C138: End of the Abyss P20
Overall Word count = 1956 on 9/2/2024.
Alt Title teaser: Second Round
Because of Lily the group is forced to rest for even longer, so Axel takes this moment ot bring out Sabrina to feed her while checking up on Araba and Tiona inside his noble phantasm.
Axel told Araba to either lay claim to one of the homes or carve out it's own cave in the hills and it could be redecorated to be more comfortable later. Axel also promised to help Araba regain its power due to him draining the drake.
As for Tiona, he mentally created a clone body for him to control as he finally confronted the amazoness. Tiona was quite wary of the environment as one moment she was about to touch Axel and the next she was here and alone. She didn't know if she had suffered from an ambush or not since she was still quite emotionally and mentally distraught for a while now.
Axel began to walk up to her within the village center. She took a vigilant stance as she didn't initially recognize Axel in his child state as when they met, he was already in his post teen state (stage 1 = child, stage 2 Axel = late teens. with stage 3 being demigod).
"We're gonna fight again?" Axel's tone is a bit accusatory but Tiona was able to at least recognize his voice.
"Axel?"
"Yes" he confirms and she drops her arms, quickly losing her caution as she has long seen the repercussions of her actions of trying to kill his firstborn. Sure it was under the instigation of the world's Will that forced her to fight him. Yet she was in control in the beginning, her desire to prove herself to Axel with her strength had left her negligent to the real actions she was forced to do. When she didn't resist, it allowed the World Will to be able to possess her body after Tiona herself was knocked unconscious.
"I'm sorry" Tiona says with a guilty look on her face.
"I see." He simply responds which only makes Tiona feel more pressured as she understands that Axel won't readily forgive her for her actions. Especially since their meeting had been over-delayed for a while now. Of course she is not fully guilting on that matter since her soul was quite injured by Axel which directly put her into a coma for a week, and even then she had been feeling the aftereffects on her emotions which could have very well killed her if she was still mortal due to not eating for multiple days in a row even after her week-long.
An awkward silence pervades the air before Tiona says, "I wish to make it up to you"
"It would be a long process"
"I understand but I will work hard to regain your trust. What do I have to do?"
"Abandon the outside world" He says without any hesitation. If this was Tiona from a few months ago, she would have been confused by the statement but with her current divinity, she had long been explained about how the connection to the world is the reason for her power as a demi-god. While she is hesitant to lose out on all her power and excuse all the suffering she experienced to integrate the power into herself. She also resolves herself to properly fulfill any wish of Axel to regain his trust.
"Ok"
With her confirmation, Axel has a mana thread created from the core of his noble phantasm extending to Tiona. She is confused by the intrusion as she can see the thin thread simply touch her belly but nothing happens until Axel concentrates his power to use his [devourer] to drain out the connection to the outside world's will and thus the world itself. Yet in it's place, a bundle of threads which appeared from that singular thread splitting off into smaller threads which piled up to create a small bundle that linked her to Axel's inner world. [1]
Tiona has a confused expression as she finds that she is not losing her power but her body is still undergoing a sort of metamorphosis as her body seems to crack like a broken porcelain doll. The cracks spread all over her body until they reached their limits and snapped off her.
"AHH!!! My breasts" Tiona has regained her original appearance but with a new kind of strength. With her new connection to the Village of Origin, she is able to call upon a minor version of Axel's various soul fragments. Of course she still retained 75% of her enhanced strength and a bit of control over the strength law that she possessed before but she can tell that her speed of energy recovery is not as fast.
Though of course Tiona is not fully happy since she really liked her demigod appearance since her breasts were bigger than her sisters and she felt that Axel also liked them. This is true but Axel also liked her previous appearance as they wouldn't have had such passionate sex back in the dungeon when she initially offered herself to him.
Tiona fully absorbs the knowledge of her newfound power with her body (instinctually) does she look up at Axel with a slightly hesitant expression as she doesnt know what to expect next from him, "What's the next step?"
Axel materializes some clothes for her to wear as her current clothes are not suitable for her. Yet Tiona is only more confused as the outfit in question is a veryyyyyy skimpy maid outfit that would have made Haruhime ashamed when she took the initiative during one of their previous sex sessions.
