Chapter Text
Rituals mark the beginning of a goddess’ day.
Within his chambers, the fox goddess wakes up from a deep slumber to the sound of a shrine bell ringing, announcing the initiation of the first ritual of the day. He slowly sits up and opens his eyes, delicately rubbing them and letting out a small yawn. One of his many servants, a white masked fox is already sitting on guard, its silhouette guarding the curtains, waiting for an order.
“Have any visitors arrived?” He asks. The servant fox darts away without a noise and returns seconds later, announcing the presence of several human priests. With a delicate hand, the goddess draws the curtains open, drinking in the sight of his shrine today.
Beyond the curtains in front of him reveal an open air temple, mapped out by simple stone paths amongst the grass and trees, and a single bell tower in the middle of a stone courtyard. A small cluster of wooden stalls are erected along the edges of the clearing, selling small keepsakes. The whole temple is surrounded by a luscious forest of trees and bamboo, and whilst the location is rather secluded from modern human civilisation, it is still well-known, with a steady flow of visitors on any given day. Just the way he likes it.
The goddess’ resting spot lies in a separate smaller building at the top of a long flight of stairs, close to the summit of the large hill the shrine was built on, giving him a perfect view of the entire place. The first rays of morning light shine upon the land, illuminating the priests, dressed in pure white robes, going about their rituals in front of the bell tower and opening up the shrine up to the public for the day.
Eren, the goddess, watches contentedly as the priests begin their carefully practiced routine and offerings. Though their little chants and the strange movements they do mean very little to him, the prayers strengthen and appease him purely through the overwhelming respect for him that is shown through their actions. The smell of the incense sticks they use have grown to become his favourite scent, and so he wholeheartedly indulges in the unique, aromatic fragrance of sandalwood and rice wine. He produces a long smoking pipe, lights it up and fills it with ashes that emit the same scent, allowing it to course through his body and the rest of the shrine as he brings it to his lips.
One priest approaches his personal shrine, a fresh selection of offerings held in his arms. To the human eye, they would see nothing but an empty red cushion, and the wooden board behind him written ‘Prosperity’. Though the vast majority of humans simply would never be able to see no matter how hard they tried, a select few are lucky enough to be able to feel his presence if he chooses to let himself be known.
The priest cannot hear him, but Eren thanks them anyway as they take their leave. He observes the offerings laid out for him today – dishes of fried tofu, freshly picked oranges, rice bowls and rice wine. Though he won’t actually consume them – given that he can’t actually directly interact with any items in that way on that plane of existence – being able to see the physical results of his mere existence alone is enough to make him happy, and so he lets his power wash over the offerings, to let them decay by the end of the day as a sign that the offering has been accepted.
Wishes are the very foundation of a goddess’ needs.
Without any prayers, a goddess becomes weaker, and more insignificant before ceasing to exist at the next empty moon. Eren has never witnessed this himself, however he suspects something similar may be what happened to his predecessor. It has not been long since Eren took on this title, maybe only a few months, but instinctively he understood the importance of being given attention, perhaps thriving off it even.
Eren proudly flaunts his status as the deity of fertility and general prosperity. Because of how broad his spiritual grounds are, people flock to him in the millions to pray to him without him having to lift a single finger. As so, Eren is considered extremely powerful amongst the deities that exist – like comparing droplets of rain to the ocean. Having been reborn into such prestige, Eren is one of the few divine goddesses to have a large temple built exclusively for him, and a small army of servants by his side. This enables him to simply relax and watch over his visitors on most days instead of labouring, whilst his servants – transformed into the shape of foxes – are the ones to travel to bless the land he watches over.
He does quite enjoy the sided conversations that the visitors have with him from beyond the man-constructed rope barrier– woes shared by hundreds of others who visited everyday, some that even he had no power over.
Wishing for prosperity with a new partner. Wishing for a son. Wishing for a promotion. Wishing for good exam results. In response to prayer, Eren shares a tiny fraction of his power as gratitude for allowing visitors to share their woes and their hopes with him – should they also put in the effort in their day to day life, perhaps all would be well.
Today seems to pass off as another ordinary day, until something unpleasant pricks at his senses. Someone, or something peculiar has passed the first barrier – the entrance gate – to his little haven. Eren sits up, brows furrowed, and he wordlessly sends a servant to identify them. It is not unheard of for gods and goddesses to visit each other, however as a very young and somewhat inexperienced new goddess with so much power in his hands, it still sends a wave of unease through Eren.
He’s never liked the other deities– in the short time he’s been around for, every single one met him with either sickly-sweet manipulations on their tongue, inauthentic and poor attempts to weed their way into his good graces, or pure distrust. It was no secret that some held a particular distaste for him, from the way they constantly compared him to his predecessor.
He’s heard more of his fair share of horror stories from his servants too – deities fighting each other for wealth, power, attention, or purely just for fun; conquering large areas of land until their opposers banded together and fought back. Therefore, he made the decision to simply keep to himself whenever possible, it really did not seem that there would be any benefit to being friendly with any of them, plus with all the servants he’s been able to summon, he did not particularly need the extra help anyhow.
