News spread quickly all over the castle, and it was soon relayed that one of the persons who was supposed to have died in the labyrinth over a month ago had returned. The gates opened with an audible creak, and Vritra stepped through, still feeling all the gazes focused on him.
As he walked into the castle, a few of the guards were following behind him as if they were still suspicious; ignoring them, he decided to first go and meet the Goddess. He had already made up a story for her and everyone else.
Until he knew who was behind the event which almost resulted in his death, he had to stay vigilant; even the king and goddess might be part of this whole thing, and despite the hike in his strength, Vritra didn't believe he could defeat the entire kingdom's army just yet.
"First I will test out Diana's intentions. I wonder how strong she is," Vritra thought while heading towards the large temple.
He felt the king and the goddess were in cahoots, but he could only make his move after making sure of his opponent's strength.
While walking towards the castle, he passed by the castle grounds, and as he did, he saw a group of teenagers—his classmates—gathered in the field, though there were just a few of them. The moment they spotted him, the murmurs began. All of them stared at him in disbelief; after all, from the commander of the fourth team, they had heard that he had fallen into a trap and died.
His eyes scanned the crowd, his focus narrowing as he searched for someone familiar, but there wasn't anyone he was searching for. Neither his mother nor Max's group was there, so Vritra just glanced at the few students and then headed straight.
"H-He isn't dead? And what happened to him? His clothes are so ragged and his hair is so long. Just what has he been through?" one among the boys exclaimed. None of them were close with Vritra, but in this new world, he still felt familiar.
"But about his mother… we all thought he died, she uh…" a girl murmured, her brows knitted with a little concern, but since none of them had any good impressions of Vritra so they didn't try to talk to him.
It had already been a month since they arrived in this world. All this time they had either been training their skills or getting used to hunting demons. They had even gained a few levels by working so hard and killing those dangerous creatures levels as high as 6 to 10.
Though only the strongest of the group could deal with demons of level around 10, only Vanessa had been absent from all this ever since she heard the news of his death. The few teenagers sighed as they thought about the pitiful woman.
After walking for a few minutes, Vritra soon arrived at the magnificent gate of the temple, completely unaware of the talk of his classmates. The whole building was made of some special white stones that seemed to be glowing faintly; it looked very beautiful.
People were walking in and out of the temple, but as soon as they saw him, they hastily backed out of his way after seeing his appearance, afraid that he might attack them in the next moment.
As Vritra walked through the gates, he saw many figures dressed in white. Some were praying, while others were busy with simple chores. Upon his entrance, all the gazes were focused on him, and the reaction he received was the same as before, though their gazes were also filled with disgust.
One of the men walked closer to Vritra but stopped a few meters away from him. Then he looked him up and down before speaking with a slight frown: "You are Vritra?"
"Yes," came the simple reply.
"Follow me." All the people here knew a little about Vritra. He had received such a useless ability that could only move dust around. They were even surprised that he was able to come back alive from the labyrinth after almost a month.
The man, who looked like a priest, walked silently but with hurried steps as if he couldn't withstand the presence of the person following behind him.
They took a few turns and stopped in front of stairs. The priest turned around and glanced at Vritra with his nose wrinkled, then he spoke: "Go straight up and you will find the goddess. But be aware to behave in her presence."
Vritra nodded and didn't react to the clear disrespect. Then the priest snorted and walked away.
"You are getting quite a welcome in this place. Why did you even return if they already believed that you are dead? Is there someone you care a lot for among the people who are summoned?" the familiar feminine and sweet voice of Yasmine sounded in his head.
"Yeah, my mother," Vritra replied simply and began to climb up the stairs. The air was filled with a flowery scent which immediately reminded him of the pure and otherworldly beauty, the goddess Diana.
"I see," Yasmine responded, although their goals are important but she wouldn't want him to just forget about his previous life.
After crossing the stairs, Vritra finally saw the ethereal figure of the goddess. She was standing with her back facing him, her hands resting over the railing of the balcony.
She wore a white dress, and her milky skin seemed to be glowing. She looked so pure and delicate, even with those sinful curves. The only feeling her appearance ignited was to revere and cherish her from a distance.
Radiant, sacred, and untouched.
Vritra stopped some distance away from her and waited.
He didn't use the appraisal skill to check her level, believing that she might become aware of his probing. Instead, he asked in his mind: "Yasmine, how strong is she?"
"Your current level is 181, right?" Without waiting for a reply, she added, "Her strength couldn't be limited by numbers because of divine abilities that use her belief and holy energy, so her peak strength is at least thrice your level."
Vritra's brows creased slightly before he became calm again in the next moment. He had expected the huge difference in strength, but even after five months of torture, he didn't even possess the strength to be a tiny threat to her.
And Yasmine might be downplaying Diana's level a bit to not demotivate him, but he had just started so he didn't take it to heart, despite her appearance Diana was a few centuries old.
But his thoughts were interrupted by Yasmine: "But don't worry. If she really attacks, I can bring you to safety, though killing her with my current strength could be a little difficult. Anyway, there is still something we can do about her if you really want to.
Even if 'it' is in an extremely weakened state right now, you still hold a world-threatening level of treasure in your body, and this goddess of yours can't compare with the true Gods."
Vritra understood what treasure she was talking about. It was the terrifying Mythic Halo. He was a little curious about that last sentence, about the true gods, but he decided to ask about it later. Instead, he questioned: "What can we do?"
"Using the Nihil-Anima Mythic Halo, we can…" Yasmine shared her plan. After she finished, Vritra's lips curled into a devilish smile. If he could succeed, then his time in the kingdom would become much easier.
'I see, then-'
But before he could ask anything else, he stopped as he sensed the goddess move.
After a few minutes of silence, Diana finally turned around. She really looked breathtakingly beautiful—her deep blue eyes, tender and pink lips, and those rosy cheeks. Her beauty could only be defined by the word divine.
She had remained silent all this while to observe the young man and put some psychological pressure, yet aside from his ragged appearance, she didn't find anything strange.
After all the people returned from the labyrinth, she had received the news that Vritra had died after falling into a trap, a few others had died there too, even though she knew all about the scheme behind this but since the casualties were all low levelled so she didn't really care.
"Vritra…" Her melodic voice sounded. As Diana looked at him, no emotion could be seen in her eyes. After all, someone as insignificant as him wasn't even worth her contempt or disdain.
"Tell me, what happened inside the labyrinth?" she questioned. Her voice, although soothing to the ears, held an oppressive pressure.
Vritra took a deep breath as his act began. Clenching his fist, his expression changed to one of slight fear and awe as he glanced at the beautiful goddess, just like most others his age did.
Just by that one look, the goddess was already underestimating him. There was absolutely nothing special about him—except for those slightly higher-than-others stats.
"I had decided to venture alone inside the labyrinth s-since the commander said there are almost no demons inside. I was inside a large hall when something suddenly struck me. I d-don't remember what exactly happened. Both my mind and body f-froze at that moment, and somehow, I fell into a trap."
Vritra paused, his breathing was faster, and his face was covered with beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, pretending to still feel goosebumps from that incident. The fear in his pitch-black eyes was evident, a slight tremor could be seen running through his body, a perfect act to the last detail.
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