Upon hearing Helaetis’s thunderous response, Anke nearly stumbled and fell.
“Wait, Goddess, are you serious? How could you not have thought of that?”
Anke asked Helaetis with an awkward smile.
“I’m not joking. I just didn’t think about it. After all, we only sensed that the Demon Gods would resurrect; we didn’t know anything else.”
Helaetis stated, as if her reasoning was perfectly sound.
“What? This is an apocalypse we’re talking about! Goddess! How can you not know anything?”
Anke couldn’t hold it in anymore.
This was also the first time Vera had seen Anke lose his composure.
“We’ll take it one step at a time. Since I’ve awakened, when the Demon Gods show up, I’ll definitely warn you on how to deal with them, right?”
Helaetis mumbled quietly.
“Come on, Goddess! Are you that casual? These are enemies your fellow gods sacrificed themselves to take down. Without a concrete plan, how am I, a mere mortal, supposed to fight them?
“Unless you change your look, go with white hair and a white robe, and tell me the method to revive the giant is to boil big bones into soup, and I find a pyramid and turn into light or something.”
Anke complained about Helaetis’s carefree attitude.
“Don’t yell so loud. Don’t worry, you don’t have to fight the Demon Gods themselves. You just need to deal with their small groups of minions, the ones they’ve corrupted. Once you wipe those out, the Demon Gods won’t be able to resurrect.”
Helaetis replied to Anke.
“Sorry, I raised my voice a bit just now, Goddess. I hope I didn’t disturb you. Here are some of my treasured snacks. Please, have a taste.”
In front of Vera and Helaetis, Anke pulled off a chameleon-like act.
“You didn’t disturb me much, but Anke, you’re really impatient.”
Helaetis took the snack box from Anke and answered him.
“Oh, by the way, Goddess, how many of these ‘small groups of minions’ are we talking about? What about their training and equipment?”
Anke pressed Helaetis further.
“Not many, not many. Maybe just a few major empires. These emperors are the easiest to corrupt. —Hey! Anke, why are you taking the snack box back!
“Even if there are a lot of enemies, I’ll help you! Having a goddess on your side, even just a fragment of one, should make dealing with them a breeze, right?”
Helaetis said, watching the snack box being pulled back.
“Oh? You’ll help me, Goddess?”
Anke extended the snack box toward the goddess again, but didn’t fully hand it over.
“Of course! I can cheer you on, and I can even give you my blessing as a goddess! That’s something others would kill for!”
Helaetis said proudly.
“What does that do? Make my army stronger? My economy better?”
Anke’s snack box moved a little closer to the goddess.
“No, it’s purely a spiritual blessing. As a deity, I can’t interfere too much in human affairs.”
Helaetis shook her head, speaking honestly.
“Then you’d better not eat.”
Anke put the snack box back in the drawer of his desk.
“Hey (#`O′)! Show some respect for a deity, human!”
Helaetis slapped Anke’s desk hard.
“Vera, what do you think? About what the goddess said.”
Anke took a deep breath, temporarily ignoring the useless goddess, and asked for Vera’s opinion.
“It doesn’t seem fake. After all, the Church did declare a few thousand years ago that the gods were in a ‘slumber’ and that the highest-level Divine Blessing Ritual couldn’t be performed until they ‘awakened.’
“I always thought the gods were disappointed with the Church and humanity, so they chose to ‘leave’ this world, making the ritual that requires a god’s personal presence impossible.
“The Church then announced the slumber to cover it all up. But listening to the goddess now, maybe the Church wasn’t lying. Maybe the gods really did fall asleep after a massive battle we knew nothing about.”
Vera analyzed with Anke, drawing on her knowledge.
“Of course! We take good care of our followers. Before we fell asleep, we specifically sent down an oracle.”
Helaetis chimed in to add.
“So, Vera, you’re saying you believe she’s really a goddess, and that what she said about the Demon Gods awakening is true?”
“There’s at least a 90% chance it’s real. At the very least, her power is real. She wouldn’t need to lie to us to achieve her goals.”
Vera nodded firmly.
“See? Anke, everything I said is true.”
Helaetis bent over and leaned on Anke’s desk, lifting her head to look at him sideways.
“Fine, I’ll believe you for now, Goddess. Everything you said is real.”
“Yes! That’s the spirit! Why make it so complicated?”
Helaetis pointed at Anke with a smile.
“But I am curious about one thing, Goddess…”
“Hmm?”
“When you made that deal with Fate, you didn’t trade away your wisdom, did you? Because the vibe you’re giving me is a lot like that blue-haired Goddess of Wisdom, Aqua.”
“Human, I can see what you’re thinking, you know—”
Helaetis frowned as she caught a glimpse of the twisted, pathetic image of that so-called blue-haired Goddess of Wisdom.
“Snacks for you. This is an offering to our Goddess of Death and Night.”
Anke pulled the snacks out again, emphasizing their purpose.
“You’ve got sincerity. I’m satisfied. I forgive you.”
Helaetis, like a cat that had been petted, opened the snack box and ate happily.
“Oh, right. As a deity, I can’t just mess with humans for no reason. I scared you earlier, so I need to make it up to you. This Lich was sneaking around your castle, so I grabbed him. What do you want to do with him?”
Helaetis, as if remembering something, snapped her fingers.
With a snap, a dark circular space suddenly appeared in Anke’s office. Then, a small, monkey-like old man was tossed out like trash.
“That’s the Lich who controlled the Blue Water Dragon Corpse Puppet!”
Vera recognized the Lich by the piercing wound on his chest.
“Damn you, woman! You dare to ambush me, Death Lord Nakel! I’ll turn you into a Zombie Puppet and torment you for all eternity!”
The captured Lich, Nakel, shouted at Helaetis.
“He’s got a foul mouth. He offended a deity. Not only did he not retreat when he saw me, but he attacked me. He’s broken every Blasphemy Taboo, so I have the right to deal with him.
“Since I owe you, Anke, one favor, I’ll trade his life for it.”
Helaetis ignored Nakel’s ranting, casually handing the Lich’s life over to Anke like swapping a small biscuit.
“Let me go if you dare! I, Death Lord Nakel, won’t be trapped by you again!”
“Pfft, haha—”
Hearing the Lich’s bravado, Anke, knowing Helaetis’s identity, couldn’t help but laugh.
“What are you laughing at, human? If it weren’t for your luck, I’d have taken your life! A human who hides under a woman’s skirt! Hmph!”
“Ahem, ‘Death Lord Nakel,’ maybe you should take another look at who this armored female knight really is?”
“Who else? Just a cunning woman—”
Nakel looked at Helaetis, who was eating snacks, and his face twisted into something even uglier.
“H-H-Hela… t-tis… G-Goddess!—C-Can we… make peace?”
Nakel tried to flatter Helaetis, but stammered clumsily.
“Right now? Are you joking?”
Helaetis looked down at Nakel with contempt.
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