Inside the room.
Thor stood behind her, his gaze calm as still water. His attention did not linger on the girl's body but passed straight through her skin, reaching deeper—
To the soul that bore everything, eternal and unchanging.
In his perception, that soul shone with a vast, pure divine radiance, like amber suspended in the river of time.
It had none of the tangled threads of "past" causality commonly found in mortal souls, nor could he see any traces of change pointing toward the "future."
Everything was clear, firm, and utterly untainted, displaying a perfection beyond humanity.
It was the quintessential core of a god's soul.
The girl before him was no mortal. She was a god—or, more precisely, she was Freya herself, the Goddess of Beauty.
The patron goddess of one of Orario's two strongest Familias.
She had simply used some kind of transformation magic to change her appearance.
Most gods couldn't recognize Syr at all. Only a handful could see through her disguise, like Loki last night.
Thor, too, began weighing the situation.
My power has only just begun to recover. Can I successfully bestow a Blessing?
A thousand years ago, the gods had grown bored and chosen to descend to the lower world. They had bestowed Blessings upon Orario's adventurers.
To add to what they called fun and better experience life, these gods had willingly given up their divine power, choosing to experience the hardships and inconveniences of mortal life.
Thor could understand that.
For beings who knew nothing of creation, an endless life really was long and dull.
But it wasn't quite accurate to say that Syr before him was the goddess herself.
Gods had no physical bodies in the true sense. They were a kind of aggregation of concepts and faith, and couldn't truly be "killed."
In the lower world, when a god was killed, they were sent back to Heaven and forbidden from descending again.
Even if the gods were killed again in Heaven, they wouldn't truly die. They would enter a ten-thousand-year period of resurrection.
Some gods in Heaven were so bored that they even willingly entered that period for fun.
Syr had the soul of a god, but her body was not much different from a mortal's.
Her body was merely able to wield divine power and possessed greater talent than a mortal's.
Bestowing a Blessing upon a god and making one a member of my Familia?
That would make for an interesting experiment.
Syr wanted to become a member of his Familia of her own free will. Thor had no reason to refuse.
As Thor considered whether it was possible to inscribe a Blessing upon a god, Syr had already prepared herself.
She gently slipped off her clothes. The movement wasn't deliberately seductive, yet it carried a natural, effortless grace.
She raised her slender arms, one hand resting naturally over her chest while the other gracefully swept her gray hair over one shoulder, revealing her flawless back.
"Mr. Thor, please~"
In an instant, even the air seemed to still.
Moonlight streamed in through the window, falling just right upon her skin. It wasn't the ordinary pallor of mortals.
It was a sheen like ivory delicately carved from warm jade, so fine it seemed woven from moonlight itself, without a single flaw.
This wasn't merely physical beauty. It was the very "concept" of beauty made manifest in a mortal shell.
It was an overwhelming charm, unrelated to lust, but rather a revelation bordering on "truth."
A mere glimpse of her back, a simple gesture as she swept her hair aside—together, they exhausted every mortal's imagination of "beauty." Anyone who looked upon her would be shaken to the core and feel unworthy.
The shopkeepers outside the door fell completely silent. Even their faint breaths vanished, leaving only their stunned gazes and an instinctive sense of submission before supreme beauty.
Mia's brows furrowed even more deeply, her expression difficult to read.
A flicker of pure admiration passed through Ais's golden eyes as well.
Lefiya instinctively covered her mouth.
Thor's gaze rested calmly on Syr's back.
Yet even through his transcendent perspective, he couldn't wholly deny the beauty embodied by the body before him.
"Now that's interesting..." Thor murmured.
Seeing that Syr was ready, Thor asked once more to make sure. "Are you certain you want to become a member of my Familia? This isn't an ordinary contract. Once I inscribe it, your essence will be closely bound to my path."
Syr didn't hesitate. "Actually, from the moment you mentioned recruiting Familia members last night, I wanted to suggest it. But some unexpected events interrupted us..."
She had made this decision after careful consideration.
Syr knew that Thor's eyes held only the Starry Heavens he had created, and that nothing else could capture his attention.
If she didn't become a member of Thor's Familia, she... would probably remain someone his gaze passed over forever.
And this was also her only way to approach that incomprehensible "greatness."
Thor looked into her eyes, taking in her unwavering resolve.
Now that she had made up her mind, there was no need for further words.
He walked slowly behind Syr and raised his right index finger.
At its tip,
a drop of indescribable liquid slowly took shape—
It wasn't crimson. It was more like countless spinning stars, compressed and smelted together before finally condensing into a drop of divine blood containing the power of creation.
Specks of Stardust within the blood shimmered like the first glimmers of light at the birth of the universe, swirling in a hazy radiance and exuding an ancient, boundless aura.
Drip—
The moment the divine blood touched Syr's back—
Humm—!
A violent tremor that shook space itself erupted from the drop of blood!
It wasn't a physical shaking, but a resonance on the level of the laws of reality.
An indescribably brilliant pillar of light shot up from Syr's back, instantly filling the cramped room. Its intensity was as if a star had been born inside!
The dazzling light made everyone outside the door instinctively squeeze their eyes shut, stifling their cries of surprise.
The light even seeped through the gaps around the doors and windows, briefly bathing the second floor in daylight.
"Mm~!" Syr's body shuddered violently, and an involuntary, muffled moan escaped her lips.
It wasn't a moan of pain, but a powerful shock that came from the very source of her life.
An unprecedented feeling of being "filled" and "shaped," hot and intense, swept through her entire body.
The light came quickly and vanished just as quickly.
Just a few seconds later, the pillar of starlight, bright enough to blind mortals, abruptly disappeared, as if it had never been there.
The room returned to darkness, with only the faint moonlight coming through the window and the group's hurried breathing remaining.
Mia was the first to force herself past the spots still lingering in her vision and anxiously look at Syr's back again.
Her eyes suddenly widened.
On the skin that had once been flawless, like warm ivory, a complex pattern now glimmered with a gentle starlight!
It was Thor's own Star Blessing!
The sacred mark was now clearly inscribed upon the body of a god.
Mia was utterly shocked.
Hey, hey, hey, was this some kind of joke? Had someone really bestowed a Blessing upon a god!?
And in Thor's eyes, he witnessed an extremely fascinating sight.
The instant the Star Blessing was inscribed, Syr's divine soul, once frozen like amber,
began to sprout one thread, then two... countless fine strands of fate, brimming with possibility, slowly extending from the core of her once-eternal, motionless soul.
They reached toward the future that had once been nothing but chaos to her.
The future of a god... had begun to turn.
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