"This for you." Nell landed on a rock and offered the grilled fish.
"No thanks." Oceanid answered curtly without turning his head. He just stared at the ocean.
"You don't want this? If so, it's your loss." Nell didn't try to convince her or anything and just ate the grilled fish.
"Things can come and go, you know what you need to do. When you lose something, you will sometimes get something else in return. I just wanted to tell you, we're going to go investigate a mysterious island over there tomorrow morning. After that, we'll go find all of your contaminated avatars." Nell pointed her finger at an island a few kilometers to the north.
"..." Oceanid didn't reply with anything, but he turned his head toward the north. He narrowed his eyes to dig deeper, but he couldn't find anything wrong with that island. Even so, he also felt some oddities that he couldn't understand.
"Why do you call it a mysterious island?" Oceanid asked with raised eyebrows.
Nell wiped her mouth with a tissue and burned the fishbone to ashes. She then shook her head. "I don't quite understand either, but Elysia felt some oddness from there, and her master believes that something terrible might be buried in the island. You know, Ely got a little goosebumps when we got inside the island."
"However, you don't feel any strangeness about the island in question?" Oceanid turned sideways to look at Nell.
"No, even my big sister doesn't quite understand why Ely had goosebumps with horror all of a sudden yesterday." Nell shrugged her shoulders.
"It is natural for a mortal girl to feel goosebumps from the wind or cold. Even though she is the Goddess of Light's disciple, she is still someone at the boundary between Apprentice-level to Beginner-level." Oceanid closed his eyes and looked back at the ocean.
But, he felt there were strange sounds from the side below. He reflexively glanced over to find the source of the sound. Unfortunately, it was just his playful avatar who was devouring grilled fish.
"What? I just want to taste it. It's delicious, you know. I mean, super duper delicious. You'll probably regret it if you don't get any share of Masterchef Ely's cooking. This grilled fish is loved by everyone. Take a look over there." Oceanid's avatar returned the gaze, but he just continued to eat.
"..." Oceanid was speechless. But, he glanced at the group of girls and little beasts. They were enjoying their time by the bonfire.
They exchanged words with smiles and laughter as if they were in such a colorful and beautiful world.
"You say that because you don't know Ely that well. You will be surprised about the truth behind her identity. However, I warn you, never try to pull the trigger for any nasty actions against her or you will pay a huge price for it." Nell put her hands behind her back and warned with emphasis.
"She is my savior, how can I be ungrateful and act against her? But, her true identity, huh..." Oceanid tried to check on Elysia once more. However, he could only see the young girl as an ordinary mortal girl.
As he tried to look deeper, the golden lights blocked his view. He couldn't take a deeper look at Elysia, including what was hidden behind the white dress.
"I'm just reminding you, don't you dare peek at the girls, especially Elysia, or else my big sister will punish you. The Goddess of Light probably won't give you any mercy. Oh no, she realized that you were trying to peek at her precious disciple. I'm innocent and really not involved in this. Bye~" Nell immediately flew away towards her big sister. She didn't want to take any punishment from Elena, not anymore.
"Huh?" Oceanid was stunned and didn't understand the meaning of Nell's words just now. At that very moment, mental pressure suddenly hit him. It seemed to squeeze his entire being from within.
'I can see your indecent intentions. It's fine if you're just checking my precious disciple's magic circuit or the like, but I can't tolerate you if you see what you shouldn't. I don't care about your reasons, but don't ever do that again and there's no leniency in the next situation. Understood?' Elena gave a stern warning via telepathy.
'U-understood...' Oceanid stuttered slightly.
'Oh no, I need to teach you a lesson so you don't do it again.' Elena muttered as if she was considering something.
'W-wait! I only scanned your disciple at a glance. I didn't mean to peek at her.' Oceanid immediately defended. It was indeed a bit strange, but his instincts knew that he needed to avoid punishment from this Goddess.
'I trust my hunch. You were trying to see my disciple naked, right? Hmph! Take this as a warning, you Pervert God.' Elena gave a soft snort and used a magic combination of illusion and mental pressure.
An artificial event based on a projection was applied in a certain way to create something like an actual event, just like a high-level Illusionary Technique.
