Chapter 8

Pinch?

"Victoria-san, go and hide behind the bush over there for a little, do not interfere until I tell you to do so. She doesn't know that you are in this form now. If I told her that, she may not harm us."

"Alright."

There may be other options I could choose from which is safer, but in this spur of a moment, this was a decision I made to ensure Victoria's safety, as a goddess's power may be able to inflict damage to an ethereal being.

 "Erm, I assume that you are Nebula?"

"Yes, I am."

Ugh, it's kind of hard to talk to her with this much killing intent.

"Could you lower your bloodlust, just a little? It's a little hard to talk to you if you are like that."

"No"

I am surprised at Nebula's retort.

"Why should I lower my bloodlust towards an enemy?"

"Mina, be careful. Nebula has two personalities. This one's when she snaps."

Victoria-san shouted towards me from the bush she hid behind. A goddess with two personalities... I have heard of gods that have two or more heads with different personalities, but this is a first. A goddess with two in the same body, everyone I meet gets weirder and weirder.

From the looks of it, she is on the verge of being hostile towards me. I have to deal with this as calmly as possible. I don't like violence, so let's try to negotiate with her. I'm sure she would understand, since she's a goddess.

"I'm sorry if I had offended you in any way, but I don't think I had done anything wrong. I don't like violence, so I wish to sort this out peacefully."

"Liar."

Huh? What does she mean?

"Erm, I'm sorry, what?"

"You, who had defiled Vickie-san's resting place, is considered a murderer to me."

I see. Looks like she misunderstood what I did at the lake. I got to clear this up fast, or else something unnecessary might happen. Although genociding the monsters in it does not count, right?

"I'm sorry, but I think you misunderstood. Sure, I did dry up the lake, but that doesn't mean I defiled her resting pla-"

"Shut up, liar."

An icicle shot pass my face.

That was dangerous. This Goddess... Why does she not listen to my reasons? At least a decent goddess will know how to listen to what I have to say and reconsider my retort. Does that mean...

"You are a stubborn Goddess?"

*Piku*

A vein popped on her forehead.

This is bad, I think I provoked her. I regretted what I had said just now, as a barrage of icicles was shot towards my direction.

Looks like I have no choice but to defend myself.

 I used [Speed Breaker] to evade the incoming icicles being shot at me. One by one, the icicles hit the ground behind me, freezing whatever they touched. By the time the barrage was over, the road had become an ice rink.

Yabai. I would die if I got hit by one of those icicles.

I ran towards Nebula at breakneck speed. Since she is a goddess, I assumed she is physically and defensively strong. Thus, I dove into her left flank in a blink of an eye and karate chopped the back of her neck, as I don't want to harm her.

However, she smiled creepily when I was made contact with her neck.

Water suddenly flowed from her skin onto my right hand. Although for some reason, the water is absorbed into my hands in an instant. Even though I found that weird, that was not the priority. She was in a daze, thus I used this chance to jab her abdomen with my left fist, along with [Warlord King].

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

*Gufu!?*

She made a gasp due to the pain inflicted on her abdomen and was plummeted backwards onto the bridge.

As she struggled to stand up, she spoke,

"H-how..."

Hmm? What did she say?

"How did you do that!"

What do you mean?

"I don't understand what are you trying to imply."

"How did the water I made disappeared from your arm! And how did you penetrate my water armour!"

"I myself also do not know what had happened. Can we stop fighting please? I do not wish to resort to violence."

I quickly changed the subject to try to decrease her hostility. But, it was for naught.

"Shut up, murderer! I will never forgive you for ruining the place Vickie-san rests in!"

As she shouted her true thoughts, with tears running down her cheeks, huge waves formed from the ocean under the bridge. It created a giant wave the size of a 5 storey building, and was heading towards us.

Crap, if this comes any closer, Victoria-san will also get caught up in it as well. What should I do... If only I had enough power to remove this tsunami, tsunami...water?

...

If I was sure, when I was at the lake, it became dried and barren when I absorbed its water. Also, during the fight, I somehow absorbed the water which was flowing on my right arm. And she said something about penetrating her water armour. If my theory is correct, does that mean I am able to absorb water indefinitely?

Well, it's all or nothing.

As the huge waves passed through Nebula, I stood in front of the wave, with both my hands out facing it.

The wave suddenly shrunk as it made contact with my hands and disappeared in moments.

