Chapter 162: Forever Human

It took Leandra a whole day and night to get away from Shaoun Plain, even with flight. She returned to Rohuang in the dead of night.

The marble city was still up at night, welcoming another shadow into its embrace. In the form of a human, Leandra quietly made her way to the temple. She had already released The Plague Garden with her concealment Hexes, letting the slime get back there first.

She hummed her lullaby as she walked down the busy street. Leandra enjoyed watching the ignorant expressions of the people around, while sensing her song inside their minds. She remembered she was quite good at singing; her choir voice was beautiful and pure. Now she sang for a different purpose.

Stopping by a food stand under a lamppost, she browsed the selection of food. Mostly various types of meat scraps fried in batters, mixed in with way too much flour, or fried batter. All were on skewers.

She could tell the vendor kept the food warm by stealing electricity from the city's power grid to maintain the heater inside.

"What do you recommend?", she asked the vendor.

"If you can't choose, I recommend the mixed.", he pointed over to the menu, "Three Hern per serving, miss!"

Leandra nodded, "Then two servings for me, please."

She discreetly pulled out the exact bills from her shadow, giving it to the vendor - who graciously accepted. Leaning against the lamppost, Leandra observed the surroundings.

Perhaps the night was still young, with her being the first customer had invited others to try. Resulting in the location becoming much more lively.

Having to act fast, the vendor gave Leandra her two servings in paper boxes. With a nod, she accepted and walked away.

She could feel her shadow rumbling; no doubt it was Tianzai Natil. Even now, The Heavenly Slaughter still tries to break out...

Why do you eat when you can't even taste?

It's malicious voice came to her mind. It was breaking free— oh, nevermind. Leandra felt Order binding it up again.

"I eat because I want some semblance of normalcy.", she stated, not caring if Tianzai Natil could hear her.

Ah, why don't I test something?

She grew two more arms to carry her meals. With Cloak and Silence active, nobody should be noticing her unless they are searching hard for her. Dodging and weaving around where the lights don't shine, her natural affinity with darkness makes her even harder to notice.

Feeling every consciousness around, she can hear the sounds of abuse, people laughing in blissful joy, those going to bed early, people scheming to overthrow the government. It was chaotic. Though she didn't find what she wanted in this part...

Rohuang is separated into four layers; each layer has four to six districts. The innermost layer is the Imperial Palace, where the imperial family resides. Then the Flower Garden, both housing for officials and a gigantic defensive Mystical Item.

Where she is now is the Inner City, the residential area for both commoners and nobles. This place could be separated into two more layers, since it is very obvious where the nobles live. This is also where the main temple is.

Leandra decided to ignore the Outer City, where immigrants and the homeless gather. Those people are not her concern.

She was looking for faint consciousness of people nearing the end of their lives. Old folks who are waiting to go quietly...

Or...

"Found it.", she grinned.

Leandra sank into the darkness, leaving her food caged in Cursed Constructs...

"Help my sister and me..."

She heard a prayer.

"Goddess of Vengeance, Faceless Twilight who hunts down evil..."

It was a cry of pain and suffering. Leandra can infer from the tone and flickering consciousness... this boy doesn't have much time left. Reaching her tendrils out, she entered the boy

"What will you offer for your vengeance?", she asked in his mind.

He flinched, the pain from sudden movement almost knocking him out. Leandra noted that the wound was more severe than she thought.

Blood stained the entire room; every bit of furniture was covered in blood. The room itself looked decent if not for the blood and entrails dragged across the tables and chairs as decoration. His stomach was hollowed out by some sadistic monster.

"I... will offer my body... my life...", he prayed, "So please... save my sister..."

Leandra waited for a moment, then her form appeared in front of him.

"I accept."

She ended his life in an instant. Cursed Constructs erupted around to form a barrier of thorns. This body's condition is terrible, but she got what she needed.

"Soul Morph."

Leandra crouched beside the boy and placed her hand on his chest.

