CHAPTER – 4 : THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING APPLE

CHAPTER – 4

THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING APPLE

I came across a meadow once that looked as if I had stepped into the pages of a storybook. I was standing at the same levitated high ground where I and Lady Athena were able to see the stars together.

The malachite-green fields seemed to be covered in a bright sheet under the clear azure blue sky. I could hear the serenading minstrel of the heavenly birds breaking the quiet of this far-fetched world. The whalebone-white clouds shaped like tufts of marshmallows, glided slowly across the sky. They carried an airy, warm, drizzling rain with them. It cleansed the land and banished the strangling coldness and stunned silence of the lake's surface. The pattering off the leaves, ultra-symmetric ripples on surface of the lake, the rain energized the full ecosystem of this holy land.

A neon-blue ribbon of river ran through the centre of the meadow. The song of the river was very gentle as it went plinking and tinkling over the grey gravel bed.

The molten golden crown on top of mountains head and the bleached snow was forged by the gods of Olympus themselves. I could see the reflection varnished onto the lakes glassy surface.

Even in this spirit renewing rustic scene I could not hold my breath but be baffled at the sight of the gigantic and noble tree which stood in front of me all high and mighty. With a stock straight and a proud grey obelisk and branches sticking out emphatically and shaped like a Neptune's fork, thick and defiant at the bottom, frail toward the top, the exceedingly beautiful tree was yet extraordinary that I could not describe it in mere words of my limited vocabulary.

The soothing and warm feeling of the light which passed through its canopies, and the cool of its shadow was just so tempting to lie under its divine protection.

It all feels so connected and familiar!

I looked around but unable to find Lady Athena I decided to wait and lay under the tree reading the book on magic which I had brought with me.

It had been more than an hour and I started feeling hungry again for some reason I wondered what fruit this tree bore during its ripening season. I removed my thoughts of eating and started focusing on reading again. For some time, I wanted to try teleportation magic because it is just so cool to vanish from one place and appear at another and take others by surprise. Maybe then I could wipe the floor with that haughty angel and his obsolete thoughts about being 'lowly humans'.

It had been quite a while and Lady Athena had still not shown up yet. Maybe she is busy in her duties as a god such as looking after her subjects, blessing others who follow her and maybe praying. Wait! Whom she would even pray? Does gods also pray someone? Maybe they pray to World God for his blessings! Well I am sure I would not want to disturb Lady Athena during her duties or unexpected chores which suddenly might have popped up. I am sure she would show up soon because we are good friends. Aren't we…

Just then a huge, almost circular shaped red object fell on the cover of my book while the momentum made the other end of the cover hit my nose. I was quick in my response and had already made distance with the book so the impact of the hit was less and there was probably no nosebleed or other minor injuries.

But for some reason I wanted to get hurt and use the healing magic. I have been still wondering about the after-effects of the healing magic which I previously used, because it felt like it almost rebuilt my whole body and let me gain more strength than my usual self. For some reason I also felt more confident than ever. Learning magic is obviously fun for anyone.

Probably all my classmates by now would also have learnt magic and may be able to even burn down buildings or break huge boulders as they are always stronger than me and maybe always will be. But this time I am sure I will not lack behind because I have my goddess by my side.

Now to return to the current scenario, I had to probe and investigate this unidentified falling object. Well duh… it's probably an apple. Why would a UFO fall from the sky considering it's the divine realm we are talking about (and it seems that nothing can surprise me anymore)?

A large sized apple with bright red color on a green base lay on the ground on my right side. It was probably a bit larger than the normal sized Kashmiri apples and for the other part the tutti – fruity smell of this ripened fruit in the air had already caught my nose's attention. I just couldn't wait to know the taste of this bold apple which dared to fall and disturb me during my reading time. Seeing that I was all alone and there was no caretakers for the tree nearby that means I can probably eat this apple.

Surely I can!

CHOMP!

CHOMP!

CRUNCH!

CHOMP!

The Skin of this fruit is crisp, juicy, and aromatic yet tasted a bit acidic.

As for the fleshy part it had a sweet syrup taste and an earthly touch in it which made it even a more enjoyable delicacy. I am sure it will serve as a good ingredient in deserts. I would love to make an apple pie for it and enjoy it together with Lady Athena. I just can't stop thinking about her and how she saved me yesterday and stepped forward in order to protect me.

