To my surprise, I was able to open my eyes and found that I was standing in the middle of a green garden with bushes and flowers spreading as far as the eye could see.

Directly in front of me, was a table set under an umbrella, and sat in one of the chairs was a girl who seemed to be younger than me wearing a long white dress, similar to a wedding dress with flower designs. Her long red hair curled glamorously down her arms as her red pupils shine warmly at me.

I was a bit taken aback by her pupils being red, but I couldn’t help but feel entranced by her calm smile.

She closes one eye as she takes a sip on a teacup and uses the other to look at me.

“Despite what you’re thinking, I’m much older than you.” The girl- no, a lady says.

“I’m guessing you’re some sort of goddess then,” I reply, the calmness of my own voice shocking me a bit.

“Spot on! Can you guess what goddess I am?”

“The goddess of gardens?” I say as I analyze my surroundings carefully.

The goddess giggles “While I might have some similarities to the goddess of gardens, we’re quite different.”

Meaning there is one?

The goddess points to the chair across from her, “Take a seat, I’ll give you two more guesses.”

I walk over to the chair and realize that my arms and my body are completely fine. I look at the goddess who was looking at me back with a warm smile on her face.

“Uhm, maybe the goddess of tea?”

“Oh, come on now, I’ll give you a clue~,” The goddess says as she points at my arm.

“The goddess of shields?”

The goddess puts a finger to her chin as if thinking. “Hmm, you’re close, I’m actually a goddess with the title “the Shield of Two Opposites.”

“Oh, I see.”

Wait, isn’t that…my shield?

“Ehhh!?” I exclaim with my eyes wide in shock.

This goddess is apparently my shield.

“Honestly, you never call upon my powers and continue using me as a regular shield, it’s such a shame. I get bored sometimes you know.” The goddess says while refilling her cup as if she didn’t just drop a bomb in my brain, which she definitely did by the way.

“I figured it was just a regular shield.” I give myself a couple of seconds to calm down, “Oh, I did figure out how to change the shield’s shape though.”

“I guess that’s a start, but seriously, what made you think you could take on a level 15 dragon’s fireball while you’re only level 7?” The goddess sighs, shaking her head.

“It isn’t my fault you know,” I say dejectedly.

Of course, the goddess was right.

It was foolish of me to think I could take on a dragon that was 8 levels ahead of me, but I really believed I wasn’t in the wrong, Isabel would have died otherwise.

I feel a hand stroke my hair and subconsciously lean towards it. I look up to find that the goddess had stood up and was hugging me. Instead of questioning it, I allowed myself to relax into the hug.

It was quite soothing.

After having been put through such terrible treatment from Isabel and dying again, it felt nice to get a sort of embrace.

“You’ve been through quite a lot huh?” The goddess whispers in my ear.

“Uhm, Y-yeah.” I manage.

My vision starts getting blurry as I feel a small wet sensation flow down my cheek.

Huh? What’s this? Am I…crying?

Tears streamed out of my eyes as the goddess comforted me.

“It’s just not fair,” I found myself venting soon after, “I died on Earth saving a precious friend of mine.”

“…”

“I was given a chance on another world where I can build up the strength to save someone with ease.”

“…”

“I mean, I was reincarnated with a shield, right? I should be a reliable protector, but… I still died trying to save someone.”

Despite the horrible treatment I received from Isabel, every part of my body agreed that I did the right thing by protecting her. It was like I said, I was reincarnated with a shield. It’s pretty much my duty to defend and protect.

The goddess sighs.

“Rin, relax, you haven’t died yet.”

“…W-what?”

“Right now, you’re in a hospital bed being treated with top-tier equipment and magic.” The goddess answers.

The goddess begins to tell me the story of how Hilde used his bear traps to drag my body out of the flames while Roy and Liz took out their frustration on the dragon, who was swiftly dealt with. Isabel and the others ended up rushing back to Lastaria and brought me to a prestigious hospital that was considered one of the top 4 in all of Lastaria.

