Chapter finished!! Thanks a lot for waiting!!
Interlude
Alter woke up with a start..
"Haah.. haah.... eh?"
Panting, he thought he had drowned, but the teleport stone had worked on time. But he had no time to feel relieved, as he found himself tied again to a pole using multiple colored threads. And he was again topless.
"Oh, he's awake."
"Indeed."
".............."
Right before him, the three goddess that influence fate were sitting comfortably while watching him.
"Long time no see, Alter!!!"
"...... it was only less than a month."
Alter could only blandly reply to the little girl's enthusiastic greeting,
"Is it? Well, I don't really care~"
"Of course... maybe."
"......don't care....."
It seemed that these goddesses don't have any sense of time at all.
"Well, what are you planning? Is this my dream again?"
"Well of course its your dream. How else could we show up? And were not planning anything at all"
Clotho replied to him readily. It seems she wants to get close to Alter.
Still, Alter couldn't trust the smile of this young girl. He had seen hundereds of smiles like this, and he would knew if anyone has a hidden agenda behind their poker face. Clotho, who guessed at what's his thinking, pouted and unhappily made a tantrum.
"Mouu~ why are you so not trusting!! I'm being a good girl here!! Meanie!! Meanie!! I even gave you an idea on escaping Charybdis!!!"
"Clotho, stop that."
Lachesis made a light chop at her sister, telling her to stop. She then faced Alter with a serious look.
"I saw most of what you did. That was unexpected."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Haven't you saved the red haired princess?"
"Well, I suppose. But what's that got to do with this?"
Alter wondered. This small talk might be important for the future, so he earnestly listened.
"Well, apart from Atropos waking up Char-"
The black robed girl Atropos jumped towards the bubbly young girl and covered her mouth.
"She had a weak fate from the start, and was supposed to die early."
Alter didn't like the words Lachesis spoke. What did she mean by 'supposed to die early'?
"What do you mean?"
"When Clotho and I measured her thread, it was too short. See here.."
Lachesis drew a thread from midair. It was a bright shade of red, and it was glowing. But it was very short, with only a meter in length, unlike the other threads that extend ten times more.
"This is that red haired girl's thread. Its glowing indicated that the owner is a divine being. But her thread was supposed to be cut by our Atropos when that monster Scylla was about to devour her."
Clotho made a brief explaination to Alter, who was starting to get more disturbed by their words, as if taking life for granted. But she made an incredulous look as she said in enthusiasm.
"But you see here, your thread became indirectly connected to her!!"
When Alter looked closely, his own semi-transparent thread seemingly branched off, with one branch leading to the crimson thread as if the two fused.
"This is really the first time we saw threads interwine like this."
"Correct. We only just noticed but when we checked the threads of your companion, they were also connected. "
"......................and I can't cut them."
The three goddesses were a bit frustrated since they would have a hard time meddling with Alter's group. Alter, realizing this, made a grin.
"And? What do you want with me now?"
"Nothing, we'll just continue doing our jobs for a while. But here is an advice."
"Associating yourself with this girl will lead to your demise."
"And It would be better to cut ties with her,"
Clotho and Lachesis told him a warning. Should he believe them? Of course not.
"The way I choose my friends has nothing to do with you."
"Well, were not really commanding you. Its just an advice, since we couldn't directly intervene with that invincible thread of yours."
"Hey Alter, here's some help...."
After talking with Lachesis, Clotho held Alter's head and drew her mouth near his ears.
"You're stranded in an island. You'll see a kingdom, and you will battle a great threat, along with that red princess."
"R-really?"
"And you must finish off that monster that you will set out to kill, otherwise lots of mortals will die."
This girl really says some troubling things, Alter thought.
"Eh? What about Gold and Tishia?"
"They're safe. That's all we can tell
Alter breathed a sigh of relief. Not that he thought Gold and Tishia might be killed in that sort of situation.
"Well our time's up, Alter. See ya!!"
"We'll still monitor you."
"......And cut you... someday...."
With the three different farewells, Alter's surroundings became hazy again.
_____________________________________________________________
Chapter 11: A New Companion
Alter woke up with a start.
"Haah..... haah.... eh?"
He could feel the cold sand. He assumed he was washed ashore after teleporting to a random area.
It seems he did not really drowned. Moving his head, he checked whether he was again tied to a pole with threads, or if he was wearing tops, or if three carefree goddesses were sitting comfortably and ogling him, but luckily, there was nothing of the sort.
