“…Who called me this time?” I looked around the white plain. It was undoubtedly the god domain.

My eyes landed on a certain someone.

“…You…”

“Hehehe. Hi~!” A little girl with white hair and golden eyes grinned at me.

“Why did you summon me this time, loli goddess?”

It was Sol. The overseer of the mortal realm.

‘Was it her who whispered into my ear?’

“You dare disrespect me again! I ought to smite you with judgement!” Sol stumped the ground which made this entire domain shake.

“Calm down, Sol.” A soft, mature voice of a female spoke to Sol. I turned in the direction of the voice.

It was a woman with white hair and golden eyes. For some reason she resembled Sol. Quite a lot.

‘Her sister? She’s gorgeous.’

“Not really. I am her mother. But I’m flattered by the compliment, believer Clyde.”

“….Eh?”

The woman stood behind Sol with a smile.

She lowered her head and introduced herself. “My name is Artemis. You might be wondering why I called you here today.” Artemis said.

“You-I mean, goddess Artemis summoned me? Then isn’t this the loli’s dimension?” I pointed at the white plain. It was more vast than the previous time I was summoned.

“Yes. As I am a god from the upper realm, I can use any of the lower gods to summon believers.” Artemis explained. “As Sol has run out of the necessary divinity, I had to step in.”

A red flush appeared on Sol’s face.

‘As incompetent as always.’

Artemis summoned four chairs. I sat down on one of them.

“Hm? Why are there four?”

“We are waiting for someone, Clyde.” Sol pointed behind me. “Here she comes now.”

A chill went up my spine when I felt the person’s gaze on the back of my head.

My head creaked towards the direction of the heels I heard hit the ground.

“I apologize for taking so long. I had to stop a frost giant from invading a church built in my name.” The voice that I heard was soft and melodious but the aura coming from that woman was so murderous that cold sweat dripped down my back.

Black hair and eyes, a sharp oval shaped face and a long ash black dress that exuded a dark aura.

“Ah! Yeltena, you made it!” Artemis clapped with a satisfied smile. “We were about to mention you.”

The woman’s gaze was on me as she passed by me. It was an indifferent gaze given to inferior beings.

She sat down on the chair that Artemis summoned and crossed her legs. “So this is the one who altered so many events in this world.”

“…What’s that supposed to mean…?” The woman smiled mysteriously at my question.

Artemis cleared her throat and spoke. “This is my long time friend, Yeltena. We have been together ever since we were low ranking angels.”

“I am the Goddess of Fate and Destiny, Yeltena.” The woman slightly lowered her head in greeting.

“Why…is she here?” I asked with my guard up. She was giving off a presence that I didn’t like.

“No need to be so defensive against me.” She raised her hands. “You want some questions answered, do you not?”

“Yes…”

‘I haven’t heard of this woman from Future Clyde. Is she somehow connected to me?’

The word Fate made me think so.

“Clyde, please don’t be surprised when I tell you this…” Artemis stood up and held my hands. She took a few breaths and looked into my eyes. “Yeltena was the one that reincarnated you.”

…

..

.

“What…?”

It felt like everything around us had gone silent. Sol looked anxiously at me.

“Clyde?” Artemis shook my shoulders.

“She…reincarnated me?”

“Yes.”

“She was responsible for the life my future self lived? The hardships he had to face because of one god’s mistake…?”

“…If we assume that he landed in this world with the same method then yes.”

I looked at the woman. She was only looking at me with an expressionless face.

I clenched my fists and laughed.

“…I see…”

A powerful purple surge of flames shot out of my hands at Yeltena. It was one of my most powerful high ranking spells.

“Clyde!” Artemis shouted in disbelief.

A black shield appeared in front of Yeltena. The flames were deflected so easily that it was anti-climactic how it ended.

Not just any barrier could handle high ranking spells.

But my irrational mind didn’t notice that.

“You bitch! You were the one responsible for the life he lived!” I summoned tens of magic circles and conjured the same spell in each circle.

It was a storm of flames that filled the domain.

They all shot out at the same time.

BOOM….!

