The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 239: Orion’s Soft Side

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Orion flew through the skies of Earth, glancing around and trying to detect dangers with his rainbow eyes. Most of the big threats were dealt with; what remained were small fries that couldn’t even threaten the Hunters down below, and if they did, it would be a good trial for them.

“They can handle the rest on their own,” he said. “If I save them for everything, these humans will only remain the same as the future I came from, pathetically weak and dependent on my mother to save them from everything… You’ll have to work to save your planet as well; don’t be lazy. You’ll thank me later.”

He quickly swung his sword, cutting through space and dimensions and reaching Earth’s Spiritual Plane, an endless realm of various dark colors, with countless rubble floating everywhere.

These ruins belonged to forgotten places from Earth, areas that disappeared out of nowhere, and even mystical or magical places thought out by human minds, although greatly deteriorated and withered.

The Spiritual Plane of Earth was like a dimension of its own, but that was anchored with Earth itself. It was a strange place that no human has ever accessed, and if they entered, they died instantly.

However, this place also held great secrets, telling the ancient history of the world and humanity; floating pyramids, ruins, ancient buildings, ships, and even whole islands were here.

The place wasn’t just an endless ocean of swirling purple, black, blue, red, and pink clouds, however, as there was also life, a whole, incredibly alien ecosystem of Spiritual Beings.

They resembled strange, amorphous creatures made of various colors. Some resembled ancient buildings that moved on their own; others were completely alien beings with strange, twisting appearances, many limbs and eyes, and no mouths.

Others looked more like the monsters and beasts from Earth, some even resembling famous cryptids such as Bigfoot, Yetis, Nessie, and even Kaiju-like monstrosities roaming its darkest depths.

Spiritual Forests existed; on large concentrations of rubble and forgotten matter, gigantic, small planetoids were formed, covered in strange, ghostly, and luminescent spirit plants like nothing anyone has ever seen before.

Orion knew of this place like the palm of his hand; he had lived here for over fifteen years in the future he came from, and just like the woman that adopted him, he discovered and explored many places within this strange realm that even challenged a person’s view of life and reality itself at times.

“At first I used to only eat her spiderwebs, but later we discovered a lot of new food…”

“The Ghostly Forest, it’s here.”

Orion relaxed a bit as he flew near one of these “planetoids” floating in the middle of this sea of colorful clouds, slowly descending in the middle of a beautiful yet alien, fluorescent, and bright ghostly forest; thousands of phantasmal, amoeba-like trees made of white light and colorful sparkles of light decorated this place.

“Fluorescent Spirit Fruits…”

He quickly walked around, finding a large tree with fruits on them; they resembled crystallized eyes, which moved around as Orion walked and grabbed a couple. He took a bite out of one of them, and an indescribable sweetness filled his mouth, giving him a lot of nostalgia.

“It was so sweet back then I passed out for a day…”

The food that could be found in the Spiritual Plane was far from something that any person could eat, and even Orion, who was born with immense power, passed out after eating one, showing just how dangerous the food could be.

Although he found it sweet, these fruits were rather poisonous, containing a lot of disrupting energies inside that, once eaten, can make someone’s internal energies grow in disarray until their bodies explode.

Indeed, it wasn’t called a Ghostly Forest for nothing. Orion noticed the corpses of many creatures lingering around the forest.

These “trees” offered fruit that was highly poisonous yet delicious and addicting; the creatures would eat many until they suddenly died and then would get eaten slowly by the trees.

“I’ll bring some for her; she was able to eat them without issues as well.”

Orion smiled as he flew through the Spiritual Plane as quickly as possible, piercing through seas of clouds and seeing large ruins from the forgotten past, even ignoring a gigantic, black-colored, scaled whale that went right behind him, eating anything in its wake with its massive jaws.

“Wait, was that a Rubble-Swallowing Whaleslime? I should hunt one at least; their meat is delicious. Yeah, I’m sure she’ll love it.”

The young man smiled confidently, chasing the gigantic whale of over a kilometer in height; the creature noticed him chasing it, groaning.

“GROOOHHHH!”

As it groaned, it began swinging its gigantic tail, destroying floating rubble and small planetoids on the way, creating a massive commotion.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

And yet Orion easily avoided the huge tail and swung his blade once he reached the whale’s massive back, which resembled a set of rocky mountains.

“Thank you for the food.”

SLAAASH!

A single swing of his blade was more than enough, as he cut through the whale’s back and pierced its chest; his single attack divided into hundreds of smaller slices, slicing the creature’s internal organs and killing it on the spot.

“GRRYYAAACK!”

