A/N : Busy worki—okay, playing. Old school games on epsx sure are fun... Anyway, here's the next chapter.

'Goddess Talking'

'Emissary Talking'

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Living as an Emissary definitely has it’s own pros and cons. True, you would get an unimaginable amount of power which was usually out of reach, far higher than the standard of the normal mortals. However, you would also have to do whatever it was that your God or Goddess you served asked for you.

In some cases, you even had to go to an entirely different world and even fought to the death against Emissaries of another Gods. And that was exactly the thing that happened to Lode today.

Lode thought of himself as a fortunate kid. Living his childhood as a lowly servant of some kind of lowlife, he was able to rise to prominence by diligently training in his spare times. Slowly but surely, he began to make a name for himself in the field of cultivation as an exceptionally strong warrior.

At the peak of his life, he met someone whom he could call as ‘Master’, an exalted, legendary swordsman that had thought to be long dead. Coincidentally, this ‘Master’ of his was an Emissary of the Goddess Soluna. The Master whom should have been long dead was granted immortality by the Goddess to serve her, and as a result, his swordsmanship had increased tremendously.

Awed by the power his Master held, Lode himself had then choose to serve the Goddess. From then on, he disappeared from the surface world, and focused himself to train under the tutelage of his Master. One day, his Master was summoned to another world as an Emissary of the Goddess Soluna.

He never came back. The Goddess only said that his Master was defeated in some kind of battle royal between Emissaries of many different Gods and Goddesses in a certain world…

At that time, he thought, ‘Master isn’t weak. He’s far stronger of a person than me. If he loses, it just means that the opponents are stronger than Master. And by that, it also means that the opponents are even more stronger than me. The universe is boundless, and I don’t know what kind of situation I will face in the future. I need to grow stronger and surpass Master!’

Since then on, he had learned and perfected his Master’s technique, thus reaching a new height which even surpasses that of his Master. As the Goddess’ Emissary, he fought against various Godly Beasts, another Emissaries, and also all kind of strong existence within the universe.

In his whole lifetime, he had never been a coward. Always facing his enemies head-on, and never turned his back on them. And yet, facing a little girl that looked so harmless, he… he actually trembled in fright!

“W-who are you!?” the expression of disbelief painted his face as he asked the question which arouse within his heart. It was impossible for an ordinary person to made him trembled in fright, just by looking at her. Moreover, it was supposedly also impossible for a foreign being to exist within a summoning process. Currently, his mind was in a total mess.

The young girl grinned widely, with an extremely terrifying sword made of pure ice on her hand, as she steadily approached Lode, “Me? I am the Goddess of Death!”

The self-proclaimed Goddess of Death suddenly leaped out and thrust out his sword at Lode. Facing the sudden movement, Lode unsheathed his long sword in panic.

“Klang!”

The clashing sound of the iron sword against the ice sword loudly reverberated in the stone temple. A massive shockwave rocked out from the two swords clashing point, turning everything, be it dead or living object —with the exception of the two swords and it’s holders— within 10 meters into dust particles.

‘I-impossible! Such force couldn’t possibly be…!’ Unable to withstand her blow, Lode’s body got thrown off to a nearby wall.

“Crack!”

The impact was so hard that his body created a man-sized crater in the wall. As he jumped back out from the crater, Lode stared blankly at his right arm. Huge amounts of bloods were dripping down, and the angle was… wrong.

‘Just one exchange, and I am already had a massive disadvantage!’ He glanced at the nearby ‘Goddess of Death’, hoping that the previous strike was actually being done with the expense of exhausting her full power.

His hope immediately shattered, however, as she looked like she wasn’t even sweating or breathing hard. In fact, the grin on her face got even wider, if that was even possible.

