“So, you’re here again?” Goddess Darkness shuffled the deck of Uno cards before distributing it.

“Well, Light helped me rescue my wife and daughter, so I thought it was only natural to give my thanks to her personally. Also, we made you pudding, don’t be too much of a stickler, you cheater…oh nice.” Colt bluntly answered before celebrating internally as he got a reverse Uno card.

Darkness looked at the cooling pudding on the side and couldn’t say much about it.

But Darkness’ eyes drifted to one side and just had to ask, “I’m thankful for the pudding because we can’t create food here. I don’t have a problem with that and you being here, but…what is she doing here?”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Goddesses, and please, if you have a request, do tell me what it is, and I’ll cook it for you.” Mina, who was sitting beside Colt, bowed her head to show respect before receiving a card from Darkness. After receiving the card, she showed it to Colt and asked, “What’s this card with the big + sign?”

“Hey, don’t show him your cards, woman!” Darkness shouted!

Colt heard Darkness and tried to appease the situation, “Well, let’s not get too heated. Also, she’s the one who really did all the job, and Root told her it’s okay, so why not?”

“But!” Darkness still wanted to say something.

Mina, however, turned to her with a smile. Darkness felt an instinct she didn’t know existed. It was then that she remembered why they were forced to let her enter this place, ‘She’s scary.’

Says the Goddess who reigns over Darkness. Well, who can blame her? She had read Mina’s thoughts countless times, so she had seen her schemes. Especially to the girls who come close to Colt.

‘She even had those thoughts against us.’ just remembering how Mina tried planning how to kill the Goddesses made her uncomfortable.

Darkness can only pray for Mina to see the light.

‘Dammit, this girl is the biggest liability to the world.’ Darkness shivered.

Root saw this and shrugged her shoulders, “Well, let’s leave it at that, Darkness. Mina, welcome to our humble home, and thank you for cooking all that for us. I appreciate it. But, um, can you help me cook steak later? I’ll give you the ingredients, no problem.”

Said Root, who had been eyeing the pudding for some time now. Goddess Root could create anything she wishes in this world, except edible food.

In that white world, they could create anything, but their thoughts must be used as the catalysts.

If they need thoughts to create food, then why not just imagine the taste and make it materialize in their mouth? Root tried doing that before, but it didn’t feel satisfying. She tried martializing food, but it didn’t taste quite right, so she stopped doing it.

Then she tried creating them by hand, cooking every needed ingredient, but she almost gave life to another organism, so it’s easy to say that it was a bust.

However, when Colt brought Mina over, Root quickly remembered how Colt enjoyed her cooking. She brought her to some empty area and created a kitchen and gave her plenty of ingredients.

Goddess Root then practically begged Mina to cook for her. 

Root, as her name suggests, is the Goddess of Origin. She is the start of all life in the world. Cattles and ingredients all come from something; thus, it is easy for her to materialize them.

She was easily bought by Mina, who knows how to cook. It was easy to say that Mina had a Goddess under her foot.

Starting from now on, Root won’t let Darkness kick out Mina so easily if Colt ever visits.

Colt can see the greed in this Goddess’s eyes, and he can only shake his head.

“Goddess Light, I’m just here to say my thanks, so…erm, Light? Did you go take a pudding while we weren’t looking?”

“What!? Of corshe not, how dare a Mortal akyushe a Goddesh that I would do something so disgraceful?” The lass of a Goddess said with smudges of pudding present on her face. She resembled a chipmunk as she ate.

Colt looked at the fall of the only Goddess he respected, “There’s some more pudding on your cheeks.”

“AH!” she hurriedly wiped her face, “Like I was saying, I did no such thing.”

“So much for lying.” 

All the while this was happening, Root, who could no longer wait, pulled Mina away to ask her to cook for her.

“We’ll play later. It’s fine; if you cook, I promise I won’t cheat.” Root shamelessly stated.

Light saw this, and she too snuck away to steal some more pudding thinking, ‘Mina will create some more later.’ leaving Darkness and Colt alone on the table.

Darkness felt a massive headache creeping up. It was clear she’s the only one who feared Mina.

“So, wanna play one on one?” Colt asked.

“Yeah, why not.”

The two began to game just the two of them. They were throwing cards one after the other when Colt opened the conversation.

“So, who’s the enemy I need to face?”

“Olivier’s people.” Darkness casually replied.

“But, who specifically?”

“Can’t tell you. And don’t bother with the other two, you won’t get anything from them; +2.”

Colt shrugged his shoulders, “+2, Is that so? But, don’t you think everything will be over if you tell me now?”

“…I think you’re right, but there are some things we can’t just say. You said that we send Apostles down, right? That’s true, back then, we were only choosing people to become an Apostle and gave them power; we didn’t need to tell them who to defeat because it would always be a Devil King. But the Devil King’s line of reincarnation is broken. The necessary evil can’t find its soul in the line of reincarnation.

