Chapter 169 Next Destination

When Thea opened her eyes, she was surrounded by millions of broken weapons.

The sky above was shrouded in dark red clouds, and no matter where the young girl looked, she could not find traces of the sun.

"Holder of the divine, do you believe yourself worthy to inherit one of the six?"

Rising up from the fields of blades in front of Thea was a woman unlike any she had ever seen.

Her mothers were all extremely beautiful goddesses in their own right but she was... incomparable.

The woman was tall and muscular with long blood-red hair. Her body was adorned in dark grey armored that seemed to thrum and vibrate as if it were alive.

When Thea looked into the woman's eyes, they were purple with black sclera.

"Excuse me... Where am I? And what is one of six?"

The woman held out her arms and gestured to the space around her. "You stand in my divine realm. This entire place is subject to my will, my desire and my needs."

Thea looked at the world that was seemingly filled with broken swords and assumed that this woman was a very lonely person.

"The six endings are the most powerful weapons in tangible reality. They possess the ability to completely eradicate souls, preventing one from reaching the gates of heaven, the doors of hell or the well of reincarnation."

"Even a god king can only accept his fate if he is confronted by one of the six." The woman's explanation was clear and concise, leaving Thea with only one lingering question.

"Something that amazing... Can I really have it?"

"You may indeed... if you earn it." The woman did not want to sugarcoat things so she got straight to the point. "The training I will put you through will be hellish and there may be a great many times you wish to die. Your success can only be assured by your talent and your willingness to persevere."

When she heard the word 'die' Thea naturally became afraid.

What eleven year old wouldn't?

Internally, she wanted to ask this beautiful demonic woman to send her home.

She wanted to go home and train at her own pace while playing with her sister and mothers. She wanted to wait for her father to come home so she could sit on his lap and listen to stories about his old world.

But more than anything else, she wanted to protect her family and the home that they were building.

In the entire time she'd been with her family, she had never been asked to do anything.

Her parents doted on her and spoiled her to no end, and anything she could possibly need was given to her before she could even fix her mouth to ask for it.

As thankful as she was... she wanted to do something for herself for once.

If she allowed them, her parents would protect her for all of eternity without ever uttering a single complaint.

But Thea wanted to stand alongside her family, not behind them.

"I want to do it!" Thea clenched her fists and her bright blue eyes blazed with conviction.

It was a look that the woman who was to be her master sincerely appreciated.

"Alright, daughter of the dragon. Let's begin."

-

Abaddon and Malenia appeared side by side in the boss room of the dungeon with a large chest in front of them.

"Master... What is happening??" Malenia's head was spinning from all of the events that had taken place since she'd entered the dungeon.

"That was a test. I'm sorry you were subjected to danger, I honestly wasn't even expecting you to be taken in with me." Abaddon raised his hand and the chest in front of them trembled before three items came floating out.

"T-That's..." Malenia found herself unable to take her eyes off one of the rewards that resembled a small stone with a red symbol in the center.

"Master... is that really a-"

"It's a blood affinity stone, yes."

The stone silently floated towards Abaddon's outstretched hand and he promptly crushed it within his palm.

[ Affinity gained : Blood!

[ Skill learned : Hemokinesis!

[Skill learned : Blood Armor!

As Abaddon dismissed the notifications, Malenia was still struggling to pick her jaw up off the ground.

She felt like if she saw one more fantastical thing today, she was surely going to faint.

With his rewards collected, Abaddon wasted no time in heading to the portal that would take him to the outside world.

"Hurry. I want to get this done as soon as possible."

Despite her mounting shock, the fallen angel trudged behind her master and the two of them began flying toward the next dungeon.

Surprisingly, Malenia did not bombard him with questions.

She seemed to want to honor her earlier promise of silence and was doing her best not to break it.

Or perhaps she believed that if she remained silent, the chances of her receiving a better reward in the future would skyrocket.

Either way, it did not particularly matter when Abaddon could feel her staring holes into his back and hear her jumbled thoughts.

Eventually, the dragon sighed in defeat and decided to throw his loyal subordinate a bone.

"I promise to answer all of you questions later but for now, we need to get to the next dungeon by daybreak."

A smile formed on Malenia's face and she nodded in acceptance. "As you say master, let's not waste any time."

With their minds focused solely on flying, they were able to reach the site of the next dungeon by daybreak like they'd intended.

The dungeon of sacramental dread was a particularly famous place as it was the only dungeon to be formed in a cemetery on the outskirts of an abandoned town.

Unlike other dungeons, no one even bothered to guard this one since the fatality rate was so high. The number of adventures willing to endure what many believed to be certain death were few.

Landing on the ground, Abaddon and Malenia stopped just outside the swirling black and red portal.

"You should wait out here. I do not want you to be in harms way again." The gods were actually trying to kill him this time around.

The last thing he wanted was for them to succeed by using the life of his subordinate against him.

Malenia however did not understand that and she almost immediately became hysterical.

"Y-You can't leave me out here, master! A-And besides, I am not so fragile that I can't take care of myself!"

"...Are you afraid?"

"T-That's none of your business! But if you must know I just have a teensy tiny aversion to u-undead is all..."

Ever since they'd arrived, the fallen Angel had been absolutely terrified that something was going to pop out of one of these graves and grab her ankle.

So what if she was an evolved?! She was still allowed to be afraid!

"I-If I just stay with you, then I'll be fine!"

By this point, the demon simply did not want to waste any more time.

He begrudgingly allowed her to accompany him and the angel seemed positively overjoyed.

Malenia placed a hand upon his shoulder in the hopes that they would not be separated again and the two of them walked through the portal into the dungeon.