What was new, was that his hands were grabbing something that was bulging. Alter did not mind the soft sensation in his fingers, and instead prompted to caress it more.
"This is fun!", he thought.
But that fun was short-lived as a sword strike flashed in his eyes, stopping before his throat. A red demon was glaring at him, emitting bloodlust that made him shiver. That demon was sitting on top of him, holding her silver sword to his neck.
"You imbecile!!!"
It was the red haired girl. Alter did not know, but she was the 2nd Princess of the Romanum Imperium, 4th in line to the throne of the emperor. To Alter, she was just a naive girl who lost miserably to Tishia.
"Let go already!!!!!"
Thinking too much, Alter had just only noticed where his hands were currently glued, to the ample bosom of the girl. Not only her irises and hair were red, now her cheeks were trying to catch up.
"S-sorry!! That was on reflex!"
"What kind of reflexes do you have!!"
Alter immediately removed his hands, and tried to crawl away from her, but the girl just increased the force she made when sitting on him, pinning him to the ground. Now Alter felt another sensation, this time coming from her rear.
"Don't you try to escape. I'm taking you priso- ughh!!"
"H-hey! Are you alright?"
It was now that Alter saw the teeth marks on her body, along with her injured shoulder from the duel with Tishia.
"Shut up! I'm fine....."
"No you're not. Show me your wounds."
"You think you can trick me?"
"I think I can. But I don't plan to. If those wounds were not treated, you'll be dead in a day."
"Why you-"
"Enough! Do you want to die?"
Alter unintentionally raised his voice, but that was very effective as the girl only pouted, and removed her damaged armor. What was left was a beautiful body covered only in red undershirt, showing the figure an ample bosom and curves. Her arms were evenly toned, similar to that of athletes. Numerous wounds were currently received by her body.
"Where are you staring?!"
"Nothing."
Lilliana noticed his looks, but Alter denied anything.
"Stay still."
Using storage magic, he searched for some potion. He took out a small vial containing red liquid, Lilliana's eyes widened at the item he was holding.
"That, isn't that?!!"
"Healing Potion. Now drink this."
"Its ... its the first time I've seen one so pure red! Where did you get that?"
"I have a lot."
"........ I don't trust you."
"Geez, if you don't trust me then don't."
"......Perhaps I won't then."
Lilliana stood up, leaviing Alter who whose mouth hanged open.
'This girl is a real pain', he thought. But seeing the girl limping while walking, he chose not to abandon her even if she was an enemy before.
"Oi... don't be so stubborn!!"
"........"
The red head still did not stop, so Alter stood up and catches up to her, who was unsteadily walking on the sandy beach. But the girl could not cope with her current condition and collapsed unconscious,
'....Talk about being too rebellious,"
Alter caught the girl's falling body that was riddled with wounds,
"Oi, wake up!!"
He tried to gently tap the girl's cheeks, but she wouldn't respond.
"If you don't wake up, I'm gonna grope these things! Wake up!"
After minutes of trying, he gave up. She was totally unconscious due to fatigue, injuries and various other reasons. But if this continued, she wont be able to drink the potion. Alter was worried she may die.
"What to do? 'That'? But....."
He immediately though of something that he had seen in the movies before. A way for someone unconscious to be able to drink the medicine. He could not think of anything else
"...Tsk. Guess I have no choice."
He opened the vial of potion, and drank all the content. Then he pressed his mouth to hers, forcing the medicine into her throat.
'This is treatment..... this is treatment......'
He made a chant in his mind to prevent any weird thoughts. But the unconscious princess did something that blew away the mantra he made.
"Mmphh!!"
As the medicine was entering into her mouth, the girl invaded his own with her tongue. Shocked, he tried forcing her tongue with his, but it only ended up getting sucked seductively with her mouth.
"Mmphh...chuu"
That process that felt like heaven and hell had lasted a minute, as Alter had a hard time forcing her to drink the potion.
"Haa... haa..."
He panted after letting go of her mouth.
"This.... this girl is much scarier than I had thought,"
Though he said this, he did not really disliked the experience. But deep kissing with an unconscious girl, how surreal....
________________________________________________________________
Somewhere
Tishia felt bloodlust coming from the gold haired little girl.
"G-gold??!"
The girl had unconsciously activated her divinity. Her eyes were ablaze with golden flames.
"Nothing~ It seems that I need to punish a certain thieving cat in the future...."
Gold glared at the horizon and went out the room. Tishia was only left with question marks floating on top of her head.
