“Ohhh!! The domain changed quite a bit since I last came. I remember it was an eternal day when Lucifer was the one in power.”
On a floating Island in the Eighth heaven, a portal opened as four people stepped out of it.
The one who spoke was a foreign-looking short girl that had the appearance of a young teen. Her skin had a beautiful color hue and her scarlet red eyes seemed to shine in the night of the Starry Sky. One striking feature of hers was her sclera which was entirely black.
Draped in a short white robe that barely hid her body, she began to look around, excitement clear on her face and her neck-long pink hair swayed in the wind.
“Skuld, stop being an embarrassment.”
A young woman with features surprisingly similar to Skuld spoke on the side. In fact, their features were so similar that one would think that the second girl was Skuld a few years later.
Even the clothes they wore were the same, albeit hers was a little longer and went a few centimeters after her knees.
The only true difference between the two of them were the bracelet around Skuld’s wrist.
“Verdandi…”
Verdandi ignored the pleading look of her little sister. She knew that if she didn’t set up the rules now, this girl was very likely to cause an incident.
Her little sister was simply too mischievous. It was alright when they were in Yggdrasil’s territory since the old man and their eldest sister, Urd, were quite friendly. Furthermore, the old man himself was pretty kind and forgiving despite his appearance.
But Verdandi knew that Tiamat was completely different. Even if Tiamat ended up killing them, no one on Order or Chaos's side except Urd would cry for their death.
Thinking so, she turned toward the two that had stayed silent behind, “Phoebe, Nidhogg, forgive my little sister's enthusiasm. It just has been a while since we left Yggdrasil’s territory.”
Phoebe, a dark-haired brown-skinned woman with golden eyes and amazing body curves that were barely hidden by leaves, smiled.
“Don't worry. I know her personality.”
Phoebe was a Dryad and one of the Kings under the direct order of Yggdrasil. This made her one of the most important women in the world.
Even so, as a divine beast under the virtue of humility, her personality was quite gentle despite her warrior-looking appearance.
However, Verdandi was not tricked. At this very moment, a powerful poison devised by Yggdrasil was circulating in their bodies. Even as a King ranked Titans, there was no doubt that they would die should that poison activate and the one who held control over that poison was the one in front of them.
In Skuld's case, it was even worse since the bracelets around her wrists were in fact seals that stopped her from using her power. After all, even though she was the weakest out of the three of them, her power was without a doubt the scariest.
“I am alright.”
The fourth and final person in their atypical group answered.
The girl was another case Verdandi couldn’t make a head of. In fact, the only reason Verdandi even knew she was a girl was because of her voice.
Nidhogg, the granddaughter of Hydra and a powerful poison user. This was all she knew about her.
Every time she met her, Nidhogg was entirely clad in a black robe that covered her from head to toe, long black gloves around her hands and arms, and a black mask that reminded Verdandi of a bird. Even the hair was bunched up under a shawl.
In her hand was a stylish walking cane that she used to put even more distance between her and others.
Verdandi knew that the entire body of a poison user was a weapon as any part of it could be highly toxic. But as divine beasts that were partially energy beings, controlling that toxicity should have been innate.
Still, Verdandi had no interest in knowing more about her since she admitted that the girl was quite eerie. She would sometimes even feel a little threatened when standing next to her.
While Verdandi wasn’t a battle-type King, she was still a King ranked Titan at the end of the day. This showed just how dangerous Nidhogg was.
“I get it, I get! Stop acting like I am going to cause a disaster, geez! It’s just, I am so excited today!”
Skuld pouted after watching the actions of Verdandi and stopped jumping around. Still, one could see that she couldn’t stay in place.
Verdandi couldn’t help but be confused because while Skuld liked to play around, it was still weird for her to be so jubilant.
Her eyes narrowed a little,
‘Will something happen?’
Whenever Skuld was like this, it meant that one of her visions was about to happen.
“Anyway, now what do we do?”
Thinking about it now wouldn’t help so it was better to know where they should go.
