I might have heard his every word, but my mind was still clouded by the pain and only when he stripped all my clothes completely I realized what's happening.

Yet I couldn't move my body even a bit.

The knight with scar then grabbed me by the hair and dragged to the table. With a single movement of his hand, he threw everything from the surface and then dropped me on the top.

"Wait, cousin." just when the knight started to remove his armor the mage interrupted him.

"Don't try to stop me, Jack, she has ruined my face. I want to..."

"Don't misunderstand," the mage picked something from the floor, slowly raised and started to walk in our direction, "You will have your chance... but as your superior the first turn is mine."

"But..." the knight grimaced and then stepped to the side, "I understand."

"As someone already with a fiance, I usually don't participate in such custom, but you see..." the mage shifted his gaze to the object in his hands and then looked right into my eyes, "I just realized that this is a residence of Amelia Darkmoon gol Tanus... The Witch of White Flames." 

The object mage picked earlier was a simple stamp used to seal the letters... yet it had an insignia of our House.

With his words, the knights in the room gasped in shock. Witch of White Flames was a name given to my mother by the enemy... and from the start of war til now, the number of enemies she has killed personally is estimated to be in thousands.

"It's a disaster that your life is now beyond saving... a slave with your background would set us for life. But..." the mage removed his cloak and tossed to the side, "but it would be even worse if I missed a chance to get a taste of her daughter."

What followed next was a nightmare.

From the moment my spell has failed, the pain has never stopped to torment me, but each thrust of the mage, made me realize that it could get even worse.

'This can't be happening!'

I wanted to resist, scream... yet my body was completely powerless. All I could do was scream in my mind from the pain and humiliation... because my body could not. Eventually, I have managed to close my eyes, hoping for the pain to mask what's happening, but it was of little help.

I could tell when the mage has finally stopped, but almost immediately someone else took his place.

I don't know how long it lasted, nor how many took their turn, but it sure felt like an eternity. Only when I suddenly heard a loud sound of thunder, my mind finally sunk into a sweet embrace of darkness.

*

"Hello, little girl." a strange voice reached me from the void and little by little I 'woke up'.

The first thing I noticed was an absence of pain. Not just pain, at the moment I couldn't feel a single thing. With the torture I have been through, not being able to feel anything was like a blessing to me. I had no time to dwell on the sensation very long though, because my attention was suddenly drawn to the sight right in front of me... and I couldn't help but stare with wide eyes.

It was as if I looked at a painting.

There were now four knights in the room, and all of them... 'frozen in time'. Three of these knights were floating in the air, as if tossed by some invisible force. Many wood fragments in the air only strengthened that image. The last knight at the door was much further from the rest and still on his feet, but judging from his expression, not even aware of what was happening right in front of him.

I couldn't see the mage, nor his cousin, actually even one more knight was now missing from back then. But that was just a fleeting thought, the next moment my gaze was glued to the last person in the room... me. Naked. Also 'frozen in time', floating in the air. The table below now in pieces, splinters of wood scattered in every direction like a cloud. A heart of blast that sent knights flying.

How can I be in two places at the same time?

Also... if the time was stopped why was there a bolt of lightning that occasionally jumped from place to place, as if some strange creature exploring its surroundings. It probably got here through that hole in the wall... or rather, it created the hole. A few scattered stones 'frozen in the flight' could be still seen near the entry...

No. Perhaps the time wasn't stopped... or at least not completely.

I focused a bit more and noticed that ever so slowly the knights, splinters of the shattered table, ruble of stone from the hole... everything was actually moving. It was almost impossible to detect at the first glance, but the movement was there.

For quite some time, I was in a trance, trying to grasp what all of this means, but eventually, my gaze shifted back to 'me' in 'the painting'.

It was my real body, there was no denying it. And it was even at the place where I should have been. Then what I am?

I raised my arm... and saw that just like the rest of my body, it was transparent. Everything in the room could be seen right through.

"Have I died?" I asked while looking at the floor through my hand.

"Not yet." a deep voice suddenly scarred me and I quickly turned around, but save for the 'frozen' knights there was no one else in the room.

This voice. I have heard it somewhere, wasn't it what 'awoke' me just now? The voice was loud, deep, and very strange... as if some beast never meant human speech suddenly decided to give it a try. But despite how alien it sounded, I could tell that the one speaking was without a doubt - a man.

"My my, what a shy little girl," after some time the voice rang again. Now that I paid more attention, I could tell that it came from... everywhere, "others usually scream by now, or at least ask who I am."

"Are you Death?" I asked when finally recovered and then wasn't even sure if this should have been a question.

