Shoutout to my new patron:
Harry Ludrecius
You are a legend!
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(Lyze POV)
It really was how it was depicted in canon. I looked up the great structure, which resembled Indian structures very heavily despite being in another world. A giant red elephant, the symbol often associated with the elephant god Ganesha of Hindu mythology.
Except instead of being some sort of grand statue built in honour and worship of the deity in question, it was in fact a building, the house of this world's version of the god himself. A building quite often used as a hotspot for parties from what Loki told me.
And we were entering it through it's damn crotch.
For once, Loki didn't laugh at my displeasure. The flight of stairs we had to take was proper annoying as well. Stairs and I never did well, especially in these ridiculous pompous shoes I'd been. Back on Earth, I could barely tolerate the steps up to my room in the loft. Only reason I did was because it was a nice bedroom that I'd done up myself.
We finally made it into the dining area, the one depicted from the first season of the anime. And frankly, it was smaller than I expected. But I tended to forget sometimes that this was not modern day earth where people could afford and had the knowledge to build giant structures safely in a way where no collapse was guaranteed.
But it was spacious enough for me to wonder around. My suffering in my clothes became slightly more bearable as I caught a glimpse of other adventurers who'd been dragged to the party that most certainly were not used to clothes like these and hated them as much as I did.
"I AM GANESHA! And I welcome you to my humble home, friend Loki!" Boomed a man in an elephant mask as he rushed up to us and then span into a dramatic pose. Humble, my bloody ass.
"Heya Ganesha. Been a long time since I've seen you."
"Mhm." He nodded in exaggerated agreement. "We've both been very busy Loki, you know, making our Familia powerful and all. Even now my dear Shakti is leading an expedition into the dungeon to the 37th floor!"
"Isn't that a little too much for your green brats to handle?" Loki teased.
He folded his arms dramatically and huffed.
"I'll have you know they are more than capable! They've all been striving for more power, and they've dedicated a lot of time and effort to preparing for this particular expedition. It's the passion that really counts here Loki. Oh, they are such hard working children."
He sniffed and somehow wiped a tear that rolled out from under the mask. I rolled my eyes at his antics. I wouldn't say he was unlikeable but I didn't sit particularly well with loud and boisterous people. He finally caught sight of me and crouched down to to meet me eye to eye.
"And who have you brought with you here Loki? I was expecting to see that cute little blonde girl you coddle so much."
Loki crouched down and hugged me sideways.
"This Ganesha is my new child, and the one who beat Goliath and levelled up in one day! Meet Lyzof Keele. Lyzie, say hello~"
"Hi." I said quietly, not at all enthusiastic.
Ganesha cocked his head a little, scrutinising me not in an unpleasant way. More like a casual appraisal of a person before they said anything to them. He then smiled and looked back up at Loki.
"Friendly little fella isn't he? I'm so jealous of you, you know. Where do you keep finding these talented children?"
"I must be a magnet for good quality adventurers. That's all. Or perhaps the gods of fate decided to favour me for a change."
"With how much you used to torment them back up there, I doubt it." Ganesha said in a very doubtful tone before he looked back at me.
"It's a pleasure to meet you young man. I am Ganesha, the head of the Ganesha Familia."
"That would be my second encounter with your group then." I said as I shook his hand.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I met Ardee today. She seemed nice. She stopped a fight happening between me and someone called Gurm after he threatened me."
"Oh?" Ganesha said as his face darkened a little. "I'll be sure to have a few words with him then. Can't have any of my Familia go around picking fights with children."
"That...would be appreciated." I said after a pause. Honestly, it hadn't crossed my mind that that idiot was one of Ganesha's. Should've made sense honestly if he was obedient to Ardee.
"You'd better do it Ganesha." Loki said. "My Lyzie was so upset that he came to my room for comfort." She said with a pout as she put her face near mine.
"That is not what happened." I snapped as I pushed her away. She giggled.
"Well I must be off right now. I am the host after all and I must attend to my other guests. Eat, drink, and be merry!" He said as he dashed off again.
"Ho Ho Ho." I muttered. Loki looked down at me in surprise.
"For a moment you just sounded like him. Is that what you were aiming for?"
"No. I was emulating somebody else."
She looked at me confused a little before she spotted some gods gathering a little way away.
"Want to come and meet some more gods with me Lyzie?"
"No thanks. I think I've had enough of divine antics for one day. I think I'd rather hang around some real people."
"Kind of impossible since this is a banquet for gods. You little mortals are just our plus ones." Loki said. I was taken aback as for once, she actually said something that made sense.
"I now you're thinking something mean about me." She pouted angrily.
"Must be your paranoia." I said back to her and turned around.
She huffed and also turned.
"Well I'm going to go bother some old friends of mine. Just take care not to get lost. And remember your lessons with Riveria on eating~"
"Don't remind me." I muttered as I watched her bugger off and leave me in peace for once. I found myself questioning why I joined a goddess as childish as her. But then I remembered it was because of her power and influence that would keep me safe from people with darker intentions.
I could've joined the Freya Familia for that exact reason as well, but her kids were jealous assholes that would make life difficult for me and possibly stunt my growth so it was probably for the best that I didn't. Not that there was any guarantee I could join anyway. They were a very judgemental lot.
I strolled around for a bit, returning some greetings with little waves as people looked down interested at the blindfolded boy with a walking stick that seemed to navigate around people and tables just fine like he was not blind at all. I passed by a table with some food and grabbed a few of the sample pieces. Meat of course.
I have to say I was slightly disappointed as I still could not find food that matched Earthen cuisine. I might as well just start doing it on my own at this point if nobody could cook me a meal that wasn't up to standard.
