Chapter 326 - Kosmos: Nyx Champion!
??
She asked the question to a smaller figure than herself, who had the appearance of a pale white girl with long black hair and yellow eyes… her appearance had changed a bit since her main body appearance, but she was still part of her, she was Veronica\'s clone that has been living in Kosmos for over a month now, as the time in this world went by a bit faster compared to Kritias.
"Well, I think I\'ve finally gotten a good grasp of my strength, it also helps that you got some training grounds within your Divine Realm, Nyx…! I think I just reached Rank 8," said Veronica, her appearance was a bit different from her original main body, this was because she had been slowly merging her own split soul with Nyx\'s Mana, her hair was now black, and her eyes had turned bright yellow just like the Goddess of the Night, and she now wore a phantasmal black dress, as she was just a soul and lacked her physical metallic body, being similar to a phantom or a ghost, although her power fairly exceeded one, even as a split soul.
Veronica has been spending this last month explaining and talking a lot with Nyx, it helped a lot that both were tireless and did not feel particularly hungry, so they spend days and days just talking, forging their bond quite strongly at this point.
After a few explanations from the gentle and motherly goddess of the night, Veronica learned that this world was named Kosmos, and was almost the exact copy of Earth\'s Greek Mythology.
Many of the events that made this world be born were almost the same, even Nyx\'s origin, and the origin of the other Gods, or even how Cronos had tried to eat his children, and so on.
The current Era where she was now is about ten thousand years after Cronos was defeated by Zeus, having freed his siblings from his belly, he split the world for them, he took the skies for himself, gave Poseidon the oceans, and Hades the underworld.
Oh right, there were a few changes though.
Such as some Gods being Goddesses now, and some Goddesses being Gods…
For example, Hades was a Goddess instead of a God, and another thing that Veronica learned is that Aphrodite was now a God, a beautiful God at that.
Although some stayed as their original genders such as Nyx and Zeus, many were gender bent… although, obviously, they never realized this because it has been always like this for them, so Veronica could not simply tell them that they were wrong or something.
Being gender-bent actually made some Gods and Goddesses\' natures a bit different, and some conflicts never happened, while new ones emerged through history.
Currently, Zeus was trying to appease the Humans that he was trying to take care of within the skies with the rest of the Gods from Olympus.
Recently, several dungeons had begun to appear around Kosmos, as a strange wave of miasma had shrouded the world half a year ago.
At first, the Gods were strong enough to fend off the contamination without many problems.
But as time went by, the miasma seeped into Kosmos and began to mutate and change things around.
More monsters began to appear, creatures that often were not seen so near human nations aside from those that lived in closed wild habitats.
And just a few months ago, dungeons started to appear.
In Kosmos, dungeons were not something normal, there were monsters, yes, but they were naturally born and lived in the wild like any other normal animal, many of them even lived in places taken care of by Gods or protected by them, and they were often seen as the \'Children of Echidna\' one of Gaia\'s daughters that gave birth to many monsters, she was the progenitor of most of them.
However, these new monsters were vastly different and began to put a threat to humankind, which was very crucial for the Gods, as they needed their beliefs and prayers to maintain their strength and therefore the world\'s attributes.
Such Dungeons even came accompanied by a strange Divine Construct that a completely alien entity had created, revealing its existence to the Gods, and then granting Humans this power, only to promptly leave while leaving a supervisor in a place where the Gods could not find him…
This entity was said to have a power akin to a God, and simply referred to itself as \'System Master\'…
Which really made Veronica think of the \'System Master\' from Kireina\'s original world!
Although she shared this with Nyx, it\'s not like they could find many clues by themselves, and could only guess and assume things.
Due to the Dungeons, Humanity was given the System by the System Master and was given a strength that they originally did not possess, something that the Gods did not intend humanity to have, as it could make them into beings that could one day threaten their existence high above the skies.
However, the System was incredibly complex, and the Gods could not do much about it other than to accept it and adapt to it… even someone as conservative as Zeus had to eventually get over it and try to help humanity get rid of the Dungeons, but things were not going that well.
And as time went by… more dungeons started to appear, which showed themselves as rifts in space, leading to enclosed areas filled with powerful beings.
