Side Story 42: The Darkness’s Light and Trickster. [Release Version] (Patreon)

“Ooooooh, my goodness…”

In the divine realm of the Goddess Aurena, the goddess in question herself fell back on her chair with a relieved expression. She lightly slapped her spotless face, moving it up and down in an attempt to calm herself. She opened up a single eye, watching Hestia’s participation in the Elyonda siege once more, before letting out a deep sigh of contentment? exasperation? delight?.

She closed her golden-colored eye after a while and fixed her posture, before personally reviewing and completing Yeostar’s Divine Quest to Hestia. The rewards for her were already prepared in advance, so all Aurena had to do was to implement them. The numerical increases were simple, but the personal reward Yeostar planned for the girl would have to take a while longer.

In addition, she also took a look through the other point of views of the siege’s end, since Hestia was unconscious. She looked through Renee’s view, looking through the injured allies her Champion had made, realizing all of them had survived the battle against Ghorush. However, unlike the seventh Yanderu boss, Qaltil, the leonid man seemed to have escaped.

Aurena didn’t mind it; in fact, she had anticipated his escape. A mercenary wouldn’t give up their life for a job, after all. Still, she was a bit impressed at the performance of Tehmrayn, one of Goddess Plesia’s most devoted Champions.

Stoic, dutiful … also very inflexible, in a way.

Aurena was wondering if a meeting with her other Blessed would really benefit Hestia at this point. From her meeting with Tehmrayn, Hestia had learned how a Champion should be acting and how important strength was. After all, power was what helped a Champion complete their risky Divine Quests.

In the end, though, Aurena decided against it. From the way she handled this battle, Hestia most likely would clash with the majority of her Blessed instead of getting along with them. Most were either born or indoctrinated into the Empire’s view of the world. Most vehemently disliked demonkins, to the point most of them believed even handing one of them a loaf of dried bread meant being a traitor to humanity.

It was an inevitable outcome of the Folschreck Empire and Bole’Taria being in a constant state of war. Hatred and prejudice were just so deeply ingrained in the major players of this war. Although, Aurena couldn’t exactly fault them. She too disliked the demonkins and thought Hestia having to fight them was inevitable. She still thought it was the only outcome, but…

… I can’t believe she actually reached a ceasefire with that demonkin. Even healed her companion. I thought Hestia was slowly growing into this draconian girl fully focused on destroying her enemies for the sake of her happiness. That’s what her Sloth and Gluttony told her… but it seemed her draconic and human side are once again clashing.

Or, maybe it’s the opposite? Maybe … the two sides of her soul—the two personalities created by her imperfect reincarnation—are influencing each other? Hmm. It’s weird. Souls are weird. However … in the end, this isn’t a bad outcome.

A Champion was allowed autonomy over how they fulfilled a Quest, although they had to live with the consequences. For example, being distrusted or even hated by their patron god. The gods were supposed to be guides and watchers only, so such an outcome wasn’t too uncommon. Sometimes, mistakes or misunderstandings just happened. Or, a Champion was starting to change from the person the god first believed was a suitable person to bless.

To Aurena, though, Hestia acted just as she always did. She wasn’t your traditional Champion, since the girl had no deep love for her patron god. To Hestia, Aurena and all the other gods were her “boss” and “supervisors.” She saw in them not as people to revere, but people who handed her jobs to deal with.

As such, Hestia treating a demonkin in such a manner wasn’t outrageous. She defined herself as an “Idol of Aurena,” after all. Idols weren’t there to kill or preach; they were there to make people idolize them.

Yes, while being a Blessed could gain the admiration of others, Hestia’s definition of an idol was more focused on entertainment. The elevating messages to brighten a person on a rainy day. To bring smiles on a sour face with her performance. Pure ruthlessness without a sense of compassion didn’t belong in Hestia’s path. Aurena understood Eshe taught this ideal to her junior.

Eshe would slay enemies when needed. She wasn’t naive. None of my blessed are. A world without bloodshed would be nice, but it was an impossible feat to achieve. Sometimes, violence is the only answer to the situation.

