Richard and Cindy stared blankly as the news reported a "breakthrough" in the investigation on Damien Dixon, someone had reported about his purchase of the Yamaha VMax, its registration was found and Damien’s fake name used to hide those assets were quickly uncovered.

According to the news anchor, people started digging for information about the Junkyard and traced everything to a name that people believed to be a fake identity made by Damien.

One thing led to another and people found CCTV footage of Damien driving his motorcycle to the suburban neighborhood where the house was located.

"That was fast"

Richard sighed as he watched drone footage of SWAT teams heading for the neighborhood.

"The HOA is already calling"

"Well that’s fun... I wake up and the it’s another shitty situation"

<That’s also proof of your heritage, the fatal attraction you have for misfortune seems to similar to that of Merlin>

Rolling his eyes, Richard muttered to himself, "If only there was a space..."

<You’d like that wouldn’t you? Unfortunately for you, instead of Lady luck, you seem to be attracting mistress of death>

The Goddess’ words didn’t bother Richard at this point as he turned to Cindy and asked.

"Could you teleport us somewhere?"

"The Goddess was the one who did the teleportation. Moreover, she was only able to teleport here because this place was already set up beforehand as a base... though I think my grandmother set up something in the reserve"

Teleportation couldn’t be done on a whim, even magic had rules but Cindy’s words gave Richard an idea.

"You mean the one in Texas?"

"Yeah, the one you gifted to my grandma, thanks by the way, the land was brought from my deceased dad and you gifted it back to us."

"..."

Richard did not bother to complain about the obvious tricks that were used against him. Especially since those very tricks did save his sorry ass,

<So, will we bring the container with us?>

"Of course!"

"Of course!"

Richard and Cindy responded in sync, the trailer in the backyard- it had many of the things that they needed.

Moreover, Richard felt bad that the house was likely going to be ransacked.

<Don’t worry about that, all I need to do is bring everything with us>

"..."

The goddess ignored Richard’s blank expression as she turned her attention towards Cindy and asked.

<Is the barrier ready?>

"Always was"

Cindy responded confidently, the two turned to look at the crowd that was gathering outside.

"The HOA is already doing a headcount, it would take less than an hour for them to realize that one property was unaccounted for"

There was a crowd gathering a few blocks from the house, a leader-like figure went around the crowd carrying a clipboard. They checked the people and then looked at the clipboard, it was obvious what they were doing and it was proof that time for Richard and Cindy was ticking.

<Humans were always surprisingly easy to manipulate>

The goddess started the ritual for teleportation but even as raven black letters of unknown origin streamed out of her body and enveloped the whole plot. The ageless goddess still found time to look at the crowd and comment on them.

Seeing her state, Richard recalled the conversation he had with Kellin.

’Only a God could do it huh?’

The ability to cast a powerful spell that could physically transport a large plot of land to a different space in a split second... Even now, Richard could barely grasp the way to actually use magic.

All he understood was the twisted method of sealing souls in an artifact courtesy of Kellin.

The old man could have taught him more but since Richard already made a pact with the Goddess...

’Hopefully I get a chance to learn magic... as much as I want to take revenge as quickly as possible- for now, retreat is the only option’

The high he got as he learned of his mystical roots was long gone.

He barely got out of the bind in the junkyard which he was completely unaware of by the way. Now he was being traced through the secretive methods he used to hide his wealth. That was done even with the possibility of Damien Dixon already being dead!

DNA test results wouldn’t appear within a few hours, the latest they could appear would be tomorrow.

After all, Andrea would still need to find any of his old belongings that still had some DNA.

’She might have kept some in stock though...’

Richard thought about how the cunning woman took him for a decade long spin. It was not impossible that she had his DNA stored somewhere-

Hell, he wouldn’t put it past her to do something as crazy as collecting his sperm while he was asleep. They never slept together but that did not mean that they weren’t living in the same house.

A poisonous bitch like her- he wouldn’t put it past her to keep samples of his DNA, anything that could be turned into "incriminating evidence" on hand.

Still, the time it takes to do a proper DNA test was still quite long. Richard was one of the nerds in college and his friend group was not lacking any genius- in fact, his buddies could be called geniuses in their own right.

Among them, he had an Asian-American friend, a guy whose mom was a Filipina Nurse who married his divorced father who was a retired Marine Vet.

Dude was huge, he was like a football player but contrary to his looks, he was a gentle giant. Moreover, his large hands were extremely stable, capable of working in microbiology.

It wasn’t as delicate as the work of surgeons but it still needed a delicate touch, especially since they were working with tiny organisms and literal DNA molecules.

Richard had helped his buddy work on a thesis that needed the use of a weird pipette that barely took in anything.

Things they were moving from one test tube to another were measured in microliters!

But that experience made Richard aware of a few things in regards to DNA.

That knowledge simply made him understand how long the true process of anything DNA related takes.

