A flash of Lightning lit the area as the glowing Marilyn smiled at Dante. His expression was quite stiff with his brows narrowed and his stare sharp.

“D-Dante, what’s wrong with Marilyn?” the concerned Tina asked as she gazed upon the ethereal light before her.

“Hm?” as she heard Tina’s voice, her bright white eyes peered over at the young girl, “Looks like we have an uninvited guess, well there’s an easy fix for that.”

She soon grabbed onto Dante’s head and her magical glow grew intense. Dante had no choice but to shut his eyes. Then she brought their foreheads together and as their skins touched, Dante suddenly no longer felt the drops of water which drenched him. Neither did he hear their patter on the ground or the burst of thunder. He slowly opened back his eyes only to discover he no longer was in the same place as before.

The space was as bright as day, yet up above there was no sun to cause the brightness around him. Not only that but the floor below was white and fluffy, very much resembling clouds.

“Lovely isn’t it, man of earth,” the youthful feminine voice said from behind him.

Dante turned to face the owner of that familiar voice. But what entered his gaze wasn’t Marilyn. Instead, a young girl, who looked to be in her teens walked towards him on the ground made of white clouds. Her hair of platinum blonde was braided and rested on her shoulder, as her eyes and body exuded a radiant white glow. She wore a short skirt that left much of her thighs and legs exposed. Her flat stomach was also not covered as a small piece of clothing covered her upper body, but also left her small chest slightly exposed.

“Neyth, I presume?” Dante said.

“Thou presumes correctly,” a grin parted her lips as she spoke, “thou should feel honored to be able to gaze upon my true form.”

“Cut to the chase, where are we and why’d you bring me here?”

The youthful goddess sighed as she replied, “As rude as always I see. Isn’t it obvious, this is my personal space and I brought thee here to talk.”

“Then hurry up, because if you haven’t noticed I’m busy,” He voiced in an impatient tone.

“Don’t worry, time here moves however I want and right now I don’t want it to,” she responded back, “now, here’s the thing, I brought thee to this world for my sake, yet all thou hath done so far is fraternize with those mortal girls!”

“You’re the one who told me to help Marilyn out!” Dante protested back.

“Yes, I did, but I didn’t mean like that!” she shouted, “Hear me well, I’m a Goddess, the most beautiful and lovely being in all of Edythe, especially compared to the antiques I call my divine sisters.” she walked up to Dante as she continued, “Yet, out of all the Triune, I gain the least amount of Tribute and worshipers than them! I ask thee how is that fair!”

“That sounds like your problem, not mine,” as he said that her teeth grit while she stared up at him.

“Oh! But it is thy problem, Dante, for what reason did thou think I blessed thee with powers and brought thee to this world?” a sinister smile crept upon her face, “It’s because thou art to be my instrument of ascension as well as the one to bring the downfall to my sisters!”

“Listen! I don’t care about any of that shit! And I’m not your instrument!” Dante grew tired of her lecturing and yelled back, “now, send me back, because I have more important things to deal with than some bratty goddess’ life problems!”

“B-bratty!?” her eye twitched as she heard what he called her. Her nostrils flared and eyes narrowed as she raised her face up to look at the man who was almost twice her size, “It would appear… that I have been too lenient on thee,” as she spoke Dante soon felt light-headed and he stumbled back a bit as he felt his body grew heavy.

 Wh-what’s happening.

“Thou may have thought thee hath bested me, because of the spat we had on our first meeting, but that was nowhere near my true power. For in truth that mortal magician’s body was greatly limiting my powers,” a sinister grin appeared on her face, “but here, in my true form, I can wield my powers freely!” as she spoke, Dante fell to his knees. He couldn’t even focus on the person before him as his vision blurred.

“What…h-have you done to me!”

“I’m the one who made thee powerful, and I can make thee very weak as well,” with a single hand, she grabbed his neck and applied such extreme force, that he could barely breathe. Such strength didn’t match her body and completely caught him by surprise, “now, listen well. Thou will serve me and be the tool I need to become the dominant Goddess of this world, because if thou don’t, not only will you never return to thy world, but I will ensure that thy life here on Edythe will be an eternal hell!” she pushed him back as she let go of him and said her final words, “So what does thou say, Dante Santos?”

Dante coughed out as he caught his breath. Honestly, he would like nothing more than to teach this little so-called goddess a lesson, but he knew very well the situation he was in, so in the end, there was only one thing he could do.

Dante glared back at her as he voiced his response, “You win… I’ll work for you.”

