"That was interesting"

Cindy said as she showed Richard the sight captured by her floating pet.

"That’s too obvious, you’d think someone capable of causing a haunting and hiding her presence would continue to do so... moreover, did you feel any mystical force from her? Or anything out of the ordinary?"

"No, she seemed very normal if anything"

Richard and Cindy whispered while Yumi was being consoled by Hana.

It should have been Richard’s task but he doesn’t seem to have that magical "touch" to cause others to calm down. Instead, his actions seem to cause even more panic.

Richard looked at Yumi who was clinging to Hana and seemed to have settled down and asked-

"Is a misogynist?"

"After what you did? She probably thinks that you’ve been haunted or something"

"... I can’t help it! There’s just so many things in this place that don’t seem to add up yet oddly enough... fit in quite neatly... like a script..."

Richard paused, he tried to grasp things through his ability but was unable to see nor feel anything off.

[Realized it now?]

The words of the Goddess echoed in his mind, Richard let out a sigh as he asked.

’What’s happening?’

[With people like Merlin and Freyja existing in the mystical world, what do you think other would do?]

’...’

In the non-mystic world, when one country created nuclear weapons, another would follow suit to create their own.

Then an arms race would ensue, interceptors for nuclear bombers, ballistic missiles to reduce cost and increase quantity, targeting systems to increase accuracy-

Whenever a threat appears over the horizon, people don’t just "live with it", they try to control it- or, the best option was to remove it.

In the ancient world- with mystics capable of causing mass destruction existing and special individuals capable of predicting the future-

The immediate course of action was simple-

[Methods to counteract clairvoyance]

Richard turned towards the direction of the blonde neighbor.

He didn’t use his clairvoyance, he simply used as much will as he could to force himself to "see through" the walls.

Hopefully, he’d see a naked blonde beauty, maybe taking a shower or something. But-

*GROOOAANN**

A loud groaning voice echoed in the apartment, Yumi who had calmed down panicked and hugged Hana who turned towards Richard with a stern look on her face.

On the other hand, Cindy curiously searched the room for the source yet the groaning voice echoed from seemingly every corner of the room.

It had no direction, it was as if the voice was coming directly from the sides of your head-

At that moment, Ragnar moved-

"HUP!"

He moved quickly, he neither screamed nor did he make a loud noise.

He held his breath in as he spread his arms wide with open palms and-

*SQUISH*

The moment he clenched his fist, blood oozed from his hands and two figures appeared next to him.

Heads rolled onto the floor as two thin bodies collapsed on the floor-

"EEK!"

Yumi who had obviously never seen gore before screamed but Richard did not have time to worry about her as he also punched outward, it was a weird form but his punches hit something.

*SPLAT*

Two heads popped and two more bodies dropped on the ground.

*CRUNCH*

Cindy on the other hand dealt with things using only an invisible army of hands that rolled the two bodies into a ball.

The moment they appeared, Yumi fainted as the sight of headless corpses were bad enough, now she witnessed two bodies crumpled into balls like they were paper.

Taking that chance when she had fainted, Hana summoned her spirits, two white spirit lions that quickly destroyed four more monsters.

After Richard and his group dealt with the monsters, Cindy started to examine the entities while Ragnar found a seat and rested there like he owned the place.

Hana still continued to caress Yumi like a mother taking care of her child as she was the only one who had not a speck of blood on her.

While Ragnar and Richard both used direct physical means that led to their hands being clad in crimson blood and Cindy dealt with the monsters with overwhelming brutality that left a few splatters on her clothes-

Hana’s method was quite careful as her spirit lions had made sure that the monsters were disintegrated through some "spiritual" means. This left her and Yumi without a single speck of blood near their vicinity.

But her method took a huge toll as the two lions immediately returned to her body the moment the monsters were dealt with.

"That was... interesting"

Richard said while ignoring Hana’s severe glare.

"Thralls, quite an annoying enemy we have here"

"Thralls?"

"The favorite tool used by seers and shamans, they create living dead through the corpses of fallen enemies. Merlin created an army of Thralls from the fallen Aesir causing Thor to go on a rampage before meeting his end"

The quick history and magic lesson from Ragnar gave Richard an immediate answer to the question of who was responsible.

While he didn’t want to believe it-

[Would you believe logic or prophecy?]

’Either way, the answers are too obvious, it feels like I’m being force fed these things...’

[What could you do about it?]

’Tsk- nothing’

While the feeling of being manipulated did not exist, logic and reason told him that it was the case.

A random ghost issue turned out to be related to some practitioner who used nordic magic- the same magic that would be used by the people who Richard had a good feeling were his enemies.

Whether it was Freyja or the surviving Aesir, those groups were obviously trying to do something and that "something" has some strong relation to him.

"I’m going to have a quick conversation with our neighbor"

Just as Richard decided to do so-

*Ding Dong*

The doorbell rang and Cindy showed him what her pets were seeing outside.

"It seems our neighbor had the same idea"

Cindy spoke sarcastically while a few of her stronger pets manifested around her.

