episode_0038

He looked up at the statues of the goddesses who had been isolated from the outside world for a long time, and felt an awe that could not be expressed in words.

As if a small, slender ant were looking up at a human. Even though the statue wasn’t that big, Aion felt as if it was overwhelming him.

There is a term called cosmic horror. It is a fear felt in the helplessness that humans can never confront, reject, or even understand.

The helplessness that makes people who are mistakenly at the top of the food chain feel they can’t do anything.

The statues in the shape of goddesses gave Aion that kind of feeling.

Aion, so overwhelmed by the statue’s appearance, could only stare blankly at it.

From left, the Goddess of Wrath, in the middle the Goddess of Joy, and lastly the Goddess of Sorrow.

Each of the goddesses had their eyes covered with something like cloth, but otherwise each had different characteristics.

In the case of the Goddess of Wrath, she was biting her lips as if she was very angry about something, and the face of the statue seemed to be filled with such great anger that it was recognizable at a glance even though the eyes were covered.

And in the case of the Goddess of Ecstasy, she too had her eyes covered with a cloth, but she was smiling brightly, in contrast to the Goddess of Wrath.

Her whole face was covered in a bright smile.

And the last goddess of sorrow.

“You’re crying.”

The Goddess of Sorrow, true to her name, had thin tears streaming from her cloth-covered eyes.

In the case of the goddess of wrath, she was showing anger, in the case of the goddess of joy, she was showing a smile, but in the case of the goddess of sorrow, tears were shedding from what appeared to be her two eyes.

At the sight of the statue, Aion just stared silently, like a visitor to a museum.

The thin tears flowing from the goddess’s eyes seemed ready to flow down her cheeks and fall to the ground at any moment.

Aion simply looked at each statue in silence.

The statue was not maintained until recently, as there were no vines or moss, which are usually found on old objects or buildings, and no trace of their existence could be confirmed.

Aion, who had been silently staring at the statue, came to his senses and began walking towards the statue.

It stopped in the center where the statues of the goddesses were looking.

In order to obtain the power of the goddesses in the work, one must pass trials given by each goddess.

In the case of the Goddess of Wrath who chose the protagonist, the ordeal she gave was to kill those she hated the most.

His ordeal was to kill every single one of the monsters that had murdered his family, including his grandparents, right before his eyes.

The protagonist froze for a moment as he saw the monsters appearing before his eyes without warning.

At the same time, blood began to flow into his fist.

The monsters that appeared before the protagonist’s eyes were the monsters that had attacked the protagonist’s village in the past, causing more than 60 casualties.

The protagonist at that time was unable to do anything to counter their indiscriminate attacks.

At that time, the protagonist was still a child who had not yet properly learned swordsmanship, and he was afraid of the monsters that ate people. That was why the protagonist’s family wanted to quickly leave the village, but they were already watching the entire village to prevent people from leaving, and escape was virtually impossible.

He lived with his grandparents when he was young, and originally it was a place where monsters rarely attacked.

For some reason, dozens of monsters attacked his village.

The protagonist, who was a child, could do nothing but tremble in fear. And then he begged.

Please save our family. But heaven did not answer his earnest prayer and in the end.

“Kueee!!”

The monster that came to his house started screaming and attacking the door to break into the house.

“Heek..!”

Surprised by the monster’s actions, he trembled all over and shed tears.

His father desperately tried to survive by blocking the door with various pieces of furniture.

In order to protect his young children, loving wife, and parents, the father used all his strength to move the furniture and block the door.

“Kuaa!”

For a monster with such great power, this father’s behavior only served to infuriate him.

For monsters with strength far surpassing that of humans, destroying human-made objects was as easy as breaking a tree soaked in water, so it wouldn’t be long before the monsters would enter the house.

They trembled in fear, sensing the end that was coming upon them.

Most of the people who had already lived in the village were killed by the monsters.

Most of the people living in the village, including their friends and cousins, had already been sacrificed, and they, including the protagonist, were destined to become the same.

“Listen carefully to what Yota’s mom says. From now on, no matter what happens, don’t come upstairs, okay? If you hear anything outside, cover your ears and pretend not to hear anything.”

His mother, looking at her trembling son, tried to put him in the basement, thinking that she would at least save him as much as Yota.

Yota’s body trembled at his mother’s words, but he slowly nodded.

“Our Yota mom loves you so much..I really love you so much..”

His mother, crying endlessly, pushed him into the narrow basement.

A moment later, he heard his family’s screams right above where he was hiding, and he closed his eyes, covered his ears, and cried endlessly.

Even at a young age, I knew that my parents had sacrificed themselves for me.

He cried endlessly, burying his mouth in his leg to avoid making a sound.

“……….”

He was speechless as he looked at his own welcome.

The ordeal that the Goddess of Wrath gave him was to face the very monsters that had terrified him as a child.

He realized this and came out of the basement, looking more grown up than when he was a child.

“Kihi…?”

The monster suddenly nodded its head as it looked at him as he emerged from the underground.

Yota saw his family made up of welcome.

Everything before his eyes was nothing more than a fake created by the goddess’s illusions, but he clenched his fists as he looked at his fallen parents.

In order to avenge his past, he was able to pass the ordeal by killing every single monster that attacked the village.

“Hmm.. Excluding the goddess of wrath, it’s joy and sorrow.. What do you do?”

Aion, who had seen the protagonist’s example, was looking at the two remaining goddesses and was in deep thought.

He was contemplating which goddess’s trial to challenge.

As for the other goddesses, other than the Goddess of Wrath, there was no specific mention of them after encountering them as stone statues in the cave, so it was unknown what kind of trials they were going through.

That is why he could infer from the appearances and names of the goddesses.

In the case of the Goddess of Wrath, the trials were conducted using the memories of those who responded to the trials, so the content of the trials would differ depending on which goddess the trials were given to.

That is why, after much thought, Aion decided to take on the trials of the Goddess of Ecstasy.

That was because there was no accurate information about the two goddesses, so it wasn’t that important which power to choose, and if you were going to take on the trial anyway, wouldn’t it be better to be happy rather than sad?

Thinking so, Aion walked to the statue of the Goddess of Ecstasy.

I placed my hand on the green sphere that appeared in front of the statue.

As soon as the person who accepted the trial placed his hand on the corresponding orb of each goddess, the trial would begin, so Aion nervously placed his hand on the orb to receive the trial of the goddess of joy.

“………”

Contrary to what I saw in the novel, nothing happened when I touched the orb of the Goddess of Ecstasy.

Normally, the ordeal should have started as soon as I raised my hand, but strangely enough, it didn’t, and I thought it was meant to be that way.

He found out why he couldn’t do the trials.

“Has anyone already been tested…?”

That is, there was someone who responded to the trials of the Goddess of Ecstasy.

Before he came to the cave, it seemed that someone had already come to this place, passed the trials of the Goddess of Ecstasy, and gained strength.

“There’s no way…?”

Aion couldn’t help but be confused when he saw such a phenomenon.

In the novel, no character other than the main character uses the power of the goddess, and there are no rumors that anyone has accepted the ordeal.

That is why in the novel, only the main character challenges the goddess’s ordeal.

Unlike the original, it seemed like someone other than the main character had already taken on the ordeal.

and.

[Since there is already someone who has responded to the trial, you will automatically respond to the trial of another goddess.]

Aion was forced to participate in the trials of another goddess, not the Goddess of Ecstasy, as he originally wanted to be.