Chapter 134: Damian Baines, The Arrogant Tyrant!

Thankfully, Damian had a plan.

It was not a particularly clever plan, nor was it something he had prepared days in advance after carefully considering every possible consequence.

In fact, the idea had only properly formed after the ridiculous sequence of events with Varkas, and there was every possibility that acting upon it would create several much larger problems for Damian somewhere down the road.

He knew that, and he intended to do it anyway.

Because beneath all the jokes, calculations, shameless flirting and increasingly unreasonable collection of cheats, Damian Baines had already accepted one simple truth.

Eunice was worth causing a little trouble for!

The study remained quiet as Eunice finished speaking, her eyes wet while Paulina, Julia and Janet each dealt with the impending end of the Four Valkyries in their own miserable way.

Paulina’s ears had lowered almost flat, Julia kept looking away whenever Eunice’s eyes moved toward her, while Janet had completely lost the usual mischievous light that made her look perpetually guilty of something.

Damian wasn’t doing much better.

He had no intention of pretending some mature nonsense about respecting change meant he was happy to watch one of the first people who mattered to him in Valoria quietly walk out of his life.

If Eunice genuinely did not love him, or simply wanted a completely different future, Damian would accept it no matter how badly that answer hurt.

But that wasn’t the problem.

Damian exhaled slowly, raised his head and looked directly toward Eunice again. "So, just to make absolutely sure I understand this, the only things stopping us from being together are your oath and your faith, and both of those are tied to Orpheus?"

Eunice blinked through her tears and frowned at the strangely specific question.

"Well... yes? In a way, it is so," she answered hesitantly.

That was enough.

Damian’s frown vanished so suddenly that all four women became suspicious, and a broad smile slowly replaced it. "That’s great then, because it means we can indeed be together."

Eunice stared at him with visible pain.

"Damian, this isn’t something you can simply decide your way around," she said softly.

"I’m extremely touched that you still want me despite everything I’ve told you, truly, but if we force this now, we’ll only hurt one another later."

She leaned forward slightly, clearly intending to continue explaining why Damian needed to let her go.

Damian’s expression changed before she could.

The relaxed smile disappeared, his back straightened and a faintly domineering severity entered his eyes that made even Janet sit up properly. "Since the thing blocking us from being together is linked to Orpheus, then I’ll deal with him directly."

Silence followed.

Paulina frowned, Julia looked confused, and Eunice’s expression showed that she genuinely did not understand what Damian meant by ’deal with him directly’.

Janet, perhaps wisely, immediately began looking nervous.

Damian raised his head toward the ceiling.

"ORPHEUS, GOD OF LIGHT AND JUSTICE! ROLL DOWN HERE FOR ME!!" Damian roared with enough force to shake the study windows.

The four women’s brains stopped functioning right away.

Eunice stared at Damian as if she had just watched him willingly shove his head inside a dragon’s mouth, while Paulina’s jaw slowly dropped.

Julia became so pale that Damian briefly wondered whether Elves possessed a racial instinct for detecting suicidal blasphemy, and Janet’s eyes grew wide enough to occupy half her face.

Nobody spoke.

They had all come from unusual backgrounds and none of them were ignorant peasants who thought Divine Spirits were bedtime stories.

Paulina descended from one of the great bloodlines of the Lupine Plains, Julia was literally the daughter of an Elven Queen appointed beneath a Divine Spirit, Janet descended from Ifrit himself, and Eunice had spent years serving Orpheus through the Holy Light Church.

Not one of them would have dared summon a Divine Spirit like a servant who was late delivering dinner!

Eunice’s initial shock finally hardened into genuine anger, because affection for Damian did not mean she would smile while he disrespected the deity she had dedicated years of her life toward serving.

She opened her mouth to reprimand him firmly and remind Damian that there were lines even he should not cross.

Then... time slowed.

The fireplace still burned, but each flame suddenly moved with strange lethargy, stretching upward as though the world had been submerged in thick oil.

The curtains near the window settled into a grey hue, drifting dust slowed visibly in the afternoon light, and every ordinary sound beyond the study faded until reality itself seemed to have taken one step backward.

