Chapter 73
Darkness Fallen (3)
“Goddess?”
Ryu Han-bin nodded when he saw the bewildered Artis.
“That’s what the Guideline’s saying.”
When he saw the fallen woman, Effir began to slur.
“Her sudden appearance is unusual…”
However, it wasn’t a miracle that should be shown by a divine being.
There were so many fascinating magic spells in the world that they thought the Guideline mistook someone falling from the sky as a Goddess.
Artis was skeptical.
“Do you think Han-bin will get a similar result if I fly him up high into the sky then drop him?”
“Hey, I’m a human being. I’ll die if I…”
Han-bin stopped in the middle of his protest.
“Maybe not… Huh?”
If he used his defense, Armor Aura, and his magical shield, he might not die even if he fell from the sky.
“Is there another error? That’s a broken item.”
“There’s never been an error like this.”
The errors the Guideline had shown so far had all been information-crushing.
It never delivered the wrong information.
But it was hard to believe she was a real Goddess.
“I wanted to meet the Goddesses, and she fell from the sky? This is weird, isn’t it?”
“It’s very strange.”
Indeed, there had never been a time when the Guideline delivered the wrong information.
“When I first turned on the Guideline, it said it could drink water though it couldn’t.”
It was so old that he forgot about it.
“Is it just an error?”
Then.
“Uhh…”
The woman opened her eyes with a faint groan.
Her dark eyes were like the night sky. They elegantly reflected the appearance of Han-bin and his party.
Effir spoke carefully.
“… Excuse me, are you all right?”
The black-haired beauty stood up.
She calmly dusted off her dress and alternated between Artis and Effir with calm eyes.
She then spoke out of the blue.
“… Dragon, Wyvern.”
Both were stunned.
They were in their human forms.
Yet, she immediately discovered their true identities.
The woman’s eyes turned to Ryu Han-bin.
“Then you must be an Earthling.”
Surprised, Han-bin stepped back.
He asked with blatant vigilance.
“You… who are you?”
The woman gave a strange smile.
It was as if she already expected that question.
“Well, it would only be proper to introduce myself first.”
Looking up at the giant Ryu Han-bin, she put her delicate hand on her chest.
“I am Kybriel, this world’s Goddess of Darkness.”
* * *
Six Goddesses protected Latna: Althea of Light, Kybriel of Darkness, Yessen of Fire, Rhamniana of Water, Sorondi of Land, Preleu of Wind.
She had just claimed to be one of those six Goddesses who controlled everything in the world.
Of course, Han-bin and his party were suspicious of her.
She had no sense of divinity at all.
No sacredness, no transcendental energy could be felt.
“I understand that you can’t believe it.”
The beauty gave them a wry, bitter smile.
“A woman suddenly shows up out of nowhere them claims to be a Goddess. Everyone has every right to think that I’m crazy.”
She then stared at Ryu Han-bin, Artis, and Effir in turn.
“But there must be another part that you can’t ignore.”
She was right.
Han-bin’s Guideline was still showing her status.
[Race: Goddess. Lv. Unknown.]
She claimed that she was a Goddess, but it was hard to believe it.
Well, there was a question of whether a Goddess could be considered a race, but it was just a matter of choice.
Artis and Effir felt a little convinced.
‘If you knew who we were at first sight…’
‘No way…’
Not even measurement stones could discover the real identities of Latna’s Dragon race in human form. Even the Guideline couldn’t do that.
The Four Great Powers of Latna and the power of the Devil could not grasp their true nature.
There was only one possibility.
According to legends, the six Goddesses had created Latna and six intelligent bodies.
Althea of Light created humans.
Kybriel of Darkness created the Dragon race.
Yessen of Fire created the Dwarves, and Rhamniana of Water created Nymph. Sorondi of Land made Elves, and Preleu of Wind created Sylphs.
If the woman in front of them was indeed Kybriel, it was no wonder she had recognized the nature of Artis and Effir.
She was the creator of their race!
‘Are you Kybriel?’
‘But she’s just a human being, no matter how I look at her.’
Frustrated, Artis and Effir looked at Ryu Han-bin and the beauty with black hair.
They couldn’t decide what to do.
Han-bin decided to reserve his judgment for now.
The priority was to grasp the situation first.
He looked down at the beauty with a serious expression.
“You’re a Goddess? Kybriel of Darkness?”
“Yes.”
“First, suppose you’re a real Goddess…”
If she were a Goddess, it would be quite a blunt way of speaking, but the woman didn’t get angry.
She seemed to understand fully.
“May I ask you why a Goddess has made such a bizarre appearance?”
The beautiful woman grinned.
“I was waiting for that question.”
* * *
The sacred sanctuary of Darkness.
The voice of a mortal touched the place that existed between dimensions.
“Goddess, your children ask for an audience!”
Many Humans, Dragons, and Elves prayed to the Goddesses.
But their prayers never came true.