“Wow, you are actually kind of strong!” she exclaimed cheerfully, as if she was looking at a good quality toy. Or maybe…

‘She’s actually really taking me for just a toy,’ Lode gritted his teeth as he thought of that. It was at this moment that suddenly, a clear and gentle voice could be heard within his mind. It was none other than the Goddess Soluna whom had connected to him via the bond of Master-Servant relationship they had.

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‘Lode, what happened?’

The Goddess’ voice had a hint of confusion as she spoke. She knew that there’s something wrong with Lode as she could felt his chaotic emotion and thought within their bond. But she clearly doesn’t think of it as a matter of importance, since she didn’t immediately uses her divine power to connect his vision to hers.

‘Your Majesty!? There’s some kind of lunatic that's currently trying to kill me!’

Lode answered telepathically as he once again frantically jumped to avoid an energy blast from the young girl’s casual swipe of her sword. Were he tried to withstand that energy blast, Lode himself was sure that his sword, together with his own body would’ve been cleanly bisected in two.

‘This kind of conduct isn’t appropriate for someone who had been my Emissary for quite a long time, Lode.’

‘But… Pardon me, Your Majesty, but I honestly thought that this little girl could’ve killed me instantly if she wished for it!’

The Goddess was silent for a moment, before she once again inquired, ‘Wait, you’re facing a little girl, you said?’

‘Yes.’

‘Don’t tell me… Say, does she has a pair of red eyes, long black hair that reached her waist, and also uses some kind of weapon made from ice?’

‘….Yes? Does Your Majesty knows about this person?’

Immediately after, Lode could clearly feel the presence of the Goddess within his mind. His eyes suddenly turned pure white, and the power he emanates strengthened at an astonishing rate. On his back, an illusory form of a golden haired woman appeared out of thin air.

The sudden changes made the self-proclaimed Goddess of Death stopped her track and stared at him curiously. She mumbled under her breath, as if she was talking to another person, “I see… so anytime this kind of thing happened to my previous opponent, it means that there’s some kind of God or Goddess who had watched our battle, right?”

Meanwhile, Lode with his newly gained power, prepared himself to attack the little Goddess of Death. When he was almost ready, however…

‘Wait, don’t.’

The Goddess’ voice once again resounded in his mind, telling him to stop. Lode was forced to stop his opening moves as he listened to the Goddess with a confused expression on his face.

‘…it’s actually her! But what’s she doing in this world?’

Lode waited for a moment before he asked, ‘Your Majesty, what should I do now?’

His Goddess clearly knew about this person, and directly attacking her even after the Goddess told him to stop was just inviting trouble. It would be different story if the little girl was to attack first, then he would have been justified even if he were to attack. But currently, the little girl was just staring at him motionlessly.

However, the Goddess’ next instruction made him badly startled.

‘Create a huge explosion to distract her for a moment, then immediately sets off to the outside. You are not to engage in any kind of battle against her. Now, go!’

Lode was unable to understand as to why the Goddess acted like that, nevertheless, he still complied. He raised his sword with both of his hands, channeling the energy within his body to his sword, and then suddenly, he thrust out his sword to the ground below him.

A huge explosion instantly erupted with Lode as the center. The little girl made no move whatsoever to defend herself, and just calmly watching the scene with raised eyebrows. The magnificently built stone temple, which had stood for more than a thousand years, collapsed into pieces just like that.

Almost at the same time, Lode flies off and tried to flee to the forest outside. However…

“Shuuu!”

His body suddenly froze in mid air for a moment, then he landed back on the ground. The illusory form of the Goddess on his back faded out, as he felt his power draining at a fast rate. His chest felt kind weird, as if there was something tugging on it. As he looked down, his already pale face had actually gotten paler. An ice sword was actually sticking out from his chest…

As the bloods were gushing out from his wound and mouth, he dropped to his knees, panting hard. He could see the blurry figure of the ‘Goddess of Death’, standing not far away from his current position. As his vision darkened, and his consciousness faded, the last thing he heard was the slight chuckle of the little girl.

“Well, you’re slightly above average, at the very least…”