The Duke's Unwanted Wife

In Madaline’s palace, there was a direct portal down to earth. Sylph and the fairy sent to rescue her were ready to send her soul back but it was too damaged to travel whole. They had no other choice but to wait for Madaline or find an alternative. It was difficult to patch a soul and not just any god could do it. If they waited any longer, it would affect her chances of escaping significantly.    

    

“Shouldn’t Madaline have returned by now? What’s taking so long?!”    

    

Back at the platform, the gods were amazed. The fight was on a different level than the one they watched earlier. Two of the most powerful gods going head to head without fear. The first weapon they used, they had both broken them even though they were items not built to break. They were fighting solely with magic, causing all forms of natural disasters. The sky began to darken all around the world, alarming the mortals.    

    

Madaline's magic was focused on barriers. No matter what anyone did, you couldn't get past her barriers. Her wings were also an advantage. As the Fairy Mother, she had more wings than the ordinary fairy. Her wings could form any shape she wished and we're good at offence so she had an advantage in defense and offense.    

    

Thiton's magic was focused on dark spells. While he was a mortal, he was the best undead magician in the world. Using death and decay magic was child's play to him. He could control shadows and just a touch of his was corrosive and deadly. He could corrode Madaline's wings but she had wings to shed. His magic couldn't pierce her barrier and her wings couldn't injure him. Their fight ended in a deadlock.    

    

"Don't you two think you've gone on for long enough?! Do you want to destroy the mortal world??"    

    

Everyone looked back and saw it was Salamander, the great spirit of fire that protested. Madaline looked at him and stopped attacking. She looked at Ducroft, whom she trapped on the platform with a barrier of hers.    

    

"This fight is meaningless. Since he has learnt his lesson, we should move on to the civil court, shouldn't we?"    

    

"This isn't over, Madaline!"    

    

"Don't act so juvenile, Thiton. For someone who can't even touch a hair on my head, you're being very loud."    

    

The veil around him finally lifted and she saw his soulless eyes. It would've scared any other god into submission but Madaline just smirked, flying away with Salamander.    

    

"You two were really about to destroy the mortal world if you continued."    

    

"There's no way I would destroy the mortal world when my children are still there. Did Sylph succeed?"    

    

"She did. She said the soul was very weak and could fade away at any moment. Only you can help her now, Madaline."    

    

Madaline's face fell. She flew faster, reaching her palace. She entered and saw Sylph and the other fairies surrounding a soul filled with holes. Madaline flew to her right away.    

    

"What kind of irresponsible God will hurt his Saintess so much?" She asked, furious. She immediately wrapped the soul in a barrier and began healing it. However, the more she healed the soul, the more magic leaked from it. The soul was in a very unstable state and it didn't look recent. There was a substantial part of the soul missing, like it was an aggregation of just stray pieces. Madaline soon recalled what Natalia told her.    

    

“I didn’t know her soul would be this damaged,” Madaline mumbled, frowning. It was hard to just heal her like that. Madaline decided to drain her magic and heal her soul. Doing that would prevent further damage to the soul. Her magic could be regained but it would be much harder to gain than the first time she awoke her abilities.    

    

"I hope you would forgive me, young one."    

    

Adelie woke up with a gasp. She found that she was in a cold, dark room. Her body shivered, expecting Ducroft to come up to her at any moment. The door opened and she saw….Natalia, running to her with panic on her face.    

    

"ADELIE! Are you alright?! I knew it was right to come here after seeing the skies. Are you hurt? Did…wait, I can't sense your magic."    

    

Horror filled Adelie as she realized that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't sense even a spec of mana. Her abundant mana that could topple more than a few mountains was gone. Tears dropped from her eyes.    

    

"I…I'm sorry, Natalia. I couldn't control it. He just took me up. I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she wept, tearing the veil off her face. Natalia sighed and lifted her up. Even though the two were relatively the same size and height, Natalia carried her like it was nothing. They made it out of the seclusion room and just as the priests were about to stop them, one glare from Natalia sent them away. Once they were outside of the church, Natalia teleported.    

    

"There, there. You can stop crying. If you don't stop, I'll start crying too."    

    

"I can't imagine you ever crying."    

    

Natalia looked at those swollen, innocent eyes. She never imagined that Adelie Grayson was capable of remorse or even human feelings in general. She was glad that the person who became her sister did not become her enemy.    

    

"I am human, so I am capable of tears. It just seems I have run out of them."    

    

"See, that's more like you. Gods, I feel so useless! You're so strong and capable and here I am, losing all my mana because I couldn't defend myself."    

    

"Do you think it's easy to defend yourself against a god, particularly one that is the source of your powers? This is not your fault, Adelie, it's his. And we will make sure he pays for this. Okay?"    

    

"And how are you going to do that?"    

    

"Don't worry. You must've suffered a lot. Leave this up to your big sister."    

    

Natalia shut the door behind her and looked at the expectant faces before her. The worry on their faces is not something she would've seen in her previous lives. She was gladder than words could portray.    

    

"She lost her magic but she seems healthy otherwise. Fredrich, you go talk to the pope to not make any irrational decisions. She cannot just be displaced as the Saintess. Alana, we need to make sure the royal family doesn't hear about this. Can you both do this for her?"    

    

They nodded, leaving together. The rest gathered in the living room and Natalia took a huge sigh. The people left were those she could trust with her life. But this was something bigger than her life, something that could turn them against her. But they were the ones who could understand her the most.    

    

"The world will likely end in three months."    

    

"What?!" Sebastian and Marvis exclaimed at the same time. Dame Violet wanted to speak but she trusted Natalia. Natalia continued speaking.    

    

"Do you two know anything about the original god?"    

    

"Well, I know they've been dead for a long time. But what does this have to do with that?"    

    

"This is where all my plans lead to, Sebastian. I plan to resurrect all the original gods."    

    

"Natalia, have you lost your mind?! What do you mean, revive them?! Do you know what that means?"    

    

"I'm not stupid, Sebastian. I know what this means. But there isn't anyone that can stop me at this point. There is only a slight possibility that the world would not end but that solely depends on Nataroth, the mother of the gods. Once I revive her, I don't know what will happen to me."    

    

"Is there…really no other way?"    

    

"I'm sorry, Marvis. There is no other way. I promised Nataroth that I would make this right. Even if I didn't do it, this world would collapse on itself in five years. We will cease to exist as a planet and there would be no chance to reincarnate at all. It would be like we were never there in the first place. This is the chance I had and I took it. Even if there's a slight chance that we might survive, even though I might not make it, I would take that chance. You still think it's the worst decision?"    

    

"How are you so sure of this?!"    

    

"You want me to show you?" Natalia smiled. She snapped their fingers and disappeared. When they appeared, they were standing on a mountain. But even where they stood, they saw it. There was nothing in front of them. A thin barrier separated them from space but the night sky was closer than it should be. The barrier was undoubtedly Madaline's handwork.    

    

"Do you still think I'm lying, Bastian?"