Tales Of The Fallen War Goddess

"My.... Experience?"

"That's right. Why don't you tell me how it felt to be an existence that ruled over all? How did it feel to be the person to dictate the fate of everyone below you?" Stella smiled.

"I... I don't know where to start. Should I start from the beginning?" Sylvania was a bit lost thinking about her past.

"Hmm, sure. Why not?" Stella nodded her head.

"I'm a God that was formed by the laws of this world. I don't exactly remember how many years since I came into existence, but it should be more than one hundred and thirty million years." Sylvania started telling her story.

"When I gained sentience, the people on the planet had already formed a proper social structure. Tribes, mostly. They discovered more lands, more hunting grounds, and more fertile lands to grow crops on. Peace and prosperity..... What a beautiful sight that should've been. But unfortunately, I was born just after that. Right after they tore each other down like hungry wolves. Their blood and flesh mixed into the ground, dyeing it red. Their agony and tears reached the ears of the world. And so, I was finally born. A God that embodies war, blood, and death." Sylvania took a deep breath as she looked up into the eerie and blank sky of the sub-dimension.

"Slowly, I started to get accustomed to the Divine realm. There were a few Gods that were born before me. Goddess of Nature, Goddess of Vitality and Prosperity, Goddess of Love, God of Strength, God of Wisdom were among them. They were formed according to how people of this world discovered things. So, in that sense, the Goddess of Nature was the oldest. As the Goddess of War, however, my existence itself was shrouded in the aura of blood and death. And in terms of power, I far surpassed the God of Strength. Because unlike them, I wasn't formed from gratitude. I was formed from hatred and resentment.

I was the first God that leaned towards destruction."

Sylvania finally stopped for a while.

"So, how did they receive you? Not in good terms I guess?" Stella asked.

"That's right. I had a cold welcome. But after a while, they simply didn't care. We didn't choose our Divinities after all. The Goddess of Vitality and Prosperity, God of Wisdom was quite welcoming to me. Maybe it's because they understood my Divinity better.

After all, war and prosperity are interconnected. And wisdom is something that you use towards comprehending the unknown." Sylvania sighed as she took another bite out of the cake.

"So, how many people did you kill during your time as the War Goddess?" Stella glanced at Sylvania as she gave her some more pastry.

"Too many to count. But probably enough to fill the world with dead bodies." Sylvania shook her head.

"Why not try to be a bit more specific?" Stella tilted her head.

"I guess...I killed...a few trillion people, give or take. But probably less than ten trillion." Sylvania took a deep breath as she put out a horrifying figure.

But Stella was unfazed. "Hmm..a few trillion over one hundred and thirty million years. That's much better than I expected."

"That's because I rarely ever kill the masses.. But each time I descended to the mortal realm, I killed hundreds of millions. And when you realize, you wiped out more than one-tenth of the entire world's population in a single day, it changes you." Sylvania felt sorry for the countless innocent people that had fallen under her blade.

"Do you regret it, Sylvania? Do you ever wish that if you were to go back, you would make a different choice? Would you show them mercy?" Stella asked her a crucial question.

"Do I regret it? Yes, I do, every day. But even if I had the chance to go back, I would still do the same.

I slaughtered hundreds of millions each time I had drawn my blade. But with their sacrifice, they bought the lives of the remaining people, they bought peace. I can only hope the innocents that died because of me find happiness in the next life." Sylvania felt a bit suffocated.

"I see. Everything has a price. Peace is the same. And you're the one who came down to take it." Stella replied quietly.

"While I regret my actions, I do not feel guilty about it. War is my Divinity after all. If the Goddess of War preaches peace, that would be too hypocritical." Sylvania slowly nodded as her eyes became clearer.

"So, Gods can't go against their Divinity? Are your actions influenced by external factors?" Stella was intrigued.

"No. It's not like that. We can do anything as long as it doesn't directly oppose our Divinity. Also, we can technically go against our Divinity by doing the exact opposite, but that weakens our power because we're going against our purpose of existence. However, we can completely abandon our Divinity and try to form another one if we want to, though it is extremely hard to do so.

But, when we infuse Divinity to empower ourselves, our actions are somewhat influenced by it. And during that time we cannot do something that directly opposes it. So when I descended as the Goddess of War, I couldn't promote peace in any way. I was free to do anything else.

However, it's possible to descend and act freely if you don't use divinity." Sylvania explained.

"So, Gods are living here in the mortal realm?" Stella was puzzled. She didn't find any Gods hiding here. Her range of dominion covered the entire planet by now. And Lynette was reborn without her Divine soul and memories.

"No. While they can live here, leaving the Divine realm to live in the mortal realm for a long time weakens their Divinity considerably. So they form churches to gather the faith of people to strengthen their Divinities and then form avatars to roam in the mortal realm." Sylvania explained further.

"So, where is this so-called Divine realm? I didn't find anything." Stella knew it wasn't in the sky like most people believed.

"It's on the planet of course. More specifically, the planet is both the Divine and mortal realm. They're just separated in a different plane of existence." Sylvania replied.

"I see. So they overlap and coexist with each other. How do people usually enter the Divine realm?" Stella asked.

"Usually, there are two ways. Either you can sneak in through a realm backdoor that a God created for their own use. Or, you can ascend as a God by forming your Divinity. But I don't think you need to hear about such mundane ways." Sylvania chuckled.

"Correct. I don't need to bother with these. Let's get going, shall we?"

"Wait! Wha....." Sylvania couldn't finish her sentence as Stella snapped her fingers and they both were teleported to the Divine realm.

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After hearing the simplest explanation of realms, Stella focused on controlling all the laws that ruled over the realms instead of world elements, and she immediately unsealed her [Realm Wanderer] ability. It was pretty easy for her as she had Absolute [Space Authority].

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[Realm Wanderer: Access all realms of any world freely. Your authority cannot be blocked by any means]

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It was a wondrous ability that granted her the means to travel any realms as she pleased. And no existence or laws would be able to refuse her entry.

As soon as she unlocked this ability, Stella could sense all the realms of this world. Surprisingly, this world had four of them.

There was the mortal realm, the Divine realm, the Nether realm, the Hell realm.

She was genuinely shocked as she heard nothing about the other two realms from Sylvania. It was impossible to hide information from Stella with the intention of misguiding or lying to her. So, she knew Sylvania had no intention of hiding them.

So, she didn't ask her about it immediately. Instead, Stella 'abducted' Sylvania to the Divine realm.