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"Admirable, yet foolish effort on your part. That girl wasn't worth your protection. Do you know what was going through her mind that whole time? She wanted you to die and become free." The goddess explained.

Maria focused on Venus and her wide and frightened eyes. The fear Maria saw in them was real.

"I didn't mean to come here. I don't know why I am here or how I got here." Venus was almost crying. Maria felt bad for the poor girl.

"I know you didn't mean to hurt me. Don't cry unnecessarily. It doesn't suit your image." Maria tried to comfort Venus. But her voice was flat and weak.

Venus's teary look did not get better at Maria's assurance.

"But it is my fault. It is all my fault. Even now it is my fault. I want to move. To get away from here. But I'm too afraid to. My magic won't respond to me." Venus explained.

She sounded shaken. Maria had no heart to scold her any further.

"My dear princess, thank you for responding to my call. Now, be a dear and kill the enemy in front of you. You'll be free once you do that." The goddess assured.

Maria did not notice when the goddess walked in front of her and kneeled behind Venus.

"I-No. I don't want to do that." Venus explained. But her arms were moving on their own. They were heading toward Maria's location.

Venus was struggling against her limbs. Maria could see the struggle happening in front of her.

And yet, she did not stop Venus.

"Stop it. I don't want to hurt her. No, you can't make me." Maria did not move as the knife closed on her heart.

Maria looked at the goddess's trump look before blue flashed against her abdomen.

"Y-You. How did you do that?" The goddess looked shocked? Maria's hand was soaked blue in the goddess's blood.

Her chains had pierced the goddess through her heart. It must have been a painful blow for the goddess.

"Unfortunately for you, you chose the wrong person to taunt me with. First, you take Nao's face. Then you try Venus. But your illusion does not carry the same feeling of bond in it." Maria explained.

She could feel the goddess's life slipping away and seeping into her chains. It was killing the goddess.

"I guess it was my fault for underestimating you. You had our mother's protection and her blessing. But it's more than that. I underestimated your growth and true purpose. The human world was never meant for you." The goddess explained.

Maria yanked her chains harder against the goddess's heart. She wanted to rip the heart out of the goddess but she needed the other alive.

"Are you not going to kill me?" The goddess asked. She still sounded amused.

She likely knew that Maria was not going to kill her. And this assurance of her importance made the goddess arrogant.

"I can end your life but it won't benefit me. And this world would collapse as soon as you die. It is your magic that is keeping this work alive." Maria's observation caused the goddess to chuckle.

It gave Maria a horrible feeling in her gut. It brought back the feeling of it all being too easy.

Was the goddess not as powerful as people had made her out to be? The people from the upper realm were ruthless and untouchable.

And yet here Maria was. Keeping a goddess hostage.

"Benefit? My magic? So, have you noticed it yet? What you just did to this continent. No, to the whole upper realm? They must be in a frenzy right now." The goddess laughed out loud.

Maria could not see what was so funny.

"Explain," Maria asked as she roughly yanked at the chains. The goddess didn't even bulge at the action. Instead, she had an amused smile.

"You revived a hidden node. It is a task no one has ever been able to achieve. The upper tea will not let this matter go. Though, I am curious about how you did that. Care to share with me?" The goddess asked.

She sounded too calm and collected for Maria's liking. Unconfirmed Maria's feeling that the goddess had been captured only because she had wanted to be captured.

"I don't know what you're talking about. It was a coincidence that things happened the way they did." Maria was doubtful that this all was a coincidence.

It had felt like deliberate meddling when she had received the gem. Ever since then, everything she had done seemed scripted to her.

The actions were her one but the adventure felt like someone was directing it behind the scenes.

"Coincidence? There is nothing like coincidence in this world. There is fate and then there is the will to change it." The goddess explained.

"The future's not set in stone. We have the power to change it." Maria knew those words to be true. She had seen the future change too many times.

"Do you? You speak as if you have experience." The goddess probed.

Maria did not know why, but she felt unsettled in this goddess's company. There was something not right about her.

She gave Maria a feeling like she was insane. Her thoughts and actions did not seem like they belonged to the same goddess Maria had met before.

"You are not 'her.' You are not the goddess I met in that space before. Your magic is different as well." Maria observed.

The goddess she had met before had been aloof and detached. She had not seemed like someone to meddle in such affairs.

And that goddess would not have allowed Maria to play around like that. She would have killed everyone in this world way before things get to this point.

The goddess's wide smile told Maria that she was right.

"I expected nothing else from 'his' daughter. You're exactly like my beloved." The goddess laughed.

Maria felt creeped out by that laugh.

The last time someone had compared her to her father, it had been Lady Elma and Lady Karin. Both had been far from normal.

And now it was a goddess.

"Would it help if I said that I am not the one you are looking for? It would be better if you take your interest somewhere else." Maria was on the verge of begging.

"Even your leading side is just like him. So I've decided. I'll leave this world alone if you come with me. I will treat you well." The goddess promised as she stood up.

The chains snapped around her body without any struggle.

Maria tried to move them but they did not bulge at all.

"Don't try to attack me. They won't move since they were a gift from me to your father. Only someone who shares his blood can move them. But they won't work against me." The goddess explained.

She was getting too close for Maria's taste. She did not want the goddess to get any closer to her.

"You're so much like him that it makes me wonder if you have his soul inside you as well. Let me check." The goddess's hand reached for Maria's face.

And she panicked.

Her magic was running wild, making her panic worsen. Her heartbeat was eccentric as well.

"Just a little more. Let my magic in." The goddess was almost reaching for Maria's heart. It was so painful and she did not like this feeling.

She wanted it out.

And just as quick as the goddess had tried to stab Maria, the feeling decided. Maria's barely opened eyes watched the goddess hiss as she held her hand.

It had been charred black with the help of magic.

"Those meddlesome fools. They were cast out of the upper realm but they still cause me problems. I don't want to lose to them." The goddess hissed but Maria could tell that her condition was no longer stable.

Even a small surge of magic would cause her to disappear for now.

"Y-You're the meddlesome one. I don't want you here." Maria was playing with fire. She did not have enough magic for the spell.

Still, she decided to enact the spell anyway.

She had no idea who this goddess was, but she knew that it was safe for her to be near Maria.

"Don't use your magic. You don't have enough. You'll disappear if you cast the spell to repel me from this continent." The goddess informed.

And Maria knew that she did not have enough magic in her. But she still decides to cast the spell anyway.

"I no longer care if I die. I am tired of living. You made me realise that I want to meet Nao again. And death would be a kindness at this point." There was a point when Maria did everything she could to keep on living.

She decided to take every step she could toward this world. She chose to embrace this wicked deed.

But in the end, it was not enough. The more she tried to live, the harder it left to keep on going.

Losing people had made Maria realise that she did not want to stay alone. Death was better.

[Is the user intended to die of their one will?] The system asked.

And Maria embraced that thought. She knew she would have no regrets.

'Yes.'