I finished the whole damn thing which caused this fiasco and said to myself 'serves it right.' But later when I realized that there were no seeds, I started wondering how the species of this tree survives then if they do not propagate. Maybe the trees are immortal but even so. Why the hell am I even thinking, a fruit without seeds maybe a common thing in heaven. But something still bugged me because the fruits I ate in my room probably had seeds in them. But I said to myself 'later' and then continued to divulge in my reading.

***

ALMIGHTY WORLD GOD

"Finally after a wait of 10,000 years we will be again able to harvest the fruit of tree of life." Lady Gaea brought her two fingers near her lips thinking in awe about the heavenly apple.

Besides her there was the Almighty World God, god of creation Brahma and goddess of agriculture Demeter. All of them had one question bugging them about, who will be chosen by the tree of life for the consumption of its fruit.

"We will soon see to that." I said and walked along the river till we all reached the bridge that connected us to the tree of life.

"What's the matter Demeter? Is something bothering you." Lord Brahma on seeing the confused expression of Lady Demeter at such an auspicious occasion could not help but enquire himself.

"For some reason I cannot sense the presence of the fruit of the tree of life. It's not on the tree." Lady Demeter quietly spoke and waited for the response for her irrational statement.

"What? This couldn't be. Maybe it fell from the tree in presence of some other God who came here before us. Please check again just to be sure." Lady Gaea started making certain assumptions in order to sort out the problem.

"But we all have stopped any god from coming near the tree of life for an entire week during the harvest. It's impossible for any god to come here today because of the barrier put by the World God himself." Lord Brahma raised his hand like a lawyer and looked at the Almighty World God who was soon going to make a decision like a judge.

"Unless it's a human. Gaea may I ask who is that girl lying under the tree of life."

At this point of time, all the four gods were midway on the bridge and they could see the whole landscape from there.

Lady Gaea gaze fell upon a frail looking beautiful girl reading a book under the shadow of the tree of life.

"Isn't she the beneficiary of Athena! Why is she here? Do you think she might know something about the fruit or who may have took it." Lady Gaea had already recognized the identity of the human and started walking in the direction where the girl was resting.

The other Gods started following in her footsteps in order to get some answers.

The girl had already noticed us approaching her, she stood at her position and started walking towards us with a smile but for some reason she stopped and started to look here and there with a confused and sad expression on her face. Did she confuse us with someone? Could it be that she was waiting for someone?

"What is your name human? Please explain the purpose of your visit?" Lord Brahma directly started interrogating the young, innocent girl with charming looks in his guttural high-pitched tone.

From the expression of the girl it looks like she was afraid of us and uncomfortable around strangers. She kept looking down at the green grass, sliding her leg in order to not crush any flower under her feet and then looked back at us again. In her brittle yet sweet and lovely speech she finally made up her mind to speak.

"I am Sachi Kondo. … Ummm… So…. I was actually waiting for Goddess Athena here since we planned yesterday to meet under this tree." She again started looking at her feet and the ground in between raising her eyebrows and straining her eyes to see our face and what we were doing.

"How long have you been here? Did you see any else besides us." this time it was Lady Gaea.

"Umm.. No… I don't think I saw anyone else around here and it has almost been an hour I have come here."

All the other gods were too confused to ask at the pace at which our conversation was going. The fruit of the tree of life was missing and a human trespassing on its ground during its ripening time. So without wasting time I directly asked,

"Did you see an apple around this part?"

The girl got a little worried and horrified at this question. Did she know something about the apple? If yes then what?

"An apple fell from above over me, and since I was hungry I ate it. I thought no one would mind since there was no caretaker around here."

All the other three gods gasped at this statement and started pulling their hairs or come up with more questions.

I needed to act quickly to calm thing down, so I used my divine powers to see the soul core of this girl but it was just a small flicker of light in a large dark place. I felt something wrong, like an interference, I concentrated all my divine powers in my eyes and used them to further analyse her soul realm.

It was a huge dark pitch black pit, a chasm for which even darkness was no match. It seemed I was falling into the abyss itself. For the first time something had caught me by surprise. I used the divine system and break free from this unexpectedly strong barrier protection and used my 'All seeing Eyes' to probe further into her soul realm. This time I had broke the barrier which appears to be have been put up by some skilled God themself.

