**Chapter Sixty-Five: Please, Please Be Gentle**
The Twilight of the Gods, a secret organization that has existed for over five thousand years in the mortal world, is mainly divided into two factions.
The Birth Faction holds conservative views, hoping to gain the favor of the deities, preparing the host vessels, and praying for the deities to descend and walk among mortals.
The God-Making Faction believes that before the impending apocalypse, humanity must grasp enough self-rescue power in their own hands, so usurping divine authority and ascending to demigod status is their only goal.
And the disintegration and fall of the Goddess of Abundance is their divine opportunity.
Once the deity’s consciousness and divine authority descend into the world, the first entity to merge with it will be the host vessel, Novella.
However, due to the fall of the Goddess of Abundance, the divine authority was also tainted and needed to expel the corruption and murmurs.
Therefore, after Novella’s consciousness was invaded, in the fleeting moment before the divine authority merged, they would thoroughly kill the evil god consciousness along with the host vessel and then seize the divine authority.
Opportunities like this may not be encountered again for many years.
Thus, for today’s plan, the Mysterious Man in Black Robe and the forces behind him have invested decades of effort and preparation.
Everything was for the sake of reaping the fruits of victory today.
But now, everything has been ruined.
The Mysterious Man in Black Robe, Count Violet, and the many devotees of the Goddess of Abundance present looked on in horror at the scene before them.
The fair and handsome young man swept away the divine authority that was floating in mid-air and then indiscriminately swallowed it!
“Stop!!!”
The Mysterious Man in Black Robe flashed and instantaneously moved to Shaya’s front, attempting to stop his action, but it was too late.
The divine authority, condensed like a blazing sun and possessing parts of the deity’s power, vanished into Shaya’s mouth.
“Get lost.”
With a cold laugh, Shaya took advantage of the multiple buffs still in effect and threw a punch, unleashing a violent air wave that swept through the entire underground cavern, forcing the sorcerer back.
The opponent’s magic couldn’t kill Shaya, but after being up close with him, even a sorcerer would find it troublesome.
The Mysterious Man in Black Robe retreated instantly to the entrance of the cavern, his expression quite grim as he watched the scene unfold.
“O, oh, Goddess…”
Beside him, many pious followers stared blankly at Shaya, slowly kneeling on the ground, sobbing.
Their faith had been devoured by a brutal and savage knight!
Feeling the foreign object in his body, Shaya took a deep breath, feeling exhilarated.
Perhaps this was the most thrilling thing he’s done since his rebirth.
Fortunately, the consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance had already fallen and was defined by the system as a villain.
So, even if he were to explode from consuming the divine authority, Shaya was mentally prepared.
After rebirth, that divine authority and consciousness would be cleared away like the Black Mist by the system.
“Mm…”
At this moment, Novella, who had fallen into a coma halfway through the ritual, seemed to be awakened by the noises around her, drowsily opening her eyes.
She instinctively looked at the young knight floating in mid-air, thinking she was dreaming, and wanted to rub her eyes, only to find her body surrounded by a layer of vines.
So Novella softly said, “Mr. Cain, how did you end up here?”
“Am I dreaming? Can you pinch my face and see if it hurts?”
Novella clearly still had some disorientation and shyly spoke.
Shaya reached out and pinched Lady Violet’s delicate and smooth little face: “You’re not dreaming. Get some good sleep, and when you wake up, everything will be over.”
“Good night… Mr. Cain…”
Hearing this, Lady Violet nodded and then slowly closed her eyes.
It seemed she hadn’t fully recovered from the mental pollution just now.
Shaya smiled and then turned his head to look at the members of the Twilight of the Gods in the distance, who didn’t know how to handle the situation.
“You all…”
Just as he was about to speak, a strong wave of divine power began to emanate from within Shaya!
An ancient and mysterious aura gradually awakened, as if it possessed the vast power to encompass all things and nurture all life in the world.
Clearly, after devouring the divine authority, Shaya’s body underwent a change that no one could have imagined.
The fallen consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance was slowly reviving within him!
