I laughed again, hard.
So hard that my laughter reverberated around the room and echoed several times.
"Perhaps, you've already gone crazy. But, with my help, you can redeem yourself. You can pursue your ideals, to 'conquer' us. I can grant you the power, Tetsuya. Become my champion and just make sure that you win against anyone else..."
I stopped laughing and utter silence followed.
I stole a glance at my dead comrades.
Should I still say their names?
I don't know.
It would be worthless.
I'm worthless.
I looked down the ground again and shut my eyes close, as if I'd never want to open them again.
I felt lifeless.
I'm already used to feeling like this.
But, I guess I really am already broken.
Maybe I've been broken ever since the start... Even before when I was granted Setoria's blessing.
A sigh came out of my mouth as I stood up.
As of now, I still don't know why I'm here. Why Alisa isn't dead yet. Why I received the Crest of Soteria. Why I became like this. Why my family died. Why I hated the gods. Why I was left out to live alone by that demon who caused the tornado and who I am now.
Really, who am I?
"Who am I now?"
"Do you have nothing to cling onto anymore?"
"Perhaps, or maybe there was never one since that day."
It wasn't something I said lightly.
I can't explain more of it, yet, I know myself that I really have nothing to hold onto anymore.
I spent all these months far away from how I normally live, training and training just to make myself stronger.
Just so I can be able to defeat the gods.
Yet, in the end, it was all a fraud.
Everything was, including the death of my family and other people close to me.
I've been hoping to exact vengeance for them by killing this goddess which has made me into her champion.
Yet, in the end, it was all for nothing.
Everything was.
For nothing.
I achieved nothing and I want to redeem myself, just for the sake of it.
"Then, will you become my champion now, Tetsuya-kun?"
As if reading the mood, Alice asked me the most important question as of now, knowing that I wouldn't be able to fight back already.
In front of me, ethereal mist formed and gathered to form the shape of a woman.
"You really didn't die after all." I smiled a bit, yet I didn't feel happiness, even at the slightest.
Alisa now stood before me.
Her long silver hair graciously ran down to her waist. Her ruby red orbs were gleaming with desire and a lustful gaze that can easily attract a man.
Her body was curvaceous, plump and huge yet firm peaks for her breasts, covered by a black and white maid's blouse complete with a maid's black skirt that reached down only to her upper thighs.
Needless to say, she was very attractive, with black stockings and a scarlet garter belt to come with it, one would think that she would be wearing seductive lingerie underneath her already seductive uniform.
Yet, despite her appearance, one can't see her as a normal maid made to follow her master's orders and to serve him with anything she can offer.
Rather, she's the one who will dominate and that her dress is nothing but a fallacy, something she only wears just for the heck of it.
She's the master here after all, a goddess who took me as her champion, just because I was too powerless.
"Just as I told you, Exophio is nothing but a mass produced ticket for people who will become champions of the gods."
Black heels clicked on the ethereal floor as Alice walked towards me, her pheromones leaking quite profoundly to the point that it affected even me, someone who has entitled himself to be the enemy of the gods.
As soon as Alisa got close to me, she leaned in and pressed her chest on mine, making me fully feel the bulge of her breasts and, well, making me feel flustered too.
I took a step back, yet I was stopped in my tracks as she wrapped her around me.
"Answer me now, Tetsuya-kun..."
"What is it?..." I took the courage to turn my head away.
Am I really going to feel like this because of a goddess?
"Will you become my champion?"
"What do I get out of it?"
"You can kill the other gods as long as you can win against them. But, knowing you, you're pretty strong already, aren't you?"
She ran a finger down my chest to my abdomen before smirking, her ruby eyes staring into mine, or maybe into something deeper, my very soul.
"I know your desire. We both know what you want. Why are you still holding back?"
Before long, her mischievous smirk turned into a frown and a small pressure built up on my stomach, making me flinch and take a step back.
"Tell me your answer now, Tetsuya."
I can't help it anymore, can I? There's nothing else I can do anymore, anyway.
I'm... determined to be a God Slayer, no matter that the cost may be.
I'm already as disappointed as I can be, having killed one of them only to know that I'll be made into her plaything.
Yet, she promises to grant me the power to kill gods completely, if I were to accept being her champion.
Knowing that I don't have anything else to cling onto, there would only be one conclusion.
"Yes."
Thus, his dead comrades shall sing the Requiem of the God Slayer, Shiraishi Tetsuya. The Fallen One.
Never was a hero, but a man who clung onto his ideals quite profoundly... and that was what they admired about him.
Yet, they never knew the day would come that the man would lose himself to the gods.
Thus, once again, they shall sing the Requiem of the God Slayer, a song made for the purpose of honoring the one who has fallen.