Chapter 20: The Resolve Of This Fallen Goddess!

After everything that had just happened, the caravan that they were supposed to travel back to Axel with had canceled out from under them. Or at least been delayed, anyway. They now had an extra day to spend in Arcanletia before heading out. Theoretically, they could just find someone to teleport the party back but Kazuma had already paid for them to ride on that wagon, which meant that they were going to ride in that wagon! Money didn't grow on trees! Unless you count golden apples but he was pretty sure that those were extinct now thanks to Megumin.

Kazuma laid back in bed after using a quick Wind Breath spell to shut the wooden window to block that accursed thing people called the morning sunlight, which had been trying to shine its way into his room. He'd be damned if he was getting up before noon, at the earliest. He was starting to fall into some bad habits like getting up early and it was about time he finally put a stop to that. Besides, he needed the rest after last night. They all did. It had been practically sunrise by the time they'd gotten back to the inn after that incredibly intense and stressful battle.

What was with that, anyway? They'd freaking killed the Devil King, hadn't they? They shouldn't have to deal with bullshit boss enemies like that anymore! This was the part where they were just supposed to take it easy and coast off of their fame! He should be spending his nights in the royal palace or something, not fighting Deadly Poison Slimes! And then they only survived because of Aqua's stupid chicken! What was even up with that?

Ugh, whatever. Kazuma just rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, his body seemed rather restless despite the fatigue. Perhaps it was time to pull out his trusty old sock and-

There was a knock at his door and Kazuma let out a groan. He really wasn't in the mood for visitors at the moment so he just stayed quiet and pretended to be asleep, hoping that whoever it was would give up and go away. Just as he thought he was alone again, though, he heard another knock.

"Kazuma?" Aqua asked softly. "Kazuma, are you in here?"

Nope, not today. Kazuma continued lying quietly in bed until she eventually got bored and went to go bug someone else. But Kazuma realized as he heard the door open that he'd forgotten to lock it. Well, great, so much for that. What asinine thing did she have for him now?

Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!

Aqua poked her head in through the open doorway and spotted a messy mop of dark hair poking out from under the blankets on the bed, which was certainly smaller than the one in the room next door that she was sharing with Darkness and Cecily. She closed the door quietly behind her before slowly walking over to where Kazuma was resting.

He must have been exhausted after what he'd been through. They all were. Even Aqua herself was tired and she'd barely done anything other than just stand around paralyzed by fear. She wished that she could use her magic to ease the fatigue like she usually would but she still didn't have even the basic Priest powers back. But, she had made up her mind and knew that there was something that she could do for him and that he could do for her in turn.

She brushed her hair out of her face as she steeled her resolve. She really hoped that this wasn't going to be a mistake.

"Kazuma, are you awake?" she asked him.

"No," came a grumbled reply. "Go away."

Aqua took in a deep breath as she tried to work out what she wanted to say. She'd just gone over this conversation several times with the girls to get ready, yet somehow all of that preparation seemed to evaporate in an instant the moment she opened her mouth.

"Um, listen… I've been thinking…"

There was only a grunt in response yet somehow she could still hear Kazuma sarcastically reply 'Was it painful?' or maybe 'That sounds dangerous'.

"Well, this whole mess started when we, you know, did the you-know-what together," Aqua swallowed hard before continuing. "And, I, uh… just think it's a shame that neither of us even get to remember it."

"What!?" That certainly caught the perv's attention as he suddenly shot up in bed, staring at her with wide eyes. Not that she was any better, given that this was her idea.

"Well, I was just thinking…" Aqua suddenly found it very difficult to make eye contact, glancing off to the side as she twiddled her fingers together. "M-maybe we could… try it again. For real, this time. You know… just to see what it was like…"

"Yes! Or, um…" Kazuma cleared his throat, trying to play it cool and act like he wasn't even more interested in it than she was. "Yeah, sure, if you want."

