Power Corrupts: Divine Reunions (ch. 79) (Patreon)

It was amazing how quickly things moved when you were at the top, Kazuma thought to himself, sitting on the wall that surrounded the city of Axel. His feet dangled off the ledge as he leaned back, propping himself up with his hands. He wasn't supposed to be up here, Kazuma didn't think, but the guards that patrolled just kinda awkwardly shuffled away while shooting glances at him. They weren't going to tell him he had to leave.

Kazuma wasn't even entirely sure what had happened. It was all just a blur. The stress, the expectations… so he started snorting pixie dust to take the edge off! He was going to save the entire world from the Demon King! He was entitled to a little fun and relaxation. Especially since Wiz couldn't look him in the eyes anymore. She had practically tossed him out to the nearest available Adventurer party.

Which had already kicked him out on account of his stupid senpai.

"He doesn't understand anything," Kazuma muttered under his breath, his tone bitter. Well, except he kinda did, didn't he? He had already saved a world but he died doing it, according to Aqua. Senpai also seemed pretty bitter about being a hero that saves the day from a threat that could destroy the world. Which made him a total jerk for trying to inflict that on him!

Except he had tried to let Kazuma and Aqua skip the hard parts.

"He's never done anything for me," Kazuma continued, his lips pressing together in a thin line as the words tasted like a lie as they left his mouth. You know, except for the power leveling. And the mansion. And the ring that looked like it took away about a quarter of his strength stat, so it would be easier to increase. And the promise of more gear and money and supplies for his quest to defeat the Demon King.

A sigh escaped Kazuma before he brought his knees closer to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. His nose itched, so he scratched it and his hand came back faintly blue. He frowned at the remainder of the pixie dust.

Things moved fast when you were at the top. Three days. That's all it took for him to hit rock bottom. He had destroyed all of his relationships, he wasted his potential by picking up a drug habit, and the worst part of all was that he was still somehow a virgin. How he had been surrounded by naked succubi and not had sex was a mystery even to himself, though he had admittedly been high out of his mind at the time.

Now, all he had was his promise to kill the Demon King. He clung to it because if he failed that task then… he was every bit the loser he had been in his last life-

"Uh, Sir Kazuma the Glorious?" Someone spoke up, making Kazuma glance over at them. It was one of the guards that had arrested him when he first arrived in this world. That seemed so very long ago. Nearly an entire lifetime, back when his life has been filled with so much hope and the possibilities were limitless. It was shocking that it had been less than a week ago. "I'm… well, I'm no one important, but could I get an autograph? It's for my daughter!"

Kazuma sucked in a sharp breath. He still had fans? Cute little girls still looked up to him? Why? Didn't they see him for what he was? A strung-out addict? A useless virgin? A liar that tricked everyone in this city into thinking he was gay? They praised him for being progressive, but he just wanted to bathe on the women's side of the bathhouse to avoid men feeling 'uncomfortable.' The number of breasts he had seen were countless, but for all of his luck, he remained an untouched flower.

"Sure… I guess…" Kazuma agreed, taking the paper and pencil. With what could only be described as practiced ease, Kazuma wrote down his name with a flourish. He handed the paper back to the guard, who looked like he had stars in his eyes. Kazuma couldn't meet his gaze as he muttered, "Tell your daughter to get better role models."

The guard looked like he had no clue what Kazuma was talking about. He had missed his calling as an actor. But he bowed all the same, "I'll… talk to her about it? Thank you very much!" He said before he started to skip away, seemingly overjoyed.

Kazuma watched him go, a hollow feeling in his chest. When did giving autographs stop giving him that same joy? Yesterday? The day before? It couldn't have been the day before that because that's when he signed his first one. When did the attention become less invigorating and more burdensome? Yesterday? Yeah, it was yesterday. Well, he had been annoyed with it at first, but that was before Kazuma accepted his fate as a generic harem protagonist. Just without the harem.

