After she’s done talking, I waited for a few seconds just in case she springs a ‘Not! I want half your soul!’ or something. It never came.

   ‘…That’s it? That’s all you want?’ I couldn’t help but ask to confirm.

   ‘It may not seem like much to you, but it’s a huge deal for me, okay? I mean, do you know how boring it is to be stuck in the Underworld for so long? You think Persephone is the one suffering? Us, the River Gods and Goddesses of the Underworld have it much worse!’

   She then starts a full-on rant.

   ‘At least Persephone gets to go back to Olympus during each springtime! Us? We’re permanently stuck in the Underworld! Also, do you know how stressful it is to listen to those tortured souls wailing and screaming and crying all the time? It can drive anyone insane, immortal or no!’

   I have to agree with her here. I was only there for a short while, and even I have trouble retaining my sanity from listening to the constant screeching. If I have to listen to it everyday for over thousands of years, I would rather be part of the dead. Heck, listening to them is pretty much a punishment.

   ‘And do you know what the worst part is? We. Get. No. Temple. No. Temple. Means. No. Worshipper!’

   She pretty much said the last part through gritting teeth. I pity her so much I decide to change the background from the Underworld to my room.

   Her mood immediately improves.

   ‘Oh my, how thoughtful of you.’

   She immediately dives bomb my bed and lies down on it. I hear her lets out a small sigh of happiness. It must have been very tough for her.

   ‘All right. Point taken. You want a breather from the literal Hell. But is it really fine? Won’t Hades-sama intervene?’

   Styx scoffs loudly at the mention of the God of the Underworld.

   ‘I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mind. After all, he used part of my essence to make that.’

   She points at the ring I’m wearing.

   ‘Besides, me being at the Underworld is just a formality. It’s not like the river will stop functioning if I’m gone.’

   ‘Fair enough. But, what do you mean when you said you want to walk freely in the land of the living?’

   I know I’m short on time here, but I need details here. There’s no way I can let a Goddess do whatever she wants among the mortals.

   Styx gives it a good thought before answering.

   ‘Let’s see… I want to laze around all day, enjoy good meals. Take a good look at the world. You know, what most mortals do.’

   ‘I guess it’s fine. But no going around thrashing random mortals, alright? Just because you’re a Goddess it doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want.’

   ‘Of course I know that. I’m not Ares-sama. I won’t pick a fight randomly.’

   ‘And no having crazy relationships with mortals. The same goes to one-night stands. Especially one-night stands.’

   ‘You don’t have to worry about that at all. I’m not a sex-crazed maniac like Zeus-sama.’

   ‘...You know, if we weren’t inside my head, you would definitely be struck by lightning for that comment of yours. And I would have been struck along with you.’

   ‘I know. Which is why I said it. Anything else from your end?’

   ‘I don’t think so. At least, I can’t think up of any right now. What about you?’

   ‘Just two more things.’

   ‘Go on.’

   ‘Are you an S or an M?’

   ‘...Come again?’

   ‘I mean, you’re technically my master. If you want to be the dominant one, I have no qualms on calling you master and serve you with every fiber of my immortal being. On the other hand, I could treat you like a slave or even a pig if your preference desires such things.’

   Great. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

   ‘Fine. You can call me master. But let me tell you this. I am not an S.’

   Styx gets up from my bed and curtsies gracefully.

   ‘As you command, my master.’

   It feels really weird to have a Goddess calling you her master, but I guess this is way better than having her stepping on me mercilessly and calls me a pig.

   ‘Dear master, as your humble servant, I have a request.’ she continues.

   ‘Oh. Sure. Let’s get this over with.’

   I brace myself for the worst.

   ‘Please grant me a name.’

   …Wow. The request is so normal I had to process it carefully in my brain, just in case there’s a hidden meaning to it. After a few seconds, I conclude that there’s none.

   ‘I don’t mind but, don’t you already have a name?’

