“Goddammit, I can’t believe I fell hook, line and sinker from his plan,” John slammed his fist on the table.

“Gee, keep that up and you’re going to break another one of our furniture, John,” pestered Rose.

“S— Sorry, I just can’t get over the fact that I was deceived by him,” sighed John.

“Well get over it, it’s been a week already,” she continued pestering as she stretched herself.

John was hanging out in our house, or more like throwing a fit, since he couldn’t exactly release his tantrum in public or his home without arousing questions from people. Daisy was away on one of her lessons so John took the opportunity to come over once again. He had definitely memorised the best time to visit our place to rant again.

“You don’t understand, Rose. He was like— a second brother to me. And he fooled me. That sucks, man,” he sulked.

“I did warned you not to get too close to him. Guess you didn’t want to listen to your first brother then? I poked fun at him.

“Nah, you’re like a cousin to me, Zen. He was more like a brother,” he said.

“A— are you saying you’re closer to him than me? Your best bud? Your literal first male friend?” I confronted him.

“Maybe? At least he didn’t accuse me of performing human experiments,” he pouted.

“Alright, enough! The two of you had been on repeat for the past week. Stop this conversation right now before I flip a table on you two. Fix your relationship right now or I’ll call Lily over to fix it for you,” shouted Rose. She seems to be annoyed by our conversation.

We kept quiet for a time as Rose continued with her stretching exercise. She said it helps her in controlling the Urumi blade better when she is more flexible. But— what she’s wearing right now is way too arousing for me. She was wearing a skintight clothing so it’s easier for her to move but— does she have to exercise now when John is right here? No wait, it’s John fault for intruding on us during our free time. She only have time to exercise when Daisy is away on her lessons. It’s not her fault that her time is limited when she needs to care for our daughter and her flock.

Thankfully, John is aware of that fact and is staring out the window instead. He should know better than to ogle at my wife. He is a good man and I know he loves his elven wife who is strangely fond of his muscles. If I ever catch these two making out, John is not gonna like what will happen to his wife, considering he is very well aware of my fetish for female elves.

I decided to turn my gaze away from Rose and focused on solving the riddle instead. Is there something I’m missing here?

“John, don’t you have things to do? Aren’t guildmasters usually busy with work?” asked Rose.

“Oh, I’m helping you two in solving the riddle,” he answered.

“I don’t hear you two talking about it. How about asking questions related to it instead of bickering at one another,” questioned Rose. I think she’s trying to ask John to leave as he’s sort of intruding on our private time.

“Didn’t you mentioned this is top secret and nobody should know about it?” I shrugged at him with a smirk.

“As though you can keep a secret from Rose. Besides, that riddle is gonna need both of your brilliant heads to solve. Even I got no idea what the hell it really wants,” shrugged John.

“Then why are you really here, John?” squinted Rose.

“Alright, let’s not be rude to each other. The riddle goes ‘To commune with the Gods, you have to serve them with a tea’. Rose, any idea from that brilliant head of yours?” I asked her.

“Onii-chan, I told you before, the only thing that’s weird with that sentence is why does it go with ‘serve them with a tea’ rather than ‘serve them tea’? You said this is the exact words that Pietro told you, right? That is the only thing I find misleading in that riddle,” she shrugged.

“There must be something we’re missing. Why tea? And how exactly do we serve them anyway? Do I need to find an altar or a church? Or some artefact belonging to the Gods? Why the hell would I be serving tea to my gauntlets if that’s the case? Damn it,” I sighed.

All of us kept quiet once again as we had no idea how to solve this confusing riddle. I wonder if my imaginary audience had solved it by now? Wished they can give me some sort of hints right about now.

I sighed once again and decided to ogle at Rose as she continued to exercise herself. Damn it, if John wasn’t here, I would had approached her and hugged her right about now. Instead I need to control myself as John somehow refuses to leave. Seriously, why is he here though? Just because he can’t release his temper somewhere else? There’s plenty of private places he can go aside from my house.

Wait a minute, I just remembered something. Didn’t Rose—

“Rose, there was a sealing spell that you performed before, right? The one where you need to maintain a Y-pose? When we fought against the Demon Queen?” I asked her.

“I’m— surprised you remembered that. Are you planning to make fun of my spells? I’m in no mood for jest right now,” pouted Rose.

“I’m not making fun of your spells, Rose. I just want to know whether it signifies anything. Last I recall you used the sealing spell to block the entrance of a cave, isn’t it?” I clarified with her.

