Chapter 195: A Champion’s Divine Quest.

Chapter 195: A Champion’s Divine Quest.

I am sorry. I shouldnt have raised my voice like that, regardless of the situation. Venting my anger at you like that was just childish and inconsiderate, especially when you made the effort to warn me of the danger. Also, thank you very much for helping Ellaine and for accepting our rather selfish and, honestly, risky idea. The first thing I did after the piece of Ellaines spirit had left Aurenas divine realm and rejoined her body was to apologize to her personally for my rude outburst and thank her for helping Ellaines demon problem.

If youre mad about it, I can understand. Although, uhm, I pray youre not that super angry at me

However, Aurena dismissively waved her hand as if there was nothing to apologize for and continued speaking with her smiling poker face. There is no need to worry about it, Hestia. I wasnt exactly angered, more surprised, as this is the first time any mortal spoke so roughly to me. Sure, sometimes the prayers to me do have unpleasant topics attached to them, but my angels usually remove them before I read them.

Urgh Was she a sheltered goddess or was I just overthinking this? Then again, considering how she handled the demon and viciously destroyed Lusts original body right in front of us, maybe my complaints werent worth minding, like a kid letting out a tantrum in front of an adult.

Regardless of the reason, getting away scot-free for shouting at a goddess is good enough. Gives me the chills to imagine her being more hot-headed, urgh.

With that out of the way, it was time to finally talk business. Sure, Aurenas relationship with the demon was interesting to me, as well as the fact that the demon was pretty much a demigod, but I was seeing flashbacks of Aurena being actually angry the moment the demon mentioned something about her. She obviously did not want to talk about it, so lets leave it be.

In any case, it should be I who should apologize, Hestia. Despite the circumstances, I pretty much did forget about KleaHatmas racial abilities, which left you in a precarious situation and led to your friends rings to be infected by Lusts mana, Aurena reciprocated my apology with her own, reminding me of how the demons arm erupted from its prison and attacked me.

I shook my hands, forcing a wry smile to show it was water under a bridge. Its alright, I hate to admit it, but the demon was right, it did save Ellaines life in the fight. Haa, I wish Kargrxymor had just told Astalos to call off the escort business. We wouldnt have gotten in this situation if he had just said something.

Astalos was a wyvern and a follower of Kargryxmor. If Aurenas statement also applied to subordinate gods, that the gods could see through the eyes of their followers, then couldnt Kargryxmor have said something to stop him from trying to kill everybody? It wouldnt have caused that near wipe in our fight against the Boltreaver Wyvern.

As I was sighing at how negligent my grandpa was, Aurena's smile suddenly disappeared and she looked at me with serious eyes. No, the blame does not belong with Kargryxmor in this case. The one responsible for the wyvern continuing his pursuit was none other than me.

Huh? My eyes widened.

This was a test and a valuable source of experience for you now that you had reached rank B before your maturation. Kargryxmor wanted to call it off, but I decided you needed this challenge. You have been growing magnificently, but even with all your allies, the road before you is not without shadows. Aurenas gaze was entirely devoid of kindness and warmth, bringing the uncomfortable belief that she wasnt an entirely kindhearted goddess. Considering she came from the same place as that demon of lust, I shouldve been more on my guard.

T-Then Ellaine

Banish that thought, Hestia. This was officially a divine test; thankfully, Elder Plesia gave me permission for it, allowing me to intervene. Kargryxmor and I were already prepared to stop the fight and protect every member of Aurora if it was necessary. Your journey has just begun, after all, and I was not willing to set you back so much under my own terms. Although, you had faced enough close calls in your one year of Peolyncian life, challenges which I was not allowed to do anything about, unfortunately. She had adopted an apologetic look but I was still unnerved by everything.

T-Then Astalos was sent against me just to act as an experience bag? He died just for that?! I was baffled at what Aurena had revealed, showing a side of her personality that was a far cry from how she acted during the previous two discussions I had with her.

In the first place, it was the wyverns choice. Kargryxmor had already annulled the Divine Quest, but Astalos had continued on despite that, desperately wishing for power. This is no excuse. Hestia, let me reiterate this once more for you to understand, for becoming my champion and agreeing to help me reform my church, I told you I would aid you in every way I could, Aurena sighed deeply, her eyes looking tired. As much as I want to act compassionate and kind exactly as my followers imagine me to be, mercy without strength or influence is nothing more than a wasted dream. If this side of me scares you, Hestia, then I apologize once more, but with your future enemies, you cannot allow yourself to let your guard down.

It was scary. What a god thought of their mortal followers was incomprehensible to me, although sometimes I imagined it would be similar to humans looking at our pet dogs while enemies would be similar to ants to somebody like Aurena. Astaloss life was fuel for me, Aurenas champion, to become stronger, just a trial to overcome and grow from.

