What would you do if one day someone asks you, "Do you want to be a god?" What will your answer be? What if you said yes but the god you become wasn't what you expected? Will you regret it? Sky Goddess Chapter 1 A story of adventure in a fantasy world. By Shinieris

Michael Albright, recently graduated from a renowned university in the field of mechanical engineering (aerospace) sat on his chair watering a crop field. He was playing Black & White, a god-game from Bullfrog Studios, touted as one of the greatest god-game in existence. He enjoyed playing god and saving his people from rival gods intent on destroying his people. He saved and closed the game soon after thwarting another attempt at an invasion of his villages and prepared to go to sleep.

That was when an MSN IM window popped up on his screen. He looked at it and saw that it was from someone using the ID sky_kingdom@hotmail.

Sky_kingdom: Would you like to be a god?
M_al: You mean having powerful magic and being worshipped by devoted followers?
Sky_kingdom: Yes.
M_al: Of course! Who wouldn't?
Sky_kingdom: Understood.

Then he stopped chatting. Michael didn't dwell on it too much. Probably just some psycho who thought that magic was real. Michael went to bed shortly after. He had a job interview the next morning.

------

Shine bright,
mother moon.
Howl strong,
wind spirits.
With my voice I request,
open the Worldgate.
Be they gods, spirits,
or demons,
open the gates
and hear my wishes.

As he finished his words, he threw the crystal in his hand into the marble wishing pond in front of him. Once he heard the sound signalling that the crystal had hit the bottom, he tapped on the water's surface with his palm and said,

Open the Worldgate.
Come forth, god, spirit or demon.
Face you, I shall,
Like the great hero Mereth,
once summoned the goddess Gloria.
And like the summoner priestess Lerialia,
once summoned the demon Asfodus before him.
Come forth and recognize my worth.

Soon after he finished, the surface of the water glowed a golden light, as if answering his challenge. There was a deafening sound, as if the world itself was being ripped asunder. The warrior's courage faltered, but his resolve remained unbroken. Men had failed him, weapons had failed him, faith had failed him. What was left was to rely on this one final chance to save his people, whether it be his doom or his salvation, he prayed that the gods would grant the latter.

Suddenly the trees around him and the wishing pool caught fire and burned fiercely as if an unseen hand were constantly adding fuel to its flames. Winds buffeted him from all sides, making him lose his stance, but he stood firm, on two legs, feet rooted to the ground. Then rain fell and despite the heavy rain, the burning trees showed no sign of snuffing. It was then that the ground under his feet cracked dropped into what appeared to be an underground cavern. He was barely in time to grab the edge of the marble pool and hoisted himself upward, he saw a scene that awed him for the rest of his life.

For in front of him, standing above the glowing surface of the pool, was a woman so breathtakingly beautiful he thought he was already with the gods. For a long moment he stared at her, unmoving, save for his own breath making mists in front of him. He failed to realize that his breath shouldn't be making any mists in the middle of summer. Only when a lightning struck near him did he remember his purpose, the reason why he summoned her.

A goddess, a spirit or a demoness? he wondered to himself. Any of which was fine to him. If she was a goddess, he would offer his services as her warrior in the afterlife. If it was a spirit, he would offer to be taken as a servant in her world. If it was a demoness, he would offer her his soul. All to save his people from the wretched hands of Molodhir.

Then she opened her eyes, and it glowed the same colour of gold as her luxurious hair. "What the hell?!" was all that she said when she saw him.

"I am the one who summoned you. Pray tell, are you a god, a spirit or a demon?" he asked.

"Summoned me? Are you freaking nuts? Who the hell do you think you are? And isn't it obvious? I am none of the above. I am a human. Now, what the hell am I doing here? I was about to attend a job interview. Oh wait, is this a dream?" she rambled.

"A human? That can't be right. Let me see the instructions again..." he took out a scroll from his belt, "... Hm, I did everything right. I should be getting a god, a spirit or a demon... Did I get cheated out of my money?"

"Okay, one, you're high. Two, if you're not sending me back, then I'll walk back on my own. I won't have anything to do with a damned headcase," she said as she walked on the glowing water as if it was solid and was about to cross the edge of the pool if she wasn't stopped by an invisible wall.

"Oww!!! What the hell?" she touched the invisible wall with her fingers and was rewarded with an electric shock. As she looked at her fingers, she noticed the long, manicured nails, the long golden hair falling down from her head and twin orbs on her chest, which elicited another scream, "What the hell?!!!"

"You can't leave the pool until you listened and granted my wishes, whatever you are," the man standing on the marble flooring of the pool said.

"You! What the hell did you do to me, you piece of garbage! If this is some sick joke, return me to normal now!" she tried to strangle him, but again the invisible wall stopped her.

"I will return you to your homeplace, but please listen to my wishes, great one," he said. To tell the truth, he wasn't sure how he would send her home. He only thought that once the wishes had been fulfilled, she'd leave on her own, hopefully without taking him along.

"Alright, fine. Let's be done with it," then she looked around. "I wonder if there's a place to sit," she said as the water under her raised itself from the pool and formed itself into a backless chair which nudged at her legs as it solidified. "Oh thank you," she said as she sat onto the water chair. She didn't realize it was made of water as she though it was one of those expensive crystal chairs that her father would love to own.

For the man in front of her, that was all the proof he needed to believe that she was anything other than a human. No human could create a furniture out of water, and no human could sit on water either, not to mention walk on it. "I wish for 50,000 pieces of gold flores in the form of a goldsmith's voucher," he said, hoping that he would be able to hire an army of mercenaries to fight Molodhir.

"You wish for what in the form of a what?" she asked.

"Is that too much? I'm not that valuable?" his shoulders sagged.

"Look, I don't even know what the hell you're talking about. How the heck can I fulfill a wish that I don't understand? Can't you just ask me to fix a pipe or something?"

"Okay, how about magic? Give me magical powers to defeat my enemies?"

"Whatever you're smoking, give me some of it. Jeez, to think that an adult man would still believe in magic."

"You don't believe in magic?" he asked incredulous.

"No, I don't. Santa Claus, tooth fairies, vampires, werewolves, Cardcaptor Sakura, it was all fiction."

"But you just-" he was about to point out that she just created a chair out of water before she interrupted.

"What?"

"Uhh, okay, then, give me a magical weapon that's worth a thousand soldiers?"

"I can give you a bomb that's worth a million soldiers, but it's pretty illegal to make and too risky. So I won't bother," she said as she yawned.

That pissed him off. "Then what the hell can you give me!"

"Nothing magical, for sure! To think that an adult man like you would still believe in fairy tales!"

"You just didn't want to give me anything, don't you?!"

"Damned right! I won't risk being caught by the cops or the FBI for someone I don't even know!"

He tried to calm himself down as he thought there was no use arguing with a greater being. "You say that, but maybe you've forgotten a very simple fact... you can't leave without granting my wish."

She looked horrified at the realization that he was maybe right.

"Once the sun comes up, people will come here and wonder, what is that pretty woman doing in the middle of the pool wearing next to nothing?" he grinned.

She looked down at herself and realized that he was right. She was only wearing a white toga that stretched atop her bosom and once she touched her pubic area, she realized that she wasn't wearing panties either. "Please let me fulfill your wishes." she pleaded, "But don't ask me for magic, I can't do magic."

He thought about it and came to a decision, "Alright, fine. I have thought about it and I know what you definitely can do," he said with confidence.

She looked at him with eyes full of hope.

"I want you to be my bride!" he wished.

"O-wait what?!!! Hold on, let's not be too hasty," she said before the pool glowed even brighter and she felt something constricting her left ring finger.

She raised her left hand and out of the light, she saw a metallic ring being formed around her right finger. "No no no! Take it back! I can't be anyone's bride!"

Of course not, she was a man herself, in the other world.

The man looked around his left ring finger and saw that he too wore a metalic ring that shined with a golden light. The sound of water made him look up just in time to see the glow of the pool fade and the barrier dispelled as the beautiful woman flew at him. He caught her just in time but the impact was so strong he fell backward onto the ground with her in his arms.

She opened her beautiful eyes, no longer glowing gold but her mundane eyes, with the colour of the ocean was nothing short of breathtaking. He also noticed the change in her hair's colour, from its original gold to a light brown colour. She looked at him as if seeing him for the first time and it took her a few minutes to remember where she was and what happened.

"You! How dare you make that wish! Now how am I going to go back home!!!" she cried as she beat his iron plate-covered chest with her small and frail fists.

He grabbed her fists with his own hands, only out of fear that she would hurt herself. His heart moved when he saw the tears in her beautiful eyes. He raised himself and wrapped his arms around her soft body comfortingly as she cried into his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll take responsibility for whatever happened. Once I have done my duties here, I will follow you to wherever your home is as I supposed to."

"Get real!" she pushed him away, "I don't want a psycho like you to follow me home."

"Hahaha, I don't know what this creature this 'psycho' is, but I'm sure it's not a compliment. My name is Farran, what is your name?" he said.

She was about to say Michael, but she deduced that it wasn't a name that suited the body she had now, "I'm Mickey," she said, not feeling comfortable with calling herself Michelle, the female counterpart of Michael.

"Miki? Isn't that the name of one of the sky goddesses?" he shut his eyes as he tried hard to remember, "Let's see, it's the goddess of... rain, or maybe snow. Or maybe it's the goddess of storm. I can't quite remember. I passed through a town that worshipped you a month ago."

"I think I'm going to need this thing that you're smoking," she sighed.

"Don't worry, my beautiful goddess. I'll find a way for you to regain the power to return to the heavens again. But until then, please become my bride," he said as he kissed the back of her hand.

She blushed at the attention and had no idea how to answer.

"Well of course, I expect you to give me lots of heirs."

That shocked her enough that she said, "No! Not on your life!"

"So you will give me lots of heirs after I'm dead?" he joked.

"No! Not ever!" she protested as she went ahead.

He quickly chased after her, taking her hand as he tried his best to charm her heart. He thought he would go back to the town's inn and rest before running away first thing in the morning. He head no idea what to answer the villagers when they found out that he destroyed the only path to their wishing well.

Then he looked around as he noticed for the first time. He looked at the ground, the trees and the sky. It was normal, which was wrong, as he clearly almost fell into a chasm shortly before his goddess appeared. And the trees should have been burned to charred husks now. He wondered if he had dreamt it all.

------

"So this is what you do?" Miki asked Farran as she sat on a fallen log, still in her white toga.

"Monsters needs to be controlled. Left uncontrolled, they'll attack villages and eat humans. Someone has to do it. Besides, some parts of their bodies sell for much copper," he said as he ripped out the tusks from the beast.

Miki looked back at her pure white toga, recalling their travel from the town where he had summoned her to where they were now. She had received weird stares from those they met on the road, and it embarrassed her greatly. Farran had given her his coat and his shoes, but she found out from a friendly merchant on their travel that priestesses like her was uncommon in such a backwater place and it wasn't the season for priestesses to go on a pilgrimage around these parts.

As they hitched a ride on his wagon, he further told her that not even priestesses who worshipped the God of Prosperity Takisus wore such high quality cloth such as hers. He asked her which gods she worshipped to have access to such material to which Farran said that it was a wedding gift by the priestesses of Mellori when they got engaged. He further showed the merchant their matching rings to the merchant, which drew curious looks from him.

"Where are you heading to, warrior?" the merchant asked as he inspected Farran's gear.

"Back home, far to the west. I travelled these lands for adventure. I had plenty and when I met my bride here," he looked lovingly at Miki, "I decided to go home and take over the farm. My parents will be happy to see that I've finally brought a bride home."

"West... where exactly?"

"Somewhere near Alfheim, it's a small village, nobody has even bothered to give it a name. Everyone thought a village that small would be the first to be destroyed during a war, you see, and there's plenty of wars in the west."

"I do understand the fickle state of the west... I'm sorry, we have never been fully introduced. I am Oros. I travel the Central Desert in search of treasures and trade opportunities," he offered his hand to Farran.

Farran shook his hand, "Name's Farran, former adventurer."

"And you, my beautiful lady?" he kissed the back of her hand, he noticed that her skins was so soft and fine, as if she didn't even exist in front of him.

"Miki. Nice to meet you, Oros," she said with a smile.

"The pleasure's all mine, milady. I am going to the city of Garnbrad, would you like to accompany me all the way there?"

"Oh, that's the opposite way of where we're heading to. I guess we'll just stop here and make our own way to Milesby," he said as he wore his battle gear and prepared to get off the wagon.

"We're not going to Garnbrad? But I thought-"

"Of course not, my love. We'll end up having to come back here to the intersection just in front of us if we go there. Going to Garnbrad will add another week to our journey, we don't want to keep my parents waiting."

"Good choice, my friend," he stopped at the intersection and helped Miki get down from the wagon. He noticed her feet and remarked, "That pair of shoes are too big for you, I assume it was originally yours, Farran?"

"Yes, the temple she was in didn't allow priestesses to wear any shoes, so I had to give her mine."

"Let me see what I have for you," Oros said as he went to the back of the wagon and rummaged around until he found a pair of women's travelling shoes. "Try this," he handed it to Miki.

"Hey, that fit very well," Miki remarked, pleased that she won't be walking in shoes 4 sizes too big for her.

"How much is that, Oros?" Farran asked.

"Merely 7 fitter," he said.

Farran took out his money pouch, as he explained to Miki, "Remember, 16 copper fitter equals 1 silver galosh and 10 galosh equals 1 gold flores." Then he counted 7 copper pieces and gave it to Oros.

"Thank you for your business. Have a good journey," Oros said as he urged his mules forward.

As soon as Oros was out of view, Miki asked Farran, "I thought we are going to Garnbrad?"

"He was acting weird after you told him your name is Miki. I can't bring myself to trust him. We'll have to walk around this area for three to four days before we go to Garnbrad. I hope he'll be gone by then."

"Whatever you say," Miki grumbled.

Meanwhile, as soon as Farran and Miki was out of sight, Oros took out a book and thumbed through the pages of parchment until he found what he was looking for.

"Sky goddess Miki-na-maresh. Supposedly the only sky goddess that had never touched the ground. No wonder I thought I had seen her before. It's that temple in Emelys, such uncanny resemblance to her idol. But why did a sky goddess come down to the mortal world?"

------

"Miki, be careful over there," Farran shouted while he skinned something with a weird name.

"It's OK, this isn't the first time I've been on a mountain, if you need to know," Miki protested as she gathered some firewood for their lunch, two rabbits that Farran trapped earlier.

"I really think you should've just stayed at the village. There's no need for you to come with me."

"Nonsense, I'll earn my keep. I'm not going to keep on freeloading on you," Miki argued as she dropped some firewood near Farran and went off to find more dry wood.

"But you're supposed to be relying on me. You're my bride," Farran said.

"Not by choice! It's all your weird wish that got me into this mess! I didn't agree to it, it was the magic that's forcing me to be your bride."

"So you admit that it was your magic that did it?" he said, but when he saw the face Miki made, he laughed out loud and joked, "At least I got to marry a beautiful sky goddess. Never thought I'd ever see a single sky goddess ever!"

"As I told you, I'm not-"

"Miki stop!" Farran shouted a warning, "Don't look forward!"

Miki indeed stopped, but in her curiosity, she disobeyed him and look in front of her. "Eek!" She jumped back as she saw the poisonous snake in front of her open its mouth and leaped towards her.

In a quick move, Farran stepped to Miki's side and swung his sword at the mid-air snake. His sword barely found its mark, but it was enough. Instead of a part of Miki's body, the snake ended up having Farran's sword in his maw and within seconds, the top half of its head was sliced clean from the rest of its body. Farran cut the snake's body into tiny pieces and threw it as far as he could into different parts of the forest just to be sure.

"Thanks for saving me," Miki said.

"No problem. I'm glad I'm nearby." Farran said as he dropped his sword and hugged Miki, "I'm thankful that you're not hurt."

Miki was still paralyzed from fear and couldn't move her body the way she wanted to. Had she full control of her body, she would've pushed him away. "Umm, I think it would've been okay if you're not here. I mean, you keep calling me the sky goddess, right? If I really am the sky goddess as you said, then it would be pretty pathetic if I got done in by a snake."

He push her at arms length and asked in disbelief, "Are you by any chance not aware of the myth?"

"What myth?" Miki asked. She was quite well versed in Olympian, Egyptian and Norse myths, but she doubted that it was what he meant.

"When the Goddess of Victory and the young gods won against their cruel fathers, they locked the elder gods inside the castle in the sky. They kept watch of the castle day and night, but they were tired from the war before and the constant watch drained their strength even further. If it continued, the elder gods would be able to free themselves and descend upon the mortal world in all their furies again. The Goddess of Victory then saw the danger, and for that, she gave birth to the sky goddesses, to watch the Sky Castle and inform the prime gods for any weakening of the prison. When the elder god Estuvi who held the sky fell ill, the sky goddesses took turns holding up the sky for seven months, until Estuvi regain his strength."

"Okay, what does this have to do with a snake?"

"The god of the underworld, Bosoldir-un-awel, was the only one who wasn't happy with this arrangement. He argued with the Goddess of Victory that he was one of those who fought with her and argued that because of his contributions, he should also live up in the sky. Goddess of Victory disagreed and punished him for his insolence by taking away his winged chariot, so that he will never be able to come to the sky kingdom again. When the Goddess of Victory gave birth to the sky goddesses, he became incredibly jealous and wanted them to be his consorts."

"What about the snake?" Miki asked, impatient.

"Snakes, worms and carrion-birds are Bosoldir-un-awel's symbols. He can control them and see through their eyes."

"I see, so you're afraid the snake wanted to drag me to the underworld?"

"Yes, by killing you who are now in human form, you will be going to his domain instead of the sky kingdom when you die."

"Why didn't you just say that? Why'd you have to give the whole history lesson?"

"Everything must be in context."

Miki snorted at his words.

------

"Isn't it disgusting?" Miki asked.

"It's a way of living," Farran answered as he pulled the trolley filled with the skin of half a dozen monsters as well as their tusks.

"I can't believe I came to another world and got myself hitched to a tanner," she said with her palm on her face.

"I'm not a tanner. I'm selling these skins to a tanner, there's a huge difference."

"Yeah, whatever. It's still disgusting."

"Shh!" Farran stopped as he signalled Miki to hide herself.

"Move along now, don't hold the line," a man wearing studded leather instructed while cracking his whip. In front of him a row of people, both men and women, and some young girls were walking slowly. Their wrists and ankles chained to each other and they looked paled and malnourished.

"Slavers," Farran whispered.

Miki agreed. "How barbaric. Where I live, slavery has been outlawed."

"Same with the place I came from too, but around these parts, slave trade is still a very lucrative business and the kings and nobles around these parts aren't willing lose the income from legalized slavery. In some countries, slavery is their main form of income."

"Such evil. I'm going to put a stop to it!" Miki stated as she got up but was taken down again.

One of the men overseeing the slaves noticed the shrub rattle, but thought it was just a wild animal.

"Are you stupid? Look, those men are armed and they know how to use it. Unless you can use your powers, even if you're a goddess, you can't win!" Farran whispered with his hand covering her mouth.

Miki pushed aside his hand, "Someone has to stop them!"

"I know, but this is not the place nor time. I can fight maybe two of them, but I can't fight twelve!"

"But there are more than 70 of the slaves, if we don't do something, they'll be subjected to lives so terrible."

"Let's go back to the village and find a better solution.

That evening, Farran and Miki went together to meet the village chief asking for help to save the slaves. Present were also the other elders and the young men of the village. Suffice to say, it didn't work out very well.

"How could you all say that? What if it was your wives, your daughters or your friends who were taken as slaves? Would you leave them behind too?" Miki argued.

"It is because of that fear that we are unwilling to take part in this mad quest of yours, priestess. There is simply nothing in it for us. In fact, simply helping you will put our village in trouble," the chief said.

"You've made a deal with the slavers," Farran said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Very sharp of you, warrior. We let them pass through our fields and we sell them supplies. In return, they leave us and our families alone. It has worked well for us for many years," the village elder explained.

