Second World

Fear snorted. ”Hmph, you and your codes. I wonʼt be surprised if you are also into that farce that is called our Creatorʼs rules. You six had always been sticklers of rules.”

”You still dare to call us six? Two of us have gone missing, I donʼt suppose the three of you have anything to do with it?”

”Probably,” Fear gave him a sneer.

”Do you try to test my patience?” The God in golden armor asked.

”Although I might not be able to beat you, do not take it that I fear you, Hope. There is nothing that I, Fear, have to be afraid of. Do you think you can unleash your full might with all these mortals around?”

The God that was called Hope did not answer.

”I think not,” Fear said after Hopeʼs silence. ”Well, I canʼt do anything with you two around. Guess I will leave it at this. Try to stop me if you like.”

Fear extended his hand, a portal made of darkness appeared where he pointed. ”Go,” he said. Arlstraxx and his minions followed the command and went directly into the portal.

Gridhacker was hesitant. ”Your Almighty, about that outworlder…”

”You can stay if you want,” Fear simply replied.

Considering the situation, Gridhacker decided retreat was the better option. He and his two other companions went into the portal as well. Once they passed through, the portal vanished.

Fear was about to leave when Serenity called out, ”Fear, we donʼt care about your cults, but know that if you or any of your Demigods tried anything to this outworlder, we will come again.”

Fear glanced back, his eyes darted between Hope and Serenity before lingering for a while on Jack. He then snorted and turned around without saying anything. His figure slowly dissolved into nothingness.

Duke Alfredo and the others heaved a sigh of relief when the God of Fear had finally left. Even though they themselves were powerful individuals, they were still nothing to these Gods and Goddesses. All of them came forward and thanked the God of Hope and Goddess of Serenity for their help. Not every day one could have the chance to interact with these divine beings.

Jack, on the other hand, went straight to where Peniel was lying. He scooped her up gently with two hands and put his ear onto her chest, trying to hear a pulse. There was none.

He hurriedly brought her to Serenity, ”Goddess, can you help heal her?”

Serenity stared at the motionless fairy in Jackʼs hands. She was silent for a while. Jack was dreading that she would say that there was nothing that could be done for Peniel, not even with the power of the Goddess. Her silence only lasted for a breath, but Jack felt like he waited too long for her response.

She said, ”since this is done due to the interference of a God, then we are allowed to undo his deed.”

She made a gesture with her hands, rune was formed one after another until it formed a complete spell formation.

Eight runes! Jack watched in amazement.

A pillar of light split the clouds on the sky and came down directly where Jack was standing. Jack felt warmth and comfort when the light touched his body. The light consolidated into a dense white fog that covered Penielʼs body, it was as if he was holding a dense ball of light now. Jack felt a tingling feeling on his palm that was warm at first but soon intensified into blistering heat. Yet, he did not move his hand. He remained still and endured the heat.

Because of the heat, Jack did not feel that there were movements on his palm. After the dense white fog dispersed, he saw Penielʼs figure was sitting upon his palm and looking around in confusion. She blinked a few times as if trying to remember what had happened. She then realized the presence in front of her and quickly get up to her feet as she made a curtsy.

”All hail the Exalted One! Your servant, Peniel, greets you,” she said. She then also realized the presence of Hope and quickly sent him a greeting as well, ”This lowly servant salute the Great and Mighty God of Hope.”

”You have done well in the service I tasked you in accompanying this outworlder,” Serenity said to her. ”He was rather at a panic when he thought he has lost you.”

Peniel turned to Jack, who was looking elsewhere, trying to act indifferent. ”Of course he is afraid of losing me, he canʼt do anything without me,” Peniel declared.

Jack gave her a gentle flick for a response. ”Hey!” Peniel protested.

Serenity gave a soft laugh seeing the two.

Jack suddenly thought of something and took out his broken Storm Breaker. It was just a hilt with half a blade on it. ”Goddess, you mentioned that you are allowed to do something since it was interference from a God. This sword of mine was broken by that God of Fear. Can you also restore it back?”

Serenity gave the broken weapon a look and asked, ”is this the weapon from the Seed of Thousand Forms which I gave to you?”

”Uh, yes. Can it not be restored because it was from that item?” Jack asked worriedly. This growth weapon was another of the reasons that had put him much ahead of other outworlders, losing it would be a significant decrease in his prowess.

”Of course it is not a problem, I was just curious,” Serenity replied to Jackʼs relief. But as she was about to touch the broken sword, Hope came and said, ”allow me.”

Knowing the guy was an all-powerful God, Jack did nothing as Hope took the broken sword from his hand. He did try to Inspect this God, but same as Serenity and Fear, all he got was a bunch of question marks.

As Hope gripped the hilt of the sword, tiny golden lights appeared and danced around the broken sword. Shards of the broken swords fluttered on the ground before flying up and coming to the broken sword on Jackʼs hand as if attracted by a strong magnet. They then reattached themselves to the broken part of the blade while the golden lights continued to dance and mend them together.

It was not long before the sword was whole again. No, not whole. It looked slightly different, Jack thought of the reformed blade.

”Here,” Hope opened his palm and the black sword floated slowly back to Jack. Jack extended his arm to receive the sword. Once he gripped it, he noticed that the sword was slightly longer than the previous, but lighter. There were also more golden lines running along its body. He quickly checked its statistics.

Storm Breaker, level 35 (rare one-handed sword, bound weapon)

Physical damage 210

Attack speed 4

Cannot be destroyed

Bound to Storm Wind

Dexterity +6

15% chance to cause Poison status effect on each attack

Overlimit: Release the weaponʼs hidden power that adds an additional 200% damage as chaos damage, increase weapon range by 3 feet, and decrease targetʼs defense by 90%. Duration: 3 minutes. Cooldown: 6 hours

Its damage power had increased despite being on the same level. So had its attack speed, no wonder the sword felt lighter. He only ever saw an attack speed of 4 on Roqueʼs weapon like a dagger. Combined with his high Dexterity, his attack speed would be even more deadly now. But the most significant improvement was its Overlimit ability. All of the aspects of its ability except for the additional damage had been increased.

He was already happy that his Storm Breaker was getting fixed. But not only was it fixed, it was also even getting strengthened. He was at a loss for words of this benefit that Peniel had to remind him, ”you are being awfully rude.”

Jack quickly gave a deep bow to Hope after Penielʼs reminder, ”I canʼt thank you enough for granting me this boon.”

Hope gave him a simple nod. ”It was by right we should straighten the wrongs that our misguided kind had wrought,” he said.

”I never expect that an outworlder had already managed to obtain a Divine Treasure at your level, but maybe thatʼs why they came for you,” Serenity said to Jack. ”I have put a mark on you after you saved me, thatʼs why I can sense a divine being appear near you and come immediately. If any God or Demigod comes at you again, we will know, and we will come to your aid. However, we will not give you any assistance if it was below divine level interference. And now that Fear had targeted you, you should be careful, his cult was not to be underestimated.”

”Thank you for your warning, Goddess Serenity,” Jack replied and took this chance to pry. ”What about the outworlders that were with Fear? Do you know anything about them?”

”Unfortunately we donʼt,” Serenity said. ”Since we are not allowed to interfere, we also do not keep tabs of outworldersʼ activity. But there are indeed some outworldersʼ activities that are affecting this world in a concerning way. They should be part of these outworlders that are associated with Fear. We will perform more review on our part and have our mortal forces check them out.”

”We canʼt stay any longer,” Hope declared.

😉