Myths Reawakened

“Don’t celebrate just yet. I said I wouldn’t read your mind now, not forever.” Wayne warned Aztimor sternly. “Believe me. I’m a professional in corruption. You’re far from my first vassal. Whatever you could think of, I’ve already done it with my vassals.”

His last defiant vassal was Senna. Before she came to terms with herself, she had done her fair share of cursing at Wayne. She collapsed and lost her human form many times because of that. In comparison, Anastasia proved herself worthy of being his white moonlight. She had accepted her bad luck and never once imagined poking Wayne like a voodoo doll.

“Ahem!” Aztimor cleared Her throat with a fist pressed to Her mouth to mask Her embarrassment, putting on a serious face. “You trust Ines too much. Believe me. I am your vassal. I’m the only one who won’t hold back from you.”

“Really?”

“Anyway, Ines cannot be trusted. If you want to cheat Her into giving you all Her information on Darkness, I must be there to watch you. I’m willing to put up an act with you if possible.”

“What act? That you’ve given up on yourself after She mistakenly accused you of sleeping with Her boyfriend?”

“Not that. I just...”

“Don’t ‘I just’ me.” Wayne waved dismissively. “She’s invested Her feelings, so I invest my feelings accordingly. If I plot against Her, stains will be left on our relationship. Once I lose Her trust, we’ll grow distant. Then it’ll be difficult for us to have honest exchanges.”

“That so...” Aztimor murmured. She couldn’t help but feel envious when Wayne kept picking Ines’s side. Between Her and Ines, She was Wayne’s vassal, so why had he been speaking up for an outsider?

Aztimor lowered Her head dejectedly, growing visibly depressed.

I’m unhappy. I want you to coddle me!

Wayne smiled. Getting on one knee, he once again took the goddess’s hand and praised Her incredible achievements, playing the role of Her knight. He went from Her beauty to Her wisdom and then to Her divine power and infinite compassion, flattering Her so much that She felt lightheaded. Her eyes closed halfway, and Her curved lips wouldn’t stay down.

The Goddess of Death had the personality of a cat.

A cat would bare its teeth at its caretaker while demanding love and care from said caretaker. Smelling another cat on the caretaker was the surefire way to anger a cat, making it swing its claws around.

Wayne spent ten minutes placating Aztimor before sitting back down. The flattery worked wonders. Aztimor was already shifting toward him of Her own volition.

“This is your Underworld, Aztimor. I won’t interfere with your governance, so I’ll leave after a few words with Rognes. He’s an excellent talent and will make a better subordinate than anyone else. Since you’re short one subordinate god, let him take the place.”

Does that not count as interference in your book? Aztimor groused inwardly, but Rognes was indeed competent. He was more dependable than Saigner.

“As for his moniker, just call him the Headless Knight. He’ll be the Executor ‘Headless Knight’ Rognes,” Wayne said seriously. “One is surrounded by false support at one’s peak, and only at one’s downfall would one see true devotion. When he and the Underworld were at rock bottom, Rognes had never once abandoned his loyalty. That was the period of his life when he shone the brightest.”

Aztimor nodded. She didn’t disagree with Wayne’s decision, and She was certain that Rognes was also willing. In fact, it would be better if Rognes wasn’t willing. She had so much pent-up rage that She was in dire need of loyal subjects to kill.

Her gaze shifted to outside the temple, settling on Rognes.

Wayne followed Her line of sight and took out Shadow Nightmare to create an exact replica. “Hand this to Rognes and tell him that it’s a reward for his loyalty. It doesn’t make sense for a knight not to have a sword.”

“Should I create another undead warhorse for him?”

“Not that,” Wayne shot Her down. “Rognes and I will share. Neither Julia nor I have a problem with that.”

Rognes would have Julia again. He got to keep her, and Julia would have two masters. It was a happy ending for everyone.

Perfect!

Seeing Wayne’s ‘nice’ smile, Aztimor felt something was amiss. She took Shadow Nightmare and decided to observe further.

“I’ll take Monica to the human world. It’s my pet there, so I’ll grant it immortality myself. I don’t need you to enchant it.”

Monica wouldn’t be completely unkillable since if someone could destroy all of Aztimor’s knowledge with one hit, Monica would die. That, however, was beyond the capability of anyone in the Chosen Land at this moment.

“Oh, right. There’s Holy Maiden Sukra, too. I’ve promised to support her forever after this battle. She’ll lead a life free of worldly concerns. She can just lie down for the rest of her life.”

“Sukra...” Aztimor frowned deeply. Her yearning for Her faith as a vassal made Her dislike the hardworking Holy Maiden.

“You’ve been asleep for too long, unaware of the changes that have taken place in the mortal realm,” Wayne said. “The Church of Death no longer exists in the Chosen Land. The Philosopher’s Stone that housed the headquarters is in my possession. I can take some of your people with me when I leave and have them rebuild the headquarters. You should make the arrangement.”

“Do you have any suggestions?”

“I’m fine with anyone being the pope or the great sage,” Wayne said with interest. “As for the Holy Maiden, Ryza, the former Holy Maiden, will be an interesting choice. She’s Sukra’s master. Let’s go with her.”

Now Aztimor also came to dislike Ryza.

It wasn’t impossible to send higher-ups of the church from the Divine Realm to the human world since gods weren’t limited by the same spatial constraints. They could bypass them. Ines had proven to Wayne that She could enter Heaven or grab someone from Hell as long as She wanted to, and She could come and go in the human world at will.

