Chapter 61

~ The Road to Omnipotence ~

SW/SW/SW

“What’s this thing you spoke of? Something about this world being unreal?”

“You misheard me.”

“You clearly said that.”

“No, I didn’t.”

Hathor summoned her greataxe and sandwiched him between the shining metal and his chair. “Who are you?” she spoke imperiously, her slutty demeanor disappeared completely. “Speak or I’ll swipe your head clean.”

Sweat beading Kail’s forehead as Hathor pushed her axe, the metallic edge cut a small amount of his skin. “I’ll tell you everything; I swear! Just… just get this thing off me!”

A sense of relief washed over him when Hathor withdrew her weapon. With her predatory eyes on him, she sat down again. This time her posture was rigid.

Heaving a big sigh, Kail began telling her his real story…

0000

“…wait,” Hathor lifted a hand, the other massaging her throbbing temples. “Are you saying that you came from another world, where technology is so advanced humans could fly without magic? Then you woke up in my husband’s body without knowing how?”

Kail gave her a solemn nod, “That practically sums it up.”

Having lost of words, Hathor leaned back to the sofa, staring into space. Although her breathing was normal, she could not hide the distress that was plastered across her face, which made the silence even more unbearable.

“…I’m sorry, this… this is just too much even for me,” finally she confessed.

“I’m just telling you the truth. Everyone has freedom to believe and you, too, have it. Your choice.”

“…so where is the king now? His soul, I mean.”

He shrugged, “Honestly I have no idea.”

Heavy silence befell them again until someone knocked on the door. Their eyes landed squarely on a new figure entering the room. Heavy armored from top to toe, covering almost her body part except face, was the leader of Hathor’s personal guard. Green slits replaced what ought to be irises on normal people, moving gracefully about until they found the mistress.

“Your Majesty, Queen Sister,” she bowed mechanically, ignoring Kail’s curiosity. “Apologize for the intrusion, but I believe Queen Sister has left something behind.”

With that she produced a thick, crimson cloak from her inventory and draped it on her mistress’ shoulders. Hathor smiled at the purple-haired succubus, “My, how thoughtful.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Queen Sister. I shall take my leave, then.”

Hathor waited for her to disappear and turned towards Kail. “A fine specimen, isn’t she? Not a virgin if you are wondering.”

Kail rolled his eyes.

“So, what now?” she put a strand of hair behind her pointed ear. “Knowing who you are, our relationship won’t work just like before. We are no longer husband and wife. And what am I to do? Rescuing my husband’s soul is out of question as we don’t even know where he is.”

“I’m looking for a way to return to my own world as of now. In order to do that, I may need your help. As you know it’s quite painful to get your head chopped off and I’d like to stay alive whatever the cost. The safer it is, the better for me to concentrate on gathering information. Hopefully your husband’s soul may return once I get back.”

Hathor went quiet, taking in his plan slowly and carefully. “Whatever the cost, hmm? Quite a bold statement.”

“Something on your mind?”

“If you’re trying to survive to the very end, I’d suggest you remove the curse my husband has. Something about fifty percent status penalty. If you can free yourself from it, your safety will be guaranteed. No one could stand in your way, well except me because I am the view.”

He really wanted to slap her.

Talking about curses and stuff, he remembered having unspent perk points. Better see to it later. “Do you know how? I’m itching to get it removed as well.”

“By worshipping a primordial deity. Once they deem you as a precious believer, they will bless you. This also removes any curses you’ve had contracted. Now while religion can be complex, it is actually very simple. You come into a deity’s temple, pray, kiss their asses while you’re at it, and get their blessing. Ycan only worship of a maximum two deities. One major and one minor, who is within the same axis as the major one.”

“Elaborate, please.”

“We only have two major deities. Leitha-Val Gahdiz the Goddess of Light and Deivillezareth the God of Darkness. The most powerful ones, they are. Note that it is imperative that you choose a minor deity align with the major one, or else all hell would break loose. You could also keep yourself loyal to one deity, however. Whichever works for you.”

What was with those tailored titles?

