“So? Everyone there? Let’s count! One!” I shouted out in front of the throne room were Aska was probably waiting for us.

“Two!” Hannah shouted out behind all the others in the group.

“Three?” Irminsul asked unsure what this was about. Jokes on her … I was tense and didn’t want to face reality yet. Everything would be decided in a little while after all.

“… sword … mine …” Schwarz mumbled, completely out of his mind.

“… can’t you help him?” Sadly, there was no helping him. Shaking my head, I stared at Ellie until she finally relented. “Six.” Well, she was number five … but whatever.

“Seven?” Sofie asked as oblivious as to why I was doing that as her patron goddess.

“Eight. Can we go now? I really want to be done with this.” Louis told me dejected. That poor boy was really thinking he would die that day … maybe he would … whatever.

Laughing madly, I turned around to open the heavy doors and strode into the dark throne room while masking my untypical uncertainty.

“Hey Aska! How are you doing on this beautiful day?” I looked out of the windows to see the dark clouds still hanging in the sky, covering most of the beautiful moonlight. “Okay … at least we don’t have acid rain, do we? Anyways, as the stalker you are, you probably already know that these four here kind of beat up my invasion force easily, but I luckily managed to catch them. Am I not great?” He wouldn’t have any reason to disregard my achievement, mostly because it was preferential for himself as well. This was he could put me through pain which was exactly what he needed to wake up Lucy … if he still believed that she was still sleeping.

“Hmm … nicely done. Please follow the undead to your rooms.” Aska told the others and waved a few walking skeletons into the room, carrying name plates in their hands. Our dear heroes hesitated a lot, but followed the undead in the end, leaving only me and Irminsul together with Aska.

“We need to talk.” The goddess said loudly into the room, avoiding eye contact with me at all costs.

“About Lucinda? Or about our daughter?“ Yup … he had picked up on one of the many hints I left on my trip.

‘Noo …’ Lucy began to panic quite a bit, but didn’t take any rash action yet.

“Our daughter doesn’t want to be with you.” And Irminsul didn’t even attempt to hide the fact that she knew about Lucy … that was quite the betrayal if I was honest.  

“She can decide that for herself when she is back? But I guess you are aware of that already, aren’t you?” Aska completely ignored me as I just looked at both of them in utter confusion.

‘Fuuuuck.’ I kind of liked that Lucy was talking in my language all of a sudden, but I certainly disliked the situation that led to this.

‘Quiet.’

“What are you talking about?” I tilted my head to the side as if I was intrigued by their conversation.

“I can feel it, Lucinda. The hint of life streaming out of your body isn’t exactly unnoticeable.” Aska looked at me, scanned every pore of my body while I checked together with Lucy that we couldn’t feel anything in that direction. But … he was an origin god. He was better than us in any way.

“… why didn’t you tell me anything?” I snarled at Irminsul angrily. She could have at least told us that much. But look in her eyes basically screamed betrayal at this point.

“I’m sorry, Lucinda …” She muttered, looking to the ground ashamed of her own actions.

‘No … no mum!’

“… but I haven’t come over the fact that she is just gone …” She was like Aska. She wanted Lucy back for less disgusting reasons … but still. She was willing to sacrifice me for that which was something I hadn’t expected to be honest.

“Why the fuck does everyone I know wants me gone? Am I that ugly?” I needed time to think, to readjust my plan. I couldn’t count on Irminsul as much as I liked to, that much became obvious.

“So you are aware of the sleeping goddess in your body?”

‘Say, how much science is there in what we are doing?‘ One thing was of sure. They didn’t know how it was to have two souls in one body and as far as I knew, not many others had the pleasure yet.

‘I think you can tell them whatever you want and they might believe it.’

“It’s pretty hard not to be when you are dreaming about another life. At least I figured out everything before I came back … but I never suspected that person I dreamt of was your daughter. So, Aska, how have you planned this out?” I asked a bit angrily while keeping my gaze glued on Irminsul.

“Putting the soul of a goddess into the body of another hasn’t been done before, but my bet is on shattering your soul. Hers might replace you in that moment.” Luckily that didn’t happen at all, otherwise I wouldn’t be there anymore.

“And how do you want to do that? My soul has never been better! Aska, you put me through torture my whole life, so I don’t think you have an actual chance of shattering my soul at this point.”

“I might ask for the help of other gods.”

“That worked once. I can assure you it won’t happen again.”

“You are quite calm …” Was I? My thoughts were racing and I didn’t really know what I should do now that I couldn’t bet on Irminsul’s help. Or could I?

“You know, you and I are the same. And for the first time in my life, I know what you really want and I know what you will do from now on. So please, do murder all of my friends in front of my eyes.” I proposed and sat down on the stairs leading to the throne bored.

“Why did you bring them here? They didn’t have to die if you knew already.” Irminsul asked concerned. For a second or so, I struggled to find a satisfying answer to her question until I remembered that the truth was pretty much on point.

“I had hoped we could do something together. As a team. But I never suspected the goddess of life to discard her friend that quickly.” I spit these words out angrily and had to hold myself back from standing up and strangling her.

“I’m sorry … but I am her mother. I couldn’t help her during her first life, but I’m willing to do everything for her in her second life. And this includes protecting her from Aska, this time for real.” She already lost against him several times, but even then it was nice to know that we could change her mind rather quickly. I just had to push the right buttons.

“Oh, no, that’s terrible for me! Anyways, when do we start with the show?” I looked outside in an attempt to gauge the time, feigning to be rather bored.

“You don’t look to be in a panic. What am I missing?” Aska asked which made me laugh loudly and uncontrollably. Finally, I knew more than him and that was his question? Why didn’t he think about that himself, just like I did all these years?!

“Does that anger you? Not knowing what’s going on in my head is surely not the best feeling in the world, is it? Poor little Aska.” I laughed at him, even though I was panicking quite a bit at this point. After all, Irminsul seemingly didn’t care what he had planned and demonstratively looked away.

“You will fold. You are too attached to them.” I couldn’t say no to that. I had broken down as I had accidentally killed Mary after all. But he couldn’t possibly know that much.

“I have murdered my own mother … I have murdered the twins … I’d say keep them coming.” Grinning wryly, I sat down on the ground satisfied that these two were also struggling.

“Hmm, who do we want to start with then? How about with the boy who has a family already?” Aska proposed, watching me intensely to gauge my non existent reaction. Seeing Schwarz dying in front of my eyes … was the least of my worries.

“Oh, the drug addict? I doubt he does have a very sharp edge at the moment though.” I really had to wonder wether he would even realise what was happening.

‘We need a plan Lucinda. You know as good as I that he will catch on eventually if it goes on like this.’ Certainly once everyone else was dead, but until then we had a bit of time left.

‘What do you think I’m doing here? Cracking jokes for fun or what?’ I asked a bit annoyed while going through the possibilities. Even with Lucy’s help, fighting against one, let alone two gods fairly was out of question.

‘Please tell me you have an idea.’ She stirred a bit uncomfortably within me, probably making more life spill out in the process.

‘I do … it a wild one though.’ And I had no clue if it worked. The probability for that was low, but not nonexistent.

‘Please tell me it doesn’t involve murdering everyone.’ Well, if that was all that mattered to her, then I could assure her somewhat.

‘… so technically…’ I didn’t say anything else. It was all she needed to know. After all, she was thorougly pushed into a corner, willing to do whatever it took.

‘What do I have to do?’ That was more like it. Grinning wryly,  I looked at Aska and listened to the opening door. Schwarz never got into his cell after all.

‘You, my dear, will murder your father while I dispose of your mum.’