Diane, swaddled in blankets, sipped on a cup of warm milk and considered her future.

“It’s simple enough,” Skellish explained to her. “When you die, your soul goes to the First Universe… my dominion. It’s outside of the jurisdiction of the Thirteen Gods of this universe, so they have no say in what happens there.”

“…And I’d get resurrected after, like Valex?” Diane asked, still not relishing the idea of dying.

“Naturally.”

“I’m skeptical,” Metokai interjected, leaning forwards. “Even if you’re outside of this universe, you’re still obligated to follow the Pact on a personal level. I don’t think that loophole will work.”

“Quite right,” Skellish said, grinning conspiratorially. “That’s why I’m going to take a two-week vacation.”

That remark astounded all present; Nyze was nakedly incredulous. “Gods are allowed to take vacations?!”

“Do you have Substitute Gods who fill in?” Diane added.

“I thought you existed outside of space and time,” Metokai stated archly. “If you perceive every moment in your life simultaneously, how can you block out two weeks of linear mortal time like that? Not to mention time flows at different rates throughout the multiverse depending on physical laws, gravity and a variety of other factors. So two weeks here on Goezia wouldn’t necessarily be the same as…”

Skellish interrupted by clearing her throat very loudly. “Ah-HEM. How about we don’t examine the excuse too closely, hmm? What matters is the loophole. You see, I’ve asked a good friend of mine, the Goddess of War, to fill in while I’m on holiday. She already knows about the situation, and is not bound by the terms of the Pact. She’ll be able to remove Diane’s blessing without any fuss.”

Psytalla, seated in her throne and hand on her chin, spoke up for the first time in a while. “And the Nameless God will keep quiet about this?”

“He’ll be very pissed, but I’ve outplayed before,” Skellish said, her grin widening to expose canines. “I just need him to over-extend himself once. This might be the right grievance to incite him into making a fatal mistake. If that happens, I win.”

“Wow. You really ARE evil,” Nyze muttered.

That remark caused Skellish to break into a full-throated laugh. “You expect otherwise? I am the patron goddess of demons, after all.”

******

Skellish took her leave shortly thereafter, and Diane requested another shot of vodka.

“Alright, I’m ready,” she said after, rising to her trembling feet.

“You sure about this?” Nyze asked, eyeing the mortified girl. “I mean, I’ve died dozens of times. It’s not a big deal. But you’ve had a traumatic day. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather rest first, then…”

“No,” Diane said with startling intensity. “I want this Blessing out of me now.”

“Alright,” Nyze replied, taken aback by the desperate determination in the girls’ eyes. “We’ll resurrect you after two hours. Sound good?”

“Y-Yeah.” Diane set her jaw once more. “I’ve never died before, so pl-please make it quick, okay?”

There was a flash too quick for the human eye to see, and a moment later Diane collapsed to the ground, bisected and gurgling blood. Metokai spun her halberd around rapidly once to flick away any fleshy detritus and neatly stored in back into hammerspace.

“What?” she said innocently as Nyze fixed her with an acid gaze. “She said to make it quick.”

******

Before her nerves had the chance to process any pain, Diane found herself corpse-less and floating in a pitch-black void.

“Huh…” she thought aloud. “Am I…”

“DEAD!” proclaimed a metallic voice. Diane turned her focus towards its source, and in a startling moment of perfect awe beheld the Goddess of War.

The creature that coiled above her was sharp and predatory, a great coiled woman-spider made of brown chitin and golden blades. Diane’s eyes slid uncertainly off her features, recognizing a head, a feminine torso clad in armor, terminating in claws, floating radiant swords behind. An unmistakably mechanical tail writhed in the background, like a segmented metal snake.

“Uh… hello…” Diane asked uncertainly.

“Heya, mortal!” the goddess-creature replied cheerfully in a grinding voice, her lower jaw splitting apart into mandibles as she spoke. “Nice to meet ya. I’m Skusea Aedes, Goddess of War. Welcome to the afterlife! Your name is… Diane, right?”

Diane tried to nod, but couldn’t do so without a body. Even so, Skusea read the intent well enough. “Don’t worry too much about unconscious cues, Diane. I can read your thoughts. So, you want me to expunge a divine blessing from your soul, eh? Easy enough.”

“If you would be so kind…” Diane asked quietly, amazed. This insect-woman’s friendly behavior was completely discordant with her fearsome appearance and title.

“Sure thing! Let me get to scrying…” The red triangles in Skusea’s irises flashed, and targeting symbols appeared around each one. Diane got the unsettling impression she was being suddenly being targeted by a mechka’s laser magic designator.