"A-alright." Aqua nodded and tried not to focus on how dry her throat seemed to get. How did this do? She decided to start by climbing up onto the bed and leaned over Kauma. He watched her with a slack-jawed grin and reached under her nightgown to help her get it off. Aqua reflexively slapped his hand away. "Not yet! Hold on a sec'."

Figuring out what she wanted to do, Aqua decided that it would be best to ease into this. She'd seen this done millions of times before. She wrapped one leg around the over-eager boy so that she was sitting in his lap and placed a hand delicately on his chest to push him down onto his back.

"Alright, now I'm ready."

"Ow!" Kazuma sat up again and rubbed the back of his head, where she'd accidentally just smacked him against the solid wood headboard he'd been leaning against.

"Oh, sorry!" Aqua gasped. "Here, just let me heal you real qui- …never mind."

She pulled her hand back, remembering that she still couldn't use the magic she was so used to relying on.

"Ugh, you don't even know what you're doing!" Kazuma yelled in frustration.

"Neither do you!" Aqua pouted defensively.

"Hey, I may not have any practical experience in this subject but I happen to be something of an expert," Kazuma bragged, though he wasn't fooling anybody.

"Watching porn doesn't count, Pervzuma!" Aqua pointed out. "Besides, I know more than you do!"

"Oh yeah?" Kazuma cocked an eyebrow, which might have made him look confident if he wasn't drooling like a dog. "Well, why don't we put that to the test?"

Aqua let out a yelp as Kazuma suddenly sat up and knocked her onto her back. Her heart fluttered as she stared up at his cool green eyes looking back down at him as he planted his hands firmly down on either side of her shoulders.

"You're about to get a one-way ticket to pound town," he said, largely spoiling the mood and prompting an annoyed grunt from Aqua.

"Maybe you shouldn't talk. Like, ever."

"Oh, please, that's rich coming from you." Kazuma smirked and reached a hand down, caressing it against her stomach as he pulled up her nightgown. He paused before reaching more delicate areas and seemed to grow uncharacteristically serious for a moment. "Hey, are you sure we should be doing this? I mean, we just got out of a tense situation, maybe we should hold off or something? Make sure we're not just caught up in the moment? Wait, what am I even saying?"

Aqua bit her lip and nodded. There was a loud voice in her head screaming that this was a mistake and that she should get out while she still had the chance. But that voice was getting increasingly drowned out by a mixture of curiosity, excitement and other sensations that she'd never felt before. Was this lust? It felt fresh, exotic.

"I've been thinking about this since yesterday," she admitted. "I-I think I want to try this out. Us, I mean. I wanted to say something before but, well, I didn't really get the chance. You're my best friend, Kazuma, but… I think I want you to be something more."

"Man, never would have taken you for getting all mushy about this kind of thing," Kazuma laughed. "What, are you going to say you love me, next?"

Kazuma rolled off to the side after taking a full-powered slap to the face for that comment.

"Yes!" Aqua shouted angrily, though quickly deflated as the annoyance over his joking about her feelings dissipated. "I think? I don't know."

"Oh." Kazuma sat up and rubbed his sore cheek, seemingly at a loss for words. "Okay…"

"Okay?" Aqua turned to him, her anger flaring up again. "Okay? Is that all you can say? You know, when a girl confesses her feelings to you, you're supposed to say it back! Surely you can't be that dense, NEETzuma!"

"I'm not dense and don't call me Shirl-" Kazuma let out a sigh. "Ugh, no, that's an old joke. Look, what do you want from me? 'I love you, too'? Well, I got news for you. You're just that useless goddess that I got straddled with instead of some super cool cheat item because I got caught up in the moment and made a mistake. That's what you were to me, Aqua. A mistake."

Aqua could feel the tears burning down her cheeks as she tried not to let herself give in to one of her usual sobbing fits. She felt like her heart had just been torn out, stabbed repeatedly and lit on fire. Not necessarily in that order.

"Well, fine!" Aqua stood up and marched over to the door. "You were a mistake!"

