The Red Hand

*DING*

A small timer went off, letting everyone know that the tasty food that Akagi had prepared was finished cooking.

"Alright, everyone, waffles are done! Its time to dig in!" Akagi excitedly opened the waffle irons, revealing the golden, fluffy, goodness within. "I put out a small topping bar over there, so help yourself! We've got chocolates, fruits and vegetables and all sorts of awesome things that I copied from that nice Dutch place Yumi and I went to the other week." She greedily slapped one on a plate as Yumi helped herself to some peanut butter syrup.

“That place was amazing! But I'll have to take off a few points from my approval of the Dutch for Hagelslag though.” Yumi chuckled.

{I mean, sprinkles on bread? How is that a real food?} (Yumi)

"Ok, so would someone please tell me... WHY ARE WE HAVING A WAFFLE PICNIC WHILE THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL IS LITERALLY ON FIRE?!?" Amakusa yelled as she looked down the hill toward the city in chaos. There was all kinds of fires burning and mages were flying around using water magic to try and put them out.

"Because I wanted waffles?" Akagi said as she sprinkled small chocolates onto her waffles. “And isn't that the only reason that matters?”

{YOU DON'T EVEN NEED TO EAT!} (Amakusa)

"Oh! Are those fresh strawberries?" Halifax said as she helped herself, ignoring the Amakusa's venting. "I'm so glad I only had that apple this morning!" She smiled.

{YOU DON'T NEED TO EAT EITHER!} (Amakusa)

"Alright, I give up. Lady Elariel, please tell me that I'm not the fucking crazy one here, please." Amakusa pleaded to the Goddess who was sitting on the picnic mat silently, not paying attention to her or anything else going on.

"I... Um... I'm sorry, I haven't really been paying attention to what's been happening..." Elariel gave a wry smile as she snapped out of her stupor after being poked in the shoulder by the Hero. The Goddess felt the death of her sister, and despite knowing that it was coming, the Elariel was caught off guard by the sudden loss.

{Tahena... She's gone...} (Elariel)

"Now now. Leave the Goddess alone, pet." Akagi said while chowing down on a fluffy waffle. "I can only imagine what's going through her mind at the moment, so don't go trouble her with your pestering. If you want pets and ear scratches I'll be more than happy to provide."

“I don't-” Amakusa was about to retort, but knew that would get her nowhere.

{As for what's in that Goddess' head, I'd wager that its probably a mixture of shock and horror.} (Akagi)

"But Elariel, I hope that you understand this will be far from the last time you have to deal with one of your little siblings biting the big one." Akagi commented, waving a fork at the Goddess. "It's too bad that I couldn't eat her. Otherwise she would've probably made for a far more tasty treat than these waffles." She laughed as she stared a piece on her fork before munching on it.

{Gods lacking souls to consume is a very annoying feature. I suppose I'll just have to find a way to deal with that later, though luckily lacking a soul doesn't mean killing them is any harder.} (Akagi)

"Hmmmm. I don't know, these waffles are pretty good." Halifax said with a smile as she took a bite. "Yumi is just far too good of a cook! It's not fair that you get to enjoy this kind of stuff all the time!"

{Says the sword that's joined in on the Dragon and Vampire in eating me out of house and home...} (Akagi)

"Considering that I make food for such a fickle little kitty over here, I need to make sure it's especially good." Yumi snickered.

"It's not my fault that I got hooked on fine dining." Akagi shrugged. "Blame the Imperial Nobility for showing me just how good the good food can be."

"And by good food she means Sake." Yumi commented. "This one here couldn't get enough of that during our adventures, and always pitched a fit when we ran out."

"Oi! I need my drink!" Akagi complained. "Not to mention that I couldn't get coffee in FWO! Plus, you know darn well that 99% of the food in Altus was bland as hell!"

{The only time I got halfway decent to good food was in those damn Noble parties that were scripted!} (Akagi)

"I mean, it was only bland to players." Yumi retorted, noting that she'd always found the food of her home world great. "To us residents of that world, it tasted normal. So that sounds like a you problem." She laughed as she turned one of Akagi's favorite phrases back on her.

"Lucky bastards!" Akagi gripped her fork, seemingly in pain at the thought of FWO food. "Do you have any idea how horrible it was to find such good-looking food as a reward only for it to taste like plastic?!? BAH! It was infuriating!" She'd found so many amazing-looking food items, but most tasted terrible due to how the VR system worked.

{I'll never forget that curry dish...} (Akagi)

"What was that even like anyway?" Halifax asked as she poured a cup of coffee from a small kettle. "I mean, being like... not exactly... How do I put this without sounding bad..."

"Not real?" Yumi used the phrase that the Sword didn't want to use, which caused the chatter to die down.

{Oh, right... Yumi's a bona-fide NPC come to life...} (Amakusa)

"It's fine. I've heard those words far too many times at this point to even care, so don't think that you need to tiptoe around the issue." Yumi shook her head, understanding that this was an awkward conversation for everyone. "But to answer what I think is your question, from our perspective, life simply went on as normal. I have memories from my childhood, and with a few minor exceptions, things were about as they are now." She couldn't really recall any instances where being an NPC within the game actually impacted her life negatively, nor could she point to anything being all that different since she'd been granted a soul and body.

{Though the revelation that our memories from BEFORE the start of the game's service were fabricated is a bit...} (Yumi)

"I still can't believe that magic had the power to make game characters come to life or that it made people take their abilities into the real world." Amakusa had seemingly given up on caring about the strangeness of the waffle picnic and had grabbed some small marshmallows to place on top of a golden waffle.

