After everything went black, I was currently sitting on a chair in a white room at this moment.
"Good evening, Guardian-san." A familiar voice spoke as a girl with silver hair and purple eyes walked into the room with a refreshed expression.
As you may have guessed it, the girl is the patron goddess of the Eris Cult, the Goddess of Luck herself, Eris.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" Eris sat on the chair opposite to me with a smile on her face.
"To begin with, please stop toying with my heart, Eris-sama. Both literally and figuratively." I sighed as I facepalmed myself.
I just want to ask, what's with the smile on her face? I mean, I am fine with that if she smiled at a peaceful time - by which I meant no one died or something like that. Seriously, we just lost a nice teammate and she still have the time smiling? Are you kidding me?
"Second, I would like you to revive Saki. Or rather, it would be better if you can reverse the process of becoming a lich."
Eris' face stiffened after she heard my second request.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, I am literally the opposite of being one of them, but even I can tell Eris also played a part in Saki's death.
Considering the fact that Eris harboured an unexplainable hatred towards the undead, she is most likely be the one who directed this partially, if not entirely.
Eris bit her lip and glanced around.
"I can comply with your first request, but not the second one, Guardian-san." Eris took a deep breath before uttering the line.
"Why not?" I asked in a calm tone.
Eris stared at me wordlessly with a blank expression.
"Why wouldn't you help me? Neither is this hard to complete, nor is it a willful request." I continued as I stared back.
"...Because she doesn't deserve it."
"What do you mean by 'she doesn't deserve it'?" I raised an eyebrow as I couldn't help but ask a question at her statement.
"She isn't worthy to be revived as she is an undead person." Eris continued as she glared daggers at me.
"Is that so? Give me some proof to back that up." I replied as I glared back.
"How about you give me evidence to corroborate this first?" Eris answered my question with another question of hers.
"Fine! But I would have you to revive Saki as well if I can convince you!"
"Do it if you can! It is not like a mortal like you can change my mind that easily!" Eris challenged as some music rang in the background.
"Uh, if you would excuse me..." Eris stammered as she lowered her head in embarrassment.
"Yeah, go ahead..." I responded with a slightly more gentler tone as Eris left for the seat.
"Hello? This is Eris. Hm? Yes, I understand. I will do my job properly, so please do not worry."
Hm? Could it be that she doesn't really hate her, but she would have to act as one?
However, that assumption should have been overthrown, considering the fact she tried to kill Saki when she was in that world as Chris.
To take this a bit further, this meant that Eris has the intent to exterminate the undead. After all, neither does Chris have the capability of attracting or detecting the undead as she doesn't have her divine aura and powers respectively for each case.
Not to mention the fact the divine realm hardly even knows about Eris' alternate form as Chris, so Eris shouldn't have a reason to pick on the undead without any valid justification in that world as Chris.
I know some might say that Eris is just preventing anyone gathering evidence of her being nice to the undead, something she must not do as a goddess. Yet, what is the point of doing so if the divine deities aren't even aware of her alternate form? This just makes zero sense. I mean, why would a person do things reluctantly when s/he isn't being kept under someone's watch?
With all the proof mentioned above, it could not be more obvious that Eris has the intent to kill every undead she met.
Hell, Eris could have lowered the chances of Saki's survival and colluded with Volras if I know, as she is the Goddess of Luck. But I wouldn't say that for now as I don't even have proof of them working together at the moment.
"I don't have the time to argue with you, Guardian-san." Eris sighed as she returned and sat on her chair.
"What a coincidence. Me neither." I said blankly as I rolled my eyes.
"I will be waiting for your justifications about this later on." Eris continued as she snapped her fingers and stared at me with a cold expression.
"Same here. Let's have a chat in that world." I returned the favour as I headed towards the portal.
After I returned from the Heavenly Realm, I found that Saki is slightly more visible then I was summoned.
Yet Volras looked at me with a somewhat annoyed expression.
"Finally! You two finished your lovers spat, huh?" Volras spoke with his arms crossed.
"What the hell, man? I have zero interest in her, okay?" I prodded with an exasperated tone as I shrugged my shoulders.
"Whatever, I have no interest in your love affairs anyway. Let's continue." Volras said coldly as he-
Wait, since when does he own a large sword?
"I suppose you are curious about my sword, Magic Swordmaster." Volras said with a smug smile. "Like what that sword came from, how I summon it and the like."
Shit, how did he know that?
"Well, I will tell you. Since informing you these things wouldn't affect the ultimate result - you being defeated by me in the end anyway, that is." Volras continued in a somewhat prideful tone.
In that case, I suppose the gods and goddesses are not so above it all than us humans. I mean, they indulged in the Seven Deadly Sins as well as us humans do, like how Eris is associated with wrath - exterminate every undead she met; or like Volras, who I would associate him with pride, as he believes he can create a new peaceful world by destroying every factions in existence.
This is pretty much a fked up world, if you ask me. I mean, religion can be called as the face of a world (I guess). When you come look at the various religions in this world, you will come to understand what I meant. Well for starters, the Axis Cult and the Eris Cult never get along, albeit the fact that they share the same goal - to defeat the Demon King's Army; The Regina Cult (or so as I heard) is basically non-existent; The Cult is literally a Doomsday Advocate Association, whereas Wolbach's Cult, the only normal cult, stood with the Demon King.
"Oh by the way, you might want to answer the call first." Volras said in a rather casual tone as he pointed at my communication device with his sword.
"Zulu! Commander Zulu!" Loby's voice rang as I listened.
"What's wrong?" I asked as I kept my eyes on Volras, to ensure he didn't do something odd.
"We are surrounded by lava-producing monsters! Can you come over here?" Loby continued in a slightly panicked tone.
Not this shit again.
"Ok, I am on my way! Wait for me!" I made a response as I sheathed my sword.
Then I looked at Iris, who was currently trying her best to stand her ground against Volras.
I ran towards them and readied my stance.
"Iris, duck!" I yelled as I leapt.
Iris bent over instinctively as I dropkicked Volras in the face.
"Nice work!" I complimented Iris as I beckoned her forward.
"Are you done with your little chat, Magic Swordmaster?" Volras asked as he rose shakily.
"Don't you worry about me. I have everything sorted out." I said with a smug smile.
"Is that so?" Volras showed me a screen.
The screen showed a pit of lava, with monsters with lava-like stripes surrounding the pit.
However, my teammates were nowhere to be seen.
It was at this moment that I knew I fked up.
"Your arrogance; or rather, self-confidence is your downfall, Magic Swordmaster." Volras laughed as he pointed at me.
"You should have ignored me and save your teammates first. Because of your arrogance - thinking you can finish everything, killed your party members." Volras continued coldly as he summoned a black ball of energy.
I teleported Iris out of the place before things went down badly.
"I am sorry that I have failed all of you."
A/N: This is the part one of the chapter.
The info. of the OCs would be on Wattpad soon, considering the fact that links don't work here.
To the person who posted the most recent review:
Thank you for your feedback!
I think you made a good point there, about the part where the other characters got a bit too less appearances. I will definitely work on that.
As for why the Core System seems OP, it would be revealed in the next part, since I read your review while I was in the middle creating the chapter.
I would appreciate it if you could give me some time to finish the next part to explain everything.