9 Chaotic System

"I see..." he hummed. It sounded workable so far, but he already had a feeling that there was a catch. "And what kind of Boons are they?"

To his lacking surprise for once, Nyx nervously scratched her cheek as she replied. "Well.... That's the thing: I don't know."

Once again, Riku let out a sigh as he threw away a few of the plans he already drafted in his head. "So they're random effects then?"

"They are," she admitted. "Though I can at least assure you that they're all useful."

"Depending on the situation," he finished for her, her reaction to his words all the confirmation he needed to know that he was correct. "Still, it's better than nothing."

"Again, I have no control over what Chaos will give you," Nyx firmly stated, a hint of indignation actually starting to come to her, telling him that he shouldn't fight her on this. "It's inherent to Its nature. My nature."

Relenting to the goddess's unspoken warning, the former assassin simply nodded before returning his attention to the holographic screen in front of him. It was his first Boon, apparently. Maybe it was something useful?

[Chaotic Tempering: Allows the Champion's knife to grow stronger the more it is used. Adds a small chance to earn a minor random stat bonus to the Champion's weapon with every successful kill.]

That... actually wasn't that bad. Power was capitalized for obvious reasons, but it wasn't hard to tell what that meant. He could only assume that he'll get passively stronger the deeper he went into the Deep Blue. It wasn't much, but it actually gave him some hope that his goddess hadn't completely ruined his chances. Looking at her, it was clear that she didn't really want him questioning her about her gift to him further. Not that he minded. A god's power was still a god's power. He'll just have to adjust as he went along.

"Next question. There are twelve other deities that you have to contend with, yes? That means that there are twelve other Champions for me to fight against," Riku blandly stated the obvious. "What can you tell me about them?"

Nyx blinked at him before narrowing her eyes in thought. "While I can't tell you much about their Champions, I can tell you something about my siblings," she stated with a hint of vindictive mischief in her tone. "I'm also assuming that you'll also want to know more about the Deep Blue itself?"

"Right in one," he curtly nodded, his brows raised ever so slightly at the sight of his goddess being a bit proactive for once.

"Well, judging by how long we've been at this elevator, we'll probably only have time to discuss our destination. We're nearing our stop, so we should make this quick," Nyx began, her tone suddenly taking on an serious hint as her gaze became analytical. "First off, each Realm consists of eleven Depths with the last one being the actual Depth where the Realm's presiding god resides in. In this particular case, we'll be descending to the first Realm: The Dicastery."

Riku simply nodded, silently goading Nyx to continue her lecture. He didn't know what a Dicastery was, but he was sure he'll know about it soon enough.

"So, The Dicastery... While I haven't really been here too much because Big Brother Themis gets all fussy when I do so, I know enough about him to know that it's all going to be law and order all around," she explained, her disdain for her supposed older brother dripping in her words. "He always rants about needing order everywhere in the universe, and the way he designed his Realm is going to reflect that. Last I saw the place, it almost looked like the entire place was made of marble. There was white and gold everywhere, it was so blinding to the eyes that I bolted the minute I had my chance."

The former assassin's attention was quickly taken away by her last few words. "Wait, so you actually haven't seen this Dicastery in its entirety?"

"If you're asking me why I didn't snoop around my big brother's room, then I suppose you have the common sense to know the answer," Nyx scoffed. "It's just not proper. We still have boundaries to follow, and while I don't like Big Brother Themis, I still respect him as the Eldest of the Thirteen."

Riku couldn't help but blink at her obvious answer. Somehow... that actually made sense. In fact, it was surprising to see his goddess being reasonably smart. Although... maybe that was what Chaos actually was? She was the embodiment of a force known for its random nature, so maybe that was why she was this inconsistent.

"I see," he hummed mostly to himself. "It's not much, but it'll have to do, I suppose."

"Right!? This is actually the first I'm going to be in Big Brother Themis's Realm in eons!" she cutely ranted with a pout on her face, her personality returning to what Riku now considered to be her baseline. "He keeps saying I might taint the place despite me having been there already before and nothing happening. Seriously... if not for the God Father forbidding it, he probably would've already banned me from even stepping foot in his Realm. And as for the others... Ugh! Why do I always feel like I have to be careful around them?!"

The former assassin remained quiet, content with just allowing his patron goddess to rant to herself. It was a nice source of information in terms of what kind of person Nyx actually was and how she viewed her fellow gods, and from what he gathered just listening to her, it almost sounded like she was the youngest of among the Thirteen Gods. She was constantly switching between annoyed and miffed about her siblings babying or bullying her to being self-pitying about her current situation and standing. She had something prove, but at the same time, she almost felt resigned to not having not that much influence.

So much so, in fact, that Riku almost wanted to do something for her. It was always fun helping an underdog, after all.