Aurenas switch from a smiling to a serious expression and then to her currently exhausted look made me wonder what was going through her head. Is Aurena hiding her ruthless side behind a poker face or was this just another layer of Aurenas true personality? Something she was not comfortable sharing with her normal worshippers?

Its fine. In the end, I decided to stay calm about it. The last thing I want to do is another childish fit. If you can keep your promise of being truthful to me and sending me to visit Earth once more, then Im alright with it. Scary as it was, I expected it a little bit from a god. Just, please, could you not endanger my party again? We already cause ourselves enough trouble.

I cant promise that, but Ill try.

After Aurena sipped her tea, smiling once again, she projected a screen on the table, showing a map. From how much Ive educated myself of this world, I knew this was Peolynca. A red spot kept blinking, glowing and dimming over time, on the far west of the continent Altrust. From its position, north of it was a mountain range and to the west was a giant forest area. This was the Kingdom of Artorias.

As you should know, this is the map of this world. The red dot is where your soul is right now the Kingdom of Artorias. Have you perhaps learned where the Holy State Aureolis is? The capital of my churchs faith? I nodded and pointed at a small country southwest of Artorias, surrounded by five others including Artorias. Like a wall, this place seemed important as it began to light up after I pointed at it.

Correct. Aureolis, a country made in my honor after the old faith of this world clashed against the new, brought about a large increase of faith to me. As you might expect, I did not start out as the patron goddess of the humans; it happened over time as more and more humans favored my magic over those of my elders. The human religions most fitting to mine merged into one, forming the current Church of Aurena.

Aurena had also told me of how not every human in the world revered her as their patron goddess. Some preferred other origin gods, others only prayed to her subordinate gods, and a minority were either godless, those who did not pray to any of the established gods or pantheons, or preferred to pray to the old gods.

Peolynca actually had gods before the Origin Gods came? I thought you six were called that way because you were the first actual gods to appear before the Peolyncians, I asked, wondering about this inconsistency.

Oh, we are the first. When I mentioned old gods, I meant what the Peolyncians used to worship before we came. None of them were technically gods, but were in the process of apotheosis due to all the faith they garnered. Once we arrived, the only way for them to ascend was to become our subordinates, Aurena explained. To become a god, the amount of faith you require is extremely vast, but the moment your followers are gone, all of that progress would disappear like that, she explained with a snap of her fingers.

I wonder how many would-be gods were crushed after the Origin Gods appeared and stole everybody away with the Divine System. Well, its not my problem, but its hard to hear of so many ambitions crushed like this.

As I was wondering about what I just learned of the world before the Origin Gods appeared, Aurena then pointed at a huge landmass in the east of Altrust. The Folschreck Empire, I answered, to which she nodded.

Do you know about The Home of the Holy Emperor of Light yet? Aurena asked, but I shook my head. I only knew it was the country where I could get one of the ingredients for Farrons medicine as well as the place that 15 members of Saoris students went to.

Aurena nodded, Have Eshe explain to you about the details of the Folschreck Empire. Also, I asked her to teach you about the intricacies of my church. This should also be a good way for the two of you to bond a bit, seeing as you two are my latest champion and saint respectively.

So, Aurena did send her to Artorias for this reason.

Allies?

Do you understand why you were born as a dragon princess? Why I thought working with Kargryxmor was the correct choice? Can you guess, Dragon Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargrxymor? The youngest of a prestigious line and the daughter of the only two living SS rank dragons? Aurena winked, assuming I had already something in mind.

I said the first word I thought of. Connections.

It was the most obvious answer ever but Aurena smiled.

I have two extremely powerful parents, parents able to level a whole country if they wanted to. I have a whole dragonewt clan on my mother's side willing to become my ally, if my niece is to be believed. If I can rally Kargryx, Loatryx will rally, too. The levianewts, elves, and dwarves all are allies with Kargryx, so they might consider my words more carefully since I am a dragon princess.

Your goal right now is to gain allies and reach maturity. You need to reach A rank, or possibly even S rank, in order to become a real threat to the demonkins. You need to bring the dwarves, elves, dragonewts, and levianewts to care about humanity again. Considering how much the demonkins are preparing to cause the downfall of the empire, you need to prepare your own faction, too, Aurena gave me more concise instructions. In addition, the rest of Aurora must become stronger as well. They may go down their current road or they may ask for the help of my elders. The other Origin Gods cannot help me with my issue without a champion willing to fight for this cause. I wont force your friends to do so, after all, I would like to believe you are enough.

Of course, all of this sounded like a bunch of politics and diplomacy, something I wasn't anywhere good at. I could cast spells, fight well, bake, and do idol stuff. Politics? I barely followed them when I was still in the US. I get nervous whenever I speak with a noble and I just feel uncomfortable inside an etiquette-focused environment.

