Chapter 124: Momentary Respite.

Divine Quest Option #1: Destroy the Onnikai Leader residing inside the Ruins of the Fenrir’s Eclipse and purify the remaining onnikais

Quest Giver: Origin Goddess of Light, Healing, Miracles and Kinship, Aurena

Description: Aurena here, just to inform you, Hestia, you will receive two divine Quest and you may choose which one you will fulfil. So, I would ask you to read the Quest details properly before you accept, alright?

Anyway, so my Divine Quest will revolve around the destruction of the onnikai inside that alchemical tool, or catalyst, on the pedestal. Although I have nothing against the onnikai, I do consider it too much of a threat to the surrounding regions with its potential to become a dungeon core. Hestia, you haven’t experienced seeing an actual dungeon core yet, so I won’t overwhelm you with this information now. This isn’t the intention of this Quest description, after all.

So, your task is easy — break the orb and destroy the onnikai inside of it at all costs. Through the destruction of their leader, all the other onnikai can be easily purified and turned back into spirits with your companion’s help. This should secure the safety of the ruin and the village nearby, although the problem of the high mana concentration in the surrounding area must be solved separately.

Rewards: +1 additional [Idol] song slot, [Venerated Saintess] proficiency gain, +1 level

Divine Quest Option #2: Aid Silva Fleurette Breezeflower in performing the Rite of the Fading Winds on the Onnikai Leader residing inside the Ruins of the Fenrir’s Eclipse and free the onnikais from their torment

Quest Giver: Origin Goddess of Winds, Celebrations and Travels, Zephira

Description: Good Morning, Champion of Aurena and Otherwordler Reincarnator to our World, Hestia Atsuko. It is thrilling to finally meet you, although, through text. My name is Zephira and I am currently sending you this Quest through Goddess Aurena’s help. I would like you to consider my proposal.

I have witnessed most of what was said through Silva’s and Tasianna’s eyes, so I have a general understanding of what is going on. I wish to give these onnikais a proper rest through the Rite of the Fading Winds. Silva, as a faemancer and wind elf, should know more about it. Through this process, the onnikai inside the ruins can find peace from the suffering they have felt.

Please, Hestia, allow me to give these fallen faefolk some peace and rest.

Reward: A catalyst filled with both the concentrated mana of an onnikai and the blessing of Goddess of Winds

Once we took a short break after escaping the ruins, I gave Saori, Tasianna and Silva a rundown of the two divine Quests that I received from Aurena and Zephira. As the content of one of the Quests did involve Silva’s participation, I had to inform her about it and subsequently about my status as a champion of Aurena. How else was I supposed to tell her I got a divine Quest from Aurena and Zephira, huh? Nevertheless, I did leave the whole otherworlder part out. No need to divulge that and make it even more complicated.

“It is a great honor to meet a champion of an Origin Goddess. Princess Hestia, it is an honor,” Silva bowed.

“…You don’t have to act this formal. Even your current way of speaking to me is a bit tiresome.”

“Of course, I understand, but I am simply acting appropriately in front of a person granted with a royalty and champion status. Please, forgive me.”

From how Silva has been treating me up until now, I guess it’s just part of her personality, similar to her rather high pride in her country, Saelariel. If she doesn’t want to change her way of speaking aside from that one moment in the ruins, then let’s just leave it alone. Even Ellaine and Tasianna found it too inappropriate to drop the “lady” part when they addressed me.

“So, which of the Quests will you take? Goddess Aurena’s seems very, very tempting by increasing two of your unique skills and increasing your level by one, which is extremely beneficial for you,” Saori commented, still massaging her head from the migraine.

Well, it can’t be said that I wasn’t inclined to take Aurena’s Quest. Honestly, anything that can give me another [Idol] song slot would be reward enough. [Exhaustion] is a very debilitating debuff that can cripple you in the worst moment during a fight; however, with the power of [The Will to Fight and Survive], the risk was gone.

If one of my [Idol] songs could produce such a powerful effect, then wouldn’t it be better to gain more slots? That way I can tailor songs to different situations to grant advantages to myself and my allies. In addition, this is an additional slot that gets added to my maximum. It’s a freebie.

