Things with Yin and his forces were a little too quiet. We didn't complain, it was very welcome to have some sort of peace. It gave us time to relax a bit, train, and do our jobs as gods. Virgo and Pisces recently celebrated their anniversary together and it got me thinking about how I'm going to propose to Helena. We never talked about marriage. It just never came up. I went to look for her.

  “Hey, do you know where Helena is?” I asked a servant.

  “Umm, last I saw her she went towards the hot springs. I'm pretty sure she's relaxing there right now.”

  “Alright, thanks.” I jogged over to the hot springs and knocked on the fence covering it

  “Yes?” I heard her say.

  “Got room for one more?”

  “Oh! Yang! Yeah, come in.”

  I went around into the bathhouse and came out into the spring after stripping and putting a towel around myself. I went in and sat next to her. She kissed my cheek.

  “Need a break?”

  “Honestly, yes I did,” I said. “But I was also looking for you.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, I...” I let my voice trail off as I blushed. “I wanted to talk to you about getting married eventually.”

  “Oh.”

  “It's been on my mind for a while, I just never brought it up due to everything that's been going on.”

  She nodded and got closer to me.

  “It's a daunting idea. I'm not sure if I'm ready.”

  “I'll wait forever if I need to.”

  “To be blatantly honest, I've been thinking about our relationship.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “It's mostly about... your temper,” she told me. “It's a little scary and I'm worried that you might... hurt someone.”

  “Helena, Helena no. I'd never hurt anyone, especially not you.” I moved some of her hair out of her face. She looked down and held my hand.

  “I think you're a little overprotective and possessive, even more so after that huge battle,” she told me. “You need to realize that I'm not a helpless damsel.”

  “I never thought you were!” I retorted. “I'm just... concerned.”

  “See this is what I mean. I know you're concerned and care about me, but I feel like it's starting to go to extreme lengths.”

  “How so?”

  “You wanted a guard to accompany me wherever I went. I'm perfectly capable of handling myself. I'm glad Virgo talked you out of it.”

  I sighed and looked down.

  “Yang, I think we need a break.”

  “Wait what?” I asked, surprised.

  “I'm not breaking up with you, I'm just saying we need some time apart to rethink everything.”

  “But I...” I trailed off.

  “Give it some time okay?”

  She left the hot spring. I sat there, not even sure what to feel. I felt sad, angry, and confused. Nothing made sense to me. It made me see that Helena was right. I did depend on her too much to help regulate me. But I still worry for her.

  I sat in the hot spring for another hour just trying to calm myself down. I was considering getting a therapist for myself at the time and I did eventually get one. I managed to work on my anger issues and codependency issues. I never realized how low my self-esteem was until working with the therapist. I thought I had improved my self-esteem by helping the worshipers, as they were mostly happy. I was happy if they were happy and it made me feel like a good ruler.

  With each session I had, the better I felt about myself. A few months later, I had another real conversation with Helena.

  “Hey...”

  “What's up, Yang?”

  I took a deep breath.

  “Can we talk about... us?”

  She was a bit taken aback by this.

  “Um... sure.”

  We headed out to the back garden. Neither of us wanted to say the first word. It was... awkward.

  “So...”

  “I see you've been improving.”

  “Yeah. I have been.”

  She kissed my cheek.

  We just sat in silence, not sure of what we wanted to say. After about another minute, I finally said something.

  “Wanna go out?”

  “Sure! Where though?”

  “I've been wanting to visit the mortal realms for a while.”

  “It's a little awkward,” she said.

  “How so?”

  She looked at me as if I was stupid, and then it hit me.

  “Ohhh right. But we can go into mortal forms.”

  “We haven't been to earth in a very long time. Things have changed since then. I kind of want to see what has changed.”

  “Nostalgia?” I deduced. She nodded in confirmation.

  “I never really got to show you around.”

  “I doubt it will be the same.”

  “It's worth a shot.”

  So off to Earth, we went. We were pleasantly surprised to see not much has changed.

  “Time in our world and this one is drastically different. It looks like hardly anything has changed.

  We transformed to look like the humans of the time. I still kept my olive skin, but my hair was sandy brown and my eyes were brown.

  Helena still had her blonde hair blue eyes and light skin tone, but she was wearing a fancy rich person’s dress. I was in the style of clothing men wore back in the 1770s and my stars, it was itchy.

  “How do they wear this? It's so itchy,” I exclaimed, scratching my arms as if it were the worst offender.

  “You get used to it,” she simply said.

  “If you say so.” I continued scratching. She swatted my hands to stop me. “Ow.”

  “Stop that.”

  We were in the woods close to a town, so we went into town. It was a bustling town, with people going in and out of shops, and stalls selling produce and meat. Horses trotted, and some people were begging for food or money on the sides. Children kept up with their parents or were playing around, and to top it off, it reeked. Thankfully I'm a god and don't need to breathe so my nostrils need not be assaulted with the amount of stink that was present.

  I've noticed that some people treat others of their kind terribly. Some of the more wealthy people have humans of a darker skin color driving their carriages, while others have them by their side carrying everything. I didn't like the fact that humans treated others like slaves.