"Wait, no!" Kazuma held his hand out as if to grab her, even though Aqua was halfway across the room by that point. Despite herself, she turned to hear what he had to say. "Ugh, why is this so hard? What I mean is that you were a mistake."

Aqua huffed and turned again.

"But you're a mistake I'm glad I made!" Kazuma blurted out, looking unsure of himself. "I'm… look, you can be a real pain sometimes and I know I give you a lot of flack for it but, I don't know… How do I put this… If I have to be stuck with anyone, I'm glad it's you?"

Aqua hesitated in front of the door, pulling back her hand just as her fingers were about to wrap around the handle. She felt a sharp breath get caught in her throat before she finally managed to turn around. Kazuma was kneeling on the bed, a pained expression on his face that mirrored her own. She was also suddenly acutely aware of the faint impression of the abs he'd started to grow back in their construction worker days, maintained by their sporadic bouts of adventuring and visible thanks to his lack of a shirt.

"I'm… I'm glad I'm stuck with you, too." She wiped a tear off her cheek and gave a weak smile before slowly walking back to the bed. "There are a lot worse perverts out there that I could have ended up with, you know."

"You sure about that?" Kazuma wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Or at least he tried to make it suggestive, anyway. "So, we still up for the sexy sex?"

Aqua pondered that as she crawled up onto the bed, finding a comfortable spot on Kazuma's lap and letting him wrap his arms tightly around her waist. As he tried to glide his fingers up, she shook her head.

"No, I think the moment's gone," she said, to Kazuma's immense disappointment. He started to pull away from her but she grabbed him and pushed him down onto the bed, dancing her fingers across his bare chest as she did so. "Eventually, though. Let's just rest for a while, now… together."

Kazuma tensed for a moment, looking frustrated, but soon relaxed and wrapped his arms around her again, hand firmly grabbing her perfect posterior. "Fine, I'll take it."

Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!

Darkness sat up in bed, back against the headboard, as she tried very hard not to think about what was happening just on the other side of the wall behind her. She could not say the same for the ex-priest beside her, though, who had her ear pressed up against the wall to try and listen in. To make matters even more uncomfortable, Cecily had positioned herself so that if Darkness looked up, she'd get a very good look up her skirt and see that she was, as Kazuma would put it, 'going commando'. As a result, Darkness found herself staring very intently down at her own knees, face as red as a Crimson Demon's eyes.

"Aw… they decided not to do it." Cecily sounded thoroughly disappointed as she slumped back onto the bed next to Darkness. "It sounds like they're just cuddling or something. Boring."

"What Kazuma and Aqua choose to do, or choose not to do, is none of our business," Darkness scolded her.

"Yeah, like you didn't want to listen in on them, too," Cecily huffed before her expression suddenly brightened. "Hey, you up for a quickie? I'm not really into overly busty cows like you but I can settle."

"No!" Darkness felt mildly ashamed at how much she was actually tempted by the offer. Especially with how degradingly it had been phrased.

"Eh, fine, suit yourself," Cecily shrugged and bounced off the bed to her feet. "Well, I need something to help wind down after last night and I'm clearly not getting it here, so I'm going ou to grab a drink. You coming, Zell?"

The fledgling basilisk glanced up at her dismissively from his bed in the corner before letting out an irritated cluck and returning to his nap.

"Alright, I'm headed out, then," Cecily said as she opened the door. "See you later, Erisite bitch!"

Darkness shuddered as the door slammed shut and she wrapped her arms tightly around her knees as she was left more-or-less alone. They had saved the day. Again. Even if it would likely take years to purge enough of Hans' goop from the hot springs to be used again, at least the people had been saved and with time, the city would recover. Aqua had finally managed to work through her issues of the past few days and had just confessed to the man she liked, and judging from the fact that she was still in his room instead of barging back into theirs while bawling her eyes out again, he had reciprocated and they would likely officially be together as a couple by the time she next saw them. The rest of their party were back home at the mansion, likely still celebrating their greatest achievement of ridding the world of both the Destroyer and the Devil King, two of the largest threats to the peace and livelihoods of the citizens of Belzerg.