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“It’s the same spell but with different effect. The one I needed to use that Y pose is to seal a spell which was magical in nature. I need to maintain that pose to chant the sealing spell. The one at the cave was to seal the entrance which is mostly physical. It’s not foolproof though,” she explained with a shrug.

“So it does signify something. I wonder if—,” I trailed off.

Silence engulfed us once again. The both of them were staring at me as though waiting for me to finish my sentence.

“Can it be? Is it really that simple?” I said out loud.

“Did you figured it out, Onii-chan?” she asked with a surprised tone.

“I can’t say for sure. But I am eager to try it out. John, I’m gonna need to talk with Pietro again. How fast can you make that happen?” I asked him.

“Well, I can give you permission anytime. But, if you really did managed to figure it out, then the Elementalist would like to have a word with you. He’s been waiting to have an audience but I told him you were busy trying to solve the riddle,” he explained.

Is that why he’s here? To find out whether I solved the riddle? If it’s that urgent, why didn’t he just tell me in the first place? There’s something sus about this. For John to frequently visit us, something must be up.

“John, what’s it about? For you to visit us so frequently, it must be pretty urgent,” I asked him.

“Ah nah, nothing too urgent. Seeing that you might had solved the riddle, I’ll set the appointment tomorrow for you to visit Pietro,” he answered.

“Alright, guess you can go now?” I asked him.

“Yea, guess I should,” he stood up as he headed towards our main door. He stopped short and to ask me a question.

“Zen, you won’t— make use of me, right? I am your best bud, aren’t I?” he asked genuinely.

“I won’t, John. You have my word. Just— try not to make bad choices, please? That’s all I ask,” I told him.

“I’ll try. See you soon,” he waved farewell as he headed out the door.

I closed it and quickly realised someone’s presence behind me. I quickly turned and noticed Rose was standing behind me. She slammed her palm on the door giving me a surprise at her rough sudden actions.

“Finally he left. Someone’s been ogling at me for a while now. Like what you’re seeing? Onii-chan~” she whispered into my ear.

“Um— yes. But we don’t really have much time as I need to pick Daisy up soon,” I tried to escape her clutches.

“Oh no, you’re not leaving mister. Daisy can wait for a while or you can run there with your speed. C’mon, y’know you want it. We want another kid, don’t we?” she bit her lips.

Geez, this horny wife of mine. Fine, guess I have to try my best to satisfy her before I can leave. Don’t want my wife ending up in the clutches of another man just because I didn’t give her enough attention.

“Alright, let’s head to our room then,” I gestured her to head up but she refused and stood by the main door.

“Don’t you wanna— try it here?” she exposed herself a little more than what I was expecting. Sex by the main door? Fine, just got to make sure it’s locked. The things my wife gets up to nowadays.

***

“Hope you figured out that riddle somehow,” said John.

It’s the following day and John once again brought me to the prison where Pietro was kept. No one knows that he’s here as the guards aren’t even allowed to go in to check. They are only stationed there but do not have access into the basement area where there were five keys in total to open the entryway. Each of them being kept by the guildmasters and can only be retrieved by the other guildmasters themselves. Which was why the previous initial request of mine took a while as John and the Dark Lord had to convinced the other three to approve of my request and how I even found out about it in the first place.

“I hope so too, otherwise it’s back to square one for me,” I sighed.

“Let us hope that strange mind of yours was able to crack the code. As you said, your mind had not failed you thus far,” he chuckled.

“No, that’s my gut feelings, not my mind. It had failed me a couple of times before and not to mention Daisy is infected with my curse too. Sigh, how I wished I was normal,” I exhaled loudly.

The both of us stood at the pathway leading to where Pietro was kept. I took a deep breath and crouched to remove some items in my bag. John’s jaw dropped when he saw the items that I pulled out.

“Y— you’re joking. You would think that Pietro or the Queen might had figured that out by now?!” he shouted.

“Shh— keep quiet and stand guard. Under no circumstances are you to come in to see what’s going on. Do I have your word?” I asked him as I poured hot water from a flask into a cup filled with tea leaves.

“I— uh— alright fine. I thought you said you’ve solved the riddle. I’m speechless, Zen,” he kept shaking his head.

“Well, watch and learn. I might be an actual genius,” I smirked and heading into the cell where Pietro was kept.

