“That’s your answer?” She asked with a bit of intrigue in her voice.
Mykel tried to move his head but the hand was still gripping his face and prevented him from moving his head. “Yes, that’s why I want everything and everything will be mine,” he answered with the hand blocking his mouth.
“Your world is in balance now, the good and evil in your world cannot be disturbed. If you want to be good, let the goodness fade, if you want to be evil, let the evil in your world disappear.” She whispered and Mykel could feel her cold breath on his left ear. “Your existence alone is enough to break the balance in your world and I don’t like the world where it isn’t balanced,” she said as her hand went down to Mykel’s neck.
“Then what about the deal I made with the Constellations?” Mykel asked as he started to feel the stings because her claws started to scratch his skin.
“Do whatever you want as long as it makes your world balance, Mykel Alester,” She answered as her voice slowly fade away, and removed her hand from Mykel. “This will be your first and last warning,” her voice echoed throughout the hallway and suddenly the dark clouds disappeared.
Mykel looked at the dark clouds disappearing and he saw all the gods and goddesses around the table being held by a pair of white pale with dark claws hands that covered their eyes, mouth, and ears. The hands that appeared from the dark clouds slowly went back inside the cloud and disappeared with it.
All the gods and goddesses looked at Zeus who was laying on the floor with all his body covered with his own blue blood. Ares, Athena, and Themis ran toward Zeus to check on his condition but it seemed that he was fine because he was still moving.
Mykel looked up and saw the void was still covering the space, that Goddess of All, the only Goddess of The World, Mara. The only entity that existed in many mythologies that Mykel himself never described her face or appearance. Mykel only thought of her as the one that devours virtues and the one who gives vices. He only described her with words in the novel, and those words were a beauty that terrifies.
Mykel looked at all of them as he tried to keep his cool. “So? Do we have a deal or not?” he asked even though knowing that Mara just warned him, but knowing that those gods and goddesses didn’t hear his conversation with her, he took his shot.
“I have no problem with that because my recipient is following you,” Hera answered and since she was from the Empress Faction, all the gods and goddesses that in her faction had to agree with her decision.
“I’m just a spectator as you said, Mykel, so I will take the deal,” Loki answered with a sinister smile on his face.
“Me too, I have no objection,” Aphrodite said with her head resting on her fist and winked at Mykel.
Nyx and Thanatos nodded in agreement and that was enough for Mykel, and then Freyja also agreed with the deal. Odin understood the situation and he couldn’t refuse and so he agreed with the deal as well. God Aurvandill the Star Arcana agreed with the deal because Odin was the all-father of Norse mythology and he followed him.
Hecate had to agree because her mother, Nyx, and brother, Thanatos agreed with the deal. Goddess Selene of the Moon Arcana and God Helios of the Sun Arcana agreed to Mykel’s since they respected Nyx.
“Since the ten of you have agreed which is already the majority of the Major Arcanas that are present here, that means you all have accepted the deal,” Mykel said with a smile on his face. Ares, Themis, and the rest of the gods couldn’t do anything but accept because the majority accepted the deal.
“I don’t think I can just accept your empty words because you might do something behind my back,” Mykel said as he looked at Ares and the others.
“What else do you want from us?! We already accepted your deal, and do you think our words mean nothing?!” Ares asked with veins on his neck and forehead.
“Well,” Mykel said as he looked at the void in the sky. “Goddess Mara, can you be our witness of the deal and if the Constellations decided to break the deal, please punish them severely?” he shouted at the void and the moment those gods and goddesses heard her name, they went frozen and just stared at the table.
The void slowly moved and everyone in the hall was being pushed by a pressure that made them unable to lift their heads. Mykel just looked at all those gods and goddesses lowering their heads in front of him.
“I guess that means she agreed,” Mykel said with a smirk on his face. “Since we are done, here, can you send me back to my place? I was in the middle of something,” he continued as he looked at Hera. Hera nodded and snapped her fingers to send Mykel back.
The moment Mykel left the hall, the void disappeared and everyone could finally breathe easily. They never thought that Mara would agree to Mykel’s request and it was really unnerving for them.
“Does that mean he’s our only hope now? We still can do that if you agree with me,” Odin looked at Nyx who had been staring at nothing.
“She has chosen her interest in him, what else can we do? Do you want your world to be devoured by her? The last time we saw her here in this hall was when we had our first meeting and that was enough to give us nightmares,” Nyx replied as she looked at Odin, Zeus, and Hera. “I would rather not interfere with whatever Mykel is planning on doing,” she continued as she stared at the stars then disappeared.
Since Nyx had left, the others started to leave and the hall was empty in a blink of an eye.
“Edith? What are you doing sitting on the floor?” Mykel asked and furrowed his eyebrows.
Edith looked up and she was so surprised to see Mykel that came out of nowhere. She sighed with relief as she tried to stand up with her phone in her hands. “I have been looking for you because you disappeared, Mister Mykel,”
“I see, but I can’t tell you what happened since it’s something that I don’t want anyone to know,” Mykel replied as he helped her stand up. “So what were you saying back there? I only heard half of it,” he said as he walked to the lift with Edith.
The two of them left to the basement where the blacksmith made weapons for everyone on his team. Mykel was busy describing the katar to the blacksmith and asked him to make various types of katar.
Edith had been oddly quiet ever since Mykel came back, and he noticed it but he thought that she was still in shock so he ignored it. The moment they left, Mykel decided to ask her what happened but she just shook her head and smiled at him.
They went back to Mykel’s office to sign the documents for Lyneth and since it was too quiet in there, Mykel turned on the TV and immediately saw people cheering for Asmond. He couldn’t help but look at it and the title was Asmond Redfeld the Hero, he chuckled as he shook his head and then continue reading the document.
“Mister Mykel,” Edith said as she stood next to him and watched the news.
“Yes?” Mykel replied while he was signing the documents.
“You said that you know him, right? Asmond Redfeld,” Edith asked again with a monotone voice.
Mykel furrowed his forehead and looked at Edith. “I do, why do you ask?”
“I saw a vision,” Edith answered and her voice started to tremble.
Mykel turned his chair to look at Edith’s face. “What kind of vision did you see?”
“It was a very long and unpleasant one,” Edith said as she looked at Mykel with tears in her eyes and was about to collapse. Mykel who saw that immediately stand up and held her arms to prevent her from falling down.
“What is it? What did you see?” Mykel asked as he kept holding her.
Edith looked at Mykel and started to cry. “I see you… I see you died by his hand,”
Mykel furrowed his forehead and looked at the TV where people were cheering for Asmond. He was a bit confused because Edith wasn’t supposed to be able to see a vision that specifically told a person’s death, and that mean a big event happened during his death.
“What else did you see in that vision?” Mykel asked as he tried to calm her down by rubbing her back.
“A giant pale hand took your body from the dark sky, it devoured your body and people were cheering for your death,” Edith answered as she sniffled.