  “These poor people... being treated like this,” I said.

  “There's nothing we can do. Hopefully, in the future, slavery will be abolished and people both black and white will be treated equally.”

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  “You have some explaining to do.”

  Helena told me all about the history of slavery. I was appalled. How could humans treat each other so terribly?

  “Are there others against this?”

  “The abolitionists. They work to free slaves and end slavery. I have a feeling that it will take at least another century for it to finally be abolished.”

  I sighed.

  “Let's not worry about it right now,” Helena said with a smile. “Let me show you around.”

  We proceeded to go in and out of shops, looking at things for sale. Somehow we had money to spend. It dawned on me that we look like rich people among the common folk. I bought her a pretty gold ribbon and tied her hair up with it. She giggled. We thanked the shopkeeper and left to continue exploring. We had a lot of fun going in and out of shops, purchasing stuff, sharing some baked goods from a bakery, and walking around for a while.

  “Best. Date. Ever!” I said as I stretched.

  “And you didn't have an emotional breakdown.”

  “Oh ha ha, very funny,” I said with an eye roll and a smile.

  We kept talking and laughing for hours and hours. The sun was starting to set by the time we wanted to go home. However, the mood went from fun and lively to slightly eerie.

  Helena also noted the eerie mood.

  “We should go.”

  I nodded in agreement. Before we could even head over to the woods we came from, we were stopped dead in our tracks. We tried hard to move again but the effort was fruitless.

  “That was easy,” an unfamiliar voice rang out. “Why were those three idiots complaining that it's hard to deal with you?”

  From the shadows someone came out, seemingly materializing from them. It was a new lackey for Yin. Medium-length black hair, a darker olive skin tone, a grey left eye, and a red right eye.

  “Never seen you before,” I said, trying to ease things.

  “And it won't be your last.” He used his powers to slam me and Helena to the ground and control us as if we were puppets. He twisted our bodies in ways that shouldn't be possible. I saw this sickening look of enjoyment in his eyes, combined with this near insane smile and it's a scary sight. “Some powerful deities you are if you can't fight this!”

  I continued fighting back and I eventually freed myself from his puppeteering. Helena did the same.

  “Who are you?!” she demanded.

  “A new adversary. My name is irrelevant to-” I punched his jaw before he could finish his sentence. “OW!!”

  “We don't have time for you!” Helena retorted. “We just want to go home, and go to bed.”

  “Uh-huh. I don't really care. I didn't come all this way to chat and not fight.”

  “Well, we aren't in a fighting mood.”

  “And I don't care if you are or not,” he sneered. He disappeared into the shadows and appeared behind me before I could react. Helena shot him away from me. He brushed it off as if it was nothing,

  “You call that divine power? This is nothing!”

  “Can't exactly fight in these clothes and this world,” I said.

  “My level of care is in the negatives, but I'll play fair today,” he mused. “Though I'm not leaving this world.”

  Helena and I changed back into our normal clothes with our powers. All of us moved to a more remote location and we began battling.

  He was way more difficult due to his ability to melt into the shadows. It was hard to tell where he was coming from because it was twilight outside. Shadows were everywhere and he used them to his advantage. He emerged to give a quick and hard blow and disappeared all the time. Helena and I barely avoided his sword slashes, but that thing slashed clean through trees like air. I was afraid of how quickly it would cut off a limb. All Helena and I could do was evade until Helena finally found an opening to seriously get a good sharp punch in his gut. The new lackey staggered backward. Helena swiftly kicked his jaw after. I swooped in, grabbed him, and slammed him into the ground

  “GIVE US YOUR NAME DAMMIT!!!” I yelled.

  “Nisshoku.”

  He melted back into the shadows, next thing I knew I had a sword sticking out of me. I collapsed on the ground and the sword was ripped out of me. The pain was excruciating.

  “Let's call this a draw,” Nisshoku said. He didn't look good with blood coming from his mouth and nose. I think he also had some broken ribs as he was hunched over clutching the rib area. “This isn't over.” He melted into the shadows and left. Helena and I left shortly after.

  I woke up the next morning with stitches where I was stabbed. I sat up and winced. I sensed that something was off, either that or I was just really tired, but something just didn't feel right. I carefully stood up and walked out of the room and saw my friends lying dead on the floor and darkness spreading everywhere. I looked up and saw Yin with this twisted smile on his face. Beings of thunder, fire, death, and fear were standing by him as well as a being of shadow. I was about to charge up to him but dark chains wrapped around my legs and arms, sapping me of my powers and rendering me immobile. Yin came up to me and mercilessly tortured me. My wound reopened and I was bleeding heavily. Just as he was about to give me one last punch, I sat up wide awake, dripping in cold sweat. Everything I saw was just a horrible nightmare. Helena was sleeping next to me and it was well past midnight.

  “It was all just a dream...” I whispered to myself. I sighed. Helena stirred next to me a bit.

  “Yang?” She mumbled.

  “Yeah?” I whispered.

  “What happened?”

  “I just had a nightmare.”

  She sat up and hugged me, careful to avoid the stitched-up wound.

  “Care to tell me?”