Responding to every prayer was an act that would break the balance of the world. A true guardian of Latna could not do such a foolish thing.
But that prayer was different.
It was the request of the secular world’s guardians, who were blessed by the Goddesses, and those who protected the world from the Devil Omphalos.
It was Hollien
Arc Mage Genovia.
Thunder King Garhan.
They were eligible.
Kybriel accepted their request.
“My children, why have you visited the Darkness?”
* * *
“And I was stabbed.”
The woman spoke bluntly.
Effir was confused.
“What?”
“I got stabbed. They just stabbed me for a second.”
Han-bin and his party were dumbfounded.
‘How should I say it? For a Goddess, she feels too human.’
Kybriel shrugged her shoulders.
“I had no idea.”
Artis asked suspiciously.
“How could that happen? If you were a Goddess, you would know everything.”
She nodded, saying it was an understandable question.
“Yeah, the Goddesses can see everything in Latna.”
In other words, the Goddesses couldn’t even look at anything unless she was from Latna.
“They were using the force of the Omphalos. They used Alien power that does not belong to Latna.”
She didn’t detect any conspiracy or hostility.
The demon’s power was to conceal all their true intentions and leave behind only their faith in the Goddess.
The three of Latna’s strongest beings had prepared the most powerful surprise attack.
It certainly penetrated Kybriel’s heart.
At that moment, as a Goddess, she had died and was robbed of her divinity.
“But my existence has not completely disappeared because their abilities were not perfect.”
She still had a glimmer of hope.
Using the loophole, she had managed to avoid the worst.
“They took away my divinity, but…”
They couldn’t seal her knowledge and wisdom as a Goddess.
It was like conquering a nuclear missile base but losing the launch codes.
“In return, I lost my omniscience and became a mortal. But it’s a good thing she stopped them from abusing the power of Goddess.”
With a sigh, Kybriel continued.
“Since then, I have taken my place by making incarnations with my personality. And I found a way to solve the problem.”
At first, she had tried to call out to the other Goddesses.
But she soon realized that it was impossible.
The balance of the six Goddesses was broken when Kybriel of Darkness lost her divinity.
To focus on regaining the balance, the Goddesses no longer influenced the material world.
Her next option was to borrow the power of the Goddesses’ creatures.
“It’s not a problem that I can easily solve.”
Those three beings were the rulers of the world.
Many humans, Dragons, and Elves were under their control.
That was why no one, not even the priests of the Kybriel Church, could be trusted.
“Moreover, I’m just an ordinary human being now after losing my divinity. Who would believe I’m the Goddess of Darkness?”
She needed someone who could trust her.
Fortunately, there was one such person.
He was Latna’s strongest Swordsman in name and reality, equipped with outstanding power. He’s among the four blessed by the Goddesses.
The Sword King, Baotolt.
“But I couldn’t find his location.”
Baotolt was still staying deep in Kaltan, the Great Maze, enjoying his old age and hunting down the highest-ranking monsters.
The problem was that the Maze, Kaltan, was also part of Omphalos.
That Dungeon did not belong to Latna. The power of the Goddesses couldn’t detect it.
Frustrated, Kybriel scraped all the omniscience power she had left and found the answer.
-Which of the intelligent bodies in Latna currently has the best reason to believe, trust and help me while also having the highest probability of solving my problem?
“I followed the answer and came here.”
After the explanation, Kybriel gazed at Ryu Han-bin’s eyes.
She was no longer a Goddess.
The remaining knowledge and wisdom of the Goddess were wasted to find the man in front of her.
She became a weak and ignorant mortal.
She had to ask what she didn’t know as a human being.
“Can I ask your name, Earthling, who is beyond the control of Omphalos?”
* * *
Ryu Han-bin was in agony.
First of all, the story made sense.
‘Maybe she’s a real Goddess…’
She had found the identity of Han-bin, Artis, and Effir immediately.
Of course, she might’ve found their identities out by chance, but…
‘There’s the message from the Guideline.’
No matter how good she was at deception, she could never hope to manipulate the Guideline.
‘There’s no doubt about it at this point.’
However, Han-bin did not rush.
“If you are a Goddess, I want to ask you something.”
He secretly gave her a final exam.
“My wish, is it possible to achieve?”
He didn’t say what the wish was on purpose.
If that woman was the Goddess of Darkness, she should’ve already known it.
Otherwise, he could not have been judged to be a reliable Earthling.
She answered calmly.
“Boring holes through space and time would break the balance of the world. It’s not something that we should do. If it were easy, Aliens and Dungeons would already have been sent back.”
She looked at Ryu Han-bin.
“But I can grant you your wish if I regain my divinity.”
Han-bin had given up his doubts.
There was no reason to distrust her anymore.
He answered her query politely.
“My name is Ryu Han-bin, and in this world, I use the pseudonym Felard Bean, Goddess.”
Kybriel grinned.
“Help me, Ryu Han-bin. Then I will send you back to Earth.”