Chapter 974: [∞]

Chapter 974: [∞]



Mary reached the carriage and poked her head through the back door, "Dear Arad, are you here?" she asked with a smile, her eyes scanning the place. A dead monster bear is in the

middle, three girls are sitting on one side, one of them being a cleric, and the large man with a chest covered in bandages must be Arad Orion.

Chloe gasped, "Priestess!"

"You've done a great job, girls. I'll handle him from here onward." Mary looked at Arad, "Would you mind coming with me? Can you move?"

Arad looked at her, leaning on the carriage's wall. "I can move, but I'm not going anywhere." He looked at the bear, "I need a bit of money and I own a share in this bear."

Chloe looked at him, "We said you can take the whole bear. You're the one who killed it."

Arad shook his head, "But you also saved my life. You'll fail the quest if I take the bear, right?" Arad looked at the priestess, "Jimmy said that the guild doesn't like those who get others to finish their job."

"With you being involved? I guarantee the guild won't have a problem." Mary looked at him, "You don't have to worry about anything. As a blessed man of our goddess, we'll make sure you're provided with everything you need."

Arad sighed with an exhausted and disappointed face. "I see...she's smarter than I thought." He looked toward Mary, "She probably thought of this."

"The goddess is all-knowing, her knowledge surpasses all." Mary said with a longing smile. "She asked me to suck her toes..." Arad glared at Mary, "She meant it figuratively, you're her toes that I must suck to stay alive and make progress. I reject that fact."

"It's just an extended helping hand. Babies can't survive without their mother's milk, and so we mortals can't survive without the gods who created the world for us." She extended her hand to Arad, "Would you refuse a helping hand?"

"If you think for a second that I won't bite the hand that chained me down, you're either a fool or a bigger fool." Arad stood and grabbed the bear's carcass with one hand, dragging it outside of the carriage.

"I see..." Mary nodded, looking at Arad with a passive face. "Then, would you mind if I tagged along?" She approached him, "I'll provide exceptional healing in exchange for protection and a share in bounties. What do you say?"

Arad stopped and looked at her, "Like an adventurers' party? No, they are called hunters here, right?"

"Indeed, and of course, you're the squad's leader." She smiled and Arad sighed, "Fine, I won't mind that."

"So I can stay as long as I'm not trying to provide you with everything?" She tried her head and whole torso, looking at Arad's face as he was bent over the bear's carcass, inspecting it.

"I don't take charity, especially from that woman." He stood, "Jimmy, how should we deal with this now?" He called and Jimmy who was talking with the guards stared back at him. "The guards would bring a carriage to transport the kill safely into the guild. We then have the guild assess and split the rewards."

"Heard him." Mary poked Arad's back with one finger, "While they do that, would mind coming with me to the church? I want to perform a divine healing on you." She smiled, "Wouldn't want the one supposed to protect me to be injured."

Arad glared at her and she giggled, "Calm down, it usually costs money to use greater heal, but since I'm in your party, the costs are included in my share." She looked back over the wooden wall at the towering tower of the church. "But keep in mind, divine healing can only be cast inside a church. It will completely rid you of diseases, injuries, and curses though."

[Worry not, it can't get rid of your curses. Unless I want it to do it.] Yog was still living rent- free in Arad's head, narrating and commenting on everything.

Arad stood, "Let's go." Hearing his agreement, Mary went to the guard's tower and brought a massive backseat for him to cover himself and called a private carriage of the church. It was the carriage used to transport corpses to the cemetery, but it'll do.

Vasilissa slowly looked toward Nyar, "That woman you tried to touch, she's my son's wife, my daughter-in-law." She said with a calm tone, each word causing everyone to feel strangely relaxed.

"I know." Nyar replied, "Instead of killing Arad, breaking him is the better option. That way I

can absorb his power from his broken soul." He slowly lifted his hand, "Having so many wives, leaving me so many weaknesses to strike, he is still as gentle and naive as I

remember."

"Nyar, emperor of the abominations. You're a being as strong as the overgod, if not stronger. But do you know what Orion means?" She stood and took a step toward him. "Orion the hunter, it's a druidic constellation. The alignment of stars in the shape of a hunter." He replied, "Names aren't worth anything, they only facilitate communication." Vasilissa smiled, "I'm glad, I would've been disappointed if you knew." Her hands started to slowly move. "Orion isn't my family name, it's a nickname that I got." As her hand slowly moved, flashes of memories sparked in Nyar's head.

Millions of worlds, endless colonies of abomination violated, burned, and eaten alive by a voracious beast. They begged, prayed, and called for the emperor, but their pleads couldn't escape their throats in the endless void.

He had spent centuries counting the damage the void dragons did to his ranks, but all of his numbers were wrong. The damage was far greater than he thought. He only knew of a

hundredth of what he lost.

He started shaking with rage and surprise, how had he forgotten about this bitch before him?

No, it was fitting, Vasilissa, that means a queen, an empress. And the nickname she got, Orion

meant a hunter.

When Vasilissa took one step, he took two steps back.

"Trying to run away?" She growled, "Not before I drag your brain across the stars." She and Nyar found themselves standing on a glass-like ground in the middle of the empty space, beneath the glowing stars.

Nyar looked up, seeing a titanic, super-massive black hole dominating the sky. Vasilissa had

already changed her clothes, wearing a tight fit that resembled that of Kunoichi, and stood beneath the black hole.

"You nameless daughter of a whore!" He roared, "How didn't I notice it?!" His body started

crackling with magic.

Vasilissa Orion, the name translates directly into the empress hunter. She was a nameless void drakaina, their queen, and the one who had been eating at Nyar's armies for thousands of years. Like the void, she herself, her prey, and even her own achievements were swallowed by

the void, turning into nothing.

No one knew who she was, no one knew how powerful she was, and not even Nyar could know

of what didn't exist.

"No past, no future, no present, endless, emotionless, limitless void." She slowly raised her blade, "I've carved and carved in silence for eternity, a thankless job." Her eyes slowly moved to look at Nyar.