Tas looks at his daughter, thinks for a moment, trying to decide on what to do with a look of worry and sorrow.
At the same time, Og watches, trying to see if Tas came to a conclusion while still wiping the wine glasses.
Tas covers his face with his palm, like holding a mask.
"Serree, my lovely daughter." -Tas proudly, gently, and lovingly said.
Serree looked at him as he said those words, and Og smirked as his friend finally came to a decision.
Tas whispered something.
The godly physique and broad chest slowly transform into a regular man's body, as the face that was seen before becomes a mask, an Item, still hiding his true face behind.
Serree's eyes widen at the sight of his father and the mask.
Tas, holding the mask, tilted it a little to his left to see his daughter with his golden right eye,
"Hello, again, my little lady." -The mask spoke with a tone of kindness.
Serree's eyes still widened seeing his father's golden eye for the first time, eyes just like hers, but even more so when she recognized the mask and its voice.
Tas's eye looked directly at the mask, brow furrowed with a puzzled look.
Serree excitedly jumped from her seat and held on to the mask, trying to bring it closer to her.
Tas was surprised while still peeking with his eye, holding on to the mask, not letting go, bringing himself closer, and not pulling the mask back so as not to hurt his daughter.
"Is that you MI?!" -Serree enthusiastically asked.
Og is enjoying the moment, while Tas is still puzzled and shocked as to how his daughter knows his item.
"Yes, my little lady." -MI replied respectfully.
Serree excitedly asked questions.
"My little lady, I know it has been a long time since we've conversed, but master is having a hard time right now, can you please calm yourself, for your father's sake?" -MI politely asked.
Serree looked at his father's eye peeking at the side of MI, the mask.
Her eyes slowly looked down, feeling dejected, her thoughts wandered, and she slowly let go, sitting back in her seat.
Tas noticed this with his eye, looking worried and guilty as he holds MI the mask.
"My little lady, master has no courage to face you with his true self, he is afraid." -MI said.
Serree listens as he slowly looks at Tas with a dejected look.
"Afraid!? Afraid of what?! Of his own daughter?!!" -Serree replied as her brows furrowed.
Tas's brow furrowed with a look of sadness and heartache.
"That's not it, my little lady." -MI said.
"What is it then?! If not me? Then what is he so afraid of?!" -Serree replied.
Tas looks at MI, the mask
"I'm afraid you'll have to be the one to talk to her yourself master." -MI said.
Tas looks at his daughter Serree with a sorrowful look and sadness as he thinks, lost in thought.
He wants to talk to her, to face her with his true self, to stop the act and just be himself in front of his daughter, but what's stopping him is the negativity, the thought of his daughter thinking badly of him for being a coward, a fool, unsightly, and the like.
"Master?" -MI, the mask inquired.
"Forget it!! I'm going back home." -Serree said as she stood up and walked towards the door that both Larvan and the guide used.
As she reached the door, Serree looked back at his father with sorrow and then slowly looked at Og to signal for her to use the door.
Og looked at her, then her father, closed his eyes, proceeded to wipe the wine glass, and nodded.
Serree then held the doorknob, opened the door, revealing her home, and entered halfway, looking back at her father before proceeding and closing the door.
"I was hoping for you to finally face her you know?" -Og said.
Tas slowly came to the counter and sat down, putting MI the mask on the counter, his arms leaning towards the bar counter, his head slumped down.
Sigh.....
Tas sighed at his own patheticness.
"At least you're better off than before, you couldn't even talk to us directly as yourself, well, you're getting there, old friend, slowly but surely." -Og said.
Tas slowly raises his head to look at Og, with a smile and a gloomy expression.
"Yeah, you know, I wasn't like this when she was born.
I was so happy, I was my truest self then, but one day everything changed.
I became afraid that she would see the true me." -Tas explained.
A wine glass slid through the table and halted near Tas, and he stared at it.
Another glass was placed, this time, Og placed it in front of himself, slowly looking up.
Tas watched Og as he smiled, a mix of curiosity and a gloomy look.
Og poured drinks.
"Well, hey, it's a start.
The drinks are on me." -Og said with a caring expression.
"Indeed, master, you're making good progress" -MI said.
Tas slowly looks at MI the mask.
Tas slowly shifts his gaze back at the wine glass, and both of them hold it up.
They both moved their glass near each other toasting.
"For all times' sake." -They both said at the same time.
They drank and talked, reminiscing about the past.
"Remember that time, before MI was a Divine Ranked Item?" -Og happily asked.
"Yeah?" -Tas replied.
Tas drank from his glass slowly.
"Hehe..
You always almost lost yourself for being too immersed in your characters, to the point that your wife had to beat the character out of you." -Og chuckled and happily said.
Tas almost spat out his drink, he placed his empty glass down.
"Oh yeah?!" -Tas said.
And so both of them made fun of each other for a time.
Og poured at Tas's glass, replenishing his drink.