Although they probably weren’t doing it on purpose, Tasianna’s and Silva’s expectant eyes were drilling holes into me as they waited for my answer. “No need to worry, Tasianna. You know I keep my promises. There will be no deviation to the plan — we will prioritize the purification of the onnikai. I will take Goddess Zephira’s divine Quest.”

You have chosen [Divine Quest Option #2]. With the blessing of your championed God, may you be successful in your Quest!

It was the obvious choice here. Yes, it is a shame about the Quest rewards from Aurena, but promises must be kept no matter what, and I always keep my promises.

Naturally, as it was the correct choice to do, everyone nodded their heads in acknowledgment. Saori might have pointed at the better rewards of the first Quest option but her smile was telling me I madethe right choice. Tasianna’s and Silva’s elation was obvious enough.

With that settled, I also took this chance to ask Silva about the “Rite of the Fading Winds.” “Hmm, I can understand what the Wind Mother is speaking about. The ‘Rite of the Fading Winds’ is a ritual where the faemancer or priest becomes a medium for the Wind Mother to commune with us mortals. Usually, it is reserved for the passing of one of her more prominent followers, like a famous faemancer, a high-ranking clergyman, or fairy royal. The ritual is meant to give peace to their soul.”

“May your soul rest in peace, Princess Schuri,” I heard Tasianna silently mumbling as she held her hands together in prayer. I feigned ignorance.

The rest of us gave Tasianna a moment before Silva continued. “I will be honest, I am not proficient with this specific rite. The ‘Rite of Calming’ I use to purify the onnikai is easy for a novice like me, but I will most likely require an extended time to fully channel the ‘Rite of the Fading Winds.’ I will require everybody’s support to perform it.”

Well, that is a bummer. With the fact that the giant, ethereal onnikai beast will continually regenerate throughout the battle, that’ll just turn the battle into an endurance fest, where our mana will be constantly drained despite having [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 10]. Not to mention, those four darkness garm zombies will probably have regenerated by now and be ready for our next confrontation.

The battle we had today was relatively easy, although it still caused quite a stir from what happened to Saori. I was able to defeat the onnikai beast and Tasianna also had a moment where she kept it at bay. Now, the problem with a future confrontation will be the onnikai’s ability to adapt to what they experienced today and use it against us the next time we fight. The beast did show a glimpse of intelligence today.

Speaking of those beasts…

“Oh yeah, Saori, what was that anyway?” I asked her. “I experienced a mental attack from wargs and their pack leader garm before, but what made you go almost suicidal back there? It was like you unlocked a hidden berserker skill or something.”

Saori couldn’t help but scowl a bit as she answered the question, almost as she would’ve preferred not to. “Urgh, great…well, the first thing that happened when I saw those garms was just some weird images flooding inside my head. Flames, swords, and blood first appeared — that is when my headache began. Then some giant people appeared and a feeling of feebleness assaulted me. I felt so weak at that moment, and then it was all replaced with anger.”

Saori’s explanation was probably the thoughts and feelings the garms sent to her. In the mental attack that I experienced a few months ago, it was just a bunch of mumble-jumbled words and loud shouts and screams that worked pretty well as a “taunt-like” skill. The skill [Telepathy] can send visible images to the recipient, as my party has been doing with [Identify] information.

What Saori described was probably the memories from the onnikai before they died and transformed into their new forms. If an onnikai is born from the anger it felt at its death, causing it to be reborn into such a hatred-filled faefolk, then wouldn’t it make sense to provoke somebody with those memories?

However, what could those “flames, swords, and blood” specific memories be? Well, who knows what those onnikai experienced back then? It isn’t worth dwelling too much on them.

“Honestly, I want to get revenge on them,” Saori suddenly admitted. “I do not know why, but something is pushing me towards this idea. It is like an irresistible itch.”

“Ha, maybe it’s because of your [Belzac’s Successor] title? You know, because they are garms, so maybe you’re feeling some sort of competitiveness against them?” I joked to lighten up the mood, but for some reason, everybody else went silent.

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“…Lady Hestia, I think that is precisely why Miss Saori is feeling that way,” Tasianna stated, leaving me slightly dumbfounded. “According to stories, Belzac was known as a prideful fenrir. Miss Saori is basically the successor of this prideful wolf-type monster, inheriting a title that practically screams ‘I am the alpha.’”

