Chapter 81: G.O.L
Evan was caught off guard by what she said, but it didn’t take long before he started putting things together and figured out a bit more of what he’d gotten himself into.
He had already suspected from the very beginning that all of this had something to do with the heart, and he had been right. But who would ever have thought the heart belonged to the Goddess of Life? More importantly, who would ever have imagined the Goddess of Life was still alive?
’Great. Just what I needed. And what if she comes after me for destroying the cocoon?’ he thought, wondering whether there would be consequences for what he had done.
There had been a reason he did it, partly because the System had made him do it, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be consequences. Normally, when the System assigned a mission, there were no serious repercussions. But this was different. They were talking about a goddess here. One who was apparently still alive.
Who knew what would come of this.
The woman, seeing Evan’s expression, seemed to understand exactly what was running through his mind. Her smile remained as she spoke.
"Don’t worry, I don’t bite... well, unless you’re into that kind of thing, I don’t mind," she said, sending Evan’s mind into overdrive with thoughts that were anything but PG-13.
"Ahm, I’m just a little surprised by all of this. I take it you’re the Goddess of Life?" he said, deciding to put an end to the confusion and start getting some actual answers about the strange situation he had found himself in.
Hearing his words, the woman didn’t respond immediately. Instead she studied him with a contemplative gaze before slowly shaking her head.
"Hm... your soul is strange. It’s similar to what I remember, but at the same time different. Really strange," she said, adding more questions than answers.
’Different from what she remembers? What does she mean? Have we met before? Can you be a bit less vague?’
Evan was, of course, even more confused than before. And just as he was about to ask for clarification, the reality around him began to tremble.
He could feel it starting to collapse, as though whatever had created this space could no longer sustain it.
And sure enough, moments later visible cracks began appearing everywhere, while everything around him started to blur and fade.
Evan wasn’t sure what had triggered the change, but his mind in that moment was focused on one thing only, the woman.
He wanted to ask more about what she meant by those words, and what he was supposed to do with the heart, but she spoke before he could.
"It seems we’re out of time. It doesn’t matter, we’ll have the chance to meet again very soon," completely unfazed by the reality crumbling around her.
She looked at him with a more serious expression now, the traces of playfulness gone from her eyes.
"Until then, try to stay alive."
And with those last words the reality around him collapsed entirely, and at the same moment a sharp pain jolted Evan awake.
"What the-,what’s happening," he gasped, snapping upright as a searing pain tore through his chest, growing stronger with every second.
At that exact moment, familiar sounds from the System began resonating in his mind as notifications appeared before him.
[Ding! External force detected striking the Host. Analyzing...]
[New divine fragment detected. Absorption in progress...]
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You have obtained the Divine Fragment of Life.]
As the System’s messages rang through his head, the pain in his chest kept intensifying.
It was strong enough to make thinking difficult, but through all of it he managed to read the notifications, and understood one thing immediately.
He had obtained the Divine Fragment of the Goddess of Life, and not through the usual method he was accustomed to.
He immediately used his mana to scan his body and quickly noticed something.
His heart.
’This... this isn’t my heart.’
***
Only a few minutes had passed since the six sovereigns had activated the formation, and from the moment they had, the battle between the being partially emerged from the rift in the sky and the woman of flames had been ferocious.
Overlords were, by nature, considered walking calamities. Their power was destructive enough to devastate vast stretches of territory, but the Paragons surpassed even that.
They no longer merely caused destruction, they could completely alter entire regions.
A forest would vanish after one of their attacks. The sky would split open. The land itself would be uprooted, all of it caused by nothing more than their normal strikes.
If they truly committed everything to their attacks, entire territories risked being permanently altered, the effects of the battle remaining for centuries at minimum.
And that was exactly what was happening now.
The enormous hand, sensing the woman’s formidable power, struck back, and the mere collision of the two forces pulverized the remaining rubble across the surface of what was left of the great Stump.
Enormous chasms could be seen splitting the ground, the earth torn apart into gaping rifts.
All of them scorched black, many still burning even though there was nothing left to burn.
The sky itself had turned orange, dark clouds saturated with two distinct energies swirling within them, one a convergence of various elements revolving around fire, and one the unmistakable trace of void energy, both clashing violently against each other.
Although barely a few minutes had passed since the battle began, the entire area was already unrecognizable.
The five exhausted sovereigns had already cleared the area, forcing all civilians several kilometers away to prevent casualties. Now all they could do was watch, and with every passing second, their expressions grew darker.
"How is that creature still holding on?" said the King of Solren, watching as the being, only one arm of which had even emerged from the rift, continued to hold its ground against the woman of flames.
It should be noted that she was already close to the peak of SS-Rank following the activation of the formation. At the highest Ranks, the gap between stages was simply abyssal, an early stage against a Mid stage would be a crushing, one-sided defeat. She was already at the peak. So how was she still struggling against that thing?
Just how powerful was that being?