CRACK.

CRACK.

Golden yellow light filled the entire soul realm and my eyes were dazzled and robbed of its sight. The intensity of this light was so bright that even after using all of my powers I had to strain and focus my eyes to look for the soul core. I felt a familiar sensation and belonging of this high-end energy, it was similar to my own divinity. This strong feeling, there is no doubt about it her soul power shares the same origin as mine that is with the divine system itself. Could she be....

I finally found it, high above the position where I was floating. To my horror, the unexpected had come true; the apple of the tree of life was fusing with this girl's soul core. How is this even possible? How could a mortal attain such a feat which is even impossible for gods?

I had to calm myself and take care of other gods. I don't know whether to call this accident unfortunate or fortunate or it was just fated?

"I see. You don't need to worry yourself anymore. We will be taking our leave." Before any other gods could raise further questions, I raised my staff and teleported ourselves to my office. What a pain? Now I have to work on explaining the situation to these gods? Life sure is tough for me.

"Could she be lying to us?" Demeter made a quick judgement.

"Of course not. She was saying the truth. We gods can sense when a mortal is lying or not." Lord Brahma quickly disregarded her conclusion.

"Maybe she mistook it for some other fruit and ate something else instead." This time it was Lady Gaea. All the three gods then looked at the person who had out of the blue transported them from the crime scene.

Sometimes getting so much attention in old age is not good for health.

"It seems that this time the tree of life has shockingly chosen a mortal as the consumer of its fruit. I confirmed it with my own eyes."

"But how can a mortal even survive after eating the fruit. Also she had almost negligible soul power. Why the tree of life would chose a weak human like her in the first place." Lord Brahma raised a question which I was going to answer anyway.

"That flicker of soul power is but a veil on the top. In actual, she possesses more soul power than a new evolved god of upper echelon. At present, the apple of tree of life is fusing with her soul core on its own."

"Even if she ate the apple, the higher gods cannot survive the backlash and strain of the chaotic energy that the fruit puts on the body. But she appears to be totally fine."

"What do you mean by the barrier you mentioned?"

It seems that there is no running away. I need to give a complete explanation.

"This barrier which I am talking about appears to be put on her by a god with sub-administrative rights. That is why no other gods were able to pinpoint her high affinity for divinity and life energy. For the first time it seems that the tree of life has chosen a human as a bearer of its fruit."

"But your liege, why the girl is in good health? Wouldn't the chaotic energy of the fruit would have killed her since she consumed it just after its ripening."

"It seems that the girl is actually a descendant of the god in question who has put the barrier in the first place. Even though the girl has no Ichors' blood, but her soul power has the same origin as mine and it will keep on growing."

"But how can someone's soul power still grow and that also speaking of a human. You just said that even being a descendant of a god she does not possess your blood and she is still a mortal."

"There have been several cases where a descendant of a god in mortal realm was born with exceptional capabilities and sometimes even with god's blood. But in her case, she has none. Even at present her tremendous soul power is sealed and even I would need to take action through the divine system to break such a powerful seal. I wonder whose daughter could she really be?"

At this point I stopped and thought of the abyss I saw in her soul realm and couldn't help but wonder what the future holds for her.

"After seeing her soul realm with my own eyes, I think, no I am sure that is the very reason the tree of life choose her. Her soul state is a deep dark abyss. One could describe it as the Nothingness – the source of all creation and the sink of destruction. Poor girl, I don't know what hardships she had suffered in her previous life, and yet she looked so cheerful reading that book."

"I have never heard of such a thing."

"Listen Gaea, our soul state is the direct resemblance to the life we have lived to this day. Happiness, anger, hate, jealousy, confusion, sadness and especially fear all of these emotions together construct the soul state. Her soul state is the abyss itself where even light may lose its way, which gives her the attribute of absorbing high amount of this chaotic life energy, and that is the reason she was able to consume the apple without any problem."

"World God, I don't understand. You just called her a descendant of a sub-administrative god and also possessing soul power of your origin. So if she consumes the apple she is absorbing the divinity and black miasma at the same time. We all know that these two forces contradict each other and if merged together can only cause destruction. Her very being of existence is questionable at this point."

I took a long deep breath, ah! The question I was waiting to answer. Good job Brahma.

