＊＊＊
After Stella had thrown me and I’d smashed into the statue of the Goddess, my consciousness was tugged on like a rope. My vision distorted in a disturbing fashion, and on instinct I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, I was sitting on the floor of some massive expanse.
Where is this...?
I turned my head, and... Oh crap, I turned my head!
“YEEES! I can move my body!”
I had only been a staff for a few hours, but the sense of release here was incredible. I was back to being a human. In fact, I even had on the same school uniform from before my reincarnation.
I looked around and saw a bunch of videos playing on the circular walls. It was like a bunch of monitors had been placed onto them.
Stella was on one of them. She was facing Hamiel and talking about something.
Are these playing in real time...?
“Well done, human of another world, for reaching my most heavenly of thrones,” a voice came. I looked up with a start and saw a woman descending from a stairway in front of me.
It was the Goddess. She looked exactly like she did on the statue with her glittering, flowing robes and regal staff. Even the fishily compassionate smile was the same.
“For you to have come here, you must have some manner of request. I shall grant your wish as the ruler of this world,” she said. Her voice was grating to me, like that of a mewling cat. Everything about her, from her expression to her voice, made her seem like the big bad.
Still, I continued. “Please, return me to my world!” I exclaimed.
Her expression clouded in an instant. “Not even I, with all the might of this world, can grant that request.”
“But why...” I began, standing up, only to suddenly hear clanging.
What in the...?
At some point, my wrists and ankles had been wrapped in pitch-black chains. They ran along the ground like pythons. I struggled, but I couldn’t break free.
“Those chains are born from powerful magic. Your soul is currently bound to a staff by an evil witch’s will.”
“An evil witch...?”
“Indeed. Your spirit was never meant to come to this world, but an evil witch used their dreadful powers to bind your soul and drag it here,” the Goddess said, her expression sympathetic. “I sincerely apologize for failing to stop the witch’s evil despite being the ruler of this world. I view the world through the eyes of each statue made in my image, but by the time I’d noticed, it was already too late.”
The Goddess spread her arms and pointed to the wall. There were countless videos on it, each which apparently each came from a different statue.
“Um, wait. Does this mean I can’t go back to my original world...?”
“No, there is one option available to you.”
“And that option is...?”
She paused, then, with a compassionate smile on her face, she said, “Kill the witch. By killing the source of the magic that binds your soul, you may once again be free.”
Uh, hold on. That was no option at all.
After some silence, I said, “I’m not a murderer.”
“It is not murder if it is an evil witch. She is the reason you have been bound and sealed within a staff.”
“But still, witches use magic and—”
“I shall grant you divine power capable of slaying the witch so that you might find success,” the Goddess said, gazing at me with her unfaltering smile.
I faltered. “Um... In that case, where is the witch?”
“You should know that well... For you have spent much time with the witch, Stella Millesia.”
Uh. My jaw dropped.
“Stella is the witch...? That can’t be right! I mean, she can’t even cast miracles! She’s hated by the spirits for some unknown reason, and—”
“The spirits all despise her due to being an evil witch which brings chaos to the world.”
“That can’t be...” I repeated over and over.
The Goddess moved to the corner of the room. There was a piece of paper with a complex black pattern on it and an enormous number of slips. She pulled one of them out.
“Stella the Witch has written the same wish on her slip every year: ‘It doesn’t matter what kind; please just give my staff any spirit at all.’”
“What?! That was her wish...?!”
“Indeed,” the Goddess said, presenting the slip. “This is the slip she wrote, though I expect the language will be unreadable to you.”
This wasn’t what Stella had told me.
My staff was supposed to house a Grand Spirit, not a pervert like you, Otaku!
I mean, isn’t it obvious? I want a Grand Spirit in my staff.
Was that a lie? Had Stella been lying to me?
“For many long years, Stella the Witch sought a spirit for her staff, but I of course would never permit such a thing. The wishes of a witch must never be granted,” the Goddess said, crushing Stella’s slip in her fist and tossing it aside. I could only watch in a daze as it hit the floor. “Nonetheless, Stella the Witch used her foul magic to search for a spirit to bind to her staff. As her wish implies, any spirit would do. And how devilish of her to bring a human spirit from a world in which I had no power to stop her! You are a victim of Stella the Witch’s malice. Behold.”
The Goddess pointed to a wall, which had a new video playing.
The video depicted a modern Japanese hospital room. And in its bed was...me! My head was wrapped in gauze, and my eyes were closed.
“This is the you of your world. Your flesh has been robbed of your spirit and now lies dormant.”
Beside the bed was the childhood friend who had just rejected me. She was squeezing my hand and staring at me, her eyes welling with tears.
Hold on a second. Why would you of all people be so sad?
The Goddess gave a refined giggle. “What an adorable girl... Might she be your love?”
“No, absolutely not,” I replied in an instant. “She’s just a friend.”
“Would you like to see her again? Would you like to return to your world?”
“Yes,” I replied cautiously.
“Then there is no reason to hesitate—eliminate the evil witch. All of your wishes will be granted if only you slay Stella the Witch,” the Goddess said, then lifted her staff up high. “Luxsaria Sein!”
An orb of light appeared at the tip of her staff. It was so dazzling I had to close my eyes.
“There is not much time. The witch will not allow your spirit to be separated from her staff for long. You will be bound to her eternally by magic unless you take her life.”
Wind began to rush by, causing the slips to rustle and flap about.
“Now, kneel, human from another world! I, Amanda the Goddess, shall grant you divine power!”
The holy light was so overpowering, I was driven to my knees—the Goddess just had that much aura. Something hard hit my forehead... It was the tip of her staff.
“Slay Stella the Witch. My eyes shall never leave you,” she said, her voice sticky like honey.
I managed to open my eyes a sliver in an attempt to look up at her. The perfect smile she wore twisted alongside my vision, and with that I faded out.