Chapter 293 RIP ghosts and gods
[Hela accepts your sacrifice, calling it one of the best gifts she received in the past some time now.]
[Loki asks you to find a toy for him too. He's afraid Hela will break this one before he gets his hands on it.]
[Hela scoffs at her father, and asks you to ignore him.]
[She's feeling happy enough to give you a fancy item - Shroud of Shadows.]
[Shroud of shadows - wearing it the user's body get cloaked in shadows. Turning him invisible to naked eyes. The cloak has an infusing aura of dread that attracts ethereal forms and ghostly beings. Draining their life force and vitality slowly over time for the user's growth.]
"An artifact that is only useful when I'm in graveyards or dead houses. (chuckles) Perfect."
[She fucking turned you into a magnet for ghosts, host. (laughs)]
'This bastard of a trickster dad is turning her into a miser too. I'm sure he's the one who came up with this gift' Rio said his gratitude with a smile while cursing both of these stingy gods in his heart.
[Well at least they agreed to get you the 3 skills and arts you wanted.] System said reminding him at least he'll get something good out of this whole fiasco.
The three best arts of that old grandpa that he asked him to show and recorded with the system's help. Hela agreed to let Francius hand those techniques over first, before she starts her real torture and timepass.
[Francius is gonna be in one hell of a journey in their hands.] Even the system said with some pity for the poor old soul.
Died by betrayal of his close friend and disciple and then woke up seven centuries later, just to be sacrificed to the keeper of souls and ruler of Niflheim.
There are many enemies of this old man even in God realm and other tower ranking demons, so Hela and Loki can even sell him to them once they're done playing with him and get bored.
But considering how cruel and creative these two can be with their methods, those enemies of Francius would just have to make do with killing this guy for real.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'And in return for all those secrets, deals and gifts these two will receive, they gave me just a freaking cloak. No gifts for them next time.'
Rio said and praised Nyx in his heart, that at least she was above all these tricks.
While Rio was chilling and counting his points, he received a video call from Riley, which showed him the footage of the auction which was on its ending stage.
Rio watched as the lady in red introduced a new artifact called a Thief's Quiver, which can steal other people's arrows if they're standing in the user's vision.
Useful in a fair fight against bow and arrow users but otherwise not so much. What was interesting about it though, was the bonus effect it had. A 10% chance to steal even the enchanted arrows.
Imagine using your enemy's most op skills and reliance against themselves. What a show.
The bidding started as many of the VIP rooms wanted to get it, but a voice echoed in the hall which silenced everything.
"20 million coins."
The price went beyond what the artifact was actually worth and soon the VIP's gave up too.
[It's her, host.]
"How much time until squad Zero takes action?" Rio ignored the system and asked Riley instead.
"Auction is about to end, so they should be starting soon." The voice of Riley came as the screen in projection showed a few red dots which showed the positions of his members.
The Zero squad was something Eclipse had formed on Rio's order, entirely filled with mad fanatics, who loved carnage and chaos. Each a past criminal controlled by various methods and then turned into a mindless bot under Cersei and Nirdayi's training.
They'll follow whatever orders Eclipse gave them without any questions. Just like a certain Suicide Squad in some comic books he read back on earth.
But Rio mostly planned to use them as suicide bombers or terrorists.
Much like today.
When he learned Alfred was attending this auction, he already planned to blow him up. Not killing him, since that's not possible for now. Just give him a scar or two to remember this day.
After all, that bastard did make him spend quite a lot of money on trashy things.
"That's their signal." Riley said as she noticed the red dots moving in the auction, stopping themselves in a fixed pattern throughout the crowd for the maximum impact to what's about to happen.
[You sure you wanna do this even now? She doesn't have the protection of Gaia anymore. She might suffer.]
System said and Rio just closed his eyes, remembering the conversation he had with the system, regarding the changes found in Saisha after her scans at the VR.
The most notable change of which might just throw the entire world into chaos if let out.
Gaia was gone.
An overpowered primordial goddess who possessed enough vitality and strength to survive even the war of gods and fight head to head against the leviathan army and the godkiller Myorbaksh.
That Gaia is now gone.
Thrown into a state of weakness that pushed her to fall into God's rest/slumber that might last for dozens of years, if not for an entire century.
And the worst of it, no one knows how, when, or why it happened.
If not for her nature of not caring about the mortal world and not interfering in any event, everyone might've already known about it.
For them Gaia is just being Gaia, looking down on their games and minding her own business - raising animals or building a garden somewhere.
But according to the system, she's been in deep sleep for years now.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAnd unless Rio can find and see her sleeping body for himself, even the system can't be sure as to when she'll wake up again.
Without the support of Gaia, her blessings, guidance and occasional help - there's no guarantee Saisha can survive the elven plotlines to come in the near future.
[Look, we can beat Alfred and others with a million methods, but Saisha is there too. If anything happened to her, and no one saw Gaia making a move about it, someone would start doubting. And things might get even more complicated later on.]
System was right. If one thing other than Gaia's disdain to everything, that gods knew - that was that she doted on all her chosen avatars like they were her own flesh and blood.
And Saisha was even a more special case as according to rumors, Gaia chose her directly as an avatar on the same day as her awakening.
"It's too late now." Rio said and shook his head.
'Fuckkkkkk' Rio felt a headache incoming just thinking about all these changes and their consequences.
This is why he didn't want to mess with any gods. Hell he could kill Cassandra, Skuld and many other non-famous gods easily. But he chose not to, as their consequences would be too much to handle.
[Then at least tell them to avoid her or something.]
"That'll only arouse more suspicion and theories, when Sentinels take over the case. The last thing we need is more suspicion and investigations around Saisha."
"Plus Eclipse can't be partial. Not when we're planning to put the blame for it on someone else's head."
Rio sighed and shook his head. There was no need to think more.
"She's a princess, she should have enough treasures to survive everything those guys from zero squads throw at her." Rio said in goodwill to calm the system and himself too.
[...] (Silence)
"Why the hell did she even go there?" Rio cursed as he remembered the plotline "She's supposed to be feeling hurt over losing first rank in virtual test and training like a maniac now, according to the ,"
[Cause she's not Saisha. And she lost to You.]
"..." (Silence)