Chapter 2: The Goddess

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The march suddenly stopped after half an hour. The young man in the jacket got curious. For this reason, he tunneled through the walls made of his fellow humans to reach the front line.

Throughout this, an uncountable number of evil eyes bore holes through his body, with some even burly muscled man baring their fists at him with the intent to beat the sh*t out of him. In their eyes, he must have been a pretty damnable young man. 

It was only out of the Creator's mercy that he managed to escape and reached his goal.

And lo-and-behold. His jaw dropped in amazement to the scene that greeted him.

A tall, or rather, a borderline gigantic wall of rock stood in their way. It served as a natural barrier separating the dead wastelands they were at and the lush, vibrant forest at the foot of the mountain.

There was no need to peek behind him. For sure everyone else was gazing ahead with indescribable astonishment filling their eyes. In his humble estimate, both the height and width of the giant rock was around a hundred meters. And he didn't know how he came up with that figure given that he couldn't even see how high it was. Of course, the edges were not even and rough. It's just that the side facing them was very smooth and it seemed to be something a battalion of sculptors had labored with.

The young man's Adam's apple bobbed as he looked up.

If the people at this place only had their voices, for sure the surrounding would transform into a noisy marketplace. Even he had the urge to shout in his bewilderment! 

He momentarily frowned because some pieces of information popped up within his mind with origins he had no way of explaining. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. But then, he remembered that according to the newly acquired memory, the largest and tallest rock in the wall was only twenty meters in height! A mere twenty meters!

There was no ground for comparison after seeing this giant block in front of him which was easily five times the size of that one.

'Ho-ho!'

A familiar noise sounded out which caused the young man to stay still. It was the familiar neighing of horses, and speaking of horses, the only other beings with them here was the group of Werehorses supervising them.

Everyone's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when they saw so many Werehorses suddenly appearing in front. Many of them promptly turned back, only to stare ahead once again.

'Damn! Even the monsters located at the farthest reach of this march actually teleported? Did they really all run from the back? As expected of the ancestors of all horses in the world... They all instantly gathered in one spot only to speak their alien language...' 

The youth slapped both his cheeks. And it was to no avail because it hurts! He was awake, not turning nuts from too much hallucination!

He was yet to recover from the shock when another fantastical thing happened. The werehorses stopped neighing.

A huge branch slowly bent over upon the tall rock and it was coming from a very tall and massive tree. People's jaws once again reached the dry soil below. Due to the huge rock earlier, they forgot that a forest was behind it, and all the trees from there seemed more than a hundred meters tall too. One of the trees even seemed alive, its branch reaching out to them.

If this scene was not jaw-dropping, then what?

Son of vegetables. He could no longer understand this world. His human brain only knew he was witnessing something out of the norms.

A weird march where the participants don't tire, as if they have unlimited stamina.

A type of creature called werehorses that previously only lived in myths, folktales, and horror stories.

A giant rock... which should be the most normal out of all the abnormalities he had seen.

A, scratch that, many gigantic trees beyond the tall rock... with one of the trees currently attempting a normal 'hi' with the people below.

And a beautiful missy who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, boarding the moving branch while wearing a beautiful gown that covered her body with only the ankle visible. The gown was decorated with many types of gems, gold, and pearls. Her dark green body-hugging clothing was also painted with seemingly live plants and flowers. On her head was a pretty tiara encrypted with so many small black diamonds. The tiara was the only accessory on her body.

The pretty woman remained sitting on the branch. In front of her, a lone butterfly flew in front of her. She watched as it flew across her, a smile blossoming from her lips. Only when she saw the butterfly landed on the flower on her shoulder did she give a close look at the sea of people below.

Everyone blinked. The woman's eyes were so pretty that they failed to see the mocking and belittling gaze she was giving all of them. The woman's lips parted. And as if under a spell, they all tacitly waited for her to speak.

"Congratulations, humans. You did well in reaching the territory of the sacred mountain of Balatukan. Please let your heart be at ease. Everyone can speak now. Because all of you have qualified to participate in a sacred assessment where each and everyone will be given a chance to uncover the stored fate meant for them."

After the woman slowly enunciated those words, only one word came to every human's mind.

"A goddess..."