A Game of Fate

Chapter 8

Goddess Umi

Umi lead Honoka to her shrine and immediately got down to business.

"I am Sonoda Umi and I am one of the descendants of the Goddess Muse."

"I am…"

"I know who you are. You are Kousaka Honoka and you've been searching for answers. It all started when your little town just below the mountain experienced its first taste of the mountain. When you ventured here to find out what was going on, you were introduced to a new world that you were easily able to adapt to. There's no need to explain yourself. I know everything."

At that moment, Honoka gulped incredibly loud. She was getting that overwhelming feeling again as if there was something different about this girl. Obviously, there was something different about this girl, but Honoka didn't know what it was. Ever since she had tea with the two of them, she knew that things were changing very rapidly without any time to take it all in.

"Alright. So then you know what this means then?"

"I do. You plan on challenging me. Allow me to explain the game." At that moment, the two of them were shot to opposite sides of the room and landed on a catwalk high above the floor. "This game is quite simple. You will be given an army of a hundred and your objective is to either defeat the enemy force or get behind their lines, whichever comes first. To your left, you will see a head piece. Put that on your head and you will be able to telepathically communicate with your army. Give them an order of any kind and they will follow it to the letter. What you think or feel… They think and feel. This army is you. Do you understand?"

"I think so. So if I win…"

"I'll stop you right there. I know I've never went against anyone else before, but I can almost guarantee that your journey will end here."

"Let's just think about the hypothetical then."

"Alright. What do you want?"

"If I win, will you tell me what you know since you seem to know a lot?"

"That is true, but I won't be able to do that. If you somehow manage to beat me, you will still have to go up against the top goddess."

"What is the big deal about this top goddess? You guys keep making a big deal about it, but I don't get it."

"It's nothing something to understand. Are you ready to do this?" Umi put her head piece on and looked over at Honoka.

At the same time, Honoka could feel the daggers that the girl had for eyes and immediately put on the head piece. She then nodded her head and took a deep breath.

"Let's begin."

…

The sound of her voice caused another change inside the shrine. Below her feet, her army of hundred men appeared as well as Umi's army. Also, a huge prairie field appeared as the landscape. It wasn't anything too special. There were a good amount of trees, but most of it was open field.

This automatically made Honoka feel nervous. Just looking at the terrain meant that this girl was trying to fight her head-on or have a fight to the wits. Looking at the numbers, they were even so going full force wasn't smart either.

"Show me the true you right now!" Umi threw her arm forward and caused 10 of her men to run towards Honoka's army. With little to no effort, her men slaughtered Honoka's men.

As she watched it happened, Honoka could barely even stand it. Her army literally put up no fight whatsoever. She tried getting another group of soldiers to take them on, but it was no use. They were slaughtered just like the group before. However, Honoka couldn't lay her arms down just yet. She ordered another group to branch off to the sides to avoid the main group guarding the middle of the map. At the same time, she sent the rest of her troops to take on the majority of Umi's forces.

"Stupid girl, I'm not that gullible." Umi redirected most of her attention to the troops coming from her right. Before she could change up her tactics, Umi's forces already engaged her main force. Meanwhile, the rest of the Honoka's forces engaged the middle group with hopeless effort.

"No, retreat! You can't…" Her words were wasted. Her eyes witnessed the murder of over half of her men.

"It's useless. Nothing can escape my knowledge."

"Shut up! You don't know anything." She commanded her men to create a hole within their defenses. They did their absolute best, but only managed to kill a small number of soldiers.

"I know everything."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"You stand no chance so I will tell you the true me. Ever since you stepped foot on this mountain, I knew that we goddesses were in for a change. I could see you making progress because the goddesses all have flaws. Even I have my flaws, but I've matured enough to not let it affect me."

"That's impossible. You shouldn't be able to do something like that."

"I am a goddess. My power is knowledge. No one in this world can foresee the things that I can. This the reason why you will not be able to beat me. This will be the end of the line for you." Umi looked down and ordered her troops to push Honoka's forces into a corner. "With this move, you lose. Kill them all!"

Ding! The bell and the alarm sounded before anyone could make a move. Umi was confused as why the game was over. She hadn't even delivered the final attack. That's when she looked down to see one of Honoka's troops behind her own troops.

"What?! How is this…"

The shrine returned to its original state of normalcy while Umi was still in shock.

"What is going on? I saw through all of your moves. It's impossible for you to win."

Boom! The shrine doors opened loudly as the two of them turned their heads in wonder. They saw the caretaker walk into the shrine completely unannounced.

"What are you doing here? You have no right to be in here."

"Shut up! I have more than enough reason to be here. I can even explain to you why you lost."

"I didn't lose. This girl just got lucky."

"Oh please, she had you the moment you explained the rules."

"What are you talking about?"

"You brought this girl to her knees, mentally. That's when she decided to try something. She used that weak mind to trick you into thinking that her army was weak. While they preoccupied your army, she used a lone troop with the weakest morals to penetrate through your defenses and make it to the other side. The reason why you lost is because you let your own strength and knowledge get the best of you."

"That's impossible."

"Shut your mouth. Your time is over. I'll be taking your powers now."

"No, please. I didn't fail…"

At that moment, the caretaker gripped Umi by the neck and brought her to her knees. That's when her hair changed from its beautiful blue glow to a white shade. As this happened, Honoka was completely speechless. She watched as the caretaker suddenly rammed her hand into Umi's chest. The sight literally looked as though all of her life was being sucked out. It only lasted a few seconds before she pulled her arm out of her chest and interesting things started to happen.

The caretaker's hair started to glow bright red as her body was lifted into the air. It was something Honoka had never seen before and she was still shocked about what was happening before her very eyes. Before she could put all of her attention on the caretaker, her eyes reverted back to Umi. Her body fell loosely to the floor, but Honoka ran over to her just in time.

"W-What is going on?"

"It's all up to you now," Umi said slowly.

Honoka tried shaking her awake, but she wouldn't budge. She grew still as Honoka could no longer hear her breathing. That's when she looked up and set Umi's body down gently.

"Who are you?!"

The girls turned around and looked at Honoka with a blank look.

"This is all according to fate. All of this was meant to happen. I am Nishikino Maki and I'm the final descendant of the Goddess Muse."

"Why are you doing this?"

"You've been searching for answers all of this time. I will tell you. However, you won't be able to live after I tell you."

End of Chapter 8