Hestia showed this quality by allowing the grimgarian army one last chance to surrender and retreat, before massacering them with her spells. She showed mercy to Reajaen in Estralia, despite how many people the foxian woman had indirectly killed or ruined with her organization. She hated outlaws immensely after her encounter with Eithalr, but also understood sometimes people just couldn’t help it when fate brought them low.

It was all about assessing the situation and finding a way to sympathize with others. If she didn’t, then her draconic instincts would have overtaken her a long time ago. This was the human side of hers.

Ehehe, if her sister were the one in charge, she would have killed the demonkin without hesitation.

Aurena was a bit worried this decision would bite her in the butt in the long run, but she couldn’t fault her Champion for doing what she believed to be right. She did think Hestia was a bit naive, though, since letting an enemy live during a war wasn’t exactly smart. Warbringer Vifi’Yok could very much become her enemy again, and next time, she would be stronger.

But, this is how my Champion wishes to conduct herself. All I can do is watch and assess.

She then closed her windows concerning the Yeos matter and then began sending out messages to a few people. Two were directed to Vivachel and Istari respectively, thanking them for indirectly helping Hestia out by having their descendants solve the situation in a roundabout manner. Although they didn’t break any rules, she knew Goddess Plesia wouldn’t look at their actions too fondly.

The other messages were directed at her own subordinates, specifically, Erithia. Probably the most vocal of her subordinate gods when it came to her dislike for Hestia. Due to the zealous love the majority of her gods held for the perfect image of their Goddess, most weren’t fond of how Hestia was beyond the norm of a Blessed of the Light Pantheon.

A Saint and Champion should show both love and reverence of their patron god, as they were the one to bless them and grant them power in the pursuit of elevating their religion. It was entirely normal for and expected of a Blessed. However, not only did Hestia not love their “idol,” but she was also the one to let another Blessed die under her watch, despite being a Champion.

To the majority of the Pantheon of Light, Hestia’s reputation wasn’t the best. Only a few actually viewed her favorably, or even fondly in Kargryxmor’s case.

Haaaaa… Annoying. Now, Aurena had to make sure her Champion’s image wouldn’t tank too much.

“‘Oooooh! She doesn’t live up to the Goddess’s brilliance. Oooooh! She’s too naive and not dutiful enough. Ooooh! We need to train her so she becomes a proper Champion!’ Pah! How annoying. Just let the girl spread her wings. Have all of you forgotten your role as gods, or must you complain about how mortals do stuff? Ridiculous.”

“Shie shie shie!” Aurena twitched at the sound of that chilling laugh, frowning as she noticed a distortion inside her realm. She turned over to face the source of the distortion, only to grimace at the appearance of a man exiting a dimension rift. “Are you that much of a gossiper? Talking behind their backs? Why, little sister, you truly have changed.”

The appearance of a Victorian gentleman in a black suit with leather shoes and elegant white gloves bowed before the Goddess of Light. His naturally waving hair flowed down to his shoulders, looking like a river of shadows, disappearing at the tips in a smokey haze. This mist of darkness wrapped itself around his body, covering it up like a cape. To finish it off, his body began to light up, revealing small, verdant green buttons? trimmings? along the openings of his outfit.

To Aurena, this man felt eerie. Not because she was scared of him, but because of his manner of conduct and thinking. The wicked smile he held on his too human face made her uneasy. This erratic man had an arbitrary manner of thinking similar to her father, making it hard for her to even presume anything in his presence. A hedonist, a person willing to anger and topple the natural order for a good laugh, just to switch up his actions for philanthropic deeds in the next moment.

However, this feeling quickly turned around as her eyes and mouth turned down, making the beautiful Goddess look like she had missed out on two days worth of sleep. Her mood soured, to the point her guest cackled like a madman.

“Must I repeat myself again? I am not your sister!” Aurena frowned in irritation as his maniacal laughter tainted her home. “You come off as such a pest whenever you ignore my wish like that. Do you know that? Gel’Glariri?”

