*BANG!*
"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke!?!" Freya snarled as she slammed her hands against the table, drawing every eye to her as she glared at her 'counterpart'.
"No? I'm just introducing some of my wives?" Alex said confusedly, as if he wasn't sure why Freya was riled up.
In truth Alex knew exactly what was going on with Freya, she felt threatened.
Alex's Freya had been the target of harassment and scorn for years because of her nature and divinities regarding sex and beauty, resulting in her being insulted even during his coronation for her past. The people around her treated her as an object that served no purpose but to be an outlet for their lust, while completely disregarding her pride and honor as a warrior and goddess related to Battle and Death.
The Freya of this world however embodied everything his Freya hated with her frivolousness, and how self centered she could be. And from what Alex recalled, she was possessive to the point that she even tried to kill Bestia just to try to get Bell herself, and would create numerous situations that threatened his life just to try and force him to grow.
In simple terms, the two goddesses could not be any more different.
And both of them knew it.
"I will NOT sit here and be mock by this pathetic attempt to impersonate me!" Freya snarled.
"And why would I want to impersonate YOU?" Freya sneered as she looked her counterpart up and down. All she saw was exactly what everyone back in her home world thought she was, a slut who'd sleep with any man who caught her fancy.
Even now she could sense Freya's desire to possess Alex, and the contempt she held for every other woman around him. As if getting what SHE wanted was all that mattered.
"Is it wrong of me that I want some popcorn right now?" Bestia asked Hestia slyly, though the other goddesses all nodded in agreement. A container of popcorn then appeared out of mid air in front of all of them, drawing their attention to Alex while he was already shoveling as much popcorn as possible into his mouth.
"Keep watching. This is just getting good." Alex said through the food in his mouth, right as Freya threw her chair back and stormed over to get in her counterpart's face.
"Why wouldn't you want to impersonate me? I'm more beautiful, and more loved than anyone else here." Freya sneered as she flipped her hair back, while also activating her Charm.
With her Charm being significantly more powerful than Ishtar's, Freya quickly ensnared every single God and goddess in the room aside from Ouranos, and everyone from Alex's group.
*BANG!*
Freya meanwhile slammed the butt of her Lance on the ground, creating a small shockwave that jolted all of the gods in the hall as she dispelled the Charm from them, much to Freya's dismay.
"What did you do!?!"
"Nothing much. But try that again, and you'll see just how weak and pathetic you are." Freya snarled as she leveled the tip of her Lance under Freya's chin, making her threat clear.
"Is that so?" Freya asked with a smirk, despite the weapon pointed at her throat.
*BOOM!*
The doors to the halls were suddenly blasted open to reveal the eight executives of the Freya Familia standing there, all armed and looking pissed at the threat towards their goddess.
"The thing about my children, is that they are SO protective of me~." Freya practically purred in amusement as she eagerly awaited the coming beatdown.
Freya meanwhile didn't even flinch as Ottar swung his Supreme Black Sword at her head, his expression one of rare fury at the threat made towards his goddess.
All of the gods watched as Ottar was swinging his blade at her, but then he was sent flying along the shattered pieces of his blade through a wall, and outside.
None of them had been able to follow what happened.
One second Ottar had been about to separate Freya's head from her shoulders, and the next he was battered and flailing like a rag doll.
Now she was surrounded by the remaining executives of the Freya Familia, Allen, Hogni, Hedin, and the group of four Pallum known as the Gulliver brothers.
What happened next was like a blur to the watching gods as Freya moved, but they had just BARELY been able to follow as she expertly and precisely dealt with each of her assailants.
The spear weirder, Allen, had his own spear deflected by the slightest of margins before the butt of Freya's Lance hit him in the chest. Then Hogni and Hedin both came at Freya on different sides, with one attacking her low with the other high. But both attacks were easily deflected with either end of Freya's Lance at the same time with enough force to rip their weapons from their hands.
And as the Gulliver brothers all surrounded her on every side with their own weapons, Freya merely twirled her weapon once to send them, as well as Hogni and Hedin all crashing into the walls.
