-『CHAPTER 03』-

« Heiress of the House of Novaldein »
— Velestina von Novaldein —

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Just when I thought of interrogating this creature for more details about this troublesome Goddess that helped it—

[ Yo, Nil how's it going? ]

—An ethereal feminine voice suddenly resounded within my mindscape as it reverberated all throughout this realm like a thunder.

Speaking of the devil...or I should I say Goddess in this case...

 My eyes then narrowed in suspicion since the timing of her interruption felt all too much intentional as if she's been monitoring what's happening inside my mind all along.

If she's really a divine being then I wouldn't be surprised if she has an ability to peer into someone's mind like it was nothing.

The more important question is, why did she suddenly intervene just now? 

What did this Goddess want?

Perchance this sudden telepathic call might only be a diversionary tactics so I instantly conjured more binding magic onto the creature and further isolate it by teleporting it to the farthest corners of this labyrinth and put it inside a cage that completely blocks all outside interference.

[ Uhh hello? Can anyone hear me? ]

I breath out a long sigh after securing the creature before pondering as to whether I'm going to reply or not. For that matter, how could I respond back anyway? This is the first time I've experienced all of this so I'm quite clueless as to how this whole mental communication works. 

What I need the most at the moment is information so after a minute of considering my options, I decided to talk with this Goddess since I would get nothing for ignoring her.

I first tried attempting to think of 'Who is this' but this divine telepath didn't react at all so instead I tentatively said it aloud, "...Who is this?"

Silence.

I've waited for her voice to speak again but she didn't do so even after a minute had passed. 

I furrowed my brows.

This is my only chance to find out the agenda of this troublesome being so I have to make this deity talk to me no matter what.

"...Are you perhaps looking for a formless shade-like being that's being surrounded by lots of glowing orbs?"

I tried baiting this telepath and to my pleasant surprise, she actually replied.

[ Ara ara, Yep I'm looking for that wayward entity but who are you anyway? Don't tell me..gasp!...are you perhaps Veleina? My oh my, how truly shocking! Usually in the novels that I've read, it's the original persona that usually gets replaced and not the other way around~  ]

I tightened up my lips as my assumption of being monitored was confirmed. 

She knew my name and its obvious to me that this Goddess was intentionally revealing that she knew of my identity as a passive aggressive maneuver to rattle my composure but what I don't get is why she started talking about novels all of a sudden. This topic sounds entirely irrelevant but nonetheless I decided to act as if I wasn't bothered by her verbal tactics and casually replied, "I am indeed Vileina and who might this be?"

[ ...Who do you think I am~? ]

I let out an exasperated sigh. 

Is the person I am talking to really a Goddess? I've seen her appearance from the memories I've assimilated from that creature but I didn't recognize her image at all. 

She isn't any of the Gods we worship here in our world and I had the impression that higher beings like her have the tendency to act more prim and sacred. Instead this Goddess felt more impish like some wanton harlot on a downtown bar.

"I believe your the goddess which ordered that creature to replace me as the new owner of my body."

I know that there's a low chance that she would actually admit it and I was proven correct when she ignored my comment and uttered instead,

[ Hoh ho...who knows? In anycase, Nil seemed to had failed to devour your soul in the end and that's somewhat interesting~ ]

I knitted my brows for I found it odd that this Goddess seemed to be even more pleased after knowing that the monster had entirely failed to do its appointed task.

"Well I almost did get devoured, but I got lucky at the end."

[ Is that so? Well that's a shame~ That entity is one of a kind so I hope you won't do something bad towards it...who knows, it might help you in the future. I has a rare essence after all. ] 

Essence?

I involuntarily crossed my arms as I decided to fish for more information.

"What was that creature anyway? And what do you mean by this essence you speak of?" 

[ It is a unique being, that's all I can say for now...the very first and possibly the only being born from nothingness. ]

Nothingness?

[ So can I ask what do you plan to do with Nil?  ]

I really didn't want to disclose anything since I couldn't trust this Goddess yet so I decided to ignore her question and shift the conversation into another topic.

"I've been meaning to ask but who's this 'Nil' your talking about anyway? Is it the name of that creature?"

"Mhm, calling that entity simply as 'it' or 'void' sounds lame after all."

Silence.

Hmm. 

The conversation is starting to get abit stale so perhaps its time to finally reveal one of my cards.

"Hey..I assimilated a little bit of memories from that creature and one thing I've realized was that these memories looked like it occurred from various worlds entirely different from Valria...so are you and that creature perhaps otherworlders?"

Let's see how will this Goddess respond from this.

Silence.

For some reason, she didn't instantly respond. Silence reigned for half a minute and I thought she already broken our mental link but her voice finally came back again and with a serious tone completely unlike her initial frivolous manner she asked,

[ ...What kind of memories are you seeing? ]

I instinctively folded my arms as an internal smirk finally formed within me.

