Chương 31: Deal

I kept pushing with her sword pointed at my chest. As expected, Akasha's flame sword did nothing against Divine Neck. The blade met skin and simply stopped there, heat washing over my chest without cutting.

"You really do have a hard body." She held her ground anyway, boots skidding backward through the dirt.

"Hey, mortal!" The god's voice carried from somewhere off to my left, closer to the headless giant's collapsed shoulder. He pointed two fingers at his own head, grinning.

"Try hitting her head instead." Akasha looked at him.

"You look confident." She looked back at me.

"Fine, let's try." Then she stepped back, disengaging her sword from where it pressed against my chest, and reangled it upward. I stopped moving forward. I gritted my teeth.

"I see. So that's how it is." She leveled the sword directly at my head this time. Then the system butted in. [Move forward.] But she'll hit my head. [It will be dangerous if you confirm your weakness by standing still with the presence of a god.] Aren't you listening?! She's going to hit my head! [Calm down, Raffea. Breathe in. Breathe out.] What are you— [Just do it.] I did, unwillingly, dragging air in through my nose and letting it out slow. [Have you calmed down?] I nodded. [Good. Now, do you remember what level you currently are?] No. I'd stopped counting a long time ago. [Why?] Because it kept going up, and up, past the point where the number meant anything— [There you have it. Even if she strikes your head, the damage will likely be minimal, given the level gap between you.] I see… will it hurt me? [Absolutely.] That doesn't sound convincing? I slapped both of my cheeks anyway, and ran straight forward. Akasha clicked her tongue.

"Don't hold it against me. You asked for it." Akasha's sword came down in a clean arc. I felt heat bloom across my left cheek. Stronger than Monkey's face-slap back in the Eastern District, sharp enough to sting properly — but that was it. Not something I couldn't endure. I moved past her. Blood trailing down my cheek.

"I thought her head was supposed to be her weakness?" Akasha spun toward the god. He shrugged. Then he moved himself, closing the distance in an instant, one hand reaching directly for my head.

"Then let me try." Gwyn's crescent blade came above his extended arm. He yanked it back before it connected. He looked at her, grinning.

"I thought we were already on the same team?"

"Unfortunately, I don't remember agreeing to that." Gwyn smiled back. I kept pushing forward, past both of them, straight toward Pusher. He didn't raise his weapon, AK something. He raised one finger instead.

"How about this, I return them home in exchange for you joining us." I stopped.

"... Eh?" I looked back at the Jade women, huddled together at the edge of the road, still trembling. Then back at Pusher.

"You'd actually do that?"

"Of course." He spread both hands.

"We'll all travel there together, so you can confirm they're safe yourself. Say your goodbyes properly, if it comes to that." He extended one hand toward me.

"How does that sound?" The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I looked at the hand for a long moment. I raised my hand toward it. Then lowered it again, uncertain. Akasha moved beside me. She leaned closer to my ear.

"With him, it would be possible to avenge your father." Dad? My eyes went wide. I turned to look at her. She nodded and didn't say anything more. I still remembered it like it had happened yesterday. The old man on his flying sword, raining swords down on Dad from every direction at once, the giant blade shattering into a hundred smaller pieces, each one converging— I felt my hand curl into a fist at my side, tight enough to ache. But Dad had smiled at me anyway. Right before.

Water started flooding my eyes, blurring the edges of everything in front of me.

"Would Dad want me to avenge him?"

"Definitely not," Akasha answered immediately, "but how about you? Do you want revenge?" I found myself nodding before I'd consciously decided to. So this is what I actually feel, underneath everything else. Not something Dad would have wanted for me. Something I wanted for myself. I looked over at Gwyn.

"Gwyn… I'm sorry, but I think I need to do this first. Before we look for your parents. Is that alright?" She shrugged, still facing forward toward the god, not turning to look at me.

"It's fine. I don't have a lead on them anyway."

"About that." Akasha's voice cut in.

"Aside from me, one of Pusher's promoted executives is a silver-haired swordsman. His wife works alongside him. He's actually one of the reasons a lot of us survived, before Pusher found us."

