Staring back at the girl with wide eyes, I slowly went over to the cage, to see if there is any type of lock on it. Upon pressing my hand on the frosty metal, a system notification sounded.
{God remnant obtained: Owner of the Ice Goddess}
"Are you the Ice Goddess, if I may ask?" I asked politely, wanting to glean as much info as I could out of her. Believe me, I was just as surprised as anyone would be if they found a remnant of a God. No wonder the Crystal Wraith was so hard to defeat. However, I must not show weakness in front of a literal Goddess, no matter if my millions of MP are all gone.
"Yes, I am the Goddess of Ice, Azura, or what is left of her. I am more of the origin of the Ice Goddess, one that can attain more power and regain my true form. As you have found me, that must mean that I am bound to you. Use me as you see fit…master." The Goddess said coyly. I knew off the bat that she is going to be fun to play with.
"Oh, I guess I should help you out of here, then," I said with a slight smile on my face. With Azura still in the cage, I had to take her by the hand, lifting her gently off of the pedestal and onto the cold ground. Once she was fully on the ground, I can say for sure that she at least looked like a Goddess.
With skin the shade of snow, and a dress thinner than paper, slightly sticking to the skin in all the right parts, it looked like a thin layer of blue ice had attached itself to her skin. There were no shoes on her feet, so I assume she has some sort of cold immunity, otherwise, she would be shivering in that outfit. Standing about my height as a human, she looked extremely beautiful.
"How did such a beauty get trapped inside this mountain?" I asked, buttering her up to, as I said before, glean as much info as I can. Picking up and slinging the unconscious Wraith over my shoulder, we did a slow walk towards the blocked-off exit. Walking with a regal gate, she explained her story.
"I was once part of a table with nine gods, fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, light, darkness, undead, and me, ice. Two of the nine do not always agree with the others, as they have different ideas. A millennium ago, there was a major dispute over a certain decision the races made, which was the banishment of the Demon race, one of the races both the Darkness god and Undead god cherished.
"Refusing to let this go, they threatened the sanctity of the heavenly realm, making promises of turning it to a Hell and other such abhorrent retorts. Of course, we were arrogant. We thought that, without combining power, we should be able to hold off their little 'temper tantrum'. That is until they brought in armies.
"Skeletons, Demons, and other abominations bombarded the walls of the heavenly realm, destabilizing the rift between our world and the mortal one. Although the other gods thought everything was fine, they did not know that the more they fought, the more unstable the bridge became, until we all fell into this world. I thought that, after they realized what they had done, the Darkness and Undead gods would help us to fix our world, and get us off of this one.
"Unfortunately, we underestimated the hate and spite that they had for us. Instead of saving both themselves and us, they decided to use all of their power to seal each of the nine gods off into some different parts of the world, all guarded by different high-ranking monsters. I, of course, am one of the weaker gods, so my protector was not as strong as what, say, fire's protector would be.
"That is not to say you are not strong, master, oh no, I am just stating that it would be much harder for you to defeat another protector than the one you already have." She said, finishing her story.
"No offense taken. Now, Is that how it ended? How did this affect humans?" I asked, hoping that I could complete my guise as a human. I assume that I would have to show Azura my true form at some point, but I will have to wait until I can be sure of her loyalty.
"As for the humans, they have been marginally unaffected. Such as with the two Gods of destruction, we used the last of our power to erase the memories of humankind. This proved to be more than we could handle, further disabling us from resisting the Undead curse, as it was deemed by us.
"What we were able to accomplish by erasing the memories of humankind was hiding the disappearance of Demons and other undead creatures, which roamed the mortal world as long as it existed.
"Now all that's left is the remnants of some Demons, which are now grouped into regular monsters, such as orcs, goblins, and the like." She said, stopping at the blockage. Giving the wall a firm kick, I blasted through it like drywall.
"Wait, how were you able to know what was going on with the humans?" I asked, suspicious. I knew that this had to be too good to be true!
"Oh, you don't know? I thought our plan was fool-proof. Well, essentially, when you become a God, you can gain power with other means, such as having followers and devotees that worship you. Not only does this give you power, but also a peek at the daily life of whatever species worships you. For example, I am worshiped because, in the winter, I sometimes move some ice storms elsewhere, as long as I get a certain amount of power from the humans."