"The origin of this world and the divine system was the desire and my will in the huge expanse of the nothingness. Nothingness itself accepts all and provides all. At present the girl is young and the hardships she had suffered in mortal realm had taken the shape of nothingness a unique attribute a totally new essence of being in itself. For now it doesn't matter whether she absorb divine light or black miasma, they won't interact unless until she forces it to do or absorb each of them in massive quantities. I would have never thought that such a special being could exist. But even this unique ability is a curse and blessing at the same time. Whether she will let herself be consumed by her own netherworld or will her fate be determined by her resolve and the choices she make in the future? Only she can decide it for herself whether it is life or death that waits at the end of her journey."

"We understand your liege. But we are confused by the present circumstances and do not know how to respond." Lord Brahma, Lady Gaea and Demeter had the same thoughts now after listening to my explanation. I sure am good at knowing everything. I am the World God after all.

"Ahem… at this very moment we have to wait and observe that girl since she is innocent and does not know the current unfortunate scenario she has put herself in. You are not to share any information with anyone and not even Athena who is the partner of that girl. I will later try to explain her myself. As for the public information spread the news that I will be taking care of the fruit of the Tree of Life. You may leave now."

"As you say you're Almighty." The three said in unison and then vanished into thin air.

I sat on my golden four – legged chair and looked up at the ceiling of my office and wondered what the future holds for the mortal, divine and hell & where the reincarnates are going to fit among them.

After some time I clapped twice and an angel appeared from the front door.

He bowed before me and then silently raised his head waiting for further instructions.

"You have been put in charge of the children from mortal realm. What is the name of the girl who is under Athena's contract?"

"Sachi Kondo is the name of the girl, my Lord."

"I see. I want all the information regarding her life and her family lineage from the mortal realm."

"As you command."

The angel had already left the room while I still thought about the tremendous amount of soul power that could overwhelm even my own eye sight. I sure am getting old.

***

SACHI KONDO

It's already noon and Lady Athena had not shown up yet. I felt a little sad. Not because Lady Athena did not keep her promise, she must have got held up in some serious task that she cannot leave or the other gods were giving her a hard time. I was sad because I could not show her the magic I learnt from the book that she recommended me.

I decided to pack my stuff which included a book, some hair clips and a long white handkerchief and headed back to my room.

[TELEPORT]

Yes! You heard me right. I had been just now reading about teleportation magic. Though a proper explanation was missing and most parts I could not understand related to God's specialty and their legend stuff and all. So I came up with my own explanation.

From by far what I have seen till the moment I can concentrate, visualize and understand the very mechanism and its working in the world, the spell will work perfectly fine.

For teleportation if I have the specific coordinates or image of the target destination and present location in my mind, then I just have to imagine of bending of space and connecting it through a tunnel in another dimension to keep all my body parts at one place otherwise it may get scattered in the process. Scary stuff!

But...

"Yeah! I finally did it. It worked I did not die in my first attempt."

But what the hell, for some reason I was standing in my bathtub and not the bedroom. If I did this blunder on earth then instead of landing on the road I might fall in an open ditch. That would be much scarier than getting only half of your body parts transported. I wonder how many of you would agree with me.

Since I was standing in the bathtub I thought to take a bath after lying on the grass and reading book for more than four hours. I always had loved reading books and magic makes it even more interesting. I took off my clothes and saw my revitalized much younger and fresh body due to the divine healing spell I used this morning. I created cool water from magic again and took a deep dive. After coming out of the bathtub I dried myself by controlling the wind in a swirling fashionable way. Just by coming in contact with it tickles my skin.

I was enjoying whatever I did, but still it felt empty without Lady Athena. I just wanted to share my every happiness with her and also be a part in her own.

I changed into light clothes because it was now magic practice time.

I took a comfortable spot in the centre of the bed and opened the magic book in front of me. Theory and practice goes hand in hand, magic is just like phenomenal changing science by introducing a new source of energy called 'magic points', which determined the capacity of a person to use magic. At present I cannot measure my magic points, its simple because I don't know how its done. Maybe I have to ask Lady Athena.

At present I can conjure water, control temperature (something which I took up naturally by preparing bathwater at different temperature), separate gases in air at elemental level and collect them, conjure fire, use divine healing magic and finally I had learned teleportation magic which is a part of space attribute.