   ‘I would appreciate it very much if you give me a new one instead. It will make me feel like I am truly your belonging.’

   ‘Please watch your phrasing.’

   Oh man, this is bad. As if Sakuya and Assaf-sensei aren’t head-aching enough already…

   I get serious and think for a moment.

   ‘Let’s see. The color of your river water is black, so your family name is Kurokawa-’

  ‘Incidentally, the color of my underwear is black as well.’

   ‘No one asked for that piece of information. Um…oh great. Now I lost my train of thoughts…’

   I look at the jet black hair and eyes that Kurokawa Styx (provisional) have.

   ‘Hmm, Kuroko is too common. I guess Kuromi works better, since you have black hair (kuroi kaMI) and black eyes (kuroi hitoMI). It’s decided. From today onwards, you’re Kurokawa Kuromi.’

   I know that I just gave a Japanese name to a Greek. I can’t help it. It’s not like I know how to speak Greek.

   Kuromi curtsies gracefully once more.

   ‘Master, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for bestowing me with a name.’

   She looks genuinely happy. I never knew that someone could be as happy as her when all I did was give her a name.

   ‘You’re welcome. So, what now? Are we supposed swear an oath so that neither of us breaks the terms of the contract?’

   Her expression suddenly becomes very business-like. That’s the River of Oath for you. She takes this kind of thing very seriously.

   ‘Indeed we are. Before we do, I have a warning for you, master.’

   I raise my eyebrow.

   ‘I should make it clear that after we make this pact, I will not take any life force from you. However, your stamina will still be drained to be used as mana. Please keep that in mind.’

   ‘I need to ask. What’s the difference between stamina and life force?’

   ‘Life force is basically your vitality.’ she answers. ‘The more you have, the longer you’ll live. Stamina, on the other hand, is the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort. In other words, these two are completely different things. Just because you have a lot of life force it does not mean that you have good stamina, and vice versa.’

   ‘I see. So this is what Ueno has tried to warn me about.’

   ‘Indeed. However, he made a mistake of mistaking stamina and life force, which might have ended badly for you should you think that you will only pass out if you overuse the ring’s power.’

   I shiver instinctively at that. If I disregarded Ueno’s warning and went above 80%, I had been dead for real.

   ‘Do you have any other questions?’ she asks me.

   ‘No. That’s it.’

   ‘In that case, let us begin the oath for real. I hereby swear that I shall aid you, my master, in battle without draining your life force.’

   ‘In exchange,’ I continue. ‘I will allow you to roam freely on the land of the living, provided that you will under no circumstances pick a fight with a mortal without any valid reason, or have any illicit relationship with them. I swear that I will never break this oath by the, um, River Styx.’

   ‘I also swear that I will never break it. I swear it by myself.’

   ‘That has a real weird ring to it.’ I couldn’t help but say.

   She shrugs. ‘It can’t be helped. I myself am the River Styx, after all.’

   ‘True. So, shall we?’

   ‘Yes. Let us join the others in battle.’

   And I’m back. I quickly scan my surroundings.

   While I’m busy negotiating with Kuromi, my teammates have made a circle formation right outside the pentacle to shield me from any attack. I look at my own body. Not even a scratch is on it.

   By contrast, all my teammates are wounded quite badly. They must have done everything they can to ensure that I was not interrupted and/or harmed.

   On the bright side, our enemies have suffered some damages as well.

   I see some cracks on the woman’s chakram. It may or may not have been due to her precious Regalia being damaged, she looks very upset. Her expression right now reminds me of an enraged banshee, what with her gritting teeth and furrowed eyebrows.

   Harrison has lost two of his floating silhouettes. As a result, the gargoyle and the eagle are gone. Even so, he still has four of his pets left.

   Brennan himself is somehow unhurt, but the same can’t be said for his basilisk. Contrary to my assumption, its scales are not as diamond-hard as I thought they would be. I see cuts from some of them, and bloods are leaking through those cuts.

