“Self, come here.”
The Goddess of Death approaches me, brandishing a razor-sharp saw. I realize she was only trying to scratch the surface of the Goddess of Time, who had just warmly embraced me; there were no feelings behind her excessive skinship.
The Goddess of Death is truly intent on slicing me apart. That determination feels incredibly light compared to my limbs.
When she first hugged me tightly, I had a different thought. Perhaps she has feelings for me?
But of course, that’s impossible. There’s no reason for her to see me favorably.
‘For now, I need to take that chain from her.’
I need to seize the chain wrapped around the goddess’s right hand; only then can I escape wherever I want.
“Alright, let’s give it a try.”
Clenching my fist tightly, I marched towards the goddess.
My unexpected action seemed to surprise her; she looked down at me for a moment. Then, with a chillingly stretched smile, she attempted to grab my right wrist.
Thud.
I immediately slapped it away with the back of my hand.
“What’s with the sudden move? If you’ve given up, just leave easily!”
Thinking I still had some stubbornness left, she reached for me again, but I swatted her hand away once more.
“……What is this?”
Now that the Goddess of Death has realized my intentions, she glares at me, gritting her teeth.
I’m not going to give up that easily when faced with a woman who intends to sever my limbs. This is a frontal confrontation relying on my belief in being a martial artist.
I don’t give her any slack to pull on the chain; instead, I try to read her movements up close.
It’s a very dangerous operation in some ways, but I have confidence.
After all, I’m a man who was once the strongest on the continent.
Thud thud thud.
After bouncing her hand away several times, she seemed to get angry, abandoning the idea of cutting me and snatched the saw that was resting on the bed.
“This is what you brought upon yourself. I tried to cut you nicely, but now you’ll have to struggle to survive!”
BANG!
The saw comes crashing down, slicing through the air and embedding itself in the ground. I slightly twist my body to evade it, and the goddess grits her teeth.
“Yeah, go ahead and avoid it for the rest of your life!”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
This isn’t a real martial artist; it’s someone who just learned a thing or two. Since she was merely a goddess wielding darkness, avoiding her wildly swinging weapon was easy.
‘Indeed, she can’t use darkness right now.’
I had my doubts since she was pulling the collar around her neck. Normally, she would have trapped or swallowed me using darkness, so why bother with this collar?
And the conversation with the Goddess of Time.
She referred to me as a comrade who had lost powers.
“Since you expended too much power on the calamity, you can’t handle darkness properly now, can you?”
“Th-!”
Having hit a nerve, the Goddess of Death swung the saw even more vigorously. But the more she swung, the larger her wind-up became, making it much easier to dodge.
Woosh!
I kick the saw embedded in the ground to send it flying aside.
Even when I tugged at the chain wrapped around my hands, nothing changed since I was too close, only the sound of the limp chain echoed.
I tried to lift the chain from the end, but I kicked her hand to keep her from moving carelessly.
Earlier, she had wrapped her weight around me, making me unable to escape, but now that we’re in a power struggle, I’m not backing down either.
“Th-this!”
The Goddess of Death, rendered speechless by her surging anger, turns to look for other torture tools, clattering as she walks.
I follow behind, maintaining my distance, and without hesitation, I kick the display case holding the torture tools.
CRASH!
The goddess’s hand, having lost its target in the air, stumbles.
She blankly stares before swinging her tightly clenched fist at me, but I slightly dodge.
Once I turned ten, my smaller frame made it surprisingly easy to evade.
“You’d better take it easy.”
“Have you not exercised at all?”
“Why would a god exercise!”
She reaches out haphazardly, but in her state of physical inactivity, she couldn’t even graze me. Moments ago, she seemed flustered and at a disadvantage because of the weight difference.
Yet, in a calm state, I was absolutely confident I wouldn’t get caught.
Huff! Huff!
Eventually, exhausted from trying to catch me, the goddess collapsed onto the bed.
“Ugh! H-Hard!”
“It’s because you’ve been cooped up in a room all day. Seems like you solved an easy thing using your powers just now, right?”
“……”
“You’re just like Rin back then.”
Thinking back to Rin, who was cooped up in her room in the kingdom, lying lazily on the bed, using her power of darkness to eat or clean.
The Goddess of Death must have lived like this for her entire life without being able to move properly.
Her ample chest rose and fell in a rhythmic pattern with each ragged breath, her thin legs looked like they could snap at any moment, and her drooping arms seemed devoid of any muscle.
“You! You! The moment I regain my strength, you’ll truly be dead.”
“That’s going to take a really long time.”
“A-almost a thousand years, just wait that long!”