“I welcome you.”
“!!!”
The four of them flinched and turned around only to realize that they were not on an island anymore, but in what looked like a large beautiful garden with pasture, rainbows, and beautiful lakes all around.
Behind them, two people could be seen. One was a beautiful woman wearing a qipao and with an eyepatch. Next to her, sitting on the ground with his eyes closed was a golden-haired young man with an air of nobility.
Verdandi immediately broke into a cold sweat. While she did not recognize the young man, she easily recognized the tall woman next to him.
Tiamat. One of the most powerful demigods to ever exist. Just standing in the same space as her made Verdidendi’s senses go into overdrive as she contemplated how she should address Tiamat.
After all, the reason why Tiamat called for them was still unknown. She couldn’t help but worry and the only reason she even accepted to come was that Skuld assured them it would be safe.
Verdandi was still worrying when…
“Darling!”
Before she could even express a proper salute, Skuld ran past her and everyone else before jumping in the arms of the golden-haired boy who had just opened his eyes.
‘Oh, mother goddess!’
Verdandi felt like her heart was about to explode at this sight.
—--
“Darling!”
Sol looked bewildered as he held a rather alien-looking but rather beautiful young girl in his arms.
A few moments ago, he had been getting advice from Tiamat about how to cover a wider area with his senses and control the influx of information.
Tiamat had said that this was a very important step in order to increase his control over his own power as well as his dimension and in fact, was the first step to learn <<Dimension Encroachment>>
This was why he had been closing his eyes and trying to focus.
Still, he hadn’t expected that the first thing he would see after opening his eyes was a beautiful girl plunging at him with a wide smile.
His first reflex had been to move to the side because of his experience in Tartarus, but the girl moved like a cannonball and plunged into his arms faster than he could react.
“Darling…?”
‘What the hell is going on?’
Sol lived through many weird situations with even weirder women, but this was the first time he was hugged by a perfect stranger like this.
Not even Theresa had been that proactive, and this was the woman who sat on his lap just a few minutes after their first meeting.
Tiamat on the other hand narrowed her eyes dangerously.
While training Sol, she had felt the entry of those four and had transported them to her sanctuary since she wanted them and Sol to meet, but it seemed that there was a secret she didn’t know.
She couldn’t help but have her face turn grim. After all, Skuld had power over the future. One didn’t need to be a genius to deduce how she knew Sol.
Whether this would be a good or a bad thing was yet to be known.
“Are you done ignoring me?”
Skuld, who was happily hugging Sol flinched a little and tightened her grip around Sol while looking at her warily.
This prompted Tiamat’s eyes to narrow even further as she could feel that Skuld wasn’t just looking at her with fear, but with clear and undisguised hostility.
But she was clear that she had never discussed it with Skuld until today.
“I am terribly sorry!”
Verdandi ran with all her might and yanked Skuld away from Sol and placed her behind her back before bowing hurriedly to Tiamat, fear dripping all over her face.
‘We are going to die!’
For a prideful powerhouse like Tiamat, what they did was no different from asking for death.
Thankfully, her fear did not come to be as Sol stood up and placed himself between them, his back to Tiamat, and he looked at Verdandi and Skuld with a gentle smile that made Verdandi’s heart skip a beat.
“Hello, you two. I am Sol. Could you explain what happened just now? I assure you nothing will happen to you.”
Feeling her fear alleviate a little, Verdandi calmed down and turned to look at Skuld, who was still staring at Sol with stars in her eyes.
“Skuld…”
Snapping back, Skuld looked at Verdandi with embarrassment. Sol wasn’t sure whether she was blushing or not, pink face and all, but from the look on her face, it seemed like she did.
In the end, just as Skuld was about to open her mouth, Tiamat waved her hand, “We will talk about that later. You two should just stay put for now.”
Both Skuld and Verdandi immediately vanished from the place.
Leaving only two other people in the place.
‘I wonder who they are.’
Today seemed to be a day full of new encounters.