“Wait, Tasianna, are you telling me that this is like an animalistic instinct?” Saori asked with an incredulous expression. “No, no, I have been able to suppress it until now. I will not believe that something this random would cause me to feel this way. There has to be another answer.”

“Miss Saori, while I do not know what your circumstances are, you shouldn’t reject your fenrir nature. I mean, Belzac was known as an S rank monster with power that could make any adversary cower before him. It is a prestigious bloodline, no?” Silva said.

While I was becoming more curious about Belzac, I think Saori is feeling more annoyed about all this information on the wolf monster. She has already stated that she didn’t want anything to do with her monster side’s history and past, as she doesn’t consider it part of herself. She accepted the fact that she was reincarnated as a wolf in Peolynca, but she didn’t want to be associated with it at all.

Now that I think about it, where did these garm corpses come from? The only [Darkness Garm] that I knew was the garm matriarch, but there were four of them inside the ruins. There was the Belzac wolves subjugation Quest that happened seven years ago according to Farron, the hunter’s guild master, but wouldn’t the bodies be more skeletal than zombie-like? I dunno. This whole situation was just weird.

Our party then decided to move back to Rashan Village for the day. We had to report to the village chief what exactly happened in the ruins as well as our plans to rechallenge it. Silva, as she didn’t like humans at all, decided to stay around the vicinity of the ruins and keep watch, intending to send Igniculus or another spirit to inform us if something weird were to happen.

As we approached the village, the sun slowly began to appear high in the sky. It should be noon soon, I believe. To me, it was quite surprising to find out that we were stuck inside those ruins for a whole day, but I guess we did sleep inside. I should take this moment and get used to the whole dungeoneer part of being an adventurer if I want to have “fun” in the future dungeon trips our party will partake in.

Once we reached the village’s gates, the guards seemingly recognized us and called the guard captain to us. He greeted us with a wide smile and stated that he was relieved to see us, afraid the worst would have happened to us, similar to the past adventures.

“Please, tell me the problem is gone,” the guard captain begged bluntly.

However, pouring water over his head, I shook my head. “We know what the problem is, and we intend to solve it, however, we need some time to rest if possible. Could you lead us to the village chief? I’ll give you our report with him.”

He quickly apologized for not realizing our current condition and quickly led us through the gates and into the village. Inside, the village seemed to have regained some normality of life again as the villagers, well, continued with life. The attack from yesterday wasn’t very destructive when it came to buildings or furniture, as the onnikai probably were more focused on the humans, so there probably was little reconstruction duty.

“I do not see any of the soldiers,” Saori mumbled, which seemed to have landed in the guard captain’s ears.

He wryly laughed as he answered, “Well, they are our lord’s soldiers. The seneschal said the castle might get attacked if we leave too many soldiers around the village, so he declined the chief’s wish. Well, we still have a lot of able-bodied militia and guardsmen thanks to the Lady Priestess’ white grace, so I don’t think we should complain that much.”

Considering you guys were having trouble with that “small” raid group, I think you should be more assertive with getting reinforcement! I kept this thought to myself, as saying it would probably do nothing for the village’s situation.

Once we reached the village chief’s house, he invited us inside. After his wife offered us some juice and fresh bread, our party gave the guard captain and the village chief a summary of what happened inside the ruins and what we still have to do. Unprepared, the guard captain and village chief paled as they listened to how large the horde of enemies was that we found as we ventured down into the ruins. They never would have guessed it would be this many.

Whether it was natural or not, the two also didn’t have much of an idea of what an onnikai was, so we had to explain to them why these faefolk were attacking the village specifically.

“But that doesn’t make sense. Our village respects nature, as it is part of our life. We-We don’t even have any access to any mana-fueled items, so how could we do anything to these creatures? We did them no harm!” The village chief was clearly frustrated when he heard the onnikai were attacking the village on the sole premise of revenge on humans.

Considering he wasn’t present during the “War for the Faefolk,” I guess I could understand why he would consider this situation unreasonable. For the normal person, this attack would look more like a one-sided aggression from the onnikai’s side. They lost neighbors and guardsmen due to the attack and they didn’t do anything to provoke this ire.

“Sir, I have a question,” Saori began. “There was a rumor that we heard before we accepted the Quest, that the alchemy guild had something to do with the ruins about a year ago. Could you give us some information on that time? Maybe it has something to do with what is happening to the village now.”

