Barely holding in my anger, I ask, "Why are you here?"
"I am the God. I can do anything I want. What's it to you?" She asks with an attitude that normally would make me joke about her but in this case, it makes my blood boil.
"Just answer the damn question!"
"Okay, okay, calm down!" She says with a mocking smile and then enters the room as she eyes it down. "Not a bad place!"
"Tsk!" I can barely keep it in when this bitch is standing right here.
"Hah!" Seeing my reaction, she sighs and says, "I am here to investigate something, and it's not completely unrelated to you."
She seats herself on the bed as Niviks steps aside and continues, "Somehow, twice by now, you have disappeared from my eyesight. Since I'm the God, doing something like that shouldn't be allowed even once. Therefore, I had to find out what the reason is."
…
"What's wrong?" She asks as she sees my expression darken.
"What were those two times?" I ask, without answering her question.
"First was when you were saved by that old guy back in a forest and then just now when you entered this inn."
I see. So it's either Niviks or Cartel who is responsible for this. Makes sense. However,
"You've been spying on me?"
"Just to make sure you are doing fine. I mean, I gave you an option to quit at any time but how would I know it when you quit if I don't keep an eye on what's happening to you."
"Oh," I can't help but scoff, "is that all?"
"No, no Irium, of course not; there're other reasons for it." She doesn't feel a tiny bit threatened by my boiling rage as she says so. In fact, she is mocking me for it.
It's regretful that I might have to hold it in and do nothing for now. My current power level is nothing; absolutely nothing at all when compared to her.
"So, does this whole thing ring any bells? Any idea what might be happening?" She asks me; deliberately to mock me because she knows that I didn't even know till now that she was keeping an eye on me, much less know about that eye being blocked.
"I don't know." Taking my anger out on myself by tightening my fists as hard as I can, I answer her.
She then turns to Niviks and asks, "So what the hell did you do to block me?"
Tsk!
"Well, it was-" He starts spilling the beans in his fright of her but, fortunately, realizes at the right time that he can't mention Cartel, and so, "… it was a mage-craft I learned from ancient books."
"You think I can't tell when someone of your lowly race lies?" She smirks and closes up on him, "I can read Frosts like a book. And you are no different. You are making the exact expressions that Frosts make when trying to hide something from me."
Shit!
"Hey!" I need to step in now or this geezer might not be able to take the pressure. "You think you can do whatever you want, huh? Well, you are wrong."
She turns to me with an amused smile as she hears so.
"You sent a band of mercenaries after me?"
"And then this guy hired them to, instead of following my orders, follow his. It even worked. I suppose those greedy crooks deserved what you did to them."
"It's not about them!" I yell, unable to control myself. "You think you can keep testing me however you see fit?"
"Yes, I do." With no hesitation, she answers. Arrogance is the red blood cell of this woman it seems.
"Well, it's time to change your thinking." I say and I snap my fingers and the whole floor rises up in a second to throw her up to the second floor through the ceiling (that gets broken in the process).
"Get away!" I tell Niviks. He looks hesitant at first but after I glare at him, he clicks his tongue and jumps off the window.
I need to make sure Dues can't follow him. If she is able to reach him, I am afraid that guy wouldn't be able to keep everything a secret from her. Stopping Dues though – it's going to be harder than anything I have ever done in my life.
"My, my!" She says as she flies back to the first floor and looks at me, "Looks like someone is being a bad boy and needs to be punished."
"Tsk!"
Every single thing this woman says is so damn condescending!!! Who the hell does she think she is!!!? Sure, she is powerful but does she think that little of me!!!?
"You are asking for it, bitch!" I grit my teeth as I try to flick my fingers again but, "What the-"
I find myself in the air. It takes half a second for me to realize that Dues threw me out and is smirking while looking at me from the window.
"You bitch!"
I am somehow able to break the fall my controlling the ground and turning it into a slide for me to get to the ground more-or-less unharmed.
As I get up though, I sense Dues right behind me and it doesn't even take another second for me to be rolling on the ground – having been kicked by her.
I get up again but my right leg suddenly stops moving. I look back at it and see that Dues' foot is on it.
"You-"
"Keep your cursing to yourself, you mongrel!" She says as she presses with her foot on my leg and I hear the sound of bones cracking.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Goddamnit! She really is too powerful!
Letting go of my leg, she lets me get away a little before she charges at me with a heavy punch. However, she is stopped.
"Wha-" I am left stunned, unable to even bat an eye as I look at the person who suddenly swooped in to save me.
"What the hell do you think you are doing!?" Dues questions with as much surprise on her face as she can muster.
Jom-e-wah, the dark elf mercenary band leader whom I have given enough reason to hate me – has just now taken a punch right in his gut to protect me from taking it. Furthermore, even after taking the punch, he hasn't been thrown away to oblivion as one would expect. He has been able to stand his ground.
"I was reminded just a few moments ago," He says in an ascent that's more like a particular birdlike human I know than his, "when you are too good at something, you sometimes forget that you aren't perfect at it."
*****