"Sister Elena... Evelyn and Ella burst into tears. Isn't it time for you to play the Goddess, my esteemed master? Your faithful disciple beseeches for your magnificent presence into the real world." Elysia also felt like crying and couldn't stand to see her two friends crying with sorrow.
"Yeah, I guess it's time. These two girls are good, precious friends... My dearest disciple, please follow according to our plan, okay? I'm doing this for you, so don't mess things up." Elena also felt the same way, but she didn't forget to remind her sweet little sister before leaving.
"En, I will follow that plan without fail." Elysia readily agreed.
"Mm, then, I'll go first." Elena stroked Elysia's head gently, then disappeared from the Soul Realm.
Elysia rubbed her hands, then pressed them against her cheeks for warmth. She felt somewhat guilty to Evelyn and Ella about this little play. And again, Rosie also cried over her dying self. Even Vanessa was devastated.
"Nevermind, I'll apologize to them implicitly later." Elysia shook her head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts. She also needed to get ready immediately because Elena had almost finished preparing everything.
Elena was preparing for her grand entrance outside. She carefully made the sky a little cloudy because no one was allowed to notice her existence yet. Without realizing it, she was already flying a little high into the sky, out of Elysia's advanced perception zone.
'Sister Elena, you are flying too high! Can you hear me? Are you okay?' Elysia expressed her anxiety because she was worried that Elena would become a lost spirit.
'Uh, ah! I just realized that I was flying too high. I don't want to be a lost spirit. Huh? I don't feel anything wrong. I'm fine, Ely. Breathe easy, looks like it's just our concern, hehe...' Elena was surprised when she looked down but let out a sigh of relief when she found out everything was still under control.
Hearing that, Elysia could also breathe a sigh of relief. Then, she went back to watching Elena.
To play the Goddess, Elena even made wing accessories on her back with Nell as a reference. However, it wasn't a pair but three pairs of beautiful wings. Elena didn't want to be mistaken as that puny, little Goddess.
Elena's ethereal beauty, original golden white dress, and overall appearance matched the Heavenly Realm's Goddess. So, there wasn't much to add besides a few other accessories that were created using magic.
Feeling ready for the Goddess's grand entrance, Elena gave a signal to Elysia. She then changed the color of the cloudy sky to slightly golden.
It was followed by creating an artificial portal with light magic, and Elena passed through the portal after projecting herself from the subtle form into reality.
[| -15,000 EP |]
'Huh? What kind of notification status is this? Now, can we know the EP expenditure on magic usage? This is marvelous!' Elysia muttered in shock when the status screen suddenly appeared before her and disappeared within seconds.
'Hm, what did you say, Ely? What notification status?' Elena became curious.
'No, no, we'll talk about that later. Continue with your scenario as a Goddess.' Elysia quickly reminded the distracted Elena. They were about to start their little drama, so there shouldn't be any distraction at this moment.
Elena just blinked innocently. She just felt curious, nothing more. Back to the little drama, her arrival into the world made many parties absurdly shocked. As expected from the plan, she smiled subtly and flew down towards the dying Elysia.
Evelyn, Ella, and everyone around was shocked and stunned when they noticed the golden light shining brightly from above. They looked up and saw that a golden portal was forming in the sky. A six-winged Goddess with heavenly beauty appeared from there, gazing down with her golden eyes like the Goddess of omnipresence over mortals.
Elena ignored everyone who was stunned and stupefied by her presence. She walked closer through the air without touching the stained ground, leaving a golden trail with every step.
She only needed to make eye contact with Evelyn. The latter immediately moved aside as if this girl knew the Goddess's arrival was for Elysia.
"Hmm, I left you from my sight for a moment, and you are already involved in trouble. Wake up, my disciple." Elena spoke in her gentle angelic voice and raised her hand slightly. She made Elysia's body enveloped in golden light, cleaned up the remaining blood, and made Elysia's damaged uniform look as good as new.
Elysia opened her eyes slowly. Her purplish-blue eyes stared at Elena's golden eyes for a moment. Then, she tried to stand up, but her legs felt a little limp and wobbled. "Ma-master, Uh..."