___________________________________________________________
Lilliana opened her eyes, yawning. It seems that she feel asleep.
She had missed the days when she was so carefree. Being chosen as a goddess at the age of nine made her miss the chance to live a life of a young maiden. Being trained by the best masters, she did not fail their expectations.
She was sent to the front lines two years after that. Crushing a huge army of invading Northern barbarians with only a single Legion, she earned the respect of both the Army and the Senate. But what had greet her on her return was the shock of the betrayal of the Venetias, especially her aunt and cousin.
To sell imperial secrets to the enemy. Why would the family of Emperor Regulus betray the empire? It was so illogical that she could not believe it.
"Traitors, princess Lilliana, are the worst scum. They indirectly kill the citizens of the empire they betrayed. They should not be pitied."
That was her aunt Cordia, who was the sister of her father, the current emperor. Lilliana had noticed that she held contempt against the Venetias. Though she didn't want to listen, Cordia had been her teacher for many years. She had taught her very important things, and she did not doubt them, since they always turned out to be correct.
That's why it was a shock to her that Princess Tishia, her very childhood friend, had betrayed the empire. It was also reported that she and Senator Venetias, who were both skilled in the ways of the sword, killed their Praetorian Guards in order to swear loyalty to the enemy empire. That very news made her anger rise to the peak.
"Traitors. They deserve to die. They are scum, Lilliana. Undeserving. Filthy."
The words of her aunt would always resound on her mind. Though she initially hated it, it had become her mindset as two years passed. And when she finally saw her cousin, deep inside she was totally relieved that Tishia was alive. But that feeling turned to hatred as remembered the past.
That had clouded her judgement, prompting her to chase after the enemy. And she had paid the price: the loss of countless good men of the Imperium, all due to her personal hatred. When she was being dragged to the darkness of the waters, she thought this was her being condemned.
But when her consciousness had returned, she was still alive. She found herself in a sandy beach in the middle of the night. Her wound were deep but she think she could manage for a while. Thinking where to find medicine, she looked around, only to see a familiar black haired man. It was the boy she fought on the harbor of Apollonia
"W-why is he here?!"
She was surprised, as to why was he washed ashore along with her. She couldn't remember anything very clearly. Cautiously, she went near the boy. He had a carefree sleeping face, as if he had no worries in life. She became jealous of it.
Taking a small branch, she tried to poke his cheeks, something that just came into her mind.
Poke..
"Eh~ he smiled?"
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The boy just grinned for a second. Lilliana poked it again, and his face did it again.
"He looks like a pet or something... eh?"
Lilliana was surprised as to why she didn't hate him, unlike before. She thought there was something wrong with her mind. Suddenly, the boy kicked his legs, and caught hers. She stumbled down, unable to control her falling body towards him. And when she stopped, her face was so close to his that they would almost kiss.
"Awa...Awawa?!"
Lilliana panicked at the event, especially when his hands rose and started groping her chest.
"Wawawa????"
Even after opening his eyes, he did not take off his hands. Lilliana can't take it anymore and took out Deimos, sticking it to his neck.
"You imbecile!!!!"
And that's what happened before Alter woke up,
_______________________________________________
"Mmmm......."
Lilliana woke up slowly. Yawning sleepily, she observed her surroundings. It seems she was inside a cave lit by a small campfire.
"Hey, you're awake."
"You!!"
"Stop. You must still rest."
Alter stopped her hand that was about to draw her sword. She glared at him, but seeing bandages all over her body, she stopped.
"......Did you do this?"
"Yes. You're now far from death."
"Th-thank you... sorry for earlier...."
She could only say sorry. Again she experienced what a failure she was if she keeps continuing such a rotten attitude. She was also thankful for being treated. But there was another disturbing topic.
"......Did you do something... perverted?"
"Noo!!!"
Alter quickly denied, but Lilliana saw his face a little red. Her cheeks also felt a little hot.
"So you did something!!! Pervert!!! Don't approach me!!!!"
'How can I help it, its your fault!!' was Alter's only reply, but he did not try to voice it out. If she knew, he predicted that chaos would ensue. But jokes aside, he was still worried about her health. It could only cure physical wounds, not fatigue.
"Hey, can you move now?"
"......I'm fine. Where are we?"
"I don't even know. Were both washed up in this island."
It seemed that both of them did not know their location.
"But how did we manage to live?"
Lilliana wondered at the miracle that they have survived that. Alter explained that he found out the Strait of Death was really a dungeon, and how he thought of using a Teleport Stone to warp them outside.
