500th Time Reborn, A World Only Known By Women: The Karma System

"Do you not think this would be best done away from the city?" Tallia asked, giving me a look.

"No, I will place barriers up, and you are going to help me!" I said with a smile, walking over to the edge of the massive square hole.

I dropped down and hit the ground with a thud, looking around. There wasn\'t much to look at, but this was the place that we had first met after I came to this world. Our first interaction had been so wonderful and strange, but now Tallia was a stranger.

Yet, now I had a better grip on who I was, and I knew that she had once been a stranger. There was a time when Tallia only knew me as a cat, but I was still foggy about that. Each piece of my puzzle placed only gave me more questions as to what the bigger picture was.

Tallia landed beside me and started to look around the place. I wondered if she had the same thoughts as me? I wanted to ask her but decided against it. Tallia was not the same as the rest, and sometimes it felt like I was walking on broken glass around her.

"You said that you wanted my help?" Tallia asked as she turned to me.

"Yes. I need your help with a barrier, but I am still trying to figure out how to make it work. I want to try and place a barrier that can protect the city from the Riftwalkers screams. Even if we can keep it behind the south wall, the screams will easily reach the city," I explained, and Tallia shrugged.

"To be perfectly honest, I don\'t know anything about the Blood Witches or the Riftwalkers. I was born to this world to replace the last Goddess, but that happened a hundred years after the last reincarnation was here," Tallia explained, and I nodded. I had assumed as much, but what I was trying to do should be within her capacity.

"While that might be true, you are Positive Energy. Your entire being is made up of it, and I can feel it pulse off you like a warm blanket. This is why people feel some comfort around you and the other Goddesses," I explained, and Tallia scoffed.

"All of them? Does that mean that Origin and Elfinia are also made of the same thing? I don\'t think that they make anyone comfortable when they are around," Tallia said, crossing her arms.

"Until I meet them face to face, I can\'t tell. If what we assume is right, then the Origin is either a Blood Witch of untold power, or she is being controlled by one. I would hope that it is the second of the two, but I think it might be the first," I explained.

It was hard to think that someone like a Goddess could be controlled. I had to put my chips on this being one of the big bad evil girls. If that was the case, then we were going to be in trouble, but that was just par for the course... Golfing?

I really wish I could dig more into these thoughts that popped up, but I would just have to put them on the back burner. Things like golf and baseball were fun pastimes but literally did nothing for battle preparation.

"Are we just going to stand here?" Tallia asked, pulling me out of my thoughts, and I looked up at her.

"Sorry, just thinking," I said, and then spread my arms out as I gathered magic for a special spell. "Come at me, and don\'t hold back!"

"Are you forgetting about the shield?" Tallia asked, and I shook my head.

"You have to hit me to activate it," I said, but then Tallia was in front of me, driving a fist into my solar plexus.

White and yellow spell circles exploded from me, making Tallia jump back.

"Challenge Accepted!" I shouted, and more circles surrounded both of us.

"What are you doing?! What is this strange magic?!" Tallia demanded, but then both of our bodies were ripped back to the opposite walls, but our astral projections were still standing in place.

"Since it is just the two of us down here, let me formally introduce myself, my Goddess. You know me as Galio, but my true identity is Ophiuchus, Astral God and Protector of the Mortal Realms! You, Tallia, have just challenged me to a duel!" I laughed as my body started to transform.

I felt the ears on the sides of my head retract, and cat ears grew out to replace them. A long bushy white tail burst from my ass, and I turned back with a smile, reaching up to feel my ears that were so soft.

"... You are the white cat?" Tallia asked slowly as she started to walk toward me.

"Yeah, something like that. I should be galactic colored, but I guess that-"

I was cut off as Tallia suddenly burst forward, wrapping her arms around me and hugging me tightly. I wasn\'t sure what was going on here, but I returned the hug. I thought we were supposed to be fighting, but this was nice too.

"I have had the same dreams every night of a white cat that I would always chase around. I was much smaller, but I never understood what it meant. I still don\'t, but you are a white cat that knows more about me than I do, so that has to mean something, right?" Tallia asked me, and I nodded.

"I am still trying to put all that together, and I only know about as much as you do when it comes to us. I had a dream last night that I was a white cat, and you came looking for me," I explained, and Tallia looked up at me with a confused look.

"Were you hiding on a roof?" Tallia asked, and I nodded. "I had the same one last night. I was telling you that I was going to get in trouble."

"If you didn\'t get your chores done, right?" I asked, finishing her sentence, and Tallia nodded.

"Does that mean that you are the god of this world, and I am connected to you?" Tallia asked.

"No, and yes. I am the protector of all worlds, not God. My father is your God, Kaedon. We are all here because of me, literally. There is no point in trying to explain more until I know the rest. Just know that I am here to protect this world; you are the one that means the most to me," I said, and Tallia nodded, pulling back from me.

"Now, it seems I might have bitten off more than I can chew. Still, if you are who you say you are, Cat God, then you should be able to make me stronger, right?" Tallia asked, and I grinned.

"No promises, but I will give it my best shot, my little Goddess!"