Sowhere in a peaceful fragnt of the shattered cosmos, a small pocket dinsion blood into existence. A floating garden of ever-swaying sakura trees, koi ponds orbiting in the air, and tea sets perched atop hovering clouds.
Elysia manifested her imaginary divinity into a reality because Sera didn't wish to fight her imdiately. Sera was about to impart her celestial knowledge as a reward for the previous good, albeit deadly, matches.
Elysia stood, radiating elegance and serenity as she waited for Sera. She served a cup of tea for both of them, sipping celestial tea with calm eyes. Across from her, Sera floated in golden glory. Sera's twelve wings tucked modestly behind her back, holding an impossibly large scroll.
"Advanced combat techniques for junior gods who can barely count to infinity." Sera spoke it out loud as she wished for Elysia to hear it clearly.
She pointed her finger at Elysia's forehead, imparting celestial knowledge directly to Elysia's mind.
"Let's keep this considerate." Sera said as she manifested her mystical power mastery, flexing her fingers with the poise of soone who'd casually devoured a black hole for breakfast. "I'm scaling myself down to your level, so don't worry. From now on, our friendly spar won't sting much."
Elysia blinked politely. "Oh, thank you." She smiled and said sweetly.
[Elysia (FV: Error) | Supre Goddess of Mysterious Origin | 14th Rank]
[Talent: N/A | Unknown]
[Sera (FV: Error) | Seraph of the End | 14th Rank]
[Talent: N/A | Unknown]
Elysia checked Sera's and her status screen just to make sure. They were at 14th Rank now, but the other stats could no longer be properly asured.
Then, Sera promptly kicked a star into Elysia's face all of a sudden. Yet, Elysia was prepared and countered with an outburst, blasting Sera away.
Sera recovered mid-air, straightened her halo, and cleared her throat. "Ahem. That was just to test my reflexes. Now, try dodging this!"
With a swirl of divine force, she conjured a hundred heavenly star lances. They spun dramatically, whistling through the air with all the grace of divine war.
Elysia blinked again, then raised her sakura parasol. The approaching lances turned into butterflies.
"..." Sera was speechless. She strangely found it pretty hard to face Elysia's weird divinity with her avatar, but Elysia didn't need to know that she was a bit flustered.
"You were aiming to pierce ." Elysia said as she twirled her parasol, confident that she could keep up with the current Sera. "But all I felt was your repressed need for friendly affection to guide . I'm fully prepared to receive your guidance, my dear friend, Sera."
"Hmm~" Sera crossed her arms, feeling amused by Elysia's response, yet she liked it that way as she had the intention to trigger sothing by imparting so of her knowledge to Elysia.
"Oh, you wanna go?" the Seraph's avatar cracked her knuckles as she noticed Elysia trying to maintain the distance. "Let's see you dodge my divine arts."
A flurry of glowing wings smacked down with holy power.
Elysia dodged with fluid, casual footwork, humming a lullaby as flower petals surrounded her to counter the glowing wing attacks. Yet, one wing slap did land right on her cheek.
A pause.
Elysia held her cheek, blinking her eyes in shock.
"I felt... scolded. Why did you slap ?" She murmured, then narrowed her eyes.
"It was just a coincidence." Sera smirked as if she was amused, but she found it increasingly difficult to keep up with Elysia with just her avatar.
Not to ntion, Elysia's aura seed to be ssing with her connection with her true body. Unfortunately, that was the last thing she could think before she was completely disconnected from her true body.
"Domain expansion." Elysia extended her hand as she activated her Absolute Domain.
"Eh, eh?" Sera was flustered as she could no longer feel her true body. She got detached as a separate entity derived from her true body's essence fragnt.
She couldn't even deactivate this troubleso domain! If it was her true body, it would be as easy as a breeze!
"I know it..." Elysia mumbled under her breath as she could confirm that her wild guess had proven true. The current Sera was not the sa Seraph of the End she had fought before, but a divine avatar or clone.
By sealing and separating themselves from the outside world with her domain expansion, what Sera had not spoken and sung about could be revealed easily.
Sera floated higher. She expanded her aura like a mini supernova. "Okay. No more playing around. I'm using 17% of my power now!"
"Yes, alright. I'll receive it wholeheartedly, but please na your move so I can properly respond in kind, Sera." Elysia put her defensive stance.
"Yeah, sure. Goddess Strike!" Sera didn't mind it. She struck down like a cot.
However, Elysia erected her defense, smooth and tender, to respond to Sera's ferocious attack. "Gentle Breeze Counter!"
*Boom!*
The dinsion within the domain expansion cracked in their every clash. The stars shattered, asteroids exploded, and planets destroyed.
When the cosmic dust cleared, Sera fell down, face-first into a pond. Elysia created the terrain without she knowing, and so goldfish casually biting her long hair. Her wings twitched and she was confused.
