A Serpent's Tale
Chapter 183: Godly Puppets

Chapter 183: Godly Puppets

I dodge Hayly’s sudden attack by sliding to the side and grabbing the fist that she tried to punch me with. I then use my new power and speed to spin around and throw her into a nearby wall with immense force.

The woman crashed into the wall and spat up some blood as she fell limp to the floor, most likely unconscious.

...

Really? Is that it? I was expecting some kind of epic fight, not... This disappointment.

Still, at least that’s over with.

"HAYLY!!!" Lia screeched as she scrambled to get up and ran over to the collapsed woman on worry.

When she got there, she checked the woman and sighed in relief. Seems that she survived, which is good, I wasn’t trying to kill her but controlling my new strength is not something I’m very good at right now, but I at least managed to not kill her.

Then I saw Lia perform some kind of magic on the unconscious woman, most likely healing her. Then she got up and walked away from Hayly towards me.

I could see Hayly lift her head up weakly, looking at Lia with an annoyed and begging expression on her face, and maybe a hint of regret.

"N-No..." She muttered weakly as she strained to even say that, imploring Lia to stop her advances towards me.

"I’m sorry Hayly, I- *Sigh* I don’t care about the goddesses wishes to save Athenelos."

’What?’

"I don’t see how it helps any of us, it just seems like..."

My minds blanked out just after hearing that name. Why do they have to be involved with it? Just what do the gods want with this?

My mood was instantly killed as my mind was a mess, not knowing what I should do right now. Kill? Devour? Leave? I didn’t know. I just stood there, brooding.

"H-Hey, are you okay?"

I snapped out of my mood and saw Lia looking at me worriedly as she extended an arm out and held my shoulder comfortingly.

"I’m fine, just... Not in a good mood." I replied shrugging her arm off.

"I can tell... Do you, maybe wanna talk about it?" She asked caringly.

"No." I said flatly, leaving no room for any further inquiries.

"O-Oh... Okay then..."

The atmosphere was rather awkward after that. Hayly was too injured to properly speak, even if she was healed, she wasn’t fully healed, and I suspect that Lia did that intentionally. I just didn’t want to talk. And Lia seemed to want to fix the situation, but didn’t know how to and was too inexperience by the looks of it to do so.

The silence persisted for a while before Lia worked up the courage to speak.

"S-So, c-can we have sex now?" She asked nervously.

I stayed silent for a bit, making her feel embarrassed before I responded, "I don’t feel like it anymore."

I heard Hayly sighing in relief while Lia moaned in annoyance.

"Why? Was it something I said? I’m sorry, okay? I just really want to have sex, okay?" She pleaded and apologised profusely, even getting on her hands and knees.

I looked at her with a hint of guilt in my eyes, knowing that I ruined this not only for her but mainly myself as well, all my arousal was just erased with that one word and the mood was ruined for me.

She started crying out of desperation as her desires were killed in front of her, and just when she got an opportunity to do so, it was ruined, even if accidentally.

I started to feel sorry for her as I didn’t want nor expect this to happen, but this was the way that things played out.

Eventually though, I did say something. "I don’t like the gods... their meddling always brings glory to few and untold suffering to hundreds of thousands more..."

Lia looked up to me with tears streaming down her face in confusion.

"You should distance yourself from them as soon as possible. You don’t want to be their pawn." Despite my past interaction with Loki, the only one that I’ve actually interacted with, my father doesn’t count as I don’t see him that way, I’ve heard countless tales of the gods from random stragglers in the desert and from father himself about how shit the gods can treat people.

"W-Why? What’s wrong with the gods?" Lia sniffled.

"..." I remained silent. I knew what had happened as I had pieced what I knew together after my talk with father, but I didn’t want to talk about it.

"Please, tell me. I can’t abandon the gods without reason, they won’t let me." Lia started to plead me to give her a reason to give them up.

"..." Again, I remained silent. *Sigh* "Because their goals are petty beyond belief."

"Wh-What? Petty beyond belief? What does that mean?" Lia asked in befuddlement.

"Several gods and goddesses as well as beings on their level are conspiring in that region... And I... I..." I shook as I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

"Wh-What do you mean by that? Please! I have to know, I don’t want to die for nothing... Please..."

Her pleas were working in breaking my walls, but I wasn’t sure if I would tell her still.

"Please... I don’t want this fate if it means nothing..."

...

Still, I don’t want to go through that again, even if only in memory, so I told her, "I- I’m sorry, I can’t... I just can’t... I don’t want to..."

Lia stared up at me in despair, and a bit of horror. I could tell that she really didn’t want to be a pawn for the gods, but I just couldn’t tell her.

And out of the corner of my eyes, I could see that Hayly was relieved when I refused to say anything. And that irked me. She shouldn’t be in control of her Lia’s fate or destiny, she shouldn’t be forcing her to do something she doesn’t want to.

In a moment of spite, I slithered over to the woman and violently grabbed her neck, choking her enough to make her suffer and feel pain, but not tight enough to suffocate her and allow her to speak.

"You don’t care about her do you? You’re just another zealoted bitch who was raised to be a blind sheep by the goddesses’ followers, aren’t you? And now, you’re grooming this poor girl who doesn’t know any better into a puppet, or, or a mindless vessel for your bitch of a goddess to occupy at her desire!" I spat at her hatefully, my rage building as this was the first time that I was truly experiencing the selfish and cruel nature of the gods.

And it sickened me.