Chaos Devourer System: My Classless Ascension

Chapter 427: Chapter 425:“Claim me.”

The celestials. A race worshipped by countless mortals across the wider cosmos as one representing purity, sanctity, holiness, divinity. From their high heavens, they watch over the earth. They protect and care for us. They listen to our cries. They listen to our pleas. They answer in time. If only we believe, sanctuary is only one step away.

Isn’t that right? Isn’t that what they said? Wasn’t that the nature of the beings known as celestials? Those mortals have immortalized as gods and goddesses?

Wrong!

"Heh! Absolutely wrong!" Liz scoffed, the pain in her eyes evident.

"We were a pious household, Dante. We were a truly devoted household. My mother prayed every day. My father was a faithful servant to the Church of Ataraxia. He was so much so that he had even been a paladin to the goddess."

"It was good. The goddess was watching over us. The celestials were caring for us. That’s what we thought. Like every other foolish sheep out there... that’s... that’s what we thought, until..." Her voice broke. I reached out to her, a hand covering her quivering ones.

"I’m here." I wasn’t loud. I just needed her to know that. "I’m here." And it seemed to have worked as she slowly calmed down, the tears welling up within her eyes being forced back as she took a deep and steadying breath before continuing.

"Until the masks came off." Her fists clenched into a tight ball. "On the day of my awakening, it happened."

"I had awakened a rare and unseen talent. One that couldn’t be measured on their devices. Could you believe it? In a time when supreme and mythic bloodlines and talents were treated as godly assets, my talent broke even that scale."

"<Bane of Existence> That’s what it said."

"That’s what it declared me to be. A BaneofExistence, and that’s when everything changed."

"The church, excited about the never-before-seen talent, immediately patronized my parents. ’Your daughter has been blessed,’ they said. ’The goddess watches over your family,’ they lied. ’She is sure to become a wonderful Saintess.’ And that’s where the problem began."

"Saintess. The Church of Ataraxia had not had a Saintess for over three thousand years. What happened to the last Saintess, history had made sure to erase thoroughly, but one thing everyone knew was that the church had been the one behind her disappearance. Why they would do such a thing to their own Saintess, nobody knew. But my parents wouldn’t allow it."

"They wouldn’t allow their only daughter to take up a position where I am stripped of everything that is mine and forced to serve the church and the celestials. They would’ve allowed it if I was willing, but I had just entered my budding youth, I still had a life ahead of me, I still had love and heartbreak to experience." Her smile was melancholic at this point, and my heart couldn’t help breaking at the sight. I couldn’t stop myself, and before I knew it,

"Huh..." I had pulled her into a warm embrace, my arms wrapped protectively around her. "Dante..."

"Shh... I’m here. I thought I told you so? I’m here, Liz, you can let it out..." I held her tighter as I said those words, not oblivious to the quivering of her body, to the short breaths she was forcing herself to take. Whatever was coming next clearly weighed heavy on her mind as she could no longer hold it in, and then,

Drip! Drip! Drip!

The tears began falling silently, my shirt getting soaked.

"The church... hic... the church couldn’t take it. How dare they prevent the work of the goddess? How dare they, mere followers, tell the church what to do with a soul that belonged to the goddess? That was all I was, a soul that belonged to a goddess, not Elizabeth, not the little Princess my father always called me. Just a soul that belonged to some goddess..." The waterworks were a waterfall by this point, but she held on and kept going. "They charged my parents with blasphemy, Dante... they... they... they..." She couldn’t speak, her body trembling like a leaf caught in the wind. My heart ached. The Liz I’d seen smiling and carefree, the Liz I’d seen be a proper mother figure, caring and loving and laughing with snot-nosed kids, was now a mess of emotions and broken words.

I couldn’t speak. I could only hope that my feelings would bleed through my actions as I tightened my hug around her trembling frame.

"They burned them as heretics... my father... all he could do, all he could manage, as he burned alive was to plead. To pray. To beg these same celestials, not for his life, no, for mine. That I be spared. That I be allowed my life to live. But all he got was a blade that severed his already burning head, cutting his words short."

"The heretics have been purged, they said. Now, we begin preparations for the appointment of the Saintess. No eulogies. I wasn’t even given time to mourn my parents before the church took me away and stripped me bare."

"Days turned into months.

Months turned into years.

Years turned into decades.

For the longest time, I was brainwashed, fed lies, taught to believe that I was, am, and will only be a vessel for the goddess."

"Yes... that’s all they saw me as. A vessel upon which their goddess could descend."

"I was stripped of the joy of knowing friends. Knowing companionship. Knowing love. And whenever I rebelled, whenever I tried to break out, my talent would act out. <Bane of Existence> Any man I had dared love, Dante, they died. Not by anyone’s hands, but mine. If they touched me, they died. If they kissed me, they died. If they..." I held her tighter.

