Making a wish to the Earth Mother Goddess was hardly his first encounter with a deity's mighty power. Besides, Kroya was a mage, so he really did not fear deities all that much.
When he reached the depths underground, where the great rift had once been-
The consciousness echoing there had already embraced him, heavy yet warm.
Still, he kept feeling as though she was asleep. Her responses seemed like a preset program, without the liveliness he had imagined.
Of course, thanks to that, he did not have to confront the Earth Mother Goddess's consciousness directly. Honestly, that was a relief.
That consciousness and divine power began asking him-
"Shining Child of Man, make your wish."
Those words echoed repeatedly in his ears, urging him on.
What could he wish for?
Before a being like this, whether he wanted strength, authority, knowledge, or endless magic crystals, any of those should have been possible.
But he knew full well that, in a deity's eyes, making a wish was an exchange of faith. The more he asked for, the tighter their connection would become.
Especially if he obtained knowledge directly from a deity. Knowledge a deity considered trivial might very well burst an ordinary person's brain.
So Kroya looked at the blue crystalline stream flowing across the ground and the scattered fragments of the Orpheus Oak.
After taking a deep breath, he said, "Mother Goddess of the earth, can he be revived?"
"..."
The consciousness echoing around him fell briefly silent.
About a minute later, divine power spun into a vortex, and a mass of pitch-black mist laden with the aura of death flowed out.
The mist drifted around him. Its indescribable deathly stillness sent a chill through Kroya-this was a cold that acted on the soul.
"Mist from the Underworld?"
Kroya's