These monsters inside these areas dropped what was called \'Cores\', which could help humans increase their Attribute Values through the System, and even learn new Abilities and Skills that they could use to better fight against the threat of the monsters.
The Gods could also try to help Humans, but their strength was vastly weakened since the fight against the Titans, where most of them were sealed within the Underworld.
And there was also something more.
Due to the different and strange conditions of Dungeons, any God that entered one would feel weakened and even feel as if their energy were being drained away, something that Humans seemed to not be affected with.
The Gods suddenly felt rather powerless, even when they were the ones that brought order to this world.
However, many of them started to realize that there could be a way for them to fight back against this threat and the new and powerful Monsters of the highest-ranked dungeons that could even threaten their existences… they needed to choose a Champion!
By choosing a Champion, the Gods would pick a mortal that they saw was promising and that could align to their beliefs and points of view, and give them their Divine Protection alongside a Soul Connection.
Like this, the Gods were able to share their power with these mortals, and also strengthen themselves by also absorbing the power of these mortals that they obtained through the System.
Such bond was carefully made to not threaten the life of the Champion, and it was seen as a very powerful bond.
Those that had made such a connection with Gods were named as \'Champions\' by the Gods, and as \'Blessed\' by the Humans.
When the System came, humans were given more power than they original possessed, and there was even a classification system that was set to determine their strength, from F to SSS, although each rank could be simply called by that letter, each one also had a name on it, although Veronica did not particularly care about that part.
With all of these threats, Gods were having a hard time deciding their Champion, and some factions of Humans who were suffering the most from Dungeon\'s monsters were trying to go against the Gods, some dropping their religion completely…
Gods needed to only use these Champions to grow stronger, but also to spread their religion once more and make the people once more believe in their Gods.
And well, Veronica who came from another world wasn\'t exerted of this.
Even if she was technically an alien in here, she was very humane, and Nyx, who grew interested in her, decided to make Veronica her Champion!
At first, Veronica was a bit taken aback, and she even asked her if she was sure about that.
But Nyx answered her that because they already had a Soul Connection, Veronica was already technically her Champion… It\'s not like she couldn\'t sever that bond, but it would weaken Veronica, so she might as well make Veronica her official Champion!
And like that, Veronica was sent to train in the nearby training grounds of Nyx to gather some strength, and finally, today was the day when Nyx would announce to the Gods and also her Nation, the Nation of the Night, one of the many nations that existed in Kosmos, about the new Champion!
Although Veronica was very nervous because she hasn\'t seen any of these other Gods in person, nor this person.
Wouldn\'t the people of the Nation of the Night feel a bit betrayed if they saw their Goddess choosing someone that was not even from their Nation?
However, Nyx was so oddly confident about it that Veronica simply let her do as she pleased, sighing, she finally stepped forward.
"You\'re strong enough, I suppose… Alright, let\'s descend," said Nyx, as she generates a wave of purple and darkness Divine Power, enveloping herself and Veronica, and then disappearing from her palace and appearing right above the Nation of the Night, a beautiful and gothic-styled nation where not only humans lived, but also Dark Elves, Lamia, and other demi-human races were accepted by Nyx, even if they were descendants of the hated Echidna.
She and Nyx appeared right above an enormous palace, which was actually Nyx\'s church, where several people in black robes waited for them to descend.
"Here she is! Nyx-sama in all of her dark splendor!"
"Nyx-sama!"
"She\'s… really here!"
"Our goddess… such beauty!"
"And who is… that other woman at her side?"
"She\'s… I don\'t know…"
"Everyone! Thanks for waiting for my descent, I have brought you the one that shall represent me and this entire Nation, the Champion that will lead this nation to the future we desire! She shall join other Champions and Humans, and defeat the threat of the Dungeons, she\'s Veronica!" said Nyx, pointing at the shy Veronica, who slightly waved her hand.
"Eh?"
"Cham… pion?"
"This woman that we don\'t even know about?!"
"Nyx-sama, what are you even thinking?!"
"Sigh… Nyx, I told you that this wouldn\'t work!" said Veronica.
"Fufu, let me convince my people," said Nyx, she was still rather confident about this idea, as she glanced at the sky, where the other Gods were all glancing at her in surprise!
-----