Chapter 1001 Another God's Remnant Soul
"How dare you..." Yuuki froze all the snow hares harassing her, then threw them away like useless chunks of ice.
"Yuuki, please don't kill them. They are only attracted by the scent." Elysia immediately asked if Yuuki would kill those poor things out of annoyance.
"..." Yuuki glanced at the chunks of ice in the distance with a hateful gaze, then snorted.
"This stretch of snowy mountains has very few plants and food. The tiny snow hares have a keen sense of smell and will be attracted by pleasant scents. Ely may be their paradise. Please be careful around them or they will lick you all over and eat you." Luna reminded Elysia with a teasing smile.
"Lick? They groped me... If it wasn't master's request, I would have sent them to the icy hell for sure." Yuuki muttered under her breath.
Everyone then split up to find the historical site that Luna was talking about. After two hours of searching, Elysia found the place mentioned by Luna. It was buried some distance away under the snow and was hard to detect even with her divine sense.
Lixue, Yuuki, and a few others dug the snow carefully until something was visible on the surface.
At first glance, the historic place that Luna spoke of was like a mining valley with many ice chunks and claw-like ice pillars arranged like a spiral thorn flower formation. But, the entrance still needed to be visible.
"This place is apparently buried by a very thick pile of snow. Dig up some more snow, and we will find the entrance in the center." Luna used her telekinesis-like ability to enter the entrance, but it was less effective.
"Well, this formation prevents us from peeking deeper. Since the entrance is close, let's use the more convenient technique. Please move a little further south." Lixue flew into the air and transformed into a massive ice dragon.
After everyone gathered in the south, the ice dragon flapped his wings to create an intense super cold windstorm. He blew the snow from the valley.
The mini tower-like entrance was in the middle of the flower formation as if it were the pistil. If anyone looked at the whole site from above, it was like a massive ice flower.
Elysia used her sacred vision to inspect what awaited them inside this massive ice flower formation through the open entrance at the pistil of the tower. "There is an entrance hole. The secret realm portal is underground, beneath the frozen lake."
"Under the underground lake? It's buried very deep. No wonder no one has been able to unravel the mysteries of this place until now." Luna felt somewhat surprised.
"Hm, I guess this place was designed for someone with extremely high aptitude of the water and ice elements. A heaven-defying talent worthy of being the Ice God's successor." Nell folded her arms and felt confident in her assumption.
"But, Ely is such a cheat. There should be a puzzle, a maze, and obstacles before someone worthy can find the secret realm's portal." Rhea smiled in amusement.
"Yes, that's right. I wonder if this one will beg to leave his legacy alone for someone truly chosen like the Sky God's soul remnant requests?" Nell rubbed her hands and chuckled.
Elysia and her group went underground and stood above the frozen lake. It didn't take more than two minutes for Yuuki to bring the hidden portal gate from the bottom of the lake to the surface.
The portal remained intact, and Nell whispered something to Elysia over an idea.
"Okay, you can go in there and scout the area then." Elysia gave her permission.
"Then, please wait for my good news!" Nell waved her hand, then flew into the portal.
The little angelic fairy flapped its wings within the secret realm of snow and ice. She blatantly emitted her divine aura to lure out another God's soul remnant, if there was one.
"Hmm?" Nell felt her divine aura resonate with something hidden at the peak of the largest snow mountain there.
Thus, she flapped her angelic wings and flew straight to the highest mountain peak. "Hehe, here is a law that prevents anyone from flying with magic, but unfortunately, I have a pair of wings to let me fly even without magic."
Nell bypassed many hardships, trials, and obstacles and effortlessly arrived at a trial ground entrance gate.
For each God-tier legacy, the divine soul remnant would at least place three layers of obstacles with multiple trials at each level.
The first one is the trial before the secret realm's entrance. The secret realm tests, and the last is the final trial ground to determine whether a person was worthy of inheriting the ancient era God's legacy or not.
