The God Virus

After the healing process was over, Virus didn't hesitate to push away her breasts in exasperation. If regret had a face, that would be the current Virus.

"Ah." But that act of pushing away only resulted in a tempting moan from the already healthy cheeky lady.

Next, taking off his own shirt, Virus' abs and refined muscles were visible for her to see and take pleasure in. "S-so hot, do you want to 'do' that to me now?"

Bam!

However, slamming his shirt right at her face, Virus said, "Cover yourself with this and stop bullshitting already, let's leave."

"O-Okay."

When she wore Virus' t-shirt and the two were about to leave the treasure room, the cheeky woman's eyesight suddenly fell on Henna's headless carcass and her severed head a few meters away. That instantly made her live through the earlier nightmarish experience of hers once again as sorrow filled her eyes.

Although Henna had betrayed her and broke her heart, that fact still couldn't make the cheeky woman forget about all the years they had been together. She was truly saddened to see her end up in this tragic fate.

Truthfully, looking at her detached head made the blood drain from her face as she still had a hard time believing she was gone, but that didn't prevent her from sitting beside the head and start whispering, "Don't worry about your poisoned sister and go in peace. For the sake of all those years I considered you my sister, I'm going to find the antidote for her and cure her, however, after that, it's over between us. I'm going to forget about you."

Standing beside her, Virus quietly observed her without interfering. And when she was finally done saying her goodbyes, the two left the treasure room.

As they materialized in front of the Sphinx with one person less, Virus could see the cheeky woman's mood was somewhat affected despite her trying her best to not show it.

"WILL YOU LEAVE OR WILL YOU CONTINUE WITH THE RIDDLE GAMES?" It was the blaring sound of the Sphinx that somewhat focused their attention on the Invisible Ancient Fortress World once more.

"Hmm? Just how many treasuries are there?" Wishing to know the precise number of treasuries and riddles ahead of them before it all ended, Virus queried.

Frankly, he was starting to feel bored with these repetitive riddle games now that the veiled lady was also traumatized by the previous experience she went through. 

Thus, Virus wanted to finish everything as soon as possible before leaving this corridor.

However, after hearing Virus' question, the Sphinx started behaving strangely as it remained silent for a while. Still, in the end, it seemed like it had no other choice but to open its mouth and answer.

"THAT WAS THE LAST TREASURY. HOWEVER, DON'T WORRY WE CAN CONTINUE PLAYING! IF I WIN, I'LL KILL YOU AND MAKE YOU ONE OF THE WITHERED CORPSES YOU WITNESSED ON YOUR WAY HERE, IF YOU WIN, I'LL KILL MYSELF, HOW ABOUT THAT?" The Sphinx replied in a panic. Them being gone before it won was the last thing it wanted to see.

Against the Sphinx's expectations, that response only made Virus feel speechless. 'This monster is really addicted to playing riddle games!'

Externally, however, without any ado, he rejected the proposal openly, "Why would I want you dead. We'll leave at once. It's not like I'll gain anything by seeing you commit suicide."

ROAAAR! Quake~

Unfortunately, that only seemed to force an expression of madness on the Sphinx's face as it roared so loudly that it made the corridor surrounded by the ocean tremble nonstop!

"WHY! JUST ONE MORE GAME PLEASE! I'M SO CLOSE TO WINNING THIS TIME!"

"But you have nothing worthwhile to offer, so I don't really see any point in continuing this vain play." At this point, Virus was speechlessly feeling he was the bad guy of the story. Like a drug dealer that sold all the drugs to the addicted person but the moment he ran out of it, he refused to do so.

ROOAAAR!

After another roar, the Sphinx made a final attempt in trying to garner Virus' attention. "THERE IS! I HAVE SOMETHING ELSE THAT I HAVEN'T OFFERED YET!"

"Oh? What is it? I'll make a decision after knowing what it is." Virus was truly feeling absurd at this point since the situation seemed to get only more ridiculous by the second.

"I HAVE AN OBJECT OF SOME KIND WITH ME! I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS BUT I SUSPECT IT TO BE A TREASURE MAP! ARE YOU INTERESTED? IF YOU WIN, I'LL GIVE IT TO YOU! IF I WIN, I'LL MAKE YOU MY PERSONAL WITHERED CORPSE SOLDIER!"

"I guess that's fine, but how's the next riddle game going to be like?"

