It was a proposal that was not seen every day, to be the champion of a Goddess, many killed for this opportunity butDante was not just anyone.
He asked question after question, watching and observing every movement of Styx's lips and every sparkle in her eyes, but unlike what many might think he was planning and not coveting the Goddess of Oaths.
At the end of their conversation, Dante had a clear idea of what could be expected from serving the Goddess but he needed just one last piece of information that would guarantee him some chance of escaping his commitment if necessary. "I can accept your offer Lady Stix, but I want you to make an oath in your name and the name of the creator that if necessary I can get out of our agreement without any repercussions."
The Goddess looked at him, Dante could feel as if a pressure was exerted on his body and it felt as if gravity was increased tenfold.
But as quickly as it came, it passed the Goddess gave an exasperated sigh and answered him. "Clever boy, I'll accept your condition, but I tell you that if for any reason you betray me I'll kill you myself."
Dante nodded, he would do the same in the place of the Goddess, who extended her hand and a sphere of red-orange glow flew towards him.
In the space of a second, the sphere entered his body and in the second instant all Dante could feel was pain.
Pain... as if his bones were being broken and reshaped as if his blood was being boiled in a hot pan.
He wanted to vomit, scream, cry, or move but the only thing he could do was fall to his knees as Styx approached him.
A soft hand caressed his face and then everything went black.
Sometime later
Waking up with a start Dante felt as if he had been given the beating of the century, his body was getting hungry and he ran to the fridge not even stopping for a second as he had come home on a weekend.
After drinking God knows how many liters of water, Dante fell onto his bed feeling as if he had fought an army alone.
He wanted to know if this was real, but the pain and deep tiredness he felt told him that what he had been through was within reality.
It was also a shock to know that he had spoken to a Goddess and nothing more than the personification of the Styx River.
Dante sat down on his bed and put his hand on his head feeling grateful for the heat that was slowly passing away.
With all the conversations he had with the Goddess coming back to his mind, Dante felt like he was compared to an ant next to a God, his body was still quite young, normally these young people would have a childhood, but Dante was a grown man in soul and mind and used all the time in the world to train himself.
But now seeing a living God in his presence Dante felt as if he were trying to go against the current, deep down he would admit that it was easier to hit a concrete wall and hope to knock it down than to face a God and win.
However, this did not impede him, he knew the moment his mind realized what world he was in, that things would never be easy, this was not a universe from some story where the hero was incredibly powerful, no, this was the real world and despite still coming from a fictional world, Dante hoped that he would have power. Enough power to face a God and win.
Returning to lie down on his bed still wondering when his house would be completely ready, Dante turned again thinkingabout his 'Goddess sponsor.'
"She says she is a personification, so would she be a primordial?" His voice rang through the house but he didn't expect to be surprised when a voice entered his mind.
"I would say so, even though I was born from the River itself and not one of the Primordials created by Chaos"
The demigod's eyes were wide and he stared at the ceiling for a minute.
"Were you reading my mind?" He asked out loud only for a sharp and blunt laugh to be heard in his head.
"Oh yes, I shared a part of my soul with you, that way I will always know more about my champion"
Dante swallowed hard once again in such a short time. "How much did you see?" He soon wondered if she had seen his other memories, and for a second he found himself fearing but soon stopped when the laughter became louder.
"I saw everything of course, your mental defenses are child's play for someone as old as me, but really another dimension, thinking that I'm nothing more than a fiction in another reality is kind of annoying."
Dante sighed seeing that nothing could be hidden from Styx anymore, so it was easier to accept the burden and live with it. "You seem pretty calm for someone who discovered that she's nothing more than a character in a book"
Dante didn't know how, but he felt as if Stix shrugged off his comment.
"What do you think about life on other planets?" The Goddess's question caught him off guard, but he thought for a second and answered.
"The universe is big, with hundreds of galaxies and trillions of stars. Surely there could be some form of life like humans somewhere in the cosmos." It was a thought he had always had, even in his old life, when he was just another office worker, or so he remembered.
"Indeed, that is the correct thought. Although most humans only care about the world they see, there could be much more beyond the stars of the night." It was good to find someone who thought like him, but Dante considered that they were getting off-topic, but Styx returned to the main topic. "Think about it, kid. If the universe is so big and even this world has different planes of existence, it shouldn't be impossible for there to be parallel realities created by other superior beings like Chaos."