Soul Morph was not a gentle ability. It did not ask permission from what it unmade.

She pushed her will into the corpse and felt the resistance immediately, the body's lingering shape clinging to what it had been, the last habit of matter that had once been alive.

Leandra pressed through it. The flesh responded slowly at first, then all at once, softening under her hands like wax brought too close to heat. The wound sealed itself as the body rebuilt from the inside. Ribs shifted and resettled. The hollowed stomach filled in, organ by organ, the architecture of a living thing reassembling under her direction.

Every missing body part was replaced with Cursed Constructs, adjusted to her need.

Bone structure changed with a series of sounds she had learned to enjoy, morphing the body to the biological level. Changing this from male to female.

The face was last; she smoothed the boy's features away without ceremony and replaced them with a face that was hers.

Golden eyes opened in the dark. Leandra flexed the new hands, testing the range of motion, checking the joints. She rolled her neck and felt the spine settle properly into place. The muscle density was poor and would need time to correct itself. That can be adjusted later.

The Cursed Constructs around her dissolved and turned into her clothes. She retrieved her food from where she had caged it with a flick of her hand.

The cage crashed through the windows on spider legs, delivering itself to Leandra. She picked out one of the boxes and opened it. With slightly clumsy movements, she picked out a fried skewer.

And ate it.

For the first time in a long time, she was able to genuinely taste food.

"Hehe..."

It was substandard, might not even be clean. Well, it was contaminated with blood.

"Hehe..."

Too much seasoning, awful to eat alone. Chewy at that.

"Hehe..."

But she cannot stop eating. Leandra didn't know she missed a normal body this much... I am not a true monster at all.

Whether she was the remnants of a dead person, a mockery created by the Divine Domain, or something else. Leandra doesn't care at this moment.

Through twisted means, she had obtained an organic body (mostly intact). Eating and being able to enjoy food made her realize how precious life was.

If she could continue like this.

"Oh, I forgot you were here.", she spoke coldly.

Crystal hands erupted from the walls, pinning the creature that was lumbering inside.

A Horror... she mused.

Was this the thing causing this bloodshed?

While still eating a skewer, she approached the Horror in the corridor. It still retained its humanoid shape, though more lanky and tall. Its face was still that of a man, but with bulbous compound eyes. Its body was covered in beating fly wings, as if trying to fly with a body this big. An abomination of life itself.

In the past, Lea would've gagged at the sight of this thing. But Leandra just felt curious.

"Do you remember who you are?", she pointed at it with a skewer.

She couldn't read its jumbled thoughts. It still has consciousness, but its will is lower than that of a beast.

"Hex.", she stabbed it with the finished skewer and proceeded to inject the Horror with thousands of curses.

Its body decayed rapidly in agony. It struggled to break free from her binds, so much so it broke its bones—

"GUUUAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

It let out a cry, shattering the windows. But Leandra had already silenced this place; nobody could hear it scream.

More Cursed Constructs erupted, holding it in place. There are more things she wants to test...

The yellow dark spirit came out of her, and she spoke the Saga's name, "Rule of Brimstone."

Her body was instantly dressed in a royal garment, covering her clothes. Designating this corridor as the affected area, Leandra then spoke the rule.

"Whoever is taller than 2,5 meters will be subjected to the Rule of Brimstone."

The Horror groaned once more; Leandra could see the piece of brimstone glowing in its stomach. For the record, Leandra is 175 centimeters tall in this body, while the Horror is closer to 3 meters.

The agony and despair of the monster. Instinctive, raw emotions were like food for her. Savoring every bite with a gentle, sadistic smile.

Combined with her skewers, she became well fed in both body and mind. It took 3 minutes for the struggle to end, with the Horror melted into a puddle of rotten ooze. She also finished the first serving, using her curses to rot the entire box into dust.

What a nice and fulfilling time... Leandra mused.

