The students who returned from the deadly realm training were sprawled all over the campus like weeds, utterly exhausted.
“Ahhh! Senior, here’s the mana herb! This is our carefully grown mana herb garden!!”
“Oh. Sorry…”
As Ishtar weakly got up, the flattened mana herb was revealed.
The squashed mana herb seemed to say:
Did you just step on me? I’ll wither away.
Seeing the teary-eyed first years resembling Titosso, Ishtar already felt dizzy.
With a hand in her magic backpack, she pulled out a potion that was suitable for the first years to consume.
“Here, will this do?”
“Wowww!”
The eyes of the first years sparkled.
“Do you want to roll from here to there?”
“Forget it? And just because you step on it doesn’t mean I’ll give you any, so don’t try to threaten me.”
A first-year student trying to sneakily step on the mana herb backed away awkwardly at Ishtar’s glare.
“Wow, how did you see that just now?”
“Sense. You need to train your awareness. If you work hard, it’ll help a lot with your realm awakening.”
Brushing off the first years who were chattering and clinging to her, Ishtar recalled the failed soul oath.
Should I try again now?
If the officiator of the oath fails midway like in spell casting, the officiator suffers significant damage.
The side effects of failed mana manifestation attack the body as the gathered mana reverses into the human body.
The side effect of petrification magic turns part of the body to stone, and if it goes wrong, it can harden blood vessels, leading to arteriosclerosis.
The side effect of fire magic is burns, and if the internal organs come in contact with the flame, chaos ensues.
Naturally, the stronger the force, the higher the danger level.
That’s why high-ranking magicians are more sensitive to spell-casting failures, and they do not recklessly use unmastered magic in real situations.
It’s crucial to thoroughly protect magicians to eliminate elements that could disrupt spell casting.
What would the side effect of failing the soul oath be?
No matter how I think about it, it won’t be light.
Suddenly, Ishtar felt that the divine power bestowed upon her, the warrior privilege, had diminished.
The one true god, Sofemia of the Sun, must have recovered a portion of her power to restore her own losses or punished the warrior who repeatedly managed to trick her.
Attempting the soul oath in the deadly realm was undoubtedly a huge mistake.
‘I definitely made a big mistake… why do I only feel that it’s a sweet retribution?’
The answer soon became clear.
It was because she had witnessed the scene of the god forsaking the warrior in the first place.
“The Goblin Warrior…”
To the god, a warrior is merely an energy resource to harvest someday, nothing more than prey to offer all the power and achievements built up under the name of the warrior.
The soul oath is an even more heinous form of a contract in which such prey offers its soul and afterlife as well.
A more brutal form of contract that leads to a fate more miserable than that of a warrior.
“… I’m gradually losing my confidence.”
As a warrior, how long can I maintain this?
I guess I should give up on the soul oath.
After all, I’ve already received quite a bit of backlash from the failed soul oath, as it felt like a betrayal from a suspicious god raising a warrior.
I don’t like this…
I don’t even know how to live on from here.
Accumulating energy that I had steeled myself to awaken with was drained by the deadly realm training, and I lost my motivation too.
When I just wanted to collapse and rest on my bed, I heard a voice.
“Oh, I found you here!”
“Oknodie?”
The protagonist of the blue.
A being that always shakes Ishtar’s heart.
The walking heartwarming Oknodie waved her hand and greeted her cheerfully.
“I wanted to talk briefly about what happened in the deadly realm! Do you have time?”
“I don’t mind, but…”
Suddenly starting a conversation before Ishtar had even brushed off the dirt on her back and butt from being sprawled on the mana herb garden while the first years watched.
The first years’ eyes sparkled as they watched Ishtar squirm uncomfortably at the dirt clinging to her.
“What’s this?”
“Is the warrior embarrassed right now?”
“Look at her feet squirming. Just like my dog at home.”
How are these little ones viewing their senior?
“Ishtar. You were going to attempt the soul oath!”
“Hmm?”
“Don’t do it!”
However, it was a bit heavy to get mad at the little first years for the weight of the conversation.
“Why not? Like I said before, I’m just…”
“For me, please listen to what I say.”
“You don’t know everything just because you know some things.”
Ishtar was angry.
You’ve sacrificed for us greatly, yet why can’t we sacrifice for you?
