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  “I don’t want to force you to cooperate.” I sighed. "Nor will I be taking any sves. However, keep in mind that your existence is brought about by me, and it is stantly fueled by my energies. I don’t want to do this the hard way. You might look like a young child right now, but I am fairly sure you’re hundreds of thousands of years old, so please act like ye.”

  “What…?” The goddess stepped back. “You dare…! Ah…”

  However, she suddenly fell silent, realizing, at long st, her own situation.

  “…”

  She fell silent and looked down.

  “My throne is gone, my powers are mostly all gone, my authority, my church, everything... What do I do now?” She wondered. “What is my purpose?”

  “Did you even have a purpose before?” I asked her. “Aside from gathering Faith and growing stroo climb the tower with your whole world?”

  “Before everything, I was simply trying to be a good goddess on my own accord. I wao protect this world, you know? At least, that’s what... I inally wanted.” She muttered.

  “I guess I wasn’t so different myself,” Umbra said.

  “But then, the surge of power, the addig sensation of growing stronger... Maybe killing my own world’s people wasn’t something I would do, but... the other people of other worlds looked like nothing like mine. So I… I just went and did it. I gained more and more power until I was pletely desensitized from it.” She ended up speaking from the heart. "Wait, wait a sed, why am I talking about all of this?!”

  “I used my authority to make you say what you truly felt, to open yourself to us.” I smiled. “See? How does it feel to finally let us know what you truly feel?”

  “That’s not fair!” She pined.

  “Estrel, that will be your name,” I said.

  “Estre… what?” She asked.

  “It means Star in Spanish, my father used to talk in Spanish a lot. He was born in Chile, a try in South America.” I sighed. “Although my name was registered as Katherine, my father used to call me Catalina, like his grandma.”

  “Why are you tellihis?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I don’t know, maybe just to do so?” I wondered. “Sometimes there isn’t ao speak about the things we do. Sometimes we just want to talk, and sometimes we just want to open up a bit. I told you about a preemory of mine, of my father, who passed away many years ago. You told me how you felt inside. Now we’re even, right?”

  “Ah…” She muttered. “I guess! Well, whatever… So what is my purpose now? What are you going to tell me to do?”

  “For now, I want you to get along. You must respect your brother; he’s probably the only person iire world who genuinely cares about you and cares for you.” I told her. “Estrel, you must value what you never did now. He died, but you now have the opportunity to meet him again. Grow your retionship; learn to appreciate your bond as a family.”

  “What? That’s not a purpose; that’s a bunch of weird human stuff! Only humans care so much about family and... And…” The goddess then fell silent again. “Hahh…” She looked into her brother’s eyes. “Not like I got another option.”

  “I don’t want to bother my sister; I would prefer if…” Umbra stuttered. “If she was happy... It’s okay if she doesn’t want to talk with me…”

  “…” Estrel looked at her brother and furrowed her eyebrows. “Ugh, why do you have to be like this? Always act like you’re so i and a baby! Hmph, this is why I didn’t like you! Just act more like a god on a while; stop being so... I don’t know, so desding?”

  “I-I’m sorry…” Umbra cried, hiding behind me.

  “Hey, why are you running away now? e here!” His sister chased him and grabbed his arm.

  “Uwaah! D-don’t touch me, sister; I am cold and creepy!” He cried.

  “I-It’s fine, you idiot. Not like it even matters anyway!” She said angrily. “Okay, here.”

  And then she gave him a head pat out of nowhere, taking out his shadow-made hoodie and revealing his skull-shaped face.

  “You’re weird, but you’re my brother, I guess... Fine, fine… Do you feel better now, my idiot brother?”

  “S-Sister…”

  The god suddenly started g liquid her from his empty eyes, creeping out his sister.

  “Ueegh! What the hell are y about now? Haha, you’re so weird!”