A powerful shockwave shook the domain and made everything shine in a purple haze. Although the power was equal to an army’s worth of mages, it did nothing to that barrier. The flames were deflected one by one.

“Stop!” Artemis shouted.

Millions of golden strings bound my hands. My mana was immediately stopped from flowing into my core in order to cast spells.

“Why worry for a person who is already dead? That person you met was only the remnants of his soul. His ego, along with the other qualities that made him human vanished when he ascended to godhood.” A calm voice came from behind the barrier.

“….! Let go of me! I’ll kill you, you bitch!” I struggled to get free.

“My, my. What an improper way of speaking to a god. But I will let it pass as this is your first time meeting me.” The barrier disappeared into thin air. It was like my assault of spells never happened at all.

If I fired so many spells in a public area then an entire city would be reduced to ruins.

“Kuh…”

“Remove the bindings, Lady Artemis.”

“….Alright.”

I fell down onto the ground. My body was being sapped of its energy at a fast pace so I was a little dizzy.

The woman looked down at me. “He does not exist in this timeline so why are you angry?”

“…As expected of a god. You never think about the process, only about the results…”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you use people to achieve your own goals! Didn’t you try to kill that girl for that very purpose!?”

I hit the ground in frustration.

“…I see what you mean by that. However, what the Yeltena did in that timeline has no correlation with this timeline.” Yeltena added calmly. “What we should focus on now is the future in this timeline.”

Artemis held my shoulders. She begged. “Please listen, Clyde. We really need you to do that.”

“….” I looked at the bitch, Yelena-or whatever-one more time. “Fine.”

I sat back in my chair and waited for them to speak. Sol and Artemis sighed in relief.

“Thank you. Please begin, Yeltena.” Artemis stood at my side and patted my head. “We shouldn’t let this child suffer any longer.”

“Yes, Lady Artemis.” Yeltena nodded calmly.

“Before I begin, there is something I must know…”

“What?” I asked roughly.

“How do you know of him? Have you met him before?”

“My future self? I have. It was when I was six or seven years old. Can’t you just talk without wasting my time to satisfy your curiosity?”

“I see. Very well.”

The woman stood up and spread her hands.

“Huh?”

Millions of red strings suddenly appeared in the air. Each string was connected by a red dot.

“This is what I call the Strings of fate.”

“Strings of fate? Why are you showing me this?”

“Observe.”

The strings began moving at a fast pace.

“This is your string, Clyde.” She pointed at the giant glowing dot. It was the only one from the others that was glowing.

“Follow where my finger goes.”

“Okay…” Her finger moved along another string. “Huh?” The string was glowing the exact same luminosity as mine.

Yeltena brought the two red strings together. The dots were side by side.

“This is the girl you saved.” She pointed at the right dot. “And this is you, Clyde. These dots represent your souls.”

She pointed at the left dot this time.

“…Um...Why are you showing me this?”

“Just observe, Clyde.” Artemis whispered.

“I am showing you how your and that girl’s fate looked before you died. Do you notice the dot representing the girl getting dimmer by the second?”

She was right. It was getting dimmer with each passing second.

“What’s happening?”

“What you’re seeing is something called the Dying Effect. It happens when a person’s death is approaching. Sort of like a prediction. When humans are born, it shines the brightest, however, when they grow old or their death happens due to unnatural causes then the dot dims.”

The dot suddenly stopped glowing.

I stood up from the chair when I saw my dot started fading.

“Is…that the moment I pushed her out of the way?”

“Indeed it is.”

My dot vanished immediately which caused the string connecting me to her hand to disappear.

“This was the moment when I saw your soul vanish. I have no idea how your soul was able to change my fate like this when it was already set in stone that the girl was going to die. You may have died, however, something happened when you pushed that girl out of the way.”

The dot which was mine suddenly appeared again.

“What the!?”

The girl’s soul disappeared for some reason instead of mine this time.

I looked at Sol, Artemis and Yeltena to get answers. For the first time ever, I saw Yeltena change her expression. She seemed to be frustrated by what she saw.

“What was that…?” I asked carefully. I was getting a bad feeling.

Yeltena quietly looked at me. “You, Clyde Astley have stolen the soul of another.”