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cнapтer х : υnwaverιng wιll

Her smile held nothing but cruel amusement.

"Greetings, mortal. My name is- " her voice sent shivers crawling down my spine, cold sweat springing on my skin along with goosebumps at the downright distasteful way she was making me feel. Before she could even finish speaking I thrashed around in her hold until she ended up dropping me. A small 'oh my' slipped from her lips as I backed away from her once on my own two feet.

". . .Otharis. Your name is Otharis." I stated lowly, clenching my jaw as she merely smiled at me, nodding her head. She was so sickeningly sweet, it made my head spin being in this vast white space all alone with her. "I'm glad to know you remember me, dear Arso. It's quite an honour!~. . Why don't you have a seat and drink some tea while we chat?" The fair-skinned woman with wavy, light pink hair and sky blue eyes gestured towards her side where a white table and chairs had appeared, two steaming cups of what seemed like tea sitting on top, waiting to be drunk.

It was too suspicious.

What the hell kind of holy deity would yank someone's soul out their body just for a conversation with tea? Not to mention she of all people probably knows who it is that's been helping me so I definitely didn't expect her to be so cheerful towards me.

Oh well. . . Better to not jinx it. Cautiously I fix my expression and take a seat at the small table, the goddess taking the other and happily picking up her drink, taking a sip. Her rosy lips touched the edge of the cup softly as she hummed in delight, looking at me as if to coax me to also try it.

I looked at the cup before staring straight back at her. There was no way I was going to be naive enough and drink that. It could be laced or something, maybe with curses and bad luck. I wasn't going to take my chances.

Otharis pouted at my lack of enjoyment. "Come now. Don't be so stiff."

"What did you drag me here for?"

"Hmpf. You're no fun at all! Getting straight to the point is so business-like! It feels like you're trying to keep your distance from me dear Arsooo!~" she cried, waiting for an expression of some sort to paint my blank face.

"Oh no. How tragic." Came my blunt reply, much to the woman's dismay. After having spoken however the sudden intense burning I felt when I was in the church and conscious struck me hard, almost causing me to double over with pain as a short shout left my lips. "Fu-"

"Oh no. How. Tragic~" the words echoed back to me in that sarcastically worried tone made me glare up at the woman, only to suck in a sharp breath at the calm, empty smile she wore. She was toying with me. "It seems I let my aura out and it's affecting you because of that nasty, disgusting and evil crest you have on your hand belonging to the person I hate most in the world! whatever will I do now to help you?" She sighed out in exasperation, suddenly getting up from her seat across from me and making the table disappear, walking the short distance towards me.

"Stay back!" The words flew from my lips before I could help it, my burning hand with the now visible crest cradled against my chest as I tried to stand, only to find I couldn't move at all. My nose scrunched up as I groaned shakily, wincing. The closer she got the more it hurt. It was as if my skin was being peeled off slowly while burned to a crisp. Constant repeated pain. Because of her presence I've been in pain for what felt like hours before having lost conscious, but not that she was right here in front of me it was even worse.

I didn't even notice when she had stopped walking, her feet in front if mine while the white wings on her back stretched widely. She smiled down at me and I could only stare at the ground, stuck to the white chair, heart thundering in my chest as nausea shook my senses.