-----

An endless sea of darkness enveloped a vast area, covering the entirety of several kilometers.

​​

The darkness seemed to be alive, as it crawled and slithered around as if it were composed of hundreds of vicious snakes and wormy creatures, all agonizingly horrifying,

The presence of such a wave of darkness, foul-smelling gases, contamination, and mutagenic mass was being slowly drawn back by an ethereal and shiny yellow light, which encompassed the complete understanding of Life and Light, a power that only a being such as Kesheia, The Goddess of Life and the Day could exert.

The gentle Goddess was slowly sending away the wave of miasma that surged from the area of Kritias named 'The Abyss Continent', a place that was contaminated greatly after the last fight against the Demon God-King.

When the Demon God-King was sliced in pieces, he released an enormous quantity of miasma that he had accumulated inside of his soul, which completely contaminated the continent of Eupheria, which was now renamed as the Abyss Continent, a place of eternal darkness where only horrific monsters roamed.

Not even intelligent races made their home in such a chaotic and terrible place, as it was way too ill-suited even for Demons and Beastmen, who were well prepared for harsh conditions and even felt healthier in areas that had high concentrations of Mana.

Kesheia glanced from atop the sky, inside of her Divine Realm.

Her appearance was nothing less than majestic, her beauty was unparalleled, she resembled a beautiful and gentle maternal woman, yet she had an enchanting youth that made her entire atmosphere entailing.

She had a beautiful womanly appearance, with slender arms and legs, wide hips, and a very generous chest, her fair, white skin shined brightly as the halo atop her head released an aura of light and life.

Her blonde hair waved like a sea of gold as it released sparkles of divinity, and her aquamarine eyes were gentle yet seemed very tired as well.

For many years, even since the Ragnarök ended that Kesheia had offered herself to this very task, as most of her siblings were wounded, sealed, or had their responsibilities.

And her Dark Gods siblings, the ones that she still loved had cut all connections with her and her other siblings, leaving her alone to handle such a threat.

However, she was the most suited for it, as her divinity combined both life and light, which created the effect of cleansing the dark miasma left by the Demon God King after its defeat.

Nonetheless, her gentle eyes were still greatly tired, but her will was firm, and she didn't stop using her powers to infuse this wave of light to fight against the miasma.

"Sigh… It is working… After so many years, the wave of darkness and miasma is finally retreating deep inside the pits in the Abyss Continent…" said Kesheia.

At her side, there were dozens of other Life and Light Attribute Gods, her loyal subordinate gods, who had accompanied her through this arduous task for so many years.

All of them seemed even more worn down than her, and some even were so weakened that they had become smaller in appearance. Some who could not help anymore had retreated inside of Kesheia's Divine Realm, resting, and recovering their energy within her gardens of life.

"My lady, please, take a rest…" said one of Kesheia's Subordinate Gods, a pale, white-skinned woman with pointy ears, blonde hair, emerald eyes, and a dress made out of colorful leaves and flowers, the Sephile, the Elven Goddess of Forests.

"Sephile… I cannot, if I stop infusing power, the wave will quickly resume its march to our continent… I have not been doing this so many years to end up screwing things over…!" said Kesheia, she suddenly faked her attitude, seemingly as if she was still filled with youthful energy.

All of her subordinate Gods glanced at her with pity, they all loved her deeply as their mother and lady, but the amount of pressure that she was putting on herself was immense…

"But still… Ugh, why has not Bestellen-sama helped you? With his divinity, things could be way easier and faster!" said Sephile.

"Sephile, don't talk ill of my brother, he knows what's best…" said Kesheia with a bitter smile.

"N-No! He doesn't, my lady! E-Excuse my rudeness, but he's quite the selfish man!" said Sephile… None of the gods with her refuted her, as they all agreed and even nodded in agreement.

Kesheia couldn't help but sigh, despite her previous words, she couldn't help but agree with her subordinate goddess, Bestellen had given her an immense task without granting any external help, even if he was wounded, at this point he should be already capable of doing a few things, which should be enough to lessen the pressure on her task.