He would answer to those knocking directly at his doorstep, just as this situation spoke for, though he always made it abundantly clear that he was not looking for a friend.
With his decision made, Eren finally stands to personally greet his guest and get a proper look. He would tell them to go on their way and then he could go back to relaxing on his cushion as he always did.
As he makes his way towards the entrance though, the prickling of his senses abruptly turns into an impure feeling of dread and pent up negative energy when the newcomer passes through the second barrier.
Demon.
Selfish beings manifested from negative and chaotic emotions, one who causes destruction and chaos wherever it goes. Most deities fear or resent them for the activities they favoured, ranging anywhere from stealing shrine offerings, to whispering poisonous thoughts to other humans, to wreaking havoc on the environment.
Immediately, Eren thinks to kill it on the spot, but being in his own territory and in such close proximity to his own human visitors, he did not want to risk having its presence somehow lingering in the area and permanently tarnishing something in his own haven.
In one graceful motion, Eren leaps onto the edge of the central bell tower to observe. From here, Eren watches warily as the demon steps into his temple inconspicuously, as if trying to blend in with the growing crowd of humans. It actively watches and copies the humans around it as they wash their hands, and murmur prayers before passing under another red gate, the final threshold.
Though its presence makes Eren’s skin crawl, he doesn’t actually sense any real malintent, yet. For whatever reason, the demon follows the exact procedures that the humans follow, even though the humans can’t see it either – sometimes directly walking through his body. Even if they could see it, its gigantic, curved horns, black-dyed sclera and ridiculously outdated clothing would certainly have made it impossible for it to blend in.
It looks around the shrine curiously as nonchalantly as any new visitor would, drinking in the sights and the smells around it. Perhaps it was just passing by? But then why would it bother with such mundane human customs that no-one else would see?
…No-one, except for him.
“You.”
From the bell tower, the single word uttered from Eren’s lips seems to be immediately swallowed up by the wind, but the demon hears it clear as a bell. Its head instinctively snaps up at the sound of a non-human voice, and after a few moments of searching, it makes direct eye contact with Eren. There is no surprise in its face – in fact, it seems to have expected this exact response. A frission of danger runs through Eren’s whole body, sending skitters over the surface of his skin, but he holds his ground. A single unamused and dangerous look from the goddess is all it takes for the demon to receive the message, loud and clear.
Turn around. Now.
The demon hesitates for only a single moment, but takes another resolute step into the shrine, still keeping its eyes on him. Expression unreadable. It lowers its head slightly though, an act of submission, and whispers under its breath.
“Please, tie my hands behind my back and gag me if you must. I am here simply to talk.”
Eren briefly weighs the pros and cons. If the demon was not here to fight, then more than likely it was here to play mind games with him. And if that were the case, if Eren was already aware, then it would not hurt to be able to observe one of these creatures up close for future reference– if it did try to fight him, Eren would see to it that it would not be able to leave here unscathed.
Fine.
With no further words, Eren jumps backwards off the tower, and then he’s gone in the blink of an eye, a tiny wisp of smoke the only evidence that he was ever there.
While the demon calmly makes its way through the various stalls and sights, and eventually up the long flight of stairs leading up to him, the goddess returns to his favourite red cushion and resumes blowing smoke out from between his lips, glowering menacingly as the demon reaches the unpassable gates of his resting place. His fox servants stand at the ready in a tightly packed formation behind him, fur standing on the ends, masks barely able to conceal the terrifying snarls on their faces.
“I suggest you do not trespass any further, demon. My servants will not hesitate to attack if you come any closer.” He speaks softly.
From this distance, Eren can get a closer look at the unwelcome visitor. He’d never personally actually seen a demon up until now, but now he sees that the descriptions he has read and heard about have been true – pitch black sclerae like glowering coals, and two long horns protruding out of its head. The goddess waves his pipe a little, instinctively trying to push away the suffocating aura emanating from it with no avail.
“Good morning, goddess. My name is Levi, I am but a humble swordsman of the far North.” The demon places its right hand cross its chest before bowing deeply. Immediately, Eren’s mood plummets further than it already has.
“It will do you no favour to tell me lies to my face, demon.”
It turns its face slightly – admitting guilt, or defeat.
“I mean no harm at all, dear goddess. If you’d prefer, I will happily take off all of my clothes and bow at your feet if that’s what it takes for me to express that to you.” Eren’s tail flickers. An interesting proposal. But perhaps not suitable for this kind of situation. The demon takes one very minute step towards him, and he allows it.
Through the stifling aura, Eren can faintly sense that the demon might truly have no intention of harming him. Even so, Eren is youthful and his senses are at their peaks. He watches warily as the demon slowly places its sword and its bow by its feet and backs away. Just like the offering of the priests.
“I must say, you are the only deity I have met who has gone through the effort of following human traditions. In someone else’s territory. Why?”
