Chapter 131: A Change To Get Used To

Soon after telling me how it's gonna be from now on; with her hanging around my head via Anselm, Frozia was rather quick to kick me out of her realm.

Great, now I've got a Goddess royally pissed at me.

A Goddess I have no way of not working for. With her dangling Anselm's soul in front of me and threatening me with its destruction, I'm not sure I have much of a choice.

Well, if I did I wouldn't be working for her now would I.

I wonder how awkward this will be when I break the news to Kaylin. I mean, she worships Vuius, I know there isn't a chance in hell I'm breaking her free of that.

There's also the awkward confusion I can clearly foresee already. I preach the worship of the Goddess of Winter and Ice yet I pray to some Wolf headed Deity when I battle.

I have a feeling Lotar's going to get some unintentional followers through this confusion alone.

Speaking of Lotar, I still haven't gotten the Wolf deity to tune down the hunger and I've got at least three more days to Aste. By the time I'm done knocking all the heads and squashing all the egos in Aste it'll take far too long to travel all the way back to Frozia by carriage.

I suppose there is one upside to being indentured to yet another freaking Deity.

Frozia could teleport us to Frozia then, before I go batshit with hunger yet again and lose Anselm or Kaylin.

Speaking of Anselm, I'm seated at the back of the carriage, waiting patiently for the ghost to make an appearance or rather…make his presence known the way he usually does.

I've cast off quite a few Summon Spirit lobs of mana in the air thinking it's him. It wasn't.

Thanks to the use of a rather dusty spell of mine, Sense Death, I find out it's just some couple who likely got mugged of their valuables and killed while they travelled these roads.

I almost feel sorry for them not grabbing the chance to be mobile again. But then again, it was only one lob of mana, one of them would still be stuck.

I could help…free them, let them be free to move about once again instead of forever being glued to the sight of their death and likely right over where their bodies would have been haphazardly buried by the medieval vagrants.

But I'm not in a helping mood. Not at all.

It feels like all I've done since coming to this world was help people. Either unintentionally or out of pity. Either way it turns out, I end up helping someone.

It's getting a bit frustrating. 

I huff a sigh as I realize my current predicament is a result of me getting too attached to a dead guy and promising to bring him back to life. 

I mean, if I knew it'd take a freaking Deity to manipulate a soul to the point of bringing back the dead- properly – I wouldn't have been overcome by emotions and run my mouth like a kid with a long wish list and a Santa patiently waiting to listen to it all.

Still, this isn't all my fault, right? I can't help it that I fall into situations where I help people. I mean, I've been pretty mean recently too.

Very mean.

I cringe as I remember going overboard on Leon and his feeble guards.

I don't exactly regret killing them or putting Leon in his place or snapping Matthias out of his little power and pride fantasy.

But I think I could have handled it better. As useful to learning about my new powers their souls were, I think I could have found another route to getting what I wanted if I remained cool-headed.

Nothing like that though. These have been some turbulent few weeks.

From waking up to realize I've lost a week of my life to a mindless wander through snow because of the insatiable hunger I experienced to learning that I've been designated some kind of Godhood candidate.

"Ugh." I groan.

Just thinking about any of it drains me. This wasn't what I was expecting when I marched into Frozia, not what I was expecting at all.

Still, it does make some sense. A lot of sense actually. The System, is the so-called Mark of All that sets someone as a potentially new deity.

I'm not even sure why such a process exists, why do you need more Deities? Personally, I think there are more than enough up there.

My predecessor had this same Mark, this System. I wonder if she knew what it meant, if she knew that the System, she used to terrorize the land was a means of some Deity vetting process.

Doubt. Frozia said I wasn't supposed to know.

There's a chance she did. Although, if she did know about her potential of becoming a Deity, I doubt she would have gone along with Anera's plan to kick out Frozia from the Continent.

Though, if Anera threatened her like Frozia is threatening me then I don't think it's farfetched to believe she knew about her chance at Godhood and still went on a killing spree across the Continent for the Goddess of Life and Light.

"Heh." I snort, just realizing exactly how ironic it is for the Goddess of Life and Light to tolerate murder. And not just any kind of murder, murder by undead creatures hired by her to do the freaking job.

Honestly, whoever is picking the Gods is doing a pretty bad job at it.

"Where the hell are you Anselm." I moan, slumping down onto the floor of the trotting carriage like a sack of potatoes.

I need a break, and soon. And I think that break starts with Anselm coming back, and then Kaylin calling in and letting me know that Aste isn't already on fire as well as have both Frozia and Aste, with the extra addition of Spol all under my control.

A familiar cold chill runs down my spine, "Anselm!" I gasp and prepare a lob of mana.

Shooting it out I watch as for the first time in a short but tiresomely long time, a shape takes form.

"Anselm…" I breathe a breath of relief seeing the snarky man floating at the back of the carriage again. "You've been gone a while."

He looks different, everything about him is different. Rather than have an old clunky armour on he's got on a silky looking white coat, with patterns of snowflakes.

It's easy to tell Frozia has been at work remodelling his image to fit hers.

He's still got his black trousers, but his shirt has been transformed into something of a chainmail stitched closely with the white fabric of Frozia's coat.

And most impressively, he's got a weapon in his hand. Rather than a spear as he's always fought with, he has a spiked mace heavily held in his hand.

"It's good to see you again, Asher." He mutters, his voice holding within it a sense of nostalgia.

"It hasn't been that long, you know?" I complain.

He only smiles, seemingly a lot less talkative now, "Time operates…strangely in the realm of a Goddess. I've been with Frozia for what feels like decades."

At this I blink. The time dilation doesn't faze me so much as the fact that he stayed there, with her that long.

"Why didn't you come back? I mean sooner?"

His smile doesn't leave his face, only spreads, "I had purpose, the acolytes of Frozia were preparing me for a battle and I tell you, Asher, I've never felt more of a calling than now."

I'm utterly confused.

"A battle? What battle? No, forget that. Why didn't you at least send me a message? Why didn't you at least call on me in some way, let me know you're off hanging out with some Goddess off the roadside and preparing for battle."

I huff, massaging my temples, "You know, you're the one who always rails me about making a bad decision with Lotar the sketchy Great Spirit, the Wolf's a Deity now by the way." I add at the last second, "But then you turn around and do the same exact thing you tease me about? I mean, had you ever heard of Frozia before now?"

The look he has now is a far cry from the one I was greeted with.

"The Goddess is nothing like your mutt."

Ah, I see he's taken her vocabulary over the 'decades' spent. Ugh.

"Really? Cuz I think she's far worse than Lotar, at least Lotar is upfront about the deal, about the consequences. But her?" I tut.

"Watch how you speak of her, Asher." He grits out, "She told me you would be less than amicable when I arrived but I wasn't expecting this?"

Less than amicable? What bullshit is this all about?

"Anselm, don't you see she's brainwashed you? She's lied to you about everything and she has your soul in the palm of her hand."

"A privilege I am unworthy of." He proclaims.

I blink and shake my head, unable to process the Anselm in front of me.

"Okay…what exactly did she tell you?"