Constantine held his breaths, trying to calm himself.
Without magic, he would not only be crushed beneath the debris but also… asphyxiated.
'What to do…!'
[Use your magic... what else do you have it for?] Zebellia spoke unexpectedly, he wasn't expecting her words here.
But right now, it was as if his entire senses were focused on creating that essential air that he needed to breathe, unable to move or even see anything, he never felt so helpless.
[You're a special case, holding four cores gives you the capability to use four different types of magic simultaneously… keep making the air in your lungs, but focus on getting out of here too, earth magic is within your grasp!]
"How? Earth…"
His eyes closed and he decided to focus, this is not a hopeless situation, it would be if he was in that old wrinkled body, but that's not the case anymore.
'Think, Earth…'
[Think of it as creating a path for you, anywhere]
It didn't produce anything simultaneously, difficulties abounded as the second core rotated at a different wavelength from the rest, he felt the oxygen in his lungs turning a little scarcer, but this was within the calculation.
Slowly but surely, the soil moved away, he felt the weight on his entire body decreasing and his lungs were finally able to expand properly, absorbing that air he was creating.
"Ufff… Okay… thank you, Zebellia, you're not as bad as I thought." Having the capacity to at least expand his chest was such a reassuring feeling.
[Hmph! Don't expect this treatment often!]
"Why?" He asked, genuinely confused.
Zebellia answered no more and he could only groan at her attitude, he didn't understand how she thought and why she was so hostile for no reason, yet at this junction, she helped.
Deciding to put that in the back of his mind, Constantine kept moving the soil away, at some stage got a grasp of the entire matter.
'Was I always able to focus on more than a single thing?'
The moment he regulated his focus, two cores used wind magic while two cores used earth magic.
'I'm getting the gist of it.' He smiled, now in a moderately sized hole.
"What was it that exploded? I felt a soft surface like that crystal that those monsters had… w-wait a minute, those monsters talked!?"
[Only now you noticed?]
"That was a hectic situation, what do you expect?" He groaned.
[What caused the explosion were those stalactites some of them are quite volatile and explode at the briefest touch]
"What can you see? Also, you're rather talkative today." Compared to when he was with Aurelianne that all she did was say some nuisance warnings, she was talking a lot now.
[I'm your secretary, not your nanny… as for before, why must I be around while the two of you act like two perverts?] Her delicate voice contained so much disdain.
"…" He would have denied was it not the truth, he and Aurelianne were indeed acting rather brazen, mostly due to the lack of anyone else in that world.
[As for what I can witness… I can only see what your senses perceive, and feel what you feel] She explained.
"Hoho~ so you felt-" He began but she stopped him even before the thought concluded.
[Shut up or you're doing this on your own] Her voice contained rage.
"Okay, okay… but before we do anything, I believe introductions are in order… I still don't know who you are and this whole punishment thing, you owe me an explanation… also, you said only after becoming a magus I would earn any qualification, you're quite arrogant you know." He sat cross-legged in this pit, he could feel he had enough magic to endure for a while.
This conversation is important for him, at least he desired to know who was spouting nonsense in his mind all the time.
[As I said before, my name is Zebellia… indeed, I'm a Time Valkyrie a unique creature of the universe, a guardian of the time axis. Having an exalted existence like me by your side, Hmph, that's not something some pathetic mortal like you can comprehend.]
"…" Let alone not comprehending her existence, he didn't even understand half of the words she said.
[It means that I guard time itself. The past, present, and future, dumbo!] She explained further seeing the stupid face he was making.
Clearly, he didn't have a clue.
"I see, then I'm Constantine." He said simply, what was the use of introducing titles that no longer mattered in this life?
It was then that he recalled there were several titles that he did indeed hold.
"Champion of the Goddess of Life, husband of five more goddesses~" He could take pride in these.
[Conqueror, Emperor, God Aspirant, I know the story… what do you want to know…? You might not be a magus yet, but you're getting there] She literally rolled her eyes, were she to have any.
"Why are you here?"
[You were daring enough to play around and impregnate five goddesses during one of their thousand of samsaras… not only that but with your wicked ways you corroded their minds enough to not want to live without you, hence stoping their slumber and restoration, that's the reason I'm here conqueror… this title befits you better than 'Emperor' dare I say]
"I still don't understand, how are they connected to you and those punishments?" What's more ridiculous is why having relations with Aurelianne can somehow trigger a punishment from the 'heavens'.
It was more like she wanted to bully him!
[To make it simple, having earned the blessing of five goddesses, you're fated to never be human again, to reach Godhood, one has to accomplish three requirements, once two of them have been met, there is no going back… you're in the path to Godhood; the universe shall deliver to you the God Ascension Trial, but this trial is only for those that have met the second requirement, so you're lucky in that regard]
"…" Attentive like never before, he listened.
[The first requirement is to have obtained a faith of your own and be a candidate for a particular divinity, you have achieved this, the inhabitants of your empire considered you nearly a God]
[The second requirement is to have received the blessing of a divine being, either directly or through faith… direct blessings are way stronger, you have six of them, one of them from a higher Goddess even, but you also have the curse from a higher god, so those are nullified. Perhaps in the entire universe, only you have this luck] Her voice even contained jealousy, one that he didn't comprehend.