“Oh, relax. I ain’t gonna fry ya…” Skusea said, waving one of her many-scissored claws about in what Diane supposed was meant as a comforting gesture. “I know I’m a living weapon and all that, but I only kill bad guys. Speaking of, how are my old stomping grounds doing these days?”

Diane mentally frowned as she tried to grasp the goddess’ meaning. “Stomping grounds?”

“You know, Goezia!” Skusea exclaimed, her tail-tip claw mechanically clanking shut as if to emphasize her words.

"You lived on Goezia?!"

“Yeah! I spent a lifetime there back before I ascended to godhood… was working for Skellish as a reincarnator at the time. Ah, I miss those days. World conquest is the best…” Skusea emitted a trilling, warbled whistle that Diane supposed was her equivalent of a sigh.

Something nagged at Diane’s mind; she’d heard this Goddess’ name somewhere before. Skusea… Skusea…

“YOU WERE THE FIRST DEMON LORD!” Diane exclaimed suddenly, her soul pulsing bright with excitement. “You founded the Demon Realm!”

Skusea’s face twisted into an annoyed expression. “‘Demon Realm?’ Is that what they wound up calling it? That’s too generic.”

“Uh…”

“To answer to your question, yes. I founded the… ugh… ‘Demon Realm,’” Skusea shook her head and sighed, at a lower pitch this time. “Skellish was the one who instigated the Goezian demonic incursion in the first place, but needed a firmer hand to get them all to work together. You know how demons are… rebellious, martial, territorial. So she sent me in to crack some skulls."

"You seem like you'd be very good at that," Diane interjected, glancing at of the Goddess' multi-pointed claws.

"Hells yeah!" Skusea said proudly, her swords sweeping behind her in winglike array. "Anyway, I almost had the whole planet conquered, humans and all, when a gods-damned Ruin dropped in and destroyed everything!”

“Ruin…” Diane spoke the word in a hushed whisper; human and demonic scriptures alike bore warnings against the mysterious eldritch enemy that had plagued Goezia so long ago.

“Yeah!” Skusea spat, the triangles in her irises whirling angrily as her blades seemed to vibrate. “The wretched abomination was bleeding pretty bad from a battle in a quarantined universe, and fled into Goezia's reality to hide. It burrowed into the Screaming Forest and sucked the souls out of everyone there! Then it made hordes of toothy, fleshy monsters called Ruinspawn which spread out across the land and consumed everything in sight.” She spread her finger-claws while her floating blades formed radiating sun-rays behind her, both serving as visual metaphors for the rapidity of the corruption’s expansion.

“That sounds… horrifying…” Diane said in shivering awe.

“It was nasty, yeah. It nearly ate half the planet before the Hero and I were able to put it down, at the cost of our own lives.”

Diane’s awe only grew. “You… fought beside the First Hero?”

“Course I did. We had a common enemy,” Skusea said, flashing a split-jaw grin as her tone became wistful. “She certainly was a sight to behold... fearsome as both opponent and ally. Ah, how I enjoyed dueling her!"

“…She? Her?!” Diane exclaimed, shocked to learn there had been a female Hero.

“That surprises you?” Skusea said, tilting her head as the triangles in her irises focused. “They don’t have female Heroes anymore?”

“The Nameless God would never allow it…” Diane mumbled back.

“Hah!” Skusea snorted. “He wasn’t in charge of the Thirteen back then. Also, ‘Nameless God?’ Are you kidding me? That’s the most pretentious thing I’ve ever heard! What, is he too good for names?”

“Uh, his scriptures say he’s evolved beyond the need for names…”

“Horseshit!” Skusea exclaimed, her swords making a chopping motion in time with her swear. “Why, I’m the most highly evolved being there is, and I still use a name. He sounds like a real bitch; I can see why Skellish wants to kill him.”

Diane pictured gritting her teeth. “Honestly, I want to kill him too. He’s put me through hell.”

“Yeah?” Skusea leaned forwards, intrigued; her irises once again locked onto Diane. “Well, you might get your chance. I figured how to handle your Blessing, but there are two options. You have a choice to make.”

Diane gulped; she knew what was coming next, had prepared for it... but dreaded it all the same. Her voice reflected her dread.

“What choice?”

******

The bluish glow faded from Gary’s eyespots as he ended the telepathic call. Turning to his guests, he relayed what he had heard. “All the castle guard will say is there was a ‘minor divine incursion’ in the throne room, and it’s ‘been contained.’”