Dante could see some logic in this thought. It was also an idea he had years ago that perhaps there was more than just a single fictional universe that existed like this one.
On the other hand, it was also strange and a little exciting if one day he could find a way to go to the DC universe, although there was also the possibility of powerful beings like Thanos or Darksiders coming to this world. He just hoped that no demon invasion from hell would occur, that would simply be too much to handle.
"Hm... your thoughts are interesting, if it's true I think we can consider ourselves lucky that this world doesn't have too many problems besides the excessive amount of mortals," Styx commented in his mind and Dante could feel a note of anger in his tone.
"Why do you hate humans so much?"
Most Gods didn't care about mortals and those who did were only there for one night and nothing less, so what was Styx's problem with the seven billion humans on earth?
"They are weak, fragile, they have forgotten who gave them strength, they worship a God who would take another twenty thousand years to be born, and yet they worship him, few mortals have any morals to respect a promise or an oath of fidelity and loyalty, it is for these things that I hate them."
The demigod massaged his head feeling the enormous pressure as Styx released some of her accumulated hatred.
"Humans are humans, different from each other, I may not care but the truth is that it was you Gods who left humanity."
Dante could feel Stix's anger bubbling in his mind but she gave what seemed to be a sigh.
"I did not choose it this way, your bastard of a 'father' decided that the Gods did not need mortals and cut off all relations with them, that was three thousand years ago when there were still a host of thousands of Gods, now there are only more than a few hundred left, they died for lack of worship that Zeus expressly forbade."
The demigod gritted his teeth in irritation, in the history Zeus could be considered a Tyrant, and an abusive one, as he was also a serial rapist basically, it was a little hard to even believe that he shared some kind of relationship with such a bastard.
"Hey Styx.... in the story I read all the Gods seem like a bunch of sons of bitches, is there any truth to that?"
It was something good to know, after all, Dante didn't want to hate all the Gods simply because of stories from mythology that sometimes seemed to distance themselves too much from reality.
It was enough to think about the story of Hercules and how he bit Hera's breast when he was a baby and from the milk of the Queen of Olympus the Milky Way was born.
"Oh, no Lady in my name, huh? I didn't think we'd gotten this far in our relationship, Dante, haha." The Goddess's mocking and almost flirtatious tone made Dante roll his eyes in irritation.
"I thought it wouldn't be necessary, since it seems like you've moved into my head, but answer my question, please."
The demigod, still lying in his room, staring at the ceiling, swimming deeply in his thoughts, soon heard the voice of his patron Goddess.
"So hasty, women don't like men like that, dear Dante, but okay, what do you want to know?"
The demigod slowly scratched his chin. "I would like to know about the main Gods, their flaws, mistakes, and successes, something I can use if I come across any of them out there."
He could feel Stix approving his thought.
"Quite wise of you, well we can start with Zeus and end by saying that he is exactly what is written in mythology, with a few exceptions since some crimes he has never publicly admitted."
Nodding Dante filed this idea away in his good memory in the unfortunate event of meeting the King of the Gods.
"Some Goddesses I would like you to avoid would be Artemis and Hera, although I can sympathize with the latter's hatred for you."
It made the Queen of the Gods feel like she hated him, he was the result of yet another one of her husband's flings, although he didn't understand how his wife continued with such a marriage.
On the other hand, he didn't know much about the Goddess of the Hunt beyond what he had read, she seemed to be the type of woman with a dual personality, one hour was vengeful and the other was kind.
"I almost forgot to tell you to keep your mind and head in place when you see Aphrodite, if for some reason she becomes interested in you she will not stop until she has you, if you have read the case of Adonis you must have realized that." For a second Dante thought about whether it was bad to have the Goddess of Sexuality chasing him, but the voice of the Goddess of Oaths sounded in his mind again. "I know what you are thinking, boy and I admit it can be fun. But she is also the Goddess of Love and will play with your feelings until there is only a shell instead of a man, if you want to get a taste of Aphrodite go after her daughters, I am sure it is a lesser risk."
Seeing the seriousness of the Goddess, Dante nodded and soon got up from the bed ready to do something today besides hunting monsters.
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