“I come peacefully, and wish to prove my lack of hostility before standing before a stunning goddess as beautiful as you.” The demon’s head remains lowered, not quite making direct eye contact with Eren; from the second it stepped into his domain, everything about its body language has screamed submission to him.
Eren takes the pipe out of his mouth. The tip of one of his tails twitches happily at the flattering comment, though it does not reflect on his face.
“State your business. I have no reason to believe that you are here to simply acquire one of my good fortune charms.” …even the thought of that demon’s claws around his own possessions makes him feel sick.
“I am merely looking for a conversation partner, you see. I tire of the constant and never-changing gossip following me wherever I go, and have travelled a great distance just to find a quiet place with one to converse with.”
Eren’s eyes rove over the demon’s outfit – a somewhat plain blue yukata, lined with fur and chainmail. Perhaps it truly did come from the wintry plains of the North, then, or at least taken the outfit of someone from the North. Likely an extensive background in war, from the weapons carefully placed on the ground before him. The demon says nothing about Eren’s scrutiny. If anything, it seems to almost be welcoming his gaze, inviting the goddess to drink in every detail.
“I’ve heard of a recent series of deaths in the North. Seven deities, just like me, slaughtered mercilessly in a single night, with the killer still out on the loose. Would you happen to know anything of it?”
The demon freezes minutely at the question, and the air around them is suddenly cold. Eren can taste it. A whisper of the violence still dances behind its eyes, the faint trace of spilled blood still drips from its claws. One invisible command has all of Eren’s servants advancing, an act of intimidation. Their fur stands on ends, and the servants grow in size slightly, truly a feral imitation the foxes they were modelled off of. Eren is still deceptively calm, but he tilts the long forgotten smoking pipe slightly to his side, ready to drop it or fling it at the trespasser at a single moment’s notice.
“I will not lie before you. That was indeed an act of my doing.” A series of low growls fill the air as Eren’s servants become hostile, baring their fangs and claws as they slowly begin to close in. Any pretense of politeness drops from Eren’s face like a sheer curtain.
“I’m afraid my servants and I are becoming displeased at your presence. I must ask you to leave.”
“Please, hear me out. You know that if I intended to hurt you in any way, I would not be able to hide that from you.” The demon was right. No matter how hard one was to try, it would be nearly impossible for a demon comfortable with spilling that much blood to hide its bloodlust.
“I am aware.” Eren tilts his head, radiating hostility as his eyes flash with his own promise of bloodshed. “However, that is irrelevant. I am a symbol of good fortune and hope for families both new and old. I do not simply play around with anyone that comes across my land, and I further have no reason to associate myself with a demon such as you.” With every word that comes out of his mouth, Eren leans forward more and more in his seat, a show of intimidation as he bares his teeth.
If this truly was the deity killer of the North, then whether Eren liked it or not, if they did clash, then perhaps was a slim chance for his victory – but the goddess did not care. The demon was not supposed to be here.
“Would you consider an exception for me?”
Eren snarls wordlessly in response.
The demon drops to its hands and knees in a grand gesture of submission, in such a way that left it with no way of defending itself should Eren attack. “I will not overstep my boundaries again. I can only offer my deepest apologies, please forgive me.” The demon does not raise its head at all, instead clearly waiting for permission.
This sudden movement disarms the goddess, even the servants back down slightly as well. He waits to see if the demon is simply trying to lure him in while his guard is down, but nothing happens.
Wondering how long this will go on, Eren allows the seconds to drag out just a little bit longer, to enjoy the sight of a demon grovelling at his toes as much as he can. From this angle though, the goddess can see all the battle scars littering its body. Though he can only see as far as its neck and hands, he had no doubt that there was not a single bit of clean skin on its body… although none of the scars looked remotely fresh – was that a show of how untouchably strong this demon was, or did it speak the truth when it said it was only here to make peace?
“The choice is yours. Kill me now where I stand, or allow me a conversation. Just for one night, is all I ask for.”
Would it be so harmless just to entertain the demon for one night…? There was only one way to find out.
He allows himself another two moments to let the demon stew in its own discomfort, before he slowly leans back. At the same time, his servants rear back as well, returning to the stoic, beautiful forms they once were before.
“Fine. Raise your head, demon.”
It raises its head, and from here Eren can easily see the ghost of a relieved smile on its face.
“…You said you wished for a conversation partner?”
“I did.”
The demon presses eagerly, knowing that it has finally managed to find an opportunity. “I heard rumours of a new and young goddess and immediately I thought that you would be an ideal conversation partner, so I came to see you myself. I do think I quite thoroughly enjoy your presence already, to be truthful.”
While the demon looks on earnestly, Eren takes his sweet, sweet time, returning the pipe to his mouth once more as he stalls to think.
This was a crucial moment. If, laughably, the demon really had come here solely to gossip with him, it would certainly be an interesting experience, one that Eren can’t say that any other deity he knows has gone through before. With someone like this creature to entertain him, his day-to-day life would no doubt be ever changing.