I grabbed a glass of water and stood by one of the double staircase, kneeling on it with one foot of the other as I swirled the liquid around. Then absentmindedly, I used water magic to make the water in the glass churn and form into shapes that I wanted them.
The water took form of a minotaur as I pondered over some of my wonderings from the day before. In cultivation novels and such, I read that monster meat was actually more delicious than normal animal meat. Pig-like orcs in some tasted like premium pork. Bull type monsters were better than premium beef and the such.
I wondered if I could somehow find out with one of the minotaurs. The issue was that any severed limb of theirs turned into dust a few moments after they were loose. So it wasn't quite possible unless I jumped one and took a bite out of it. But then I'd just get dust in my mouth with no real tase.
Still though, wasn't Zald known as the 'Predator' because he ate monster and adventurer flesh of any he fought? It was how he got poisoned after all. If he could eat them, then surely it meant that whatever mouthful he took did not turn to dust in his stomach.
It didn't solve the problem of acquiring a good few pounds of flesh for cooking though. My thoughts drifted over my hammer space and I put my tongue in my cheek in deep thought. What if I cut off an arm or something and then stuff it in my hammer-space before it can turn to dust. Would that have any effect?
As far as I knew, time stood still in there and barely anything happened. I once put piping hot food in there on one of my excursions back in Valaron. When I took it out about 20 hours later, it was still very hot. But then wouldn't the arm just turn into dust when I took it back out?
Questions, questions. Answers needed. Investigations were a must. Even if I did not make it as a god of Chaos someday, perhaps I could be a culinary god like the almighty Ban?
I shook my head as those ludicrous thoughts penetrated my brain. No, what was I thinking? I had a goal in mind. Becoming the king of Chaos was not the reason why I was proceeding with a life like this. I was doing this so I could go home back to my mother, my REAL mother.
I sighed as I wondered for the billionth time how worried she must be about me. If time ran back in the True Universe at the same speed as it did here, then it would be nearly nine years that I was missing. I hoped dearly to the one true God that she hadn't done something to herself.
All the two of us had were each other after all. The water in the glass shifted again to take the form of my mother on Earth. The wonderful mother I'd had during my life as Alex Turner.
Olivia Turner had been her name. She'd named me after my father when I was born, a month after he was murdered by some scumbags on his way home one night. He worked in the Underground, the London train system selling tickets and things like that.
Mum used to tell me all the time how he'd come home with sore feet from standing around all day and how stressed he would be because of the crap people used to give him. But then he would rub her belly while I was inside and say that it was all worth it.
Even now, tears would gather in my eyes. But I did not even have the privilege of crying freely as the blindfolds absorbed my tears. Mum struggled all her life to raise me. She was an orphan, so she had no family to fall back on. She had to rely on her in-laws, people that she didn't get along with because they hadn't approved of her marriage to their son.
While they did provide support for my sake alone, they made no effort to conceal their dislike of her. In fact, they only probably tolerated me because I looked like my dad. The stress on her was inexplicable, but I could not remember a single time in my past life where she'd taken it out on me.
She had always received me with love and warmth. So much so that one I was coming back from a fencing tournament abroad and had to return home at 3 in the morning. We were living in a flat at the time that was not the best to live in. We got our house much later on.
I expected to find her asleep when I came in. But no, there she was right at the kitchen table in her nightgown, ready to receive me with hugs and kisses as she trembled with the extreme cold. The bags she'd tried to hid with light makeup spoke of not a single wink of sleep. She'd stayed up just to receive me despite me scolding her for doing things like that.
Could you blame me for wanting to go back to my old world when I had someone like that waiting for me? She had been my everything, and I would have given up the world for her. She was there when others shunned me, and she'd shared my pain with me.
No amount of supernatural power I accumulated in this world could even come close to value in that. Once again, I could hear the sound of her bell-like laughter echoing in my ears, and my mind's eye caught a flash of long chocolate coloured hair as yearning for home swelled in my heart.
Oddly, Chaos who was usually nestled quietly inside me stirred and I felt a little warm as I felt it envelop me. I sighed as I recognized the attempt at comfort and just soaked it in. I was so lost in it that I hadn't noticed when 'Thread' picked up two people who came up beside me.
"And what could you be thinking so deeply about young man?" A smooth, lovely voice said to me.
I turned around to see violet eyes and a head of silver hair as well as a scent of...something very nice in fragrance. The warm smile and the radiant beauty of the woman who'd addressed me stood out like the sun in the sky. Unconsciously, the water in the glass shifted again to take on the image of the very person I was seeing.
Freya, goddess of War, Beauty, Love and Fertility. And the one person I'd least wanted to meet in this world, not yet at least.
By this point I paid attention to 'Thread again' and I froze up as overwhelming power filled my senses. I abruptly pulled myself from the wall as the water figurine in my glass froze to ice in my fear. Nervously, I looked up at the tall, terrifying man with the contradicting cute ears as he stared down at me, his gaze felling like the weight of a mountain.
I swallowed my fear, unwilling to cow and stood my ground defiantly as we stared each other down. Or rather he was looking down at me, both because of his height and because of how vastly more powerful I knew he was than me. The pressure he was emanating was even greater than Finn, Gareth and Riveria somehow.
Freya's presence alone was enough to draw quite a few eyes in our direction. Gods and adventurers turned towards us as they spectated the scene before them. Must have been quite laughable really, a tiny child standing up to a mountain of a man who was known as the 'King' of his generation of adventurers, which meant even over me.
"I believe we have not met before." I said firmly, as I waited for those two to reply.
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