Stopping the time to meet a soul... This must be what usually happens when people die. I never thought about it, but at the scale of an entire world, countless people must be dying at the same time. To meet each of them in person... is probably impossible, not without stopping the time. The more I thought about it the more I was sure that my guess was correct.

"Ha ha ha ha... that's a third time in a row... People these days... absolutely no imagination," the voice burst into laughter, "Maybe next time I should take an appearance of a black specter with a scythe? No, better not. If I am called farmer next... will die from embarrassment!"

Hmm? Was I mistaken?

"A God?" I asked again.

"No!" this time he replied immediately and I even noticed irritation in his voice, "You might call me Demigod... but please don't mistake it for a God, too many use the word lightly. I might be able to use my knowledge of his laws to snap a moon or a planet out of existence, but in the end, my very existence is based on the same laws. Now God, is an omniscient consciousness of the Universe itself, an existence capable of creating and changing the laws of the world at will... and is not even bound by them in the slightest. When someone even weaker than me dares to claim to be his equal... I find it very offending. Punny creatures, gain a bit of power and start a religion of themselves, yet all of them run at the first sight of trouble. A pity... their souls are soooo delicious." at the end of his speech I could even hear a longing in the voice.

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I was frightened by what I heard, what could this... Demigod... want from me? Suddenly his answer to my earlier question if I am dead, surfaced in my mind - 'Not yet'.

"You want to eat me?!" I asked in horror.

"Oh, my... now that's a very naughty question, little girl... and you don't even blush," the voice chuckled, "No. I have no plans to eat your soul, I doubt it's even tasty... Besides, I would need at least a thousand only to fit the gap between my teeth."

"I see," I said in a sad voice.

I, of course, was very glad he had no plans for my soul, but just now, my own question reminded me about the fate of my brother, his soul still in the hands of that wretched mage.

"If it's something even a mage can easily get, it must be below you to even bother..."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha," Demigod immediately burst into a laughter, "A mortal can get a soul? Ha ha ha Ha ha... I can't... Ha ha ha... you are killing me... ha ha ha..."

Only after a while he finally stopped.

"Let's see..." 

Pain assaulted me for a brief moment and then vanished just as quickly.

"Yup... just I thought," his voice rang again, "Your brother's soul is safe and sound and is already on its way to be reincarnated... though with a bit of handicap. Save for me and a few annoying... 'friends', no one can do a shit to a soul. It was one hard nut to crack even for myself. How long was I unable to properly punish those self-proclaimed gods when they pissed me. Destroy a planet, toss them into a star - nothing! Alive and kicking, scared a bit but still kicking. Could only watch in rage as they packed their things and just left... Only when I finally learned how to devour them all has changed. Ahhhh... now those were the days... have I mentioned that they are very tasty?"

Despite a bit disturbing part in his speech, a huge relief filled my entire being when I heard that my brother's soul is safe, but there was still something that caused me to worry, "What do you mean by 'with a bit of handicap'?"

"Hmm? Ah, it's actually nothing serious. It's just that this round his reincarnation is limited only to this planet. What that mage took was a lingering energy inside the body and for a spirit, it's quite useful if want to try another world, but by no means, it's a soul."

"Planet?" I asked again. This was the second time I heard him mention the word but I had no idea what it meant.

"Oh, right. Forgot that astronomy in this world is stuck at the stone age. Aren't you even curious what is a star?"

"Star is just a large rock very far in the sky," I replied, a bit proud that this was something even I knew. 

A few years ago I saw one with my own eyes when parents brought me to an exhibition held by the Academy.

"At the altitude they are positioned, mana is so thick that even holding a boulder of that size in the air is not an issue..." I continued by quoting what I heard at the said exhibition but then stopped when Demigod started to laugh. 

"Okay. That's enough. Why don't we take a little tour to broaden your horizons?" and before I could even answer with the sound of a snap made by the fingers my soul started to fly up.

I passed through the roof as if it was just an illusion and continued further. Soon the entire capital turned into a little speck in the distance and then even completely hidden by the clouds.

"Now listen well, little girl, the world you call Sands is a planet..." Almost in no time the world in front of me turned into a large sphere... and while I was very scared by what just happened, I found its appearance very beautiful.

"Sands, hehe... how interesting, we name other planets with such interesting names, but the one we live on is always earth, dirt, sands or a mountain. Guess that's what you get when name the world you live on with what you stand on. Anyway, you now must be thinking how come people don't fall at the bottom? Right? Just imagine that the real bottom is at the center."

After Demigod said that I started getting closer to one of the moons.

