Next are three chaps of Phantasmagoria~

Heh, I’m taking my time explaining things, ain’t I? Anyway get ready to finally know about Hyria’s beliefs~

Aisha opened her eyes to find herself in Jeilou’s plaza. In front of her a system message appeared, informing her of two facts: one, because she died she would not receive rewards, and two, the defense of the village was a success. She quietly willed for them to disappear and she began looking left and right, searching for her companions.

Gaea was a few meters away, while the others were nowhere in sight. It seemed like, apart from her and Matagi, no more people from their group died. During the week (IGT) of absence, the village had to repel one last wave, in which Matagi died, but still managed to get through it and win. Ultimately, there had been some damages done to the village, but it was nothing serious.

Aisha decided to restock her supply of daggers, katanas and arrows while she waited for Matagi, who wouldn’t be able to log back in for another three days. Her companions knew she had no attachments to money, thus was regularly almost penniless, and tried to convince her into letting them pay for her things, but each time Aisha refused. Her mother always said that it was impolite to borrow money from others, she had to earn her own.

Thus, during those three days Aisha did minor quests in the village while Maverick hunted down various mobs to bring back their loot and to train. Sometimes Aisha would join him, as she wanted to make sure their teamwork worked okay. Atlas, Electra and Gaea instead took it lazily and relaxed both here and in real life.

This routine continued even after Matagi came back, as she too had to resupply her inventory. Still, two days after her return, the group departed from Jeilou. Following the innkeeper’s advice, they decided to change route and head north-west to visit the much-praised temple. Mostly because of Gaea’s insistence, because, after all, she was a paladin.

As Matagi, Electra and Atlas didn’t understand her motivation, Gaea was about to explain it in details when Aisha began talking. Gaea’s cheek became slightly red as she pouted, that is why Matagi whispered to her “Sorry” while she ruffled the petite girl’s hair. After a little “Hmph!” from Gaea, the attention was once again on Aisha’s explanation.

“In Hyria, there’s only one religion. It may seem like there are different religions, but they just choose a different God(/s) to protect them; well, to be precise it was the God(/s) that choose which area they wanted to rule over. As to why there are different Gods but only one religion, we have to discuss about the origins of said Gods.

Following what my mother told me and what has been discovered until now, in the beginning there was only one God governing this entire continent, the Lost God. Then, foreign Gods, governors of other continents who feared the Lost God’s power, attacked It and imprisoned It in another dimension.

However, before being banished and imprisoned, It was able to summon the various Gods that now reign over the continent. As they are all bound to the Lost God, they don’t fight between each other, thus making it possible for the single religion worshipping the Lost God to remain intact.

After a research, players were able to understand the disposition of the Gods: in the north reign the Norse Gods, in the east rule Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones, in the west is Buddha and lastly, in the south are the Greek Gods. The center part of the continent is No Man’s Land, as it was there that the Lost God summoned the others while he was defeated.

Currently, there are five Popes, with the Pope representing the Lost God having the highest authority in the Pantheon Church, or Church of Pantheon; both names are equally spread and used among the continent. There are also some sects which believe that their own territory’s Gods should rule the others, though not much is known about them.

By now, I believe you understand why Gaea wants to go. Even if this is a western temple, it’s still part of the Pantheon Church, to which she serves as a paladin. Of course visiting it would bring some benefits to her, I believe, and that is why she’s being so insistent.”

During Aisha’s explanation some other players came to listen and learn, but when she was done they all quietly and quickly dispersed. Matagi folded her arms with Aisha’s while Atlas and Electra sighed in resignation.

“I’ll go wherever you go, Aisha.”

Said Matagi as she smiled toward her cute white-haired girlfriend.

“Guess we’re changing our route.” Sighed Atlas once again.

Hearing that, Gaea beamed and began jumping up and down with her hands raised to the sky. She was unexpectedly really happy, but her actions were more than enough to quell Electra and Atlas’s small regrets in not taking the longer route to Xin Jen.

The travel to the temple wasn’t anything special. The monsters’ levels reached a passable grade only once they neared the mountains, were the five encountered, other than the mobs they met to their road to Jeilou, the creatures they had fought during the Village Defense event in the village. It bored them (Aisha actually didn’t care) a bit.

Yet, when they reached the temple everyone (to Aisha it really didn’t matter) thought it had been a worthwhile travel. At first, they lost their breath as they took in the beautiful scenery in front of them. The temple was constructed on a small rocky island in the middle of a large river. Many little waterfalls, the chirping of birds and the wind, transporting various pink flowers, automatically relaxed and calmed whoever were to listen.

Spoiler :

After they stood there for about five minutes, Aisha broke them out of their daze by walking toward the entrance. There was a monk, a human, in front of the paper doors, wearing a red and orange Kāṣāya, clothes that monks normally wore, even in real life. He silently bowed, opened the sliding door, stood to the side and motioned for the group to enter.

After entering, the monk continued to walk ahead silently. The group decided to follow after Aisha went after him. The floor was made of long thin board of a dark brown wood, all the doors were like the one they saw at the entrance, while the walls were made with wood of a brighter shade of brown. A lot of walking later, the group arrived in a big room. Everything was the same as the hallways and rooms they saw while walking her, only the floor was different as it was composed of tatami mats.

In front of them, there was a rock about 30cm wide and 50cm tall resembling a misshaped cone. On its sides were two sets of candles and incenses burning. Their fumes visibly permeated the room, but there was no fragrance whatsoever. Standing to the side, the monk raised one hand toward the stone and for the first time spoke.

“If you see, please go ahead and touch the sacred stone. A path shall open for you.”

Atlas, Matagi, Electra and Gaea didn’t understand his words, but Aisha did. To those four, the rock was nothing more than that, a rock. But Aisha didn’t see what the others were seeing. On the rock she was looking at, there were five symbols positioned where a pentagram’s vertices would be at. One of them was the representation of an eclipse.

Aisha calmly walked up to the rock and touched it. When her hand and the rock made contact, her symbol and two others, a sphere broken in two and a sphere set aflame, lightened up for a few seconds. Then, when Aisha heard a faint “click,” the symbols stopped glowing and slowly disappeared.

Class Affinity +20

You are now eligible to Godhood.