139 CHAPTER 139(God Beats Nature)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

Sitting in Yang's bed, Freya holds her latest romance novel in her hands. Wrapped in layers of blankets she carefully reads every word on each page. Enjoying the story less and less by the second.

Eventually giving up she places the book down with an annoyed sigh. Laying in bed to stare up and the ceiling.

Feeling the lack of warmth in this bed she instinctively reached out to her left, her hand falling onto the empty bed beside her once more.

Turning her head she frowns at the empty space. This would be the second night in a row Yang ignored her.

Narrowing her eyes at the far wall of the room she could focus to see his frustrated soul in the planning room, the same place he'd been for over 30 hours now.

With determination and admittedly some annoyance at seemingly being ignored, Freya jumps out of bed and grabs one of Yang's t-shirt and the hoodie he first came to Orario in before marching down the hallway toward the apartment exit.

Reaching the main hallway of the floor she walks to the door at the far end standing strong with the Trifecta symbol on it, their planning room. She slams her balled hand against the adamantite door. Only Yang's apartment and the main door would allow her in automatically, for this she'd need permission.

A moment after she knocks the door swing open, she expected to see Yang behind the door greeting her but he was elsewhere. Standing at the head of a conference table writing on chalkboards. A small pile of books and papers spread out and open to different pages.

With his adventuring journal in one hand and a piece of chalk in the other, he continues writing items down on the board, ignoring the goddess as she peruses the books he has laid out.

Slowly walking around the table Freya sees most of the books focused on surviving in cold places. Items and strategies, both magical and mundane as well as any sort of advice the world had to offer.

Clearing a small spot at the end of the table by pushing the books and papers to the side she hops up on the table and sits with her legs crossed. Propping her chin up on her hand she stares at his back as he continues to ignore her. A small frown on her face as her eye twitches in annoyance.

"You missed breakfast, and lunch, and dinner..." she says softly, almost a growl. Not trying to mask the annoyance in her tone at all.

"Not hungry," Yang quickly says. Not even turning away from the board to look at her.

"Oh, so you are aware of my presence and just chose to ignore me," her eyes narrow dangerously at him.

"Busy," he continues writing. Now doing math of some kind to figure out how many of some items can fit in a container of sorts.

"And frustrated, having problems?"

Taking a deep breath he stops writing for a moment to look at her. She sees the bags beginning to form under his eyes and the hunch in his posture. His mind was exhausted but he just wouldn't stop. "It's a difficult problem. I'm trying to figure out what kind of equipment and items we need to survive the cold floors...Welf is working with monster materials from those floors but nothing I have is coming up with a possible answer," he admits, rubbing his face and walking over to her.

"Have you tried another method besides items?" Freya asks. Taking his larger hands in hers as he stands in front of her, close enough for her to bask in the warmth of his body. A sense of comfort washes over her once more.

"What other method? When an ice storm comes you just outlast it. It doesn't look like we can do that as we are so postponing exploring the frontier floors is the next best thing," Yang admits hesitantly.

"That's such a mortal response," she says before hopping down from the table. "Follow me..." she begins pulling him out of the room by the hand.

---10 Minutes Later...

Standing on the roof of Babel. Almost 800m (2500+ft) above the ground in the midst of the worst ice storm Orario has ever seen. Yang and Freya are side by side holding hands as they stare into the wall of white ice and snow blocking their vision.

Using his Heat Barrier to protect them he ensures that the goddess is comfortable in this otherwise dangerous location.

"Why are we here. I thought you said you could help?" Yang asks, not sure what was going on.

"Look down there," she points at the city below. "Tell me, what are the people of Orario doing?"

"Uh...being smart and staying inside during an ice storm...not being morons and standing on the top of Babel," he says.

"Honey I'm fine, I have you here remember," Freya reassures him. "But yes exactly, they're hiding from the storm."

Raising a brow at her Yang still has no idea what she was planning. "Ok now that the obvious is stated, what's your point?" he asks.

"My point is, that's what mortals do. Everyone from those children you sponsored to Ottar is waiting for the storm to pass by sitting in their homes. Ottar wouldn't die in this storm as some would, but even he is powerless against it, because it's a force of nature. What's another name you mortals have for a force of nature again?"

"An act of God?"

"Exactly, adventurers try to play hero because they have a Falna, gods are down there with their children trying to play human in these useless...incomplete bodies," Freya spits out in disgust. Her words having just a hint of pain and hurt at the end.

