“Bonjour.” I said as I stood in front of the elven king and gave myself as friendly by using his language.

“Greetings, you lone wanderer.” He said and bowed deeply in stark contrast to the destroyed landscape around him. We were exactly where the elven forest exploded thanks to a certain worm and truth to be told, it looked exactly like I left it.

“Lonely, but not alone. So, I guess I don’t need to fill you in?” I said and smiled wryly, testing out his strange magical abilities once more.

“Hmm, I doubt I missed much about the person that keeps this world turning.” The world turning? Certainly not.

“Yeah … for sure. Has Hannah seen her family?” I asked.

“Not yet. We will guide her there once you gave me the crown of thorns.” He stated, already looking at the backpack I had in my hand.

“So you are keeping her as a hostage?” I asked, a dreadful smile on my face.

“She is free to leave whenever she wants to, just like the slaves you sent our way.” Interestingly enough, he didn´t lie. I would have certainly held her hostage if I were him …

“Hmm … before we start, I really want to know how your ability works.” I claimed. It really did interest me, especially because it was so versatile.

“I cannot say that.” He muttered and lowered her head.

“Irminsul?” I asked, looking in the completely wrong direction.

“He dreams about important events, some in the future, some in the past. He cannot control what he dreams about though.” She said completely carefree.

“The goddess … she is here?” He said, already kneeling down in the direction I was looking to earlier … which certainly was a lot funnier than I expected.

“You are believing in the same gods the humans do?” I asked, barely suppressing my laughter.

“We do … why shouldn’t we?” Well, there certainly wasn’t anything in these books I read, which wasn’t entirely surprising though.

“Kay, she told me you are supposed to give me the staff of creation without asking for anything in return.” I said so cheekily that even the goddess protested loudly.

“I fear this is not possible.” He admitted, even though he didn´t know what was going on.

“Meh … not a faithful fellow, are we? I am the saint, pray to me or something.” I said, pushing my hands onto my hips while he still knelt in the wrong direction.

“You are certainly the saint, but in no way are you saintly.” He added, and slowly stood up as he realized he was made fun of.

“Uh, that hurt. I trained so hard … anyways, how are we going to do this?” I asked.

“You give me the crown of thorns and –“ He said, but I didn´t like his idea.

“You go first.” I interrupted him swiftly.

“No, you.” Did he not understand that the sun just went down? I had the whole night to murder him, get the staff of creation and head out of here as fast as I could.

“I have a great idea! How about we do it at the same time?” I asked and put down my large backpack. Shortly afterwards, I dragged the black box out of it and opened it with the key I had. Once I opened the lid, he breathed in sharply but made otherwise no indications to move. Smiling wryly, I picked up the blade with my gloves and cut the velvet open. Having laid the crown bare for him, I lifted it up with the tip of the sword and made it move in a circular motion around it, like a hula hoop around a human did.

“Why are you looking at me like that? A complete disregard for valuable things is one of my trademarks.” I said and grinned widely.

“Let’s get this over quickly.” He said, and I stopped the twirling of the blade. The crown of thorns slid downwards while he reached into one of his pockets and retrieved a somewhat normal-looking stick if it weren’t for the glass bulb in the middle of it. A strange, completely red particle was floating in it freely, without being influenced by gravity at all.

Aghast, I stared at this staff or whatever it was, let the crown slide down onto my hand and threw the Sword of Magnetism over my shoulder.

“My dear goddess, could you please verify that this thing is indeed the staff of creation?” I still wasn’t over the fact that the world-destroying item was a stick with a glass sphere in it.

“It is.” She said, laughing quietly in the distance.

“And this thing is supposed to destroy the world?” I asked, slightly unsure about that. Well, there weren´t many information to find about this thing, so it really could do anything.

“Indeed. It is said that humans can use this strange matter inside the bulb to eradicate everything.” The king admitted, which sounded really … really …

“How boring.” I said and rolled my eyes. I did hope for some superweapon … not this shit.

“On the contrary. As we created this world, we created matter by separating it from antimatter.” The goddess explained, floating freely above me.

“Wait, wait, wait. Antimatter and matter together means nothing. Do you seriously want to tell me you gods divided nothing and got something out of it?” A division through zero? Or zero divided by two? The gods were cheating!

“Yeah?” She admitted, clearing up a few things about this weapon.

“And let me guess, all this antimatter is in there?” I asked and pointed towards the bulb.

“Correct.” She said slowly.

“So if I were to break it, everything would cease to exist?” I asked happily and smiled brightly.

