Early Evening - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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"~Gather the rats, you say?~" I felt as if I could hear the goddess grinning as she spoke.

"Yeah, if I kill them one at a time, the rest will eventually scatter, so I may as well lay a trap with some poison." I glanced down at the deputy with a look of disgust.

"~Hoho, how ruthless of you.~" She paused before moving to the other side of me. "~You know, I can't say I ever expected you to initiate a genocide like this... But I can't deny that I like it.~"

I had a chill pass down my spine instantly. "Yeah, never say that again, please..." Feeling like I saw a playful expression on her face, I let out a sigh. "Haah... In any case, I'm sure you didn't just come here to say that, right?"

Hearing my tone, she sounded like she wanted to laugh. "~This time, it isn't anything special, I promise! I just wanted to tell you about a few of the Aesir's recent movements.~"

-Hoh?- She instantly caught my attention. "Do continue."

"~Well, for starters, the Aesir is in a frenzy. With you recently killing Magni, Tyr, and Hel, a string of distrust has started being woven into-~"

"Hel?" After a moment of thought, I cut her off. "Who.. is that?"

The goddess froze instantly. "~Hel was the goddess of death and decay... She went to Bahamut not long after you killed Tyr and died within a few minutes... Do you mean that wasn't you?~" She sounded quite concerned.

But I could only shake my head. "It wasn't me." But it did ring a bell. -Is Hel the one that did a number on Myles? If that's the case...- "I think it's more likely that Amphitrite was the one that killed her, especially if Myles and Amphitrite were the ones she ran into."

But surprisingly, the goddess disagreed. "~No... Hel would be out of their league unless Myles brought 'that'... But I could have sworn... nevermind...~" There was a short pause before she continued in a troubled tone. "~In any case, before I go investigate that, the Aesir is a total wreck right now, and with you exposing Odr's presence like you just did, the turmoil will only compound on itself. However, at best, that turmoil can only buy you a year or two.~"

I quickly caught her trail. "So you want me to land a blow while they're down..."

She immediately nodded. "~But I don't think attempting to gather everyone in one spot is the right way to take things.~"

"Who said I was gathering everyone?" Seeing her look up at me, I smiled. "All I have to do is cut their connection to the top. After all, what will a bunch of cockroaches do once there aren't any more rats to leave them crumbs?"

"~T..they will flock to the next sweetest smell...~"

Before I knew it, my smile had started to turn crazed. -All I will have to do is blow it in their direction...-

Continuing our talk, we discussed several other matters regarding the Holy Kingdom and its movements before splitting up again. However, essentially all of it could be summed up to, 'now is the time to hit them'.

In short, recent events had sewn discord into the Aesir and caused many gods to grow suspicious about each other, with some going as far as giving their apostles orders to be wary of the other churches.

But now, with the sudden appearance of Odr's presence, a god pronounced dead by Odin at the beginning of the Great War, the discord would only grow. -But I only have a year or so even with that, so I need to get moving...-

But thankfully, to me, a year was plenty. *Vwooom-crackle* -Now.. I just need to find this bastard's switch...- Scanning through the deputy's brain while in my humanoid form, I tried to find a neural path to wake him up with, but among those I was aware of, there were very few chains that I could correlate to any sort of major biological response. -But I guess it doesn't really matter whether its stress, anxiety, fear, or despair...-

Eventually narrowing it down to three separate chains I had observed leading to an increased heart rate during our talks earlier in the day, I gave up attempting to figure out which to do and simply hit them all at once. *vwoom*

*GASP* "ACK!" He instantly jolted awake and gripped his chest with heavy breaths.

"You're finally awake, huh." He froze the moment I spoke before looking at me with wide eyes. "Took you long enough." *WHAAM* Driving my fist into his stomach, he disappeared from where he was sitting and slammed into the wall. *CRAACK*

*Crumble-Crackle* "Kuek-BLEGHH!" He coughed heavily before falling out of the wall and vomiting.

"Oh, so you can throw up?" I slowly walked over to him as my bloodlust increased. "I would have thought that you'd be unable to after growing used to the gut-wrenching guilt of corrupting the minds of your friend's children..." I used my foot to pull his chin up, forcing him to look me in the eyes. "Or was it that you never felt that guilt in the first place." I looked at him like I was looking at a cockroach.

"Kuek..." But it only made his fear turn to anger. "You know nothing! You fucking insane bastard!" He quickly grabbed onto my ankle as if to try and break it but it didn't move.

"You want to call me insane? You?!" I looked at him like he was crazy. "The moment you even considered turning your back on your own species, you had lost your mind." *VWOOM-CRRUNCH* Slamming him into the ground with my aura, I squatted beside him. "But for now, I am being generous and giving you a chance to repent, but this time you don't have the ability to refuse."

*pat* Setting my hand on the back of his head, an immense amount of mana flowed into his brain, allowing me to extend the oath rune already in place over nearly a hundred thousand additional neural paths, each of which I observed triggering with keywords or specific actions throughout our time together. -Space mana comes in handy with stuff requiring stealth...- *vwowowoom*

Finally, pulling my hand off his head, my expression started to ease. "Now, I have some questions. If you try to lie, that oath rune in your brain will let you experience pain that bypasses all numbness and tolerance just like earlier, but if you answer everything properly and follow my instructions, I will promise to let you live after all of this is over."

