*-Roxy-*

It's barely been two months since I left Buena, and quite frankly I am slightly regretting that decision. I'm traveling south, but I'm having to take a massive detour to go through the Red Dragon's Lower Jaw instead of going through the mountain range. Everyday I wake up feeling cold without Rudeus's warmth beside me. The only thing stopping me from turning around and going back is my desire to get stronger.

With the help of Koi, my Kumu, I was able to stay in contact with Rudeus and the others. Honestly I left and now I'm hearing that Phoebe is one of the Great Powers. It felt like I was being left in the dust.

Though Rudeus did teach me of an extremely useful technique during one of our calls. While I was on the road with my limited knowledge of silent casting Rudy was able to teach me how to condense my mana.

Honestly that technique alone would get him the status of being an honor student back in Ranoa if being a silent spell caster didn't already.

It essentially increased my mana pool by five times for crying out loud! It was revolutionary. I suddenly went from only being able to cast 2-3 cumulonimbuses a day to around 14-15.

Honestly the things he knew.

Since I couldn't think of a task for them and it could save me a bunch of money in traveling fees I was riding on Koi's back. They had grown larger so I could fit pretty easily and we were cruising through the mountain range at a speed in between going too slow and too fast. Though as we approached another traveler as they were passing by Koi stopped as a feeling of dread flew over me.

The traveler was looking at me with cold golden eyes. Koi quickly sat me down and circled me in a protective manner.

"Roxy Migurdia? You are not supposed to be here. And what an odd creature. I've never seen one like it before. What is this?"

I couldn't move. This horrid feeling was quickly spreading through my body. It was like the blood in my veins was completely frozen over. I hadn't even noticed the fact I had soiled myself as the man grew closer.

"Something is changing, and it can't be good. If new monsters such as this are being made then could it be his doing?"

The man took a step forward and reached towards Koi. She snapped her tail towards him and a scraping sound, like metal scratching metal, could be heard.

"Hmph. I suppose that's to be expected."

The man grabbed Koi's tail as she swung it again and tore it off.

"K-Koi!"

"No blood? And it seems as if there is no blood, tissue, or muscle inside. Just what is this thing? It's leaking magic? Perhaps a magical implement? But made by who? Perhaps one of the new Great Powers? They are new."

The man turned his eyes back to me.

"Where did you get this?"

"I-..."

"This creature. Where did you get it?"

"I- gah uh."

I felt my muscles go limp as my eyelids slowly closed.


*-Phoebe-*

Roxy's Kumu went offline and I'm going to her. Contact Yuki to join us as soon as you can!

I sent Thorn a message as I went through an ice portal made by Yuki. The only reason I didn't go get him myself was because he said he was going to Yggdrasil, and I still haven't been there so I couldn't teleport there. To make an ice mirror somewhere I needed to have a general idea of where it was and what it looked like, and since I was unconscious whenever Thorn made Yggdrasil all I had to go off of was some Asuran plains.

I could only get to Roxy because she had Koi with her, but she was fading fast.

As I got through I saw what was left of Koi's body disintegrate and a large man standing over Roxy who I could only pray was unconscious.

"Hey! Who the hell are you, and what did you do to Roxy?!"

The man looked over and looked at me with dark gold eyes. That's when I felt it. A wave of dread tried to force its way through me the same way it did when I was close to my old teacher, Daeos. Though whatever this guy had wasn't as powerful as Daeos's field of despair.

"You seem unfazed by my curse. Might you be the new Goddess of Fear?"

"I asked you first. What'd you do to her?!"

"All I did was ask her a question. She then passed out out of fear from my curse. It is not the first time this has happened."

"Did-"

"Before you say anything else there is something I need to know. Have you ever heard of Hitogami?"

"Who?"

"I suppose that answers my question. Now as for who you are. Just who are you?"

"I asked that first."

"Hmph. I am Orsted, the Dragon God."

Shit. Number two? Why?!

"Phoebe Asura, fourth princess of Asura and Goddess of Fear. I'm also the 'mother' of the Kumu you destroyed."