"That doesn't explain why we're here..." Yang reminds her.

"Adventurers try to play hero and gods try to play human. The strongest adventurers sometimes try to play god but if they were alive then they'd be stuck inside like all those other mongrels," she turns to him. Her words immediately switching from disgust to caring as she looks up at him " but you're different."

"Me?"

"Yes. Because of Magic. Magic works on many things that those people don't even consider. Confidence and ego are two of those things, how you view yourself matters more than they know. They play hero all the time and it makes them feel better, but not you, you're different," Freya says.

"Because I don't play hero?"

"Because you're humble, gentle. You're never looking for a chance to prove yourself to anyone, only to yourself. I'd easily miss you in a crowd because you don't have that sense of presence other adventurers have, you're simply content with just being a man."

"Yeah," Yang agrees with a confused look on his face, "what's so wrong about that?"

"The problem is your magic is being held back because you think of yourself as just another person. You have confidence in your magic but you aren't fullying using it." Freya roughly grabs his head and makes him look at her, "if you play human your magic will make you human. Adventurers think highly of themselves because Falna lets you become someone else, it lets you reinvent yourself. Stop playing human. You control all the natural elements of this world. You break every record set in front of you. You know how powerful you are, almost nobody in this world can stand against you. Yang Shen, the love of my life, stop playing human, play god," she says before turning his head to look at the storm.

"You really think I can do that?" he asks nervously.

"You need to stop holding yourself back, I know you've been avoiding certain things. But you need to let it all out or you'll suffocate your magic. You can't only think about the good, the bad is part of life too, so tell me... what's the bad for you?" she gently holds his right hand between her fingers as he turns to look up at the storm.

"The, bad..." he says thoughtfully. "I guess, I don't really like thinking about it because. Every time I think about how far I am from home, from my family...it hurts. I-it hurt, so damn much," he squeezes his eyes shut and focuses only on the storm. Feeling Freya give his hand a comforting squeeze to remind him she's here.

"You need to finish your adventure... to go home?" she was hesitant to ask. Seeing him angry and frustrated drove her to act, had she thought this through maybe she wouldn't have helped. She only now realizes she's helping him walk away from her.

"Yes, that's the only way," he mutters quietly.

Taking a deep breath Freya leans on his arm, scrunching up her face as she considers her options. Letting out a pained sigh she understands that he's already gone this far, stopping now could cause some resentment between them if she stops.

"Imagine them behind the storm, behind the force of nature that you couldn't beat. How does that make you feel?"

"Angry, sad, guilty..." he feels a sudden burning in his chest, as if he couldn't stand by and do nothing.

"Then you know what you have to do, focus your thoughts. Stop trying to hide like a coward, like a mortal. You are the ultimate force of nature. Anything the gods can throw at mortals using the elements so can you. Tsunamis, volcanos, earthquakes, meteors...ice storms. You just need to be willing to do it, be willing to play god. Stop thinking like a feeble mortal, play god---" she takes a deep breath before continuing "for your family, don't you want to see them? Or will a little snow stop you?"

Feeling him pull her into his chest and wrap his arms around her. Freya is taken by surprise as one of his hands gently holds the back of her head to pull her that much closer to him.

Had anyone else done this part of her might have been worried. But with this man that thought never crossed her mind. Her instincts never reacted as if she were in danger, every fibre of her knowing he'd never hurt her.

Feeling the wind on her face Freya craned her neck up so her face wasn't buried into his shirt to look at him. His eyes were closed tight, head facing forward with his chin just above her forehead, tears flowing down his face.

As one of his tears rolls down his chin and drops onto her head, Freya can't help but cry as well. Looking up to see the clear night sky with all the stars that have been hidden behind snow and ice for more than a week now revealed. The ice storm is suddenly gone, she buries her face back into his chest to wet his shirt with her tears.

Her tears were not of joy, but tears of frustration and heartache in response to his.

Looking into his soul and seeing him cry. Not tears of anger and pain but the bitter tears of a man silently fighting a war with himself. Fighting to get back the only thing that seems to matter to him. She finally realizes that what she's doing isn't as simple as making him want to stay with her.

She has to convince a man who feels like he has nothing to lose and must keep fighting...to stop fighting, a daunting task even for the gods...

END CHAPTER---

'I like to give them some nice Romance one chapter, then threaten it in the next one'-This writer probably :)