In the back of the Serpent's temple, a grand feast once again awaited them at a long table. Atzi wasted no time digging in. It's important I keep myself happy if I have to keep repeating stuff.

  Only after she was satisfied did she lean back, digging in-between her sharp teeth with one of her clawed fingers. She dug out the edge of a wing and then ate it. Patting her stomach, she said, "Alright, how to phrase this... I'm a prophet too. So you can't eat me to make a new kid, sorry. If you wanna know how I know about that, I promise I'll explain it all, and some other stuff you'll really wanna hear."

  The Serpent smiled at her. "How interesting." Another one of her bodies leaned over, placing her hand on her leg. "You're quite a catch."

  Atzi rasped out a shy laugh before continuing. "The truth is, I can't die. Well, not permanently. I've come back to life at least a dozen times now."

  "Then why can't I eat you?" the Serpent asked in a faux-offended tone. "Or us!" her other bodies added.

  "Because then everything gets reset. You did, once. You don't remember doing it, cause it hasn't happened yet? This stuff's too complicated for me sometimes. That's how I know about it, though."

  "So you'd let me eat you if everything wasn't reset?" The Serpent teased.

  "After Malus killed me one time, I thought, why not try talking to the Serpent about it? Worst thing that can happen is I have a nice feast and a nice fuck before I die-" The Serpent's words caught up to her. "Ah, I don't... wanna actually be eaten..." Her voice trailed off into quietness.

  The Serpent shook her head slowly. "Kids these days. No respect for proper lovemaking. Go on."

  "Uh. So, Malus screwed up a ritual and opened a gate to the underworld. This morning, in fact. She's got a bunch of necromancers from Pomaria keeping it under control, for now, but in six days time they can't hold it anymore and it breaks. Sostra - destroyed. All of it. Endless undead kill everyone. That's the same day as the godscouncil though. All the gods working together can seal it up properly and fix this. The problem is that Malus is a scheming old bitch." Atzi grimaced. "If you confront her about it she's got a fake Saintess to- right, shit, I need to explain that part. Uh, the Saintess died. And she's keeping that secret."

  At the word 'secret', the Serpent suddenly looked a lot more interested. "Oh-ho," she said, her other two bodies stepping closer.

  Atzi continued, "She was in Novae when it blew up."

  "This is bad for her election chances," the Serpent remarked.

  "Oh. Yeah, the Star wins it. At least, he did last time."

  "Interesting." The Serpent tapped her chin, then reached a claw to cut open the side of a roasted chicken. "Did you know the Star has been scheming since he joined to take over the place?"

  "Really?"

  "Mhmm. We're partners. I'm his number two in schemes." The Serpent winked. She pulled back a strip of chicken flesh and ate it. "And number three," another body remarked. "And number four."

  "Oh, so you know about the artifact?"

  "Artifact?"

  "...Guessing not then. Well... screw it, you can keep it secret. Don't tell his prophet you know about this, or she'll probably hate me. The Star lost an artifact recently. Something that can mess with time itself. That's probably the reason why I can't die."

  "Oh? What toys has that boy been keeping from me..." the Serpent wondered aloud.

  "The important thing here is the Saintess died in Novae, but Malus couldn't handle that and tried to bring her back. And succeeded. Sort of. Meet her new Prophet." Atzi motioned to herself with a disparaging laugh.

  The Serpent shook her head. "It's all so silly."

  "If she's confronted at the godsouncil with all this, she should admit it. Should. I tried uh... bringing it up before then, she weaselled out of it and I just got my neck snapped for my trouble."

  "Poor thing. Well! In that case, I'll take you to the council!"

  "Perfect!"

  "You know, if you're telling even partly the truth, this means the Star will finally win. And if you're just messing with me, well, after I let you speak I'll just call you a clown and kill you!" the Serpent laughed.

  Atzi tried to laugh along.

  "It will be fun either way," the Serpent said, a playful look in her eyes.

  Atzi slumped, relieved. "This is why I came to you, you're the only one that actually helps."

  "What can I say? I'm weak to cute little lizards."

  Atzi grinned like an idiot while picking up another jewel beetle to eat.

  "Incest always turns out messy, so I don't usually get to have fun with my own kind." the Serpent sighed.

  "Oh, right! I need to go meet up with one of your daughters later. Did you know the prophet of the Shapeshifter was messing with her? Or, rather, he's going to mess with her tomorrow. I'm going to make sure he fails since he's a real piece of shit. I told him about all of this stuff and you know what he did? He slit my throat!"

  "Rude," one Serpent said.

  "Yeah!"

  "You shouldn't slit someone before sex," another added.

  "Uh. Yeah, that too....?"

  "Which daughter is it?" the Serpent asked.

  "Oh. Kurgi."

  The Serpent's eyes sparkled. "Kurgi! Oh I love Kurgi! She's so delightfully airheaded. Most unlike my usual scheming brood."

  "She really is. I mean that in a good way. Except last time she gave me spicy blood and it got me killed."

  "I have no idea what that is. What's spicy blood?" She turned to the doorway and shouted, "Andrew!"

