As the two quickly made their way back to the village a handsome humanoid clone that was sitting on the mantas back was staring intensely at the letter in front of him that he had gotten from the blue bird divine.
Sighs 'It's just as I feared, I can't read! Fortunately I waited to open the letter after I left or Edyta might have laughed at me!' Speaking wasn't a problem since he could do it through mana but that wasn't possible on a piece of paper!
'I should be able to learn the language quickly as long as I have a teacher. I'll speak to the villagers once everything is straightened out'
Half an hour later they finally reached the village. He was relieved to find that everything was still normal. He had been a bit worried that the bison beasts would have come back for revenge but fortunately nothing happened. He also made sure not to forget to send a powerful clone to grab the obsidian heart tree on the sea floor and that should take around a month for the round trip.
His large body then slowly moved to his spot over the village unnoticed under the cover of the night sky. Looking down at the houses covered in darkness he started to reminisce on all the things he had been through to get where he is today. The feeling of helplessness in his last life, the feeling of excitement and danger from the battles in the sea, also all the living beings he met over this period of time.
'I wonder how my manta brothers and grandpa manta is doing.' He thought to himself quietly without noticing his thinking was quickly slowing down until he eventually fell asleep without even realizing.
As his body fully relaxed so did the mana covering it. The cold strong winds high up in the air quickly found an opening and rushed into his large open manta mouth. At first there was a quiet humming sound but as time passed the noise became louder and louder eventually becoming a howling noise that sounded like screaming ghosts and demons!
It didn't take very long for the whole village to be startled awake as many small children started crying. Very quickly the dark village was completely lit up with people leaving their homes scared and confused. Fortunately this wasn't the first time this happened as the large manta had fallen asleep over the village a day before so the warriors that stayed behind were already familiar with the sound.
After explaining to everyone that it came from the divine creature that saved them suddenly the strange noise didn't seem so scary anymore. They then went back inside their houses to comfort their crying children by telling them how the scary sound was to keep the bad monsters away. An hour later the whole village was once again covered in darkness.
Early in the morning the large manta woke up feeling well rested and after stretching his large body he made another human clone. Making his way to the sand house he was about to call the little crab when he noticed two small sand crab clones making strange movements just outside of the earth house.
'Is she practicing? Wait did she even sleep? They certainly look much better than the one she made before. Forget it, let's not bother her, I'll just go by myself.' Smiling to himself Malik quietly left and after reaching the side of the large manta body he covered himself in the golden mana before floating down to the village center where people had already started to gather.
Seeing something coming down from the black cloud the villagers started pointing and talking excitedly until the old village head made them quiet down.
As the handsome man touched down onto the floor everyone stared at him curiously. His inky black hair going down his back along with his pale white skin already made him very different from anyone the villagers had ever seen, however as they stared into his violet eyes that gave him a mysterious and slightly evil look made many of the women feel their hearts fluttering which prompted them to quickly look away.
"Y-Young master you?" The village head at the front of the crowd was the first to speak.
The handsome man turned towards him with a big smile and nodded his head slightly.
The old chief was dazed for a second before getting quickly down on his knees followed by every other villager.
"We thank your holiness for saving our people" The old man said out loud touching his forehead onto the floor followed by every other villager.
Seeing how honest and sincere they all were, he silently gave the villagers a thumbs up in his heart.
"It's fine, the information you gave us was also very useful so we are even. Actually I gained much more than I thought I would from my visit so I have decided that you deserve a reward! We will even allow you to choose it yourself." Giving them a bright smile he looked straight at the old chief who had raised his head in surprise.
'Hehe having me be the one to ask to be their villages divine would be kind of strange but if they ask me instead … genius! I'm a genius!' He thought to himself as he quietly waited as the chief sorted out his thoughts.
'A reward from a new divine! Isn't this exactly what we needed? Can't I just ask him to become the divine of the village?'
'Mhmm mhmm, go on' While reading his thoughts the handsome man excitedly waited for him to ask the question.
'Hmm, but wouldn't that be too much? He already saved our people. How can I ask him to become the village's divine?'
'Wait no, I definitely don't mind if you ask me you know?'
'Yes it would be too much for me to ask such a thing for him i should come up with something else'
'The heck! just give it a try I'll definitely agree don't be shy!'
Sighs 'We lost a lot of men on the last attack and without a divine we can no longer protect ourselves. I guess I can just ask him to escort us as we move into a different city, as outsiders we will probably have to start as slaves but it's certainly better than dying' Reaching his decision the old chief looked up and started to speak.