“Lovely, I’m glad we could come to an understanding, Dante,” she once again showed him a devilish smile, “Now, let’s get right into it shall we.”

 

---

 

The sound of rain and the feeling of wet drops upon him soon returned. Dante opened his eyes and he was once again in the camp with everyone else. He felt something soft pressed up against him and as he looked down, Marilyn’s still unconscious body leaned on him.

“Dante?” a voice spoke as he looked around and there stood Tina with a concerned face, “w-what was all that? Will Marilyn be alright?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, it was nothing,” he replied to the little girl, “for now let’s take them to the jeep.” Dante once again lifted all three girls and along with Tina went over to the jeep.

“Tina open the doors.”

“Um… I don’t know ho-”

“Use the black handle on the door side and pull it,” as he said that the young girl did as he said. She struggled with it for a second but surely enough the door to the back seats was opened, “Good job,” he smiled at her, “now can you do the same for the one in front?”

“Yes, I think so…” as she said that she went to the front door. This time she didn’t struggle much and got it open as well.

“Good, climb over to the other side, I’ll put Marilyn here,”-he rested down the girls on the ground and then picked up Marilyn again and placed her in the passage seat, after which he took Lacey and Kayla and placed them in the back seats. Will it be okay to leave them like this? Unsure of what they might do when they wake up Dante took some rope from his supplies and tied the two up. That should be good.

 “Now what do we do?” Tina asked.

“I’m going to go out for a bit, okay?”

“Huh? Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go kill two birds with one stone,”-he showed a fake smile to the young girl.

“I don’t understand, what about us.”

“It’ll be alright as long as you stay inside here until Marilyn wakes up. Honestly, if everything works out I should be back pretty soon,” he continued to speak, “and everything will work out for everyone, you included.”

“But-” Tina tried to speak as she shot a worried gaze at him.

“Here, these things control the jeep, press this button to lock the doors,” Dante interrupted her as he showed the jeep’s keys and remote. He pressed the lock button to demonstrate and a click sounded out throughout the vehicle, “Hear that, it means it’s locked, just press it again to unlock,”-he handed her the keys.

“Dante, I do-”

“It’s alright Tina, I’ll be back…promise, just stay inside here for the meantime. You’ll be safe here alright; can you do that for me.”

“A-alright… but you promise to come back?”

“I do, so be a good girl and watch over the others.”

With a slight nod, Tina agreed, and with that Dante closed the doors to the jeep. Now then… guess it’s time to get started.

 

---

 

“Still unconscious, good,” Dante spoke as he stood over the tied up shapeshifting monster he defeated earlier, “that’ll make things easier…” he stooped down next to it and took out a glowing stone from his pocket. Dante glared at it as he remembered that goddess’ words.

 

---

 

“Those scaled women and that black armored knight are part of a bigger scheme. I want thee to go and demolish their operations,”

“Why do you want me to stop them?”

“Let’s just say it’ll greatly piss off a certain someone I hate so very much.”  She flashed a mischievous smile, “Besides, thou were going to eventually, right? I’m just helping thee get it done faster.”

What she said was true, Dante was already planning on doing that. After all, they raided Tina’s village and many others probably, not to mention they have Marilyn’s friend Moyra.

Wait is that why she said to help Marilyn, because it would lead me to this…but why such a roundabout method?

“Because for right now I don’t want my name attached to it.”

Dante’s eyes opened as he heard her suddenly respond to his thought.

“I thought you said-” as he tried to speak, she quickly interrupted.

“Yes, I do want more recognition, but not for deeds like this, it would only draw attention from those I’m not yet prepared to face. Which is why thou will do it in my stead.” She reached into her shining blonde hair and removed one of the gemstones which decorated it, “Here, this item will bind anyone to thee and force them to be honest and obedient to thee.”-Dante took the stone in his hand as she continued-“Use it on one of the scaled women, then have them lead thee to their base. From there…” another devilish smile appeared on her face, “bring it all crumbling down!”

Dante continued to gaze at it and as he gripped it in his fist he faced the goddess once more, “I’ll do this for you, but…” he stared right into her glowing eyes, “This is an agreement between me and you, keep Marilyn and the others out of all this.”

“I can agree to that, honestly I don’t care much for those little mortals.”

 

---

 

Dante finished remembering his talk with the goddess Neyth as he gazed back at the scaled shapeshifter. No going back now… as he thought that he realized something. How do I use this thing? It finally dawned on him she never told him how to use it.