"Are you seriously going to stand there and brush me off?!?" Halifax screamed at Elariel, her voice practically rattling the windows of the empty cafeteria. The two'd began arguing after the Divine Blade confronted the Goddess on the issue with Labrys.

"I'm not brushing you off, I'm trying to-" Elariel tried to explain herself, but was cut off by Halifax.

"You threaten Akagi with killing yourself if she asks for more info about me, and then you come in here and try telling me that I can't go searching for Labrys!" Halifax growled, her words dripping with venom. "Then if that wasn't bad enough you have the gall to fucking side step my questions! What the hell would you call that if not brushing me off?!?"

"I'm just trying to look out for you!" Elariel yelled back.

"Oh, so now you care about me?!?" Halifax laughed at her supposed concern. "Now? Not when you fucking make me kill for you?!? This is where you put your foot down?!? Fuck that! All your attitude and fucking gas lighting is doing is making me want to find him more!"

{What are you hiding?!? Why won't you answer my questions, you bitch?} (Halifax)

"I'm trying to prevent another mistake!" Elariel screamed at the top of her lungs. "I fucked up when I stood aside and let Gale do as he pleased with you. I won't do that again! I won't stand aside and make the same mistake again!"

"Then tell me why you're so against me finding Labrys!" Halifax hissed, holding herself from punching the Goddess' lights out. "Tell me what the problem is?!? What are you hiding, huh?!? You never had an issue when he might've been involved before! Hell, you even sent me after that bastard on at least three separate occasions!"

{So why now?!? What is the problem?!? Why are you so evasive?!?} (Elariel)

"That's because he was inactive and inert." Elariel replied, trying to keep a level head and deescalate the screaming match that was attracting the attention of anyone in earshot. "Labrys was no threat without a proper host and souls to fuel him, but he's now awoken and may very well be at full power." She continued. "We know from documents captured during the battle all those years ago that he was intentionally trying to capture you, Halifax! I'd rather not see him given that opportunity when he's at full power!"

{If he captures Halifax he will will almost certainly try to undo our work! I can't risk that even if that risk is infinitesimally small! I won't let my Daughter vanish!} (Elariel)

"What are you afraid of? That I'm going to swap sides and decide to go pal around with the Demon Axe of Vikes and destroy the world?" Halifax laughed, noting that the world was already doomed so it didn't matter. "I'm already friends with a fucking Demon Lord! Hello! I think I've skipped the kiddy pool and jumped straight into the deep end already, Elariel!"

{The literal Demon kitty of doom is already my friend! What could be worse?!?} (Halifax)

"He..." Elariel bit her lip, seeming not to know exactly what to say to Halifax while also being unwilling to give a straight answer. "Listen. If you go to meet him now, there's no guarantee you won't become corrupted

like the others were during the war! You saw what the Cult did to the other Divine weapons! He could do the same to you, and I refuse to let that happen!" Her answer, while being truthful came across to Halifax as incomplete.

"Oh how I fucking wish you would've found your motherly instincts a millennium ago." Halifax scoffed at the Goddess which caused her blood to boil. "Would've been useful."

"I CAN'T CHANGE THE PAST!" Elariel screamed at the top of her lungs, startling Halifax. "I fucked up, Halifax. If I could go back in time and change the past, I'd fight Gale with everything I've got to protect you, as futile as such a thing might've been, so that you wouldn't be forced to commit such an atrocity... But I can't... Even as the Goddess of Time, something like that is beyond me... So..." She paused for a moment as she balled her fists in frustration. "I'm trying to do whatever I can now to ensure that I don't make any further mistakes, and allowing you to walk into a situation where I might lose you is exactly that! A mistake!"

{I won't let you disappear! I refuse to lose you, Halifax! You have no idea how much I want to tell you the truth, but if I do that, then it's almost certain that you'll-} (Elariel)

"You forfeited your right to make any decisions on my behalf a thousand years ago, God." Halifax growled at the Goddess, her words as cold as ice. "I have no reason to trust you, listen to you, or do as you ask. As far as I'm concerned, you could vanish from this world and it would be better for it."

"Halifax I-" Elariel tried to explain herself, but was interrupted before she could say anything more.

"Let's get one thing straight, Goddess. I no longer take orders from you, I do not listen to advice from you, and I certainly don't fucking trust you." Halifax snarled as she turned to leave the room. "And all you've done here is convince me that I need to find Labrys so that I can uncover whatever it is you're hiding."

"Wai-" Elariel called out to Halifax, but she was ignored as Halifax allowed the automatic door to close behind her.

