7 We Have Our Reasons

"YOU BASTARD DOG!"

As if she had never been laying down, Tiamat suddenly appeared in front of Verhund, already throwing a powerful punch.

Verhund pushed her fist aside and returned one of his own towards her midriff, which was also easily pushed aside by her, who sent a kick at his waist.

His response was to knee the incoming kick. Tiamat ultimately folded her leg and let both of their knees scrape by.

She leaped back - keeping her fighting stance - but otherwise did not attack again, nor did Verhund move.

After a few long seconds, she let out a breath that somewhat resembled a growl and put her hands down, still glaring at Verhund.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm on vacation."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was ordered to blow things up."

"...I suppose that makes sense coming from your ilk."

"Then? Why are you here? I thought you'd be little more than dead by now."

"I made a deal."

"Hmn? With the boss?"

"Seeing as you're here, most likely. At the time I accepted, I thought I was dealing with Chaos."

"Yeah, that thing has been a little off since the last mission."

"Last mission?"

"Thanks for asking. So, Earth was being invaded by divines under karmic chains, yeah?"

"Uhum."

"And I was sent there to assist during the invasion."

"Makes sense."

"On the invading side."

"...Is that normal?"

"If you knew how much world entities and the likes of them had to gain from invading Earth, you wouldn't be surprised."

"...I already knew that. Anyway, how did that end in this?"

"You see, Earth had apparently made an alliance with the Origin of Karma."

"Isn't that world a desert by now?"

"Not anymore, no. Anyway I have no idea of what happened there and then, but I was fighting a strong guy from there."

"And? Was there an epic fight?"

"Yes. The guy gave a punch and destroyed the Arena's third dimension."

"...What?"

"What indeed. Wasn't he stronger than you? If the Arena didn't exist, the Labyrinth would have been forced to rewind time."

"But couldn't that guy have just broken time, then?"

"He could've, but probably wouldn't give any resistance. The Labyrinth was on their side, after all."

"Sigh. Putting that aside, how did you end up from that?"

"Most probably destroyed, the me you're seeing now is definitely a clone of the one you faced back then, much like the Labyrinth does with its explorers."

"And you're just like 'it seems I was cloned'? Nothing to say in regards to realizing you can just get killed, have your memories erased and then come back as another Verhund at someone else's will?"

"If you want to have a conflict of existence, you'll have to speak with Faery. But my thoughts are that Verhund is just a name, nothing more, and perhaps much less. You can say you're speaking with Verhund at the moment, for formality's sake, but in actuality, you're just talking with an insane being who start massacres for fun, not sparing even your children."

"I have my own reasons to be speaking with you and doing nothing more. Don't mention them in front of me, not with your dirty mouth."

"...But in the end, aren't you just as cruel as me?"

"..."

"Well, let us get to the point. What kind of contract did you make?"

"Sigh. I'll be giving assistance, and in exchange, the 'agents' are going to help me locate my children who have been missing since that day and safely bring them to me."

"I see. How is your actual status?"

"My body has been used to create a new world - as you probably know - and is no more. The damage has severely impaired my existence and - aside from my knowledge - I'm barely as strong as the weakest of the divine. This world also seems to automatically seal a god's powers when they descend so... aside from a few allowed perks, I'm not so different than a mortal."

"So that's how we are, heh? Welp! Looks like we're teammates now! Work hard, friend."

"You say that, but you're probably planning on how to backstab me."

"That would be Avgor. I'm more simple, you work under the boss, I'll leave you alone. Otherwise, that guy would not have been alive until then."

"...Was he that bad?"

"He was."

"...I guess we're working together now?"

"We are."

"Then I guess I should be giving you my blessing for now, then?"

"Give me a blessing? Eh- could this world be one of those?"

"Indeed, you cannot evolve alone, although you can become slightly stronger than normal humans through other - less practical - means."

"How do blessings work here?"

"I studied it while we spoke, it's an unreasonably weird process that involves physical contact."

"I guess I should thank the fact that you have to depend on me?"

"Unfortunately."

"After getting the blessing, how do I become stronger?"

"You kill. Every living being has an essence of life, this kind of god's blessing basically steals part of it when they die and transforms it into some form of impractical magical energy that strengthens your body and some such. The process itself seems to be focused on the marrow of the spine."

"So it's basically like a game? You kill, *Ding* Level up?"

"Is this what you mortals normally think?"

"Nope. Only a psychopath or a sociopath would say this."

"Which one of them are you?"

"None of them."

"But you just said only those would say that..."

"Right?"

