Chapter 180: Ashes and Absolution

The Great Mother lifts a single hand, and all three goddesses tear free of the Saint Sisters’ bodies at once, ripped loose from their borrowed flesh with a sound like tearing silk, left floating in the air as barely corporeal spirits, flickering and translucent against the light, their true forms unable to fully anchor themselves in the presence of something so much older and vaster than they are.

"I have searched twelve realities for the three of you," their mother says, voice calm and level, though it still causes the fabric of reality to strain under its divine pressure. "For forty-eight hours. Only to find you here. In the one place I expressly forbade you to be."

Nela tries to speak up in their defense, but her mother simply waves a hand, and Nela vanishes in a flash of light.

Hela and Bela both gasp, dropping their heads, begging for mercy in the same breath.

"You don’t deserve mercy," the Great Mother says. "Not for this. You ignored my instructions outright, and worse, you’ve interfered directly with my plans for this reality. I have spent decades setting pieces into place, only to have my own daughters meddle with them for sport."

"We’re sorry!" Bela whispers. "But after seeing what he was capable of, we... we couldn’t resist. We just wanted a taste. We didn’t meddle... much."

Hela lifts her chin instead, defiant. "Whatever punishment you have planned, Mother, spending a day with him was worth every second of it. We deserve the Prince, just as much as you do."

The Great Mother groans, dragging one hand down the length of her own face. "What did I do to deserve daughters like this?"

"You, literally, made us." Hela points out. "Exactly like this. So really, if you think about it, this is somewhat your fault."

Another wave of her hand, and Hela disappears too.

Bela yelps. "Please, Mother! Not the soul pits—"

"Oh, darling, this will be so much worse."

Bela vanishes with a flick of her hand.

The Great Mother turns at last toward Pip, who has already made his way down the church steps, cradling Vuvi’s body against his chest, a low, broken stream of grief-soaked beeps spilling out of him as he tries, uselessly, to wipe blood from her still face.

The goddess floats down toward him, her mere presence scorching the air around her, holy light shedding off her silhouette in thick, rolling waves, the ground itself blackening to ash wherever she draws near, cobblestones cracking and curling like burnt paper beneath her, a dead body already turned to dust in her wake, blowing away across the silent square in a slow gray drift.

Pip shrieks a series of terrified beeps and whistles as Vuvi’s body crumbles slowly between his own fingers, weightless flakes of her sifting through the gaps in his hand no matter how hard he tries to cup them, and the Great Mother’s light washes fully over him.

He turns to her, beeping desperately for help.

She reaches down and lifts him gently by the chin, and the sheer force of her presence begins peeling pieces of his frame away one by one, plating dissolving into drifting motes of light, wraith-glass and ultrium alike unraveling like sand caught in a wind he cannot fight, servos and gears and the whole careful architecture of Vuvi’s love unspooling into nothing but metallic dust, until nothing remains of his metal body at all.

Only his soul, small and incorporeal, hovers above the wreckage of everything he used to be.

"Oh, how you’ve grown, my little one," the Great Mother coos, looking at him fondly. "I look forward to the day you reach your full potential."

Pip, in the raw shape of his own soul, begs her, pleads with her, to bring Vuvi back. His friends. Everyone. The plea pours out of him formless and desperate, a single burning need with no beeps or whistles left to carry it, nothing between him and the goddess but raw, unfiltered want.

The Great Mother smiles. "You truly do care for them."

"I love them," Pip says, voice cracking with an ache that has nothing to do with servos or vocal modulators anymore. "They’re the only real family I’ve ever had."

"Calm yourself," she says, gentler now. "I apologize for the theatrics. My daughters left me little choice but to make an entrance. Your friends, and everyone else, will be fine, but first, I’d like to ask you something."

Pip nods, wiping tears he didn’t know his soul could even produce.

"Would you like to return to your old life?" she asks. "Or anywhere else, for that matter. You were thrust into a world you never chose, a body that was never yours, a purpose you had no say in accepting. If you wish it, right now, I could give you an entirely different life. Any life at all. Whatever you want. You’ve earned nothing less."

Pip considers it for barely a heartbeat before shaking his head. "No. This is my life. Me, and Vuvi, and the family we built together, one ridiculous day at a time." His voice breaks. "Please. Give them back to me. I’ll do anything you ask. Just don’t take them away."

The Great Mother laughs, soft and warm, a sound that fills him with warmth despite everything. "I could not have chosen a better soul." She reaches out, brushing something like affection across the space where his face used to be. "I am proud of you, Pip. Truly. You will make an excellent god, one day."

Then she sighs, turning slowly to survey the square, bodies scattered across the cobblestones like fallen leaves after an early frost, blood pooling dark between the cracks of the stone, the fruit cart still lying on its side where it toppled, apples scattered among the fallen like something out of a nightmare picnic. "I always forget how fragile mortals truly are. It’s easy to, when one exists on the scale I do." She looks back to him, something almost like regret passing over her light-woven features. "I’m sorry you had to see this. But you won’t remember any of it, soon enough. That much mercy, at least, I can offer you."

She leans down and presses a kiss to where his cheek would be. "Thank you for being exactly who you are. I look forward to our time together."

Pip’s confusion barely has time to register, a question forming somewhere behind in his mind and never quite reaching whatever passes for his mouth in this state, before her whole form erupts into blinding holy light, swallowing him entirely.

When he opens his eyes again, he’s standing at the church entrance. Vuvi is right beside him, alive, whole, healthy. King Kandor babbles on about something. Every single person who’d been reduced to a crumpled heap moments ago now stands exactly where they’d been five minutes before, chatting, laughing, utterly unaware that anything had happened at all.

Pip’s eyes flicker once as his mind settles fully back into the present, no trace of the Great Mother’s arrival remaining anywhere in his thoughts. Instead, his screen suddenly flashes with a status notification.

[New Blessing Received: Kiss Of The Great Mother]

[Additional Pleasure Points Earned: 12000]

[Pleasure Power Has Leveled Up! Current Pleasure Power Lv: 080]

[New Ability Detected: Divine Communion Lv. 1]

[Ability Upgraded: Holy Manipulation Lv. 2]

[Ability Upgraded: Water Manipulation Lv. 4]

[Ability Upgraded: Nature Manipulation Lv. 4]

Vuvi turns toward the three Saint Sisters, triumphant. "This," she announces, "is how you’re supposed to treat me and my construct."

The sisters just stare back at her, expressions completely blank.

"Where... are we?" the First Sister asks, blinking slowly, swaying slightly on her feet like the ground hasn’t quite settled beneath her yet.

"Why is there so much people?" the Second Sister asks, looking around, dazed, one hand pressed flat to her own temple.

The Third Sister’s eyes land on Pip, and she drops immediately to her knees. "Is that... is that really the Prince?"

Vuvi’s brow furrows, glancing between the three of them. Then she turns to Pip, snorting. "I think you really broke their brains this time."