“Now, the Calamity we are trying to stop is also the same reason why there is no longer a Devil King. It’s complicated, but you’ll know the reason when the time comes…especially when the answer is always by your side.”

Colt raised his head and asked, “What do you mean?”

But the answer he got was not what expected, “Uno!”

“What?”

“You have one card, and you didn’t say Uno, so I said, Uno. Now, get some cards, this is not finished, hehehehe.”

“You, bitch.” Colt couldn’t help but curse at the smug Darkness who didn’t rebuke his words.

Three hours later, Colt and Mina returned to the land of Mortals, but before they leave, Root told them an important message.

“I don’t want to say this, but don’t go to our realm for some time. Mortals aren’t allowed in here anyway. It’s not normal, so don’t ask for entry. You can only enter once you, Colt, finish at least one of our requests. Oh yeah, our Divine Presence may or may not attract trouble, so I’ll close our doors for the time being. Mina, thank you for the weeks’ worth of food. Bye now.”

Colt and Mina found themselves in the Church. And as they looked at each other, they exchanged a smile.

“So, what did you think about those three?” Colt asked.

“They were funny.” Mina giggled.

A week later, a massive surge of information reached Colt.

First, the war going on down south came to an abrupt end after a week.

According to the report, Neun sent to Colt; the Count almost killed himself and offer his head to the enemy.

The entire army tried to stop him, and if not for his timely arrival, Count Shickly would truly have beheaded himself.

After he was stopped by Neun and informed of what happened, he and the Count raised their swords and sieged the enemy.

There were deaths and casualties on their side, but with a disoriented lot as an enemy, Neun and the Count decimated the enemy ranks without so much as a scratch to their armors.

At the end of the report, Colt received, there was an important note, “We managed to seize three ships…it appears the reports of there being a Fleet was an exaggeration.”

“Well, that’s rather disappointing,” Colt mumbled, but in the end, he was glad after thinking things through.

A Fleet consists of more than 400 Ships, if that number appeared down south, then the risk of having his father’s forces being overrun by sheer number was a possibility.

‘Something good came out of it at the very least.’

The other news would be Jin bragging about Vyra’s improvement to the Ninth Circle of the Fire Element.

Other than the Trap bragging about his wife, Jin let him know of the millions they amassed after selling the Red Rose Poison Antidote Jin named [Evergreen].

Colt read all the reports and sighed, “Well, as expected, they did buy our medicine thinking the Red Vein Epidemic is a mass spreading of the Red Rose Poison.”

Colt foresaw this and didn’t let the world know about the Red Vein Epidemic. He couldn’t possibly tell them that the antidote they sell didn’t work on the epidemic.

After all, the symptoms are similar to that of Red Rose Poison, and if he told them that it’s a different disease, then all hell might break loose.

“They might become suspicious of me and even think that I was the one who spread it.” Colt doesn’t want to get mobbed, “Well, thankfully, [Evergreen] is slowing down the symptoms from going berserk and killing everyone.”

From what Colt knew, there was a reason why the epidemic hit in two waves. The first wave happened at around this time and resurfaced two years after.

The first wave was like the testing phase of the epidemic.

The second wave was when the epidemic showed its fangs. The number of deaths at this time skyrocketed.

“The second wave must have been the improved version of the Red Vein Epidemic. Well, thanks to this, Gilbert’s wife was inflicted with the first wave, and she managed to live for another two years…wait!” Colt had a sudden epiphany that made him abruptly stand up.

“....what if the reason why the first wave happened was for those guys to weaken Gilbert’s mind?”

Colt remembered what Mina told him about Olivier’s Light Element. It forces the mind to think in the most radical way possible, forcing them to commit a crime they do not want to commit.

“If that’s the case, then, the valorous Gilbert must have been afflicted by the Light Element. And thinking about it now, what about Vyra? When I talked to her, she was a peace-loving elf. She was a woman who loves her family and respects the wishes of her deceased father. Even if her supposed child gets killed, the worst she can do would be to kill the Elders. But she also tried to kill Yrva, the brother she protected from hate.”

Colt pieced things together, and finally, he managed to open the door to a possibility. It may be a longshot, but the possibility was there.

“Considering the fact that Olivier is not from this place means he’s from the Eastern Continent. The enemy of the Continent, according to the novel. Then...was the cause of their actions the Light Element?” Colt managed to piece together a massive breakthrough.

All of it was still speculation, but at the moment, this was his biggest lead to the truth. He wanted to rush to the Church and ask the three about this, but he couldn’t.

The three told him they would close their doors because trouble might come running to his side.

But Colt could only shake his head at that thought.

“Those guys won’t tell me anything anyway. They want to make things appear cryptic and confusing. I want to strangle them sometime.”

Then, as Colt threw the thought on the back of his head, he just prayed that they’re watching over him right now.

But little did he know that the higher realm was in a war.

The Three Goddesses were in a standoff against one another.

In their midst was a table with the last pudding that’s supposed to last them weeks.

“The last pudding is mine!”

Thus, an unrecorded Celestial War began.