83 A new perspective. (2/2)

Seriously! Lada was right in betraying the Council. I always knew that the others had some serious mental issues which became worse and worse over time.

I always had the Sphere in suspicion. Amaru, El Shaddai, Enyo and Elohim were the ones who invested the most time in using the cursed thing.

Spying on my fellow Council members was one of the few things I did to kill time. I soon realized that the Sphere made the users addicted somehow. So I refrained from using it.

If the information provided by the new powers is true, then the Sphere was really at fault for the change in their behaviour.

My friends with whom I founded the Council were dead for a long time without my knowledge. It's disturbing me a little that I never found out.

I guess I have no right to call them friends if I didn't manage to sense the change in them. I was always a loner anyway. I like it much more to cause mischief and create trouble for others. So I am not really liked by others.

I am the puppeteer behind the curtain. Never would I take up arms myself. So I ran away when the rebels turned up.

Or Chimerans. I guess they aren't rebels any more.

While skipping happily towards the exit of the cathedral I warble a little melody. It was a very fruitful day for me. I stirred up a war between two kingdoms. I made a young couple of a prince and a princess break up and I played that trick on the knight.

All in all you can say that I accomplished much today. I think I fulfilled my duty as a goddess of strife and discord. Maybe I will use the rest of the day to help someone, who is really hard working.

But it's hard to find people like that. It's much easier to break bonds than to create them. As I leave the cathedral, I become aware of fleeing people. They are all fleeing out of town in the same direction.

”What's wrong? Why are you running?” I stop an elderly guy and he looks at me like I would be from the moon.

”Haven't you heard? The demons are coming to the town! You better run for your life too!” He walks onward and leaves me behind.

Then I feel an aura of panic from behind me and I see smoke rising from the city. A step through a pathway takes me towards the area and I reappear on a battlefield.

No, battlefield is a too nice word for it. It's a one sided massacre as spiked monsters are killing the city's guards and civilians alike. I get an ominous feeling about this creatures. Did I end up at a world which is attacked by the Council?

Then I become aware of the knight from earlier. He is dancing the hokey pokey in front of a demon, which is looking at him with a dumbfounded reaction. Obviously the demon has no idea how to deal with a maniac.

Just when the demons starts to raise a claw in order to strike the knight down I teleport and step in, sending the monster flying with a flip of my hand. It's harder than expected.

”The goddess appeared! You will save us from these creatures!” The knight falls to his knees behind me.

Just as I turn to the idiot a huge crystal fortress appears above the city. It's beautiful and I look up in awe. I would have never imagined to see one up close any time soon.

The Chimerans do have style. I doubt that any of the other powers can represent themselves like that.

But suddenly a red maelstrom of energy leaves the fortress and I realize that those guys mean business! A feeling of dread and impending doom emanates from that red energy and I grab the knight's collar and jump on a pathway with him in tow.

I already believe myself safe, when the pathway suddenly distorts and falls to pieces. A sickening feeling befalls me and I erect a barrier around the mortal, whose life would be likely lost otherwise.

Everything starts to turn upside down and I try to adjust myself. It's in vain and I lose control. I enter reality again and fall hard into the dirt.

Everything is still turning and the unconscious knight is lying beside me. I get to my knees and see that I managed to get us out of the city in the nick of time.

The city is a ravaged and a burning inferno. What's wrong with the Chimerans? I thought they were the good guys! Doing something like that to the mortals? Are the demons really such a threat?

I collapse back to the ground as a group of people appears around us.

”It's true. There really was a god inside the city.”

”She looks like someone from the wanted posters!”

”You are right! We will earn a big reward for this!”

”What's with the mortal?”

”Let him be. The area is safe now.”

I get picked up by the strangers while I lose consciousness.....

***

A few hours later Sir Edward, the third from the family of Thornwind awoke and looked at the ravaged city before him. Believing in the goddess divine intervention, he became a firm believer in the goddess Eris.

He started to travel the lands in order to spread the true faith. Unnoticed by others, he was a powerful knight and didn't really need the help of a god for his travels.

A few years later he should be known from close to far as the ”Knight of the Hokey Pokey!”...