Thea, a goddess that, while couldn’t be considered strong, was still immensely dangerous was slowly stalking the suspect. Her youthful pretty appearance was concealed with many illusions, shielding her from prying eyes.

The suspect was a six-year-old girl that, according to the information she received from one of her angels, was the youngest member of a race of immortals called Temerians. By themselves, Temerians weren’t anything worthy of note, just a small immortal race that seemed to love to meddle in affairs of mortals and have a bunch of problems with their bloodline. So, when she received the report that the most probable suspect is a child from such a small race she was inclined not to believe it. Still, as fate would have it, Thea decided to put a little trust into her subordinate, as he proved to be quite proficient at gathering information. Since she has already sent a few angels before and they didn’t show any good results, she decided to check herself.

As it turned out, the report was a hundred per cent correct! The moment she laid her eyes on the little devil she knew that that child was definitely something that shouldn’t be.

She was thinking about how to approach the problem. A head-on confrontation was not a good idea, her intuition told her and Thea trusted her intuition enough to be more wary of the little devil. The wretched thing spent a few days inside one of the rooms inside the building it lived in and was doing something without any rest. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to strike from a logical point of view, but her guts told her to be wary. So she waited a bit longer.

After some time the abomination came out of the building with another person in tow. They looked similar, so it stood to reason that the other person was the devil’s mother, as according to Thea’s information, the cursed abomination had only her mother for a family. Thea felt that the mother was harmless but the devil seemed to trust her quite a bit. Then Thea came up with a plan.

She waited until the mother of the thing separated for a moment and quickly appeared before her. Thea’s abilities lay in control of sentient beings. She was so proficient in it, in fact, that the Pantheon’s gods called her Thea, the Goddess of Order, acknowledging her superiority in the skill of control.

While the mother was rather weak, she seemed enough to hurt the abomination to an extent, so the goddess tried to make the mother attack the suspect.

She tried and it was supposed to work, but Thea couldn’t feel the woman's will fall into her hands. Somehow, she failed.

The woman she failed to control was staring at her with stern eyes as if trying to stab her to death with the glare. Suddenly, the woman’s expression blossomed and she showed a smile while looking past Thea.

Then the world changed. The change couldn’t be perceived by mortal eyes, but the world felt… wrong somehow. It wasn’t the same and Thea felt uncomfortable being just there. Soon, she felt weak.

She wanted to try and understand the situation but the feeling of deep lethargy overtook her for a moment. She felt that whatever was happening was far too insignificant for her to do anything. Sloth enveloped her very being.

The feeling lasted only a second and soon she was freed from it.

The experience was too uncanny and the goddess couldn’t help but feel fear for the first time in her life.

“Daring to try using mind-control magic? How interesting. You low-levels always use mortal magic pushed to its limits. The problem is, it’s still within those limits. That’s why you’re all low-levels. I will return the favour in kind then.”

A sweet-sounding soft voice ringed beside her ear. It was pleasing to listen to, but Thea detected a great amount of malice and disdain in it as if the owner was seeing her worth less than trash. And there was an undeniable sense of authority, pride and arrogance only the truly powerful possessed. Alarms were screaming danger in her head and she felt even more scared.

She forced her head that turned rigid a moment ago to turn with great difficulty. And then she saw a breathtakingly beautiful little girl that looked like an exquisitely shaped doll. Thea’s hearted thumped and blood rushed to her cheeks.

‘How adorable. Wait, why am I thinking about this? It’s clear that…’, even in her thoughts Thea no longer dared to look at the wonderful existence she saw with disdain now, ‘that… person. I shouldn’t think of them as anything good! Why?’

Thea tried to analyze her feelings, slowly falling deeper into the trap that was laid out for her. She felt many emotions while being confronted with that existence. Awe, fear, hatred and even lust. It was too confusing for the goddess, her emotions were becoming unstable and her mind was getting much weaker.

When she saw the otherworldly girl she felt immense pressure and pride radiating from the girl. She felt small and she was scared. But the girl also had a comforting presence to her, something that aroused the desire to submit and hide behind that person’s back and give in to sloth, resigning her own will.

Thea steeled her heart. She knew that if she didn’t, she could and would fall.

“Who are you and who sent you here?”

The girl spoke with a still voice but each word drew Thea’s mind closer to the limit. She took a long breath and meekly answered:

“I-I’m the goddess Thea and I came here on my own accord.”

“On your own? Nonsense! A thing like you wouldn’t do anything without being told!”

