/
“Son, Mommy has to go out during the day today, so you must be careful when staying here alone. Do not stray too far from the house, and do not leave the maids. This is for you. It works the same way as the necklace. Call for Mommy immediately if you’re in danger. Mommy will come to your aid.”
After breakfast, Mommy Vyvyan placed a chest pin down in front of me. Mom didn’t lie. She really did give me a new chest pin. I didn’t pick it up right away; instead, I looked at her with puzzlement and asked, “Mom, do you have something to do?”
“Uhm.”
Mommy Vyvyan didn’t respond to the question. Instead, she gave me a slow nod. I kept my eyes on her and asked, “Are you going to Duargana? Did something happen there?”
“No, it’s not about Duargana, but it’s true that I need to make a trip there.” Vyvyan then gave a simple explanation, “After ensuring Nona and Vera’s conditions, the two of them need to go to the Tower of Heaven. They have to go there to train themselves no matter how their mana is graded. This time, I need to go to the Tower of Heaven, as well.”
“Wasn’t it the case that you couldn’t become a god?”
“Yes, but I need to ensure that Nona and Vera will be fine in the future,” Mommy Vyvyan replied. She stood up and stretched out her back. She then touched my head and softly giggled: “You must stay safe when Mommy is absent. Don’t do anything dangerous. There are no dangerous animals in the forest nearby, so you don’t need to run about.”
“Mom, do you see me as somebody who looks for danger and runs right into it?”
“If that wasn’t the case, would you be in your current state?”
Mommy Vyvyan rubbed my head, and then left after a loud rumble. Mommy Vyvyan vanished right before my eyes, leaving me with just her familiar fragrance. I looked at the table and spaced out. I didn’t have a problem with Mom leaving; it’s just that I had no idea what to do. There was nothing I could do indoors, so I needed to find something to do.
I suddenly remembered the uneven ground that I discovered when drinking tea yesterday. There seemed to be a rock underneath. I thought I should flatten the ground and deal with the rocks underneath. It’d probably take me until the evening, I assumed.
“Your Highness, do you need anything?” asked a smiling maid, serving up a cup of tea after clearing the table.
I gave the maid a nod: “Bring me a shovel.”
“A shovel?”
I nodded, and then repeated myself, “Yes, bring me a shovel. I’m going to go and work in the garden. I’m going to deal with the rocks.”
========
Current time outside the perimeter of the Tower of Heaven at Duargana.
The area wasn’t considered part of Duargana’s domain. It was a tower located nearby a lake at Duargana. This tower was situated in a swamp with thorns growing all over in addition to a purple mist that was obviously poisonous. There was also a huge beast visible at the bottom of the swamp. It was off limits to elves, but it was the place where elves got closest to their god. The Galadriel tribe controlled the place. Besides the descendants of the Galadriel tribe, nobody else was permitted to approach their god. In fact, they were prohibited from approaching the swamp. Nobody from the Galadriel Tribe had been accepted by God thus far. Vyvyan came closest, but she gave up on her own accord in the end. She entered the tower again.
“Vyvyan?” someone called.
The centre of the Tower of Heaven and the surroundings of the swamp were completely unalike. The dead aura around and the barren area was completely different to the interior. The interior radiated a gentle light. The walls themselves were seemingly the source of the light. The radiance could illuminate individual’s inner thoughts.
It wasn’t possible to see too clearly in the tower due to the light at the top, but there, unquestionably, was a voice coming from above. Though the voice originated from the top of the tower, Vyvyan had the impression the voice came from within her heart. Did one communicate their inner heart or with God when they were in front of the Tower of Heaven?
Vyvyan peered at the ceiling in silence. She kept it to the point: “I want to become a god. My mana hasn’t changed compared to the past and, in fact, is more potent. I can become a god with my mana. I just need to become a god. Please allow me to become a god to save my child!”
Vyvyan heard a soft chuckle. She looked around with frustration and thundered, “I’m being serious! I truly want to become a god! I want to become a god to save my child!! I must provide my child with sufficient mana! I must save my child!”
“Haha, my Vyvyan, have you forgotten something? Vyvyan, I still remember you possessed tremendously powerful mana back then, yet refused to become a god, because of your brother. Now you want to become a God for your child? All that’s changed is the person in question. Are you willing to forsake everything to become a God?”
