NOVPUBI was outside the Communal Temple with Alice and all the Saints from other religions, most of whom I hadn’t seen in a long time and as expected the Saint of Pleasure was almost completely naked without any shame in showing her body in front of a temple, even the Saint of Love was looking at me strangely, so I kept away from them.
"Don’t worry about them, we already talked about leaving you alone, now they’re going after your children and that includes me." (Vanessa)
"Thank you for that, I won’t have a relationship with someone just for Pleasure and if I have a child with someone, it will definitely be with my wives and not with a Saint for whom I have no feelings." (I)
"Says the man full of children." (Lilith)
"We’re almost adopted in a way, so it doesn’t count." (Samira)
"Samira is right, the only daughter born directly to him was Hela and she was sired by the Dungeon." (Irius)
"What are you doing here?" (I)
"I came to get something for Elsaris." (Samira)
"I’m helping Irina with the people who haven’t woken up yet." (Irius)
"I was bored and this sounded interesting." (Lilith)
"I think it’s hard not to feel curious about a wave of negative energy like that." (Vanessa)
Everyone was gathering, some were in sleeping clothes, others in training clothes and there was even a Lamia carrying an Elf wrapped around her tail, probably today’s single prey.
The wave of negative energy was not contained by the Communal Temple, in fact for those with Holy Power it was possible to feel that the power was being amplified and I knew by whom.
"Why doesn’t anyone come in?" (Samira)
"The power of death and life are colliding very intensely inside, there is also a lot of Cursed energy." (Alice)
"Alice’s right, this won’t last long anyway." (I)
Just like I said, these energies were already decreasing since a few minutes ago, it was half the intensity of the initial explosion, in a few more minutes it should be safe to enter.
"(I can feel her inside the temple, I can also feel the Divine powers of life and death, it seems like the two Goddesses are doing something...)" (I)
I was worried that the Goddesses of Life and Death might grant a Blessing to Zaya, in fact she is the only suitable candidate for her position alongside Hinata, so I would rather not lose her to the Gods.
"All I can do now is wait." (I)
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Several minutes later.
When the energy was almost disappearing I felt something breathe for the first time and I felt this because a large amount of Holy Power was sucked out of the pool of blood when it happened.
"I’ll go in first, wait here." (I)
"..." (all)
No one tried to follow me with the exception of Hinata who was the only Family member that I still have with me that the situation is no longer critical.
Hinata seemed more excited than me, this kind of power always interests her a lot, it’s a shame she tends to eat this kind of thing, I’m going to have to control her so she doesn’t think about devouring Zaya now that she’s finally woken up.
I followed the entrance hall and the corridors, when I entered the room where she was supposed to be, there was nothing but holes in the ceiling and floor, which I already expected, I knew she was in the hall of statues, in fact her body seems to have materialized there, I just wanted to take a look at the room where she stayed.
"That was a big mess..." (I)
I continued walking and entered the Hall of Statues, when I opened the doors I saw a woman running towards me and taking my face in her hands while treating it like a new toy, she was moving, pulling and poking my face with a curious look on her face, I could also see confusion in her Aura as well as two Divine presences behind her.
"Why does there always have to be something to complicate things?" (I)
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Several hours later.
The sun was already rising, I was at the top of the Communal Temple with her by my side, Zaya was more than just confused when I found her, she looked like a child and in the next few minutes her behavior changed little by little as if she was mentally maturing the equivalent to years in mere minutes.
Now she seemed more serious and polite, I also got some clothes for her to cover herself, they are standard and simple clothes, but her exotic beauty more than makes up for that.
"Once again, I’m sorry for my behavior, the Tomb of Nutrition is not something that my Race goes through after reaching adulthood, it messed with my mind and shook my Soul a little causing this mental regression to the time when I was still a child." (Zaya)
"That’s all in the past, we’ve talked about it... so how do you feel now?" (I)
"I feel good, my body is very comfortable and I have full control over my body as well as my power." (Zaya)
"Those are big claims when I haven’t seen you use your power once." (I)
"The Nourishment Tomb is a process of maturation not only physically, but also mentally and for the Soul." (Zaya)
"I know myself completely and with that I have complete control, if I understand the basis and fundamentals, then I have a deep understanding of myself." (Zaya)
"Know yourself first, I’ve heard of things like that." (I)
"(I heard about sayings like this in self-help stuff in my old world, most of the time as ways to profit from people looking for simple solutions, I never believed in that nonsense.)" (I)
"(But what she’s talking about isn’t self-help stuff, she’s talking about a real process of transformation of the body, mind and Soul.)" (I) n𝚘𝚟𝚙u𝚋.co𝚖
"What do you think of this place?" (I)
"Incredible, the energies around are so diverse, the Curse around me is less intense, I also find it incredible how comfortable your Aura is, very different from Tarzor." (Zaya)
She looked happy, meanwhile I tried to check once again her very different appearance from the statue I saw before.
Their skin is pale as porcelain, their eyebrows are as white as silk as is their long hair that becomes less real the closer you get to the tip becoming completely ethereal, their bodies have several areas with white scales such as the side of the body, the back of the arms, the thighs, the back, the neck and a little on the cheeks.
Her eyes were neon purple with a slight glow and looked like the eyes of a Serpent, on her back was a tail full of scales that ends in the head of a Serpent with a mouth full of teeth and closed eyes.
Her presence is cold at the same time as calming, her skin as cold as a corpse while her voice was like the melody of a piano, she is captivating in every way, but what I felt most emanating from her was the inconsistency.
Everything about her appearance resembles death, but her friendly and lively personality showing so many expressions on her face does not match, not to mention the Cursed energy that constantly flows through her body, even her Aura is strange, keeping these 3 energies in harmony.
"Did you think about what I said?" (I)
"Yes and I believe I have already given my answer." (Zaya)
"I wanted to give you time to think, this was the first time we met." (I)
"No, this was the first time you met me, I have been seeing and hearing many things about you, today I just put a face to the figure I had in my mind." (Zaya)
"My Race is like a parasite, we need to be attached to something to maintain our emotions and rationality." (Zaya)
"We are called the Ladies of the Grave for a reason, we connect ourselves to places of great number of deaths, the Curse of negative feelings, the energy of death that gathers for the many dead, these things are essential to us and at the same time they can corrupt." (Zaya)
"The cursed energy freezes our emotions, the energy of death corrodes our minds and in the end all that’s left is a monster." (Zaya)
"Connecting ourselves to something allows us to avoid that end by anchoring our consciousness and emotions in something else." (Zaya)
"That’s why your proposal is very good for me, because I need something like this and you seem more than suitable." (Zaya)
Looking at her I know she’s not saying everything, but I also know she doesn’t want to do anything bad, that wouldn’t even be possible when she became a Divine Herald.
"Can I at least know what you want?" (I)
"What do I want? What do you mean?" (Zaya)
"Your desire, what you seek in the long term, what you seek for yourself." (I)
"That’s easy, I seek freedom." (Zaya)
"..." (I)
At that moment I realized that once again she was telling only part of the truth, the meaning of her freedom seemed not to be the same as what I was thinking, there seemed to be a lot of meaning in her freedom.
While I was thinking about what happened earlier in the main hall of the Communal Temple, Hinata left my body and gave Zaya a hug, I was shocked by this since she only usually shows this type of behavior towards me, it made me feel calmer about my choice.
