Finding my Parents in Another World-Chapter 45: (Zoe) The Two Goddesses

The cave which led out of the cavern was very narrow, sometimes narrow enough to make Zoe feel slightly claustrophobic. She didn’t face any further enemies though. No stone guardians nor imps nor any of those detestable goblins.

Where is this leading me?

Famina had told her that she would be able to recognize the Treasure of the Goddess of she saw it. Zoe wasn’t too sure herself though. For starters she wasn’t sure what the object even was, and she was sure Famina didn’t know either. What if it were something she had already left behind? What if it were the staff weilded by the goblin lord? What is it was the lake that had rejuvenated her magik?

Zoe shook her head in frustration. Going in loops like that weren’t helpful. She looked up with renewed determination. Since she had already entered this narrow corridor from the cavern, might as well complete the Cave. Maybe the Treasure was the reward for doing so.

Presently the narrow corridor seemed to widen a bit, much to the relief of Zoe.

Must be another cavern, she thought grimly, even as she welcomed the increase in space.

Just as she had predicted, in another ten minutes, the corridor opened up into another large cavern. This one seemed deserted, but Zoe remained on alert. She couldn’t allow herself to be caught off guard like what had happened last time. She moved carefully forward, her magik at the ready, her senses heightened.

But there was no threat there. Or at least no visible threat. Once Zoe had determined that there was no chance of an immediate attack on her, she allowed herself to relax a smidge and started examining her surroundings.

And she gasped.

For she was in what looked like a mass grave. What Zoe had assumed were large stone structures, were instead huge coffins lined up on top of each other along the wall. Zoe went close to one and gingerly touched the lid. There was a coldness to it, a dampness devoid of life. And the lid itself was trusted and filled with dust. But even through that Zoe could see the intricate carvings on each of the coffins, the delicate murals drawn on top of each one. Whoever was buried here were much loved.

Thunk

Zoe whirled around, sand already coiling out from her hands, ready to attack whoever had made the sound.

Once more however she was rendered speechless.

In front of her, at the very center of the cavern a shimmering form rose up from the ground itself. After a few formless moments, the shimmering cloud took on the shape of a human woman, albeit with a blank face.

"Welcome, traveller." A mechanical voice came from the form. The voice reminded Zoe of the Alexas and Siris of her world. Detached, cold, clearly mechanical but still trying it’s utmost to sound like a real human.

Zoe approached warily. The Alexa cloud seemed like it couldn’t move. The blank face moved around, seemingly following Zoe’s movements, but it was still shackled to the ground from where it rose.

"Who are you?" Zoe asked slowly, warily.

"I am AD. I am a being of the Goddess, designed to help travellers like you." Came back the mechanical response.

Zoe furrowed her brows. This didn’t seem right.

"What do you mean by being of the Goddess?"

The cloud calling itself AD tilted her head, as if confused.

"Being of the Goddess. Definition. Searching. Found.

Being of the Goddess are artificial living forms given birth to by the Goddess of Bounty herself. Many of the Goddess’s followers consider themselves to be beings of the Goddess, however no organic life form can classify as the same." Having completed its explanation AD straightened it’s-her?- head.

Zoe considered ignoring the robot cloud and just trying to go ahead. But she had so many questions, and the cloud seemed to be willing to provide answers.

"Well then AD why are there so many coffins in this chamber?"

Once more AD tilted her head and then responded, "Details about Chamber of Execution. Searching. Searching. Restricted. Restricted. Attempting to bypass. Success. Found."

Zoe shifted about uneasily. Chamber of Execution seemed quite a foreboding name, and all the talk about restricted information made her worried as well. AD however straightened her head quickly and began explaining.

"Chamber of Execution. It is a place for ritual execution, popularized by the famous Emperor Knight Bloodfell. It is said that he held off and entire enemy army of a thousand men alone by this cave. The truth of the matter though is that he tricked the members of the army by pretending to surrender and then one by one brought them to this Chamber and buried them alive in those coffins." AD stopped abruptly.

Zoe felt nauseous. The coffins she had been admiring a moment ago now took on an almost suffocating atmosphere. In fact the entire cavern did. It was almost like Zoe could hear the screams of the men buried alive echoing around the entire cavern.