Now Freya's expression was one of horror as she found herself yet again at the end of Freya's Lance, not a single hair on her counterparts head out of place after easily dealing with her Familia.
Clinging desperately to her last hope, Freya looked to Alex, her Odr. He HAD to help her.
However all she saw was the look of amusement on Alex's face as he watched them fight, along with the dismissal in his eyes as he looked towards her.
"..."
"Why..."
"Why?
"WHY!?!"
With each exclamation Freya's voice got louder, until she was screaming the word at Alex with tears streaming down her face.
Why didn't her Odr care about her?
Why wouldn't he defend her honor against this harlot?
WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?
"Because I don't love you." Alex said plainly, with the amusement no longer in his face or voice since Freya was already starting to break down.
Freya was pretty. Alex would give her that. But she reminded him too much of the Aphrodite of the DXD world, who tried to curse him when he refused her advances after their little fuck fest.
Freya meanwhile felt as if her entire world had come crashing down onto her.
Her Odr didn't love her?
How was that possible?
How could ANYONE not love her?
"Because..." Alex began, as if he'd been reading her mind. "...you are a vain and selfish person, who would only invite discord amongst my family if I invited you to become a part of it."
Freya looked up at Alex with increasing despair at every word he said.
No! She didn't want her Odr saying such things to her!
It didn't matter what others said to her or about her, but to hear her Odr say such things was like a knife in the heart with every word!
"What...do....you....know.....?" Uttered the haggard voice of Ottar, as he stumbled through the hold Freya had made in the wall with his body, drawing every eye to him.
"You.....do not deserve Freya-Sama's love....!" Ottar growled angrily at Alex.
"The question is not a matter of wether or not I deserve HER love, but wether or not Freya deserves MINE." Alex stated plainly.
Not just Freya, but Ottar as well just gaped at Alex in disbelief at his statement.
"How can you say that!?!" Ottar demanded angrily. How can ANYONE believe that Freya didn't deserve their love?!
But Alex just shrugged as he asked, "how could I not? I mean, who would want a goddess of love when she doesn't even know what love is?"
"I KNOW WHAT LOVE IS!" Freya snarled as the words were barely out of Alex's mouth, to which he only gave her a look of pity.
"Do you? Cause from what I've seen, you merely obsess over anyone who catches your eye, throw a fit when you don't get your way, and then toss them out when you're done with them. That's not love."
"!!!"
Freya felt as if she'd been slapped. The worse slap she'd ever received considering the other party was her Odr.
What was love?
Freya wanted to be able to answer that. She truly did.
But no matter how much she tried to make the words come out, they didn't. Instead she only opened and closed her mouth silently like a fish.
Even the 'harlot' was looking at her with pity in her eyes now, compared to the contempt from before.
"Come here." Freya then said to her counterpart while sheathing her Lance, and taking her arm. "Let's go and have a nice long talk, just us girls."
Everyone watched as the two goddesses made their way out of the main hall, before they were followed by the 'other' Hestia, who decided that she was needed at their side more than her current place.
"Freya-Sama..." Ottar uttered as he tried to follow her, only for Alex to stretch his arm out to block his path.
"Don't bother. The last people who should be around Freya right now are any members of her Familia. From what I can see, all any of you did was encourage her bad behavior and help send her into the hole she's in right now." Alex said in a stern voice.
"..."
Ottar was silent at Alex's words, wanting to protest them and tell him he was wrong. But then he recalled the look on Freya's face when Alex denied her.
"Love is when two people accept and complete each other, not when one side utterly devotes themselves to the other like you and your Familia members." Alex told him while waving his finger.
Ottar and the gods all watched as the damage Freya's attacks had done was instantly repaired, while the wounds the Freya Familia Executives all sustained were healed.
Alex then turned his attention to Ouranos, and asked, "now then, with the drama finished. Shall we get started?"
***
"Nnn..." Nami groaned as she made her way through the streets of the newest island they had arrived at, Water 7.
