I have never seen someone to fall this deep as Schwarz was. In the middle of the day, mere hours after our little fight, he was crawling in the dirt, chained and cuffed thoroughly. In front of him was a cute black snake, crawling away from him while he gave his best to reach it with his limited mobility.
Sometimes, I made it look as if he was really close, but then the snake made a jump forwards again to escape his bite. Honestly, it looked quite funny how he was doing circles around the camp without even realising he was made fun off.
“Lucinda, there is no need for this.” Sofie told me, hiding the fact that Ellie and Louis behind her were attempting to get rid of the chains with a hair pin I had hid in the ash.
“You are right, there isn’t.” I still didn’t stop the spectacle. It was just too thrilling to watch. “Anyways, everyone comfortable right now?” I asked into the round and smiled brightly. Irminsul was still sitting on the other side of the campfire quietly, looking to the beautiful plants at her feet solemnly. She wasn’t cuffed in any way because – well, good luck chaining a goddess – but she still didn’t move.
“Can you loosen up the bindings a little? It’s hurting me.” Ellie demanded which made me chuckle a little.
“No? Who would be so dumb?” I questioned while giggling a little crazily.
“Lucinda … I thought we could trust you. I gave you so many chances …” A few too many if I was honest … but so we’re the people affiliated with the element of life. Irminsul and Lucy weren’t much different in that regard.
“Oh? Im totally trustworthy. Look, I gave you a way to free your patron goddess, right?” I handed them a way to get exponentially more powerful by giving them a goddess. It wasn’t my fault Irminsul wouldn’t lift a finger for them.
“And why aren’t you doing anything?” Ellie spat out angrily while I heard a happy whimper from Schwarz. I forgot to move the snake again and he was biting on it in an attempt to swallow it whole. For a second, I was wondering wether I should allow that or not, but then decided against it. I would still need to wield my weapon after all. As such, the snake turned around, bit into his earlobe and quickly distanced itself from him again once I saw a chance.
“Yeah, why did you barely help us, my dear goddess?” Even Louis was quite feisty all of a sudden, but that was probably because he couldn’t open his chains as well.
“It wasn’t the right time to fight. Even if we had won, Lucinda would have just pierced herself together effortlessly.” Irminsul explained, casually hiding that it was still possible to trap me for an eternity.
“But you are a goddess! You could have done something.” Ellie growled angrily but also finally opening the lock keeping her chains together.
“And so is she. It’s a stalemate between us. She can’t do much against me and I’m constrained as well.” Irminsul explained while still looking down. She was a really bad liar in that regard.
“Then why …” Ellie couldn’t understand a thing what was going on and sadly, nobody was going to tell her.
“Sofie, I told you I want to help, right? It’s just that Lucinda is the one who needs my help the most.” Irminsul looked quite apologetic while glancing at Sofie who just gave her the cold shoulder. Twice, Irminsul was responsible for hurting Sofie already which didn’t make it easier to forgive her.
“I need her to get rid of Aska.” I told everyone while standing up slowly and turning towards Louis.
“Then we are on the same side!” He growled unhappily.
“No we aren’t. You are like kids, playing a heroes game you don’t understand since the very beginning. This fight you picked up was never about good or bad … it has been a hoax since the very beginning.” They wanted to play heroes and I gave them that opportunity, but never in my life did I claim that they would be fighting for their own sake.
“Because you made it that way! I hate you! You and your sick underhanded schemes!” Louis screamed, the usual love in his eyes completely disappeared.
“Shut up.” Without warning, I placed my shoe on his forehead and pressed him backwards until he laid down in the dirt, squirming like a worm. “You lost, so stop complaining.”
With my attention all on Louis, it was no wonder Ellie chose this golden opportunity to get rid of her chains and pounce at me from behind. Already giggling a little bit, I landed in the dirt with her following suit right away. She immediately grabbed my hairs and pushed my face into the dirt while I attempted to push myself off fruitlessly.
‘Why? Just why?’ The answer was simple. I didn’t get very much action the night before and wanted to catch up on that. At least Hannah had some fun with a few elven guards that miraculously survived my onslaught … but I haven’t. And as such, I was really excited as I threw Ellie off me and grinned at her like a hungry wolf. Right away, I threw myself at her, pressing her downwards into the ashes of this forest while enduring her kicks into my stomach.
“I hate you!” She screamed before I smashed my forehead into her nose as she hit my sides with her fist. Grinning wildly, I I hit her back with every bit of my pitiful strength, only to be surprised that she actually didn’t mind and only got angrier because of the pain.
“I don’t like you either~” Her fist hit my chin quite surprisingly fast, even though the system didn’t improve her strength anymore. But oh well, wearing armour the whole time apparently made one a bit stronger anyways. She attempted to throw me off her, but failed as I gripped onto her attire without letting go of it at all.
“Stop it already!” Sofie shouted out, thorny veins growing out of the ashes around us, latching onto me and finally dragging me off Ellie. My skin was pierced in several places right away and especially my throat was horrible in that regard and yet I was nothing but intrigued by that. It wasn’t magic … it was life. Smiling wryly, I kicked Ellie one last time and then grabbed the thorns. They quickly evaporated into nothing less as I put a bit of death into them, but it was still an impressive feat to materialise one’s attribute, especially for a mortal like Sofie.