"IT'S EASY REALLY. IT WON'T BE LIKE THE EARLIER GAME OF 'RIDDLE ME TOGETHER', THIS TIME I'LL ONLY ASK A HUNDRED RIDDLES, IF YOU ANSWER THEM ALL CORRECTLY, I'M WILLING TO DEPART WITH MY TREASURE MAP. BUT IF YOU GET EVEN ONE RIDDLE WRONG, YOU'RE DEAD." By the end of its sentence, pure killing intent was radiating out of the Sphinx's being. The grudge it had accumulated against Virus in this short duration was nothing to scoff at.

"A hundred? That's going to take a while, how about ten of your hardest riddles?"

"NO! NO LESS THAN A HUNDRED, MY DEAR MAP IS WORTH MORE THAN THAT!"

"Huh? Well, whatever, just ask away then." Feeling too lazy to even bargain, Virus agreed readily.

"WHAT IS ALWAYS IN FRONT OF YOU BUT CAN'T BE SEEN?"

"The future."

"WHAT QUESTION CAN YOU NEVER ANSWER YES TO?"

"Are you asleep, yet? Or are you dead?"

…

Afterward, one riddle after another was thrown in Virus' direction as he casually responded to them all while maintaining an unfocused gaze and even yawning from time to time. It was clear he wasn't even putting the slightest of effort before replying correctly.

ROAAAAAAAAR!

Around half an hour later, another enraged roar reverberated in the environment. The Sphinx was about to go insane looking at Virus with bloodshot eyes.

"YOU ARE MY NEMESIS! MY FUCKING NEMESIS! WHY CAN'T I DEFEAT YOU! WHY! WHY! WHY?!"

Albeit, to the Sphinx's dismay, Virus merely said. "Calm down now, will ya? Just think of me as a riddle god."

That nearly drove the Sphinx to the brink of lunacy as it tossed around and kicked and punched the water just like a kid that was throwing a tantrum. Albeit, much more terrifying.

"Hey, where's my treasure map?" 

In the end, the Sphinx could only curse him out loud before helplessly surrendering the object. Receiving it, Virus stored it inside his spatial container without sparing it a single look.

"Okay, cheeky woman, let's leave."

…

When the two had just left the area of the aquarium corridor, the veiled lady suddenly mumbled, "Stop calling me cheeky woman."

"Huh? Then what should I call you when I don't know your name? Unnamed woman?"

After a few moments of awkward silence, the cheeky woman tilted her gaze downward and whispered. "H-Hellarose."

"Hmm? What do you mean hell arose? Where did the hell arise?" Entertained, Virus played around with her name while grinning, trying to exasperate her as payback.

"You bastard! I'm saying my name is Hellarose!" Staring at him in some resentment, Hellarose clarified.

"Hahaha, I'm just joking, so you're called Hellarose, that's a…" Going quiet momentarily, he nodded his head before adding, "Well, it's actually to my liking. I like that name."

"But… why didn't you introduce yourself earlier? Was there a particular reason keeping you from doing so?"

Indeed, as Virus was suspecting, there was truly a reason why Hellarose didn't introduce herself when they had just met one another. 'I thought you'd recognize my identity and then start acting all respectful and awkward like everyone else.'

'But, seeing how you didn't even know who the Lion King is, I assume you're ignorant of the matters of the world to an unbelievable degree… which makes me wonder how is that even possible.'

Although those lines were going through her head, externally, fidgeting with her fingers she revealed another excuse which was also true, "Well, you see how my name is unusually odd taking into account it literally says hell arose… so I'm usually against revealing my name…"

"I really like your name though." In fact, Virus wasn't just saying it when he claimed to like her name. 'I mean my name's Virus and I love it, maybe I'm just more into names with negative meanings rather than positive ones.'

Outwardly, however, while proceeding on the path forward, he didn't even bother to look back at her face while suggesting. "But if you really don't like your name having a negative meaning… how about this, your name is Hellarose which can also be divided into two parts of 'Hella' and 'Rose'."

"From where I come from, 'Rose' is a beautiful flower and 'Hella' means a shining light or sunray itself… so basically your name also means a beautiful flower made purely out of shining light. How about it?" Then turning back to see why it had gotten so quiet all of sudden, Virus' eyes met a frozen still woman with her cheeks redder than ever!

Her enlarged pupils were locked on Virus as if she was still in the process of hanging on to every word he had muttered.

"Your cheeks are red again! Damn, cheeky is really the most appropriate term for expressing you! If someone asked me to define you by a single word alone, I would definitely say cheeky!"

"Hehehe…" For some reason, despite him vocalizing something that usually resulted in some kind of retaliative reply, Hellarose simply continued to chuckle like an idiot.

"Oi! Are you okay? Why are you laughing like that?" Unfortunately, that only creeped Virus out. "Let's go, stop acting that way. Just carry on acting normal, which is like a crazy person."

"Who's crazy!"