I sigh a sigh of relief and blush a bit, “You could have told me that before I ended up crying you know?”

The goddess giggles again, “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to cry, but now I’ve seen a cute side of you that others haven’t seen yet!”

Still, did Isabel really rush to get me into a hospital? It’s incredibly hard to believe that she would treat me.

Didn’t she want me dead at the start?

“Miss Goddess-”

“Oh, just refer to me as Balia.”

Balia? That’s an interesting name.

“Uhm okay, Goddess Balia, I have a request before I gain consciousness.” I look at Balia directly in the eye, determination filling my soul.

“Of course, I’ll teach you how to use my powers.” Balia reads my mind.

“Goddess Balia, I find it uncomfortable that you are reading my mind.”

“Hmm, I guess you are still a young man after all.”

“W-what’s that supposed to mean?!”

Balia giggles as she snaps her fingers.

A gust of wind quickly begins spinning around us while bricks of stone begin rising out of the dirt and piling themselves onto one another. I watch in amazement as the bricks begin building an entire colosseum.

“Woah…” I let out.

Balia walks over in front of me and signals me to her with her finger. I get up and walk over to Balia, my eyes still glued to the colosseum walls towering over us.

“Rin, summon the shield.” Balia orders.

I manage to take my eyes off the colosseum and face Balia. I picture my shield and armor appearing in my head and sure enough, I’m suddenly clad in black armor and the same white shield which took the form of the Heater shape.

“The shield is just a catalyst for my powers. Answer me, what is the name of your shield?” Balia walks over beside me.

“The Shield of Two Opposites?”

“Correct, allow me to demonstrate.” Balia raises one of her arms and uses the other arm as support.

“I have control over fire,” Balia says as her raised palm begins glowing white before firing off a blast of flames, almost like a flamethrower. She begins performing a slow dance with her hands ablaze, drawing flaming flowers and other animals in the air as moved.

I watch closely, excitement filling my gamer soul once again.

Once Balia stopped dancing, I politely gave her applause.

She smiles at my clapping and gives a theatrical bow.

“Can I really do all that?” I ask, no longer able to hold in my excitement.

“Not exactly in the way I just demonstrated,” Balia answers as she walks over behind me.

Balia closes the distance of our bodies as she slowly reaches for my right hand from behind and raises my shield up with my arm. She presses her body against my back as she brings my left arm up to support my right arm.

I notice two soft sensations on my back.

Don’t read my mind, don’t read my mind, please don’t read my mind.

“Rin.”

“Y-yeah?”

“Try to visualize flames.” Balia breathes into my ears.

I close my eyes and force myself to forget about the feeling on my back.

I take a deep breath and begin to picture a set of flames the same way I would visualize my shield appearing on my arm.

Gradually, I begin to feel some warmth on my arm. It’s warm, but not too hot.

“Open your eyes Rin.” Balia softly whispers.

I open my eyes to find out that Balia had walked over to my right and was giving me a beautiful smile. I look forward and notice that my shield was engulfed in flames.

Unfortunately, a memory fills my head: the memory of the dragon’s flames engulfing my shield.

I begin to breathe heavily as I slowly start to panic.

I try to visualize the flames disappearing or turning off, but I wasn’t able to. My mind was racing with the thoughts of a ferocious dragon, burns all over my arms, and purple flames.

Suddenly, the fire on my shield glows a bright purple, the same as the dragon’s flames, and my body reacts in fear to the trauma of being in flames. My legs give out and I fall onto my bottom, my shield still in flames.

Balia’s smile disappears and she tilts her head in confusion.

Stop burning! Please…

“E-Balia…Please, h-help me…” I plead softly, frozen in fear of my shield.

Balia recognizes my fear, quickly dashes towards me, and places a hand on my armor. She closes her eyes and begins chanting words that I couldn’t understand.