Yet, at the same time, demons were well-versed in trickery and false promises. Eren had no ‘friends’ to speak of, and so should things turn sour, nobody would come to help, or avenge him. If that was the case though, Eren thinks, it would be a fine opportunity to see how far this trickery will go. If this demon was here to target him, it would be in this very moment, the second he says yes.
“Very well,” He exhales with a dramatic puff of smoke from his lips. “you can stay.”
He pretends to be relaxed, but his hands freeze, eyes fixed on the demon, waiting.
“…Thank you.” The demon bows deeply, but nothing else happens. Well hell, he was still here, as alive as the day he was born.
“You now have my formal permission to stay within my territory, though if you so much as place a single scratch on my haven you will have your arms sawn off with my teeth and your liver gouged out with my tongue.”
“Your wishes have been heard loud and clear.”
“Good.”
The demon sits just outside his retreat, a respectful distance from Eren.
“It may be rather bold of me to ask, but if I may, what work does being a goddess entail?”
Eren scoffs. The demon truly was actually asking him questions. Even so, he plays along.
“I picked up where my predecessor, the previous goddess, left off. I listen to people’s prayers, I travel around my area to bless farmland and animals, in hopes of good health and bountiful harvests. Without my existence, the plants will not grow, and what will follow is a great famine.”
“What happened to the goddess before you?”
Eren shrugs. “Death, I suppose. I don’t know the details and I don’t particularly care to know. I just woke up one day, and here I was.”
“… And you’ve had quite an interesting life before this, haven’t you?”
Eren’s eyes flash dangerously, but for the first time since the demon’s arrival, he smiles, showing off all his teeth in a show that was more terrifying than friendly. “Word of me is travelling, is it?”
“It is.”
“Indeed. Before I became a goddess, I was a nine-tailed fox, spending all my time seducing men and eating their organs. Sometimes, I still miss the taste of flesh. Whatever higher power chose me to be in charge certainly had an interesting sense of humour.”
“I think it turned out most swimmingly for the two of us. If you ever miss your old life, you can always try to seduce me.”
Eren almost laughs out loud at the comment, but he plays it off as a huff.
“Should you ever decide that you no longer want to keep your liver, let me know.”
It starts off tentative, but gradually Eren begins to warm up to the demon, just a little bit.
By the time it leaves, hours have passed, yet Eren is almost in a good mood. That was possibly one of the longest conversations he’s had since coming to this world. If it was playing along and pretending to be a potential friend just to get something out of him, then it was certainly doing a much better job compared to any other deity he has ever interacted with. Certainly, none of the other deities could possibly have volunteered this much time to get through the polite introductions. Either the demon was truly interested in being his friend, or it was a very, very patient demon, but Eren had all the time in the world to find out.
His name was Levi, was it?
The goddess takes another puff of smoke.
The demon, Levi, appears the next morning as well.
“Well, well, I was wondering what sort of lucky goddess I would be, to be visited by another demon so soon. Turns out it’s just you again.”
The demon looks quite confident to be standing before him once more, but this time he holds a handful of fruit – exactly like the ones the priests leave.
“I thought to pay my respects, I unfortunately didn’t think to do so yesterday, so I came here to amend my actions.”
Eren eyes the fruit as Levi sets them down next to the priests’ offerings. They were indeed of good quality, he had clearly taken some time to pick them.
“You may be the only demon I have ever seen in my short life, but you have got to be the strangest one I have ever met.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, dear goddess.”
From that day on, Levi comes to visit the goddess every single day, at the exact same time every morning.
He keeps to his word – following the humans’ rituals, always keeping several arm lengths away, never daring to do anything more than have a conversation from a respectable distance. Sometimes he leaves gifts – baskets of freshly picked flowers, fruit, bamboo, and even a personally carved smoking pipe on one occasion.
Eren limits his interactions with these gifts – he’s not impolite enough to get rid of them, instead he leaves them in an ever-growing pile some distance away from his seat – far enough so that neither him nor Levi can see it, but close enough for Eren to know if something suspicious was to ever happen. If the demon notices how his gifts are never displayed, he says nothing of it.
There was only one instance of Levi slipping up– a pure accident on Levi’s part, certainly. There really wasn’t much to it – he had stepped forward just a finger’s width too far while he tried to observe the back of Eren’s shrine more closely. Eren had snapped violently at his face with his teeth without warning, and when he leaned back, streaks of blood littered the demon’s face, oozing dark blood.
It had seemed to genuinely surprised Levi. He stood frozen there, as if still processing what had happened as blood slowly dripped onto the ground, but then his expression smoothed out quickly and he smiled.
“My apologies,” He bowed his head and placed a hand over his heart. “I was truly out of line.”
The submission he showed, on top of the blood on his face that he made no effort to wipe off or tend to, left a smug smile on Eren’s face as he licked off remnant blood droplets from the tip of his fangs. The goddess leaned back, satisfied, and almost instantly the incident was forgotten almost as quickly as it happened.
