Chapter 269: Countdown
Ninia, Aria, and Victoria found out the reason behind Zach's sudden condition, and it turned out to be a curse mark.
Victoria suggested looking for the person who cursed Zach, so they could undo the curse. Ninia, however, had different plans.
"Since his soul defense is low, what if we just increase it?" Ninia suggested.
"That would require him a lot of worshipers…"
"We three will go around the capital and remind everyone of Zach's favor to them. It's preaching time!"
Ninia walked out of the room after saying, "I will be right back."
Aria and Victoria glanced at each other and shrugged their shoulders.
"Not going to lie, when I saw her for the first time, I thought she would be a meek girl who wouldn't dare to raise her voice against anyone, but…" Victoria muttered.
"You might not know, but meek, innocent, and shy people are always the scary ones. You have to be careful of them and not fall into their trap, or you might end up getting fooled by their sham," Victoria asserted in a solemn voice.
"If Aurora was here, she would have shown Ninia her place," Victoria remarked.
"Yeah…"
"That reminds me." Aria placed her hand on Victoria's shoulders and looked into her eyes before saying, "Don't you dare tell Aurora about this, okay? If she gets to know about it, she will get anxious as fuck. And we currently can't even open the portal to my domain. So she will be left alone in my domain. And judging by her condition, this should be the last thing she should experience."
Victoria shrugged Aria's hands from her shoulders and said, "I know that much. And don't worry, I worry about her more than you."
"Oh?" Aria scoffed in amusement and raised her brow with a curious look on her face. "Is that so?"
"You might not know it because of my awkward personality, but I respect Aurora the most in Zach's harem," Victoria declared with a proud face.
"Are you sure it's ‘respect' and not something else?" Aria remarked with a knowing look on her face. "Maybe you are just afraid of her rejection. Since you already know you can't win against her as she is Zach's favorite, you are keeping her out of the competition because you realized that you are no match against her."
Aria's words hit the mark, and that was Victoria's intention. After Aria divulged Victoria's plan, she got flustered, knowing that she might not be able to win against Aria either.
Victoria may have been Zach's first love, but it ended abruptly since they both were immature. Now, everything was different, and the circumstances had forced them to become mature.
When Ninia came back, she found Aria and Victoria glaring at each other as though they were about to fight.
"…"
'I don't know what happened, but I feel reassured after knowing that my Lord's lovers don't get along as I thought they would.' Ninia smiled slightly and thought, ‘So I don't have to worry about them liking me.'
Ninia was Zach's first believer and follower, and she was the main pioneer of his religion. Without her, everything would collapse. So naturally, she had to make sure that didn't happen.
She loved to devote her body and soul to Zach and worship him all day, as that made her feel good. She considered herself as the one and only suitable for Zach. But when she found out about Aurora during the demon invasion, that dream of her shattered.
However, she couldn't make herself to hate Aurora as she was ready to risk her life to save the NPCs she didn't even know. She accepted Aurora as someone special to Zach.
After that, she met Aria and Victoria, and she couldn't get more infuriated. She realized that she would never be someone special to Zach, even after he made her the prophet of his religion.
While Aria was simply curious how the relationship between Zach and Ninia would turn out since she wanted to know more about the religion.
Aria herself was a god, but she didn't have a religion, believers, worshipers, or followers. She wanted to know more about the relationship between a god and his first follower. And Zach and Ninia were the best examples she could find.
In all that, Ninia came up with a plan.
'If I get along with his lovers, I would naturally become a part of them,' she realized.
Sure, that was true, but for that, she had to get on good terms with the girls, and she didn't have a good impression of Aria or Victoria.
She was worried that they wouldn't expect her, but now, she realized that she had no need for them to accept her since she saw that Aria and Victoria didn't get along either.
'It's okay to be on bad terms with them,' she thought.
Now, Ninia had no need to pretend or act good with them. But it wasn't as though Ninia was a bad person. She was innocent by her body and soul, and pure by her heart and mind. So she was unable to hate or resent someone even if she wanted to. Unless, of course, one dares to speak against her Lord.
"How long are you planning to glare at each other?" Ninia asked with a bored look on her face.
"We are not glaring at each other!" they both retorted in unison.
"Let's go now," Ninia said. "The time is close to mid-day, if we preach until evening, we might gather enough followers to raise my Lord's soul defense that would automatically nullify the curse mark."
'I will still find the person who marked him.' Aria frowned her face and uttered, "I will show them the real meaning of pain and suffering. I will show them the true hell. I will show them the wrath of the goddess of death and destruction"
Ninia couldn't help but shiver after hearing Aria's words. It was her natural instinct, and that proved that Aria wasn't kidding when she said that.
Ninia, Aria, and Victoria left the church in a hurry.
Outside the church, they met up with Cerberus, who seemed worried about Zach's condition. Aria explained everything to him and told him to guard and allow no one into the church.
A few minutes after the girls left, a winged figure landed near the church and walked past Cerberus, as though he was unable to see or sense the figure.
The figure made its way into the church and entered the chamber Zach was resting.
"…." the figure was none other than Misha.
She looked at Zach with a gentle smile on her face and rubbed her finger on Zach's bare chest.
"Hey there, Zach…" she muttered Zach's name and stared at him for a few seconds before retracting her golden wings.
Then, she climbed on top of Zach and placed her hands on his chest as she looked at him with an alluring gaze in her eyes.
After that, she placed her hand between Zach's chest and muttered something that revealed the curse mark on Zach.
Misha inspected it and muttered, "So this is what Erza and mom told me about."
Misha pressed her finger on the mark, and it changed its color from blue to purple. And a few seconds later, Misha's gaze fell on Zach's lips, and she moved her face close to him.
She puckered her lips to kiss him but stopped after recalling the memories where Zach intentionally avoided body contact with Misha.
"Stupid…" she muttered under her breath.
She moved to his ears and whispered, "The time has come for you to learn the truth, to unleash your powers, to awaken the key of annihilation, and to begin the countdown."
***
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