Eunice never finished speaking when a pillar of golden-white light descended through the ceiling without damaging it, striking the center of the study between Damian and the Four Valkyries.

Holy power flooded outward in suffocating waves before the light gradually contracted around the outline of a person... Orpheus himself!

Damian recognized him immediately from the divine portrait he’d seen when selecting his own patron, except seeing the God of Light directly was considerably more oppressive than viewing some curated System image.

Orpheus was slim and androgynous, his white-gold hair framing a flawless face while luminous garments flowed around a body seemingly designed so nobody could decide whether the deity was impossibly handsome or impossibly beautiful.

His expression remained the same too.

Calm, remote and almost indifferent, like a heavenly being perfectly willing to save an entire civilization before returning to whatever divine paperwork had been interrupted.

Except now, that normally distant face contained a distinctly unpleasant amount of divine anger.

Orpheus did not look at Eunice, nor did he acknowledge Paulina, Julia or Janet, despite every one of them being frozen beneath the pressure radiating from his projection.

His luminous gaze remained fixed entirely upon the young Human who had apparently decided shouting a god’s name like an irritated landlord counted as proper summoning etiquette.

"Damian Baines. You dare summon me in this manner?" Orpheus spoke, and his voice seemed to arrive from every illuminated surface in the room at once.

Divine pressure immediately descended!

Paulina’s body locked first, then Julia and Janet became similarly frozen as an invisible weight crushed down upon every muscle and breath.

Eunice fared no better despite being one of Orpheus’s own Clerics, reduced to little more than moving her eyes while even her lips refused to answer her commands.

Damian received the worst of it, his chair creaking and the floor beneath his boots trembling in response to the direct attention of a Divine Spirit settling upon him, carrying enough authority that some primitive portion of Damian’s soul immediately understood exactly how ridiculous the distance between them remained.

Then, something else moved.

In a layer of reality only Damian and Orpheus could perceive, kaleidoscopic light unfolded behind Damian’s seated body.

The enormous Energy Avatar from the World Stone vision manifested like a silent guardian angel, incomparably reduced from its cosmic scale yet still carrying that same limitless, impossible presence.

It did nothing, merely looking at Orpheus.

The God of Light’s pupils contracted slightly, and the divine pressure surrounding Damian disappeared instantly.

Damian relaxed back into his chair.

"What do you mean? I simply called down a fellow who’s trying to take my woman away from me," he asked casually, crossing one leg over the other before steepling his fingers beneath his chin.

The Four Valkyries stared in shock.

Damian smiled slightly. "Do you know that your Cleric, Eunice Rastia, is one of my destined soulmates?"

Eunice’s mind exploded!

Paulina’s eyes immediately became wet, Julia’s expression softened despite herself and even Janet looked dangerously close to crying from sheer romantic impact.

They couldn’t see the impossible avatar towering behind Damian, so from their perspective, the fellow was simply sitting beneath a god’s full attention through pure willpower and casually declaring that one of their companions was his destined soulmate!

What woman had never imagined something this stupidly romantic?

Some knight defying a kingdom for her, some hero challenging fate itself, some lover standing before heaven and declaring that even the gods would not separate them.

Eunice had heard stories like that since childhood, but stories were supposed to remain stories rather than become something happening inside a nobleman’s study while she was too stunned to move.

Her heart was pounding like a powerful drum!

Orpheus finally looked away from Damian.

His gaze settled upon Janet first, and the remote expression upon his flawless face shifted almost imperceptibly. "Hmm? A child of Ifrit... no, the bloodline is one generation removed."

Janet’s eyes widened.

"Iblis," Orpheus concluded, then glanced back toward Damian with faint scrutiny.

"Interesting."

His attention shifted toward Paulina.

"A child of Wulver?" Orpheus murmured before observing her more carefully.

"No, several generations removed, though the blood remains unusually pure. One of the royal lines among the Wolf Beast Clans, likely descended through a Grandmaster."

Paulina’s heart nearly stopped.

Wulver was the God of Lupine Beasts and the ancestral totem worshipped among the clans of the Lupine Plains.