I wonder what I should try to learn now. The next chapter talks about solid construction in space. Forging is not my thing since beating iron hammer to make iron near a hot kiln is something which every woman should avoid. But if I can make metals and reconstruct shape of the conjured metal or the existing matter nearby, it sounds as a handy thing to do, especially in field of craft-making.

So I decide to move at the pace of book and immersed myself into this new field of magic. Solids can be represented by compact and symmetrical arrangement of atoms and molecules in crystal shape or rather a lattice construct. A specific amount of energy is needed to maintain this lattice arrangement which can be supplied by our own magic. By analyzing the previous arrangement and modifying it by our own needs is done simply by keeping the image of final configuration in mind and reconfigure the spatial arrangement of atoms. So I first took a metal plate from the kitchen. I hope no one scolds me like in the morning for the apple if I end up destroying this plate. It is clearly for experimental and self-growth purposes only.

First I levitated the plate using wind magic and keep its position steady for precise reading. Even though the plate is circular, I thought of rolling it into a cylinder. If someone tried it by doing it by applying pure strength then the plate will obviously break and the experiment will fail. But by using magic I just needed to change the position of molecule and form a new lattice crystal with new stabilized energy parameters. It was tough, because just by changing position of one molecule or a part of lattice brings a huge change in the overall structure, but with time I was able to form a cylinder. To make the process faster and remember the details I tried forming several shapes like square, cone, cube and most difficult of all a sphere.

When I made a 3-D object cube an idea flashed in my mind of making bombs.

"HAAHAHAHA." Finally something I can use in combat. Do I sound like an evil scientist now.

It was simple I can just separate hydrogen and oxygen from air and then store them in cubes. Just by raising the temperature of cubes I can create blasts of flame.

EXPLOSION!!

Just the thought of it makes me crazy. Depending on the density of the gas, the greater the concentration of gas the bigger and impactful will be the blast.

So I brought six each white and red plates from the kitchen, because that were the only available colours.

Then I separated huge volumes of oxygen and hydrogen in different spheres of nitrogen envelope. I started forming dice out of plates and before closing one of the sides I transferred the gas in the cube with full precaution and then sealed it making sure there is no leakage.

Wouldn't want the bomb blast happen in the user's hand, now do I.

While the white colour is for hydrogen the red colour is for oxygen gas.

I decide to make cubes with different densities and see which one was more powerful. For marking system I decided upon the dots on the cubes. The greater the number of dots the more the density of gas and more the punch it packs. The measuring system varied from one black dot to six dots which I made with the help of a marker kept on my shelf. I wonder if they did not give us any paper material, then what the use of the marker was to begin with.

Finally my mini bombs are ready and I have named my creation as 'cubicles'.

But then the biggest problem was testing, I needed an open area, because I did not want my room to be destroyed. Even though it is small but it is much better than the one I used to live in. Maybe I should just drop it from the window and pretend I didn't do it. But someone might get hurt so I dropped the idea itself. I said to myself 'later' and then moved to the next magic spell.

I needed to try teleportation for not only myself but on target objects. I needed this type of spell in order to implant my cubicles at right place in enemy's territory without going there myself. So I took a glass for this training exercise and placed it in front of me. My goal was to transport it from bed to 10 meter away on the table. For the first instance I had to bend and connect the present location and final destination via inter-dimensional tunneling and provide it with momentum using my magical energy. At first instant nothing happened, but I am sure I was not doing anything wrong. I tried to concentrate more and channel more of my magical energy or rather say perceive the phenomena that was going to take place and it worked. It was a total success the glass was teleported to the table. Then I practiced it with the cubicles several times. For places that were in my area of sight were easy to teleport while I have to focus more while teleporting them to blind spots like under the bed or behind the drawer. What if I am able to teleport them inside someone's body and then blast them. A wave of chill passed through my body making it numb and I shivered at the very thought because this was possible to do now since I have magic. But to do this I needed thorough knowledge of human's anatomy or the monster's anatomy so it was still lacking at some prospects.

The last and final magic which I was going to train myself was storage magic. I have already read the theory part of this magic when I was lying under the tree. Storage magic is the handiest magic in my viewpoint but the toughest to perform. Storage magic depends on what kind of environment one perceives while transferring an object to your storage space. Also I have read that storage magic vastly depends on your soul power and is also connected to your soul realm.