On that same day, they speak of places they’ve travelled to. It sounds as if Levi’s seen it all – snowy mountain peaks, barren deserts, grassy plains, lively rainforests, endless oceans, villages, cities and everything in between. To his silent dismay, Eren has very little to contribute to this conversation, having only explored the general area around himself – small farms and forests, the occasional stream, though his intimate familiarity on forests was unparalleled, and so it becomes a day of filling in the gaps in each other’s knowledge.
It’s… incredibly fun.
The demon describes the feeling of seeing a vast expanse of nothing but sand in front of him as far as the eye can see, scorching the soles of his feet during the day and mercilessly freezing anything the wind touches at night, and in turn, the goddess explains how to tell the temperature of the air from nothing but the sound of crickets, and the differences between each hoof, claw and paw of every animal in the forest around him.
Minutes turn into hours, and before they know it, the sun is almost about to set.
Just as Levi is about to stand up to leave for the day, Eren speaks.
“Stop there.” Obediently, Levi pauses and turns to look expectantly at Eren. The bleeding across his face had stopped almost as soon as it started, and the wounds across his face have faded into streaks of light red, though they still stand out immensely against his snowy white skin. “Close your eyes. Do not move, do not speak, do not open your eyes until I say so.” The underlying threat is unspoken, but Levi hears it regardless. Willingly enough, he closes his eyes and surrenders himself to Eren.
The goddess leans forward slowly, as if double checking if the demon had truly actually closed his eyes. The demon sits in a perfect seiza position, feet folded under him, hands resting lightly against the top of his thighs and sword just out of reach. It feels almost deceptive how perfectly still and harmless he makes himself look.
Silently making up his mind, Eren steps out of the protection of his little room. He takes one step on the timber floor– then a second, onto the stone, judging Levi’s reaction the whole time – though there is no such thing. Even when he stands directly before him, close enough to touch, Levi is an unmoving statue.
Finally, Eren bends down until the two of them are face to face. From this close up, the goddess can sense the powerful aura of decay and death within the demon before him – so overwhelmingly powerful, his whole presence wants to run away from him. Truly, even amongst demons, he must be in an entirely different league. Perhaps even untouchable. Even so, Eren pushes away the feelings of dread, and reaches forward to softly graze the pads of his fingers along the scars on his face. There’s a faint exhale of breath from the demon when Eren touches him, but to his pleasant surprise, Levi continues not to respond to his touch at all.
So obedient.
Experimentally, he runs a sharp nail lightly along one of the many red lines, just enough to cut through the skin, irritating the wound once more. Fresh blood wells from the trail he leaves behind, yet Levi doesn’t flinch, as if he were dead or sleeping. Satisfied, Eren licks the pad of his finger, and traces the cut with his thumb. On contact, the cut stops bleeding and instantly mends together, leaving behind perfectly smooth skin.
“I won’t be so lenient next time.” He whispers softly into his ear. His words are strict, dripping with venom, yet still sound strangely sweet and innocent. A promise.
“There will be no such thing.” Levi assures. With a devious smile, Eren pats Levi’s cheek twice before standing up, and turns his back to him.
“Good. You may open your eyes now.” Now that he can no longer see the goddess’ expression, the smile instantly drops from his face as he waits, listening keenly as the demon slowly stands back up. He hears the clatter of Levi picking up his sword, the soft rustling of fabric as he ties the shaft back around his waist.
There’s a long pause.
“… Have a pleasant evening then, dear goddess.”
And the demon leaves. Eren strains his ears until the sound of his footsteps are completely gone. Tuning into his other senses, he feels the presence of the demon leaving his territory. Only then does Eren finally turn around again, boring his eyes into the spot where the demon had been just a few moments ago, a thoughtful expression on his face.
Something seems to change after that.
Despite the warning, Eren suddenly allows Levi into his personal space more than ever before, placing wine cups and various snacks down in the low table in front of him so that Levi has little choice but to sit closer, directly opposite him while they converse as usual. He becomes a little touchier as well, seemingly having no problem touching legs under the table, or brushing fingers when handing things to each other.
In response to the unexpected cordiality he now receives on a daily basis, Levi becomes a little braver as well, taking to teasing and making jokes with the goddess.
It is a comfortably warm spring day with a cool breeze when Eren motions for one of his fox servants to bring him two cups, and pours a generous amount of tea for the two of them. Levi bows his head graciously as he accepts, watching the other under his eyelashes with a keen sort of interest.
“What are your impressions of green tea?” The goddess asks. Under Eren’s scrutinous eye, Levi cannot help but smirk in amusement as he takes a sip.
“It’s certainly very different to my usual tastes.”
“You don’t like it?”
“On the contrary, I do quite enjoy its essence.” Levi closes his eyes and lets himself feel the steam rising from his teacup, gently caressing his face, leaving damp drops behind on his skin. A rather foreign feeling, but not entirely unpleasant.
Warmth.
“What’s your usual beverage?”
