Chapter 51: Gaia

-----

After doing everything I could to help revive Henrietta and finally seeing her fine, I ended up falling unconscious. I guess I overdid it even more than I should have.

I really thought she was going to die; I never thought Gaia would sacrifice herself to this extent for me. She is simply a constellation of the many others watching over me.

Her kind personality might be a reason... but not really; being kind doesn't mean going so far for someone she had only known for half a month.Yet she went as far as taking a fragment of her soul to gift me a powerful yet deadly privilege. I guess… I cannot overuse this. Next time we go into a Dungeon, I'll make sure to prepare even better and pack up at least a hundred Elixirs or something.But… Now that I know she's safeand fine, I have a question.

Where am I?

I am sure I am sleeping right now, yet I am in some sort of dream where I feel awake at the same time. Ah, how were these called? Lucid dreams?

It wasn't the typical void where the protagonists wake up while sleeping, which will help them awaken some sort of hidden power within them or whatever.

No, this place was a really fancy-looking temple that seemed to be straight out of Greek mythology.

The skies were blue, and the sun shone brightly. The temple itself seemed like a giant floating island, and the skies went down below as a beautiful sea of clouds greeted me.

Oh my god... This place is awakening my fear of high places.

I kept wandering around, noticing I was wearing a simple white dress and was barefoot. The floor was really cold, but the sun was warm, making for a pleasant combination.

"Is someone here?" I wondered, looking around.

I suddenly landed in a garden surrounded by colorful flowers. In the middle of this garden, there was a single wooden table and two seats.

In one of them, someone was there, sipping some tea. I couldn't see her clearly, but once she noticed me, she opened her eyes wide.

"Y-You are… H-How are you here?!"

"E-Eh?"

Her appearance… I could perfectly recall that appearance: the beautiful, long blonde hair that seemed like a sea of gold; the flowers growing across her beautiful hair; her two green eyes, so shiny and beautiful they were like two emeralds.

That motherly appearance and the gorgeous figure of a model—one of her arms was made of wood, while the rest of her body emanated a beautiful aura of divinity.

Of course, she made quite an impact in the webtoon of the Solo Player Novel. Gaia.

"I-I… have no idea- Eh?"

However, there was something about her... One of her eyes, her left eye, was gray, and around that eye, there were ugly scars.

This is not how I remember her. What happened to her?

One of my eyes suddenly started hurting a lot, though.

"Anna…?! C-Could this be…" Gaia tried to stand back up, but quickly began groaning in pain. "Ugh… A-Ahhh… I can't stand up so well now…"

"Wait there, please; I'll go meet you properly," I said, rushing to her side.

It was really Gaia, a constellation, and I was meeting her in the flesh as well! But was this her true appearance? In the novel, it was said that Constellations' true appearances were "made of pure power, incomprehensible to mortals," and that they took forms that suited their personalities when meeting mortals.

"This is dangerous... Anna, why are you here? And in this form, is this because of what I have done?" Gaia seemed to be panicking.

"I-I don't know! I just fell unconscious and landed here!" I was surprised.

"This is bad… You need to go back quickly." She said. "You cannot stay in my realm either if the other Constellations find you- Ah!"

However, I didn't care about that. I jumped towards her and hugged her.

"A-Anna?!"

"Thank you so much for what you've done for me! I-I don't really know how to repay you, so please at least let me hug you…"

Her eyes looked at me in surprise, but then she smiled sweetly, caressing my hair.

"You don't need to feel indebted for what I've done for you." She sighed. "Since the moment I saw you in the Cosmic stream, I could tell you were different. Your soul, your charisma, your kindness... I do things because I want to, without expecting anything in return. Don't worry, there is no debt to pay."

"You're like an angel!" I cried.

"Hahaha… That's a weird thing to say to the Mother of All Titans." She sighed.

"Wait, but why am I here?" I began wondering again.

"Hah, you're finally beginning to wonder?" She sighed. "But I believe... It might be my fault. I ended up forcefully giving you a piece of my soul as a Privilege, and I didn't take enough caution. Perhaps this generated a connection. When you fall asleep, that part of your soul that has fused with my fragment... might be capable of traveling to my realm, as if trying to seek me."

"O-oh…" I sighed.

"You shouldn't be here... You're not ready for this, either. Until the Third Event..." She said. She was seemingly afraid, as she looked everywhere. "Not many Constellations are like me, Anna, so for now."

She touched my chest, beginning to use her divine powers, and suddenly, I felt as if something within my very being was slowly stitched back together.

FLASH!

"T-This is?!"

"I've stitched the power I gave to you better now; perhaps now it should be safer for-"

Crack… crack… CRASH!

Suddenly, within the Realm of Gaia, atop the skies, a crack in space opened.

Darkness started pouring everywhere as an enormous, overwhelming energy started spreading across the entire Realm.

Slowly, a giant… thing, resembling a black tentacle began descending, and more tentacles followed suit right after that.

Dark lightning started falling from the crack in space as the sky turned deep black.

"OOOOHHH…"

An incomprehensible groan echoed everywhere, making my head go numb.

"T-They're here… They found this out, the Void Rulers…"

"V-Void… Rulers?"

The Void Rulers are entities that live on an even higher plane of existence than Constellations. They're moderators of Constellations themselves and hold higher authority.

They are, however, strangely passive and only act when rules are being broken severely and casualty itself is being disrupted.

These entities are often referred to as {Higher Ups} by Constellations and Administrators alike because they find it bad luck to refer to them directly as Void Rulers.

"You have to go! Don't worry about me; they'll go once you're not here." Gaia sighed, suddenly giving me a last hug and a kiss. "Anna… survive until the Third Awakening, and let's meet once more!"

"I-I promise you!" I said, as I quickly began dissipating, completely disappearing from within Gaia's Realm…

.

.

.

Once Anna disappeared, Gaia looked as the skies suddenly stopped growing darker, and the tentacles immediately retrieved themselves.

However, one of them remained, glancing at her with a single, red-colored eye.

"No… more… interventions…"

"I-I apologize… I promise I will not violate the rules again, Great Void Ruler."

Gaia kneeled before the entity's overwhelming presence.

"The game… must continue."

The tentacle quickly retrieved itself from wherever it came from, and Gaia collapsed to the ground, gasping for air and completely exhausted.

"Hahhh… I felt like my entire being was about to be pulled apart. By everything sacred, I need a vacation." She sighed. Thousands of tiny spirits appeared around her, carrying her to her bedroom. "I need a nap…"

-----

And we're done with this batch of chapters, more coming daily after a couple of days. If you can't wait for more, my Patreon already has 18 Chapters ahead, and the new arc climax is going strong too, only for $10! There's also some initial sketch of a new original cover, not generated by AI, if you want to check that out:

Chapter end