Chapter 30: The Calm before the Storm

"Are you really Farenna?"

A tall woman with a pair of majestic horns was standing in front of me, interrogating me. Wait, her majestic horns were plastered with bandages here and there. What happened?

"Yeah. I'm Farenna…", I tried to focus on the conversation we had but in the end, I was beaten by my curiosity. "Erm… Lilith, what happened to your horns?"

"Urk…", Lilith crossed her arms and started sweating profusely. "Please, don't ask anything about it."

What the heck had happened!? There, in the corner of the room, Gia was standing while facing the wall and whistling as she took a glance from time to time. Did that girl really make Lilith this traumatic? What did she do?

"Anyway…", Lilith fixed her posture. "Knowing you were asking me like that proved that you're actually Farenna."

I couldn't get even more confused. What had become of this tribe when I was gone? The strong Chief was no longer there, leaving a pathetic slob of a scaredy horned woman. The Ace who should be protecting the Chief and other residents had been reduced to a cry-baby. Seriously, what had happened?

Before I could even voice my mind, someone tapped my shoulder from behind.

"I know what you're thinking but please, don't say it out loud."

It was Sue. Among all these guys, she was the only one who looked unfazed and calm at the moment. I decided not to pry even further and let the conversation continue.

"So Lilith…", I took the liberty to sit down cross-legged. "What do you want to ask me?"

Seeing me being my usual self, Lilith's strained face lessened. She then sat in seiza position, along with Gia who crawled slowly towards our direction and sat in the same way as Lilith.

"Ahem!", Lilith cleared her throat and started questioning me. "How could you grow this fast? It seems you also evolved…"

Damn, as expected of the formerly Asura Hero. I couldn't even stand a chance in front of her in terms of experience and knowledge.

"Yeah, I evolved once.", I snorted and smiled smugly. "I became a Calamity Nymph."

Lilith and the other didn't respond. I opened my eyes and saw every single one of them opened their mouths wide. Wait, was I not supposed to tell them that?

[It's up to you, actually. They're probably thinking you've become crazy…]

Why!?

"Erm… Enna? I bet you already know this but let me make sure of it…", Gia opened her mouth and made a troubled face, while scratching her left cheek. "There's no way a Blood Nymph could evolve straight into a Calamity Nymph."

"Huh?"

"A Calamity Nymph is leagues above us…", she added.

I widened my eyes and started sweating profusely. I couldn't think of any way to retract my words. Damn, I shouldn't have opened my mouth!

"Wait, Gia… I have an Appraisal skill…", Lilith spoke all of sudden. "Though it's not high level, I can probably still get some information about it."

Lilith glared at me with her heterochromia eyes and pierced straight into my soul. I felt like being stripped naked when she stared at me. Did she also feel the same way when I appraised her the first time we met?

"..."

Lilith was being so quiet, to the point I could even hear Gia and Sue gulping their saliva in anticipation. She then closed her eyes and sighed.

"Farenna…"

She called me while making a serious face.

"Yes?"

"How did you evolve into a Calamity Nymph straight away?"

Hearing Lilith's words, Gia and Sue only opened their mouths widely in harmony.

"I-I didn't know for sure but… I got 4 choices and one of them was unknown… Naturally, I chose that one."

I tried to make it sound as reasonable as it could be. My answer only left the 3 of them speechless.

"Uhm… Guys?"

"Hahaha… She NATURALLY chose the unknown one, huh?"

"Yep, yep. NATURALLY Farenna-like…"

"I don't even know what to NATURALLY say…"

The 3 of them sighed and shouted at the same time.

"HOW THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE CONVINCED BY THAT, YOU FOOL / DUMMY / RETARD!?"

I retracted all my words. They were still as scary as fuck.

***

It was supposed to be nighttime in the Abyss and I was lazing around inside a tent provided by Gia and Sue. In the end, Lilith interrogated me for a whole 3 hours. I'd never want to experience that ever again.

