"The world stone has already served its purpose. All the work after that needs to be done by Yerra herself. That's why she sent me a message to get it back."
"Yerra is residing in a separate dimension within your planet. That temple you entered was designed by Yerra to keep the world stone in place. She opened up her dimension to let the temple pass through and reach the junction between the two worlds. As I was busy with something, I sent Cassana to retrieve the world stone. But something happened, which I'm not clear about, that made the temple surface in the physical world just above the surface of the planet. That wouldn't have been an issue either, as the temple had measures of its own to keep it inaccessible and invisible to anyone. But as she is always slacking in her training, she didn't operate the temple competently and made such a flashy appearance." Della shook her head while looking at Cassana, who kept her head low to indicate that she was ashamed of her mistakes.
Suddenly, Anom said, "The design was great, but at least she should have made your statue a lot more solid. Such good art was almost ruined." He really liked the workmanship on that thing. The real person was standing in front of him, so he could easily assess how precisely it was made.
As soon as she heard this, Cassana went stiff, and her face paled.
Della looked at her and said, "Cassie, which statue is he talking about? I didn't see such a thing in the temple. Are you sure you told me everything?" Although she had a smile on her face, the vibe she was giving was really chilling.
"Mo-Mother God, it was a statue that Goddess Yerra made for you. I just kept it with me for safekeeping to prevent it from getting damaged." Cassana replied with the best possible reason she could've thought of.
"Oh. Then where is it? Let me see what the gift sent by my friend is like." Della said, her face still carrying her usual smile.
Cassana hastily nodded. She waved her hand, and a statue appeared out of thin air. It was the statue, which had been restored before they came here.
"As you can see, Mother God, I've taken good care of it for you." Cassana boasted. "It still looks as if it was just made."
Anom didn't even need to rat her out, as Della had already waved her hand. The statue emitted a red light, and all the spots that were previously damaged got highlighted.
"Ouchi!"
Della gave Cassana a rap on the head, making her hold it while crying in pain.
"Do you know what that was for? It was not because you damaged the statue. But because of the lousy job you did while restoring it. How many times have I told you to focus on your control of energy? You waste your whole time messing around with other spirits or keeping watch on the mortal world using God's Eye. And don't think I don't know about the last time you used the Gate and slipped into the mortal world." Della seemed to be using this incident to educate her naughty spirit angel.
"Do not consider yourself powerful just because you're a spirit angel. There are many existences in the mortal world wielding more than enough power to erase you." Della scolded and warned Cassana. "Stand up. Anom should be tired after all that's happened. Let's go. We will talk on the way."
They continued walking on the stone pathway as Della led them towards the mountains.
She spoke while walking: "According to what Cassie told me, when she got there, the temple was already under the ocean surface. That's where she messed up and made it appear above the water's surface. She even went as far as to create an island to use as a support."
"I did that because I was afraid that the temple would absorb too much energy to keep itself afloat and cause harm to that planet." Cassana justified her reason. Even Anom thought that what she said made sense, and it was very kind of her to have made such considerations. Maybe she's not that annoying.
But Della rebuked her, saying, "You can fool anyone else by giving that reason. Do you think of that temple as some mortal weapon? It can absorb cosmic energy from anywhere without disturbing the natural balance. Although I didn't do it myself, Yerra would only have made it better as she specializes in such matters. And don't tell me you didn't know that. I already explained everything you needed to know before you left for the mission."
She's worse! Anom thought as he stared at Cassana.
"Hmph!" Cassana folded her arms while looking away. She kept quiet, as she was in the wrong this time.
"So why was she sleeping in that room unawares? And those people just came and took the stone without alerting her? I mean, it was not surprising given her performance. But it is still very irresponsible, even for her." Anom said while looking at Cassana with a smile.
Cassana gave him a hard stare while gritting her teeth. She looked like she was having a hard time suppressing her urge to beat up someone.
"That was because she handled the temple the wrong way and drained her energy till she fell unconscious. The equipment I gave her kept her in a separate space till she recovered. As for the orb, it was not possible for it to be taken so easily. Any living being getting near it will have their soul assailed with a surplus of energy, directly shattering it. They must have used some kind of equipment to keep it away, though, and they must have paid quite the price before they were able to take it away." Della explained while looking at Anom with a complex expression.
Anom understood and asked, "So why didn't it work on me?" To be honest, he was really startled after finding out about the stone's scary ability. What the hell! Those bastards didn't even put a warning sign on the box.
Della was silent for a short while before she spoke. "You know, your world, specifically your planet, was renowned around the multiple worlds for its experts who specialized in mental and spiritual energy. They trained the soul in the most mundane ways and developed their control over energy to a level where even people above their level feared them. Too bad they declined after the suppression of energy. From what I know, their legacy continued on for a long time even after the suppression. They treated the restriction as a form of training and kept trying to train their souls to a realm where they could ignore the restriction and be free to utilize energy however they liked. They reached very far in this way, even surpassing their predecessors. Too bad their mortal bodies couldn't support them for long enough to succeed. Such a grand legacy ended just like that. Yerra knew this would happen. She didn't like it, but she had to do that because the responsibility of the whole world was on her shoulders."
"Before she entered her seclusion, she told me that she believed that the glory of her planet would return one day in the future. Your soul is… different. I don't know it clearly, but it's quite close to the natural laws. It was kept dormant because it didn't get any kind of stimulation to emerge in that restricted environment. That was till you picked up the world stone. Your soul regained its original nature."
Anom was ready for anything she could have said, but he was still stunned. Now that he had connected those myths and legends about divine beings and sages on Earth, they made more sense. And although Della didn't explain it clearly at the end, he was sure there was some kind of connection between his soul and the events after the restriction.