“Ugh…”
Shaya suddenly fell from the air, clutching his abdomen in agony.
Through the black armor, a blazing object like a small sun radiated light in his abdomen, pulsating violently like a heart.
The divine rank and authority unique to deities began to merge with Shaya’s body!
Accompanied by his agonizing screams, vine-like tree patterns emerged on Shaya’s skin, accompanied by the ominous and frenzied essence of the depraved Mother Tree crashing down!
The rampaging roots and vines continuously crushed the earth, causing intense tremors throughout the Royal Capital.
As the power gradually merged, Shaya, now tainted by the evil god’s strength, vaguely felt that he seemed to have shared some abilities of the Goddess of Abundance.
But in a state of losing his rationality, he didn’t have time to think. Instead, as if wanting to vent the immense power within him, he hurriedly waved at the people outside the cavern.
With screams echoing, sharp spikes and vines instantaneously swept through the area.
In mere moments, over a hundred members of the Twilight of the Gods had their life forces drained, turning into dry corpses, shattering into dust.
“What is…?!”
The Mysterious Man in Black Robe took a deep breath, supporting Count Violet’s shoulder, and instantly vanished from the spot.
The current situation had become unsustainable.
At the last moment of leaving the scene, the Mysterious Man in Black Robe faintly saw another face on Shaya’s, switching back and forth.
It was the soft and beautiful face of a mature woman strikingly resembling Novella.
At this moment, Shaya was still wrestling with the power of the divine authority and the evil god’s pollution contained within it.
Meanwhile, he felt a hint of confusion.
Why haven’t I exploded yet?
Shaya’s thought was to hurry up and die; once that was done, everything would be over.
But, coincidentally, that divine authority and consciousness didn’t seem to share that sentiment.
He even vaguely felt that the fusion with the divine authority was gradually becoming effortless.
At the same time, another voice echoed in his mind.
“Who… are you?”
“……”
Shaya had no heart to answer.
He let out a long howl, the soundwave shaking the cavern to the brink of collapse, but countless roots surged upward, propping the stones in mid-air to prevent the Mother Tree from being buried.
In comparison, being killed by the Witch Miss’s curse felt even more painful and desperate.
Yet the feeling of being tainted by the fallen abundance essence was uncomfortable.
The Goddess of Abundance symbolized fertility and reproduction.
But after falling and being polluted, the connotation of this representation was also twisted to some extent.
Thus, now, Shaya not only had to endure the pain brought by the pollution, but he also had to crazily suppress a certain impulse that poured incessantly from within his body.
It was called, lust.
Indeed, in this critical moment, Shaya shamefully indulged.
“……”
Suddenly, the pale Shaya deeply furrowed his brows.
He detected a strangely familiar aura amidst the contamination from the divine authority.
That was… the Black Mist!
“Damn! Why is it a human male?”
Before Shaya could think further, the voice became clearer.
He could vaguely discern that it shared some similarities with Novella but appeared more indifferent.
Sensing the real condition of the host body, the recently revived consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance let out a scream.
As a host vessel for the goddess’s descent, the most basic requirement was to choose a plump, beautiful virgin, symbolizing the kindness of the Earth Mother and the purity of the goddess; otherwise, it would be considered disrespectful.
But Shaya completely failed in all those requirements.
Thus, the newly descended Goddess of Abundance was predictably enraged.
What angered her even more was that the host before her, after having its consciousness invaded, not only refused to grant access to all permissions of this body but also resisted in an extremely tenacious manner.
“Where are the followers of abundance?!”
The consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance kept screaming.
It seemed that this consciousness, tainted by pollution, had low rationality.
That made sense.
If the other party sat down calmly and talked, Shaya would have to suspect whether this being had truly been polluted.
“Shut up, Goddess… for the time being, I’ll call you that,” Shaya said with some difficulty, “Since you’ve already descended, how about just staying in this vessel for now?”
Clearly, it should be me who is wronged for being possessed.
Thought Shaya.
Now, he was a bit not in a hurry to die because he sensed some interesting things.
For example, why did the aura that polluted the Mother Tree of Abundance feel so familiar to him?
