118 All Alone

"...Hhhrrrgh...I can't believe him! That person, he just let me leave that easily!"

While walking in the vast unknown, Aoi grumbled to herself, kicking any stone of reasonable size she chances upon to vent out her anger.

After all, why would she be not mad? She expected some resistance from the young man she treated and considered to be her big brother but received little to none of it—likely because he too is tired of her antics. He even 'urged' her to leave, which made her even more dismayed.

"...All that I wanted is for that person to make use of the blessings I've given to him. Was it really that hard? Am I asking too much of him?" she spoke while trying to kick another stone out of her way.

For some reason, she miscalculated the direction of the swing of her foot, therefore, missing its target, and the force exerted also caused her to lose balance and fall on her butt, again. Sitting on the ground like a helpless child, she looked down as she started to sob.

"...Kuhhh...what if...I was wrong all this time..."

She wiped her tears a few minutes later, returning immediately to her usual state. There is no use crying, she said, for she did nothing wrong. Expressing guilt for something she didn't do isn't a characteristic of hers, and her position will never change no matter what era she's currently living in, even if the world suddenly ended at that moment.

Yes, it's all that person's fault, she said to herself. Unless he grovels right in front of her while begging for forgiveness, she won't reconcile again with that man.

"...This won't do, Aoi. You need to find your way out of here," she said while tapping her cheeks, urging herself to go on.

'But...how?' she wondered. It's her first time in a very long while to wander on her own. With no navigation tools in hand and no capacity to fashion one, all that's left for her is to rely on the heavens for directions...except that it's daytime and the skies are too overcast for her to use the sun to determine her position.

All that she knows, is that she's moving away in the direction the other party is going.

"...Hmph. I don't need them, I can handle this on my own..."

She peeled open the packaging of an MRE as she walked, taking a big bite off the nutrition bar in a bid to pacify her grumbling stomach even for just a little while. As she planned to make her stock last for as long as she can, she didn't eat all of it in just one go, instead, she returned the remaining half of the MRE into her pouch for later consumption.

Though it's impossible for her to die from starvation, having lived alongside humans for a long time means that her mind has been already hardcoded to emulate most of their ways. She has learned how to feel hunger, thirst, pain, sickness, and even the urge to find the nearest toilet—sensations that are unnecessary for a deity like her. She learned all of that, just because of that one person...

And with that person finally out of her sight, is it still necessary for her to continue emulating the way humans live?

"...The first thing I'll do once I get out of here, is to eat an entire table load of meat. The first thing I'll do once I get out of here..."

She pushed on for another one hour before resting, as her soles are already swelling from walking too long. Sitting on a fallen rock pillar, she decided that it's already time to finish that one MRE she saved earlier.

"...What a shame. At this time I should be eating something better than this, but alas, that happened. Haaah, if only there's any beast around here for me to hunt..."

Just as when she's about to take a bite off her food, something came out from the ground in front of her. It was a worm, about a meter long and a diameter the size of a coin, and the color of ash. It doesn't have the usual curvy shape of regular worms. Instead, it's as if its body is made up of many triangles, like a poorly rendered, three-dimensional worm.

Aoi, not expecting to see a creature in her vicinity in such a short time, slightly gasped before saying:

"...W-Well...though I'm not fond of creepy things, trying some of them wouldn't be bad, I think..."

She then stood up and slowly, carefully, she crept towards the worm. With her tongue in cheek, she's very eager to catch the creature in one go. Slowly and surely, she closed the distance, until she's only at an arm's length away from the worm.

"...At the count of three, I'll catch you and one...two...three...AHH?!"

As soon as she tried to get her hands on the worm, the creature quickly realized it's in danger and quickly retreated to the ground. Disappointed, Aoi stomped the hole where the worm came out.

"...Aargh, stupid worm! How insolent, not allowing me to catch him! Um! Um! Um!"

While she's stomping the ground, she suddenly felt something like an aura around her. It's different from the ones her senses have picked up before. At first, she couldn't determine the source of that aura, until...

"...Eh? What the..."

The ground shook feebly underneath her. Though it has happened a few times already in just a short while to cause panic, the crystal formations around her vibrate in resonance with the ground, creating a high-pitched tone that irritated her ears. Meanwhile, the aura kept on growing as the earth continue to shake, culminating in a huge explosion coming from underground.

"...Keh, keh...what...what just happened..."

Coughing from the dust, Aoi's eyes opened wide at the sight in front of her. It was a worm, a giant worm, standing no less than 25 meters tall. It has the thickness the size of a house, and very dark ash color. Its geometric 'scales' appear to be very smooth, so smooth that Aoi could see her reflection on the worm's body.

Given the difference between her body and the monster's size, it is but natural that Aoi would feel a little bit insecure. Trying herself not to be intimated by the worm, Aoi spoke:

"...Uhm...hello—"

EEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK!!!!! An ear-splitting shriek came from the worm, as it revealed its mouth full of rows and rows of sharp crystal teeth to Aoi. The saliva dripping out of the creature's mouth instantly solidifies on contact, creating a new crystal formation as it touched the ground.

Realizing what the creature could do, Aoi took a step back as she prepared herself to slay it.