“Sake, usually. I know a friend who sells them in clay jars big enough to carry on your back.” To make his point, Levi spreads his arms out, slightly wider than shoulder-width. Eren chuckles.
“I suppose you’ll next be telling me that you can finish one of those jars all by yourself.”
“Oh, as long as I can outdrink you, that will be more than enough for me.” He banters back. Eren rolls his eyes as he sips his tea, more as a way to hide his own smile.
“Be quiet, you fiend. Drink.” Levi chuckles and relents, eyes glimmering with amusement as he obeys, watching the goddess over the brim of his cup. Eren’s eyes are the loveliest shade of honey-gold, something the demon can only really truly appreciate when they were up close like this.
Silence does indeed follow for quite some time after their drink, and though he was the one who gave the order, Eren is the one who breaks it first.
“I don’t suppose you spend every waking hour with me now, do you?” He spins his tea in little circles on the tabletop with his hands as he speaks. “Don’t demons have better things to do? Wreak havoc, cause trouble, manifest chaos?”
Levi tilts his head back and laughs.
“Your picture of us demons is quite fascinating.” He says. “Well, as surprising as it may be to you, we do have our own agendas to follow. We may be constantly leaning towards trouble, but me personally? I have been around for much too long. I think I would very much rather find a comfortable spot under a nice tree and watch the rest of the world pass around me.” Eren squints at him suspiciously.
“How old are you really?”
Levi shrugged. “I lost count a while ago. Maybe two or three centuries?”
“…Not bad.”
Eren himself had lived for about a century in his old life, however considering how short the expected lifespan of a demon he was expecting, given how much they fought each other and tore each other down, even living for just half a century seemed to be quite the feat.
“Don’t worry, you’ll stop being impressed when you’re my age.”
Eren grumbles into his drink, unable to think up of a response, and Levi grins.
On one particular morning, Levi is greeted by the distant sound of a stringed instrument when he steps into the shrine*. Drawn to the sweet melody, he follows his ears past the courtyard and up the stairs. Eren is not to be seen today in his usual seat, however the music seems to be coming from beyond his shrine. The demon continues to follow the music, through a small, well-hidden path in the trees, until it opens up to a breathtaking scenery.
It’s a single cherry blossom tree growing by the side of a cliff, strangely in full bloom despite the season. Eren kneels before a zither, gently plucking at the strings with elegant, long fingers. Before him is a stunning view of mountains and valleys, heavily obscured by a veil of early morning mist. The sun peeks through the morning clouds in thin, yellow rays, casting a beautiful light on Eren’s form. In the distance, he spots waterfalls, rivers, and greenery as far as the eye can see.
Levi slowly makes his way to the goddess, his footsteps muted by the soft grass. Not wanting to disturb him, he silently sits down next to his instrument and watches in fascination as his fingers slowly dance across the strings. Eren’s eyes remain closed, but he seems to have the song remembered by heart, the melody running straight through Levi and relaxing every individual muscle in his body, as if the first rays of sun themselves were singing to him.
A full minute passes before Eren speaks.
“I played many instruments in my past life. It turned out that it was an incredibly easy and efficient way to lure in my prey.” His lips quirk up a little. “How many stories of mine do you remember?”
“It’s hard to forget.” Levi murmurs. “A little fox, seducing its way into consuming human flesh by posing as the victim’s object of desire, and now a saving grace for those very people. The irony is not lost upon me.”
“Quite an interesting turn of events, is it not? The longer I exist like this, the blurrier my past memories become, so I thought I would practice my old instruments a little. Do you play?”
“Just a little. I don’t think I am anywhere near your level.”
“No need to humble yourself, I’m sure we can play together some time in the future.”
A comfortable silence settles between the two as Eren’s fingers continue to pluck the strings. Levi finds his eyes roving over the goddess’ face – his soft lips, his pink cheeks, his flawless skin; his snow-white fox ears the only indication for what kind of life he lived before this. As he observes the light dancing on his eyelashes, Eren suddenly opens his eyes and they are both caught off guard at the unexpected eye contact.
Neither of them speak; and neither of them look away. The tension is broken when Eren smiles softly.
“Have I captured your heart?” He asks playfully.
Levi chuckles.
“You’re going to have to play better than that, if that’s what you’re trying to do.” The music abruptly cuts off for a second as Eren reaches over to flick Levi on the forehead. The demon laughs as he leans away.
“Joking, I’m joking.”
Eren rolls his eyes before returning to the zither, and for the rest of the morning they simply sit together in silence, fully relaxed in each other’s presence. Watching the mountains slowly come into view as the mist slowly dissipates, Levi thinks about how he truly does not regret coming here at all.
Prayers are the language of the goddess.
The arrival of summer is a welcome change for Eren. Different flowers, different flows of rivers, and different farm crops, it keeps Eren and his servants on their toes. It’s a sweltering hot day today – possibly the hottest day of the year. Cicadas chirp under the blazing sun, seemingly unbothered by the relentless heat. Not a single cloud can be seen in the sky, providing no refuge from the sun. Despite the weather, the visitors today seem to be rather energetic.