“… Lucinda, what are you thinking again?” She asked, floating closer towards me.

“Nothing? Anyways, my dear elven king, how about we trade now?” I asked and tilted my head.

“Lucinda, what are you thinking!?” The goddess nearly screamed into my ears, but I ignored her completely.

“Sure …” He said, and extended both hands, one holding the Staff of Creation, and the other one heading towards my item. I mirrored him and touched the staff on one end while he still held onto the other. The same happened with the Crown of Thorns on the other side.

“On three?” I asked and looked in his eyes.

“Sure.” He said and nodded.

“One.” I said and looked at the staff of creation.

“Two.” He said.

“Three.”

“…”

“You need to let go.” I said and pulled on the Staff of Creation which he refused to let go of.

“You too!” He exclaimed which made me realize I was indeed holding onto the crown of thorns.

“Ehh, let go!” I shouted and yanked the bloody all-destroying weapon out of his hands. Looking at it in satisfaction, I presented him my tongue and laughed loudly. “I won!” I exclaimed and finally let go of the Crown of Thorns.

“Wha-“ The goddess screamed in my ears once more and make me jerk up in surprise. I immediately lost grip of the Staff of Creation and could only barely push it up in the air again. It flew a little higher than my head and at one moment, I saw the horrified face of the elven king, and then I stepped forwards in an attempt to catch the magical artefact. Once again, it slipped through my fingers, made me curse at the sweaty hands of the elven king and watched with interest how the king reacted.

It was truly quite interesting. First the horror, then the realization he would die, and then the plain expression as the magical item hit the ground harmlessly. There was no way this was a simple artefact that could be destroyed by dropping it … at least that was my assumption.

Coughing loudly, I picked the magical stick up again, put it in the black box and closed the lid. After locking it again, I looked at the still horrified king and pointed towards the crown.

“And, now that the world is saved, what can this thing do?” I asked, shaking him out of his daze somewhat.

“It’s … supposed …” He looked behind me, blinked a few times and then set the Crown of Thorns on his head. A few seconds afterwards, the forest around me started to bustle with life. Even though it was winter and snow was everywhere, plants regrew, the burnt trees got rid of their old shell and new ones started to grow. I hopped to the side as the ground beneath me started to buckle up and a new tree grew within a few seconds towards a considerable height. “The elven forest is eternal, but it lacks the capabilities to regrow certain wounds like this one. There are a few more of these scars all throughout the forest, dealt either by disasters or humans.”

“… cool.” Sounded boring to be honest. As far as I could see, this wasn’t exactly usable as an offensive weapon as only ten metres around the king had regrown. But still … “the king will get in contact with you about a peace deal around spring I presume. Even though I will be in a coma around that time-“

“I will accept. This war went on long enough.” He said, which seemed to be his honest opinion.

“And if you or your successors try to steal the Staff of Creation back-“ I started and indicated him to follow up.

“you will visit us once you wake up.” He finished my sentence beautifully.

“If the border moves even a centimetre in the human direction while I am in a coma-“ I started once more.

“you will visit us once you wake up.” He repeated a second time.

“And if you try an all-out war-“ I asked.

“Someone will use the Staff of Creation.” Quite right. If the humans were losing completely, Tom would order a human idiot to set all the antimatter free.

“And if you succeed in stealing the Staff of Creation and manage to imprison me somehow-“ I started and explained their optimal scenario.

“You will escape somehow and eradicate the elves from this world.” Completely right. Aska certainly wouldn’t want me to stay imprisoned forever. I could become really nasty if I was, trust me.

“Precisely. Will you try to do any of that?” I asked and tilted my head with interest.

“No. And I will tell my successor, if I die in that timeframe, that he must not try it out under any circumstances.” He admitted and as I saw no traces of any lie, I smiled happily.

“Great! It is so nice that others understand their capabilities!” I exclaimed and wore my backpack after stuffing the sword inside inelegantly.

“If the humans attack us though…” If they were that dumb, nobody would be able to save them.

“You can slaughter them using these explosive trees, I don’t give a damn. But don’t step over that border.” I said and curtsied towards him. After he bowed, I turned around on my heels and waved towards him over my shoulder without looking back.

“And, what are you going to do now?” She asked, knowing that I still had two full weeks of doing whatever I liked.

“Now, my dear goddess, now I am heading back towards the wreck I created and profit from it. On the other hand, I need you to talk to the council of gods once more. I need every day I can get.”

“Hmm … I will try.” And with that, she vanished from my sight completely. I shrugged, kicked the ground and headed back towards the capital city.