His Devious Harbinger: How To Tame A Wicked God?

Seeing that Ari has no idea why Iravan is unstable, Chaos lets out a low laugh. 

"It's not unexpected," Chaos mumbles to herself. Abyss has realized it only recently. Furthermore, Abyss hasn't visited Iravan. 

For a moment, Ari feels a wave of fear washing over her. Iravan. She has always cared about that world and the people of Iravan. It's the world where she met Adira. Even if she doesn't want to go back to Adira, she can't see that world get destroyed. 

There's no reason for Iravan to be ruined. Ari stares at Chaos calmly. It could be a trick. Chaos is here. There's always some chaos before a world is ruined. Without disruption, things can't move in the direction of destruction. 

"Where's Misaki?" Ari questions her again. In the next moment, she will drag this goddess to Haven if she must. She might do something that she doesn't want to do. 

"Do you think that you are good, Ari?" Chaos props her chin under her hand, tilting her head slightly with a disinterested look in her eyes. "Who says that Order can't be evil?"

"We aren't evil or good." Ari replies to her, "We are just who we are. Only mortals have the right to choose between evil and good."

"Interesting." Chaos rolls her eyes. "So, Cina isn't evil. Noras isn't evil. Adira, who wanted to kill Ai, isn't evil either."

Ari purses her lips. These unspoken questions… she doesn't know how to answer. If gods start judging each other, what will mortal do? Then again, she used to judge everyone similarly. Between what is the right thing to do and what has to be done, she has always chose what she thought was right. Even now, she will do the same. 

Chaos is also doing the same. 

"I know that you hate me," Ari says to her in a low tone. "But do we need to fight? You know that I am not the same anymore. I can't take birth again. I have to go to the worlds and fix what you have brought. Can't you make my life easier?"

"I have been trying to make your life easier." Chaos raises her head to meet Ari's eyes. "It is true that Ryou was my face. He did something that he shouldn't have. I never asked him to do that. It was his own decision. You died, and then you were reborn as you always do. However, you can't die again. You can't return to Iravan again. Even if you go back, you can't be a part of that world. Forsaken Goddess. It's a little sad. I didn't want you to be what you are today. But I couldn't save you back then. If everything is a will of the supreme one, then what you are today is also a will of the supreme one."

Maybe helping those forsaken ones was her fate. Ari decides not to argue with Chaos. There's a tacit agreement between them. It's also true that she can't go back to Iravan and be a part of that world again because it can't be same. Just like she can't stay on Earth, she can't stay on Iravan for long. 

"I went there because of your daughter." Chaos leans back and puts her one leg over the other. Her white robe is slightly loose on her slender body. "She called me over and over again. At first, she was mistaken that I was her mother. I let her believe that."

Ari folds her fingers into fists. She won't do anything. Not now. She needs to find out where her daughter is.

"But she figured it out soon." Chaos furrows her brows soon. "It's strange. I had seen Misumi from a distance. She was calm for an infant but she was still a child. But Misaki… the child was sharp. She acted like a child but her intelligence didn't belong to a child. I tried to look into her mind, but something blocked me. It took me years to understand what was wrong with her."

Something is wrong with Misaki? Ari's silver eyes become wide. Her heart palpitates in anticipation. Is it because she gave birth to her daughters on Earth? She was still mortal back then. Her daughters were born in a magically-deficient environment. "What happened to her?"

"Since her channels were dried up, I had not expected her to use magic." Chaos smiles faintly. "But she still showed magic. How was that possible?"

"I might have been a human back then." Ari narrows her eyes. "But she's still a demi-god."

"But she showed an affinity with time magic." Chaos ponders, "That's not all. Her magic was tremendously strong. She started to affect the world she was in."

"In what way?" Ari wonders if it is related to her daughter's current disappearance. Though she feels that her daughter is in this world, she can't pinpoint where. 

"She made everything go still one day." Chaos chuckles. "Then, she disappeared the next day. We had to hop from one world to another because she kept causing chaos in different forms. Honestly, she was doing a better job than me at it." 

Ari remains silent. 

"I am not hiding her anymore." Chaos blinks her eyes slowly. "In fact, I had never intended to hide her. I kept her with me because she was strong. And notorious. You are free to find her and take her back with you."

Her lazy tone ticks Ari off. She dares to kidnap her daughter and then, she says that she's free to take her back as if she's donating her daughter back to her. 

"I wonder if you know…" Chaos continues, "You are a forsaken goddess. You might turn her into a forsaken creature. Your child won't be a part of any world then. Even if she goes to Iravan, she won't be able to stay in that world for long -- what's that look? Your daughter is still a mortal, even if she's a halfling. I know that you took over Oblivion. A world for the forsaken creatures? Sure! But anyone who lives there for a long time will turn into one. In fact, staying too long with a forsaken creature would change a mortal."

She wasn't aware of that. At first, Ari had wanted to take Misaki and Misumi back to Haven. Now, she's not sure. There's no way that she would want her daughters to become forsaken creatures. 

"None of this excuses you for taking her away from her father and brother!" Ari shouts at her. "She should have been raised along with her sister on Iravan."

Having heard her yell, Chaos stands up. "She chose me over you." 

"What are you talking about?" Ari looks at her with disbelief. "She was a child. What does she know?"

"She's smarter than children her age." Chaos turns around and looks at the top of the stairs. "Look, she's back from her travel."

Ari follows Chaos' gaze. On the top of the stairs, she sees a young girl around ten. Donning long wavy dark hair that reaches her thighs, the girl has a heart-shaped pale face with a straight nose that resembles her father and lips that are inherited from her mother. Her eyes are dark and penetrating. She's wearing a green thigh-length robe over black stockings and long dark boots. 

"Misaki…" Ari croaks, overwhelmed by emotions. She keeps calling the child's name with tears in her eyes. Her shoulders shake weakly. "Misaki."

The girl narrows her eyes slightly. She climbs down the stairs with a slight frown on her face. 

Ari takes quick steps toward her, meeting her halfway on the stairs. She reaches for Misaki's face, wanting to embrace the child. However, her hands stop midair. Ari hesitates to touch her own daughter, afraid. 

"You are my mother," Misaki mutters. "I thought that you would never get out of that river."

"H-How…" Ari looks at Chaos. "Did you tell her?"

"She wanted to know what happened to you. So I showed her." Chaos shrugs. "I told you, didn't I? I didn't hide anything from her."

"Misaki." Ari's breathing is quickened. She wants to hold her child but the fact that she's a forsaken goddess stop her. What if she harms her child in some way? What if her child gets sick? A lot of questions run through her mind.

"Please come with me." Ari resists the urge to touch her daughter. "Your elder brother is also here."