With Yumi out cold, Cindy could finally flex her abilities without having to worry about getting caught.

While Ragnar and Richard could just claim that they have superhuman strength due to training and mystics. Actual monsters were harder to explain and they could even be blamed for the problems as Cindy’s monsters had a striking resemblance to the Thralls.

"I’ll check it out"

Richard did not wait for anyone else to speak as he moved to be the vanguard for this.

Ragnar did not try to stop him, after all his job was to teach Richard and help him out, not to be his bodyguard.

Of course, Richard was aware of this as he already had some hints from Ragnar about the contents of his pact with Merlin.

After making sure that he still had his gun in his holster, Richard let out a breath as he moved to the door. Just as he was about to ask the person on the opposite end about their purpose-

*STAB*

Without warning, a silver spear pierced through the door and pierced directly into Richard’s chest-

"GAH!"

Ragnar noticed this immediately and rushed towards the entrance and smashed through the door.

The blonde woman had reacted quickly though as the spear was pulled out of Richard causing him to immediately start to bleed out.

[Amazing, it pierced through your defenses!]

The woman bolted away and Ragnar chased after them, Cindy’s monsters immediately manifested in the hundreds and surrounded the space while the young witch desperately started to heal Richard’s wounds.

"This is crazy! How many curses did that bitch put on her spear?!"

Cindy complained as she tried to heal Richard but his wounds would not close.

Magic could, at a cost, even regenerate limbs but-

Just like how people were able to develop techniques to counteract clairvoyants and prophesies, the ability to prevent the use of powerful mystical spells for healing also existed.

<Curses did not only function to weaken enemies, in the ancient times, curses were used to prevent healing, cause sepsis and other secondary problems that could lead to death. While decimating an enemy on the battlefield was great, mystics know that the true horror of the battlefield came after the first clash>

The Goddess had manifested and started to explain but she did not move. She only stared at Richard with cold eyes her gaze had an obvious look that said-

I told you so-

But Richard could only smirk at her actions.

"Quite a tsundere"

He spoke, despite the spear piercing through his lungs and leaving a gaping hole in them, Richard’s throat did not fill up with blood nor did he have difficulty breathing.

<You sealed off the entire organ, it doesn’t stop the bleeding but it stops you from drowning in your own blood, quite creative of you>

Richarrd’s method to stop himself from dying of the injury was smart but it did nothing to stop the bleeding. Instead, since the blood flow got even worse.

Blood follows the path of least resistance, and since the tight inner body was cut off- the only path they would take was... outside.

The blood flow increased due to his "ingenious method" and although it stopped him from drowning on his own blood, it also reduced the time it took for him to bleed to death.

Yet, Richard showed no panic as he smiled at the Goddess.

"What do you want?"

In this life or death situation, he did not try to find a way to live, he simply asked the Goddess for mercy.

<You don’t seem like a good contractor>

"You say that but you continuously warn me?"

<I never saved you>

"But you could"

Their conversation did not seem like one between a dying man and a God, instead, it sounded like that of a married couple.

As weird as it may seem, the atmosphere between Richard and the Goddess had shifted.

Their words did not match the air around them and Richard asked.

"What would it take for you to resolve my crisis?"

The Goddess stayed silent, she stared at Richard, the young man had a faint resemblance to another but...

<You have to give it up>

"..."

It was Richard’s turn to go quiet, Cindy did not understand what they were talking about but she could get a general understanding.

She didn’t really know how or why but should have something to do with Karen and the Goddess who used to be Andrea.

It didn’t take a psychologist to understand how Richard thought and how he moved.

Moreover, the Goddess obviously wanted Richard for something, that something was obviously unrelated to Andrea.

"That’s it huh?"

Everything Richard went through, it was quite obvious, people were trying to use him and all he was trying to do was keep his head above the water.

All the random things that happened around him, all the inconsistencies all the problems...

"Could you fix this?"

<Yes>

"Fine... I’ll give it up"

With his words, a crimson line formed between Richard and the Goddess, suddenly, Richard felt a sudden emptiness fill up his soul but as quickly as it went empty, it was immediately filled up once more.

The Goddess vanished and reappeared, when she did, she held a crimson teardrop in her hands.

Without saying anything she pressed the crimson tear into Richard’s open wound and the moment it entered his body... the moment the Goddess hands met with his blood and flesh-

-NYX-

A single word appeared in his mind, a word that was embedded into his psyche and marked the beginning of a true change for Richard’s fate.

— — — —

In a quiet manor hidden deep within a southeast asian country, Karen rose from her bed in a panic.

Her body was cold, extremely cold but she did not feel discomfort from that chill. Instead, the chill gave her a sense of ease as a weird feeling of emptiness assaulted her.

Tears streamed down her fair cheeks yet she did not know why.

A sense of loss washed over her for no reason.

It was weird but with all that she experienced... Karen only chalked it up to more of the mystical wonders of the world she had recently been exposed to.

She shook her head and threw away all the sorrow she felt by thinking of the mystical wonders she would experience tomorrow.