"Kumu? Ah the odd fish-like creature. As you aren't one of Hitogami's apostles why don't we talk while we wait for your friend to awaken."

"Sure. Quick question is it fine with you if I get rid of that curse of yours? It's not affecting me, but it's pretty annoying."

"Get rid of my curse? Feel free to try, but don't be disappointed if you fail. I have tried every method known and I have always ended in failure."

"Sure sure. Just sit down and let's get started."

Orsted sat down and I sat in front of him. I held my hand out and tried pulling at the curse.

A couple hours passed and after some trial and error I pulled my hand back. Now resting in my palm was a black and pink orb. Radiating off of it was pure fear.

Orsted looked shocked at it.

"That is my curse?"

"Yep. All gone!"

"How- what-... what are you?"

"A prodigy, though my husband is much more prodigious than me."

"A husband? At your age? Who-"

Crash!

The sound of a mirror shattering rang throughout the small cave like system we found ourselves in, and an overwhelming aura filled to the brim with bloodlust slowly approached us.

"Speak of the devil, and they shall appear."

I looked back and saw two silhouettes walked out of some smoke.

One was a gigantic fox with multiple eyes and large orbs of blue fire quickly flying around it. The red markings around its body pulsed with energy as it barred its teeth and its growl shook the floor beneath me.

In between this fox's legs was a much smaller figure. Though their presence didn't seem all too threatening those who knew them were sure to be filled with terror if they saw him.

Their physique was that of a seven year old human male. Their eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, and their face twisted into one of pure malice as smoke flew up from the edges of their mouth. Four arms were visible on them. In his left arms was a longsword much larger than he was. His front right arm was pitch black and had some form of black dust flowing around it. In his back right hand was a gorgeous staff.

It was made of golden wood much like my own, but unlike mine his staff had two magic stones, one on both ends. There was no extra wood used to hold them together, so the purple stone and the blue stone seemed to just stick to their respective ends.

Thorn reached up and removed his sunglasses. The eye he received from Randolf was glowing bright red, and his other eye had what looked like a purple vortex spinning wildly in its socket.

Orsted rose up and looked at Thorn seriously.

"Yeah I'd say to get ready for a fight. Whether or not you actually hurt Roxy doesn't matter to him right now. As far as he's considered you not only broke a gift he gave to her, but your actions knocked her unconscious. Just try to not kill him, please."

"Hmph."

Orsted grunted and walked towards Thorn.

"You wouldn't happen to know someone named Hitogami, would you?"

Thorn ignored Orsted as he asked his question and instead raised his staff above his hand. It floated up and started spinning wildly as the area around us got really hot.

Orsted charged forward, and slammed his fist against a barrier that Thorn must have formed.

'Can he see that?'

Orsted mumbled something to himself. I couldn't hear him over the whirring of Thorn's staff, but once he uttered his words he continued past the barrier. Thorn's eyes widened as he did so.

As Orsted got closer Yoko opened his mouth and fired an extremely powerful beam of blue fire at him. Orsted jumped into the air easily avoiding the attack, but putting himself in the line of fire of the fireballs circling Yoko. Instead of finding some way to dodge the fireballs Orsted instead just started to destroy them with his bare hands.

He landed on the ground and blocked an attack from Thorn's longsword. Orsted easily grabbed and shattered the sword, but Thorn simply held his hands out and in a flurry of stars he made another one.

Orsted opened his mouth to try and say something, but a shard of rock that had been forming above Thorn's staff shot through Orsted's arm. Orsted stumbled back with wide eyes, but readied himself as he blocked another strike from Thorn and once again shattered his sword.

This time however Thorn reached out with his black hand and a flurry of black dust shot towards Orsted. Orsted muttered some words again, and the dust settled and disappeared. Not only that, but Thorn's arm also disappeared. Thorn jumped back as Orsted's eyes followed him curiously.

Orsted started mumbling to himself again, but got cut off as a huge purple beam of fire shot at him as Yoko spit fire through the spinning staff.

This time Orsted had been to preoccupied trying to say what I assume to be an incantation to notice. Even at his current size Yoko was still as stealthy as ever.

