Chapter 22 Divine Revelations

"B-Big brother...just now, did you just used the power of an [Arcana]?"

She exclaimed as she rushed towards me.

"Eh?"

I looked at my hands again. Is that, an ability?

"W-What do you mean...by that?" I asked her while being confused with what she said.

The little girl smiled when I asked her that.

"That black flames you used earlier, it's a manifestation of an [Arcana]! I'm sure of it! I'm really sure that's an [Arcana]!!!" She said with her face showing amazement.

"B-But, I don't know how did that happen?" I shook my head while wracking my brain to find the reason that strange phenomenon happened.

I can't really tell if that massive black wave really came out from me. I have no mana to begin with, so how did it became possible for me to create such powerful attack to defend myself from the golems' attacks just a while ago?

Then at that point, I recalled what happened before that incident took place.

"The sword! That mysterious black sword I found on the desert! That's it!" I said as I thumped my fists because of my discovery.

At that time, while waiting for the golems to kill me the sword suddenly gave off smoke, turned into bluish-black flames which covered my body also. The flames caused my injuries to heal, which caused me to regain my strength as if nothing happened to me at all. Then afterwards, the sword, which ultimately got converted to flames, enabled me to launch a counteroffensive against the golems, saving myself and the little girl from greater harm.

"I never realized that the sword which I stumbled upon the desert could possess such tremendous power! If not for that thing, we would be dead by now!" I said to the little girl while thinking about the sword in awe.

The little girl however, only chuckled at my words.

"W-What's so funny about that?" I asked her while raising one of my eyebrows.

The little girl, unable to contain her emotion, bursted into teasing laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!"

"Why are you laughing?!" I asked her again, trying not to scowl at the girl. The girl, already in tears from laughing so hard, finally lost her balance and rolled on the ground while still in her seemingly endless euphoria.

The girl didn't cared at all whether her clothes will get dirty because she's doing a full ROFL for a minute now, because of something strange that I said just now.

'What the hell's with this girl...' I asked myself while staring at the girl slowly becoming insane on her own.

It took almost two minutes for her to subside from laughing. She looked at me afterwards, and spoke while panting so hard after becoming tired from rolling on the floor so much.

"...Haaa...Haaa...It was so funny, big brother...hehehe..."

"What's so funny about that? Did I said something strange?" I asked her for the third time, my patience slowly going down the red zone.

If she won't give me a decent answer at this point, I might tell her that it's time for the two of us to split ways. Of course I will not do it while still here in the innermost part of this cave, I guess I'll leave her behind once we get back to the entrance.

The girl spoke again to me while she brushed off the dust from her white dress.

"...Big brother, how did you get here?"

Instead of answering my question, she returned another one to me. This girl is really something.

"How, you ask...?" I said to her with a dumbstruck expression.

"...Yes!" She replied instantly.

I only scratched my head as I stop myself from becoming affected from her annoying antics. Taking in a couple of deep breaths, I told her what happened.

"I found and entered a cave in the middle of the desert...then I fell into a trap hole...after that I found this room and I discovered a large magic circle here...wait, where's the magic circle?" I said as my eyes look around at the time I noticed that the magic circle on the floor is gone.

It's impossible that it was destroyed by the golems earlier, because it covers the whole floor. The craters caused by the attacks might partially ruin it, but even that's not enough for the seal to disappear from sight.

"B-Big brother...what do you mean by that?" She asked me in wonder.

"The magic circle--When I entered this room, I found a magic circle with a complex design and a hand-shaped depression at the middle. When I put my hand on the depression, several chains suddenly burst from the ground and entangled me! Afterwards I lost consciousness and..."

When I woke up after that, I saw her straddling on me.

I looked at her, and she tilted her head in wonder while letting out a "W-What is it, big brother?" expression on me. The time of her appearance really coincide with the time when I lost consciousness.

No doubt about it.

In the first place, she haven't told me anything about how did she came here.

'...I can't get out of this room until now', is what she only said to me only a few minutes ago. Other than that she also told me that if ever she manages to get out of this place she doesn't have anywhere to go. Being forced to stay here for days without food might be enough for her existence to be considered a 'mystery', but that's not the only strange thing she told me that would give answers about her mysterious appearance.

Arcana.

She asked me something like that after I defeated those golems.

If she knew something about that strange phenomenon that I never encountered before even in textbooks, there might be a possibility that...that...

Could she possibly be...

"...Hey you, who are you, and where did you came from? How did you know things such as that [Arcana]?" I asked her all of a sudden.

"H-Heh--?!"

She got flustered at my sudden barrage of questions. Her arms started to tremble while sweating profusely, which looked like suspicious behavior to me.

