"Some people just want to watch the world burn," I muttered to myself, my legs hanging off the mountain's ledge while my eyes locked on the infernal flames slowly climbing up the slope. 

It wasn't a village, city, or even a continent that was burning. 

It was the world in its entirety, consumed by flames that wouldn't be extinguished for as long as there was anything left for them to consume. 

I had no weapon left on me. I discarded it long ago, somewhere in the ruins that now vanished into the sea of infernal flames. Save for my clothes and a small folder resting upon my knees, I deprived myself of anything and everything that could weigh me down during my recent climb. 

"Some people just want to watch the world burn," I repeated the saying before taking the last gulp of the demonic wine from the goatskin before tossing it down, right into the flames. "And I feel like I'm starting to understand such sentiment."

There was something mesmerizing in those endless, world-ending flames. Something that charmed me to keep looking into the blaze, something that went beyond just how poetic of an ending it was. 

A perfect comeuppance for those who invaded other worlds, killing and burning everything in their path. And by all means, a justified response by the race and their goddess that summo… No, the bitch goddess that first kidnapped me from my own world and then reincarnated me exactly nine times, refusing to let me go before I achieved the goal of eradicating the demons. 

'Now, I wonder, will she stay true to the word she gave or is she going to remain the same piece of shit that she was?'

It took an insane man to believe in the promises of a deity that forced an innocent man like me onto this path of destruction, even going as far as to repeatedly revive me whenever the weight of the responsibility proved to be greater than what I could handle. 

After living through torture, execution, several deaths in battle, poison, and backstabbing, I would have to be insane to have even the tiniest figment of faith left in that bitch of a goddess… Or, to name things as they were, that crazed immortal who achieved the peak of power at the cost of being forever restrained from doing so. 

An idiot who sought power and immortality just for the sake of it, forced to kidnap people like me when it came to actually putting in some work. 

"Thinking about it, how many years ago was it when your mouth turned so foul?" 

The lovely, vibrant voice preceded an explosion of golden light, from which the goddess herself emerged, stepping down the small slope as she reached the edge upon which I sat. 

"When I realized you are nothing more but a fucking criminal?" I suggested, daring not to cast a single glance at the golden figure. 

Amongst the many deaths I suffered, dying of metaphorical thirst ranked at the top of my list of the worst ways to go. The unending lust for body, skin, and curves so fine no mortal flesh could ever sate my evergrowing desire… 

"Haah…" I released a heavy sigh, chasing the unpleasant memories away. 

While I managed to cure my ailment by dying and reincarnating, I was far from eager to repeat this experience. 

"If it's me that you want in reward for what you did…" the goddess spoke, caring not for the privacy of my thoughts. 

In response, I simply rolled my eyes before picking up the file from my lap and passing it over to the side where the goddess stood. 

"No, thanks. For my reward, I want you to follow the instructions of this contract."

There was no reason for me to drag anything but just my clothes and this set of files all the way up to the top of the mountain from where I watched the apocalypse unfold. After all, if the goddess were to go back on her word, there would be no escaping death for me. And in the off-chance, she had a change of heart and decided to stay true to her promises… 

I would be leaving this world anyway, freed from whatever wealth, relationships, and responsibilities I've accumulated in this reality. 

For a moment, all I could hear was the noise of the raging flames from below, and the slight rustle of the paper as the goddess scanned all the fine print of the contract I'd spent a literal year crafting. 

"That's… One thorough a piece of contract," the goddess sighed before suddenly sitting right next to me and letting her feet freely dangle off the edge. 

"I did my best, thanks." 

Just like I said, I did my best not to reply in a snarky way. 

What would be the point of provoking her, now that my fate hung in the balance and would be mostly decided by her mood and her mood alone?

"You really don't have the best impression of me," the goddess sighed before tossing the stack of papers down the edge of the cliff, right into the flames that continued to climb up the mountain's slope, reaching closer and closer with every passing second. 

Soon, even this lone peak would be consumed by those divine flames and reduced to ashes, with all traces of the once-thriving civilization completely erased from the annals of the future. 

"The thing is…" For a moment, the goddess's voice shook, as if she hesitated. Before I could pay it any better attention, though, she jumped up and rested her fists against her hips, something I'd only dared to notice through my peripheral vision. 

'It would do you no harm to wear some damn clothes, would it?' I thought, struggling to keep my eyes off her exposed beauty. 

I was just a human. And I already knew how it felt to have my brain fried by the divine it was never supposed to encounter or, all the worse, experience. 

"Well, your opinion of me couldn't be any worse anyway, so I guess I owe you a bit more than what you asked for," she said… Before pressing her divine foot against my back, and tossing me off the ledge's edge, directly into the raging flames below. 

