Irium

"It does seem so, doesn"t it, Niviks?" I say with a smile, unable to hold in the expression.

"What do you mean it seems so?" He asks, confused. "You have a demiG.o.d and 3 powerful Tamers running after you and causing that b.i.t.c.h so much annoyance. Now, you also have a guy trying to create chaos in Frost, the planet that b.i.t.c.h Dues was raised in and cares about probably the most."

"Well, the situation does seem kinda dangerous!"

"Kinda dangerous? You are messing with the strongest person in the universe and you are saying its "kinda dangerous"?"

"Well, you see, my friend," I say, "No matter how powerful a person might be, they always have a weakness. Even though Dues ex machina wants to believe it, she is no G.o.d. She is just a person like the rest of us. And so, even she has a weakness. All you have to do is exploit it."

"Oh yeah? And what is her weakness?" He asks sarcastically, probably thinking I won"t be able to answer that. And it makes sense why he would think that. After all, there actually was a time where Dues had almost no weaknesses aside from her plan and its details that could have harmed her if they got out. But now, it"s different.

"It"s the fact that she is the strongest that is her weakness." I say. "She was almost invincible a while ago but now, now that she has proclaimed herself a G.o.d, anything that challenges her status as a so-called G.o.d would be harmful to her."

Literally anything that harms her image of fear and respect and power will cause her annoyance. And that"s because this image of "G.o.d" she has created for herself is her weakness.

"Do you know why I didn"t lie to Irium? Why I just told him my end goal of rising to the top of the mage-world?"

He shakes his head in denial, and so, with a smile, I tell him,

"It"s because he too understands very well that, by becoming "G.o.d", Dues has made herself vulnerable. He too knows that if anyone tries to bring her down, they would need to strike at her image. He too knows that Dues ex machina is – the strongest and most vulnerable person in the universe."

"…" He is speechless. Of course he is. Most people don"t realize the most obvious things until it"s too late to do anything. I guess that"s where I differ from "most people".

"Niviks," I say, "I"m telling you – I am gonna be the king of magic one day. And THAT will happen despite the fact that I am one of the weakest mages on Earth."

I will make it happen, no matter the cost.

*****

Ten minutes of going through the forest and I have already encountered a wild boar, two wolves, a pack of hyenas and another bear. I have been somehow able to avoid all of them so far but I really am regretting deciding to go through the jungle. I am sure I would make the same choice if I could go back in time but man does this give me some whining rights.

"You sure about this?" I hear a voice that sounds like one of a teenage boy. Since the words I hear are translated for my understanding, I am expecting that, however the voices of these people actually sound, I hear them like a human with their level of maturity would sound. That is the reason I haven"t found anything particularly monologue-worthy about their voice till now.

Anyway, back to the topic, the boy seems to be around 14-16 from his voice. Okay, I don"t know, he could be less than 14. I just know he is younger than me so I a.s.sumed that.

"Yeah, d.a.m.n right I am." A girl"s voice comes next. She seems to be a teenage too. I slowly move through the bushes trying to not let them hear me so they continue their conversation. I am interested to see what they are talking about after all.

"Fine! Let"s take it then!" The boy says. I have adjusted myself beneath a bush enough to finally be able to get a look at both of them. They don"t look particularly different from any other Frost children I have seen so far. The thing that they are talking about though – that is something that interests me.

"Alright, you get its head and I"ll get its tail." The girl offers.

"No way! I am not getting stuck with the head. You do that. Taking him is your idea in the first place!" The boy says, quite freaked out by the thought of "getting the head", whatever that means.

"So what? Starting this whole thing was your idea. And now that we need this thing as an ingredient and I am telling to take it, this becomes my idea?" The girl retorts, also freaked out by the same thing it seems. Well, ingredient, eh? That"s quite a witch-y word when used in such a situation.

"Fine, let"s go with rock-paper-"

I cover my ears and close my eyes. I don"t want this stupid game that somehow decides all the important stuff in animes to take place before my eyes as well. Seriously, this gimmick of rock-paper-scissors solving things is not even that generic and yet it is so stupidly annoying. I mean, yes, being the great weeb that I am, I have made major decisions of my life through a rock-paper-scissor game as well; like, that one time I played rock-paper-scissors against Danny to decide who takes the blame for playing a prank on the P.E. teacher when the principle called us to his office. It was something we both had done together but exams were coming and one of us needed to get the notes from the cla.s.s so we decided one of us will take all the blame in the office. Of course I lost the game and then betrayed Danny by not taking the entire blame and that plan completely bombed but hey, it was back in middle-school. I was a kid back then. And that reminds me, there were a couple of kids I was eavesdropping on.

I turn my gaze back to them and see that the boy, who probably lost the game, is trying to catch a fox by grabbing its head and the girl is trying to grab its tail. Well, at least I now know what the h.e.l.l they were talking about.

*****