A listless sigh escaped him as he turned his attention to the city of Axel once again. A city that hoisted its expectations on him. Whose citizens expected him to save them because they named him their hero. Expectations he hadn't been ready to meet. The pressure had been too much and he crumbled underneath it. He went to a party and did a lot of drugs. Well, some drugs. A drug. Once.

The point being was that he hit rock bottom and he hit it hard-

"Hey, Kazuma-"

"I'm trying to self-reflect! Go away!" Kazuma whipped around, making Dust freeze misstep. The dirty blonde-haired man was around his age if a few years older. Bright blue eyes, a dark red jacket with brown pants, and silver shin guards. He even had really cool bandages on his forearms that served no purpose beyond looking cool.

He looked like a proper Adventurer, whereas he was stuck with his old tracksuit because it became attached to his Brand.

Dust hesitated, "Are you sure? Because I have something I think you'll like!" He said, choosing to continue. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a red vial of glitter. No, not glitter- "I know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy's cousin who can get his hands on this stuff. You're looking at pure, uncut, pixie dust."

Kazuma blinked, his curiosity piqued. "Why is it red?" He questioned, turning around to look at Dust, who handed over the vial so he could further inspect it. It was red. And very glittery.

"That's how you know it's pure. The blue stuff is the watered down version. It has to be because most people don't have the Endurance stat that can handle pure pixie dust," Dust explained. Kazuma hadn't known that. He just saw one guy doing it and he thought it would be a great way to 'accidentally' brush his cheek against the undertitty of a succubus. "But, since you're a level one hundred Adventurer, it should be no problem for you."

To that, Kazuma froze. His Endurance stat was garbage. Sure, it was over a hundred, but he only earned a single point per level up, which was the bare minimum you could get without locked in stats like Aqua.

"I don't think…" Kazuma began, going to hand the vial back, only to pause when Dust continued.

"There's going to be a huge party since the last one got busted by you-know-who. A lot of people are really pissed at him for wrecking your good time, so the stops are all getting pulled. Succubus strippers, a bunch of girls and hype men," Dust said, and it would be a lie to say that he wasn't interested.

However, his resolve was firm, "I don't know, Dust. I think I should give partying a pause," He admitted. Socializing was shockingly exhausting. Maybe that muscle had atrophied during his years as Not-a-Neet, but being in the center of attention all the time…

Dust adopted a panicking expression, "You have to come!" He looked way too nervous. "You're the life of the party! The star! Everyone wants you to have a good time before you go off to defeat the Demon King!"

Oh, Dust must have promised that he would be there to impress some girls. At least, that was Kazuma's guess. He might have called him out on it if Dust hadn't just landed some critical damage.

The Demon King. The foe that everyone expected him to defeat. The foe that he was completely unprepared to beat. A foe that he wasn't ever going to defeat since he burnt the bridge with Senpai because he felt embarrassed and said some things he didn't exactly mean.

Kazuma's gaze darted to the vial in his hand.

He shouldn't.

Kazuma uncapped it.

He really shouldn't.

His Endurance was probably high enough.

He absolutely should not do this.

He could clean up his act after one last night to remember.

He really, really, really should not do this.

Kazuma did it anyway.

…

Kazuma opened his eyes to the sound of fighting and he saw a familiar place. Black and white tiled floors, a hazy white mist that marked the horizon of the otherwise pitch-black void he found himself in once again. Across from him was an empty marble white throne that Aqua had once sat in. Was it still empty because she was in the mortal world?

"Ah…" Kazuma blinked, realizing what had just happened. Why he was here.

He died.

His hands went to his head, "Did that idiot lace it with something?!" Kazuma shouted to himself, stunned that he was here once again.

A week. He had lasted all of a week.

"Open the portal!" A voice shouted, a woman's. Kazuma looked over to the source to see two girls on the floor. He didn't recognize either of them, but it was clear that the girl with black hair tied up in pigtails with bell ornaments was winning the fight based on the fact that she had the other girl in a sleeper hold. A poor one given that the other girl looked more frustrated than unconscious.

