Blade of the Goddess-Chapter 196

Zion sat for hours meditating, absorbing the negative mana into his body and purifying it into mana that he could use.

It was a painful and stressful task. The negative mana clashed with his own, causing internal injuries that almost resulted in mana backlash.

The negative mana didn’t want to be purified; it wanted to run wild, corrupt, and destroy anything that wasn’t like it, and it caused Zion a lot of pain.

Aryah wasn’t having a better time either. As a being of mana, doing something reckless, such as absorbing negative mana, was like a death sentence to them if they weren’t able to get the power under control.

Thankfully, for both of them, the holy power that resided in their bodies allowed them to handle the negative mana a lot better than normal, but that wasn’t saying much considering it was still a type of energy that shouldn’t exist simultaneously with regular mana.

It was like putting matter and anti-matter together without the ability to purify it like how negative mana could. So one wrong move and ’BOOM’ they’re both dead.

Finally, after a few more hours, they took a break, relaxing their bodies and calming their stressed minds before they had to fight monsters again.

[While you two were hibernating, I took the liberty to scan the entire fracture to see how large this place is and see the strength levels of the monsters.]

"What did you figure out?"

[For starters, this place is about the size of a dwarf planet. So smaller than a moon, but still really large. For the monsters, my energy scanners didn’t detect any monster weaker than the Ascendent stage. Lastly, the monsters are all grouped up, layered by their own power.]

"What do you mean?"

[Basically, this realm is split up into three zones. The Ascendent Zone, the Transcendent Zone, and the Mystic Zone.]

Zion nodded. "And the core?"

[Guarded by the most powerful creature in this place. A necro-dragon.]

"Necro-Dragon? I’ve never heard of a dragon like that before."

[That’s ’cause I just made it up. The dragon looks like a zombie, and Zombie-Dragon didn’t sound cool, so I decided to call it a Necro-Dragon.]

"I admit, that does sound badass."

"So what do you plan on doing, master?" Aryah asked, jumping onto his lap

"Honestly, I’m going to play it safe. We’ll head to the Ascendent Zone and get stronger there. Once we’re able to kill the monsters there with ease, we’ll move up until we reach the Mystic Zone."

[Smart choice. I’ve already charted a safe route to the Ascendent Zone, just in case you wanted to start there. You might run into a few monsters along the way, but nothing as tough as those lions you handled earlier.]

"Saying I handled them is an overstatement."

[My bad. The lions you almost died to repeatedly.]

"Much better."

---

Just as Tessa said, the route was relatively safe. The monsters they came across were in the Ascendent stage or Tier-9, and weren’t as difficult to kill in comparison to the Tier-10 lions.

Still, they were difficult, and it did take effort to kill them, but Zion was able to do so without getting mauled this time.

Since he had no time limit, he decided to take things slow, fighting monsters for twelve hours and meditating for twelve hours.

Slowly, his body adjusted to the new environment, making his attacks feel stronger and less held back from the forces of the world.

There were times when he came close to death, but he prevailed and made it to the next day. With Tessa and Aryah with him, he had company and wouldn’t lose his mind as he feared that was already happening.

"This takes me back," Zion said with a dry laugh as he thought about his past life.

He remembered going on a mission with one of his best friends. They had to leave the protection of their walls to find supplies from what they called the old world, which was just society before monsters emerged, forcing everyone behind the large walls they constructed to protect them.

Just as he was doing currently, the past Zion and his friend hunted monsters for hours and rested just as much. They took pride in their work and helped their people strive for a better future.

Unfortunately, a Class 4 monster, a strong monster according to the rankings of his old world, happened to cross paths with him and his friend. They knew they didn’t stand a chance, so they retreated as fast as they could, but against a monster, it was as if they were standing still.

His friend sacrificed himself to allow Zion to make it back to the city behind the walls.

That moment allowed the scientist to construct the most powerful weapon they ever created, an anti-matter bomb. And as if it were fate, Zion died using the weapon his friend risked his life for.

’I miss you, buddy.’

Zion wiped a tear from his face and exited the cave he was in to start hunting monsters once more.

[Do you want to talk about it?] Tessa asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Nah, wouldn’t do anything. It was just a memory from a long, long time ago, probably in a galaxy far, far away from here. Who knows. I usually don’t like remembering things from those days."

Tessa had access to Zion’s mind, so she knew about his reincarnation. She never said anything as it wasn’t her place to do so, but Zion knew she knew as well, so he didn’t mind talking to her about it sometimes.

[If you want someone to talk to, I’m here for you.]

"Thanks. But I hope to get those memories out of my head for now. More important things need to be taken care of. I can sulk later."

Aryah jumped on Zion’s back, hugging him from behind. "Don’t worry, master, I’m here for you as well."

"Thanks."

"Mhmm! Okay, let’s go kill those ugly beasts!"

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by (f)reew𝒆b(n)ov𝒆l.com