The Acolyte of Spirits and Curses

In a black space.

There was no ground and no sky.

No light except for a faint, formless glow that seemed to come from nowhere.

The darkness stretched endlessly in every direction.

Klein opened his eyes.

He was standing or perhaps floating in the middle of that void.

A soft ripple passed through the darkness.

*swoosh* Azara appeared in front of him and looked at him with a slight frown.

"Did you die...?"

Klein looked down at his palm and clenched his fist slightly, feeling his astral form in this space suspended between life and death.

"Yeah, I died because I wanted to meet you."

Azara’s gaze narrowed further "You are one reckless bastard... you killed yourself so that you could see me? I didn’t know you had that level of obsession with me."

With an amused smile, he spoke "Wow I am glad that you finally realized my obsession with you. I love you so much, come... give your lover a kiss."

Azara stared at him, and seeing the calm, slightly mocking smile, her expression twisted with disbelief and irritation.

"...What did you just say?"

Klein tilted his head slightly, still smiling.

"I said I love you. You’re the one who keeps showing up and gets angry when other gods appear around me. So I figured I should be honest about my feelings."

Azara’s eye twitched "You stabbed yourself through the heart, dropped into this space on purpose, and the first thing you do is claim you’re in love with me and ask for a kiss?"

"Yeah."

She crossed her arms tightly "You are completely insane," she muttered. "There is something fundamentally wrong with you."

Klein’s smile widened just a little "Maybe. But you’re still here talking to me instead of throwing me back into my body. That has to count for something."

Azara looked at him in silence for a moment.

Her red eyes showed annoyance, reluctance, and a faint trace of the attention she could never fully hide when it came to him.

A dark, elegant throne materialized behind her and she sat down, crossing one leg over the other as she gazed at him from her elevated position.

"...I should leave you here for a few decades," she said coldly. "Maybe then you’d learn not to treat death like a personal invitation."

Klein floated a little closer, and the weightless nature of his astral form made the movement almost effortless.

He stood in front of the throne, "But you won’t."

Azara’s red eyes narrowed "You sound very certain."

Klein tilted his head slightly.

"If you really wanted to punish me, you would have done it already."

Azara’s fingers tapped against the armrest of her throne "...You are reading too much into my patience."

"Am I?"

Klein floated half a step closer.

Before she could react, he raised one hand and gently caught her chin between his fingers, tilting her face upward so that her red eyes met his directly.

The distance between them shrank until his face hovered just inches from hers.

Azara’s expression remained cold, but something sharp flickered behind her eyes.

She did not pull away immediately.

Whether it was because she refused to give him the satisfaction of a reaction or because she was simply too surprised by the audacity of a mortal touching her like this, she stayed still.

"You are the most exhausting mortal I have dealt with."

Klein’s smile widened "I’ll take that as a compliment."

"...Remove your hand," she said coldly.

Klein did not move it right away "You’re not as angry as you pretend to be... are you?"

Azara’s jaw tightened under his fingers.

Then she raised one hand and wrapped her fingers around his wrist "You are playing a dangerous game. I am not one of your women. I am not a saintess who blushes when you push her onto a couch. I am Death."

Klein’s smile softened slightly, though the teasing edge never fully left it.

"I know exactly what you are."

He finally allowed her to push his hand away from her chin.

Azara released his wrist at once and leaned back against her throne.

"...Speak. Ask what you came here to ask. And when you return to your body, do not pull this stunt again. Next time, I may actually leave you here."

With a chuckle, Klein spoke "Earlier, when I came into contact with Eleanor, you must have felt the Goddess of Life’s energy,"

"But why didn’t you come to see me with that usual ’Are you cheating on me’ phrase?"

"You assume I monitor every single moment of your existence," she replied coldly.

Klein hummed under his breath "Don’t you?"

Azara was silent for a few seconds.

"...I felt it. The moment her energy touched you. But I didn’t appear... because I know if I came there, the bitch will also come there."

"So I stayed away."

Hearing her words, Klein’s frown deepened ’Hmm... so that’s why. Eleanor’s reaction also seemed genuine when she saw my body getting heated.’

’So it’s probably not her... if it’s actually her, she deserves an Oscar for that reaction.’

’Then that only leaves Goddess of Life in this equation... but her...’

’I don’t see any benefits for her in drugging a random mortal. Or... maybe she wanted to tie this ’mortal who Azara is obsessed with’ with her Saintess?’

’That kinda makes sense... I guess.’

Klein’s eyes narrowed slightly as the thought settled.

Seeing his thoughtful look, Azara spoke "She has been watching more carefully ever since the first time she sensed me near her Saintess."

"If I had appeared the moment her energy mixed with yours, she would have used it as an excuse to involve herself further. I had no interest in giving her that opportunity."

Klein smiled dryly in his heart ’Is she some kind of secret yandere who doesn’t want other goddesses beside me?’

"Can you call that Goddess of Life into this place?"

Azara stared at him as if he just suggested something genuinely offensive.

"You want me to invite that woman into my domain so you can question her."

"Yeah."

She leaned forward slightly on her throne, "Do you understand what it means to call another god into this space? This is not a meeting room."

"This is the threshold between life and death. Bringing her here would be a confrontation."

Klein shrugged casually "I’m already dead for the moment. I don’t see the problem."

Azara’s expression tightened further.

"The problem," she said coldly, "is that I have no interest in sharing this space with her. And I have even less interest in watching the two of you exchange words while I sit here as a spectator."

Klein tilted his head slightly, "So it’s not that you can’t. It’s that you don’t want to."

Azara’s silence was answer enough.

After a moment, she leaned back against her throne again, crossing her arms.

"...Even if I called her, there is no guarantee she would answer truthfully. Gods do not become more honest simply because they are standing in another’s domain. If anything, she would become more cautious."

Klein waved his hand dismissively "Yeah, yeah... just call her."

Azara’s eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

The sheer casualness of his tone, as if he were asking her to summon a servant rather than a rival goddess, clearly scraped against her patience.

For a moment she looked like she might refuse purely out of spite.

Then she exhaled sharply "...You will regret this."

She raised her hand and a thin vertical seam of golden light split open in the darkness, expanding outward with a soft hum.

A moment later, the Goddess of Life stepped through.

She appeared in the same elegant white dress as before, long blonde hair cascading down her back... and her eyes slowly landed on Klein and Azara together.

"Well, this is unexpected. I did not think-"

She never finished the sentence.

The moment her form fully stabilized in the space, Klein pulled his arm back and threw a straight punch at her face.

BOOM.

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