"Fuck if I know how it works." Akagi shrugged as she chewed. "It makes no real sense to me, but then again I'm not as magically knowledgeable as Zephiria. She tried to give me the technical rundown of it once, but I zoned out about halfway through."

"To think that our efforts resulted in not just the slaughter of countless innocent people, but also created a far bigger monster in the long run." Amakusa sighed, seeing a bit of irony in things. "It almost seems like the Gods made things worse by summoning us."

"Well, you're both right and wrong there." Akagi said as she sat her plate down and poured a cup of coffee. "On one hand the Gods fucked themselves royally. By trying to save their own assess from going down with the sinking ship that is this world, then ended up solidifying their doom by setting off a series of events that bring us to where we are now." She figured it was like a long chain of dominoes that slowly but surely fell until they reached the present moment.

"Ah yes. They caused a chain reaction that lead to us having a waffle picnic atop a hill while watching the Imperial Capital freak out over the death of a Goddess." Halifax laughed, seeing the same funny situation that Akagi did. "I'd say it's going pretty good so far!"

"But on the other hand, they might have actually created the best possible scenario if you think about it." Akagi continued as she took a sip from her mug. "FWO, in and of itself, was never going to satisfy my inner needs, and games, while super fun, were little more than a coping mechanism for my internal issues." She sighed, recalling her anxiety and depression from the past. "Gaming, Anime, Manga... None of those were going to actually address my real issues, let alone stop me from eventually losing myself to my power."

{It was going to be there one way or another, and without all the mental fortitude I'd gained over the last few years, there's no way I'd've been able to resist the call to violence within my soul.} (Akagi)

"Now that I think about it, you said something about Vikes potentially suffering in the same way." Halifax's words caused the barely lucid Goddess to snap to attention. "And how he may not have caused as much destruction as he did if he'd found a way to deal with his issues."

{Thinking about how he may have just been a child that lost himself... Its kind of...} (Halifax)

"W-We could've stopped Vikes?!?" Elariel yelped, startling Amakusa and nearly making her drop her waffle. "We could've done something to avert that catastrophe?!?" She still bore the mental scars of the Demon Lord's destruction, and it was something that still haunted her even four millennia later.

"I will stress that my assertion there was based solely on the assumption that I'm not just some kind of fluke." Akagi said as she sipped her coffee. "Recall that the only reason I didn't go down that same path was because of a very very specific series of events that I can't imagine happening again, at least not any time soon anyway." She glanced at Yumi who giggled.

{As Kana saw in that one dream she had, all it took was one thing to be missing for Demon Lord Akagi to start burning the world. Without Kana, Yumi and the others all lining up perfectly...} (Akagi)

"I suppose that I'll admit that what you are now is much better than what you could've been." Amakusa rolled her eyes. "Though I still don't approve of your actions on Earth."

{You're still just a tyrant who plays with people's lives.} (Amakusa)

"Approve or disapprove if you will. I don't care what you or most anyone else thinks, pet." Akagi shrugged. "I've said it before, and I'll say it until I'm blue in the face. The fact that I've allowed things to mostly run as they have before is an incredible generosity on my part. I can retract said kindness if you'd like." She smirked. “But then who would be the real villain here?”

{YOU! IT WOULD STILL BE YOU!} (Amakusa)

"I'll say that Humanity placed in chains would make the construction of the statues in your honor far easier." Yumi laughed, Amakusa not entirely convinced that the Priestess was joking.

"Would they be of Catkagi or regular Akagi?" Halifax asked. “Because I think we need more floof.”

"Probably a mix of the two, though Catkagi might end up having slightly more." Yumi replied with a giggle.

"And don't forget the skull throne!" Akagi reminded them of something very important. "I need that so that I can sit on Yumi's lap and act all menacingly as they build the statues below."

"Now I'm just imagining people pushing massive heavy blocks around while being whipped. Meanwhile, a recording of the kitty's MEW plays over a loudspeaker on loop." Halifax laughed.

"Hmmmm." Akagi thought about it for a moment.

"Oh god, please don't tell me she's going to do that..." Amakusa sighed.

"I think I'll test it out on Armalthy first." Akagi nodded. "He could use a bit of spice to change up his torture a bit."

"Do I even want to know what somebody did to warrant you taking a personal interest in their torture?" Amakusa had a bad feeling in her gut, since she figured Akagi wasn't one to dirty her hands in such a way normally.

"The long and short of it is that he tried to take Yumi away from me, and on the list of things never to do that one's number one by a country mile." Akagi answered with a scary smile.

"I know people go kinda crazy for the one they love but..." Amakusa's words faded away as she retreated into thought.

"Love..." Akagi mouthed the words. "Listen, the only thing that you need to know is that I'd sooner obliterate everything else than live without Yumi."

{And I love you too.} (Yumi)

"Such passion!" Halifax said with an over dramatic hand to the forehead. "I can only wish to one day have a woman love me so deeply! Oh the beauty in such pure affection!"

"Well, to be fair, it was Akagi who stole my heart first." Yumi giggled. "Though it took far too long for her to even come around to the idea."

"That's because I was an absolute moron who had no clue how such things even worked." Akagi shrugged. "Hell, I still don't..."

{I... I... Alice... Are you right? Do I... Can I really feel love? Is it really possible for someone like me to...} (Akagi)

"It's okay." Yumi slid over and hugged Akagi. "As long as we can be together, I don't care how bad you are at it." She smiled.

{Gag me...} (Amakusa)

"So..." Akagi's eyes snapped to the suspiciously quiet Goddess, who looked like she wanted to say something. "Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" She could tell that Elariel still wasn't in a good place mentally and that it was taking all her strength to keep it together.

"I..." Elariel gulped, her next words said with a slightly shaky voice. "I think I might know someone who can help get you into the Heavenly realm."