'11th rank?'
Aria, still dumb founded looked up at the stars in the sky as a soft constant breeze flew swaying the leaves of the forest trees only the Divine Tree remained unaffected, hours had passed since they finished the conversation in the audience chamber and she was sitting on a boulder in a small opening of the forest, after Mairea's declaration on the Atlas's goal she and even Ren's expression died down after asking a few questions the awkward silence ended the meeting,
'Lies… it can't be….. Why me?'
As complex thoughts swirled through her head the leaves of the Divine Tree fell from the sky one landing on her head, picking it up she looked at it closely, it was green but the soft light it shone had colors varying sky blues, deep oranges, and cool whites but mostly a light green and looking around the green trees around the Divine Tree Swirled with the same shimmering colors.
Quite frankly it was beautiful, like a work of art, what made it even more miraculous was that it was merely a part of the nature, similar to how the sun rises and falls, beauty like this was common to Aria and in a world of mana or at least to Solaris where Aria had come from, memories flowed softly as images of her teacher appeared in her mind coupled with a large crystal like tree,
'Scarlett.. was a Guardian as well.'
Witch of Crystallization, Light Incarnate, also of the 8th rank.
Aria, Arianna at the time was banished from her family and during the same day as if determined by fate she was found by Scarlett who became her teacher and returned her the happiness she had lost through the harshness of her two lives, though at the end of her life she found out why her teacher sought her out.
With her fingers holding the stem of the Divine leaf and twirling it Aria thought back to the Atlas and the Rank of the problem she had to solve,
There were 10 ranks, and ranks were not just part of the game world but instead part of the actual world itself, that was the reason why Mairea talked about her rank freely without any confusion of the term, in any case a person's rank determined their general power, what was different from rank was level such as Ren and herself who were merely level 15 and weren't even qualified to be rank 1 which was level 30.
Level was different as it was unique in the game whether it be Aria's Witch's Wandering or Ren's Chronicles of Terra that was how most games were, in the video game every 30 levels you ranked up and at level 210 or rank 7 you became a god normally starting at the 1st order.
The term 'order' wasn't uniquely part of the game or at least part of Witch's Wandering that's why Mairea also knew of it, the requirements for obtaining higher order was how a person could rank up after becoming a god,
This meant that a person of the 7th rank even if they reached 240 couldn't increase their level any higher or rank up to 8th rank if they weren't of the 2nd order.
'A 4th order god is nearly omnipotent… then what about a 5th order one? A being at level 330.'
Even Aria didn't know, she reached great heights in her past even temporarily ascending to the nearly omnipotent 10th rank but at the end of the day she was a god of the 3rd order although powerful compared to a 4th order god one level higher she would still lose at the end even if she had ascended to 10th rank once more it would at most be a stalemate even if the 4th order god was 9th rank,
The fact she got any higher was the Divine Tree's power that allowed her to break the rule of ascension coupled with the various pools of mana she left throughout the world to use the 10th Tier spell [Heaven's Fall].
'And at the end the Divine Tree perished alongside me.'
Though Aria had planned for that to happen and as such had a solution. All of that work that took years was to destroy the corruption an entity of the 9th rank stepping into the 10th, so that begged the question,
'Why me or I guess…. why us?'
Compared to a 11th rank threat she was basically an ant, Aria had saved Solaris because of her hatred for the corruption and the teacher it took from her, she also knew if the corruption didn't get stopped the entire world would be devoured by it,
'But what about this world?'
She had no connection to it, to her it was just another place she was forced into, a stranger's home, sure Aria wouldn't ruin the home by breaking its furniture or stealing from it but if the home was burning down because of causes unrelated to her would she try to put out the fire?
No, it was clear she wouldn't because she didn't want to and because she couldn't, though she likened it to a stranger's home it was now the only home she had now, causing her to frown at the absurdity of the situation, she then thought back to her other, Ren, while opening the Atlas,
[Insanity]*
'I had thought he would selflessly shout heroic lines about doing the right thing and how he would kill the god in order to save the world but…'
When Mairea said the purpose of the Atlas was to kill a 10th tier god Aria remembered frowning her eyes turned cold nearly to a glare stopping as she understood Mairea wasn't at fault but when she turned to Ren.
'Empty… his eyes were empty… blue and deep as the ocean took on a pitch black abyssal hue.'
