A Journey Unwanted

[Realm: Álfheimr]

[Location: Heart Kingdom]

[Pulchritudo]

This truly was no place for a being like her.

Pulchritudo was vast beyond measure. Streets stretched for what felt like forever, grand buildings climbed toward the dark skies, and every structure proclaimed mankind’s wealth with arrogance. Yet none of that made the city feel expansive to Echidna.

Quite the opposite.

The towering buildings pressed inward from every direction, their impossible heights stealing away the horizon. The streets, though broad enough for countless people, felt like narrow corridors. The walls of civilization rose around her like the sides of a cage.

She hated it.

A small scowl settled upon her green-painted lips as she stood outside the inn where the others had taken lodging. Her arms remained folded tightly beneath her chest, emerald eyes fixed upon the night sky above.

Gray clouds drifted across them.

Only the occasional star managed to pierce through them.

Night had quieted the city considerably. Earlier, the streets had overflowed with merchants, nobles, demi-humans, and travelers. Now only scattered footsteps sounded through the avenues. A carriage rolled past somewhere in the distance before vanishing into silence. The occasional lantern illuminated patches of stone road.

For once...

She was alone.

Or at least, alone enough.

Most would have assumed Mikoto was being careless, allowing her out of his sight. Someone as dangerous as the Mother of Monsters should never have been left unattended.

Yet Echidna understood perfectly why he had.

It was not carelessness; it was confidence. Mikoto had never once behaved as though she possessed even the slightest chance of escaping him. He had not bound her wrists. He had not placed enchanted shackles around her neck. He had not filled her body with restrictive magic.

He simply existed, and that alone was enough. He could kill her whenever he pleased, running accomplished nothing and scheming accomplished little. Resistance was merely delayed failure, and that certainty irritated her more than any chain ever could.

Her jaw tightened.

("How utterly laughable...") The thought was bitter enough to almost make her laugh. ("I who birthed horrors that reduced civilizations to ash. I, who created monsters whose names lingered in myths long after my time had fallen. I, who even made God’s hesitate before acting. I, who stood beside the greatest monster ever to walk my realm as his chief consort...")

Her fingers tensed.

("Reduced... to this.")

Slave.

The word disgusted her; she had spoken of chains before. Yet the irony was almost amusing. There were none, no enchanted bindings, restraints, or curses forcing obedience. Mikoto had never needed them; his strength alone had become the prison. That truth wounded her pride far more deeply than shackles ever could.

Still, pride was not something she intended to surrender. A monster who survived across ages did not simply accept defeat because someone stronger appeared.

No, one observed and endured.

("Angels...") Her gaze drifted back toward the skies. ("Powerful creatures...")

Her memories stretched back through ages that most civilizations could scarcely comprehend. She remembered catastrophes and extinctions. She remembered the realm breaking apart beneath forces that should never have existed.

One memory surfaced above the rest.

("There was... that incident.")

Long ago...

Humans had tampered with something they never should have touched.

The Abyss.

Their arrogance had torn open an enormous rift across reality. The memory remained vivid, reality splitting apart. Darkness pouring endlessly through fractures, the very laws of existence twisting.

The Abyss, not merely another realm or dimension. It was the antithesis of creation itself. Where creation nurtured the Abyss consumed. Where life flourished, the Abyss was erasure. Where divinity brought order, the Abyss sought only dissolution.

Even Gods treated it with caution.

And Angels...

Angels suffered most; it was poison to everything they represented. A natural enemy.

("If there is anything capable of threatening one such as him...") Her expression hardened. ("Then the answer lies there.")

The thought vanished almost as quickly as it appeared; another followed, one far less satisfying.

("Yet it lies entirely beyond my reach.") She exhaled slowly; frustration settled once more. ("Then what exactly is your intention, boy?")

Her eyes lowered slightly.

("How much longer do you intend to keep me alive?") She had considered the question countless times already. He claimed little and explained even less. Certainly, she was useful, her knowledge, experience, and understanding of worlds beyond this one. All of that had value. Yet that alone should not be enough. Someone like Mikoto did not preserve another’s life merely because they were useful.

No, there was another purpose; she simply could not see it.

"Keen on watching the stars, hm?"

A familiar voice drifted across the quiet street. It was soft and almost soothing.

Echidna did not turn.

The steady sound of heels against stone reached her ears first.

The footsteps seemed unhurried, and they stopped beside her.

Goiim lifted her pale eyes toward the sky, following Echidna’s line of sight as though the silence between them had never existed.

"They’re beautiful from down here," Goiim murmured evenly. "Though, from what I’ve been told, they’re really nothing more than enormous spheres of burning gas. I can’t claim to know the science behind it. Astronomy was never my expertise."

Echidna gave a humorless scoff; her gaze remained fixed overhead.

"So..." she said at last, "you’ve finally decided to begin your scheming."

There was no accusation in her volume.

Goiim blinked once.

"What exactly makes you think I’m scheming?" There was no curiosity in the question.

Echidna finally turned, her emerald eyes settled upon the ashen-haired woman with disdain.

"I’ve lived through more ages than your mind could properly grasp, girl. I’ve watched empires rise only to become dust beneath newer ones. I’ve watched saints become tyrants and monsters become heroes depending upon who survived to tell the story." Her gaze sharpened. "So believe me when I say, I know deception the moment I lay eyes upon it."

Goiim regarded her calmly, then tilted her head ever so slightly.

"Does that have anything to do with the fact that you’re technically part snake?" The question might have sounded playful from almost anyone else. From Goiim it arrived with the exact same flat tone she’d used to discuss commerce.

Silence followed, and Echidna stared at her.

"...Do you wish to die?"

"My mistake." Goiim gently raised both gloved hands in surrender. "I’ll admit that was poorly timed."

