My SS-Rank Witcher System-Chapter 70: Mystery

That was it. Felix instantly knew there was no bargaining his fate with the Goddess and instantly made up his mind he had no place in the Light faction.

Previously, he was skeptical if that would be the wise thing to do, as Goddess Zemira and the Light faction were very much likely to win the war—again. But with what she just claimed now, Felix wasn't so sure anymore.

Unless the Gods of the neutral faction were simps, you couldn't just wake up one morning to declare they were either with you or against you and go ahead to make sure of that by what? Attacking them?

If Felix were a God minding his business in his domain and a fellow God came up to declare that henceforth he would either be under her or be seen as an enemy, his honest reaction would be to hang their dead body on a stake at the gates of his domain. And Felix was certain many Gods of the neutral faction would think alike.

Goddess Zemira's plan could only result in more Gods rebelling at being told what to do, and rather than being under her, they'd rather join the opposite side to put her in her place. But then, since the opposite side (the Dark faction) wasn't very appealing due to the dark creatures invading their once peaceful worlds, the Gods would be stuck in a dilemma at what to do, as standing alone wasn't the best option—making them easy picking for Goddess Zemira and her faction. After all, the Neutral faction isn't an official faction like the Light faction or Dark faction, and is just a name to generalize them.

Goddess Zemira probably thought this far and speculated after an initial rebellion, the Gods of the neutral faction would have no choice but to pick a side—most likely hers, reluctantly.

Didn't that just make Felix's speculations earlier about her chances of winning the war with such a bold move wrong? No. Because the Goddess overlooked something. And what was that? The possibility of a variable.

Felix couldn't help it as a soft smile played on his lips. The universe was indeed like a chessboard; one wrong move could cost you more than you bargained for.

"Did I say something funny?" Goddess Zemira asked in a bit of surprise seeing Felix's smile.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I was just thinking about what you said," he replied honestly.

The goddess smiled knowingly, "You're a smart one. I'm sure you must've figured out my strategy, and that's what makes you special and invaluable with the Crown of Judgment. The item that was the beginning of this madness, now in our hands with so much potential and possibilities. We will invade their lands, strike them with the monsters they created —give them a taste of their own medicine, and purge the underworld of its uncleanliness. The war would be over before it even begins," Goddess Zemira preached.

Felix's smile grew wider. Indeed, the war would be over before it even starts if everything went according to her plan, except, "Our?"

"What was that?" The Goddess asked in uncertainty.

"You said, our hands?" Felix repeated, fighting to keep his smile from spreading even wider.

The Goddess paused as she stared at Felix's grinning face. "You must be misunderstanding something. I'm not asking you to hand over the crown to me—it's impossible anyways—but you're going to be using it in favor of my faction."

"Then what?" Felix asked, and before she could reply, he spoke again, "You're probably going to get rid of me after the war, anyways. You said it yourself; it's impossible to hand the crown over, so the safest option for history to not repeat itself is getting rid of the item that triggered everything, and to do that, you have to get rid of the host first—which is me. So what makes you think I'll decide to throw away my life for the bigger picture?" He said with a serious expression, but the next moment, everywhere fell dead silent like he was in a horror movie: the soft breeze ceased to blow, the indistinct chirps of birds singing came to an abrupt stop, the distant melody of a harp being played somewhere in the building disappeared, even the buzzing of the fairies stopped as they all came to a halt to stare at him.

Felix was spooked, but not afraid.

If Goddess Zemira could simply kill him right there and then to get it over with, then Lilith definitely wouldn't have let him go.

"And what are you insinuating, child?" Goddess Zemira asked, her voice strangely calm.

"There is no place for me in the Light faction, Goddess Zemira." Felix replied.

The Goddess paused to stare at him for a while, before beaming a smile that returned everything to normal in the domain. "Very well then." She replied as she turned around to pluck a golden apple from a tree and from nowhere materialized a white piece of cloth she wrapped it in, before handing it to Felix. "Here's a gift for appreciating my garden." She said with a warm smile.

Felix was confused at her attitude and the first thing that crossed his mind was the apple might be poisoned. But on a second thought, she could simply one-shot him right there and then to get rid of him—a potential threat. The same person that just gave a speech about making an enemy out of anyone who didn't stand with her, offering him a gift with a smile after he rejected to stand with her.

"Don't worry, it's just an apple with special benefits you'll find interesting," the Goddess said in amusement seeing his skeptical look. "You can as well show it to Lilith if you don't trust me." She added.

"Thank you, I guess," Felix slowly replied as he took the wrapped apple from her.

"You may leave now," the Goddess dismissed him and without waiting for a reply, walked deeper into the garden as the same servant girl that had ushered him in appeared once more. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Felix quietly followed her staring at the apple in his hands the entire time. He just couldn't understand Goddess Zemira's train of thought on letting him go without a threat or holding a grudge. Did she think he was too weak to pose a threat to her agenda?

Felix felt like he was missing something. He felt like he knew the answer, but just couldn't remember now he was racking his brain for it and needed time before it naturally came to him.

He didn't know when they arrived at where he'd been picked up by the servant girl, and only now did he notice the runic symbol inscribed on the floor in a wide circle that was probably a high-tier teleportation rune.

He didn't need to be told to step into the circle and turned around to face the servant girl, curious to see how she activated the rune.

He watched her do a series of hand movements and signals that caused the formation to lit up, impressing Felix, and just before he disappeared from the spot, she made a curt bow in his direction that stunned him just as his vision faded.

Felix found himself back at the throne room in his domain where he left off, and couldn't stop thinking why the servant girl had bowed to him. Though a little, he knew she was definitely higher than him in the cosmic ranking and he was just a nobody who got lucky with the TRANSCENDENT item. In fact, he couldn't bring himself to wrap his head around the way things turned out in Goddess Zemira's domain.

He needed a trusted adult—Lilith—to discuss it with because he hated the feeling of being in the dark as he felt there was a major reason behind her actions.

He wasn't sure how long he had been gone as Lilith was clearly not in the throne room, it was just Nemesis standing where he left her, and just as he made to call her, he noticed she wasn't even staring in his direction, but towards the clandestine windows.

This piqued his curiosity and he turned towards the window in curiosity to see what she might be staring at, except there was nothing special there except the strange drawings on the windows similar to a chapel.

Felix never really bothered to know what or who those figures were, but only now did he notice they were certainly different and not the figures a church had. There were several unknown figures with demon perks like horns, and wings—quite the opposite of what a chapel had. More like a cult.

"Huh…" Felix mumbled when he looked closer and thought he recognized one of the figures, because she was a complete contrast to the other dark figures and was depicted in white like an angel.

That was when his eyes widened in surprise as he remembered where he'd seen that figure before. He'd literally seen her a few minutes ago because that was clearly Goddess Zemira.