"William Kaiser Solaris, I want you to be my hero." Goddess Nir spoke while matching William’s intense gaze.
William remained silent for a few seconds; standing straight, he looked at the goddess with a calm expression.
Inside his mind, he had several questions: "What is a hero? Orion?"
[Why don’t you ask Nir herself? You can remain here for a limited time; otherwise, you won’t be able to return to your body. Nir knows this as well, so I prefer that you spend this time talking to her.]
William nodded inwardly before looking at Nir. "What is a hero?"
Nir raised her hands and projected an image; it was a shadow silhouette of a man and a god, and then she started explaining, "A hero is the representative of a god in the scarred realm, which is the realm you live in. Aris is just a small piece of land in that realm, isolated by the Cursed Fog."
Across the scarred realm, some rare individuals are born once in a while whose fates are special; these individuals are chosen to be heroes of the respective gods.
"This is the first time such an event is happening; gods are choosing their heroes, or you could say apostles, to represent them on the scarred realm."
Nir concluded with a tone that intensified by the end, "And I want you as my hero, William."
"I want you to protect my honor and be my knight."
William heard it, but without getting affected or shocked, unlike Nir’s expectations; he asked ahead, "I won’t agree unless I make sure that I know the full picture and the benefit is two-way in the deal. Also, I don’t want to disrespect you since you are the first goddess that I am coming to like; otherwise, someone like Xythia would exert her pressure on my family."
Nir looked at William with a surprised expression, but then she shrugged with a smile and nodded.
With a soft and politely straight tone she spoke.
"William, I will surely tell you the ins and outs of this deal, but to at least convey my sincerity towards you, I must tell this to you, it was me who healed your body and anchored your soul to my realm so that to prevent you from entering the cycle of reincarnation. If I had not done that, your soul would have escaped the bounds of the existence plane, and you would have died forever unable to revive."
"It is also me who would be infusing your soul back into your body so you can wake up in the arms of your mother. While I don’t expect anything in return, I hope you place some trust in this lady and her words. I never had bad intentions since you are her son, my blessed child Annasthasia."
"That is also the reason why I want to make you my hero, since the trust between the god and their hero is what makes both of them stronger and resilient," Nir spoke with a subtle smile and tone so soft that it could melt hearts.
[Ahh!! Yeah, she is telling the truth.]
William heard Orion’s confirmation and knew that he had made a mistake in gauging Nir’s intentions earlier.
Out of respect for what she had done, William bowed. "I don’t have words to thank you for your life-saving help, to be honest; I can just make a promise to you, that I will repay this act kindness in the future for sure. I will surely do!!" William declared, as a man, his pride would be hurt if he did not repay the kindness bestowed on him.
He made a conviction in his mind to help Nir in the future for sure.
Nir looked at his serious expression and a smile bloomed on her face. She chuckled lightly with a welcoming tone.
"Sure, I will be thankful for your help." Slowly and steadily, William was starting to feel a bit of respect towards the goddess; it was similar to how he had felt towards Dereck, his elder cousin, who had the talent ’sage of the moon.’
William also remembered the gentle touch of his mother and the way she spoke and embraced him; he really felt that people with moon-related abilities had some way with their words that made the listener feel calm and warmth in their hearts.
Goddess Nir was the prime example of that.
William then looked up at her with a subtle smile and asked, "Please explain the event happening and the terms of being a hero," he said.
Nir nodded.
"First of all, you must not divulge these secrets to anyone else. Gods are not allowed to share this information with their heroes, but I trust you since I am sure you will be able to navigate better through the challenge. I won’t bind you under a universal oath because I am making a choice here, William."
"A choice to put my trust in you," she said with a smile. " If you choose to refuse being my hero, the information I tell you will disappear by itself the moment you open your eyes back in the scarred land."
William nodded, and then Nir proceeded to speak further.
"Since I have already told you about how the Aris continent is not the sole landmass on the scarred realm, let’s follow up on that and tell you the basic introduction of the whole cosmos and it’s structure."
"Our universe is vast, yet what we know about it is very limited. A universe is made of several galaxies, and galaxies are made of several star systems."
"These star systems are places where life exists. This is the basic knowledge that I have always carried in my mind since the day I was born, although I have no idea how old I am and how much time has passed."
Nir spoke with a very rare expression that William would expect from a god; it was a mix of a smile and a sense of sadness behind it.
"But the place we live in is not a star system, nor can it be called a galaxy; it is a special formation of realms as if created by manual intervention. We have no idea how things work in this system and how life sustains itself; we just know that we are all the natives of this special system."
"Even I, who am considered an outer god, was actually born here, and my existence is anchored to this system," she spoke.
William felt his breath catch as he heard the goddess