Miki scolded as she stood, "You damned cowards! So you will watch other people's misfortunes while living in safety yourselves? Don't you feel guilty?"

"Of course we feel guilty, priestess. We are not evil people. But you must understand, to a man, his wife and children is most important. To a wife, her family is her life. How can we risk our families to help others when we are aware that the retribution will be swift and sure?" one of the elder women spoke.

"You priestesses aren't much better either!" one of the young men interrupted, "Your temples keep scores of slaves, even more than the nobles have in their entire estates!"

"Well, I don't know anything about the priestesses, I wasn't with them for long. But you must know that this is wrong!"

"Then why don't you tell the priests and priestesses to stop keeping slaves?!" another young man argued.

"If it was at all possible, I would've done it!" Miki argued back.

"Then you are no different from us. Your hands are dirty too!" came another young man's voice.

"How can you insult us like this when you've been doing the same!" another voice said.

By this time the whole village-folk had joined in the verbal lashing. Miki, unable to handle the noise and the way they were ganging up on her, pushed away all the men as she ran out the door. Farran would've run after her, if not for the crowd of young men blocking the door telling Miki to go back to her temple.

With tears in her eyes, she ran away from the village chief's house. She knew she should go back, or at least rest inside the bunkhouse, but for the moment, she couldn't do either. She hated her helplessness, her weakness. To simply watch as the young women, men and small girls being traded away as slaves, never having another day of freedom in their lives anymore. It made her collapse to her knees by the side of the road leading our of the village. Back in her world, she would've simply relied on the cops, the FBI or if needs be, she would have bought a gun and save them herself. Here, she was simply another weak woman, who needed protection from her man.

Suddenly she felt a hand holding a piece of cloth covering her mouth and nose from behind. She tried to struggle, to push her assailant away but another man took hold of her arms while another took hold of her legs. It wasn't long before the medicine soaking the medicine started to affect her and she fell blissfully into darkness.

Before she lost consciousness, she heard one of the men say, "Beautiful girl. We'll get a lot for her."

------

She got up in some kind of dark cell. Around her, she could hear sniffles and people whispering. She strained herself to hear, but failed to do much with her still groggy from the drug. Even staying conscious required an effort. She wanted to rub her eyes, slapped her face to wake herself up, but she realized that her hands were tied behind her back.

"Hello?" she called. She immediately heard whispers around her.

"Can anyone hear me?" she called again.

"Shh," came a voice from her left, it was the voice of an young woman, "Be quiet. They don't like it when we speak."

"My name is Miki, what is your name?" she asked the voice.

"Not that it matters, since they'll just change our names once we're bought. My name is Iria," the voice said.

"Bought? Are you saying that you're a slave?" Miki asked, horrified.

"Well, you're one too now. Were you a priestess before they caught you?"

Miki wanted to say no, but instead, she asked, "You saw them bringing me in?"

"All of us saw, it was about the only time we got any kind of light. You have such a nice dress, how much is it worth?"

"I don't know, it was a gift. Is there a way out of here?"

"If there is, do you think we'd still be here?"

"Quiet in there!" a voice outside said as Miki heard the sound of door being hit with something hard.

A moment later, two men entered, carrying them two buckets one filled with what seemed like some kind of slop while another bucket carried water. With the torch the men were carrying Miki was able to see the cell she was in for the first time. It was a room barely 10 feet long and 8 feet wide with no window whatsoever. But the room was filled with at least 20 women, some so young they should still be with their mothers. Most already looked like corpses, barely with a life inside them.

"Eat up, slave girls. The captain wants all of you healthy by the time we're in Salas." one of the men said before his eyes fell on Miki. Beautiful, fresh Miki with her high quality toga was a sight for sore eyes to him. Without saying a word, he started to undo his breeches and was about to drop it if not for the other man's intervention.

"Hey, the captain gave specific instructions that the merchandise must not be sullied in any way," he said.

"Aw come on, I have to get a piece of this priestess before they sell her off. You can have your way with her after I'm done," he said as he dropped his pants and advanced towards Miki.

The other man grabbed him by collar and said, "If you will not stop, I will have to inform the captain. I will not risk being fed to the sharks just to bone a single pretty girl. Before you say it's worth it, remember you will die if you put your dick into her."

"Humph!" he grabbed his breeches and retied it. "Fine, no point in risking my neck for just a slave girl."

Then they both went out and locked the door behind them. They left the torch inside, but all the girls knew there was no point in grabbing it and using it as a weapon. One of the girls, a pretty girl with black hair, probably around 15 years old went first to the bucket and reached in for the slop. She brought it to her mouth and she slurped it noisily, then she grabbed the single bowl inside the bucket and scooped a helping of water to quench her thirst. It wasn't long before the other slaves went ahead to drink and eat from the buckets.

"What are you waiting for? It taste like shit, but it's better than nothing," she said, Miki recognized the voice.

"Are you Iria?" she asked to which the girl nodded, "No thanks, I'm not eating that slop."

"Suits yourself," Iria shrugged, "But at least drink something. Dehydration is a nasty thing."

Miki heard the same thing from her physical education teacher back in school, so she slowly made her way to the bucket and realized something important. "I can't drink, my hands are tied behind me."

Iria then helpfully took the bowl, dipped it in the bucket of water and slowly gave Miki some water. Miki gulped it hungrily, she had no idea how parched her throat had become. A few drops of water dripped from her chin but there was no helping it, with her arms behind her, she had no sense of balance. The twin orbs on her chest wasn't much of a help either.

The sleep afterwards was uncomfortable to say the least. The smell, the position and the swaying of the ship woke Miki often. During one of those times when the swaying of the ship woke Miki up, she heard heavy footsteps approached and the door was thrown open by a big beefy hand. The slaves inside the room was startled by the sudden boom. No few of them cringed at seeing the big man at the door.

"You, priestess! Move your cute arse, the captain wants to see you," he said gruffly.

When Miki refused to move, he quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her up to her feet. He pushed her forward, out of the room before going out himself and locking the door behind him. When she wouldn't walk, he spanked her butt eliciting a yelp from her.

"Stop that!" Miki protested.

"I'll spank you however much I want, temple whore. The captain will enjoy breaking you," the big brute said as he spanked her twice more.

Miki hurriedly walked forward, as far as she could from the brute. Even if her pride could be salvaged, the pain on her bum was so bad. She could've sworn his spanks hit bone. She resolved to not give him the opportunity to do anything to her anymore, especially not spanking.

"Ah, there you are, the priestess with expensive dress," a tall man, with bushy moustache and short beard said as soon as she came out into the open.

Miki breathed in deep, happy that she was no longer in that dank and dark cell. She took some time to feel the heat of sun light on her skin, the feel of wind running through her long hair and sound of birds in the distance. She felt strangely calm, but she wondered what will happen to her now.

When Miki didn't say a word, the captain said, "Now that I have a look at you myself, I agree with my crew. Such beauty, it's a waste to keep all that beauty and youth inside a temple. You will sell well in the slave markets of Estokar and Merinath. But first, I intend to sample you myself, hehe. I wonder if you're a virgin," he moved forward and and grabbed hold of Miki's toga.

"NO!!!" she cried, causing a golden light to shine from Miki as the power repelled the slaver captain that he ended up flying through the air until he skidded several feet on the ship's deck.

"How dare you!" some of the slavers stalked towards Miki, knives drawn and they didn't look like they were afraid of using it.

"Stop!" said the slaver captain as he got up and dusted his shirt, "I see, a high priestess then? No wonder your dress is of such high quality, and your beauty, you must have been using the gods' powers to keep yourself youthful and pretty."

"No, stay away from me," Miki cringed in fear as the slaver captain strode purposefully towards her.

"I wonder," he said as he stood in front of her and extended his hand towards her.

Miki closed her eyes in fear, right before she felt fingers on her cheek.

"It seems that if I touch you gently like this, your powers won't harm me," then he turned around and spoke loudly to his crew, "It seems like this is one priestess who likes to enjoy gentle love-making, men."

The whole crew laughed out loud as he further joked that all of them probably get a turn if they're gentle.

"Captain! Captain!" the arrival of a boy, gasping out of breath silenced all the laughter and took the captain's full attention.

"What is it, boy? I'm busy," the slaver captain said with disdain.

"An army! An army is approaching! The harbour master has let them through out of fear, captain!" the boy said.

"An army? Who would dare raise a blade against the Red Rock Slavers? How many?" the captain demanded.

"At least a hundred men, captain," the boy answered.

"All hands, raise the anchor and cut the mooring ropes, hurry!" the captain shouted orders.

"But some of our men are still ashore, captain," one of the sailors protested.

The captain quickly ran his sword through the sailor's body. "Any more complaints?" he shouted to which everyone wisely kept their mouths shut, "Somebody throw this carcass off board>"

Miki ran to the other side of the boat and saw from afar, a number of men were charging towards them. Some were carrying swords of various kinds. Some of them were carrying staffs and bows and arrows. Most were carrying farming tools like hoes and scythes. This wasn't an army, it was a group of farmers rising up to fight the slavers.

She was delighted to see that the person at the forefront, the one who lead them there were none other than the man who summoned her to this world. "Farran! Farran! Save me!"

Farran heard Miki before he saw her. He was parrying swordstrikes aimed at him from the slavers on shore. His heart lightened when he saw Miki's mildly glowing toga but it made him even more determined to reach her. The slavers, understanding that they were no match for the angry villagers in front of them, fled back to the ship, only to find the boarding plank removed and the ship started moving away from dock.

"No!!!" Farran cried when he saw the ship leave the dock and slumped to his feet.

"Hahaha, you think you can win against me?" the slaver captain taunted, "I'll be back with all the other slavers and we'll slaughter all of you and enslave your women!"

"Farran! Farran!" Miki cried as she watched Farran disappear in the distance.

"Oh, you're so noisy!" the slaver captain pushed her away from the edge.

Miki was thrown to the middle of the ship where she stumbled on a loose floorboard and fell on her ass. She winced as her hand fell onto a loose nail and drew blood. "Farran, save me," she sobbed, "Please, save me, anyone. Save me."

Just then Miki felt the wind stop. Not just the wind, the sound of the birds, the sea and movement of the ship also stopped for her. She opened her eyes and saw everyone was frozen in place, same for the clouds, the birds and the ocean waves. "What is going on?" she asked loudly.

"Did you summon me, mistress?" came a voice above her.

Miki looked up and above her head was a miniature woman, no higher than the whole length of her palm. She wore a dress of flowing silk, white in colour and had a serene face. In this world where everything stopped, the flowing of her silk laces as if it was constantly blowing in the breeze made everything seemed so surreal to Miki.

"Who-what are you?" Miki asked.

"I am the guardian spirit of wind, mistress. Is there any particular reason that you summoned me?"

"Can you help me? I'm captured by slavers and if I don't do something, I'll be sold as a slave," Miki pleaded.

"Mortals capturing a goddess? Thats... uncommon. Why didn't you just go back to the sky kingdom, mistress?" the fairy-like thing said.

"I'm not a goddess! Why do you and Farran keep calling me a goddess?"

"But that's what you are, aren't you mistress?" the wind spirit asked, "Unless that was supposed to be a secret and you came down without permission. Ah, I see, so that's why you have no contract with my kind. Your powers must have been removed when you left the sky kingdom."

"For the last time, I'm not a goddess!" Miki said with gritted teeth.

"Don't worry, I can keep a secret, mistress," the fairy-like thing said but she whispered softly, "Most of the time."

"Can you help me, please?" Miki begged,

"Of course, but to help you, we need to make a contract. Us spirits can't use our powers for anyone else, but if we made a contract, we can use that contractee's own power and manifest it using our aspect. In my case, you could use my aspect, wind, to manifest your own power. Would you like to make a contract with me, mistress?" the wind spirit said.

Miki didn't take long to answe. "Yes, what do I have to do?"

The wind spirit looked at Miki peculiarly and said, "Nothing, it's already done!"

"Ehh!!! That fast?" Miki asked.

"Did you lose your memories or something, mistress? It only needs agreement on the contractee's part," then the wind spirit suddenly thought of something, "Oh, it must be that you've been watching too many of those mortal spellcasters that you forgot how goddesses make contracts. Mortals are different, their bodies weren't created to channel magic so they need long contracts to remake their bodies and they need to chant the magic spells if they wish to summon us spirits. It's different with goddesses. To make a contract with a god or goddess means a great honour, and gods and goddesses' power also allows us to procreate. I'm still very young, but please take care of me, mistress."

"Procreate? How do wind procreate? Asexually?"

"Now now, that's not important right now. Don't you want to save yourself, mistress?" the wind spirit asked.

"Ah right, will you save me, wind spirit?" Miki asked.

"Now now, I'm only the vessel of your power, your tool, your weapon, your shield, anything you like. Imagine what you wish to do using the wind and it will be done."

"So if I want to use magic to fly to safety, I can?"

"Of course, that is one of the most common use for wind. However, will you be comfortable with just saving yourself, mistress?"

"What do you mean?"

"The slaves in the lower decks, have you forgotten about them, mistress?"

Miki gasped, "You're right! I can't just leave them behind. What should I do?"

"You're the goddess. Do what you wish, if you wish to destroy the ship and everyone in it, it's fine too," the wind spirit flew up and finally disappeared, but Miki could still hear her voice, "Until we meet again, mistress."

Miki was shocked awake by the loud noises around her as the slavers got themselves busy raising the sails for their journey. Miki wondered if what she saw was a dream but decided to test it herself and imagined herself flying. Nothing happened, so she leaned her back against one of the masts and weeped, calling for Farran in her despair.

She opened her eyes when she heard the sound of clanging metals. She looked up and saw many of the same villagers she saw storming the harbour earlier were flying towards the ship. Farran and some of them had already landed on the ship and was causing serious casualties to the slavers. It wasn't long before the rest of the villagers dropped onto the ship and took part in the fighting. In the end, the slaver captain jumped off the ship and escaped on his own.

The fighting was going on the villagers' favour and they were about to eliminate the last of the slavers when Farran shouted, "Stop! He's one of us!"

The other villagers looked at Farran and at the man in front of them, who was looking tired and about to collapse at any second.

"You! You were the one who stopped that brute from raping me yesterday night," Miki said as she recognized the face.

He bowed and said to Miki, "It was my pleasure. I am happy to serve a sky goddess."

Miki abruptly turned to Farran. "You told them?" Then she used the power of wind to push him off the ship.

"Help!" Farran pleaded as his iron armour weighed him down that it was taking all his effort just to stay afloat.

"I told you not to tell anyone that rubbish, didn't I?" she said as she saw one of the villagers threw a rope ladder down.

When Farran was finally back on deck, he explained, "But I had to tell them. They wouldn't listen to anything else I said. When I told them that you're a sky goddess who came to the mortal realm to understand us, they immediately offered their aid. I even got four separate villages to agree to send their young men to fight."

"Farran..." Miki pushed him down with her wind, then she stepped on his chest, "How dare you throw my name around. I'm really quite pissed with that."

"But I was doing it to save you!" Farran protested, while thinking that even when she was mad, she still looked gorgeous.

"Goddess..." came a voice behind her.

Miki turned around and saw that it was the same man who said her hands were dirty from being a hypocrite the other night, "We men of the village begs forgiveness for our rudeness last night. If it will please you, I offer my life in exchange for the lives of my village-folk. Please do not punish our family and friends for our evil tongue, Goddess Miki."

"Wait, this is so wrong. Idolatry is wrong," she palmed her face, "Look, you are all entitled to your own opinions, I won't punish anyone simply because they speak their minds." It doesn't even feel right to punish a whole village for insulting me.

"Then, what must we do to make it up to you for our mistakes, Goddess Miki?" the man said again.

Hearing her being referred to as Goddess Miki again made her eyes twitch. "For starters, turn this ship around."

"Aye aye, Goddess Miki! Everyone brace yourselves, we're turning this ship around!" the man said as all the men turned to grab something while he spun the steering wheel.

------

"How should we serve you, Goddess Miki?" asked one of the elderly women from a village called Whitree.

Miki had no idea to answer to that. In her world, Michael was a mechanical engineer, not a politician. Now she was not only supposed leader, she was also supposedly a goddess too. Trying to explain that she wasn't a goddess failed to convince them, as the men had seen her power as she flew them to the ship from the port as well as how she used her power to knock Farran off the ship. When they returned, the men told their wives and the women gossiped with each other until everyone thought that she could move mountains on her own by the next morning.

Today, three days after the incident, the villagers of the four villages who took part in the rescue, alongwith the villagers of the other two villages nearby (of which the port the other day was a part of) who heard of a goddess appearing nearby, stood together in the recently harvested wheatfields of Rownfeld. They were all looking expectantly at her, as if asking her to say something. She still had no idea what to say.

The representative of the slaves freed from the slaver ship and the recently discovered slaver warehouse spoke aloud, "We who owe our lives and freedoms to Goddess Miki shall construct a temple in her honour. A sanctuary that she can return to anytime she wishes and a place where all offerings can be made. We shall care for it with our lives."

Miki thought it was definitely possible. The total number of male slaves alone was at least a hundred men.

Then the village chief of Rownfelt, where they were at offered, "Of course, you are right. We shall set aside a plot of land in our village for the sanctuary to be made. Our men will work on it as well and by this time next harvest, the sanctuary will have been completed!"

"Why would the sanctuary be built in Rownfeld?" a representative from the village of Fismont protested to the agreement from his villagers.

"Because we sheltered the goddess," the village chief answered.

"You were also the ones who turned her away and caused her to be captured!" another village elder, from the village of Bearlis protested to the murmured agreements from the other villages.

"We didn't know! Had we known we would have supported her in the first place!"

"That's just an excuse!" someone argued as the whole field turned into a contest of shouts and arguments.

Are they freaking serious? They're fighting over who gets to build a temple for me? Miki thought to herself.

"Ladies and gentlemen! If I can have your attention, please!" Farran said as his voice broke through the verbal pollution.

"This is uncomely in front of your goddess. Do you think she would like seeing you fight and bicker among yourselves?"

The first part was wrong, but you tell 'em, Farran. Miki thought.

"As a sign of respect to her, I suggest that you find a peaceful solution to your problems with each other. Miki loves peace and seeing her people bickering is causing her much grief."

Don't put words into my mouth, Farran.

"That being said, I have a suggestion. Why not you agree to disagree. Do not build a big temple in any particular village."

Yes, please don't build anything dedicated to me. Idolatry is bad.

"Instead, build a huge sanctuary in between your villages!"

"What?!!! Farran, what are you doing?" Miki scolded, to which she was hushed by Farran.

"You know, that's a good idea," one of the villagers agreed.

"Yes, it's better than any one village getting more prestige than the others."

"I know just the place! There's a source of marble nearby too."

"I know that place, I used to play there as a child."

"If you boys are talking about Coln's Rock, then I agree, it is a good spot."

"Will need to clear the trees first, though."

By this time the whole crowd was excitedly talking to each other. Miki was feeling strangely faint and asked Farran to take her back to the house the village chief graciously asked them to stay in. Farran could guess how much this exerted her strength, but guessed wrong as to 'why'. He thought Miki was simply still tired from flying the men to the ship the other day. In reality, Miki was suffering from the mental abuse of having people worshipping her at every turn.

A few days later, Miki and the important men and women of the six villages went to the site of what was going to be the huge sanctuary to her. Apparently the six villages had pooled their money to acquire the services of a great architect in Garnbrad in designing her sanctuary. They also pooled money to buy the tools and materials for the sanctuary that wasn't produced in the six villages. Miki felt very touched. Now, if only they weren't focusing all that cooperation and energy on making a temple for her.

"If you approve of this site, goddess, we beg you to bless it so your power may flow freely here and our prayers can be heard," one of the elder who was once a priest himself said.

"How do I do that?" Miki asked.

"Official temples are often blessed by the blood of the gods it's dedicated to. It allows the land to become holy and prevents other gods from entering the temple grounds. Please use this silver dagger, Goddess Miki. It is my personal collection and no other gods has ever touched it," the priest said as he held out a beautiful dagger made of silver and sheathed in jewels.