***

“Well well, didn’t expect to be seeing you again so soon. Is that— oh you got to be fucking kidding me,” he glared at me holding a cup of tea with a saucer.

“Zen, do you take us for a fool? Do you really think that riddle is actually involving tea? Get real! We would had solved it by now if it was that easy!” he shouted.

“Doesn’t hurt to try. And besides, you didn’t think I would actually be wasting my time here if it was that easy to solve,” I placed the cup and saucer in front of Pietro and took out my pocket watch.

I checked the time and waited for it to hit the number 12 mark. I took a deep breath as the clock’s hand got closer to number 12 and assumed my position. Almost there— now.

“What the— what the fuck are you doing?” asked Pietro as he squinted his eyes at me.

“You blind? I’m posing,” I told him without taking my eyes away from my watch, counting the seconds as it crossed by.

“Oh, I can see that, but why— Ohh.. I get it. Zen, I really thought you were smart but— oh my gosh this is just so funny! I seriously can’t believe you’re T-posing in front of me now! John! Come over here and see this shit! You won’t believe what I’m looking at right now!” he shouted and started laughing loudly.

But I ignored him. I kept looking at my watch and kept track of time. Will there be a mark where something happens? Or will I actually end up as a laughing stock?

***

Minutes passed but nothing happened. Pietro who was laughing for a long time had quiet down by now and was just glaring at me. I continued to ignore him as the 10 minute mark passed by. How much longer is it gonna take before something happens? Am I missing something or did I missed the mark completely?

“How long are you going to stand there with that stupid pose? You’re being an eyesore to me and it’s not funny anymore,” he grumbled.

“Can you just shut the fuck up and let me concentrate?” I scolded him.

“Fuck you! I’m prisoner of war here and you think I want to see your shit?! I would rather be alone than to see you pulling stupid shits like this! Get the fuck out of my sight right now before I—” he suddenly stopped talking and dropped his head.

Did something really happened? The time mark was 11 minutes and 1 seconds. Or basically, 666 seconds. That can’t be a coincidence for Pietro to play a fool on me at such a precise timing.

The cell was starting to get colder at of a sudden but there was only silence thus far. Did something really happened or am I just losing it? Without warning, darkness completely engulfed the entirety of the cell. It was pitch black except for Pietro who somehow maintained his lighting. Even my body was pitch black as I moved my hands in front of my vision.

A dark shadowy aura seeped out of Pietro’s body and floated above him, manifesting into a shadowy form with glowing blue eyes. I watched everything unfolded before me, all the while thinking of an escape route or the possibility of fighting a God. The shadowy form started speaking in the roughest rumbling tone that shook the world of darkness.

“How impressive. To think someone could actually solved my riddle, or foolish enough to actually performed it,” said the shadowy form with its rough rumbly voice.

“Does it work for all the Gods?” I asked bluntly.

"Mostly. It's kind of an agreement among us to make it as unreasonable yet plausible," answered the deep voice.

I kept silent. Thinking of what I’m gonna ask this Cosmic Being. Am I the first to actually communicate with a God? Not to mention a Demon God?

"You're not. There had been some before you but— you're definitely the first to use this method to communicate with any of us. However, you're wrong about me being a Demon God. There had never been one," answered the voice.

Can't even talk to myself, huh? What a violation of privacy.

"Are you willing to answer some of my questions? Will you be answering honestly, though? Seeing that you're the God Of Deception after all," I asked.

"You slayed my Champion and my Vessel. Do you think you have the right to demand answers from me?! I should flay you where you stand!” boomed the deep voice.

"So why humour me by showing yourself in the first place?" I questioned him while accepting the consequences.

“Consider me intrigued that you actually solved my riddle when nobody else did. I’ll grant you one question that I’ll answer truthfully. Choose wisely,” he said.

“No reading my mind and deciding for me. Deal?” I clarified with him. The shadowy figure shrugged which caught me off guard.

What should I ask him in the first place? It need to be of value since this is my only chance to talk to a God. He said that he’s not a God for demons? Are there really no Gods for them? So why choose them as champions then? I’m so confused right now. How many Gods are playing with demons for their amusement? Then why choose a human to be a Vessel? So many questions yet I can only ask one. Think Zen, think of the best question to ask. Wait— there is one. Will he really answer honestly though?

“You give your word that you will answer truthfully no matter what. So here is what I’ll ask,” I said.

“How do I permanently kill the Demon King?” I asked the God Of Deception bluntly.