Chapter 87 - Negotiations

Somewhere.

Far away from any planet or star system. A realm comprising of pure energy, energy so vibrant that it seemed to hold the purest essence of life itself. In a white room somewhere in this majestic realm, sat a young lady.

Her demeanor, cute beyond belief. With pink pigtails reaching all the way down to her knees, her glasses which she wore over her eyes of matching color tipped down as she moved to take a sip of tea.

At waist level of her rather voluptuous body, was a floating, white orb, hovering about as if watching the young lady intently.

The young lady slowly moved her hand in the orb's direction, only to have her actions stopped by a loud pulse.

A fair distance in front of her, the space could be seen rippling violently, right before tearing open. The spacial rift of purple outline revealed a background similar to the young lady's room.

"Why are you here, Gaia?" The young lady said in a calm tone.

The question lingered in the air for some time before it was answered by a rather childish giggle. With a white flash, a shadow stepped out of the rift, revealing itself to be the shadowy silhouette of a child.

"Hehehe, Not happy to see your fellow Deity?"

The young lady rolled her eyes in annoyance before gulping down the rest of her tea. She slowly rose from her crosslegged, seated position before walking over to the shadow, her ample assets jiggling in her office suit.

"Shouldn't you be taking care of your realm?" The young lady asked as she towered over the shadow, not caring to hide the taunting tone in her voice.

The shadow spasmed. Although one couldn't see it's face, the sheer aura it gave off radiated pure anger. That anger died down rather quickly, however, replaced by another giggle.

"How can I look after it… when you steal the main characters of my series." The shadow asked, speaking to the young lady as if she didn't stand a whole meter above it.

The young lady narrowed her eyes. She stared at the shadow as if she could see something more than a simple silhouette, something irritating.

"They were mine to begin with, I stole nothing. Human lives aren't something you play around with, Gaia… especially those created by me." The young lady replied, her eyebrows knitted.

The shadow, named Gaia, laughed this time. He levitated over to the young lady before sizing up to her, looking eye to eye.

"That's not the point… um… what should I call you?" Gaia teased, causing the young lady to huff.

"Grrrr… It's Athena… you pest…"

Gaia released a booming laugh, "You see, this is what got us into this mess: your compassion towards those silly humans. Look at you, taking this form because they can't bear to look upon your true one… even taking a new name that can be pronounced in their backwards language, also unlike your true name."

Athena gnashed her teeth. She clenched her fist so hard that it tore through her skin, which healed over in less than a second. Calming herself with a deep breath, she asked what Gaia needed.

"Oh, It's simple." He replied, returning to a lower level of hovering, "Just return Takumi and Misao to my realm. I had to freeze time over there because you reincarnated them in yours… that's not a fun way to finish my series."

Athena's rage increased some more, she now began to shiver as her cute pink eyes flashed. She began walking over to Gaia's shadowy body when he raised his palm, stopping her.

He then snapped his fingers, and from the spacial rift that had remained open during this exchange, came another flying orb. The crystal ball hovered in front of Athena before portraying an image.

It was an image of Endolis.

The scene of Takumi and Misao's death was portrayed in frozen time. The smile across Urusla's face as she impaled the heroes' chests, the fear and pained expressions of the team in the background.

"Well? Melts that big, sappy heart of yours, doesn't it?" Gaia spoke, ending the image and recalling the orb to his side.

Athena looked up at Gaia, her aggravated expression completely washed away by a steady flow of tears. Her lips trembled as she sniffled.

"Gaia… you're leaning too far over to your dark side…" She said, the pain in her voice evident.

Gaia snorted in response, "Yeah yeah, and you're leaning too far over to your good side. You're the softest of all us Deities."

"Humans are just another one of our creations… just there for no specific reason other than to fulfil the basic purpose of our existence. If they didn't make such wonderful playthings then I would have already wiped out all the ones in my realm, replace them with something else."

"Now you have a choice… either give me back my main characters or I destroy my realm. start over. And just for revenge, I'll send all those innocent spirits over to your realm, putting their pain on your pitifully fragile heart."

"…and based on what your God's Eye is showing, they're already trying to go back to my realm. You wouldn't want them destroying their spirits with some 'transmigration ritual' now do you?"

Athena stared at Gaia in utter shock. The tears didn't stop flowing in the slightest as she went over his proposal, almost cursing her overflowing love for humans. She clenched her fists harder and grit her teeth, squeezing out an answer.

"…fine…"