'Wait! That's not what was supposed to happen!'
"Since you have graciously decided to give us a reward, I wish to ask of you to esco-" Before he was able to finish his sentence, the old chief was interrupted by a loud shout.
"Please be the village's Divine!" It was the voice of a young man that quickly making his way through the crowd.
The old man was startled to find it was his only grandson Jino!
Reaching the side of his grandfather the young man lowered his head and shouted once again "We are one of the biggest godless villages you will find and we even have an artificer! We can be of much use to you as long as you give us a chance!"
The old chief turned towards the attractive man and found that he was looking at him while frowning. He quickly gave his grandson a smack upside the head. "I'm sorry! Please forgive my grandson he is y-" Once again he wasn't able to finish his sentence as he was interrupted, but this time it was by the handsome man standing in front of him!
"I will have to first speak with Mina and if she agrees I believe that is a possibility, after all I did promise you a reward."
The old chief looked at him stunned before asking unconsciously "Mina?"
The handsome man let out a smile before answering "Mina is my good fr… my companion. Yes, she is called Mina the golden earth crab. Oh by the way I am called Malik, Malik the manta of darkness. I will speak with her and once we have made our decision I will let you know" After he finished speaking his body glowed a golden color once again before rising into the air towards the dark cloud in the sky leaving all the villagers stunned in place.
'These are divine creatures! Why did it feel like they were buying clothes on promotion of buy 1 get 1 free?!'
As the people came out of their daze a scream of happiness was heard in the crowd followed by another and eventually everyone was jumping up and down and celebrating.
This world was just too dangerous! Who knows if a powerful creature would just show up one day at the village and decided to have a quick snack? The only way that you could have any kind of security is by having a divine looking over your home which was the dream of many people since joining a city with one was practically impossible! The only way they would allow in outsiders is if they willingly became their slaves!
As he reached the top of his original body he made his way to the small house and called out excitedly.
"Little gold they asked us to be the divine of their village! Aaa it's going to be amazing! I already have so many ideas!"
"....."
"Little gold did you hear me? They asked us to be their divine creature!"
"..."
"Uhh… little gold?" The handsome man called out in confusion seeing as there was no reaction.
"I have a name now you know! I'm not little gold!" An annoyed shout was heard from inside the sand house.
"Oh, ahem ahem.. M-mina?"
'Why is this so embarrassing? it's just her first name! What am I Japanese?'
"Yes Malik?" The house door opened and a small crab clone walked out.
"The villagers asked us to be their village's Divine! what do you think?"
The small crab thought for a few seconds before nodding "hmmm, I agree. These humans are very weak after all they need someone to look after them"
"Great! Should we split the village and we each get half to make into our domain?"
"Actually, about that…. I've been thinking and I think it's time we go our separate ways" The small clone said after letting out a small sigh.
"?????"
"I thought about this for a while now and I made my decision last night." As she said this the door of the small house opened once again and the original body of the golden crab came out and started to speak.
"We are adults now, we can't always be together" She said with a hint of sadness in her voice.
"But, so soon? Do you even have a place to go?"
"Hmm. I found a place yesterday when you were asleep, I was only waiting for you to wake up before I left." As she finished speaking her body started to glow a golden color before rising into the air along with the small clone and even the sand housel house she had built started to rise along with her.
"This…" He was completely speechless and though deep down he knew that one day they might separate he didn't think it would be so soon!
Watching her body moving through the air he felt a loneliness suddenly overcome him. They have always been together and part of him wanted to believe that this is how it would always be! If she leaves now when will he see her again?
After several thoughts passed through his mind he finally made a decision! She could have the village for all he cared; he just wanted to be by her side!
"Little gold! No, MINA! I- COUGH COUGH!" As he started to speak he quickly swallowed his words when he saw that she had put down her little house on a small mountain a few kilometers from the village. Due to the large size of his own body and the fact that he was floating she was basically right next to him!
"You what?" She looked at him curiously.
"Nothing! Nothing! I'll tell them we agreed to stay." He said feeling embarrassed.
"Hmm." She let out a small nod nodded before going into her small house and closing the door.
Fortunately she couldn't see through the darkness that was covering the humanoid clone. His pale skin had fully turned beet red all the way up to his ears.
'No wonder people tend to write letters in anime. I thought my heart was going to explode!' Scratching the back of his head he let out a wry smile. Seeing the state of his human clone the manta decided to let the villagers know his decision later that day.