chapter 7: The Goddess

A world which had been destroyed. How would it look like?

A world where there wasn't a single trace of life. All had been washed clean.

A world where there was no wind, no air, no movement, not even a single bit of sound, only depression and despair.

The interval between day and night here was of seventy-two hours.

The sun here was so bright that it could easily roast someone alive if left more than ten seconds in the open.

The atmosphere was unstable here. There were many spatial cracks like magnificent spiderwebs in the sky. The sky seemed like a glass mirror which had a giant crack for it's careless handling. The leakage of cold dark energy through the spatial cracks was so frightening in amount that even the ferocious heat from the sun somewhat had been neutralized.

But at night the atmosphere itself was a subject of nightmare. The cold dark energy from the spatial crack which had no competitor like the sun was like a dark horse without restrain.

The night was so cold it would kill people in less than a second. But because there was no air or wind there was no snow.

In this intense struggle between night and day the remaining ruins of the last civilization had almost been destroyed. The once sky high scrappers and buildings had lost their glory. They were now in a dangerous state and could collapse in any time.

Lastly the world was hopeless, it was both calm and turbulent and the god of this world had already abandoned it.

....

.....

Suddenly there was a creepy, ear splitting, screeching noise that made the surrounding land tremble. One of huge spatial cracks were being teared open by force from the other side. Dark energy gushed out from there like a broken dam. With the excess amount of dark energy a shining sphere with the radius of about 2 meter also came out like a super sized ping pong ball. As soon as it came out, the spatial mouth was immediately restored to it's earlier web like condition.

The shining sphere, in glaring light of the sun dimmed a little, earlier which was in full glory in contrast with the dark energy. The sphere slowly made it's way towards the ground like a gentle feather and stopped about three meter above the ground. It was a sharp contrast against the harsh environment, as if the shining light sphere had lost it's way and unfortunately crashed in this desolate world.

Inside the sphere a angel like newborn child was floating in the centre, covered in green silk blanket.

The child's existence was a miracle itself in the god forsaken world. Despite the harsh environment he was sleeping peacefully. His small silver hair was shining brightly in the sunlight. His long and dense silver eyelashes were curled upwards making his sleeping face even more gorgeous. His pale white skin was like pure white pearl.

A moment later his angel like little face frowned as if having a nightmare. His eyes abruptly opened wide. The combination of golden and pale red heterochromia eyes were so well matched against his face as if it was only meant for him. But the beautiful pair of gem like eyes were emitting a cold and indifferent aura which could not be associated with a child. His cold eyes gradually grew confused as he withdrew his little hand from the blanket to perceive his new environment, the destroyed world.

Yes, this little child was Ray.

Ray was surprised that he was still breathing. He looked at surroundings. He was inside a floating shining sphere. The outside world was not looking friendly at all. His mood was complicated. He didn't die, that was okay. But after the air inside the sphere was spent his fate was set in stone. He would still die.

Ray sighed. ' So what now?' The outside air didn't seem breathable.....wait a minute, looking at the silent atmosphere there didn't seem to be any air at all. He eyed the spatial crack above. Ray sighed again.

'A destroyed world indeed...' He thought.

" Yep, a destroyed world indeed." Suddenly a sweet and clear woman's voice rang out. The speaker gradually appeared in front of him. The woman was surprisingly floating in the air same as the shining sphere. If Ray had visited the seer's temple he would immediately identified this particular woman. She had same facial features and posture as the giant goddess statue.

She had shining long silver hair until her waist. There was a delicate tiara with small blue gems on her head complimenting her silver hair. Her eyes were deep blue like the color of the boundless sea. Her skin was as white as pure ice but it didn't seem unhealthy at all, instead her skin glowed in contrast with deep blue long length dress she wore. All in all she was epitope of beauty. As Ray saw her, he marked the woman as,' A beauty who can cause the downfall of nation after nation.'

Ray was about to ask her identity but the woman was quicker. She seemed slightly pleased, " well, thank you for your compliment"

"Uwa...ai..wu....." Ray paused. He forgot he couldn't speak. His mind suddenly clicked. Didn't this woman just read his mind? Well then it would be easy to communicate. He absolutely didn't mind that his privacy had been broken by some strange ...um....ghost? Well he would die in a while anyway. Chatting with this ghost didn't irk him at the least. Or he might find something to survive the situation. while he was thinking the woman grew angrier.

"Hey how could you think of me as a ghost ?"

