In Monk Zumma's village.
Arya, Heyt, Syrie, and Danila all sat naked, soaking inside a bathtub. Heyt let out a deep breath as she leaned her back on the wall. "This is… this is especially relaxing."
"Yeah, yeah it is," Danila replied.
"You know, since you left here, Danila you've been a lot more different I'd say," Heyt started. "Normally you wouldn't step foot in here. I'd have to drag you in unconscious, but now you even agreed to get completely naked, what happened?"
The fae let out a soft chuckle. "Well for starters, I merged with Maleficent, the Fae goddess, and that opened up my mind and body to greater things."
"So you are like, one with the Fae goddess?"
Danila nodded yes. She noticed the look on Heyt's face and addressed it. "What's the matter?"
"That's… don't get me wrong, I am very happy for you. It's just with my mediocre act, there's nothing I can do to help in this battle, I can't even swing a sword right."
Heyt continued. "Grevla has been going around, actually preparing for the upcoming war, giving, while I have nothing to offer."
"That's not true," Arya chipped. She swam over to where the white-haired girl was. "Just look at you… even if you have nothing to give on the battlefield, you could offer courage to the warriors."
"How?"
Arya shrugged. "I don't know, look at your boobs, they are nice and perky." The emerald green-haired girl extended her hand and grabbed Heyt's chest.
The Dengal blood cowered and lightly pushed Arya's hand away. "That has nothing to do with what I'm saying, plus yours are much better than mine."
"I know it's not what we were talking about. I'm just trying to change the conversation because I hate it when people talk about their shortcomings."
"In that case, why don't we talk about things we haven't done that we regret," Syrie suggested.
Arya hissed and shook her head. "Or, we could talk about who we'd rather be with, Blutox, or Eryth?"
"Wow, I didn't think of you as the type of girl to want to have conversations like this."
"Well, you don't know me. And what's wrong with having this conversation with your girlfriends? With the way things are escalating with Hex, this might be the last conversation we get to have, so… who wants to go first?"
Syrie cleared her throat. "I'm just gonna go ahead and say Eryth, Blutox seem like a great guy, but Eryth is better."
"Hmm," Heyt hummed. "I can tell you're only saying that because you don't know much about Blutox."
"Oh really?" Syrie asked. "Who would you choose?"
Heyt stayed quiet for a moment before replying. "Eryth, but it's only because he understands me better."
"Right."
Arya turned to Danila. "What about you?"
The fairy narrowed her eyes at the emerald green-haired girl. [What are you doing?] She spoke telepathically to her.
'What?'
[Are you trying to put us against each other?]
"Is it that hard to decide who you want to be with, Danila? Or perhaps you have a thing for the two of them?"
"If I have to choose then it'll be Eryth."
Arya smiled. "So Eryth for everyone?"
"Hold on," Danila chipped. "Have you guys seen Eryth since last night?"
"What do you mean?" Heyt probed.
"We are bound telepathically, but I haven't been able to feel anything from him."
The four stared at each other for a moment before they all rushed out of the tub simultaneously.
.
.
.
Eryth crashed on the ground, gripping his stomach as he felt like puking but nothing came out. He looked up to see both Grevla and Nopsis staring at him.
"You wouldn't be able to puke in here, this is the High Realm. You shouldn't even feel it unless…" he let his words trail off before turning his heels. "When you are ready, just call out my name really loud and I'll be there to get you out."
He stopped and turned to them. "Word of advice, don't stay too long or you'll draw attention to yourself. And don't eat anything, trust me." He disappeared.
The dark brown-haired man stood up on his feet and gazed around, taking in the beauty of what stood before him. "I must admit, I am shocked."
"Why so?" Grevla asked while also looking around.
"I don't know why, but I was expecting things to be entirely white because you know-- pure energy and all, but things are so much… green," he said. "And human. Most of them look human."
The grey-haired lady smiled as Eryth furrowed. "Haven't you heard, the one thing the gods love about us is the way we look and so they take that look often much."
"I see." He turned back to his surroundings.
