Patriarch

"Hey, just who the hell are you? What do you mean you were reincarnated here?!" I yelled at her, knowing nobody could hear me. This girl... was she a Hero?

"I told you, my friends call me Ama. However, that doesn't seem to matter that much with you, so you can call me the First Patriarch of the Sun, Amaterasu." She said to me.

"Amaterasu... that sounds like a God from my world... then, you're from Earth?" I asked her. She smiled, seemingly satisfied with how I picked up on that.

"Then, you are from Earth, reincarnated just like I was. That's satisfying to hear. So, what area?" She asked me.

"Area? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked her. We usually say country...

"Where in Europe were you?" She asked me.

"Excuse me? I'm not from Europe." I told her. Something was wrong... why did I have to be from Europe?

"You're not from Europe? Don't be stupid. There's no other place in the world." She said to me. I looked at her dumbfounded again... what the hell was she talking about?

"What year are you from? What the hell are you talking about?" I asked her.

"Twenty-Twenty. What about you?" She asked me. Huh? She was close to me?

"Twenty-Nineteen. Same Earth... right? Did you have cars on your planet? Are we from the same Earth?" We went back and forth between topics until I finally realized she was summoned here a year after I was. So, Yggdrasil picked us from the same Earth? Why did he do that?

"And, are you a Hero? Why were you summoned?" I said to her, leaning against the wall.

"Hero? Don't be ridiculous. We're not summoned here as Heroes. We're summoned here to stabilize conflict. That Hero title is a fake construct of the Kingdom I was summoned into, and I'm sure it was the same for you." Ama said.

"I guess so. I was labeled a villain for siding with the people on the outside of Sieve's walls, and now I'm here by some odd chance. So, I can really trust you as my friend?" I asked Ama. She nodded with a smile and crossed her arms.

"So, you and I are pretty similar. You're the... Magic Hero, you say? Interesting. I wonder why you weren't given the title of Patriarch like me." She commented.

"No idea, if it's just a construct, does the title itself even matter? If I'm not a Hero, are you a Patriarch?" I asked her.

"Oh, I am. Here, look at this." Ama told me. She lifted her shirt up and made sure to cover her chest, revealing a strange tattoo on her stomach.

"Is that a mark?" I asked her, to which she nodded. She asked me about the slime on my arm, and I explained that whole story to her.

"Joro… that asshole... it's always him who's ruining things." She mumbled. Oh? So she knew about him?

"You're friends with Joro? Hah... what did he do to you?" I joked around with her and Ama chuckled a little. Having a conversation with somebody who knew me and didn't want to kill me... was refreshing...

"Hell no! I will kill him the next time I see him." She explained.

"Don't worry about it. I'll be killing him down the line. He's taken away Daria and Shima from me, there's a very thin chance he gets out alive." I told Ama.

"Well, if you do end up killing him, find a way to tell me. I'm a Patriarch, so I'll grant you an audience with the others and we can talk about your standing. Sound good?" Ama asked me. I nodded.

"The others? My standing? What does that mean?" I asked her again. The number of questions here was... insane.

"The others as in the other Patriarchs. And your standing, as where you are on the list. If you're true to your word and end up killing Joro, you'll probably be strong enough to be a Patriarch. When that happens, you can talk to me and we'll get you a marking just like me." She said to me.

"And what makes a Patriarch so strong? Is it spells or power?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"Influence mainly, but it can be power. I may be the top of the Patriarchs, but I'm nowhere near the strongest. It's just because of my omnipotent abilities, like this illusion bubble, and how I'm casually pausing time right now." She told me.

"You're doing those things? Why can't I feel it?!" I asked her in shock. That caused her to laugh, but I was dead serious.

"If you know your way around mana, everything is possible, Anima. Well, I'm feeling the fatigue now, so it's time I leave. You can continue your auction." She told me. Ama was about to walk off, but I grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"One last thing before you go, is Zeus safe? I've been skeptical this entire time and I don't have any leads to bad behavior, but I need to know." I asked her.

Ama looked past my shoulder with a hateful glance and then back at me.

"If I were you, I would stop him sooner rather than later. The people of New Olympia are in danger so long as that man leads them, but, I could be wrong. You'll have to figure it out on your own." Ama told me.

Ama vanished from sight and time continued around me right before I ran into her.

"There you are Anima! Did you go into the Auction Theater with Zeus? I couldn't find either of you." Soul asked me.

"Yeah, I knew you were out here... let's go," I said.

I decided to hold off on the mention of Ama for now... should I even tell anybody about what I saw? Or is this some sort of weird hallucination...