25 Boundaries

{REALM: THE DICASTERY}

{DEPTH 7}

Three Depths came and went by fairly quickly. Nothing much happened beyond the occasional lion attack and getting lost, and all in all, Riku couldn't help but feel like this entire game he got saddled with was going to be easier than expected. Of course, that didn't mean that he was going to let his guard down. Well, he already did, but that was because he was feeling comfortable with the people he was accompanying. No, in terms of keeping an eye out on possible danger, he still had his eyes and ears open at even the slightest shift in the metaphorical sand. There were thirteen of them, after all, and as they slowly made their way to the Dicastery proper, the more the danger was going to start ramping up.

"Again, Big Brother Themis will likely have his challenge revolve around rules or something," Nyx repeated while casually eating her umpteenth mouthful of her newly replenished supply of lion sashimi. "He's just that kind of guy."

Both him and Shizu simply nodded even as they casually stepped over another pack of lions they just killed. They've both heard of Nyx's warnings regarding Themis's supposed challenge, and they just mentally decided to simply nod and agree to the resident goddess whenever she repeated herself. Riku didn't know what it was about his patron deity's constant reminders, but at least it was a constant reminder of what they were about to face.

"Right, he'll probably give us a court case or something," Shizu blandly replied as she stashed her unused cards. "Then again, based on what you're telling us, that might just happen."

"And knowing gods, the chances of it happening are greater than fifty percent," Riku joked as he flicked the blood off his knife. "It'll be hilarious if it actually happened, to be honest."

Shizu let off a soft chuckle, and Riku simply smiled as he returned to take the lead on their small group. It was a distinct possibility they talked about a Depth or so ago when Nyx revealed what she knew about a deity's home Depth, so to speak. In terms of environments, the most bottom Depth of a given Realm was going to be vastly different compared to the Depths that came before it. Depending on the god or goddess in charge of the Realm, the most bottom Depth will either be highly personalized to suit their needs or it wouldn't be much better. According to Nyx, however, Themis would fall into the former category.

"That's probably for the better though," Shizu casually stated with a shrug. "It means we won't be fighting someone."

"That's true, but what if this so-called court case is something that's far from our expertise to even answer or complete?" Riku hypothetically asked. "We're normal everyday folk here, so to speak. We're not lawyers by a long shot."

"But we still have some kind of edge, no?" she replied back. "It's much better than having to fight a gauntlet or something. Or even worse, the other Champions."

Riku sagely nodded at his fellow Champion's observation. It was true that they'd both prefer dealing with some random puzzle than to have to fight other Champions to move forward. Of course, that was assuming that Themis's puzzle was going to be reasonable instead of being highly nonsensical. Though based on what Nyx was saying that was most likely to be the case.

"You two are that averse to fighting the other Champions, huh," Nyx offhandedly remarked, her mouth still half-full with food.

"That's because we're lacking critical information," Riku quickly rebutted. "We're not going to go into a fight not knowing our opponents, and you're not exactly forthcoming with information due to obvious reasons."

Nyx's demeanor almost fell again before she shook her head and simply shrugged at them. To that, Riku gave her a slight eyebrow raise in approval. That was exactly what he wanted for her. There was no need to apologize for something she had no control over, after all.

"And speaking of, isn't it weird that we haven't encountered any other Champions yet?" Shizu suddenly asked aloud. "I mean, there's no other people around other than us, right? Surely, we would've encountered some of them now. Not that I want that to happen, of course."

The former assassin nodded in agreement. "I agree. The probability of us being able to avoid our fellow Champions should be fairly small, especially since we're all being funneled into the same location," he postulated. "While it's not something I don't welcome, it's still something to think about."

A terse silence followed as the group wordlessly went along their predicted path. Riku wasn't really thinking too much on the case of the missing Champions, but he wasn't going to look at a gift horse in the mouth. The less they encountered the others, the faster they were going to get to their destination.

"Heh... That's actually my doing~"

Riku raised a brow as both him and Shizu stopped to turn to Nyx, the resident goddess smugly chuckling as if she had just won the lottery.

"I'm acting as your spotter, right? Then it just means that I have to avoid any and all danger," she smugly explained herself. "After all, there's nothing in the rules about us keeping our Champion out of danger."

"Oh, that's great! Thanks, Nyx!" Shizu eagerly beamed at the smug goddess.

"Anytime, my Champions~" Nyx happily smiled back, her tone audibly praising herself at a job well done before quickly going back down. "....I probably shouldn't say that."

"Y-Yeah... Tyche just told me to tell you to respect your boundaries," Shizu winced. "O-Ow... That... actually hurt?"

The former assassin quickly perked up at that specific tidbit. His fellow Champion just experienced pain... for being called another deity's Champion?

"Oh, that's probably because of what I did," Nyx quickly explained. "As our Champions, you all have our power within you. And as a general rule, our powers don't really mix unless we will them to."