There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 274

Chapter 274: Chapter 267. Sparks of Hope

Comparatively, the treatment he received in this Temple was vastly different from the one in the Temple of Mago--mainly because of the Saintess. But that didn’t mean his opinion would change.

For him, it was the Celestial Beings who were responsible for this whole situation with the dungeons and the different zones. They were the ones who were responsible for the death and misery the whole planet suffered.

They were the root of the misery he suffered.

[Don’t misunderstand us, Luzein] the Goddess said. Her tone was dry, but she didn’t seem to be angry or offended. She looked calm, like a veteran mother facing a tantrum child. [We are here to atone for the collateral damage we created. We are not here to grant benevolence or bestow punishment--that is a boundary we all must keep]

At that moment, Zein blinked as he mulled over the words. Boundary. He didn’t think of this. The Celestial Beings, the Deities, the Gods and Goddesses--they gave power to mankind, but never asked to be worshipped. At least, most of them never did. The Tower and the Temple was separate entity from the rest of the world; almost sentient in their existence.

Everything in the world had always been give and take, at least in Zein’s experience. Radia Mallarc was the embodiment of this; as long as you give him benefits, he would help you and stand for you.

Who’s to say the Celestial Being wasn’t like that?

They took from this planet, and They gave the power to mankind to fight back. And that was as far as They could go; as far as They thought they needed to go. In their eyes, It was enough. But if They were to do more, if They were to grant more...then They could demand more.

Demanded everyone to worship Them, dictated what the mortals could and couldn’t do...

[Judgment upon the actions of The One’s creations was not in our pledge] she continued, smiling rather sadly. [We give our proxies the authority and power to move, but it’s on them to actually move]

Zein raised his brow. Was she implying that she--and the other Goddesses--had given authority to the people maintaining the Temples and yet...and yet those people didn’t do anything about the condition faced by the other guides?

[We are not omniscient or omnipotent] she sighed and shook her head, turning her face to look outside the window. [But if one were to divert the way of fate, or destroy this land completely, we would make our move]

Just like when the Goddess Mago stopped Vallaria’s mana bullets and Frejya flashed her mark above Zein’s head.

"Just not directly," Zein said, recalling that everything still happened through the Medium.

[No] she shook her head. [We can’t do that too often]

She shifted her gaze back to Zein, the glowing eyes looked at him keenly, seriously. [The fate of a world should be driven by the residents of that world] the Goddess said, with a voice that was echoing through the chamber. [If we put our hands and muddy your world too much, dictating what you should do...] the beautiful face broke into a saddened smile, [what difference would you be from that of a puppet?]

Puppet...Zein frowned and remembered who he really was. Someone who refused to be a puppet; a doll waiting for a God to descend and take control of his body.

He gritted his teeth and shook his head slightly to get that thought out of his mind. For now. "But it was you who first muddied our world because of your war," Zein spat out harshly to cover the inner turmoil happening inside his soul.

The glowing eyes dimmed and the Medium looked as if she was shaking slightly. It was as if the girl couldn’t handle the Goddess’s emotions that were flashing in those pale eyes.

But in the end, closing her eyes for a bit, the Goddess exhaled through her mouth, as if trying to calm her down. [You’re right] she said. [I’m sorry]

Zein waited for a while. He waited for some kind of excuse, but it never came out even after he waited for a whole minute. And then the next minute.

For some reason, he felt better like that. Zein thought he would get more angry if she made some kind of excuse that it wasn’t their intention, or they never thought it would be that bad, or that it wasn’t just his world that they were looking after.

With a sigh, he grabbed the wine bottle and poured the transparent, slightly golden liquid into the glass in front of him and gulped it down at once, ignoring this morning’s hangover.

The Goddess actually looked at him with an apologetic smile and diverted the topic back to what they were supposed to talk about. [Should we get back to your ancestors?]

"Ah..." Zein himself almost forgot that they were talking about his mother’s ancestors. "What happened to them after they managed to get away from the traitor?"

[I couldn’t say]

Zein raised his brows, and then narrowed his eyes. She didn’t know? What was the point of talking about this then? Yes, Zein was also curious about Lucia’s lineage, but if it was just about the time before they vanished, all he needed to do was ask the very sharp-minded Elder Grandpa and Senan.

But she continued. [I wished...] she started. [I wished they had come to the Temple] there was a pain in her voice, that tone of regret she used every time she talked about them.

[But with people chasing after them, I understand that it wasn’t such an easy task] she sighed. [I sent my own Templars to look for them, but...the moment they got too far from my Temple, I just couldn’t do anything anymore]