So why, Goddesses, did Darkness feel like utter trash? And not in a fun way!

She thought she was going to be sick as thoughts and emotions swirled around her mind like a thunderbird nest caught in a windstorm. It hadn't been that long ago, or so it seemed, that the woman who called herself Darkness was still just Lalatina (ugh…) Dustiness Ford, the lonely duke's daughter who was shunned by most of the other noble girls for her… excentricities, as they had settled in with puberty. Sure, she had some friends such as her cousin, the princess, or Lady Claire of House Symphonia, but they had all lived in the capital while Lalatina (ew…) was stuck in the Axel region out in the country.

Then, one day, it seemed like her prayers for friendship had finally been answered. While visiting the town for business on behalf of her father, a particularly idiotic mugger had tried to pull her into an alleyway and do who-knows-what with her. The girl who would soon be known as Darkness had been about to let the foul vagabond have his way with her when a plucky young thief by the name of Chris had saved her from her own foolishness, and to a lesser extent the mugger, and they'd been close friends ever since. And a few short years later, she'd finally managed to find a party that accepted her and didn't kick her out the moment they found out that she was worthless as anything other than a particularly sturdy meat shield. She had friends, comrades, people she loved to be around and who seemed to like her in turn.

Except it turned out that 'Chris' had been the goddess Eris the whole time. Part of her liked the idea that, of all of her followers, Eris had chosen Darkness to take on as a friend and confidant. Another part of her, though, was horrified to discover that it took the goddess herself descending from heaven and directly interfering with her life for Darkness to finally have friends. What did it say about Darkness, that it took such an act of literal divine intervention just to get her to a point where she could be remotely happy with her life?

Part of her was happy that Kazuma and Aqua were together now. They were two of her closest friends and comrades and she was sure that, while they may not be perfect for each other, they would be good together. But another part of her was… was jealous. Darkness knew what she was, even if she usually tried to deny it. She was a pervert, a masochist and a freak, as people had been constantly reminding her for years, usually behind her back. Her own romantic prospects were, to put it bluntly, nearly nonexistent. She wanted an equally perverted, sadistic bastard who would relish in treating her like dirt, degrading her and subjecting her to all manner of carnal pleasures that she could only dream of. But as a duke's daughter, she needed a gentleman and a scholar who could put on the perfect public facade and be accepted as the husband of a future duchess. She was fairly certain she would never find someone who could fit both roles and knew that her duty dictated that she prioritize the latter. She had been starting to think that maybe, just maybe, Kazuma could have been the one. But now he was off the table and she couldn't, wouldn't get in the way of their relationship just to try and sate her own lusts, no matter how much a burning, roaring feeling in her gut told her to just take him as her own.

Darkness found herself spiraling in those kinds of thoughts and eventually just had to sigh and pull herself out of bed. She needed something to take her mind off of things and decided that she might as well go clothes shopping. Her outfit had been almost completely dissolved by the poison slime and she hadn't had the chance to pack any spare clothes, or anything at all for that matter, since their trip hadn't been planned at all. And while she was certainly enjoying the idea of all the dirty, judgemental looks that she'd be getting while walking around in just her dented armor that really didn't cover all that much just on its own, she knew that she needed something proper to wear for the ride home. Well, maybe not too proper.

Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!

Aqua woke up with a headache, sore muscles, an intense, tight feeling in her lower abdomen and a feeling like something was squeezing against her boobs. The first two were likely from the stress, both physical and emotional, of everything that had happened in the last day and a half. She opened her eyes to find that the last one was Kazuma, who was fondling her in his sleep. She really wasn't in the mood, though, so she grabbed his arms and pulled him off of her. There would be time for that later when she was ready to finally take that plunge.

