The white light from the portal faded and the three of them arrived in the garden of the floating mansion. But as Hao Ren lifted his head, the scene before him shocked him. "Oh, what the flying f*ck... Who did that?"
Raven 12345's mansion was a wreck again. The last time he visited, there was only a hole on the roof, but now half of the roof was gone, and there were holes all over the second floor of the mansion. A crystal curtain hung limply over a broken window pane, and looked like it was about to fall off any time as it swayed in the wind. The left corner of the mansion had disappeared altogether, almost as if it was sliced clean off. The mansion literally lost one-fourths of its original size.
A group of shiny formless beings were floating around in the air and they were coordinating with the automated machines to patch the wrecked mansion. It appeared that the latest fight was worst than the time Raven 12345 drove her space shuttle into the roof of her house.
Even Y'zaks was astonished by the scene. "...What happened here?"
"Are you sure this is where the 'goddess' lives?" Lanina swallowed hard and judged things based on her own knowledge. "Could it be that your religious warfare has gone to a stage where the gods are fighting themselves?"
"Meh, it's probably that crazy old witch's own doing." Hao Ren shrugged as he recovered. "Don't worry, she'll get it patched up on her own sweet time. This is the third time seeing it happen. As long as the dimension is in tact, she'll be alright."
Hao Ren was right in that regard. As he led the two demons to the main door, Big Bluey appeared before them. The cerulean elemental creature nodded at Hao Ren and led out a string of vibrato sounds as a signal for the three to head in.
The three were led by Big Bluey into the battle-scarred hallway and ruined main hall. Hao Ren realised that the current destruction was worse than the shuttle incident by order of magnitudes. Not only was the second floor almost fully destroyed, even the first floor bore scars of destruction.
As he stepped into Raven 12345's office, he saw the crazy goddess. She was sitting behind her desk, which was missing a corner. Her clothes also bore several burnt holes as she lay half-dead on her chair, still pulling a mischievous face.
This time around, even Hao Ren could not remain calm. He gasped. "You..."
As the word left his mouth, a crystalline shelf fell from the wall and crashed onto the floor. It seemed like the place was really just a thread away from being a ruin of war...
"Yo, Hao Ren, you're here," Raven 12345 greeted Hao Ren nonchalantly and noticed Y'zaks as well as Lanina behind him. "Oh, and these two are doing well, I suppose? Did you feel my grace when I reunited the both of you? Hahaha, aaaaa—ouch... that hurts... Go get something to sit on. There should be a couple of chairs by the wall that are still intact..."
Hao Ren looked at the goddess of his universe. "So, you lost your inter-celestial war?"
"Nope, it was almost a draw, but I just lost out a bit to that sword technique." Raven 12345 could still talk bullsh*t at times like this. "Pfeh, it's just a sword. I told her I'd return it. Scorpie sure is impatient."
Hao Ren knew what was going on the moment he heard the word "sword". It was that long-legged lady who came by the other day in a fit of rage. She was the one who went, "Where's my bloody sword?!". Other than that, Hao Ren could not imagine how Raven 12345 would end up in such a sorry state. As a premier special agent on Raven 12345's side (this was self-proclaimed), Hao Ren suddenly felt pressured, especially after boasting about how omnipotent Raven 12345 was. He was more pressured now after witnessing her current state. He smiled stiffly at the crazy goddess. "Uh... Boss... the one who came looking for you, was it someone holding a grudge? Or, was she an enemy goddess?"
"We can't be enemies if we're on the same side," Raven 12345 quickly corrected Hao Ren. "But, we've been rivals for many years now. A few years back, I borrowed her sword to play, but I never thought she'd be so salty about it. Oh yeah, since you've already met her, the one you saw the other day was an Armoured Scorpion, nicknamed Scorpie. She's a military officer of the Empire, and holds the same rank as me. Her serial ID is ZK12580; she's a five-digit senior figure. Her other name is Hydra, but you'd do well to remember her serial ID. For us, there's not much difference between a name and serial ID."