   Jordan’s armor is a bit charred. I strongly suspect that Oomori has something to do with it. The person himself looks fine, which is a bummer. Then again, if he can cauterize his wound with lightning without flinching, I guess he could take a few burns without suffering much.

   All of them are busy landing range attacks to my teammates. Well, Brennan and Harrison have their pets to do their job for them, if you want to be technical.

   As for our side, Yui is handling most of the defense with her talismans. The poor girl is panting heavily while looking like she could pass out any moment. Meanwhile, Mashiro is assisting the shrine maiden with her wind. The tiny girl too is on the verge of collapsing. Sakuya is also on the defense with her war fan, but her way is not as effective since the area that she can cover with her weapon is not that wide. Shimazaki and Miyahara are having it even worse, since a rapier and a lance are not supposed to be used as shields. Even so, they’re still doing their best.

   Amesaki-senpai, Ichika, Oomori and Takayama are trying to give the group in charge of the defense as much breathers as possible by shooting projectiles at the enemies.

   ‘Sorry for the wait, guys!’ I tell them.

   It’s so loud with all these things going on that I have to shout so that they could hear me.

   ‘About time!’ Miyahara shouts back when he hears my voice. ‘Did that plan of yours work?’

   ‘We’re about to find out! Any new battle plans, Madoka?’

   Madoka shakes her head. ‘Everyone’s target is still the same! However, it’s also a free-for-all now! You see an opportunity, you charge in and take it!’

   ‘Gotcha!’

   I bring out Gáe Bulg once again and hold it with both my hands. At the same time, I set the limiter on my ring to 100%. Now that I’ve formed a contract with Kuromi, I’ll only pass out if I overuse the ring instead of dying. It’s a huge risk to take, but I need to take it if we want to make it out alive. I mean, my teammates had been taking hits for me while I’m inside my head. It’s a small price to pay compared to what they did for me.

   I make a huge sphere made of murky water appear right on top of us. Besides the usual fish skeletons, there’s also a large shark skeleton inside the sphere that’s taking up more than half the space. From the size, I’m guessing that it’s a whale shark, like the one I saw at the aquarium with Yui back at the summer holiday.

   I make the skeletons open their mouth and spit out jet of water. I have difficulty in controlling every single one of them, so I order them to choose their target randomly. All except the whale shark. It turns its head towards the basilisk and opens fire.

   ‘Brennan, watch out!’ Jordan shouts at the top of his voice.

   You got to give the big man credit. Even though most of the skeletons chose him as their target, he still has the leisure to worry about his comrade while vaporizing jets of water that are coming his way with lightning.

   The person who’s getting warned is unfazed at all, however. His pet basilisk is coiling and slithering all over the place to dodge the jets of water. Meanwhile, its owner is once again completely fine with his pet being akin to a bumpy theme park ride.

   ‘Yes. Yes. There’s no need for you to shout. I can see that attack coming from miles away.’ Brennan says calmly. ‘It’s clear as day that the simpleton is aiming for my basilisk so that I would fall down and create an opening.’

   I was very close to open my big mouth and tell him my true target just to spite him.

   The basilisk has a look that says it had planned all kinds of clever evasive maneuver so that it could dodge the incoming attack. Unfortunately for it, I wasn’t aiming for it at all. Instead, I chose a much easier target.

   The floor.

   The basilisk lets out a blood-curdling shriek as the Styx water reaches the floor and touches its huge body. It starts to convulse uncontrollably and swinging its head around like a possessed ride. As a result, Brennan almost got flung from its head. Right now, he’s barely hanging on by grabbing its head with all his might.

   Jordan and the woman are surprised at my plan to aim the floor, but they’re quick-thinking enough to save themselves from the watery demise.

   The large man raises his war hammer. At the next moment, he’s floating on mid-air.