It was good news that Aurena did not expect me to do this all alone, but this was still crazy. How am I supposed to do this? I cant speak with foreign dignitaries like an orator, and I dont think anyone else in my party could do it perfectly, either. There was no way for me to-

Wait!

Ahh, it seems youre starting to understand, dear. Hestia, I did not choose an idol for nothing, Aurenas smirk almost seemed like it was laughing at me for being so slow.

I was reminded of how I became suspicious of how [Idol] and [The Light] fitted together perfectly. I remembered how Aurena didnt fully explain why she needed an idol exactly, outside of rebuilding her church. When the reason dawned on me, I finally understood.

To rebuild my church, it does not require you to be a spiritual leader. An entertainer, a celebrity can bring people from different backgrounds together just by having them enjoy your content. That is what I learned from Earths culture after doing my research. Cultural and political barriers can be crossed using a medium of entertainment in this case, music, Aurena explained.

I might not be able to fully get away from doing diplomacy, but in order to get the elves, dwarves, levianewts, and dragonewts to want to help the humans in the first place, there has to be something to bind them together. I then went through all the background benefits Aurena handed to me. My social status is required to initiate diplomacy with open minds, while my musical skills are there to help people bond together. If the demonkins do not threaten anybody besides the humans, the other races can simply ignore the problem, since theyre still carrying a grudge over the past events during the War for the Faefolk. I am the glue.

Your singing is not only a religious tool to help you garner followers under your banner, but it is also there to soothe relationships. A person able to rally the populace can not be ignored by a countrys leader. This was the case when my religion became larger, the people in power had to take notice. With me finally understanding what I had to do, Aurena clapped her hands. I believe you need some time to think this over. This talk has gone lon-

Wait a minute! I raised my hand before this discussion ended. I had this question for a while, but I remembered how you said you couldnt take physical objects from the mortal realm. Only copy them. How did you destroy the demons body like that? I thought you also needed God Marsven to unlock his seal.

Oh, I didnt pull your orb from your storage, Hestia. I tilted my head in confusion. I had already gotten permission to unlock Elder Marsvens seal. When I opened that crack in space, I used his seal to unlock the orb and I then took out the demons soul. The main body was KleaHatmas soul. The only way for KleaHatmas race to die is to either vaporize every single cell or to destroy their soul.

Then why was it in the form of an orb?

Elder Marsvens seal stuffed the demons soul into the orb, and the demon needed mana to regenerate its body. If you ask why he did not destroy it, then blame his slothfulness. He most likely would have become the God of Sloths if he wasnt considered someone on par with Elder Plesia in our previous world. At this current moment, Elder Plesia and his wife, Goddess Edna, are most likely scolding him. Aurena then placed her hand on her forehead, sighing so deeply it felt like she was exasperated. The ball KleaHatma used to be imprisoned in is still in your storage, but it is just a normal gemstone now. Also, there is no need to worry about KleaHatma in her current form. Even if you touch the rings or her body parts, nothing will happen. Just dont allow her to corrupt Ellaines soul.

Im just gonna pull this flag out of the ground. Nothing will happen to Ellaine while a member of Aurora is around.

Aurena then clapped her hands together, finishing this discussion. My part is done, now it is time for the second part.

Second part?

Yes. I shall take my leave now. Have fun with your grandfather, dear. Waving me goodbye, Aurenas body turned into light particles and shot up in the sky like a pillar. As I was flabbergasted at the situation, a dark particle cloud suddenly appeared in a vast, empty area. It began growing and growing, to the point it almost seemed like a mountain to me.

Greetings. An older mans voice suddenly filled Aurenas divine realm, booming inside my mind as my jaw dropped the moment the particles formed a body.

Black wings, black scales, and a humanoid body standing on two legs. Imposing and intimidating, this giant had his arms crossed together as his full appearance appeared before me.

Kargrxymor?!

Hestia. His red eyes glared down at me and I could feel my soul quivering in response. My fight-or-flight instincts were activated but I couldnt move a single muscle every bit of my soul was paralyzed in fear. As I looked up at the mountainous monster, I couldnt utter a single word.

Oh no, oh no, what is he gonna do?! I ignored him so often he has to be so fucking mad! So fucking mad!

As the silence continued with nobody speaking, Kargryxmor opened his mouth once more, It is great to finally meet and speak with you, my cute granddaughter Hold on. Kargryxmors neck snapped his head to the side as his scales began to form a frown on his face.

What?! Huh?! What did he just call me?!

He turned his head back to me, mimicking the intimidating glare he had before. It is great to finally meet and speak with you, my descendant. You have left me waiting.

Did this old man just call me cute?!