As the fire died down Orsted rose up. You couldn't say that he was unharmed as you could definitely see some scorch marks on him, but for the heat and damage that thing produced you certainly would've expected more. Under some of his now burnt cloak I could see what looked like scales starting to appear on Orsted's skin.

Orsted mumbled his incantation again, and this time a large portion of Thorn's stomach disappeared.

'Alright I should probably stop this before this gets out of hand.'

The two seemed to be getting ready to attack each other again, so I grabbed the orb that held Orsted's curse and pumped mana into it. Both parties froze in place as I started walking towards them.

"Okay. I'd say that's enough of that. Did you both enjoy yourselves?"

I smiled towards both Thorn and Orsted as I lessened the amount of mana I was using.

"How's Roxy?"

"She's fine. She didn't have a hurt hair on her head. She just got so scared she fell unconscious, but honestly I can't blame her. The big guy's curse was pretty powerful."

"Hmph."

Orsted gave another grunt as he nodded his head.

"Speaking of the big guy, this is Orsted. You know the Dragon God aka the Second of the Seven Great Powers."

"Oh? I thought number two would've been stronger."

"Hmph. I hadn't started using magic yet. One of my curses makes my mana regenerate excruciatingly slowly, so I'd prefer if I didnt have to use it."

"Huh. Most people wouldn't share that kind of information."

"You simply look like someone I use to know, but you are not him."

Orsted looked away. He looked sad, like someone thinking back on difficult memories.

"Though you ignored my question from before. Have you heard of the name Hitogami?"

"No. Are they some sort of enemy of yours?"

Orsted's hand balled into a fist and he clenched his teeth.

"Yes. I will kill that fake god. If you ever have someone claiming to be a god show up in your dreams then I pray you ignore them. I'd rather not kill you."

"In my dreams? Oh! That's what happened to James!"

"What?!"

"Yeah. James Boreas Greyrat. We had him held captive for a bit, and one night he passed out and I noticed some weird mana poking around in his head. I messed with it, and I saw James talking to three people. One was some weird statue looking guy, another was the same statue but beaten and broken, and the other was some weird masked dude. The place we were in was a large white area with nothing in sight. From the way he was talking it sounded like the broken statue really hated me for some reason, but I've never met them or sensed their mana before, so I don't know why."

"You said he looked like a statue?"

"Yeah, but honestly it was more like he had a body, but it just doesn't have a description. It's really weird."

"How about this?"

Orsted fished into his cloak and pulled out a piece of paper. On it was a drawing of a naked statue whose body had no details, except for the shit eating grin spread across its face.

"That's him alright. How'd you get that?"

"I found a temple quite a ways away from here that was built by one of his idiotic apostles to worship him. Yo- an old friend told me that I should sketch things out instead of just sending people to random places, and assuming they'll find what I tell them to. This statue was built in the center of the building."

"I see."

"Well I must leave. I have business elsewhere, and I must hurry before my window is cut off."

"Alright see you- and he's gone."

Thorn turned behind him.

"Man that guy can run really fast when he wants too."

"Ugh. What happened?"

Roxy slowly got up from the make shift bed Thorn made for her.

"Huh? Rudeus, and Phoebe too? I must be dreaming."

"Nope. We're here Roxy."

"Oh. What... Ah! We have to run! There's an extremely-"

"Roxy it's fine." I walked up and put my hand on her shoulder as I sat beside her. "Orsted isn't actually that bad of a guy. You were mainly scared of him because of this."

I held up the orb.

"What is that?"

"It's his curse. It made any living thing that got near him either deathly scared of him or extremely aggressive to him."

Once Thorn and I explained the situation to her, Roxy and Thorn sat together as they talked for a bit, and I repaired Koi. Thankfully her core was still in tact, and I had her all fixed up and back to normal in less than an hour.

"Master!"

Koi transformed into a small girl and jumped into Roxy's arms.

"Koi! You're okay?!"

"Yes ma'am! The creator fixed me!"

"Thank you. Really."

"Of course. What are fellow wives for, am I right?"

Roxy blushed heavily as she hugged Koi closer. It was almost as if she were trying to use her as a shield... and the shield fought back.

