The renunciation ritual began...

It was an overwhelming display of holy magic that defied all mortal logic.

The sheer volume of divine energy housed within the Saintess’s body suddenly erupted outward.

A massive, roaring pillar of pure, liquid white light tore through the ceiling of the cathedral, completely engulfing the ancient woman on the dais.

The holy energy didn’t disperse into the air; it flowed like a reversed waterfall, violently siphoning out of the Saintess’s chest and pouring directly into the massive weeping marble statue of the Goddess.

The physical toll of the renunciation was immediate and shocking...

As the divine energy left her, the Saintess’s flowing, luminescent white hair which was the undeniable hallmark of the Goddess’s chosen began to darken from the roots downward.

’...’

Serra didn’t know what to say or think...

In a matter of seconds, the pure white locks turned a stark, inky, mortal black.

Her shoulders slumped as the divine aura that had kept her body suspended in a state of ageless, unyielding power completely evaporated.

She was suddenly just a mortal woman, gasping for breath as she leaned heavily against the marble altar for support but the statue of Luneth came alive.

The colossal weeping eyes of the marble Goddess ignited with a blinding, searing silver light.

The entire cathedral rumbled, the stained-glass windows rattling violently in their iron frames as the concentrated holy power reached critical mass.

"The vessel is empty!" the former Saintess gasped with her black hair clinging to her sweating face as she looked back over her shoulder at the four girls. "The Goddess chooses!"

Christina, unable to contain her overwhelming anticipation and arrogance, slightly raised her head, leaning forward with a triumphant smile.

’I will... I will be the new Saintess and I’ll prove...’ Christina thought, she could still hear Serra in her head when they were kids as the blondie had proclaimed that she would be the Saintess. ’I’ll prove that I’m the only one.’

She braced herself for the impact of the divine light... ready to claim the absolute highest authority in the land.

The statue fired.

A roaring, blinding beam of pure, concentrated divine light erupted from the weeping eyes of the Goddess.

The beam tore across the elevated dais, illuminating the entire cathedral in a flash of impossible brilliance but it didn’t hit Christina.

Neither did it hit anyone else...

The massive beam of holy power completely bypassed the haughty, arrogant assistant.

It curved violently in mid-air, defying the laws of physics, and slammed directly into Serra’s chest.

"Gah!"

Serra didn’t even have time to scream. The sheer magnitude of the divine energy hitting her body instantly evaporated all the oxygen in her lungs.

It wasn’t a burning pain... it was a sensation of overwhelming saturation.

Holy power, thicker and more potent than a million healing spells cast simultaneously, violently rippled through her flesh, her veins, and her marrow.

Her mortal bones cracked and instantly restructured, hardening to accommodate the terrifying density of the Goddess’s power.

The physical transformation was agonizingly rapid.

Her beautiful golden blonde hair began to bleach rapidly from the roots, turning into a flawless luminescent, cascading waterfall of pure white.

The intense, searing light flooded her retinas, burning away the soft, gentle blue of her irises and replacing them with a glowing divine silver.

The sensory overload was absolute. The massive cathedral, the shocked gasp of Christina, and the cold marble floor beneath her knees simply dissolved into static...

Serra’s consciousness was violently yanked out of her physical body, pulled upward into a rushing, blinding tunnel of white light.

When the light finally faded, she wasn’t in the Grand Church anymore.

She was standing in a breathtakingly beautiful, serene, infinitely sprawling field of tall, golden wheat.

A warm, gentle summer breeze rustled the golden stalks, carrying the sweet scent of honey and fresh rain.

The sky above was a flawless, unblemished cerulean blue, completely untouched by clouds or shadows.

’Where am I...?’

It was a domain of perfect peace.

Serra stumbled forward, dropping to her knees in the soft dirt, panting heavily as her mind tried to process the dimensional shift.

She looked down at her hands. They were glowing faintly with residual holy magic. Her long hair, now completely, starkly white, fell over her shoulders.

"Welcome, Serra."

The voice was soft and carried a heavy, ancient weight that made the golden wheat bow in reverence.

Serra snapped her head up.

Standing just a few feet away from her, materializing out of the golden stalks, was a woman.

