Chapter 539 — Mother of Despair
5 min read ·
"Mother of Despair, please save me..."
"I’m willing to offer up my body, soul, and spirit. All I request is that you slay my enemies."
Liora listened to the woman’s clear prayers.
Simultaneously her vision expanded beyond the current scene and she was able to observe her surroundings.
Liora’s gaze swept across the village the woman was currently in.
Filled with corpses of both humans and demons, the human settlement was truly devastated. Besides the blonde woman singing the prayer, there was no one else.
As she investigated further, Liora was able to understand what had happened and why the woman had called her.
In a certain sense, it was her own fault.
Or rather, the side effects of the chaos she had brought upon this continent.
The woman’s prayers came from the eastern region, an area that had long fallen at the hands of the Devil Army.
The woman’s despair was not caused by this, however.
When she summoned her descendants, Liora had explicitly ordered them to only target Awakeners and deities.
Being their ancestor, the Devils would never disobey her orders.
Instead, what brought the woman despair was the native demons.
With the Gods and Awakeners having perished at the hands of the Devils, these bloodthirsty creatures had taken the opportunity to attack the weakened villages and cities.
Liora had not paid much attention to this in the past.
But through a quick sweep of her consciousness, she realized that the woman’s circumstances were not unique. Such events were taking place throughout the eastern region, and countless places were impacted.
Her eyes narrowed when she saw this.
She was about to sever her connection with this believer, when she suddenly sensed something.
From the shadows around the woman, demons began to appear.
With the form of wolves and surrounded by darkness, they appeared one after another, their red eyes locking onto her figure.
The woman instinctively trembled.
Her prayers became even louder, though the fear in her voice made them increasingly incomprehensible.
Liora paused briefly. After a moment of hesitation, she traced the connection between them and passed a portion of her power through it.
It was nothing overall, and Liora did not feel anything.
Yet the moment it arrived, the demon wolves that had caused countless massacres suddenly froze.
Their bodies expanded like balloons before exploding into a mist of blood.
The woman kneeling before the black altar was shocked by this scene.
However, she didn’t show any fear or terror.
Instead, her eyes lit up. She was relieved.
After a brief pause, during which she processed everything that had happened, she turned back towards the altar.
Her eyes were filled with admiration and gratitude as she began kotowing.
"Thank you, Mother of Despair."
"I shall keep my promise."
"From now on, I shall become your most faithful servant. If I break my promise, may my soul never enter the circle of reincarnation."
As she spoke, the woman lowered her head and repeatedly struck the ground with her forehead.
Her skin cracked, and blood started to ooze out, staining the ground in front of the altar.
But the woman paid no attention to the pain. She continued her prayers.
Even until the image completely faded away, she continued kotowing, as though desperate to express her piety.
--
As Liora’s consciousness returned to her body, she couldn’t help but glance within her talent gene at the Godhead prototype that was serving as the sun.
The light that was previously hovering below it had now grown ever more brilliant.
Strands of pure golden light flew out of it and merged with the Godhead, which immediately worked to refine it.
Liora felt a change occur within her as the golden light disappeared.
The Godhead that this woman had called upon was the one representing Time Manipulation.
The moment it absorbed the golden light, Liora felt that her comprehension of the Time Law had been enhanced.
The increase was minuscule, less than 0.0001% in total.
However, what this change represented was abundantly clear:
The Godheads within her talent spaces could absorb faith to improve her comprehension of the relevant Laws.
It didn’t matter much when Liora had only a single true believer, but if her believers became thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions, the enhancement would be truly earth-shattering.
"Is this change brought by the SSS-Rank talents? Or a personal mutation caused by my Devil identity?"
Liora had absorbed the memories of many Awakeners, some of whom had reached Rank 7.
Yet, these people were not capable of absorbing faith.
If they did, the powerhouses of this world would not have been so rare.
After all, gaining faith was relatively easy for powerful beings, while the only thing that stopped Awakeners from advancing was the comprehension of their Laws.
If faith could play such a role, Rank 7 Awakeners and above would be found everywhere.
After thinking for several minutes, Liora finally pushed the matter aside and shook her head.
She knew it didn’t matter what brought such change.
Instead, what she should care about was how she would unleash the full potential of this ability.
Within moments, several ideas emerged in her mind.
One of them, in particular, could not only bring her faith but would also solve some of the issues she had inadvertently caused.
Thinking of this, Liora withdrew her consciousness back and shifted her focus to reality.
She looked at the devastated Dragonling Forest around her before her eyes settled on Ysset.
The latter appeared to have sensed her gaze and turned back to look at her.
Seeing this, Liora gently patted her scales.
Then, she tapped the side of her long neck with her feet.
"Come on. Let’s go.", she calmly ordered as her consciousness extended and passed their destination.
A trace of surprise flashed within Ysset’s eyes. A look of shame crossed her face.
After a brief pause, her wings unfolded.
The magnificent silver dragon soon took off into the sky.
Although she had changed her size and suppressed her momentum to the best of her ability, the entire land appeared to be shrouded in Ysset’s shadow for a split second.
The innate majesty of dragons resonated with the world around her. Ysset suddenly became the center of the world.
Liora, sitting on top of her, became even more so.
The two soon left the forest behind them.
Only the dragon-blooded demons remained in the land below, kneeling in the direction they had left as though expressing goodbye to the two "dragon ancestors".