I woke up and my pillow was wet. Have I been crying in my sleep? I felt terrible. I have no idea what else I can do besides marginally improving my skills. I might have a better chance of surviving if I work on my skills to provoke her and piss her off. There is a chance as long as I stay alive. I started to work on [Azure Chain]. I didn’t have the mana runes to alter this much. I am lacking in information about gods. There must be something all gods in general are weak to, besides being arrogant or stupid.
I got up. I dressed myself and headed toward the library. Well, that’s what I thought. What city doesn’t have a library? What is this bullshit? Are the humans taking life seriously? They did have a small bookstore but this was a terrible alternative. I got worked up for nothing. It is not the humans' fault that they’re in the Stone Age in magic compared to the Misha. And this will directly affect their ability to gather information. But still, they didn’t even try.
“It seems that you have a problem that I might be able to solve.” I looked to the side and saw another man in a strange suit. I can’t recall if this was the same guy that had led us underground the last time or if this is another man.
“I am in dire need of accurate and detailed information.” The man nodded and gestured for me to follow him. I already knew what this was about so I silently followed him. It seemed he took a different route and arrived at a different building with a roof. We went inside, navigated through some corridors, and went down some stairs.
I used [Levitate] again to descend these. The underground looked different from what I remembered.
“Hey, I have been here before but it looks completely different!”
“That is the Soun tree at work, it protects this space by disorienting and changing the appearance of this space, its inhabitants, and even the method of how to get here. Anything in its area of influence will be unrecognizable from those that live outside its area of influence.” The man had answered without looking at me. He continued doing his duty and led me somewhere.
“The Soun tree? Do you mean that big purple broccoli tree there?” The man reacted.
“I see, so the Soun tree has decided to reveal itself to you. In that case, you are recognized as a citizen. You may enter and leave this space however and whenever you wish.” The man turned around and made a very polite bow.
“Can I have your name?”
“Ayaru Mistflower.”
The man smiled. “What a wonderful name, you are also pleasant to look at. My name is Boshi. Nice to make your acquaintance.” He made another polite bow and extended his hand.
I looked at it in confusion and offered my hand. He took it gently and led me to a strange building in front of the big purple broccoli tree. He was such a gentleman.
We entered the strange building and I saw the strange Misha from before. “Oh, look who we have here, so the tree has accepted you?”
“What is this place? What does it mean to be accepted by the tree?”
“Individuals with strange and unique problems can find their safety and protection here. We won’t ask for the specifics but if you’re ever in trouble don’t hesitate to come here. You’re safe here.” I doubted these words. While normally this place would be quite safe. I’m not sure how it squares up to an angry goddess. But I appreciate their hospitality.
“Thank you. I came here to inquire about a location of knowledge, like a library.”
“Oh...” The Misha looked at Boshi who shook his head. “I’m sorry we don’t have a library here but Boshi is quite knowledgeable. He has lived here for who knows how long.”
I looked at Boshi. He looked like a regular human to me. Is this a figure of speech or…
“I can read your question on your face. I am not a human. I am a Greater spirit, a step above a high spirit.”
“Huh, I thought it was impossible to interact with spirits unless you’re a spirit mage.”
“That is only for spirits that are below medium spirit rank. Anything that is a medium spirit or above can be interacted with, if they choose so. You have already experienced it. You have spoken to me and held my hand did you now?”
I looked at my hand. “Hey! Do you know about the spirit foxes?”
Boshi’s face changed but not like I had hoped. It was a face of sadness and grief.
“I do, they…” The whole area shook. The tremor stopped and then continued.
Someone came running over. “Boshi! We have a problem. The Sarian goddess Biian is attacking Vong!”
Boshi’s expression changed again. It changed to anger. He fixed his butterfly tie, took off his black suit, and revealed a pristine white shirt underneath are those snowflake patterns?
“Tell everyone to go underground! I will be there soon!”
I was confused. “Wait! I thought we were already underground!”
Boshi smiled at me. “Is that what it looks like to you?” he turned around and ran after the man who had brought him the news. I was confused. I looked around. It looked like we were underground to me.
“Hey, what does he mean…” The Misha had already fled. “Ugh, I want answers…” I didn’t see many people but they were acting strange. They were moving as if they were walking in a crowd. I could see where they were trying to get to. I spotted a hole in the wall quite far from here. I suppose that is the way down. I want to go up though. That bitch is here for me.