"EEEHH? YOU HAVE ONE??!!"
Lilliana could only say in surprise. A reaction similar to that of Tishia's. A proof that they were really cousins. After a few exchange of information, both remained silent for a while.
".................................."
".................................."
Until Alter said something.
"You were cursed."
"Eh?"
Lilliana was surprised at this boy's words. She didn't exactly understand what he meant.
"What do you mean?"
"There is something foreign that entered your divinity's magic sequence and modified.... no, just overwritten it."
"Something foreign? Magic sequence?"
She was baffled at his terms. What did he actually mean?
"In simple words, you were manipulated by someone."
"EHHH??"
She can't believe it. But she felt herself that his words were true.
"I- I don't really know. That I was brainwashed? That's preposterous."
"Its probably the reason why you hated Tishia so much."
".........................................."
Lilliana only became silent, which continued for a long time.
"Hey, what's your name."
"I'm Alter."
"Call me Lilliana."
Silently, without speaking any words, they had agreed to a truce.
"Sleep now. Tomorrow, we will set out inland. We'll need to find out were we are"
"......Yes."
She obediently went to sleep, the tension and wariness against the boy fading into the background.
__________________________________________________
"Are you ready to leave?"
'Yes."
The following morning, they left out of the cave and entered the lush forest.
"It seems that there are monsters here."
'hisssss'
"!!"
Lilliana heard a hiss and saw a two headed snake, constricting the hand of the boy. She readied her sword, and was about to slice it when.
"Stop!! Its my pet!"
"What?!"
Lilliana got surprised as Alter caressed the two snake heads.
"She's called Tiamat. Isn't she cute??"
'hiss'
"You.... even gave it a name?"
On the way they had met monsters, but since they were both gods, they made easy workings on the poor things. Some of theme were familiar to Alter, as he had fought them before. It was only a few hours of walking when they found a large road leading to a temple.
"Hey, we should investigate that temple."
"And why did you think of that?"
"I had a feeling there's a rare item inside."
Lilliana was wondering if she should trust this feeling of his. But since he was the leader, she agreed.
They entered what they would say a temple ruin. With only the arches standing erect, all the other walls and structures of marbles have already corroded and ruined.
"I know this place."
"....Come again?"
Alter, lost in thought due to nostalgia, did not hear Lilliana's reply.
This had been one of the temples that was known as a Cathedral. In the past, before Mythologia became a death game, this temple served as a revival area for players. Its functiion ceased when the players can no longer revive, so it had been a memorial for the surviving players of that time, marking the names of the fallen on the marble stones. And yet, it did not prevailed the passage of time.
"This place had been a very important place for us...... for me."
"Alter, who are you really?"
Lilliana could only wonder. This place looked like it had stood since a thousand years ago, but the boy in front of him spoke as if he was present during the time it was still standing in full glory. How could he even fight on par with her, who was a goddess of war? And it seems that Alter had not yet shown his true abilities and powers.
"I came from the past."
"................"
Was he joking? Lilliana thought. She was about to retort to his words, but something told her that Alter was telling the truth. Her crimson eyes tried to look at his obsidian black eyes for any hint of lie, but there was nothing at all.
"I was imprisoned in a sphere where time did not flow, along with my companion named Gold. It was a long story, but both of us defeated a certain monster that threaten the world. To survive, we have to be locked in that sphere."
Alter's brief summary seemed like it came from a legend, Lilliana thought, fascinated.
"This monster was really strong?"
"It took about a thousand people similar like me to be able to defeat it."
"Amazing.........."
Lilliana could only imagine a battle of a thousand gods pitted against the strongest monster. It would be an epic fight that would've transform the terrain itself. Alter on the other hand, stared at the heavens, wondering where his friends were now.
They walked around the ruins as they chatted, exchanging stories to pass time. They would occasionally encounter some ghost-like monster, but the two gods would just exterminate it with ease. It was then that Lilliana saw a pedestal at the end of the ruins.
"Hey, something's gleaming!"
Lilliana tried approaching the pedestal, but an arc of light swung from her side. She managed to evade it and jumped back to a distance. Where she was standing before, a large battleaxe stuck on the ground.
A hooded figure stood, holding the battleaxe. From the hood, the two gods could see a pale female face with green glowing orbs in place of its eyes. It was emitting intense bloodlust against them. Raising the battleaxe with ease, the figure rested it to its shoulders. It then spoke in a chilling voice.
"You..... are...... not.... welcome.... here..... Diiiiieeeee....."