“Everything I have can’t even compare to my child. I can abandon everything I have for my child! I just want my child to be safe and sound!”
“Even if you must give up your body, blood, appearance, conscience and even kindness? You even killed countless others to suck their blood in order to save your child. How many elves have you killed? Your hands are covered in the blood of elves, aren’t they? Vyvyan, do you think you can still suppress your desires if you continue sucking blood? Can you suppress your craving for blood? I don’t think you can withstand it, which is why you’ve come to me and want a body of mana, right?”
“
”
Vyvyan didn’t deny it. She nodded.
“That’s unfortunate, then. You can’t become a God. Do you still remember what I once said? If you want to become a god, then you have to be able to abandon everything you have. Can you do that? You can’t even give up your child. How can you become a god if you can’t treat everybody with equality? You don’t want to become a god. You just want to become your child’s god. Don’t you feel that you’re already a god to him?”
“That’s all pointless!!!” roared Vyvyan, clutching her hair. “I want enough mana. It’s mana that I want. I want sufficient mana. It’s meaningless for me to be my child’s god. I want to become an elf with adequate mana to provide him with mana!”
“Do you need me to give you a suggestion? Don’t go against his wishes. Your child chose to proceed when he was aware of the consequences, which means that he chose death. That’s why you shouldn’t go against his wishes. Your current thinking contradicts your child’s decision. Vyvyan, people must die just as your son must die. He chose death, so do you think that there’s any point in doing this? Does your child want to live? Vyvyan, I believe you gave your son some freedom. He chose death, so don’t stop him. It’s his fate. It’s the future that God gave him.”
“You’re saying that it’s God’s will?”
“No, this is his will, but it’s God’s fate!!”
Vyvyan fired several fireballs upwards from the bottom. She stretched her arms out. The Tower of Heaven began to quake. The stone walls around gradually started to crack. The owner of the voice she conversed with suddenly paused, and then loudly exclaimed, “What are you trying to do?! This is God’s throne! This is God’s tower to heaven. What are you trying to do?!”
“Since you can’t realise my wish, since you said my son’s current situation is the fate that God gave him, I shall crush that fate. I’ll just have to kill God. You can’t give me mana, so I can change my son’s fate if I kill you, right!?”
Blood dripped from Vyvyan’s eyes. The entire tower quaked. Big boulders fell to the ground. The warm light was destroyed in an instant. The foul stench of the swamp outside accompanied the terrifying wake-up call and invaded. Vyvyan howled, and then the entire Tower of Heaven crumbled in an instant, with all the rubble falling into the surrounding swamp.
Rubble and dust blew comparably to a sandstorm. The entirety of Duargana City quaked, generating ripples in the lakes, as well. The huge beasts in the swamp scattered. The mass of mana crushed their organs on the spot! The buildings in Duargana quaked. The elves shrieked and fled helter skelter. The rush of mana was almost enough to shatter their hearts. Destroying a location was child’s play for a demi-god even if it wasn’t a full-moon night.
Vyvyan treaded through the ruins and grabbed a shaking wing. She ignored the cries in front of her and ripped it off with her teeth. Blood squirted from the wound, staining her pretty face. She slowly licked her lips. The taste of blood excited her. She smiled and pursed her lips. She lowered her head, and then bit the neck of the person before her.
Vyvyan raised her head covered in blood. She looked at everything she decimated through her blood-red eyes. The Tower of Heaven was reduced to rubble before she knew it. Using the blood she sucked out of dozens of people, she converted it into magic. The blood and her own comprehension of mana allowed her to easily slaughter her targets. That was the true Vyvyan, the Vyvyan who had absorbed the power of a true god.
Vyvyan surveyed the ruins with her blood-red eyes and threw aside a dry corpse. She wiped her mouth and smiled indifferently: “If this is the will of God, if this is the future God put in place, it should be no more now, right? I can forsake anything for my child, including my conscience and bottom line. I don’t care about becoming a dark elf and a demon the entire world deplores and renounces if it’s for my son. I don’t care how many people I have to kill for my son, and I won’t feel guilty. Other people have nothing to do with me, but my son is my only child!”