There was nothing except a throne in front of her.

On it, a person sat with a halo behind their head. Their hair were the color of the deepest parts of an ocean, messily lied on the figure’s shoulders. They remained unmoved as she stepped towards them.

The person spoke without ever moving any muscle of their body, the sound reflecting through the vast nothingness.

I hate you. With every bone and muscle that make up my body, I hate you, ▢▢▢▢▢.

“I will never let you hurt anyone ever again”, she responded with voice not of her own.

This time, Hiromi woke up in the middle of the night. The house remained quiet, aside from the summer’s wind, playfully blowing outside. She remained in a lying position, listening to any sings of the other inhabitants being awake as well. After making sure that she was the only one free from the embrace of sleep, she slowly sat up and put on her glasses.

These dreams — or nightmares, or really whatever those were — started getting on her nerves. It’s not unusual for Hiromi to have difficulties sleeping, but what had happened today and yesterday were making her uneasy to say the least. Some cryptic-like messages appearing in her mind during slumber that left her with more questions than anything else. An idea popped up in her head to maybe stay awake for a couple of days so she wouldn’t need to face those visions every night. Although if others would learn about that, she’d probably get scolded for even thinking such stuff.

As it was the last time, she thought of taking a stroll to clear her head from that weird dream. This time, she’d just stay in the elves terrain for the sake of peace of mind of her companions. Just a quick walk to one point and then right back to the house before anyone would wake up. Nobody would even know it happened.

With a plan in her mind, Hiromi readied herself, took her backpack and opened the front door as quiet as possible. It wasn’t the easiest of task with a house that haven’t been properly maintained for years now (maybe they should take care of it whenever there’s a chance). Either way, she swiftly got out and headed to her chosen destination.

When thinking of places to go to in the so called ‘safe area’, where the elves resided, the first thought that appeared in her head was the pond that Effole firstly took her and Tamaki to. Hiromi remembers that the elf referred to it as some holy place, that it held something special. After drinking water from it, they were no longer affected by the fog that surrounded their terrain and protected them from intruders. Other than that though, she has no idea what it does. Although, she remains respectful about their sacred places and customs. In fact, she’d probably love to hear more about them, she’s always been curious about everything and travelling to Earth has not changed that.

With that, she made the pond her destination for the night.

This sacred place was engulfed in a peaceful solitude, seemingly more quiet than any other part of the forest. A swarm of fireflies, dancing above the surface of the water, captivated Hiromi in their beauty. She took a place near them, careful not to cause any disturbance.

The light that those insects emitted almost resembled the one that of the stars high above her. That thought brought familiar warmth into her disturbed heart, momentarily giving her a peace of mind from.

One would think that something as simple as the smallest of lights, hanging high in the sky, could never bring as much serenity as it does to Hiromi. Wherever she would be, Eunade or Earth, they’re always there, observing her and silently giving reassurance. To her, they were like a symbol of safety, of peace and home, of love. They were the only thing that she truly put all her trust into.

Her gaze stayed focused on the glowing insects, unaware of any other part of the environment around her. As such, she hadn’t notice a figure that had appeared just next to her.

“May I join in?”

Hiromi almost jumped up from her sitting position and turned abruptly at the sudden voice coming from behind her. Her gaze was met with a dark skinned woman. She wore a white dress adorned with golden details, while the inner side of it was green as the forest encircling them both. Her eyes were the color of a cloudless midday sky, piercing her through as if with an icicle, yet they still held some warmth to themselves. Behind the woman’s head levitated a halo that with its light illuminated slightly the area around them.

“I… Do I know you?” she replied after a moment of shock.

The other chuckled, “My apologies, I didn't intend to startle you. I am Nailah, the Goddess of this planet and its species. Melinoe have introduced me before if I am not mistaken.”

Hiromi reached to her memories to look for an answer. She was greeted with a scene of when Effole and her went to the sacrificial place to talk with the elf Goddess. During their talk, she did mention Nailah but haven't truly said much about her.

“Ah, that's true.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you personally, Hiromi. Let us sit down and relax, don't let my presence be a bother to you.”

It wasn’t the first time as Hiromi was met face to face with a Deity. Firstly, it was with Melinoe, although it was more like face to back conversation. The elves had this sort of custom where if they wanted to talk with their deity, they sit down by the stump facing away from it. Of course, she followed in their steps but it also made her wonder whether they even saw their Goddess ever. Second time was with Louhi during their very short stay at the planet. They came here just to take Miru assumingly back to their planet. It sure was… an experience.

Now, here she was with Nailah. They stared at the small body of water in front of them with a rather comfortable silence hanging between them.

Hiromi finally broke the silence, “If I may ask you, your majesty, what has brought you here?”