Before going to the temple, she needed to fulfill her end of the deal... to protect this body's sister. She had already found that little girl.

Walking down the stairs, this house seemed pretty good. Not quite upper class but close, a house made of marble and wood, decorated with various paintings and a set of honor medals. A noble who accomplished himself in warfare.

But she went deeper into the basement... she frowned at the sight. A little girl, barely ten from her appearance, trapped in a cage with only a mush-filled dog bowl in front of her.

She pulled out The Heavenly Slaughter from her shadow and swung lightly. Cutting off the top of the cage. There was no greater humiliation than this for a Lord of Annihilation. Used as a tool for salvation.

The girl stared at Leandra with vacant eyes, hollow and lifeless. Disheveled black hair that wasn't washed for weeks. She is definitely still breathing, still alive.

"Your brother traded his life for your safety.", she spoke coldly, "I am here to protect you."

She reached her hand out to the little girl.

It was then Bashie chimed in, "You should probably keep her close."

Leandra flinched slightly, "What...?"

"That girl there... is the key to reviving the Primordial God of this world."

=0=0=

The Holy See, Centralpha.

The Holy See is a city on top of a mountain, an impenetrable fortress protected by both geography and the numerous paladins stationed around here.

It was the destination every faithful wished to reach. A white and gold fortress playing grand hymns almost every hour of the day, replacing the songs with quiet serenity in the night.

Yet that serenity was shattered today.

Armored Paladins fell one by one, trying to stop one single person. The silver master of Earth breached the holy city; behind her, a storm of blue particles formed man catchers.

Each time a Paladin or any other person wanted to stop her, the man catchers launched at sub-sonic speed. Overwhelming, yet gentle.

"I've been looking at your actions for a long time, Yahweh.", she stares into the night sky.

"On Earth, you are hailed as a kind and merciful god, the god people seek comfort in. Well, that was after the New Testament."

Her voice carries a disappointing tone.

"Yet here you are, fighting against the natives of a world five galaxies away. The balance between good and evil itself, yet you can't even dominate the Sularao's willpower."

"The Almighty, The Primogen Almighty. The strongest Star God, you are... weak."

Violent and temperamental, that is the Old Testament God. They landed on Earth as a God of War, becoming the epitome of monotheism. Yet to Charlotte, that God and this one were not the same.

A blinding bolt of lightning came down, meant to punish Charlotte for her transgression. A silver knight appeared behind her, blocking the divine smite harmlessly.

"You cannot defeat me, Almighty."

There is a reason why the New Testament God is different from the Old Testament God. That difference being the man named Joseph.

God is omnipotent and omniscient, yet He does not know humanity. Despite studying them and watching over them for a long time. He was ignorant of humanity.

When one of His whole came, He chose a man to be His father. To redeem humanity from the clutches of that Black Dragon, He just needed someone who could take care of The Salvation Walker's earthly form, a man named Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Yet that man, despite knowing it wasn't his own son. A humble man, a man who taught God about humility, hard work, love, courage, and more. Joseph of Nazareth, Saint Joseph, the man who taught God about humanity, about what it means to be a human.

That was how God changed.

Yet this world, The Almighty never sent down an earthly incarnation, never found any reason to redeem this world.

For Charlotte, this was enough ground to defeat The Almighty. But she won't, not today.

"You had suppressed the chaos that was meant to happen. The return of Attributes, the loss of thirty percent of the world's population, The Still Fantasy's appearance. Even now, you are suppressing The Crystaline Spread's infection from taking over the North."

There are many more achievements of The Three Rings, unspoken, unpraised. Ultimately, the God of Equilibrium kept on performing Their duty.

"So, for the sake of this world. I want you to stop your interference for a day. Only a day.", her smile turned wicked, "Then you can swoop in, saving the day."

"As for why I would want that..."

"Suffering builds character, after all. For this World, it would be fair for them to fight for themselves, a fair reward for a fair amount of pain."

"What do you think? The you who never learned Humanity?"