'Tooonnngggggg!'
The sound of a large bell ringing spread through an ancient temple which consisted of only a roof and a single pillar which supported the entire roof without actually being in contact with it.
The pillar was placed at the exact centre of the entire construction and surrounded by a circular table.
A few dozen chairs were placed around the table which was expanding and contracting at a speed of more than thousands times in a second.
Each chair was occupied by one of the several humanoid creatures sitting with their eyes closed and a serene expression.
All of them abruptly opened their eyes when they heard the sound and looked towards the pillar at the centre of the temple which was vibrating slowly.
"Which one of you is it?" A domineering voice resounded in this place that was beyond the concept of space and time. As soon as the words were spoken, thousands of stars in the sky burst apart without leaving any sound in the vacuum and millions of planets crumbled within a second, killing any life forms present on them.
All the beings who were awoken from their slumber turned towards a single being who was sitting at one of the chairs with a domineering stance and a face full of murderous intentions as he looked at each of them simultaneously without any hint of care for the destruction caused by his voice.
"Why do you think that it is one of us?" A pleasant feminine voice asked.
The owner of the previous voice turned around and stared at one of the female creatures who looked exactly like a human with dozens of wings sprouting from her back. She smiled lightly as her light green hair fluttered gently without any air.
With but a smile from her, the thousands of supernovae which were formed earlier turned back to stars and the planets formed once again with new life appearing on them.
"Is it you?" The man from earlier asked while staring at her.
"No. Why do you think that someone of us has to be involved for this to happen? You should know that they built the Celestinium for this purpose. All of us here are also their creations, so you should know that even if we are beyond everything, we are still bound by the True Fate. But to them, True fate is nothing but a joke which can be changed to their liking without lifting a finger."
"You have planted so many of your worshippers and have been manipulating the various forces and races in the Celestinium for so many millennia just to stop what they said from coming true. You even went as far as to manipulate fate and destiny, but at this very moment, the result is before us to see. Despite all your efforts, you don't even know which creature caused this phenomenon. Do you? I suggest you stop before it is too late."
"Humphhh!" To the other party's suggestion, the male silhouette snorted in disdain. It looked at everyone else sitting around the table once and then closed its eyes. One after another, all the other silhouettes closed their eyes after taking a glance at the pillar.
At this moment, Kyle who was covered in a cocoon which depicted the entire universe on its surface was completely ignorant of what he was going through, let alone the reactions he caused to those existences Who surpassed the definition of omnipotence and were worshipped by Gods. And they weren't the only ones.
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On a floor of the Ascension Temple which no human had ever been to, a humanoid creature stood before another one of its species which was sitting on a three metres high throne.
"Leader, we have lost one of the corpses." A creature that looked like Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god but with four hands, two like a human's and two like a werewolf's said to another creature of the same species which was sitting on a mithril throne.
Seeing a disinterested expression in his leader's eyes, the creature continued...
"According to the data that we have collected, it was destroyed due to mana corruption. But the weird thing is that it was destroyed in a place with similar mana density as the enu(first) floor, but at the time of its destruction, the corruption rate had reached enoun hesl (two thousand) per ting(second)."
The disinterested look in the other creature's eyes immediately disappeared and was replaced with a look of interest.
"Do you know which world it was on and which race?" The creature on the throne asked.
"According to our calculations, it should be the TZs-700 world and it is an entrance world for the primates that call themselves humans." The creature standing below the throne said while adjusting something that looked like spectacles before its eyes.
"Alright, good job. I think that we had already planted our pawns among them a few Celcone (years) ago. I will talk with the monarchs to see if we can mobilise those pawns to investigate this." The creature sitting on the throne said with a frantical look when he mentioned the 'monarchs'.
The other creature prostrated before its leader for two minutes before leaving. Theirs was a race with a very clear distinction between ranks and positions and were very particular on the matter of paying respect to their superiors.
