“Welcome to Henry’s magical circus. Ladies and gentlemen welcome to tonight’s special show.”

The hall broke up in an uproar at the introduction of the circus troupe who were going to perform next. People looked excited to see a magnificent performance by the famous circus group.

“Now, one of your audience members would be chosen at random for the next trick. And how about you, my dear lovely lady in the silver? You look lovely tonight.”

The ringleader extended his hand toward a familiar face and pulled the Teen up to the stage. Familiar pure-blue eyes looked at the man as he gestured for her to go to the box.

“Now, my lovely audience members, this lady here would go into the box and then disappear. But don’t you all worry because you won’t remember anything that is about to happen in a second here.”

Clove stepped into the box and the curtain fell behind her. She took in a deep breath as she opened the box from behind and entered a new room.

She had taken a risk by going to the circus in the open but she could no longer hold herself back.

The third piece of soul that Zoe had retrieved from the abyss for her contained really useful information. It had memories of a time when Clove had been Clara but had not met Zoe yet.

And it also contained memories of that mysterious but powerful presence that had told Clove how to get rid of the abyss once and for all.

That would be the only way for Aurora and Clove to be free of their curses and that was why Clove had decided to embark on this journey alone.

‘The tower is corrupt. People are too reliant on the abyss for survival so they would try to crush any plan that involved getting rid of it. I need to do this alone.’

Clove hesitated at first but she had finally taken the first step. She had sought out the only goddess who would agree to Clove’s outlandish request.

“Ah, it’s wonderful to have company after so long but why did it have to be from the tower? Did Minerva send you here to try and talk me out of my business again? I’m sorry to say that I am not interested.”

The voice echoed around the chamber, making it impossible to tell where the speaker was standing.

But that was alright since Clove was not here for such trivial things as playing a game.

“Lady Asami, no, goddess Asami, I have come here to seek an audience with you. Will you please grant my wish?”

Clove bore the burden of those eyes on her. It had been a risk to seek out the only goddess Clove knew next to nothing about.

“Bold of you to assume I want anything to do with the tower or anyone from there. The only reason I am considered a part of your fraction is because I don’t bother correcting people about it.”

Lady Asami was a really easy-going person. She was someone who was known to do what she wanted.

As the only goddess born after peace had been established, Lady Asami really didn’t think along the same wavelengths as the other goddesses.

She did not have the same desperation everyone else had about their freedome and why they clung on to the past. Everyone else was too burdened by thier failures to move past it all.

“I am not here on behalf of the tower today. Rather, I am here to put an end to everything. Lady Asami, aren’t you tired of living an immortal life wandering from place to place? I can see the tiredness of living in your eyes.”

Clove had heard stories about Lady Asami from Minerva before. Lady Asami had been a normal child before she had realised that she could not die.

The young child had been unable to take the burden of watching the people she loved died and had tried to kill herself too many times before resigning to her fate.

And as a result, the young goddess had taken up a role as a travelling merchant and used her powers to swindle people out of thier money.

That was the only pleasure Lady Asami had these days of being bored. She had long lost the control on her emotions so all she could do now was to fake her emotions.

“End it all? Those are some bold words to say but let’s hear you out. But be careful because I might kill you if I don’t find your words interesting.”

Any other person might have flinced and given in to their desire to fell from Clove’s current situation. But she could not back down.

Since she had her main core of memories back, Clove needed to start advancing preparations she had made in her last life.

“There is one way to shut down the abyss and that is to wake up their ‘god’. Currently, the abyss is like a factory that is gathering power to working to gather powers. The main source of these are the overlookers. You know the origin of the god’s power, right?”

The amusement from Asami’s face drained in an instant. She knew that there should not be anyone outside thier cycle who should know of this fact.

Even Asami had been kept in dark for most of her life which was a fact that had caused a huge crack in her relationship with the other gods.historical

“Project Humanity, huh? How did you come across it? Not that I know much myself since my mother was the one who took up the initial post in it.”

Asami clapped her hands and the lights around her dimmed. Outside of the tent, the audience members rubbed thier eyes, as if waking up from a dream and began leaving.

Tonight’s show was over already.

“How I came across is my personal matter. But project humanity was an inhuman project that fused animals with the empitome of the abyssal connection and then led humans to killing these beasts for thier cores.”

“As a result, there emerged 13 cores in total. 7 goddesses and 6 overlookers were left by the end of it all. But why did these cores emerge? People forgot this ever happened but no one tried to answer this question.”

No one except Clara had tried questioning this. It was also when she met ‘that mysetrous man’ who told her about the cores and thier true purpose.

“You are saying that these ‘cores’ we have are the keys to that final room? Who can I believe that?”

Asami looked agitated since she likely could not sense any hesitation or lie on Clove. Clove was as serious as she had ever been.

“You don’t have to belive me but I am not lying when I say that I have seen the final room. I was just unable to open it last time because I did not know how to. So, Lady Asami, would you help me out here to gather the cores and open that door?”

It was all but a sucidal mission at this point. Clove would also need to sacrifice her core to open the door in the end.

Only one person could survive by the end of this madness and conquer the abyss and that person had been decided long before this day.

There was a reason a ‘goddess’ had been born from the abyss and able to take it’s taint without facing any backlash.

Aurora was the chosen one and the overlookers had realised that.

“You sure have some balls to suggest this to me. Isn’t this the same as saving – please help me kill yourself? Why should I do that for you?”

“Because that is something you want as well. You want to die but you don’t want to die in vain. Your mother was someone who wanted the nightmare of the abyss to end as well. And won’t it fun to take revenge on those people who profited from putting us down? Think over it, you have nothing to lose.”

There was a reason Clove had chosen Asami as her accomplice. The goddess was powerful but she also had no desire to live or dominate.

She was happy to be where she was but there was a madness underneath her surface. She was the only one who would ever agree to this self-sacrificing shit Clove had come up with.

“There is no need for me to think. Let’s just say I believe you for now and I am willing to cooperate. So, what are we going to do next? Who should our target be?”

Clove gave a small smile before she spread out the photo in front of her.

“We will go after the easiest target first. Lady Seraphina is powerful but she’s also rust and alone. Let’s start with her and then think of our next target.”

“Fine. But you know our bodies cannot handle another core in them. What are you going to do about it?”

Clove gave a small smile at that question before it turned genuine.

“You don’t need to worry about that. You see, we already have that issue covered.”