Myths Reawakened

Was the Heavenly Father an ancient god?

Wayne thought about it with a frown. Judging by the angels of heaven alone, they did look like an ancient god’s followers, and if that was the case, the Heavenly Father had to be an ancient god.

To Wayne’s knowledge, though, ancient gods weren’t interested in faith. The Sea God on Dragonheart Island, for example, had been too lazy to bend down and pick up the faith Their followers served on a silver platter even after descending.

That wasn’t the case for the Church of Heavenly Father. It had once dominated the Chosen Land as the one prominent faith, with no other competitors capable of challenging it. That led to a war of faiths that killed the God of Storm and Lightning, with an evolution path of giants. The god ended up erased from history and faded out of public consciousness.

Nevertheless, the Church of Heavenly Father wasn’t Heaven. One couldn’t conclude that Heaven was pursuing faith based on the Church of Heavenly Father’s behavior in the Chosen Land.

Case in point, the mainstream five goddesses. Their existence showed that the Heavenly Father didn’t care.

But if the Heavenly Father was an ancient god and had created the Chosen Land, how did the five goddesses rise in power? Where did they come from? Had the God of Storm and Lightning once been a member of the Life Alliance?

What about hell? How were the demons able to go head-to-head with heaven without a leader? Or were the demons followers of an ancient god, who once led hell? Was the true war of faiths the war between the two ancient gods, and heaven ended up winning?

That couldn’t be. What was so special about the Chosen Land that two ancient gods would be interested in it?

The numerous questions left Wayne confused. He put aside his confusion and told an excited Juno, “Once it begins, the evolution cannot be stopped. I’ll be honest with you. Angels’ true appearances are not easy on the eyes. You should be ready.”

“I know. I’ve read the ancient texts of the Church of Heavenly Father, so I know their true faces.” Juno wasn’t worried. Appearance didn’t matter; power was the end-all and be-all asset.

The powerful would remain powerful. Even if the powerful were hideous, their hideous appearance would come to represent strength. The powerful didn’t even have to disguise themselves; their followers would laud the hideousness as dignified, mysterious, ancient, and unknowable.

Juno didn’t care about appearance much, or she wouldn’t have been living as the Princess’s knight.

But she had a question: “Little Brother, you’re willing to give me this great a gift just because I helped you once?”

“More precisely, I’m doing this because I have to silence you, but don’t want to be ungrateful.”

Wayne added, “The evolution is risky. It’ll inflict irreversible changes to your thoughts and body. With Celeste, for example, I have become his faith and possess full control over him. I don’t want to do the same to you, so I have to lower the influence the evolution has on you. It’ll require more research.”

“Will decreasing the evolution’s influence affect my future power?”

“Yes.”

Then don’t decrease it!

Juno would like to say that, but her rationality stopped her; she chose to remain herself.

Soon, she saw Wayne put on a long white coat and medical gloves, leading Pale Nest to the laboratory. Juno followed curiously, only to be stopped by Mona.

“Sister Mona, I’m on your side. I’m not going to resist again.” Juno was curious about Wayne’s study and would like to see how an angel created lives.

Mona told Juno to stand aside with a frosty expression, ignoring the offered olive branch.

Juno used her silver tongue and even employed her pick-up tricks to get closer to Mona, but ultimately failed to overcome Mona’s absolute loyalty to Wayne and was kept out of the laboratory.

In the laboratory, Wayne extracted from Pale Nest the fresh body of the Church of Darkness’s Holy Maiden, Anastasia, converting her into a human before corrupting her once more to study the process of evolution.

He failed many times, causing the dark elf’s body to mutate. Many of the strange shapes her body parts took on shocked Wayne. He never knew how much hidden potential he had.

The third day was spent studying Anastasia. Then on the fourth day, Wayne experimented on Celeste instead. Although the dark elf’s body was malleable, it was an empty shell with no thoughts—nothing but a doll no matter how strange he made her. The data he gathered could be a reference, but only in the earlier stage.

Celeste, on the other hand, still retained his thoughts.

Celeste was beyond stunned when he sensed his changes. He no longer understood what Wayne was—a reincarnated angel, the Death Knight, or an evil god of the Astral Plane? The possibilities were numerous, and they all seemed to apply in some aspects.

With force alone, it would take a lot of effort for Wayne to deal with Celeste. In a battle between levels of existence, on the other hand, Wayne could instantly take Celeste down with Pale Nest acting as his cheat-like buff.

“Don’t worry. This is a good thing. Humans have limits, and you have already broken through the limits. Follow me to the endless possibilities of the vast cosmos.” Wayne patted Celeste on the shoulder, making an empty promise, and because he was a man, Wayne couldn’t be bothered to do more than that.

The legendary mage provided Wayne with a lot of important data. Combined with Wayne’s experience with Senna and the process of Filomina climbing from the Gold rank to the Legendary rank, Wayne had gathered enough precious information to barely map out the framework of corruption—or evolution.

First, evolution couldn’t be reversed, not even when he was the source of the evolution. He could only give his target a false shell to make them seem like a human.

Second, evolution could be controlled, which was good news. His study had seen significant progress.