Hao Ren tried his best to carve it into his memory. This was his first time encountering a Xi Ling Celestial other than the Raven "series". From what he heard, the long-legged lady was also a "mass produced" goddess. It seemed like all entry-level gods or goddesses among the Xi Ling Celestials had serial numbers. The mere thought of the Empire's might made him shudder; just the fact that governing gods and goddesses were mass-produced and had serial numbers. He accepted the fact that the higher he worked his way up the ranks, the more he would encounter of the Celestials, and he was rather intrigued by it. "So... she's a goddess governing a universe as well? Is it okay for her to leave her post just like that?"
"No, Scorpies don't govern worlds." Raven 12345 was satisfied with Hao Ren's reaction to the revelation, and a wry smile appeared across her face. "With that stupidity of theirs, they can't even govern their own house, much less a universe. I'm the intellectual type and as such, I was charged with governance as well as administration. When it comes to Scorpies... Well, what little intelligence they have is used for combat. By your standards, she's probably a goddess of war?"
As she spoke, Raven 12345 pointed towards the bump on her head. "How else would I have been defeated. I earn my dues with my intelligence... Yeow, yeow... Ouch! That hurts. That b*tch... she smashed her sword on my head with the psionic field activated. Healing is going to be a b*tch..."
At least she could now admit to being defeated. She was still putting up a front earlier.
Cold sweat started to form across Hao Ren's forehead and he felt that it was unwise to dwell on this topic any further. Who knew what the lunatic goddess would say next to destroy whatever image she had left. He then pointed at Lanina. "That aside, she's part of your handiwork?"
"Yep." Raven12345 nodded. "I noticed that she had been lost for a couple of months, and she was about to veer into a neutron star's field of gravity. I simply couldn't watch any longer, so I helped her out. But I was busy at the time, hence after dumping her at your place, I couldn't say hi. However, the note on her was from me."
Lanina then found out that the she was sent to Earth by this lady before her. While she was still doubtful in many ways, she subconsciously had on an expression of gratitude. She was bumbling about in space for months using unreliable demonic teleportation magic to make her way through space. Being alive today, it was all down to her luck.
A few hours before she arrived at Hao Ren's place, she was still tumbling about in a system a few hundred light years away from Earth. She suddenly blacked out and the rest was basically a blur.
So now she knew it was Raven 12345's intervention.
"I saw the note." Hao Ren nodded. "You already knew that Lanina was being 'smuggled' into this universe, and you knew about her intentions as well as Y'zaks'determination to go home. All of this happened by your will, right?"
Raven 12345 raised one of her eyebrows and looked at Hao Ren. "Some things are better left unsaid. This is just a small matter in a faraway land. I don't know anything. Understand?"
Hao Ren laughed. "Alright, I'm just telling you, I'll be away for a while. Going back to Y'zaks' old place to look for his daughter."
Raven 12345 rubbed her chin. "You're an Inspector. You may very well get dragged into the local conflict because of who Y'zaks is. It won't be a small scale fight like your previous times. You've thought of this I take it?"
Hao Ren nodded. "Yes, so I want to let you know, and find out how far I can go."
"Good. That means you're more professional now." Raven 12345 stood up and gave Hao Ren a satisfied smile. "This is also a good time to let you do something more significant. I have three requests; one, violence for self-defense is permitted, but you may not escalate that to a war. You are going to save someone, not eliminate a race or a civilisation; two, this is your personal endeavour, so you will need to do it yourself. I cannot interfere; three, if sh*t really hits the fan, no half-arsing! See it till the end! You going out there means you're representing me..."
Hao Ren found the first two requests were par for the course, but the third one stunned him. That was indeed her way of doing things.
Lastly, Raven 12345 added, "Oh right, one more thing—it's the most important one too. This is not an official mission, so there will be no funds. Use your own."
"..."
Ten minutes later, Hao Ren led Y'zaks and Lanina out of Raven 12345's ruined office. As they were about to step into the teleportation portal, Lanina could not help but ask, "...Can we rely on that 'goddess'?"
"Well, nothing we can do even if she's not reliable." Hao Ren wanted to spit venom but he was exhausted, so he let out a resigned sigh. "Eh.. well, let's look at it this way, we got her consent for this and what's left is to see what awaits us. We are going to save someone, and with our combat strength, I think it's more than enough."
He then pumped himself up and slapped Y'zaks by the arm. "Lets go home and gather the lot. Off we go!"