The High Realm was like an extremely big garden. There were people wrapped in their different attires walking around the place, not too crowded, but not as empty. Tall and colourful trees, mostly green, were planted beautifully, almost as if the creator was building a pattern with them. Birds, winged horses and many other creatures soar through the sky. The buildings around were like nothing the two had ever seen, each created in ways that couldn't be explained with words, perfect would be an understatement.
As he looked around, he noticed that everyone seemed happy, smiling with zero negative emotions as they walked around. "This can't be the mighty gods, right?" He turned to Grevla who seemed to also be happy about something.
"Probably not. I feel like this is… like a place for those that have ascended to the high realm after death."
Eryth frowned. "Why are you all so elated? I've never seen you like this before."
She blinked and her face returned the expression Eryth was familiar with. "Ehmm… we have to find what we need and get out of here."
"What's wrong?"
"It's the effect of the god's aura… one can't have any negative emotion in the High Realm. Look at them…" She gestured at the people walking around with smiles on their faces and no worries in their minds. "We are mortals that aren't dead yet, so the effect will be like a curse that'll drag us and keep us stuck here."
"Well, that doesn't seem right."
Grevla grabbed his hand and began dragging him with her as she walked in a random direction.
"Okay, but then why don't I feel the effect?" He questioned.
"I don't know, maybe because…" her words trail off and she let go of Eryth's hand.
The grey-haired lady pointed at a tree that had golden Apple-like fruit. "I want to try that," she said with a smile.
Nopsis' words hit him like a ball to the head. He quickly grabbed Grevla's hand and began walking away from the tree. "How do I even find the library?"
"But I want to try it," she said but wasn't struggling to unhand herself.
"Heaven my ass," Eryth hissed. "This place feels suffocating, do these people even have a will of their own?"
"Are you questioning the gods' way?" Eryth eyes widened. He veered around to see a lady staring at him. She was light-skinned and tall, a few inches taller than himself. She had long ice-blue hair that stretched down to her butt. Her eyes were completely white and the clothes she wore were white and it only covered her nether region.
The Dark Mage shot the ice-blue-haired lady a smile. "Question the gods' ways? I worship the gods, why would I question their ways?"
The lady narrowed her eyes at him and looked over his shoulder to see Grevla who continued to smile while looking around.
"What makes you think I was questioning the gods' ways?"
"Because I see through you and I know that you don't belong here."
Eryth held her stare for a moment before his eyes widened. "I know you… you are Odora, the eye of the Realms. Most people refer to you as the goddess of Time because you can see the past, the present and the future as one, but you are only a servant of the gods."
"Congratulations, the gods blessed you with knowledge. Now answer my question, how did you enter the High Realm?"
"If you can see the past, the present and the future as one, why can't you tell who helped me in here?"
The ice-blue-haired lady inched forward. "I know you were brought up here by a god, but I can't tell which one because that god being part of it stops my ability from seeing about your past, now I'll ask again, and this would be the last so you'd better answer, who brought you up here."
Eryth scoffed. "Is that a threat? Since you have those eyes I'm sure you can tell that threats don't work on me because I don't feel fear, and I'm not scared of you."
"You will be…" she inched forward and placed her palm over Eryth's face. He tried to move his hand to stop her but he felt a force pushing his hand down and a sudden pain hit his head, making him scream out of agony."
He went down to his knees, screaming his lungs out as the pain got even worse. Odora moved her hand away and the dark brown haired man crashed on the ground breathing heavily.
"Nopsis," she muttered.
"Being stubborn and defiant won't help you get the gods' attention." She tossed a golden compass on the ground next to him. "That'll take you to the eternal library. Leave the High Realm immediately," she added before walking away.
Grevla who seemed to have gotten her consciousness back picked up the compass. The dark brown-haired man looked up at her. "Really? You're not gonna help me up?" He queried.
"Why are you trying to get their attention?"
Eryth managed to drag himself back to a stand. "Two seconds ago you were high and couldn't even think for yourself..."
"And it's probably gonna happen again soon," she chipped. "Tell me, Eryth."
He stayed quiet for a while before replying. "Why do you think? I'm about to get my hands on the Tome of Discordia, and I thought if I could get them to increase my lifespan, I'd be fine. And when Rapulnu said we have to come to the High Realm, I thought… perfect opportunity."
"You looking for the Book already got their attention."
"Let's just get going."
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