by Fujino Omori
The corners of Phryne’s wide mouth twitched.
It was the first time Bell had ever seen a hint of fear in her eyes.
“All of you, to the Floating Garden. Heads will roll if the Killing Stone Ritual fails again.”
The completely overwhelmed Berbera sheathed their weapons. It didn’t take them long to disappear from the chamber.
They filed out one by one. Aisha’s eyelids sank as she looked at Ishtar for a moment before turning her back and following her kin out of the room. Just as she reached the door, she looked back over her shoulder at Bell, her long hair swaying.
Phryne clicked her tongue in frustration. She was the last one left. A few long seconds later, she put one foot in front of the other and left the chamber behind.
Bell breathed a momentary sigh of relief. His thoughts immediately went to Mikoto and Haruhime. He turned to leave, thinking to help them avoid more danger—when Tammuz scared him senseless.
The handsome, black-haired tan man’s glare overpowered him.
“Little brat, I’ve come all this way to meet you myself. It’s rude to turn your back on me.”
Beads of sweat pouring down his face, Bell froze in place as he watched the Goddess of Beauty slowly descend the remaining stairs.
Ishtar approached Bell, a thin smile on her lips. Bell’s body twitched back in her direction.
“Lady…Ishtar…”
She stood at his height, their eyes on the same level. Bell couldn’t hide his bewilderment as the deity came even closer.
Two against one. No, gods and goddesses were physically weak and could not fight for themselves. In reality, it was one-on-one, Bell against Tammuz.
Bell’s wide eyes jumped back and forth between the goddess and the human standing just behind her. It might have been a direct order from their goddess, but the boy still couldn’t understand why Phryne and the others left without a word—that’s how far his train of thought went before the goddess came to a stop.
“Most impressive, child of Hestia. You have more backbone than I thought, offering yourself up as a diversion and forcing your way in like that.”
In reality, Bell’s spine wouldn’t stop trembling in her presence.
A seductive body, a voice that melted his ears, a sweet aroma, and alluring eyes.
Bell fell to the full force of divine beauty and immediately understood the reason the Amazons had given up so easily.
He had already been ensnared by a beauty that no mortal could resist.
The Amazons knew: Bell’s fate had already been decided.
“Was it a woman’s pull that brought you back here?”
The goddess commented on Bell’s reckless valor, amethyst eyes sparkling as if they could see all.
Bell didn’t know where to look, standing in the face of a goddess who was too beautiful.
An ornate golden crown, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and anklets decorated her body. The only cloth to be found on her perfectly proportioned tan figure was a strip of cloth covering the bare minimum of her breasts and stomach as well as another, slightly thicker strip wrapping around her lower back and thighs. Her long, braided black hair shone with the flickering light of the magic-stone lamps.
Any unprepared, unfortunate soul who happened to glimpse any part of her body ran the risk of being Charmed without warning.
That fear worked its way into Bell’s mind. He blushed, trying to resist her erotic aura. All he could do was take a defensive stance.
“So, this is our second meeting. At first I doubted that vixen’s sanity, taking an interest in you…But then again, I should reconsider. You have a nice face.”
The goddess’s smile broadened as she listened to Bell constantly clear his throat, apparently at a loss in the face of her allure.
The boy did his best to ignore shakes and tremors coursing through his body and did his best to force words out of his mouth.
“…Wh-why did you attack us in the Dungeon?”
He asked her the one thing that he could never figure out. To his surprise, she gave him a straight answer.
“You caught my attention and interest during the War Game. After that…it was to stick a thorn in the side of a certain vixen I can’t stand.”
Ishtar’s words meant nothing to him. The look of confusion on Bell’s face only caused her grin to grow even wider.
“Rejoice. I will Charm you and you will be mine.”
A fresh wave of her enticing scent filled his nostrils. Her words sending more shivers down his spine, Bell took a step back.
However, a conversation with Haruhime’s goddess was worth every second and he decided to press further.
Even if he didn’t understand everything, this kind of opportunity might never come again.
Under the watchful gaze of Tammuz, Bell kept his distance from the Goddess of Beauty and continued asking questions.
“…Please, tell me.”
“Oh?”
“Why…are you going to sacrifice Miss Haruhime?”
It took every ounce of willpower for Bell to string those words together. The enticing goddess’s laughter filled the chamber a moment later.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha! You can talk about another woman in front of me!”
“A-answer me, please!”
Ishtar calmed down enough to take a long draw from her pipe. She was pleasantly surprised by the sudden demanding tone in Bell’s voice.
She rolled her shoulders a few times as her interest in the boy grew. Ishtar’s mood was improving by the second as she started speaking again.
“Well, let’s see. First, I bought Haruhime. I saved her from a life no better than livestock at the hands of those dirty men. In fact, I should be shown gratitude for treating her like a valuable treasure all these years.”
The reality of Haruhime being sold like some object at the marketplace to become someone’s plaything flustered Bell. He had thought she was “sold” in name only, that the reality could not be so cruel.
