Douglas Dough's POV:
"I have no words!"
"Come now, brother Douglas! You must be starving from your times in the pits!"
"Here, here!"
When my goddess had invited me to this 'Last Supper' to commune with fellow believers, I had been ecstatic. At first, I thought she would bring me to her divine realm, or deliver me out of this land to meet with her followers, but, …
"I never could have imagined. To hold such a large feast within the very halls of the Frost Palace itself! I fail to understand how this is even possible."
"Haha! Comprehending the will of our goddess is a fool's errand!"
"All we need to do is trust in her, and she shall grant her mercy and blessings on to us!" Said, Hao, the black-skinned and horned demon-kin.
"Ponder not how, but revere the whom!" Spoke lady Lingxi, the blindfolded woman in a hooded robe.
"Indeed! Our goddess has truly performed a grand miracle this night! Would you not agree, Sir Wang!"
"Uhm, yes!" Sir Wang muttered quietly, looking off to the side.
On this night, the ground beneath my feet had collapsed, and I had found myself inside an underground labyrinth, with branching tunnels leading in every which directions. I had been confused at first, but at the end of one path, I caught a glimpse of my goddesses holy figure as she turned the corner. I followed after her, post haste, catching but a glimpse of her with every corner turned, until finally, I had found myself walking into a large dining hall, filled to the brim with what I can only presume were other prisoners based on their dirty and bloodstained rags. At the back of the hall, atop a podium sat my goddess, the center seat on a long table with 12 seats divided between her right and left, 11 of which had been filled.
Seated at the far left sat a malnourished man with a long dirty black beard, greedily shoveling food into his mouth. Seated next to him was what I could only describe as a large conch. The seat next to the crustation was empty, but the one next to that sat a dirty statue covered in roots and dead vegetation. Sitting to the right of the statue was a withered tree covered in purple strings that dangled scales from each of its dried branches. Sitting directly next to the goddesses right and left were a pair of undead spirits. Clinging to her left side was the long dead spirit of a woman whose undead visage was obscured by the long black hair dangling over her face, while on the right sat the ghost of what appeared to be a pirate captain with the lower half of a horse. Sitting further to the right sat a man so large even though he is sitting down in such a spacious hall, he still had to bend his head down slightly for his head to not hit the ceiling. To the right of this giant sat a small woman in a hooded robe wearing a blindfold over her eyes. Next to her sat a pair of children wearing fish masks. The child in the black fish mask was sitting quietly and enjoying a cup of tea while the child in the white fish mask was energetically shaking him back and forth while pointing around the room. However, at the far right of the table, sat a pair of demonic creatures. The first I recognized. The young man with skin as black as coal, the wings of a bat on his back, the horns of a ram and a black beard like a goat, who was conversing with the energetic fish child, had up until the emergence of the dark lord been the fiercest and deadliest demonic scourge on this continent. However, even his demonic essence paled in comparison to the creature sitting next to him. His torso was that of a man, but his head was that of a bull's and the legs that of a goat, and on his back there were a pair of bat wings with crimson spikes adorning them. Whatever that creature was, the demonic aura it emanated with was completely different to that of the demon-kin I were familiar with, both in its nature and its intensity as the share amount of killing intent and hatred it exuded was making it seem like it would go on a bloody rampage at any moment. However, even when that white masked child accidentally flung some of her meal into its face, it responded calmly as it merely wiped off the mess from its face rather than go berserk.
Though I found some of the creatures at her table rather worrisome, I was nonetheless honored when she gestured for me to approach and when she granted me the last seat at her table, I was brought to tears.
"I am not deserving of this grand honor!"
Though some of the creatures at her holiness's side worried me, as I conversed with the fellow worshippers of the goddess, I came to learn of the glory of the people seated at this table, and the infinite kindness of my goddess's heart.
Seated at this table are the people granted the honor of serving my goddess directly. Each is an important personage or spiritual servant that her holiness has swayed to her side or tamed by her divine might.
Sir Wang is the wise man credited for spreading the good word of our lady throughout the Frost Palace. Even though we both come from the pits, through his great wisdom his words were not constrained to the hole he was trapped in as his preaching reached every corner of this frozen hell.
Then there are the blindfolded miss Lingxi and the stoic giant Goliath. They are the last surviving prophets above ground after the other saints were turned to martyrs by the vicious heretics and demons who rule these lands.
