All I was thinking about was this punch, seeing it through, and getting the Mask of Greed. That was it. That was all I needed to do now. There was no other way for me to pass this trial. It would be up to luck, but I would do everything in my power to persuade my fist to make up the difference. I put all the strength I had in my right arm and swung... only to catch empty air.
“?!”
With the momentum of my swing, I tumbled forward and rolled across the ground once or twice.
“Wh-What?!”
The Gold Yaksha hadn’t tried to dodge. There should have only been two possible outcomes here: either my punch made contact, or my skull was split open. So why was I on the ground? Unable to understand what had happened, I sat up and looked around... to find I was above the clouds.
“Heaven...?” I muttered without thinking. “Did I just ascend in a single punch?”
“Don’t be stupid,” a familiar voice replied.
I turned and saw Yuuhi standing there with her arms crossed, looking down at me with an exasperated expression.
“Yuuhi... Where am I? What happened to me?”
“You passed the trial, so you were brought here to the highest level of the spiritual realm.”
“Highest level...? What...?” I clutched my head in my hands, unable to process the situation. “But I still haven’t cleared the boss rush yet...”
“Boss rush?” It was apparently Yuuhi’s turn to tilt her head in confusion. “Well, the nature of the trial differs from person to person, but it generally looks at one’s disposition.”
“Their disposition?”
“Those who pass the trial are granted supernatural powers, so their character is what matters most. So the trial might test, for example, to see if you have a heart that never gives up even in the most dire of situations.”
“...”
All right. It was a difficult trial, but the difficulty level was appropriate.
“In other words, bravely facing the boss rush was the clear condition,” R rehashed, sagely nodding.
Come to think of it, didn’t she say that people like my future self who already had too much power couldn’t take the trial?
That was probably because someone’s disposition, as Yuuhi put it, couldn’t be accurately measured if they were too strong.
“Anyway... Judging from your expression, your trial must have been quite the ordeal. Good job getting through it. If you hadn’t made it here, we’d be totally screwed.”
“Yeah.”
It still didn’t quite feel real, but as long as I’d passed, I was okay with that. This worked out in my favor, after all.
“Follow me,” Yuuhi said shortly, urging me to stand.
I got up and followed her lead. There were no identifiable roads here. Just endless clouds in every direction. No matter where I looked, there were no signs of buildings or any other structures. We were really just walking on the clouds.
“Where are we going?”
“To meet Sith.”
“The goddess of this world herself, huh...?”
I was still a little unsteady on my feet, but hearing that we were about to meet a deity forced me to pull myself together. This was an important step toward our goal.
But wow... Angels, spirits, demon kings, and now a straight-up goddess. This bloodline of mine sure gets me involved with all kinds of powerful figures.
It wasn’t really the time to be having such thoughts, but I couldn’t help feeling like I’d reached the end of something. However...
“I know you said this was the highest level of the spiritual realm or whatnot... But really looking at it, it is exactly what I thought heaven would be like.”
“That’s because it was made in that image. You could say it was meant to meet your expectations.”
“Huh...”
I nodded as we kept walking, and eventually a door came into view. It rose up from the clouds, standing alone in the middle of the sky. It was rather surreal.
“Is this it?”
“Yeah.”
“There’s a door but no building...”
“Just open it.”
“Okay...”
At Yuuhi’s behest, I skeptically opened the door. I thought there was no way it wouldn’t just lead through to the clouds on the other side, but...
“Whoa!”
I couldn’t help shouting out in surprise. There was an entirely different scene beyond the door. I double-checked to make sure, and it wasn’t like a building had appeared or anything. The door just... opened straight into a vast room. What was going on?
“Don’t fuss over the details. I told you this was modeled after our imaginations, but the goddesses are rather carefree with their creations.”
“It’s perhaps best to think of this as a set for a TV show or movie, Rekka.”
“Right...”
Half exasperated, I walked through the door with Yuuhi and R. Once we were inside, the door shut of its own accord. And then, all of a sudden...
“So you made it.”
“Wah!”
A woman appeared out of nowhere. She had stark red hair and wore an elaborate outfit adorned with all kinds of peculiar ornaments. But most notable of all, she had a sort of mystical aura about her.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
She didn’t seem to understand my surprise, cocking her head to the side.
“It... It’s nothing...”
It was too troublesome to explain, so I took a deep breath to calm myself and got down to business.
“Are you the goddess of this world?”
“That’s correct. I am Sith,” the woman—the goddess—said with a small nod before frowning. “But, my gosh, the mortals from Big Sis’s world are so uncouth. Addressing a deity so casually...”
“S-Sorry?”
I was at a loss for how to respond. What exactly was she so bothered by? Her own manner of speaking was rather casual... if not outright childish compared to her appearance.
“Now’s not the time for that,” Yuuhi snapped.
“N-No! You too, Yuuhi?! I-I’m a goddess, you know!”
“The goddess of annoyance, maybe.”
“N-No, I’m a creator...”
Yuuhi’s sharp tongue left Sith quietly mumbling to herself. And, I... I, uh...
“She’s less majestic than I imagined.”
“I know, right?”
I agreed with R’s blunt assessment in a whisper. Based on everything Yuuhi had told us about the goddesses, I didn’t exactly respect them from the get-go. But Sith turned out to be a lot more, well, pathetic than I’d expected. A lot more human.
“The whole world’s about to be destroyed because of your thoughtlessness. Have some shame.”
“Nuuu! Not the cheeks!”
Yuuhi continued to harangue a teary-eyed Sith, tugging her cheeks this way and that. I didn’t bother to stop them. I simply waited for them to finish, and it took a few minutes.
✦ ✦ ✦