She was a Goddess... Her skin was a flawless, pale porcelain, radiating a soft, divine luminescence.

She had long, cascading hair that shifted beautifully between the colors of twilight and dawn.

She wore a flowing, immaculate white gown woven from starlight but her most striking feature was the thick, dark, silken blindfold wrapped tightly around her eyes.

Serra’s breath hitched in her throat. She instantly bowed her head, pressing her forehead against the soft dirt of the divine realm, trembling with unfiltered awe.

"G-Goddess Luneth," Serra stuttered, her voice incredibly small in the vast expanse of the golden field. "I am... I am unworthy. I am just a healer... Christina was right there.... She is a prodigy. She has leagues more holy power than I do. She was trained for this her entire life so if I may, why... why did you choose me?"

The Goddess didn’t speak immediately.

She walked forward with her bare feet making absolutely no sound against the dirt.

She stopped directly in front of the trembling, kneeling woman.

"Lift your head, my child," the Goddess commanded softly.

Serra slowly pushed herself up, remaining on her knees, and looked up at the blindfolded deity.

The Goddess reached up with her delicate, glowing hands. She grabbed the edge of the dark, silken blindfold and slowly, deliberately untied it.

The fabric fell away, drifting to the ground like a shadow.

The Goddess opened her eyes...

They were a striking, piercing, brilliantly luminescent shade of silver. They were the exact same divine silver that now burned within Serra’s own eyes.

The Goddess looked down at Serra, a gentle fond smile spread across her flawless face.

"Christina has holy power, yes," the Goddess admitted, her voice echoing with a strange, intimate warmth. "But holy power can be taught. It can be accumulated. I did not choose you for your mana core, Serra. I chose you for one simple reason."

The Goddess tilted her head slightly, her silver eyes glowing with an intense, possessive, cosmic devotion.

"I chose you because you love Klaus," she stated.

Serra completely froze.

Her heart skipped a beat, her newly silver eyes widening in absolute, paralyzing shock.

Of all the things she had expected the supreme deity of the world to say... a mandate to cleanse the corruption, a holy crusade against the darkness, a sermon on divine purity... this was the very last thing that could have ever crossed her mind.

"K-Klaus?" Serra gasped, her mind reeling.

"Yes," the Goddess smiled with her expression changing until it was very protective.

It wasn’t the aloof, disconnected smile of a deity judging humanity... It was the smile of a girl staring down at a game board, fiercely guarding the most important piece...

"You love him with a quiet unconditional devotion..." the Goddess continued. "When that woman broke his heart, you did not abandon him... When he began to push you away, you stayed... You have the patience to heal the deepest, most rotting wounds in his soul and he is going to need that healing very, very soon."

The Goddess took a step closer, looking down at the shocked trembling new Saintess.

"I am giving you the highest authority in the mortal realm," the Goddess declared, her tone turning into a chilling, absolute mandate. "You will have the wealth of the Church, the loyalty of the paladins, and the power to bend kings to your will. Use it but you must promise me one thing in return."

The entire golden field suddenly went perfectly still. The wind died.

"You will stay by his side," the Goddess commanded, her silver eyes burning with a terrifying intensity. "You will protect him. You will heal him. You will take care of him... better than I ever had."

Serra stared up at the beautiful terrifying deity.

The implications of those words completely shattered her understanding of the world.

The Goddess wasn’t just a distant observer... The Goddess had a personal intimate connection to the dark-haired swordsman from Galen Town.

The golden field around them began to violently tremble.

The sky flickered, the edges of the divine domain starting to dissolve into white light as the ascension was ending.

"Wait!" Serra cried out frantically, reaching a hand upward as the world began to fade. "You speak as if... as if you know him! How do you know Klaus? Who are you?!"

The Goddess looked down at her as the golden wheat turned to ash and the blue sky cracked like glass.

The gentle, fond smile returned to her flawless face.

"I do know him," the Goddess whispered with her voice echoing from everywhere at once, carrying an ancient obsessive love that transcended time, space, and death itself. "You can call me... Melanie."

VWOOSH!

The divine realm completely shattered.

Serra gasped violently, her lungs filling with the heavy, incense-laced air of the Grand Church.