“A year ago?” the village chief raised a brow as he contemplated, before remembering. “Ahh, that’s correct! A year ago, the guild master of the alchemy guild led an expedition into the depths of the ruins, but they never really said for what reason. I didn’t think much about it at that time, since our Lord gave his permission and the alchemy guild has been buying off the herbs and mushrooms our lasses have been gathering nearby the giant forest. Young miss, you aren’t saying that this might have something to do with them, right?”

“Ah, I apologize if I made you worried. It was just a consideration due to the timing of this whole event. The alchemy guild did something inside the ruins and now an enraged onnikai is seeking to topple the village. It is simple speculation without any proof.” Although she didn’t have any evidence for her guess, those words still placed a seed of distrust within the guard captain and village chief.

Honestly, I want to believe Saori’s speculation. That orb on the pedestal is too suspicious to me that I have to question who placed it there.

“Ahh, Lady Priestess, that reminds me. Could I possibly ask you to give our village a sermon, in consideration of what just happened yesterday? We were beyond grateful for your timely rescue that saved many of our neighbors and brave guardsmen, but a few families still had to grieve for their lost relatives,” the village chief said. “I am sure these few families would be eternally grateful if you could bring the Goddess’s blessing on these dire times. Of course, if it isn’t too much work.”

Ahh, yes, my duty as a “priestess” of Aurena. Wait, I am an actual priestess now! This is kinda my duty…right? Ahh, whatever, casting a [Prayer] is as easy as snapping my fingers and my Mana has been regenerating since I exited the ruins, so this isn’t too much of a problem.

I agreed to the joyous village chief’s wish. The guard captain, having received orders from the village chief, excused himself and began alerting the village about the upcoming sermon. As my party hasn’t had any breakfast yet, the village chief’s sweet wife gladly prepared some slices of smoked game, cheese, and other farming goods as thanks for our help. As I had a feeling she wouldn’t take no for an answer, I just shut my mouth and enjoyed the free food.

After a while, the sermon started in an open area. Unlike Carine Village, which had a whole area reserved for religious worship, Rashan Village was smaller, so we had to take whatever area was large enough to accommodate all the villagers.

Looking at the villager’s faces, some were smiling like surprised kids as they were already in a praying pose, while others looked more serious and were praying more fervently. Some even cried.

As I understood that everybody came here for [Prayer], I immediately began without any short talk. I didn’t know anything about how to properly give out a sermon, as I never attended one of the temple’s during my whole time in Firwood, but I don’t think anybody can complain that I’m doing this wrong. They asked me to do one, so I’ll give them a Hestia’s special.

Unlike the [Prayer] that I performed in the ruins, this one was completely stylized. The spell is supposed to invoke religious favor during prayer, so singing the lyrics and having the villagers follow my words during the whole sermon was part of the play. It’s supposed to soothe people’s minds, so skipping this probably wouldn’t please anybody in attendance.

Once the giant white magic circle was filled with mana and the song was done, I cast [Prayer].

[Blessing of the Goddess of Light (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

The villagers erupted into cheer after it was done, praising Aurena and thanking her for sending me to them in their time of need. You know, religious stuff. I quickly excused myself from them and asked the village chief if my party could borrow a room for the night, as we wished to have some time to clean up and plan for tomorrow’s ruin delve. As most houses were occupied, he could only offer us a house that belonged to one of the perished guardsmen. We accepted.

The house was small, as it was only for a single person, but it was still large enough for all three of us to settle down and take a shower after what happened inside the ruin. Until dinner time, we took this chance just to rest and chill, while occasionally talking about the fight ahead and what we needed to prepare, tool-wise.

As Silva didn’t send us any messages, we just figured that tonight would be a quiet evening and went to sleep, right up until we were woken up in the middle of the night by Igniculous. We immediately got ready and sneaked out of the village under the guise of the night as the little light elemental guided us to Silva.

There, she showed us numerous onnikais wandering outside the ruins, roaming in groups as they gathered close to the village. The giant onnikai beast was nowhere to be seen, so they probably weren’t planning to attack now, but it still was ominous to watch them just linger around like the zombies they were.

“Tsk, they’ll endanger the village at this point even after we enter the ruins. We need to do something about this first.”

The second phase of this Quest begins now.

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