Chapter 362: The Merchant And His Premium Goods

Aldric slowly stood up straight. He turned his glowing eyes toward Bishop Kael. When he spoke, his voice layered with a second, ethereal tone that echoed off the stone walls of the church.

"Gather all the students from our IronHold Magic Academy," the golden-eyed Archbishop commanded. "They will undergo a test and the ones that suit our prerequisites for a Divine Descent will be picked."

When the kneeling people of the church heard this divine voice, they all burst into tears of pure joy. They immediately pressed their foreheads against the stone floor and started chanting even louder.

"May the gods bless us!"

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence, O Goddess!"

"We offer our bodies and souls to your divine will!"

Right after issuing the command, Archbishop Aldric’s pupils suddenly snapped back from glowing gold to their normal light blue.

His eyes rolled back slightly and he immediately collapsed to his knees, gasping for air as the divine presence left his body. He shook his head to clear the dizziness and looked around at the crying clergy.

He looked down at his own trembling palms before a massive, almost insane smile broke across his face.

"Our prayers were answered," Aldric laughed.

Far above the mortal world in a dreamlike realm, stood a gorgeous woman.

She had a perfectly curvy figure and she was wearing a white dress which had this slight glow on it. Her brilliant blonde hair was absurdly long, flowing past her waist, and also past her feet. She wasn’t standing on solid ground.

She was standing on a floor made of white clouds, and her golden hair seamlessly faded into the mist.

She looked down into a floating crystal orb with her glowing golden eyes. She watched the kneeling Archbishop in the church for a moment before turning her gaze away.

A playful, almost cruel smirk touched her lips.

"So, who should I send for this little mission?" she mused aloud. "Who should I send to crush that arrogant ant that’s causing so much trouble?"

She tapped her finger against her chin.

"Well, I guess that will depend entirely on the quality of the mortal vessel they prepare, ho ho ho."

She snapped her fingers and vanished from her cloudy palace.

She instantly reappeared in what looked like a bustling plaza. It resembled an open-air market, but the beings walking around and talking to each other were distinctly inhuman. They radiated divine energy and were busy trading bizarre artifacts and a few other goods.

The Goddess ignored the crowds and walked directly over to a specific merchant who was in the corner of the plaza.

The merchant was incredibly scrawny. His posture was terribly hunched over, and his arms were so unnaturally long that his knuckles literally reached his knees even when he stood up straight. With his hunch back, his hands easily reached the ground. His palms were massive, completely disproportionate to his skinny frame. He was mostly bald, with only a few wispy strands of grey hair clinging to the sides and back of his head.

He looked up at the gorgeous Goddess and smiled, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

"So, what do you want today?" the merchant asked.

"Show me your goods," the Goddess demanded. "How many have hatched this time?"

The scrawny guy shook his bald head and let out a raspy laugh.

"You are acting as if the trade is ours to control," the merchant replied. "All we can do is buy from those wretched people when they offer them up, but you are in luck. This time, we still got a lot of good products."

He pointed a long, bony finger to the side.

A shimmering layer of magical light suddenly appeared in the air next to his stall. The air rippled like light refracting through a prism in multiple directions before vanishing completely.

Standing in the newly revealed space were three people.

One of them was a girl. She looked incredibly cute and pretty, with an adorably soft face and bright eyes. Even though she looked completely like a full-grown adult woman, there was a deeply innocent, almost childlike aura surrounding her.

The other two were men.

One of them was absurdly muscular. He was so massive that the Goddess genuinely couldn’t believe anyone this muscular could even exist. Just one of his bulging forearms was as thich as her hips themselves. He was a literal, towering giant and he had a lot of muscle.

The guy standing on the far end looked much more normal. Well, ’regular’ from her divine perspective. To a mortal human, he would easily be one of the most devastatingly handsome men to ever exist. He was athletically muscular, had bright blonde hair just like hers, and his eyes were extremely unique. His pupils were a glowing, deep violet color.

Violet was a color she had never seen amongst the Angels before.

The Goddess studied the three products before turning back to look at the merchant with the long arms.

"So, which one of these has the least amount of power?" she asked. "I plan to send them over to the mortal realm. I will obviously be using a human body as a vessel, so I won’t be sending their true forms directly. I need someone whose soul won’t immediately burn out a weak mortal shell."

The merchant rubbed his massive hands together and looked over at the cute girl on the left.

"You can take her," the merchant suggested. "She is really good at healing people, and defensive support is her main specialty so her offensive output is low. But she should still be able to fight perfectly fine down there since her mana conductivity is exceptionally good. With a good vessel, she should be able to use the mana conductivity to it’s highest limits for around a year or two before the vessel breaks."

*****

Adrian stood at the front of the army and watched the sun slowly creep over the horizon.