“Oho. Maybe, but we have barely ever met ever since you came to this world El—Sorry, Aurena. Master, too. As his daughter, just humor me for a bit. Yeah?” The Edjurl God of Trickery and Laughter began to float in the air, posing in a rather eccentric manner for amusement.

Aurena looked at him, before letting go of her animosity. She felt embarrassed, seeing as she should have known he would be like this. Turning around and returning to her work, Aurena decided to just treat him like a random bug flying into the room.

“Why are you here? I already thanked you for helping me out.”

Aurena was talking about her stunt to help out Hestia escape the dimension trap set up by the Prince of Envy and the Edjurl god who gave him the boon. As she didn’t want to go to the plane of the Edjurl alone, she had called on one of her allies to watch over her as she dealt with the monster lurking there.

She had guessed Hestia’s usurpation ability would have been able to turn the tide, but she was unsure what would happen if an otherworldly monster had attacked her there. As such, while Gel’Glariri handled the matter of the Prince at his discretion, Aurena destroyed anything which could endanger her Champion.

“Can’t I just take a peek into your life? Visit you? I mean, how long has it been since you assumed your true form? It was glorious seeing you shed that benign form to reveal your true form as the shadow god’s daughter!” he announced in an elated fashion. However, since Aurena was mostly ignoring him, the silence only dampened his act, forcing him to shrug and say “too bad.”

Similar to Aurena, this wasn’t this god’s true form. This was a form he had received according to the very, very few followers he had in this world. A “gentleman magician” was the image of the leading follower of Gel’Glariri. A proof that, even if you had very few followers, they could still construct a vision of you as long as they were organized. Although, even with faith, none of the power from that faith would go to the god, as he wasn’t officially recognized by the Divine System as a Peolyncian god.

“… Well, I am here to ask you for my favor.” In the end, the god decided it would be best to just go to the real point of his visit.

“A favor? Well, of course. A debt must be paid, so ask away.” Aurena turned around to give him a small nod before returning to her work. “If it weren’t for you, my old acquaintances probably would have tried to kill me when I was around.”

The God of Trickery and Laughter wasn’t a combat-focused god, but he was proficient at illusions, space-time magic, and also soul manipulation. A traveler who would wander dimensions for his amusement, he was well versed in the art of subterfuge. Hiding himself and Aurena was easy for him, allowing the Peolyncian Goddess to revisit her old home without alerting those keen to attack the world.

“However, do make sure to watch your words. I am still, and probably Elder Plesia is as well,  angered by how you decided to just do whatever you wished with Hestia. Sure, it ended up all right, but the fact you broke our deal in the first place…” Aurena glared at the trickster god, causing the latter to form a weary smile. “That divine usurpation ability you gave her was unwarranted. If all you had wanted was to watch her life, you should have just given her [Mana Eyes] and let that be. Now? How are we supposed to deal with your changes without damaging her still recovering soul?”

“Shie shie shie!”

“Don’t you ‘shie shie shie’ me!”

Aurena and Kargryxmor were the first two collaborators in Hestia’s reincarnation, but since neither of the gods were versed in soul manipulation nor in its transportation from another world, they had to ask somebody else for this duty. Ilsaphone was still too young of a goddess, so they only had one other person they could rely on. The god who helped Crustacia bring in the first [Otherworldly Reincarnator] — Gel’Glariri.

Entirely a surprise to all the Peolyncian gods, Crustacia had described her encounter with him as a random occurrence. Suddenly one day, the god had just appeared in her divine realm as she was trying to think about a way to prop her patron race. Although it wasn’t possible for him to have bugged her home, it also was too much of a coincidence for him to appear like that.

In truth, Gel’Glariri had gotten lost in his dimensional hopping on that fateful day. He had wanted to visit his old senior god, Marsven, to ask him if he was feeling bored or not, but in the process had ended up in Crustacia’s realm. Unnerved by this, he had hid himself from the Earth Goddess’s perception, only to overhear her woes as he was about to teleport out.

