Chapter 242

Running away from the rest of the party, Brance led Gabby through the winding corridors of the Battle Arena until they left it behind them entirely and turned to look at the cute girl whose hand was firmly grasped by his.

“So, we have around an hour and a half until the other three get out of classes for the day; what do you want to do?”

“Hmm, I don’t know? Wait, is this a DATE? GASP, ARE YOU TAKING ME ON A DATE?” The moment the realization set in on Gabby, her eyes lit up, and she tucked a lock of chestnut hair behind her ear.

“Eh, I guess it is, so where do you wanna go for our err..first date.” Looking at his feet and smirking, Brance couldn’t help but realize how childish he seemed to be acting. It wasn’t like him to get flustered, especially when it came to matters of the opposite sex. Yet, for the first time in memory, he was flustered.

But for some reason, Brance didn’t dislike the feeling. Looking down at the significantly shorter girl standing beside him with bright eyes, he fought back the warmth appearing on his cheeks and smiled brightly.

★There is no time or use for interspecies relationships. Toss the girl aside and go back to training.★

A mysterious, ethereal voice he had heard several times before rang out in Brance’s head just as he was about to speak, causing him to flinch and his pupils to constrict. He couldn’t remember the first time this voice had begun talking to him, but Brance knew it was nothing good. So he did as he had for years and simply ignored it.

One thing was for sure, Brance had never spoken a word about this voice to his brother; if he had, Cynrik would have lost his shit. Brance knew that, but being just as stubborn as his older brother, he believed this was something he could handle on his own, without any outside help.

However, the more Brance chose to ignore it, the more frequently it would come into his head, and its speeches became more dangerous. In the beginning, the voice would try directing his training; when it realized it wasn’t working, the voice moved on to advising how to best control his Light Affinity, but Brance ignored it again.

After what happened with Cynrik back in the Egress, Brance was fully aware of what was happening; the voice was a manifestation of the Divinity Fragments given by Yahweh trying to take over his soul. As opposed to his brother, Brance never gave in to the madness or even humored the mysterious voice, unlike his brother, who had fought two spirits within his SOC. Instead, he would constantly ignore its words until it got bored and gave up.

★This human girl will only hinder your training, your soul is already showing signs of going astray from the path chosen by our Lord, the God of Light, and that is intolerable, as his word is the law.★

Once again, the voice chimed in, making Brance narrow his eyes as Gabby dragged him along to get a snack from one of the local food vendor stalls. Ignoring the blatantly racist remarks this voice was making, Brance allowed Gabby to choose whatever she wanted from a crepe stand while wearing a smile.

He was no stranger to annoying voices constantly playing in his mind, so Brance was relatively good at blocking them out; the only problem was whenever this voice spoke, it would cause a strange reaction beginning in his Codex. Like a pond rippling due to a stone being tossed in, Brance’s body would quiver uncontrollably for a split second as if it was rejecting his actions in not responding to this voice. Then, taking a deep breath and wrangling control over his body, Brance received his crepe and munched while watching Gabby bounce around excitedly.

“Can we go shopping? I want to pick up some more seeds, and im running low on notebooks? Big Bro Ivar had me taking wayyy too many notes between Affinities and History class, so I will need some more.”

“Sure, do you have enough Merit Points, or do I need to give you some extra?” Brance asked while guiding the girl away from the food stalls and towards a large and open park so they could snack under the beautiful scenery.

“It’s fine; I should have enough. I want to pick up some flower seeds and maybe some new tree saplings. I need to be careful because Big Sis Selly keeps getting on me about how many plants we have at home.” Tapping her chin in thought and looking to the sky, Gabby explained a little more about how in the beginning, when she learned her new Affinity, she was unable to control it properly and had experimented with dozens of tiny flowers and potted plants. The end result was their dorm room becoming a miniature forest preserve.

Playfully telling her story as the couple sat on a park bench, Brance couldn’t help but find the girl’s every movement adorable and humorous. At one point, Gabby accidentally swiped the whipped cream from her crepe against her nose, causing Brance to reach over and wipe it off with a napkin instinctively.

Even though his new life had been filled with danger and rigorous training, he had to admit that it was moments like these, where he could just relax, that he found most fulfilling. Still, in the back of his mind, Brance knew it was all only temporary with the presence of the voice. He, Cynrik, and Selene were worlds apart from the seemingly average everyday life that Gabby, Benny, or even the other students and couples walking around the park experienced.

With the impending threat of the Legacy Strife constantly hanging over his head, it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose, and he wasn’t sure if he could protect the innocent Gabby, whom he had grown fond of.

Nevertheless, Brance calmly surveyed the park; thanks to a magic array placed around the park, it was spring all year long, so the flowers and trees were in bloom, bringing life to a mountain that seemed lifeless and making Gabby look even more attractive.

“Brancie? Hellooo, are you ok? Whatcha thinking bout?” Gabby gently called Brance by his real name rather than his nickname, leaning close to his face and waving her hand in front of his eyes, making him snap out of his absent-minded state.

★The Strife’s growth phase is running out; your time is short young Seraph; you need to get your priorities straight. Wasting all this time will only result in the loss of life of your loved ones. ★

“Hm, yeah, im good, just admiring how beautiful nature is this time of year. We rarely got springs like this back home, so it is a nice change of pace. It really is amazing what can be done once you reach higher levels of knowledge and power.” Brance said while gently brushing away Gabby’s hand.

“Yep, hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to make whole parks bloom like this with my Chloro Affinity. Then, you can always enjoy the scenic nature.” Looking around with a slight blush on her face, Gabby practically made a vow right there to stay by Brance’s side for the rest of her life.

