“Violet.”
Suddenly, a familiar call came to her ears. The girl turned to look, only to find herself in an endless void, with the goddess with green hair and eyes standing beside her, her expression grave.
“Sethlin? Where are we? Did you also hear... what just happened?”
“This is the divine consciousness space, formed by the convergence of our souls, a place independent of the world, where we communicate with each other through consciousness. Violet, what you just heard was the prayers brought by the power of faith...”
After briefly explaining the current situation, Sethlin fell into silence without immediately continuing. After a while, she sighed softly.
“It seems we’ve both misunderstood some things.”
“Mm...”
“Sethlin, how much do you know about the Abyss... the world of Aibus?”
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After pondering for a moment, the goddess shook her head.
“Not much. Aibus is a world similar to the mortal realm, but also different in some ways. The laws there are slightly different from this world. As I mentioned before, due to the limited capacity of the world channels, it’s difficult for gods to move freely between the two worlds.”
“When I was still the Goddess of Earth, I once tried to exert effort to send my divine consciousness avatar to that world a few times. It’s a barren world, and the inhabitants struggle to survive in harsh conditions. I couldn’t bear to see that, so I used my power to build basic shelters for them. Perhaps because of this, there have been many sects worshiping the Goddess of Earth in that world.”
“But crossing the world barrier is too troublesome, and the amount of faith that can reach this world, accepted by my main body, is very limited. Simply put, it’s not worth it. You know, the blessings of the gods are not without cost.”
“That world itself seems to lack the existence of gods like we have here, nor does it have as many races and numbers as the mortal realm. It’s mostly inhabited by beings that outwardly resemble humans, but due to the harsh environment, the population is not large.”
“As I told you before, the individual combat power in the world of Aibus is generally weak, possibly due to the influence of its laws. There’s no magic or the like. Instead, they rely on mechanical devices and biotechnology. The so-called ‘Doomsday Bombardment’ is the pinnacle of their technology, possessing destructive power close to that of the gods.”
Upon hearing this, Violet couldn’t help but furrow her brow.
If Aibus was a tech-oriented world similar to Earth, everything Sethlin said makes complete sense. It’s normal for the people to admire gods who suddenly appear with incredible powers, especially after bestowing blessings. But when combined with what she had heard in the prayers earlier, the whole thing takes on a completely different meaning.
Considering the number of voices in those prayers, there must be quite a few followers of the Goddess of Earth in the world of Aibus. If their population is truly much smaller than the mortal realm’s, they might be similar to the Goddess Sect here, or even more dominant.
Previously, they mentioned a “world on the brink of breaking,” and they saw this invasion as “saving the Goddess of Earth.” And upon further consideration, throughout the entire catastrophe, aside from the god-made beasts created by Sethlin and the most powerful Doomsday Bombardment, there hasn’t been any appearance of natives or technological power from the world of Aibus...
Lastly, there’s the mention in their prayers more than once of the “Divine Envoy.”
This subtle déjà vu...
“Sethlin, have you figured something out?”
Looking up, Violet questioned the goddess, who, with tens of thousands of years of experience, was also starting to sense something. Or perhaps... she just wanted to confirm a certain speculation.
“...Deception and concealment.”
Sethlin uttered these two words with a solemn expression.
“It seems to be the case.”
The key to the problem lies with those so-called divine envoys.
Sethlin, who once served as the Goddess of Earth, had previously stated that she had only sent her divine consciousness to that world a few times in her early years and hadn’t paid much attention to the followers and sects of Aibus. Furthermore, after being sealed for a thousand years, Withering only managed to break free in recent years. So where did these “divine envoys” come from?
Facing the Goddess of Withering, Sethlin mentioned that the technology from the “Abyss” had issues, containing a subtle form of mental contamination. But how could the people of Aibus, who primarily worshipped the Goddess of Earth and considered her their only deity, possibly commit such an obvious blasphemy against their worshipped deity?
The answer is obvious.
Some force was interfering, deceiving, and exploiting the world of Aibus, secretly tampering with the technology dedicated to the Goddess of Earth.
The people of Aibus believed they were saving their goddess, who they thought had been framed and sealed by enemies, and eagerly awaited her return. In reality, in this world, they brought destruction time and time again with the Doomsday Bombardment and ravaging “Abyssal creatures.”
Both worlds were deceived.
As for the specific motives of those individuals... Violet wasn’t sure yet. But it was clear that the people of Aibus were being used as scapegoats and shields.
However, those individuals surely didn’t anticipate the sudden appearance of Violet, who swiftly defeated and sealed the Goddess of Withering they had carefully plotted to release. So their goals were probably not fully realized, or at least not yet.
But Aibus... this world dubbed the Abyss by the mortal realm, after having its channels sealed and its connection with the gods severed, where does it go from here?
“Violet, what are you thinking?”
With a wry smile, the black-haired girl looked up at the goddess who had already regained her composure.
“Sethlin, they’re asking for your help, aren’t they? Are you really so heartless, willing to watch this world fall into despair and destruction?”
As if sensing something, the goddess with green hair and eyes also smiled.
“They’re calling for the Goddess of Earth Seth, what does it have to do with me, the Goddess of Life Sethlin?”
“Besides... it’s not that I don’t want to help. As I mentioned before, traversing the dimensional barriers as a deity is extremely difficult. Even if I manifest my divine consciousness, it will incur great losses. Cultivating and nurturing the divine tree has already cost me a lot of power. Even if I were to forcefully descend into that world again, the extent of what I can do would be very limited.”
“Right, right, so what’s your point?”
Faced with someone pretending to be ignorant, Sethlin looked helpless. She knew that the black-haired girl in front of her just wanted to hear that sentence.
“So, can I ask you for help, even if it’s just my request? It’s not just one or two individuals, but the entire world’s creatures. Even if some are at fault... most of them are innocent. I really can’t do anything right now...”
The priestess put her hands on her hips, feigning impatience.
“Okay, okay, I get it. It means you have the intention but lack the ability, right? You... You’ve already turned back into a goddess, but why do you always drop the ball at critical moments?”
“Isn’t that because there’s a more reliable Miss Violet around~”
“Tch...”
Violet let out an incomprehensible hum from her throat. She knew Sethlin’s personality well. If it wasn’t absolutely necessary, she wouldn’t delegate such matters to others. After all, she was the Goddess of Life, a genuinely benevolent deity.
As for Violet herself, while she didn’t have strong feelings about the life or death of a few individuals, or even a group of strangers, she still felt a twinge of reluctance at the thought of watching an entire world plunge into destruction and suffering.
Perhaps, the countless prayers they had heard before had touched her in some way.
Only prayers filled with genuine sincerity could reach the ears of the gods through the power of faith. So the cries and lamentations they had heard earlier couldn’t have been fake.
It seemed likely that the world of Aibus was truly facing some sort of imminent destruction, which necessitated pleading for divine salvation.
With the channels between the two worlds about to be completely closed, if they wanted to do something, they had to act now.