It gave out a terrifying scream before its death, but once it vomited blood and died, Orion grabbed it by its tail and dragged it with him, leaving destruction everywhere and a sea of blood behind.

Until he finally reached where the Spider Goddess was living for the time being, a huge mass of several ruined buildings and cityscapes merged together by white spiderwebs, it had a huge entrance where the spider’s servants, mutated members of her tribe from the Primal Earth, were constantly moving stuff and fixing its interior.

“Arash! I’m back!”

Orion announced his return as the many arachnoids glanced at his arrival with surprise. Although at first they were shocked at being turned into half-spider beings, the power they gained from it and their new abilities made up for it.

“Oh, it is Sir Orion!”

“Our Lady is within her quarters as usual.”

“She hasn’t come out since your departure…”

Orion nodded as he heard their words. These arachnid people were the people he spent most of his life with as well. So they were one of the few people he was rather fond of.

“I see…” Orion nodded. “I’ve brought something to eat! Arash, please come out and receive my offering!”

“Oh wow, that’s a rather large fish!”

“What kind of being is that?”

“It is bleeding a sea of red!”

“How incredible that Orion is grabbing such a thing with a single arm at that!”

As the Arachnids praised Orion, the nest began to tremble as a gigantic purple, black, and red aura emerged from the nest, shaping into a massive, monstrous spider with eight red eyes.

“MY NAME IS ARASHKAGHL-DOLTH! NOT ARASH! DON’T YOU DARE ABBREVIATE IT!”

She was as grumpy as usual; Orion sighed a bit but smiled, nonetheless. This was the woman that raised him for most of his life, and the one and only he had ever loved.

“I’m sorry, Arashkaghl-Dolth. If you wish for me to call you in such a way, then I will,” Orion surprisingly apologized, making even the spider shocked. “I’ve brought you an offering; would you receive it? I am sure it’ll help you recover your damaged Soul. This is a Spiritual Beast, it inhabits this Realm. It is very strong and delicious.”

“HMMM…”

Her eight eyes squinted as her monstrous, gigantic form slowly compacted into her Arachne-like form, and then she glanced at Orion.

“Why? He’s so much stronger than me, and yet he comes to me, giving me offerings and talking to me so sweetly… He’s even stronger than that woman! With just a thought he could completely destroy me, and yet… Why is he being so kind to me?! Is this a trick? A cruel joke? Is he mocking me?!”

She couldn’t help but have these thoughts when it came to Orion’s strange tendencies and how he acted in front of her, but she was rather hungry, and she had to admit it.

But even then, she couldn’t help but ask this question inside of her mind. Arash wasn’t good at keeping stuff inside her head and liked talking it out loud; she was quite expressive.

“Why?!” She asked angrily. “Why are you being so kind to me?! Why are you bringing me such an offering?! Are you insane? If you intend to betray me and kill me later, then just do it now! I already know you’re so much stronger than me! What is the point in delaying this?!”

As she roared angrily, she glared at Orion with eyes full of distrust, which made the young man feel slightly bad.

“Ah… No…”

He looked down, feeling slightly disheartened; she wasn’t quite like she remembered her being, but this was perhaps her in her most vulnerable moment, when his mother almost killed her.

He knew she was a Goddess of Malice and Trickery, an Evil Being, but he also knew she had a kind side, one that had raised him with love, despite everything.

“I truly… care for you, and I only want you to be happy…”

“Huh?”

Arash glared at him with even more confusion!

Happiness?

Caring for someone else?

What were these strange emotions her mind couldn’t even comprehend, let alone accept?

“Nonsense… Why would you ever feel this way for a being such as me! We’ve never met before! This is just… so strange!” She said angrily. “Just tell me your true intentions…!”

“I can tell you everything,” Orion said. “Let me share with you my memories. The memories we shared together, from a distant future.”

FLAAASH!

“W-Wha…?!”

And then she saw what he went through in those years, through many images, projections in front of her, that rapidly created an instant domain. Despite there being millions of memories, she was able to easily understand them all and memorize them to an extent.

“You’re… from the future?!” She gasped. “And you… and me… I raised you? W-What?! That’s… that’s just impossible! What sort of illusion magic did you cast on me?! You think I would believe such trickery and—"

“It’s not an illusion, they were my truest memories,” said Orion. “You can also try searching my own mind and memories, and you will find them. Come to me; I know your kind can possess bodies. I will let you possess me so you can see for yourself… This is how much I… I care for you.”

“…” The spider smiled viciously. “So you’re letting me possess you?! Hahaha! Fool!”

Without hesitating, she transformed into her phantasmal form, possessing his body.

FLUOSH!

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