'Then who are you?' Ray said in his mind.

" Can't you guess seeing my nobel aura." The woman paused," well what can i expect from a clueless assassin?"

Ray narrowed his eyes dangerously. But unfortunately his childlike delicate features made him look immensely cute. He said,' How-'

The woman said, " well, I am the goddess after all. I know everything about you. Ryan, Zero or Ray, what name should i call you?"

Ray's eyes grew cold, ' So you are the goddess that everybody was talking about also the cause of my early separation from my family?'

The goddess sighed, " Look, little friend i have only given my blessings upon you. I wanted to summon you from earth and gave you a warm home, immense power and make you my spokesman in the world because of your frightening amount of good karmas but-"

Ray interrupted, ' wait, i think you have mistaken me with someone else. Remember i was a assassin. Good karma and me are like oil and water.' He mocked himself.

" No, i am not mistaking anything. Zero-"

' call me Ray.'

The goddess smiled, " Ray, every people you have assassinated till now was all a ferocious beast in human skin. You don't know how many people you have saved by killing them from the dark. Even now thousands of people pray for you, the stranger who has saved them. The amount of good wishes you receive every day, even at this very moment are still increasing your good karmas."

Ray was truly dumbfounded. ' But i..i didn't do that to help them.'

"so what, but you surely knew they are pure scum greater than the other. Then what happened when you got the order of killing miss Eleana Jones. You sacrificed yourself to save the kind woman. What can i say the tougher you show yourself on the outside the frailer you are in the inside.....

Now we don't have much time here. Let me come to the main topic. After i transferred your soul in your mom's womb i predicted your many possible futures. But no matter which path I helped you to go they all ended up in utter destruction of your family and your loved ones. If i helped you today to remain in your family even i couldn't salvage the situations following afterwards."

'Why?'

"why you say, well i am partly to blame. Because you have my blessings this will eventually create hate, fear and jealousy among many races in Astra, your native world. Even if your father was a powerful figure in the whole Astra he couldn't possibly protect you from every dirty scheme there is. So, if you stayed your family would be the prey of the cruel world even before you spread your wings."

Ray clenched his fists under the blanket.

" I have my limitations as a goddess so i can't always help you. After searching for solution this is best path i have come with. So listen very carefully, before returning to Astra you have to become so strong that the whole Astra couldn't utter a single word against you."

Ray's heart trembled. He said, ' I can return?!!!'

"Of course you can. Become so strong that you can create your own spatial portal to transport from one world to another. And fortunately you have the purest bloodline of both angel and demon. You see i have borrowed a cultivation method from the supreme God for you specially. And the atmosphere here is full of mana particles instead of air which is also suitable for your cultivation."

' So what do you want in exchange of the cultivation technique?' Ray didn't think a excellent technique from the supreme God would be free. If it was free then there must be problem with it or it was fake.

The goddess hesitated for a while, then said, " Actually the technique isn't fake. You see there has been none to born with both the angel and demon's blood line. And the technique could only be cultivated by those who has both angel and demon's blood.....so it was meant for you otherwise it would be useless."

' Stop chatting, just say the word'

"....."

After a pause the goddess said, " well be exclusively my dimensional mercenary. If said directly, be my helper in completing the tasks for different worlds which the worlds couldn't solve themselves. How is it?"

Ray thought for a while. Then said,'fine' . Well he didn't have any other option.

"well very good. I will transfer the information about the technique inside your brain directly. I can't stay here any longer. your condition is perfect for the cultivation. After your birth you haven't taken a single bit of food and water, simply survived by your mother's mana. So from now on you have to breath and eat mana to maintain your body until you manage to come out from this world on your own. .....oh one more thing the sphere will remain for five years. So you better reach at least king stage to able to breath in the outside under the immense mana pressure. I will advise you to go into a deep sleep to quicken your cultivation for the upcoming five years. The sphere will protect you from the intense heat and cold. But once you will be strong enough you will be able to protect yourself from that. Well then i will guide you further when you will be strong enough to cross this world."

The goddess then raised his hand and entered inside the sphere. She touched Ray's glabella gently. A vast amount of information poured into his brain like the speed of light. His head seemed to be torn apart. He was loosing consciousness. In the dizzy situation he heard the goddess saying," Goodbye Ray, we will meet soon. Remember, your whole family has been impatiently waiting for your return so try to cheer up and don't get off track to the dark path and finally smile more"