NOVEL WEB Ch.57 – Great Power, Great Side Effects
POV: Gornowayl
This time it wasn't even him who called an emergency meeting of the Divine Court, which didn't make him surprised anyway: everyone had felt the shock waves of what had happened when Dyenna had obtained unparalleled power, the one she had managed to obtain was something that went beyond the mere Second Awakening since that was something that was granted by the gods to mortals, Dyenna's Second Awakening came not from them but from the system itself.
This was obviously a cause for dismay since it meant that in some way Dyenna had bypassed the normal procedures of the Divine Court, and this brought the world closer to its potential regeneration, with who knows how many of them surviving and with their powers mutated for good or ill.
There was a lot of noise between all the various major and minor entities who were arguing animatedly even with raised tones and threats where there was the awareness that none of their minds had enough power to destroy another entity; Through it all, Gornowayl stood aside, observing and reasoning about how to maintain the status quo in the material world.
"Order! Order!" Teityr exclaimed above all the voices of the other minds present at the meeting. He waited until everyone was silent before he began speaking, "as you all know, Dyenna somehow achieved the Second Awakening without our approval."
“We must intervene immediately!” One of the minor entities exclaimed, since even during the last transition to the new meta they were the ones who were mostly erased it was clear that they had the greatest intentions on keeping the things how they were, "let me descend on Tala: I will crush her in a second!"
Groffward interjected in a serious voice, “if we start creating special exceptions to the laws we've given ourselves, who knows where we might get given enough time?”
“What do you think about granting the Second Awakening to the mortal [Lightbringer]?” Zelrotha offered, “as it stands now, if she committed to leveling up she would be powerful enough to stop Dyenna.”
“As if Rosalia would ever stand up to her sister,” Gornowayl commented, “that mortal blindly believes in her and refuses to defend herself even when directly threatened. Giving her the Second Awakening and hoping she stands up to her sister is like doing nothing.”
'There would be Tamara, but the fact that there is still no news of her means that she is not even close to having the power to stop Dyenna,' thought the God of Heroes, 'perhaps I have been too optimistic about her hopes of victory. '
“Another thing that should be investigated is how this mortal managed to achieve the Second Awakening without the support of one of us,” Zelrotha murmured thoughtfully, “this is an achievement that is impossible to reach with normal means, which means…”
“...There's at least one of us working behind our backs,” Lyndvrath finished the sentence.
All the great beings present studied each other suspiciously, which was to be expected as their power transcended time and space to the point that their personalities were not much different from those of children locked in a toy room with no one capable of limiting them or keeping them in check. The Divine Court was basically more akin to an agreement between children promising not to break the toys than to the halls of law of earthly kingdoms.
“But who would want something like a repeat of the transition to the new meta?” Slaarvin asked, “such an event cannot bring any good to any of us, unless it is an attempt to achieve an epic ending with the hero defeating the great evil at the last second and saving the world .”
Gornowayl felt the attention of his peers focusing on him, it was true that in the past he had caused tragedies just for the pleasure of seeing the development of the happy ending - which did not always happen -, but in that case he was doing nothing, the slimy snake was just trying to draw attention to him rather than himself.
“These are just baseless allegations: wasn't it me who reported that something strange was happening in the Kingdom of Heliolite?” Gornowayl said aloud, “Why would I bring something like this to your attention if I'm the one behind it?”
“Perhaps just to keep attention away from you,” Lyndvrath replied, “what's the saying? The best place to hide something is in plain sight..."
“Look who’s talking…” Gornowayl grumbled softly.
The tone in the courtroom was starting to heat up again, with everyone for one reason or another pointing the finger at everyone else, there was even someone who accused Teityr of being involved in the matter, even if the reasons given exceeded the threshold of the completely absurd.
“The matter will be investigated!” Thundered Teityr, “whoever is scheming behind this court's back will be brought to justice! Now, let us vote on Zelrotha's proposal to grant the Second Awakening to the mortal named Rosalia.”
Gornowayl proceeded to vote like everyone else, there was no need for words or a show of hands, for entities with virtually unlimited power like theirs, a very slight mental commitment was enough. 'Yes.'
It was difficult to understand how long it took to collect the votes, time is a trivial thing for beings who technically exist infinitely in the past and infinitely in the future, however, what matter is the vote was completed.
