Chapter 57 - Doing a Goddess a Favor (1)

"H-Help me, p…please!" The figure opened her teary eyes and pleaded when I stepped forward.

Now that I was closer and actually in the room, I could see what the chamber looked like, along with the figure pleading for my help. The figure turned out to be a woman, and was, for some odd reason, chained up in the room.

The chamber was circular, with the same framing and decorations as the walkway outside. Except, this room was entirely out of water, the room even felt hot and the air dry.

Looking at the woman, her long, flowing light blue hair, reminiscent of water, matched her ocean blue eyes. Her porcelain skin complimented her hair well. A gold laurel wreath crown kept her hair half up, and a golden cuff-like choker adorned her neck.

She wore a long white tunic that seemed to flow like water at the ends, it had off-the-shoulder sleeves, though they were short and you could see her gold leaf arm cuffs that matched with her gold belt. Looking over her shoulder, she was barefoot, her skin cracked at the bottom from being dried out.

Taking a closer look at her, her entire skin was dried out and cracked. She was also dangerously thin, her collar bones very much lined by the tight skin on her chest. She looked truly pitiful.

"Who are you, and why exactly should I help you?" I questioned her, tilting my head at her a bit.

"Well, she is the goddess Cordelia, of course," a familiar voice said from behind me, startling me and making me turn in surprise to see who it was.

"HAH! So this is your doing, Hunapo?" I exclaimed, glaring at him, while actually being intimidating this time instead of like a black cat, except He still saw me that way.

This time, Hunapo was wearing a gold laurel wreath crown, along with a new tunic. The base of it was a black cloth with actual gold sheets sewn into it, then was covered by a white cloth lined with gold on top. The tunic only covered half of his chest and about the length of a short skirt on his legs.

However, there was a longer piece of white fabric draped in between his legs, covering his length, inner thighs, and calves. He wore black sandals that had cloth sewn to it, the cloth was black and gold like the base of his tunic and covered half of the top of his feet. 

Hunapo also had a tight black cloth lined with gold covering his neck and connecting to the tunic part that went over his shoulder and acted as a sort of cape in the back. The neck covering was thin enough to outline his collarbone and neck muscles enough to where you could see it.

He wore two black and gold gauntlets, perhaps made of Stygian iron, though only possible if a version of typhon existed in this world. His cream-colored bangs were fluffed up more than usual and he wasn't wearing his earcuffs either, just the gold laurel wreath crown. His ethereal goldy glow was as strong as ever, and his muscles were as prominent, and eyes still closed.

'Someone's feeling emo, huh?'

"Oh no, no, no, that is not my doing," he explained, gesturing to Cordelia but then to me. "This, however, is. How do you like my little gift?"

"Your gift? Please, this is anything but a gift. It's a bit haunting to have my old appearance back after such a short while, and I would admit it felt a bit nice, but I'd rather not give you another reason to keep smiling that annoying little smile of yours!" I shot back, glaring at him even more, and smiling smugly on that last part.

"My, how mean~ Do you hear that Cordelia? He said I smile annoyingly!" Hunapo teased and shed fake tears, also while hugging himself and wiggling back and forth like a cartoon character.

"..." Cordelia didn't respond and instead gave him a pitiful look. I also gave him a disgusted look, but he just frowned, then smiled and humed to himself.

"Well, no matter. You see Mr. Anzhong, Goddess Cordelia is in a bit of a pickle here and needs your help, would you be so kind as of to aid her?" Hunapo stated, still smiling his signature smile.

"You're asking me as if I have a choice, though in reality, I don't, do I?" I replied sarcastically, and Hunapo just shrugged, "Haaaa, fine. Tell me, what exactly do I have to do to help her?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked!" He exclaimed, clasping his hands together. Then he pointed to a giant block of unknown metal, "Do you see those things that are holding her chains up? You need to break them in order to lose the chains a be able to break them!"

"One, what are those huge things made of?! Two, why can't I just break the chains themselves? And three, how the hell am I supposed to manage to do that?" I questioned, giving the smug god a look of disbelief.

"Hm…The metal has a "spell" cast on it that makes those chains unbreakable, even for a god, so until you have broken the source, you'll never get them off. And here, take this, I want you to stay where you are and break each one. We wouldn't want you getting hurt by the debris after all!" Hunapo explained, then handed me a rifle like one of the ones they would use in an American Western movie.

"You're telling me that this 'puny' thing is supposed to destroy those large ass cubes of god-sealing metal?! You must think I'm an idiot to just believe your nonsense without question!" I jabbed, shoving the rifle back into Hunapo's hands.

"Hahahahaha! Relax Saito, It was merely a small prank. I'm well aware that you are smarter than that!" He laughed, then made the rifle vanish into thin air. He suddenly pointed to my pocket, "Why don't you try that?"

Puzzled, I checked my pocket only to find a black and green key, "HA! You are quite the jester, don't you know?" I jested, wearing an annoyed but amused smile.

The key was the key that summoned my scythe, and it seemed to unsurprisingly be enough to break the metal holding the chains. I quickly summoned the scythe, then looked at Hunapo who nodded towards the damn things.