"I can't! I told you already! I can't! I'm just filling in for Aqua-senpai!" The girl with white hair shouted, trying to wiggle out of the hold. She was pretty cute, even with her face flushed and her hair all over the place. Her dress was ripped up a bit, but nothing too scandalous. She tried rolling over but the black-haired girl prevented that option.

Kazuma sat in his chair, not sure if he was supposed to enjoy the show or not. It was like one of those few times he bothered to go to the temples for the new years -- like the gods might hear him thinking dirty thoughts, and right now, he was in their house.

"I'm a goddess too! I know the rules!" She shouted even as the white-haired girl managed to roll over on her hands and feet. The black-haired girl responded by using her legs to sweep her opponent's feet from underneath her so they both hit the floor, with the white-haired girl pinned underneath. "You have the authority to open the portal for me!"

Uhhh… what was going on?

The white hair girl's eyes clenched shut, "I'll get in a lot of trouble! We can't have foreign gods all over the place! What if you mess something up?"

"I'm not going to mess anything up, Eris," The black-haired goddess swore. "I'm just taking back my Jericho after Aqua soulnapped him!"

Kazuma blinked, "Senpai?" He muttered, looking at the two women. Eris? As in the money? She was a goddess of the world too, huh? But how did the black-haired one know about Senpai?

Both of them seemed to only take notice of him then, both girls looking up from their fight to pin wide eyed stares on him.

"H-help me, Kazuma the Magnificent!" Eris shouted, reaching out a hand to him as she squirmed underneath the weight of the other goddess. "Our dimension is being beset by a foreign god!"

"I'm not invad… okay, I'm invading a little bit, but this wouldn't have happened if you just left Jericho alone! You asked for this! He's mine!" The other goddess shouted, and that made Kazuma hesitate. Senpai hadn't exactly talked much about his past, but he did mention a few names like when he talked about his armor.

"Are you Hestia?" Kazuma questioned, making Hestia freeze. She stopped trying to choke out Eris to aim a megawatt smile in his direction.

"You know me? Do you know Jericho?!" She questioned, her grip not slacking enough that Eris could slip-free. This was Hestia? She was… not what Kazuma expected. Senpai had a wildly different taste in women than Kazuma expected. She seemed nice, excluding the goddess she had in a headlock. She was invading another dimension for him. That was loyalty right there.

He offered a small nod, suddenly very uncertain on if he should interfere at all. Senpai would kill him if he messed with his girl. The fact that Kazuma was already dead wouldn't stop him. To that, Hestia looked ecstatic.

"How is he? Is he okay? Has he been eating enough? I mean, I know he doesn't need to eat, but it's still something he should do to feel normal, you know?" Hestia hit him with a barrage of questions, sounding worried. Enough so that Eris stopped struggling underneath her. Kazuma blinked before he realized he hadn’t seen Senpai eat. Or sleep before.

How to answer that? "He's… okay?" That wasn't exactly true and Hestia seemed to realize that based on how her blue eyes narrowed at him. So, he continued. "He misses you. A lot," Kazuma corrected. That's what he thought at least.

Senpai wouldn't take any risks because it meant he might not get to see her again. It seemed like that was the only thing he genuinely cared about. He didn't care about money. Or what people thought about him. Or even about growing stronger.

In a way, Senpai was everything that Kazuma wanted to be.

"I've missed him too. And I look forward to not missing him after you open the damn portal!" Hestia continued, resuming the brawl.

Now that he understood what was going on, Kazuma was interested. He had died again. Was this his ticket back to the land of the living?

"I said that I can't! I'll get in a whole bunch of trouble!" Eris protested, rolling over so Hestia was the one pinned to the floor. Her hands went to dislodge Hestia and had enough success that Hestia readjusted her grip.

A hand brushed against Eris's chest, making both goddesses go still. Kazuma was puzzled, then shocked when Hestia fully groped one of Eris's boobs.

