OBSESSION

He woke up sitting on his favorite gaming chair while the game that he was playing was still beeping with an ominous red display of 'game over'.

"How could I fall asleep before washing myself?"

He lamented before fixing himself.

It has already been a week since he started playing the cursed game with no end but all that he achieved is an imperfect ending.

"I shouldn't have rushed to the boss without enough strength but waiting till I got stronger would result in the captured girl's death."

He glanced at the clock before his desk to confirm that it is still early for his daily medicine so he booted up the game again to complete the game to his liking.

"How could I even beat a god that can one-shot me?"

Annoyed, he grabbed the blurred mouse to restart again.

He is so obsessed with a perfect ending that he fails to notice that his room and surroundings are just like a broken film.

—--

Ding*

Ding*

Ding*

Deep chimes of bell ring repeatedly, one after another like chasing each other, reverberating in the entirety of the surroundings.

Echidna, the goddess of monsters stares at the man that has become dust a few moments ago but reappeared immediately after a burst of blue from his necklace.

She had so many chances that she took to eliminate him but he has a weird way of recovering while using Gaia as a shield so she had to permanently erase him from existence.

But surprisingly he still survived after taking a direct hit from her. What's even more confusing is that the human before her leveled up by himself and she can feel a large difference from him while looking at his emotionless eyes.

Ding*

Ding*

Ding*

"What can you even do against a god, human?"

She condescendingly asks, her petite arms spread apart to free herself from the constraints of Tartarus that she is using as a means to supply her with Arcanum.

Now that Gaia was freed from her confines, she can no longer rely on the tower as it is also using Gaia as a battery to sustain itself.

"Let me ask you again, what is your name?"

Ding*

Ding*

Ding*

"I am…."

David gracefully drew the form of a sword from his umbrella that was once broken while holding the goddess in his one arm.

Echidna tilted her head cutely, now that she can freely attack, she carefully unleashed an attack enough to leave not even dust to obliterate him while safely avoiding Gaia whom he was no longer using as a shield.

But the result is only a deafening silence permeating the surrounding before being followed by an ear-piercing sound blasting around them.

Boooooom!

Wha-...?!

Even as a god that can freely use her power thanks to the Tower and Gaia, she is still as vulnerable as a human as she only descended from the heaven

So when she tried to use her arms to block the impact, she was beyond horrified when she saw her hands missing from her arms.

Boooooom!!!

Echidna was immediately thrown kilometers away from the blast while her cute beautiful face was contorted from pain.

She uses her Arcanum to recover her now missing arm but as an exchange, it turned from delicate dandy hands to a horrifying monster one.

She stared at it despairingly for a moment before screaming in a deeply broken voice towards David that was still far standing in the air.

"I'll fking skin you aliiiiiiveeee!"

"Sasaki Kojiro"

"Huh?"

Echidna paused as she heard him saying something, but then she realized that she never heard his name, not until now that she was thrown so far away.

'How fast was that exchange?'

She thought as her head slipped from her neck.

!!!

Luckily, with her monstrous hands, she held her head in place as she instantly healed it, or else the last boss would have died without knowing how.

Sparks flew from the hand she is using as a guard while the rest of her body turned into a diced god's meat.

With frightened eyes, she looked beyond her to see him only standing with a sword in one hand and a goddess in another with a cold look on his face.

'I shouldn't have let him attack!'

Her body quickly changed from her cute petite form into a horned woman with four arms and a serpent body.

Her gaze no longer contains anything but rage as she slowly drops her arms to let him futilely attack her true form that is slowly towering over him.

Roooaaaarrr!

Blinded in rage she roared without care of her prisoner as her hair turned to a countless spear while 4 of her arms concentrated to assault them to the full extent of her power.

"DDDIIIIIEEEEEE!!!"

—------

She woke up in a world completely different from what Hephaestus had experienced when David tried to heal her cursed eye.

Instead of a place full of life and vigor the room she is in is blurred and hazy as the only thing that she can distinguish is a man sitting in front of a device.

She doesn't know where the place is or the man in front of her but the scene playing on the device that emits light is similar to the one she vaguely remembered before slumbering.

Slowly she approached the man that weirdly felt close and important to her before staring at his face which was devoid of any emotion except for his eyes that scream of greed and obsession.

Before she knew it her hands embraced his cold form, tightly holding him while her head burrowed into his stiff neck.

Her heart felt indescribable pain as tears flowed unceasingly, she didn't know why but seeing him in his state brought her to endless despair.

"Let me help you."

Gaia muttered as a soft glow of light covered them before the gloom surrounding them shattered in the wind.