Oceanid's eyes widened to see himself evaporating and eroding little by little. He could not speak or move at all, and he could only stare at the Goddess of Light's golden eyes in panic.
He was an Almighty God, ranked eleventh in the Divine Order for the good of the world! Even though he wasn't stronger than half his prime, it shouldn't be that bad, right? Even so, he seemed like an ordinary little boy in front of this Golden Goddess.
As only his head remained, a flashback of thousands of past events flashed through his mind. It was the only thing he could do at the end of his moment.
*Swiish*
Oceanid completely evaporated and turned into steam that vanished in the wind. However, everything was instantly back to normal as if nothing had happened before.
The sound of the ocean and the cool air under the night sky. The atmosphere was enlivened by the girls' chit-chat about trivial matters.
"Ha-huh, huff..." Oceanid broke out in cold sweat and gasped for breath. He then looked at his wing-like hands in astonishment. It was indeed more significant than a divine level illusion! "A horribly real illusion."
"What's your problem, the other me?" Oceanid's avatar felt that something was wrong, but he didn't know what it was.
"..." Oceanid didn't answer for a few seconds. He then stared at his avatar in silence.
"Wha-what? I'm only here to accompany you because you look so pitiful. Don't try to snatch my grilled fish. If you want some, you just need to go to Masterchef Elysia and ask for your share. The Goddess of Blessings already gave it to you earlier, but you refused." Oceanid's avatar hugged his remaining two grilled fish to keep them safe.
"Hmm." Oceanid didn't respond much, but he decided to go closer to the bonfire and join the party. On second thought, he did lose something, but he might encounter great things in return.
"Oh, are you all right, Sea God? Would you like some special grilled fish? They are the sparkling white fish we caught a while ago." Elysia greeted with a smile.
"All right." Oceanid nodded and sat down on a rock. He subconsciously distanced himself from the Goddess of Light.
"Aren't you too far away if you sit there? Why don't you come over and join us?" Rhea asked only as a courtesy.
"No, that's fine. I might vaporize if I'm near a bonfire." Oceanid gave a random excuse without much thought.
"..." Rhea was at a loss for words, and so was everyone else, including the playful little avatar.
A divine water spirit who was afraid to evaporate because of a small bonfire? What kind of joke was that?
Even so, Elysia just shook her head and stood with a plate of medium-sized grilled fish in hand. She then gave it to the Sea God. "Here, please enjoy. Please tell me whether this suits your taste or not."
"Hum, thank you. I accept your offering." Oceanid received the dish. He sniffed it and scanned it before he tasted one of the grilled fish.
"How?" Elysia asked curiously.
"Not bad. You're good at cooking." Oceanid gave the nod and threw the whole grilled fish into his mouth.
"..." Elysia didn't know what to say. Oceanid devoured one medium-sized fish in one go.
"Ah, umm, I'm glad you like it. Then I excuse myself." Elysia smiled awkwardly and walked away.
Oceanid looked at Elysia's back with some astonishment. What Nell had told him replayed in his mind once again, and it made him even more curious about this little girl's true identity.
"Are we going to investigate and unearth the secrets hidden in that mysterious island? I want to know. Could it be, there is buried a big cruel and terrible monster? Err, a sealed big bad monster!?" Sylvia widened her eyes at her baseless assumption.
"That might happen. There's definitely something dangerous under that mysterious island. It's too deep to see from the surface even if we use magic vision. But-" Rhea raised her finger to draw attention.
"But?" Yuuki tilted her head slightly.
"It is only the Goddess of Light, the Goddess of Blessings, Sea God, me, and Ely who will investigate the mysterious island. All of you whom I did not mention will remain on this island for your own good." Rhea reminded that once again while looking at each of the individuals she mentioned.
"Boo, why can't we come along, but Elysia is included in the investigation group?" Sylvia pouted and puffed her cheeks like a pufferfish.
"For the common good. Elysia will always be by her master's side, but that's different for us. Me and the Goddess of Blessings can't look after everyone if something extremely dangerous happens. For you know, a God-level accursed monster is sealed somewhere in this world. You know the weight of this information, right?" Rhea patted the sand with a solemn expression.