"Death?" Maya repeated, with a confused expression.
"Yes, you have to die. This way you can use the underworld as a means to resurrect in one of the 75 super continents." Avaris lectures with an even more annoying smile
"Okay let's say I really just go ahead and kill myself; how will I resurrect myself? How do I pick where I'd like to resurrect? What if my soul is just consumed by the underworld when I die?" Maya throws a barrage of questions at him.
Avaris flashed a grin and pointed both thumbs at himself "That won't be a problem, after all don't forget you have the aid of God. Don't overthink it all you have to do is suicide; I'll handle the rest."
Maya brows furrowed, she didn't look even the least bit convinced, after all the only reason the first option wouldn't work is because Avaris feels that aiding her in anyway would be boring.
"you'll handle the rest? Don't give me that crap, you're the same person who crossed off the other two options because your help would make it too boring. Besides if I can only go through the underworld with your help, then wouldn't it be easier to just directly take me across the dimensional barrier."
Avaris grinned "hmm…, it seems you aren't completely stupid for a human and I've unintentionally established a lopsided rapport."
"I'm not stu—"
Avaris cut in smoothly "—this is the best option for us, it works for both our objectives;"
Maya folds her arms tightly; she stares directly at Avaris in scrutiny
"How can I be certain your objectives won't put me in danger?"
There was a heavy silence, the kind that pressed down on her chest waiting for an answer
Then Avaris burst out laughing, a deep, carefree sound that cut through the tension.
"Don't be so paranoid, killing you would be easier than breathing, why would I go through all this trouble to harm you when I can just throw you into the underworld directly?"
A cold shiver ran down Maya's spine. Her eyes flickered with a bit of fear, but she immediately suppressed it.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" she said sharply, edged with anger and unease
He waved a hand dismissively. "How you feel is irrelevant, this is the only choice you have. Without my help, you'll simply wander this world till the medium grade dragons find you, when that happens, you'll go back to being a slave. Don't think you're special just because you are lesser grade with a good ability, the high-level slaves are all lower grade, there's even the medium grade slave manager, a lesser grade is nothing special. You'll also be experimented on once they find out your ability after all the nature of your ability isn't like anything that can be obtained from natural life essence."
Maya's heart tightened, but she forced herself to keep calm. There wasn't much room for negotiation here – only the brutal truth of survival
As if noticing Maya's tension, Avaris grins and continues "Nevertheless, your death is off no benefit to me, so I guarantee you will survive the underworld."
Maya narrowed her eyes "So, I'm just supposed to take your word for it?"
Avaris shrugged casually "it's not like you have a choice, this is all the assurance you're going to get."
Maya clenched her fists, trying to steady the whirlwind of thoughts racing through her mind.
"I need to think about it" she said finally, her voice firm despite the unease bubbling beneath.
Avaris just smiled, unfazed. "Take your time." he said.
The sun dipped lower in the sky, shadows from the towering trunks stretched long and deep along the grass. Three hours passed while Maya and Avaris sat quietly, her mind tangled in restless thoughts amid the whispering woods.
After what felt like an eternity trapped in her thoughts, Maya finally rose to her feet, brushing off her clothes. She needed to clear her head and take a bath. Without a word, she turned and began walking toward the river. She had barely walked 100 meters when she heard footsteps behind her.
She stopped suddenly and turned to face him, eyes narrowing. "Why are you following me?"
Avaris blinked repeatedly, then he smiled and said "Well firstly I'm bored and I can't have you dying on to some medium grade beast. That would be such a boring death now, wouldn't it?"
Maya let out a sigh
"I'm going to take a bath in the river," she said, not quite meeting his eyes. "I need privacy, so just stay here, I can take care of myself."
Without waiting for a response, she turned and resumed walking towards the river.
After a few steps, she heard footsteps behind her again
Why is this moron still following me? she thought bitterly
She turned around abruptly, glaring at him not masking the irritation in her voice she asked "Why are you still following me"
Avaris answers with a smile on his face "like I said I can't have you dying to some medium grade beast"
Maya facepalmed and groaned "I just said I don't need your protection, just leave—"
Avaris chuckled softly behind her. "You know I can see everything, right? Omniscience, I can see you even if I'm not there. In fact, I've been watching you since before you were born, the same goes for every other life form, gods and mortals alike."
Maya frowns as she realized this
If he can see everything, then why doesn't he just watch me from here, no that's not right if he keeps insisting on following me, could it be that there's really a medium grade beast at the river.
Avaris applauded slowly, the sound echoing through the trees around them.
"Well done" he said, grinning. "You've proven once again that you aren't completely stupid."
Maya scrutinizes his face for a second, suspicion flickering in her eyes.
"If you're omniscient, you're probably omnipotent too. I don't believe killing a medium grade from this distance would be difficult for you"
Avaris applauds her again
"Nice! At this rate you might even deduce what I really am."
He steps forward a bit "I can't do that every beast's life essence is linked to the dragon god, if I kill a beast, it would alert him of my existence, of course I could easily deny cause and effect and he wouldn't notice anything but that would be too boring."
"Then can't you just lead it away from the area?" Maya questioned
Avaris lifted his hands, palms up, with an innocent shrug "That won't work for the same reason, it's too boring."
Maya snapped "Stop giving me that dumb answer!"
Avaris grins and says "You're going to kill it yourself, with my guidance of course"
Her eyes widen, her voice cracked with frustration "Nope, I'm tired of your nonsense, now you want me to kill something that could very easily destroy this entire forest"
Avaris says "Exactly this is something you have to do, eventually a high-grade dragon is going to sense its presence and come over here to kill it, there might even be more than one. You need to kill it and kill them once they get here "
"Are you crazy? I have no chance against the beast now you want me to kill high grades too, you said it yourself, even If a medium grade just stood there, I'd be completely incapable of killing them."
"That's where I come in," a gun materializes in Avaris' hand "I'll lend this too you"
Maya had obviously never seen a gun before after all dragons don't use guns "what the hell is that"
"This is a little toy invented by the humans on the 75 continents, of course I made it millions of times more powerful but that's besides the point. Anyway, take it, you'll immediately be imbued with knowledge and muscle memory of how to use it, so we don't have to waste time teaching you" he hands Maya the gun
Taking the gun in her hand, Maya instantly understands how it works and how to use it even better than veteran soldiers "That's not a lot of knowledge, I guess most of it went to the muscle memory. So, what do I do now?"
What the hell! where the fuck am I
Currently, Maya found herself by the river, more than 4 kilometers from where she was standing before
What the fuck am I looking at right now
Maya had seen lots of grotesque beings but right now she couldn't quite tell what she was looking at right now. She couldn't even begin to describe it, its color wasn't close to any of the commonly known colors, all in all it was mass of twisted flesh and bone, it was about 6 meters tall with numerous arms, about 37 of them extending from its body, each of them was at least 3 meters in length.
What seemed to be a mouth slowly gaped wide- stuffed with jagged teeth, still wet with what seemed to be the blood of the fishes in the river
It was looking directly in Maya's direction
Shit!