6 Elevator

As the elevator began its painfully slow descent to their destination, Riku took this time to gather his thoughts. Looking at the goddess in front of him, he couldn't help but raise a brow as his attention slowly turned to how beautiful Nyx was. There was a strange ethereal beauty to how staring at her starry eyes almost felt like he was beholding the entire universe, and her entire attire almost felt like it was hiding more than what her body held within. He knew that it was power, but a long forgotten urge within him wanted to see more of what she was hiding.

"You know, I can always show you what's underneath my robes if you asked," Nyx giggled.

"Ah, apologies," he quickly apologized. "I was distracted by your..." How should he say this...

"I'm a goddess. Of course, I'll be beautiful. There's no shame in admitting that," she smiled. "In fact, I'm kind of surprised you're only taking note of it now."

The former assassin let out a soft sigh at her words. He took solace in the fact that Nyx didn't seem to care that he had just mentally tried to ogle her. While he wasn't a stranger to the women and their ways, there was still a certain level of professionalism that he wanted to stick to even while talking to the fairer sex. It was simply proper, even if in the end, they would usually end up wanting to go his bed by the end of the day.

"Now that's a bold claim," Nyx pointed out with an amused smile. "I certainly wouldn't mind finding out about that, but that's only if you actually prove your worth."

"I didn't even ask for that," Riku bluntly replied. "Also, can you stop reading my thoughts? It's an invasion of privacy."

"But how are we going to talk while you're in the middle of a potentially dangerous situation?" the goddess somehow innocently pointed out. "I'll be acting as your support, you know, and I can't always be by your side, especially if the god residing the Realm you're in wants to make you go through a puzzle."

The former assassin's eyes slightly widened at that sudden piece of information. So there were going to be puzzles that he had to solve through this game? Then again, that was to be expected. He should probably expect something random or biblical depending on how said gods thought about themselves.

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind then," he coolly remarked. "In addition, we have some time now, yes?"

"Oh, right," Nyx coughed, her eyes easily telling her that she had only just remembered what they were supposed to be doing. "Ask away then, my Champion."

Mentally scoffing, Riku blinked as he turned his gaze toward the interiors of the elevator itself. While he was formulating his questions, he took note of the golden design of the barristers and buttons lining their current ride. It almost looked Victorian, in a sense, and yet also somehow modern enough to have glowing buttons and a screen that simply had three numbers that constantly rolled the further they went down the Deep Blue.

"These Realms you speak of... There's thirteen of them, yes?"

"That's right," Nyx eagerly answered. "One for me and each of my siblings to reside in. They're pretty much our own personal playground to experiment with. That's also where our rooms are, along with a few of our own personal belongings depending on what we want."

"I see, and to complete this game, I have to go through all of them?" Riku followed up.

"That's what we agreed on, yes. Thought there's still one more Realm, but we're not allowed to talk about that yet," Nyx cheerily shrugged. "Also, you should know that if you ever reach my Realm, that doesn't mean that I'll help you outright. It only means that you'll have even more of an advantage since I'll do my best to tailor my challenge to your strengths."

Riku simply hummed as he took in as much of what he could gather with his goddess's words. So far, he already put together that he had to go through thirteen Realms to get to the bottom of the Deep Blue and win the game. There was also one secret Realm that as a Champion, he wasn't supposed to know about yet. Seeing how Nyx's act of being a clumsy airhead was looking to actually be the truth, he could at least infer that she wasn't lying to him in the slightest. She really did care for him. Well, in the same way that a rich kid would care for their most precious toys.

"You're psychoanalyzing me, aren't you," she pouted.

"Why are you even asking when you already told me that you're reading my thoughts?"

"You asked me not to do that," his goddess frowned. "I'm a woman of my word, you know."

He blinked at her words. That... actually got to him for some reason. "I see," he murmured, his respect for her rising by the second. "Thank you."

"You're most certainly welcome," she smugly smiled at him, making his respect for her rapidly dwindle once again at her tone. "I might be the Goddess of Chaos, of but the usual stereotype of it being evil is greatly exaggerated."

"I can see that."

He indeed did see that, especially since he now attributed that stereotype to the fact that the woman in control of the aspect of Chaos was just too clumsy and earnest to be malicious in her actions. Truly, the concept of Hanlon's Razor as an explanation had a lot of truth in it.

"Hey, I don't need to read your mind to know that you're thinking badly of me," Nyx pouted once more. "That smirk of yours reeks of smugness."

"What can I say? Learning the fact that the very embodiment of what's supposedly all evil in the world doesn't seem to have an evil bone in her body is very amusing," he chuckled. "But enough about that. I want answers."