But at this moment, the polluted Goddess of Abundance could not heed Shaya’s words at all.
She attempted to forcibly control Shaya, unleashing spiritual waves against his consciousness.
“Ant, go die!”
A female entity, wrapped in ominous black mist and tentacles, vaguely discernible as humanoid, released invisible mental waves towards Shaya.
“Hong—”
Shaya’s soul instantly became weak.
Yet, the pale Shaya, covered in strange green patterns, merely sighed, disregarding the blood that gushed from his seven orifices.
“That’s enough.”
“What did you say?!”
The Goddess of Abundance angrily unleashed her strangling power again.
“I said… that’s enough.” Shaya lightly coughed up blood, his body becoming a bit battered after devouring the divine authority, “If this continues, I feel things may turn dire.”
“Can’t you see yet?”
Vaguely sensing a certain change within his body, Shaya said softly.
“Die die die die die die die die die——!!!”
With a power strong enough to easily crush Shaya’s soul, the Goddess of Abundance was about to completely erase his consciousness!
“Sigh.”
Shaya sighed, not resisting, nor dodging.
And just as that power was about to inflict damage.
“Boom—”
“Boom—”
“Boom—”
Three powerful beings of different auras, accompanied by three different colored light beams, erupted from Shaya’s body!
The blood moon mark surrounded by nine patterns on his chest instantaneously radiated a cool brilliance, and a pale blue vertical pupil slowly came into being on his forehead, while simultaneously, a strong black mist aura erupted from behind Shaya!
These were the marks left by three supreme existences with divine ranks within him.
The God of Knowledge, Magic, and Elements, Adrien.
The Goddess of the Bright Moon and Beauty, Beatrice.
And… the Lord of Endless Black Mist, Agnes.
No matter which one, they were all powerful beings that were absolutely not inferior to the Goddess of Abundance. At this moment, they explosively erupted from Shaya simultaneously!
It was clear that Shaya, marked by these three deities, whether or not he gained their favor, at the very least, they would not allow Shaya to die unjustly at the hands of beings of the same level.
It was the goddess’s divine power that triggered these three forces.
The originally overwhelmingly powerful fallen consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance was instantly suppressed by these three powers from different deities, accompanied by a shrill scream, trembling like a little girl cornered.
“How could it, how could it be them?” The voice of the Goddess of Abundance revealed immense disbelief, “Who are you?!”
“N-no, you can’t do this to me!”
Clearly, being merely a fallen fragment of consciousness, the Goddess of Abundance could not simultaneously counter the powers of three beings of the same rank.
“Damn it, damn it!”
“Since you’re forcing me…”
Along with a series of extremely unstable fluctuations, the consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance began to falter.
Just as she was about to be crushed by the three powers, she raised her hand and pointed.
Accompanied by devout prayers and the sound of bells, a golden giant door slowly opened in the void before Shaya’s gaze.
This was… the divine realm of the Goddess of Abundance!
“Hahahahaha!!!”
The fallen consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance laughed maniacally, controlling Shaya’s body as she grabbed the sleeping Novella and plunged into the world beyond the door.
“Boom!”
Then, the door slowly closed, vanishing from sight.
…
Standing in mid-air, Nidro had beads of sweat dripping down his forehead at an unknown moment.
It was cold sweat from sheer terror.
After a moment, another figure appeared beside him.
“What was that just now?!”
Mevis stood quietly beside him, her expression filled with uncertainty.
Judge Nidro glanced at her, silent for a moment, before smiling wryly, “Three… no, including the aura of the Goddess of Abundance, a total of four.”
“If I’m not mistaken, besides the God of Wisdom and the Goddess of the Bright Moon, there is also an extremely evil curse aura. Just by sensing it from this distance, I almost lost my sanity.”
“Four… deities?”
Mevis chewed on the inner meaning of this phrase, her heart racing, a feeling of things spiraling out of control surged within her.
She had always found the Twilight of the Gods organization very mysterious, mysterious to the point where every country in this continent seemed to bear traces of their existence.
