Rem wanted to complain about his misfortune. Okay, he admitted that he was a natural-born cheater, but this retaliation went way too far.

"Mmmmf, " Rem struggled inside a mismatched diagram of Taoism and Celt sigils. He knew he won’t get out of this. Still, he refused to sit there and ate his fate. Instead, he struggled like a caterpillar, churning a wave pattern in the sand with all his might.

"Stop it, mortal," Cytortia said, trying to ignore the muffled sound. "I invented the ritual myself. Trust me. It is perfectly safe,” the goddess hesitated. “Well, I'm no longer sure about that. Scathach jammed some Celtic techniques into the formula to make things extra spicy. I don’t believe you will die, but if worse comes to worst, I can still fix you up. So it will work out!”

The goddess sunnily smiled at Rem. In return, Rem imagined flying kick the smile out of her face.

He felt better already.

That was when the perpetrator of this disaster approached with a grin so insidious that it wouldn’t look out of place in a slasher film. "Don't blame me, kid. As my newest student, you aren't permitted to use any weak-ass awakening formula. Oh, and I will treat any initial power-level lower than 800 as a failure."

Rem gave out an unintelligible scream.

"ZERO!!!"

That was likely the worst mistake Scathach ever made. At that moment, the badger unleashed doom upon every tyrannical regime and blood-thirsty criminal. It started a countdown toward the final time evil had a good night of sleep.

...

"Unlimited possibility is born from a single page of papers," Rem woke up to a woman's voice. "Have you ever heard of this phrase?"

Rem founded himself lying on his back, staring up at the black expanse of starry paradise. An ever-shifting light of colors built the platform beneath him. He recognized the scent rose in the air. Whatever place he ended up in could only be described as artistically surreal. It felt too beautiful to exist in the world of man. Somehow, the woman in front of him stood even above that impossible standard.

The woman sat on a reclining chair, reading a book of Harry Potter. The closest thing Rem associated her with was a gardener. Her skin was moderately tanned like she spent most of her time basking in the sun. Even with the distance between them, Rem could experience the scent of rose garden soothing him like a pheromone therapy. The woman's hair was lustrous black with the cheerfulness in her eyes shone like the magnificent sky. The sparkling gossamer dress she wore only add to that sunny effect. 

But something told Rem that those colorful outdoor looks only hid an incredible natural charisma. The woman should not be underestimated.

“We finally met, Rem,” the woman said. “My, my, you are as sharp as I expected. Maybe sharper even. Want a drink?” The woman materialized a can of soft-drink with a snap of her fingers.  “High-grade soda, containing 80% Hope, 15% possibilities and 5% Auroric Carbonate flavoring.”

"I have a feeling that drink will give me diabetes," Rem replied.

"I know you will say that," the woman remarked with a laugh and a sad smile. "But deep down, you of all people worship those concepts more than anything, Remus. That's why you hate humanity so much. You understand the pressure on you received and can’t bring yourself to hate them for it. Instead, your resentment is for me and mine's sake.”

For some reason, a single tear rolled down Rem’s eye.

The goddess smiled and introduced himself among stars shining brighter and more alluring than the cosmos.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Satholia. The living embodiment of the Good. The Goddess of Hope, the Queen of Center, and your ultimate patron."

…

Satholia and Rem sat on the edge of the multi-color platform. Below them were several windows showing events all over the multiverse.

"Want some more Hope Cola?" Satholia graciously handed a can to Rem. “You must be famished."

Rem looked at the screen full of death and destruction and popped the can quietly.

One screen showed a planet-size purple lotus with fanged petals and tentacled stamen engulfing a green and yellow planet. Personally, Rem didn't want to know what transpired in that doomed world.

"Is it this bad?"

Satholia nodded solemnly.

"It will be worse," Satholia looked at another screen, slowly clenching her fist in and out with anger. “I will not sugarcoat the situation. We are dealing with a multiverse-scale armageddon. The only advantage we have is time. And when that runs out, Phantasia will crumble with the multiverse following later.”

