A/N: Now what's all this business about a God Killer huh?

  -x-X-x-

  Actually… he might know who she is and what she’s talking about after all. It takes him a moment te up memories he’d rather not revisit from that day, but after doing so and matg his own experieo what the goddess is saying, Oren thinks he knows exactly who she is. Of course, things hadn’t happened remotely how she said they did.

  It’d been during a lull in the killing. He’d fought, or rather sughtered his way through the Heavens singlehandedly, killing every single deity who dared to stand in his way. He’d massacred ead every one of them without mercy as they’d tried to stop him from reag Law’s chambers.

  But eventually, there’d e a point where there was seemingly no more resistance. A sense of quiet had fallehe area apanied by a disquiet that had fallen over him as he’d stomped down the hallway. Then, just as he’d been turning a er, so had someone else. She’d ran right into his armored chest and bounced off of him, falling ba her ass and freezing up in terror when she’d seen his imposing form and blood-caked arms and armor.

  He'd sidered killing her in that moment. It was what he’d been told to do, after all. Show no mercy. Give no quarter. Anyone he spared would just try to stab him in the back a moment ter, or so it had been said. A… he’d already been a little weary. So he hadn’t delivered the blow. Instead, he’d stomped right on past her a going on his way, expeg an attack from behind that had never e.

  The goddess he was staring at now and the woman he’d run into that day looked nothing alike, but Oren already knew why that was and it had nothing to do with Sophia herself. That was a whole other of worms not wetting intht now. While there’d been no spitting in his eye… it would make sense if that had been Sophia. Just as it made sehat she would try to embellish things a little bit, rather than expeg him to believe that ‘the God Killer’ had chosen to spare her out of everyone else for some reason.

  Taking his silence as intrigue at the mention of a reward rather than ption over past events, Sophia puffs up her chest, the Minoddess of Wisdom ay’s eyes shining with excitement.

  “T-That’s right. In saving my life, you’ve not only earned my favor but also a reward beyond your wildest imagination! But… before we go any further, I must know…”

  Here, her eyes narrow and she looks around at the corpses he just got done making.

  “… where did you e by such strength? How did you kill them all so swiftly? Is it that… perhaps you are a God of the Mortal Pne?”

  Oren snorts derisively at her words. He uands how she might e to that clusion, but it was still rather silly. After all…

  “Do you sense any divinity from me, Goddess?”

  Flushing a bit, Sophia crosses her arms over her chest defensively.

  “W-Well… I mean, I’m not at my best at the moment! Besides, I’ve never met a God of the Mortal Pnes before! How should I know how one might feel to my divine senses?”

  Hm, he supposed she had a point. To be fair, Oren hadn’t found out that there were multiple types of Gods until after he’d murdered Law. It wasn’t until he’d run into his first God Hunters back here on the Mortal Phat he’d discovered in a rather backwards as left for them to hunt in the first pce.

  With the deities of the Heavens sin one and all (save for the Minoddess standing in front of him apparently) those who had orchestrated the genocide had turheir attention to the divinities located on the Mortal Pne. Deities who were more tied to the elements, such as Forest Gods and River Goddesses. These were divinities who relied oerial far more than their kin up in the Heavens had. Gods of actual, real things instead of Gods of cepts and beliefs.

  It was by this point that the Gods of the Heavens were dead and gone, but there were still plenty of Gods and Goddesses to be hunted down and sin. Oren wanted no part in it though, regardless of his past. No, rather… he wanted no part in it BECAUSE of his past.

  But he wasn’t so stupid that he would tell the goddess standing in front of him who he truly was. Even if Sophia didn’t seem to have a bative bone in her divine body, he had no desire to see the meager gratitude on her face morph into hatred and terror when he revealed himself as the man who killed her father.

  Instead, Oren decides to go with a somewhat safer secret… a less infmmatory truth that will hopefully distract her enough to obfuscate the greater truth he wants to keep hidden at all costs.

  “I’m not a God, Sophia. Not of the Heavens nor of the Mortal Pne. I’m an Otherworlder.”

  She still reacts with shock, of course. Even some disgust as she rears bad wrinkles her ely, seeing him in airely new light.