Miki sighed. "Let's just get this over with." Then she ran the dagger across her palm and let the blood dripped onto the jutting rock in front of her. "Is that enough?" she said as she sheathed the silver dagger.

"The goddess has blessed the site! We can start construction at once!" the old priest cried followed by the joyful cries of the rest of the elders.

Miki felt herself getting old very quickly at that point.

"Goddess, if it's not too much trouble, will you also give us a blessing?" the priest requested with the other elders looking on with hope.

Miki looked at her palm, noticing that the wound had already healed without a trace and asked, "Do I have to cut myself again?"

"No no, we wouldn't dare! Just a small blessing is more than enough, if it's not too much trouble," the priest said as he knelt with difficulty in front of Miki.

Miki didn't know what to do. She looked at Farran and he just shrugged. So with no idea what she should do, she simply placed her hand onto the priest's head and thought, Cure his aching bones so he won't suffer when he kneels again.

She looked at him and saw a feeling of bliss radiating from him, then she withdrew her hand. The priest said thank you, then he got up. He looked shocked at something. The twisted his body, stretched and jumped about. Miki wondered if he went senile.

"I'm feeling great! I am no longer in pain!" the priest said as he jumped in happiness all the way towards the other elders.

Before long, there was a line of elders asking for a blessing. Some asked to be healthy, some asked to be cured of an illness, some asked to become strong again and some asked to be young again. Apparently Miki was able to bless all of them, to her horror.

"Farran, can't we go away somewhere right now?" she asked as Farran carried her in a princess carry.

"There's a feast tonight. It will be rude if the guest of honour doesn't attend. We can leave tomorrow."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

That night scores of the old and infirm who heard how Miki blessed the elders came to the feast asking for Miki to cure them of their maladies. Then the men who would be builders of Miki's temple also asked for blessing to help them finish the temple as soon as possible. In the end, Miki had to cure and bless more than 300 people. Miki was so tired that they had to postpone their leaving for another day.

* Hi guys. It's my first posting since bigcloset came back up. I'm still writing Butterfly Gf, but for some reason, it has been pretty slow. This story came to me in a dream. I dreamed myself flying in the sky and having lots of mortals worshipping me. Man, that felt great!
** As usual, please leave a comment or feedback after you read my story. Praises helps me write faster. Constructive criticisms helps me write better. Thank you for reading.

What would you do if one day someone asks you, "Do you want to be a god?" What will your answer be? What if you said yes but the god you become wasn't what you expected? Will you regret it? Miki met some familiar and some not so familiar people as she tried to cope with suddenly being a sky goddess. Sky Goddess Chapter 2 A story of adventure in a fantasy world. By Shinieris

"Master, we received an urgent letter from the mainland," said a robed man whose face was hidden under the shadow of his hood.

The elderly man sitting at the desk dropped his quill and looked up at the man, "I assume this just arrived?" he asked, to which the hooded man nodded, "Give it to me."

The elderly man read the letter for a moment in silence before he put it down. "So... a goddess appeared in the mainland? By the name of Miki? Does she has any connection with Miki-na-maresh?"

"We cannot tell for sure, master. By the time our monks arrived there, she had already left. They did confirm that a sanctuary dedicated to her is being built and that the builders had been blessed. They were carrying big stone blocks as if it weighed nothing."

"Did our godspeaker say anything?"

"Yes master, our god, Kulkuri-un-kisis has already ordered that this goddess be captured and brought to one of our temples so she can be brought back to the Sky Kingdom. It seems like she wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, master."

"Then, has the preparations been made?"

"Yes master, twenty of our warrior monks are already assembled. They can leave at any time."

"Tell them to take Arlen with them."

"Arlen? But he's not a devout follower, master. Just look at the mess in Olkar!"

"Yes, Olkar was indeed a debacle, but the objective was completed and he was so good at it that nothing was ever traced back to us. He is the only one among our order that has no honour. Let him dirty his hands."

"If that is what you wish, master. I will fetch him from the dungeons."

------

"Farran?" Miki said as she twirled her hair around her fingers.

"Something on your mind, Miki?" Farran said with difficulty. He was carrying not only his own warrior gear, but also provisions and gifts from the six villages when they announced their leaving.

"I've been wondering... Are there no magicians in this world?"

"Sure, there are plenty. Court jesters, travelling carnivals, sorcerors, shamans, priests, scholars, they all can use their own magics," he answered.

"Then why can't I be one of those, instead of a goddess?" Miki said as she pouted a little.

"Because for the simple reason that your magic is widely different from theirs. Court jesters and travelling carnivals don't normally practice real magic, theirs are slight of hands and parlour tricks that played on the audience's inattentiveness. Shamans make rituals that don't always work. Sorcerors and priests need to make long chants or long prayers before they can use magic. As for scholars, their magics are the magic of mechanics and potions," Farran explained.

"But I still can act like a sorceror or priestess, right?"

"You still don't get it, Miki. See that apple over there? The juiciest one?" Farran said, pointing to a distant apple tree.

"I can see one," Miki said.

"I want it. Get it for me," Farran said, while looking at Miki's reaction.

Miki made a gesture as if asking the apple to come to her. The apple in question simply plucked itself and flew across the distance and landed on her palm. "Here," she said, while handing him the apple.

"Now you see what I mean? A priestess simply won't do that, because they're afraid they will offend their gods. A sorceress may do that, but they will require very long invocations and it still won't accurately fly into their hands. It would've much easier for the sorceress to walk there and pluck it by hand," Farran said as he took the apple and cut it into halves, handing one half back to Miki.

"What's the point of having magic if it can't be used to make life simpler? I guess I need to be more careful then, huh?" Miki said as she took a bite.

"I suppose. It amazes me though, you seemed to do that effortlessly. I recall you saying you couldn't do any magic just less than a week ago."

"I've practiced. I've been getting better since we left Rownfelt. I get what you mean, maybe I should do some nonsensical spellcasting to throw people off."

"What would be the point? You are you. Just live with it and avoid using too much magic if you don't like to be worshipped," Farran said as he also took a bite.

"Still, why a temple? Why did you suggest that they build a huge temple for me in the woods?" Miki asked, concerning the events of the past few days.

He shrugged. "Of course, which goddess doesn't have a temple? You need to think of your own reputation."

"I think you're enjoying this a bit too much," Miki muttered under her breath.

Farran chuckled, ignoring her remark as he stated, "Here we are! Garnbrad!"

Miki looked in front of her, "It's just a signboard."

"It's a signboard informing us that we're close to Garnbrad. It is much more than a mere signboard. Now let's hurry. It will be dark soon and with luck, we can sleep under a roof tonight," Farran said excitedly.

------

"Ahh... a nice bed at last," Farran said as he laid down on bed without taking off his shoes.

Miki raised an eyebrow and said, "On the floor."

"What?"

"On the floor."

Farran looked at the hard wooden floor and asked, "You want to do it on the floor?"

"I meant you sleep on the floor. I'm taking the bed," Miki clarified.

Farran looked at the floor again. "But it will be cold!"

"You should've thought about it before asking for a single room," Miki admonished.

"But you're my bride!" Farran reasoned.

"Well according to you, I'm also a goddess. Goddesses sleep on the bed. Servants sleep on the floor. Good night!" Miki said as she grabbed the blanket and pulled it over her body.

Farran dejectedly took his backpack and set it on the floor, near the door. He propped his backpack against the wall and used it as a makeshift pillow. He had actually been looking forward to sleeping with his bride tonight.

"Oh one more thing," Miki said with her back to him, "If you dare try to get on the bed and sleep next to me, I will make sure to have you tied to the roof, naked."

Farran wept for his bad luck. He wondered why couldn't he get a sex demon instead of a frigid goddess. It was with great difficulty that he fell asleep, still weeping for his bad luck. He didn't notice when a flicker of light emerged from Miki's chest and disappeared in a blink.

------

"Goddess Miki, please grant me long life."

"Goddess Miki, please make me strong."

"I wish I can become an adult soon."

"I wish the miller's daughter will fall in love with me."

"Would you make me rich?"

"Goddess Miki, would you cure my mother?"

Miki looked around herself, looking for the owner of those voices in the deep mist. She waded through the silvery mist as the voices echoed around her, seemingly following her wherever she went. Despite walking for what must've been miles, the everpresent voices, asking for a boon or blessing was never getting nearer. At times it sounded close enough that she could almost grasp it, but then it went away, again became the distant but persistent voices she heard earlier.

"Goddess, please make me the most beautiful woman in the village."

"Please convince my father to let me leave the village."

"Goddess Miki, please make me a rich man."

Miki could no longer bear the constant noise so she lashed out, "Would you all please shut the hell up?!!!"

"What's with this wind?"

"Goddess, is that you?"

"Are you here with me, Goddess Miki?"

"Are you going to grant my wish then, Goddess Miki?"

"Shut up!!!" Miki lashed out again.

"Annoying, isn't it? But what can we do? With great power comes great responsibility. Not that anyone expects us to be responsible at any rate," came another voice, female, Miki was sure. Unlike the other voices, this voice was clear, distinct, not at all echoey, as if she was right next to Miki.

Miki tried to feel around her, and she still couldn't find or touch anything.

"Who are you?" she called, "You're different from the others."

"Focus. Focus on my voice. Can you hear me?" the voice said again.

"Yes, but where are you?" Miki asked.

"Tune out all the other voices. Listen to only mine. Can you hear where my voice comes from?"

"Your voice is to my left," Miki said as she turned left.

"Come to me, Miki. Chase after my voice. You know where I am," the voice lured.

"Yes, I know where you are. Don't move," Miki said as she broke into a run, chasing for this woman's voice.

Miki ran and ran, until she saw the silhouette of a woman at the far end of the misty space. Then as if she was running on the wind, her feet left the ground and she rushed through the mist into a clear meadowy place. She fell unceremoniously to the grassy ground accompanied by the sound of crickets and nocturnal life.

"Took you long enough," the female voice said again, but this time, she sounded very clear.

Miki got up from the grass and looked at a small domed structure on the grassy field. There was a woman sitting on a pedestal under the domed gazebo. She was beautiful with long silvery hair and big silvery eyes. She wore the same kind of toga that Miki was wearing, except that while Miki's toga had golden embroidery, the woman's embroidery was silvery. The woman smiled at Miki so sweetly, as if she never suffered a day in her life. She had on her shoulder a silvery owl, whose eyes were looking all over the place. For some reason, this woman looked very familiar to Miki.

"I... know you, don't I?" Miki asked.

"Of course you do, I was there when you were born. You were such an adorable baby," the woman said as she caressed the owl on her shoulder.

"You were there? But you don't look like you're that old," Miki stated.

The woman giggled, "I'm older than you think, little sister. When our mother gave birth to me, men were still killing each other with stone tools."

"'Our' mother? But I'm an only child," Miki argued.

The woman giggled again. "That's what mother wanted you to think. You are the only sky goddess that has never touched the ground, as they say. You are mother's most precious jewel. The jewel that she preferred not to be seen."

"Again with the sky goddess thing. I am not a sky goddess! I was born in Missouri to Frank Albright and Gloria Belshamen. I was an only child, and I am sure of that because my mother died during childbirth," Miki said.

The woman pursed her lips as if she was trying very hard not to laugh. "Oh, I know all about that story. Tell me, little sister, what kind of surname is Belshamen?"

"Jewish?" Miki guessed.

The woman didn't even bother hiding her mirth by then. Nor did she bother remaining composed. She laughed so loud, she had tears in her eyes. Even her owl was looking at her strangely.

"I'm sorry, little sister. I wasn't laughing at you, it's just... that was so funny. Excuse me," the woman said as she laughed even louder.

Looking at the woman laughing without control kind of pissed Miki off. Miki looked around her in annoyance, as looking at the woman just made her blood boil. It was then that she noticed that there were a lot more gazebos similar to the one the woman was sitting under.

Thirty-six gazebos in total, arranged in a circle. They all had a statue of a woman standing on a pedestal under it in various glamorous poses. Miki noticed that the only one without a statue was the one this woman was sitting under. Miki looked at the plaque under the woman's feet. Aya-na-ulas. Goddess of Ancient Wisdoms, Miki read.

"Where are we?" Miki asked the woman when her laughter subsided.

"Why, we're in Emelys, of course. The place fondly called 'The City Closest to Heaven' and the only place in the world dedicating itself to honouring every sky goddesses known to mortal creatures."

"What do you mean?" Miki asked again.

"Look," the woman pointed to one gazebo, which shined the moment Miki set her eyes on it, "Go ahead, have a good look."

Miki walked the short distance towards the gazebo. She was very shocked when she saw the face on the statue. "That's me!" she said as she saw that the statue was wearing the same face as she was wearing right now.

"Of course, that's your shrine. They even wrote your name properly."

Miki looked down at the plaque fixed on the floor. It read, Miki-na-maresh, Goddess of Rain. Miki looked at the woman and said, "Rain? That's so lame. Who decide this?"

"Mother, I think. I'm the Goddess of Ancient Wisdoms. I suppose it's fitting, I am after all, the oldest sky goddess still alive as well as the wisest, if I may say so myself."

"But I don't even know how to make rain... so if I die or something, does the world stop raining?" Miki asked.

"Baby steps, little sister. We all needed to learn at first. And to answer your question, no, just that if you die, rain will occur naturally. Praying will not work from the moment of your death. But I must say, little sister, you seems to be adjusting well. I would've thought that you would be suicidal, what with suddenly becoming a girl," she grinned.

"I was driving to a job interview and suddenly I was here. Being summoned into the World of Warcraft to fulfill a stupid wish while on my way to an interview for my dream job was a tad more annoying than being turned into a girl. Wait, I was driving when I was summoned, so did I die in the other world?

"Oh no no, you whole body was transported here. You simply disappeared from that world. You're fine, really. Can't say the same about your car, though," she shrugged.

Miki panicked hearing that. "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY CAR?!!! That was brand new!"

"That was kind of annoying," she rubbed her ears, "But to answer your question, your car suffered from... spontaneous combustion when it kissed the wall. Would you like to see a picture?" she said as she materialized a newspaper clipping between her fingers which she threw at Miki.

"My car..." Miki wept at the charred husk of her brand new Mustang Shelby GT500.

"Well, I suppose that's all the time I have for you tonight. Unlike you, the rest of us are actually quite busy."

"Wait! Will we ever see each other again?"

"Of course! Maybe one day we'll have ourselves a reunion in Emelys with all our sisters, how does that sound? Oh before I forget, I have a task for you tonight and every night until I see you again. I want you to fulfill ten wishes from your worshippers. Make sure you only fulfill the wishes of those who made an offering. Don't bother helping cheapskates. Our powers aren't infinite. Well, good bye then," the woman stood on the padestal as her owl flew away.

The woman made a glamorous pose on the padestal where her body, starting from her legs up turned to stone bit by bit. Just as her head was about to turn into stone she suddenly opened her eyes and turned her head towards Miki, "By the way, my name is Aya. I am the guardian deity of museums and libraries. So if you need to find me urgently, look for me in those two places."

Then she turned completely into stone.

Miki stood in the middle of the grassy field feeling lost. "She didn't tell me how to go back," Miki said out loud.

Miki couldn't be sure, but she swore she heard giggling from the statues around her.

------

Miki woke with a gasp. She looked around and realized that she was still in the same room that she slept in. She rubbed her head, trying to remember the contents of her dream. After much attempt, the only thing she could remember was that she cured a man with rotted toes. She deduced she recalled it clearer than others because it was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen.

A groaning sound alerted her to Farran's sleeping form near the door. He was curled in a fetal position, shivering as if he was freezing. Miki wondered if he was putting on an act, wondered if he knew Miki was awake and trying to beg for sympathy. In the end, Miki did sympathize with Farran and used her power to keep the air around Farran warm. Then she went back to sleep. She still felt very tired, as if she had just run a mile.

------

"Farran, what is this?" Miki asked as she looked at some kind of poster on the inn's notice board.

"That's the Garnbrad Tournament. So it's that time of the year already. The weeks after harvest, most big cities organize their own tournaments or festivals."

"What is this Garnbrad Tournament about?" Miki asked as she munched on a piece of pancake.

"It consists of people competing in various games. Last year, I participated in swordfighting. I got second, to my shame. This year, it seems they have only free-form. I wonder what this free-form game is."

"It starts tomorrow, it says here registration ends at sunset today," Miki read, "Oh, the rewards are 2000 flores for first place, 500 flores for second place and 50 flores for third place! Isn't that like a lot of money?"

"Yes, but read the fine print. The king may give winners a nobility title and a place in the king's army. Those who refuse such honour may only take a quarter of the rewards. I refused the honour last year, so I only got a quarter," Farran said sheepishly.

"But I've always wanted to be a nobleman!" Miki said. Duke Albright, hohoho, sounds great.

"You're a sky goddess, why would you want a human title?"

"Stop it with the sky goddess thing. I don't want people worshipping me around here too."

"Well at any rate, I'll ask the registration booth what this free-form tournament is. If it's anything like last year, I think I'll be joining again."

"What about me?" Miki asked.

Farran rummaged around under his iron plate and produced a leather pouch that jingled as it moved. "Here, there's 2 galosh and 8 fitter in there. Buy something you like. The city is pretty safe, just avoid the dark alleys and you'll be fine. Guard it though, thieves are everywhere."

After breakfast, Farran left to enquire about the tournament after making sure that they still have the room for the next two days. Miki on the other hand was unsure what to do. She could browse the merchandise of the bazaars on Flute Street. Or she could have a look at the more upscale shops on Merry Street. Then a sudden breeze reminded her of the single most important thing that she kept forgetting to get. Panties!

Miki got out from a shop called 'Marli & Sarn' as a proud owner of a pair of set of black panties and bra, with several spares. She had wanted to get the white ones, but when she told the shopkeeper that she would most likely be travelling around, she suggested black or dark colour ones instead. The shopkeeper told her that unless she does her laundry in urine regularly, the white ones will always turn disgustingly yellow. She was horrified and ended up buying more black and dark blue panties and bras than she intended.

As she rounded the corner towards Flute Street, she bumped shoulders with a tall man wearing something similar to a leather trench coat. The man turned to her and was about to kiss her fingers in apology when he said, "Mickey? My god, I didn't expect to see you here. It's been so long!"

Miki looked at the man, wondering if she had ever met him before. "Umm, hi Father John."

The man, who looked like he was in his 40s frowned. "Who are you calling Father John? It's me, Albert. Uncle Albert, remember?"

Miki scrunched her face trying to remember an Uncle Albert in her life. She briefly wondered if this was a man's way to court a stranger in this world. She wouldn't know, as Michael, she only had one girlfriend and that girlfriend dumped Michael before he graduated.

"Figures," the man sighed, "Michael, it's Uncle Albert, I gave you a toy train set when you were 6. I gave you this Gundam thing when you were 9." When the man saw Miki's looks, he said, "I fell into the moat when I took you to Disneyland when you were 7."

Recognition dawned on Miki's face as she finally remembered, "Uncle Albert!" Miki jumped to hug her long lost uncle.

"Just great, that you remember," Uncle Albert complained.

"Oh come on, forgive me, please?" Miki begged, "It's been so long, how are-wait a minute. Why are you here?"

"Just bought some pickled plums, see?" Uncle Albert said as he took out a bag containing some pickled plums from his trench coat.

"Ohhh, I love pickled plums, can I have one?" Miki took one before Uncle Albert could say yes or no, "Wait, that wasn't what I wanted to ask. I meant why are you here, in this world? It's a totally different world, isn't it? Or am I suffering from schizophrenia here?"

Uncle Albert chuckled. "Yes, it's a different world and no, you're not suffering from schizophrenia. As for why I'm here, you can call me an adventurer. One day, I realized that there was no more adventure in our world. Everything has already been explored. It was while I was being depressed that I found a way to punch through into this world. I've been going back and forth ever since."

"How?"

"That is a secret between me and the powers that be. But enough about me, what is going on here? It seems more hectic than the other times I've been here."