"How does Phantasia belly-flopping cause a multiverse-level apocalypse?"

“Rem, Phantasia is like a hybrid of a central hub and a lock to a Multiverse. Whoever controls this world, if they know what they are doing, will be able to freely traverse the entire multiverse. Because of this, Phantasia is the prime target for the World Enemy’s goal of multiversal annihilation.”

Rem didn’t like that at all.

"We are the front-line,” Rem said. ”I need more data. Moreover, do you have a plan?”

"Rem, I already did everything I could do from here," Satholia stood up and walked toward the center of the platform.

Rem followed her.

"The problem is I am too powerful," Satholia complained. "This platform is isolated from all realities for a reason. If I am to enter the battle without reducing my power to a grain of what it is, my presence will tip the universal balance so severely reality itself will unravel. Trust me. You aren't the only one sick with this whiny universe."

"So that's why things fuck up this badly," Rem said, finally comprehending how much of a raw deal both him and his patron got. "Your very intervention will destroy everything standing. All you can do is watch as everything goes to hell."

"Yes," She sighed. "And even my clairvoyance is severely restraint, looking too far ahead will outright annihilated that timeline. At best, I can only foretell the event in a few months, and even then, the detail is extremely vague."

"Why are you telling me this?" Rem couldn’t help but feel there was something odd about this arrangement. It was too random for the goddess of good to reach out to a nobody. There must be an underlying reason for all of this briefing.

"I have done everything I can," Satholia said. "Truth to be told, I plan to rope you into this much later, but alas, you are the nearest of my ace-in-the-hole. To be short, I need you to guide her, Rem. The key to winning is the young Cytortia."

Rem nearly keeled over.

"I know," Satholia admitted. "She is far from an excellent candidate. Something you can relate, I presume."

"Satholia, boss, no offense," Rem panicked for the first time in a long time. “Your candidate has no mental fortitude, and her luck is one of a kind. Moreover, there are better choices than me. Natural leaders, star athletes, kendo champion, or someone who scores the top of the nation in several sciences and still aces their sport. I'm the most mediocre person here."

Satholia looked over the stars and spoke celestially.

"Rem, why do you think you have [The Way of Optimism]?"

"You gave it to me," Rem answered, for once unable to comprehend better responses.

"No, you made it your own. My power never discriminates to share. That spark of hope you believe in never truly dies in spite of how the world tries to crush it. You refuse to bow to misanthropy despite all the excuses. That takes insurmountable optimism and hope. Cytortia also has that same spark inside of her. In time, you will come to see it as I do, and with that hope, you will end the tragedies of Phantasia."

Rem’s eyes watered, but he quickly brushed off his tears. The validation was great and all, but he needed to focus and get that victory.

"Why need more people?" Rem said. "I can’t do this mission alone.”

"Rem," Satholia looked at him in the eyes. "Like it or not, you are the nearest card on the deck. The nations in your world already have enough problems with the merging with Phantasia. In the current chaos, there are several reasons to keep this project under wraps."

Satholia raised a finger.

"There are many untrustworthy sorts that can create a massive problem. Even if those governing bodies cooporated, it won’t do much. The Magic I am guiding you toward, are deeply correlated with passion and perspective. It is a power base on uniqueness and a wide outlook. With how your countries kept promoting standardization to the point of indoctrination, most of the forces Earth and many parts of Phantasia can provide will likely be dead on arrival.”

"Is magic ability proportional to divergent thinking capacity?" Rem asked.

She nodded.

"We are fuck," Rem lamented. That pretty much meant that everyone with ten years in modern education was a magical punching bag.

Satholia raised her second fingers.

