When Abium heard Nyara's words, he felt miserable inside.
'However, she seems unaware of the waves and pillars.' In truth, he believed that the Gods must've anticipated the Chaos Era but refrained from interfering with mortal affairs.
'It seems I was wrong. Does that mean even Gods are unaware of the upcoming disaster? That's why Mages and Churches got off-guard by the sudden invasion from Abyss and Hell?'
He thought of what would happen after five months.
Aside from Mother Goddess and a few native Gods, other Foreign Gods would lose their connection with their believers and wouldn't be able to cast any blessing spells. Even Light believers would lose contact with their God after a few months and fall into a panic. Their secret method to borrow power from their God would no longer work, and they would become weak, becoming ordinary. When that happens, the whole world will plunge into a massive panic.
As for Goddess Nyara's question? He doesn't care much about what the Lawful Gods think about his actions.
Destiny Goddess? Goddess of Judgement? God of Light? Who were they? They all belonged to the Foreign Gods' faction and were foreigners to this world. He knew that even Goddess Nyara and Mother Goddess would find it difficult to enter Easica World due to the release of seals. Much less the foreign gods who had no link to this world.
At that moment, they wouldn't have any time to understand the situation.
That was why Abium always remained calm and didn't pay much attention to the Gods.
At that moment, Nyara seemed to have sensed his inner emotion and was startled.
"You aren't even afraid of the Gods? Destiny Goddess and Light God Welo aren't some random mortals, though." Nyara suddenly became more interested in this mortal and pondered what to do next.
'Should I kill him and take that thing away from his soul? I highly suspect that it is a powerful time-related intellectual artifact.' But after some thought, she gave up that idea.
After all, some intellectual artifacts may possess extraordinary abilities and could even destroy her current avatar and consciousness. Although it won't cause much damage to her soul or her Divine Kingdom, losing an avatar could weaken her overall strength a bit.
So, she felt it wasn't worth it to risk her avatar. If the Light God or any other Gods were in her place, they would've killed Abium and tried to figure out more about this special artifact.
'Fufufu, it's been a long time since I met such a unique person. Should I intervene?' A crafty smile appeared on her face.
While Nyara was forming a plan, Abium also stared at the humanoid fog and fell into deep thoughts.
'Everything has worked perfectly, but here I'm facing a mighty being with no hope of survival.'
How did Nyara find out about him? He had a guess.
'It seems the Star Tower's destruction attracted her attention.'
"Fufufu, you are thinking why did I pay close attention to the Star Tower's destruction, don't you?" Nyara seemed to have seen through his thoughts and chuckled.
"You'll know when the time comes. Now, let's get to the main topic."
She reached out her foggy hand to her left side, tore the darkness apart, and pulled out a strange fruit. It resembled an apple but looked crystalline.
She then casually threw it at him and spoke in an authoritative tone.
"Eat it. It contains a trace of 'Time' divine power and could increase your 'Time' affinity from 'Nil' to an 'Average' level. It has the same effect as the affinity strengthening potion you saw in that Ancient Mage's storage."
On the other hand, Abium caught the fruit with his foggy hand but didn't eat it.
Once he ate the fruit, his only option was to do as she ordered.
'I don't want to be a slave of someone. Instead, I want equality even if the other party is a powerful deity.'
"What do I have to do in return, Divine One?" He asked politely.
Meanwhile, Nyara wasn't surprised by his action this time. She calmly raised her hand, showed two fingers, and spoke.
"First, I want you to help 'Umi' if something bad happens. Although I can't read your memories, I vaguely sense that you are preparing for the future. From your earlier actions, I highly suspect that all the gods would lose connection to the world or something in the near future."
As she spoke, she suddenly paused before closing her eyes, peeked into the future while using the information she gathered from Abium's inner emotions, and soon opened her eyes.
"Interesting. It's not that we are going to lose our connection, but the opposite, huh? Easica World's Will is about to enter hibernation. Now, I understand why the Necromancers are coming out of their hiding spot." She nodded her head in understanding and continued.
"Secondly, survive in this undead world and find a way back to the pocket dimension without losing anyone in your team."
Meanwhile, Abium was dumbfounded and soon noticed that the surrounding darkness began to crack like a mirror.
But at that moment, Nyara seemed to have remembered something and responded mischievously.
"Oh, I forgot to add one thing. To make this mission more exciting, I froze four of your consciousnesses in my domain for four and a half months. So, you have only fifteen days to attend the upcoming auction. Be quick."
Abium stiffened when he heard those words.
'No wonder the Ancient Mage got tensed up upon realizing which God blessed Umi!' He cursed inwardly and soon noticed that he was still in the meditative posture!