"Tomorrow's the annual Garnbrad Tournament, I guess everyone's either preparing or participating. I heard most of the inns here are already out of room," Miki said.

"Ahh, Garnbrad Tournament isn't it? How nice. I knew something good will come if I arrive today. Say, don't you want to participate too?" Uncle Albert asked with a smile.

Miki refused. "Me? But I don't know how to fight."

"Oh, I'm sure you have other 'skills' that is worth showing off," Uncle Albert coaxed, his voice was so pleasant.

"But I-"

Uncle Albert continued pushing. "Let's just go find a registration booth and see you registered for the tournament."

"But I don't-" Miki could already feel her control slipping.

"Nu-uh, remember what I always say?"

"Life needs to be enjoyed," they said together.

When Miki finally became conscious of herself, she already had a metallic bracelet locked tightly around her left wrist and her signature on both copies of the registration document. She looked at the document in her hand and cursed, "What the hell?"

Miki could barely recall Uncle Albert telling her, "Name, let's just put Miki there. Age, let's go with 18. Occupation, priestess of Alodil, now that's poetic. Fighting style, let's make it grand, Northern Mountains Dropping Eagle Wind Summoning Mastery. Marriage status, hey, when did you get married? But damned, I knew you would be beautiful as a girl. Now, place of origin, just go with Emelys."

"What the hell did Uncle Albert put in that pickled plum?" Miki said as she rubbed her aching head. "When I see Uncle Albert next time, I'm gonna massacre him. But then again, how did he recognize the female me?"

Miki decided that her adventure was over and headed back to the inn. She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Miki was only woken up much later when Farran got back.

"Sorry for waking you. I found out what the free-from was about. It's-hey, when did you join?"

Miki looked at the bracelet around her left wrist. "There's this senile old man who wouldn't take no for an answer. I was swept along."

Farran laughed. "We'll. I guess we'll be joining together then," Farran said as he showed her his bracelet.

"I'm sure you will win this year," Miki said confidently.

"Unlikely, since we have a goddess participating this year. But you won't see me an easy foe!" he grinned.

------

Oron, the merchant that Miki and Farran met several days earlier sat on one of the wooden long stools in the guesthall. He was inside the Solarium of Garnbrad, touted as one of the best and most complete hall of learning in the southern lands. He came here several days ago to find an answer to one of the most burning questions he had.

"Master Oron?" one of the librarian boys asked.

Finally it seemed like he would get some answer.

"Yes," Oron confirmed.

"Master Lysus will see you now. If you will follow me," the boy asked as he led the way. He wasn't even looking behind to check if Oron was following.

"Master Oron has arrived, Master Lysus," the boy announced as soon as he opened the heavy door into Master Lysus's office.

"Thank you, Eron. Please inform the others that we are not to be disturbed," a tall man in robes of a scholar said. Unlike the boy's gray robes, his was one of blue with black stripes along the length of his robe. He was holding a book in his hand as he studied Oron through the corner of his eyes.

Oron waited until the boy closed the heavy wooden door tightly before he said, "I still can't accept how young you look. If not for the bags under your eyes, you could've looked like a twenty years old."

"I've found what you wanted," Lysus said as he handed the book he was holding to Oron, totally ignoring Oron's remark.

"It says here, that gods and goddesses assume mortal form when the balance of the mortal world is in peril..." Oron said once he finished reading the page.

Lysus took a seat at his desk. "That's just one," he said as he gestured to a stack of books and scrolls on the desk. "Apparently there has been many cases of gods and goddesses assuming mortal form and there are more than a hundred reasons. After reading these, I just can't decide whether these people were delusional or if they were trying to write a stupid fiction."

"What makes you so sure that it's fiction or a delusion?" Oron said as he helped himself to one of the chairs and a slice of the cake on the desk.

"Because only an idiot thinks gods and goddesses are real. Just think, people say thunder is a wrath of god, but it's only a natural phenomenon, even replicable under laboratory conditions. How about fire? Do you know how many idiots worshipped fire?" Lysus looked disgusted as he said that.

"I saw one," Oron stated.

Lysus looked at Oron like he just grew an extra head, then he reached into his desk drawer and took out a bottle of cough medicine.

"I don't have a fever!" Oron slammed his palms on the desk, "I really did see her."

Lysus snorted, "Yeah sure. like that time you mistaken a fox for a girl."

"I'm serious, Lysus. Do you own a copy of 'Complete Encyclopedia of Gods and Goddesses'?" Oron asked.

"Of course!" Lysus went to one side of the room and drew a big book which was quite hard to carry. He then slammed the book onto the desk, blowing dust everywhere.

"Is this the original copy?" Oron asked as he touched the leatherbound cover in reverence.

"The first copy of the original. The original was lost in a fire. My mentor was the one who compiled it. When he was on his deathbed, he asked me to continue updating the content. I wasn't very thrilled with that task, so I've been putting it aside all these years," Lysus explained.

"Well, open the page about a sky goddess by the name of Miki-na-maresh," Oron urged.

Lysus opened the book while looking bored. He looked at the list of contents and turned to the page corresponding to the goddess Miki-na-maresh. "There's not a lot on her. Out of the two pages allocated for her, the other page is empty. If not for the drawing of her idol, her entry would have nothing," Lysus remarked.

"Please read it for me," Oron asked.

Lysus sneered. "If you want someone to read you a bedtime story, you should just settle down with a nice woman."

"I did, it didn't work out, remember? Just please, humour me," Oron said.

"Oh fine, let's see..."

Sky Goddess Miki-na-maresh, Goddess of Life-Giving Rain. Her name essentially means 'she who weeps (for mankind)'. She is the Goddess of Victory Gloria-muu-shiha amari's youngest and most sheltered daughter. Her principle power is wind, with which she brings rainclouds from the sea to water the crops being planted. She is least in control of the soil because of her reluctance to touch the ground. The seer Latitochus claims that the reason for her reluctance is for the fact that she is the most coveted by Bolodhir-un-awel, the God of the Underworld and the Afterlife.

Like most sky goddesses, the only place one may find her shrine is in Emelys, 'the city closest to heaven' as sky goddesses are considered closest to humans than the other gods. The only depiction of Miki-na-maresh comes from the image of the stonecarver Ellicus, of which she is a woman in white toga who carries with her two pots in either hand, one containing damp winds that releases rain and the other a strong wind that she unleashes on those who incur her wrath. She has golden hair and golden eyes and her body is described as being so soft and fleeting as if it is made of air. Her idol in Emelys was built by a stone carver who received a vision while praying to the Goddess of Victory.

Her favoured offerings are corn, gold flores and incense.

To date, there has been no claim that she has taken a human form.

"And that's where the entry ends. What is this about?" Lysus asked as he closed the book.

"I saw her," Oron stated.

"Miki-na-maresh?" Lysus asked unbelievingly.

"Her hair and eyes are of different colour, But the face is the same. She even calls herself Miki."

"Could be just a similar face. As for the name, maybe her parents had a life-saving harvest brought by rain that they named her in honour of Miki-na-maresh."

"There's another thing. She was wearing the exact same toga that she wore in this picture. She had married a human man, and get this, they were both wearing identical wedding rings, made of orichalcum," Oron said.

"Orichalcum?!" Lysus jumped, "Are you sure?"

"That got your attention?"

"Don't joke around, Oron. Orichalcum is known as divine metal, its worth is quadruple its weight in gold," he leaned forward across the desk, "Are you very sure of this?"

"Of course I'm sure, one of my skills is identifying ores. There is no other metal that's golden and emitting a red light. Those were orichalcum rings, no doubt about it," Oron said confidently.

"If what you're saying is true, then this is a great find! They must have found an orichalcum deposit somewhere. I need to see them, we can all be rich!" Lysus remarked excitedly.

"You... still don't believe that she's a goddess, do you?"

"Of course not. Goddesses don't exist. Orichalcum does."

------

"You mean, you didn't know?" Farran asked.

"Know what?" Miki asked as she fed herself a slice of venison.

"Tomorrow is the official tournament, but tonight is the preliminary. Not sure what it entails but we'll be spending the night in a secluded place with all the other contestants. Didn't the tournament official tell you?"

"I was swept along, when I realized it, I was holding my copy of the entry form and I have this," she raised her bracelet, "around my wrist. I don't think I heard anything back then. I'm gonna kill Uncle Albert when I see him again."

"Who's Uncle Albert?"

"Nobody you'd know. So when do we have to leave?"

"We'll leave after dinner. They said we can enter the preliminary area after the registration ended, but it will only start after midnight. I think it's best if we go as soon as we can," Farran suggested.

"Why?" Miki asked, not understanding the need for rushing.

"Because I think this is the elimination round. Whoever got there first will have the best hiding spot and know the terrain better than anyone who comes later. We'll need to find a good spot for us to get through the night as well," Farran explained.

"Might as well. I don't like losing," she said as she finished her dinner.

"I don't like losing either, so we'll have to go there as soon as we can and find a good spot," he said as he got up, "I'm buying provisions for tonight, you go ahead and gather whatever things you may need for tonight. Don't take too much, though."

"Right," Miki said as she got out to buy herself some leather outfits or dark clothes. Her glowing white toga was too eyechatching for a night in the forest.

Two hours later, they arrived at the preliminary area, a forest in the middle of a valley flanked by three mountains. In the middle, a wide river separated it into the northern and the southern valley. Miki was amazed at the natural beauty of the valley. If she was still Michael, she would've loved to spend time here camping and fishing.

They met the preliminary official who demanded to see their bracelets and registration forms. After checking to see that they were authentic, he let them in after saying. "Your task is to protect your bracelet. If it breaks or disappears, your entry is forfeit. Remember, you must remain in the valley until sunrise. Failure to remain before the official bell ring will also mean your entry is forfeit."

"If you don't mind me asking, sir," Farran stopped walking and turned back as he asked, "How many contestants are here?"

The preliminary official leafed through a stack of parchment and said, "The total is 3228 contestants. So far only 2270 contestants are here. Any other questions?"

"None, thank you," Farran bowed and took Miki by the hand.

Miki looked at the offending hand feeling slightly pissed but wasn't about to make a scene in public, "What are you doing?"

"There are already 2270 contestants inside. There is no doubt that we will be seen. We need to make them think that we're harmless and only here for fun."

"Holding hands will achieve that?" Miki asked unbelievingly.

"It's a start, but it's not enough. We need to be as annoyingly loving as a young couple in love."

"Excuse me? Did you just suggest that we act lovey-dovey in front of people who would rather kill us?"

"They're not going to kill us. It's against the rules, but if we made them think that we'd rather make love in the middle of the night than compete seriously, there's a good chance that they will leave us for last."

"Why do I feel like I'm walking into a trap?" Miki looked at Farran with the eyes of a sceptic.

"Of course we're walking into a trap, I won't put it past them to put a trap already," Farran said, not catching the other meaning behind Miki's words.

Miki studied Farran's face before she sighed. "You don't look like you're lying but it's possible you're just a good actor. Alright, let's give them a performance that will make them throw up their last bits of dinner," Miki said as she hooked her arms around Farran and leaned tightly against him.

I could get used to this Farran thought.

------

Miki floated in the sky as she looked down at the valley below. She had finished fulfilling prayers early tonight and decided to make use of her dreamwalking state to spy on her rivals. 3119 have already taken their hiding spots, some merely a few feet away from another, she thought. She looked with concern at her own hiding spot, which was surrounded six other contestants, some of whom already aware where they were. She looked on at the gate and noted the last of the contestants coming in.

"Quite a few withdrew," she said to herself.

She looked at the valley below and again noted with concern that both she and Farran were within striking distance from the others. She knew they will need to move, but how to avoid the others? The game was to keep their bracelets intact. Maybe she could hide it? She thought again and wondered if it would work. She decided to try only when necessary. Right now, she decided that moving themselves was a priority.

"And for that, we need to know where the others are... well, I'll just mark them somehow, but how? What kind of marking can I make now and be recognizable with my normal eyes?"

It was when Miki saw one of them move, rustling the tree branch he was sitting on and dropping red leaves onto the guy under him that she got an idea. "All right! Leaf above everyone's head suspended by wind, here it goes!" Miki said as she manipulated her wind powers to pluck all the red leaves from the area and suspending them above each contestant's head using something akin to 'persistent programming' to keep the wind maintain a strict distance and height of the leaves from the contestants. She of course excluded both her and Farran.

Miki woke up an hour some time after midnight, half an hour after the bell rang. Stretching, she saw Farran planting something like grass on eight corners of their hiding sport. "What is that, Farran?"

"Bellsprouts. It's very sensitive to vibrations, see," Farran demonstrated by tapping his leg on the ground. The grasses vibrated with a hum and the flower part of the grass all pointed towards Farran.

"Wow, that's so neat!" Miki whispered.

"It's amazing isn't it? Learned it from a someone I knew on my adventures."

"Yes, that's really cool," Miki whispered again.

"Why are we whispering?" Farran whispered as well.

"There are six others around us. Two of them are already aware of us here," Miki whispered closer to Farran's ear.

"Seriously?" Farran said to which Miki nodded, "Well then, I guess it's time we make love and make them think we're not here for the game." Farran took a step forward as he tried to kiss Miki.

Miki quickly stopped him by placing her palm on Farran's face. "Not going to happen, you lecher! We're leaving!"

"But how? You said we're surrounded, how would we leave?"

"Well, maybe-" Miki's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of screams and explosions nearby. "What the hell was that?"

Farran looked concernly at the direction of the noise. "If we want to leave, we best be quick because-" just then, a figure jumped out from a nearby bush and Farran quickly met his sword with his own, "That explosion riled everyone up."

"Are you saying that everyone's been waiting for a signal?" Miki asked.

"Not signal," Farran said as he kicked his opponent away, "Everyone knew that just guarding their bracelets wouldn't be enough, sooner or later, someone was bound to start attacking others. When that happened, of course the best way to protect their own bracelets would be to destroy other people's bracelets. That was what everyone must've been thinking."

The return of his opponent took all his attention that he couldn't spare a brain power to explain the situation to Miki.

"Why didn't you tell me this-" Miki's words were interrupted by a man suddenly appearing from the darkness and brandishing his falchion at her. Miki raised her hand at his direction and using her wind power, lifted the man up in the air and then explosively used her wind to send the man flying a long way from their position, "You should've told me this earlier, Farran!"

Miki used her power to suspend Farran's opponent in the air and sent him flying like the other man.

"Thanks, but really, I can take him," Farran said as he looked around for vibrations in the bellsprouts. It was no use, there were so many vibrations in the area that all the flowers made 360 degrees spinning.

"Meh, there is no honour in a duel in this situation. This is nothing more than a free-for-all massacre. I think we should just hide and - damned it!" Miki cursed as two more jumped out of the bushes. Miki carefully targeted the two assailants with her fingers and delivered a strong, sharp and well aimed wind at their bracelets, shattering them in the process.

Farran was also fighting two other assailants using his sword and sheath. Miki helped Farran by throwing a ball of violent air at one of them, a woman, until not only her bracelet shattered, her clothes was also ripped apart. Farran handled the other one with ease afterward by cutting the bracelet with his sword.

"Shall we leave then?" Miki suggested.

Farran agreed. "Definitely, lead the way."

They made their move slowly as Miki not only had to watch the way in front, she also had to look upward, watching her specially marked red leaves to see if the direction they were heading would be free of enemies. Twice she had to use her powers to shatter the bracelets of people they accidentally ran into and twice more they had to fight their way through when a group of battling contestants unexpectedly extended their battles near them. In the end, they managed to reach one of the parts that was devoid of any contestants as everyone had joined in the fight near the center of the valley.

"Guess we can rest a little now. Wonder if I can take a nap for awhile," Farran commented as he sat on the mossy soil followed by Miki, who sat with her back leaning on a rock.

"Go ahead. I'll keep watch. I'll wake you up if anyone got close," Miki said as she continued watching the floating red leaves in the sky.

"I'll do that then, goodnight," Farran said as he laid his head on Miki's lap.

"I didn't say you could..." Miki objected but relented as he saw Farran doze off, "Just this once."

It was three hours later that Farran woke up on his own, much to Miki's relief. Miki already had lost feeling of her legs by then. When Farran got up, Miki carefully stretched her legs and massaged the blood back into her veins.

"Did anyone come?" Farran asked as he yawned.

"None," Miki lied. Four people had come separately within the past three hours. She blew them all away with her wind.

Farran looked up at the starry sky. "How much longer until sunrise?"

"Probably two hours," Miki replied.

"Still a long way to go. Anything can happen within two hours," Farran remarked.

"Farran, how much do you know about the magics of this world?" Miki asked, there was something nagging at her.

"Not much, but I do know a mage in my hometown. I learned a lot from her and able to do minor spells with difficulty. Why?"

"You can do magic? Why did you ask for magic from me last time?"

"Well, in all fairness, the only magic I can do is this," Farran plucked a leaf and pointed his forefinger at the leaf. Then he made a very long chant and slowly, the leaf started smoking before it shrivelled.

"That's it?" Miki asked to which Farran nodded, "That's pretty useless."

"Tell me about it. So you can see why I asked you for magic. The mage who taught me said I had absolutely no talent for magic. She said it would be best if I concentrated on swordsmanship and only practice magic defense. I suppose she was right."

"Then are you aware of a magic that can detect people?" Miki asked.

"Yes, it's a magic to find lost object or people. The mage I told you about said it was sixth sense, but I think she lied."

"How about a magic that allows one to communicate over long distance?"

"The mage did say that people with talent in clairvoyance can communicate with their minds, but I've never had it happen to me, so I can't say with any certainly. What's this about?"

"I think we're being tracked," Miki said.

"What do you mean?" Farran asked, concern evident on his face.

"There are 126 people coming this way. These are separate individuals coming from different directions, yet they are all coming straight at us. I think someone's watching us and telling these people where to find us.

"We should leave then!"

"We can, or we take that challenge and massacre these people," Miki said with a grin.

"That sounds extreme..." Farran said as he unsheathed his sword.

"Don't worry, you'll do fine," Miki said as she patted his back.

"You mean 'we', right?" Farran said as he started to feel a sense of dread.

"Oh no, I mean 'you'. I'll just sit here and let you do all the work," Miki said as she sat back against the rock.

"Don't joke! I can't fight 120 people-"

"126, oops! 129 now!"

"Well, I can't fight that many!"

"You kept saying that I'm a goddess but you don't trust me?"

"It's not about trust..."

"Relax, I'm gonna bless you. Now hold still," Miki said as she placed her hand on Farran's left, giving him an invisible tower shield as strong as steel but as light as air. Then Miki put Farran's sword back into its sheath and placing it between her palms, she lightened the weapon and increased the volume with a layer of violent twisting air, making it twice as thick and able to throw away anything that barely touched it. At last she placed both hands on Farran's chest and blessed him with less weight, allowing him to move faster and jump higher.

"Go get 'em, tiger!" she whispered into his ear as the first of the assailants arrived.

Once sunrise arrived, the preliminary officials rang the bell signifying the end of the preliminary round. Both Miki and Farran came out without a scratch. Although no death was reported, over 3000 contestants were either injured or unconscious, 456 of which was caused by the 'blessed Farran'. After confirming with the officials that their bracelets were still intact, they went back to the inn and went to sleep. Miki was so tired that she didn't even notice when Farran slipped in behind her and spooned her until they both fell asleep.

*Following a number of requests, Sky Goddess has now been serialized! Yay!
**As a goddess, surely Miki will need a symbol or sacred animal. Symbol as in a jackal for Horus, peacock for Hera and cats for Bast. As my faithful readers, what animal do you think Sky Goddess Miki-na-maresh should have and why? Needing suggestions. Future chapters will be modified to fit the sacred animal.
***As usual, please leave your comments and feedbacks. Praises helps me write faster. Constructive criticisms helps me write better. As with most authors, I'd like to receive both. Thank you for reading.

