we own the world here in Voldukirk, none of us do.

Not me.. not Freya.. and not Odin... We are simply living in the world left by its owners, like a rat in an abandoned tavern. ~"

Thinking it was perhaps the dragons, I looked up, but even though I saw nothing, I could physically feel a gaze piercing mine.

"~It isn't the dragons.. nor the thunderbirds... No.. they are more like children given permission to play in someone else's field...~"

"T..then..."

"~You already met one of them... Even if he was in a new body, with a new mind...~"

The image of the colossal, winged Fenrir instantly appeared in my mind. "Who- no... What.. is he..?"

"~The one you met was the creator.. and the other half was the conqueror... Odin always says they were the ones to invade our world, but.. even if they were, we were naive to interfere with them...~"

I felt my soul itself tense as she spoke.

"~I know Elizabeth left already.. and she was right to... If you wish to follow after her once we finish talking, I will release you.~" Her voice slowly stiffened. "~However, if you wish to stay and work as my hands and feet, I would be forever grateful...~"

A weight of responsibility unlike anything I had ever felt instantly came crashing down onto my shoulders.

But instead of being crushed, my gaze became firm, and the slight trembling in my hands ceased. "Please use me as you wish, Master."

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