Meanwhile, Nicolaus and others appeared to be sleeping deeply next to him.
'What? Everything that happened earlier was a dream?'
He hurriedly looked at his right hand and noticed that the crystalline fruit was still in his hand.
'What the hell? She is indeed worthy of the title 'Trickster Goddess.' She brought us to some unknown undead plane and left us here with no hope of survival.' He sighed deeply.
'I don't know what she is planning but she has made things more difficult.' What stunned him more was her ability to see through his inner thoughts in mere seconds.
'She also said something about freezing our consciousnesses for four and a half months. Tsk.' He shook his head, shifted his attention towards the crystalline fruit, and decided to eat it.
He quickly moved it to his mouth, took a bite, and noticed that it was tasteless.
Alas, he sensed strange energy entering his body and disappearing somewhere.
He quietly ate the fruit and soon felt a sharp pain in his head. The pain continued for a whole minute and finally disappeared like it never existed before.
'That's it?'
Abium raised his eyebrows, opened the status bar, and checked if there was any difference in his status.
As he skimmed through the information, a smile appeared on his face.
'An Average Time affinity appeared!' Although he couldn't sense any difference in his mind, he finally felt at ease.
'I wonder if I could create a time-related spell model now.' He hurriedly took the spellbook from his space ring and checked for any time-related spell models.
'There is none. Azolla didn't copy any 'time' related spell models in the book.' A trace of disappointment appeared on his face.
'Wait, I think I can ask Runeth to get me one.' If it were in the past, Runeth would have declined his request. But things changed after the appearance of Goddess Nyara.
'He will help us.' He muttered inwardly and waited for Nicolaus and others to walk up.
A few minutes later, Nicolaus suddenly sat up with a tensed look and glanced around.
No, he looked in the direction where Goddess Nyara appeared in Abium's dream and looked confused!
After a few seconds, he shifted his gaze towards Abium and spoke with a stiff face.
"A-Abium, I had a strange dream a while ago-"
Before he could finish, Abium showed a smile and asked.
"Did you see the Goddess of Trickery in your dream? Did you talk to her?"
Upon hearing those words, Nicolaus became wide-eyed and soon blurted out.
"You also saw her?"
Abium nodded his head and spoke.
"I talked to her for a while. She said that we are in some undead plane."
While they were conversing, Fennelis also woke up from her deep sleep and muttered.
"I wasn't the only one, huh? But why didn't she talk to any of us except you?" She gave him a curious look.
In the meantime, Umi also woke up from her sleep and spoke in a pleasant voice.
"No, mom. Big sis chatted with me for a long time in a dark space. She even taught me how to use a sword."
At that moment, Abium, Nicolaus, and Fennelis turned to their right in unison and stared at Umi in surprise and shock.
'Something is off about her!'
Abium and others had been chatting with Umi during the past few weeks and knew that she was a naive and immature kid. She doesn't even know how to talk fluently without breaking a sentence.
But her current use of language shocked everyone.
Fennelis soon returned to her calm self, moved closer to Umi, and asked.
"W-What did Big sis say, Umi?"
"We talked a lot about food and wooden crafting. And, she even taught me how to cast spells like big brother." Umi said with a proud smile.
Even Fennelis started to feel uncomfortable with her daughter's sudden change and looked anxious.
Just as they were looking at each other in confusion, Umi seemed to have recalled something, took out a pure black gem from her leather pouch, and spoke with glittering eyes.
"She also gave me this gem as a present."
Meanwhile, Abium activated Azolla's scan function and started reading the description.
"Nether crystals: These types of crystals can only be found in the undead realm and contain pure nether energy. Nether crystals are rare treasures for undead skeletons and necromancers. Because of this unique nature, such crystals will draw undead creatures easily." His expression became grim as he read the description.
Meanwhile, Fennelis also turned pale and took the black gem from Umi's hand.
"No good. Let's get away from here!"
She spoke in an alarm tone and was about to toss that gem away, but Abium stopped her.
"Don't throw it away, My Lady. I don't think the Goddess would give her to play a prank on us-"
He abruptly paused before shaking his head.
"It doesn't matter. I will store it in my spatial ring." He said as he took it from her hand, stored it, and added.
"Let's pack our belongings and get out of this cave first."
Just as he spoke, sounds of strange murmurs and clatters came from the opposite direction, followed by multiple red lights.
"Sh*t! They are already here." Nicolaus cursed loudly and hurriedly unsheathed his sword.
On the other hand, Abium stored the mats and other things in his space ring and soon dragged everyone out of there.