  Her prophet entered, looking tired. "Yes?"

  "What's spicy blood?"

  Andrew glared at Atzi. Even though one of his eyes was covered with scales, she swore he was glaring with that one, too. "It is a magical drug."

  "And you didn't tell me about it before? You know I love drugs!"

  Andrew grimaced. "...Yes. I do know your love of drugs. My apologies."

  "Hmm. Well, you're lucky I don't consider that a betrayal." The Serpent dug at her teeth. "It's probably just more blaze crystals. Why is every new drug blaze crystals?"

  Atzi spoke up, "Do blaze crystals affect a god if their prophet takes it? Because that happened to me."

  "Incredible! I've never heard of anything like that before. Andrew, you must fetch us some."

  Andrew's eye twitched.

  Atzi scratched the back of the head. "Oh. Aha... whoops… C-can't be as bad for you as it was for me, I apparently pissed people off so badly someone stabbed me to death in the streets."

  "Did they at least have sex with you first?"

  This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

  "I don't think so...?"

  The Serpent sighed. "Things aren't like they used to be. Am I old?" She directed the question at Atzi. The Serpent's tone was as playful as always, but now there was something dangerous in her eyes.

  Voice shaking, Atzi tried to change the topic. "You don't... feel the same way the other gods do when talking about stuff...? L-like, a lot less formal, less... stuffy?"

  All three of the Serpent's bodies laughed. "That's right! That lot always get so serious. I mean why did we ascend to godhood if not to pleasure ourselves? They go on about duty this and power that. Even Starry is such a bore when he isn't coming up with millennia-long schemes."

  Atzi blinked. "Do you mind if I get in touch with his prophet too? She gave me a way to definitely get her attention. Well, she'll wanna talk to me after the gods council anyway..."

  The Serpent waved a hand dismissively. "Oh go ahead. Go ahead. I don't plan to stop you. Do as you like."

  "Oh, cool. I didn't realise you and the Star were allies, are there a bunch of... alliances and enemies like that, in the council?"

  The Serpent grinned. "Ask me again after the council if you're curious."

  "Sure." Atzi grabbed yet another jewel beetle and stuck it in her mouth "Oh, right. There's something else you found out before, that's interesting. Apparently you can still make me a priest, even though I'm a prophet?"

  The Serpent's body closest to Atzi walked closer. "I can? Interesting! Let me try."

  "Yeah, I had no idea until you figured it out. We had no idea who I was a prophet of then-"

  The Serpent rested a hand on Atzi's head. In a flash of white light- again her body was embraced by a thousand clawed hands. And just as soon, it was over.

  When Atzi regained her composure, she blinked up at the Serpent. "... Hey, last time you told me I had to get naked for it to work!"

  Andrew coughed.

  The Serpent laughed again. "That's great! I should have thought of that."

  "You did. Er, you know what I mean."

  One of the other bodies cleared some space on the table. "Unless you want to get naked and dance for me on the table?"

  "I'm n-not much of a dancer..."

  "If you really are going through time, you should learn how to dance. After all, anything you learn would stick with you, wouldn't it?"

  "I wanted to learn magic, and maybe I could but uh, I'd need to find gems and eat them." She shrugged. "Don't suppose you have any....?"

  "Even if I did, I don't like you that much."

  Atzi sighed. "I'll need to figure out where to even find some if I wanna cast spells… I've been learning a bunch, but I've never found any yet." There were the gems she'd heard about at the Academy, the ones that'd gotten eaten by that chicken, but she still had to go grab them. "All I'd need to know is how to do it once and I'm set."

  The Serpent looked down at Atzi's claws. "Have you tried hunting monsters?"

  Atzi shook her head rapidly. "They'd kill me for sure!"

  "Don't know until you try. And if you're telling the truth, your failure doesn't cost as much as most people's."

  "Well... true. I'd have to get better at fighting to pull that off, I'm mostly good at dodging out the way."

  "You could always team up with other people. Make them do most of the killing but take a share of the spoils yourself. Oftentimes a large amount of monsters, or one really strong one, will be guarding gems."

  "I guess I could learn where the good scores are... I gotta try that sometime. Just, uh, first need to stop Sostra getting destroyed." Atzi stood up.

  "Just come back here the night before the council. Ta for now!"

  Atzi waved goodbye to the Serpent. All three of her waved back. Weird how the crazy cannibal deity is the most helpful one. The Ancestor is useless unless I could prove I have the Saintess' powers And the Shapeshifter's prophet is just an asshole!

  -

  Leaving the Serpent's temple, Atzi had a bunch of things she wanted to take care of, like spiting the prophet of the Shapeshifter, or getting the book from V. She would get money from Terra's book, plus it'd give her a way to see the sage if she needed to. Or if she could figure out more about Cory, maybe use it in that way.

  So she went out to get it. As always, she hopped the fence, went to the sewers, got her arm dirty grabbing the crowbar, and retrieved the book from the wall. Then she headed back to the inn to wash up. She felt like she was getting used to the routine. It was pretty boring doing the same stuff over and over, but the book was just too useful to ignore.