She walked over to the wall furthest from the coffins and steadied herself on the wall there. AD turned her blank face around with her as she moved.

"Would you like more information about the Goddess?" The cloud offered helpfully.

"Sure, as long as it’s less nauseous than this." Zoe replied.

AD tilted her head, seemingly thoughtfully now as opposed to doing a search.

"I am afraid I do not have an understanding of this ’nausea’ you speak of. Therefore I cannot judge whether this information will be ’nauseous’ to you."

Zoe grunted. Across worlds, robot voices remained the same.

"Fine then, tell me about the Goddess then." She said, resignedly sitting down. She needed some rest before tackling the final boss, and anyway her knowledge about the Goddess was quite little in the first place.

AD straightened her head. Zoe could almost hear the machines whirring in her head and then when she spoke, her voice seemed somehow much much deeper than before.

"Long before mankind, long before even the Elves and the Dragons, long before there was any life on this planet, there was but magik. Pure unadulterated magik sweeped over the entire cosmos. The Goddess of Bounty and her sister arose from this primordial soup of magik."

"Her sister?"

"The Goddess of Laments."

"How did they arise?"

"Negative. Information not present."

Zoe raised an eyebrow. Just a while earlier this cloud had given her information supposedly restricted in the rest of the Kingdom.

"You don’t know how your Goddess of Bounty was created? Or who created her?"

"Affirmative. Information of that age is not stored in my system. Only the Goddess herself can answer."

Zoe frowned. "What happened to the two Goddesses then? Where are they now?"

"Status: unknown. What happened to them, I am afraid I don’t know. The Goddess of Bounty disappeared during the end of the Great War. Further information beyond this is currently not available."

"What about the Goddess of Laments?"

AD paused and Zoe looked up in surprise. She didn’t know robot clouds were capable of hesitation.

"Further information beyond this is currently not available." AD repeated.

"Ok, what is the difference between the Goddess of Bounty and the one of Laments? Why did only the Bounty one get her own kingdom? Or was it that the Kingdom of the Goddess worshipped both?"

"Further information beyond this is currently not available."

Zoe sighed in frustration. As useful as this cloud was at cracking through the restricted information of this Kingdom, it seemed to know precious little about the Goddess that had created it.

Not to mention, it steadfastly refuses to even engage in topics involving the other Goddess.

Zoe remembered the Church she had woken up in. It was marked as the Church of Laments, which she surmised must be a church of the Goddess of Laments. But Famina and Father Andrews only ever spoke about the Goddess of Bounty. Thus was it the case that the Kingdom of the Goddess was only a kingdom for the later, with worshippers of the former persecuted? Or were there simply sects inside the Kingdom which worshipped one of the two Goddesses.

Zoe frowned. She would need to ask Famina about it when she returned.

"Can you at least tell me what is the treasure I am supposed to retrieve from here?"

"Certainly." AD’s voice was almost cheerful. "It is the Spear of the Goddess."

"Spear of the Goddess?"

"Affirmative. The Spear of the Goddess. Searching for definition. Found.

The Spear of the Goddess is a mythical spear that was said to be handed over by the Goddess of Bounty to her devout human worshippers. It is one of the Treasures of the Goddess, and primary weapon of the mythical being which will arise when all Treasures are collected."

A Spear huh.

Zoe breathed a sigh of relief. She had certainly seen no spear up until now, so that means the Treasure was surely still ahead.

"Where should I go to find this?"

"Go to the wall behind the coffin and tap on it. It will open up revealing the pathway to the holder of the Spear."

Zoe tensed. Holder of the Spear sounded quite a lot like the final monster she would have to beat in this cave.

"What is the Holder of the Spear?" She asked carefully.

AD tilted her head again.

"Holder of the Spear. Searching. Searching. Not found. No entity called the Holder of the Spear exists in our database."

"But you just said I had to beat the Holder of the Spear?"

"Further information beyond this is currently not available."

Zoe sighed in frustration again. "Can you atleast tell me what type of monster this Holder is?"

"Negative."

Zoe sighed and turned away, but AD was not done.

"Negative. Not a monster. The Holder is a human."