"Hey, Bona…", I held the black sphere I got from Ereshkigal in my right hand and stared at it. "Will this tribe be okay if I ever leave them after this?"

Yes, I was actually thinking of leaving this tribe to dive deeper into the Abyss. After my Synchronization Rate reached 20%, I became more and more aware of my own existence. I was something like a bug inside a game in this life, since the other me, Fayre di Inferi, also existed on the surface.

[You really grew attached to them.]

Bona paused her words for a moment.

[Especially to that Gia girl. Fufu.]

Her giggles mocked me. I didn't even respond to her and yet she continued talking on her own.

[But well, that's to be expected though. You became a whole new person in this regression. It's good to try new things once a while.]

What was she implying? I closed my eyes and held the black sphere tightly in my chest.

[I was worried about your mental health after regressing that many times since you've seen a lot of deaths and by-gones in your past lives until your senses became dull.]

"What do you mean by that?"

[You were becoming more and more apathetic and heartless day by day… It was hard to maintain the balance of our connection…]

I never knew I was being like that. As far as I knew, I always did everything I could to achieve my tasks, even though everything went in vain until the last regression.

[That mindset of yours. That's what we call apathetic and heartless, Farenna. You surrendered yourself into doing anything as long as it could serve your purpose.]

Bona's words pierced my heart. Even though it sounded like an annoying sermon, I couldn't deny any of the facts she stated bluntly.

[You can hate me all you want, but for me, I'm grateful to see you're changing in a better way.]

Why would you say something like that?

[Never mind, just forget everything I said if you want. Oh, you asked if the tribe will be okay or not after you leave, right?]

Bona returned to her usual bright tone. She didn't answer my question though.

[The answer is, I don't know.]

"Huh? Aren't you a Goddess?"

[Listen, Farenna. You should stop seeing us, Deities, as beings that know everything. Of course, the concept of time and space doesn't apply to us and that's all.]

"Wait, then who the hell created all the things in the universe!?"

I was really shocked by her words. I never expected to hear that at all.

[Err… How should I put this? We were only given responsibility and information to maintain the balance between the Divine Realm, Mortal Realm, and Abyssal Realm. As for how we were created, we actually have been prohibited to pry further into that.]

That answer of hers gave out a really shocking truth. Deities were created by something and they were completely clueless of that something.

[Well, you can say it like that. But I don't recommend you to look for the details.]

"Why?"

[Have you ever heard of a saying, 'If you stare into the Abyss, the Abyss will stare back at you'?]

"What's the relation with that?"

[You're looking into classified information even for Deities, what do you think they would do if they happened to hear that?]

I gulped my saliva. In my head, a lot of possibilities flashed like collages of pictures. And every single one of them wasn't a good thing.

[Okay, let's stop talking about the boring things.]

Bona broke the ice between us. Truly, I was kinda envious of her positivity.

[Hmm… Farenna?]

She called me all of sudden.

"Yes?"

[Would you mind pretending to be asleep?]

"Huh? What do you m—"

Whoosh! Before I could continue my words, the curtain serving as the door of my tent was opened gently. I immediately closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.

[Have fun, Farenna. Fufu.]

What the fuck did she mean by that?

Not long after, I could sense a presence entering my tent. I opened my right eye slightly to see who it was and damn… The tent was so dark I could barely see anything. There stood a figure of a girl holding something like a pillow.

"Enna?", a gentle whisper entered my ears. "Are you asleep?"

I didn't have the courage to answer it and kept pretending to be asleep while opening my eyes slightly. Deep down inside, I already knew what would happen but in case I was mistaken, I didn't let my guard down.

"She's asleep, huh…", the gentle whisper continued. "Then don't mind me if I do…"

I opened my eyes in an instant and raised my body. The girl who was preparing to lay her body down beside me flinched tremendously.

"Gia? What are you doing here?"

I asked her like some dense protagonist from stories I had read in my past lives. I couldn't see it for sure but judging from Gia's gesture, she was embarrassed to be caught red-handed invading my tent at night. That could only mean one thing…