Chapter 1269: Understanding Human Nature

"No… No! This can't be!" Leia shouted out as she dashed towards the village centre.

Seeing their corpses hung in such a manner with the animals eating their flesh, Leia prayed that this was merely a joke they were trying to play on her.

However, seeing the villagers kneeling around the pillars, Leia could see they were undisturbed by the view.

"Ah Leia, you are back. How was your trip to the city?" The village head asked with a smile on his face.

"Huh?"

Blinking her eyes in disbelief, she couldn't believe that the village head was more concerned about her trip to the city rather than what had happened in this village.

"Aaron and the others… Why are they like this? What happened?!" Leia asked as her voice slowly raised in volume.

"Ah it must be shocking for you. But they were heretics. They tried to take away the blessing bestowed upon us, corrupting our minds to go back to the time of suffering. They tried but we refused. Yet he dare try to lay a hand on our Blessed Crops." The village head scowled as he glared at their corpses with anger.

"So we did the obvious and used their soul to appease the god of light in hopes that he'll forgive the heretics in the afterlife. That way the Lord does not take the Blessed Crops away from us."

Hearing this, Leia stumbled back and collapsed on the floor. Her eyes staring up at Aaron's corpse in shock.

All of this, just because Aaron wanted to stop their madness.

For all the good he wished upon this world, for all of his trust in the people he grew up with, he was betrayed in the end. His body hung up for all to see as a warning.

Was this how his life should have ended? Was this his way of living? Was this his goal? Should she have blessed him as an individual instead? Made it so that he could protect himself?

But one thing was clear. Her ideas had been flawed.

Bless the people as a reward? That was foolish. They didn't need rewards, they needed the threat of death to keep them on the right track. Allowing them to live was rewarding enough.

"Hahaha… For my foolishness you died…" Leia muttered softly as the village head was confused about what Leia was saying.

Breaking out into laughter, Leia stood up and stared at the sky.

"I have seen enough of this world. I have seen enough of human nature. Chaos was right. Death is important. Aria gives out life while I… Take it away from them. All so they stay on the right track." Leia sighed out.

"The time for observation has ended. What isn't needed anymore shall be terminated as per dictated." She declared coldly. Turning away from the village head, Leia walked towards the field of Blessed Crops.

Realising that she was allied with Aaron, the village head grabbed a nearby weapon and shouted to the others.

"She's planning on taking out the field!"

Hearing this, the others snapped their gaze towards Leia who was walking towards the field with a cold gaze. A smile could no longer be seen on her face.

With the ending of Aaron's life, she no longer had a reason to stay attached to this village. It was nothing but a colony of flawed beings that took away her enjoyment.

Panic spread through the village as one of the hunters threw a sickle towards Leia, digging deep into the back of her head.

Before he could be happy with his accuracy, he noticed that the sickle was disintegrating into ash the moment it came into contact with her body.

Slowly, Leia turned her head back with inhuman flexibility.

She was no longer Leia of this village, the young girl raised in the church. From this point on, she was Anima, the First Born of Destruction.

Opening her mouth, she uttered a single word in silence as the man burst into purple flames, letting out harrowing screams before disappearing with no trace of him except for the charred ground he was standing on.

"D-DEMON!" One of the villagers shouted out with the others following suit.

Ignoring them, Anima raised her finger towards the field and flicked it upwards. A pillar of flames erupted into the sky, cleaving the world in half and dying the realm in a deep crimson.

"When a test site has lost its purpose, it's up to me to dispose of the remains. There are no more answers to be obtained here, thus your existence will come to an end." Anima sighed as thorns burst out from the ground, wrapping around the village and covering it in jagged spikes.

"In your foolishness, you fell prey to gluttony and avarice. Blinding you to the truth and corrupting your mind. Aaron was never corrupted, it was all of you. He tried to bring you back, a final chance at redemption but what did you do? Not only did you indulge in my blessings, but you also killed the only one who could've saved you."

Grabbing the village head by the throat, Anima lifted him up coldly and opened her mouth.

"So let me do the obvious. I will use your souls to appease my anger. As the Highest God of Destruction, I will forgive heretics once they are erased from this world."

Without waiting for a response, Anima threw his body into the air as spikes shot out from the ground, piercing all of the villagers and raising them high into the sky. The thorns that pierced their body exploded into hundreds of thorns that shredded their inner organs while slowly draining them of their blood.

However, she made sure they were kept alive as long as possible.

Blood rained down from above as a symphony of cries and screams filled the village.

The crimson sky, pillar of flames, corpses that sung out in anguish, the rain of blood and the darkened thorns that surrounded each and every building. This is hell manifested in mortal realms.

Bringing down Aaron's corpse along with the others, Anima stared at their lifeless eyes.

Unlike the ones that she had killed, their souls have not been snuffed out yet, she can only redirect them to Aria's hands and hope that their next life will be better.

Burying their body, Anima mourned their passing for three days and three nights as the cries of her victims slowly died out.

Sitting alone in the village of thorns, Anime thought about what else she should do in this realm. After spending all this time in the village, the only conclusion she could come to was that Death was important to weed out the corrupted. The humans do not deserve blessings as they would only find themselves at its mercy and fall victim.

'What is the final vision mother wishes to see for the Garden Project… A perfect paradise cannot exist.' Anima thought to herself.

While she now understood the importance of life and death, she could not understand the goal for the Garden Project.

"I suppose mother only wanted me to understand my role in all of this. In this case she had succeeded." Anima sighed while glancing back at the countless corpses strung up by thorns.

Shaking her head, she shed her mortal body and withdrew herself from the Garden.

Opening her eyes, she found herself holding the orb in her hand and barely half a day had passed. But during this time, she had gained the knowledge she lacked as well as an understanding of human nature.

Looking at the orb in her hands, Anima decided to look for Chaos.

As she had expected, Chaos was still in her lab doing some final preparations for the Garden Project.

"Mother." Anima called out, causing Chaos to glance back.

"Seems like you're back. Did you find out the importance of Life and Death for these beings?" Chaos asked with a smile as Anima nodded her head.

"I did. But I also found out more about their nature. They're easily corrupted and fall to greed with a single blessing. Though few within the crowd are able to withstand the temptation… I have a new question now." Anima bit her lip.

"Ask away."

"You know better than I that these beings are imperfect in every way. They cannot handle the blessings you grant them nor the paradise you seek in the garden. They will only fight amongst themselves and bring ruin to the paradise. So what is the real reason for the Garden Project?" Anima asked.

"You said that all of us exist to govern over laws so the people can live properly. But just existing to govern laws does not require the Garden Project."

Thinking about it for a moment, Chaos opened her mouth.

"I suppose you can just call it a whim. I want to build a perfect world because I can. If they can live in it, so be it. But if the world is perfect yet they cannot handle it, how should it be dealt with? That's the Garden Project. It's to breed a form of humans that can handle the perfection I grant them."

". . ." Anima was silent. This was nothing but to stave off Chaos' boredom born from her nature as the mother of all things. Just like Aria, she wanted to create and foster just for the sake of doing so. There was no extra meaning or goal.