Tas swirled his drink, watching as the liquid formed a little tornado.
"So? How was the favor that Author asked for?" -Og asked.
Tas's gaze slowly looks at Og, and for a moment, there is silence.
"Pardon me for interjecting, I would like to say it on behalf of my master." -MI inquired.
"Go ahead." -Og replied.
"It didn't go so well, Sir. Og" -MI said.
Tas's gaze shifts to MI, then slowly returns to Og and smiles a dejected smile.
"The favor this time was.. Not something easy to accomplish." -Tas replied.
Og's eye widened a little.
"Oh? Not even for you?" -Og asked.
"The favor was to get rid of someone unwelcome.
I know it sounds easy, right?
The problem is that someone is Calamity God." -Tas replied.
Squeak!!
A high pitched sound was heard as Og stopped whipping the wine glass.
"I see, it's a different story if it's Nhoj." -Og replied.
Og continued to wipe the wine glass.
"So how'd it go." -Og asked.
"He managed to escape from both me and Author." -Tas said.
Og's brows furrowed with a questioning face.
"How so?" -Og asked.
"As you saw before, I was acting as the character from some mythology.
Someone powerful enough to at least hold his own against a World Rank item user." -Tas said.
"But that character wasn't your most powerful." -Og said.
Tas's face became dark.
"Indeed, Heracles wasn't, but he was necessary for me and Author to team up.
I started with Zeus as the opening, throwing my strongest concentrated lightning bolt up in the sky and disintegrating the country.
She wrote off the damage to the area as quickly as I destroyed it, restoring the surroundings and all.
I would have gone for a primordial god, but Author disapproved, as she would mostly take the brunt of the attacks, maintaining the world by writing off the damage to her world, as well as supporting me at the same time.
I came down from the sky and changed to act as Heracles.
From there, the fight truly began, with some of his items suppressed by Author, and I believe he exhausted treasuries upon treasuries of limited use items.
We should have had the upper hand.
" -Tas explained and paused.
Tas took a sip of his drink, swirled the liquid, and was about to continue.
"Yet he still manages to escape, well, understandable, it's him we're talking about." -Og said.
The sound of a wine glass being wiped filled the room, and Tas was swirling the drink from his glass, staring at it in a daze.
"True, even back then, he was able to escape when some of us ganged up on him, but still, his will should be spent after the confrontation, and is resting somewhere for at least a year or so." -Tas replied.
"Hahahaha--
That happened back then as well, he disappeared for some time." -Og laughed, remembering the memory.
"Well, we feared his item reaching World rank after all.
We all know that after that day, he had the means for his item to reach World rank for a long time now, yet he's putting it off for some reason, and all of us have no clue why." -Og said.
Sigh---
Both of them helplessly sighed and chatted.
"By the way, those two that were with my daughter, what do you make of them?" -Tas asked.
"Why do you ask?" -Og asked.
"I just wanted to know my daughter's companion." -Tas answered.
"Master wishes to know if these so called companions will take advantage of the little miss, Sir. Og." -MI the masked said out of nowhere.
Tas stared at MI intensely with a sharp gaze, and Og smirked happily.
Og thought for a moment, eyes closed as he recalled both of them in his mind.
"The one that left first, Nax was his name, he's kind, playful, decisive, and is strongly tied to family and friends, he knows his limits, yet strives to do what he can to help, even just a little, quite experienced.
The newbie who left after, I only saw his name from his identification, Larvan, he's...
Lost, in a way..(Face reminiscent)
It looked like he entered this world searching for a purpose, questioning everything with no desires, just.. Curious freedom and liberation in his eyes.
He's kind, decisive, and naive, he was just like us back then, but we have what he doesn't.
By the looks of it, he is trying to find meaning in his life." -Og answered with his eyes closed, still wiping the wine glass.
Tan listened.
"Is that so." -Tan said as he smiled after sipping some of the drink, savoring his drink, and thinking.
Og notices Tan loss in thought with a serious expression.
"What are you thinking so hard about?" -Og asked.
Tan looks at Og seriously.
"You know, I didn't come to the Ever halls through regular means." -Tan said.
Og raises a brow with a questioning look.
"If I may answer on behalf of master, in the heat of battle, a crack in the world opened, out of nowhere, and there Nhoj escaped." -MI the masked said.
Og was shocked for a moment.
"That blunder was the reason he managed to escape, Author was going to erase it, but it was too late, I was going to go after him, but, Author stopped me.
She said it would be too risky and that Nhoj might have time to set an ambush then, and without Author's support, Nhoj has access to his full arsenal of Items again, so Author and I scouted it first with our wills" -Tan said.
"And then what?" -Og asked in anticipation, halting his work.
"We were surprised, he wasn't there, and that the place was The Ever halls." -Tan answered.
The room went quiet for a moment, and both of their faces darkened, the ambiance of the place filled the room.
Continue...