Chapter 563: The Crown
Chapter 563: The Crown
Sitting atop the huge bed, Roel stared at the guilt-ridden Mother Goddess in disbelief.
It was not an exaggeration to say that Origin Attributes were the foundation of most lifeforms on the Sia Continent. Without an Origin Attribute to guide one’s evolution, those who absorbed mana faced a high risk of suffering from deformity and even insanity.
In fact, that was the fate that had befallen the demonic beasts that refused to adopt an Origin Attribute. While they did become strong, their bodies also grew deformed and most of them lost their rationality.
For that reason, Origin Attributes were viewed as the foundation for a transcendent’s growth in the current age.
Possessing an Origin Attribute was mostly beneficial to a transcendent, and Roel had always thought that the Crown Origin Attribute was the key behind his great strength and swift growth. Yet, the truth revealed by the Mother Goddess shocked him.
“The Crown Origin Attribute is devouring my soul? What do You mean by that?” Roel asked with a livid expression.
“‘Every race shall receive an Origin Attribute that best complements their nature.’ That was the promise I made to all of you. I fulfilled that promise to the other races… with the sole exception of your clan.”
Regret and anguish could be seen reflected in the Mother Goddess’ eyes as She slowly lowered Her head. After a long silence, She shared the promise the Genesis Goddess had made to the races back then.
When Sia first descended upon this world and displayed the prowess of the Origin Attributes, She promised to grace each race with an Origin Attribute that best complemented their nature. This contributed to why the races had swiftly submitted to Her order.
Sia did fulfill Her promise to the races. Yet, when it came to the Kingmaker Clan, She chose not to create a specialized Origin Attribute for them.
“The Crown Origin Attribute isn’t a pure Origin Attribute. It contains a part of My soul.”
“Your soul?”
“Mmhm. It’s only a small sliver of it, but those who use it as their Origin Attribute have to pay a hefty price—the depletion of their own soul.”
“…Why?”
Confusion surfaced in Roel’s eyes. It took a long time before he bitterly squeezed out his doubt.
Even though the time he had spent with the Mother Goddess was limited, he could tell that She was a loving mother who earnestly cared for the Kingmaker. He found it hard to believe that Sia would bestow upon Her closest child such an Origin Attribute.
To draw an analogy, the Crown Origin Attribute was like an irreversible, slow-acting poison that would slowly consume him till he fell dead. He couldn’t believe that Sia would do something like that to the Kingmaker Clan, which was why he was taken aback.
Sensing Roel’s sorrow and disappointment, the Mother Goddess’ body jolted as She tightened Her arms around him in a fluster.
“N-no, it’s not what you’re thinking. It was never My intention to harm you! I only did that for the Succession.”
“The Succession?”
“…Even I have My own selfish motives.”
The Mother Goddess gently touched Roel’s face with tears glistening in Her eyes.
“The Crown Origin Attribute is a part of My soul. Only one person in every generation of your clan can inherit it, and that person is the Kingmaker. You asked Me earlier if I had a child. I can answer your question now. To Me, you are My real child. I can never bring myself to hurt you.”
Roel was taken aback. He finally understood why the Mother Goddess had chosen to tolerate the Kingmaker time and time again despite the latter’s betrayal. However, that brought about another question.
“What exactly is the Crown? What’s Your motive?”
“There are many reasons behind why I bestowed the Crown on you. First and foremost, I wanted to endow you with strength far surpassing that of the other Origin Attribute possessors. Your ability to crown Sovereigns will also build your prestige and influence with the other races. Most importantly of all, I sought to minimize the rejection between our souls.”
“Minimize the rejection between our souls… Mother, what were You trying to do?”
“…I wanted to make you the world’s new ruler.”
“!”
Roel felt as if someone had struck his heart with a sledgehammer.
He had known beforehand that the Kingmaker was the person closest to Sia, but it had never crossed his mind that Sia actually saw the Kingmaker as Her successor. In the first place, it was not even theoretically possible!
Sia was the world’s creator, the Genesis Goddess. No being in the world could ever hope to reach Her height, not even if She planted a part of Her soul into someone else. In the first place, why would She even need a successor?
Roel voiced his doubts aloud, and the Mother Goddess answered his questions.
“The world’s future is not a burden I can continue shouldering alone. I have already known that even as I quelled the demonic beasts,” the Mother Goddess said with a sorrowful sigh.
“As the war came to an end, the population of the world underwent rapid growth. I know that I can never support such growth, but I didn’t want to see bloodshed anymore. So, I concocted a plan to nurture a new ruler who would inherit a portion of My powers and share My burden in sustaining this world. That’s the Succession. The Crown is just the preparatory phase of the Succession. The incident happened after that…”
Even the almighty Sia struggled to nurture a successor to inherit Her authority, which was ironically due to how powerful She was. First and foremost, the successor had to be compatible with Her powers, which was why She prepared the Kingmaker by planting Her soul into them. However, this caused another problem: the overflowing of the Kingmaker’s soul.
Similar to how there is a limit to how much water a container can hold, the human body is also limited in the size of the soul it can house. The Kingmaker’s soul was bound to rapidly grow after fusing with Sia’s soul, but there was only so much their body could withstand.
“A container filled beyond its limit inevitably overflows. Such a situation spells death to mortals. To prevent that from happening, I directed the overflowing soul toward the creation of the Inner Sanctum.”