Indeed, Bestellen was a selfish man, she agreed.

And she also thought about the reason behind such a task.

This was because Kesheia, in the middle of the Ragnarök, had shown a neutral stance in the war, and even had helped and healed her wounded siblings the Dark Gods, who fought against Bestellen and Rhalorr and their immense army of subordinate Gods and Heroes.

Although she hasn't done anything that damaged him or his allies, Bestellen seemed to have become weary of her, especially due to her strong divinity, something that might even surpass him if she were to be prayed upon some more...

Due to that, he left her to do such an arduous task, to keep her busy doing something that only she (or him) could do, and something very important as well that made the entire continent of humans depend on…

Bestellen's judgment was not the best, especially since that fateful day when he began to speak strangely.

Although Kesheia might have been the only one who noticed such behaviors before her siblings.

"Bestellen… Are you still the same?" Kesheia wondered, infusing more of her power into the sea of darkness as she sighed.

Kesheia remembered the days of old when the world of Kritias was in peace and harmony. The Dark and Bright Gods factions didn't exist back then, and all of the siblings were together in a single pantheon.

They took care of the world and the people, and Bestellen and Razdall were like best friends, holding a strong bond with each other.

Kesheia didn't know what went wrong… She could recall such days of harmony and peace, of such splendor and tranquilness.

Yet, one day, Bestellen suddenly changed.

Something had happened to him, something that only Kesheia had noticed beforehand…

And then, the entire Kritias was shattered into two factions, Bestellen tried to eradicate the Demons and Beastmen, while Razdall attacked him and stopped him from committing genocide against their own people, the mortals they loved so dearly.

"If I… would have told them before that he was not acting like… the same… Bestellen was a gentleman, like a very good grandpa, he was never so strict, nor firm… He was often very carefree, he liked to be with any race, and always taught them everything he knew… He was like the father of all mortals… Yet, something… made him different…" she thought, as her eyes filled themselves with great melancholy.

Kesheia regretted never having told her siblings about Bestellen changes, perhaps if she had told them, things might have been slightly different…

But things were not as she wanted them to be, Bestellen betrayed Razdall, and even created two factions, putting her and some of her siblings at his side forcefully by using his divinity and authority.

While Razdall and the rest were cataloged as Dark Gods, enemies of humanity…

Kesheia knew that something, an external force or entity did something to his mind… Something that changed the gentle and fatherly Bestellen into the manipulative and genocidal man he was now.

Although he still loved humans, elves, and dwarves, his love for demons and beastmen had changed into abhorrent hate, as if he saw them as dangerous vermin that put in danger the entire world of Kritias, and needed to be exterminated at all cost for the greater good.

But such a behavior change was completely unnatural, many gods realized this as well but could not do much against him.

"What could have happened to him…?" wondered Kesheia, as her gods heard her melancholic words, falling in silence as they could sense the deep sadness within the gentle words of their lady.

The sadness that the goddess of life exerted was so painful that even her subordinate gods could not help but cry at her side, it was as if they were seeing their own mother crying.

No matter what you are, any person that was to see their mother crying would feel their heart being broken into pieces…

As this sorrowful day went by, Bestellen glanced at the gods in front of him to discuss various things.

His mind, however, was not as it used to be.

Within his Divine Soul, a different existence had taken root deeply, taking over his mind, judgment, and nature.

The entity showed inside of his golden soul as a mass of white flesh, with an aquamarine eye, glancing at the events around it unfold…

although it did not say a word, its entire existence was hard to comprehend as a whole, it was a strange entity that surpassed any comprehension to the gods, to the point that they would not even feel it, despite its power.

It pulsated inside of Bestellen's soul, like a voracious parasite, extracting his power bit by bit, while also taking more and more control over it…

"My awakening… Will soon begin… And this world that came from me will return to me…" it muttered.

-----