I pulled my staff out of my bag, hopped on it, and flew toward the staircase. I flew up, and up and up. It didn’t seem like there was an end to this. I should have made it to the city by now. I looked back and it seemed as if I had hardly moved from the bottom of the stairs. I teleported and reached the city. It was chaos. The top of the mountain had disappeared. I saw that bitch in her giant gold hair mode killing off everything in sight.
“I know that that bitch is here!” I wanted to respond but.
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“You are not welcome here Biian. Go back to the realm of the gods. Boshi glared fearlessly at Biian.
“Oh, I remember you! You were that friend of probably the most annoying nine-tailed furball of all time. How does it feel to see the tails of your dear friend Alep get ripped out one by one? You must have felt quite hopeless. Although you do seem a bit stronger now, you’re not a medium spirit anymore, are you?” Boshi didn’t respond. He just straightened his tie and created gloves made out of ice. He made a cool stance and provoked Biian with his hand, gesturing her to come at him.
I wanted to help but I couldn’t keep my eyes off him.
“Aah! I remember now! Just like that asshole you can also use Pagos!” Pagos? I have never heard of that skill before.
A multitude of light attacks flew at Boshi but he didn’t move. He spread his hands out in front of him with his palms faced up. All the attacks seemed to just get pulled towards his hands and formed 2 balls of condensed mana, one in each hand. The ice gloves gathered more ice crystals and he closed his fists around the mana balls.
I saw Biian’s facial expression change. The ice grew and covered his forearms. But it seems as if it had trapped light mana inside.
“I am not the same weak Pagos spirit you met that day!”
“Ugh, another pest that I have missed in my extermination!” Boshi threw a punch and a stream of ice and light shot at the bitch. She made a [Light barrier] but the mana got sucked out of it and it still hit her.
The bitch tried to slam her hand on him but he jumped up and landed on her hand and ran over her arm toward her face. How can someone fight a god so fearless? I couldn’t take my eyes off him. He was unfazed by all the light-based attacks that flew at him. It just got sucked into his gloves and he kept sending blasts of ice back and it seemed to hurt that bitch a lot.
I didn’t understand, I have attacked her with water skills before but they didn’t seem to have done as much damage as Boshi did. Maybe the key is the word ‘Pagos’ that they mentioned. Is it some sort of technique to hurt gods? I got a bit envious of how Boshi fought. He fought so fearlessly and full of determination. Even though it might not be the case but he fought as if he knew he would win. Meanwhile, when I fight, I’m full of self-doubt and self-preservation, delaying my demise.
“Take my beautiful skill [Biian]!“ The whole city seemed to be targeted by this narcissistic skill. I cast [Slow] on the big bitch.
“Ugh! So, you are here!” Her skill went off but the thousands of light beams flying in every direction could be evaded by simply walking. It was surreal.
“I appreciate the help but get to safety! Don’t waste your time, energy, and life on this narcissistic murderer.”
“Who are you calling a murderer!” Biian couldn’t land a hit on Boshi because he was nimbly evading anything. He also grabbed the slow light beams and threw them back at Biian.
I did notice that the light attacks he sent back also hurt Biian more than they should. Are gods perhaps vulnerable to their own attacks? I do remember that she took a lot of damage from the [Lasers] I had reflected back to her. So that is their secret! I created countless [Ice Mirrors] and aimed all the slow lasers at Biian. She was too busy fending off Boshi’s ice attacks. I fired [Ice Lances] at her but she seemed to hardly take damage. The [Slow] wore off and Biian got blasted by her own attacks. She focused on me and her eyes glowed golden. I anticipated an attack but her face froze over since Boshi had reached her face.
“Go to sleep!” Boshi charged up a punch and hit the bitch in her face. The ice cracked and she got sent flying. I have seen a lot of crazy feats but this one takes the cake. I could use some chocolate cake now… Boshi landed on the floor and walked over to me.
“I appreciate your help and it does seem that she is after you but please get to safety. You are my guest and I can’t allow my guest to fight or get hurt. He stretched out his hand."
“I appreciate the concern but I have created this problem. I am not going to abandon those who care for me or show concern. They are already rare enough. I would rather die than abandon those close to me!” I released the mana from my hat.