The deities at the top of the stairs pay the weather no mind, though. Eren and Levi play shogi on a little table between them– a game that the goddess taught him himself. Though the demon usually finds himself quite engaged in their little activities, fascinated by how noble gods spent their time, today he cannot help but watch curiously as the humans mill about below.
There must be some kind of special event happening; paper lanterns are strung across every pole and the roof of every stall, creating a sea of white and red, and various words are painted onto the lanterns – peace, prosperity, happiness. The priests are joined by groups of other humans wearing a different kind of uniform. Clearly, the flurry of activity and the energy it creates has some sort of effect on the goddess, because today Eren seems overly friendly – much more open than he usually is. Levi had been respectfully ignoring it, up until the second his curiosity billowed over.
“Is there a festival today?” Levi asks. He forces himself to break his eyes away from the humans to focus on his own task at hand. Eren hums to himself while he plans his next move, stippling his nails against the wooden surface of the table. His tails swish left and right above his head subconsciously, a continuous indicator for his ridiculously good mood.
“The humans tend to be incredibly attached to celebration for anything, even I’m not quite sure what they’re up to.” He seems to think hard for one second, “…That doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate with them, though, thank you for reminding me.” With a gesture of his hand, a servant responds to Eren’s unspoken order and brings two drinking bowls and a jar of wine. Levi curiously sniffs it, and the unexpectedly strong smell of spirits takes him by surprise.
“Seems a little early in the day for a drink, doesn’t it?”
“Nonsense. It’s never too early.” He speaks as he fills the two bowls.
Once Eren takes a hearty swig out of his bowl, he notices Levi staring at the people again instead of drinking, and he follows Levi’s line of sight. A man below rolls a giant drum on its side towards a newly constructed wooden stage. The clothes they wear look unfamiliar – pure white, short-sleeved robes, highlighted by a bright bloody red.
“Do you ever feel curious about these humans? Or what it would be like to be human?” Levi asks eventually without turning his eyes away from the scene below.
Eren harrumphs, closing his eyes and lifting the bowl to his mouth once more before he answers.
“We were born from human desires. As much as deities and demons like us like to look down on these humans, we would not exist right now if it were not for them. It’s only natural that we would be curious about the ways that they live their lives.” Quite a good quote for the books, Levi thinks, if only he did not punctuate that by downing the rest of the wine in one gulp.
The demon watches with keen interest as the goddess immediately refills his bowl.
One bowl of wine becomes one jar, then two jars, then eventually five. Their game of shogi turns into a childish game of flicking the tiny blocks of wood at each other before they can even finish their current match, and by then Levi is no longer able to turn down Eren’s strong suggestion to drink with him.
Unlike his usual visits, Levi does not feel the need to take his leave anytime soon when the sky begins to darken. One part of it may have been concern for the rather intoxicated goddess, the second part was that he wanted to continue to enjoy his own drink for a while longer, and another part was simply curious as to what the humans were going to do next.
The sun gradually turns into the moon, and cicada chirps transform into cricket calls before Levi finally decides that the goddess has had enough to drink, taking away his half-empty jar to guard it against himself should he try to drink some more. In the distance, the bamboo forests and mountains become nothing more than dark silhouettes against the sky, and finally the air begins to cool down once more.
When it is just a few minutes away from the sky becoming completely dark, that is when the ceremony begins. Outside of their haven, a loud, singular drum beat sounds in the air, so loud that it almost feels as if it had come from deep within their chests**.
It is a crisp, clean note, seemingly signalling the beginning of a new ritual. Immediately, the two of them are drawn to the source of the sound, to the mysterious celebration below.
It does not take much time scanning the crowd to find the source – That one singular man from before stands before the giant drum on stage, wielding two mallets. His face and body are filled with concentration as he strikes the drum once more, ringing across the entire shrine. Each hit of the drum is like a great, beating heart, slow and steady – a foundation for the action to come.
In one unexpected motion that catches Levi by surprise, Eren suddenly sweeps the shogi pieces off the table, scattering them into the grass around them. The demon looks back at him, startled, but stops when he sees that the goddess’ eyes are fiercely trained on the movement below, ears pricked up and tails finally still.
A jingle of bells ring out, a gentle, faster rhythm that accompanies the drum. The demon follows the goddess’ eyes once more, just in time to see the entrance of a dozen beautifully dressed dancers, covered in soft fabrics that almost seemed to float in the still air. The sensual movement of their arms are as slow and deliberate as the beats of the drum, yet there is a sense of barely contained energy in their movements. Only then he notices that the bells are not another instrument, but part of the dancer’s costumes – so in sync that they sound as one.
Levi briefly looks back to the goddess, curious about his reaction to it all.
Something in their ceremony must be triggering something in him, because when he stands up, seemingly in a trance, he completely forgets about everything around him, almost knocking over the entire table as he makes his way outside, down the stairs and straight towards the crowd.
