Chapter 514 (1): Adventurer, Have You Come to Rescue the Goddess?

As the Goddess of Darkness, Ines could open the passageway to the Divine Realm of Darkness at any time, anywhere. Originally, She had wanted to build Her relationship with Wayne a little longer, but Aztimor’s meddling forced Her to let Wayne in earlier.

Going from doing something on Her own volition to granting a request passively made Her seem like She had ulterior motives.

Ines seethed inwardly, shooting Aztimor a vicious glare. Come to the Divine Realm of Darkness if you dare. I’ll show you what I can do.

The black vortex stirred. Ines took two steps back and blended into the darkness. As Her thoughts returned to Her Divine Realm, She guided both Her Holy Maiden and chosen knight in.

Meeting Wayne in Her Divine Realm would surely lead to some intense action. She wasn’t ready yet, so She decided to bring two assistants to share the fire.

Wayne narrowed his eyes, his thoughts locking onto the gradually dissipating vortex. The instant he caught the coordinates to the Divine Realm, he took a step toward the entryway.

“You trust her too much. That’s not a good thing.” Aztimor stopped him, shaking Her head. “There is more than one way into the Divine Realm of Darkness. I’ll take you there through the Underworld. Then, even if something goes wrong, I’ll be able to pull you out in time.”

That won’t be necessary. Ines will be pissed if I go through the Underworld. Then even if something isn’t supposed to go wrong, it will.

He shrugged and, under Aztimor’s resigned stare, stepped into the passageway leading to the Divine Realm of Darkness. Aztimor shook Her head, withdrawing Her thoughts from Sukra’s body and wiping all the memory of the possession before Her departure. Returning to the Underworld, She took a different shortcut to head straight to the Divine Realm of Darkness.

She and Ines both possessed a key to the other’s private chambers. They used to hold tea parties and tell each other everything, but now...

They had yanked each other’s hair and torn each other’s clothes. There was no turning back.

The house became empty. Sukra sat down in a daze and shook her head, her brows furrowed. “What happened? I feel like I just got into a fight with someone. My body feels heavy!”

“Never mind that. Make sure to keep your clothes on.” Mona came up to Sukra from behind, patting her shoulder with a smile.

The slacker felt a chill run down her spine. She said stiffly, “Mona, my clothes have been on the whole time. What are you talking about?”

Mona smiled in response.

Cold sweat ran down Sukra’s forehead. Unable to take the pressure from the chief sex-paying officer, she ran out of the study.

“Where’s the sofa? I’m dying without it!”

Mona huffed.

***

The Divine Realm lay hidden within the Astral Plane, consisting of earth, fire, water, and wind elements, forged by the Laws of Darkness. It existed on the edge between reality and nothingness. In the Sacred Tome of the Church of Darkness, it was described as a profound, obscured, and mysterious realm where the concepts of time and space blurred, and every rule was redefined by the Goddess of Darkness.

Just like the Underworld, it consisted of twelve levels. The two best friends had borrowed ideas from one another and offered suggestions for each other when they forged their respective Divine Realms.

Again, they had been genuinely close... until a man came along.

Wayne knew a thing or two about the Divine Realm of Darkness, courtesy of Anastasia, his white moonlight. As the Holy Maiden of Darkness, she possessed a large stash of the church’s promotional materials.

When it came to matters of faith, though, the final say always belonged to the subject of said faith, just like the menu of a restaurant. Blind worship would only lead to a hefty stupid tax.

Of course, that was only the case for a faithless man like Wayne. Facing the Goddess of Darkness, he had the nerve to bend Her over while standing. Expecting him to believe a pamphlet was like hoping he would get a leg cramp mid-deed so that the goddess wouldn’t whine as much.

According to Anastasia, the twelve levels of the Divine Realm of Darkness were, in order, the Gate of Gloom, the Labyrinth of Shadow, the Corridor of Wisdom, the Tower of Illusion, the Lake of Meditation, the Garden of Sorrow, the Plateau of Despair, the Realm of Oblivion, the Domain of the Lost, the Palace of Night, the Abyss of Dark Stars, and the Heart of Supreme Darkness.

Each layer meant something unique. Among them, the eleventh level, the Abyss of Dark Stars, and the twelfth, the Heart of Supreme Darkness, were roughly equivalent to the Underworld’s One Universe and Temple of Eternity.

It wasn’t just a resemblance shared between Darkness and Death, but also Heaven. Faith was crucial in any Divine Realm, and the ruling god always stood above both faith and Laws.

Wayne stepped forward. His vision blurred for a moment, and when it cleared, an endless shadowy forest stretched before him. The trees rose impossibly tall, with wisps of black mist swirling between the branches. Dark gates of mist flickered in and out of existence.

He pulled out the scriptures of the Church of Darkness, which he called the Sacred Tome of Darkness, and flipped to the relevant chapter, grumbling, “If I’m seeing this right, this is the first level, the Gate of Gloom. What is the meaning of this? Leaving me on the first level while you go straight to the twelfth? You aren’t the shy type!”

He sighed, lamenting how hard it was to court a goddess, especially one prone to temper tantrums. If he weren’t this good-natured, he would’ve given up long ago.

He put away the Sacred Tome of Darkness and strode into the black mist. Looking around, he saw no sign of Aztimor. He suspected that She and Ines were already at each other’s throats.

This was the Divine Realm of Darkness, where Aztimor held no advantage. He’d better move fast, or there was no telling what he might end up seeing.

After a few dozen steps, Wayne started to grasp the patterns of the shifting space around him. Ignoring the disorderly dark gates across the area, he forged the way with his thoughts and leapt straight to the second level, the Labyrinth of Shadow.