Among his experiment subjects, Filomina experienced the lowest degree of corruption. She retained herself and hadn’t evolved fully. Even so, she couldn’t help but develop inappropriate feelings for Wayne.

For example, Filomina was extremely possessive of him and craved everything about him. Even if she was left alone, her feelings for Wayne would grow stronger on their own. That was most likely why she couldn’t quit him. She yearned for him too much.

That was troublesome. If Filomina, who was the least corrupted, was acting like this, what must be happening to Senna back in the Church of Nature’s headquarters?

That was a warning sign for Wayne not to give away evolution unless he had to. It couldn’t be reversed. He had to exercise the highest caution with Silvia’s and Veronica’s dragon blood curses.

For the next few days, he went from studying the high-level subjects to the low-level ones, beginning the modification of the Forgotten Ones. The process was dull. He kept compiling the data, putting numbers in the spreadsheets and gathering them in his head without jotting them down on actual paper.

His head hummed as a great volume of information entered, making his thoughts even more active. He felt like he was turning into a computer.

“Wait, this feeling...”

“How strange!”

It was hard for Wayne to describe his changes over the past few days. It was like... his thoughts were growing stronger, and his efficiency in recruiting his elemental old friends was rising. His power grew even though he hadn’t been training, as if his evolution had begun.

The feeling worried Wayne. He couldn’t tell if the changes had come from the Book of Greed or the sweets the ancient god on Dragonheart Island had given him. He put aside his experiment and spent time with his loved ones.

He proved himself to still be the same pervert who had sworn to fight gambling and drugs[1].

I’m good!

***

Cinema.

A romance movie was playing on the big screen as two lone figures sat in the reserved screening room: Wayne and Ottilia.

The ticket inspector spat acid. With his dream to become an actor shattered, he returned to his original job, and on his first day at work, he saw Wayne again.

The bastard had another girlfriend!

The vengeful spirits had different wishes. Most of them wanted to visit home, and Wayne agreed readily. They took turns taking over Flora’s body and returned to their hometown with their new IDs.

Their attempts didn’t end well. They had been dead for so long that their families no longer lived. Instead, they saw the faces of strangers. They were family in blood, but not the ones they knew and cared about. Their only homes were the library Wayne provided them.

Regina was an exception. She had died recently, and her family hadn’t changed. She met her sister and told her that she was going to work in Londan right before departing, excusing her future absence.

She didn’t dare tell her older sister that she was dead since she couldn’t explain why she was still running around like a living person. Once she returned to the library, she threw herself back into work with full passion and incredible attention to detail, making her a better leader than Ottilia, the leader Wayne had appointed.

That fit Wayne’s stereotypes for Prussians.

Ottilia’s wish was to date. Wayne satisfied it generously. Knowing her concern, he tried his best to make her experience an equal love.

They both knew that with the contract signed, they could no longer be equal. One side would be accommodating the other, and the other side would be playing along. That wasn’t love!

The bookish girl had it hard. She died before she could taste the sweetness and sourness of romance. Wayne showered her with care and gave her permission so that she could enjoy as much freedom as possible, but after enjoying it for a few days, she began to restrict herself by the standards of vengeful spirits.

As Regina had said, since she had received a salary, she had to do right by her employer. No matter how strict his requirements were, Regina would overcome all difficulties and complete her missions perfectly.

Given her commitment, if she failed to be promoted, it would have to be because someone else had slept their way to the top.

Regina’s devotion inspired Ottilia. She reflected on herself and quickly found her position. Since Wayne had an angel secretary, it made sense for him to have two succubus secretaries.

Outside of work, a secretary’s role was to be close to her boss. She believed her conclusion to be perfectly reasonable.

Alone with Wayne in the screening room, Ottilia transformed into a succubus secretly and cupped his jaw to give him her first kiss.

(⁄⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄⁄)

“Ottilia, that is my first kiss. You have to take responsibility.”

“Liar. You’re so skilled at it. Even a succubus will have to call you master.”

Ottilia argued back. She was just about to throw a tantrum when she remembered their great disparity in power. She smiled again and pressed her lips back to his.

Feeling bad for her, Wayne willingly made several unfair promises to make her happy. After the kiss, he praised, “You learned quickly.”

“This body is a succubus. Of course I’d learn to kiss quickly.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

Wayne was talking about how Ottilia had seemed like an experienced professional in sex work the first time she transformed into a succubus, but now, she was completely different. She had recovered herself as a bookish girl with a gentle and proper temperament. Even when she kissed, she seemed inexperienced, not allowing the succubus body to dominate.

Ottilia blushed, hitting Wayne in the chest. “Bastard, you did that on purpose.”

Then she paused.

Wayne smiled slightly and put his arms around her. “That’s it. I don’t see you as my subordinate. I’ve promised to romance you, and I will honor my promise.”

“Even if I’m being unreasonable?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll visit Veronica and kiss you right in front of her.”

“...”

1. Sex (prostitution), gambling, and drugs are often cited as the three major crimes to crack down on in China, especially when talking about the government cracking down on the illegal establishments. ☜