For a second, I assumed that my bet, my hope for some kind of a reward after slaving away for ten lifetimes just to defeat some demons I had no personal beef with, would end up the same way as all my lives prior - in absolute misery, pain and nearing the limits of my sanity. 

To my surprise, though, before the heat of the flames could even intensify and start eating away at my skin, the golden light exploded once again, covering me in its shine… before decaying into an absolute, endless, and unpenetrable darkness. 

'Did she… Actually, pull her weight?!'

My wish was extremely simple. The contract describing it grew to the size of a small book only due to all the restrictions, limitations, and definitions I've put in place to stop that bitch from tricking me into yet another hell. 

I just wanted to live one more time in some sort of fantasy world with a golden spoon stuffed directly in my mouth the very moment I was born. Free from responsibilities, free from labor, free from worries, I was to take a whole lifetime to recover from the horrors of the wards… Before returning right to the place and moment from where that bitch of a goddess summoned me from. 

A simple wish for a life of leisure while surrounded by all the luxury and pleasure I could ask for. A fitting reward for a hero who saved one civilization only to doom another into fiery oblivion. 

Suddenly, the darkness around me started to fade, as if the first rays of the light of the day shone upon my new eyes.

"Twins?!" the gift of language I've requested proved to be of great use before I could even open my newborn eyes. 

That's right. 

Rather than getting thrown right into the grinder of life, I wanted to experience the ultimate leisure, the only time in a human's life when they would be praised for just peacefully sleeping in bed!

[I can predict how you are going to react to this, but this is my parting gift]

Even though I was just born in what I could clearly feel to be yet another world, the voice of that bitch goddess still found a way to reach me. 

And as a freezing cold chill ran down my spine…

"Kill the younger of the two," an unfamiliar, rough voice ordered, mere moments before I felt the cold of a sharp blade suddenly press against the soft skin of my neck. "I will not let seeds of civil war be sown on the day I welcome my heir to this world!"

[I know you will hate me for it, but please, just wait and listen.]

The blade penetrated through my skin and slid deep into my throat, first blocking off my airways before causing them to flood with blood from the broken arteries. Before I could even take my first breath in this new world, I was already drowning in my own blood. 

[It would take you a year or two to get bored if you were to get everything served to you on a silver platter. The beautiful way you struggled to overcome all the odds while in my service only proves what you need is not leisure but a challenge to amuse yourself.]

The voice of this abhorrent, treacherous goddess accompanied me even as the world around me started to lose its light before I could even open my eyes to see it for the very first time. 

[Don't worry though, I've prepared a place far better for you to relax in a way that will actually be fulfilling!]

For a moment, that bitch's voice somehow sounded… cheerful?

The last of the world's light vanished along with my consciousness… before the whole process repeated itself, with just slight variations. 

The main variation was, that there was something warm and soothing pressing down on me from above, while a constant, irritating noise continued to annoy my ears. 

[You will no longer be able to access any of your skills or abilities from before. Your understanding of the magic of my world won't be of any real use either.]

Slowly pushing my eyes open, I realized that the warm, soothing weight pinning me down belonged to a still-warm corpse… 

A corpse that my body somehow managed to recognize as the mother of… well, my own, freshly resurrected body. 

[Your body won't remember your moves but fear not, I didn't kill anyone in this world to obtain it. And what's more…]

The noises clarified, turning into the last whines of the injured, mixing with the lively laughs of those who came to raid the small caravan that the former owner of my body was traveling with. 

[I made sure to leave you with all the talents you've obtained in your past eleven lives.]

Gathering my strength, I gently pushed my new biological mother's corpse aside, freeing myself from underneath its weight and sitting down on the edge of the broken-down carriage to gather my thoughts and assess the situation. 

[So go on, and enjoy climbing to the top of whatever you desire with such ease, it will attract as much awe as it will invite envy.]

"Go on! Go on! Scream louder!"

The memories of this body were quickly coming back to me, saving me the issue of learning the basic common sense of this world. And with it came the knowledge of just who was the unfortunate woman that currently struggled while surrounded by the bandits who raided the caravan. 

"Stop it, you animals! The goddess will never forgive you!" 

The girl was still fighting, still resisting. And even with the corpses of her friends and family scattered all around, she still refused to let go of the few scraps of clothes that she managed to save from the greedy hands of the highwaymen tormenting her. 

[I wish for you to have fun doing whatever the heck you want in a world where you can easily outgrow anyone and anything. 

Your greatest fan, and staunchest supporter,

Divine Amelia]