  “Sniff… My sister gave me a head pat… Sniff, sniff…”

  I guess they were trying to get along. I couldn’t tell if Estrel was either treating him badly and mog him or actually trying. At least it seemed better than before. Her brother had a lot of resistance against bad words, so she didn’t hurt him as much while being mean.

  “Now, now. If you want another purpose, just help me out. I’ll let you roam my Inner Realm and then e outside. I hope you two behave there. I ’t just tell them you’re the Gods… Or should I? Ah, but my family might panic a bit; what do I do?” I wondered.

  “Maybe we could pretend to be your tracted spirits?” Wondered Umbra.

  “Yeah, I guess that would work,” Estrel said.

  “tracted Spirits… No, I don’t want to lie to my family. I will simply tell them the truth.” I said. “I’ll bear with it myself. Ah, talking about that, you’re supposed to be Undead, right? But you don’t seem Undead at all. Maybe it was in terms of abilities? We’ll have to see how far you go ter as well.”

  “Fine by me, but how is my world?” Asked the goddess. “Don’t tell me you became the goddess now?”

  “No, I gave that job to Leviathan; he seemed very happy.” I smiled.

  “Leviathan?! That huge and a mohat existed before us?!” The god screamed. “I-I ’t believe it!”

  “What’s wrong with that?” I ughed. “He has proven to be better than you two below my ands. For now, let’s leave it at that. Now… Ugh, to the more important matter. I’ve been trying to cultivate Void Esseo prehend the Void Dao. Umbra, you were able to use Void Energy, right?”

  “I… Yes, it came out naturally from my own Darkness.” He spoke. “It was minuscule pared to true Void Wielders, though, but it was my only attack capable of hurting you.”

  “I see… Void is indeed a very hard element to assimite. But it might help me reach Rank 22.” I said while rubbing my . “Now, you el that very power and help me regute it within my body?”

  “I… Maybe? I try.” He said.

  “Good.” I nodded. “The’s begin.”

  While Kirby rested over my legs and imbued me with his pure Void Essence, Umbra sat behind me, pg his skeletal palms behind my bad using his powers to trol the essence of the void.

  With both of their help, it suddenly became much easier to assimite than before. The process was rather simple and not fancy at all, although still incredibly slow.

  I had to assimite Void Essence, a flow through every iny physique and psyche. Slowly, I let it seep through my internal structure, being a part of myself.

  However, such a process was not only painful but agonizing and stantly damaged and hurt me at the same level as the Heavenly Will.

  I could feel the Void spreading through, further fring ay entire being.

  As I did, my mind slowly started to drift away. I tried to ighe pain I felt as I submerged my subscious into an endless, dark void.

  A sea of darkness and nothingness engulfed me.

  For a sed, I thought I could see visions.

  Of the os and its endlessness.

  The vast darkness, the stars, ps, gaxies, universes...

  Everythied within the vast and dark void.

  To prehend the Dao of the Void was to prehend everything iween.

  This is why... It was so important to assimite and refine iergy.

  And probably also the reason why I was uo reach Rank 22 without having fully prehehis Dao before.

  It felt like I drifted across the endless void for thousands of years, my body slowly beginning to dissolve itself.

  I was slowly being oh the void.

  …

  These visions tinued for a long time, as we ended up spending much more time than we imagined meditating.

  I used the maximum amount of accelerated time inside my Inner Realm to get as much cultivation as possible.

  However, when more than three hours passed iside world, I decided to open my eyes again.

  “Ah... Hahhh… W-Well, that was at least something.” I sighed. “We’ve been here for at least three months; they went by in a blink.”

  “Three months of time is not much for us,” Umbra said.

  “Huh? That much time has passed already?” Estrel had been snag on the fruit of the garden and expl the skies in the meantime. “I guess we are simir to you in the regard that our perception of time is rather slow.”

  “Well, enough time has passed anyway; time to go back with everyone else.” I quickly stood back up. “The Dao of Void… I’ve at least prehended 3% out of 100%. It is a big step already. One pert per month is incredible. However, I believe it might bee slower as the pertage increases.”