But when she wanted to delve deeper, she found she couldn’t obtain any information at all.
However, after what just happened, Mevis uncharacteristically felt that the organization she belonged to seemed to have encountered a hard nut.
Those were three deities!
High and mighty deities!
“You should be connected to the mastermind behind this incident, right?”
Nidro-level judge observed the magnificent tree shadow that had originally resided in the northwest region of the Royal Capital gradually collapsing and dissipating, letting out a sigh of relief.
Though uncertain why the situation had ended, it was evident that everything was related to the arrangements made by several deities.
“Don’t make wild guesses without any basis.”
Mevis took a deep breath, regaining her usual calmness, glanced at him, and remained silent.
…
“Is it over?”
Rod, who had hurriedly led the Judgment Knights to the scene, suddenly realized that the ancient and powerful divine aura enveloping the air had disappeared at some unknown time.
He stood there, dazed, trying to sense the situation around him, but ultimately found nothing.
Aside from the lingering air of desire that stirred one’s blood and made one crave reproduction, there was nothing else.
…
When Novella woke up again, she found herself lying in a grassy area, her clothes disheveled.
She held her hazy forehead and slowly stood up.
“Where is this…?”
Novella raised her head, looking around, and found herself in a verdant and fantastical world.
Here, massive plants of various kinds surrounded her; outside, only palm-sized flowers and grasses, but here they transformed into towering trees.
Meanwhile, countless dreamlike magical glimmers hung in mid-air like stars, and transparent-winged fairies occasionally flitted through the woods, accompanied by their silver bell-like laughter.
“Ah, Mr. Shaya!”
At that moment, Novella finally spotted Shaya, kneeling on the ground, trembling while holding his head.
His body was covered in blood, his skin flushed, burning like a red-hot crab.
Hearing Novella’s call, Shaya turned to her with an expression of agony.
“Don’t, don’t come over…”
He was lying on the ground, biting hard into the flesh of his hand, blood splattering as if struggling against a powerful impulse.
“Wh-what happened to you?”
Novella’s voice trembled, and seeing Shaya like this, tears welled up in her eyes.
“He’s not in any serious trouble. He’s just been tainted by the desires carrying the essence of abundance.”
A voice nearly identical to Novella’s spoke from beside her.
Novella looked up and saw a beautiful figure sitting quietly on the leaves of a giant red flower nearby.
That figure, dressed in a long gown woven from flower petals and green leaves, looked down at her with bare white feet.
“Allow me to introduce myself, I am the Goddess of Abundance, Selina.” The remnants of the Goddess of Abundance’s consciousness spoke softly, “Thanks to this human boy, I have successfully freed myself from the pollution.”
Under Selina’s explanation, Novella gradually understood what had happened.
After returning to the divine realm, the higher-ranking Goddess of Abundance seized a fleeting opportunity. The divine authority had yet to fully merge, but the pollution had completely occupied Shaya’s consciousness at that moment, allowing Selina to peel away the pure power of divine authority.
Only the pollution and fallen essence remained within Shaya’s body.
With the distorted symbolism originating from the Goddess of Abundance, an endless surge of desire and impulse flooded him.
And he was desperately suppressing that desire.
This was the kind of power that deities feared the most, for their strength was so immense that even the slightest mental pollution could lead to unimaginable transformations.
The original Goddess of Abundance had fallen for this very reason, leaving only this remnant core consciousness capable of returning to the divine realm.
Interestingly, the black mist that had brought about her fall surged towards Shaya like it recognized an acquaintance when they first met, greatly easing the pressure on the Goddess of Abundance, allowing her to perform the subsequent actions.
“So, what about Mr. Shaya?”
Novella shed tears as she wanted to approach and support Shaya.
“He won’t die so easily.” Selina said slowly, “As a blessed one favored by three supreme beings, he bears the mission of salvation.”
“This is a prophecy I left in the ‘Revelation’ many years ago. It seems the time for it to come to fruition is drawing near.”
Seemingly recalling certain past events, Selina gently descended from the leaves.
“You also have your own mission.”