Having adopted his senior god’s mentality of change being the defining trait of evolution and progress, the sly god had made the goddess an offer that day. To unclog the dire stagnancy of Peolynca, he too thought introducing a foreigner to the world would be beneficial.

As such, when that offer once again came up, he accepted it without question. This was his way to please Marsven. However, when he had heard of Kargryxmor’s and Aurena’s initial plan of wanting to mostly erase Hestia’s soul’s memories, he had secretly objected. A reincarnator without their memories wouldn’t change anything in the world. They would simply adapt to the status quo and simply follow the gods like a drone.

To Gel’Glariri that was boring. Uninspiring. In an act of defiance, he had given the newly-reborn soul her former memories in a tight package, just enough for her soul to slowly recover itself. In addition, he added a few gifts to assure no god could erase his work, mainly  the usurpation process as well as Hestia's [Mana Eyes]. The latter was there mostly so he could watch her POV for entertainment reasons.

I’m still waiting for the girl to fully unlock that skill. Can’t wait for her reaction. Shie shie shie!

As a consequence, the only way for Hestia to lose her usurpation powers was for one of the Peolyncian gods to personally remove it from her soul. This would undoubtedly harm her. The fragmentation had already shown a consequence in the fact her soul split into two personalities, so what would happen if somebody were to further damage her soul in this state? Even Plesia found it too cruel, and decided to remove the powers once some time had passed for her recovery.

Aurena, although in favor of her development, still found Gel’Glariri’s betrayal damning. She already found it hard to trust him, but now she was also wary of him. Sure, she had asked him to help her out, but a favor needed to be repaid fairly. This was what she meant.

“Nothing too weird, of course. I just want to meet her!” the god answered in a carefree manner.

“Meet her? You know you can’t do that. You can only have your one apostle preach to her. You are insane. The girl would despise him.” Aurena rejected the idea entirely, believing that meeting him would go against Hestia’s ideals. “You lack the patience of Father, making your way of changing the course and direction of a world too crude. While Father seeks the world’s continued existence and growth, you only look for a quick laugh. You don’t care about the process. This is what you teach to your followers, how you make them like you.”

“Now that is insulting, dear Aurena.” Gel’Glariri frowned at how Aurena phrased her opinion of him. “What is entertainment but the most important part of a soul’s continued existence? With the world dull and suffocating, what can the gods’ possibly look out for in the future? It makes you slow and inflexible. That’s the thing. A quick laugh here, or a quick table slam there, and boom! Life has meaning again!”

Gel’Glariri landed on his feet and approached the Goddess of Light with wide eyes, exuding the aura of a madman. “We don’t need stoic gods, Aurena! You and I aren’t the same as the one on Earth. And we shouldn’t be! It’s boring, after all, and don’t tell me you don’t agree. Your father is the embodiment of change, after all! Even if he was in consideration for the Sin of Sloth, he understands the status quo is poison! The growth of Earth and so many similar worlds are evidence of this.”

The talk of other worlds had no meaning to Aurena, who quickly sighed at the annoying pest flying around her eyes. His whispers were ineffective, unable to turn over the daughter of the Dark God. In a world of darkness, she was the light born from it, to bring out the necessary change to Marsven’s existence and life. She understood very much how important it was to move forward, never letting stagnancy cloud one’s mind and conviction.

As such, she couldn’t accept the Trickster God’s ideology. To her, the madman was just that—mad.

“Regardless, I want to meet her. I was as much a part of her reincarnation as you were. She is probably curious why I did all of this, so why not elucidate her?” However, despite all of Aurena’s glaring, Gel’Glariri kept his stubbornness up. “Also, wouldn’t it help you if her [Mana Eyes] were to level up and evolve? It would mean she would be able to appraise anything she liked.”

“No, I don’t care about that. Information is power, but having her meet you would be terrible. I am not trusting you near her even when I’m around.” Aurena stood up from her seat, confronting the trickster about his intentions. “Why do you really wish to meet her? You don’t do things for no reason. I know I said those things about you, but you are cunning. That is dangerous.”

