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Chapter 573.1: Omen (1)

Roel fell into deep thought after hearing the Mother Goddess’ words.

Even from their first meeting, Roel had already noticed the uncanny resemblance between Alicia and the Mother Goddess. It was just that he couldn’t find any connections between the two of them afterward other than their appearances.

The Mother Goddess had clearly stated that She had never given birth in the traditional sense of the word. In the first place, it was hard to imagine that there was a person in the world worthy of becoming Her companion. After eliminating that possibility, Roel couldn’t think of other possible connections.

Well-versed in history, he knew that the Mother Goddess and the Savior would be warring for a long time before Her eventual downfall. It was unlikely that She would consider leaving behind a child in the midst of the war, as it would only become a weakness for the enemy to exploit.

Yet, a new possibility emerged today.

Since the Savior did fall into depravity, it was likely that the descent of the Black Moon did occur. Given that the Black Moon possessed its own sentience and self-will, could it have developed into an existence of an even higher order than the Six Calamities?

Roel didn’t have an answer to that question, but his intuition told him that Alicia had a close connection with the Black Moon. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been an uncanny resemblance between the two. That also explained Alicia’s meteoric growth in her transcendent abilities.

However, this put Roel in a dilemma.

Hold right there! What’s the relationship between me and Alicia, then? If Alicia has inherited the Black Moon and a portion of the Mother Goddess’ soul, wouldn’t that technically mean that she is the Mother Goddess?

Roel felt like his brain was going to burst from this complicated relationship tree.

No, we can’t think about it that way. Alicia has only inherited part of the Mother Goddess’ soul, not to mention that she possesses her own self-will. At the very most, she can only be considered to be the Mother Goddess’ child. I mean, I also inherited the Mother Goddess’ soul and am considered Her child.

This train of thought, unfortunately, brought about its own set of problems.

Wait, wait, wait! Doesn’t this mean that we aren’t foster siblings but real siblings?!

This was an absolute taboo to Roel, who had inherited the values from his previous world. Foster siblings were already in the red zone, but an incestuous relationship was absolutely out of the question.

But again, blood ties are usually the sole determining factor when considering whether a relationship is incestuous or not, right? I mean, who the hell will pull out a couple’s soul and condemn them for being soul siblings?!

In the first place, most intelligent creatures are Sia’s descendants, right? If we use soul as a gauge for familial ties, that basically means that everyone is siblings with one another! If it isn’t an issue for other ‘soul siblings’, why should it be an issue for us?

Having finally thought things through, Roel heaved a huge sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, the Mother Goddess noticed something and gently loosened Her arms. She leaned back a little to take a look at Roel’s body, only for Her expression to turn heavy.

“It still isn’t stable yet?”

“Hm? What do you…”

Halfway through his words, Roel suddenly experienced intense vertigo, followed by an extreme wave of fatigue. The Mother Goddess before his eyes turned blurry.

“Don’t worry! This is soul rejection, a normal phenomenon for such a procedure. Just take a long rest and it’ll all be over. I’ll stay with you and take care of everything.”

“…Mm.”

Roel nodded in response to the Mother Goddess’ guarantee before slowly closing his eyes. Within seconds, his consciousness had already faded to darkness.

…

After Roel fell into a deep sleep, the Mother Goddess’ smile slowly turned into a worried frown. She had tried Her best to portray an optimistic appearance in front of Roel, but Her facade fell off as soon as he lost consciousness.

Roel’s condition was nowhere as good as the Mother Goddess claimed it to be. This could be seen from the treatment duration.

The Mother Goddess had the power to heal fatal wounds within seconds. Roel’s condition had been worse than fatal—the difficulty to treat him was comparable to resurrection—but it didn’t pose a problem to Her.

As a matter of fact, his physical treatment was already completed on the very first day.

The trouble came afterward.

The Mother Goddess struggled to treat Roel’s soul because there was something off about it. She had thought that he, as the Kingmaker, should have a high level of soul compatibility with Her. Sia had bestowed the Crown Origin Attribute upon the Kingmaker in preparation for the Succession, after all. It was not to say that their souls would be a perfect fit, but She should have been able to complement his deficiency.

That was why the Mother Goddess had confidently taken over the job from Edavia.

Yet, She was facing trouble trying to get Roel to accept Her soul.

It was not entirely impossible to fuse their souls together, but it was more difficult than She had expected. Somehow, Roel’s soul wasn’t reacting well to Hers, almost as if it had spent so much time idle that it had forgotten its functions.

This perplexed the Mother Goddess.

In the end, She concluded that Roel had simply lost far too much of his soul to function properly. Aside from that, She noticed some differences between Roel’s Origin Attribute and the Crown, but She wasn’t too certain about that.

She touched Roel’s chest as She thought about these problems, but a mild headache that abruptly settled in distracted Her from Her thoughts. She spent a while massaging Her temples before the headache finally subsided.

Doubt flickered across Her crimson eyes. She had never experienced any physical discomfort before, but somehow, this headache had already struck Her multiple times in recent days.

“…Is it the effects of the Black Moon?” the Mother Goddess murmured.

She shook Her head, choosing to put this matter on hold and first focus on Roel’s treatment. She placed Her hand on Roel, only to sense a probing mana pulsation coming from the corner of the room.

“Enter,” She said.

A black silhouette emerged from the shadows in the corner of the room. The Mother Goddess shot a glance at the messenger, and the latter hurriedly made his report.

“O great Mother Goddess, regarding tonight’s meeting…”

“I won’t be attending. Get Micher to chair the meeting in My place. Haven’t I already said not to report such matters to Me?”

“Yes, O great Mother Goddess, but… our troops have been idle for too long. Lord Micher wishes to get Your permission to go on the offensive,” the messenger hesitantly said.

“…”

The Mother Goddess sighed softly.

An army that achieved a huge victory in battle would usually go on the offensive right away to widen their lead before their enemy recovered. Given that the Mother Goddess had emerged relatively unharmed in that battle, She should have capitalized on this opportunity to suppress the Savior’s faction. After all, they were fighting for a new world order here!

Yet, the Mother Goddess had hardly taken a step away from Roel over the past two weeks.

Her inaction was starting to frustrate the race leaders. They understood the Mother Goddess’ feelings, but they saw the suppression of the Savior’s faction as an equally pressing issue, particularly since this hard-earned window of opportunity was slowly closing on them. As a matter of fact, they had already reorganized their armies in preparation for a follow-up attack.

But faced with the messenger’s expectant eyes, the Mother Goddess shook Her head.

“…I won’t attend the meeting. Tell Micher that he can go on the offensive. He has My permission to mobilize the God’s Envoys,” the Mother Goddess said before turning Her gaze back onto Roel.

“I understand.”

Catching the Mother Goddess’ implication, the messenger had no choice but to take his leave.

Silence returned to the room.

The Mother Goddess, too, understood how difficult to come by this opportunity was, but Her priorities were clear. She was first and foremost a mother. She couldn’t leave Her ailing child.

This interjection had temporarily distracted Her from the problems concerning Roel’s condition. She nourished Roel’s soul with gentle mana pulsations, then She lay down beside him and drifted off to sleep.

…