"Heehee! Master loves the Life Giver!"

Roxy's blush got deeper and deeper.

"Aaaaw~ Well once she's gotten to a point where she's satisfied with her strength I'd be more than happy to give her life if you know what I'm saying."

"Pfft haha."

I couldn't help but laugh as Roxy somehow got even redder. Her face looked completely empty as she mumbled to herself dazed.

Once Roxy was back to normal Thorn and I left her on her merry way, and we went back to Buena.


*-Orsted-*

That... was not what I was expecting.

I have been through many loops before this. Starting far in the past, I would live on for multiple centuries until once again the loop reset, and I was back where I started. Each one was the same, and in each one I had the same mission: Eliminate Hitogami, the Man God.

The false god who tricked the original dragon god into destroying the other five worlds. He was the source of my hatred, and after hundreds upon hundreds of failed attempts I finally succeeded in getting to him. I didn't kill him like I originally planned, however. Instead, when he told one of my companions that if he died then the world would crumble as well, she decided to simply break him apart and seal him away. So that's what we did.

We removed his limbs and sealed every part of him in the Void World he bunkered down in. And now I'm back here. I miss those companions. Even if we find Hitogami just to seal him away again, and fail the loop, it would be worth it to spend time with that family again.

And to do that, I'd need to check and see if the anomaly was here again.

Rudeus Greyrat.

He was a boy I had never seen before, and as he lived and interacted with this world more and more, things deviated from the way I knew them. It was his descendants that assisted me in taking down Hitogami. Unfortunately, he hadn't lived long enough to see his downfall.

So after dealing with some major points of interest, I started going to the Fittoa region. He hadn't told me which village he hailed from, but I knew he'd be easy to track down. His magical aura was always let loose. And yet, in the end, it was him that found me.

Coincidentally it mirrored our first meeting, however the roles were reversed. When I was walking through the mountains I stumbled across one of Rudeus's wives from the previous loop. However, she was early. She should have stayed with Rudeus until he became a Saint-Rank Water mage, and that should be some time after his fifth birthday. Even if she were to leave immediately after his birthday she shouldn't have able to get down here so fast, but the answer soon revealed itself as an odd magical creature in the shape of some kind of aquatic animal.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I ended up destroying the creature. At some point Roxy fell unconscious and another girl appeared, however I did not recognize this one. She introduced herself as an Asuran princess and as the new Goddess of Fear. She had no recollection of someone called Hitogami, so we talked while we waited for Roxy to awaken. She even lived up to her name and removed the curse causing people to always fear me, and I've been trying to do that since the beginning of these loops!

Then he came. Like a roaring storm he stepped through a mirror made of ice similar to what the princess, Phoebe, had done. Having just gotten there he misunderstood the situation and attacked me.

All in all I could tell he was strong, but from the anger physically coming off of him, and the way he didn't try to pull a single punch I could tell that he wasn't my friend, Rudeus. He looked almost exactly like him. The only difference being the white hair, his extra arms, and odd demon eyes, but it wasn't him. He carried himself differently.

The Rudeus I knew always underestimated his own power, but not this one. This Rudeus had an air of confidence coming from him. The confidence of someone strong, the confidence of someone brave, some might say the confidence of a king, and if Phoebe being his fiancé was anything to go by then it was highly likely that he could be one in the future.

Something odd I realized in our battle was the boy's reaction to Disturb Magic. Anytime I used it close to him him body disintegrated much like a spell would. Damn, I forgot to ask about that. I suppose I should ask if we meet again.

Once we parted ways I was sad to know that my friend was gone. There was a new ally yes, but he wouldn't be the same. To be truthful? I shed some tears. I'll admit it, but I won't blame myself for it. For the first time in millions of years I had found someone I had considered a friend, and his descendants were my family.

But it was gone now. It was all gone.


*-Rudeus-*

Well that was... certainly a way to start the day.

Note to self, Kumu messages and calls cannot be received when on top of Yggdrasil's branches.

Why was I up there?