What about the debt in my heart that I have no way to repay?
How am I going to pay back this debt?
In front of Ishtar, whose eye sparkled with a noble sense of sacrifice greater than her shining blonde hair, Oknodie’s steadfast gaze wavered slightly.
Eye battles work like that.
Once you start to back down, it becomes harder to face someone directly, and you start losing unilaterally.
Oknodie’s eyes began to roll away from Ishtar’s gaze.
“Indeed, you are the warrior.”
“You’ve overwhelmed with your gaze.”
“It’s common sense for the Dark Princess of the Darkness attribute to be weak against a warrior of the Light attribute!”
Encouraged by the first years’ nonsensical cheering, Ishtar pressed on confidently.
“I will conduct the soul oath again when the time comes. For now, God’s anger remains, but if I find an appropriate opportunity to calm that anger while raising my faith through acts of justice and then hold a ritual to prove my loyalty…”
“No way!”
Pushed hard by those around, Oknodie, who had been showing a somewhat weak side yet was saying, “I don’t know, just try it!” was unusually strong in her opposition to Ishtar this time.
Just moments ago, she was looking away, tossing her eyes nervously, but now it was a serious Oknodie glaring at Ishtar with fire in her eyes.
“After seeing what kind of being the god is, does that even sound right?”
“You’ve never even tried it!”
“I’ve tried it, that’s why I’m saying this!”
“What?”
“How many iterations have gone to waste because of a failed soul oath? Carelessly signing on something like that is a quick way to ruin an iteration! There are numerous cases where they’ll intervene to break the vows to make you breach your commitments!”
“What? Did you just say you’ve tried the soul oath?”
“Oops.”
Ishtar, who was about to attempt the soul oath, knew full well the risks involved.
It was precisely because of such danger that the power given was strong.
But if Oknodie had already experienced that same danger, that means—
“Who are you? What god did you contract with? What kind of contract, and what cost are you bearing?”
“No, I’m fine right now…”
“Tell me, hurry!”
Overwhelmed by Ishtar’s urgent presence, Oknodie fiddled with her fingers, touching her hair nervously, then timidly muttered under the steady gaze that wouldn’t let up.
“I just… made a contract where I’d place my unwavering heart in a box if I wanted it…”
“!!!”
“And also…”
“Also… what else is there?”
“It’s really nothing special… a contract where every night, to protect my friends and comrades, I bleed in their place, and for every drop of blood shed, a regional destruction event is postponed…?”
Ishtar’s head was spinning.
She could hardly stand from the dizziness.
As Oknodie continued to speak in front of the swaying Ishtar, her mouth was still open.
A contract like a curse, where the cost of becoming skilled in illusion magic resulted in the embedding of the fantasy of betraying those around into her subconscious, distancing her from them.
To foretell parts of the future at the cost of gradually losing her vision, completely losing her sight the moment the foretold future is realized.
Contracts that are far more dangerous than a soul oath that incurs costs for failing to fulfill it, simply maintaining them imposes cost.
Such contracts began to tumble out one after another without ceasing.
“Well, that’s a matter of a different iteration…”
However, it was impossible for an NPC to understand a player’s term, iteration.
“What does that mean? Iteration?”
“It’s a different time’s world line!”
“You mean to say that even this reality we can feel each other touching is stripped from us by the gods?”
“No, that’s not it…”
“Enough.”
Oknodie’s endless chattering came to a halt.
It was because Ishtar had hugged Oknodie tightly.
“I’ll somehow take care of it. I won’t make a contract. So let’s stop for now.”
“Tch. What can a rookie do to a veteran? Ishtar, you’re still a complete novice.”
Ishtar realized.
Understanding what kind of soul oath Oknodie bound herself with and what the cost was, the urgency was to unravel the fate the gods held over her.
If there is anyone most knowledgeable about the gods in the Middle Realm, it must be the saintess who serves them.
And just in time, there were saintesses in the academy.
There is also an organization of those saintesses.
The organization that Oknodie herself created, the Saintess Alliance.
“Neper-tem, Saintess Director. I want to know the nature of the soul oath that binds Oknodie and the god who officiated that oath.”
“The soul oath? That’s something not easy to discover unless you’re the party involved…”
“I’ll offer one of the blessings from the warrior contract that I possess as payment.”