“Ah, it’s simple. I do rather enjoy wandering around various places on this planet, it brings me peace of mind. Although it would be a lie if I’d say that was the only reason for my presence here in particular.”

The demon turned her head to the Goddess at that last sentence. Her curiosity has started exceeding the fear of having someone of higher status around her.

“Truth be told, I simply wanted to meet with you. I have wanted to for quite some time now.”

Hiromi was stunned a bit by that, “Me? Why is that?”

“Your presence here on Earth has stirred some emotions among the Gods, speaking lightly. To put it bluntly, we thought that your species were… gone. Therefore your arrival here…”

Nailah’s gaze shifted to the crowns of the trees above. She stared longingly like that before turning back to Hiromi. Her face wore a soft expression, although Hiromi was unable to read anything from it.

“Why did you think as such?” Hiromi’s curiosity was getting the better of her. She wanted- she needed to know more.

“It all comes down to the way on how we, our species and our planets function so to say. I could try to describe it to you in simple terms.”

“Please do!” Hiromi almost jumped at the other in the moment of excitement. Only after she realized her actions did she stepped back in a bit of shame.

Nailah chuckled in response, “To put it simply, a planet and the species inhabiting it cannot exist without a Deity. We act as a ‘power source’ to it, therefore if you cut it off…”

“…they stop existing?”

“Exactly.”

“Does that mean,” Hiromi spoke, “that I too have a Deity?”

“Yes, but…”

“But?”

Her voice quivered, “she has disappeared so, so long ago…”

Nailah’s face saddened with that sentence. Truly she didn’t need to say much more for Hiromi to realize what was going. Although there were still some loose details that didn’t make sense for her.

“If that’s true, then how come I exist? And others from my species with that. Before I arrived here, Eunade was fully populated. There are at least a billion of demons existing there. If that Goddess is gone then we’d all be gone too, wouldn’t we?”

“This is the part that we are confused about as well. Ever since she disappeared, we were unable to make contact with your planet. We weren’t sure if it even was still there. Now, with you here though, we know that it still exists. Therefore, she must exist as well.”

Nailah smiled, “it is truly a miracle that you’re here. Although I must ask, how were you able to travel here?”

“I found out in some ancient books about these other worlds and portals to them…” Hiromi said, skipping a part of how she practically broke into her father’s office to look through banned literature that he was in charge of protecting. “I’ve skimmed through them and decided that Earth would be the most suitable to go to. I went to the ruins where those portals were, somehow activated one and just… went through it.”

“I see…” Nailah hummed in response.

“is something wrong?”

Her brows furrowed, “you shouldn’t have been able to go through them while your Goddess is missing.”

Hiromi’s eyes widened in shock, then her expression turned to one more concerned, “what do you mean by that?”

“Let me explain how they work,” the other spoke. ”Those portals act as a gateway between worlds and you can find them on each one of the planets. Hmm… Imagine being in a pitch dark place, you cannot see anything there and you cannot change that in any way. Now picture a light, any kind will do. We, Gods, put those lights to guide you from one place to another. One God will put their lights to guide you out of their planet while the second God will put their light to guide you to their planet.”

“So if a God is missing, there’s no one to guide you to the other side?”

“Yes. Therefore, I don’t know how you managed to come here.”

Hiromi thought for a moment before speaking again, “If it takes two Gods for that process, did you know about my arrival?”

“I did. I was the first to know about your arrival here. I’ve… sensed that you were trying to get here so I rushed to pull you here before it was too late.”

“…too late?”

“Well… Nobody said that traveling though portals was safe, as much as we’re trying for it to be.”

After that, Hiromi fell silent. Too late. Those words rang in her head, threatening to cause a headache if they didn’t stop. She could have been too late. All that trying to escape could have ended so, so poorly. She could have—

“Hey there, Hiromi.”

Nailah’s soft voice put her out of those spiraling thoughts, even if it was just for a moment.

“Maybe that’s enough for now, don’t you think? You need to sleep as well.”

“But— I still have so many questions, and—”

“I know you do. I will be there to answer them, do not fret. You can look out to me next time, after you rested.”

The demon was slightly disappointed by that, wanting for the conversation to go on and on.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep after that.”

At that, Nailah sat down by the pond. She tapped her hand on her lap as to invite the other to lay down on her. Hiromi was surprised by that act to say the least.

“I don’t— Would that be appropriate? I wouldn’t want to…”

“Come on, nobody will know. I’ll make sure of that if that would ease your mind. Your Goddess was a great friend of mine. It’s the least I can do to take care of her people.”

