Don't Underestimate a Dead Goddess

A few hours before the trial began, my party arrived at the courthouse, only to find the queen and her ambassadors already waiting for us.

“So you’ve arrived after all,” said Queen Verisette. “I assume you’ve read my letter, correct?”

Ashrenne nodded with a grim expression. “How did you figure out Lora could be the vessel Florathea would hide in?”

“That was only a theory at first after piecing together the clues from the mass breakout, Lora’s seemingly innocent actions, and the rift instance incident,” said Morienelle. “However, as the bearer of The Puppet Maker title, my specialty includes spirit possessions.”

She narrowed her glossy eyes. “And with my specialty, I only needed one good look at her last night to see a powerful, divine spirit clinging to her body. It takes one to see one, after all.”

“Are you also implying that you’re possessing someone’s body?” asked Dahlian.

“Excuse you! This has always been my body!” Morienelle casually ripped off her arm, revealing it to be a wooden limb. “This pure body is made with nothing but wood, glass, and the finest of silk, all handcrafted by yours truly, of course.”

“O-oh, damn, never mind. Sorry I asked, ma’am.”

She swiftly reattached her arm. “Hmph, you’re forgiven.”

“And since we’ve finally found Florathea, we can finally put a stop to it all,” said the queen. “But I’m sure you’re all worried about your dear friend, correct?”

“That’s why we showed up to begin with,” I said. “You promised us a plan that could separate her and the goddess in this trial.”

“That I did.” The queen’s face darkened. “It’s simple, actually. All you have to do is treat this trial like how you would for a genuine one and defend your friend, and Morienelle will do the same as her prosecutor.”

“And I’ll play as the judge!” said Entrophys, twirling a gavel.

“Oh god, this is going to be a short trial, isn’t it?” I mumbled.

“What do you mean by that?! I take my roles very seriously!”

I shot him a doubtful, knowing look.

The queen cleared her throat. “As I was saying, once we lay out all our evidence and convict her, Florathea will have no reason left to hide and will confront us.”

“You’re going to force Florathea to take over her body?!” asked Ashrenne.

“At her current powers, the most she can do is temporary possession,” said Morienelle. “We’ll exhaust her during the confrontation, and once she’s weakened enough, I’ll take care of the rest and sever the link between her and Lora.”

“But what if she’s stubborn and refuses to come out?” asked Dahlian.

The doll scoffed and flipped her hair. “Oh, she definitely will. We’ve set up this trial to make it close to the full moon for a reason. We’ll pressure her to act before we execute her and lose her only chance at reviving.”

“That said, I am aware that commencing a trial entails unnecessary risk, especially when we can easily avoid conflict by executing her outright.” The queen softened her gaze, if only for a moment. “However, I also recognize Lora as an innocent civilian. Therefore, she is entitled to the same treatment as any other citizen under the laws of my kingdom, including a chance to be freed, a chance many of Florathea’s victims never had…”

Her face reverted to its cold expression. “Should this plan fail, I will bear all responsibility. Knowing the risks, do you still wish to continue this path?”

“I’m not backing off on my word,” I said. “I’ll see it through to the end.”

“He said it best,” said Ashrenne. “We’re already prepared for the worst.”

The queen nodded. “Understood. Then, please follow us.”

And so, with our guards raised, we’d stepped inside the courthouse with the queen and the demon generals, mentally prepared for our toughest battle yet. Surely after overcoming plenty of hurdles so far, we’d grown strong enough to take Florathea on, right?

⮽⮽⮽

We were, in fact, sorely wrong.

“I blame everything on the damn queen!” Dahlian shouted, clinging to a roof.

“Hey, stop moving your legs so much!” I shrieked, a hand clinging to his ankles and the other onto Sloane’s coat, the two of us dangling underneath him. “Ugh, h-hurry up and lift us already! I can’t hold on much longer!”

With a grunt, Dahlian swiftly swung his legs and flung us onto the roofs before lifting himself up. The three of us limped side by side, groaning and still shaken up after getting blown right out of the courthouse.

“I freaking called it,” I croaked. “Entrophys is a terrible judge…”

“Whew, what an incredible distance,” said Sloane, counting the buildings we’d flown over. “All from one explosion alone… Such is the might of a goddess indeed.”

With a grunt, I pushed myself back on my feet and surveyed our surroundings, finding out we’d crashed-landed on an entirely different district of the city. “Wow, we really are far away…”

A distant explosion redirected our attention toward it, where a beacon of green light pierced the clouds and cleared the orange sky.

“What is that goddess trying to do?” asked Dahlian.

I grasped my head. “I-I’m not sure…”

Another distant explosion interrupted our train of thought, drawing our gazes toward the ground. To our astonishment and horror, dozens of robed cultists rioted in the streets, carrying torches and burning whatever they could reach.

“No way, even her followers are also on the move?!” Dahlian lifted his chin, gawking as more and more smoke trails appeared over the horizon. “The whole city… is in total chaos!”

“This… does not look good,” said Sloane.

I clutched my head, my heart sinking so deeply it could phase through the ground. “This can’t be happening,” I muttered. “None of this should happen. This… this is all my fault…”

The elf twitched a brow. “What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious?! Lora’s suffering, Florathea’s return, her followers spreading destruction… None of this ever happened in my visions! I screwed up everything from the start!”

I started hyperventilating. “This… none of this would ever happen if I… if I didn’t have this curse—no, if I had just been more careful… I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I didn’t know any of this could happen—”

Out of nowhere, Sloane yanked me toward him and proceeded to deliver a clean slap to my face. Dahlian dropped his jaw and gawked at the two of us.

I cupped my swollen cheek with a shaky hand, staring at the elf in disbelief.

“Haruma, I completely understand how you feel,” Sloane sternly said. “And after getting to know you, I can say for certain that everything you’ve done for us was made with the best intentions, even if the outcome wasn’t perfect, so calm yourself and rethink this in a different light.”

I widened my eyes, recounting all the treasured memories I’d collected so far, memories that would’ve never happened in the original storyline. Not to mention, the sigils responsible for wiping out the city were no longer a concern in this route. How could I forget that so easily?

I gradually relaxed my shoulders. “You’re… right,” I murmured. “But, still, there wasn’t supposed to be so much chaos happening around this time.”

“That doesn’t mean the whole city is doomed to fall yet,” said Dahlian, pointing down. “Look over there!”

I glanced back down at the riots, where the royal guards and a swarm of imps flooded through the streets and swiftly took out the cultists. In no time, they managed to round all of them up before moving on to the next area.

“I… see. It’s not over yet…” I slowly inhaled and smacked my face, my rationale returning by the second. “You’re right. Sorry about that. I don’t know what went over me for a moment there.”

“Don’t worry about it!” said Dahlian, slapping my shoulder. “We all blurt nonsense when we panic.”

“Do you feel better now?” asked Sloane.

I let out a long sigh. “Yeah, thanks for the wakeup call, heh.”

Sloane smiled and nodded. “I’m glad it helped.”

I looked back at the beacon of light, where I could make out a few skirmishes happening around it. Streaks of red light clashed against green, a sigh that couldn’t mean anything else but the demon generals duking it out with the goddess. Even that giant dragon showed up and joined in the fight.

“Wow, they’re really going at it,” said Dahlian. “But we’re way too damn far away to help them out, tsk.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know any spells to get us there quickly,” Sloane muttered.

I looked down at my hands and clenched them. “I think… I might know a way.”