Using the same trick, he made several jumps and came to a stop at the sixth level, the Garden of Sorrow. He tried to advance further, but his trick no longer worked.

A certain Goddess of Darkness apparently didn’t want him to speed-run the Divine Realm, so She scrambled the patterns of space and forced him to walk his way to Her bedchamber rather than taking any shortcuts.

“This isn’t just shyness anymore, but deliberate obstruction...” Wayne frowned, addressing the air. “Let me make this clear. This isn’t a wedding ceremony, and I didn’t bring a ring. Don’t get your hopes up.”

There was no response. Space only grew more chaotic.

Wayne rolled his eyes and flipped through the Sacred Tome of Darkness for reference. “The Garden of Sorrow consists of black roses that never wilt, symbolizing the shadows. Every black rose carries a forgotten memory or an unfulfilled wish. A faint sorrow and beauty pervade this place. Under the Goddess of Darkness’s care, those who pass through will recall their regrets.”

“How noble!”

He praised, while mumbling to himself that the emotional manipulation was on brand for Ines.

Since entering the Divine Realm, he hadn’t run into a single soul. He wandered through the fields of black roses, hoping to find a local who could give him directions.

Hey, local. Which way is the Heart of Supreme Darkness?

Why? What else would I do? Your goddess, of course.

Wayne mumbled to himself. After exactly nine hundred and ninety-nine steps, he walked out of the Garden of Sorrow and arrived at the seventh level, the Plateau of Despair.

(一`´一)

Nine hundred and ninety-nine? Roses? I don’t believe you aren’t making things difficult for me on purpose.

“I admit I misjudged you. I thought a mature, dignified woman like you wouldn’t care about romantic gestures. My bad for never giving you flowers.”

Wayne offered the apology to the air, then backtracked to the garden to pluck nine hundred and ninety-nine black roses. Shaping them with his thoughts, he made a boxed bouquet. In that instant, light bloomed across the garden, as if the entire Divine Realm of Darkness had lit up.

“...”

He gagged. Alright, this was on him. He had been humoring Ines with secondhand sweet talk every time and had never once given Her flowers or gifts. Moreover, all his billions of seeds always went to Anastasia or Vichy as proxies.

He had overestimated the goddess. It turned out that Ines was still a woman.

Stepping out of the Garden of Sorrow again, Wayne found himself no longer entering the Plateau of Despair. The unnamed Goddess of Darkness had cut down on the number of stages, allowing him to skip the Plateau of Despair, the Realm of Oblivion, and the Domain of the Lost, taking him straight to the tenth level: the Palace of Night.

“No despair, oblivion, or loss. What a profound message. I’m enlightened.”

Gazing at the sprawling black buildings ahead, which looked like an ancient city, he flipped open the Sacred Tome of Darkness. “Let’s see. The description for this place...”

“The magnificent city is condensed from pure darkness energy, home to the supreme guardians of the Divine Realm of Darkness. It is the peak any disciple can hope to reach in their lifetime. Hidden here are the fundamental truths of Darkness, as well as the key to ascend to higher levels.”

Wayne paused. According to the Sacred Tome of Darkness, the tenth level was the furthest any disciple could ever reach. Two guardians of the Divine Realm presided over this level, repelling invaders and preventing any outsiders from disturbing the goddess’s peace.

To step into the eleventh level, the Abyss of Dark Stars, and reach the twelfth level, the Heart of Supreme Darkness, one had to obtain the key from both guardians.

Wayne groaned, picturing a princess abducted by two demon lords and locked away in a tower deep within the Divine Realm of Darkness—Ines. She wept, hiding Her face behind Her hands, screaming Her throat raw for a hero to save Her.

On this day, a prince riding on a black horse, Wayne, arrived at the realm of Darkness alone.

To save the princess, he drew Twilight Despair unhesitantly and took out each demon lord with a punch, seizing the key. He rescued a princess in a wedding gown from the tower, and they lived shamelessly ever after.

Indeed, there was a church right beneath the tower, and a priest was on standby. All that was missing was a prince.

“What kind of absurd plot is that? It’s way too shojo manga. Why don’t we tweak it a little? How about I play a demon lord instead?”

Wayne rubbed his face, trying to negotiate with the air. He wasn’t bragging, but Pride and Humility could attest to his performance as a great demon lord in Hell. He had plenty of experience.

Humility would say he wasn’t acting, and Pride would say the role was beneath his talent.

Unfortunately, negotiation was futile. This was Ines’s bottom line. Since She had never been in a relationship, it was only logical for Her to fantasize and make requests. He’d been putting little effort into Her before bedding the real Her. How much more was he going to ignore Her afterwards?

He had to meet Her demands, or it was over for them!

Since the negotiations were going nowhere, Wayne strode toward the dark ancient city while muttering to himself, “If I remember right, the two great demon lords—bah, the two subordinate gods of Darkness—are both women...”

The rest wasn’t appropriate for the Divine Realm of Darkness, so he kept it to himself.

Given Ines’s personality, the two subordinate gods most likely hadn’t been leading an easy life. There was a good chance that they had already been molded by Her.

Wayne had never met the Listener, Briar the Eye of Tears, or the Avenger, Kaya the Blade of Nightmares. Given the kind of goddess Ines was, though, he could already picture their brooding pouts. So filled with gloom, they would probably pour out grievances at a squeeze, like a dumpling with thin dough.

Don’t cry yet, ladies. I, Wayne, have come. Two inhuman leaders together will ensure ‘good days’ in your future!

His steps grew lighter with anticipation of his first meeting with the two subordinate gods. The prince had just arrived at the demon castle. Since it was their first meeting, they might as well have a spar.

Don’t blame me if something breaks. It’s all the princess’s script. I didn’t ask for any of this.