The two undead are some of the unfortunate souls who still linger here after death, unable to move on. In spite of their undeath, our goddess showed them pity and rescued their eternal souls from the maws of the beast below, allowing them to serve her in her holy endeavor, but her boundless mercy does not end there. She had gone so far as to forgive the unholy demonic scourge, taming the two demonic beasts at the other end of the table, converting them to her side. To think, it was possible for those wicked creatures to see the light. To redeem the irredeemable creatures of hell. Truly she is a divine being like no other.
The rest of the people at this table are holy spirits that have faithfully served our lady since long before her mission to cleanse this dark and dreary place began. Though some were incapable of speech, through them, I learned much from the teachings and tales they imparted on to us. The penance of the two fish, the harmony of nature, the prophecy of the end, but perhaps what impressed me the most was the saga of the 1st martial continents cleansing. It involved eight spirits serving under our goddess, guiding heroes and uniting the people under one banner to rid the continent of the Dark Empire's influence.
"Then, once they had rid themselves of the arrogant lord's forces, the once disunited kingdoms, empires and sects, joined hands as they became one under the shared rule of the heroes who, guided by the flavor savior's hand, came to bring them their salvation. Entrusting them to lead the people well on her behalf, her ladyship departed to this land."
As the earthen statue finished recounting the awe-inspiring tale, the dining hall was silenced as our object of worship who had not spoken a word stood up from her seat and spoke for the first time this night.
"Gemini! Cancer! Leo! Virgo! Libra! Scorpio! Sagittarius! Capricorn! Aquarius! Pisces! Aires! Taurus!"
With each word she spoke, one amongst us lit up, as our bodies began to glow, dots of light in the shape of the constellations she named, ignited upon our bodies. When she uttered 'Leo' and the star pattern appeared on my torso, I could feel my divine energy stir as if it was threatening to erupt out of my body. Then the roof of the dining hall disappeared as we were greeted with the breathtaking view of a clear night sky.
"I invoke upon thee, the 12 zodiacs, as I summon the stars of the night sky!"
And as her words echoed through the halls, all the stars shining upon our bodies, burned a mark into us before taking their place on that starry canvas, and as the stars of Leo left my body, I felt my divine energy leaving my body.
"Centered, I stand, on the 13th, in the name of Ophiuchus, the heavenly stars that shine upon the earth shall under pact enter the covenant of the snake barer and gift their stars into the night's hand!"
And with those words, a 13th constellation lit up in the sky between Scorpio and Sagittarius. Then one from each of the 12 imparted one star of their constellation, which traveled into the center of the 13th before falling down into her holiness's open palms. As the star of Leo fell into her grasp, for a moment, my vision shifted, as I suddenly found myself standing on the palm of a giant made from the starry night sky. It's blue eyes are reminiscent of the moon, and as it gazed at me, a third eye in the center of its forehead opened. Under the lunar light of the three moons, a snake of pure darkness manifested around my feet as it coiled itself up and around my body before lunging towards my torso as it sunk its fangs into my chest. Soon after, I found myself back in the dining hall, sitting where I did before, only the lion tattooed on to my chest by the stars now had a serpent coiled around it.
The tattoo was radiating with divine energy, and I could feel a connection to my goddess unlike any I had ever known before. I lack the words to describe it exactly, but it felt similar yet different to the connection I once had to the gods that had forsaken me, only warmer, or soothingly cold maybe. It felt much safer and comforting than that of the old gods, like a mother's embrace, I felt a comforting and reassuring sensation envelop me. Additionally, I could also feel the divine energy flowing into my body, similar to the gods of old, only it was not just granted in intermittent bursts, nor was it one-sidedly flowing into my body. It was a constant flow of divine energy, moving like a river as it traveled in and out of my body in a constant and fluent fashion. However, this should have been impossible.
From my understanding, this collar on my neck is meant to cut off any connection with the divine, so receiving the power of my object of worship should not be possible and yet. I cannot deny the immense holy power granted to me by her in this moment which far exceeds any I have ever held before.
"Through the power of 12, connected and bound by the serpent, I now bare the covenant of the seasons sealed within the stars! Now hear my prophecy!"
Snapping me out of my daze, the divine one gathered our attention on her once more, as I could feel the river of divine energy begin to accelerate inside my body.
"I foresee that one amongst those seated at my table shall betray me this night!"
An eerie silence filled the room at her prophecy, which moments later was broken by the sounds of the doors to the dining hall being thrown open. Soon after we found ourselves surrounded by the heretical prison guards led by the warden of this frozen hell who barged into this holy sanctuary, pointing their weapons at our believers as they did.