"...I'll ignore you, for now, let's just go for the blessing and be done with it. I'll need to touch your back so you need to take out your upper clothing."

Verhund did as ordered and soon felt the blessing forming on his back, it had an invasive aspect to it, though thankfully it didn't seem to actually reach the soul. Verhund's opinion was that it was more of a pseudo-blessing to pass around like candy to people whom you didn't really trust.

"As I thought, although the blessing is a little impractical, it is quite useful to promote loyalty, as the one being blessed has to constantly come in contact with their divine to transform the life essence into strength."

"So I need to come to you in order to level up, right? There is only the status missing for now."

"And there is a status."

"We're at a level where it would be weird if it didn't."

"Just shut up and wait a bit, I'm getting some paper."

Tiamat raised one of her hands and telepathically tore some chunks of wood out of the tree to her side, the wood levitated in place and started changing color and shape before dropping some black materials onto the ground, after some short processing, what was once wood became low-quality paper.

"It's quite poor."

"Too lazy. Besides, I'm not in my best form right now, or I would have just created it."

She put the paper on his back and pressed onto it, Verhund felt another reaction from his 'blessing' but it was too faint to really mind it.

When the procedure was done and over with, a paper with a snake crest and several words and numbers was held in his hands.

Level: 1

Str: 11

Vit: 12

Dex: 15

Agi: 16

Mag: 0

Magic: -

Skill: Death Sense

Death's Dog

"Hmn... these numbers seem to point towards my specialty, I don't think they'll be that much relevant in the future, though."

"Are you telling me my blessing's useless?"

"Do you consider this thing to be a proper blessing?"

"...It looks like you have two skills? It's the first time I do this thing but I don't think it's normal for someone to even start with one, much less two."

"Too cliché! Don't ruin the story! As for the skills, one of them I had since birth and the other... sounds more like an underling's title?"

"It suits you. From what I understood, it allows you to become stronger when approaching death and facing it, whatever that means. People who suffer because of you are also more likely to contemplate their lives... I want to ask whether you're some kind of screwed Buddha now, but I'm more worried about the inklings of a concept here."

"That has probably appeared now because of Boss, it seems that the way it works has changed. It's a good skill for running away, though."

"I thought you were going to say that this thing is cli-something something again?"

"Not really, no. The part of approaching death probably just strengthens me in a way that does not let wounds affect my movement. As for facing it, it most likely means being put against a stronger enemy, but I doubt the boost is enough to put us in equal levels."

"So it is not that good? In fact, isn't it almost useless? Though the first part is okay for a mortal, the rest doesn't really help you in surviving, does it?"

"As I said, it's for running away. This was probably the cheapest way that would help the most in the mission here."

"But there's no explosive property anywhere..."

"Again, that's with Faery."

"...I've seen a good place to pass the night, so I'm going to go my own way for now. No need to worry about the blessing for a while, you need to kill a lot to really make a difference."

"I see. Good night then."

Tiamat's P.O.V.

She watched as Verhund casually strolled out, his back seemingly free of weight and mind free of worries.

Tiamat knew she couldn't be the same, but this didn't stop her from being so envious of the man, the one who so nonchalantly set all this chaos in motion.

It must have appeared so easy to forget the resentment between the two, right? She just breathed out and done! Past has passed!

Well, past hasn't just passed. Her children were still dead and those who miraculously survived the war died later on or became completely insane due to their fates, and now she was here, casually talking with her hated enemy and doing her best to entertain him, all in the hopes that when he actually found what's left of them, he would show some mercy.

She was a great creation god with many eons of life to her, a blink of an eye was enough to suppress most emotions and perfectly act as if nothing ever happened.

The past is passing in the present. Verhund is a harbinger of disaster no matter the time or situation, this didn't change because he suddenly became weak. His name was just that for him, but for her it, was a nightmare.

A nightmare that constantly played with the guilt in her heart, unconsciously making her doubt her actions by just questioning whether she really meant what she said.

The past is present in the future. That skill has appeared because of his 'Boss'? What bullshit! Acting like that thing was just an odd trinket, since when has he been in contact with the karmic chains? That concept in his skill didn't have a limit to the target, it was all a question of how much they had to suffer before being affected.

She created gods and monsters, and in the end, her body was used to make a whole new world, but she didn't create her feelings. Who was he to invade other people's existence like that?

Past is past, present and future. Everyone has their own thoughts, everyone has their own dreams. They have their results and they have their reasons. They have their own life to live, so why couldn't things like that bastard stay away, out of reach?

Was it so hard to have the little wish of being left in peace - in quiet - heard and realized? Tiamat just wanted a favorable answer, nothing more.