Truly a Divine Quest

It was blood!

The princess quickly snatched up her severed hand along with the Grand Displacement Bead before reeling backwards with shock, utterly perplexed by what had just happened. But even though she wanted to find out what had happened, she knew that every millisecond counted and suffering a loss of one could possibly mean death.

That was not something she wanted to experience.

So she quelled her instinctive desire to look for danger and squeezed the bead within her hand with force, hoping with all her heart that she would have enough time to escape whatever disaster was breathing down her neck safely.

But just as the Bead was about to shatter, her entire body suddenly locked up and froze in place without her consent. No matter how hard she tried to flex her fingers or any of her other limbs, she could not move.

She had lost control of her body completely.

Fear assailed her mind and it was slowly causing her to become frantic, but even then she still did her best to retain the stability of her thoughts so that she could find a way to escape. She refused to give up, because that would mean that all would be loss and-

"Calm down, little girl~" A voice that sounded like it came from the high heavens suddenly spoke out with insurmountable power, caressing her ears like the softest of clouds and dispelling the murky fear within her heart like a divine light. The sound was as ethereal as the northern lights and twinkling stars and yet was filled with so much might that she could feel it down to the core of her being, and it was at that moment that she was sure that whatever entity was speaking to her must have been god himself, or something of a similar status.

The human shaped golden light that suddenly appeared in the middle of the clearing only cemented her thoughts.

"My oh my~" The god muttered as it looked around at all the humans that were frozen just like her. "What a terrible situation…"

It then began to walk towards her and her friends who weren't too far away with graceful, autocratic steps that caused the ground to tremble. But the most terrifying thing about those steps was that each one caused groups of assassins to burst apart into mists of red, soaking the few remaining guards and the earth with blood.

For a split idle moment, she reckoned that that was what must have happened to the person who cut off her hand.

"113 full grown men want to slaughter 4 innocent children in cold blood for the sake of currency. What an utter travesty… What an utter disgrace… A HUMILIATION!"

At that last word, all the remaining assassins burst into blood at once, creating a downpour of blood that soon splattered against the ground with a sickening wet sound. The grass in the vicinity had turned completely crimson, and it was so much so that it looked like they were formed like that. After that, It didn't take long for the pungent smell of blood to become denser and it was almost unbearable.

A nausea inducing scene.

But what really caused her to nearly have a heart attack was the fury within the gods voice that rattled against her bones. It was so horrifying that parts of her mind began to shut down and she nearly lost consciousness then and there.

"Ah. Sorry my dears~" The voice of the god spoke out once more with a sound that she was sure could put even the Nightmares from the Abyss to sleep, and the mental collapse that she had about to succumb to was quelled immediately. But it didn't completely stop her from feeling fear.

That was because, deep down, she knew that the up and down reactions that she was having to this beings voice were absolutely abnormal, the scriptures said nothing about the gods ability to compel or at least influence with his voice, but the sighs of relief coming from all around her let her know that her friends and few remaining guards were experiencing the same thing as her.

It was terrifying. But even knowing that, she couldn't feel the full depth of the emotion. No, as the god spoke, such 'irrelevant' thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind and she could only become more and more enraptured.

"I am unaccustomed to conversing with mortals and sometimes I forget how… susceptible you are." The god said as he covered his face with remorse.

Then he let his hand drop to the side and stared up to the sky. And even without facial features (being a human-shaped light and all), the princess felt like she could see a hint of deep wisdom and profundity on his face. It was as if he was looking at something deeper than just a mere green sky.

And perhaps he was. The princess reckoned that he was probably looking at the frameworks of the World itself, or at least something like that, whatever that would be.

He was the god after all…

"Unfortunately I am unable to stay long. The planet has been improving rapidly in the last few millennia and requires my attention to steer it in the right direction."

'So that's why the god has been silent for the last few thousand years!' the Princess thought with wonder.

"However, I have indeed neglected the residents of this World for what you would call a 'long time' and for that I apologise. And as such, to compensate for the chaos that I have let run amok in this World for the last few years, I would like to give you 4 children a powerful blessing." The god said and finally lowered his head to look at the Princess and her 3 friends.

Glee filled their hearts at what was said and they were almost unable to stop themselves from shivering.

"However, if I were to give out such a blessing for free, the karmic imbalance would destroy you. Which of course, we don't want, do we~" The god said as he folded his arms across his chest with a light chuckle. But the casual charm he exuded was so calming and welcoming that the others actually found themselves laughing along too!

They were laughing with a god!

"So to counteract that, I will require a price. Just a small one. Big enough so that you won't be wrecked apart by Fate, but small enough that you should be able to accomplish it with relative ease."

The princess and the other 3 young mistresses from the Ifeden Empire were almost dizzy with anticipation, whereas the guards, even though jealous, were still happy to be able to witness the start of a divine quest.

"I want… your wombs!"