"... I see." Gwyn's voice dropped lower, but warm.

"I knew they'd be all right." I watched her back a moment longer before turning back to Pusher.

"Would you help me get my revenge?" His hand stayed exactly where it was, still extended.

"Akasha, which island was it?"

"The Lightning Flasher Sect," she answered. He grinned.

"Sure. But you'll need to prove your worth to me first." I unclenched my hand. I took his.

"Excellent." He shook my hand.

Pusher raised one hand, one finger extended, and the air behind him split open in seven overlapping ruptures, iron pouring out of each one and assembling itself mid-motion into the shape of enormous winged horses, wings still folded, metal plating catching moonlight along every seam.

"Right, then." He gestured toward the nearest one.

"This one's mine. You lot," he pointed at me, then Gwyn, then Genrik, then swept the same finger toward the god and Akasha, "with me, up front." The Jade women hesitated near the others, uncertain which of the remaining six to approach.

"Load the ones behind," Pusher added, already turning away. Genrik moved first, guiding Mei and the rest toward a Pegasus at the back. I watched them go. Watched Mei glance back once before disappearing through the creature's side. Then Pusher's hand settled on my shoulder, steering me toward the lead Pegasus. Their sizes were difficult to grasp even from where I sat, and even more difficult to explain, given that all of us were currently sitting inside their bellies.

It felt like having been eaten by something, which struck me as wrong on two separate counts: I was fairly sure this was not what being eaten was supposed to feel like, and Pegasi, as far as I understood, were meant to be herbivores. Eating humans didn't seem consistent with the diet. A single wing rotated slowly at each creature's back.

A mechanical sail catching wind that shouldn't have been enough to lift something this size, and once all of us had been swallowed into its hollow metal interior, the wing began turning faster.

"Thud thud thud thud," the iron beasts announced before launching themselves into the sky. Strange as the summons were, I found I could see everything below us despite being enclosed inside it. The savanna unrolled beneath us, dark under the moon. Behind us, the giant creature of the abyss had already regrown its severed head and arms, lumbering after us on the ground far below, growing smaller with every passing second.

Behind it, the town we'd come from sat largely intact except for the one clean gap where the wall had collapsed entirely. I looked toward the god, seated to Pusher's left. He shrugged.

"What?" I opened my mouth.

"The town—""No longer interested." He turned toward Pusher instead, dismissing the whole subject with a wave of one hand.

"Drop me off at the abyss first. Pick me back up whenever this whole drama's finished playing out."

"You sure you don't want to stick around? Drama's fun to watch." Pusher glanced sideways at his other neighbor.

"Right, Akasha?" Akasha only nodded, saying nothing. The god pointed a finger at Pusher.

"Listen here, brat. I've been watching mortals for an eternity at this point. I am thoroughly done with their nonsense."

"Fine, fine. No need to glare."

"This was what you were after, from the start, right?" Gwyn, seated beside me, cut in, watching Pusher without blinking. Pusher put an inhaler pill between his teeth, smoke curling upward.

"Your reason?"

"You gave her one absurd condition, so when you offered a second less absurd one right after, it would feel reasonable by comparison." I looked at her.

"What are you talking about?" She turned to me.

"You've been played." She smiled.

"Like an idiot." I tilted my head. Pusher laughed, clapping both hands.

"Excellent. You might have a talent for business, you know that? Here, I'll give you a reward, since you caught it so quickly."

"What kind of reward?" Gwyn crossed her arms.

"I don't want anything cheap."

"You may ask me one question. Anything you like."

"Hmm… Then tell me about the American and the Chinese. The one you mentioned earlier." Pusher leaned back against the curved wall of the creature's interior.

"You'd really spend your one question on that? It's common knowledge, even children know that story."

"Might be common where you're from."

"... True enough." He exhaled another slow curl of smoke.

"Given how things have turned out between them, I suppose it's possible the Chinese buried the truth of it, so his descendants won't ridicule him."