"Boobies…" Kazuma muttered as he slowly stirred awake. His eyes flickered open and he nearly fell out of bed in surprise as he apparently realized that whatever perverted wet dream he'd been having wasn't as much of a dream as he'd thought. "What, Aqua?"

Aqua smiled smugly at the look on his face as the events leading up to their nap together returned to him.

"That's right, it's your beautiful and talented new girlfriend," she teased. "Worship the ground at my feet!"

"Yeah, I'm into a lot of stuff but feet aren't one of them," Kazuma smirked and Aqua felt her heart race as his cold fingers found their way under her nightgown and danced up her back. "Now, where were we?"

Aqua couldn't help but let out a giggle as they picked up where they had left off earlier, getting ready to explore each other in ways that neither of them had ever truly experienced before. Before they could continue from there, though, Aqua suddenly found herself acutely aware of just how close Kazuma's face was to her own and her gaze fixated on the pair of thin, almost nonexistent lips in front of her. Before she even realized what she was doing, she leaned forward and…

Aqua had never really understood the phrase 'I feel like I'm in heaven'. She'd lived there for longer than most worlds had existed and knew from first-hand experience that it was actually much more mundane than most people seemed to think. If anything, it was actually pretty boring up there most of the time. The Gods spent most of their effort and craftsmanship building mortal worlds, after all. That's where all of the beautiful landscapes and scenery were, the kind of sights and places that could figuratively and in some cases literally take your breath away.

As Aqua lay there, sharing her first kiss with the man she was pretty sure she was in love with, she didn't feel like she was in heaven. She felt like she was overlooking the grand fjords of what people on most Earths called Norway, with a chill breeze coming from the ocean and the Aurora Borealis crossing the sky overhead like a floating ribbon of neon lights.

Unfortunately, that pressing feeling that she'd been feeling since she'd woken up had only grown more intense and of course, it was right at that moment that she finally figured out what it was.

"Stupid human bladder!" Aqua grumbled loudly as she pulled away from a very confused Kazuma. "Sorry, I've gotta go!"

"God, you're such a cocktease!" Kazuma shouted angrily at her as she rushed out of the door.

You will, of course, be spared the description of what happened after that because you either don't want to hear about it or you seriously need to reexamine your life.

Aqua returned once her business had been concluded to find Kazuma pulling on his boots, having gotten dressed while she was indisposed.

"Going somewhere?" she asked him, more than a little confused.

"I'm getting hungry," he explained, looking back up to her. "Figured I'd run out and grab something for lunch. You in the mood for anything specific?"

"No, not really," Aqua shook her head as she headed back to bed. "Surprise me."

"Dangerous words." Kazuma gave one of his signature smirks as he stopped at the doorway and turned back to face her. "I'll be back in a few."

Aqua watched him go before pulling up a pillow and propping it against the headboard so that she could sit up comfortably in bed. Since she had a moment to spare, she pulled out her Adventurer Card from the nightstand and gave it a look. It still stung to see her class reset to Adventurer and most of her skills grayed out to mark that she couldn't use them anymore. She was going to have to change that.

As much as it pained her to admit, she was going to have to change her faith. An Arch Priest's abilities were tied to their connection to their patron goddess, after all, and Aqua couldn't exactly sponsor herself in that regard now that she was mortal, which still felt weird to think about. The obvious answer, of course, was to join the Eris Order. Not because it was the largest religion in Belzerg and essentially the only major religion in the country now that the Axis Order would be officially dissolved in her absence, but because Eris was her adorable Junior Goddess (even if she was officially a Senior Goddess now, she'd always be Aqua's junior in her eyes) and close friend. Then again, it felt like they'd started to grow a bit distant and, if Aqua was being honest, it felt like Eris was starting to act like a bit of a jerk lately. More importantly, though, something about joining her rival religion just felt wrong. Maybe she'd try joining one of the smaller sects that would likely be growing in influence with the power vacuum left in the Axis' absence.