There are three types of storage magic and it is decided by birth which one you will be able to use. The most basic type is the one which can store only inorganic inanimate objects with limited numbers. In the second intermediate type you can store both organic (fruits, vegetables, corpses etc.) and inorganic substance with still limited numbers of objects. But the time inside such a space is still in motion and so the organic stuff may rot after sometime.

The third and the most advanced type storage magic is in which you can store both organic (except living) and inorganic inanimate objects with infinite numbers and no restriction. Also the time is at standby inside such a storage dimension and so the organic matter will not decay by time. One more impressive feature is that you can connect it to other places like your room and even extract item from there.

I wanted the third advanced type storage magic the most because this way I can store food and later eat it while it is still hot. Also there is no restriction to its uses.

To summon this kind of spatial magic one has to first channel the magic power into one's body and while maintaining a constant flow then try to find the soul core and then connect the soul state to a different dimension I created by magic. This will complete the formation of the storage magic. The type of storage magic we obtain depends upon the soul power I possess; the more I possess the better.

I just couldn't wait to do it, even though I had no idea what a soul core is exactly I will figure something out during the process after all I have been able to perform all the magic all on my own and so I was much more confident in my skills now. Maybe I have still have got a shot in helping Lady Athena to save the world if I work diligently and give my best.

So I took all of my cubes and decided to put them in my storage, whichever I get, since I do not want to walk around with grenades in my hand. I tried to channel magic energy throughout my body with ease since trying out different kinds of magic had made me very sensitive to its control and sense. I circulated the magic energy around my body first and then brought it to the centre of core, that's when I felt a warm feeling of a bright reddish-yellow flame. A very small flame was burning in a very large, boundless dark space. 'Is this my soul core? What a disappointment maybe I was hoping too much from myself. It is the ultimate truth that I am weak after all.'

For some reason this dark dimension felt both ominous and peaceful at the same time. Like it harbored malice and good will at the same time. The coldness of the dark and the warmth of the light coexisted at the same place.

Maybe I am thinking too much so 'later' I guess.

I opened my eyes and I could see a dark black hole in front of me. Was the storage magic implantation procedure successful? But I was just too surprised because the nature and the magic circle that surrounded this black hole storage space didn't match any of the three described in the book.

So for trial I threw all my cubicles in the black hole and waited. After that I canceled my spell. I walked away from my bed and went to the basin to wash my face. Then I teleported a glass in my hand and conjured water in it and drank. I needed to keep practicing magic even in real time during day to day activities to make a solid mental image of each and every process. Then I went back to the room and used the storage spell again.

[STORAGE]

The dark black hole appeared and I was able to pull out all the cubicles back intact. There was not a single scratch or damage to the items. I was glad but at the same time worried because I couldn't identify the type of storage spell I was using. I couldn't recognize the magic circle which surrounded the black hole in the first place. It was not even available in the magic book. So I threw back the cubicles in the storage area and then tried to take a peek inside the storage dimension myself.

Before I could move my eyes around to get a full view, a wave of black fluid darker than the black hole itself and a stream of light brighter than the sun merged together and hit me directly. I was thrown a meter back and landed on the rear of my bed. All my magic energy was gone as if it was absorbed by the black hole in an instant. Slowly everything blackened before my eyes and my eye lids shut down. I fell unconscious…

***

THE WORLD GOD'S OFFICE

"I can't believe this? She is actually your descendant, Urza." I slowly kept the papers on the table and with excitement banged on the desk and started laughing.

Urza one of the most powerful sub administrative god and the goddess of thunder and sword. Her magic, her soul power, strength and sword skills both were unrivaled in all the three realms. She even participated in the Holy Crusade on Isleguard and after winning each battle with overwhelming strength; she resigned from her duties and went in search for a peaceful life.

After the massacre she caused in the war she was upset to see only the losses of lives on both the sides. The future for which she fought never dawned on the land after the war. The humans were greedy after all and plundered the lands to amass their wealth and resources and twisted the facts for the benefits of a few and ignored the masses.

Now a clear picture is available to me about her origins and the seal on her soul core.