"You will essentially be my maid here for 3 months. After that you will be free to go and my grudge will be settled" A peculiar light shines in his eyes as he envisions her in this outfit. His soul fragments suck at giving his mental body some stress relief every time he is previously killed by the stage 2 village ghost.
While it's a feeble argument since his current body is still a mental projection that he fights with but it satisfies his newly re-established ego. He might put her in a few other costumes as well, maybe cow print. He soon shakes his head as Tiona isn't busty enough to make it work for him.
Tiona can only change into the maid outfit with a pout but she can feel him ogling her which she likes as she can finally feel his desire for her. But Axel's look is interrupted as something is happening in the outside world. He creates a screen to help her see what he sees so that she is not actually outright bored in his inner world.
Disappearing from his inner world, he opens his eyes and is nearly blinded by the sudden onslaught of the second golden pillar that originates from the dungeon. Lily has a happy expression on her face as she can feel her connection to the source of the pillar. This tells her that the same divinity that she was bestowed was also bestowed onto this second person.
Orario goes into another layer of shock when a second set of godhood has been granted to a mortal within the same day. Though they are starting to feel dumb due to all the recent changes of this past year. Though one person has a more visceral reaction upon seeing who was the person inside the golden pillar is.
"What a strange feeling." Finn Deimne can't help but comment as he tries to sort out the different sensations that his body is undergoing. When he realizes the situation with the golden pillar he clears his throat.
"Apologies for that. As a formal introduction, My name is Finn Deimne, the captain of the Loki Familia in Orario. In my past life I went by the name of Dim, the brother of Fianna and vice commander of the Fianna knights. While I would love to further enhance my race further alongside my sister, I recognize that order needs to be established in the world. I am willing to continue to assist the Loki familia to serve as this pillar of order. I extend an ownerless blessing upon all adventurers of Orario, present and future ones. The more the idea of justice you hold closer to your heart, the more you shall receive, the world as my witness." He says with finality and a golden glow covers all adventurers within just the single city of Orario.
"FINNNN, Are you trying to kill me" Loki yells out in rage as she is angered by the revelation of all the world that would be forced upon her and her familia. She thrashes around for a good while before being tired out, she makes her way to her bed while muttering about how this all just a bad dream and everything will be right again when she wakes up.
"Ah right, sorry Loki. ill make it up to you when we get back" Finn suddenly adds as if he could hear Loki screaming at him. The pillar begins to disappear but the golden glow of the blessing spreads throughout all of Orario to every active adventurer. Even Axel and his group receive this sizable boost. Yet there are two groups that experience the greatest effect of the blessing. This is the Loki familia which Finn directly blessed as the pillar of justice and the other is the members of the Ganesha familia who have already been actively taking on the role of Orario's justice for years.
"I AM GANESHA" the god proclaims his joy at the growth that his children experience, especially the fact that it's an ownerless blessing which means that the blessing would essentially take on his own form and not try to take his children away due to how concentrated the blessing it that it could forcefully split the falna if it was not otherwise ownerless. Lily's blessing was too widespread that it did not actually have the possibility of this change but Finns was the opposite.
Of course for all the regular citizens who actively got a falna to capitalize upon Axel's magic item and the stats gained from its repeated usage. They all created a new nightmare for the guild as their falna are all trifecta falnas which means that it's very easy for Finn to have overridden at least one subsidiary slot there. Very quickly creating the largest known familia in Orario
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Alt Title: Chatting, Divinity and Blessing
[1] For anyone who remembers mention about the divinity stuff in relation to his noble phantasm, there was mention about how he would need a week or more to allow a demigod to be created. But that is the key word, created. He did not create a new god with this procedure but stole a demi god from the world. Essentially making Tiona a 50-50 with Axel and the world as her source of divinity. That loss of 50% is why her physical body changed back to her original state while retaining most of her strength, in fact her power is more diverse since she took in most of Axel's fragments powers (a weaker version tho).
On the other hand, with Axel accepting the true form of Rimuru and Great sage's power, his connection to the slime's personality is slightly higher in case you are confused by his personality shift again. This would be the final actual shift in personality until he grows a bit older and his mindset settles down which should happen around when we finally arrive at the fate world.