I wanted to make a staff. I'd managed to figure out how to make my own mana crystals, but for that I needed an impossible amount of ambient mana. An amount that just so happened to be available in the higher branches of Yggdrasil. I loved my baton don't get me wrong, but after some testing (Read: showing off) with Phoebe's new staff I realized just how strong a good staff was. I had put my baton in storage for now. Never know when you need to play the part of the fool after all.

I left late in the night. Just a little before midnight. Once I was on top of Yggdrasil I found a solid branch near the top, and I started the process of cutting it up into small pieces and engraving magic circles into it. I could get the process done quicker now that I had control over my magic arm. It was as easy as picturing the shape of the magic circle and then quickly printing it with my mana.

Once I had finished my staff I flew down off of Yggdrasil and got a distress message from Phoebe.

I quickly formed a longsword out of the earth under me and got ready to go.

Once I got Yuki to take me there I immediately attacked the stranger. All in all I'd consider that fight a complete loss on my part. My strongest attacks as well as Yoko's seemed to have little to no effect on him. Then he started using some kind of spell to scramble mana, and that fucked me up in all sorts of ways. I filled in the gaps temporarily and once Phoebe and I made sure Roxy was okay we went back to Buena.

I immediately started fixing my body as the scrambling of my mana was slowly spreading through my body like a virus, and after a couple of hours of hell I was able to fix it. Phoebe got some kind of crazy powerful fear curse from the whole ordeal which made her really happy.

As an apology for the whole scrambled mana thing, well... let's just say Phoebe made sure we were the only ones in her house for a few days.

It's been about a month since then and I still have no idea how Orsted pulled that off. I've been experimenting with scrambling mana and while I knew the effects and what it did I couldn't figure out how to cast the spell. I knew the end result, but didn't know how to start.

Phoebe said that Orsted always mumbled before the spell so it had an incantation, but that didn't help much since I had no way of knowing it.

For now I've decided to just put the Disturb Magic experiments on the back burner for now. Instead I've been spending some rest time with Sylphie and my siblings.

On an entertaining note Kuroi has joined Lilia on many of her outings in the past month. They were now officially dating! My mom was so stoked about it that she had me help her throw Lilia a small party, and by that I mean she had me help her make dinner exclusively out of Lilia's favorite foods. Aurora joined us as well, but she mainly just sat nearby while I sung whatever song she requested.

Paul and Cyrus both assumed it to be a normal dinner, but from the small smile tugging at Lilia's lips as she ate, Mom and I could tell she noticed.

"Try and add a bit more mana in the speed step."

Sylphie and I sat looking over Buena as she practiced honing her mana control.

Sylphie just sat still with her eyes closed as a water ball formed in front of her and shot forward. Her spells were naturally bigger than Cyrus and Aurora's, but they moved a little slower.

The water ball shot out at around the average speed for a regular water ball spell.

"Nice! How much mana did that consume?"

"Barely any."

I reached out and started patting Sylphie's head. She hummed and leaned into my hand. Honestly I think she might be addicted. Any time I offered her praise and didn't pat her head she'd pout and stick her head towards me until I pet her. It was like a dog starved of attention, though Phoebe and I made sure Sylphie had enough of that.

Sylphie and I continued to just sit there for a bit and watch the scenery.

Down in the fields some birds were hopping through the grass. I looked up and saw that Yoko and Win were in their miniature animal forms sleeping on a branch together. It was looked nice.

My eyes started feeling heavy, and as I looked around I let my eyes rest on Sylphie as they slowly closed.


*-Sylphie-*

"Eep!"

I felt something lean on my shoulder peaked over to see Rudy's sleeping face lean on me.

As I sat there and felt Rudy's breath on my shoulder I couldn't help but think of a conversation I had with Phoebe.


*-Two weeks ago-*

"Hey Sylphie! You got a minute?"

I looked up from the figurine I was sculpting. It was something Rudy and Cyrus introduced me to as a way to increase my mana. It was a figurine modeled after Rudy... as almost all of the figurines I made were.

Ever since I learned what nude modeling was I kept getting a bad thought in my head. If I asked to use my favor for Rudy to model for me would he?

"Hm? Yeah, gimme a second."