Regardless of what Order she chose, though, she figured that she might as well reselect the Arch Priest class so she opened up the class selection menu. A very long list of various advanced and specialized classes from a wide range of fields popped up on her card. Even without her maxed-out goddess stats, she was glad to see that was still well above average in almost everything. She did have to wince, however, as she noticed that her Intellegence stat had somehow managed to go up, increasing just enough for her to realize how awful it actually was. That, and Luck. But Luck was just a dump stat, anyway, right?

Before selecting her class, Aqua decided to scroll down and look at the job list in more detail, curious as to what other options she had available. Not that she planned on picking anything other than Arch Priest.

"Huh, what's this one?" she muttered to herself as she noticed a job title that she didn't remember seeing when she'd first become an Adventurer back on her first day in Belzerg with Kazuma. "I don't think I've ever heard of this class before."

Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!

It didn't seem like there were very many people out on the streets of Arcanletia, which wasn't all that surprising given everything that had happened recently. But there were still people either going about their daily routines or working on fixing the damages that Hans' attack had done to the city and Darkness had to stop herself from guiltily smiling as she could feel everyone's gazes settling on her as she made her way back to the inn. She hadn't had much money on her but she did have just enough to pick out a simple blue and green dress with a neckline just low enough to turn heads, especially with her figure. She'd also managed to convince the store owner to throw in a spare crate as well, that she was using to carry her armor in. Or at least what was left of it, anyway. She hadn't even realized just how much damage the adamantium plating had taken in that fight but she was definitely going to have to take it back to her blacksmith first thing when they got back to Axel.

But that was a problem for later. For now, Darkness was more interested in the more-than-familiar young man skulking down the road ahead of her.

"Kazuma?" she said questioningly, causing her party leader to jump. What was he even doing out there? Shouldn't he have still been… still been in bed with Aqua.

"Oh, hey, Darkness." Kazuma turned around quickly as she walked up to him. "Fancy running into you here."

"What are you up to?" Darkness asked accusatorially.

Darkness would have expected him to try and hide whatever no-doubt nefarious thing he was trying to hide. Instead, he gave a mischievous grin and grabbed her hand, pulling Darkness down another road.

"Something you can help with. Come on, follow me."

Ko! * No! * Su! * Ba!

In the next exciting chapter of God's Blessing, God Knows: A Battle Over This Young Maiden's Heart!

Despite the sun shining down from a cloudless sky, there was a brisk chill in the air as Yunyun hiked up the mountain trail with her friends and fiancé. It wasn't quite winter anymore but spring hadn't settled in yet, either, which meant that they were still stuck in that awkward middle space.

HAD KEIMA JUST ASKED HER OUT ON A DATE TO DEMON'S HILL?!

"Ooh!" Elsie leaned back and finally looked the woman in her shining, catlike eyes instead of staring at the overgrown watermelons that had been blocking her view. "Hey, wait, if you work for the Devil King, that makes me your boss, right?"

Author's Notes: I realized as I was writing this chapter that I made a very big blunder. My plans involve Darkness secretly(?) being in love with Kazuma but all of the big moments that lead to her having feelings for him in canon got butterflied out. The… incident when Kazuma thought he was having a succubus-provided dream didn't happen thanks to Keima, which (at least in my interpretation) is when Darkness really started to see him as being the potential Dom to her Sub. Darkness's engagement with Walther and Kazuma getting her out of it didn't happen (or rather, won't happen since we're currently at the point in the timeline where Kazuma would have been on trial for destroying Aldarp's mansion), which is when she realizes that Kazuma can man up and be responsible as well, striking the right balance of cad and gentleman for her. And by the time we reach when Kazuma would have bought Darkness (which I think should have led to Kazuma/Darkness becoming the official ship but no, gotta shill Megumin) definitely isn't happening since by that point we'll be utterly and completely off the rails.

If I had thought about it, I would have tried adding some more scenes between them before now to balance out those losses but it's a bit late for that now. Oh, well.