"I’m not dying..." I raised her head up. Her face was a mess of tears and snot, but I didn’t care, I leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on her lips. Nothing deep, just something assuring. "You don’t have to be afraid with me."

Her smile when I said those words... with that expression of sadness on her face, I was stunned before I could stop myself.

"Beautiful..." She truly was a breathtaking sight.

"Am I truly?"

I leaned in, giving her another tender kiss. "You have no idea." Her smile widened.

"You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to. I do not wish to see you hurt anymore."

"Mmm... I have to. I need to get it all out. But at least now, I am assured. Assured that it truly won’t change anything." She nodded, before snuggling into my embrace and continuing, now much calmer.

"The church took my peculiar state as an opportunity to intensify their ministrations. ’It’s the goddess at work.’ ’She doesn’t wish for you to taint your being.’ ’All you are is her vessel, so just be the perfect vessel.’ And it worked, as I was slowly believing it. After all, what more could explain the peculiarities of my situation?"

"It wasn’t until I found out what happened to the vessels that the thought of rebelling threatened to return once more."

"What happened to the vessels?" I asked.

"As it would turn out, this practice wasn’t something special to only Terra. No. It was a universal practice, spread wide across multiple sectors governed by the celestials under the rule of Ataraxia."

"Each sector was expected to provide a candidate they deemed worthy for when the goddess awakens from her slumber and wishes to change hosts."

"There are an uncountable number of saintesses and potential candidates. As for how the church and celestials reduce these numbers to one? Simple. They use a universal culling game to thin the numbers until only a single worthy participant remains."

"Heh! The celestials, the holy counterparts of the demons, yet their practices are no less vile."

"Protectors of humanity and the universe? Lies!! They’re merely another power-hungry faction that is willing to abandon all morality for the sake of power."

"Unfortunately for me, I happen to have found out a bit too late, as I’d already been branded."

"Branded?"

"Yes. A seal in my soul that would activate the goddess’s consciousness should I know a man intimately."

At those words, I fell silent. "I see. So that’s why..."

"Yes..." She shook briefly, but my tightened embrace assured her. "That’s why I had to tell you. Should you truly take me as yours, you risk angering a goddess and alerting her to your being."

That... was heavy. It truly was. To attract the attention of a bona fide goddess? That would be enough to frighten anybody.

"Heh! So what?" Well, I wasn’t just anybody.

"A goddess? I already picked beef with a Pillar of the cosmos for someone a million times more troublesome than you, what’s a measly goddess? Finish your story and tell me your wish, I am all ears." I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it.

Her body shook violently. Not from fear. Not from worry. Not this time. No. She shook in pure ecstasy and euphoria.

"How did you get out? Since you were at the academy, that means you escaped, or..."

"Someone saved me, and I’m sure you can already guess who."

"Sir Gloomsalot, heh! Of course." I shook my head at the entire thing. Of course it would be that old man.

"When he found me and realized what I’d been through, he almost razed and erased the entirety of the Church of Ataraxia from the face of the continent, along with all the celestials currently on the planet, but the dean intervened and prevented the massacre. So, all he left the church with was a warning: ’If I see you near her again, then the church shall exist no longer.’ And even in their arrogance, the church still had to listen when War himself gave out a statement, but alas, the damage had already been done."

"I was already marked. I could never know a man without killing him. I was bound to a life of solitude and loneliness forever; that was what I thought, at least until I saw you on that day of enrollment. The moment I saw you—" she raised her head, locking eyes with me "—I knew. I didn’t know why, but I just did. That you were the one. That you were my one. And so, I moved. I had nothing to lose, at most I’d just be disappointed again, but who would’ve thought..." She stopped here. The rest was a history we all could complete by ourselves.

"Heh! So in the end, it all worked out, didn’t it?" I smiled. Of course, I was still going to wipe out the church after this, but before all that, "Tell me what you want. What shall I do for you now?" I asked her as our eyes locked together.

She shifted, breaking free from my embrace as she slowly stood up. My eyes stayed fixed on her without moving an inch.

Her clothes slowly fell off her body, caught by her curves in a seductive descent, until they reached the floor.

Her body appeared before my eyes in all its glory. Her underwear disappeared soon after as her breasts bounced out freely.

There she stood. In all her naked glory, nothing hidden from my sight as a burning sensation ran through my body, and then she spoke:

"I want you to claim me, Dante. Take me. Take all that I am. Mark me so thoroughly that it would be beyond any doubt who I truly belong to. Touch me. Wipe away the stain they left on my body. Make me well and truly yours, for only then shall I truly feel sated."

Our eyes locked onto each other’s as the mood slowly intensified.

"Claim me, Dante Draven, and let me be forever yours."

...

...

"As you wish..."

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A/N:Faahhh... this one ate up words like I couldn’t even believe. Damn.. sorry I guess, I’m late today as well, second Chapter in a an hour or two but, as always,

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Thanks for reading....