In a dark place, Artoria awakenes.
She is lying down, so she stands up and looks around. The place she is at seems mystical.
It's like the there isn't any floor, or walls or roofing, or the sky. All she sees is misty darkness.
Amongst the darkness she sees 2 huge eggs. Both of them seem to be made of blue ice. One is around 3 meters tall and the other is about 2.5 meters.
She walks over to the smaller egg and kicks it, for no reason at all. It was not a strong kick, but a kick is a kick.
"Hmm. Seems real." She says.
She walks around the place, but she never seems to be able to walk farter from the eggs than a certain distance. Or rather, it feels like wherever she walks, the eggs follow her.
"Now what the fuck is going on?" She scratches her head and mutters in confusion.
Artoria is very confused. The last thing she remembers is freaking out in the warehouse, after she turned into her female form.
"What the hell happened..." She mumbles. Her confusion just seems to be piling up more and more, as she thinks. None of this makes sense.
"Did I black out?" She questions. Then she tries to conjure ice, but fails to do so.
This irritates her, so she tries punching to create a shockwave. Yet no shockwave is created. This makes her even more confused.
'What is this place? Did I go to hell?' She thinks.
Her cognition isn't cutting it, so she lays back down, with her arms behind her head. Her solution to this irritatingly confusing situation is just to wait until something happenes.
She gets bored of waiting within minutes, so she starts to meditate and feel within herself. Except she can't feel anything. It's the same feeling as if a normal human was meditating. Your thoughts stop and you're hyper aware of your body. But there is no mysterious feeling like in cultivation novels.
She keeps meditating until an indefinite amount of time.
"Hello." A voice awakes her from her deep meditation. Her eyes snap open and she is up within a second.
In front of her is a woman clad in white. Her hair is white, her skin is white. The dress she wears is white. Except for her eyes, which are pale yellow, everything else is white.
"Who are you?" Artoria questions.
To the question, the white woman tilts her head and seemingly contemplates her answer. "I am your mother... I suppose." She finally answers.
"I think you are mistaken. I know my mother and she does not look like you." Artoria answers with a sneer.
"I do not mean your birth mother, Kel Lucifer. I mean the one who made you into Artoria." The woman answers with a deep gaze.
"I see." Is all Artoria says. The two continue to just stare at each other for some time, until the white woman breaks the stare down.
"You are the first of my children to break past your mortal parameters and enter metamorphosis." The woman explains. "However..."
The woman tilts her head again and looks up and down Artoria.
"However?" Artoria urges the strange woman to explain.
"It seems that it is incomplete." The woman says.
Artoria is very much intrigued by what this woman is talking about. But she doesn't let herself get too attached to her curiosity, as that is detrimental to having control of the conversation.
"Before you explain, can I know your name?" Artoria asks.
"...I don't have one." The white woman answers after a pause.
"Then how about... Amalthea." Artoria quickly thinks of a name and offers it. It has no deep meaning, it just sounds pure and ethereal. Kind of like the woman.
"Amalthea... Then call me Amalthea." The woman seems to accept the name.
"I will." Artoria says. The womans facial expressions don't seem to be working. Since she hasn't changed her blank facial expression since Artoria first saw her.
"What are you?" Artoria asks.
"That is not required for you to know." Amalthea answers.
"Then what is required of me?" Artoria aks.
"Grow stronger. And help your sisters grow stronger. You are my favorite child so far. Please keep on evolving." Amalthea answers in her slow and awkward way of speaking.
"Hmm." Artoria narrows her eyes for a second, then reverts back to her usual expression. "If I am your favourite child, do I get a gift?" She half jokingly adds.
"My presence here is a gift." The woman says. Artoria feels like this woman is an idiot now. What kind of answer is that?!?
"What are these eggs?" She chooses to be the bigger woman and ignores her feelings.
"That is you." Amalthea points to the bigger egg. "And that is your familiar. The one you named Snow." She points at the smaller one.
"If that is me, then how am I talking to you right now?" Artoria questions.
"We are speaking through conciousness." Amalthea says. Artoria doesn't understand what the fuck she means, but she has so many questions that she doesn't even think of clarifying.
"Alright. Now explain what you said about the change that occurred in my metamorphosis. Why was it incomplete?" Artoria continues the barrage of questions. It's a bit unnerving how Amalthea continues to answer without protest. It's like talking to some sort of A.I.
"Originally you are supposed to evolve into a goddess, when you enter metamorphosis. But due to not being powerful enough and because your evolution was interrupted, your metamorphosis was seperated into two parts. You will now evolve into a demi-god. When you are eligible for your second metamorphosis, then you will evolve into a goddess.
Additionally you were supposed to evolve into a goddess with an royal ice elf bloodline. However it was changed to Seraphim, the highest order of angel." Amalthea explains
Artoria is suprised by this information. When you learn that you are becoming a god, who wouldn't be. Still she gets over her suprise quickly and doesn't let this information affect her emotions. All of this is still unconfirmed, so Artoria chooses to remains skeptical for now.
"What is this bloodline? If I'm turning into a god, how is that bloodline relevant to me?" Artoria asks.
"Your bloodline will dictate your divinities and the type of god you are... Perhaps it's easier to understand it like this. Imagine your race suddenly changed from human to seraphim. Then the you, as a seraphim, acended to godhood." Amalthea explains uncharacteristically smoothly.
"Haahhh." Artoria sighs as she digests all the information she has recieved so far.
"It seems you are about to wake up." Amalthea suddenly says. Artoria looks at her in suprise, but her thoughts are interupted by the white woman. "Goodbye, my child."
The woman suddenly fades away, leaving Artoria speechless. This was the most awkward conversation she has had in her life!
Soon Artoria's vision soon fades.
....
....
....
After the countries decided to reveal the existance of Deas, as expected there was quite a bit of chaos.
Several protests arose, demanding Deas to be regulated by the government. This of course was what the world powers were aiming for, when they disclosed the information. One must not underestimate their ability to manipulate the masses.
The chaos didn't go any further than that. The Deas, as powerful as they are, occupy only a small fraction of the populace. There are around 30 000 living Deaz worldwide. So given their rarity, a portion of the people considered them as ghost stories. And it's not like anyone will know you are a Dea until you choose to reveal yourself. There aren't any ways to determine who's who...
Given that fact, not much changed. The goverments created organisations to recruit Deas. Under the guise of "registering" them. However that only mattered for some Deas. Most of them took the actions of the governent as a joke.
The 7 factional organisations did not experience much of a difference as well. After all they have insane war potential, since they are organised. It's not an exaggeration to claim that one Dea organisation could take on the military of multiple countries at the same time.
No, it's even more than that. Should a faction decide to mount a strategic attack on someone, no ordinary person could stop them. They would only have the option to employ the help of another faction, in order to survive.
Countries did try to put a lot of pressure on the factions organisations, but that backfired on them. The Factions managed to thwart their attempts to control them. This opened up an oppurtinity for the Deas to join the council of the world powers. Certainly an unexpected outcome for the ones in power.
Now as 6 months have passed since the day the existance of Deas were revealed, the situation of the world has stabilized.