  “Wha- but that’s not possible! You shouldn’t be here!”

  runts nonittally at that, somerepared for this rea. Having finished with ing his bde, he sheaths it back at his side and then busies himself with tidying up his supplies, even as Sophia seems torween backpedaling at her initial rea and ranting over his shameful existence.

  “I-I mean… obviously it’s probably not your f-fault, of course! Is it your fault? Or were you summoned against your will?”

  “The tter.”

  “Right! So really, don’t take this personally… but you should NOT be here. My father Law decreed the summoning of Otherworlders to be illegal several millennia ago! It was one of his most important as! Your very existence breaks a fual w of the universe! You represent a huge threat to everything and everyone just by your very existence!”

  Oh, if only she knew. But Ore say anything. He just stays quiet, lettiire herself out.

  “I s-suppose with my father and the others dead; there’s nobody left to enforce the Sacred as anymore, is there? So just anyone go around breaking a cardinal rule and summoning an Otherworlder. Oh no, what if there are more of you…”

  He doesn’t bother correg the misception about him being summoo this world AFTER her father’s death. In fact, that recisely the mistake Oren had wanted her to make when he’d spilled this secret in the first pce.

  If she knew he’d been summoo this world years ago, she would likely get even more suspicious of his true nature. After all, back when Oren had inally been summohe Gods of the Heavens were still very mu charge. The God Hunters weren’t a thi, and the divine pahat Sophia art still held power over both their own domain as well as the Mortal Pnes.

  Those who had summoned Oren to this world had mao do sht under Law’s divine nose. And then they’d spent years training him up, making him into the perfect on… into the perfect God Killer.

  “You uand, don’t you? You have to know by this point. Just how fast you learn. How strong you get. Even though you’ve likely only been in our world for a few short months at most, you’re already strong enough to kill aire group of men without even breaking a sweat!”

  It was true, aside from the part about how long he’d actually been in their world. Hell, Oren could even uand why Law had made the a against summoning Otherworlders in the first pce. On the one hand, it was a dick move t someone from their home. Oren had once dreamed of returning to Earth, of getting back to the simple life he’d left behind. He’d quite literally been mere inches from stepping foot on campus for the first time, having sacrificed everything to get accepted into the Uy of his dreams.

  … And then he’d been whisked away without so much as a ‘by your leave’, given a on, and told he had to fight.

  However, eveing aside the vile sequences of stealing someone from their life, there was also another very good reason for restrig the access of Otherworlders. Put simply, he and those like him were not properly tethered to this os. They were not limited as those born in this universe were. A mortal being born on the Mortal Pne could never hope to asd to the Heavens to y waste to the Gods and Goddesses there. Nobody of this world could have bee the God Killer.

  But as an Otherworlder, Oren’s potential was limitless. That wasn’t hyperbole or an arrogant boast either, that was a simple statement of fact. All he’d needed was time, and because of his natural advantages as an Otherworlder, he didn’t even need all that much time before he was capable of sying divinity itself.

  Again, he doesn’t say any of that to Sophia. But he ’t help feeling a little guilty all the same, so he throws her a bone.

  “When I was summoned, I was the only ohey summo that time. There were no Otherworlders there with me.”

  As far as reassurances and forts went, Oren was well aware that it was a shit oill, Sophia is floundering hard enough that she tches onto it like a lifeline all the same. Swallowing thickly, the Minoddess slowly nods.

  “R-Right… alright. That’s good. And what of those who summoned you? Where are they now?”

  Oren only shake his head at that.

  “I don’t know. I cut all ties with them.”

  Again, it’s clearly not what Sophia wants to hear. But the plucky Goddess is a survivor, that much is obvious. She’s also very quick at adapting to a given situation. After a long moment, Oren watches as she swallows thickly, squares her shoulders, and visibly decides to work with what she has in front of her.

  “T-This ges nothing. While your status is certainly… unfortunate, I remain deeply ied to you. You saved my life when you didn’t have to… no, you saved my life when you had every reason to refuse to. I would still see you rewarded for your as on this day, Oren.”

  He raises an eyebrow, easily able to tell she’s drawing out her speech for some reason. Where was she going with this, exactly?

  “… Unfortunately, I am currently bereft of the rewards you would be worthy of for saving my life. In fact, I am bereft of practically anything, weakened as I currently am. I will not mince words… I have the capability of rewarding you as you deserve, but only if you help me reach safety. There is a hidden refuge near here, crafted by yours truly and filled with wonders beyond your imagination. See me there unharmed and not only will you be rewarded for saving my life today, but you will also be rewarded twice over for your troubles!”