“Did you train her?” I asked Irminsul while dancing away from Ellie as she wanted to grab my ankles.
“A bit … she taught most of it herself.” Irminsul admitted a little too proudly.
“I see …” I mumbled, kicked Ellie’s hand away and turned around to walk towards Hannah in the distance who witnessed the whole ordeal but didn’t interfere at all.
‘What are you thinking about?’ Lucy asked a bit angry at me for hurting her implicitly.
‘That we might need to motivate Sofie a little further and what we envisioned might really work out.’ I looked behind me to see Sofie – still chained - picking up Ellie from the ground.
‘Just … be humane.’ I was always humane to everyone. Shrugging, I stopped in front of Hannah who was sitting on a stone, eating crackers.
“I want you to keep an eye one the others …” She wasn’t happy. “You can beat the crap out of them if they try something funny.” Now she was happy. Smiling brightly, she stood up and strolled back to the others with me.
“Sofie … and Irminsul, you two come with me.” I told the group who wasn’t exactly pleased with being separated.
“Sword … no …” Schwarz reached out to the snake slithering towards me, but failed to grab it in time.
“Get a grip on yourself.” He probably would never turn back into the person he was before, even with professional help which he would never get.
“Where are we going?” Sofie asked while I gave Irminsul the keys to the chains. Sofie wouldn’t try to escape, not if her friends were under Hannah’s supervision.
“To the edge of the world.” I smirked happily and took the first step towards … I didn’t know. Irminsul surely knew the way.
“This world is a sphere.” Sofie stated plainly.
“Are you sure about that? Can you say for sure there is no edge?” There could be an edge, couldn’t it? I mean … it wasn’t very likely, but still.
“There isn’t any border.” Irminsul stated, swiping the theory I had away without a second thought.
“Stop ruining the fun!” I nudged her side while she finally got rid of all of Sofie’s chains.
“You ruined my fun last time we played cards.” Just because I won easily against her without cheating? How rude!
“… you fought us and … captured us … why are you talking about card games?!” Sofie asked hysterically as Irminsul took her hand and dragged her away from the others.
“Why shouldn’t we talk about card games?” I asked quite stupefied as I wanted to brighten up the mood a little bit. It did seem as if that sadly backfired.
“You have to understand that our view on certain aspects is … different from yours, Sofie. She doesn’t care about these feelings because she simply cannot feel them herself, right?” Irminsul basically implied that I wouldn’t have any strong feelings while being captured as well, which wasn’t that far off the truth … as long as it wasn’t my whole life I had to live chained.
“… no, I’m not a fan of bondage?!” I asked jokingly but was quickly met with two gazes which showed nothing but disgust. “Fine. I wouldn’t mind being captured by such a beauty like myself, no. And it’s not like you are my prisoner. You can leave … if you want the world to end.” I smirked happily, knowing Sofie would do what I needed her to in the end, just because a lot of humans would be hurt otherwise.
“As if I’d trust you again.” Sofie crossed her arms in front of her chest, rejecting my claim right away.
“It’s not that far off from the truth …” Irminsul mumbled, knowing that the sole reason for this planet was for me to incubate Lucy which was done at this point. Aska owned this world as far as I was aware, so there wasn’t any reason why he should keep this world alive after I was dead and Lucy inhabited my body. That much must have been obvious for Irminsul as well.
“You trust her?” Sofie asked loudly, lifting her hands up in disbelief.
“What do we need to do …” I didn’t answer her question, nor could I do so. “… so you can’t tell, right? Because he would know what you have planned and take precautions.” I snipped in her direction and smiled brightly. She did understand quite quickly … but she was a goddess, so that was to be expected.
“I need Sofie to be able to fight against Aska.” Irminsul’s mouth opened wide as I said so, making me laugh … almost. I needed it to be somewhat convincing after all.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“I know … but she can help me with one thing. Sofie, get that burnt down tree back to life.” I pointed towards a near charred tree, completely burnt down unto the trunk.
“I can’t even see it!” She said, looking through the darkness nearly blind.
“Then make some light?” I asked a bit bewildered.
“How am I supposed to do that?” Right … I had taken all magic away from her. The only thing left was her control of life, but that couldn’t be used to make light. Thankfully, Irminsul had a bit of control about the other elements as well and created a ball of light floating beside her effortlessly.
“Go on.” I told her and pointed once again at the now illuminated tree.
“I don’t know how.” She admitted without even attempting it.
‘She is using life instinctually. I doubt anyone can teach her the basics as quickly as we need to.’ Lucy said, seeing the same unsure girl in front of me as I did. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to try, she just didn’t know where to start. Her vines were apparently just done so because she wanted them to be … but more complicated stuff was probably out of question then.
‘Is there nothing we can do?’ I thought loudly while looking at Irminsul helplessly. But she just shook her head in resignation. Sadly, all the origin gods were notoriously bad at explaining how others could use manipulate their element.
‘… I could give her the knowledge she needs by implanting a memory in her, but that would leave you alone at a moment where … you know.’ Lucy proposed unsure. I wasn’t exactly happy about altering Sofie’s memories just because we couldn’t find any other way … but we would be adding stuff, not removing it.
‘It’s settled then.’ I said and nodded towards Irminsul to head out back to the castle where Aska was staying.
‘Are you sure?’
‘It’s going to be fine. But we will still try to teach her.’
