The Goddess' Champion

"I love... my son." She confessed to this paradise, a confession that only brought more tears and guilt to a desolated soul, there were so many causes to feel guilt, that she no longer knew which was the cause of her tears.

Was it that she was not a good mother? or a good lover? was it that she should have been more selfish?

She cried desperately, her heart torn to pieces... this was an older woman, her hair no longer silver, instead white due to the age.

Her first day in paradise, yet there was merely endless sorrow.

On the earth, she left the love of her life.

"Can you stand up?" A glamorous feminine voice that contained unparalleled might said suddenly, yet it didn\'t feel pressing, it felt like the mandate of a queen.

Isabella looked to the sides and there was only a white world, she thought this to be \'paradise\' after all... she just died several minutes ago in the arms of the love of her life.

"W-Who are you?" She asked, puzzled, still sobbing.

"You could address me as an existence that transcends time and space." The voice didn\'t seem to be good at socializing.

Isabella kept sobbing, now with added confusion, "I don\'t understand what you mean."

"Basically... I am someone that\'s extremely powerful, you died... yet the reaper had yet to come to bring you to the Death Realm, so I took your soul." Once again the voice spoke confusing words that rendered the old lady stop sobbing and instead roll her eyes a little in annoyance.

"How about you tell me your name? I\'m Isabella Greenwood." She began with a simple introduction, common education.

"I know who you are, Isabella, but you don\'t know who I am."

"That\'s why I am asking your name!" Does she have to be this cryptic!?

A sigh resonated in the empty world.

"I\'m Space... but you can call me Nova."

"That is my name."

"That is a weird name... Nova, Space... are you some sort of Goddess?" Isabella never considered herself someone religious, especially when her son made it his commitment always to mock any living religion that existed during his time as an Emperor... life wasn\'t kind to them, so she believed in no god, if she were to worship someone, it would be her son.

"Gods come in different genres, sizes and shapes... I am a Goddess indeed, but the term is small compared to my magnificent being."

\'And you\'re quite narcissistic too...\'

"And what can I do for you, Nova...? why do you need me?" She felt awkward calling someone that, but between Nova and Space, she preferred Nova.

"Are you feeling better?" The voice asked offhandedly, only for Isabella to recall her previous grievances and once again get crestfallen.

"No, I... I still feel horrible."

"Do you want to see your son again?" The voice inquired softly.

"No." Isabella answered deterministically, so much so... that her entire body shivered as the tears threatened to come out once again.

"Why not?" Nova certainly didn\'t understand that answer, why wouldn\'t she? she had seen a lot of things which indicated that this lady should have desired to see her son again.

"I am old... I am his mother... I-I shouldn\'t... love him as I do, it is bad." It was like a mechanical answer she was programmed to say.

"After being his lover for dozens of years and having sired several children with him... do you still think it is bad?" Nova couldn\'t understand, there was not an instance of any of these events in which the lady wasn\'t smiling, there were painful moments indeed, but... did she really care?

"We could never be happy... our children never knew who their parents were... they would be ashamed of us... the days that used to be happy turned into painful for me... I was forced to allow him to go... when they appeared and his eyes were dragged to them, and I could do nothing... I could only accept it. Because I am his mother."

"But even when he left, your affair continued."

"That-"

"He kept coming back to you, the two of you engaged in the most carnal and depraved of pleasures behind everyone\'s back, going as far as to draw your intimacies with ink, paintings that you looked periodically just so you could cope with your loneliness when he departed back to his fiances\' embrace."

"S-Stop."

"And when you were too much in need for his caresses, you sought him, you went to the academy where he was with his fiance, and without caring about her status in his heart, took him inside you right in his room where they usually slept, the two you would enjoy each other\'s body for hours and no one would ever know... because you\'re mother and son, it was perfectly normal for you two to be together in a room, by yourselves. You wantonly sought your son\'s seed in your womb and only after you were filled to your heart\'s content would you return back to the beloved mansion he got for you where you would once again wait for him while making your beautiful flowers, living a happy life..."

"Stop!" Isabella was shaking.

"My point is... it didn\'t seem to be a problem for you that he was your son, you loved him. So why are you denying that now? when everything is already finished... consequences has already been laid bare, does it matter?"

"How can you understand? you\'re al almighty goddess, do you even have children?" Isabella\'s words contained poison, that\'s right, she did all those things and she regretted them.

"As a matter of fact, I do... I have several daughters for one... and you\'re acquainted with them."

"Huh?"

"Caroline, Phoebe, Sandra, Lucille, Melina... they\'re my daughters and the reason why I am here..." The goddess said their names one by one and they impacted Isabella\'s head harshly, especially Caroline... yes, her rival.

Her son\'s first fiance and perhaps the only one of them that knew their affair.

"T-That... all of them?! Don\'t you have any males?"

"Yes... as ridiculous as it sounds, your son, a mortal... conquered all of my daughters, strong goddesses... during one of their samsaras. As for your latter question, I do have several sons, but they\'re not in Dragoncrest."

"Dragoncrest?"

"That is the name of the realm you live in, in the godly community. Isabella, I presume there are a lot of things you don\'t understand."

"Yes, I... to be frank, I don\'t understand almost everything of what you\'re saying." Except for the declaration of her in-laws being some sort of goddesses, yes, she wasn\'t getting anything... just now she was scolded by this goddess and what was most frustrating... is that she was right.

"Then what about I tell you... that the reason I brought you here is that I desire to learn and comprehend your son more."

"Eh? why?" Isabella frowned, she didn\'t want to know that this almighty goddess had some bad intentions with he son, if what she\'s saying is right then she\'s her son\'s mother-in-law... and they well... they tend to be quite the bitches.

"Because he has managed the impossible... you see, my children... they all hate one another deeply, they\'re always fighting and we\'re not talking about siblings fighting... we\'re talking about wicked fights, poisonous strives... my daughter Sandra, the youngest, is also the most hated... she\'s a goddess of death you see, they\'re quite rare and her methods are dubious." She spoke as if this one was her most troublesome child.

"Really? what about your husband?"

"I don\'t want to talk about him." The voice changed, no longer friendly, and Isabella realised that was a territory that shouldn\'t be thread... if anyone were to talk to her about the damned Lionheart family, she too would want to avoid the subject.

"My daughters are currently undergoing samsaras to restore their divinities, basically... they\'re living again and again and again... without their original memories, to restore themselves after having perished in a big battle, I even lost one of them..."  The voice said regretfully.

"Lost?"

"Her divine spark remains, but her soul is forever lost... she was murdered by one of her sisters..."

"I\'m sorry..." Isabella didn\'t know what to say, it was such a pitiful conclusion.