WHEN I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SPIDER WITH MY GODDESS :VOLUME1

CH – 6 - A - DID I MESS UP WITH THE REINCARNATION CEREMONY

CHAPTER – 6

DID I MESS UP WITH

THE REINCARNATION CEREMONY

The last thing I remember was facing the heavenly guardian beast Fenrir. Wait what happened to it? Did I successfully escape? Did someone come for help? Is Lady Athena safe?

Wait, first of all, where the heck am I? After that, I found myself in an empty void. I was unable to perceive anything above or below me—not even my own body. The only thing I was aware of was my consciousness, floating in empty space.

I thought I had more time to spend with Lady Athena. Guess not! It was not difficult for me to come up with a conclusion that I was dead. Maybe it did eat me after all? I hope I was unconscious so I did not feel any pain.

Ughhhh….. Just the thought of it brings shiver down my spine. Wait I actually can’t feel anything, right. Well maybe I was just too weak after all, or the wolf was just that strong. I wonder how I will defend myself in the new world if I am this weak and died in the first showdown.

   Thinking back, its not the first time I was dead.

But the only thing that was different from that time was that after the bus accident I had no lingering feelings or nostalgic disposition of ever returning to earth. But now, all I could say that I was sad.

Sad because I could still feel a part of myself missing in this dark empty place. Thoughts about different kind of things I wanted to do and be this time. The aspirations and goals I had perceived and decided to follow with all my heart are nothing but merged in this nothingness.

I wonder what happens to mortals when they die in heaven. Will I ever meet Her again, will I be able to find and make more friends like Her? Maybe my time spent in divine realm, even if it was brief was the happiest and well spent than the pathetic and useless life I lived on Earth.

If only once I could meet Lady Athena again, I would be relieved that she is well and thank her for everything she had done up till now for me.

“Haaaaaaaaah…… What? .......Wait…”

After a long time, I finally felt something for the first time, a warm sensation on my left arm and I think it was a bit wet. At first I considered it a fluke, but this warmth just was too consoling and to be considered unreal was out of the realm of questions.

Could it be that I am still alive and just in a state of a paranoid unpleasant unconsciousness. Wait am I in a coma. Will I be able to wake up on my own? How much time has it been I am locked up here all alone?

I need to wake up and respond to my surrounding. I tried to move around my legs and hands but there was no response or even a slight movement in this blank state. Maybe there was no air?

Stop thinking about stupid thing I need to get out of here. My mind just couldn’t settle itself. I was afraid and at the same time too excited to do anything to break out. I cannot lock myself alone ever again. I have now things to care about.

A person that I could return to.

I started making strange movements; maybe I was trying something similar to swimming. But it was to no avail. I shouted and screamed or sometimes scratched my face deeply leaving marked scratches.

Maybe I should give up and wait. I felt like my eyebrows tensed up even though there was nothing else I could feel.

No, I cannot wait any longer. There is only one thing left to try and that is MAGIC.

‘HAHAHAAHHAHA.’

But the question is will it work in my current state. I highly doubt. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

So the next step is to ask myself which spell to cast. Considering that I am trapped here then teleportation might work. But something bothers me, what if my soul actually teleports itself out of my body and dissipate in surrounding. That will be worst thing that could happen in my current condition. I tried to catch my head but there was nothing to hold.

So the other thing that strikes me is my medical condition. So healing magic can be considered a good shot. But there is something I don’t know whether the healing magic I know works on spiritual level or is only for physical injury. One would consider mine situation akin to soul trapped in its body. Since it will not hurt to try so I am going to give it a go.

[DIVINE HEAL] {Latest healing magic I recently learnt in book}

Glowing orbs of golden yellow light appeared all around me. It was warm even in this absolute zero state of mine. I continued casting my spell and visualizing myself merging with my body and being healed.

The golden magic flowing from me didn’t stop; it kept flooding out and away. It had happened so suddenly, but perhaps I could control it. Something about this golden magic flowing out of me felt so nostalgic as if I had done it before. For the first time I thought that perhaps I could change my fate by my own hands!