“!”
Roel widened his eyes as he finally understood why the Kingmaker Clan had something as bizarre as the Inner Sanctum within them when no other humans did. That brought his focus toward another matter.
“I understand that the Inner Sanctum is forged out of our overflowing soul so that we wouldn’t lose any part of our soul, but what about the Spiriteers? Isn’t the primary purpose of the Inner Sanctum to keep them captive?”
“That’s indeed what your clan has been thinking all along, but it’s the opposite of that. I only sealed Edavia into the Inner Sanctum so that you are able to obtain the aid of the Spiriteers.”
“…You noticed her?”
“Of course. That child has a unique aura. It’s also no easy feat to form such a long soul chain to relay a message to me,” the Mother Goddess said as She stroked Roel’s cheek. “The Spiriteers are byproducts manifesting from the creation of the world, which is why they are the only race that doesn’t conform to the natural laws of the world. In the Succession, they play the vital role of protecting your soul and granting you the ability to directly attack souls.”
“Ability to directly attack souls?”
“Yes, that’s a rare ability that is of a higher order than physical destruction. Very few existences are capable of it. You can’t inherit that ability even after assimilating My soul, so I can only pass it on to you in this manner.”
“I see. What’s the accident you spoke of then?”
“…That’s the third step, as well as the final step of the Succession.”
The Mother Goddess momentarily stiffened up before letting out a long sigh.
“The third step requires Me to split My powers and My soul so that I can bestow them to you. Something unexpected happened in the process. I didn’t expect My partitioned powers and soul to gain their own will. My soul was unable to withstand that, and it eventually resulted in My destruction.”
Sia hadn’t known that Her split soul and powers would automatically gain their own self-will. Even the nigh omniscient Genesis Goddess didn’t fully understand Herself. Unfortunately, Her misjudgment was fatal to the world.
Sia’s abrupt disappearance plunged the world into panic and chaos. The order that had been maintained across the races was broken in an instant. By the time the Mother Goddess awoke again, everything had already changed.
Survival of the fittest had, once again, become the main theme of the world. Different races killed each other to compete over limited resources, some even establishing irreconcilable conflicts in the process.
Even so, these didn’t pose a problem to Sia, who had awoken as the Mother Goddess. Even after losing a portion of Her authority, Her powers still far surpassed those of the other races. Whether it was by mediation or coercion, it was definitely possible for Her to re-establish the previous order amongst the races.
What She didn’t expect was for someone to beat Her to it.
“Your split powers and soul that gained self-will. Could it be…”
“Yes, that’s the Savior.”
“…”
Roel fell silent upon hearing the Mother Goddess’ affirmative answer. Not even in his wildest imagination would he have thought that the Kingmaker Clan was related to Sia’s disappearance, and the Savior was supposed to become fodder for the Kingmaker.
The Mother Goddess’ expression suddenly turned grim at this point.
“I thought that the Savior would have treated you kindly since He was manifested from My soul and My powers. I thought wrong. I suspect that He might have seen you as a threat and wanted to eliminate you, since He was supposed to be absorbed by you.”
She thought about the wretched state Roel was in not too long ago, and She could hardly curb Her fury. She tightly hugged Roel as She reaffirmed Her determination.
“Such a thing will never happen again. I won’t let Him off.”
“…”
The solemn promise and warm embrace pulled Roel out of his daze from having learned the truth. His expression slowly turned gentle.
As a wary person by nature, he chose to maintain a skeptical attitude instead of simply trusting the Mother Goddess’ words. That being said, he had to concede that the Mother Goddess’ feelings toward him were real. He was at least certain that She wouldn’t hurt him.
The truth also gave him some thoughts about what he ought to do from this point onward.
Some time later, the Mother Goddess finally calmed down. She first conducted another check to confirm that he was in good health before reinforcing the barrier and assigning a huge army to ensure that such a thing didn’t happen again. She then spent a few more hours with him before reluctantly taking Her leave.
With that, Roel finally had some private time to prepare for the future.
…
Roel didn’t have many guests while he was recuperating from his injuries. It was only to be expected, since he didn’t know many people in the Moonsoul Tower.
However, he didn’t forget about Adola and the others.
It went without saying that Adola and the other guards couldn’t possibly hope to foil an assassination attempt planned by the Savior and the Death God, but that didn’t mean that they would be spared punishment.
Knowing that, Roel stepped in and pleaded on their behalf, and his plea worked out.
Since then, Adola took a much more favorable attitude toward him, and she began actively gathering intelligence according to his request.
At the same time, the High Elves’ hostility toward him also toned down. After how Roel had nearly lost his life here, it was hard to imagine that he would side with the Savior even if he had been doing that before. Still, Micher continued to gather intelligence on him out of vigilance.
Regarding that, Roel could only blame his ancestors for having too much dark history, but he wasn’t too bothered by it, since it was not as if he was doing anything shady at the moment. Besides, what did he have to fear when he had the Mother Goddess’ favor right now?
The Mother Goddess had become even more protective since the previous incident, making sure to visit him every day and satisfy every single one of his requests. It was to the extent that Roel suspected that She might even pluck the stars from the sky if he asked for them.
Two days passed in this seemingly busy but peaceful state of affairs.
On the third morning, Adola visited Roel with a piece of news that broke the peace.
“Lord Roel, I have just received the latest news from the frontlines… War has begun.”