[The third requirement is to have a null Karma meter, this is where you fail… and the purpose of the God Ascension Trial is to fix this and have you course a path to ascend to Godhood, as for me, I'm simply an entity attached to you, surveying your movements and handing the program on your stead, that's all]
"I have several questions."
[Ask away, but beware of your mana levels, if you run out of mana here, you're going to die]
He knew that much, but curiosity as always is a human-derived curse.
"What exactly happened to my wives?"
[To recover from a particular war, they were to do a thousand samsaras to recover their divine bodies, after roughly half of it, they all met you in that same cycle… experienced boundless feelings that awoke them from the samsara slumber and even gave you their blessing inadvertently, now…
none of them desires to continue the samsara cycle, all of them desire for you to become a god and be with them in the Divine Realms] She said, dodging a particular point quite conveniently, one that he didn't dig upon.
"…" He remained there, thinking for a while with a prideful smile.
'If that's the case, then I have to become a foe as fast as I can… just fixing my Karma, I was a good emperor so it can't be that bad…' He thought inwardly with enthusiasm.
"How can I check my Karma points or whatever."
[It is usually not shown, but I guess I can make an exception since your condition is special. Your Karma meter is like this…]
**
**
[Status]
Name: Constantine Lionheart (de Castile)
…
[Magus Rank: None]
[Magic: Light, Flora, Wind, Water, Earth, Fire]
[Karma: -9.080.888.100 (Nine Billion)]
**
**
He started at that phantom screen for such a long time, eventually, he laughed.
It was a burst of lively laughter at that.
"Haha, I think you made a mistake, Zebellia~"
[I didn't… the calculation isn't done by me, it is done by the Universal Fate Jewel… should I summarise your history?~] Her voice contained so much poison as if she was about to deliver a bomb to his self-esteem.
"…"
[Let's see, from the most meaningless to the most important events of your life that affected causality, you were one of the most influential existences in that world, without you, its fate would have been entirely different, however, you condemned the world just to grow your great empire, creating vicious circles of hatred that wouldn't stop until at least a hundred generations later.]
She went page by page.
[You destroyed at least a thousand five hundred million acres of land in your battles for conquering in the last fifty years]
[You burned two forests that couldn't be recovered for the next two thousand years]
"They started it!" He yelled straight away, what else could he do? They were being besieged!
[Throughout your life, you slept with a total of ten thousand and thirty wives, from whom five thousand separated from their husbands, a total of three hundred were nobles; disrupting an effectively functional family that was fated to produce children that would create great revolutions.]
"If you say it like that, I feel like shit."
[Not only that but when you coveted the lady, you slaughtered the husbands, here there is a premise as most of those were truly evil, with only ten of them being innocent… hence, the score didn't vary in this case]
"You see!?"
[But then again, you ended up breaking the hearts of thousands of ladies by leaving them after conquering their hearts from whom later in their life, at least three hundred committed suicide, not that you knew… did you think that just because you gave them money and riches, that was enough? Foolish.] She spoke neutrally as if passing the pages of a sheet.
The sheet of his life.
"…" His heart constricted, and it no longer felt like a joke.
[Let's not forget about Isabella…]
"Please, don't mention her…"
[Very well, it didn't alter the score anyway, the four children that you had with her became great citizens and hence, those are positive points for karma, meaningless in front of the sea of negativity I am afraid.]
[You destroyed a total of three Kingdoms, conquering their land, slaughtering a total of three million people indirectly, at least thirty per cent of humanity during that period.]
[You slaughtered a total of two thousand people with your own hands, from whom twenty were innocent civilians whom you wrongly judged]
"…" He didn't have anything to say about that, for those crimes related to the empire, he felt no guilt.
[From your five wives, and also, Isabella… you viciously slaughtered four of their soul mates which they were fated to join with during that Samsara, only Hector remained… because he was smart enough.]
"I won't apologise for that!"
[Stubborn…]
[The majority of your positive points concentrate on the fact that you resolved your wicked ways after Caroline got pregnant for the first time, you also worked hard to place your family at the top of the world,
You might have treated the entire world like worthless trash, but at least with your family and Empire, you were considerate… those were a lot of positive points]
[In summary, your involvement in the world ended up creating the second most powerful dynasty in the history of that world, for the next hundred thousand years, the Lionheart Dynasty]
"I didn't want it to be called that, it's not called that!" The mentioning of that name produced an unexpected reaction, he wasn't willing!
[It can be whatever you wish, but in history, that's how it was called… ten generations down the line, some of your father's descendants took the throne from your grand grandchildren, switching the name permanently into the prominent Lionheart Dynasty, sad, right?]
"NOOO!!"
*RUMBLE!!*
Losing control of his powers, the soil collapsed yet again on top of his pitiful self.
He couldn't accept it!
All of his achievements would be labelled after that bastard's surname!
[This is what Karma is like… I'm Zebellia, and I'll be the one distributing your punishment through the duration of the trial.]