What would you do if one day someone asks you, "Do you want to be a god?" What will your answer be? What if you said yes but the god you become wasn't what you expected? Will you regret it? Miki fought in the Garnbrad Tournament as the priestess Miki, no thanks to Uncle Albert's intervention. She met someone very familiar. Sky Goddess Chapter 3 A story of adventure in a fantasy world. By Shinieris

Farran was woken up the next morning by an ear piercing scream, followed by the feeling of flying in the air before his head hit something solid. As he sat confused on the floor, Miki stood in front of him. Miki stood menacingly, her toga askew. She didn't notice or care that Farran could see her partially uncovered left breast.

"Umm, are we being attacked?" Farran asked to break the silence.

"I am being attacked!" Miki said as she commanded air to raise Farran to the ceiling, and commanded air to release him, letting him fall to the floor like a rock.

"Wait, calm down. Why are you punishing me?"

"Because you're the one who attacked me!" Miki raised him to the ceiling and let go again.

"Ow, ow, ow! Miki! If the floor is marble, I would've died!"

"It's nothing less than you deserved!"

"Wait, I don't understand. What did I do?"

"You still dare to ask me that! Can you seriously say with absolute honesty that you did not sleep with me last night?"

"Uhh," the words that ran inside Farran's mind was, Is sleeping with her a problem?. Then he suddenly remembered his mother telling him that when a girl accuses him of something that embarrasses her, he should just calm her down by admitting it, even if he didn't feel it was anything wrong. Damned, girls really are fickle.

"Yes, I won't lie. I did sleep with you last night," he said, though he still wasn't sure what the problem was.

Unexpectedly, Miki fell to her knees and broke into tears. "Why'd you have to do that? I don't want to get pregnant in this backward world."

That surprised him. "Goddesses get pregnant with just that?"

"ANY girl gets pregnant with just that! Haven't anyone taught you about sex?"

"Umm, sorry. There wasn't much of an expectation in my family for me to make babies. So I wasn't taught any of that."

Miki dashed forward and pulled Farran up by his collar. "Do you have any idea the chance of a safe delivery of a pregnant mother in this kind of backward medieval society? 3%! I don't want to die when I give birth!"

"But you're a goddess!"

"Screw goddess! If I die I go to that pointless Sky Kingdom! I don't want to go there!"

"But everyone wants to go there," Farran pointed.

Miki kicked him out of the room in response.

"Come on, Miki. I told you I'm sorry. I swear I will be responsible for the child," Farran pleaded as they sat at the breakfast table in the inn's common room.

"Of course you will be responsible for the child," Miki then glared at him, "If you try to run away after you did this to me, I will personally hunt you down to whatever hole you try to hide in."

"The only hole I want to hide in is in yours," Farran said as Miki stood up slapped him loudly from across the table, to which he said, "Can't you take a joke?"

"I'm not talking to you," Miki said as she ordered a light breakfast consisting of cottage cheese, half a loaf of bread, a goblet of wine and a bowl of mushroom soup.

Farran ordered himself a breakfast of a few slices of venison, a bowl of mushroom soup, half a loaf of bread and a tankard of beer. Miki's meal arrive first and she dug in without waiting for Farran. It was when she wanted to tear off a piece of the bread that she paused. She tried again without much luck until she knocked on the table with it.

"What the hell? Was this bread made during the French Revolution or something? It's so hard I can use this as a weapon!" Miki complained as he thumped the edge of the desk with the bread again.

"You can't expect all bread to be served fresh. They probably bought this bread two or three days ago from a bakery somewhere. Besides, you can't use it as a weapon," Farran smiled, happy that she's talking with him eventhough she said she wouldn't.

Farran's order arrived about that time.

"Oh really?" Miki grabbed Farran's bread, and placed it on Farran's hand, much to his confusion. Then she grabbed her bread, juggled it between her hands and threw it at a non-offending man. It hit his bald head right as she grabbed her goblet of wine.

The bald man turned around and growled, "Who was it? Who did it?"

Miki pointed at Farran. "He did," she said. With the evidence in Farran's hand, there was really no saving him.

"You...!" the bald man made a beastly face as he lifted Farran by his chest plate.

"Wait, you got it all wrong. We can sort this out, really."

"Sure, let me beat you up a little, then we can sort this out," the bald man said as she raised his fist and swung it.

It hit nothing because somehow, Farran managed to wiggle his way from the man's grip and ran off outside as fast as his feet could take him. Miki felt very bored.

------

Miki arrived at the tournament arena quite early in the morning. She had wanted to wait for Farran to return, but after waiting for half an hour without even a shadow of him, she decided to go on her own. She had to ask the locals the way to the arena a few times, but after the tall roof of the colloseum-like arena was visible she arrived with no trouble.

She looked at the names on the tournament contestants list.

Group 1 Obrissit Elimin Rastati Ellika

Group 2 Farran Mirias Orlian Eggisis

Group 3 Dark Hood Arianna Kalasus Meribel

Group 4 Asofran Markal Gallos

Group 5 Garn Stuca Shark Eron

Group 6 Akasi Erina Anarka Ani Asra Orlos

Group 7 Naria Kalariga Miya Omon

Group 8 Fafarin Esuka Miki Kanas

Miki wondered why the contestants were separated into groups. She wondered if it was a group battle instead of individual. She also wondered if the winners will have to share the prize or if they will each be given the full sum.

"Hey hey, this doesn't sound right. Do you think the organizers fixed the tournament?" one of the girls to Miki's left said to her friend.

"What do you mean they fixed the tournament?" the other girl asked.

"Look at these names. Many of them joined last year's tournament. Group 1 to Group 4 are all weapon wielding fighters. Group 5-8 are all people with some magical abilities. See that, Anarka Ani Asra is participating too this year," the first girl said.

"Don't say her name! I don't want my house to be burned down just because she's feeling bored."

"Yea, the Queen of Flames will probably do that. Let's just get out of here before she arrives," the first girl said as the quickly ran away from the notice board into a sidewalk where the disappeared from view.

"Hi there, never seen you around. Is this your first time?"

Miki turned around to look at the woman behind her. She saw a beautiful smiling face just inches from hers. She had reddish hair reaching to her waist. Her eyes were big and the pupils were a shade of scarlet. Her face was narrow with high cheekbones, but when she smiled with her eyes half closed, she looked like she was trying to pick a fight. The woman was wearing a gray robe, unremarkable in design, but appeared to have been made of very fine cloth, like silk, only more beautiful.

A contestant, she noted the bracelet around the woman's right wrist. "Yes, I was kind of forced into it. Didn't really expect to get through the preliminary round."

"Oh yes, the preliminary was bad, huh? I had to stay awake for 10 hours on my own, just so that I don't get beaten in my sleep," the woman said.

"Uhh, yeah. I suppose being alone would be terrible," Miki agreed as Farran's face popped up into her mind.

"My name is Miya. What's yours?" she said as he held out a hand.

"I'm Miki. Say, have we met before? You look somewhat familiar," Miki said as I held out a hand, when suddenly she felt a jolt of electricity when their fingers touched. What was that? Static? Miki wondered.

She smiled, that same smiled as if she was trying to pick a fight. "I don't know what you're talking about. Seems we're be in a different group. Will look forward to a healthy competition with you. See you later!"

Miki wanted to ask her a few more questions, mainly about how she looked very familiar, but Farran's arrival gave her pause.

"Miki..." he said as he tried to catch his breath. "Why'd you do that? I had to run through half the city to escape that bald man. And you know what? He's a contestant too!"

"I was just talking to-" I turned to look at the woman calling herself Miya when Miki realized that she was nowhere in sight. "Hm, nevermind. I'm going in. Don't follow me."

An hour later, Miki was sitting at the front seat, reserved especially for contestants. She was right that the tournament was a group battle. She was currently watching Group 1 and Group 2's battle, in which both Farran and Elimin (the bald guy) were commanding their team using all their skills to destroy the other team's bracelets. Basically, the contestants that stepped out of the stage would be disqualified while those whose bracelets were broken were considered 'dead'. The team that still had at least one bracelet on and still on the stage after the opponent were all defeated or all disqualified won the battle and will go to the next round. However, if their bracelets were destroyed, no replacement will be given and they will be disqualified from the next rounds.

Farran's group used a shield wall tactic, with Farran being the center linking shields with the other two swordsman, Orlian and Eggisis on both sides, with the slinger Mirias providing long range cover behind them as they moved quickly to push the staffman Rastati out of the stage with a quick and mighty shield push. Elimin's team on the other hand used a more loose fighting formation, fighting as individuals. As soon as Rastati was pushed off the stage, the slavemistress Ellika used her whip to make Eggisis lose his footing before Elimin moved in from behind and punched Orlian out of the stage. Eggisis quickly got up under cover from Mirias's rocks but it resulted in Mirias being pushed out of the stage. After that, it was a contest of wills between Farran and Eggisis against Elimin and Ellika. In the end, Farran was the only one standing after pushing both Elimin and Ellika off the stage. The crowd cheered.

"Miki, did you see?" Farran came to the spectator's seat later when the second team fight of the day was about to start.

"No, I didn't. I told you not to come near me," Miki huffed as she looked away to her right.

"Oh come on, are you still mad about this morning? I told you, I will take responsibility for it," Farran said as he plopped down on the seat to Miki's right.

Thus making Miki avert her eyes to her left instead. "Don't talk to me."

The crowd cheered again.

"That was fast," Miki remarked, "It hasn't even been 10 minutes."

"Yes, one would expect that a four-man team will beat a three-man team. But it's the opposite. They all lost while the three-man team didn't even get a scratch," Farran commented.

"Must be because the four-man team consists of two staffmen and two bowmen. The staffs are fine, but bows aren't suitable for this kind of competition," Miki said.

"Not to mention that the tip of the arrows they used had to be covered in cork to avoid injuring spectators. So they couldn't even use a quarter of their skills," Farran added.

"Why are you talking to me? Go away!" Miki shooed.

"Aw, come on, how long are you going to sulk? You're my wife, of course I want to make babies with you. Don't you want to make babies with your dear beloved husband?" Farran said as he took Miki's hand and kissed it.

"Stop stop," Miki shivered, "Disgusting, disgusting." Miki shivered again.

"What? Is having a baby with a mortal so bad for my goddess wife?" Farran said, sounding a bit hurt.

"Go get me corn on a cob," Miki said, still shivering.

"What?"

"Corn on a cob, now!"

"Corn on a cob, coming up!" Farran said as he left in a hurry.

Miki covered her face with her palms. Suddenly the realization sunk in, that she was transported to this world of which she knew nothing. Turned into a woman, whose body would probably carry another life inside her soon. Becoming a goddess, which by itself wasn't all that bad, but being worshipped by people, didn't sit well with her. She was raised as a Christian, and in her book there was only one God, unless if you count the Holy Trinity. Now not only was she a goddess, she also controlled the rain and she was responsible for the life and death of everyone who depended on rain.

Suddenly she felt a great heat on the skin on the back of her palms. She opened her eyes, took her face off her palms and was assaulted by waves of heat. It was like she was sitting right next to fire that roared in pulses. She looked at the stage and instead of a stone stage in the middle of a clearing, there was a roaring fire, that burned and burned fiercely with unnatural flame. Around the flame were people on fire, being doused with water by the tournament staff and the mages employed by the tournament committee. Miki was surprised that in the middle of the fire stood a red headed young woman between 20 to 25 years of age, seemingly untouched by the fire. The woman looked smug as the announcer announced that her team won the battle.

"As expected, the Flame Queen really doesn't have any sense of delicacy," one of the the girls on Miki's left, who introduced herself as Esuka the Witch commented.

"Flame Queen?" Miki asked.

"Anarka Ani Asra, otherwise known as the Flame Queen. Nobody knows where she comes from, but everybody knows how she enjoys burning things. Any village that she come across often had some things burn without any reason," Esuka explained.

"So why didn't they just turn her away?"

"Sure, some villages banned her entry, but of course, she took offence at that and burned the whole village down instead. Rumour has it that whoever even touches her, bursts into flames. Very gruesome," she said.

"I suppose."

"Oh well, it's our fight next. Let's give it our best, shall we?" she said as she got up and walked towards the preparation chamber.

Miki got up and followed her, but she briefly wondered why Farran hadn't arrived with her corn on a cob yet. Little did she know that Farran was outside of the arena compound looking for a place that sold corn on a cob. Farran didn't realize that there was a stall that sold corn on a cob, near the eastern entrance as he left through the southern entrance.

"Alright, so here's the plan," Fafarin, the mage knight outlined their battle plan when they got together, "Esuka will buff Kanas and I with her curses while limiting opponent movements also with her curses. I will be the front line combatant. Kanas will be short range combatant, holding the other ones at bay while I try to bring them down one by one. Miki will bless us with the powers she received from her goddess, but if you can get a direct shot at any of them, take it."

"That may be hard for them. Look, they have a witch, two sorceresses and an anti-mage. The witch can cancel any curses placed on us or on their fighter, which I assume to be Omon himself," Kanas pointed.

"But Omon is an anti-mage, my curses probably won't work on him, and Miki's powers will definitely not work," Esuka remarked.

"They have two sorceresses. As long as someone can delay Omon, I can take any of the two sorceresses or witch. After that, we just need to push them out of the stage one by one," Fafarin said.

Miki interjected, "You need to be careful about Miya the Sorceress. I'm feeling something off about her."

"Miya... I think she was in last year's tournament too. But I can't remember how she fought," Esuka said.

"Doesn't matter. I will be careful, but I am a mage knight. My job is to hunt down wayward sorceresses, I think I can handle two sorceresses and their pet witch," Fafarin said confidently.

"If we talk about it anymore, we'll only be doubting ourselves, let's just go," Kanas said, brooking no argument.

Within minutes, they were standing at the gate that opened into the arena's stage. The other team was on the other side of the arena, entering through another gate similar to the one they were in. When both teams walked in, cheers exploded above them as the crowd expected a real good show between magic users.

"Remember what we discussed," Fafarin reminded.

He took his position on the stage, standing in front of Esuka. Kanas stood in front of Miki, holding eight darts in his fingers that looked very much like the japanese ninja's kunai. Esuka was already chanting some curses. Miki stretched her muscles, calling a little of her power of the wind as she felt a cool breeze flowing around her body.

Miki was taken aback when she noticed Miya's eyes looking straight into hers.

"Start!" the judge announced as Esuka buffed Fafarin and Kanas with good curses.

Miki noticed that both of the sorceresses were chanting something and not wanting to make other suspicious, she chanted something totally unintelligible, "Bulibulibulibulibulibulibulibulibuli. [Wind, lighten their burdens.]" Miki commanded as both Fafarin and Kanas felt themselves becoming much lighter.

Kanas then threw his eight kunai to the air, as he shoved his hands into the pouches that hung on other side of his hip. He took out eight more of the same kunai and threw it to the air in the opponents' general direction. He stood unmoving as his kunai flew around the stage, seemingly autonomously as it attacked Omon.

Wind spirits? He made a contract with sixteen wind spirits? Miki thought once she realized that each of the kunais were guided by a wind spirit each, which explained how it could move on its own.

Fafarin took the opportunity to attack Kalariga, one of the sorceresses. Kalariga defended herself with ice spells in the form of ice shields and ice blasts. Fafarin charged headlong, his sword glowing blue as it cut through the ice blocking his path, until in the end, with fear in her eyes, Kalariga stepped out of the stage of her own free will.

[wind, push him out.] Miya the sorceress commanded as Kanas flew out of the stage without anyone touching him. When she saw Kalariga left the stage, she moved her arm to push Fafarin out too.

I knew it! Miki thought as commanded, [Wind, be my hand.] Miki no longer even bothered to fool the others into think that she was just a mere sorceress as she dropped the casting time that real sorceresses were burdened with in favour of using goddess-style magics. Miki then reached out her hand and grabbed Miya's arm with her wind.

Miya looked amused as she looked at Miki, then shook her arm, destroying Miki's spell easily. Omon dashed forward to cut Miki down but Fafarin stepped in his way, blocking Omon's progress with his own enchanted sword. Esuka empowered Fafarin with her curses, though it didn't seem to have much effect, probably because of his proximity to the anti-mage.

[Wind, enchant his armour.] Miki commanded as the wind covered Fafarin's armour with a thin layer of wind which repelled every strike.

[Fire, boil his blood.] Miya commanded as Omon went berserk with bloodlust.

[Wind, attack with sickle winds] Miki commanded as the wind turned into razor sharp and launched itself at Omon.

[Earth, protect his body] Miya commanded as Omon's body turned glittering black. Miki's sickle winds smashed upon Omon's blackened body with no effect. For that brief moment of distraction, even Fafarin was able to deliver a blow to Omon's body, but even his strike had no effect.

Industrial diamond! Miki finally understood as she commanded her winds to push everyone other than Miya out of the stage.

"Ha! Tired of this game, then?" Miya taunted as she took off the robe she was wearing to reveal the white toga underneath. The white toga was similar to Miki's in cut and form but with red lining instead of her gold. Around her neck, left wrist and around her ankles, she wore golden bracelets of different shape and quality from the tournament bracelet that she wore around her right wrist.

"I feel bad using them for your little game, sister!" Miki stated.

"Oh my, whatever do you mean? Why are you calling me your sister?" Miya grinned, showing that she was joking.

"Cut the crap! I knew I've seen you before. If you really won't confess, I will be very pissed."

"Oh? What do you think you can do, little sister?" Miya laughed at the same time she fired a bolt of fireball at Miki.

Miki easily slapped the fireball away with the back of her hand. "I will blow you so high you won't know which way is up and which way is down. Then I can confirm whether sky goddesses can fly or not."

"Oh, we can fly. Can't you?" Miya taunted again.

[Wind, throw her to the sky] Miki commanded.

[Earth, ground my feet] Miya commanded.

[Wind, launch gale winds] Miki commanded.

[Earth, raise a barrier around me] Miya commanded.

[Wind, bring down the hammer of wind] Miki commanded as blocks of heavy air dropped from the sky.

[Wind, blow strong upwards][Fire, twelve flame missiles][Wind, large gale winds] Miya commanded as the twelve flame missiles merged with the gale winds to create a tornado of fier.

[Wind, be my shield] Miki commanded as Miya's fiery tornado washed over her body. She could only use her wind to shield herself from the swirling inferno around her until the pressure became too great that she ended up kneeling on the stone stage.

From outside the swirling inferno, people could only see a tornado of fire that enveloped the stage. Miya, using her command of wind, floated in the air away from the fiery stage.

Above the crowd seating, in one of the premium seats, a priestess, wearing a white toga with red laces and ribbons sighed, "Oh my goddess, she's done it again."

"I've told you before and I'm telling you again. You really should tell your goddess to keep a low profile," her companion, a man wearing a long white ankle-length toga with silver strings around his waist said.

"You know how these goddesses are. They never listen! Besides, it's not like I can tell her not to join these games or to tone it down," the priestess moaned.

"What with her being 'she who competes' after all," the man nodded.

"Exactly! Nobody can tell her not to do it, it's her aspect. At least she limits her powers. If she uses her full powers, this whole city will be turned to ash in a blink of an eye."

"Thank Aya-na-ulas for small blessings," the man prayed silently.

"Wait, why Aya-na-ulas? It is my goddess who ensures good weather and guarantees no permanent injury or death," the priestess objected.

"I'm the head priest of Aya-na-ulas's Garnbrad temple. Why would I pray to your goddess? Anyway, isn't it already too long? Is there any chance the girl has died inside that flaming tornado?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure the girl's a sky goddess too. Besides, if there's any danger of this Miki girl dying, Miya-na-ima will stop it. She's not like that upstart God of Order that kills anyone who doesn't do as he wish."

"Kulkuri is indeed rather extreme. You think this Miki is Miki-na-maresh? I heard she appeared at Whitree and Rownfeld. They've already hired an architect from Garnbrad's Solarium for Architectural Designs to design her sanctuary."

"Goddesses can use any name they want. If it's true this girl is Miki-na-maresh, then those four villages will become rich before long," the priestess said as she started to worry about the length of time Miki was inside the flaming tornado.

"Yes, what with Miki-na-maresh favouring offerings of gold. Pretty soon, the four villages will be know as wealthy rain villages."

"Hey, something's happening," the priestess said as she urged the priest to look at the stage.