It had nothing, it was an expression she had never seen on him, though she had only met him recently,
'Did that mean he accepted?'
Aria shook her head in denial, since they first met a feeling of familiarity took hold as if Aria knew Ren, it was a feeling similar to how Aria felt for her teacher and that was substantial,
Aria felt like she understood what Ren felt. It was as if he wouldn't act for another world as if he hated the idea of being forced to fight, as if he too was tired.
'It seems we are similar in a way.'
'"To save everyone a cost to me is nothing"'
The words in the Atlas's description of Ren's condition [Insanity] caught her eyes,
'Maybe because he doesn't have anyone to refer to as 'Everyone' anymore or maybe Atlas is lying… though after all of this I doubt it was the case.'
Mairea wouldn't lie, the creation of the Divine Tree was related to the theory on how the universe was created, this meant that even if they were from differing worlds Aria's teacher and Mairea were in a way connected though not directly more so the title they held,
The purity that the tree chose its guardian on was purity of the person's actions and whether they do the right thing to help the world, this was purity that couldn't be affected by belief as well so even if Mairea did something evil under the idea it was good the Divine Tree would still take her title away.
But above all Aria hated it, she hated all of it, she wanted to live peacefully, hell she would have accepted dying if it meant she could finally rest, whether it be from overwork from her life on Earth to desperately solving corruption in Solaris, it took a toll on her whether she be a regular human or a god, and now she had to do it a third time against something even more powerful, even more impossible.
[Once this Primordial descends, this world and the others will be destroyed, including the worlds you were transmigrated from.]
Mairea's words echoed through her mind similar to the wind of night soft but still giving a stinging cold,
'I hate it all, why do I have to help these people, I don't know who they are, I don't know what lives they live, did they help me when I was down? Did they help me on Earth when I lost mom? Did they help me when I lost Scarlett in Solaris?'
She didn't shout and merely looked up into the sky blankly, her eyes cold and dull without light, she now didn't know how to react; there were too many emotions to specifically react in a single way.
Distrust in others and especially herself stemming from the betrayals she faced as everything felt so hopeless,
Self-loathing as she felt she wasn't enough whether that be as a daughter or as a mage through her two lives,
And as always a familiar feeling of grief emerged.
"Mom… Teacher… I really miss you two."
These emotions have always been with her from the start to the present and as she looked back up to the stars, without city lights they shimmered brightly, without worry about corruption their beauty could be appreciated now, but why…
'Why was everything so blurry…'
The stars melded with the night sky, what could be seen clearly mere moments ago now seemed unrecognizable, Aria felt her chest tightening like there was a hole in her stomach, her head felt heavy as a hot fluid streamed down her face she clenched her magic staff looking down,
'I guess I was wrong, could it be because my body is younger? Could it be because I'm not a god anymore?'
She made excuse after excuse, she thought there wasn't a single way to react to the situation but she found herself sorely mistaken, hot tears streamed down her face wetting her lap as she cried for the first time in many years.
Nothing would change, her life wouldn't change, the world wouldn't work for her even if her tears streamed endlessly, yet that didn't matter to Aria, she would still cry, she would still feel bitter, she would still feel hatred, because it was the one thing the world would never take from her.
…
"Mom… Teacher… I really miss you two."
Ren from behind a tree watched Aria her head muttering the words, for a few moments he merely stared before sighing setting down the covered food he cooked near the entrance of the forest opening,
'Aria… so even she can cry like that.'
Walking through the forest Ren stared up, his dark blue eyes seem to absorb the stars as he similarly to Aria, felt bitter, his expression scrunching up in a frown,
'Damn, I want to cry as well now….'
Despite the feeling of familiarity he had towards the girl similar to his former comrades he understood deep down that he didn't have the qualifications comfort her,
'Comrades…'
In the Abyss he and the family he referred to as comrades traveled many places from the very edges of the world to oceans stretching infinitely and did many things to fight the Ash be it falling into volcanic mountains or climbing space touching giants, for someone finding themselves in an seemingly unknown place they were his new family and now he wouldn't meet them again.
'In a while atleast…'
Shaking his head at the morbid thought he weaved through the forest eventually finding himself in an opening similar to the one Aria sat at, looking around the green leaves acted similarly to lights but still soft enough to allow the beautiful starry sky to be fully seen,
Compared to the Abyss and the many sights he had seen it was,
"Beautiful"
It was inherently different from the starry sky of Earth and way better than the sunless Abyss,
'Though after the [False Sun] appeared the Abyss took on its own charm.'
