A Villainess Should Be Strong

The gift of reconciliation. It was something precious given to people's hearts.

Some problems might not be reconciled forever until the end of the world, but Estelle found it within herself to give in into the conditions presented to her and think logically. She chose to look at the bigger picture, seeing Heine as not just the perpetrator and cause of her suffering from a while back, but also saw his efforts.

Wasn't this whole thing happening because he, as Goddess Estraea's younger brother wanted to orchestrate a grand plan to escort her back to the upper realms? The main focus was her, and all the incidents happened because she fell in love with Aleksei, who in turn triggered the wheel of Chaos.

Chaos destroyed the past Surface and turned it into the Underworld, which in turn must've affected their own sentiments as well. Being the ones that actually ruined their realms, it wouldn't be a surprise if the reason Arayle hated her was not because she was a fragment of the Chaos' soul's essence, but actually because she was the reason why their home was destroyed.

Heine accepted Estelle's handshake, but with it, he also broke down in tears. This time, he was bawling, not just having streams of tears fall down and wetting his face. Heine pulled Estelle into a hug, crying on her shoulder.

Estelle was taken aback, but knew that Heine also needed some solace and comfort in order to recover from all the distress he had been charging through. Both parties were stressed, and both needed a moment of silence in order to retrace their steps and gain back a clear mind.

Multiple times, Estelle had been saved by Heine's hand. This time, she would discard all of her hatred temporarily and focus on her goals.

Estelle's hand awkwardly stretched down to pat Heine on the back, ruffling his hair and offering up comfort.

"I'm sorry, Estelle. I'm really sorry for everything," Heine cried as he held Estelle in his embrace, hugging her tight and pacifying both of their feelings. "I'm sorry..."

This was all started by none other than their common enemy, the Chaos. Even though Heine had done wrong in the past, their paths were still going to cross in the end, and Estelle needed Heine's help to pass the unbeatable trials.

Chaos was their goal.

Taking down that damned thing, the one that resulted in all of this stressing matters. The culprit was Ophelia in the story, but Ophelia only served as a fuel to the real enemy: Chaos.

Estelle was finally let go by Heine's grip minutes after he finished crying his heart out, and she let out a gentle sigh of relief as she continued to ask Heine about the things she couldn't find the answer to.

"...Then, if the Ruler's are the ones most affected by Chaos, who in the hell is Elias?" Estelle questioned.

The mysterious man who was just as equally powerful as them, maybe even stronger than their current stages. Heine's full power was still unknown to her, but Elias definitely held back a lot of secrets, ones that Estelle wanted to find out with all her might.

Heine took a deep breath in to restrain his emotions. He was still choked up, but he coughed to clear his throat and continue the discussion.

"Elias is.. another anomaly in the plans. He is truly a denizen of the Underworld, someone who managed to crawl out of that depressing hellhole and cause havoc in the current Surface. He wasn't someone who we put in a specific character position, he has no purpose for us. But.. there is indeed a connection with him. Since you know the Noir, then you must already know Lichte as well. Simply put, Elias is the current leader of Lichte," Heine proclaimed.

Hearing the shocking news, Estelle's mouth gaped in shock.

"Haa? How can that be? I thought Noir and Lichte were one entity..?"

"In a way, they are. However, we work in different ways. We don't cooperate like how a group is supposed to, it is more like.. knowing of each other's existences and acknowledging them as a non hostile entity. Basically, we signed a peace treaty.. one that might break anytime," Heine said.

"Wait a minute.. you- cooperated with Elias?" Estelle furrowed her brows, backing away from Heine, who started to panic and deny the connection.

"It's not me who bridged the two entities. It was my proxy, someone who takes care of Noir in my place. The.. organizations merging were only a way to solidify a good relationship, so that our plans don't clash in the future. Coincidentally, our organizations' name were similar, so people thought that we were really together from the start,"

"..Still, I don't get how Elias is possible to even exist. I mean, isn't Arayle there? Elias could use Destruction Magic in ways more complex than Arayle.. and he isn't even a direct descendant," Estelle tilted her head as she asked.

"I.. am not certain about this yet, but Elias could be the holder of.. Chaos' essence. If not, he wouldn't be able to produce Destruction Magic on his own and use it in such a proficient manner. Like you have suspected a while ago, Lichte were the ones who made the monsters mutate, they were the ones who conducted experiments in Alynthi. I formed Noir a while after I regained my senses, and our movements' pace have only started to increase in the recent times. The ones who committed all those atrocities in those years were Elias' doing,"

"..This is a mess, Heine. How did it get to this stage?"

Chaos, Origin, Creation, all of this were making her dizzy. With each clue she got, the puzzle she needed to solve seemed to just get even larger and larger, making her wonder if it was ever going to be solved, or is she going to meet her doom first.

Being a Goddess. She was also confused in this aspect.

What would being a Goddess do her good in? She didn't want to wield the divinity if all it brought were trouble for her. After experiencing so much hectic stuff, she was tired, physically and mentally. The only reason she refused to back down right now was because of her silly willpower that told her to keep going. Because she was already this far in, falling right now would do nothing good.

"Who knows. All that we have to do now.. is patch up this large wound with the best of our abilities. What have been done can't be reverted, there is no method to turn back time. We can only try to fix everything that occurred, minimize the damages, and continue on with that burden," Heine said with a determined look. "We can solve this, Estelle. We definitely can," he assured.

Estelle's heart shook. Just a moment ago, she was feeling insecure one more time over her identity and her desires. But then, Heine came in and swooped the floor with his motivating words. She laughed internally, thinking that the timing was perfect.

Right. She needed the motivation, because this wasn't the end of her journey.

Continue on for one more chapter, one more volume of her life, open a new story path for her to follow. Even if it meant more suffering and pain for all of them.

The world's origins had been uncovered for now, the next thing to do was to actually get back to being a Goddess. Although Estelle herself didn't know why she had to regain her divinity, it was her 'supposed' fate.

Perhaps, once she fully merged with the identity named Estraea that laid within her, she would be able to open her heart and mind, just to see the ending. The final revelation.

Power meant freedom. And once she became a full-fledged Goddess, got back all of her power, she would be significantly stronger than her of the past. She gained so much experience with struggles, disasters, and emotionally grew stronger.

When time came to it, she would be able to fare better than she did back then.

[I thought that I would just be a simple Villainess, all I needed to do was oppose the Hero.]

[But it seemed like that wasn't the case.]

[Because the world has far bigger plans for me.]

[One that I might not even get to complete at all.]

[But I know one thing.]

[I want to try and see the end with my own eyes.]

[I want to see how high I can reach.]

[I want to know.. if there is even an end.]

[The peak.]

[An ending.]

[I'll persevere. One more second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year.]

[If that is what it takes to let me see the end of all this chaos and touch the peak, then I'll just continue forth.]

[Until I can't prolong my journey.]

[Until my visa ends in this stupid world and I get thwarted back to where I am supposed to end up back then, going down to take a nap in the afterlife and not doing some reincarnated person type of bullshit.]

[Until then.. I will strive forward.]

[To discover more, to grow stronger, and to someday beat all of the adversities, challenges, trials, anything that stands on my path.]

[One day, if I get to see the peak, then I hope it would be worth it.]