Chapter 507 (2): Come Back, My Goddess

“Say something, Rognes!”

“I’ve been... arrogant.”

Rognes shook his head. He was such a man of integrity that he always blamed himself rather than others.

“I agree.” Wayne nodded. “I told you about Grau back in the underground catacombs. If you had reached out to him, you wouldn’t have been put in such a difficult position in the Divine Realm.”

Rognes shook his head wryly. Proving a speculation right or wrong required capital. Wayne had enough capital to confront Grau openly, but Rognes didn’t. He couldn’t defeat a subordinate god with Authority, so he didn’t dare make the bet. At the time, caution had been necessary.

“That conversation can wait,” Grau reminded them. “It’s time to awaken the goddess.”

While saying that, he swung his eight black bands around to tie Juvian into a rice dumpling. Then he tossed them out of the twelfth level, having the demigods on watch outside keep an eye on them.

Wayne’s abuse had left Juvian unable to maintain their energy form, and the critical hit their thoughts had taken prevented them from waking up any time soon.

Even if they woke up, it would be fine. The Great Prison of the Forgotten had no shortage of sealing methods. If the Goddess of Nature refused to pay up, Juvian would be living the rest of their life in a tiny single cell.

The Temple of Eternity wasn’t a standalone building but a large area of palaces. The palaces were all black, with intricate, complex symbols etched on every wall. They symbolized the final destination of the souls.

Wayne and his three companions entered a palace and went down a long, winding corridor. After some time, they found a large black door slowly opening at the end of the corridor. On the other side was a vast, seemingly infinite main hall, with a smattering of star-like glowing dots on the tall dome. It appeared as if the most distant river of stars in the night sky had rushed down and illuminated the space that belonged not to the living.

In the center of the hall, a black lake that represented the water of the River Styx sat quietly, with a path of white jade leading to the heart of the lake. The unassuming black throne was empty. Behind it stood a prism-shaped coffin that resembled a black crystal.

Just like the black ocean outside, the black lake was home to a dense layer of greenery. The throne and even the crystal coffin radiated verdant energy.

Death and Nature had come together and formed a cycle of life.

Wayne frowned at the sight, muttering, “I don’t know what the goddess is thinking. If this is part of Her plan, what’s the deal with Nature’s information? Should we trim the weeds at Her tomb before waking Her up?”

He didn’t hear the typical response from a vermin he was familiar with. Turning around, he found Grau standing with Rognes and Saigner at a distance. They had not followed him.

“Why are you staying that far away?”

“That is the goddess’s divine throne,” Grau said. “We’re not qualified to approach it.”

“Do you even hear yourself?” Wayne snorted. “If you never get close to the divine throne or the goddess, how did you steal the authority of the Divine Realm back then?”

“That was then, and this is now. Things have changed!” Grau shrugged. He had completed his undercover work. If he repeated the same offense now, he would just be making trouble for himself.

“You vermin...” Wayne stared at the three at the door. It was one thing for Grau and Saigner to be too intimidated to approach the throne, but why would Rognes, the model of morality among them, stay away as well? Wayne was disappointed.

Wayne didn’t know Rognes’s pain. Rognes felt like he wasn’t needed after all his effort had turned out moot. It was out of shame that he couldn’t face the goddess, which was why he let Wayne lead the way. Then the goddess would only see Wayne when She opened Her eyes. She would see clearly who the greatest loyal subject and biggest contributor was at first glance.

“But I won’t know how to awaken the goddess if you don’t come over here!”

“...” x3

The statement was met with silence. The three didn’t know the answer, either.

“Fine. I’ll figure it out myself!”

Wayne walked around the throne and looked at the prism coffin from the blind spot of Rognes and co. It allowed him to do the unspeakable.

Inside the translucent black prism, the Goddess of Death, with long silver hair, stood in slumber.

“So She’s been doing pull-ups rather than sit-ups while being Schrödinger’s goddess. I thought wrong.” Wayne looked at Aztimor closely. This was technically his first time seeing a goddess—Ines didn’t count.

While Darkness frequented his bed and had become more and more skilled, even joining group activities Wayne arranged quite often, She had never descended with Her real body. Instead, She had been borrowing Anastasia’s and Vichy’s.

Moreover, She logged in by force every time and walked away patting Her belly after getting Her fill, without cleaning up after Herself. She had no manners.

Aztimor’s eyes remained closed in slumber, Her long lashes soft like grey velvet. Her delicate facial features were arranged into a faint smile. The grey robe She wore shimmered with starry light, as if it had been woven out of the night sky, deep and radiant. White threads formed intricate patterns on the hem of the robe, which pulsed along with starlight like the fabric itself were breathing, resonating with the green vines wrapping around the crystal coffin.

The goddess’s silver hair floated in the air, in tandem with the robe’s movement. Strands of hair hung suspended in the translucent crystal, creating the effect of time being put on pause the moment the goddess fell into the water. The serene image seemed to have transcended time, the frame frozen for an eternity. The dignified beauty was difficult to put into words.

“She does look similar to Saigner. When they stand together... Saigner looks like the older sister.”

Wayne had no faith, so he didn’t see the goddess’s unique temperament nor Her inviolable sanctity. Rubbing his hands together, he brushed the vines around the crystal prism aside and pressed his fingers to it, injecting his thoughts.

It was empty.

The body, he meant. It contained only minuscule thoughts, which had become suspended in the goddess’s slumber, reaching an eternal serenity. It rejected disturbance and interference. When Wayne tried to mold the thoughts, he failed because of the immutable property of eternity.

“I expected as much from a goddess. I cannot do anything even when She’s asleep.”

Wayne raised an eyebrow, unfazed.