Elena caught Elysia, who was about to prostrate with gentle movements. "You're still limp. Save your obeisance for another time. Tell your master, what happened to you until you became in that near-death state?"
The realization of those statements and questions shocked the more than a hundred people who were there, without exception. The Goddess descended from the Heavenly Realm because her disciple was dead, almost dying? In any case, they also wanted to know the answer to that question.
After that, Elysia shared several things about her experience when she entered the dome barrier. It started from encounters with accursed monsters to massive underground explosions.
She told the story as if she was reporting the incident to her Goddess master, but it was aimed at the others. Elena's plan worked, strange things suddenly became believable. Elysia managed to free herself from problems without the hassle of being interrogated or suspected of anything.
"Mhm, accursed monsters... Did you slaughter all of them?" Elena smiled softly after hearing the story. She also smoothed Elysia's slightly messy hair with a single stroke with magic.
"I fought as best I could. I tried to save everyone, but 13 students had already died before I came." Elysia's voice trembled slightly. It wasn't contrived by the scenario, but it was real. She felt heavy when she remembered the students were killed and eaten by the monsters.
"That's fine. You've fought your best. You can't save everyone, but you saved a lot of students." Elena put her hand on Elysia's cheek, causing the latter to look up slightly.
"En." Elysia nodded her head.
That being said, Elena turned her head to the side. She needed to pay a little attention to the others.
Of all the people there, only Serena trembled with fear, but Elena needed to ignore that girl because the game's date had not yet arrived. "You are both brave and foolish by casually treading on curse-tainted land."
The Goddess's statement made the knights and mages panic. They were the ones mentioned in the Goddess's sentence. Yet, before the knights and mages acted or moved away, Elena calmed them down with her follow-up words and action. "I cleanse this land with the warm light of holiness."
Light magic emerged from the ground beneath Elena and spread to the knights and mages. So that no one would step on the cursed land.
Seeing her purification magic working as expected, Elena turned her head towards Evelyn and Ella. "You are good friends of my little disciple. Can you take care of her for a moment?"
"Un, we will." Evelyn nodded with a pleased smile. Two things that made her feel grateful, her best friend came back to life, and the Goddess was present in front of her.
"We will be happy to look after Ely, oh our glorious Goddess." Ella happily accepted the order. She would take care of her friend even if no one told her.
Elena was happy to hear that. She waved her hands in a smooth motion to wipe off a bit of dirt and bloodstains from the two girls with magic. Then she handed Elysia over to them because she needed to do something first.
Evelyn and Ella embraced Elysia around the waist to help the limp girl to remain standing.
Elena watched that silently, then turned around. She stared at the forest's vast land that was disintegrated by the explosion, and the approximately 12 kilometers in diameter was stained with purplish black.
At that time, Alexander thought the Goddess would leave immediately after saving her disciple. He immediately opened his mouth for this precious opportunity.
"Praise the presence of the Goddess. Please forgive my impudence, but are you the Goddess of Blessings or the Goddess of Light?" Alexander asked with modesty. He was not a person with high status in the presence of the divine.
"I am not the Goddess you worship. What made you assume and ask such a question?" Elena answered without turning around. She looked underground for any silver poles or pegs as they needed to be researched.
"No, I only heard about the Goddess of Light who appeared in the Avrora Forest last month. Your exalted self closely resembles the description given by the Southern Kingdom's Emperor. Please forgive me if I cross my boundary by asking that question." Alexander bowed slightly, sincere in his words. He could draw conclusions from all the conversations between the Goddess of Light and her disciple.
"Mm, it was my disciple and me. I once met an old knight from the Southern Kingdom. So he told many people a lot about us, hmm... It doesn't matter to us." After saying that, Elena found what she was looking for.
Surprisingly, her vision could see some distance into the ground, nothing obscuring it like before.
She used earth magic to create three holes in the ground just below her, then pulled the silver items that had survived the explosion to the surface. It was only two pegs and one pole.