Myths Reawakened

“Heavenly Father’s might forced the Life Alliance to...” Ines trailed off, pursing Her lips. “It’s aggravating to keep calling him Heavenly Father. I’ll just tell you his real name. He’s Elohim.[1]”

“Elohim’s might forced the Life Alliance to accelerate our evolution, igniting the divine fire to reach godhood. Our blind pursuit of knowledge did not end well. Only five goddesses remain in the Life Alliance, and we’ve been corrupted. Kaleb and Siluk, for example, have trouble acquiring new knowledge after becoming gods, and their divine power stagnates.”

“Elohim is too strong. After igniting his divine fire, he fancies himself an omniscient and omnipotent being. He has no match in the world, not even in the five goddesses...”

“We were forced to hide in our Divine Realms, tucked away in the Astral Plane to keep our distance from the Chosen Land. Our faiths in the mortal realm ended up wiped out by the Church of Heavenly Father.”

“Only one faith remained in the Chosen Land, and Elohim became the one and only god!”

“Later, Elohim locked up the Astral Plane, severing the ties between the Divine Realm and the Chosen Land and preventing information from touching the Chosen Land. Magic was gone, and everyone lost the blessings of knowledge...”

“One day, Elohim sought us out all of a sudden, claiming that there existed a greater world beyond ours, and that the Chosen Land was just one box. He had the ability to leave the box and no longer needed the faith of the Chosen Land, so he left.”

Ines scowled. Envy compelled Her to spit out a litany of curses elegantly.

“Elohim told us that godhood isn’t the be-all and end-all; the ancient gods were. We could only be considered new gods, and facing the true eternal great beings, our power is nothing...”

“He’d go to the world outside the box and witness the greater Void. He prophesied that the Chosen Land was doomed to destruction...”

“The end of the world would arrive, and all of us would face judgment. New gods would emerge out of the information of the Astral Plane to judge the world and everything within, until all lives are lost. Only then would a new era begin.”

“Elohim tried to stop that from happening, even creating the inner world to keep the Chosen Land sane. He integrated the Seven Sacred Virtues into the doctrines to guide people to be good, even locking down the Chosen Land to stop it from coming into contact with the Astral Plane...”

“All his attempts failed.”

“Everything Elohim did to stop the end of the world ended up accelerating its doom. The prophecy will come true. Judgment will be upon the world...”

“After informing us of all that, he gave his blessings and fled like a deserter.”

The room fell silent.

Eventually, Wayne stroked his chin and said, “A new god has emerged—the one behind Mechanical Augmentation. What about the other gods?”

“There’s one in the inner world. They were born out of negativity and became powerful because of negativity. To prevent their awakening—or more accurately, to delay it—we sent the chosen knights to the inner world to collect negativity regularly.”

Ines shook Her head. That was a treatment rather than a cure, but it was better than nothing.

If they didn’t want to face the judgment of the end of the world and meet their demise that day, their only option was to accelerate their evolution so that they could either leave as Elohim had done or secure enough power to resist the judgment.

Nature had attacked Death, Death had walked toward Her own doom, and Sun and Moonlight had been developing a combo for the same purpose. Ines had been making Her moves, too. Her main ally was Death, with Sun and Moonlight being allies She had fooled into working with Her, leading to the coexistence of light and darkness.

Recently, She recruited another ally: Wayne.

That gave Wayne a better understanding of the world, and the Heavenly Father’s escape left him speechless.

The god was strong yet cautious. No wonder He was the most powerful god!

“A world outside the box...” Wayne lowered his head. “Have you explored it? What does it look like?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that the world outside is infinitely vast. Do you know the fortune-telling booth in the Frozen Land? There, you can acquire information on the world outside the box through trades.”

“The place only allows for exchanges, however. It isn’t an exit. Otherwise, I would’ve escaped already. You would’ve never gotten your hands on me.”

Ines sighed. She envied the Heavenly Father’s speedy retreat. She, on the other hand, had traded Herself away to resist the end of the world.

She pressed a kiss to the bastard’s lips, increasingly annoyed at the punchable mug. She felt Her losses keenly.