I knew that revealing this will hook a reaction from her so the question now is what kind of information will I reel from this divine entity. I mentally debated on what to say and reveal before responding,

"Memories that seemed to have happened from different worlds. Some are from a world for which these so called 'science' is predominant whilst some came from a magical world where there's also elves, dwarfs and some other fantasy races as well. There's also some which are a mixture of both and some are even so bizarre that I couldn't even understand their way of life."

[ ...And you still retained your sense of identity even after getting these memories? How much have you already assimilated so far? ] 

Why is this Goddess suddenly became adamant on knowing more about my condition? 

I get the feeling that she's hiding something and is probing for some matter I'm not quite sure about but since this correlates with my health then I decided to be honest just this once.

"...I only assimilated bits and flashes of its memories. The mind of that creature is so disjointed that I couldn't really comprehend anything at all since its memories looks like an amalgamation of various minds of other beings."

She once again didn't reply right away. 

Seconds turned into minutes and after the three minute mark, the Goddess finally replied by stating,

[ I advised that you stop assimilating Nil's memories if you want to retain your self-awareness. ]

Well that sounded ominous.

[ It might not pose a problem for now since you only acquired a small amount but assimilating far too much of its memories might cause an identity crisis for you. ]

Colors instantly drained upon my face after hearing what she said.

[ Hey you're probably thinking of talking to that creature right? Can I leave you a message since the place that you've been hiding Nil seems to be even blocking mental transmission. ]

I made a conflicted face before responding, 

"If your message doesn't pose any risk then perhaps I might, but in exchange you have to answer one question of mine."

Silence.

I heard some sort of amused snort from her side before she stated.

[ If your question doesn't pose any risk then perhaps I might~ so sure fire away. ]

I know that this deal is nothing but sheer hypocrisy since I cannot ascertain as to whether she's been telling the truth or not but alas, I still decided to do so since there's no harm in trying. 

I paused for a moment for a dramatic flair before saying and thinking in a slow sobering countenance—

"—Why did you do it? What's your aim in putting that creature in me?"

[ Oh that's only your question? Heh, that's easy to answer...its because I was curious about something~ ]

...I don't believe it.

I'm a schemer myself and I particularly know when I'm dealing with one.

This Goddess completely reeks of machinations.

[ So can I leave my message now? Tell Nil that you both are going to die within three days since it failed to devour your soul~ ] 

...wh....W-WHAT!?!? 

[ Ah crap! those rascals are about to reboot the firewall...Tch this is probably the last time I could contact you two up until I find a new backdoor in this world to hack into so listen up...Be extremely wary of the other God's Apostles. Tell Nil that if it sense a stigma that has a tinge of divinity on it then there's a high likelihood that its an Apostle that's serving a God and you both must do your best not to reveal yourselves to these individuals.

Also If you've been found but still somehow manages to survive, try hiding in the lair of the Ancient One, he should at least be able to.p..otect y.u both sin..tha..eing also...e..he..ame..stigma..Nil. If th...gon..k..sent you..tell.g..ess of.d..ath...ho....an.....i....lo....e. ......s....... ]

Silence.

"What! Hey!? You're still there!!? Respond will you! Hey you can't reveal all of these bombshell out of nowhere and leave me hanging like this!! What do you mean that we'll die in three days and what's the deal with all these apostles and Ancient One, hey!!"

No response.

"Stop fooling around and answer me will you!?"

Still no response.

"Flagitious twit! you damnable conniving minx sure picked the most asinine time to foolishly cut the damn telepathic connection as if you're trolling me about! Argh! Pediculous Scat! Can you still hear me!? I don't care naught even if you're a goddess of who knows what, but I will forever curse you to suffer in eternal damnation for leaving me with this huge pile of problems!" 

I conjured a fireball with my hand and threw it forcefully high up in the air out of pure vexation. I then began pacing back and forth while muttering aloud, "Calm down...calm down." but it still took me fifteen minutes to finally regained a semblance of my rationality.

I tried to remember all of the things that self-proclaimed Goddess had told me and began thinking of ways to counteract each problems but my mind drew a blank in the end even after an hour of brainstorming. 

I plopped myself down unto the ground as I glare upwards the blank skies of my mindscape.

...I cannot solve this mess all by myself.

Its vexing but only that entity imprisoned inside that labyrinth can perhaps shed some light towards these unanswered questions within me. 

I really don't want to work with a monster that tried to take my body but alas, the situation requires it and I was left with no choice since its the only one that can verify the authenticity of the things which were stated by that asinine Goddess.

Reluctantly I began meditating as I imagine myself being teleported to the part of my mindscape where that cage I created for that entity was located.

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