“… Talk about being ungrateful. Pfff.” In the end, the god gave it up quickly after Aurena stood up for herself. “Alright, then let’s compromise, have her speak with my apostle. Or, his apprentice.”

“… His apprentice? You are just the worst are you? You know exactly who this apprentice is, and you’re still sending Hestia to them?” Now, Aurena was outraged. Her dislike for this god reached an all-time high… However, this time, she knew she didn't really have much of a choice. “Fine then. But I will decide when she does it.”

A favor had to be repaid for his help. He had helped Aurean with Hestia’s reincarnation and also her rescue. Even if Aurena hated his guts at this point, she couldn’t exactly break her word as a god. A deal between gods had to be kept out of principle, otherwise, a conflict between the two side’s leaders could break out. At this moment, Aurena didn’t want to burden Plesia with more enemies, especially since the latter had given her her trust.

Aurena didn’t want Gel’Glariri to meet Hestia personally, believing the mad god would corrupt her. However, if it was a meeting between two mortals, Aurena could prepare Hestia for that day. If the enemy tried to do something to her Champion, she knew she would be ready for when it happened.

“Alright, then. It is a deal~” With a smirk, the trickster god opened up a dimension rift and said his goodbyes, disappearing from the world and dimension.

Aurena shook her head, letting her angel wings droop down in relaxation. Another encounter with this devil so soon was to be expected, but it still drained her. Aurena did wonder if she should have asked him why exactly he betrayed her, granting Hestia so many boons from her situation.

Without him, Hestia would have turned exactly how she and Kargryxmor had planned on using her. However, since her memories remained and her ability to break away from a god’s influence through usurpation made it hard for any god to win her decisively onto their side, it actually turned Hestia into a better Blessed than she would have been otherwise. Unironically, the one who is the least faithful, interested Aurena the most.

However, at the end of the day, prying into the void for answers wasn’t smart. Speaking with Gel’Glariri was like looking into the abyss, wishing to steal a prize without risking blindness. Although he wasn’t a strong combatant, he was still a god. A god specialized in using illusions and soul manipulation to defeat others.

And, despite everything he did, Aurena knew he wasn’t an enemy. He was still a friend of the family. She knew he wouldn’t want to anger her, seeing as Gel’Glariri respected and revered Marsven, her father, like a true god. To him, Aurena was his young miss.

He wouldn’t ruin her plans, in fact, he might be helping her out in the long run. However, his execution was a different matter. To Gel’Glariri, all that mattered were the results and the upcoming changes to the world, but to Aurena, the process was equally as important. The man would burn down the world, all for his goals.

Aurena hoped he wouldn’t rely on anything extreme.

Ahhh, okay, okay. Let’s not think about it. He didn’t give me a timer for their meeting. I’ll wait until after she reaches A rank and then inform her. It’ll give her more time with her mother, her party, and also any other trainers she meets along the way.

Aurena then returned to her desk, only to suddenly receive a new notification sent by Plesia to the entirety of the Divine Realm of Peolynca.

<Announcement: The Trial of God Yeostar, God of Knighthood, Bravery, and Loyalty, under penalty of divinity subjugation shall soon be starting. Every associated god and goddess shall attend this trial under watch of the Head Goddess, Plesia.>

… Yeostar.

The reason for why Aurena had to take over Yeostar’s duty was because of the god’s conduct in the recent siege. His forceful participation in the war by forcibly granting the arena the ability to transport all intruders out of it was considered a direct violation of the divine rules. The fact he saved Hestia, Renee, and Markval from their meeting with Streiga was reason enough for Plesia to judge him.

Now, it was Aurena’s duty to help her subordinate.

You did this knowing full well this was the consequence, Yeostar. Truly, you weren’t fit to become a god. A ruler, yes, but not a guide. Don’t worry, I will assure your status is intact for your next Champion to be born.

To court.