Just when I was about to be done with it, these golden yellow light balls went berserk and started revolving around me at a very high speed. For some reason I felt quite infatuated with these shinning balls first but things got messy when a dark black lace joined this skirmish of light balls. I soon found myself in a difficult situation where I was being sucked in by a whirlpool of light and dark strings. I raised my right hand high up in a final attempt to escape or at least with a little luck latch onto something and save myself from drowning.

“AHHHHH… ahhhhhhhh……………..huh”

‘The feeling of being flushed out is not pleasant at all.’

I was lying on a bed, with my right hand raised upwards, I was shouting like I woke up from a nightmare. Maybe it actually was a nightmare. I removed the white soft silky sheet that covered my body and was half up on the bed with my legs still stretched across and they felt a bit stiff. Maybe it was the tiredness for running all around the forest with that beast chasing me all around. It was as if I was under some kind of divine punishment, scamper all around with such a non-athletic and fragile body is really bothersome and cruel indeed.

Near me was Lady Athena sleeping while my left hand was tightly clutched between her two hands. Maybe I need to thank her again for taking care of me while I was knocked out and bringing me back to life.

With all these movements Lady Athena had already half awoken up and as if trying to take a clear view of her surrounding and while assessing the situation she rubbed her eyes and looked back at me again.

“I am back, Lady Athena.” I smiled back at her still half asleep face.

“You are all right Sachi, you are awake. I am so glad.”

“I was so worried!”

“I was so worried about you!”

While Lady Athena said these words with a face beaming with happiness and yet tears sprouting in her eyes, she tightly hugged me and started saying in a deep flattened voice about what had occurred while I was lying in bed.

Maybe I made Lady Athena worried again.

All I could conclude from her rushed confession was that I was saved by God Almighty and I was comatose for four days.

 It was almost twelve in the noon.

The orange light that rained through the window made me realize that I was all this time asleep in Lady Athena’s room and with all the daily necessities like water, fruits, my clothes and some books (some may not consider them daily necessities, but they were our lifeline for me and Lady Athena) were spread all around us.

“Are you all right Sachi? Is it hurting anywhere? Are you cold or have a fever. Just look at you are sweating all over.”

I looked at myself and I was all covered in sweat, maybe because I was trapped in that whirlpool. But something really caught me by surprise when Lady Athena brought her forehead near mine to check my temperature.

My face started heating up as I blushed. She was so close to me. Is there not the concept of using a thermometer for accurate measurements? Well I don’t mind if it’s her but what about…. Wait was she doing this every time when I was out cold in bed. I had just used healing magic so I should be fine. 

“Well, I am sure the temperature was fine just a second ago, but its now all high. Your face is turning all red. Do you have a fever? Should I get some blankets and a glass of water for you?”

“No. Lady Athena its fine. I think right now I need a bath. Then I will be fine. This high temperature is because of some other…reason…maybe…that is”

“Okay then I will take bath together with you.”

“No. no. you don’t have to bother yourself. I will be okay.”

“I will be there. You cannot deny me. What if you faint inside the bathroom?”

“I guess if its that. Then its okay.”

The next thing I knew was me and Lady Athena entering the bathroom after we undressed.

“Let me prepare the bath water. Maybe something cool will lower your temperature.”

Before Lady Athena could do anything, I had already filled the tub with cold water. Somehow my casting speed had increased. Also, I did not need to visualize the whole process with great concentration; just a small thought was more than enough. Also for some reason it seemed that the water was conjured in more quantity than I had ever produced. Maybe my training has paid off, at least that what I would like to think.

 ‘Ehhh…..Ahhhhh’

‘What, so World God, was right, she really can use magic with divine attribute. Is it one of the after affects of eating the apple of Tree of Life? I hope that she will be okay; otherwise the unthinkable…… would have already happened. What would I have done then? ….. I cannot lose her now. After we got too close and know each other better. Then that’s it, I am going to keep an eye on her from now on.” Lady Athena brought her fingers close to her lips which were somehow giving the expression of being amused.

