Chapter 106: Answers
“Helades!” Simon yelled, staggering toward the light. “Helades, this is level 30, and I’m here! You owe me some answers!”
“Well, an answer at least,” she said just behind him, making him whirl around to see the Goddess. “And might I say, you’ve made excellent progress. It only took a handful of deaths and a few years of life to get all the way down to the ogre. Good work.”
“I didn’t come here to make progress!” he yelled, wiping away the blood on his forehead before it dripped into his eye and sheathing his sword lest the Goddess decide he was threatening her. “I came to talk to you!”
“So talk,” she said, her smile growing a little tighter. “What is it you want to know.”
“Freya, was she faithful to me? Did I fail her? Did Varten…” he asked without a moment's hesitation, but despite his need, he still couldn’t bring himself to finish the awful thought.
A dozen more important questions flashed through his mind in that instant, but he ignored them. That was the only one that kept him up at night, though. That was the one he needed to know the answer to more than anything.
“Oh, Simon, I thought we were past this,” Helades sighed. “Are you sure there aren’t other, more pressing questions on your mind?”
She proceeded to drone off a list of questions in his own voice, one after the other, and each one left him slightly more pissed off as she seemed to read his mind and, worse, mock him: “Why am I too late to save people, but just in time to clean up the mess? How does that make any sense? Why do some levels reappear while others stay completed? What the hell is it I'm supposed to do with that stupid basement anyway?”
“Passed?” he asked, balling up his fists involuntarily as he ignored her list. “I loved her. Helades. I still do, but I need to know. More than I need to know why Schwarzenbruck is back or why Freya has changed. I need to know!”