Levi does not miss the way in which the grass where he steps on grows a little taller. Where his robes brush against the plants, the flowers bloom a little more and the air itself seems to shimmer with life and energy.
This isn’t just any festival – it is a ceremony to the goddess of these lands – to Eren.
This must be the first time the goddess has ever seen something like this, with the way he stares in wonder at the masses of people, lights and energy before him, drinking in the sights, listening to the drums, a performance dedicated to him alone. For a single moment, Levi is reminded of how truly young the goddess is, for this to be the first time that he has truly been able to see, to put a face to all those who have been consistently praying to him every single day.
A unified shout seems to finally break Eren out of his trance, because in the exact same moment, Eren suddenly leaps straight into the heart of the performance. When he twirls his body in midair, his robes shimmer and transform into a beautiful dancer’s outfit, matching with the same soft fabric as the other dancers, floating in the air gracefully around him as he lands.
The slow heartbeat is joined by several more drummers, speeding up to a new playful, uneven rhythm. The dancers and the jingle of their bells change their rhythm as well to match the new pace, and the people around him begin to sing.
For a few moments, Eren stands completely still, head tilted up to the sky with his eyes closed as the flurry of activity rushes around him. Allowing himself to feel the rhythm. Be one with the heartbeat. He takes in one deep breath, tasting the air, his eyes open, and the goddess is suddenly moving in perfect rhythm with everybody else, dancing, clapping, singing, as if he was always meant to be there, the centrepiece to make their performance complete.
From here, Levi can see Eren let out a carefree laugh. He claps, twirls, leaps through the air, and every now and then summons a gust of wind to send his sleeves flying, lightly caressing the dancers that cross his path. No doubt they would be able to feel the presence of their goddess among them, pushing them further, sharing the energy, the love, the pure joy of being one community.
Finally, since coming into this new world, there was an opportunity for a true, proper connection between himself and his people – through dance and music, they were finally speaking the same language.
Levi looks down at the view. This was truly an intimate moment of celebration that feels almost as if the demon should not have been watching, yet here he sat shamelessly, quite comfortable and unwilling to move. It was a truly splendid sight to behold, with splashes of red and white moving in perfect synchronicity before his eyes.
Though the performance was not for Levi himself, when he sees Eren in the middle, drunkenly dancing to his heart’s content with his own people, he can’t stop the feeling of warmth that crawls up within his chest. It tickles him, building more and more until it feels like he’s going to burst from this strange, foreign happiness bubbling inside him. He clutches at his chest, scrunching up the fabric as if it would help soothe this new feeling, yet he cannot keep the smile off his face.
Have I captured your heart?
The words echo in his head. Watching Eren’s face, completely let go and so relaxed with pure, unadulterated joy and love, everything suddenly seems to fall in place. His whole world feels like it’s coming apart – everything in his life he ever knew, things he clings onto as a reason for existing – crumbling so quickly, breaking away from him and dissolving into nothing. Every belief, every thought, every emotion, everything falls away, leaving him suspended by just one single remaining purpose, tied to one single individual.
Eren.
The only thing in the world that truly held any meaningful purpose to him.
Eren.
It feels as if there is a string connecting him to the goddess – but maybe it had always been there, simply unnoticed until now. Every movement Eren makes, Levi follows – whether it be with his eyes, or subconsciously with his body; he suddenly feels so keenly attuned to his very existence – it is a warm, yellow glow, his own personal sun.
He did not want to lose this. Seeing the goddess, so within his element, allowing him to share this intimate moment – he wanted to protect this. Everything the goddess did was so interesting, so well and truly full of life, he had no idea when it had begun influencing him as well.
Eren, the strange goddess who refused to play nice with other deities. Eren, who wanted to share everything about himself once he opened up. Eren, who was so funny, sassy, kind, sweet. Eren, who held so much overflowing love for these humans around him without him even realising it. He wanted to be here to witness Eren doing this again next year, the year after that, and the year after that as well, for as long as either of them existed. The thought of losing this makes his heart waver so suddenly that it is almost painful, pricking at his eyes and threatening tears.
To celebrate life, to celebrate the love for one another so deeply even if meeting for the first time… it is as if Levi had never truly been alive until now, in this moment.
He’s not certain when exactly this emotion had slowly crept upon him and taken his heart hostage, but seeing Eren below solidified it. For as long as Eren wanted him around, he would continue to stay.
The celebrations go on until late into the night – with no sign of stopping anytime soon. All the while, Levi sits at his empty table, dark eyes fixed on the one individual below that had managed to shift something within him so powerfully, while Eren continues to laugh and clap and dance the night away blissfully. As stoic as he looks on the outside, his whole body feels like it is ablaze, so full of life, so full of love, so much warmth and excitement it feels as if he would finally be able to forget the bitter, lonely frost of the North.
It’s not until the moon is high in the sky that Levi quietly takes his leave, the beat of the drums and singing continuing to sound behind his back.