After a while, he asked, "So what should I do now? Can I go back?" He had a feeling that he would not be able to go back, or Della wouldn't have kept him here for so long and even explained so much. And although he didn't have any deep attachment to anything on that planet, he still had to ask.
And as he expected, Della refused, saying, "No! You can't! Your case is special, so I can't be sure, but it would be bad if you ended up disturbing Yerra. You don't want to endanger your whole world, right?"
Anom sighed, "Yeah, you're right. This was for the best." He paused then asked, "So what now? I'm going to live with a pretty goddess and her annoying spirit from now on." His tone was mischievous.
Cassana once again bared her teeth at him, while Della just smiled. She was amazed at how quickly Anom got over such a huge change that had happened to his life.
"Oh, we have arrived. You can decide what you want to do after getting some rest. Let's go inside."
In front of them was the mountain range he saw when he came here. He was surprised at the speed at which they reached here. They were standing in front of a huge cave. Under the semi-circular entrance was a path made of blue stones leading inside.
Tsk! Cassana looked at Anom while making an annoyed face and went inside. Della smiled at Anom, waiting for him to enter.
Anom looked back towards the path he had come from and took a deep breath. Then they both stepped onto the new path in front of them.
The destroyed area gradually regained its calm.Just a few feet away from the edge of the destroyed area came a rustling sound.A human and a bunch of small creatures appeared from behind a shrub. They looked bedraggled, as the human male had dirt on his face and messed up clothes. The little black creatures' fur lost its shine because of the dust covering them from head to toe.Anom looked at his surroundings and couldn't help but take a deep breath while thanking his luck.While he knew that the beast was strong, the destruction it caused was more than what he had expected.He shook his head and looked at the sniffers. After seeing that all of them looked fine, besides their dirty appearance, he decided to leave.Man, it looked like we really provoked an overlord this time. Anom thought while on the way back. It was clear that the black-furred and green-striped beast was the boss of this part of the jungle.Anom realized that the fruit it was guarding was probably prepared for its c
"Damn it!"Anom cursed as he ran with all his strength. His movements were faster than before as he traveled around the trees in his path and dodged all the obstacles smoothly.But he was still not relieved.Anom looked at the thing in his hands and smiled bitterly. It was a fruit as big as an apple with a hard exterior. There were some green lines covering its dark brown surface.It was something that the sniffers gave to him a few minutes ago after they gathered back together. The group had divided themselves into small teams to make searching for prey easier.The leader's team brought this fruit. They said that they didn't know what it was, but a "big" monster was guarding it, so they considered the fruit precious and decided to steal it. They gave it to Anom and asked if it was of any use.To be honest, from the first moment Anom held the fruit in his hand, he knew that it was something beneficial for him. This fruit contains a huge amount of energy. Anom can use this energy to tr
Anom tried to imitate the feeling he felt just after coming to this world. His focus was on his soul as he thought about the method Della talked about. The first part of the three realms that Della had explained to him was the method for developing his own energy.In this step, he had to develop his body by stimulating his internal energy and combining it with his body as a whole. Only when he can gain mastery over his own body and make it suitable enough to accept energy from the external world will he be able to step into the next level.Suddenly, his soul shivered as Anom sensed something new inside his body. No, it was not new. It was just that he had failed to notice it before.His soul, or more precisely, his spirit, released some spiritual energy. Anom tried to move it around and make it do his bidding.It was a bit difficult at the start, but soon he started manipulating this energy.This spiritual energy, which can also be called mind or mental energy, was the first step in i
The little flesh moun—ahem, the little red goat was playing around as the other goats ate the berries to fill their big bellies. Sometimes they would give some to the little goat, and it would put the berries in its mouth and start running around again.Soon it got tired from its antics and crouched down under a tree to rest. The fierce goat looked at the child once before ignoring it. Someone has to be mad like that gray wolf to attack someone from this group of red goats.As the little goat was lazing around, it heard a soft sound from behind it.It stood up and looked warily in that direction. But all it saw was a yellow pear dropped on the forest floor.The little goat became excited and salivated when it remembered the sweet taste of the pear. It ran forward excitedly but stopped when it was just about to reach it.It warily looked around to check for anything suspicious. Founding no problem, it started moving.Just as it reached its head to grab the pear, the pear slid far away
Anom and the group went outside and had some fruit for breakfast. All of the little devils were excited once they found out that they could converse with Anom now. They chattered without stopping.Anom had already told them that he was no angel, making them sad. But this sadness soon turned into excitement when Anom told them that Della was his lover. They didn't even doubt him, and they became even happier.Anom also found their reaction cute. Suddenly, he remembered something and asked, "Why do you guys eat only fruit? I mean, I heard some of you talking about eating meat in the future."It was the leader's father, the former leader, who replied. According to him, their ancestor, who was also the last powerful member of their family, ordered them to stop hunting for meat. The reason being that hunting required them to go out of these peaceful grounds and resulted in their group suffering casualties. With their low numbers, it was impossible to maintain this for long.But their ance
"Don't worry! At most, I would have to pretend to be someone who had lived in the mountains since I was young. Then I would have joined a school and studied along with the kids. Hmm, it would be even better if the teacher was a beautiful woman." Seeing her sad expression, Anom started to joke with her.Della's mood lightened as she scolded him cutely, “You haven't been here for a day yet, and you are already thinking of such things."Anom found her expression too cute and couldn't stop himself. Grabbing the back of her head, he connected his lips with hers. Della gasped at the sudden attack but soon responded evenly.Their tongues wrestled for a few minutes before they separated. Della's eyes looked moist with a flushed face, making Anom's heart even itchier.Anom placed his hands on her bottom, kneading the soft buns while saying regretfully, "Too bad this isn't the real world; otherwise, I would have 'attacked' you even more fiercely."As he heard this, Della's face turned weird. Sh