I watch as the armor on my body slowly breaks apart into liquid and crawl across my arms like slime. The black slime latches itself around my shield, and the sound of metal connecting and clicking together loudly fills my eardrums.

The armor that was once on my chest surrounds my fists and the surroundings of my shield, turning into black gauntlets and giving my shield a black lining on the edges.

Balia pulls me into a hug once more and caresses the back of my head.

“Are you okay?” Balia softly whispers “I’m sorry, I was inconsiderate there, fire really wasn’t the best element to start with.”

I take a couple of deep breaths.

I realized that tears had formed in my eyes and quickly wipe them away from my eyes, hoping that Balia didn’t see me crying again.

“I-it’s okay, I just, didn’t expect it to surround my shield.” I manage.

Balia breaks the hug and examines my new black gauntlets and the black edges to my shield.

She nods silently and turns to face me.

“The flames you developed were wild and out of control, I wasn’t sure how to control it myself despite you being in my realm.” She begins, “I chanted a spell to take control over the state of your armor and move it onto your hands so that you wouldn’t feel the heat. I also decided to add the rest of the armor onto your shield so that it would suppress the power of the flames.” Balia explains.

I examined the gauntlets closer for myself and sure enough, they seemed to be made out of the same material as the armor that was once on my chest.

“So, the armor I wore before, it’s now around my shield and on my hands?” I ask Balia.

Balia nods her head as she stands up and offers me a hand. Once I get up, she remains ahold of my hands, an awkward silence filling the area around us.

On one hand, I wanted her to let go of my hand as I was definitely flushing up, but on the other hand, I didn’t mind having Balia hold onto my hand longer.

Balia releases my hands at last, “Next time, keep practicing the visualization of flames for now. The clearer the view of the flames are in your head, the easier it should be to control them.”

I understood that Balia probably wanted to call it a day for now and to be honest, I was quite alright with not summoning flames. However, deep down inside of me, I was burning with eagerness to Summoner my shield and its flames.

“Why can’t I try it now?” I ask, completely contradicting my past self that had fallen in fear.

“Well, for one, I don’t want to rush you.” Balia explains, “Also, you’re about to wake up in around 30 seconds.”

Oh yeah, I was still technically out cold.

I look at the goddess once more, still unsure of what to say to her, as I silently count down the final 30 seconds.

“Uhm, Balia, thank you again.” I manage at last.

“If anything, I should be apologizing for more,” Balia answers as she snaps her fingers again, turning the colosseum back into the garden I first arrived in. “However, the best thing I can do right now is accept your thanks.”

I tried to come up with something else to say, but my mind was all out of ideas.

Instead, I nodded my head and silently waited to wake up.

A couple more seconds pass.

Surely, it’s been more than 30 seconds, right?

“Oh, you have to close your eyes for 10 seconds here if you want to wake up” Balia mentions as she summons a cup of tea.

“P-please mention that earlier!”

Balia gives me a “tee-hee” look as I sigh and close my eyes and count to 10.

* * *

I open my eyes and instantly sat up. I visualized my shield and armor appearing on my arm, and in an instant, my hands are covered with black gauntlets, and on my arm is a white and black shield.

Yup, Balia wasn’t a dream.

“E-excuse me, sir, you’re not supposed to have weapons while you’re on the sickbed.” A shocked-looking girl with green eyes and a pink nurse outfit timidly tells me from across my bed.

I quickly apologize to the nurse and make my armor and shield disappear. She quietly tells me to continue resting as she walks out to inform Isabel and my party members that I had regained consciousness.

I looked around my hospital room and found that I had been connected to multiple machines dripping with brightly colored liquid. Across my sickbed was a couch with my clothes folded on it.

I lie back down on the bed and think back on my experience with Balia, but I couldn’t think about it for much longer since my stomach grumbled shockingly loud.

Man, I’m hungry.