[Wind, wash over me and break through this fiery cage!] Miki commanded as she used her wind to push away every bit of flame from her surrounding. When the flames threatened to enveloped her body again, she breathed in, gathering all the wind around her body and released it all in one violent blast.

If not for the barrier that the priest of Aya-na-ulas and priestess of Miya-na-ima cast to provide safety for the spectators, the audience would have probably suffered third degree burns from the way the flame was expelled from the stage.

"Was wondering how long it would take you. Wouldn't it be faster to summon rain, seeing as you're the goddess of rain?" Miya said as she floated back onto the platform.

"I'm gonna beat you up, sister!" Miki said in rage.

"Oh, will you, now? With what?" Miya taunted.

[Wind, attack her with sickle winds][Wind, lighten my burden] Miki commanded as she sprinted right after the sickle winds that she launched against Miya.

[Wind, show her your forceful wind][Earth, turn my muscles to iron] Miya commanded as she used the force of her strong winds to redirect the sickle winds. She was surprised to see Miki coming at her right behind the sickle winds, but she didn't think it mattered. To demonstrate her superiority, she allowed Miki to punch her in the face as she grabbed Miki's throat with her iron fingers.

"What was that, little sister? Was that the best you can do? Your punch felt like a mosquito bite. I should know, I was bitten by a mosquito when I went to your world. Your world is so full of disrespecting animals," Miya said as she raised Miki higher until Miki's feet no longer touched the ground, giving much pressure on Miki's throat.

[Wind, gather gale force behind me] Miki commanded as the pressure on her throat increased.

[Wind, gather another gale force behind me] Miki commanded as she tried to free herself by kicking Miya in the stomache.

[Wind, increase gale force behind me] Miki commanded as she punched Miya right in the face.

[Wind, gather sickle winds in my right hand] Miki commanded as she felt a swirling force of sharp winds twisting around in her right hand.

[Wind, increase the power of all my wind spells] Miki commanded again as her vision blurred.

"What, are you no longer going to fight back? I never knew you could be so boring. I mean, I'm here to show you how weak you are, like a good sister, but you aren't even going to give me a challenge?" Miya taunted as her fingers tightened around Miki's throat.

"I know a goddess with only 500 worshippers won't be able to do much against a goddess with almost a million worshippers, But still, how many limiters do I have to put on to be able to feel some kind of challenge from my youngest sister?"

[Wind, concentrate sickle winds in my palm. Attack!] Miki commanded as she smashed the concentrated sickle winds against the arm that held Miki in the air.

"Oww!" Miya cried as she dropped Miki and looked at her bleeding arm.

[Wind, launch both gale force towards her from right and left] Miki commanded as she felt the gale winds whooshed past her to hit the still confused Miya. The gale winds assault her from both right and left, causing the horizontal mini tornadoes to twist her arms the wrong way.

"Ahhhh!!!' Miya screamed as her body twisted in the air until she fell to the stage in a heap, her arms in very awkward positions.

"Surrender Miya, if that's your real name. Your arms' sockets are probably pulled off and your bones are probably in the wrong position. You can't fight anymore," Miki said as she stepped closer.

"I can't fight anymore?" Miya got up slowly, as she cackled in glee. "Who do you think you are talking to, you little brat?"

Miki jumped back, as she felt like if she had stood where she was, she would likely be struck down.

"I, who is she who plays games. Do you really think a little girl like you can get me to fight seriously? Think about it, do adults fight children with all their strength?" Miya said as she showed Miki a mad grin.

What is this pressure? Shouldn't she be on the floor? Why am I afraid? Miki questioned herself as she stood rooted to the spot, unable to move even a muscle. She was sweating profusely, as she felt fear from the disabled Miya.

"Oh crap!" the priestess of Miya-na-ima cursed.

"You're a head priestess, please watch your tongue," the head priest of Aya-na-ulas said as he rubbed his bald head.

The priestess ignored the priest as she said, "This is bad, Miya-na-ima hasn't found any good challenge for the past fifty years. Now that she found something that provides some kind of challenge all those feeling of resentment is resurfacing."

"What will happen?" the priest asked, concerned.

"That girl, if she's a human, she will most likely die. If she's a goddess, she will most likely be beaten so badly, that not even the power of a goddess can heal her," the priestess answered grimly.

"We must strengthen the protection field. It will not do to have a contestant killed or maimed during the tournament," the priest said as he started looking through his memory for a spell that could strengthen the protection field for the contestants.

"It won't work, the power for the protection field comes from Miya-na-ima herself. It won't protect the girl from Goddess Miya's power. Huh?" the priestess said before she squinted her eyes at the stage.

"What?"

"That's it!" the priestess exclaimed as she closed her eyes pressed her palms together in front of her lips.

"What's it?" the priest asked, confused.

"Quiet! I'm praying," the priestess said as she prayed to Miya-na-ima, who was at that very moment, walking slowly towards Miki, while fixing her own limbs with unseen hands.

Goddess Miya, please look at your wrists. the priestess prayed.

Down on the tournament stage, Miya who heard the priestess's prayer looked at her wrists. She didn't see anything wrong with it, as the bones and joints had already healed. Suddenly it hit her, "Oh bloody hell!"

"Huh?" Miki breathed a sigh of relief that the feeling of danger passed, but was confused at Miya's demeanor.

Miya raised her right hand and called, "Judge! I've lost."

Miki looked at Miya's right hand and it suddenly occurred to her. "Oh right, she loses if the bracelet breaks."

Miya suddenly looked at Miki. "I didn't lose because the bracelet breaks. I can use my power to repair the bracelet even after it breaks. The reason why I lost was because of this," Miya said as she showed Miki her left arm.

Miki looked at it in confusion.

"Geez, how can you not understand? I'll explain later," Miya said as she walked off the platform.

"And the winner of this battle is Team 8!" the judge announced accompanied by a huge cheer from the spectators, which by then had filled all the seats of the arena.

Miki walked back to the preparation room with pats on the back by Fafarin, Kanas and Esuka.

"Miki!" Miya called from around the corner that lead to Miki's team's preparation room.

"Go on without me," Miki told her teammates as she walked towards Miya.

"Sure, we'll be sitting at our previous place on the bandstand," Esuka said as she whispered in Miki's ear, "Go have a talk with your big sister."

Miki looked at her in shock, but she just winked and left with the others.

"Alright, explain," Miki said as they got up to the highest level of the arena, looking down at the stage where Farran's team was already waiting. Apparently the second round involved the winning teams to eliminated their own team members. That answered one of Miki's question, so the prize money will not be shared among the team members.

"I didn't lose because of the bracelet. I lose because of this," Miya said as she held up a golden bracelet that looked just like the ones she had around her neck and ankles.

"Your other bracelet broke apart? That is a problem?" Miki asked.

"These aren't normal bracelets. It's made of oricalchum and they're my limiter. Much like your limiter over there," Miya said as she pointed at Miki's wedding ring.

"This? What does it limit?" Miki asked as she examined her wedding ring.

"For me, if I had used all my powers, this whole region would have become a wasteland. These bracelets, my limiters each limit my power by half. It's cumulative," Miya said placed a fragment of her broken bracelet onto Miki's palm.

Miki felt the remnant of a spell work inside the bracelet, but she couldn't tell for sure what it was. She could tell however that it was different from her wedding ring. Then she started to calculate in her mind, "So if each bracelets limits your power by half, then four bracelets limits your power by..."

"About 6%, geez, learn to count without a calculator."

"6%?" Miki considered before she suddenly understood, "Eh?!!! You fought me using only 6% of your power? And I still barely beat you?"

"Actually, you just caught me by surprise. That last technique was quite painful, but if I was serious, even 6% would be enough to kill you twice over," Miya said, making that same smile that suggested she was trying to pick a fight again.

"You seem very confident of yourself," Miki remarked.

"Oh of course. Nobody can beat me, so I of course am very confident. Not even our big sister Aya can beat me. But then again, she's a bookworm and a librarian. Fighting has never been her style. But I don't have time, so let's just answer your one last question and then I have to go. I am quite busy actually."

"I have many questions that tops all other questions. Why wasn't I given panties?" Miki asked the very same question that had plague her since the first time she came to this world.

Silence. "Uhh, we don't use panties in this world," Miya said as she averted her eyes.

"That's a lie! I just bought some!" Miki accused

"Okaay, you can find some here. We just don't use that in the Sky Kingdom," Miya answered with a red face.

"And why not?"

"Because Alodil is a horny old pervert and he vetoed panties up there."

Miki's lips formed a 'O' as she asked, "There is a god who vetoed panties?"

"And bras. Like I said, he's a pervert. And he got his eyes on you. So... tough luck," Miya grinned.

"What is he? Twelve? How can anyone be so juvenile?"

"Hey, you got a problem, take it to the old pervert upstairs. I don't make the rules."

"How can you wear this," Miki made a downward sweeping motion at her toga with her hand, "This short thing, without panties? Everyone can see my you-know-what!"

"So now you understand why many of our sisters prefer to wander around down here? Let's not talk about some of the sluts like Ira, Yana and Maka. They love the attention."

"There are many of us down here?" Miki asked.

"Yes, as far as I know at least sixty of us are down here doing whatever we feel like doing. Of course, it's better to stay up there if you want to fulfill thousands of wishes at the same time. They have pools that work like multi-channel televisions up there," Miya explained.

"Another thing, you said this ring," Miki showed her the wedding ring around her finger, "Is a limiter. What does it limit? My power?"

"I don't think it limits your power, it's a different kind of limiter. I think this one limits certain actions, though I have no idea what. Aya will probably be able to answer that, though," Miya said as she turned around and walked into the air.

"Huh? Where are you going?" Miki said as she looked around when Miya simply disappeared into thin air like smoke.

"As I said, I'm busy. Good luck on the rest of the tournament. Be careful of Anarka Ani Asra. She's not normal," Miya's voice echoed in the wind.

Miki felt the air where Miya's body used to be with her hands before she gave up and floated down to the seats below to watch Farran winning his battle through backstabs and treachery.

*Another chapter of the Sky Goddess. The conclusion to the tournaments will shortly follow in Chapter 4.
**As always, please leave your feedbacks and comments. Praises helps me to write faster, constructive criticisms helps me to write better. Thank you for reading.

What would you do if one day someone asks you, "Do you want to be a god?" What will your answer be? What if you said yes but the god you become wasn't what you expected? Will you regret it? Miki continued the Garnbrad tournament. She was forced to fight her former teammates for the chance to win the game. Will she manage to beat them all? What about Anarka Ani Asra, the Flame Queen? Sky Goddess Chapter 4 A story of adventure in a fantasy world. By Shinieris

"It is the time you have all been waiting for! The last skirmish of the tournament! Please welcome our contestants!" the judge exclaimed as they came out to the stage one by one.

"Hailing from the ancient land of Kaldoria, master swordsman and sorceress hunter, Fafarin!" the judge introduced to the clap of the audience.

Fafarin bowed to the audience as Esuka came out.

"From the magical forest of Lost Arca, a beautiful witch with natural big jugs, the enchanting Esuka!"

Esuka blew kisses at the audience before her eyes shot daggers at the judge, as if complaining that he had nothing to comment apart from her breasts.

I suppose that's my cue, Miki thought as she came out.

"From the holy city closest to heaven Emelys, the great wind priestess of Alodil-uru-annik-astahi, the beautiful Miki!"

She thought it was just her imagination, but it sure felt like there was a lot greater applause to her. Miki waved at the audience with the prettiest smile she could manage. It was then Kanas' turn.

"And from our own home city Garnbrad, the talented wind priest of Aya-na-ulas, here comes... KANAS!"

For some strange reason, the applause for Kanas was a lot louder. Could it be because he was a local? Could the entire colloseum be filled with his family and friends?

Kanas came all the way to the stage only to say, "Judge, I surrender."

Suddenly the whole colloseum went quiet.

"Uhh, did you just say, you surrender?" the judge asked, his voice echoing throughout the colloseum.

"No way, I've told you, we can do this!" Fafarin suddenly yelled.

"That's right! We can do this! But we can't do it without you, Kanas!" Esuka added. She was holding a staff glowing with a bluish aura. The staff appeared to be made of a single piece of wood with the head being carved into the shape of an eagle.

"Fighting a goddess? Are you out of your mind?" Kanas said with a lower voice, as if he didn't want the judge to hear.

"It doesn't matter! Even a goddess is vulnerable in human form!" Esuka argued.

"I can repress her power, don't worry!" Fafarin assured him.

"I don't know... she's my goddess's little sister, you know. I could end up being cursed."

"Ummm, sorry to disturb your strategy meeting," the judge intervened, "... but can we get on with the skirmish now?"

Both Fafarin and Esuka begged Kanas on their knees. Eventually he relented with a sigh. The judge then gave them a brass key each as a bell rang. Miki looked at the key with a confused expression.

"Err... are we supposed to open a door or something?" Miki asked, not making a move eventhough the skirmish had already started.

"Miki, didn't you watch the earlier skirmishes?" Esuka asked.

"Umm, not really. My mind was somewhere else." Miki's mind was actually busy flying all over the place trying to fulfill wishes. There must be a better way than this.

"You have to guard the key. If your opponent grabs it, you lose. Of course, you'll also lose if you leave the stage," Esuka explained.

"Oh, I see. What's with the staff, though? You didn't use it earlier."

"This? I use this when I'm being serious. I'm actually a summoner. Being a witch is just a hobby. Wanna have a look?" Esuka said as she offered Miki her staff.

Miki moved forward to take it.

"Chance!" Fafarin shouted, "Repress Aura!"

Suddenly Miki's body felt a lot heavier and the toga started to turn yellow. Miki looked at Fafarin and yelled, "Hey, she was still talking!" then she rushed the wind to grab his key for a quick win.

"Nullify magic!" Fafarin called, cancelling Miki's magic.

Miki tried to use [Gale Wind] when she realized that she was surrounded on all sides by 16 daggers powered by 16 wind spirits. They flew around her, trapping her body in lengths of string while uttering words of apology.

"Ufufufufu, I got you now, Miki! Lord of Fire, you who bring life and death, bringer of light and warmth, grant me the power of hell's fire, my life for the serpents, my blood for the flames, my soul for its fiery breath. Come forth, Flame Serpents of Gomol!" Esuka chanted before the eagle head of the staff breathed fire that turned into three snakes of human height made entirely of fire and magma.

"Great jeebz, I have to fight something like this?"

They slithered towards Miki, leaving fiery trails in their wake. They were slow and it took a few seconds before they came in range, but it wasn't like the stage was big. With the strings wrapping around Miki's body, she couldn't move her hands. She was helpless.

Or not.

"Wind Hammer!" she cried as the wind in front of her became solid and smashed the three serpents into long pancakes.

But they quickly reformed themselves and as they came nearer, their stomach bulged and she had the strangest feeling that she could die. The bulge quickly moved up their serpentine body until what could be their throats bulged bigger their heads. This must be none other than the infamous fire breath. She had seen enough of the like in Japanese anime.

"I'm so stupid, they're fire. Well, the easy way to stop fire without water is to remove the fuel. Alright, wind, maximum CO2 poisoning!"

The serpents released their fiery breaths only to have it extinguished quickly. Within a manner of seconds, the flames on their bodies died out. After a minute, their magma bodies started to cool and turned into black rocks.

I have defeated the fire serpents!

Unfortunately, it wasn't over.

"Voice Restriction!" Fafarin cried as Miki felt something wrapping around her vocal cord.

Miki tried to cough it out, but nothing happened. Even her voice was gone.

"Great Lady of Winter, queen of the desolate north, frigid goddess of the snow bears and mountain lions, bring forth the power to let man sleep for a thousand years, grant me the power to suppress life, to suppress the unworthy, to suppress the flames of the world. Come forth, Icicle Field!"

Miki broke the voice restriction just before her feet was frozen.

"God damned you people! I thought this is a free for all? Why are you only targetting me?" Miki cursed as her body was rapidly covered in ice.

"Sorry, Miki. As a goddess, you can't really expect us to go easy on you, right? Try again next year," Esuka said with a wink.

"I'm gonna beat you up with your own ice, Esuka!" Miki vowed before her whole body was covered in ice.

"Alright, so who got her key?" Esuka asked, her voice was transmitted clearly through the ice.

"Uhh... did you grab the key, Kanas?" Fafarin asked.

"Huh? Nobody told me I was supposed to do that!" Kanas replied.

"Ahhhhh!!! You idiots! What the hell was the point of me going all out if you didn't grab her key? Should I stab my staff into both your faces?"

"What? You want a fight, little girl?" Fafarin said.

"Little girl? I'm older than both of you combined, you blasted idiots!"

"Hey, I didn't want to join in the first place. You guys begged me to, remember?" Kanas said.

"Repress Aura!"

"Bring it on, you snivelling worms! I'll use your lifeless bodies as offering to twin fox goddesses Anushka and Marushka!"

"Hey, I don't have any weapons anymore. So would you please spare me?"

"Great Lord of All That Flies, he who controls the skies, he who gives direction to birds, he who provides strength for fowls to travel the long winter."

"Nullify Magic!"

"Allow me the priviledge of your feathers, to bring fear to my enemies. Come forth, Storm of Crows!"

"Kyahhhhh!!! Stop it! What kind of magic is this? Why didn't the nullify magic work? Ow! Ow! Ow! It's pecking me!"

When Esuka trapped Miki inside this ice, she also trapped Kanas's 16 wind spirits inside. They were now sandwiched between the cold ice and Miki's body. With a kind of telepathy, Miki chatted with them.

"You have a lot of guts to attack me."

"Please forgive us, mistress. It was nothing personal."

"It was part of our contract, mistress."

"We didn't mean to attack you."

"Please forgive us, mistress."

"We'll do anything you tell us to. Please don't banish us into the realm of emptiness."

"Please forgive us, mistress..."

"Fine, I will forgive you, but you will help me break this ice. Got it?"

"We don't have any power left, mistress..."

"Use mine. I should have plenty of power left."

"Alright, should we use a temporary contract, mistress?"

"Sure, whatever works."

"Alright, sisters, we going to break through this ice in 5... 4.... 3.... 2... 1... Break!"

With a great force of decompressive winds, the big block of ice surrounding Miki's body shattered. Pieces of the ice flew all around, hitting all three of the other contestants. The judge wisely hid behind a pillar before the fragments of ice could harm him.

"You... dare.... to... make me... mad... Should I cook all three of you inside an erupting volcano?"

"Heee!!!" Esuka squealed.

"I said I didn't want to do this!" Kanas cried as he left the stage, effectively disqualifying himself and hid behind another pillar.

"My nose! Stop pecking my nose!!!" Fafarin yelled as he tried to punch the crows that were attacking his face.

"What do you have to say for yourself, witch?" Miki asked the cowering Esuka.

"I'm sorry?"

"Not good enough," Miki said as she pushed Esuka out of the stage with the fury of an angry goddess' wind.

"Eh? Where's everyone?" Fafarin asked once the crows flew away. With Esuka out of the picture, the force that compelled the crows to stay had disappeared.

"Last chance," Miki said as she popped her knuckles, "Thrown out like the witch," she pointed at the unconscious Esuka who was slumped against the wall, "Or scared to death like the man in a bath robe?" she pointed at Kanas, who was causing little tremors to the stone pillar he hid behind.

Seeing that, Fafarin understood the situation. "Please have my key," he said as he bowed and offered Miki his brass key.

"Good choice," Miki said as she used the wind to take his key, "But I'm still angry," she said as she commanded the wind to make an oxygen trail from the fiery trails that the fire serpents left behind to Fafarin's pants. It was amusing her to see him dance when the fire caught his pants.

Now I'm satisfied.

"And the winner is... Priestess Miki!"

******

With the conclusion of Miki's skirmish, the tournament had taken a break for today. Tomorrow morning would be the semi-finals and the final round. Farran would face off against the chakram wielding Asofran. Miki would be facing off against the Queen of Flames, Anarka Ani Asra. Miki wondered why Miya told her to be careful about Anarka Ani Asra. Sure, she supposedly could create fire from nothing, but even the most powerful flames needed to obey the laws of science. Without oxygen, fire will die.

