There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL) novel Chapter 422

Chapter 422: Chapter 415. A Little Gift

Zein only spoke after a minute of silence. "I thought as much, but it’s your fault again, huh?"

It was rare to see a Goddess looking flustered, but here She was, suddenly looking more like the timid Medium than the Goddess.

"It’s not like we were meant for it to happen," the Goddess mumbled and turned her face away, as if sulking. "We didn’t expect things will become like this, or that someone would survive and hide in this land..."

"Hmm..."

Zein raised his brow and just watched as the Goddess busy grumbling and mumbling inaudibly, until she abruptly turned and pointed at Zein.

"Anyway, you’re at fault too, you know!"

"What? Why so suddenly--"

"It’s because you took one of the shards that the strength to suppress It weakened," the Goddess huffed, uncharacteristically childishly.

Zein widened his eyes at this sudden revelation. "Huh?"

"Well, It would still have woken up even with the complete shards, but at least you’ll still have a year or two of preparation."

Zein blinked and shook his head to clear his mind. "Wait--can you explain from the top?"

The Goddess looked at the confused guide and sighed. She seemed to realize she had been acting rather immaturely, so she cleared her throat and returned to her wise persona. "Well, this is just my conjecture, but I think the Fallen Star was following the fragment of Setnath that suddenly concentrated on one planet, and crashed into one of the fragments."

The Fallen Star--Zein tilted his head. Was that what they called the Celestial Beings who lost during the war?

"Anyway, It must have been hiding there in the East to regain Its energy all this time."

"For hundreds of years?"

"Of course," the Goddess nodded with a face that asked why would he state something so obvious. "If someone like me or Ophiucus lost our power, do you think we could just regain it in months or years?"

Zein fell silent. Honestly, he had no idea of these Celestial Beings’ scale of power. It wasn’t like he ever watched them fight, so how could he know? But thinking about how the entity in the Deathzone had to accumulate energy for hundreds of years filled him with dread.

Could they really stop something like that?

The Goddess saw Zein’s dimmed eyes and swiftly added. "Oh, but don’t think that merely hundreds of years would be enough too," she said. "Just to have enough energy to move or maintain consciousness alone would cost the Fallen Star so much. I don’t think It would have enough energy to do much right now by staying in the corner of the world like that. If It could take energy from the whole planet, then..."

"But you won’t let it happen, right?"

"Of course!" the Goddess scoffed. "Naturally, I couldn’t fight It unless the Fallen Star came to my territory, but the moment It stepped into other deities’ territories, It would face opposition too."

Zein narrowed his eyes to ponder, before expressing it warily a minute later. "If...if It stayed there and established Its own territory, would you do anything?"

The Goddess closed her mouth. She didn’t answer him, but her wry smile told Zein all the same.

"Is this what you mean by we have to do things ourselves?" Zein asked in a low voice.

The Goddess smiled and spoke gently. "Just like how humans use the power they get to their desire, they too, had the choice of which force they wish to follow."

Zein exhaled harshly. As he thought, he shouldn’t trust these Celestial Beings. He could imagine what would happen if the Horins were to be left alone; they would let the Fallen Star gain enough energy to establish a territory in the East and enjoy the slice of cake It would offer.

He took a deep breath and faced the Goddess again. "So, what do you mean by we caused this too?"

"Ah, that..." the Goddess snapped her fingers. "Because you took away a part of Setnath’s power that suppressed Its growth."

"The shards could do that?"

"Just because they aren’t in complete form, didn’t mean Setnath’s essence became useless," the Goddess chuckled. "He used to be the vanguard in the war, you know. Despite being a Celestial Being, his power contained an anti-Celestial Being essence. Why do you think you’re fine talking to me and Ophiucus for a long time like we were just buddies in a coffee shop?"

Zein blinked in surprise; first for the analogy, and second for the effect of Setnath’s mark that he didn’t even know until now.

"Anyway, taking the shard away meant you took one of the tools suppressing the Fallen Star; wasn’t the increase of--what do you call it?--dungeon anomaly and outbreak, yes--wasn’t it increasing after you took one of the shards away?"

Zein blinked his slightly widened eyes; his gaze fell to the ground as he wiped his face with his hand. It couldn’t, however, wipe his regret.

"Why...didn’t you tell me when I was here the first time?"

The Goddess sighed and reached out her hand to brush the black hair fallen to the guide’s forehead. "Because it did not matter anymore, no? Nothing you can do now that the shard is already far away, and you’ll be back there anyway, with a troop," she said gently, caressing the side of the guide’s face. "You already have too much burden and guilt; I didn’t see the need to pile another one."

Zein raised his face and looked up, sighing long and slow. The Goddess smiled and patted the guide as he digested the new information.

"Ah..." Zein nodded. Right--it needed a special code just to access the top floor where Radia and Bassena’s office were. "But...wouldn’t It get more cautious after losing one?" _{freeweɓnovēl.coɱ}