“The verdict,” Teityr declared, “forty-eight percent YES, forty-three percent NO, nine percent abstain. Proposal approved.”
'if nothing else this is a positive thing, but whether Rosalia will really have the courage to abandon her boundless pacifism and turn against her sister remains to be seen,' Gornowayl thought with satisfaction. He looked towards Slaarvin: from the outside he looked calm and collected as if nothing had happened, but Gornowayl knew that he should be alert… perhaps he could catch him by surprise, and then it would be the end of the slimy snake.
- - -
POV: Rosalia
She was inside the inn with Darren and the dwarf who was part of the hit company that had been hired to kill her and Darren in the Sleepy Swamp dungeon. The two were talking about business as if what happened that day in the core guardian's room had never really happened, Rosalia, however, was pleasantly surprised that the dwarf was still alive, given that she imagined that the duke was an ambitious and tough man... of course , it could be that he was gaining from his choice to leave him alive, nevertheless, it was respectable that he had held his hand when there would have been no consequences in doing otherwise.
“So… what do you need, hm?” The dwarf asked, taking a few long gulps of beer and wiping his thick moustache.
“Nothing in particular, I would just like to discover some secret about our beloved Mayor of Stanbroodge, something that might cause a terrible and sudden fall out of the chambers of power and the wealth he has amassed thanks to it.”
'Well, I imagined it,' thought Rosalia, shrugging.
“Just this?” The dwarf raised his eyebrows, “I thought you would want to do worse to him, considering what he tried to do to you.”
“You see, master dwarf…” Darren took his own glass of wine and drank a few sips, “death as a punitive act is overrated, it is a cold revenge that grips you intensely at first and leaves you empty shortly after, when you realize that the person you killed is forever out of your reach.”
Rosalia was shaken by a slight shiver, Darren sometimes scared her with his incredible ability to combine malice and reason in a single form.
“I wish all my enemies a long, very long life,” said the duke, raising his glass. The dwarf hesitated before lifting his mug, Rosalia instead remained further back, making hers sway in her hands.
It promised to be a quiet evening, beyond the conversations held at the table, Rosalia thought about going to her room since she didn't want to listen, but a shiver nailed her to the chair: it wasn't the same shiver she'd felt listening to Darren... it was something more , something deeper and more primordial, was one of the peculiarities of her Class. Rosalia turned her head towards the door of the inn and stared at it insistently, she sensed a monster with immense power was approaching, such power that it froze her blood and made her pale, making her incapable of even screaming.
Her heart accelerated its beat to the point that she felt it throbbing inside his head, she wanted to seek refuge, but she couldn't do even that. The door handle lowered and a few moments later it was thrown open, revealing…
“We have arrived, my lady!” Shalotte exclaimed with a wide, lively smile.
“Finally, I'm starting to feel peckish!” Dyenna answered her, crossing the threshold two steps after the leporan had done so. The future queen of Heliolite looked around, then noticed Darren and Rosalia. “Little sis!” She said, her voice full of excitement and running towards her with open arms.
The source of that power continued to grow, and it came from Dyenna herself. Rosalia remained petrified and even when her older sister hugged her with energy and enthusiasm, it took her a few moments before placing her hands on her elder sister's shoulder blades, and not without hesitation.
“What… what a cold welcome,” Dyenna muttered, loosening her embrace so as to look Rosalia in the eyes again, “and what is this expression on your face. You're as white as a corpse… are you okay?”
Rosalia nodded, “y-yes, don't… don't worry,” she stammered, trying to clear her throat with a few cute little coughs, “just the fresher air of the north.”
"Good to hear it!" Dyenna said with a relieved tone, “Duke Darren, forgive my intrusion but I have just come to the end of a daring escape from the castle. Do you mind if I and my personal guard sit with you, my sister and Mr.…?” Dyenna's eyes went to the dwarf.
“Traptool, my lady.”
“Nice to meet you,” Dyenna continued to speak, ignoring Darren's expression of barely concealed annoyance, “my name is Dyenna, and this is my faithful personal guard Shalotte. I had to travel a long way to reach my beloved little sister!”
Rosalia gave a silent smile, 'she's my sister, but why are my class skills treating her like she's an incredibly powerful monster?' she gulped, 'no, this isn't my sister, or at least, not the one I knew before I departed from Khalrinda.'