There was a good deal of wrath in the tone now. It struck Thea’s mind and she couldn’t refute it.

“Say who sent you!”

The wrath was so oppressive that Thea could barely keep standing on her own. She wracked her brains to find an answer to appease the existence in front of her. Maybe… Yes!

“I-It was Protox! A very powerful deity who found something strange was happening around two months ago! There were also a few others but they are moving when Protox tells them to!”

Flustered, Thea spilt the beans without a second thought. In her mind, she also came to accept it as truth on the subconscious level.

“So, you’re really being controlled. What a poor, poor child…”

The stern voice grew considerably softer, it was slightly enchanting and comforting. The being clearly had some sympathy for Thea. The change was so fast that she couldn’t understand why, but she greatly appreciated the feelings.

“My child, tell me, why did you follow the commands?”

Though it was quite bizarre to see a six-years-old child calling Thea, who looked like she was sixteen, “my child”, the presence that Thea felt was very comforting and she didn’t find it strange in the least. In fact, she felt it was appropriate as the feeling of comfort made her believe that the existence in front of her was trustworthy on the subconscious level. The girl was like a mother, someone Thea could confide in and find some peace…

“I don’t know. Somehow they made me think it was right to do so.”

Thea, who relaxed a little, answered honestly.

“How terrible. To manipulate such a good child like yourself… Tch Tch… How terrible.”

Thea felt a little happy when the being called her “a good child”. She was very happy that the being was worried for her. Why would she ever think that such a great being was evil? She would never think that on her own. Then it must mean that Protox and others truly manipulated her into harming the being! Rightful rage began to boil within her. How could they dare to bear malice toward this wonderful pure existence? How dare they make her raise the hand against the person who, even after finding out that she came without good intentions, still did so much good for her? At this point, Thea didn’t even bother thinking about what ‘good’ the girl has done to her. Her mind was this far gone already…

“Child, are you alright?”

Even now the existence is concerned for her! She must make sure that nothing bad befalls the existence!

“Thank you for the concern! But you don’t need to worry about me! I think that Protox and the others are going to continue to try to hurt you, so I will deal with them for you!”

“No, you don’t need to! I’m sure those poor children are being manipulated too… If I could, I would do my best to help them…”

When Thea heard what the being had said she felt a pang of jealousy. The being’s heart is vast and there’s no end to the kindness the being can give, but Thea couldn’t help but want to have all the kindness and attention for herself! Greed and envy strengthened her rage towards those people! After all, she was “a good child”, those people manipulated her and therefore were “bad”.

“Sadly, I can’t.”, the girl shook her head in lamentation, “All I can do is free them from the malevolent control by killing them, after all, freedom is more important than life. I can’t bear to know how much they suffer. It’s good that I found someone special like you, who could be freed. At least it puts me at ease. I’ll have to go now and help those poor children!”

Thea felt happy, so indescribably happy to hear the being call her “special”! But her mood turned sour when she heard that the being will do those “bad” people such a kindness!

‘They don’t deserve it!’

Thea cried out inside her mind!

“You don’t have to do something so hard by yourself! Allow me to do it!”

“What a good child you are!”

Thea felt a soft sensation on her head. The being patted her head! At this moment she truly felt like she was a child that was praised by her parent! No, it felt better, much better! She would do anything just to feel this again!

The goddess thought that her plan was perfect, not only did she get to eliminate the “bad” people, she even got into the being’s good graces! She felt such joy!

“I’ll be heading off now!”

“Thank you!”

‘The being appreciated my efforts!’

Only this thought was on Thea’s mind. Well, this and the desire to slaughter her competition.

Thea flew off and headed towards the Pantheon in high spirits.

******

“Are you sure that this is fine?”

“Yes, why wouldn’t it be?”

“What if she fails?”

“Then she’ll die and we’ll have one headache less?”

“And if she alarms them?”

“Let them come then. Not like I’m not prepared. Besides, assuming that the group of gods that, hehe, “child” mentioned is the only one after me, then it means that there’s only one deity that could possibly be powerful. I mean, since that, hahaha, “child” didn’t call the others powerful we shouldn’t expect much from them”

“How devious. And she even trusted you, just remember her fervent gaze that bordered on worship! I didn’t raise such a daughter!”

“Please say it when you can do it with no amusement in your voice!”

"I didn't say that it's bad to be devious though?"

"That's also true."

The two people were having a light chat while going back into the mansion.