Chapter 97: The Meeting with Echidna
Noah and the Crow appeared in a ruined, shattered temple.
Leona was nowhere to be seen. Only Noah had been permitted to come.
He didn’t mind. In fact, it was better this way—Leona’s presence would have been a burden if he needed to escape should things go wrong.
The temple lived up to its name. It was shattered—so fragile that it seemed as though a single touch would cause it to collapse completely.
"Let’s go," the Crow said, walking ahead. "We’ve wasted enough time."
Without hesitation, she led the way toward the heart of the temple.
Noah followed silently.
Though he felt relatively relaxed after signing the soul contract, he remained ready to act at any moment.
When they arrived at the temple’s center, Noah found himself standing before a tall, crumbling statue.
It depicted a woman—with horns and wings, her body curvy, her figure statuesque.
Yet like everything else in this temple, the statue was damaged beyond repair.
I wonder why... Noah mused silently.
The Crow gestured toward the statue. "Go ahead. Just touch it. This is our goddess’s avatar. When you touch it, she will sense your presence and intervene."
She paused.
"But be calm when you do it. You only get one chance."
Noah kept his composure. "Where exactly will the meeting take place? Here? Or another realm?"
The Crow tilted her head, slightly puzzled by his question, but answered, "It’s a small temporary realm, created just for this meeting. It exists within this world."
Noah nodded, secretly relieved.
Thanks to Laeh’s blessing, his virtual immortality in this world meant he didn’t have to fear much if the goddess decided to act out.
He stepped forward.
With a steady gaze, he pressed his hand against the shattered statue.
Immediately, it began to glow with an eerie light.
A deep, unfathomable pressure descended on the shattered temple—
—and in the next instant, Noah was engulfed in a blinding flash and disappeared.
Behind him, the temple, already crumbling, finally gave way.
In mere seconds, it collapsed into nothingness.
The Crow remained at the center of the destruction.
Quietly, she reached up and removed her mask, revealing her true face: a beautiful young woman, seemingly no older than Noah himself.
She had flowing black hair, and striking eyes—one gold, the other red—giving her a unique, haunting charm.
She sighed heavily, gazing at the ruins around her.
"I hope you make the right choice, Master," she murmured.
"Otherwise... we might as well pack up and abandon this world."
Because this was their final chance.
Her master had paid an enormous price just to place this fragile avatar here.
That’s how badly the divine beings needed this world.
In these times, finding a world without an owner was like finding a virgin soul in a corrupted land.
Rare—almost mythical.
She sighed once more.
Waiting was all she could do now.
...
Meanwhile, Noah appeared elsewhere.
A new realm.
But unlike Elira’s serene white realm, this place was filled with darkness.
The sky was black, crimson flashes tearing through it like lightning.
The space was empty—desolate—except for one thing:
A throne.
At the center of the realm stood a magnificent throne, engulfed in black flames.
It radiated both beauty and danger, seemingly crafted from the rarest materials in existence.
The throne pulsed with a heartbeat he could feel through the ground—each beat whispering destruction into the air.
And atop that throne sat a woman.
To call her merely beautiful would be an insult to her very existence.
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