Arius had just asked if Val would forgive him.

“Nether no.” White light flashed as she tried to cast Divine Judgement on this abusive, manipulative shithead.

The swirl of aura swirled around Arius like a cord to choke him, but it was too weak to stand up against his own shockwave of aura. Red merged with white in the act of using his aura to neutralize her attack. Fragments of the shimmering energy fell all around them, broken like the two of them together.

Foofy watched the shards drift through the air with wide eyes yet to realize that had been an attempt at attack.

“It looks like you cannot actually cast Divine Judgement against me if you like it,” Arius said.

“I hate you.” Those words could not have been easier to say to her supposed soulmate.

To counter her, he said simply, “Love and hate are the two faces of the same passion. I’ll take it as a compliment.”

This was hopeless, and Val wanted to scream at him—absolutely scream. If Arius said things like that, they really were going to have an abusive relationship forever. Worst of all, fate would never let them escape each other.

In the pause that followed, Arius looked visibly downcast. Even he was not so brash as to take hate as a compliment.

Val tilted her head in the slightest worry that she had hurt him. More banter would make everything better, since that seemed to be the only way that Arius and Val knew how to communicate with each other. “I guess that makes me glad to hear how you secretly love Tavras.”

“I definitely don’t love him. He’s the single person that I hate most in the world, and that’s saying something.” Arius had his arms crossed over his chest in defense.

“Then what I said still stands. I strongly dislike you right now,” she amended.

“Thanks,” he huffed. Again, Arius made it look like she sat with two dogs: the majestic Foofy and a kicked puppy. “You said that you would forgive me if I gave back Foofy, and I did,” he said lamely. “You’re supposed to forgive me.”

“I don’t have to do anything,” she retorted.

Really, Val did not understand why Arius had to impose on her so much. He was a god, literally the second strongest one in the world based on his seat on the Pantheon. Arius should have better things to do than chase her across the world.

“Except you promised, and you’re my soulmate.”

Just because he had announced their connection as soulmates did not make a genuine relationship between them magically appear. This made Val wonder, if Arius was one hundred-some years old, around what age did his actual maturity resemble?

Based on everything about his demeanor alone, Val would have assumed him to be hormonal, problematic teenager. The more time that she spent with Arius, the more that she could see the same boy who had nearly killed Iharu by mistake.

Val stuck her head into her curled fingers. There was no way that she could fulfill the role as the more mature one in the dynamic. “Arius, um, I think you have put too much stock into our supposed soulmate connection.”

“Why do you say ‘supposed’ though? The connection is real; I can sense the way that our threads of fate intertwine in that way.”

Her brow twisted up in disbelief. Arius could not be this simple minded, especially not as a god of war who ought to have a mind for strategy. Letting her eyes fall closed, Val dreaded that Arius’s power truly worked and they were actually soulmates for him to act so intensely.

“Arius,” she said again, “if that is the case, then we should just let things develop naturally between us.”

His face fell, and he interrupted her to blurt out, “Do not tell me that the demigoddess who is my soulmate is trying to put me down gently.”

That was exactly what Val was trying to do. “Um.” She twisted her fingers around in her lap.

“Do you know how far out of your league I am?”

“Yes! You’re a literal god!” He was a twisted, messed-up god who she would not know how to navigate a relationship with him. Nether, maybe if he had managed the grace to give her a simple apology instead of demanding forgiveness, Val might have been able to think a little more highly of him.

“Why is that not good enough for you?” Arius asked, throwing one arm out to the side. “Can you not understand the trials that I have gone through to reach this point?”

Since he was yelling at Val, Foofy started to rumble in his growls.

Adrenaline started to pump through her veins likewise. Her fearful, narrowed pupils darted around in searching Arius’s eyes.

If he were a normal, rational person she would ask him to return her to Tavras. Val just wanted to return to the mostly amicable, mostly reasonable god who genuinely cared for her through his flaws.

Something told her that asking that of Arius would likely set him off again. Not wanting to chance his temper, she yelled, “Foofy, get away!”

At once, the Dobie dashed for the opening of the cave.

Arius jumped around to catch him, but this was where Val could outplay the Ravager.

Mind Blast exploded from her forehead and flung Foofy forward the rest of the way. Out in the rain on the cliff’s edge, Foofy turned heel and ran back inside to attack since he had nowhere else to go.

“Foofy, off!” Val cried, not wanting him to attempt a fight with Arius.

Both of her hands stuck up in the air while Arius stood between them. His attention shifted to Val, then Foofy, and back to Val.

Arius stuck a hand to his face and rubbed the loose hairs back over the top of his head. “I’m sorry, Val. I was getting out of hand again. I said so many things, none of which were the things that I really wanted to say to you.” Walking towards the opening of the cave, he stopped before stepping out into the rain. “Can we talk more later?”

“No,” she snapped.

“Please?” he asked. “Give me another chance to put things right.”

“Please, no,” she said.

Arius stayed at the mouth of the cave with one hand against the wall. His head tipped back to gaze up to the rain that fell just a step ahead of him. Some of that rainfall inevitably splattered onto him. “I want to leave before Tavras gets here. There will be less drama that way. Just give me another chance.”

Val pursed her lips, realizing the full extent that Arius clung to her. “I’m still going to say no!”

“In that case, I’m going to have to prove you wrong. You are going to forgive me, because I’m going to be less of an insufferable asshole next time.”

Those last words made Val jump a little from surprise. This was news to her that Arius was in part self-aware of his terrible personality.

“I don’t have the time to give this the depth it deserves right now, but I’m seriously sorry for everything.” With that, Arius jumped into the rain and let the darkness of the sky envelop him in his departure.

The most massive sigh fell from Val’s lips in some long seconds. The back of her head tapped back against the rocky wall. Here, she would close her eyes and rest until Tavras had come for her.