With that, Hiromi hesitantly laid down, placing her head on the other’s lap. Nailah urged her to close her eyes, before she started to gently stroke her hair. A peaceful scenery of a summer night, fireflies dancing around them while the air was filled with a familiar note.

Fly me to the moon

and let me play among the stars.

Let me see what spring is like

on Jupiter and Mars.

As Hiromi’s consciousness was coming back to her from her deep slumber, she heard the noises of something clattering. Her nose was met with an aroma of a breakfast being currently made. She stretched away the bits of drowsiness and finally opened her eyes to scan her surrounding.

Even through the blurriness she could make out that she was in fact back at their house, with her in her typical sleeping place — kitchen couch. She moved her head towards the figure who was currently preparing food. From deep blue and smaller red spots, she recognized that it was Moshi.

“You’re up pretty early,” Hiromi grunted.

“Good morning to you too,” Moshi cheerfully replied, “honestly it just might be you who woke up pretty late. At least to your own standards.”

She put her glasses on and looked out of the window — the sun was already high above, signalling to her that she did in fact sleep in. It was pretty unusual for someone like her to do that as she’s a light sleeper who also has troubles falling asleep.

All of a sudden, the memories from the night flashed in her mind. She did fall asleep on Nailah’s laps, didn’t she? Oh how she’d love to bury herself deep, deep underground out of pure shame. She should have said ‘no’ to that and go back to the house on her own and—

Wait, she didn’t came back here on her own, did she? Hiromi hid her face behind her own hands at the realization. The Goddess must have brought her all the way here. She hates inconveniencing other people with useless stuff that she could have done herself. On top of that, it was a Goddess, the Goddess! Someone so important had to carry someone like her and waste their precious time on something of so little matter. Only if she hadn’t been so selfish and walked her way back on her own and!—

“I’m making breakfast for us. The others are already awake but they’re still resting in beds.”

“Hmm, I see,” Hiromi responded, “do you need help with anything?”

“Well, I’m almost done with the food. You can get the others to come here.”

“Sure.”

The four of them sat at the table. Moshi and Shion took place on the couch while Hiromi and Tamaki decided to take the chairs (for the latter it wasn’t really a choice as much as it was the only option). Their shared meal was joined by conversations about everything, but mostly regarding the latest events.

“What about your friend there?” Tamaki spoke. “Y’know, the one with blue braid.”

Shion replied after eating the current bit of her food, her expression turned into a grimace, “Well, I talked with her yesterday and it went as well as you’d expect it.”

“Oh?” Moshi chimed in.

“I told her who Ayami actually was and what she did but she didn’t want to really believe me because ‘she couldn’t possibly do that’ and ‘she was too good of a friend’. As if I wasn’t fooled like her before! But… in the end I think she understood, or at least it stayed in her head. We just gotta see what happens from now on but as of this moment, she’s not exactly keen on staying here in the forest.”

‘Man… that sucks,” Tamaki said, moving the food on her plate with a fork, “but are you two okay now or…?”

“I think it should be okay from now, or at least tolerable. Anyway, what are we gonna do now? ‘Cause like, there was this little guy back there, but they got taken by some other person but also there were two other people. Should we do something about that or no? I’m still not sure how you guys go on about these stuff here, haha…”

Hiromi put her cutlery on the plate, “I would say that we don’t have to worry about Miru for now. The Deity Louhi seems to have that situation under control. Although if it comes to the other two… we definitely need to keep an eye on them. From what happened there, they are most likely to come back.”

“It would be the best to just avoid them if that’s possible,” Moshi said.

“Probably. Although what if they’d be able to go into the elves’s terrain some day? Tamaki and I managed to do it so truly what’s stopping them from doing the same? I think we need to find a way to get rid of them for good. That’s the only way to ensure our safety.”

“That would be very dangerous,” the three eyed woman leaned in, “you know that, right?”

Hiromi looked around the room, everyone’s eyes on her, “Yes, I am aware. I don’t say that we go in right this moment. We definitely need to prepare before taking any actions.”

“Is there even any way to learn anything about those ‘evil guys’?” Shion asked. “I think that’d be a good point to start from.”

“We could ask the elves about them,” Tamaki pointed out, “They have all these connections with the Gods! Maii should be here soon too so we could talk to her.”

“It surely would not hurt to do as such.”

Moshi got up from her seat, taking her empty plate with her, “Everyone, slow down. We barely recovered from the last event. Those guys sure aren’t anything good but we’re relatively safe here, we can take it easy.”

She looked around the table in a search of any agreement or disagreement with her statement. Her glare stayed just a bit longer on Hiromi, with a trace of a wistful hope behind her eyes. That was more than enough for the demon to understand the silent message that the other was trying to communicate.

Don’t do anything stupid.