His eyes instantly lost their fire.

"Do you understand?"

He only hesitated for an instant before nodding. "Y..yes... I will respond truthfully..."

-Perfect...- Questions instantly started ringing through my mind. -But before that...- "Why don't you come and answer questions too?" I glanced toward the elevator shaft with a smile before grabbing the knight at the top with my aura and dragging him down. "You didn't really think you were being sneaky, probing your aura into mine like that, did you?"

As he finally came into view, his body started to glow from a transformation spell, but I didn't give him time for that.

The moment he reached me, I set my palm on his chest. *pat* *VWOOOOM* A colossal, visible mass of mana was instantly ejected out of his back before the spell came to a screeching halt.

As he fell to his knees, I couldn't deny that I felt a bit greedy. -To think another source of information presented itself so graciously...-

But unfortunately, he was obscenely oblivious when it came to the things I wanted to know about. -Thankfully, the deputy had more than enough information to compensate...-

*tap-tap-tap-tap* Walking down one of the main hallways out of the central spire, I started making my way back to Krystallo's class with a lot on my mind, but even though I was now on a countdown, I wore a relaxed smile. -Until those few professors in the Holy Kingdom return, the deputy can't gather them, so until then, I can relax...-

While the auction was still tomorrow, so I couldn't wholly relax just yet, the deputy was quite confident that it would be a minimum of six days before the professors started returning, and the goddess was certain the gods wouldn't be making moves any time soon either, so I could at least somewhat ease my nerves for the time being. -It would be nice if the auction is normal, though... I'd really like some quality time with Krystallo again...- "But even if that isn't the case.. I can bring her somewhere today..."

I continued down the hall with warm thoughts before eventually meeting up with Krystallo and leaving the academy.

However, once we got outside, she raised a familiar question.

"Where are we going?" She was once again sitting on my head in her humanoid form. "Are we going to visit Sir Atsáli again?"

"Haha, not this time. Do you remember that place he told us about?"

She immediately tilted her head. "The 'fittings' place?" Seeing me nod, she continued. "What exactly is it?"

-Hm? Has Mother never taken her?- "It's a place for professional designers to create a set of clothes for people who are unhappy with their own designs or struggle to adjust their spell to fit the design they want."

Her confusion only grew. "But why are we going there?"

"Well, I spoke with Mother, and she said we could go as the representatives of the Whyte family, but for that, you will need a new set of clothes."

"But.. why?"

I could only sigh at her obliviousness. "Haah..." -I guess I still have a lot I need to teach her...-

Quickly making our way to the store, I let Krystallo off my head and changed to my humanoid form in order to walk inside.

The inside of the store was beautiful, with a mostly wood plank floor, but utilizing entire tree trunks as the supports in the walls with all sorts of exquisite carvings and hanging outfits filling the empty wall space. -A lot of them actually look really good, too...- There was even one that closely resembled a suit from Earth.

"Hello, Sir, Madam! Welcome to our humble outfitter." A beautiful young draconic woman quickly greeted us with a shallow bow.

I honestly wanted to laugh hearing her say humble, but compared to the rest of the stores in Atlas, it was a more than apt descriptor.

"What is it that brings you two here today? This Sir seems to have incredible skill and wonderful taste, so I can't imagine how we could help."

I quickly waved her off with my hand. "I didn't design this myself, I simply chose the fabrics. In any case, we are going to attend the Chalastís Auction tomorrow, so I'd like to get her something more appropriate than an academy uniform to wear."

"Hoho~" She chuckled as she looked Krystallo up and down. "It would be our pleasure to create something befitting this young missus beauty. Are there any specific details you would like added, such as an insignia?"

"We can discuss the details when we get there; however, I hope you can create about five outfits for her, one for the auction and the rest for casual or other formal occasions. Could you do that?"

She gave me a surprised look but seemed more excited than anything. "Why, of course, but it will be quite expensive."

"Of course. The prices do not matter, so please spare no expense in the designs."

"Y-yes, sir!" She immediately threw herself into a deep bow with a look of joy before straightening up and motioning us along. "Please come this way!" As we began walking, though, she came to my side. "If I may be so rude to ask, were you referred to us by someone?"

I quickly nodded. "It was Vathýs Atsáli. He had quite the high praises of this place."

She quickly tensed up with excitement. "I-I see! I promise we shall work to meet your expectations, Sir-" She hesitated as she went to say my name.

"You can just call me Vasilias; however, this young girl is Krystallo Whyte."

Krystallo instantly shot me a glare, but she was promptly interrupted by the young woman. "Krystallo Whyte?! As in the next generation genius of the Academy?!"

As if my statement of her being a young girl had never happened, Krystallo puffed up her chest with pride. "Haha, yes." Before I knew it, I was gently rubbing her head, but while she was much older and I was unsure how she'd react to it, she still wore a look of satisfaction. "Haah..." -It's good to see I didn't miss as much as I thought...-

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