 I wonder why that is.

We got into the tub as usual, but for some reason both of us were quite for a long time.

“So, Sachi, how far have you gone with your magic practice?”

For some reason I was glad that Lady Athena had asked me the question and I was so enthusiastically ready to answer it that I forgot what I had to say.

“Well,…. It was thanks to the book you gave me that I started learning about magic. I can even cast without chanting a spell. I can even conjure fire and water, control wind and change temperature of any substance.”

Then I conjured small flame of different colours, by collecting oxygen it was your normal orange-yellow flame. In case of hydrogen it was a pale blue flame. For some reason now my hands didn’t feel the heat or the burning sensation of these high temperature flames.

Just out of fun and curiosity I made a duck out of the water from the bathtub and could even make a water bird fly around us. It was a lot of fun playing with magic. Indeed.

However something was strange, with increase in casting speed there was another factor accounted that was maintaining my concentration while performing magic. But now I didn’t need to concentrate, just the thought of perceiving the phenomena and channeling magic would do the deed for me. For some reason doing this felt so natural that I wanted to give myself a prize for my hard work and diligent training I had put myself through. Maybe if possible I could open a magic training school in Isleguard.

‘She is really great at this. Not using chants, fast casting and efficient control over magic power. Just how much has she improved herself in one day? Just how high is her mental aptitude and visualization processing? World God was right, she really can use divinity. However I can also feel the ominous black miasma leaking through her magic. It’s a miracle that the presence of a positive field energy and negative field energy could co-exist in a single entity. This Dark Matter is so weak, so it is neither detectable nor can harm someone. I have made up my mind; I am forever going to look after her and take responsibility, though it works in my favour too. I beseech the Goddess of Fortune and Gods of Destiny to bestow upon their blessings for her well-being during our tough times ahead in the future.’ Lady Athena thought to herself while her mouth was somewhat half opened, still in awe and wonder.

“I am glad for you. In a sort time you have grown a lot. Seeing you flawlessly use magic makes me happy.” Lady Athena brought her hands together to make a small applause.

I was happy and so at the same time the thing which worried me the most came to my mind.

“Thank you. Lady Athena, but I know this is nowhere good enough to match my other classmates. They must have already started learning much higher level magic and combat techniques, while I was just asleep for these four days. But I will make sure to work much harder and make up for the lost time. So you don’t need to worry.”

 ‘She is just over-underestimating herself. A human performing magic in the divine realm is an exceptional feat in itself. If word goes out it can create big news even in heavens. And after assimilating the apple of Tree of Life makes her stand out even among gods. Possessing soul power stronger than most of the gods can make anyone feel jealous. But I am glad that even after that accident she is the same Sachi as ever. Cheerful in every aspect. I need to somehow make her relax or she will overwork herself.’ Lady Athena while thinking came up with a plan.

“Don’t worry I am sure things will work out in the end. So just lighten up.”

“If you say so.”

“I know, since we have less than a day left let’s make full use of it and enjoy our leftover time in the divine realm before the reincarnation ceremony.”

“Really!”

At those words Sachi’s smile was brighter than ever. Her smile is so cute that Lady Athena could not stop her hands but start massaging her cheeks and get a good feel of those soft cheeks.

“HAAAAHHAA”

After a fifteen minutes bath both of us came out and after drying ourselves, Lady Athena presented me with a set of clothes from her drawer. Travelling without your own set of clothes is really bothersome. Maybe clothes can too be made with magic.

We had made plans to visit our most favourite place first – the Library. Nothing can beat reading a good book and discussing on what you think about it with your friends.

Lady Athena looked at the clock and it was almost two o’ clock.

“Sachi, all this time you had been eating porridge or some other nutritious fluid material. You must be feeling weak. Why not eat something first? So tell me do you have something specific in mind.”

“I do feel a bit hungry. But if anything I would like to cook the food myself for you as thanks.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. Its fine. Maybe next time.”

“Please!”

‘If she keeps on looking at me with such an adorable face then I won’t be able to stop myself to give into the temptation.’