“Are you serious? That blessing is likely equivalent to a life that protects you…”
“I owe a huge debt to Oknodie, and I’ve also accumulated much debt to become a warrior. Oknodie’s life is as good as my own. Both my life as a warrior and as a human.”
Neper-tem held a significant debt to Oknodie.
She lived an unfair life cursed by the Rune of Misfortune and had caused immense trouble for her childhood friend.
Changing such a life and gifting the position of the head of the Saintess Alliance to Oknodie.
If it’s for Oknodie, isn’t it fine to help a little bit?
“Alright. With that level of determination, I think the god I serve will sufficiently take a peek at the contract. Besides, I owe Oknodie quite a bit too.”
“Thank you, senior.”
“No, I should be thanking you for sacrificing so much for Oknodie. Let’s make an effort to repay our debts together.”
Neper-tem drew a magic circle for communication with the gods and recited a prayer as she began to chant the sacred magic for divine communication.
The holy spell to concentrate the scattered consciousness of the god spread to all corners of the world, slowly gathering the divine power.
[The consciousness of the god responds to the call of the saintess, Nepher-tem, who has proven her faith by extracting the Rune of Misfortune.]
[The God of Satisfaction, Apnonia]
Even the Director of the Foundation would have been in trouble if she wasn’t the corrupted dark world tree’s founder; the God of Satisfaction, Apnonia, responded to the saintess’s sincere call.
“God, I offer the life-protecting blessing bestowed upon the warrior as payment. Please tell me the essence of the soul oath that Oknodie bears.”
Apnonia held the head of the Saintess Alliance in very high regard.
The high status of a minion led to acknowledgment and respect for the strength of the god, resulting in a meaningful increase in Apnonia’s followers.
Though it was somewhat bothersome, she also found the warrior’s blessing as a payment appealing.
The proud one true god.
If she were to take the power of Sofemia of the Sun, she could reinterpret that power and grant it to her followers as a blessing for faith.
Strong gods often see wealthy individuals wishing to gain blessings offering various tributes to earn faith.
The tributes offered further strengthen the god, and that strong power can be used for the enhancement of existing powers or the development of new ones.
As the God of Satisfaction, there was no way she would come out at a loss in this satisfactory contract.
[The God of Satisfaction Apnonia detects the soul oath that Oknodie bears.]
[Currently, the number of soul oaths Oknodie maintains is a total of ???.]
Apnonia was taken aback.
Something was amiss.
The feeling was that there should be one oath.
Yet there wasn’t just one.
It was either three, five, or even twenty-two.
Some oaths had been made multiple times under the same contract.
She had also paid for breaching the oaths.
And all of that past had been returned as failed attempts.
The causality was twisted.
The past and present were ensnarled in a chaotic mess.
It was as if there were clear traces cut out as if to say they could not acknowledge such a past.
A severed gap.
In that cut surface, Apnonia’s divine class locked eyes with something.
A tiny god seated at the bottom of the pantheon of 24 gods, with two little wings, now possessed a gigantic body with twenty-four massive wings, enveloping the rift of dimensions.
[You are… no, could you truly be… the God of Love?]
No idea how immense the faith received had to be to achieve that degree of power, the immensely upgraded divinity writhed on the other side of the world’s rift.
An overwhelmingly powerful force has the potential to warp and collapse the world itself.
The horrifically heavy power observed Apnonia.
Apnonia felt her body distorting.
It was reminiscent of a strong god trying to forcibly insert its body into the world without descending in the form of an apostle, causing a recoil from its sheer power.
However, the situation is different.
If she were to step through the Middle Realm, there would be a recoil, but Apnonia had already acknowledged the entity’s territory.
This dimension’s rift had been completely taken over by the God of Love, Atalaxia.
[BRAAAAAM! Don’t interfere. This is my time. My love. A precious world filled with memories of him and me. It won’t be taken away by anyone.]
The divine explosion rocketed from the dimension’s rift and slammed into the divine being of the God of Satisfaction, Apnonia.
“Whoa?”
Neper-tem’s eyes widened.
[One of the twenty-four divine classes, the God of Satisfaction, Apnonia, has suffered significant damage.]
[Apnonia’s stature has been lost, and she is entering forced seclusion to recover her divine class.]
A star of divinity flickered a few times before fading into a hazy slumber.