I'm not sure, but is she hiding something from me?

"...Big brother, will you believe...what I say?" She asked me as her body kept on trembling due to nervousness.

"Depends on your answer..." I replied with a stern look.

She became silent for a while while looking downwards. Then, after gathering all of her courage she looked at me again with a tensed expression showing on her face.

"...That magic circle that you said earlier...that is a cursed seal. I...I am sealed below this room...for thousands of years..." She said in a faint voice.

W-W-Wait, did she just said 'sealed'? Also, thousands of years?!

"...As to know who I am, I am...a goddess. Yes, I'm a goddess...of death." She continued.

W-What?! What the heck is she saying? Is her head alright? Is she really telling me that she's some sort of a goddess, and a god of death at that?!

"...W-W-Wait a moment, calm down for a while..." I said as I tried to stop her from saying things I can't really comprehend.

In spite of that, she kept on telling me everything about herself.

"...I am sealed in this room by the [False Gods], along with my divinity, and waited for my end to come..."

At that time tears slowly flowed from her eyes.

"...I thought, I will be sealed in there forever. All those years, nothing crossed my mind except revenge against the [False Gods], killing everyone and destroying this world. I started to lose my hope and sanity, but you suddenly came...and you broke the seal..."

E-Eh? I really broke that seal?

"...Only a special existence can break that seal. When I finally escaped and saw your face for the first time, I realized..."

She walked slowly towards my direction. She faced me for a while, then she suddenly embraced me.

"W-Wha--?!"

"...I realized, maybe you're the one I'm looking for!" Her face showed a radiant smile again.

Hey! Wait-wait-wait-wait-a-minuuuuuuuuuuuuteeeeeeeee!!!!!

This girl, was she joking all this time?!

"At first, I still don't know, but when you shoved me away from those golems in order to protect me, I knew at once, you're really a [special existence]. I finally found you!!!" She said in extreme delight.

Her arms wrapped around me more tightly and rubbed her face on my chest. For some reason, I can't move.

"...Yes, you're [special]! The way you looked at me, it doesn't show any signs of fear or contempt at my appearance. I also felt a sense of kindness and reliability with the way you smiled. I vowed to myself, 'I want to stay by your side. I want to be your little sister!!!'"

She looked at me with a very warm gaze.

"You..." I could only say that as I looked at her with eyes of surprise, confusion, and displeasure because it felt like she's making up things just to make fun of me.

I can't believe that a little girl could do something like that to me.

"...When I saw you used those black flames, the reasons why I should not trust you disappeared all at once!"

"Y-You're joking, right?" I asked her. "Tell me that you're joking--"

"...Why would I do that?" She said, her eyebrows turning into a frown.

I forcefully separated myself from her. "'Trapped for thousands of years'? 'A goddess of death'? 'Special existence'? There's no way a girl like you would tell those kind of things, right? If you're just making excuses then that's it! I give up, I can't stand being trapped inside a cave with an annoying girl coming from nowhere who doesn't tell the truth!"

The girl, got scared as she looked at me getting angry because of her.

"I'll go out of here alone unless you tell me really who you are." I said as I walked towards the huge door after I turned my back at her.

Even though what I said and done was completely wrong, she left me no choice.

It can't be helped that she's just a child, but there are some things in her that left unanswered questions in my mind. Because of everything that happened, even if I want to believe her, I can't do it one hundred percent.

If I were to believe in something, that is I want to get out of here fast...--

FOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

Before I could even land my foot outside the door, I saw black flames flying towards the wall beside me and leaving a small crater after a small explosion.

"W-Wha--" I looked behind while trembling to see where those flames came from.

"...Big brother...do you want to know how did you get those flames?"

The black flames came from...the little girl?!

"...All this time...I never said a single lie to you, big brother..." The girl spoke in a serious, expressionless tone.

Her current impression is the complete reverse of what I noticed when I first saw her. The way she looked at me in the eye, it reminded me of all the darkness and evil that I saw back then in Arteim.

"...If you want the truth...then I'll show it to you!!!"

At that instant I saw a dark aura from around her as it quickly surrounded the whole place, then followed by blue chains that burst from the ground just like before.

"W-What in the--"

Before I could even react, the little girl closed her distance with me by creating a wave of thick, black flames that carried her body as it moved towards me. As soon as she got herself close she formed a black magic circle on her right hand and spoke.

"...I'll return the favor...for freeing me from that seal, big brother." She said as her eyes became filled with immense killing intent enough for me to palpitate in fear.

A death goddess.

It was at this point that I realized, I opened a Pandora's Box and released all the evil in this world by accident.