“I see, you have made up your mind. Would you join me in this dance of life and death?” His outstretched hands shifted from a gesture to lead me to safety to a gesture of comradery and sharing the same goal. I shook his hand.
“I will reintroduce myself, I am Ayaru Mistflower, a Misha known as the [Azure Mist]!”
“I am Boshi, a Pagos spirit.”
“Hey, about that? What is this Pagos?” I heard rumbling in the distance.
Boshi stretched out his hand and made some ice crystals. “Pagos is something that looks like ice but it has specific properties that make it different from ice made from the water element. It absorbs any type of energy be it kinetic energy, magical energy, divine energy, and so forth. And it will convert it into energy that suits me the best. It is a form of lost magic and it is very effective against deities.”
Boshi’s explanation got interrupted because the bitch was back. She had turned into her normal size and she floated towards us and touched down 50 meters away from us.
“How dare you attack a goddess’ face! You will pa…” Boshi instantly appeared next to her, punched her in the face and sent her flying. He pointed at the goddess he had just launched.
“These deities tend to hold back; the reason is that other deities might step in the moment, they cause too much destruction. We should capitalize on this fact before she throws caution in the wind.” I looked around. The once busy city of Vong was completely destroyed. The city was once covered by a mountaintop to act as its roof, this was also gone. How much more destruction does this bitch need to cause before the other deities step in? The ambient mana was slightly contaminated by light magic.
I made [Azure Spears] and threw them at where Biian had been launched off to.
Something erupted. “Enough! You! You humiliated me! But I am magnanimous and I will let it slide if you apologize and aid me in destroying this Pagos spirit!” This bitch just keeps pissing me off.
“You destroyed a whole city, just so I would apologize?”
“My schedule is quite busy you know, I can’t hunt down every annoying fly so I can’t be bothered to waste time on you, this spirit however is more like an obnoxious rat. He might bite my toe off if I continue to let him scurry around.”
“Hey Boshi, are you able to turn any water skill I use into Pagos?”
“I sure can.”
“Then here is my answer you petty bitch. Your face might be an 8 but your personality is a 0, which makes you a 0, fuck off and leave us alone!”
“An 8!? You rate my beauty as an 8?! I am nothing short of a perfect infinity! Very well, you have chosen for oblivion. But I won’t give you a beautiful death. It will be as ugly as your existence. Revel in [Biian’s Excellence]!” Boshi dove at me and created an enormous tree made out of ice…Pagos around us.
Everything turned bright by all the golden light that appeared. It was blinding and I couldn’t see anything. I heard Boshi grunt as it felt as if his body temperature was dropping. It felt like we were falling. We crashed down and Boshi’s protective tree disappeared.
“Are you ok?” I helped him up. The light disappeared. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. We were supposed to be on one of the tallest mountains in the area. But here we were looking up to the mountains. “She has leveled the mountain…” Light corruption was everywhere. The ground seemed like it was burning, but it wasn’t fire that was burning the ground, it was the light mana. I looked around in panic. I could see nothing that I recognized. There was no trace of Vong anywhere.
“She…she erased everything…” I collapsed to the floor as I thought of the kind people of Vong and Paula and Paul.
Boshi stood up and stood in front of me.
“Ugh, this is why I hate Pagos users, it’s so difficult to kill you. Come my pet!” She shouted at the sky.
We heard a strange roar and a two-winged light dragon appeared.
“Ahh there you are my cute pet, the only flying lizard that isn’t obnoxious. Can you do me a favor and get rid of these 2 rats?”
I smirked “So I have been upgraded from fly to rat, eh? I will take that as a compliment, how unsightly it might be.”
“Not another word, you piss me off to no end, you have humiliated me in front of my followers, you are one unsightly creature. Now begone! Aurelong, eradicate these pests!”
The dragon responded and flew at us. But before we could do anything an enormous [Shadow Crane] swooped in, grabbed the dragon, and flew off. I saw Paula and Paul on the back of the crane and Paula gave me a thumbs up, indicating that she would take care of it. I smiled as I knew that they were safe and that this dragon wouldn’t be an issue.
“That’s it! I had enough of these stupid ground crawlers and their obnoxious interferences! I will show you the greatness of the Sarian Goddess of Light and Beauty!”