Melina looked around, a trace of tension in her eyes, and murmured, "More enemies?" Even she, a master of assassination, had not noticed them. Whoever had come was likely no ordinary foe.
"Whether you want to spread your faith or establish a Dynasty, I don't care. You can keep my power, too." The Formless Mother completely ignored the girl, her words sounding as though she truly cared about nothing at all.
"You may go anywhere you wish. So please, with your sword, your hands and feet, your body, or anything at all, let the fire burn. Leave as many wounds on me as you like!"
The instant that utterly bizarre request reached their ears, the entire space seemed to freeze for a moment.
Nolan narrowed his eyes, the corner of one eye twitching uncontrollably.
He admitted he had been wrong before. This goddess was no slacker deity.
Faced with such an outrageous request, he finally snapped awake and realized that the ancient god beside him was no ordinary being, but an honest-to-goodness masochistic pervert!
Were there any normal people left in the Lands Between? What kind of freaks were these gods?
Looked at that way, Marika merely had trouble keeping her lower half under control. Compared to The Formless Mother, she actually seemed fairly normal.
After The Formless Mother finished speaking, she said nothing more, practically handing the initiative over to him. She simply waited, waiting as the one making the request.
Nolan did not need long to think before giving his answer.
He agreed.
Of course he had considered refusing The Formless Mother's unreasonable demand, but he still had to go to the Land of Shadow soon. This was to keep her from secretly tripping him up.
If she did not have to become an enemy, then she could become a friend.
The girl's worried voice echoed beside Nolan's ear. Beneath the stone steps, the footsteps of the Tarnished coming to pay audience drew closer and closer, and his consciousness seemed ready to drift away with those sounds, toward some unreachable place...
It was time to find the Saintess.
"Once you reach Stormveil, show this to Vyke. He'll make the arrangements for you." Nolan took out a badge marked with a flame pattern and handed it to Eleonora.
He gave Eleonora and the others a light wave. Ripples spread through space, and amid the turbulence, a delighted voice seemed to drift out.
"Give me more. Please, give me more."
"Act properly, you goddess. Otherwise, don't speak at all," Nolan said helplessly, once again lamenting his terrible luck with the people he met.
Eleonora, looking a little more like a knight now, accepted Nolan's order. Then she turned and led the Tarnished Ones and the freed prisoners into the scarlet blood.
Nolan adjusted his condition and looked toward the pool of blood. Eleonora and the others quickly sank beneath the surface, their figures vanishing in the blink of an eye. Only rings of ripples remained, spreading across the water like something out of a horror movie.
The final obstacle had finally been dealt with... What would it be like when he saw Trina again?
Nolan gazed at the great cocoon from which Mohg had broken free. Everything around him seemed to be silently reminding him.
This world had changed completely. It was no longer the familiar place it had once been. Trina's Lord... was him.
Blood stirred beneath his feet, and Nolan's body gradually began to sink. Ranni was still asleep on his shoulder, while Melina turned into motes of light that gathered around him. At last, his vision went completely black.
In the unseen shadows of the Lands Between, in an unknown corner, a massive stone gate seemed to be welcoming a deity. Above a field of horned corpses, a colossal pillar of light stretching from sky to earth gradually faded away.
The scattered light slowly gathered, forming a white crown with a dreamlike glow above a girl's head.
"So this is the Crucible of Life? The supreme Divine Power worshiped by the Hornsent? Did I just become a god?"
"Yes, you became a god. But don't get too excited. The Lands Between are full of pseudo-gods like you."
A boy stepped forward and poured cold water on her excitement, though he failed to put it out.
"You're jealous. Jealous that Nolan chose me instead of you."
The boy could not help sighing. He had no way to refute that, and nothing he could do about it.
Who could have imagined that for a reason as absurd as "not liking men," he had personally thrown away his chance to become a god?
The laws of the Golden Order Dynasty certainly had no ridiculous rule saying spouses had to be one man and one woman.
But reality was simply that helpless. If charm had worked on Nolan, the boy would have used it on him without hesitation.
"Let's go. Let's find Nolan. I really want to see him," said the newly born goddess.
"No." The boy shook his head decisively.
"Why?" asked the newly born goddess.
The boy said, "Do you remember the scroll we found? For the final step of the ritual, the deity needs the Lord's guidance. But the Lord hasn't arrived yet, and the rules of the Gate of Divinity won't let you pass."
"Then what do we do?" the newly born goddess asked again.
"Wait. Keep your patience. I've already sent Lansseax to find our Lord. Barring any mishaps, he'll come."
"What if there is a mishap?"
"He might die on the road to becoming Lord, or he might get stolen away by that foolish older sister of ours."
"Hmph. Nolan won't die. He's the strongest. He'll definitely beat that big bad Mohg." The goddess raised her little fist, seemingly ignoring the sister the boy had mentioned altogether.
But that was the truth. She had never taken that so-called "sister" seriously. Strictly speaking, she felt that she and that sister were not even on the same level.
"Mohg is still our elder brother, no matter what. Forget it..." The boy's lips curved into a teasing smile. "Then what if Nolan dies?"
"Then I'll stay by his side," the girl who had become a goddess answered without even thinking.
"You want to die with him? But gods are very hard to kill. Even my sister's teacher couldn't kill the god who tormented her."
"Then we'll find those horned people outside." The girl looked toward the towering walls around them. Beyond the walls lay a thick layer of thorny brambles.
"We snuck in here, so they must hate us to death. Since they have a way to bring down gods, they must know how to kill gods too, right?"
"I don't know. And they can't get in, while you can't get out!"
"But Nolan will come," the girl said with certainty.
"I said 'what if.' I'm assuming he's dead," the boy stressed.
"I don't care. Nolan definitely won't die!" the girl said, just as firmly as before.
"You're just being unreasonable..."
Just as the boy and girl were about to start arguing, the air overhead began to tremble, drawing their attention.
Under their gaze, space seemed to turn into a mirror covered in cracks. The cracks slowly spread. Then the mirror shattered, and a figure gradually stepped out from within.
"Nolan!? It's Nolan! Miquella, look! What did I tell you? My Lord was always going to come!"
The Saintess's delighted voice rang beside Nolan's ear for the first time in ages. As the Saintess let out a smug little "hmph," he also heard another familiar male voice.
"Yes. You were right."
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