“A thousand years, really?”
Maybe it’s because she’s a goddess, but her sense of time is vastly different from ours. I chuckled, sitting beside her and crossing my legs.
“Well, if I’ve got a thousand years left, there’s no need to be scared now, is there? Why did you overextend yourself back then?”
Why did she forcefully resurrect the Priestess of Time and awaken Rin, losing her own powers like this? I couldn’t understand.
“B-because if I didn’t, you could’ve easily gotten the dagger from Kurika, and my chance to recreate the continent would’ve disappeared! It was a gamble on my part! I thought I could win once I got Kurika!”
But the Goddess of Time lent me her strength, and I emerged victorious. In terms of time, it wasn’t that long ago, but surprisingly, it felt like a distant memory.
“The order of things was the problem, the order! I thought it would be a piece of cake to finish the continent first and insisted on doing so!”
“Did you really think the Goddess of Time wouldn’t rewind time?”
“Couldn’t I have done that? I just thought that regardless of that, the outcome wouldn’t change! What kind of god would think a monstrous human like you would regress!”
“……”
She leaves me speechless again with that.
The Goddess of Time, having repeated this several times, must have been looking for a suitable regressor, and by chance I fell right into her plans, which was lucky for me.
“Ugh, I really hate this. It annoys me so much. Just disappear already.”
The goddess covers her face with her hand, having let go of the chain. I wonder if gods really live according to their whims, but I shrugged and asked out of curiosity.
“Do you have a way to get back if you want to disappear?”
The Goddess of Death suddenly shoots up, angrily answering.
“Do you think there’s such a thing? Once you’re dead, it’s over!”
That makes sense.
It’s not an unexpected answer, so I slowly rise and glance outside the room. I wondered if there were any other dead people besides me, but there wasn’t a hint of life in the castle.
I thought maybe a ghost or a demon would be roaming around, but there was none either.
“If this is the Spirit Realm, there should be other dead people, right? Where are they?”
“Do you think the Spirit Realm is a meeting place?”
She replies flatly, bobbing her head weakly, showing she had no strength to move at all.
“Dead humans remain unconscious for a while, and after some time passes, they lose their memories and are reincarnated. If the continent is destroyed and recreated, you’ll be reincarnated anew.”
“Hmm.”
So that’s how the structure works?
“Then what about me?”
“You’re a special existence. Since you have the touch of Time, you can’t just fall asleep that easily.”
Is that really how it works?
From my perspective, it was hard to understand, but to the Goddess of Death, it seemed as automatic as using a fork and knife at dinner.
To be honest, with the Goddess of Death sprawled out like this, I found myself with nothing to do. Just moments ago, she was threatening to slice off my hands and feet, but now it seemed she had forgotten, exhausted.
Actually, it might not matter that much.
Huff. Huff.
“How tired could you possibly be from moving a tiny bit?”
“This is my first time! I’ve never moved this vigorously in my life!”
Watching her talk while only moving her mouth made her seem almost pitiable. I felt a bit embarrassed that such a being had once destroyed the continent.
It’s dangerous to wander around.
The corridor, shrouded in pitch-black darkness, makes wandering burdensome. I felt like risking it could mean losing my way forever.
So this spot, where there was at least fire…
To be precise, it was a torch meant for heating brands, but at least it was a safe place to stay.
‘Still a bit boring though.’
The collar around my neck clinks against the floor as I walk, and aside from that annoyance, my body felt decent.
I wasn’t hungry either, so naturally, boredom began to set in.
I glanced around and noticed a black rod. It looked like it was left for torture, but what it was used for was a mystery.
Was it for peeling skin?
Or was it for breaking bones with a strike?
In any case, I grabbed it with both hands, balanced it, and started lifting it from my thigh to my chest.
Huff, ahh.
After several repetitions, maybe my breathing was bothering her; the goddess turned her body toward me without getting up from the bed.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m exercising. Don’t talk to me.”
“What’s the point of that now that you’re dead?”
The goddess lets out a long sigh, completely sprawled out.
“Just wait a little. Once I regain my strength, I’ll cut your legs again.”
“How long is ‘a little’?”
“About three years?”
That’s outrageous.
What kind of insane mindset is it to lay around for three years just because she got angry for ten minutes?
Having finished my set, I approached the goddess.
An idea popped into my head.
“Hey, get up.”
“Hey? Did you just say ‘hey’ to the Goddess?”
The image of Eve and Tana whining about not wanting to work out in the early morning suddenly popped up, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Member, it’s time for exercise.”
I take the goddess’s wrists and pull her out of the bed.
