Thea looked as elegant as ever.
Her pristine silk dress hung thinly over her accentuated bosom and hips. Her teal-coloured irises shone with the boldness of the clear skies, and her sceptre glowed with raw infinite power.
Kion had almost forgotten what it meant to look power in the eyes.
"I hope that it's everything you wanted." Thea said in a drawling voice.
Kion almost forgot that she was asking him about his new life, not something else.
"It's been fine." He said in a seemingly nonchalant voice. "How are you here? I thought you were locked away in some dimensional prison?"
"And I still am?" Thea explained. "Granting you a new life meant that my power was inextricably tied to you. Although I cannot physically here with you, I can astrally project myself to manifest in your dreams. This is something that can only happen a limited number of times, though."
"Which means that you have something important to tell me."
Thea studied him with her radiant eyes. Her gaze seemed to bore through his soul.
"Observant as ever, I see." She exclaimed. "But this is something that I would rather show you than tell you."
Almost noiselessly, she stepped to the side, a bit further from Kion, and waved her hands. A portal appeared right in front of Kion when she was done.
"Let's go." She said as she walked through the swirling hole in reality. Kion followed closely behind.
A blinding light enveloped him when he stepped through.
The light faded to a burning landscape.
The air was thick with the stench of smoke and blood. Everything, for miles, was covered in blackened ash. Kion squinted, peering through the acrid sting of smoke that battered at his tearing eyes.
He noticed the vast fields of flowers, tall trees and green grass; the bobbing hills that appeared like rippling waves in an open sea.
This was his dreamscape.
Except everything seemed to be in ruins.
"I don't understand." He glanced at Thea, who had a distant look in her eyes.
"This world; your dreamscape, as you might call it, is a place that used to exist not too long ago."
"Used to exist?" Kion asked.
"It was the place of my delivery. The day I bore a child."
Thea paused allowing Kion to take it all in.
"This is what became of it." She said after a moment's delay.
"I know you're wondering who it was who did this." She said as she turned to Kion.
Kion didn't really care, as he had not yet seen what any of this had to do with him. He then remembered how Thea loved to beat about the bush when it came to matters concerning what she wanted, so he decided to indulge her.
"I am." He said with a hint of indifference.
"Well…" she began, "He is one of the old gods, a powerful one at that. I cannot tell you his name due to the gravity of such situations. If he knows you exist, he will kill you. He is my captor."
Kion listened attentively. It was the first time Thea was ever telling him anything of value. Anything that might help in his journey to getting stronger.
"He was the one who burned these lands. He was searching for me."
"And why was that?" Kion asked plainly. There was an innocent edge to his questions, but Thea glanced at him like he had accused her of something bad.
"Because he is my husband. A possessive one at that. He always wanted me to be around him. To be with him, even if it meant sacrificing a lot about myself. That broke me, Kion. I had to leave, to flee."
Kion didn't see how any of this concerned him.
"He found me." Thea continued, and locked me in a cage. A boundless realm where no being exists. It dulled my power as the matron goddess of lost souls. Soulless began to rise. Wars began to wage. The future of cultivation was sorely at stake."
"Explain that last part a little more." Kion requested. What had she meant by "the fate of cultivation?"
"Well, you see…", she went on. "Humans could transcend to realms unknown if they had the bloodline, the potential. A man with staggering amount of genetic prowess could become a god, if he cultivated right, but now that is simply impossible."
"And you want me to achieve that…?" Kion questioned.
"You are different, young-blood. You have my blessings, and you are from a powerful bloodline. You will reach there, if you work hard enough."
"And what happens then?"
Thea froze. That look of guilt Kion had seen before resettled in her gaze.
"You will know once you get there, Kion. This is a thing of fate, of future, and there are powers that be that thwart me from telling you everything you need to know. Believe me, I've tried." She explained.
Kion looked disappointed. If he was still going to be deprived of crucial information what even was the point of all this?
"But…" Thea raised a finger.
"I need you to survive. To be the weapon of my vengeance. You've seen how unbalanced this world is. How the weak grovel and beg on the streets while the strong domineer in every aspect and form.
I know you want to, which is why I'm not ordering, but asking you to change that for me, young-blood. Help me rise by rising yourself. Restore me to the heavens, and let me once more bless this realm with my full power. No one will have to be weak again. No one will have to suffer what you did in your first life."
Kion's eyelids twitched. For the first time with her, he didn't look nonchalant or unbothered.
Kion had come to terms with it long ago. Changing the world was a dream they both shared. Maybe that was enough for now, even though he still wasn't up to speed with the details: like what she really wanted, or who her captor god was.
He had a second chance at life, and he was not going to lose it.
"I've already agreed to help you." He explained. "I'm doing my best, but a little advice would go a long way. You're the expert on souls. What do you think is the best path for my cultivation, especially since you granted me dual souls."
Thea frowned. "I did?"
"A fire soul with a lightning soul sub-domain?"
Thea's confused expression didn't change one bit.
"The fire soul I know of but a lightning soul? That must've manifested itself in you due to your bloodline potential." The goddess explained after a short while.
"Oh I see." Kion said.
"Well, I believe you have a skilled alchemist or wizard at your disposal. He or she would know best. Due to my imprisoned situation, I haven't studied the soul arts in eons. I would not be of much help to you." She explained.
"Well then. That's alright." Kion said.
He suddenly turned to Thea, a look of apprehension plastered on his face.
"I don't suppose you took all the effort to visit me to remind me of my purpose, or was that all there was to it, goddess?"
Thea looked nervous.
"Your ancestor…the elf…" she said. "Has he been visiting you in a similar world like this?"
That was the second time someone powerful had asked him this question in the space of mere minutes.
"No." Kion lied once more. Tyril, on the other hand, had a lot to answer to.
"Okay. That's fine." Thea seemed relaxed after she got his response.
"My power is waning. I'm afraid we'll have to part ways now, young-blood." Thea said as she walked away, her form shimmering against the skyline.
The fields still burned around her, the fires framing her statuesque figure in an almost ethereal way.
"Surely we will see again?" She turned to him, twin embers of flame reflecting off her sparkling eyes.
It was a scene that Kion easily interpreted. He had seen that look before. The look someone gave when you were their last hope in a crumbling world. Thea was quite simply asking him, "will you survive?"
"We will." Kion affirmed, as the last of Thea formed faded into the fires.
Kion was lurched from his dreams, quite literally.
He woke with a haunting start, like he had just been in a nightmare.
Contrarily, his body seemed to be more at ease. Shaman's potion had done its magic.
Except he wasn't sure if he was meant to be seeing everything in red.
He rubbed at his eyes. Maybe they hadn't fully awoken yet.
Everything was still red.
Kion suddenly heard a familiar chime. He felt that similar feeling of bloodlust he had when he had faced Kai in the castle and those mercenaries in the forest.
He instantly knew what this was.
[Welcome back, Host]