A goddess who had just happened to walk in on an auction, a still young renart girl. Drawn in by her natural beauty and an interest in her race, the goddess used her divine gifts to force the miserly merchants into selling her the young girl.
Ishtar enjoyed the flavor of the oriental pipe, taking another long drag as she told Bell about the first time she laid eyes on Haruhime.
“Her life was born anew, thanks to me…Children serve their parents, do they not?”
“That’s…?”
“And you know, Bell Cranell? I don’t think of this as killing Haruhime. She will get her soul back as soon as the vixen falls. I’m only borrowing it for a short while.”
What cheap logic! Bell screamed inside his head.
The chances of no shard being misplaced during a war with Freya Familia were extraordinarily slim.
Even after everything was over, the innocently smiling Haruhime whom Bell knew would never return.
Bell glared at Ishtar, his eyes shaking with rising anger.
“Let me just say this…Even if I did not seal Haruhime’s soul, it is her destiny to be used by someone else. That is the true meaning of her power.”
“…!”
“Can you comprehend how I felt…the moment I gave that girl a Status? I shivered. The instant I realized that the possibility of finally toppling that wretched goddess was right in front of me!”
That wretched goddess—the profile of the Goddess of Beauty who led Orario’s most powerful familia formed in Bell’s mind.
Ishtar’s jubilant voice echoed throughout the chamber, saying that the renart put the possibility to negate any and all divine expectations in the palm of her hand.
“Haruhime is my trump card! My chance to cast Freya into the abyss!”
Ishtar poured more and more energy into her voice, her excitement palpable. Bell fought back his anger enough to ask the next question.
“What makes you hate Freya Familia that much…?”
“What, you ask? Everything! I hat
e everything about her!”
Ishtar’s eyes flashed with animosity for the first time. A rage-filled rant ensued.
“Men ignore me and flock to her instead, claiming that she is the most beautiful for absolutely no reason! You must be joking! How could that pig sow ever surpass me?! Have all men gone blind?!”
Ishtar roared at the floor, her jealousy rearing its ugly head in an explosion of hate.
Bell recoiled in fear of a divine passion that beings of Gekai could never fully understand.
Even Tammuz was careful not to draw the attention of his goddess.
“…B-but that doesn’t give you the right to use Haruhime…!”
Bell fought to brace his buckling knees before willing the words out of his throat.
Ishtar seemed to get a handle on her rage and flashed another thin smile at the boy who had claimed that it was too cruel a fate.
“How insulting. If I were a goddess without blood or tears, I would have Charmed her into a faithful puppet long ago. But she is loyal; that fox listens to only my orders.”
“That’s only…”
“I have my own way of showing mercy. That pitiful girl was treated very well, you know.”
Swish, swish. Ishtar spun her pipe between her fingers.
“Can’t be helped if she felt uncomfortable from time to time. But I gave her beautiful clothing and delicious food…Not to mention I blessed her with many opportunities to know the joys of being a woman.”
“…!!”
Bell could no longer contain the rage bursting forth from within his heart after hearing the way Ishtar described forcing Haruhime to sell her body and cooping her up in little more than a birdcage.
He even forgot that he was confronting a deity. His voice erupted in unbridled fury.
“WHY?! WHY DID YOU MAKE HER BECOME A PROSTITUTE?!”
“This is my familia. Everything I decide becomes law, rules that everyone must live by. It’s common knowledge.”
Bell’s outburst sounded like nothing more than the cry of an ignorant child during a temper tantrum. Ishtar chuckled to herself, wondering what his problem was after coming all this way.
The one major downside to being a part of a familia was being subject to any rules they create.
They had no choice but to obey. The main reason that many average people chose not to receive Falna—outside of avoiding the inter-familia conflicts—was because they were scared of what they might have to do should their god demand it. Finding a deity with good character was a long shot at best.
That’s what it truly meant to be a follower, a member of their family.
“So tell me, boy, why is it you avoid prostitutes? Bodies coming together in beautiful passion is sacred. It controls the wild aggression of men, allowing women to become a pillar of stability in this world.”
“Wha…?!”
“The difference in gender on Gekai is what allows new life to be born, for fertility to thrive. Sharing this bond with many different men is by no means unclean. Why can’t you children see this? It is beyond me.”
Gods and mortals had very different values.
This difference in the thinking of the deusdea came as a complete shock to Bell.
Perhaps it could be as she said. Just as the Guild had accepted the Pleasure Quarter’s activities, prostitutes might be an irreplaceable part of society.
That prostitutes weren’t abhorrent outcasts at all, that they were necessary.
But…!!
There had to be many who couldn’t live like that.
The image of a young girl staring out the window with longing eyes had been burned into Bell’s memory. He clenched his fist with all his might.
“Even so…Even if that’s true, there are people suffering because of it!”
Bell stood tall, squaring his shoulders at Ishtar as he unleashed a booming voice, demanding that she release Haruhime from the life of a prostitute, from being an object of destruction.
Unfortunately, Ishtar wasn’t the least bit moved by the zealous display.
“It will not happen.”
Bell’s plea could not reach the goddess of sensual desire. She couldn’t understand Haruhime’s pain.
