Kagura was drenched in sweat; her training had been brutal, held to her own exacting standards.
She had been exercising for over an hour, and many eyes, regardless of gender, couldn't help but follow her. A beautiful woman with divine grace and a body glistening with sweat, her muscles defined and gleaming, it was a sight no one would want to miss.
She lay down for a long minute, letting her body recover, before standing to stretch slowly.
Some might wonder why a businesswoman would push herself so hard in the gym. The answer was both simple and complicated. When she first started, during puberty, it was a way to focus all her energy, to control herself and avoid distraction. Over time, it became a habit she was proud of as one of the best decisions of her life.
After finishing her stretches, she began to walk toward the exit. Suddenly, a petite woman with a bright, friendly smile approached, holding out a towel.
Kagura accepted it, as she always did, wiping herself down. The girl was just part of the cleaning staff, related to the gym's owner.
"Thanks again," Kagura said politely, offering a small, graceful smile. Returning the towel, she stepped outside.
A few minutes later, she was back home. She grabbed a bottle from the floor, among several empty ones scattered around. One still had half a bottle of water left.
They were the same water bottles Kagura had used all night to keep going.
She drank slowly, savoring the cool liquid, before heading to the bathroom for a proper bath.
"Let's start getting ready."
Today, she had plans, ones she had been thinking over for some time.
As Kagura thought about her plans for the day, far away, someone else was thinking about something far more exciting.
Luna, passing through the portal, had been traveling for nearly five minutes.
Meanwhile, far above the mortal world, someone else's focus sharpened with precision. Lumiel sat in her chamber, her attention fully on the pot in the hall.
Kagura's white liquid, which Lumiel had saved as a clue, floated in the air as the room's door opened by itself.
It hovered directly in front of Lumiel, close to her face. Calm, precise, her gaze analyzed the substance.
"It must be a demon," she said softly, her voice steady. It was the obvious conclusion any other god would reach.
"This… this is what humans and demons do, like beasts," she added, her tone sharper now, eyes narrowing with clear understanding.
The act Kagura had performed was something only humans or demons did regularly. For a goddess, it was unthinkable. For gods, such an act was sacred, a ritual not to be trivialized.
In Heaven, intimacy was not a craving.
It was a ceremony.
A single convergence, permitted only once in a lifetime, on the night of marriage, under oath, meant to bind authority and divinity, not desire.
Lumiel gulped, a wave of heat crawling across her as the memory resurfaced: Lumiel naked, covered in white fluid, no rationality left, and most important, 'It felt goo-' She cut the thought off immediately as a red blush spread across her soft cheeks.
It was impossible.
Unlike humans and mortals, gods do not feel lust or pleasure in this act. Not a single god experiences that, not even on the marriage night.
It is nothing more than a one-time ritual ceremony.
Her gaze fell on her body, which had gone wild during the act, as if it had a mind of its own. Her heart raced as the blush deepened into red across her cheeks.
She gulped once more, this time to erase the thought. She exhaled slowly, as if letting out everything she had been feeling. The blush faded, and her gaze sharpened again.
She thought of the attacker once more.
Lumiel's mind traced countless ways a demon might have attacked her, but every path ended before it could reach an answer.
Because of one existence.
A goddess entrusted with guarding Heaven itself.
"Michaela."
The name left Lumiel's lips quietly.
'There is no way an attack could reach me, she thought. In the first place, there is no way a demon could strike while Michaela herself stands watch.'
Her mind raced through possibilities, each one worse than the last. "Could it be…?"
'A god's betrayal?' She shook her head immediately, cutting the thought off at its root.
"That should not have happened," she murmured, as if reassuring herself.
It was obvious, betraying Heaven was the most dangerous taboo. No god would ever choose such a path.
'And Michaela betraying us is even more impossible,' she thought, yet the idea refused to leave her mind.
'But what if Michaela… or another god… did betray Heaven?'
'It's something only a few would ever notice. And… even an attack should have been detected.'
'But no one had noticed anything.' The root of doubt continued to deepen.
A human doing this to her never once crossed her mind. That possibility simply did not exist.
She raised her hand, casting a spell over the white fluid.
"Detection."
The substance shimmered, glowing faintly.
After a few seconds, it started connecting to something far, far away. Lumiel focused harder, pushing more intent into the spell, but she felt something blocking it. The magic stalled, then slowly dissolved into nothing.
She exhaled slowly. 'At least one thing is clear,' she thought. 'The connection lies outside Heaven. That means no one from Heaven did this to me.'
She felt the connection coming from outside Heaven.
Relief washed through her, yet it did not erase her unease.
'Still… an attack reaching me without anyone noticing is impossible,' she reasoned, 'unless someone from Heaven was involved.'
Suddenly, as if interrupting her thoughts, a loud bell rang throughout all of Heaven.
Several goddesses turned their heads toward the center of the realm, toward a building so vast and so grand that it seemed to anchor the sky itself.
The Divine Council.
Lumiel exhaled softly and forced the white fluid back into the pot with a controlled motion in her room, sealing the pot of white fluid and storing it away with magic.
"It's time."