“I bet the latter is evil,” Kail chuckled, more to himself.

“There is no evil or good. It’s a matter of perspective. Take sinners for example. Leitha believes compassion can save even the most depraved sinners, while Deivillezareth believes that merciless judgment is the only way to set them straight, hence their titles.”

Kail put a hand on his chin, “I think I’ll worship this goddess. She seems easy enough.”

“Are you serious?” she asked incredulously, “my husband has forsaken that goddess for the pursuit of power! Do you really think she’d let you go alive?”

“W-Well…” he hated to admit it, but she was right.

Hathor put a leg atop another, looking every bit like a dominant queen that she was. Her idle fingers began toying with her nipple. Slowly a smirk made its way to her full lips, “Seems you have no choice but to worship our deity. Oh, don’t worry. He’s not that bad.”

“I have no choice in this, anyway. Where is his temple located?”

“Why in Difterion, of course. It is the biggest temple in this world.”

“By Difterion you mean this continent?”

“Each continent is named after the biggest city located within. In this case, Difterion is not a continent, but a capital. It is the heart of Difterion continent and ultimately the nest of high level adventurers.”

Kail shivered at that. It would be foolish to march openly amongst hundreds, no, thousands of high leveled players. He’d end up dead…

“If you have made up your mind, I can arrange high leveled knights to guard you. Of course I will come, just in case. ”

He shook his head, remembering the accident in Dragonis. “No, no. What would they think if they saw us marching with hundreds of knights into their city? It’d be an all-out war! Dragonis is enough proof of that and it was just the two of us!”

Hathor sighed heavily, “Husband, leave that to me. All you need to do is concentrate on your part. There will be no war. I promise.”

Begrudgingly he agreed.

0000

“…you what?” DPS repeated slowly, tearing his gaze from the weapon customization window he had been engrossed in. “You met him in Shimmering Swamp with the Scylla Queen in slave choker? You let him go just like that?”

“While I’m obliged to defeat a cheater, it was the most reasonable decision I could think of. I didn’t want anything bad happened to Elvaria and also it was suicidal to fight him head on without knowing full well what it is that he cheated. True, he did say he cheated his attributes but was it really?”

DPS stopped to think. What was BloodAce planning to do?

“Did he know about that?” he asked, referring to the curse of enslaving boss NPC, which was 80 percent status penalty.

“No, he didn’t. It’s a matter of time until he realizes that it’s too late.”

All of a sudden he slammed his fist on the desk, “That’s it!”

Maria tilted her head to her side, confused written across her face, “…which is?”

“Listen, the curse can only be removed by the blessing of a major god and that means he’ll either visit Leitha or Dei’s temple. We will assign guild members inside each temple and ambush him. There’s no way he’d escape now.”

“DPS, that’s brilliant! I can’t wait to get the reward box!”

Unlike many MMORPG games, GeaOnline actually rewarded cheater and PK hunters upon killing in-game. Once spotted and proven guilty, a cheater earned a unique icon beside their name, making it easy for cheater hunters to track them. A handsome reward awaited those who killed cheaters before they got banned.

While the cheaters were dwindling in number, PKs grew mostly due to exclusive equipment that needed PK points to equip, thus created somewhat harmonious yet vicious cycle of kill and to be killed. PK hunters needed PKs for reward, and PKs needed players for PK points.

“Now…” DPS smirked, opening his guild member list, “I need help with—”

“Excuse me, boss.”

Both head turned towards the door. A blonde haired man stood proudly, yet his face was grim. “We found the girl who seen talking to BloodAce.”

Maria’s face brightened at the news, “Ah, about time! So who’s this girl? Did you bring her along?”

DPS silently eyed Maria. He didn’t even give her the order, but she acted by herself, driven by vengeance.

“Sorry, we didn’t. She refused to and left before we even explained everything.”

“Her name?”

“If my memory served me well, it’s Veria.”

A glimmer of memory flashed inside DPS’ mind. Memory of him browsing the GO unofficial forum, reading a post…

Have you ever thought of someone getting sucked into the world of game?