"Heh. Pads," Hestia, her tone dripped with condemnation. She didn't win the fight physically, but the amount of psychological damage she did gave her the win instantly. She didn't win the fight physically, but the amount of psychological damage Eris received from that jibe decided the battle.

"Okay! Fine! I'll open the portal. I'll open the portal!" Eris shouted, thrashing in Hestia's grip. Now that she had what she wanted, Hestia let go with an absolutely diabolical chuckle. She got up revealing, the mother of all size differences between her and Senpai. "Do you promise not to invade?"

"I'm just going to bring over my familia members. We're not an invasion force!" Hestia promised, holding out a pinky to promise on. Eris looked like she had doubts, but accepted the pinky promise all the same. Kazuma tensed, readying himself for action.

Eris reached out and summoned a staff that she slammed into the ground. The black void began to ripple until it gave way to a portal that revealed the same tree that Kazuma had arrived under.

"Thanks-" Hestia began, before Kazuma took off running, heading straight for the portal. The black-haired goddess paused to look at him, her eyes widening ever so slightly before Kazuma tackled them both through it.

"Kazuma, wa-"

…

Kazuma wasn't sure why he blacked out, but he must have since he wasn't underneath the tree with Hestia. A smirk found itself on his face after having cheated death itself. That was an adrenaline rush and a half… but his body sure did feel stiff, though. He went to stretch, only for his hands to hit something on his sides. Raising them up, he hit something above him.

His heart leaped to his throat, a pitch-black hole opening up in his stomach.

No… no…

"NOO- Oh," Kazuma began to scream, fearing that he had been buried alive, only for the top to push open with absolute ease. He tossed the top to the side as he sat up-

"AHHHHHHHHH!" A high-pitched scream deafened him in one ear. The suddenness of it caught him completely off guard and he found himself screaming right back as he looked to the source.

Aqua scrambled back, waiving her stupid-looking staff back and forth threateningly to ward him off. She kept scrambling back until she hit the shins of Senpai, who held a torch that revealed a faintly surprised expression.

"Aqua… you're… the white mage… aren't undead your specialty?" Jericho questioned, sounding absolutely exasperated, snapping Aqua out of it. She blinked once, then twice, then her eyes narrowed into a glare.

"Oh yeah… you better get ready to get exorcized, you undead jerk! Turn Undead!" Aqua shouted at the top of her lungs, Kazuma's body being enveloped by light. Senpai adopted a panicked look.

“Wait, Aq-”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Kazuma screamed, the white light becoming pain that dominated every sense-

…

Kazuma opened his eyes for a third time, and once again found himself in that inky black void. This time, Eris was sitting across from him, her arms crossed over her chest as she pouted at him and pinned him with a mild glare.

"If you escape the afterlife without being resurrected, then you become an undead lich, Kazuma," Eris explained to him what just happened. So, that meant… Aqua killed him?! Oh, he could not let that stand!

"Oh. I'm sorry," Kazuma offered a deep bow to convey his sincerity. He heard Eris sigh deeply in response.

"I really shouldn't let Aqua-senpai resurrect you, you know. You shouldn't get special treatment for being a legendary warrior and a hero," Eris remarked, making Kazuma bow lower.

Legendary warrior? Hero? Who? Who were those things? Surely she didn't mean him? How could she? He died once to drugs and a second time being one-shotted by an idiot.

"I am very sorry," Kazuma responded, his tone devoid of any excuses. This wasn't what he had in mind when he sought to self-reflect while gazing at the city like a super cool brooding protagonist character, but maybe this was the wake-up call that he needed.

There was a beat of silence before Eris sighed. "Aqua-senpai has resurrected you. Are you ready?"

Kazuma raised his head, adopting an expression of resolve. He took in a deep breath, letting the air fill his lungs before he let it out.

"I'm ready."

Then, another time, his vision was filled with light.

…

"Senpai! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me!" I recoiled as Kazuma latched onto my leg the moment he was brought back to life. Aqua was poking him with her staff to make sure that he really was alive again, as if she hadn’t just revived him. Or she was annoyed by the scare that she got… well, we both got. The last thing I expected was for Kazuma to push open his own tomb when we were here to bring him back to life.