  After, she got dressed to find Kurgi again. This time she wouldn't take any drugs- she was just going to sleep with her, instead. That was something she didn't mind repeating.

  A few hours later, they laid in a stranger's fancy bed together.

  "That was fun," Kurgi said from beside her. "How'd you know I liked it like that?"

  "Intuition," Atzi replied.

  "Well you were very intuitive." Kurgi giggled.

  "By the way... I did know about you before I saw you here. Only from description, though. We have a mutual enemy."

  "Huh?" Kurgi frowned. "Someone's enemies with me? Oh no!"

  "Someone wants to stop you and Scabiel getting together."

  "Who is it? That bitch Martha?" Then she said the word, "Gasp!"

  "Uh. No, it's not Martha." Whoever that is. "It's the prophet of the Shapeshifter. He thinks you're stealing her away. I found out what he's gonna do, too. He's gonna disguise as her and try and ruin things for you both. So if Scabiel shows up tomorrow and acts like a total bitch for no reason? It's not actually her, it's him."

  Kurgi nodded fervently. "Got it!"

  "Good. Good luck with her."

  "Gosh you're the best friend ever." Kurgi hugged her. "And we only just met!"

  "J-just helping out," Atzi let out half a cough, half nervous laugh.

  Kurgi stared at her in the eyes. "Wanna go for round two?"

  "...Yes."

  -

  They were discovered and kicked out of the house.

  "Bye!" Kurgi called after her.

  "See you around! Don't forget!" Atzi called back. She was very, very tired, as it was already the afternoon. She slinked into the inn, ready to just go to bed.

  "Atzi, why do you look so… sticky?" Hemm asked.

  "Uh... a good party?"

  "Did you literally bathe in alcohol?" Hemm stepped closer and sniffed. "Wait but you don't smell like it..." Then her eye widened. "Oh. A 'good' party." She winked. Blinked? Atzi couldn't tell.

  Atzi gave an embarrassed laugh.

  Hemm didn't look embarrassed at all. Atzi wondered why it sometimes seemed like Hemm liked her, and other times not at all. Was she making things up in her head because of what Marco said? Or was she failing to see the signs even now?

  "You should find someone to watch the inn for a night sometime, the festival's great," Atzi said as she headed upstairs.

  "Oh, I mean, I don't really have anybody I'd trust. Marco's so new, you know? During the day is fine, but…"

  "Ah..." Atzi didn't volunteer. Who would trust me with an inn?

  She took a bath and then slept.

  ===

  It was a long sleep. By the time she woke up and ate dinner, it was almost time for the meeting at V's. Since Atzi had all the codewords she needed, she just planned to give them the day after. She'd realized it was probably a dumb idea to reveal she already had them.

  I don't want to have to do everything again when I haven't gotten to do anything new yet!

  She gave her dagger to the guards and entered the meeting. She played her pathetic self, sinking in on herself as she tried to remember how afraid she used to be of V and the others. It just didn't have the same sting with how much she'd been through, all the different ways she'd died. The only thing that gave her pause was, as always, Cory and her beautiful… everything. Words like song and a body like- Atzi resolved she'd find a way to get through to her, eventually.

  There were arguments. Discussions of the plans. She was mostly not paying attention, but she made sure to refresh herself on those, since she wanted to finally do the job if possible.

  Scrying magic Aelia would handle. Ground floor and basement with rotating guards. Down the ramp was where most of the defenses would be, but also the vault. A blood lock for Cory to open. Her and Paulina would work together to disable the guards, something Paulina was unhappy about. Fence and V running interference from outside.

  It made sense to Atzi. She just hoped she'd get to live to see it. And that Cory was wrong about V betraying them.

  After the meeting, Atzi stuck around for V to explain the other job. The one about gathering the codewords from the bank guards, which she'd already completed in other loops. She waited for V to finish before speaking up. "When do you want me to come by with what I found?"

  "If you have the information, come here as soon as possible. If I am out, you are free to stay in the living room until I return," they said.

  "Okay. I'll try and be thorough..." I want to see how they react to me already knowing so bad! Atzi barely kept herself back from blurting them out.

  "Then we all understand our parts."

  -

  After the meeting, Atzi just wandered around, already out of ideas for how to pass her time. She remembered that the chicken stole the gems some time in the evening, but it was only morning. Still, it felt weird to her to only really be waiting. She didn't like waiting.

  Atzi passed by the arena. I used to treat money as pretty important, when did I stop? Weird.

  She went to the temple district, nosing around for any sign of the Pomarian necromancers.

  She didn't find any. Do they really just stay with the gate all the time?

  Then she walked by some people gossiping.

  "Did you hear about the demon terrorizing the route to Mediolanum?"

  "What, a demon? What's it doing there?"

  "No idea, but it's challenging anyone to a fight who crosses its path. Making a lot of trade harder."

  She thought about how that would make it more difficult if she ever had to visit that place. Why does everything have to be so complicated?

  Eventually out of ideas, Atzi started making her way back to the inn to sleep. She wanted to be well rested to take the gems for herself. And then I can take the book to Terra, and maybe she'll teach me magic!