This confirms my theory that I, the race of Yggdrasil, am able to absorb water as a race trait.

Because I did not see anything to do with absorbing water in my skill lists, both normal and race skills, I concluded it to be a racial trait. Just like how elves have excellent eyesight and dwarves are masters at blacksmithing, I figured the race Yggdrasil at least has one special trait. And now, I had confirmed it.

So basically, isn't this goddess's water attacks useless against me? Although if she uses ice attacks, I may have a problem. But so far, using long range icicle attacks is a cinch for me to dodge. I should still not let my guard down.

However, as I went to confront Nebula in the case of another attack, she was on her knees, crying.

 "*sniff* s-stop...it...j-just*sniff* st-top dis-sturbing *hik* Vick-kie anym-morre..."

Her personality had switched back to normal huh. I kind of understand her actions after thinking about it. If someone you are acquainted with destroys a grave of someone dear to you, wouldn't you be angry as well? Especially because they have betrayed your trust? She was also once a human, and humans have something that separates them from animals and other-worldly beings, that is emotions.

Thus, to comfort her, I called out to Victoria-san, who witnessed everything while hiding behind the bush.

"Nebula."

Victoria-san called out to her.

"*Sniff* huh?"

When Nebula saw a person she never saw before, her guard had dropped. Taking this chance, Victoria-san ran towards her and,

Hugged her.

"Eh?"

"Don't say anything, Nebula."

Nebula was confused at what was happening. A little girl ran up to a stranger and hugged her, was a scene you would not see normally. However, that is if that person was a stranger. A sudden realisation had hit Nebula in the face.

"Vic...kie...san...?"

"Yes, it's me."

"You...are... alive?"

"Sort of, yeah."

"*Sniff* I thought... you... died..."

Tears started to well up in her eyes again.

"I'm here, right? You don't have to hold it back anymore."

"Uu...uwahhhhh!"

She started crying, as Victoria-san kept hugging her.

"There there, cry all you want, I'm here now."

This would be a touching scene, if the roles weren't reversed. Honestly, weird things just keep happening to me. I wonder why.

Speaking of hugging, Victoria-san really likes to hug people. It could be because she was a dragon before and was impossible for her to hug anybody.

Hold on. I understand that she is able to hug me. But she is able to touch Nebula? I thought she was ethereal? I have to find this out later,  it now, I leave the two of them alone for a while. I'm not so dense as to ruin the touching reunion of mother and daughter, sort of.

----------------------------------------

"I'm sorry, Kakuto. I thought that you had defiled Vickie-san's resting place intentionally, however I was in the wrong. I should not have jumped into conclusions."

"As long as you understand, it's fine."

After her reunion with Victoria-san, she explained what had really happened at the lake to Nebula, while hiding my powers. Although the goddesses know what skills I have other than the skills I obtained from the monsters I killed, they do not know about the racial trait and the racial skill. I plan to keep at least these two a secret from everyone.

"As a goddess, this is not enough as an apology to you, who is of the same rank as us. Thus, I will grant you one of my skills. I do not need it anymore, so feel free to take it."

She held my hand and closed her eyes. The place where our hands connected started glowing blue.

The skill [Water Manipulation] has been added to Kakuto's skill list.

Ooh, blue box-kun appeared again.

[Water Manipulation]? Does it do what I think it does? Let's appraise this.

[Water Manipulation] Allows the user to freely control water.

Hey, isn't this skill important for the water goddess?

"If you are wondering why I gave this skill to you, it's because I have the higher tier version of it, which allows me to turn water into ice."

I see, then that makes sense. I accepted her compensation for her apology.

"If there is anything you need, please feel free to call me through my shrine in the city."

"Alright."

Nebula turned to Victoria-san.

"Vickie-san, please allow me to meet you again, as have to return to the [Order of the Goddess]."

"Sure, anytime."

"Then with that, I hope that we will see each other again."

After her little speech, a glimmer appeared behind her and she entered it. After a while, the glimmer disappeared and she was gone.

"Aah, now that she's returned to them, what do you want to do, Mina-chan?"

Eugh, for some reason, when she says my girl name like that, I become embarrassed. But at least it's better than Kakuto in this form.

"Of course, towards the human continent!"

And so, me and Victoria strolled across the bridge, towards the human continent, not knowing of the major role I would play there.