"Finally: the logistic. I couldn’t take the battlefield personally, and you are my first recruit. Right now, we have almost no war potential on the board. Moreover, knowing those greed-ridden idiots, Phantasia would likely move against Earth the moment they believe it is profitable. If that happens, the ensuing war for supremacy will tear everything in half before the World Enemies even arrive.” Satholia clenched her fist. “Seriously, those bastards force me to use my trump card before the battle even began.”

"What did you do?"

Satholia paused. Her cheek turned slightly redder.

"I sacked Mount Olympus."

Rem blinked.

"You did what?"

"I manifested myself as a spirit of vengeance on Mt. Olympus to have an audience with Zeus. Now, don't get optimistic. I can only do that for an hour every millennium, and my power would barely a grain of what it is. That was a once in a lifetime bluff. But they won’t likely misbehave anytime soon, not given the psychological damage I dealt on them.”

"You fought the Olympians?"

"More like traumatized them," Satholia nodded nostalgically. "It isn’t even hard. Pride is their biggest shortfall. After my visit, those idiots humbled massively, not to mention the property damage. Right now, the entire society of the gods is literally having an identity crisis."

“That’s why Ishtar and Athena gave Earth the soft-deal,” Rem said, realizing the truth behind the beauty goddess's behavior and responded with agape. “You are the deterrent.”

Satholia’s cheek reddened.

“Yes, but it is a bluff; a very costly and excessive bluff. Personally, I prefer not to do that again after the devastation I left on Olympus."

Rem wouldn’t shed a tear for the poor gods. Instead, he wanted to know the victory condition. That was the only way he could walk out of this with all his organs.

"What deal did you make? I hardly believe you used your once in a thousand-year privilege for something simple?"

Satholia turned back toward Rem with fewer tomatoes on her face.

"What did I do after punching him in the balls with enough force to break Olympus in half?" Sathalia reminisced about that particular event. "I rope them into a contract with Asgard and Jade Emperor as a mentor for a new world entering Phantasia. The agreement will prevent blatant exploitation, but they are smart enough to find the loopholes. The deal will only buy you six years worth of time to prepare."

Satholia pointed at the screen showing a massive monster swallowing up the sun to clarify her point.

"Rem, you are my nearest and greatest hope to pull this off. Right now, I suggest you avoid Earth and the gods’ spotlight at all costs. Your mission is to aid Cytortia Tianshang and help her build a faction that could single-handedly save Phantasia itself if the worst-case scenario comes to be."

Rem nodded. His eyes filled with a massive amount of doubt but zero hesitation.

"Alright," Rem said to his patron."But what is the ability I got to work with?"

"[Arrival of Dream]," Satholia said as a warm, pleasant feeling crept up Rem's chest like the comforting aroma of summer. "It's the power to bring dreams into reality. But be warned, prolongs uses will ultimately drain your stamina, and your range is currently limited to your territory. Most important of all, it cannot grant wishes or miracle, only providing a path toward one."

Rem felt his body turned weightless as white light gently wrapped over his skin. His mind tugged slowly crept back to reality, but he didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay here a bit longer with the first person to ever praise him on anything. That's why Rem Breaker used all his willpower to delay recall and tentatively reached his hand out to thank his ever-so-distant savior. It was the only gesture of gratitude he could manage.

With the gentleness of mother love, the goddess nodded and accepted

the gesture with understanding eyes. It was a small proof that someone was there for him when he needed the most. It was nothing to be noted, but for Rem, it was all the encouragement he needed.

"Tell Scathach to head to the Northern land of the Elves. There you will find a girl who lost her ways. The time has come where she had to pick which destiny she will walk--to be one of our greatest knights or the monster her kind fears she will become. Go and find the Exile Lightning. It's time for her to come out of the forest.”

Her face faded away, and with it began the start of this fight.

”Oh, and tell the badger that if Phantasia get invaded, I will force myself down there--the universe be damned! Tell her if that ever happens, the first thing I will do is strangled her for an answer!”

With that heartwarming message, the world turns dark.