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"Are you feeling guilty? If so, double my reward and I may think about forgiving you." Kyle said.
Reiler's ears perked up when she heard Kyle say this.
"Didn't you say that ascenders don't really care about monetary rewards given by us?" Reiler made a pitiful expression while repeating Kyle's words.
"Oh, you are bargaining again. How..."
"Stop! Stop! I will give you the rewards once we get back to Aseles city." Reiler interrupted Kyle before he could continue. She didn't want to hear those two words again, especially in the same tone that he had used previously.
Kyle smirked lightly at her flustered tone.
"Re-Reiler what happened to you? And who is this person?" A weak voice was heard from behind Kyle.
"Are you sure that it was this place where that frightening coercion originated from?" Another voice was heard at the exact moment that Marcle Salts finished his questions.
"Grab your father and run." Kyle told Reiler who had just turned around to see her father who was staring at her from under the shade of a nearby tree.
"OK!" Reiler acted without even thinking and ran towards her father. She lifted up the baffled middle aged man and began running after Kyle, but stumbled and nearly fell down the next second.
Kyle looked at her with a hopeless expression and turned around. He put Marcel Salts at his back and unscrupulously grabbed Reiler's delicate waist and left in the direction opposite to where the voices were coming from. His speed this time was more than double of what it was earlier.
When Reiler, who had been put under Kyle's underarm once again processed what had happened, her entire face turned crimson. It was still acceptable if she was twelve years old, but now she is fifteen years old both physically and mentally.
Being carried in Kyle's underarm like this, she felt like dying of embarrassment. The only thought in her mind right now was to dig a hole to bury herself.
Kyle didn't know what was going in her head and just focussed on getting away without being noticed by anyone.
The price offered by those guilds for this mission was no joke. Kyle knew that those guilds definitely knew something about the scope of mission rewards, and now that he had hoarded all the mission rewards to himself, he was only inviting trouble if someone found out that he was the one who completed this mission.
Kyle carried the father-daughter pair till he reached the city gates and immediately entered it. Since all the inhabitants had disappeared, there was no one collecting the entrance fee or guarding the entrance.
"Where did you put your carriage?" Kyle asked while putting the two down just as he entered the city. He would only draw more attention to himself if he carried the two of them in such a manner.
"Th-there." Reiler said while pointing towards one direction. Her cheeks were still flushed.
"Alright, take your father to that building. They are using it as the temporary barracks and should have bandages and first aid with them.
And remember, do not utter a word about what happened in the forest."
"If someone asks about your father's injury, tell them that you had met some ascenders on your way to a nearby city and they attacked you out of the blue. Your carriage was robbed by them and they are responsible for your father's injury. You had to travel for three days on foot to reach here. Understood?"
" We will meet two hours later near the southern gate."
"Yes!" Reiler replied.
Kyle looked at them and nodded. Reiler's clothes had become dirty while fighting the corpse, while Marcel Salts' clothes were perfectly suited for the role he had been given.
After Kyle walked away, Marcel Salts who had been ignored for the past few minutes turned to his daughter and asked the question that had been bugging him for quite some time.
"Reiler, what is going on? What has happened to you? You look like you are a few years older than what I remember you to be a few days back, and also who was that ascender? Don't you hate ascenders, then why were you talking to him as if you know him quite well?"
"Dad, I will tell you everything, but first let's get something to wrap on your injuries. Al-also keep what ...sob..sob... what he said in mind and act like what he said is the truth." Reiler began crying as soon as she remembered the condition of her father.
Marcel Salts' heart melted when he saw his daughter crying so miserably.
"Okay!okay! I will do as you say. Please don't cry." Marcel said while wiping Reiler's tears with his handkerchief which had some stains of dirt on it. As soon as he saw the dirty handkerchief, Marcel threw it away without hesitation and began lamenting the fact that he didn't even have something to wipe his daughter's tears. He felt like he was a failure of a father.