The current Elysia was barely a Tier-5, and she stood at the pinnacle of Tier-5, and yet, she got defeated easily.
"...Did I just get reversed by flower breezes and glowing butterflies?" Sera murmured in disbelief.
Apparently, she won against Elysia just because she was far stronger than Elysia, but if they stood at the sa level, Elysia's divinity was far more superior than hers...
It was hard to admit, but it was the truth! However, she had to ensure it with her true body. She shouldn't use just her avatar, but her true body!
With that in mind, she decided to return. She would morph into the sa Celestial Goddess with her true body, not a re avatar. But she had to suppress her power properly.
Elysia knelt beside Sera, offering a hand. "Did I do well? Thank you for your rcy. You held back just to teach ." She said sincerely so Sera wouldn't feel angry or embarrassed.
"I am humbled... but yeah, I did hold back a lot just for you..." Sera muttered, blowing bubbles into the pond. She felt relieved Elysia thought that way.
Later, as the friendly spar concluded, Sera went away and disappeared for several hours, leaving Elysia alone in the glowing grassland.
"I didn't hurt her ego, did I?" Elysia murmured softly as she gazed at the distant sky. She didn't know where Sera went or what for, but she felt a little unexpected that she could beat Sera's avatar pretty easily.
If that was Sera's true self, she was the one who would be humbled easily for sure.
A few monts later, Sera returned and Elysia served a cup of tea for both of them. As they sipped tea, Sera sulked with a pout only the twelve-winged avatar of a supre celestial being could pull off so Elysia would believe it was still her avatar, not the aloofness of her true body within her strengthened divine avatar.
"Did you notice it?" Sera asked.
"What did I notice?" Elysia feigned her ignorance.
"The one you beat is just a lesser avatar of mine... I installed an update this ti!" Sera emphasized her point.
"You're a kind teacher. I appreciate you for going to great lengths to guide . I will study hard under your guidance." Elysia said with a sincere smile.
Sera's real self, observing deep within her divine avatar's core. She sighed as she rolled her glowing eye. "How could soone so tiny and adorable possess such a fascinating, mysterious power? And, since when did I beco her teacher?"
Since then, it was the last ti Elysia managed to beat Sera. Elysia spent a lot of ti with Sera, learned a lot of things, and most importantly, she got beaten and humbled by Sera in every friendly spar. There were even a few tis when she almost got killed, but Sera healed her instantly.
Different from the training she went through before where her Goddess sisters taught her with gentle thods like exemplary teachers, Sera taught her in practice through the painful way, and Sera did not hesitate at all to hurt her, or even kill her.
Besides the spar, they also did many things together like researching things, exchanging ideas, and even trying to do things they had never dared to attempt before.
And strangely, they laughed together even in the face of a failed attempt. Not often, not openly.
But in those rare monts, between discussion and hypothesis, the seeds of sothing fragile yet profound had taken root.
A bond. Not just out of necessity or curiosity, but understanding. Sera could hardly understand the concept of friend that Elysia used, if what they did together was the friendship Elysia ntioned, she felt it was not bad to have a friend like Elysia. As a celestial being who had always been alone at the summit, she found Elysia's company was sothing she needed.
But regardless of things, feeling and knowledge was not enough. Months had passed but Sera's deepest desire still burned. "Let test the truth of your existence, Elysia. Show the flower that blood even against fate itself."
"Yeah, co to ." Elysia responded kindly.
Thus, they battled. Not as enemies, not as allies, but as existence testing existence.
Each clash of power obliterated starfields. Each exchange of the divine might rewrite the laws of physics. Each death they suffered, each revival they gifted to one another, deepened their connection as an unspoken confession that neither could find in re words.
Elysia with her mastery over life and dreams painted strokes of annihilation wrapped in elegance.
Sera as a living embodint of law, chaos, and judgnt, answered with hymns that tore apart reality to remake a wholly new realm.
Neither won and neither lost. Both were irreparably changed.
Now they lay adrift among the cosmic debris, staring up at what remained of the stars. Both were battered, their divinity frayed, their imasurable energies reduced to embers temporarily.
For a long while, there was no sound but the breathing of the universe.
"Did you manage to find what you wanted to find out about , Sera?" Elysia reached out her hand, staring at pensive Sera.
"You are..." Sera mumbled but paused mid-sentence as she stared at Elysia for a few seconds in silence. Her voice softened and she expressed sothing more than what could be heard. "...beautiful in a way no mortal tongue can express."
Elysia smiled gently. She manifested a single spectral blossom from the remnants of the nearby stars and let it drift across the void.
Their gazes t one of serene finality, the other of endless yearning.
In that mont, the Sera realized a truth she had long denied.
She was lonely. Horribly, endless loneliness.
She had been born as an eternal celestial being, untouched and aloof at the peak of the cosmic universe level.