"Behold a moon. Basically, just a smaller planet flying around Sands as it has nothing better to do." just in a blink of an aye I was then in front of another, "Just like the other..."

"And this, my little girl..."

I started to move again... and ended up very close to a giant blue sphere with flames of the same color dancing on the surface.

"... is a sun. Actually, it's just a star, like any other you see in the sky. It's just that this one is closer..."

With his words, every single star in the sky started to change. They grew longer... and longer. As if someone was stretching them into rays of light. Just when I started to think that it's impossible for them to stretch even more, with a sound of a snap, I found myself in front of another large sphere made of flames. But this time red.

"And just so you don't call me a liar... another star in the flesh. Impressive for something that is 'just a rock', isn't?"

The stars then started to change again and after one more sound of a snap, I was once again in front of The Sun.

"Also, contrary to what your people believe, little girl, it's your planet that flies around the sun, not the other way around. When a single lap is finished, it symbolizes the end of one year...  You probably still have no idea just how big the stars are. Remember the size of your planet? If we put an exact copy next to your sun... it would take nearly four hundred of them placed one on top of another, just to reach the same height... By the way,  the stars are also very hot, but I guess it's quite obvious considering they are frigging balls of fire. Blue stars are actually leading in this regard. For example, the temperature of your sun's surface is fourteen times higher than a melting point of mithril. Impressive isn't? And that's just the coldest part... at the center, it's at least six hundred times more than that."

With these words, I was suddenly reminded that he claimed to toss 'self-proclaimed' gods into a star... and nothing happened to them. I could see why they dared to claim themselves as gods.

"Any questions?"

"No" was all I managed to say.

Everything I knew was turned upside down... and I was overwhelmed by what I saw, power demonstrated. It was to the point that I completely forgot what happened to me. Which I guess was a nice change.

"Well, back to the cruel world then, little girl, we have business to discuss." and with another sound of a snap, I was back in the study room.

The sight was a bit different from before we left, but then again the time wasn't frozen solid, just slowed beyond reason. Two of the knights in the air were now in the process of colliding with the wall, while another was sliding on the floor. The knight not affected by the blast at the door finally had an expression of fright on his face. But his body was practically in the same position as before.

"Business?" I asked now slightly excited.

I don't know what this Demigod could want from me, but with the word he just used, there was a chance I might get my revenge in return. Even my soul wouldn't be a price too high. Ah, I completely forgot... he already said that it doesn't interest him, but I just couldn't imagine what else he could want from me at this point.

"What do you want?" and I decided to just ask.

"Why of course it's your body, my dear little girl," with a playful tone, Demigod replied.

And I was lost for words how to reply.

"Oh don't look at me like that, I'm not a pervert... I think... probably... fine, maybe just a little."

As if I could even look at him... all this time I could only hear his voice.

"A... anyway, we are getting off topic here... Not that it really matters, but still. In this dimension, we have at least two days worth of time before your body dies so..."

"Dimension?" I asked when heard yet another word I had no idea for its meaning.

"Well yes, of course, you don't expect me to stop time for the entire universe just with a snap of my fingers, do you? I'm just a poor little Demigod."

Said a guy who eats self-proclaimed gods and can snap a planet out of existence.

"Then what is this?" I gestured at the still 'frozen' room... and immediately got angry when noticed the man among the knights colliding with the wall... practically without any clothes. There was no need to guess what he did to me before the time was stopped.

"This, little girl, is another dimension, or another realm if you may. I call it Dimension X, or just X for short. Why? Because it sounds cool and why not! There, time flows differently from outside and at the same time is still connected to the world. It's why we can still see everything that's happening. But most importantly, I can still use many of my tricks even from there. This dimension is actually one of my latest discoveries. Just twelve thousand years ago I couldn't do shit like that. Now all deals are done there. Lots of time to chitchat, can even toss a lesson or two to educate some ignorant lass, pretty much everything can be done... even peeping at someone bathing without being caught... Mmm... pretend you didn't hear that one."

It seems that this Demigod was... really a pervert.

"What is that business you were talking about?" I asked again, with hope reignited.

No matter how you look at it, I should get something out of this and from a being that could rival a god... ha, silly me. I might know almost nothing about him, but with what he said earlier, I could guess his character just a bit.

This Demigod must have his own ideals about a God, and anyone trying to call himself as one does nothing but insult that image. Especially, when In the face of Demigod, even those self-proclaimed gods count as nothing more than a snack.

I had high hopes for this deal.

The only part that worried me was that bit about the body. I hoped it wasn't the case, but... even if do have to offer my body in that way... it can't be worse than what I already experienced...

Probably.