The question brings about Elias' first signs of any true, sincere reluctance. He tenses, and for a moment, it seems as though he might fall silent, perhaps demand someone to be in the presence of what he says, or try to lie and dismiss whatever the creature is outright, to come up with some intricate excuse that would justify it's existence.
It's written all over his face that he cannot find such a justification, though, save for the truth.
"...She's something entirely unique, in and of herself. I've never seen anything like her in all my life," Elias begins, quieter now. Almost somber. "I don't entirely recall how I came to find her. It's little more than a dream to me. A... seed, if you'd believe it. Almost a strange growth of something our world could not comprehend, and the promise that its potential far surpasses its meager current form, if given the time, space, and blood it requires to grow."
A beat. He takes in a slow breath, and lets out a shakier one.
"You two must understand, that--- that before you'd arrived, the people could not hear from the goddesses any longer. Not even the most devout among us could reach them. With the silence and the barrier, and everything I'd done to try to test it, it seemed as though the goddesses were simply... gone. That we were trapped at the focal point of a world-wide calamity, and that the Four Mothers would never be able to save their people from it again. Whatever contained us, many of us had come to understand that mortals could not surpass it."
He hesitates, but flips to the bloodied page of his journal on the table. His expression is grim when he raises his attention back to Shen Qingqiu and Valdis.
"When you are faced with an empty pantheon, a seemingly doomed world, and given a seed of divinity... what choice would you have but to plant it? To raise a godling all the way to its ascension, so that we might, someday, be free of this curse?"
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It's written all over his face that he cannot find such a justification, though, save for the truth.
"...She's something entirely unique, in and of herself. I've never seen anything like her in all my life," Elias begins, quieter now. Almost somber. "I don't entirely recall how I came to find her. It's little more than a dream to me. A... seed, if you'd believe it. Almost a strange growth of something our world could not comprehend, and the promise that its potential far surpasses its meager current form, if given the time, space, and blood it requires to grow."
A beat. He takes in a slow breath, and lets out a shakier one.
"You two must understand, that--- that before you'd arrived, the people could not hear from the goddesses any longer. Not even the most devout among us could reach them. With the silence and the barrier, and everything I'd done to try to test it, it seemed as though the goddesses were simply... gone. That we were trapped at the focal point of a world-wide calamity, and that the Four Mothers would never be able to save their people from it again. Whatever contained us, many of us had come to understand that mortals could not surpass it."
He hesitates, but flips to the bloodied page of his journal on the table. His expression is grim when he raises his attention back to Shen Qingqiu and Valdis.
"When you are faced with an empty pantheon, a seemingly doomed world, and given a seed of divinity... what choice would you have but to plant it? To raise a godling all the way to its ascension, so that we might, someday, be free of this curse?"