"You were amazing!" Farran praised her as they walked back to their inn.

"Well, I don't want to brag, but I am quite good at what I do."

"As expected of my goddess wife!"

She frowned. "Do you really have to mention that? I still haven't forgiven you for sleeping with me last night."

"What's wrong with it? We're married, aren't we? It's natural for a husband to want to sleep with his wife, isn't it?"

"Stop talking about that. You're making me shiver."

He then reached around her and put his left hand on her left arm, then he pulled her close. When she resisted, he insisted. It continued for so long that everyone on the street stared at them. In the end she relented and leaned against him, anything to get rid of all the unwanted attention.

"You're paying for dinner," she stated.

"Of course, my love. It's a husband's duty to put food on the table after all. Don't worry, I'll never let you go hungry, I promise you this," Farran said as he rubbed her arm.

It made her skin crawl.

Miki chose not to inform him that where she came from, both men and women had equal status. That both men and women often work for a living. That the idea that men worked while women stayed at home had pretty much been abandoned in the great US of A. In the US of A, this kind of chivalry was no longer commonly practiced. Sure, many eastern countries still practiced the old ways, but she had never been to another country, so she wouldn't be able to tell.

Dinner was a lavish affair, for this world at least. Beef roast, blueberry pie, white wine, mashed potatoes, fresh fruits and sunny side up eggs. Farran ate even more and even asked for seconds. Miki supposed it was what being a man was like. When she was a man, she also used to wolf down food like she was going to die tomorrow. But now, even this was too much, maybe girls have smaller stomachs?

"Hey, what's that?" Miki asked when something under his clothes caught the light of the lanterns.

He looked at where she was pointing and took out a pendant. It glowed with a bluish hue. "It's a memento of my mother. She used to be an adventurer too, before she married my father. It's been almost 10 years since I've seen her."

"I'm sorry for your..."

"She's not dead. When I was 9 years old she declared that she was going adventuring again. I haven't seen her since!"

"I see..." she said as she touched the ruby of the pendant and jumped when suddenly something that looked like a hologram appeared in front of her.

It looked like a single flat blue hologram about 2 feet high and 4 feet wide, with something written on it. The sheet hologram stayed in place even when Farran moved around. Farran asked her what was wrong, and she told him to just eat his meals.

"I can't read this!" she complained. It was like a bunch of wriggly letters that had no start nor end.

As if in answer to her complain, it turned into English. "Oh, that's nice!"

"What's nice?"

"Just focus on your dinner."

"Okay."

Apparently Miki was the only one who could see this. Even Farran who wore the pendant couldn't see what was written. It looked like this.

Name: Sariha's Silver Amulet	Type: Pendant
Quality: Magical	Durability: 8/15
Properties: Wind Resistance +8% Fire Resistance +12% Water Resistance +5%

"Is your mother's name Sariha?"

"No, her name was Yunha. Why?"

"Nothing," Miki said as she pointed a finger at the number next to magical resistance. Using her finger to push the number up and down, she managed to set the wind resistance to 80%. She couldn't raise it any higher

"This will probably hurt a bit," Miki said as she fired [Wind Dart] at Farran.

He didn't even notice it. "What will probably hurt?"

"Nothing..." Miki said as she lowered the wind resistance to 10% and closed the item window with indifference. Inside though, she was bubbling with excitement. This is just like a cheat program! I can change the magical properties of stuff I touch!

Miki touched the mug in front of her. Nothing happened. She touched it again. Still, nothing happened. That was strange, when she touched the pendant, it was so easy.

Come on! Open item editor!

Without realizing it, Miki concentrated a little power at the tip of her finger and ended up poking a hole at the side of the mug. She watched as the wine inside leaked out from the hole. Just great! Instead of a magical mug, I got a leaking mug instead!

Miki wondered if it only worked on magical items. Not finding any other magical items in sight, she turned to the only magical item that came with her, the pure white toga. She focused a little of her divine power at the tip of her finger, and touched the cloth of her toga. Instead of a single screen, what came out were hundreds of screens. Surrounding her, were seven rows of cheat screens, arranged one after another neatly, numbering at least 20 screens for each row.

"What's the matter?" Farran asked. Miki couldn't even see him with all the ghostly blue screens blocking her view.

"I don't know where to start..." Miki said as she focused her power at the tip of my finger and touched her toga again.

"Well, you can finish up your meal for now. After that, we'll go upstairs and start digesting with plenty of action on the bed," Farran said with a grin.

"Not that! Ah forget it. I'm going to bed. And I don't want you to climb in after me, got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" Farran agreed before he continued wolfing down the food on the table.

It wasn't long before he was joined by the other losers and they partied all night. In a drunken haze, he ended up climbing into bed with Miki and spooned her from behind. The next morning, she woke him up with a well executed wind hammer.

******

"Ouch, why'd you have to do that? I have to fight in a while, if you don't remember," Farran complained as he flexed his muscle.

"Oh, shut it! I told you not to climb into bed with me, remember?"

"I'm your husband!"

"You wished you were my husband. As soon as I found out how to cancel this curse, we're through!" Miki said as she healed his back.

"Strange way of cheering me," Farran mumbled.

"Don't be such a baby, now off you go!" Miki said as she pushed him to the contestant's waiting room.

Miki went to sit at her usual place. With the tournament reaching semi-final, the reserved seat for contestants had been disbanded, but it was still empty except for former contestants. Maybe the audience thought it would be scary to sit near the former contestants. Or it could be because of Anarka Ani Asra. When Miki sat, she was already there, playing with a ball of fire on her palm, like playing with a lighter.

Off, she closed her hands around the ball of fire.
On, she opened her hands as the ball of fire reformed.
Off.
On.
Repeatedly.

Even Miki was a little creeped out by her.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the semi finals of the Great Garnbrad Martial Tournament. I am Garri, your host and judge and starting our day is a fight between two skilled warriors. Please welcome, last year's second place, Farran and newcomer Asofran!"

The audience cheered and clapped as both Farran and Asofran walked out of the competitor's waiting area waving at the audience.

"As last year's second place, Swordsman Farran showed remarkable skills. His skills with sword aura was incredible to the point that he sliced the stage into two parts. Will he do the same again this year?"

The crowd cheered.

"Newcomer Asofran showed incredible skills with his elemental chakram. Fusing elements of fire and ice, he defeated the crowd favourite Twin-sword Markal. Will he carry through with his victories?"

Cheers erupted again.

"Let the fight begin!" the judge announced.

"Hey there. You didn't pull any punches at all," Esuka complained as she sat next to her.

"You guys ganged up on me. You have no right to complain," Miki argued as Esuka bribed her with a newly bought corn on a cob.

"But you're a goddess..." she looked at Miki with a weird glint in her eyes.

"I don't see anywhere a clause that says, 'A goddess must be reasonable'." I wonder if I will get rich if I introduce popcorn into this world.

"I've decided!" she said excitedly.

"Decided what?"

"I'm going to worship you!"

"Okay..." Miki said while watching Farran get beaten up by Asofran's chakram.

"I'm serious, I want to worship you!"

"No, please don't."

"I'm sincere about it. I will go to the ends of the Earth with you!"

"No, that's not necessary."

"I'll even follow you to hell!"

"I said that's not necessary."

"If you want to spend the night together in the throes of passion and hot desire, I'll be happy to be there for you."

"Really? Wait, no! That's definitely not necessary!"

"Why not? You like me, right?" she said, discretely pulling her dress a little lower. So when she asked if Miki liked her, she was emphasizing the valley between her breasts.

Miki couldn't be blamed for having her eyes locked at that beautiful sight. She still liked women after all. Esuka was a gorgeous woman. Cute face, big breasts, nice curves, despite being a little wild looking.

"See? You like me after all," she giggled.

"Uhh, umm, no, you misunderstand."

"Don't they do this in the Sky Kingdom? I heard Maka-na-suri jumped on everything that moved," she said with a sly smile.

"Umm... err... I."

"And the winner is... Swordsman Farran!" the judge announced with the whole colloseum erupting in cheers.

"Eh? How did that happen?" Last I checked, Farran was being beaten up by Asofran's twin chakram.

"He did this complicated sword art thing that cut Asofran's chakram in mid-air. Asofran surrendered after that. A good call, without his elemental chakrams, he wouldn't be able to win," Esuka explained, apparently she was watching the fight while Miki was flustered by her advances.

Miki watched Farran standing on the stage with one fist raised as if gloating about his victory. she turned towards Esuka and asked, "Hey, who was last year's winner?"

"Last year? There were many competitions, unlike this year. So I'm not sure which one you are asking about. But if you ask who defeated Farran, it was me."

Miki looked at Esuka with a startled expression. "Ehhhhhh?!!!"

"What's with that annoying response? I was awesome last year, for your information. I rained fire and death like it was second nature. Naturally that swordsman had no chance. Of course, last year I went with the name 'Dark Magician' and donned a full body robe, so nobody actually knew who I was," she said with an embarrassed laugh.

"But you were pathetic when facing me!"

She frowned. "Excuse me, my opponent was a goddess. Against anyone else, they would've died at least twice in that skirmish. Besides, last year I had a fully charged energy crystal, I didn't have it in our fight."

"Energy crystal?"

"This," Esuka took out a blue jewel the size of a thumb, "It took 5 years to fully charge it. 1 year wouldn't make a difference."

Miki took the energy crystal and instantly two windows popped up.

Name: Energy Sapphire	Type: Magical Jewel
Quality: Magical	Durability: 18/21
Properties: Magical Charge (49/300)

Properties: Magical Charge min/max None Add properties

Allow Overcharge? Unchecked Allow Sacrifice? Unchecked Allow Soulbind? Unchecked Allow Full Discharge? Checked

"Ohh, this is amazing!" Miki said as she turned the magical charge max to 500 and increased the charge to full. Then she gave it back to Esuka.

She definitely noticed something wrong with it. "What did you do?"

"I raised the maximum charge and refilled the charge."

Esuka looked at Miki with tear filled eyes. "Miki, I love you!" she cried as she jumped at her, hugging her tightly.

"Umm, excuse me," a voice from Miki's left startled her, "Priestess Miki, we're going to start the next round soon, please head towards the contestant waiting area."

Miki looked at Anarka Ani Asra and saw that she had already walked away. She immediately disengaged Esuka's arms from her waist and went off towards the contestant's waiting room.

In the waiting room, she stood next to Anarka Ani Asra, who stood there silently playing with her ball of fire. She was hot. Not hot in the sense of being beautiful, though she was indeed quite hot in that regard, if you don't fear catching fire. The actual problem was she was literally hot, as if her body was continuously being burned. Miki could feel it from just standing next to her.

"And now for the last battle of the semi finals, the battle between the fire mage Anarka Ani Asra and wind priestess Miki!" the host announced.

That was their cue. They walked side by side towards the stage. Miki waved at the spectators discretely. Anarka Ani Asra didn't seem to care. She was busy playing with her fireball.

"For those who are not aware, newcomer Anarka Ani Asra is also known as the Queen of Flames. She is known for unintentionally causing fires wherever she goes. In the last team battle, she burned the whole stage, defeating both allies and foes alike. Will we see the same thing in this battle? Wow, I'm sweating!"

There were boos from the audience.

"She was the one who burned my village!"

"She burned my whole crop!"

"She burned down my house because because I said she smelled like ash!"

"She caused our well to dry out!"

"She burned the forest I hunted in!"

"My application form was burned by her!"

"I got burned for standing in line in front of her!"

"My tavern was burned because she didn't like my beef soup!"

"You deserve it, your beef soup was like dog piss!"

And all the other jeers. Miki could feel her temperature rising. Without realizing it, Miki took a step back.

"Facing her, we have lovely Priestess Miki hailing from the blessed lands of Emelys. She is the priestess of the King of the Gods, Alodil-Uru-Annik-Astahi, the Lord of All That Flies. Her wind magic will certainly be a match for the terrifying powers of Anarka Ani Asra. Who will win this match? We shall see, let the fight begin!"

Why did Uncle Albert choose that old pervert to be my fake patron? Miki thought, referring to how Alodil vetoed panties and bras in the Sky Kingdom.

Compared to the response she received, Miki's were generally positive. Most asked Miki to beat up Anarka Ani Asra for them. Some asked her if she'd be free for dinner. The host cum judge immediately left the stage, probably fearing a repeat of yesterday.

"I don't like prolonging what is inevitable, so I'll just finish quickly," Anarka Ani Asra remarked in a coarse voice as she smashed her fireball onto the stage.

As soon as the fireball burst, the whole square-shaped stage burst into flames. Not having time to do anything, Miki could only cry out in pain from the flames licking her body. If not for her protective toga, skimpy as it was, she would've probably run out of the stage like the other contestants.

Miki closed her mouth and plugged her nose as she cast [CO2 Hammer]. It was a lot weaker than her normal Wind Hammer, but it was strong enough to extinguish the flames and make Anarka Ani Asra cough. Soon after, the CO2 block dispersed and was replaced with a more balanced portion of air. Both Miki and Anarka Ani Asra breathed deeply.

"I see, I wanted to finish it earlier, but it seems like you wanted to keep on fighting."

"Hey, that was dangerous!" Miki complained.

Anarka Ani Asra didn't reply, but she created flames from both hands. As Miki watched, the flames spread throughout Anarka Ani Asra's body. In just seconds, her entire body was covered in living flames.

[Wind Spear] Miki cast a spell to push Anarka Ani Asra out of the stage.

It made no effect. The flames covering Anarka Ani Asra's body simply rushed forward and consumed the wind spear.

[Wind Hammer] Miki cast another spell to pummel Anarka Ani Asra from above. It was also consumed by her flames.

[CO2 Hammer] Miki cast the spell to disperse the flames, but it had no effect. It seemed like the flames were magical and not affected by the lack of oxygen. Not even Anarka Ani Asra was affected by the lack of oxygen.

Meanwhile, Anarka Ani Asra chanted a spell, invoking fiery runes suspended in mid-air around her. With each chant, another rune materialized. With several flicks of her hands, more runes materialized in the same manner. Miki did not understand what was going on. In her world, there was no such thing as magic. So she kept pummeling Anarka Ani Asra with wind attacks, hoping for one of them to break through. After all, wind magics was all she could do.

Esuka looked on and unlike Miki, she realized that Anarka Ani Asra was drawing runes in the air with both her chanting and her hands. She had only heard of people either chanting or drawing, but not both and it was almost impossible to draw a magic formation with both hands, even for ambidextrous mages. At the speed Anarka Ani Asra was drawing the magic formation, she could finish about three times faster than even master mages. She also noticed that the runes were on two separate levels, which meant that Anarka Ani Asra was chanting two different spells at the same time, something that only a grandmaster mage could do.

As one of the magic formation reached 4/5 completion, she realized what magic Anarka Ani Asra was casting. With no other way to contact Miki, she prayed, "Goddess Miki, she's chanting Fire Knight and Fire Barrage. Counter with a strong Wind Wall."

Miki, receiving such advice, immediately raised her Wind Wall. No sooner had she raised it, 73 fireballs materialized in the air. It formed perfect spheres and flew towards Miki one after another. It exploded the moment it came into contact with Miki's Wind Wall and managed to push Miki backward with each consecutive hits. By the time the 65th fireball hit, the Wind Wall broke and the remaining fireballs hit her directly. Added to that, Anarka Ani Asra's other spell, Fire Knight completed and it rushed forward on its fiery steed cutting Miki into two parts at her stomach with its flaming broadsword.

"Medic! Get someone here quickly!" the judge shouted as men and women in togas appeared from the exits around the stage.

Anarka Ani Asra fired ethereal flames through her hands and made a ring of fire around the stage. It prevented the priests and priestesses from approaching the stage and effectively isolated Miki, Anarka Ani Asra and the judge from the rest of the colloseum. Meanwhile, Miki was lying on the stage in two halves.

"Please stop! Call off the flames, she needs to be healed before she reach the point of no return!" the judge plead.

"You're noisy!" Anarka Ani Asra pointed her forefinger at the judge and released a flame so hot it could even melt rocks.

It was stopped by a powerful application of Water Blast. The resulting contact made steam that covered the whole arena. When it started to settle, the crowd could see a woman in toga standing between the cowering judge and Anarka Ani Asra.

"For attempting to kill the judge and refusing to allow a fellow contestant medical aid, I, Salsuri, Head Priestess of the Temple of Miya-na-ima declare your disqualification from the tournament. Please leave the city as soon as possible."

"I, Loknar, head priest of the Temple of Aya-na-ulas agrees with this judgement." He was on the stage, aiming the point of his staff at Anarka Ani Asra.

"Or what?" Anarka Ani Asra taunted

"Pardon?" Salsuri said.

"What if I don't want to leave? What if I want to burn the city and everyone in it?"

"You dare?" Loknar said with the tip of his staff glowing white.

At the same time, Salsuri covered her body with Ice Armour. Ice magic is a magic that gives powerful fire and physical resistance. Ice Armour is a type of magic that can't be learned by mages, it is classified as a divine magic, granted to accomplished priests and priestesses by their goddesses.

"Excuse me, would the unrelated people get off the stage? This isn't over yet," Miki said as she stepped out of the mist covering the rest of the stage.

"You're still alive?" Anarka Ani Asra looked at Miki with eyes full of disbelief. She had really intended to kill Miki earlier.

"You! It was really hard using wind magic to push my two parts together, you know? Can you even imagine the pain of being cut into two?"

Just then, everyone on stage heard a splat. Miki looked at the bottom of her feet and screamed in anguish. "MY INTESTINES! Somebody help me find more of my guts, NOW!"

Miki blew away the mist surrounding the stage with her wind magic and together with Loknar, managed to locate two more pieces of her intestines. She pushed it all into the gaping wound in her stomach before healing it all.

Anarka Ani Asra threw a fireball at Miki for no reason whatsoever. Miki slapped it away to the ground with her bare hands covered in wind armour. Anarka Ani Asra threw another and another. Miki just slapped it all away.

"How are you still alive?" Anarka Ani Asra asked as she turned her left hand into pure fire and launched a stream of flames at Miki. Miki countered with a wall of CO2 of her own while healing her body.

"Magic. Need I say more?"

"Impossible!"

"You, come here," Miki commanded while pushing Anarka Ani Asra's flames back with ease.

"Me?" Anarka Ani Asra asked.

"Not you! Him!" Miki demanded as she pointed at Anarka Ani Asra.

"Me?" The judge asked.

"Did I point at you? I'm talking about that fire spirit," Miki pointed at the salamander hiding in the flames behind Anarka Ani Asra. It attempted to hide.

"Unless you come here within the next 3 seconds, I will banish you to somewhere a fire can't exist!" The threat was real, at least the salamander certainly thought so. With a blink of an eye, the salamander teleported in front of Miki.

"Good day to you, mistress. How can I help you this fine day?" the lizard covered in flames grovelled.

While still pushing Anarka Ani Asra's flames, Miki said, "You're pretty brave to cut me into two. Do you want to be punished?"

The lizard trembled. "B-but that was... I had a contract with her. I had to do what she said, mistress."

"Then I'm severing your contract!"

"Eh? Huh? Umm, well... okay. Are you making a contract with me, then?"

"Sounds good," Miki said as suddenly the flames disappeared from Anarka Ani Asra's body. Even the flame stream disappeared.

"Great!" the salamander said before turning to look at Anarka Ani Asra, "Sorry, mistress. Goodbye!"

With a burst of flame, he disappeared. Of course, normal people couldn't see him, so nobody noticed his presence. Nor his significance in the battle.

"Did you just steal my fire spirit?" Anarka Ani Asra asked.

"I did, he's my fire spirit now."

"You arrogant bitch!" Anarka Ani Asra cried as ever fiercer flames erupted from all over her body.

Esuka, being a very experienced summoner and witch could also see the salamander being taken from Anarka Ani Asra. She thought it strange earlier that someone as young as Anarka Ani Asra could chant two different spells when not even her in all her years could achieve it. When she saw Anarka Ani Asra reformed the flames even fiercer than before, even after her fire spirit was taken, she understood what Anarka Ani Asra really was. She prayed to Miki.