No matter how She thought about it, Her conclusion was the same: She could not be the only one suffering. She had to drag two more goddesses down with Her. Kaleb and Siluk would be the perfect candidates. The former was a gullible idiot, and the latter was an overconfident idiot. She could manipulate them easily.

Aztimor wouldn’t work. While quiet and reserved, She had been hiding Her sly schemes behind a poker face. Ines had been blind to Aztimor’s machinations and naively considered Her a good friend.

Elian would be an even worse choice. She was vicious and domineering. Whatever She didn’t finish eating, She would take with Her, never leaving even one drop of benefit for others.

Seething, Ines made to slap Wayne in the face, but he caught Her hand and kissed the back of it.

“The prophecy came from the Heavenly Father,” he said with a frown. “Do the five of you... trust him that much?”

“No. He was our enemy after all.” Ines sighed. “As I grew stronger, however, I came to sense the impending doom of the world. Elohim had not lied about that. We are running out of time.”

Wayne nodded to himself. That confirmation answered many of his questions. The end of the world, the judgment day, and the prophecy... It seemed like everything was tied to the Heavenly Father, and the bastard was very likely to be pulling the strings.

But if the five goddesses could all sense the arrival of the apocalypse...

Well, it’s not fully confirmed yet.

“Ines, are you sure that the Heavenly Father is gone?” Wayne asked, brows still furrowed.

“Yes, but also no. Elohim is the strongest god, so it’s all I can do to speculate about his actions. I cannot find the proof for confirmation.” Ines sighed. She was stunning and kind-hearted, yet She wasn’t the strongest. The world didn’t make sense.

“How about Hell? Did the Heavenly Father create Hell?”

“It’s possible...” Ines didn’t give a guarantee. She said with a troubled face, “In theory, one god can only create one Divine Realm after igniting their divine fire. Since Elohim has already created Heaven, Hell can’t be his as well. However...”

Wayne finished her sentence, “However, the Seven Deadly Sins correspond too perfectly with the Seven Sacred Virtues, and Hell doesn’t have its own god.”

“Yes.” Ines shot Wayne a glare. “I remember you telling people not to interrupt you all the time, but the rule doesn’t apply to yourself, it seems. How irritating. You irritate me more and more, and I see more and more problems in you.”

“We should forgive ourselves but not others, after all.” Wayne waggled his eyebrows at Her. “Are you sure you find me irritating? You’ve fallen for me, Goddess. You only find me irritating because you care about me.”

“Tsk, you sure are full of yourself...” Ines pushed him down and glanced at Anastasia before lying on top of him. “I’ve told you what I can tell you. The rest I cannot say. If you want to know more, find me in my Divine Realm. As long as you can enter it, I’ll tell you all the secrets.”

Ines knew that Wayne would never set foot in the Divine Realm of Darkness. Her fingertips glided down her own cheek, traversing the valley, crossing the plain, and finally stopping on Wayne’s chest.

They had talked business. It was now time for business.

It didn’t matter if they did it or not; what mattered was that they did it right in front of Anastasia.

Wayne shook his head in rejection, covering his eyes with both hands to physically reject Vichy’s beautiful body. If his fingers weren’t so far apart, his image of a man of principles would be more convincing.

Huffing, Ines pushed his hands away and cupped his face for a deep kiss.

Just like before, Ines ran away halfway through the kiss. Vichy took over, stiffening like a statue while straddling Wayne. She had not ended the kiss or continued it. Blushing, she waited for her superior to give her a command. Her fluttering eyelashes showed that her poker face was only a front.

Wayne froze. Then he put his hands on Vichy’s shoulders to push her away, but then another pair of hands pushed Vichy toward him.

It was Anastasia.

She leaned in to Vichy and whispered into her ear. Because of their proximity, Wayne could hear the whispered conversation loud and clear.

To summarize, Anastasia warned her that the goddess had gone further and further, kissing last time and pinning Wayne down this time. Who knew what She would do next time?