“Okay, fine. But I will be helping you while cooking.”

“Thank you Lady Athena. But where will be doing it. Usually I cooked my food in the room in which I am staying.”

“There is a side kitchen in my room too.”

We first together decided on the menu and distributed our work accordingly.

It seems that gods usually prefer to consume natural products than eat cooked food. Their meals usually contain items like fruits, boiled vegetables, rice, yoghurt, beans, fish, eggs and meat dishes.

Lady Athena was excited about learning to make some dishes from my home country. And I knew just by looking at her face that she too had a knack for cooking.

We had almost all the required ingredients for the dishes we had decided, and those which were not, were brought by the angels. I was able to obtain some packed spices. I wonder, do they descend back on earth to get these things or do they just call for home delivery.

We first prepped the rice and then sprinkled some salt on our hands and tried to mould it into small triangles. Then I created a small well in the centre and stocked it with different fillings like tuna, chicken and some pickles and then quickly wrapped them in nori. Usually it takes practice to do it one go for perfect synchronization but Lady Athena got it right in her first attempt.

For the next dish we started beating the eggs and then season it with sugar, mirin, soy sauce, and a pinch of salt before pouring a thin layer of this egg mixture into a pan to cook. Once the bottom of the egg mixture is set, roll it up in multiple thin layers until the egg looks like a thick log. Finally, shape the egg and slice into thick pieces for serving.

The next dish we decided upon was fried chicken karaage. I placed chicken in a large bowl and then mixed it with soy sauce, sugar, ginger and garlic. Then after leaving it to marinate for at least fifteen minutes I again combined it with egg and potato starch. Next was to deep fry it till it was golden brown.

At last we finally stopped after chopping down some fresh red glistening tomatoes, onion and cucumber as salad. For some reason onions grown in divine realm, do not make you cry after chopping them.

Egg and chicken karaage, ham rolls, dashi rolled egg, and onigiris were lined up in a row. It was not that luxurious but they all were the basic food elements that formed a bento box. Lady Athena had never tried Japanese food and so this was a new experience for her.

We sat down together to eat and Lady Athena was the first to give it a taste testing.

“Whoa, it smells good!” Lady Athena eyes were glued on the variety of dishes displayed before her.

I totally agreed with her. The smell really stimulates the appetite. By every passing minute it seemed that I could not hold myself back.

After working so hard to prep the meal, one cannot hold back himself but praise the feast laid in front of us.

The karaage were crispy and crunchy and were mildly spicy. As a matter of fact I hate spicy food. Red spicy food and my taste buds just never make a proper match. The dashi rolled eggs were sweet and juicy. Even the rice balls had a heavenly texture and taste. Maybe the aftereffects of cooking in the divine realm, I guess.

Cooking and eating something after four days had enlightened me and I was brimming with energy. I carried the plates to the basin and Lady Athena helped me to wash them.

We got ready to head to the library, since I needed to collect more information about the world in which I was going to be reincarnated. We decided that walking was the best course of action after our heavy meal. On our way Lady Athena told me about other events that had occurred during my absence.

World God came sometimes to check up on my condition. I must thank him for saving my life. Also, since there was no proof or evidence found so the culprit was not caught, however all the participant reincarnators and their respective gods were not permitted to interact with other gods and reincarnators.

Basically they were under isolation or a house – arrest.

Lady Athena was well aware of every nook and corner of the library. According to her, there were books from all the worlds and the knowledge of the Gods. The library kept on expanding itself as the knowledge gained by all the realms increases. To me it seemed as a data reservoir of the Divine System, where all the information is stored in an infinite memory space.

Lady Athena picked out a fat, thick book with round bottom corner and a peacock-blue cover was wrapped around it. According to her this book contained records of the history of the previous wars in Isleguard.