"Celestial demon?" Miki said out loud when she heard Esuka's prayer.

Anarka Ani Asra froze. "You know what I am? I see, that explains everything. You are a goddess. Looking at your clothes, you must be a sky goddess. No wonder you didn't die earlier and you could steal my fire spirit. Well, this changes everything."

Anarka Ani Asra turned completely into the shape of a fiery demon. Then she started chanting, while her two hands were busy drawing fiery runes in the air. Miki quickly covered Anarka Ani Asra in CO2 to extinguish the flames, but it didn't work. Just like before, these flames were ethereal, magical.

Both Salsuri and Loknar was torn. On one hand, Anarka Ani Asra was already disqualified and they could by right force her to leave or arrest her. On the other, the younger sister of their goddesses herself told them to stay out of it. With such a contradiction, they could only pray for divine decree.

Esuka meanwhile, was afraid. From the size of the magic formation and the hundreds of runes that could fit inside it, this was no ordinary fire magic. With so many runes, it could only mean the most devastating types of magics known to man. The types of magic that could create mountains, raised islands or reshaped landscapes of whole continents. It could only mean a Cataclysm-class magic. She prayed that Miki could stop it.

Miki tried. Of course, she tried. But her wind magics couldn't penetrate Anarka Ani Asra's defenses. Using fire magics only worsened the situation. As she fought, the magic formation neared completion.

Once it was done, Anarka Ani Asra laughed. "Wah haha haha. Let's see how a sky goddess deals with this! I guess this is goodbye. I'm not going to wait around to see your doom." With a final wave, Anarka Ani Asra disappeared in a burst of flames.

At the same time, Miki felt a great disturbance in the air. She looked up at the sky. Far away, but not far enough, a fireball descended. It was large, even larger than the whole city and it was headed right towards them. Miki had watched enough doomsday movies to know what it was.

Meteor. A very large meteor.

*Feuh! Another chapter of Sky Goddess. I'm happy I managed to get this out.
**As always, please leave your comments and feedbacks. Praises help me write faster, constructive criticisms help me write better.
***Without feedbacks or comments, I will cry.

What would you do if one day someone asks you, "Do you want to be a god?" What will your answer be? What if you said yes but the god you become wasn't what you expected? Will you regret it? Miki is now face to face with the meteor. No, literally, face-to-face. Got it? Ha! And she found out she's broke! What to do? What would Warren Buffett do in moments like these? Sky Goddess Chapter 5 A story of adventure in a fantasy world. By Shinieris

Miki looked at the sky with her telescopic eyes. Far, but not far enough, a meteor entered the upper atmosphere. It was headed straight for the city.

"I'm a goddess, I can cancel magics, I think. Let's see. Dispel! Banish! Go back!" Miki cried with arms pointed towards the meteor.

It's not working!!! Miki mentally moaned in despair.

Looking around for ideas, her eyes fell on Farran. More specifically, her eyes fell on the amulet around his neck. She got an idea.

"Farran, give me Sariha's Amulet!" Miki shouted.

"Whose amulet?"

"Your mother's amulet!"

"Oh, okay. Catch!" Farran said as he threw his amulet at Miki.

His throw was way off the target, though. Miki had to catch it with her wind. Then Miki opened the item editor and modified it to grant the amulet 80% resistance to fire, water and air.

Then she opened the item editor for her toga, and again, what came out were hundreds of item windows. "Where the heck am I going to start from?" she asked herself.

Miki swiped the windows one by one, sending the irrelevant ones to the back. Eventually, she came across one with the word 'Resistance' as the window's title.

Physical Resistance = 35% Arcane Resistance = 30% Wind Resistance = 30% Fire Resistance = 10% Water Resistance = 10% Earth Resistance = 10% Curse Resistance = 55% Mind Resistance = 90%

Alright, everything to 80%

The moment she was done, she closed the item editor and flew towards space. Staying in the path of the meteor, she raise her hands in front of her, covering it in a thick bubble of air. She believed this would be enough to hold off the meteor.

Unfortunately she was utterly and totally wrong.

The meteor hit her like a tonne of bricks, smashing against her with a force 10 times stronger than the largest thermonuclear device ever used. It was suffice to say that instead of stopping the meteor, the meteor delightfully bitchslapped Miki.

The flames from the meteor singed some of Miki's hair, but being a goddess, she regenerated it almost instantly. Unfortunately, Miki was now stuck to the face of the meteor, lying spread eagled, face forward against the meteor's face. Forget the people on the ground, Miki couldn't even save herself.

"Goddamnit! Somebody help me!" Miki screamed against the meteor.

"Ara? I didn't know you like meteorites that much."

"Miya!???"

"Whats up yo!"

"What are you wearing?" Miki asked, looking at the red haired goddess floating in mid-air wearing black baseball cap with a single letter P sewn on it and a white jersey with the words Pirates on it.

"I'm a baseball fan."

"This is what you're busy with?"

"Hey, don't judge! I deserve some time off. I haven't had a vacation in over two decades."

"Nevermind that, can you help-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? CATCH IT PROPERLY, YOUR PUSSY!"

"Umm, is it a bad time?"

"Hm? Oh no, sorry, that little bitch's just new. I shouldn't have gotten so angry. What was it you wanted to say?"

"Can you help me with this-"

"FUCKING HELL, MAN! WHERE ARE YOU THROWING? COACH, FIRE HIS ASS!"

"Hello? Focus on me, please?"

"Oh right. What's the problem?"

"Uhh, I don't know if you realize it but I HAVE A BLOODY MASSIVE METEOR ON MY FACE!"

"Oh that problem, that's kinda tricky. What do you think, Aya?"

"Aya?"

"I personally believe that it depends on the person."

"What the heck does that mean?" Miki said as she turned to look at the floating Aya. Thankfully Aya was still wearing her toga, which meant that she wasn't on vacation.

"Well, first you must understand. What is it that makes meteorites so darn destructive?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, is it the mass, is it the speed, or is it the flames caused by friction with the atmosphere? One must know the reason or the cause, and from there, one can determine the outcome or the effect."

"I'm not here for a philosophy lesson! Help me!"

"Get out ball! Get out ball! Woohooo!!!" Miya shouted suddenly.

Aya frowned.

"Just chip the meteor off little by little. The destructive power of the meteor comes mostly from its mass more than its speed. While trajectory matters, the mass is most important. For example, a meteor composed primarily of dust is harmless and burns away before people can notice them. A meteor that is 200 meters in diameter simply burns off in the atmosphere before it can reach the ground, so it's harmless too. The problem is massive meteors of over 1 kilometer in diameter. If you can reduce it to less than 100 meters, no harm will happen."

"How big is this meteor in diameter?"

"6 kilometers."

"And you want me to chip this off little by little?!!!"

"All the best. Fight!"

"Fuck you, Aya!"

"I can't help you other than giving you advice. I'm not the fighting type."

"Yeah, if you fight Aya, you will probably win, Miki."

Aya pushed her glasses up with her fingers. "I seriously doubt that."

"Andrew, I love you! I want your babies!" Miya suddenly shouted.

Both Aya and Miki frowned.

"Hey Miya, a little help?"

"Hm? Oh fine, my worshippers are praying to me anyhow. I'll give you some Faith."

"Why don't you just send me a storybook and tell me to read the meteor a story before bed?"

"I don't follow..."

"Sending me some faith? That's like you're saying "I'm giving you my moral support!"

"Big sister Aya, don't tell me you didn't teach her anything..."

"I taught her all the basics," Aya said while averting her eyes.

"Oh? All the basics except currency, which is THE most important?"

"I guess that probably slipped my mind."

"Eh... what currency?"

"Faith!"

"What's faith got to do with anything?"

"It's got everything to do with everything! It's how miracles are performed, it's our source of power!"

"In what way?"

"How did you fulfill wishes thus far?"

"I just did as they asked."

Miya buried her face in the palm of her hands. "I bet you didn't keep track of how much Faith you used and how much Faith you have left, didn't you?"

"How do I check?"

Miya groaned. "You can call up a visual representation of how much Faith you still have with your imagination. My visual representation is in the form of baseball stars."

"I got 2077 Faith," Miki said once she called up a numerical counter. If one Faith is one dollar, I've got a lot.

Surprisingly, they both sighed.

"Okay, let's see here. Lets assume that for a fireball, a human mage will use 50 mana, while demon will use 10 mana if the size and intensity of the flame is the same. You got me so far?" Miya said.

Miki nodded.

"We can use fireball too. Except for the same fireball, we use 100 Faith. So you got 2000 Faith, how many fireballs can you throw?"

"20?"

"Correct! But here's a problem, mortals can drink mana potions and they'll hit you with double that many fireballs. As for you, once you've thrown those 20 fireballs, you're done. Good game. There's no such thing as a Faith potion."

Aya added. "Faith increases slowly. It increases when your followers pray or worship you. It increases a lot more when your followers perform sacrifice, with more Faith being given for sacrificing things your worshippers consider precious. Your most basic income is from worshippers who don't pray but considers you important in his or her life. If you continously cast miracles, you will disappear, because your Faith will go to minus, unless if your worshippers pray at the last minute and allow you to regain your form."

Miya continued. "Everytime you use miracles, blessings or any of your godly powers, you expend Faith. This doesn't mean you continuously work in the red. If your miracle fulfills a wish, you get some of that Faith back from your followers in addition to whatever Faith you got from them praying to you. If you make a miracle where nobody sees and nobody cares about, you're just wasting your Faith. Same goes if you fulfill a wish by a nonbeliever. In other words, you're supposed to choose who to grant wishes to. The more devoted the worshipper is, the more likely that the Faith you gain from that person be greater if you fulfill that wish."

"That sounds stingy. And what's this blue number next to my Faith number, though?"

"While I'm not seeing what you see, I believe that's the number of Faith you got from active prayers," Aya said.

Faith

=

2112

+18

+3

"Oh, it's increasing quite fast." Miki remarked.

"Big sister, why don't you tell her your current Faith and how much it increases per minute."

"For the record, I have approximately 2.6 million Faith and my passive income is 145 Faith per minute. I get a lot more income during exam periods."

"My total current Faith is 29 million, and my total income is 23000 Faith per minute. My Faith per minute is twenty times higher than your total Faith."

"When you first arrived here, you were given 100,000 Faith. You've squandered it all in just a couple of weeks. If you had not been spending like Paris Hilton, this meteor wouldn't be much of a problem," Aya said.

"Okay, I'm sorry for spending my money like Paris Hilton, but can't you guys do something? While we're here talking, the meteor is getting closer to the ground!"

Aya and Miya both looked at each other, until Miya said, "I guess she hasn't realized..."

"It seems so..."

"What? What? What have I not realized?"

Aya sighed. "Have you not noticed that the wind, the flames and sunlight have stopped moving? Have you not noticed that we're the only noise around?"

Miki looked around. "Oh, you're right," Miki flew a few feet back, "Even the meteor has stopped. Is this time magic?"

"Correct, I'm the only one among the sky goddesses who can use this magic freely," Aya explained.

Miki fired a sharp flow of wind at the meteor.

"There's no effect. Even the flames aren't affected."

"Of course. When I say time has stopped, I don't mean it stopped artificially. Right now, even death has stopped. So if anyone wants to stop time and then use it to kill someone, it won't work. Time doesn't work that way. You will have to destroy the meteor in real time."

Miya then said, "I'm giving you a loan of 1 million Faith. Use it in the way Aya told you to."

"Thanks..."

"It's a loan, got it? Which means you'll have to pay me back. Don't take too long, understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Get ready now," Aya said.

"Get ready for what?" Miki asked right before the meteor smashed against her face again.

"Alright, let's see what this 'Faith' thing can do. Let's go with 20,000 Faith. Miki Punch!" Miki cried as she punched the meteor with a fist impregnated with 20,000 Faith. She made a small crater at the center of the punch.

"Okay not enough. Miki Punch 200,000 Faith!" Miki tried again, this time causing cracks that spread throughout the entire structure of the meteor, causing small pieces to chip off and separate from the main body. It eventually burned off in the atmosphere.

She tried it a few more times until all that was left was the main piece at less than 200 meters. Unfortunately, she took too much time. Both Miki and the meteor was almost to the ground. Something must be done.

"Let's see. 30,000 Miki Jump!" Miki cried as she kicked off the surface of the meteor and with the help of gravity, gained a little distance from it, before she took her next move, "Alright, this is all the Faith I have. Now or nothing. Miki Kick!"

Miki did a fast and powerful bicyle kick, effectively changing the direction of the meteor and giving it several more seconds of airborn time. What a blast! The kick caused the meteor to fly so far towards the southern seas. What spectacular save from the legs of player Miki. Her manager will be proud of that kick. They'll be talking about this in the footy circle for years!

"Muhahahahahah! This is real football, bitch! Not one of those pansy American Footballs! Muhahahahahaha! Ha?" Suddenly Miki noticed that she started falling and she screamed.

Bam, boom, bam, blarp, splash!

In her fall, she kept hitting many things, which helped break her fall... and her back.

"Owww..." Miki moaned in paid when she tried to get up from the crack marble floor.

"You did a great job back there, Mickey."

"Huh? Who?" Miki got up with difficulty, only to see the man she knew from her world sitting on a piece of fallen beam. "Uncle Albert?"

"The one and only!"

Miki crawled unsteadily towards Uncle Albert. Uncle Albert, misunderstanding her reason, opened his arms in preparation for an embrace. Instead, of a hug, he got a fist in his face.

"What the hell were you doing making me join that tournament in the first place, you old coot?! Do you know how tiring, annoying and painful that was? I got cut in two! I had to fight this celestial demon bitch and I had to beat up her pet meteor!" Miki grabbed the lapels of Uncle Albert's coat and shook him roughly, or at least as rough as she could in her weakened state.

"Do you know how that feels?" she shook Uncle Albert roughly again.

"Uh, well, I can imagine. But you may want to have a look at your hands."

"What's wrong with my hands?" Miki looked down at her hands and gasped, "It's transparent!"

"Here, drink this," Uncle Albert produced a large gold chalice inlaid with precious jewels and carved in reliefs of clouds, rain, naked women and some large birds.

"Is this Faith?" Miki asked, recalling Miya's earlier explanation.

"No, it's a solution that helps maintain your solid form for a time. It frees up your Faith upkeep so you can accumulate more Faith than if it has to also maintain your physical form. Now drink!" Uncle Albert said as he helped tip the chalice over so the liquid inside flowed into Miki's mouth.

Almost immediately, Miki felt a lot stronger. The lethargy she originally felt was gone the moment the liquid inside the chalice flowed into her throat. She drank more and more until there was almost nothing left inside when she heard a commotion behind her. She turned around without putting down the chalice and saw lots of people coming in through a cavity in the wall with the shape of a door..

Oh shit, am I in trouble? Only now she realized that she was inside some kind of a hall.

"Isn't that... Goddess Miki?" the toga-wearing old man remarked.

"Oh shit! It's these guys again! Am I back at Rownfelt?!"

"All hail Goddess Miki, she who brings rain, she who brings life, she who fought the meteor," the toga-wearing old men got down on both knees and lowered his head until his forehead and both palms was on the floor.

"All hail Goddess Miki." the others, about forty men and women followed suit.

"Uncle Albert, get me out of here. This is embarrassing!" Miki whispered while her left hand searched around for Uncle Albert.

"Uncle Albert?" Miki turned around, to see nobody there.

God damned it, Uncle Albert! Don't run away on your own! Miki cried silently.

"Have you come back to us, Goddess Miki? I am sorry but your temple is not yet completed. We have only started on the foundation and the main hall, but the rest of the temple is still nowhere near respectable. Please punish me if it will please you, my goddess."

Are you a masochist, old man? But this is strange.

"Didn't I leave you less than a week ago? How did you managed to do so much in such a short time?"

"It was all thanks to your blessings, Goddess Miki. Because of your blessings, huge slabs of marble felt no heavier than pebbles, old men were as strong as the young, women were able to make more filling meals and even the oxens were a lot stronger than before. Are you here to stay, my great goddess?" the old man raised his face with eyes full of expectation.

"No, I'll have to leave again soon."

"Oh!" the old man's face looked disappointed, "We were hoping to start a feast for you, Goddess Miki. Can you not stay for awhile longer?"

Suddenly the expectant faces of about forty men and women looked straight at her despite their prostrating posture.

Uuuu... she pressed her hands against the chalice as she balked under such a pressure.

"Hum?" she suddenly recalled the gold chalice that Uncle Albert gave her. What are the odds...

Name: Albert's Golden Chalice	Type: Chalice
Quality: Divine	Durability: 999/999
Properties: Physical Resistance +100% Wind Resistance +80% Fire Resistance +50% Water Resistance +150%

Now let's change this a little...

Name: Chalice of Golden Shower	Type: Chalice
Quality: Divine	Durability: 999/999
Properties: Physical Resistance 100% Earth resistance 70% Wind Resistance 80% Fire Resistance 50% Water Resistance 150%	Special Effect: Any offerings placed inside the offering while invoking the words "Alleio marseelka obrieska mamerino faflarnaris offusia" will be consumed and turned into Faith. It can be used to cast the following spells (any extra will be given to Goddess Miki): Temporary strength (10 hours) - 200 Faith Minor healing (for minor injuries) - 200 Faith Small rain clouds (10 meters) - 1000 Faith Medium rain clouds (25 meters) - 3000 Faith Large rain clouds (40 meters) - 5000 Faith Thunder clouds (with aim-able lightning) - 10,000 Faith

Heh, Chalice of Golden Shower

"Uhum, in my place, I shall leave this chalice behind. Its name is Chalice of Golden Showers [snort]. Come here, head priest. I shall give you the knowledge of how to use it and its powers."

"We thank you very much for this boon, Goddess Miki," the old toga-wearing priest got up and walked towards Miki.

//Centuries from now, this story will be distorted so badly that Miki's story fighting the meteor will be renamed as "Miki and the Sky Monster". This spot will be written as the place where Miki landed for the first time from falling out of tiredness after fighting the powerful Sky Monster. It would tell of the temple growing out of the land like mushroom after a rain for being given the honour of being the place the Goddess Miki first set foot on. The same book would further tell that Miki single-handedly defeated a whole armada of pirates and slavers, freeing the slaves who would later settle near the temple. In the centuries that follows, priests and priestesses will deify the crater in marble where Miki fell to and use it as an altar to cure demonic or spiritual possessions. Farran's role in all this would be reduced to almost nothing. He would instead be replaced with a magical flying monkey wielding a sword and shield.//

******

"Ahahahahahah! This is the day, men! Err, skeletons! And zombies! And that death dragon over there!" a lich in rags, a sorcerer so well-versed in the arts of necromancy that he lost his mortal body, exclaimed as he stood on a pedestal.

"Today is the day that we, the Army of The Damned Bones march forth to the land of the living. Those puny humans imprisoned us here, on the Isle of Despair for they feared out power, our might, our relentless frenzy. With every soul that fall there's more to take our place. With every men they lose, they bolster our numbers even further. Today, the sand bridge rises! Today, I Lich King Joker shall lead us all to... what are you all looking at?"

All the skeletons, zombies and death dragons pointed at the sky behind the Lich King Joker at the same time.

The lich king, feeling curious, turned around. "Oh shit. Why the hell does this have to happen today?!"

For not far from them, a meteor was heading straight for the Isle of Despair.

"My undead friends. I guess this is goodbye."

That day, the Isle of Despair, where crypts of all kinds were built centuries ago to imprison the wicked men from harming the peace and harmony of the world, disappeared from the face of the planet.

 
 

 
 

*Finally, after over a month, I released another chapter of Sky Goddess. Thank you for those who encouraged me. All feedbacks are very much appreciated. Constructive criticisms help me write better. Praises helps me right faster, significantly. Thank you for reading.
**For info on the rest of my stories, please go here
***I still need more ideas for the next serial of The Half-Lilin. Please give me your opinions here