Chapter 23

On a higher realm, inside a gigantic office building, the workday has just started but an old man was already walking up the stairs angrily. He walked up all four hundred floors stomping his feet, leaving cracks in the floor as he went with a repair crew following his route.

When he finally arrived at the top floor he walked up to a door with Nyx written on it then, after confirming he came to the right place, he kicked it in and started shouting immediately afterwards.

"What do you think you're doing?! You seriously thought no one would notice you three abusing the system?"

The lady sitting in the small, dark room slowly put down the papers she was reading and stood up, without showing the slightest bit of concern about the man in her office who looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.

"I don't see your problem, our champions were in danger. It's not like others haven't intervened already for pettier reasons. Nothing out of the ordinary happened."

The angry man was expecting this answer and was ready with a counter point.

"That still doesn't explain the immortality thing. Even we don't have that! Also, don't even try to make an excuse for what happened to your kid in particular. You obviously killed the star holder for him to complete that path."

Nyx, instead of responding, picked up a stack of papers and gave it to the intruder.

"You clearly didn't read my report. If you did, then you'd know that I basically avenged the star holder. I don't even know how you got that idea inside your head, if I wanted to steal a star for my champion I would have taken it from someone like you, not poor Artemis.

About the immortal, honestly that surprised even me. Who would have thought my powers worked so well with Hel's. But, as far as I know, there's no written rule against immortality. Even if there was, I remember a certain agreement about not punishing accidents."

The man was stunned a little. He seemed to be coming to his senses and gradually calming down. When he spoke again he did so in a much more reasonable manner.

"Alright, you're clear. But I have never seen these papers before."

"There's probably a copy of them in your office, buried under all the other documents you didn't read."

This marked the ending of the conversation. Nyx walked out of the room and started going towards the stairs. The large man shouted after her. Even though he calmed down he was still pretty annoyed by her attitude.

"Where are you going now?"

"To the Norse building, I have things to discuss with them. By the way, I want my door fixed before I come back!"

She slowly walked all the way down the stairs, into the neighboring building then back up again. The whole process took half an hour and her final position ended up being thirty meters away from where she started.

After finally arriving on the top floor, she walked around, trying to find the right door. Finding the door labelled as Hel she knocked and let herself in.

The inside of the office was even gloomier than her own. Both rooms were painted pitch black but hers at least had some nice lighting in the form of small star shaped lamps. Her colleague's room meanwhile only had a single dim candle. It wasn't particularly depressing, due to the small mountain of plushes covering the floor, if nothing else.

In the middle of the stuffed toys was sitting the owner of the room, a little girl who looked like she just escaped from a graveyard. Nyx sat down opposite of her and smiled as the kid started frantically running around the room, trying to make it look presentable for her guest.

It took a minute, but she did create some sense of order in-between the scattered toys and half-finished papers. Finally, she sat down and started speaking with a large smile on her face.

"So how did Mr. Lighting react?"

"He was a lot more compromising than usual. Is everything alright with the kids?"

The smile she had before disappeared from Hel's face as she answered.

"They are doing fine so far, but I'm worried about the rabbit boy. If you don't start good relationships now, he might have a hard time in the future. I heard that one of those lunatic war gods already sent someone there."

"I know who you're talking about, they won't be a problem."

Hel seemed to be doubting her statement but at that point she could only trust her. She asked one final question, her voice full of worry.

"Are you sure it has to be him?"

The answer was decisive but similarly melancholic.

"I wish there was another option, but it has to be him."