However the most massive and biggest war even among all the worlds was – The Holy Crusade that took place 200 years ago. As per the records there seemed to be another reincarnator from my world blessed by the gods as the Hero who would save the world from the clutches of evil. Then, there was the influence of the True Demon Lord, the interference of the Devils from Hell (Apostles) who wanted to take control of that world and plunder the magical core reserves of Isleguard which was an important raw energy resource even for the Divine Realm, which even the Gods cannot afford to lose, since it would topple the balance of the nature. The Gods took charge of the war and steered the course of this profound hostility into an all out war.

Isleguard is one of the oldest and largest worlds, sustaining every kind of fantasy species like elves, ogres, beastmen, demons, dwarves, fairies, spirits, dragons, mystical creatures and many more. All of these species were forced, cast or willingly participated in the war. At the end the gates of Hell were sealed and the Chaos Army of Hell vanished like they never existed before. Even though both sides suffered great losses and no clear victor was announced. However the enmity among different races had hyped up and trust was vanquished from the land where once Gods themselves placed there foot.

After reading for two hours about the pre-war political and social life in Isleguard I got bored. What really interested me was learning magic and developing my own type like the mini bombs – cubicles or combining fire with water and using opposite attributes to my advantage. Experimenting is really fun!

I picked up another book from the shelf from which I had been previously introduced to and it contained several books on magic theory and its applications. For now I was interested in magic arrays and summoning rituals.

Magic can be performed basically by two means – by chanting and the other is forming magical arrays or carving magical circle. The second method is basically used to make magical items and forge enchanted weapons. While the books basically described about specific and fixed designs of magical arrays, to me they seemed more like a computer code to perform certain actions when the set conditions are met. The same goes for summoning ritual where there are more than many ways to summon beings which includes – spirits, beasts with pacts, fairies, devils and even gods.

***

GODDESS ATHENA

She really does enjoy reading books, just like me. It had been more than four hours and she is not at all bored and one could say she grew more enthusiastic as time passed. We really form an excellent pair.

But after what had happened and watching Sachi on the brink of death just to protect me, was heart-braking. If we go further with the reincarnation ceremony, I would be just pushing her in more danger and point of no return. If something happened to her, then what will I do, I will never be able to forgive myself. After losing my parents, for the first time I was able to feel comfortable around someone.

‘Okay then, I have decided!’

“Sachi, there is a place I want to visit with you.”

‘I was surprised to see Lady Athena rose up from her seat in an abrupt manner. It was almost eight in the night. Where possibly can we go at this point of time? It doesn’t seem that she will be taking me to the star gazing point at the huge tree spot. Well it doesn’t matter. I will go wherever Lady Athena will take me.’ Sachi thought to herself as she too rose from her seat and after putting the books back in the shelves she followed her to the exit door.

After coming out of the library, it was already dark outside. There were no stars as usual and the calmness in the surrounding was making me feel nervous and my heart beat faster. I took Sachi’s hand in mine.

[TELEPORT]

We stood under a dark night sky surrounded by a dense forest made up of humongous trees towering all around us. Anyone would have thought that we had lost our way and sense of direction while we hopelessly trespassed. These types of forest reminds me of those where people keep on moving but eventually reach the starting point again as if they were caught in an inescapable loop.

A late night forest can seem eerie but it has an alien beauty of its own. Even in the starless night sky, the forest was illuminated by a special kind of flower whose petals glowed a bright pink as they lightened up a path in the most fashionable way possible.

While I was still holding Sachi’s hand, I took a notice of the amazed face she mustered as she tried to touch one of the glowing petals. I remember now, I had almost the same reaction when I here for the first time. I can’t wait to show her what lies ahead at the end of this path.

We kept on walking for about five minutes. During this time neither of us said a thing. While I was too focused to think about the thing which I had planned, other hand she must be in a bit of confusion of our sudden visit to a forest after the incident.

In front of our eyes stood the bounty and luxurious beauty of nature as the lake appeared as if by magic. It was in teardrop-silver in colour and it was shaped like a perfectly flat disc of metal. No sound rang out from the shimmering emptiness of space around it. Monastery quiet, it was lined with evergreen trees and the whiff of fresh laundry clothes like smell wafted up to us.

***