I was looking at the tall man behind a portal. He was waving for me to come in, which seemed very suspicious, but something kept telling me to do it.
What was weird was that this man, whoever he was, disturbed my patron god and kept him from showing up in the middle of our conversation. Whoever this person was, being able to do something like that only meant they were powerful.
"Come in," the female voice my god used a couple of times spoke, making me wonder if all of this was just a joke made by the god. It could be, but my god wasn't known for making funny jokes, so I knew what to do: turn around and leave.
Before I could walk away, a strong tentacle gripped me by the waist and pulled me through the portal, catching me by surprise.
It dragged me away from my previous world through the blue portal. For a moment, I saw a galaxy before my eyes could register new surroundings.
"Where am I?" was all I could muster before strong sunlight blinded my eyes for a second. Brushing my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a plain, grassy field. The field looked exactly like that window wallpaper everyone from Earth knows.
"Here, here!" a manly voice yelled at me from a distance. On a smaller hill, a small table with a large umbrella covering it from the sunlight stood. I couldn't see the man properly thanks to the sun, but I noticed another person with him too.
I got up and went up to the hill only to realize that the table looked exactly like Echidna's place from the Re: Zero anime. The only difference was that there were three seats instead of the original two in the anime.
Moving closer, I noticed the clear appearance of one man and one girl. The man was tall, with black hair and a nice suit. His entire presence screamed nobility, his posture as straight as an arrow, resembling a leader.
"So, who are you?" I asked, leaving the man with a gentle smile on his lips. "I am Nekros, just a friend passing by the realm of my friend here..." he pointed to the beautiful woman sitting on the chair with an annoyed expression.
"Ch, you ruined every part of my plan... I can't believe that you interfered with my domain just like that. Not only did you do that, but you even dared to jump at me when you straight jumped into my realm."
The woman had long white hair, dark red eyes, and gothic black clothes that reminded me of Alifa's. She was beautiful, wearing a weird-looking necklace around her neck while a black aura surrounded her.
(Image of Azathoth in all her glory)
I kept silent for a few moments until the tentacle spawned from nowhere and put me down on the chair.
"I could sit by myself, you know?" As soon as I said that, a hand grabbed me by the neck. "I'm tired of your smug attitude all the time..."
The woman held a tight grip around my neck until the hand of the man stopped her. "Please, no need for such action towards him, he's still green."
"Ch, fine..." The woman released her hold on me, and I could sit properly on the chair now.
My thoughts were processing the whole situation. "Let me get this straight: you are the god that reincarnated me, Azathoth?" I pointed at the woman, who sighed in annoyance and tiredness.
"Yeah, the whole eldritch stuff was just a show for my amusement. I planned to reveal myself soon, but this fella over here ruined my plans, for whatever reasons."
The man just slightly laughed before speaking. "I was fascinated by your child, so I had to come over and see him. He's from the same world as two of my favorite reincarnators. Unfortunate that I haven't found him sooner..."
I scanned both of them for a second. The man was a deity too, but I had never heard of him. While the woman was Azathoth—a bloody Azathoth reincarnated me into the world of Danmachi and even made amusement out of me.
But that only left me with one question. "So, if you are Azathoth, then do you have any connection with the Danmachi version of Azathoth?" My question seemed to amuse her a little bit.
"I was originally the god from that world who ascended past my limit. Along with me, there were a couple of gods who transcended too, but that's not important for now. The reason other gods can't ascend is that their egos are too big. Nekros helped me ascend when he broke the limiter that bound me to the world's laws."
As she spoke, she sipped a hot cup of tea while Nekros sat down like a true gentleman, patiently listening to our conversation.
"So, in short, your ego is big enough too; it's just that Nekros helped you ascend past your limitations, huh?" My answer seemed to strike a nerve in her, while Nekros just held his laughter.
A tentacle tried to grab me, but it was quickly reverted by Nekros's finger. With one move of his finger, he turned the tentacle into ash.
"STOP defending him when he doesn't know how to give respect to the one and only god that gave him this new life. Nekros, you know better than this."
I was acting like a brat on purpose just to piss her off since she had been fooling me since I was reincarnated.
"It isn't the moment for that, Azathoth. It seems that he just wants to piss you off on purpose for fooling him around, not that I can blame him." Azathoth looked at him for a moment before reverting her gaze to me.
"I wasn't going to hurt him, but I guess he has some right to do that. I was just doing what I thought was the best outcome." She relaxed into her chair as she looked at the blue sky beneath the umbrella.
On to brighter things now. I found out that this guy Nekros is pretty nice and he supposedly reincarnated another two reincarnators into the world of Danmachi, most likely their world instead of mine.
"So, I have a question about these children of yours, Nekros. Are they in the same world as me or not? And what kind of powers do they possess?"
Nekros seemed pleased with my question like a father talking with his son. "No, of course, they are not in the same world as you. That would be too much for that world to handle. One has powers from Seven Deadly Sins and the other has Minecraft powers. The fun fact is that both of them are related since their original world."
I have never watched Seven Deadly Sins, but the Minecraft one attracted me the most since Minecraft was one of my favorite games back then.
"The Minecraft one sounds better, honestly. What is his current level?" Nekros sipped his tea and spoke.
"He's currently a level 9, while the other guy is a level 3. He's quite close to leveling up though, but that depends on the feat he needs to accomplish to level up. The Minecraft one needs to kill, believe it or not, a Herobrine."
I nodded emotionlessly. "So you like tormenting them too, just like this damned woman did with me?"
Nekros smiled for a moment upon hearing my question. Throughout the conversation, he maintained the strong posture of a leader while Azathoth rolled her eyes at my comment.
"Torment? Not really. They have to face challenges if they wish to grow and ascend beyond the mortal realm, just like you. You are closer to ascending than those two because you aren't human anymore."
I tilted my head upon hearing Nekros's argument. "Not human anymore? But I'm just at 2% of evolution; that is nothing."
"No, that alone makes you not human anymore. 2% is enough to lose your humanity, not in the way you think, since your very soul is changing instead of your appearance." Azathoth added to the discussion.
"Anyhow, you are my child and I have an utmost obliging duty to guide you and protect you from any possible outer danger. Nekros can confirm that too."
Nekros nodded along with her comment. "Despite her foolish decision to not introduce herself properly to you, she still would protect you from outer harm. She even gave you the powers you always wished to have. By climbing the ladder, you will only continue to grow until you reach godhood."
I had many questions inside my head, but some things are better left alone until the right time comes.
"Is that all, or can I go back to my real world now?" I tried standing up, but an invisible force forced me to sit down, possibly Nekros's involvement.
"We haven't called you here for nothing, dear. Let's have a proper discussion like you asked for before."
Azathoth smiled and pinched me on the cheek. "Plus, despite you having a sailor's mouth, you're doing well in your new life as I imagined."