I honestly had no clue what he was talking about. "It's fine. Just let go of me," I sighed, then again when Kazuma continued to latch on to my leg, forcing me to hobble out of the crypt that he had been buried in, with full honors. It had taken three days for the number of mourners to die down enough that we could sneak in. I did have the ring of Namira, but letting Aqua borrow it was just asking for trouble.

"I don't know what came over me! I should have just listened to you, Senpai!" Kazuma continued to wail as I continued to make my way out of the cemetery. It was in the dead of night, so no one should hear him… but if someone saw him, then I had no clue how I would explain this. “I’ll never make that mistake again! I’ll just do everything that you tell me to do!”

Though, knowing this town, everyone would assume that Kazuma had just risen from the dead just like Jesus.

"I'm never doing drugs ever again," Kazuma continued, making me pause before I let out another sigh. So, he had OD'd? The story was that the Demon King poisoned him. I hadn't exactly believed it, but I didn't think it had been drugs that killed him the first time.

"It's fine. Just stop crying," I said, making my way out of the cemetery. I looked left and right, and saw that there was no one around. The graveyard was outside of the city grounds, so it didn’t get much traffic to begin with, but if I’ve learned absolutely anything in recent times its that none of my plans work. Not a single one of them. Absolutely zero.

Messing around with the Dark Brotherhood? I cause a succession crisis. Becoming the Thane of Skyrim to gather support to defeat Alduin? Not only did I become king, but most of the people that I recruited weren’t there for the final battle. Now this mess. My plans to power level Aqua and Kazuma? Aqua was insufferable, and Kazuma killed himself with drugs of all things.

“No! Not until you forgive me, Senpai!” Kazuma continued to sob, clutching my leg like he was some kind of small child. This was the Super Supreme Hero, Kazuma the Legend? The entire city was still mourning him. And if it was bad now, I could only imagine their reaction when they saw him alive again. The word insufferable came to mind.

“Kazuma, I gave you so much slack because I thought I could trust you to not hang yourself with it,” I remarked, making my way home.

Aqua jabbed him in the kidneys, “You still have to kill the Demon King so I can go back to my old job…” She started, only to pause and I could see the wheels working in her head. That… I’m not going to touch that at all. Mostly because I’m pretty sure that Aqua could do less damage to the world here than as the god the presided over it.

“I’m sorry, Senpai! I’m sorry, Aqua!” Kazuma continued, and I don’t think he was going to stop until he felt like he was forgiven. I guess I could understand that. Nothing made you reevaluate your life quite like death. I knew that better than anyone.

I guess I could meet him halfway on this, “You’re forgiven, Kazuma. And I’m sorry too,” I told him, continuing to walk and ignoring how he looked up at me while clinging to my leg. “I should have made sure that you were on board with everything rather than just taking your silence as a confirmation. That was my fault.”

“Senapi…” Kazuma muttered, sounding like he was choking back tears. There might have been a moment there if Aqua wasn’t here. She jabbed Kazuma in his other kidney, earring a pained, “Ouch,” for her efforts.

“Where’s my apology? And my thank you?!” Aqua demanded, adopting a regal look as she waited for her groveling and praise. Which was a little undercut by the fact that she was demanding it.

Kazuma looked at her, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly. “Tsk,” He tsked to himself, making that regal look drop from Aqua's face like she had discovered she was holding a hot potato when Aqua realized that she wasn’t going to get an apology or a thank you. “Too bad! You killed me first! That really hurt you know?!” He shouted, letting go of my leg to stand on his own two feet. I’m sure there was symbolic meaning in that.

“I wouldn’t have killed you if you hadn’t died!” Aqua gibed, before the two started going at it. It was a familiar scene to hear them arguing. Before, it had been grating because I hadn’t been in the mood for it. I just wanted to stick to the plan, no deviations, and that be that. I wanted to be in and out with no intervention necessary on my part beyond making gear.