  I hesitated since the nightmare was so bad. She pushed and I eventually told her. It freaked her out.

  “That's quite a nightmare,” she said. “Wanna take a walk outside?”

  “Yeah.”

  We got out of bed and headed outside. The moon was bright and beautiful. Celena certainly knows how to take care of it. The flowers in the garden glowed faintly in the light. It was a beautiful sight to see. Helena and I sat on a bench, just taking it all in. We held hands.

  “Are you feeling better?”

  “A little. I'm still stressed. That dream was horrible.”

  We talked for a bit and speculated on whether that dream was a sign or just Yin tormenting me. Yin is the god of time, so prophecies are well within his domain. But why send me a nightmarish prophecy? Either he did it deliberately or it was a subconscious thing.

  Whatever it was, it terrified me.

  ?????????????????

  I was pleased to know that I disturbed his little date. Nisshoku did well on his first assignment. Seeing Yang happy disgusted me. Why should he be happy? No matter what I do, he always finds a way to cheer up. That nightmare I gave him did unsettle him, which was good. I created it from his own insecurities plus a little bit of what the future held. But his stupid little girlfriend ruined it all. I needed to get rid of her somehow. Their lovey-dovey attitude was revolting.

  “Beelzebub!” I shouted. He appeared before me.

  “You called?”

  “I have an assignment for you. It’s about Helena.”

  “Yang’s girlfriend? What do you want with her?”

  I looked at him dead in the eyes.

  “Incapacitate her. Permanently.”

  “I mean absolutely no disrespect in the slightest, but, aren’t gods immortal? They can’t die.”

  “Idiot!!” I shouted at him. He flinched. “I know that! I’m not stupid unlike the three of you! Make her unable to do anything!”

  Beelzebub thought for a moment before a moment of clarity flashed in his eyes.

  “I have an idea, my lord, but I will need your assistance.”

  I glared at him.

  “Well? Are you going to ask?”

  “I need just a bit of your power. Only a bit.”

  I whacked him hard across the face. He landed on the floor with a thud, the side of his head was bleeding a bit.

  “Why would I ever consider letting you borrow some of my power?!”

  “Your majesty! Please! It’s for my idea! I promise to never ask you for this again! I swear!” Be begged, on his hands and knees.

  I raised my eyebrow and thought about it for a moment.

  “Let me hear your stupid little idea before I make my decision.”

  He began explaining what he planned to do. I had to admit it was a pretty good idea.

  “I see... I must admit it's a good plan.”

  I saw Beelzebub smile. It was disgusting but I decided to just let him have his little moment of joy, until I decided to crush it.

  “You won't be the one doing it however.”

  “But why? It was my idea!” He protested.

  “Are you questioning me?!” I shouted angrily.

  “N-no, my lord.”

  “Nisshoku will be the one doing it,” I told him. I formed a small orb of my power. “Give this to him. If I hear that you did not give it to him, consequences will be severe.”

  Terror flooded his face. He knew what I meant. Unless he wants his home and family destroyed, he must comply and obey, no matter how mundane and menial the task. Occasionally I forced him to clean the castle floors with nothing but a rag and a bucket of soapy water. He always did a shoddy job and my slaves had to fix his work.

  He left to give the orb of power to Nisshoku. I was beginning to grow fond of Nisshoku. He was extremely loyal and did everything I ordered him to do with no hesitation. When he has nothing to do, he trains on his skills as a swordsman and his shadow manipulation. I was greatly impressed by his ability to even be a match for my brother, something those three buffoons were not even close to.

  I trusted him with this task. I knew he wouldn’t fail me.

  ?????????????????

  So many battles against Yin’s forces and Yin himself. Nisshoku was a massive pain. He was so powerful and very intelligent. We hated how he used the shadows to his advantage. He constantly played mind games with us and made his superiors look like new recruits. His most annoying ability was being able to make multiple copies of himself and we had to find out which was the real one. It often took ages until our dumb asses decided to just destroy them in one go, injuring the real one. He stopped doing that. As he improvised, we improvised against him. It quickly became a battle of wit.

  Abbadon, Moloch, and Beelzebub were even bigger pains. Abbadon is completely unpredictable so we have to constantly keep our guard up. Moloch was quick and hard to pinpoint. Beelzebub was just aggressive and his stupid swarms often blocked our field of vision. He almost looked desperate. Hana, bless her heart, was concerned for Beelzebub. Last time we fought him, Hana looked incredibly concerned for him.

  I decided to ask her about him.

  “Hana, do you have a moment?”

  She looked my way.

  “Yes I'm free. What is it?”

  “You seem conflicted about Beelzebub. What's wrong?”

  She was silent for a moment.

  “I see the look in his eyes. They're pleading, as if he's asking for help.”

  I was taken aback.

  “Why would he need help?”

  “I don't know. It's just a feeling. You know my intuition is never wrong.”

  I nodded, knowing she was correct. We’ve rescued many of Yin’s soldiers and rehabilitated them. Last we heard, they're living their lives in the Spirit World. Yin liked to target those who had miserable lives or have dark hearts. But it also seems he likes to target people who are desperate. Beelzebub is indeed desperate. But for what? This is something we need to find out.