There were three giant squares in total. I went over to the first one and swung at it. Unfortunately, though, when I went to hit the chain's peg, my scythe bounced back, almost causing me to flop over onto my ass.

"I thought you said that my scythe could break the pegs," I glared at Hunapo, who smiled and chuckled.

"Oh silly, you're going to need a bit of help than that," Hunapo teased, making me tilt my head at him and his smile only grew, "Why don't you try using that fire ability as well, hm?"

"I'll try my best," I stated sarcastically. Then I enabled my divine power, engulfing my scythe in green flames.

As I swung my scythe, the flames made me sweat from their heat, making me wonder why it was so hot in the chamber. But as I broke away the chain peg and destroyed the metal square, I found out.

Immediately, water came gushing out from a hole that was blocked by the metal, spraying me as it poured out. It filled the gutters on the sides near the walls, though the one I destroyed only filled a third of what was needed to fill the gutters entirely. However, it was able to reach Cordelia's feet, which made her look more refreshed.

'Guess she really is the goddess of water for a reason.'

Walking closer to her, I could see that the cracked skin on her feet smoothed over and was moistened. The skin clinging to her color bones loosened, and her face looked younger, the skin on her jaw bones loosened as well and were less defined.

"How do you feel now?" I asked, unsure of what exactly that did for her other than make her look more rejuvenated.

"Hm, much better! Thank you, my dear," A gentle voice sang from her mouth, sounding much different from her dried and cracked voice before.

"Now, now, don't get too excited! There are still two more left to go!" Hunapo rang, irritating me once again.

"Great, now I'm going to get even more wet!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes and gesturing to the water spots on my shirt, blazer, and pants.

Hunapo chuckled, smiled, then tilted his head, "Oh you're just fine, besides, this is simply an astral projection anyways, it's not like you're actually wet in the outside world," He said, shrugging.

I grunted at him, then continued to break the remaining metal blocks, resulting in my astral avatar to become completely soaked, making my shirt stick to my abs and practically see-through.

"Wheww~ Looking good Lit. Colonel!" Hunapo teased, but I shot him a pissed-off look resembling the one that the gangster side characters in anime would use when they bumped into someone.

"Hunapo, stop teasing the poor man!" Cordelia exclaimed, finally being able to stand up. Now that her feet were fully emersed in water, the hems of her dress as well, she regained her godly glow and her figure became fuller.

"Come now, Cordelia. I'm just having fun!" Hunapo poked, causing me to once again glared at him, unafraid of his divinity.

"Well some of us aren't, so I would appreciate it if you'd stop," I shot back, crossing my arms and leaning back in my stance a bit.

"Hehe, yes yes…Anyways~ Lev, if you could please get rid of the remaining chains on Cordelia, that would be wonderful!" Hunapo coaxed, still maintaining his mischievousness.

"Yeah, yeah. I know it…Pardon me, goddess, I may accidentally cut you here," I apologized, walking over to her and bowing slightly.

"That's quite alright, and my skin is like water anyway! Considering I am the goddess of water and all that jazz," She joked, putting on a weak smile.

I grunted, then picked up one of the chains. "...Do you know if there would just so happen to be a cheat code to turn my scythe into a sword, dagger, or something?" I called out to Hunapo, feeling uncomfortable with cutting such small chains with such a large item.

"Hahahahaha! Here, I'm feeling generous, so I'll let you borrow my dagger," Hunapo offered, taking out a dagger with a golden hilt, similar to the good sealing metal, and a pristine white blade.

"Thank you, I appreciate it," I replied, summoning my scythe and putting its key back into my pocket.

As I walked over to Hunapo, I suddenly realized why he always kept his distance. There was this unmistakenly heavy pressure I had never felt before, as if I were carrying a boulder on my shoulders.

I stopped walking forward and instead, took a few steps back, unsure of whether he was aware he was doing it or not. He tilted his head at me, unaware of why I stopped in my tracks, but I just made a pushing-down gesture over my shoulders, and luckily he seemed to understand.

"Ah! My sincerest apologies! I tend to be unaware of my own pressure. Here, I should've just handed it to you like this in the first place," He apologized genuinely, then sent his dagger floating over to me.

The dagger looked small in his hand, but to me it was like a regular old sword, reminding me once again of the difference between the build of gods and regular mortals.

Finally having the "dagger" in my hand, I was able to feel how well it was made. Despite Hunapo holding it just now, the hilt was still cool like steel or iron after not being touched for a while in a cool or warm environment.

I would have touched the blade, but it exuded an odd energy, so I didn't even bother trying, afraid of damaging my astral projection. Instead, I just walked over, picked up the chain again, and swung down on it. Breaking not only the chain itself but also the chamber's floor in the process.

There was now a giant gash from where I was standing, to the other side of the room. 

I froze and looked at it with my mouth open in shock, Cordelia's eyes also wide in shock. I slowly turned my head in the direction of Hunapo, who had a nervous smile on his face.

"...Whoops, suppose I forgot to mention that part as well…" He admitted guiltily, shrugging, still keeping his nervous smile.