My New Life As A Kid Goddess: Book 3 - Kingdom Goddess Arc 2

Arc 2: Kingdom Goddess - Chapter 90

Very different air awaited as I emerged from the portal on the other side, stepping out into an alley between tall buildings. There was no snow falling here and the sky was clear allowing an endless yet deep blue to dominate everywhere you looked above. Because it was still winter even on the east side of kingdom the temperature was still below freezing, just with no clouds there was no snow. This was the capital city Norlov and its increased population made it a much bigger risk to bring Barthenor here. However I was confident in my abilities to contain him if it came down to it and I believed that wouldn't be necessary.

Barthenor stepped through the portal behind me, certainly an act of great trust on his part. Going through a random portal conjured up by a goddess was definitely not something any mage as familiar with goddesses as he would do. This showed that he was indeed willing to take great risks to further this relationship of trust the two of us were trying to build and made me quite happy. He looked around behind as the portal closed and seemed to be bracing himself for whatever was to come.

I smiled and walked down the ally towards the opening to the wider city, the temple just beyond towering over the city scape. While walking I raised my arms to my shoulder height.

"Welcome to the capital city Norlov and The Grand Temple of the Sisterhood!"

Barthenor walked after me, slowly at first, but then with normal pace as we got closer to the street. He looked around as he walked and took in his surroundings, clearly analyzing the buildings and people he could see. For several moments large glowing circles appeared in front of his pin light eyes which I could tell were seeing spells of some kind. Even a lich required magic to see invisible things where a goddess could do so naturally. He also looked up at the temple as it rose above the alley with no emotions visible on his bone face.

"I remember the temple." He said as if reminiscing. "Though I had only visited once. Much to my relief there had been no goddesses there at the time of my visit."

Once we got to the end of the alleyway I stopped in the opening which blocked my follower from exiting. I put my right hand on my hip and tilted my head while looking up at him with curiosity.

"Oh? What goddesses were worshiped here back then?" I asked.

Barthenor looked down at me with those emote-less glowing points of light in his eye sockets.

"The temple was in part dedicated to the goddess Hala at the time, though she rarely came down from the north. Mainly a goddess known as Visādah presided here, drawn to the city that stood here then due its large human population."

I put my other hand on my hip and tilted my head the other way, still blocking the exit of the alley.

"Oh she sounds interesting." I said. "What was she goddess of?"

With his emotionless eyes the lich looked right at me and responded without even hesitating.

"She was the goddess of the universal despair."

That answer made me jump back into an upright position. A look of nervousness came over my face and I looked away to try and hide it. I didn't know what I had expected but it certainly wasn't something as unsettling as that.

"A-Ah..." I replied shyly. "Sounds lovely." I then paused for a few moments before speaking again. "What despair would that be exactly?"

Barthenor either didn't pick up on my clearly displayed discomfort or didn't care. A question had been posed by what he assumed to be a curious mind and so he explained without sparing what feelings his listener might have.

"She was a figure of quite deep melancholy." He said starting out. "Overseeing the concept of 'universal despair' that all life feels in the course of its existence. To grasp true infinity is something the mind of sentient creatures are wholly incapable of and discovering one's finite nature leads into horror. Generally these feelings overcome a creature when it reaches its end."