Stories claimed the oldest royal lines carried traces of his divine blood, but even among Beastfolk that was usually treated as the sort of ancient legend people respected without expecting anyone to prove.

Orpheus had just confirmed it with one glance.

Then, his luminous eyes reached Julia.

"Huh?" Orpheus looked genuinely interested now.

"Another child of the Gods? This time Litharion’s descendant."

Julia froze as much from the words as the divine pressure holding her body.

Orpheus looked at Damian again.

This time, the scrutiny had become something stranger.

His divine perception spread farther through the estate for barely an instant, then his head tilted. "And there is another in a neighboring room whose blood belongs to an entirely different plane."

Damian remained silent.

"The Deep Moon..." Orpheus murmured before his eyes sharpened.

"Luna, the Moon Goddess?"

That did it.

For perhaps the first time since appearing, the indifferent God of Light looked at Damian Baines with something approaching genuine respect and perhaps even a hint of awe.

This Human had been inside Valoria for barely any time at all, yet somehow women connected to Ifrit, Wulver, Litharion and Luna had already gathered around him.

Otherworlders had always been strange.

Valor had practically rewritten the world, Alexander Smith built institutions that outlived kingdoms, and Elias Rosenfeld somehow turned economics into enough power to affect civilization itself.

But this?

Orpheus’s eyes became complicated.

And at such a laughably low level of power too...

Damian, though, was not remotely impressed by Orpheus at all.

’Oh, stop fucking acting.’

If Damian did not already know these Divine Spirits were peeping toms with entirely too much interest in his life, he might actually have fallen for this grand performance of divine discovery.

Lyla had already accidentally exposed how much these people watched him, and Orpheus had arrived only seconds after being called using what was obviously an expensive divine projection!

Brother, please!

Damian rolled his eyes.

"Stop beating around the bush! I’m talking about her, Eunice!" he stated impatiently while pointing toward the frozen Priestess.

Orpheus finally glanced at Eunice properly.

"Hmm. A Human bloodline with no divine connection and no particularly unusual inherited traits," he murmured with considerably less interest.

Eunice felt personally attacked, but could not retort to her own patron deity.

Orpheus studied her for another moment. "She carries my divine blessing, naturally, but so do many others."

Then he looked back at Damian.

"What about her required you to summon me so rudely?"

Damian stared at him speechlessly.

Was this bastard serious?

"She wants to be with me, but she respects the oath of celibacy she swore under your Church," Damian replied, gesturing toward Eunice.

"Her faith in you also comes before everything else, which means even if we forced things now, there’d always be a conflict between her relationship with me and the path she chose under you."

For the first time, Orpheus looked genuinely speechless, then divine arrogance returned.

"If that is all, then this matter is hardly worth my time," Orpheus stated as he folded his arms.

"Her oath and her faith are both her own decisions, Damian Baines. I did not force her to make either."

Damian nodded, then ignored the answer completely.

"That’s fine. First, you will appoint her as a Saintess Candidate of your Church," Damian declared, causing Eunice’s eyes to widen further.

"Second, you will unilaterally expand her oath so she has complete freedom to interpret, administer and adjust it as she sees fit."

Orpheus’s expression darkened.

Damian raised a third finger.

"Finally, you will acknowledge me as your superior when it comes to her personal loyalties," Damian finished calmly.

"She can worship you all she wants, but her faith in you will not be used to undercut her affection or loyalty toward me."

The room nearly broke!

Golden-white divine power erupted from Orpheus so violently that hairline cracks raced across the study windows, the frozen flames within the fireplace flaring bright enough to turn white.

Even the strange slowed-time domain surrounding them trembled while the four immobilized Valkyries experienced the unified thought that Damian had finally gone too fucking far!

This was no longer romantic!

This... this was madness!

He had summoned an actual Divine Spirit, demanded promotions and religious exemptions for his woman, then ordered the god to accept a lower position in Eunice’s personal hierarchy!

What exactly did Damian think a Divine Spirit was?!

Only one thing prevented the room, the estate and quite possibly a large portion of Rosewood Town from experiencing what divine anger actually looked like.