  Three pert.

  Maybe some would say it was absolutely nothing, but to me, it was an incredible step in the right dire.

  I had prehended less than 0.1% of it before, so a whole 3% was an immense achievement.

  Kirby and Umbra had bee the keys to slowly and fully prehending the Dao of Void.

  Two helpers I would have never met inside Murim.

  I looked into my two hands, and without the assistance of anybody, small droplets of Void Essearted ing out.

  If I bihem with Primordial Venerable Essence, I could create something even more powerful.

  Perhaps I should create some new Primordial Teique.

  Even if the amount of Void Essence is not that big, I am sure I make a lot out of this!

  “Now, we should head back.”

  I stepped outside of my Inner Realm; the outside world had ged a bit as the night had arrived. I joined back with my family, feeling refreshed.

  I presented my two new summons to my family without any shame. And expio them their circumstances.

  My mother was shocked to learn I was somehow able t them back, and I told her that it wasn’t something I inally wanted but something possible through a Skill, so I gave it a shot.

  Due to how “chill” both were and how they were capable of hiding most of their divine esse was easy for them to walk around.

  Although much older than everyone here, they got along surprisingly well with Hekita… and Kirby.

  “Were you really the Gods of this world? Hey, you do this?” Hekita asked them as she gave a jump out of the ground and spun in midair, falling onto the grass floor with her four limbs. “Like this? you jump like that?”

  “I-I try…” Umbra attempted to do the same but ended up crumbling into a pile of bones on the ground. “Ouch, I ’t… it is difficult for me to do physical activities.”

  “Hahaha! You became a pile of bones.” Laughed Estrel.

  “Don’t mock him! He did his best!” Hekita said, helping Umbra recover his body. "Okay, let’s py something now!”

  I was surprised Hekita saw them as children because of their appearance. But both weren’t really menag beiher, simply going along with her whims.

  Maybe because I told them to be nice beforehand, be that an order or not.

  The rest of the day ent rexing and then having dinner with everyohe twins and my mother and sister practiced their new abilities and have beguing the hang of it much better.

  Ohe night arrived, the gods, without the o sleep, decided to remain watg over the vilge from the skies in silence.

  Maybe that’ll give us some time to ed talk with one another in private too.

  And, well, with Urbosa ae here, I didn’t have a particurly calm night either.

  Both had been wagging their tails for a while now, so once we were back to bed, we had a lot of fun.

  I kind of like this rexing life, to be ho.

  Even if momentarily, I want to enjoy and embrace these moments.

  .

  .

  .

  The skies across Earth trembled.

  Fn Time Essence was being ied into their atmosphere.

  The world’s own Time Essence, faiill existing, started to overflow.

  Rivers of gray energy flowed through the skies, creating a strange and alluring spectacle that many people could see across the world.

  But then that beautiful spectacle was interrupted by a sudden sound.

  Crack, crack…

  The sound of gss breaking.

  A huge crack appeared across the skies of many areas around the world.

  CRACK!

  A primal beasts of time immemorial, mighty warriors of aimes, and the legendary mos and pces where they all once inated slowly started to materialize out of the cracks.

  Some pces saw giant buildings appear from the skies of a civilizations. But other pces, such as North America, saw the cracks spread into the underground.

  Enormous pits opened, revealing a portal to aime. Giant, scaled monstrosities surged, r mightily.

  And apanying them came the savage men who huhem.

  Primal, barbaric, yet at the same time, humane.

  And curious about the future world they’ve been brought into.

  The Grandfather of Time trols the Essence of Time itself to an even deeper level.

  T a warriors as from the fotten times of the world was not something hard to do.

  Even less when he prepared to devour as many souls as he could from the world where the ohat suddenly stole one of his eyes had gone and where the ohat had killed his precious avatar lived.

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  Pach