His body worked a whole day just doing the same process over and over again, transferring solutions and making them go spin in the centrifuge. That was done again and again and if he was lucky- he would get what he wanted on the first try,

But sometimes, things don’t really match up and the process of "making more DNA" whatever it was called had to be repeated. Which basically meant that he had to do the process over again.

That said, proper industrial methods would be different, they wouldn’t worry about failure- hopefully. But even if they had a 100% success rate in getting the DNA they wanted, the process to make the DNA increase in volume was something that could not be sped up.

They could maybe drop everything else and focus on Andrea’s task for a sizable sum but even then, it would still take quite a bit of time to finish even just one run of getting the DNA.

That is not even accounting for the time it takes to compare the samples!

Safe to say, at least for now, Damien Dixon was still "kinda dead".

"What are you thinking about?"

Cindy approached him and passed him a cold glass of whisky.

The young witch had apparently gotten something to drink while he was spacing out.

<Let him be, he’s just overthinking things again>

The Goddess answered Cindy, preventing Richard from talking as he turned to the Goddess who was calmly sitting in the living room watching an afternoon soap opera while drinking a glass of red wine.

The opened bottle was on the countertop and the Goddess was swirling the wine as she watched intently as the female lead in the soap opera tried and failed to win back her lover.

"What about the-"

Richard was about to ask about the teleportation but he quickly noticed that the black symbols were gone and he quickly rushed to the window sill and-

"Huh? We’re-"

"In Texas! Wanna go watch some horse racing? No, do they still do that here? How about we use the money to start a ranch? Oh my god! We could totally do that! Then all we need to do is kidnap that Kyla chick and hire her as a farmhand!"

Cindy started to mouth off her thoughts, her cool personality disappearing as she rushed out of the house and started to make squares with her fingers to picture her "big plans".

"She’s a literal storm"

<That’s how witches are, few people could maintain a single face while living in the world of mystics. Just being aware of the mystical world forces an individual to have two faces, still, unlike the mundane reality that majority live in, the mystical world is filled with disorder and chaos. Madness is not something that mystics are "unfortunate to have"- no, madness is a necessity>

The Goddess explained while still keeping her eyes on the television.

Richard pulled out his phone, he found that he still had a signal.

This phone was not traceable to any of his known identities, it was the only phone he was sure that he could use without worry.

He looked for any update on Damien Dixon and what he got was-

"Gas leak leads to an explosion killing multiple HOA officials and injuring many onlookers"

The article showed the plot where the house used to be, all that was left is a huge gaping hole. In his eyes, it looked unnatural even for a gas leak but to those who didn’t believe or know about the mystical world-

"A gas leak? I’m beginning to think that the US Government is in on the mystical secrets"

<Of course they are, you think any government would let a secret society filled with individuals who could cause a "gas leak explosion" on a whim just roam freely?>

"Why a gas leak though?"

<I don’t know, what’s wrong about it?"

The goddess showed a sly grin but her expression was proof enough that she knew what Richard was thinking about.

"Ten years ago I would have been making some crazy claims on the internet, posting a few threads on Reddit about a mystical war happening"

<Of course you’d be focused on looking for a blonde haired swordmaiden right?>

"..."

Richard didn’t respond to the Goddess and just downed the glass of whisky-

"Bah- fucking... there’s no ice?"

<If I told you that you might be able to meet a blonde haired swordmaiden who would gladly offer themselves to you- what would you do?>

The goddess asked casually but Richard’s ears perked up at her words.

His life was now in a mess, but! Because he lost everything- he could now return to that time where he did not need to worry about anything!

Freed of the responsibilities and struggles of life, Richard’s mind that would constantly fantasize about certain things was allowed to freely swim in fantasy.

Of course, the words of the Goddess would catch his attention.

He spent the majority of his life trying to please a poisonous snake, now that he was free from that poisoned lily. Richard stopped bothering about the crazy things and just asked-

"Don’t tell me... was the real King Arthur a woman?"

<He wasn’t, Arthur Pendragon is a man>

"Then-"

<but he was gay>

Richard froze-

"Say what?"

<The real Arthur Pendragon is a man, a gay man who fell in love with his mystical advisor- Merlin>

"..."

The goddess smiled at Richard’s silence, the young man took a deep breath. His mind was freely going through countless possibilities locked into one and asked.

"Don’t tell me... a reincarnation?"

But the answer he got from the goddess was a simple smile, yet that very smile sent chills down Richard’s spine as he felt his asshole tighten. A scary image popped up in his head and he tried to desperately erase it from his mind but alas, he now understood what it meant to be "cursed with knowledge".

On the other hand, the goddess quietly laughed at the young man who was trying with all his might to remove the dirty image from his mind.

Unfortunately for him, mind reading was not the only power the Goddess had- but that was something Richard would not realize for quite some time.