Versatile: Alternate World

I have read before in some books in the Library of Sandurk about the Goddess of Life and also learned a few tidbits about her from Lucia. Despite being the symbol of light, her behavior and stance towards humans are quite different. Compared to what her followers keep on preaching, she is not a kind and benevolent god. She might be the one who gives the breath of life to almost every organism but she barely cares what happens to them. More like she enjoys experimenting with things in the fleeting lives of the people.

From the looks of the guy holding the two weapons of Pride, he is the guy who managed to receive the blessing of the Goddess of Life. And since he can't die even if he wanted to, this blessing might be some sort of immortality or fast recovery body or anything that will not die immediately.

Based on what he just muttered, he will be going to the Goddess of Death. And contrary to the beliefs of many, the Goddess of Death is a kind god. She might be controlling and governing the authority of death but she is not the one who handles the death of people. She is just an observer, a keeper of souls, and a person who helps the soul of a dead person achieve peace or new life.

As much as I want to understand the underlying reasons of the Goddess of Life for being a cruel god, she is undeniably a strong god that can easily topple the life she created.

....

After the confrontation of the man and the apparition of the Goddess of Life, the scene shifted to another scene and this time, it seems to be looking like the underworld. The Underworld indeed exists in the Alternate World and it is an actual city where the believers of the Goddess of Death reside. If I remember correctly in the past timeline, it was destroyed when the Temple of the Goddess of Life invaded and destroyed the whole place, leaving it to become a hostile zone where the strongest undead and soul entities reside. From the looks of the scene, those things have yet to happen.

"This must be the underworld before it was destroyed. The place was quite developed despite being built underground."

Yes, it was built underground and the shrine of the Goddess of Death is currently erected on the place. The scene returns to the third person view with the man holding the weapons of pride as the focus. He is being escorted by some hooded acolytes to a small temple.

"Please wait for a bit. The Goddess would make contact with you soon."

The man nodded and waited for a few minutes. He was left alone inside the shrine and the acolytes are nowhere to be seen. When he thought the place is a scam, a cloud of black smoke appeared and a black apparition similar to the apparition of the Goddess of Life appeared before him. However, compared to the bright apparition, the apparition that appeared is a pitch-black apparition that doesn't have any imposing.

<strong>"Are you the one who requested an audience to me?"</strong>

"Are you the Goddess of Death?"

<strong>"I may be called by my followers as the Goddess of Death but you don't need to call me a Goddess or anything. I am just an insignificant being that holds the authority of Death. Just call me Death instead. Please speak casually to me."</strong>

"No, I am a lowly human being, being in the presence of the Goddess of Death is enough for me to give my respects to you."

<strong>"...Suit yourself. So what is your business with me?"</strong>

"Please let me die."

<strong>"...What?"</strong> Death seems to have been shocked by his request.

"I wanted to die, you hold the authority of death right? That means you can easily allow me to die."

<strong>"Ahem. That is an unusual request you got there. I mean, yes, I hold the authority of death but... what is your purpose for dying? Can't you just go and wait for your life to be extinguished before you die? Or maybe you can at least kill yourself if you can't wait for it though I am against the last method."</strong>

"As much as I want to do the last method you just mentioned, it's impossible, and dying in old age is also impossible to happen. I have the blessings of the Goddess of Life."

Death didn't respond for a while and stares at the man while tilting its smoke head.

<strong>"I see, the Longevity Blessing. This is a high rarity blessing that Life bestows on people she deemed to be worthy to wield her power and represent her in the mortal world. It is a very high blessing that you will be blessed a lot with good fortune. Why are you trying to die when you have this blessing anyway?"</strong>

"I never wished for this blessing! I don't want it! I just wanted to be with my family! This blessing is not a f*cking blessing! This is a curse!"

<strong>"..."</strong> Death seems to be speechless on the guy.

<strong>"So you wanted to die?"</strong>

"Yes. The Longevity Blessing allows the one who owns this blessing to be literally immortal. They can't get sick, their wounds heal in the blink of an eye, they can't easily get damaged by anything and if they did, they will heal immediately. Limbs that are torn will be regenerated to the body and death by old age is out of the question too. Not only that but the Goddess of Life restricts the one who has the blessings to even kill themselves."

<strong>"As much as I wanted to help you, this is not possible for me."</strong>

The guy then grits his teeth. But before he can lash out his frustration, Death continued.

<strong>"You see, the Longevity Blessing is a very strong blessing and my blessings alone can't do that as my authority is not designed to take over the life of someone. It's the power that allows the souls of the dead to get their peace of mind and to save them from the darkness that corrupts their souls beyond saving.  With the blessing in your body, if I try to bestow the blessings of death to you, the Longevity Blessing will immediately overwrite my blessing, deeming it useless in the end. Looking at the power she bestowed on you, she has given quite a lot of power to you that removing it is not going to be easy unless she removes it herself."</strong>

"So you mean you can't help me on this matter?"

<strong>"I didn't say it is impossible, however, it will put too much strain in your body and since you can't die, even if you wish for it to happen, you won't be able to do it. In fact, you have a high chance to get corrupted in this matter instead of removing the blessing completely. If you get corrupted, I will have no chance to save your soul once you get corrupted. All blessings bestowed on you will disappear the moment you get corrupted. I can't save you anymore if that happens."</strong>

"If that method can remove the blessing of the stupid goddess then that is much better than not actually removing it. What should I do?"

<strong>"Basically, I will have to put a curse on you. And if you are not strong enough, you will not be able to survive this. The curse can be cured once the blessings you desire to remove disappear but there is a chance that you will succumb to the curse instead."</strong>

"Alright, give it to me."

...

After that scene, the surroundings went from pitch black and my floating body slowly descended and I landed on solid ground though I don't think this is a ground since I don't see anything that will allow me to know whether I am in some sort of space or this is an imaginary land.

"Welcome, the person who has acquired the curse of my weapons. It seems you have seen the memories of the owner of the weapon himself."

Someone started speaking that I immediately assumed battle stance even if I have no weapon. If it is a fistfight, I can still give a proper fight without a problem.

"Haha, as expected, you are someone who won't easily go down."

"You... You are the one who got the Longevity Blessing."

"Ah yes, the real one already died peacefully. As you can see, this is the consciousness of the Weapon of Pride, the Vanagloria, and Superbia but as you can see, I took the form of my previous owner. Since you are now the one who owned the two weapons, it is natural for me to appear before you."

"So what do you want?"

"Even if I am just a remaining consciousness left behind in these weapons, it is still my duty to know whether you are worthy enough to wield it."

"But that weapon is already eaten by weapon, that doesn't make sense..."

"No matter what you say, you have no choice."

The guy then snap his fingers and his body returned to his form back when he is in his prime.

"I will personally test whether you can survive and wield the curse properly. If you want to earn the power of pride, then earn it by force."

DANG!

"Come!"