And yet now, after tasting the warmth of companionship that could rival her, even companionship born from destruction, she found the idea of losing Elysia unbearable. She felt Elysia would leave her soday.
However, Elysia already beco hers, her possession! Once she took hold of it, she would never let it go.
Deep within her colossal being within the core, an urge whispered. "Bind her. Keep her. Chain her existence to yours."
But even in her yearning, Sera knew Elysia was a being of freedom, not shackles. To cage Elysia would be akin to destroying the dazzling light she adored.
Thus, she spoke not of her true feelings. Instead, she offered a quiet, hesitant promise. "When you return soday... if you wish, if you rember ... I shall await you, here, at the End of All Things."
Elysia could tell Sera's soft and sorrowful gaze. She put her hand on Sera's avatar and brushed her fingers against the space where Sera's colossal eye blinked slowly. "What are you talking about, Sera? You are my good friend and teacher. If I am going to leave soday, you will co with . I believe we can do sothing about your overwhelming presence on the lower dinsions. We'll explore the vase multi-verse together~ I'll also introduce you to my pantheon mbers!"
"Hmm~" Sera faintly smiled, feeling amused and happy by such a declaration.
After a few monts of silence, they returned to the glowing grassland, their temporary mushroom house in the glowing grassland. Their auras drifted outward, rging with the celestial winds, leaving a trail of faint blossoms across the void.
---
A few days later, Sera stood right next to the sleeping Elysia, watching far beyond what the eye could see. A single tear fell from her eye, crystallizing into a tiny star orb.
She put her crystallized tear on Elysia's chest and then pressed it down so it could rge with Elysia.
"Forgive for I have sinned." Sera tried to bind Elysia's soul just to satisfy her desire because she felt her celestial sigil wasn't enough to mark Elysia.
While doing that, she also wished to peer deeper into Elysia's soul, to the deeper secret she wished to discover since she first t Elysia. The familiarity that she had known eons ago was strangely present in Elysia.
Sera's crystallized tear served like an eye drone, flying within Elysia's soul realm. It was a vast beautiful universe, adorned by countless stars and glowing orb seas of various colors.
Before she could do anything, a divine hand caught her. "You should just maintain your current relationship with her. You are still a bit too high to bind yourself to her."
"Y-you, you!" Sera stamred, too shocked by the realization.
The one before her was none other than that divine entity, the one beyond celestial! Also, the one who created and placed her in the Boundless Realm!
"Sshh, behave yourself and keep quiet about our encounter. She's not ready to et just yet. Help her out and protect her well. She could die very easily, and I don't want that to happen."
"!!!"
Sera was terrified as she rembered that she killed Elysia several tis in the past few months, although she revived Elysia right away...
"Her soul is protected by , so don't try to invade her soul without her permission. You may cease to exist." The Divine Goddess stroked Sera's eye gently, and then sent Sera out of the soul realm. "Assist her mission and destiny, Seraph. We're waiting for them to et us."
"Huh-uh?" Sera still didn't know what that ant, but her consciousness had been sent back to her true body.
She could no longer invade Elysia's soul, and to her surprise, Elysia had already woken up.
"Erm, what are you doing?" Elysia felt a bit confused because what she found after waking up was Sera trying to assault her while she was sleeping.
Sera's hand nestled on her breast, and her chest was half exposed, but there was no ill intention. Regardless of what Sera wanted to do, it was awkward.
"No, it's nothing." Sera retracted her hand. After a few awkward monts, she opened her mouth. "I think, I will accept your proposal to explore the outside multi-verse with you. If the dinsions collapse because of my presence, you will be responsible for it, Elysia."
"Yeah, with pleasure. Shall we take our leave now?" Elysia dressed herself into her divine dress then extended her hand to Sera.
With Sera as her ally, she could finally awaken her hibernating sisters in peace. Furthermore, she believed her next journey would be smoother sailing with a celestial ally like Sera.
Sera responded with no words. She grasped Elysia's hand and with that, they left the Boundless Realm to explore the myriad of possibilities that awaited them in the vast multi-verse out there.
Unfortunately, Elysia wasn't strong enough to suppress Sera's presence, and Sera could do nothing about it either. So, to ensure the lower dinsion wouldn't get affected, they could only go to the higher universe that could withstand Sera's Tier-3 presence, heading to the unknown, directed by feeling and fate.
--- END ---
== Author's Note ==
Hi, author YuuZu here! This chapter is the end of the 'My Goddess is Good at Pretending' book.
24/3/2023 ~ 06/5/2025
Thank you for following Ely's journeys.
I'm deeply grateful for all your support over the past two years. It's thanks to you that we've reached an incredible milestone of 766 chapters!
Though the last page has turned, the emotions linger. A finished story is like the setting sun, not lost, but rely resting, until it rises again in another form.
I'll be taking a few months of rest before starting my next book. It's been a true joy getting to know all of you, dear readers. I hope to see you again in my next series! ^.^
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