I had just been bitter. Angry, even. I still was, a little, just not as much as I had been.

I went into Skyrim thinking I would come out of it on top of the world, because I was the hero. A role that I had forced myself into because I wanted to be the hero of the story. I wasn’t sure if I regretted that or not, but watching Kazuma’s funeral drove something home for me. Or, rather, it unleashed something in me. A knot of tension, of anger, was undone.

“I did it for the wrong reasons,” I muttered to myself, eyeing the front gates to the manor. I guess Aqua forgot to close them since they were left wide open. I went to Skyrim to be the hero. The Protagonist of the story. I knowingly threw myself into that situation because I thought I could handle it, and I grew bitter when it came increasingly clear that it was beyond me. That bitterness only increased when I swallowed my pride and began to search for help, only to meet roadblock after roadblock and received false promises in exchange for my aid.

It hadn't been what I thought it would be and I became pissed off because my expectations hadn't been met.

I wasn't hero material. I just didn't care enough about people in general to make sacrifices on their behalf. What I did care about was my familia. Hestia, Lili, and even Serana. I cared about my friends. And I cared about what they cared about.

"Ohohoho! Jericho! Jerichooo! We have burglars! Will you get mad if I explode them?!" Megumin shouted, hanging out of a window as she waved me down. Looking to her, I saw her wince, "Ow! Ouch! Stop pinching me!" Then she adopted a panicked expression when it looked like she was getting pushed aside, "I'm gonna fall! I'm gonna fall! Stop pushing me, you-" Megumin said, withdrawing from the window to do battle with the apparent burglar.

I narrowed my eyes ever so slightly as Aqua and Kazuma rushed to the door. Kazuma kicked it down with a, "I'll save you, little girl!" Before rushing inside.

I wasn't far behind them, but I paused when I entered the mansion. I felt it instantly. The sensation that rolled over you when you stood in the presence of a god, of something that was far beyond mortal comprehension, but had lowered itself down to our level to interact. However, that wasn't why I paused.

That was mostly because I was watching Aqua get suplexed into the marble floor by our burglar. The blue haired goddess was out for the count, Kazuma eyeing her with fear and a slacked jaw.

I knew who it was even before she looked up at me.

"Hestia?" I muttered, not believing the sight before my eyes. It was a gut punch, and I could barely breathe. I didn't believe it even as Hestia turned around, looking immensely proud of herself for defeating Aqua. However, that look of pride quickly melted away, replaced by one of shock, then an expression that told me she was fighting back tears.

She looked just like I remembered -- her long black hair, with the bells tying it into two pigtails, her white dress that hugged her petite frame, and the silk blue ribbon that was tied into a bow at her neck to hold her dress up.

The moment was broken when fat tears started dripping from her eyes, and she sprinted at me, flying into me, and I was so dumbfounded that I landed on my ass. "Jericho! Jericho!" Hestia shouted, squeezing me with surprising strength. I looked down at her, my jaw slack before a clatter caught my attention.

A devilish-looking Megumin on the stairs, frozen for a moment as she looked between me and Hestia so quickly that she was at risk of whiplash.

It was only then that it started to sink in that they were here.

"How?" I muttered, hesitantly hugging them back, my mind struggling to accept that they were here. In front of me. That I could see them, feel them, and smell them. It should be impossible. I had to fight my way back to them. That was the deal, wasn't it?

Hestia looked up at me, smiling brightly, "Akatosh noticed that you had been kidnapped when you… you died. He told me what had happened, and I followed you here thanks to the falna on your back," Hestia explained, earning a disbelieving laugh from me.

So, she crossed the multiverse to get back to me?

Damn.

"You are way too good for me," I told her, holding her tight. I couldn't be more thankful that I had taken that control perk, because I didn't have it in me to hug Hestia with anything less than all my strength.

"No, I just beat you before you could find me," Hestia informed, hugging me back just as hard.

This… for the first time since I died, I felt at peace.

I felt ready to take on the world.