“Divine INCURSION?!” Vynn yelped, looking around as if an evil god might jump out of the shadows. “A GOD invaded the castle? Who and why?!”

Gary shrugged. “You know everything I know.”

“D-Did they say anything about Diane?” Tess asked, wringing her hands.

“They said there were ‘no fatalities,’ so…” Gary trailed off.

Tess took a deep breath. “That’s a relief. I hope she’s okay.”

******

Skusea’s eyes glowed bright red as she projected a holographic image of the Hero’s Blessing; its mana tendrils extended through Diane’s whole soul like a mocking nervous system. The densest mana-fibers channeled into a single spell cluster, a yarn-ball which was woven of infinitely tight thousand-character strings of runes arrayed in Mobius strips.

“This Blessing is conceptually closed, meaning it infinitely recurs throughout the timeline of Goezia,” Skusea explained, pointing to the Mobius strings with one of her clawtips. “Expunging it from your soul is easy enough, but it won’t be destroyed completely. Instead it will seek out a new host from the pool of souls marked for birth.”

“Which means that, somewhere in the world, a new Hero will be born,” Diane said quietly. “And when they grow up, they’ll have to suffer what I suffered… loss of family, ostracization, church brainwashing…”

Skusea nodded grimly, her blades uncharacteristically still.

“I was afraid of this. I don’t know if I could willingly inflict that on an innocent newborn,” Diane muttered. “What’s the second option?”

Skusea was apparently pleased by Diane’s remark, for her face broke into another split-jaw grin. “Instead of removing the Hero’s Blessing, I can transform it! Morph it into a blessing of my own design, Blade’s Embrace, which I grant to my own warriors across the multiverse. Since the spell would remain with your soul, nobody else would be affected so long as you live.”

“So… instead of being blessed by the Thirteen, I’ll be blessed by… you?” Diane asked, taken aback.

“Exactly!” Skusea said proudly, then assumed the stern demeanor of an instructor; the red eye at the center of her tail-claw seemed especially fixed on Diane. “That said, I don’t coddle my warriors! You won’t get benefits without putting work in. While Blade’s Embrace will enhance your speed and strength, it won’t make you superhuman… at least not at first. It’s designed to unlock new powers as your martial skills grow.”

“I… think I might benefit from that,” Diane admitted, recalling how her own over-reliance on superhuman powers had caused her technique to collapse against the Demon Lord’s greater experience. “Your blessing sounds good, but what’s the cost? What do I give up in exchange?”

“Cost? Hah!” Skusea reared her head back and guffawed. “Skellish might exact a heavy price for such, but I’m no stinge. This is a gift, not a trade. Seeing young warriors flower is payment enough for an old soldier like me. That said, I’d appreciate it if you could take good care of Goezia for me. Even if I haven’t been there in a while, I still have a fondness for that twisted little world.”

Diane mentally nodded. “I will do my best.”

“Sounds like you want the Skusea Special, then?” the Goddess of War said breezily, floating over towards Diane as something in her innards began to emit a deep, piercing mechanical whine.

“Yeah,” Diane said, pointedly ignoring the goddess’ ominous engine-sound. “I won’t be able to live a peaceful life, but I’ll also keep another from suffering in my place. I think that’s a worthy trade.”

“And that,” Skusea said proudly, “is what marks a hero. Not ‘Hero’ with a capital H; that’s simply a glory-seeking religious figure, a propaganda tool to manipulate the masses. A true hero is someone, anyone who selflessly puts themselves in danger to save another person. The humans of Goezia have forgotten that; make them remember.”

“I will,” Diane said with complete resolve.

“Good. Now, any more questions before I get to castin’?”

“Yeah, actually,” Diane said, feeling sheepish but pushing it aside; if she was to bear this war-goddess’ blessing, she too must learn to be brash. “Do you take requests?”

******

Twenty-six minutes after Diane died, a set of blood-colored rose petals suddenly bloomed from the ground and encompassed her corpse; they began to thrum softly and emit a blue-yellow glow, telltale signs of soul and healing magic at work.

“Uh…” Nyze said, pointing to the strange new human-sized blossom, “Do we need to do anything? Should we still resurrect her?”

Metokai clacked forwards and examined the bloom, her eyes flashing a bright series of colors across the spectrum as she clicked through multiple scrying spells. “I don’t think so. This… flower seems to be healing and transforming her.”

“Huh. It’s like she’s in a flowery cocoon…” Nyze muttered.

Psytalla, meanwhile, saw a familiar sigil on one petal of the bloom and her face went white.