"Form form?"
"Meowth."
Her Pokemon cried while trying to cheer her up, while two of her crew mates walked behind her.
"Wow Luffy, I don't think I've ever seen Nami THIS depressed after getting a lot of money..." The crew sniper, Usopp, uttered to his captain worriedly.
"Huh? Isn't it just Nami being weird and stingy as usual." Luffy grumbled since he hadn't been paying attention. He'd instead been looking wistfully at all the Yagura Bulls swimming through the water channels around them.
Though he and Usopp had both wanted to ride on the Yagura Bulls through the canals, Nami wouldn't let them since it was 'too expensive'. She also wouldn't buy him skewers of meat when he saw them as well.
"It feels like she's being even STINGIER than usual to me..." Usopp uttered, though more to himself this time since Luffy wouldn't really notice a difference.
"Haaa... How am I supposed to pay that bill..." Nami asked herself in a voice that didn't carry to Usopp and Luffy.
She was of course worrying about the bill Alex gave her for the Ara Ara no Mi, which even the three hundred million Berries they had just gotten for trading in their gold wouldn't put a dent in. But she couldn't use it for that, as they NEEDED to pay for repairs to their ship, the Going Merry.
Nami's woes and down mood followed her all the way to the shipyard, where she only looked up when there was a loud commotion up ahead.
"Get this through your skulls! NO ONE tries to stiff Galley-La!" Cried out a tall woman with white hair that transitioned to a light blue, and horns or trudging from her head.
Following her declaration was a commotion as a group of pirates as she beat them up for trying to refuse to pay for the repairs they had just done to their ship.
"Yamato?" Nami asked as she exited her slump for the first time.
"Nami? Oh! You're Monkey D. Luffy!" Yamato exclaimed as she noticed Nami, and then Luffy beside her.
"Huh? You know me?" Luffy asked as he tilted his head in confusion.
"Not personally, but I met your brother Ace a while back!" Yamato stated energetically.
"Oh! You know Ace!?!" Luffy asked as he immediately brightened up at the mention of his brother.
Nami smiled a bit wryly as she watched Luffy and Yamato instantly hit their friendship off, as Yamato insisted on being a guy named Oden, and Luffy started calling her Yama-bro.
She had been so preoccupied with her bill from Alex, that Nami had completely forgotten that he had sent Yamato to Water 7 a few weeks ago. But now she was glad to be able to meet another person from the Chatroom here, even if Yamato was a little odd.
But as Luffy and Yamato immediately formed their new friendship, and Nami and Usopp watched them, none of the four of them noticed a shady group of figures sneaking away with two of their three briefcases.
...
"Wow! The water's so clear and the roads are so nice!" A reindeer in a pink hat exclaimed excitedly as he walked down one of the streets of Water 7 alongside Robin.
"Indeed. Plus all the people in masks and costumes make it seem like a festival." Robin said as she analyzed the people around her, searching for any potential threats like she had done ever since she was a child.
"They're wearing masks!?!" The reindeer, Chopper, exclaimed in surprise.
"Indeed. There's a stall selling them right over there." Robin said with amusement as she pointed to one of the nearby stalls.
"WOAH!" Chopper cried at all the exciting things around him. Even Robin's shadow seemed excited as it moved in ways that were very unnatural for a shadow, courtesy of the Duskull within it. Her Deino had remained on the Going Merry along with Zoro.
Chopper and Robin admired the sights around them as they walked the streets of Water 7, until she noticed something that the reindeer would love.
"Mr. Doctor, there appears to be a bookstore over there." Robin said as she pointed out the sign.
But the reindeer was no longer beside her, practically teleporting in front of the store in his excitement.
"Can I look at them!?" Chopper requested eagerly.
"Of course." Robin replied with a smile, as the reindeer quickly entered the store.
She also made to follow him, as there might be books on the history of Water 7 that would be interesting inside, when a large figure adorned in cloaks and a mask like several of the people around them passed her.
"CP9."
Thanks for reading!