Unfortunately, what came this time was another divine being. Nell had just stepped onto the trial ground. A little blue ghost surrounded by several ice crystals immediately came over.
"You, you-, you are the Goddess of Blessings, Nell!? You're still alive!?" The Ice God's soul remnant widened in shock when it discovered who had come.
"Hello, that's me, but don't call my true name casually like that, my old friend, Aether. Anyway, you still seem fine despite being a little ice ghost. Is your main body still in this world, or have you already reincarnated?" Nell flew around the ice ghost for a quick inspection.
"Well, I am just a remnant soul created to pass my legacy to the chosen one someday. As for my real one's fate, I also don't know. However, I believe the real me has reincarnated somewhere and is living under prestige with a new name of himself." Aether gazed off into the distance with pride and confidence.
"Is it like that? It's a pity." Nell sighed and shook her head.
"Anyway, how did you find this secret realm? You are not a candidate for inheritor or someone chosen by the Heavenly Ice."
"That's pretty easy, though? You've been around for a hundred thousand years, but no one has been chosen to inherit your legacy? Couldn't you lower your standards a bit and move on?"
"It's not impossible because the Heavenly Ice is something glorious. The best chosen one by heaven will arrive one day."
"Too bad, the mentioned heaven chosen one has almost reached divinity by herself. She doesn't need your little legacy because her fate is beyond what you can measure."
"E-eh?"
Nell and Aether were talking like old friends, but the latter widened his mouth in shock when he heard Nell's response.
"What do you mean by that?" Aether was unconvinced. He believed there would be someone worthy of his Heavenly Ice one day, but by the time one appeared, someone else had already taken the chosen one?
"Yes, as I said. You better lower your standard because Sky God's remnant soul also ends up like you. Now, pack your things and we will leave here. The decisive final battle will break out in five weeks, and you must contribute . Instead, I can listen to your request." Nell folded her arms as she glanced at the surrounding.
"Wait, don't aim for my legacy. I will help you if you can help me find someone worthy to inherit my Heavenly Ice." Aether instantly lost his cool when Nell looked for his heritage and legacy.
"That is easy since we have already built a Sky Library for future generations. Your trial ground of ice and snow will definitely come in handy. As for your Heavenly Ice, how about you take a look outside and judge whether there is someone worthy of your legacy or not." Nell poked the little ice ghost's cheek.
She tried to persuade the Ice God's remnant soul to pass the God-tier primary legacy to her group members just like she did to the Sky God's remnant soul.
"Well, I will listen to you once since you are my old friend. I will definitely help if it's to eliminate those curse bastards. But, what about your forces? How many Gods are still alive, and how strong are our enemies? It would be sad if we lost and let the world be destroyed. It hurts me greatly to see so many young talented seedling's demises at their hands." Aether had no objections to Nell's proposal and agreed to the arrangement.
He had waited so long and had better not be so stubborn since another God's remnant soul had already boarded the ship before him.
"I am pleased with your understanding. Five divine beings from the ancient era are still alive besides me. We have also recruited several powerful Goddesses from other worlds to help eliminate the Cursed Gods. Our enemies are only two and a few minions. Anyway, shrink your trial ground and we go from here." Nell glanced up slightly, avoiding eye contact.
Unlike how she convinced the Sky God's remnant soul, she didn't expect this to go so smoothly. She had to use subtle threats and intimidation until the other party begged for mercy.
"Wow, you can recruit Goddesses from other world? But, only two bastardds left? Well, it's been so long since the end of the ancient era. I see..." Aether nodded in understanding as if everything made sense.
He then packed his thing up and transformed the trial ground's gate into a cube-like artifact. The little ice ghost left with his old friend out of the secret realm, not knowing what would await him later.
Nevertheless, he had high expectations since the six divine beings of the Divine Order, and the Goddesses of another world were there to eliminate the Cursed Gods once and for all.