You don’t want to close your eyes and then open them to find yourself a creampuff, do you? The goddess has no self-restraint. Rather than letting Her mess around, it’s better to mess around yourself. Then at least it’ll be your choice. The mistake and regret will be yours alone.

Vichy blushed and didn’t respond, staying on top of Wayne with her eyes closed. Then Anastasia smiled at Wayne and whispered to him. Because of their proximity, Vichy heard everything loud and clear.

Wayne, you don’t want Vichy to keep getting bullied by the goddess, dragging you in as a reluctant party, do you?

(一`´一;)

My white moonlight, Wayne thought. Aren’t you too used to this? Are you yourself, or Ines?

He narrowed his eyes, but his white moonlight was herself. She had not been taken over by Ines. How ridiculous. How did his white moonlight end up like this?

After some consideration, he snorted. Every time Ines walked away, She left the memories with Anastasia. Anastasia knew Ines’s plan and the importance of their business, so she wanted to lower Wayne’s bottom line through Vichy.

Only once he accepted Vichy could Ines make more investment, and only by making more investment could Ines push Kaleb and Siluk to invest more. Then Wayne would receive more.

“That is the case, but you can’t bully an honest woman all the time!”

Wayne patted Anastasia on the bottom and helped Vichy up, but Vichy did not get up. Instead, she put her arms around him tightly. She found Anastasia’s argument perfectly valid. Besides, she had received the partial memories Ines left, too.

Her role was important. She had to stand her ground.

“Silly...”

Wayne murmured to all three women. Then he lifted Vichy’s chin and kissed her.

***

A black sedan slowly came to a halt at the Lando Estate. Wayne opened the door and walked in rejuvenated, feeling like he had hit a new low in morality.

And he had. He had failed to resist the combo of the Goddess of Darkness + Holy Maiden + Knight and adjusted his bottom line further down. He had thought he had been at rock bottom, but amazingly, he could still go lower.

He came to the Lando Estate today because Auston called. With an urgent matter to discuss, Auston had contacted Veryl to find out where Wayne was. Then he called the manor of the Holy Maiden of Darkness, reaching the slacker in the living room.

Worried that Wayne would take her too in the heat of the moment, the slacker didn’t go upstairs and inform him. She only told him about the call once he came downstairs.

In the end, Wayne was half a day late.

“What took you so long?”

Megan set up a soundproof barrier in the study, while Auston fiddled with his silver coin on the sofa, his face sour.

It was sourer than usual.

“I just got a new car. It’s a race car, or maybe a jeep? It took some time to break in...”

Wayne sat across from Auston. While his person was in the Lando Estate, his soul lingered in Anastasia’s manor. Thinking back to how the iceberg had melted at his hands, he couldn’t stop his lips from curling up.

The knight was tall and slim with beautiful legs that could only be described as art. She could rival Darienne, who was around the same height and dressed in similar styles.

The two women had opposite coloration in their usual clothing, hair colors, and eye colors, and they were frenemies. If he could have them as a package deal...

Wayne shook his intrusive thoughts away. Enough. He shouldn’t be too Wayne.

His lecherous smile grated on Auston’s nerves. He scoffed, “Do you know about the fight between the reincarnated angels and a demon in suburban Londan?”

“Um, a little, but not much.” Wayne cocked his head and shot to his feet. “Auston, how did you know I’m a demigod now?”

(눈皿눈)

Bastard, you’ve said that already!

Auston tried to tamp his anger, but failed. “Bastard, you’ve said that already!”

“So what? Aren’t you angry?”

...Yeah, furious, Auston thought darkly. Seeing Wayne become a demigod felt worse than death.

He had been a legendary mage, and now he was suddenly a demigod. Wouldn’t he become a god soon?

Auston would rather die!

Clutching his chest, he took several deep breaths to calm himself enough to say, “I received reliable information that the demon is named the Lord of Deceit, one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and that he’s currently in Londan.”

“Huh?!”

Wayne’s eyes widened. Where did Auston get the information from? Wasn’t it too accurate?

1. Elohim is a Hebrew word meaning ”gods” or ”godhood”. The name in the original is exactly the common translation for the proper noun. ☜