NOVEL NEXT 56. Listening and Comforting
"Justice, what does 'failure will be punished' mean?"
The blindfolded goddess laughed. “Would you prefer to be punished on success? A good spanking in the city plaza, perhaps?"
Bonny blushed, "Uh, no? Well, maybe. But, uh, I mean, what will happen if I don't kill him? If I refuse or someone else does it?"
"There will be no divine punishment for refusing to kill him. It’s just how the quest system was built. However, there will be consequences to leaving him alive, just none of my doing.”
“So, I still have to do it?”
“Yes. Matt is bound to Wrath as you are bound to Lust. If you do not defeat him completely, Wrath will not stop. He will continue to bring war and misery to innocents. Matt is the key and you must sever their bond.”
“Trust and Wisdom hinted at the same thing. But how?”
“There are multiple paths. You must choose this one on your own.”
“Fine. Thank you, Justice.”
"You are welcome."
Bonny looked over her status again, noting the new title and skill. All the training they did on the way made a difference, though not as much as her achievements had. Doing something spectacular seemed to give bigger jumps in ability than repetitive exercise, though over time, consistency was sure to add up.
The other quest was to frighten Courage. How was she supposed to scare a goddess, much less one that literally embodied the ideal of bravery. Or maybe that’s the point. What if the spirits that formed Courage had never really faced fear themselves?
An idea started to form, but she set it aside. It could wait for another night. Bonny joined her friends, who were cleaning and maintaining their equipment while listening to Freja relay the events of the day.
When Freja brought up the assassin, tears started leaking from Bonny's eyes. She had managed to repress the thought throughout the day, mostly due to all the excitement of the chase and goddesses in the temple. But here, among friends, she broke down and cuddled tight to Miu.
"I killed him. I know I had to, that he was evil. He tried to kill me, but ..." Bonny closed her eyes and climbed into Miu's lap, burying her face in the corner of Miu's shoulder and neck.
Miu held the sobbing bunny tight and stroked her hair and back. She looked at Freja, then around the rest of the group. She spoke slowly and carefully, without her usual verbal tic. "I don't know if all of you know, but Bonny is from a different world."
They all nodded, having heard some version of the story while traveling.
Miu continued, rocking Bonny back and forth as she talked. "She had never killed anything before she saved me from the goblins. No monsters, no animals, definitely no people. The goblins killed during our escape affected her for several nights afterward. Her other world was apparently peaceful, with no monsters, and almost no fighting or killing."
Eloisss slid over and laid a hand on Bonny's back. "Are you alright?"
Bonny nodded and reached out to pull the lamia into the hug.
Eloisss curled her coils around the two and touched her forehead to Bonny's. They held on to each other while Freja finished the story. The centaur didn't have all the details, but relayed that Bonny had apparently spoken to each of the seven gods and received a gift from Justice.
"What gift?" Willowbelle asked.
"A sword. Bonny tried to hand it to me, but I couldn't touch it. She has a new aura too."
"Oh. Justice will probably follow us around now, like Courage and Recovery. And Lust." Willowbelle shook her head. "I knew the gods had an, unorthodox, relationship with her before I agreed to come, but they are more active than I expected. Does the attention of the gods bother anyone else?"
Freja shook her head. "I want to be part of something grand. If the gods are with us, how can we lose?"
"It's another Devastation." The words were muffled. Bonny spoke without lifting her head from Miu's shoulder.
"What?!" Freja and Willowbelle spoke at the same time.
"Wisdom told me. All the demons have summoned a champion from my world. Matt and Wrath are only the first. The world will break again if we don't stop them, ."
"But Lust summoned you, right? What does that mean?"
"I don't know yet. Some of us are working with the gods and some are opposed. I'm the Lust Champion and am supposed to be one of the good ones. One of the few trying to save the world instead of destroy it."
The rest of the group crowded around trio in solidarity. Freja and Willowbelle leaned in to hug and touch them. Kanae wiggled her way through Eloisss' coils, then between Bonny and Miu. Adelina landed on Bonny's head and hugged one of her ears.
Freja spoke for them all, despite being the newest addition, "We're here for you. You can rely on us."
Bonny 's response was broken and torn with sobs, "I have to ... to kill Matt ... I have ... to stop him."
"Can one of uss do it insstead?" Eloisss tightened her coils slightly, squeezing Bonny, Miu, and Kanae together painfully. She relaxed her coils when Kanae yipped at her.
"No. Justice said it has to be me. I have a quest on my status." She choked, but tried to continue, "I don't ... I don't want to ... kill ... anyone else. There was ... just ... so much blood ..."
"We will still be there, nya. To help defend you. Like the last time." Miu added. "You won't be alone."
"Thank you." Bonny voice was quiet, almost a whisper.
"Bonny questioned Hope and got zapped earlier." Freja suddenly remembered. "Did you offend her? Will she still help?"
Bonny laughed lightly, but still buried her head into Mui, "That wasn't my fault. Lust started it."
"Lust? The demon spoke inside the temple? That should be sanctified ground. Demons can't enter, can they?" Freja looked concerned.
"I don't know. Lust said I should fuck Mila and give her some Hope. Then I asked if she really was Hope when she didn't offer to help convince the council."
"Bonny!" Freja tried to give warning.
The goddess appeared, in miniature, in front of Bonny's nose, with an evil grin splitting her face. "Here's some Hope for you." Time slowed to a crawl as the goddess reached out to tap Bonny on the nose.
Bonny tried to react and found there was no time to move as the tiny finger slowly made contact. The divine touch was light, soft, and very electrifying. The jolt of power flowed through Bonny and into her friends, their hair and fur all standing on end.
A chorus of exclamations and yells split the air as they all yelped in pain. Freja and Willowbelle released the group and stepped back. The other four remained cuddled tight.
"Quit antagonizing her, Bonny!" Freja admonished.
"But, I didn't. I just said what happened. I think ... I think she just likes shocking me."
Adelina immediately released Bonny's ear and flew up to land on Willowbelle. Kanae struggled to slip out and Eloisss started to loosen her coils, but both responded too late.
Another jolt flashed through them and another chorus of yelps followed.
Kanae and Eloisss abandoned Bonny when they could move again.
Miu still hugged her tight. "I won't leave you, nya."
"Thank you, Miu." Bonny kissed her. "I'm feeling better now."
Eloisss spoke up, interrupting the affectionate display before Bonny took it too far. "You sshould sspeak with the cow girlss. Kanae iss sstill too ssick for tonight, sso you sshould sskip her. We think Nellie wantss to ssleep with you and agreed to allow it."
Bonny looked around the group, then focused on Willowbelle. "Are you sure? If we skip Kanae, shouldn't it go to Willow?"
"I can wait, Bonny." The dryad smiled.
"Okay. I feel better, thank you. I'll go over there later. For now, I just want to sit with Miu." She started to cuddle into the cat, when she suddenly bolted upright as a thought struck her. "Wait, do you think Hope is trying to use electroshock therapy to cure depression or something?"
Bonny yelped as Miu pushed the bunny off of her lap, then yelped again as a tiny divine spark lit up the bunny's nose for the third time.