Riku smacked his lips before he replied, "Circle around them then. We haven't seen them yet, so it should be fine."
Shrugging, Nyx returned to her duties, while Shizu let out a pregnant sigh as she sat back down. Meanwhile, Riku kept a close eye on the horizon, his thoughts going wild from his patron goddess's earlier showing.
First off, what in the world happened back there? Sure, Nyx already showed her goddess persona to him back when they first met, but that clearly felt like she was fully in control of her arrogance. This last one, however, she herself admitted that her control shouldn't have been that bad... She also sounded more aloof than usual; almost as if she was being directed to act that way... Was it a power that could somehow affect the gods themselves? Shouldn't that be impossible?
/My Champion./
And speaking of the woman in question, Nyx's voice suddenly echoed in his head, her tone rather subdued compared to her usual mischievous attitude.
'Nyx,' he greeted back. 'What is it?'
/Again, while I'm not really allowed to do this, I think I can give you some basic weaponry on our ship if you want them,/ his goddess told him. /They won't be much since I'm barely following the rules already, but it will give you some ability to fight back if it really come down to it./
Riku blinked. That was... more than he expected. In addition, he couldn't help but think of what happened to her earlier. She kept stating that she was doing more than what she was allowed, and for some reason, it almost looked like her constant rule breaking correlated directly to her control over herself. Also, thinking about it now, didn't she say earlier that she wasn't allowed to point them to where the exit portal was? And yet here she was doing exactly that. Was there something there to explain her recent behavior?
'Thank you, Nyx,' he sincerely stated. 'Though, I must ask you something.'
Nyx visibly gave him a glance from where she was standing as she mentally asked him, /What is it, my Champion?/
'Your help...' he began. 'You're not really allowed to drive the boat, aren't you...'
The goddess visibly flinched at his words, telling Riku more than enough that he was right in his hunch.
/So what if I'm not? I'm the Goddess of Chaos. I'm meant to break the rules,/ she scoffed. /My siblings already know about it anyway. I might as well commit to it. Give myself an edge, so to speak./
Riku frowned at that. 'Does breaking the rules make you lose control?'
For the second time, Nyx flinched, but not by much as she simply sighed from where she stood. /It's... probably the reason why, to be honest. I used to have great control of Chaos, but ever since I started being, well, me, my control over it started slipping,/ she explained. /Not enough that I can't do my duties anymore, but just enough that it's a minor inconvenience at times. But hey, it allows me to break the rules, and that makes me special./
The former assassin raised a brow as he sat down, he thoughts piecing together yet more clues about how the gods worked. It wasn't much, but he quickly surmised that if gods broke the rules, their control over their Aspect would begin to lessen. It also said something that the resident rulebreaker of them in Nyx hadn't completely lost herself despite her penchant for breaking rules to begin with. Although... There was something there that was jumping out to him.
Have any of the other gods ever broken rules?
"This is kind of tense, isn't it?"
Riku's train of thought was derailed as Shizu suddenly asked him a question. She was looking out onto the horizon as well, her eyes scanning for threats just how she taught her Depths ago.
"It could be worse," he shrugged. "We're lucky that Nyx is here to function as our personal radar."
"Hey, I'm still a goddess, you know."
"And we're both grateful for you, Nyx," he chuckled aloud, with Nyx simply huffing to herself even as she blushed at the praise. "Anyway, we can probably take on a Champion or two now based on our experience with our abilities. But since we can still avoid them..."
"We'll do exactly that," Shizu finished for him. "It's kind of anti-competitive of us though, no? I... know I don't really want to, but wouldn't it be better to just kill them? We're already getting a hang of our abilities anyway, right?"
"And risk the others getting their eyes on us for having killed off a fellow Champion? Not yet," he rebutted. "I thought we talked about this already?"
"I'm just giving out options just like you taught me," Shizu scoffed. "Not too bad, right?"
"Not bad at all," Riku chuckled back. "You're learning quickly."
"I said I would, right? It also helps to have a good teacher."
Shizu smirked at him, and for a second, Riku almost thought he saw a glint of rebellion shining within his fellow Champion's sapphire blue eyes. Well, if she ever thought of betraying him, he'll just have to teach her the consequences of her actions. Not that he would ever have to if his read on Shizu was correct.
"I'm just being professional," he smirked back. "Keep this up, and you might just end up being as good as me."
His fellow Champion chuckled, and from there, a comfortable yet tense silence settled across the boat. With Nyx focused on her driving, Riku settled with prepping some food for the two women since there didn't seem to be any immediate danger lurking about. Quickly serving up octopus balls, he was sure that Nyx would love being treated to her new favorite dish, especially since she was bending the rules yet again to provide them ship cannons for the journey ahead.
Walking back out onto the deck with octopus balls on hand, Riku made his way towards Nyx as-
*WHOOSH!*
He blinked at the sudden faint sound. It almost sounded like a projectile. And true enough, a blue laser suddenly shot the plate of octopus balls out from his hand.