The kaleidoscopic avatar behind Damian moved one finger and Orpheus’s expanding power stopped.

The God of Light’s face became grim enough that even his flawless features looked severe.

"To summon me in this fashion and make demands such as these, you clearly possess something upon which you are relying," Orpheus said slowly.

"Show me what it is, Damian Baines, and pray that it is sufficient."

His eyes blazed.

"Otherwise, your journey ends here!"

Damian looked at him casually, then reached into his storage.

A small Bag of Holding appeared within his palm before Damian tossed it through the air without ceremony, forcing the God of Light to catch the object purely because allowing it to strike his face would have been catastrophically undignified.

Orpheus frowned, sending his divine perception into the bag.

Then, he stopped in place.

Inside rested several Qi Nourishing Pills, a Marrow Cleansing Pill, a small quantity of Spirit Stones and, most importantly, a carefully prepared copy of the opening principles of one of the lower-tier Body Tempering Cultivation techniques geared towards the Fire Element.

None of those things possessed remotely enough raw power to threaten Orpheus, but that was not why his pupils contracted into needlepoints.

These things... they did not belong to Valoria!

The energies within them did not obey the Valorian Overworld System, the pill principles were built around an entirely foreign path of internal development, and the cultivation text described a route where a being refined the world into itself rather than receiving progression from the world in return!

Orpheus stopped breathing.

Damian smiled.

That was the real bribe.

It was never about just a few pills, but a door to a new world of possibility and the lowest-level answer to every Divine Spirit’s obsession with him.

The Divine Spirit looked at Damian for several long seconds, then toward the Bag of Holding in his hand.

His raging aura receded.

"...Fine."

The Four Valkyries nearly suffered simultaneous spiritual whiplash.

Orpheus turned toward Eunice, who could do little more than blink rapidly in complete disbelief as he raised one luminous finger toward her. "I declare that you, Eunice Rastia, will become the Candidate for Apostle of the Holy Light Church for the Grayfen region!"

Holy power filled the room.

"I also absolve you of your oaths and grant you free rein to adjust, administer and interpret them as you please!" Orpheus continued, his voice gaining the force of divine law.

"Your personal loyalties beyond matters of faith shall be yours alone, and I shall make no claim of precedence over Damian Baines within them."

Eunice’s eyes filled with tears.

Orpheus’s finger brightened.

"By my name as Orpheus, God of Light!"

BOOM!

A beam of pure golden-white light struck Eunice directly between the brows.

Her body arched slightly as an intricate holy symbol formed upon her forehead, lines of luminous power spreading outward for several seconds before condensing into the sacred mark of Orpheus’s Church.

The divine pressure binding her vanished afterward, although Eunice remained too stunned to actually use her recovered freedom.

Orpheus turned back toward Damian, his expression still deeply displeased.

"Are you satisfied now, Damian Baines?"

Damian raised one eyebrow, then smiled.

"Yes, yes. You can go back to your hovel in the heavens now," he replied while lazily waving one hand.

Orpheus’s lips twitched.

Damian leaned comfortably into his chair. "I have to kiss my new wives."

Paulina’s face heated instantly, Julia nearly choked despite not having anything in her mouth while Janet’s eyes lit up.

Eunice simply stopped processing language.

Orpheus stared at Damian for one long moment, then glanced down at the Bag of Holding still resting within his hand.

His anger visibly lost the argument against profit.

"...Hmph!"

The God of Light dissolved into golden radiance before shooting upward as a pillar of light, vanishing through the ceiling without leaving so much as a scorch mark behind.

Time immediately resumed.

The flames inside the fireplace snapped back to normal speed, the curtains moved and color returned fully to the study.

Four women of unparalleled beauty and magnificent origins slowly turned their heads toward Damian.

Paulina stared blankly, Julia stared even harder while Janet’s mouth was hanging open.

Eunice sat with Orpheus’s holy mark glowing faintly upon her brow, tears still clinging to her eyelashes while her entire understanding of the last several years of her life had apparently been picked up, shaken violently and thrown back onto the table in a completely different arrangement.

Damian smiled at them while the Four Valkyries remained utterly flabbergasted.