"Its clearly an opponent that we can't beat if we hold back."
"Yes. Lets flank it and simultaneously attack, Lilliana."
The two tried to coordinate against the single enemy. But their brows creased as from the ground, two robes with claws for hands came out. They have three enemies to deal with. Without using World's Truth, Alter already knew the identity of the enemy.
"They are called
"You know about them?"
"They are monsters that lived during my time, during the Dark Ages."
"!!!!"
If so, these monsters would be unusually strong, Lilliana thought. Before the enemy could attack, she already activated her divinity.
"Destruction, for Preservation!! Chaos, for Order!!! War, for Peace!!"
Crimson particles gathered on the outline of her body, as her eyes flamed the color of vermilion.
"God Mode!!!"
And appeared was the crimson goddess of war. With her sleek armor shining against the sun, she rushed to face the three Keres head on. The three Keres dispersed to her sides and back, but the three battleaxes were timely parried by two swords of silver and red.
"It seems that I could use two now. At last!"
Alter on the other hand used Tishia and Gold's power.
"Embodiment of Nothingness and Change. Spectator of the Primordial World. I am the Beginning and I shall be the End.
"God Mode!!"
Gold and White particles of light gathered together on top of his head, and enveloped his body. What came out of the light was something Lilliana had never seen before. Something that exudes both authority and terror.
It was wearing tattered white cloak, and was holding two sickles. White and gold burned through the sockets where its eyes were supposed to be. Its hands were made of golden bones, and so was its skull and its legs. The closest description would be a white grim reaper.
(Ancient Avenger Form)
The golden skull faced the Keres who were fighting Lilliana
" Fools who dare oppose me"
Even the Keres stopped at the words of the grim reaper. Even Lilliana found it scary.
"Alter...... is that you?"
"all you fools will be judged by my wrath"
The golden skeleton dissolved on the air, only to reappear on the front of the Keres, tearing off the arm that was holding the battleaxe with a swing of the white sickle.
"AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaa"
The evil spirit screamed. It was unable to follow the grim reaper's movements, and was continuously slashed to pieces.
Lilliana, though astounded, engaged the two Keres who were wildly swinging their battleaxe. With a storm of sword strikes, she was able to overpower one and slashed it to pieces, but the remaining one slipped past her attacks and swung its battleaxe with full force, directed at Lilliana's neck.
But the huge weapon was destroyed in midair, white blurs cutting through the air from the white sickles. Lilliana made a heavy overhead swing, completely cleaving the last Keres in half.
After there was no more hostile presence in the surroundings, the white grim reaper glowed, and transformed back to into the black haired boy. Lilliana couldn't resist asking about the spectacle she had just seen.
"You?! That! What!!"
"R-relax"
"How could I relax?!! What is that?! What are you really?! That was really unexpected!"
Alter tried to calm down the excited Lilliana, but the teenage god of war wants to feed her curiosity immediately. Her front body was pressing on him.
"My strength is that of borrowing the aspects or powers of a god that has deep ties with me. I used both Tishia's and Gold, and combined them. The form would be depending on the combination."
"Combination?!"
Lilliana's eyes were gleaming. She really is childish, Alter said in his mind,
"I could borrow more than one power."
"Really? That's so cool!!"
"O-okay! Stop that!"
Lilliana stopped pressing her body and removed herself. With slightly reddish cheeks, she just noticed what she was doing. Trying to change topics she remembered the gleaming object from the pedestal. She drew near, and saw a small green object.
"What is this?"
It was a strange looking stone, shaped like a coma. Alter immediately recalled the stone he bought at the Flea Market.
"That's a Magatama!"
"Magatama?"
"Its a stone imbued with power. I bought one at Apollonia that was identical to this."
"Hou~ . Then, could it be a collection?"
"....probably."
If it was a collection, he would have to find the remaining ones, though its gonna be hard since he doesn't know their locations. But he was sure there's a large reward waiting if he manage to collect all the identical Magatamas.
"Umm.... Alter? Where's that two-headed snake of yours?"
"Eh?"
Alter completely forgot about Tiamat after reminiscing about the ruins. She had been missing since then.
"Damn. I'm a terrible owner."
The sun was already about to set, and fog had covered most of the ruin grounds.
"We must find shelter first. We'll find her tomorrow for sure."
"That would be true."
And they went away from the ruins. Little did they know that the fog that covered the forest they entered was dense in magic, and would definitely play tricks on their mind
-Chapter End-