"That you have to find out on your own." Karma cocks her head and smiles. "If you don't handle them, it will destroy everything that you hold dear to your heart."
The damn cryptic warning! Can't she just tell me? Ari curses the goddess inside her mind. How would she figure out something that Kresi did before that girl died? It happened so long ago. "You wouldn't be here if you wanted to figure me out on my own."
Karma covers her mouth and giggles with an irritating voice. When Ari frowns at her, she laughs harder.
Is she insane? Ari scrunches her brows and purses her lips together. What is she laughing at? She didn't choose to transmigrate in Kresira Mirin, but she did choose to live with her name. However, both Kresi and she have died. Just because she's reincarnated again, why would she pay for someone else's sins? "What were you going to do if I didn't reincarnate?"
"In that case." Karma scratches her chin. "The entire world would have to bear Kresira's last sins. The seed that Kresi sowed on the heart of Belan had become a terrible creature. There's still time. Since you have a lot of good Karma points, I came to warn you."
"Isn't the heart of Belan that place…?" Ari creases her forehead. When she came to this world for the first time, Raye and one other person took her to a place called the heart of Belan. She got the universal key from that place. "The place where the moons and the stars don't shine."
But nothing happened back then. What did Kresi do there? All she heard was that Kresi's friends were killed in Belan. Kresi saved two kids before she died. Their names were Mirai and Pebby. Last time, she saw them at Andrareanesi's place.
Does she owe a debt to them? It's likely that they owed a debt to Kresi for saving them. Then, who? The person who killed Kresi and Kresi's friends also died in Belan.
"Mogrok would know," Ari mumbles to herself.
When Ari looks up at Karma, she realizes that Karma has already disappeared. Karma's haunting voice rings in her head. "I came as a good Karma today. When I return, I won't be good Karma."
Creepy…
The moment she turns around, she comes face to face with a man. Ari jumps back, startled. The man in a white robe has messy peach-orange hair and dark circles around his salmon eyes. He looks at the spot where Karma was standing a moment ago. He lets out a hopeless sigh. "She's gone again."
Why are strangers keep popping up here? Ari inches closer to the man hesitantly. "Who?"
"My beloved." The man bends down on his knees and rubs the left side of his on the spot where Karma was. "She's a workaholic. She doesn't have any time for me. I am so lonely without her."
That Karma… Oh! She really met a Karma goddess. "Who are you?" What kind of god is he?"
"I am…" The man glances at the girl whom he knows too well. "Naughty."
"W-Wha.." Ari blinks her eyes. "You are Naughty?"
"Since she calls me naughty, I am Naughty." Naughty sniffs the ground like a drug addict. "She didn't even leave her scent behind."
These gods are weird. Ari puts her hands on her hips and watches Naughty with a complicated look on her face. The man is pitiable. "She said that she's going to come back for me."
"She is?" Naughty sits up abruptly and looks at her with wide-eyes. He's been running after Karma for what feels like an eternity. He's so lonely. He hasn't been able to capture her at all. She's always slipping away like an eel.
"She promised me that she would return as Bad Karma." Ari sighs. An idea comes to her mind. "How about this? I will help you capture her if you help me."
"Can you help me capture her?" Naughty lowers his eyebrows, studying her with caution. He has watched her growing up. A part of her suffering was written by his hands. However, the suffering of a mortal rarely matters to a god. There are many who live and die every day. Some stories are repeated in each lifetime.
Among all the reasons behind people's suffering, love causes the most pain. However, he's glad that the dark god broke the fate that he had written for her. Ever since he had fallen in love with Karma, he understands some of the pain that the Dark God must have felt when they kept trying to stop the dark god from meeting her.
"I saved this world once." Ari smirks at him, "I need to deal with some leftover Karma. You help me and then, I will help you set up a trap for her. Once you capture her, you should tie her with a rope or something. So, you can always be with her."
"Is there a rope in this world that can tie her to me?" Naughty scratches his chin with deep lines on his forehead. "She's a powerful goddess. There's rarely anything that can tie her down. She's always running around, chasing the indebted ones. Someone always owes something to someone. When will my karma clean up?"
"The Dark God is also a powerful god." Ari crosses her arms and tells him with a haughty voice, "Isn't he tied to me? How can you show this kind of face? You shouldn't chase her like a stalker. You should make her chase you-- No, nobody should chase anyone. We should do something that she would take you along with her since she's always running around. If you keep waiting around for her to turn around, it will never happen."
That's true. She promised him that she would marry him after his karma cycles are cleaned up. But he keeps accumulating something while chasing her around. His vicious beauty never looks back at him. It won't work out this way.
"I will help you make the rope that will never break." Ari grins at him. "With that rope, we will tie her to you forever."
There's no harm in trying. Naughty gives her a determined nod. "What do I have to do?"
***
With a smug look on her face, Ari looks for Mogrok. She wonders if Adira is still talking to Cina in the throne room. The sky is rather bright today. In the garden, she finds Mogrok snoring on the grass.
"Aish! He's either sleeping or eating these days." She wrinkles her nose and slaps one of his arms. "Wake up, Mogrok."
Drowsy, Mogrok opens some of his eyes and yawns. "Maaaaaaaster~"
"Did you brush your teeth?" She pinches her nose and steps back. "Your mouth smells."
"I forgot to brush today." Mogrok turns back to his smaller form and hops happily. "Master, are you here play with me?"
"Nope." Ari sits down on the glass and moves closer to him. She speaks to him in a low voice, "This should be between us, alright?"
She's up to something. Mogrok could tell easily. "Master, you know that I can't promise that. The dark god will throw me out of the castle if I help you go to Ilucia."
"Tsk!" He calls her Master, but he's only loyal to Adira. Ari shakes her head. It's better to not tell him anything. "I am just curious about something."
"What is it, Master?" Mogrok climbs on her lap and puts his head on her thigh.
"Can you tell me what happened to Kresi on the heart of Belan when she summoned you?" Ari strokes Mogrok's head. "What did she do exactly and how she died?"
Mogrok raises his head toward her. "Why are you curious, Master?"
"I am curious, only curious," Ari replies with a light tone.
He doesn't think of it as much. "When she summoned me, she had been already hurt by the holy fire. She asked me to kill the vessel of the holy fire."
"That's all?" Ari frowns. The vessel of the holy fire was Aeline Starfire who was the chosen one's mother. Does she owe the chosen one? Who was he again? His name was… Aren Starfire.
He nearly raped her.
She takes a deep breath. Let bygone be bygone. They have all suffered because of what Kresi and Aeline did.
But Aeline Starfire killed Kresi's friends that night. Kresi killed her. Shouldn't the debt become clear then? They both did evil things to each other. Certainly, Aeline's sins weight more.
"Did she sow some seeds there?"
"Seeds?" Mogrok frowns. "I don't remember her planting anything. From what I heard, I think that the Belan Spirit helped the vessel of holy fire to kill the cursed children. The spirit wanted to use the vessel's hands to kill the harbinger. It didn't work. Before killing Kresi, she made the Belan spirit take out Aeline's child from Aeline's belly and bound that child to Belan Spirit. Kresi punished the Belan Spirit by binding the lawless child to her. He would have taken her place, but things changed when the gods woke up. Since the dark ehr was cleansed, the prison was no longer a prison. I wonder what happened to that child."