Without any knowledge of the stars Ren could merely admire them and admire them he did as he stood still for nearly 10 minutes before sighing,
'I'm not feeling any better.'
The tree leaves swayed with the grass at his feet, a cool breeze enveloped his body he took off his cloak throwing it by a tree,
'My stamina has already increased through dexterity, should I use technical instead of physical dexterity? No.. It would be worse, I'm not trying to find technique but merely relearning what I do know.'
Moving to the center of the small opening he had only his leather armor and the sword at his waist, he remembered the words of his master as he slowly drew the sword tossing the sheath to the ground,
"The point of a sword is to cut"
At the end, that was all swordsmanship was, though your stance, method of attack, and footwork played a large role, it didn't matter if you couldn't even cut your opponent or at the very least make them give up.
Ren took his left foot forward, his two hands held the textured grip of the short sword as he swung it horizontally from left to right using his upper and lower muscles to pull the blade across,
The cut was smooth flowing through the space and a satisfying sound and feeling of air being cut was heard and felt by Ren as he continued,
'Vertical now,'
Now Ren moved back into a neutral stance and moved his right foot forward while also moving his sword up high into the air but still keeping the right stance balancing force with distance as he cut downward,
These movements continued from horizontal, diagonal, and vertical. The sword sometimes moving down moved up instead, sometimes moving left moved right instead, and eventually Ren stilled, his feet were different from the place he started.
'It seems it has its limits.'
The point of the exercise was to do a several sets of movements and at the end of those movements returning to the very exact place you started, though Ren didn't succeed, it allowed him to understand the limits of the attribute [Dexterity]
'Like I thought It's incredible, If I didn't have physical dexterity activated my feet would have moved much further away,'
If an outsider saw it they would say it was nearly perfect but Ren knew that even a couple of centimeters of distance could be life or death when fighting, shaking his head he looked at his sword.
'Swordsmanship'
In the Abyss, Ren was taught many things by many people, this was all in an effort to survive under the Ash sky and the creatures that emerged out of it and eventually kill the Ash God,
But despite meeting and learning from many swordsman only two were able to teach him useful moves,
'Gramps and Lilith'
His master was an obvious one considering he was renowned for his swordsmanship and was part of the group of heroes that fought against the Evil God who emerged from the 2nd rupture,
And there was Lilith a comrade who he fought we for many years, one thing to note was despite being in a party that fought for humanity half of the members weren't even human, Lilith was an example of this,
'A half angel half vampire, Ethereal Ichor, and the Sword Empress'
There were many names she went by, but what was important was the way she used her sword, as the term 'Ethereal' implies physically she was weak of course this was only physically weak in terms of other gods,
What made her strong was the sheer amount of power she outputted despite this physical weakness due to her sword and magic technique which was based on perfect efficiency of mana manipulation for her elements blood and space while also hitting the perfect areas with her sword,
This caused attacks that seemed unblockable to become blocked or attacks that seemed to do no damage destroy the direction they were launched in.
'But I need mana and her special eyes to do those things…'
Ren felt slight bitterness at his inability to use magic and then thought about his master's swordsmanship,
'His swordsmanship… yea I won't be able to do it without dying.'
Then Ren looked up at the sky in thought. During his time in the Abyss Ren, although he used it the most he wasn't a swordsman, in fact he performed better using various weapons, his main ones being a shield, mace, or spear.
'Why was I thinking about the past again?'
He remembered feeling slightly dizzy,
'Ah I need to get stronger… If I want a chance to fight against a 11th rank'
As he thought those words he frowned bitterly,
'Fight a 10th rank who am I fucking kidding, I barely won against the 9th rank Ash God even if he was a 4th order god.'
Ren didn't like watching others die, if he were at a stranger's house and there were burglars he would defend the house but when given such an impossible task of the house being burned to the ground what was he supposed to think or even do in that situation?
'And If this god will destroy the other worlds once it appears, there really isn't a way to escape.'
Just like now the slight dizziness soon turned into a painful headache..
Ren frowned as he looked back down from the stars to his hand holding the sword coming to a realization once more his breath heavy,
'This body sucks!'
Sore all over Ren couldn't even sit down let alone move after his sword movements, he could only drop the blade as cold sweat dripped throughout his body his vision darkened as he passed out.