She was back. She was kneeling on the velvet cushion at the front of the massive cathedral. But everything had changed.

She could feel the terrifying ocean of holy power thrumming in her veins.

She could see the microscopic motes of ambient mana floating in the air with her new glowing silver eyes.

Her long, stark white hair spilled across the floor around her knees.

The silence in the cathedral was completely deafening... as Serra slowly turned her head to the right.

Christina was kneeling a few feet away. The arrogant assistant was entirely stripped of her pride.

Christina was staring at Serra with her face completely pale with her entire body shaking violently in terror and awe.

’Wh— why her?!’

Serra looked forward.

The former Saintess... the old woman with the black hair had descended from the dais.

She was walking slowly toward Serra, holding a massive, beautifully ordained silver staff.

At the very center of the staff’s headpiece rested a flawless, perfectly spherical, colorless orb.

It was the unmistakable legendary mark of the Saintess... The orb only reacted to the true chosen of the Goddess...

The older woman stopped in front of Serra.

With a deep, respectful, groaning bow that strained her newly mortal joints, the former Saintess lowered the staff, offering it horizontally to the kneeling blonde healer.

"Congratulations, Your Holiness..." the old woman whispered with tears of joy streaming down her wrinkled cheeks. "The Goddess has spoken. May your reign bring light to the Empire."

Serra stared at the colorless orb. She reached out with trembling hands, her fingers wrapping around the cold silver metal of the staff.

She wasn’t just a healer anymore... She was the most powerful religious figure on the continent and she had a divine mandate to fulfill...

A long distance away from the Grand Church, deep within the heavily fortified opulent heart of the Erell Empire’s Royal Castle, a completely different kind of power shift was taking place.

The War Room was a massive, circular chamber constructed of dark mahogany and polished gray stone.

The walls were lined with massive, detailed maps of the continent, heavily embroidered tapestries depicting the Empire’s bloody conquests, and racks of ceremonial weaponry.

Seated around the massive, circular oak table were the absolute most powerful individuals in the entire nation.

At the head of the table sat the Emperor of Erell... a broad-shouldered, imposing man with a thick beard and a heavy gold crown resting on his graying hair.

Flanking him were the High Dukes, the Grand Generals of the Imperial Army, and the matriarchs of the most influential noble clans and standing perfectly straight near the center of the table, bathed in the light of the massive crystal chandelier, was the First Royal Heir.

But the heir was no longer wearing the royal cloaks that Zephyr usually wore... neither did she wear his trousers.

Zephyra was wearing a stunning deep crimson military-style dress that perfectly accentuated her undeniable breathtakingly beautiful feminine curves.

Her long, vibrant silver hair that was usually let down was tied behind her hair and her striking purple eyes were glowing.

The bombshell had just been dropped as the room was in a state of paralyzed shock.

A heavy, suffocating silence stretched over the massive oak table, broken only by the crackle of the fireplace in the corner.

Finally, a highly decorated, elderly Duke with a chest full of war medals coughed into his fist, leaning forward in his high-backed chair.

His eyes darted nervously between the Emperor and the silver-haired woman standing before them.

"Let me... let me just get this perfectly straight," the Duke stammered with his voice trembling slightly under the immense weight of the revelation. "Prince Zephyr... the First Royal Heir, the Commander of the Vanguard, the terror of the northern border... was actually a woman all this time?"

Zephyra looked at the old Duke.

She didn’t flinch and she didn’t look ashamed... She offered a slow, incredibly charming, brilliantly warm smile.

"Yes, Duke Valerius," Zephyra nodded gracefully. "I am the First Princess of the Erell Empire. Zephyra von Erell."

In any normal political climate, in any normal Empire, this deception would have been the immediate catalyst for a bloody catastrophic civil war.

Lying to the High Council about the gender of the primary heir for over two decades was undeniable high treason. The noble clans would have demanded her immediate execution or exile.

They would have drawn swords right there in the War Room but Zephyra didn’t feel a single ounce of bloodlust in the chamber.

She possessed a unique blessing after all... She was entirely unhateable.

She closed her eyes for a brief second, feeling the ambient auras of the most dangerous men and women in the Empire.