The reason that the goddesses never descended to the human world as their true selves after creating their Divine Realms was their wariness of Elohim and each other. After Elohim’s departure, the goddesses also had to worry about the Final Judgment, which made them even more reluctant to enter the human world.

Moreover, who knew if Elohim had departed for real? What if He was still hiding in some bush?

Even without Wayne’s help, Aztimor could send demigods to the human world. That, however, would come with a problem. If She sent demigods to the human world, the other goddesses would follow. Like an arms race, an implicitly agreed-upon rule could not be unbroken once someone broke it.

“Don’t worry. With me in the human world, you goddesses won’t be able to stir up much trouble.”

Wayne raised an eyebrow. Once he cleared all the Divine Realms, none of the goddesses would be able to ignore him. Then he would have nothing to worry about.

He raised an eyebrow at Aztimor. “Ryza and Sukra are both Holy Maidens, and I’m your knight in the human world. If anything urgent happens, you can hop on all three of our bodies.”

“Ha.”

Aztimor smiled faintly. Her damnable, shameless, and despicable master was too full of himself. She wanted nothing more than for Wayne to get out of Her hair. She would have to be mad to seek him out in the human world, to Her own chagrin. If She ran into the equally shameless Ines and received an invitation to tag-team Wayne, Her loss would be even greater.

Wayne rubbed his bottom against the throne to mark his territory while lamenting the way it dug into his butt. He came down from the throne and floated to the floor below, dropping to one knee with Shadow Nightmare in hand.

The master of the goddess had logged off, and the goddess’s knight had logged in. He would be Her knight in the most proper sense of the word.

Since he had promised to maintain Aztimor’s dignity, he would keep Her corruption a secret. When there were other people around, he would call Her ‘my goddess’.

That was necessary. Otherwise, if the truth got out, Aztimor would have a hard time keeping Her head up around other goddesses. Unwanted comments would be thrown Her way. She could forget about having afternoon tea with the other girlies in the future.

Elian: It is a stain on my record that I ever saw Aztimor as my archenemy.

Ines: Wayne, let me have Aztimor for two days. I want to play with Her.

Siluk: Aztimor looks like a dog from the back.

Kaleb: Wayne might have beaten Aztimor until She fell to Her knees to make Her a bed slave!

Who are you to call yourself a goddess and our equal? Go back to the basement! x4

The goddesses couldn’t be expected to show Aztimor sympathy. They had all maxed out their sarcasm level and would only ever mock Aztimor when She was at Her lowest.

Aztimor looked down at Wayne, who obediently knelt before Her. Taking a deep breath, She recovered Her superior bearing as a goddess.

Pointing in the air, She lowered Her eyes and cast infinite thoughts to bring Her divine light to all twelve levels of the Underworld, unfreezing the souls and lifting the seals.

Thud!

Grau’s forward momentum made him stumble. He said in confusion, “What’s going on? Something seems to have happened...”

He stopped himself, hurrying up to Rognes and Saigner to get on one knee behind Wayne.

Sitting on the divine throne, Aztimor appeared dignified and noble with a serene face and a shimmering robe. Direct observation was forbidden, so too were any sacrilegious actions.

Through the colored lenses of faith, Rognes, Grau, and Saigner saw an intangible aura around the goddess. Her energy demanded awe and respect. Any inappropriate thoughts or offensive ideas would vanish in face of the power, and their thoughts and gazes were unworthy of contact with Her sanctity.

Wayne didn’t share their perspective. In his eyes, Aztimor looked like a cat that would purr with the right petting method.

Outside the temple, Julia popped her head in. On her head, Monica looked up.

Something inside them had returned to Aztimor, so they were no longer the goddess’s incarnations. However, the sense of familiarity remained. They found the goddess noble and radiant. They wanted to nuzzle Her.

“You’ve finally awakened from your slumber, Goddess!” Rognes said in a trembling voice, his loyalty apparent in his tone.

Any other superiors would be rewarding him handsomely, but Aztimor found him grating. Thinking about how much Rognes had contributed to Her current situation, She wanted nothing more than to strangle this unfilial son of Hers.

Her grievances also colored Her perception of Grau. I told you to keep the cat safe, but you tossed her to the human world and forgot about her. You’re the reason why photos of the cat taking care of her business were taken.

A full stack of them!

She couldn’t bear to look at Rognes and Grau, nor could She think of any praise for them. After a while, Her gaze landed on Saigner.

I chose you!

“Saigner.”

“My goddess, I, Saigner, am at your service, awaiting your oracle at any time.”

Saigner’s heart thumped. Thinking back to the treacherous actions that made her no different from a traitor, she couldn’t help but start trembling on one knee.

Please don’t banish me from the Underworld. Please.

“I’m glad that you’ve woken up at the last moment, Saigner, but you’ve come to your senses too late. I find that disagreeable. As your punishment, you’ll no longer be my subordinate god.” Aztimor narrowed Her eyes. “Wayne is more loyal and more talented than you are. He’ll replace you and exercise the authority of Death on my behalf.”

Saigner blanched, accepting the order with her head bowed in deference.

“Goddess, this subordinate believes that decision to be rash.” Wayne looked up and rolled his eyes at Aztimor. That wasn’t part of their agreed-upon script. It was wrong for Her to add an extra scene on Her own.

There are many witnesses here, so I’ll stay on my knee for you. Once they’re gone... you don’t want to kneel instead, do you?

He sent Her a few heavily censored images with his thoughts. With some difficulty, one could make out that the one on Her knees was Ines.

She was kneeling in a distinctly high-society manner!