  And there it was. By the time she’s done speaking, the goddess is panting with how many words she’s just spat out at once. Oren stares at her for a long moment, both surprised and not. On the one hand, he’s surprised that a Daughter of Law would dare associate with a filthy Otherworlder like him. He was a living example of her dead father’s broken as after all.

  … But oher hand, what choice did Sophia have? She wasn’t wrong about being weakened. In fact, it would be more accurate to say she was utterly helpless at this point in time. The God Hunters who mao track her down wouldn’t even have to chase her… she would not be able to give them the run around like she had the st batch.

  Ores out a sigh as he looks around his clearing, at the piled logs and the stumps still stig out of the ground. He’d had pns. Pns that involved staying away from anything else to do with gods oddesses. Pns that involved keeping his head down and living here alone in the woods. It was to be his penance for his sins and punishment for his crimes.

  But who was he to decide his penance? Who was he to decide what his punishment for his crimes should be? Oren didn’t necessarily believe in cepts like Fate or Destiny. Or rather, he didn’t believe in their power. After all, her Fate nor Destiny had helped the God who cimed to embody them. Oren had sin him without issue all the same.

  A, was it mere ce that Sophia had stumbled upon his clearing in all these woods? Was it mere happenstahat she’d arrived before him in the nick of time for him to save her? And was it mere luck that she needed him now or she would surely perish without his intervention?

  … No, Oren decides. The God Killer was not allowed to decide his penance. And whether this was a sign or not, he had to aowledge this was far more fitting than his own pns had been.

  “Very well. I will escort you to this… refuge. How far is it exactly?”

  Here, Sophia pauses and fidgets. The beautiful blonde goddess even bites her lower lip for a moment before clearihroat and answering him.

  “A-Ahem… not far… not far at all. Only a week away on foot at most!”

  Her poker face is terrible. She’s obviously lying and Oren suspects the refuge is probably more like two weeks away, if not further. Still… it is what it is. Fortunately for the goddess, he’s already resolute in his determination to see her to safety. And luckily for himself, he’d already begun s his supplies, making it easy to gather up his meager belongings and sling his full pack over his shoulder a few moments ter.

  “Fine. But we’ll o get you a ge of clothes immediately.”

  Sophia blinks and then looks down at herself, before raising her hands protectively over her dress.

  “What? Why? What’s wrong with my clothes?”

  Lifting his eyes to the sky, Oren wonders not for the first time just how ‘wise’ this supposed Goddess of Wisdom truly is. But then to be fair, she has admitted that she’s only a ‘Minoddess’. Still.

  “Because you stick out like a sore thumb. Because ah two braincells to rub together will see you and reize you as a Goddess. And ahout two braincells may nnize you as divinity but will still be talking about your inhuman and unnatural beauty for days and weeks to e, providing any would be pursuers with a trail to follow that will lead them right to us.”

  In fact… reag into his pack, Oren pulls out his only b. It’s a rge piece of bck cloth, a little ratty around the edges but thid fortable enough that its kept him snug and cozy on many a cold night out uhe stars. He throws the bck cloth at Sophia, who barely mao catch it.

  “W-What am I supposed to do with this?”

  “ it around yourself and use it as a cloak. You’re literally glowing, Goddess. First step to esg your pursuers now that we’ve killed the ones directly on your tail… is to stop drawing attention everywhere you go.”

  To her credit, Sophia merely pouts before doing as she’s told. That was good, because as strong as Oren was, those God Hunters he’d killed had felt more like fodder than anything serious. They might have been men, each with their own hopes and dreams, but he only look bad see hunting hounds whehinks of them. That leaves him with a single burning question… where was their master?

  -x-X-x-

  Hours upon hours ter, when m has turo day and day has turo night, a single figure bck appears in the blood-soaked clearing. Looking around at the deposing corpses, the figure hums in thought for a moment, tilting their head to the side.

  “Curious. Very curious.”

  Then, as swiftly as they appeared … the figure vanishes without a trace.

  -x-X-x-

  A/N: The plot THIS.

  Heh, hopefully I've left you all with more questions than answers. After all, this is only Chapter 2~

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