Brance noticed the tone of her words and what they implied, but he didn’t pick at it and retook her hand.

“Sure, that would be nice, be sure you work on learning how to bloom all kinds of different trees, maybe one with pink petals that drop; what are they called again?”

“OH OH, I know, Sakura trees, they are the pretty pink ones, and when they drop their blossoms, it’s super pretty. So I’ll get a sapling and see if I can make it bloom. I promise I’ll figure it out as soon as possible.” Looking up at Brance, Gabby made her promise and was pleased to see Brance’s face light up as he pictured a small house with a white picket fence surrounded by Sakura trees.

“Alright, we spent too much time here; we need to hurry up and get to the store and back to the dorms before the others get home. I can’t have Selene and Big Brother trashing my carefully organized bedroom.” Standing before turning to help Gabby up, Brance said as he looked around the park one more time.”

“KAY!” Standing up on her tiptoes, Gabby leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Brance’s cheek before backing away and blushing bright red.

Her actions froze Brance momentarily before he laughed and planted a kiss on top of her head.

—

In the Hall of Gods, far away both in time and space from Vinestra.

Sitting in Odin’s hall with his arms crossed, Yahweh watched Brance and Gabby as they finished their date and ran back to the boy’s dorm to tidy up and make dinner on a floating hologram monitor. Although on the outside, he looked stoic and calm, inside, his mind was a fractured mess. He could clearly tell that Brance was ignoring the adverse reactions from the Divinity Fragment and couldn’t help but worry that if things progressed further, it would spell disaster.

Leaning back in his chair and closing the monitor, Yahweh closed his eyes and ignored the shuffling sounds of Odin attempting to revive his son Thor. Thor was already hanging by a thread from the damage done by Osiris when he was thrown like garbage through the door to Odin’s Hall. However, his injuries were too severe for even the Deity Level healing potions to cure. Thus, it was only a matter of time before the God of Thunder died. And dead he was.

Unable to give up, Odin had tried everything in his power to revive his only living flesh and blood, but even with the aid of Yahweh, who was one of if not the best healer in existence, it was useless. Not only was Thor’s body trashed beyond repair, but his Soul and even Divinity had been completely destroyed, so when he was brought into the hall, his life was already a candle in the wind, threatening to go out any moment.

*Odin…he’s gone. All you are doing is wasting what little power you have left to try reviving a corpse.*

Heaving a sigh and appearing beside the grief-stricken God of Ravens, Yahweh pulled back the Deities’ hand and forced him to make eye contact.

=No! I CAN DO THIS! GOD OF LIGHT, IF YOU WILL NOT HELP ME, THEN YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN THAT BASTARD OSIRIS!=

Releasing a thunderous roar, Odin ripped his hand away from the God of Light as his eye burned with fury and Purple Mana.

*LISTEN TO ME, GOD OF RAVENS, I AM YOUR ONLY TRUE ALLY LEFT! DO YOU THINK I WOULD STILL BE STANDING HERE IF I HAD ANY OTHER CHOICE? NO! I HAVE TRIED EVERY POSSIBLE HEALING SKILL AND EVEN THE SINGULAR RESURRECTION SKILL I HAVE ON MY LIST! AND FOR WHAT? TO HAVE AN INTENSE BACKLASH STRIP AWAY AT WHAT LITTLE SUPPLY OF DIVINITY I HAVE LEFT!*

Countering by flaring up in shining bright white light, Yahweh responded with the same level of intensity as Odin, making the one-eyed God of Ravens fall silent.

*Listen to me, I know the pain of losing everyone and everything, but we can do nothing about it. Neither of us has it left in our bodies to fight back against Osiris and his forces; all we can do is try to guide our final charges. Have you even taken notice that there is a third Over-Break Host? Her name is Selene, and she has already linked up with the brothers.*

Odin’s eye, which had a single tear drop dripping down his cheek, dilated at Yahweh’s words.

=Another host? And female at that…but the only other person who could have…Frigg… but how? She is already dead.=

Confusion offsetting his grief, Odin looked to Yahweh for answers.

*It seems in her final moment, she split off a chunk of her Soul and Divinity, creating a clone named Freya, before sending it off to the realm of nothingness. There she stumbled upon a lost soul, one that had a connection to both brothers. She nurtured this fragmented and lost soul by giving what little she had left, turning it into her final hope, and giving it a prototype version of our Over-Break System.*

*What’s more, she removed any adverse effects this soul would experience by merging Divinity Fragments, forming this Selene into a near-perfect Charge. Once this soul finally came into contact with the brothers, her prototype OVB version merged with theirs and is now connected in a similar way to how Cynrik and Brance are. All is not lost yet, God Of Ravens…your wife has sacrificed her final breath to give us an added chance at our revenge; we can not squander it away.*

Grabbing Odin by the shoulders and forcing him to stand, Yahweh replayed Selene meeting the brothers and her interactions with Cynrik specifically, which caused Odin to smile weakly since it was very much like how he and Frigg were when they were young.

*Steel your heart, Odin, we can not afford the luxury of the morning for those we lost, for now all we can do is give your son a proper burial, one of your people. I know it isn’t much consolation, but this is all we can do for now. The clock to the next phase of the Strife draws nearer, and with your Charge having experienced his second Turning Point and my own Approaching his first, they will need everything we can legally give. Be it only our attention or our guidance in unintrusive ways.

With that, both Deities looked away from the monitor and carried out the funeral procedures for Thor.

END OF VOLUME 3

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