After Phelena revealed to us that the latest earthquake had been caused by the summoning of the Demon King into the world, we stood silent for a mont, not knowing if she was warning us or blaming us for it.
The goddess explained that the demon king had appeared in her world once before, during the tis when she brought the first sage.
"Alejandro..." I muttered, prompting Phelena to nod affirmatively.
Unlike lina and , who arrived in this world before the king was summoned, Alejandro arrived in a world plagued by war caused by the devils, which led him to take action against them from the very beginning.
Still, when I read the notes from the previous reincarnated sages, they stated they had failed the mission Phelena gave them, so I thought it would be better if I just asked to prevent us from getting the sa result.
"As the Goddess of Life, I cannot tell you how to live... I can only give you a nudge in the right direction..." Phelena replied.
In other words, she told us to follow our hearts and deal with the devils however we saw fit. Nonetheless, I could tell that her wish wasn’t to get rid of them entirely.
Suddenly, four beams of light appeared behind the goddess, materializing four figures in the center that beca clear once the light dissipated.
"It’s been a while, little brother!" said Sirica, the Goddess of Alchemy, who had just arrived with her siblings.
Next to Sirica, Hephaestus, the God of Crafts, stood tall and laughed out loud after seeing and lina standing there with confused expressions.
Asys, the God of Magic, and Garon, the God of Beasts, were also present, expressing that they simply wanted to wish us good luck in our battle.
Their words and actions may have seed sowhat useless, but when lina checked her status window, she noticed we had gained a new skill.
"We’ve grown quite a bit, huh?" I comnted, noticing the amount of MP had increased dramatically from the last ti I checked my status screen.
As we focused our vision on the new title, we were able to get a description of its effect.
"Ah, so it’s like a buff..." I muttered after reading the details.
As soon as lina and I closed our status windows, we noticed that Phelena was standing less than a ter away from us, embracing each of us in her arms.
Gently placing her head down between our shoulders, a wave of calmness and serenity washed over us.
Phelena’s figure was almost eight feet tall, so she was pretty much a giant compared to us. Still, her embrace was soft and caring, almost how a mother’s embrace would feel like.
"My children. I brought you here for my own interest... I’ve put you through danger and nurous awful situations, and for that, I truly hope you can forgive one day," Phelena said, her voice soft and soothing.
"However, I also wish for nothing more than your happiness... Please, believe when I say this," she continued, and her voice seed to get sadder.
At that mont, both lina and I extended our arms and hugged Phelena back. For so reason, the goddess gave us the sense that she felt guilty about our situation, so giving her a hug seed like a good option.
Our touch startled the goddess a bit, but she wasn’t unsettled by it—it was as if it was the first ti she had received a hug.
While there were a few tis when I questioned why Phelena had brought into this world, I never resented her or had any similar feelings towards her. In fact, lately, I have felt more thankful to Phelena.
"If it weren’t for you, our story would’ve ended a long ti ago as a tragedy..." lina muttered, still hugging the goddess.
"Even if we can’t fulfill your mission, I’m grateful you gave more ti with Ichiro!" she continued.
"I agree..." I interjected.
"I know I acted like a depressed jerk when we first t, although I still think it was fair of to feel that way at the ti, I currently feel nothing but gratitude..." I continued.
A tear rolled down Phelena’s cheek, and the other gods gave us a bright smile, even Asys, who always had a serious expression on him.
"Be strong, my children... And thank you," Phelena said, slowly letting go of the embrace and smiling softly.
As she let go of us, we felt as if we were falling back, and right as our backs landed on the ground, we appeared back in the middle of the streets at the Iron Capital, where our companions had been staring at our sleeping bodies.
"Are you guys okay!?" Vespera asked, crouching beside us and checking our temperature to see if we had a fever.
"You guys just passed out and slept for like ten minutes..." she explained.
"Huh, interesting..." I replied.
"What the hell do you an ’interesting’? What happened to you two?" Vespera asked, her voice filled with frustration.
"Calm down, Vesp. We are fine... I’ll explain everything," I replied to my companion, giving her a brief summary of our talk with the gods.
*Sigh* "You know? If it were anyone else telling this story, I wouldn’t believe them," Vespera comnted, and she had a point since we were probably the only people in the world who had seen and spoken to Phelena.
Either way, our ti of peace had co to an end. The Demon King had arrived in the world, and the countries of every continent had their armies prepared to invade G’Henna.
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