Chapter 127 Another Trial
"Yes...may the goddess give you rest."
A raven-haired woman said as she comforted the sick man.
"Oh! Holy messenger! Please!I beg you...spare me some medicine...my body cannot..." The man implored.
"..."
As the woman remianed silent the man could only gaze down at his injuries and accept his fate.
"May the goddess give you eternal rest." The woman repeated as she held the hands of the man.
"...may...the goddess give...me eternal rest..." The sick man murmured tightening his grip...
The man didn't even know what god the woman believed into but was relieved that there was someone by his side before he could die.
He was not alone...atleast he wasn't the first to say those last words...
Around the two dozens of corpses slowly melted like snow from sunlight.
And after few minutes the man's corpse started too to melt like snow.
The earth birthed them and they shall return to earth.
"Yin..." A hand landed on the woman's shoulder. "Time to go..." The man said with gloom.
"Hero...I...I understand...may the goddess give you eternal rest..." The woman clasped her hands in prayer for the man and the others for the last time before following the hero.
Her expression was the epitome of sorrow and grief.
Wearing a long robe covering most of her body Deva shed tears of sorrow as another human being died under her eyes.
"If...only I have been stronger, faster and-" The man besides Deva lamented.
"Hero you coulnd't have known that those mercenaries would infect those people." Still in grief Deva comforted the man.
"Why...why do the gods curse us and yet at the same time bless us with these powers..."
"My goddess' will is to observe all living beings, tend to the wounded, pray for their afterlife and caring for every living being."
"Even if they are murderers? Even if in the future they'll murder someone or harm someone?"
"Yes, every living being is equal whether it is an insect, plant or human. Conflicts between them is outside of her attention. Love and hatred or hunter and prey is just the natural course of life."
The hero remained silent as the two walked together towards their base.
"Mother Nature is a neutral entity but she supports the hero's battle against this 'Demon Lord'."
"Aside from the God of War and Mother Nature none of the other gods responded...Where are the gods that sides with good? Are they battling with the evil gods and ignoring everything else despite the Demon Lord is threatening their people?"
Deva mused at this hero's questions.
Gods? Demon Lord? Deva didn't have the slightest idea of who they were or even in what place she was thrown into from Mother Nature.
Deva could remember that after she climbed the tree she met with Mother Nature and have been given another trial to surpass even though she wasn't even sure that she passed the other one.
Deva recalled her conversation with Mother Nature.
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-Time is what you need, isn't it?
-Like my domain there are other places where time flows faster than Intris and every other place inside 'Everything'.
-Not only I'll give you plenty of time to get stronger and acquire items powerful enough to atleast weaken that monster. Yes, weaken not kill, that monstrosity is immune to almost everything other than time and corruption but we don't want that ogre to become more twisted than he is, don't we?
-Yes I do favour you but I cannot just give you powers and advantages without any benefit for myself.
-Surprised? Unlike gods or devils we cannot sustain ourselves just by mortals' prayers or sacrifices. We need to devour souls, to be more precise their contents. The higher the quantity and quality the longest we can live while maintaning our domains. Why in the first place did I give you a trial that consisted on you slaughtering a massive amount of life? To obviously accelerate the amount of souls going inside my belly.
-Not angry or resentful, good you understand that we benefited both. While this domain is under my control I can only choose its setting or scenario, I cannot create life and grant them death a second after I do not have enough power to do so and at the same time it is an inefficient method.
-For us a second of your reality equals a dozen of years inside these domains, whoever these places are either occupied by other entities like me or territories where we fight to obtain them and these places are extremely few and fought with teeth and nails until we can no longer provide another champion acting in our behalf.
-How about it? Become my champion in conquering these domains and I'll give you the time you need.
-Good. There are currently ten domains that are sought by us and are being fought, in these domains souls can be still be devoured by us but if only their death occurred near a champion, you do not need to even fight, survive, remain the last standing champion and you'll conquer a domain and I'll give you that will benefits you greatly if manage to do so.
-A great deal isn't it? Even if you don't conquer a domain and receive my rewards you'll still have plenty of time to obtain powerful artifacts in those domains or maybe even get some useful slaves to help you against that ogre.
-Heck, you have hundreds or even thousands of years before that ogre can start to devour your world, that is if your body can resist the curse of time, time flows different but your body remains the same.
-How about I grow your world tree inside your soul everytime you conquer a domain? The prize for eternity now is to 'just' conquer enough domains.
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Deva or Yin, the identity she fabricated, sighed.
The moment she accepted Mother Nature's deal she was immediately thrown to a place with no useful information nor preparation.
Maybe that was how champions started their journey but Deva grumbled that atleast Mother Nature would have given her the time to atleast rest after slaughtering her way towards the tree.
Gazing at herself, Deva couldn't believe that she was acting as a priestess of sorts.
While Deva was thrown in the domain she was already wearing a robe and even in the middle of a battlefield.
It seemed that the place she was thrown into was plunged by a never-ending war, a place that was well suited for the battle to obtain this domain.
Deva was having an headache. She didn't know who the champions are or how many they are.
"Oh well, I better get informations about this place first then."
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