I handed the figurine to Win who ate it to store in his stomach. I don't really know how it works, but it's useful for carrying around heavy stuff.

Phoebe started walking as I hopped off the branch I was sitting on. We walked for a while until we got to her house.

She closed the door and then closed her eyes. Once she opened them back up she led me over to a couch and we sat down.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Quite the contrary actually. So you like Thorn right?"

"Rudy? Y-yeah! Of course I do."

I could feel my face heat up a little as Phoebe smiled at me.

"As in like like? Like love?"

I could really feel my face getting hot now.

"U-um... I..."

"Sylphie."

"H-hm?"

"When we grow up would you like to marry Rudy with Roxy and I? And another if Rudy finds someone else he'd like to bring into this little harem of his?"

"I... I do. But... what's a harem?"

I never got my answer as the rest of that evening was spent with Phoebe doting on me and talking non stop about my 'pure innocence.' She told me to never change, but don't I have to grow up to marry Rudy?!

Marry Rudy...


*-Present Day-*

A blush spread across my face as I looked back at Rudy. Mom always read me fairy tails since I was a baby.

Stories about princesses being saved by knights in shining armor, and heroes defeating evil villains.

When Rudy heard I liked stories he'd taught me how to read and has been giving me books. Papa says books are meant to be super expensive, but Rudy makes them with the wave of his hand. Literally.

He's even given some to Momma. She says their called romance novels. I asked if I could read one once. Her face turned pink and said I could when I'm a little older. I did peak a little into one of the books. My mom got very red when I asked her what a 'nude model' was. She wasn't happy I peaked in her book. She asked Rudy where he got these books from, and he just said he thinks of a genre and the stories write themselves, but when I asked Phoebe about it she giggled and said that any books Rudy makes are books he read himself.

I was a little confused as to why Rudy lied to Momma, but he if didn't want to tell then I wouldn't.

I asked Phoebe what a 'nude model' was... it was definitely an adult thing...

The stories that were in the books that Rudy gave me were different from the books Momma used to read to me. In these books the bad guys sometimes had a reason for what they did. Instead of being evil just to be evil sometimes they'd do it to save someone they love, or to try and stop discrimination. Sometimes while the things they were doing were bad overall, there were parts where you might agree with them.

Rudy says discrimination was what the other kids used to do to me. Not letting me play with them and bullying me because I was different. If Rudy and Roxy didn't help me then would I have become a villain if I kept being discriminated against?

I asked Rudy, but he hugged me and told me it wasn't possible. He was extra nice the rest of the week, and I may or may not have used that to get more head pats. Maybe just a little evil. In a not so bad way.

My favorite parts were always when the hero and his 'love interest' can finally be together. It reminded me of a certain super powerful and cool mage who just so happened to be napping on my shoulder. Ever since we met I always thought of him as a knight in shining armor.

Every time Rudy breathed I could feel just a little breath go over my shoulder. My heart felt fluttery as I watched Rudy sleeping. I slowly tilted my head so my head was stacked on his. My ear felt a little warm as it sat on top of his head. I leaned in a little more and I could feel his chest moving as he breathed in and out.

I listened as I heard the breath move past his lips. I reached forward and put my lips on his. Really quick I moved back to where I was as my whole body started feeling hot.

I did it!

...

I kinda wanna do it again.

...

Just a little evil.


*-Phoebe-*

Oh I am so teasing her later.

Peaking through a glass screen I could see Sylphie and Thorn sitting under their tree. Thorn fell asleep and had his head leaning on Sylphie, and Sylphie has been taking this opportunity to steal about seven kisses. She looked like she was gonna go for an eighth, but Thorn's head fell into her lap leading to her giving him a lap pillow.

Sylphie's face had gone so red she looked like a deep red apple. She had cupped her hands on her cheeks and was giggling as she waved her head around.

Based on the small smile spreading on his face it seems that sleeping beauty wasn't as sleepy as I thought.

Guess I get to tease them both now. Bwahahaha!

What? Judging the laugh? What's wrong with being a little evil?


Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! A surprise visit from Orsted and a general update on some things after a one month time skip. See y'all next time!