   As for the woman, she’s standing on her floating chakram. I wonder if she’ll get divine retribution for stepping on a God’s weapon like that. One could only hope.

   Harrison’s the only one who doesn’t have to do anything, since he was already in mid-air while getting carried by two of his silhouettes.

   ‘SOMEONE HELP ME!’ Brennan screams at the top of his lung while somehow still grabbing onto his pet’s head for dear life.

   Man, it’s so satisfying to see an arrogant jerk like him losing his composure and screaming like a little girl.

   ‘Now, now, Professor. Just calm down and everything will be fine.’ Harrison soothes.

   While he’s comforting the lunatic, two more of his silhouettes go over to help him out. Meanwhile, Jordan and the woman are at the front to protect the two at the back from the water jets with lightning and veil.

   As for the basilisk, it got melted by the water and disappeared among the murky water. Speaking of which, there’s so much of it it’s pretty much flooding the whole place.

   Everyone on our side, on the other hand, is floating at mid-air, courtesy of Mashiro’s wind.

   I quickly access the situation here. We’re having the upper hand now, but everyone minus me is pretty much unfit for battle. We definitely need to retreat.

   I mean, our main objective is to capture Ryuuouji. Now the the person in question was long gone, I don’t see any more reason to stay here, particularly when our side’s losing. The thing is, I don’t think they’ll just let us go, especially Brennan, who’s glaring at me with eyes full of pure hatred.

   ‘Mashiro, get Sogdrul out. Yui, prepare a barrier to trap Brennan.’ I whisper to both the girls while ensuring that my lips is barely moving.

   The two of them acknowledge what I said with the barest hint of a nod. They, too, don’t want the plan to be known by the enemy.

   A lot of things happened in the next few seconds.

   As part of the plan, Mashiro calls out Sogdrul. He wastes no time in teleporting Yui and I to where Brennan and Harrison are. Before they could even open their mouth and yell for help, I’ve already stab the silhouettes that are carrying Brennan by his arms and make them go poof. After I’m done, Yui starts up a barrier and traps him inside it.

   I never get to see the look on Jordan and the woman when this happened. They were probably still busy with the water jets. Either way, the next thing I know, all of us are back at the chopper with Brennan trapped inside the barrier that Yui made.

   ‘PLEASE GET US OUT OF HERE!’ Amesaki-senpai shouts at the pilot.

   He has my utmost respect when it only took him one second to get freaked by suddenly seeing us back inside and one more to get down to business. He must have been to a lot of missions.

   While the chopper’s taking off, all of us are standing next to the doors and look for pursuers. They might take a while to come out of the lab, or Jordan might just blow up a hole at the ceiling and chase after us.

   I would really love to help with the lookout. Unfortunately, using the ring’s power on maximum is starting to take a toll on me, and I almost fall to the ground if it wasn’t for someone catching me from behind right before I fall.

   ‘Master, just because we’ve formed a contract it doesn’t mean that you should go all out.’ I hear Kuromi’s voice saying.

   ‘...Yeah, sorry about that.’ I apologize groggily.

   Even though I’m close to passing out, I can still feel everyone’s looking at us.

   ‘Um, Akira-kun? Who’s this?’ Yui asks me.

   I was about to answer when I remember that Brennan is here with us.

   ‘Yui, can you first cover Brennan’s barrier with talismans so that he can’t see nor hear us? Also, please make sure that he can breath.’

   ‘Got it.’

   While she’s doing that, I slowly go the one of the seats so that I could sit down, with Kuromi supporting me.

   ‘On second thought, your story can wait. You should get some rest first.’ Amesaki-senpai tells me.

   ‘Okay. Thank you.’

   She shakes her head. ‘No. Thank you. If you weren’t there, we might be dead already.’

   ‘Now you’re just exaggerating.’

   ‘All of us here know that’s not true.’

   I would love to rebut that statement some more, but I’m really tired, so I just close my eyes and rest.