"...Hmph. Do you think you're going to terrify me with just that? Very well, I'll be sure to make short work of you."

She extended her right hand forward, and all of a sudden a large orb made of the darkest void appeared atop the worm, eating away at its head as the dark orb grew in diameter.

"...Heh, this is easy...hm?"

Not long after the orb shrunk back to nothingness, the worm easily regrew its head completely along with another, making two heads in total. Both heads released their furious cries at Aoi, who was taken aback by the rapid rate of regeneration the creature has.

"...Tch. Not bad, you ugly thing, not bad," she clicked her tongue while looking at the worm with disdain. "Facing a hardy opponent like you...makes me want to eat you up even more!"

Aoi pointed her finger up, then a huge black magic circle instantly appeared in the sky right above the huge creature. From that magic circle, multiple chains of darkness fall like rain at the worm and coiled themselves at its body as soon as the chains made contact with the creature. The worm, in an attempt to free itself from the seemingly endless rain of chains, violently flailed its huge body around, but such desperate moves made the chains' hold of the creature even tighter as a result.

Pleased with the effect of her power on the worm, Aoi smirked and said, "...Hm, what are you gonna do now? It would be a shame if a creature like you were to be crushed by the grip of my dark power..."

UUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK!!!!!! The worm's two heads continue to let out deafening sounds, as it can't move its body anymore. The heads then spitted out their saliva at Aoi, which quickly turned into solid crystals upon contact with Aoi's magic circle barrier.

Aoi, wanting to end the creature as soon as possible, put her finger down and pointed it instead at the worm. At that instant, the chains that are already coiling themselves tighter and tighter around the worm's body and slowly distorting the creature's shape each second, suddenly exerted an extreme amount of crushing force against the worm—as if it's being wrung out by a giant hand. The creature's body, unable to handle the pressure, started to form small cracks. These small cracks then joined together to form larger cracks, and these, in turn, combine to form a huge dividing crack that runs entirely from the top of the worm's head, up to the tip of its opposite side. No body fluids spewed out of the worm's crevices, for its rapid crystallization prevents it from doing so.

Having used up a great amount of her divine power, Aoi fell on her knees as she spoke with an exhausted voice:

"...Phew. I think that will do for a worm of that size..."

While she's slowly recovering her used divine power, the remains of the worm suddenly began to emit a white light that came out of its numerous cracks on its body. Alarmed, Aoi tried to inspect what's going on with the creature but her exhaustion has finally set in, as her legs were too weak to stand up.

Exasperated, Aoi muttered to herself, "...This is bad, I can't move my legs..."

Meanwhile, the glowing of the worm's body ceased as soon as it finally shed its cracked outer layer along with the chains that restrained it, revealing an ash-colored crystalline body that is full of jagged spikes. Though its body now being transparent, Aoi cannot see any glowing cores from within the worm's interior—a vital weak spot—which is a characteristic for creatures of that same type.

"...Y-You, you must be kidding me..." Aoi voiced out her disbelief, "no living being has ever received that kind of an attack and survived before..."

As such, she also began to doubt whether the creature in front of her is a real living thing or one that is made through artificial means. If it's the latter, she surmised, the life force she has detected a while ago isn't coming from the creature itself, but from an external source, which, is yet to be found.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Aoi turned back and struggled to use her arms to drag her body away from the worm. If the worm is indeed not a living being just like her assumptions, the effectiveness of her already insufficient divine power will be even more hampered, as it is not designed to 'kill' what's not even considered 'alive' in the first place.

However, before she could even do that, one of the worm's heads grabbed Aoi by the leg with its mouth. Aoi, hanging upside down by her foot, desperately held on to her skirt to keep it from falling.

"...Hhhhrrrghhhh...let me go! Let me go! Do you not know who you're messing with, huh?!"

The worm, on the other hand, has no way to understand what she is saying. All that it sees with its dozens of eyes distributed equally on two heads, is a tiny, hectic prey too desperate to escape. She alone won't be enough to fill its stomach, but such an energetic girl might still provide the worm with nutrition beyond compare; an excellent treat, before the worm finally undergoes its pupal stage.

Still wildly flailing one of her arms around, Aoi angrily yelled, "...I'm telling you! If you try to eat me or do bad things to me, big brother will—"

'Ah, I forgot—I don't have one anymore,' she quickly realized. Just because of a single disagreement that could and should be easily fixed, she has lost an important ally in battle; a confidant with whom she could share her innermost feelings; a good provider; and most importantly, a brother. So much that she relied on that man that she unknowingly began to lose confidence in her capabilities.

Her dwindling supply of divine power, her power's innate ineffectiveness against non-living enemies, and her overreliance on her ex-big brother. This combination of issues made her feel even more frustrated, as she couldn't accept that the Death Goddess has reached unprecedented levels of low, evidenced by her being held captive by a giant worm.

"...This...this shouldn't be happening to me...I am the Death Goddess..."

Then, the worm's mouth that has been biting her leg for some time now finally decided to toss her high up in the air while the other head opened its mouth, aiming to catch her and swallow her whole.

Helplessly flying in midair, Aoi said to herself—

"...Oh, what a fool, I am. Waiting for someone to come and save me..."