A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 131: Decapitated Independence

"Not all of us, actually."

Behind Adoray. The voice was behind Adoray's head, so I hadn't seen what deities lay behind him until I bothered to look, cautiously gulping and shifting my head.

     Fantastic. Everyone that just declared war on us and the guy we assaulted twice for literally no reason. Who else wants to show up?

Don't jinx it, Takuya whispered, not daring to move while shivering. His brown hair seemed to have gained the ability to shrivel in fear because it was falling over his face rather than lifting with the natural air it had, like Father's curls. It was suddenly very cold inside. Actually, stop jinxing it. Just don't speak.

Keir was standing behind Adoray, smiling like he was the sun himself. The way he simpered made it seem like he'd won something great, putting his arm on Adoray's shoulder and leaning on him like an old friend. Adoray was frozen in place, looking at Thanos with wide yellow eyes while Thanos stared back with his harmful red ones. I placed the dagger back in my storage to reach up and shut Adoray's eyes, since he didn't seem able to look away, the auras all holding him in place. If he had a tail, I was sure it would've been between his legs no matter how prideful he was.

I felt bad within seconds when I realized his heart was pounding painfully as I could feel it through his chest. My fingers left streaks of red on his face as if closed his eyes, grimacing myself while feeling my cheeks heating. Neither of us was in too good of a position then, and if he hadn't been holding me and I'd been standing on my own, I would've likely fallen over from the first bit of pressure.

     Sorry, Adoray, I apologized in my mind. My breath was shallow and raking my lungs against my ribs. For everything, as per usual.

Keir was looking slick as the first two times I'd encountered him, staring straight up at the 79th deity that was floating straight ahead of us behind Thanos, high in the air. His black hair and eyes were consuming and inky, looking freshly cut and dangerous to be around. It felt like the truest part about him, since his tight gray shirt made him look a lot duller than he was - even while it was outlining his muscles like some sort of male model. There wasn't a millimeter of stubble to be seen on that spectacular jawline, and his hair was tucked neatly behind his ears. I could only see the upper half of him, and already I felt intimidated. He was the same height as Adoray, but the distinct difference between the muscled loli-er...fighter, and the shut-in doctor, was startling to me.

"God of Darkness," the 79th deity - I assumed they were the 79th and therefore the highest based on the amount of aura they put out and how they were next in the circle to Teria, being the first and last. There were great gaps of space where the deities were missing, so they had the greatest distance between them. I could easily look at the spaces that were unfilled and tell that those missing were people I'd killed. The 8th, 15th, 21st, 29th, and 42nd spaces were missing people, along with the 80th through the 101st. The 35th slot being empty was because the guy - or rather, the deity - meant to occupy it was standing less than a foot away from me. In fact, his hand was dangling over my head, twiddling his fingers to mess with me. "What is your reasoning for this?"

"You betray your status?"

"In no way do I do such a thing," Keir answered back, looking straight up nonchalantly at the 79th. It was a lady that had the same look as Seer, decorated with more of a passive position in the hearts of humans, but was much stricter in the air. "I'm only declaring that I have no intention of joining you in your attempts to destroy Paivla's Champion, seeing how I was already invalidated - like most of you - by the [Leviathan Lyncher]."

The what?

He lifted his hand to see my face, giving me another stunning smile again before looking back up to the skeptical goddess in the sky with that purple and orange theme. It reminded me of some sort of jumpsuit for a gym, that lady's armor. I couldn't stop looking at her crown, feeling reminded of my own paper crown I'd hallucinated Sumika ripping apart earlier.