Echidna’s narrowed eyes did not soften.

"They did not tell me nearly enough about you..." she murmured, "...but I take it you knew exactly what I was from the very beginning."

"Indeed," Goiim answered without hesitation. "I recognized what you were almost immediately." She paused for a moment before continuing. "And because I know what you are, I also understand something else."

Her pale eyes met Echidna’s.

"I imagine being ’chained’ like this must be unbearable for someone such as yourself."

Something cold entered the air; Echidna’s emerald eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. The silence between them stretched. But when she finally spoke, every word carried venom.

"Choose your next words carefully." Her voice had become frighteningly quiet. "Having a beautiful face will not spare you." Her lips curled into a smile devoid of warmth. "I have eaten prettier things than you. And making you my next meal would inconvenience me very little."

Goiim neither stepped back nor stiffened; the threat simply washed over her.

"I wasn’t trying to offend you." Her tone remained exactly the same. "I was only stating what seemed obvious." The lack of fear irritated Echidna almost as much as the observation itself.

"If you sought me out merely to fill the night with empty words," Echidna said coldly, her emerald eyes never leaving Goiim’s face, "then I suggest you leave before what little patience I have left abandons me entirely. I am in no mood to entertain meaningless conversation."

"On the contrary, Mother of Monsters," Goiim replied, her pale eyes remaining steady. "I came because I believe I possess something of actual value." A brief pause followed. "A solution."

Echidna’s expression remained unchanged, though her attention sharpened ever so slightly.

"Oh?" She gave a humourless scoff. "From the way you’ve been speaking, it’s obvious you’ve pieced together enough to understand my current predicament." Her folded arms tightened slightly. "You know precisely what the obstacle is." Her emerald gaze bored into Goiim. "So tell me plainly. You truly believe you possess a solution for him?"

"The Angel?" Goiim answered without hesitation. "Yes."

The confidence in that single word did little to reassure Echidna. If anything, it made her more suspicious. She had lived far too long to trust certainty so readily. Most people who claimed to have answers rarely understood the question.

Goiim continued regardless.

"Conventional weapons are largely ineffective against Angels." She spoke as though reciting established fact. "Ordinary blades accomplish little. Common magic fares no better."

Her pale eyes drifted briefly towards the cloud-covered skies before returning to Echidna.

"Against even a typical Angel, one generally requires either a Null Schema or spells reaching the Chorda tier within the Lex Caelorum merely to inflict meaningful harm." She paused briefly. "As for this particular Angel..." A small breath escaped her. "The preferable approach would have been discovering his true name. For beings like them, that knowledge carries considerable significance."

Her expression remained the same.

"Unfortunately that information remains unavailable."

Echidna’s patience visibly thinned.

"Get." She spoke the single word sharply. "To." Another. "The." Her eyes narrowed further. "Point."

Goiim inclined her head ever so slightly.

"As you wish." She folded her arms with elegance. "My sources currently classify him as a Seraphim."

Echidna remained silent as Goiim continued.

"A higher order among Angels." Her voice never rose as she explained simply. "They stand immediately beneath the Archangels. Although, a number of traditions insist the Seraphim occupy the absolute summit instead." She shook her head once. "Those accounts are inaccurate, but the distinction changes very little. A Seraphim is still an extraordinarily dangerous existence."

She let that settle.

"They are immensely powerful." She spoke the next words carefully. "But not invincible."

Echidna finally responded.

"The Abyss." Her voice lowered. "It remains poisonous to their kind all the same."

"Correct," Goiim answered immediately. "The Abyss remains fundamentally opposed to creation." She calmly folded her hands together. "However, there is a common misconception." Her pale eyes met Echidna’s once more. "Simple exposure accomplishes very little. You cannot merely stand an Angel besides an Abyssal breach and expect them to collapse."

She shook her head.

"The concentration must be substantial, a truly potent quantity." Only then did the smallest hint of satisfaction enter her otherwise unreadable voice. "As it happens, I already possess precisely such a thing."

For the first time since the conversation had begun Echidna exhaled slowly.

"And you expect me to believe," she murmured, "that making an enemy of an Angel somehow benefits you?"

Her emerald eyes searched Goiim’s expression for even the smallest fracture; there was none.

"Under ordinary circumstances?" Goiim answered. "No." A brief silence followed. "Unfortunately this was never a matter of preference. It was my assigned objective." She spoke the next name with no emotion. "Mikoto Yukio. He has already been registered as a Special Threat. Current classification..." She paused only long enough to emphasise it. "Class S."

Echidna watched her carefully.

"That designation may change; there is ongoing observation. But that is where it presently stands." She did not elaborate further. Instead, she shifted back towards the matter at hand. "There is, however, a complication. My objectives and yours intersect." Her pale eyes softened by only the slightest fraction. "They currently possess something I require. And before anything else can proceed, they must first retrieve the artifact hidden within Duke Bluebeard’s estate."

She spoke matter-of-factly.

"When that task is complete, I will explain the remainder of my plan."

Silence settled between them once more.

Echidna lowered her gaze; the quiet streets disappeared from her awareness as thoughts rapidly assembled within her mind.

("An opportunity like this...") Her fingers slowly tensed beneath folded arms. ("...may never present itself again.") She understood the risk; she understood it well. Goiim had still withheld too much; she had offered information and possibility, but never motive. ("She still refuses to explain why she would help me.")

That alone warranted caution; any creature who concealed their purpose was dangerous.

But another thought outweighed the first.

("...It hardly matters.") Her lips slowly curved upward.

"Very well." The words emerged lazily. "But understand this, girl." Her emerald eyes met Goiim’s one final time. "If this proves to be another deception..." The smile never reached her eyes. "...you will discover that even monsters can be quite creative in their cruelty."

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