Ishtar stared at him for a moment before pulling her pipe out from between her lips.
“Your selfishness and the truth will never align. Most of all, I have no interest in playing along.”
She frowned and snapped her fingers.
Tammuz moved with blinding speed and knocked Bell to the floor in the blink of an eye.
“Guwaah!”
He’d gotten so caught up in his conversation with the goddess that Bell had forgotten about her assistant. He let his guard down.
No, more than that—Tammuz was fast.
Bell never had time to resist. Now he was pinned to the floor and completely immobilized.
“He may not look it, but Tammuz is Level Four. You can’t break his grip.”
Ishtar gave a quick introduction to her familia’s second in command.
Then she closed the distance between them—and started to disrobe.
“UWAHH?!”
The tension from a moment ago gone, Bell blushed and yelled in surprise.
“Eh—eh—EHHHHH!”
“Such a child. Hasn’t Hestia taught you anything…? Ah, wait, she’s one of the virgin goddesses, that’s right.”
“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-why are you taking off your…?!”
Facedown on the ground, Bell tried to hide his eyes under his shoulder. However, Tammuz took hold of his hair and forced his head back up.
Bell’s wide eyes were greeted by a small pile of clothing and golden accessories at the feet of a completely nude goddess.
“Like I said, I’ll make you mine.”
Released from the cotton restraints, her breasts swayed from side to side as she stretched her supple, voluptuous body. Ishtar ran her fingers down all her seductive curves, finally stopping on her bulging bottom. Her moist, bronze skin was emitting the strongest erotic aura it had thus far that day.
A refined smile grew on her lips as she watched Bell’s entire body blush bright red.
“I’ll Charm you—’til your bones melt.”
Her eyes had taken on a sadistic glint, dead set on stealing his body and soul.
Bell’s face turned from dark red to light blue as her shadow fell over him.
Several buildings formed the palace of Belit Babili. Other than the palace for the goddess and the buildings where familia members lived and slept, there was one other massive structure within the main gates.
It was constructed out of white stone and stood at the back of the complex almost like an afterthought. However, it rivaled the main tower’s palace in elegance and had been designed to resemble a ziggurat from the Ancient Times.
Constructed five years ago as a new brothel, the building’s true purpose was to provide the stage for a certain ritual. It had been ready to fulfill its role three years ago when a certain prostitute destroyed a Killing Stone that had taken years to acquire. The structure had laid dormant ever since. Now it sat under the full moon, again waiting to fulfill its purpose.
The roof of this building was connected to the palace by one long stone bridge. Haruhime began her journey across it.
Despite standing forty stories above the ground, this bridge had no ceiling. Only a chest-high parapet prevented people from plummeting to the ground below. There was also no protection from the wind that gusted past. Haruhime held her hair in place as three Berbera assigned to escort her to the Floating Garden urged her forward.
“Move it, Haruhime!”
“R-right…”
Thud! The lead Amazon gave her an extra push, causing Haruhime to step on the front of her kimono.
The Berbera were completely focused on the night sky. Haruhime recovered her footing before she too looked up into the dark, starry abyss. A full, golden moon was staring back down at her from behind thinning cloud cover.
The ligh
t that will kill me.
—Haruhime said to herself in a silent voice.
Lowering her gaze to the bridge, she could clearly see the garden on the other side. Soft blue light rose from the center, as if beckoning her to come closer.
Face devoid of emotion, Haruhime continued forward.
Her pace quickened, as if there were people who could be saved if only she went through with it as quickly as possible.
“Weird girl…”
The Amazons stayed right beside her, looking down with thinly veiled disgust.
All three of them sneered at the girl who refused to put up a fight despite knowing that she was walking to her own doom. She had already given up. For brave and bold Amazons, her resignation to this fate came across as cowardice. That was the only thing more reprehensible than weakness to the proud warriors.
The Amazons kept their eyes on Haruhime as she walked a few paces in front of them. They let their guard down.
There was nowhere to hide on this one-way bridge that was completely exposed.
As this was the least likely place for an ambush to occur, the three women focused solely on carrying out their orders. Being able to see in every direction only increased their confidence. That’s why they failed to notice the presence of someone lurking under the bridge.
A human hand silently grabbed hold of the guard wall. Her black hair whipping behind her in the night, Mikoto flipped over it and landed behind the Amazons.
“—Huh?”
The last of the three was jerked backward by the throat before she was thrown up and over the side.
The screams of their fallen comrade alerted the other two Berbera, but the closest couldn’t react in time, knocked off balance before she could defend herself. The human figure used a quick succession of grappling techniques to throw her over the side as well.
“Y-you?!”
The remaining Amazon shuddered as she listened to her falling comrades. Seeing that they fell from the left and right sides of the bridge, she took a central position and drew a longsword. The black shadow drew a crimson blade in response—but felt something strange in the air and ducked to the floor.
A strong gust of wind hit the bridge a moment later. Haruhime stumbled in the sudden push of air. The Amazon was rushing forward, her sword held high as she took the brunt of the wind. Next thing she knew, her back hit the guard wall.