So Urza must have went on earth and fell in love with a human. Since her next generation did not have god's blood neither high soul power, she was glad because her children could live a normal life. She then left the planet after her husband's death. But after the next to next generation when Sachi was born she must have experienced a sudden surge in her soul power responding to her own blood. She must have come back to earth to search for her kin.

After finding out she possessed such tremendous amount of soul power and very high affinity to life energy at the same time, she made a tough decision. In order to keep her safe from the curious eyes of the gods and the denizen of hell who are attracted to high soul power signatures she placed a two layered seal on her soul realm. This seal could be temporarily broken in case of emergencies as a safety measurement or either permanently removed by two keys. I wonder what they are.

Even after all her meticulous planning her daughter is now in heaven, consumed the apple of tree of life and will now reincarnate into the same world and may be a part of a new bloodshed.

Sacrifices are necessary when you want to establish peace.

To create something new you must destroy the previous completely, or otherwise things will revert back to its previous worst self.

World God looked back at the pages which depicted a beautiful yet sad face of a girl's photo and a titled report on Sachi Kondo.

What a poor girl, in all her life she was alone, lost her parents at a very young age, guardians who just wanted to leech off her property and assets and surrounded by others who have been so cold and cruel to her. Even in her last moments she was being bullied by her own classmates. Both life and fate have been not kind to her and even now the case remains the same.

It must have been really hard for her to even stay strong in that type of ignorant environment and still grow as a kind and gentle young lady.

Maybe I should try talking to her because after learning that she is my granddaughter I can't help it but worry. I at least need to look into the matter and maybe help a bit in her growth. It doesn't matter whether she has my blood or not but she is Urza's child so she too must be worried. After all the most fearsome warriors are the best worriers of their families.

But I couldn't help but wonder that the girl looked much happier today than she was on earth or in the General Assembly. Is it because of Athena's influence? Maybe I don't need to worry much after all. They are totally compatible with each other. Sharing similar backgrounds they surely understand the pain of each other and suffering of not being loved or not needed in this cruel hierarchical ambiguous society where pure strength is considered everything, while the weaker are always looked down upon and used for their own gains.

***

GODDESS FREYA'S ROOM

A round table was surrounded by ten chairs and a map of the Barbara Forest of Mount Olympus was spread on the table. Starting from left there was Goddess Freya, Homura Kenta, Hiori Takatori, Goddess Artemis, Yumiko Furata, Goddess Aphrodite, Sakura Kendo, Goddess Astarea, Tama Donjo and Goddess Ova surrounded the table and are discussing about the location of the ambush. It surely was a round table conference; the only difference was instead of having peace-talks these individuals were planning to hurt someone.

"Is the beast prepared Artemis?" Lady Freya held a cup of tea in her hand and looked at Artemis who was smiling.

"Don't worry, today at night I will feed it the pills which will make it go berserk and make it crave for blood. I will cut down the chains and send it towards the Barbara forest." Artemis was now holding a bottle filled with red cylindrical pills cap-shaped at its ends.

"Tama you will send that girl to the choosen location. She will work as bait to lure Athena out who has closed herself in her room. After behaving all high and mighty and showing such rude behavior to us, we cannot leave her in peace. I will draw some magic circle to put up a barrier which will stop them from teleporting from the forest." Lady Astarea was now using a small knife and trying to chisel something on pink crystal stones. Are these the so called magic stones!

"I will use my birds to implant these magic stones all around the forest. They will be trapped like insects. HAAHAHA." Goddess Ova just couldn't stop laughing to think of the fates of those insects being trapped and then ultimately crushed.

"But isn't this going too far. They might get badly injured and not able to participate in the reincarnation ceremony. This can jeopardize or delay the ceremony. If we got caught, then maybe we can even lose our chance." Homura Kenta put forward his concerns. He was not worried about the two going to-be victims but about his own safety. A pip squeak who can only think about himself.

"Kenta don't worry, they won't delay such an important ceremony for a weakling and a non-combat goddess. They don't have what it takes to survive in the world even by a long shot. As for the injury the more the better. Its better that both end up getting killed. The poor girl won't mind since she has already died once and we already know that dead people don't speak. So we will be fine." Freya once again went through the whole plan and sealed the fate of Sachi Kondo and Goddess Athena.

What are the chances of their survival in front of a fierce blood-thirsty adversary!

***