Brand New Life Online: Rise Of The Goddess Of Harvest

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"Yes, of course, it's the least we could do."

Jannis nodded, as she explained to us who Aria was.

"Aria was one of the members of our circle. Our circle used to be much larger," said Jannis. "There were over twenty of us before. But most of them deserted, escaped, or ran away somewhere else. Aria was… alongside Jose, my childhood friends. We knew one another since we were kids, many years ago."

"Really? That long?" I wondered. "But she looked much younger…"

"That is because of the powers that Kalmas has granted her," said Jannis. "Kalmas has power over Death and Decay, naturally, aside from spreading this, she can also revert it, giving Aria and the other Blighters youthful bodies again. Although they come with the price of needing more Mana to maintain themselves, or they'll begin aging rapidly again."

"I wasn't there when it happened, but from what Grandpa Jose said…" Judith muttered. "Aria became a Blighter after her Nature Soul was shattered, right?"

"Yes," said Jannis. "Aria was… she lacked enough faith in herself. She was always the rashest of the three of us. But she was also like our sister, someone that protected us, and that we protected. She was unable to progress her Nature Soul over many years because of this personality of hers. She didn't want to meditate and calm down.

She would rather hunt and explore. She liked to lead others and train. But that also made it so she grew distant from her own concept."

"What… was her original concept?" I asked.

"Aria's Nature Soul was surprisingly not Phantom or something else," said Jannis. "It was a very rare one, Life."

"Just Life?" I wondered.

"Yes, like the one you acquired, goddess," Jannis nodded. "However… for the reasons I explained, and maybe… because we were unable to help her in time, maybe because we couldn't find the courage to help her. Maybe because… because we were too distracted taking care of the forest and the young'uns. We were unable to notice her problems, her inner demons eating away at her mind…"

"Y-You don't have to blame yourself for what happened, grandma…" Judith said. "I wasn't there but, it was thanks to you that I am here. That you took care of children means a lot."

"Aria took her own decisions. She was already an adult, an old one at that, you don't have to feel guilty for something like that, you weren't her mother or something," said Rudras. "Maybe she was wicked from the start…"

"No… my children, please don't say such things," Grandma Jannis sighed. "I simply was not there when she needed me, I was a bad friend, and therefore, it's my responsibility."

"But… how come not progressing a Nature Soul would make someone mad like that?" asked my daughter.

"It was over a long period of time, perhaps over fifty years," said Jannis. "While Jose and I further evolved our Nature Souls and our Wild Shape Spells, she stagnated, and grew weaker. She felt abandoned by the Forest Deity, she thought she preferred us instead of her. But our Deity simply wanted Aria to find her own inner peace first… but that never happened."

"So she…?" I asked.

"It is a terrible Ritual, a last resort for those that have lost all faith and hope to continue as Druids… a horrible ritual that has existed since time immemorial," sighed Jannis. "She stabbed her own Nature Soul with a magic-infused needle, shattering it.

Once a Nature Soul shatters and becomes corrupted through this trial, it becomes a Corrupted Nature Soul, it is also called Shattered Nature Soul, it has many names. Some call it… Fallen Soul. And from this moment, there's no turning back, her Nature Concept is twisted and turned into its opposite. And because hers was Life, it became Death."

"Did Kalmas had something to do with this?" I asked.

"Yes, perhaps she tempted her to do it," nodded Jannis. "When we ended abandoning her, that goddess, a new deity, promised her power beyond her limits. After all, if her Nature Concept of Life became one of Death, then she would become a perfect vessel and apostle for Kalmas, a Goddess of Death and Decay from Irish Mythology."

"Compared to other Gods of Death or the Underworld like Anubis, Thanatos, Hades, and so on, she's pretty much forgotten, huh?" wondered Elena. "I have never heard of such a goddess before."

"I researched her on Wikipedia, she's indeed very obscure, only being mentioned in a couple ancient Irish poems as more of a personification of death and decaying corpses than a goddess, although some also said she was indeed worshiped as one," said Mark. "To think such an obscure deity would become such a problem…"

"She had definitely played her cards well," said Jannis. "I believe Kalmas began a cult based on sacrifices from the corpses of graveyards for many years now.

Her cult kept her barely stable as a minor deity, but now that it must have likely disappeared over the years, she set her eyes on Aria… Perhaps she manipulated her to give the last step, so she could continue her existence through the Blighters that Aria would rise. The ones we fought were only a few, the majority must still be in Ireland. I believe she went back to find them.

whenever we met her again… We might fight the entire cult."

"H-How many are we talking about?" I asked.

"P-Perhaps… over a hundred," muttered Jannis.

"What?!" Rita gasped.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"S-Seriously?" Jenny muttered.

"Oh no…" Lily cried.

"How did she raise so many already?" I wondered. "Aren't Druids rare? Even rarer would be a Blighter that is a corrupted Druid, no?"

"Yes, in normal cases, but Aria is being helped by Kalmas," said Jannis. "She most likely forces a soul to become a Nature Soul somehow, and it corrupts itself immediately with the powers of Kalma. So she doesn't even need to first raise a Druid, anybody with enough talent for magic, or perhaps just the intention to join her would do so… even if doing this would severely reduce their lifespan."

"I see… This is really wicked," I sighed. "But… is killing them all really the way to do this? They're still people after all, we're not dealing with monsters."

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