"This war can't end soon enough." Halifax sighed before taking a step forward, only to be stopped by a certain Catkagi that was happily waiting for her.

"MEW!" The Catkagi mewed happily as her ears and tail flicked, waiting on the floor like the good kitty that she was.

"Oh, hey. Did you hear all that?" Halifax said as she bent down and picked the Catkagi up and poked her ear. "Of course you did. You don't need to be a Demon Lord to have heard that screaming match... Sorry about that... We probably caused quite the commotion..."

{I'm a bit embarrassed by that...} (Halifax)

"Is good." Akagi snickered as she happily received head pats. "Are you okay? You sounded really angry." She asked as Halifax continued down the hallway while providing ear scratches to the kitty that she'd scooped in her arms.

"I'll be fine..." Halifax said with a sigh, though Akagi could tell the Divine Blade wasn't entirely fine on the inside. "Elariel just gets under my skin. She says that she wants to 'do the right thing' and 'make amends' but here she is fucking dodging my questions and giving me the run around." She continued. "It just goes to show that taking a God at their word is foolish. They always say one thing and do the opposite."

"Do you still want to find Labrys?" Akagi asked her. "Annoying Goddess or not, Elariel seemed genuinely worried about you. Its possible she's right to be nervous about your meeting him and that some kind of risk exists."

"Genuine worry or not, I don't care." Halifax shook her head as she twirled the Catkagi's tail with her other hand. "Elariel is hiding something, and I aim to find out what it is. Consequences be dammed."

{Said consequences may end up damming you though.}

(Akagi)

"Are you sure you won't come to regret it?" Akagi asked as she enjoyed the continued pets. "I won't blame you if sticking your head in the sand and remaining ignorant is what you want. You know what they say, the truth often hurts while a lie is comforting bliss."

"I appreciate the concern, but I'm tired of living a life of lies and deceit." Halifax said sharply as the two exited one of the side doors and exited the main building before heading to a small table and chairs that had been set up in the makeshift 'garden.' "My entire life has been nothing but sweet lies and blissful ignorance. That's how I spent the three thousand years between my creation and my betrayal at the hands of the Gods. I refuse to live in the dark any longer. No matter what may come I'd rather know than not."

"I approve!" Akagi smiled as Halifax sat her in a chair and took a seat opposite her. "Fuck living in denial! Being told by other assholes that they know better is a crock!"

{Says the kitty that's lied to her friends and family on multiple occasions.} (Yumi)

{That's small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, and besides, for the most part, I don't do that kind of thing out of malice. Lying to protect Mika or her parents from heartbreak is entirely different from gas lighting your child to save your own skin.} (Akagi)

"If you were anyone else, I'd retort that you have no idea how it feels to be treated like trash by your so-called family." Halifax said as she shook her head. "But you've been through your own version of hell."

"My, and I use this term very loosely, parents treated me like the scum of the Earth. I was a literal nuisance that they wanted gone." Akagi sighed. "At least you got a few blissful millennia of singing kumbaiya before reality crashed down. Though I'd say what they did to you trumps what mine did to me for obvious reasons."

{I still want to strangle them! How dare they hurt you for all those year!} (Yumi)

{In fairness, you did stop me from killing them.} (Akagi)

{And while I stand by that decision, I still want to see them suffer!} (Yumi)

{Its so cute when you say things like that.} (Akagi)

"I don't know, I think I'd rather be outwardly hated from the start than strung along for three thousand years only to have the wool forcefully removed from my eyes." Halifax said as she lay her head on the table. "At least you never had to experience the moment where you figured out that your entire connection was a lie and all those happy smiles were fake."

{I can remember it all, but all those memories do is make me even angrier... Elariel called me her Daughter and treated me like her own child... Those eyes that once looked so motherly... Now I can only see them for what they really were...} (Elariel)

"I'd say it's fucked no matter which way you slice it." Akagi shrugged. "But none of that matters now. You don't have to do what anyone else tells you anymore. You're free to go about life as you please."

"That's a nice thought but lest we forget I'm still bound to Elariel." Halifax retorted with a defeated laugh. "Whether killing her kills me or not, she still holds my 'leash' so to speak. That you've gone and slackened it doesn't change the fact that I've still got a chain wrapped around my neck."

"It's only a matter of time before I break that chain, Halifax." Akagi said with resolute determination in her voice. "And I swear on the name Akagi Dumetor that you will be free, Halifax. Once this whole thing is over, you will finally be able to choose your own future free from the control of anything and anyone." She paused for a moment. "Me included."