Just as Novella reached out to touch Shaya, she retracted her hand as she was burned by the high temperature of his skin.
“My mission?”
Novella looked up at Selina, puzzled.
“You will become one with him, becoming intimate companions who share life and death, and together save countless lives; that is the original wording of the prophecy.”
“Do you want to know how to interpret this sentence?”
Novella remained silent for a moment before gently nodding.
“As a vessel for the deity’s will in the human realm, your embodiment with the tree-like mark is more aligned with the gentle and peaceful image of the Earth Mother,” Selina revealed an enigmatic smile, “And as the vessel, what you truly need to do is to contain certain things.”
“Clearly, they have all completely misunderstood the concept of this ‘vessel,’ mistakenly believing it existed to carry my consciousness.”
“In reality, it is not so.”
Selina paused and then revealed the truth under Novella’s dazed gaze.
“Your task is to conceive the child of that boy, to give birth to an offspring favored by the deities and become his cherished one.”
“This, is the truth of the matter not mentioned in the ‘Revelation.'”
Novella froze.
“To, to give birth?”
She stared blankly at the consciousness of the Goddess of Abundance and then at Shaya, who was desperately resisting his desires, repeating it.
“Exactly, this is the initial and only mission you have in this world.”
Selina slowly spoke coldly and cruelly.
Upon hearing this, Novella lowered her head slowly.
A feeling that was hard to articulate surged within her heart.
So this was the reason for my existence.
Her body trembled slightly.
After a long while, she lowered her head and softly asked, “If I do this, can I save Mr. Shaya?”
“Exactly.”
Selina responded.
But in reality, this was a lie.
If there were no accidents, even wills that deities could not resist would turn Shaya into an ugly monster focused solely on venting desires until he completely died.
But for the sake of her own plan, the Goddess of Abundance chose to conceal this.
At the moment Shaya devoured the divine authority, his fate was already sealed.
“I’ll do it.”
Without hesitation, Novella calmly nodded.
Then, she slowly walked towards Shaya, who was curled up on the ground.
“Don’t, don’t…”
Shaya was gasping for breath, his eyes bloodshot, nearly overwhelmed by various evil desires.
“Mr. Cain, be good, be good.” At that moment, Novella’s eyes glowed with tenderness, as if guiding her big brother, “Don’t be afraid, soon… it won’t be hard anymore.”
But in her gaze, there flashed a hint of pain that no one could perceive.
A pain of being a vessel, one that no one could understand.
Even if the person was Mr. Cain whom she wanted to get close to.
Seeing this, Shaya gritted his teeth, supporting himself on the ground, slowly rising.
“Stop… s-stop…”
His body twitched slightly, the intense desire constantly reminding him to pounce on the enchanting noblewoman before him.
But the last remnants of his rationality fought back, telling him he couldn’t do it.
“Listen to me, listen to me…”
“I… I’m not saving you for some complicated reason…”
At that moment, a flicker of clarity returned to Shaya’s eyes.
He gazed at the somewhat surprised expression in Novella’s eyes, striving to reveal a gentle smile.
“You, you’ve always wanted to be free, right…?”
“You… want to know the meaning of your existence in this world, right…?”
“You want to truly possess… the power to choose for yourself, right…?”
“Novella, you are not just a vessel…”
“You… are an individual with an independent personality, possessing your own… life, your future, and your future is still long…”
“From now on, no one can force you… force you to do what you don’t want to do. This… is my promise to you.”
“Not even the deities… can.”
Using the last of his rationality, Shaya spoke haltingly.
Tears streamed down Novella’s cheek.
She cried.
But she also smiled.
Smiling beautifully.
Gazing at the young man in front of her, who elicited indescribable feelings within her, Novella kicked off her high heels and slowly approached Shaya, then grasped the ties of the long dress on her shoulder.
Under Shaya’s incredulous gaze, she gently pulled apart a section of the ties.
Instantly, the black tassel long dress, lacking support, slowly slid off her voluptuous body.
Novella stepped over the soft dress and slowly knelt beside Shaya.
Then, she gently embraced him.
“Please, please be gentle.”
