Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest - Chapter 1893: Revealing The Truth

Chapter 1893: Revealing The Truth

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“H-How is this possible?! Elayne?! B-But you… You died… didn’t you? What…?!”

Olivia stared in shock at the sight of Elayne alive and well. Her lips trembled as her heart pounded faster and faster. A wave of dread washed over her. For a fleeting moment, she feared the girls had violated the laws of alchemy itself and created some soulless, wicked homunculus in Elayne’s image.

She summoned her wand and pointed it at Elayne, her breath coming in heavy gasps. “She died, and there is no art capable of reviving a person! Who are you?! What have you done to these children?!”

“I-I…! P-Please calm down!” Elayne panicked, raising her trembling hands. “I mean no harm! Uwaah! Please calm down, Olivia! It’s me… I am a Heroic Spirit! I’m not some chimera or anything!”

“…?!” Olivia’s eyes widened, her eyebrows twitching. “A Heroic Spirit?! That’s impossible. How could Elayne ever be summoned as—”

“It’s true!” Elena cried, rushing in front of her mother. “I summoned her… by accident, when the Holy War began… over a week ago.”

“…What?” Olivia gasped. “E-Elena, you’re… you’re a Master participating in the Holy War? How could I not have guessed? I didn’t detect your presence, nor could I detect hers. Wait, how is this possible anyway?! People who died recently cannot simply be summoned as Heroic Spirits. It takes many years, or they must have done something incredible that etched them into history, or… made a deal…”

Olivia recalled the tale of a certain young man from an older Holy War. He had made a pact with the very Soul of the Planet, where the Root of History exists. Through that pact, he became a guardian of the planet, a Heroic Spirit. The deal had been made in a hypothetical future, and during that war someone had summoned his future self.

It was an event that had never been recorded again in history, and that young man had vanished after the Holy War ended catastrophically twenty-five years ago.

“I am not sure myself how it worked…” Elayne sighed. She decided not to reveal her secondary trait as a pseudo-Divine Spirit for now, as it would only raise even more questions. “But perhaps my history played a part. Because I sacrificed my life to save them, because I faced and opposed the corrupted Fairy King Oberon and the Demon King of Death from another world… the feat was significant enough to register me within the Root and History, within the Throne of Myths and Heroes.”

Olivia stood frozen, still processing the insane revelation. “But you are not completely Elayne, are you? Heroic Spirits are not literal reincarnations. They are copies of a person’s information and data stored within the Root of the World’s Soul.”

“…I cannot say anything about that, but I do remember everything until the moment I died,” Elayne muttered. “My soul… does feel different as well.”

“No, no, no. This… it doesn’t make sense…” Olivia said. “You are not just Elayne… you are also… something else.”

“…!”

Everyone suddenly turned their eyes toward Elayne, making Elena visibly uncomfortable.

“Well, that is not entirely untrue,” Elayne admitted. “I… well, I am also an aspect of Greek Myth’s Gaia.”

“Gaia?!” Olivia gasped. “G-Gods cannot be summoned unless they are very weak lesser gods or demigods! How could a Primordial Titan like Gaia ever be summoned?!”

“No matter how many times you ask how, it happened. I am the living proof of that, Olivia…” Elayne said softly. “I just want to get along. I was summoned here to protect my daughter and guide her for as long as this Holy War lasts. I want to be there for her and her friends… and hopefully win the Holy War and use the Wish-Granting Artifact to bring back those who died at the hands of the Demon King of Death.”

“Including you and your friends?” Olivia asked in disbelief. “I… I see…”

Olivia sat down heavily. Elena walked to her side and held her hand. “Master… I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I should have told you on the first day…”

“Elena…” Olivia sighed. “Ugh… I still don’t know whether to trust her or not…”

“She’s the real deal, Olivia.”

The room suddenly fell silent as a strong, deep voice echoed through it. Behind Olivia, the tall, muscular figure of an ancient King of Mesopotamia slowly materialized.

The man who appeared was unlike anyone Olivia had encountered in years. He radiated raw manliness and regal authority: tanned brown skin, a towering and powerfully built frame, a short black beard, long curly black hair, sharp golden eyes, a crown resting atop his head, and golden accessories adorning his chiseled, Herculean physique.

“Rider! I told you not to manifest out of nowhere! Agh, bollocks! Now they know!” Olivia complained, clicking her tongue. “You’re such a bloody bloke.”

“Bwahahaha! What’s wrong? Now that the cat’s out of the bag, what’s wrong with showing up? Nice to meet you, Ruler!” the man boomed. “I am Rider.”

“Rider?!” Elayne and Elena gasped in disbelief, followed by Elisa, Monica, and Anna.

“O-Olivia, you were a Master as well?” Elayne asked. “Unbelievable…”

“I came all this way just for that!” Olivia said. “And… I was doing it for you, you know?! I was going to wish for your return! Now… you’re back and it… it just feels so nonsensical. It makes me mad… I’ve already gone through two fights. First that damn werewolf with his immortal Berserker, and then that fairy woman… I never imagined this Holy War would be so dangerous. I feel like my father was right. I should never have gotten involved…”

“Olivia…” Elayne sighed. “So you did all this for me? I-I… I’m so sorry… I didn’t know…”

“It’s not your fault, Ruler.”

Suddenly, a soothing female voice echoed. Rider’s body dissolved into bright light and reshaped itself into a much smaller, feminine form: a woman of breathtaking beauty with clear brown skin, long white hair, and gentle blue eyes.

“HUH?!”

Everyone stared in shock as the old, muscular man transformed into a beautiful woman.

“W-What’s going on?!” Anna asked.

“You have two Heroic Spirits?” Elena asked.

“Ugh… no, it is not that,” Olivia sighed. “I guess I have no right to complain about you breaking any rules. I also have a weird, faulty Heroic Spirit. Now that you have said everything, I will tell you what it is… As you can see, both Heroic Spirits share the same vessel. It is an unprecedented anomaly, a glitch in the summoning ritual. Instead of the intended target I aimed for, the heroic King of Babylonia, Gilgamesh… I summoned the two figures who shaped his myth, his parents. His deified father, Lugalbanda, the Sumerian King of Uruk, Rider, and his beloved mother, the Dream-Seer Goddess Ninsun, who is Caster.”

“What? How can there be… two classes in one?” Elena wondered.

“Is this allowed?” Elisa asked.

“This Holy War is the strangest that has ever occurred in the history of Holy Wars,” Olivia continued with a heavy sigh. “A Ruler born from Elayne and… Gaia, an immortal Berserker connected to the Myth of God himself, what I believe might be a Foreigner, a class never seen before. And that is without even considering the Avenger whose presence I felt, or the other Caster who might be the origin of everything happening across central Japan right now. To be honest, Elayne… might not even be the strangest thing in this Holy War.”

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