New Beginning (1)

In the world of Edels'herah, there is a constant war between the powers that side with the Goddess of Luminance, Uria, and the forces of the God of the Twilight, Nyxlvain.

Since the beginning of Edels'herah, this conflict has been ongoing until the present era and has shown no signs of stopping. At least, until the Goddess finally chose a Champion and had him descend onto the mortal realm to fight against the God of the Twilight's forces.

*******

On top of a stone altar, Neo, the Goddess's Champion, woke up from his slumber and stared blankly at the ceiling for a while.

His eyes shone with light as he snapped out of his reverie and sighed, "So…I've failed again. This is the 8th time."

Neo mumbled these words so the person that was in the room with him didn't hear him, but exclaimed in surprise when they noticed that he had awoken.

"Oh my goodness! You've finally awoken, Uria's Champion?"

"Hm?"

Neo turned his head to the side and looked at the person who had just exclaimed those words in surprise and thought, '...This is different.'

He's been fighting the forces of Nyxlvain for years now and this is the 9th time he's regressed since in his previous 8 lives, he's always lost to Nyxlvain's Champion, the Demon King.

Neo got up and looked around but noticed that he had awoken in a place that was completely different from his previous lives which somewhat surprised him.

As the Goddess's Champion, he wasn't born like a normal person. He had been shaped by the Goddess in the divine realm and it was only recently–at least according to the present era's timeline–that he had descended from the Goddess's realm.

He was the manifestation of the Goddess's will to protect the world she created and cherished against the forces of her brother, Nyxlvain, that wants to destroy everything.

Unfortunately, he's failed his Goddess 8 times already and it was only thanks to the Goddess's mercy that he's been able to regress back into the past to fix his mistakes and redo his life.

However, despite already experiencing 8 lifetimes, he's lost against Nyxlvain's Champion, the Demon King, every single time. No matter what he did in the past, fixed his mistakes, took a different path, learned different things, befriended various people who he thought would benefit his cause, Neo continued failing.

Even though he didn't have to worry about his numerous failures thanks to the regression ability this Goddess bestowed upon him, Neo noticed that every time he regressed, the Goddess Uria's powers would diminish.

The first thing he did after getting up from the altar was try to contact the Goddess like he's done 8 times in the past already, but this time, he wasn't able to connect his mind and soul with the Goddess.

'I…I can't connect with her?'

"Hey~ are you okay?"

"Hm?"

Neo finally turned his attention to the person who was in the room with him and noticed that it was a young lady wearing a unique maid outfit that definitely wasn't like the clergy uniforms of the priests and nuns that he was used to seeing.

"...Who are you?" Neo questioned.

"Well, aren't you a little rude? The first thing you do when waking up after freeloading with us all this time isn't introducing yourself but demanding answers from your benefactors? Talk about ungrateful!" The young lady said in reply to his question.

"What?"

"Ah, never mind. Even if you didn't introduce yourself, there's no one on Edels'herah that doesn't know about you, the Goddess's Champion, Sir Neo."

"..."

"Anyway, I'm Melanie. For now, just follow me. You've been asleep for 20 years since the day you descended to Edels'herah so everyone wondered if the Goddess had abandoned us or not since she's fallen into slumber after that day."

"?!"

Neo's eyes widened in surprise when he heard the young woman's words and thought, 'The Goddess has fallen asleep? Is that why I can't communicate with her?'

Before Melanie could walk out of the room where he had been resting in, Neo quickly grabbed her arm and asked, "Miss Melanie, please excuse my rudeness, but can you explain what you meant by what you said earlier?"

"Huh? Are you talking about the Goddess?"

"Yes."

"Well…I guess it's better if the Master tells you about it. Just follow me."

Neo absentmindedly nodded at Melanie's suggestion and followed her out of the room. When they got outside, he was shocked to see that they weren't in a chapel but inside of the adventurer's guild.

The reason he knew was because he was quite familiar with the guild as he's been to it numerous times during his previous lives.

"...This is…the adventurer's guild?"

"Oh? So you know? Well, that saves me the time to explain things to you."

"Why–"

Before Neo could say anything, the young lady answered him as she already knew what he was going to ask, "Unfortunately, the Church of Luminance wasn't able to maintain your dwelling because recently, they've been low on funds due to the possibility that the Goddess has turned her back on us…"

"There's no way the Goddess would do that," Neo firmly replied.

"That's what you say, but since your descent to this plane, the Goddess hasn't spoken to her people a single time nor has she sent a decree of any sort."

"..."

"Follow me to the Guildmaster. He'll explain everything to you."

"Alright."

Melanie led Neo to the Adventurer Guildmaster's office and inside, Neo met with someone he wasn't familiar with. Instead of the Guildmaster he knew from his previous life, the Guildmaster before him was completely different.

The Guldmaster was currently busy dealing with a large stack of documents. He took notice of Melanie's entrance, but thinking that it was only her, he didn't bother looking up.

"Master, I've brought the Goddess's Champion."

Hearing Melanie mention Uria's Champion, the Guildmaster quickly looked and asked, "The Champion?"

"Yes, Master. He's awoken."

"He has? Finally! So the Goddess hasn't forsaken us!"

The Guildmaster dropped the pen and paper he was holding and reading earlier as he stood up and walked over to Neo.

"Uria's Champion, it's very good to see that you've awoken!"

"If it's fine, can you explain to me the situation? What's going on?" Neo asked.

"Straight to the point, I see. I like that! Anyway, sit down. I'm sure you must still be lethargic from your slumber!" The Guildmaster enthusiastically said. He then turned to Melanie and said to her, "Melanie, please prepare some refreshments for us!"

"Yes, Guildmaster, but in your discussion later, you better mention 'that'!"

The Guildmaster had a troubled expression on his face, but seeing the dangerous glare that Melanie was giving him, he sighed and said, "Okay, okay. I'll tell him about it later."

Melanie left after receiving the Guildmaster's promise and once she was gone, the Guildmaster turned towards Neo and gave him a big smile as he said, "Now, where were we?"

"You were just about to give me an explanation about the current situation."

"Ah, yes! But before that I should introduce myself! I'm William Estras, the acting Guildmaster of the Adventurer Guild!"

"...Acting Guildmaster? What happened to the Guildmaster?"

"We'll get to that in a bit! How about we wait for Melanie to bring in the snacks before we start our serious conversation? For now, what about a bit of small talk, yeah?"

"..."