There was shock... There was intense curiosity... There was profound bewilderment but there was absolutely zero hostility.

The generals weren’t reaching for their swords; they were just staring at her with wide-eyed, weirdly warm acceptance, completely unable to process why they weren’t furious about the deception.

’Klaus did say it was a blessing and it truly is...’ She thought, Hubby was never wrong!

Zephyra opened her purple eyes. The hesitant prince who had hidden her true self for her entire life was completely gone.

If her blessing meant these powerful, vicious nobles were literally incapable of hating her, then she wasn’t going to apologize for the deception.

She was going to turn it into the greatest political weapon in the history of the Empire... She was going to own this room...

Zephyra stepped forward.

SLAM!

She planted both of her hands flat onto the heavy oak table, leaning forward with an aura of authority that made several Dukes flinch backward in their chairs.

"Father. If I may," Zephyra declared.

The imposing Emperor of Erell looked at his silver-haired daughter.

The blessing worked flawlessly on him as well. Instead of being angry at her for revealing all this so suddenly, he looked at her with a fond and incredibly indulgent smile, gesturing with his hand for her to continue.

"The floor is yours, my fierce daughter," the Emperor rumbled warmly.

Zephyra stood up straight, sweeping her intense gaze over the gathered council.

"Yes, the main revelation is that I am a woman," Zephyra announced. "I hid my nature to ensure the stability of the Vanguard during the border wars but I am sure that this minor detail doesn’t change anything regarding my capability to lead, does it?"

She looked around the table.

The High Dukes, the Generals, and the Clan Matriarchs completely subdued by her unhateable aura all exchanged confused glances before slowly, unanimously nodding their heads in agreement.

"Of course not, Your Highness..." a General mumbled. "Your military record is flawless, even at your young age"

"Excellent," Zephyra smiled brilliantly. "Then we can move on to the actual matter of state."

She didn’t give them a single second to recover their political footing.

She immediately reached back and dropped the second, apocalyptic nuclear warhead onto the War Room table.

"As the First Princess, it is my duty to secure the lineage of the Empire," Zephyra stated formally, raising her chin high. "I am pleased to announce to the High Council that I have secured a fiancé. Furthermore, we are already married by oath and blood."

The War Room completely erupted.

Gasps of shock echoed off the mahogany walls.

The Emperor actually dropped his cigar onto the table... Yes she had mentioned it the last time she came here before she ran off.

’I see... She has my blessing then.’

Zephyra didn’t wait for the uproar to settle. She raised her left hand high into the air with the light of the crystal chandelier catching the flawless beautiful engagement ring resting on her finger.

"So, essentially," Zephyra concluded. "There is a true prince on the way and the succession is perfectly secure. Though my husband is currently abroad handling a minor dispute, I will be formally introducing him to the court very soon."

A powerful sharp-featured Noblewoman... the Matriarch of the incredibly wealthy and influential Valerius Clan stood up abruptly with her chair scraping loudly against the stone floor.

"Your Highness!" the Noblewoman demanded. "Who is this man? Which great house does he hail from? Is he a Duke of the North? A foreign Prince?"

Zephyra looked directly at the Noblewoman. Her purple eyes burned with pride.

"My beloved husband is Klaus," Zephyra declared, her voice filled with an overwhelming obsessive adoration that she didn’t even try to hide.

"Klaus?" the Noblewoman frowned, racking her brain for a royal house with that name. "Klaus of which territory?"

"He has no territory," Zephyra smiled, a dangerous, predatory glint entering her eyes. "He is a commoner from a border town and he is the bestest, most powerful man in the entire world."

She leaned forward, resting her knuckles on the oak table as she raised her hand into the air.

"And he is going to be the next Emperor of the Erell Empire."

The silence that followed was so profound you could hear a pin drop.

The entire High Council was completely paralyzed, completely unable to process the fact that their beloved, unhateable Princess had just casually announced she was handing the absolute supreme power of the continent to a nameless commoner.

Internally, Zephyra was practically cackling with glee.

"Any objections?" Zephyra asked.

"No my Princess!" One called out and immediately the rest of them cheered her on making Zephyra grin.

This was... truly a blessing.