He might not be able to corrupt the Aztimor in the Underworld, but the Aztimor outside the Underworld had already been molded into his shape. He just had to mix them into paste to turn Aztimor completely pale.

He couldn’t afford to wonder about what Death was planning, how far She had gone, what Her true nature was, and whether She was a good or bad woman. He put aside his reservation and actively corrupted Her thoughts.

The thoughts stored in his right eye flowed into the crystal prism through his hand, returning to Aztimor’s main body. The thoughts, which had resisted interference, slowly followed the lead of ‘themselves’ and turned pale.

Progress was slow.

Wayne narrowed his eyes. His fingers melted, then his thoughts rushed in alongside Aztimor’s thoughts, violently transforming Aztimor’s physical form. At the same time, he pushed the Authority of the Underworld to the max and injected his pale ocean into the twelve levels of the Underworld, shaping it from the inside out.

The Authority prevented anyone from picking up the disruptive changes the Underworld was going through. Not even Rognes, Grau, or Saigner knew that Wayne, the great hero who had saved the Underworld and won their full trust, was changing the goddess and the Divine Realm right this moment.

Rognes and Saigner, in particular, could be considered Aztimor’s children, yet they remained on guard outside the palace in case any troublemakers showed up, glancing at the divine throne every once in a while with anticipation.

How much longer is this going to take? x3

Half an hour later, Wayne wiped away the white foam on his forehead, nodding at his masterpiece with satisfaction.

He had reshaped the goddess.

Aztimor had not awakened, and Wayne couldn’t wake Her up. Death’s thoughts refused to get up, just like how Sukra had refused to get up from the sofa.

“Something is missing and needs to be filled...”

Wayne speculated about the conditions necessary for Aztimor to wake up. With a wave, he drew Shadow Nightmare, then, with the authority of the Divine Realm and the coordinates that Ines had provided, he locked onto his residence in Londan, the Chosen Land, and cast Shadow Nightmare.

In the back garden of his residence, Monica the black cat was strolling across the lawn, sniffing around before crouching down with a serious look on her cat face, in business mode.

Suddenly, Shadow Nightmare pierced through the void and landed right beside Monica. The black cat jumped back with her hackles raised, what had come out popping back into her body. Before she could take more than a few steps, a hand reached out and grabbed her by the nape, lifting her and vanishing from the back garden.

Meanwhile, Julia, who had been waiting for Monica in the sewers, looked up and saw through layers of space, zeroing in on Shadow Nightmare. Breathing purple flames out of her nose and mouth, she opened a portal and jumped in.

Do stared in shock. What was going on? They were going to play hide and seek once Monica was here. Why was everyone suddenly gone?

***

Outside the palace, Rognes, Grau, and Saigner heard a cat’s scream and a horse’s neigh. They turned to the divine throne curiously. Due to it being in their blind spot, they couldn’t see anything. Their respect for the goddess discouraged them from extending their thoughts.

“Julia...”

The familiar sound made Rognes perk up. His long leg bones were itching for a ride.

But he couldn’t do it.

He had entrusted the goddess’s thoughts to Wayne. If he rode the goddess’s incarnation without the goddess’s thoughts in his body, it would be an inexcusable desecration.

The only one who was qualified to ride Julia now was Wayne.

“Rognes, I heard a horse,” Grau said curiously. “Had you... kept an incarnation of the goddess, too?”

Rognes nodded. “The goddess gifted me a warhorse for my valiant contribution. Her name’s Julia. Just like the black cat you’ve sent to the mortal realm, she’s another incarnation.”

“So...” Grau raised a trembling hand. “Wayne and you... rode the goddess?”

“No, the goddess’s thoughts resided in me at the time, so that wasn’t sacrilegious to her!” Rognes insisted that the goddess was riding Herself, while he was merely a skeleton carrying the goddess’s thoughts. That was all.

Grau huffed wordlessly. He had placed the black cat in the human world, who later became the Lando family’s pet cat, Monica. Megan was her personal caretaker, while the Lando family was in charge of petting the cat—Vera and Kristen often engaged in the activity.

The Lando family consisted of Silvia and Veronica, from the Church of Nature, and Auston the Darkness Knight, with extra members Vera the Sun Knight, who often visited, and Kristen, a member of the Church of Moonlight. The goddess’s incarnation in the mortal realm had been thoroughly petted into a pile of cat by heretics.

Rognes had only ridden the goddess, while Grau had sent the goddess to a den of heretics. Going into the topic would be bad for Rognes, but even more so for him.

Grau had had no choice. The Underworld had been too dangerous with both Saigner and Sizorn threatening the goddess. Keeping the incarnation in the Underworld wouldn’t be safe. It was safer to send the incarnation to the Chosen Land.

(눈_눈)

The goddess’s incarnations? Thoughts? Saigner thought, feeling left out. You seem to be talking about something quite advanced. Why don’t you talk about something I can contribute to?

“Bah, Traitor!” Grau put an arm around Rognes’s shoulder, shooting pointed looks at Saigner and saying sarcastically, “Among the three of us, one hasn’t kept the goddess’s thoughts or been entrusted to look after Her incarnations. Guess who that is?”

Saigner held her chest and glared at Grau to shut him up.

“Congratulations!” Grau burst out laughing. “It’s you!”

“Quiet,” Rognes said. “Wayne’s doing something important. Do not disturb him.”

He pushed the elbow on his shoulder off, meeting Grau’s flippant remarks with a cold shoulder. He was even colder to his sister, Saigner.

He didn’t like Grau because their personalities didn’t mesh well. He disliked Saigner for an even simpler reason: traitors deserved no sympathy or clemency.

Behind the divine throne in the palace, Wayne was completing the last step of awakening Aztimor.

“Come back, my goddess!”