Reincarnated as a step-dad in a fantasy world

'Lilia was right after all; my ability had indeed caused modifications to the lust artifact,' Alex thought with a chuckle.

He relaxed on his chair and placed one leg above the other. Weirdly enough, the more the discussion went, the more focused he became.

"How did my soul ability interfere in the transformation process and what are the consequences?" he asked composedly.

"As you already know, when you do a lustful act, you gain soul points instead of the original lust points that you should have obtained. I could have stopped the interference of your ability and made it so that you could only gain lust points, but I realized that soul points were more, umm, let's say 'suited' for you. They were more potent and allowed you to become stronger faster than if you used lust points," the goddess of lust explained.

"It wasn't without consequences though," she continued a moment later. "Just as your soul ability had changed the artifact's lust points into soul points, which are able to make you stronger faster and even able to copy others' abilities, lust points also had certain advantages that you lost when you awakened soul points instead."

"What advantages are we speaking about?" Alex inquired.

"For one, with lust points, you would have had better control of your own lust as you would have had a closer link with lust energy. You could have also been able to quickly control other people's lust. I don't have to explain to you how easily gaining the favor of women would have become if you had that power," the goddess slurred. Alex couldn't see her, but he was certain that she was smiling right now.

"Are those the only advantages of lust points?" he inquired, trying to ignore her insinuations.

If those were the only advantages to the lust points, Alex felt that he was better off with his current soul points.

"Don't look down on the lust points!" the goddess snapped in a stern tone. "Lust points have their own unique advantages. They allow for a deeper understanding and manipulation of lust energy, which can be incredibly powerful in its own right. You would have been able to sense and influence the desires of others, making it easier for you conquer women."

Her exclamation made Alex raise an eyebrow in surprise. 'Wait, is she...hurt by what I said?' he wondered.

He wasn't certain, but when he thought about it, it might make sense. After all, the lust points came straight from her power. By belittling them, he was actually belittling her. 'Well, what do I care,' Alex shrugged mentally. It's not like he was known for his love or respect of deities anyway.

"In case you haven't noticed, I can hear your thoughts," the goddess said in an annoyed tone.

"That's even better," Alex smiled sarcastically.

The goddess tsked and muttered to no one in particular, "Others have good champions, meanwhile, my champion is just an ungrateful drama queen?"

"Who are you calling a drama queen?!" Alex snapped back. However, the goddess ignored him and kept muttering to herself, "The worst, he doesn't even know himself, tsk, what a chore. Why did I have to agree to that bastard's plan?"

She continued to speak nonsense for a while before she cleared her throat. "Anyway, around half the time I'm allowed to keep you here has already passed, so let's continue. You can ask whatever questions you have. It's not to say that I will answer all of them though."

Alex snorted, disgruntled, but he ultimately nodded. It wasn't like he had any choice in any case. What the goddess was speaking of directly impacted him.

"You spoke about me tapping into the lust energy without your blessing," Alex began. "How come I don't have your blessing while I'm considered your 'champion'?"

"As I explained, losing the lust points has made you lose certain advantages that come with the artifact. One such example of loss is my blessing that you should have obtained the moment you fused with the artifact. My blessing is essentially what would have allowed you to control more easily the lust energy," the goddess replied.

"So how come I can use that lust energy and more importantly, when had I ever used that energy because I certainly don't remember doing so?" he asked, his curiosity piqued.

"From the moment you became my champion, it was designed that you could use the lust energy; it's just that the blessing would have made things much smoother," the goddess clarified. "For your second question though, you will have to find out by yourself," she added.

"Can't you just answer?" Alex asked, his eyes twitching in annoyance.

However, the goddess just glossed over his question. Seeing that, Alex decided to follow up with his other questions.

"Given what you have said, I presume that you are here to give me that blessing, right?" he wondered.

"Yes," the goddess replied, the pinkish cloud moving up and down. "Though, there is really no need for me to be here to give you this blessing."

"Then why are you here?" Alex questioned suspiciously.

"Just wanted to verify something," she answered dismissively. "You don't have to worry about that."

Alex nodded his head and let go of the subject. He didn't want to press her further and even doubted that he would get her to answer him. Plus, if he were honest, the goddess had cleared quite a bit of questions he was already curious about and seemed to even be friendly with him.

After a while, his gaze landed on the pinkish cloud, and he asked, "Why now? From what I understood, you could have explained to me what you just explained and given me this blessing way before, so why now?"

He understood that she had summoned him here because he was, according to her, on the way to losing himself to his lust, but he couldn't understand why it had to be now. After all, she could have summoned him way before he was even at risk of losing himself to lust.

"Not now," the goddess said in a dismissive tone. "Maybe later you will know," she added a moment later.

"Why are you trying to—"

"I said, not now," the goddess snapped, cutting him off.

At that moment, Alex's body froze. It wasn't a way of speaking; his body literally froze as he felt an overwhelming pressure land on him. His danger sense blared at him, urging him to run away at his fastest, but he couldn't. The danger seemed to come from every direction but at the same time, nowhere.

All of a sudden, he seemed to realize that he was sitting in front of a literal deity. Of course before he knew that she was a goddess, but it was only now that he truly realized that she was a deity, a true goddess, one of the beings at the top of the food chain.

Alex gasped, sweat covering his whole body, his breathing caught in his throat, and his body trembled like a leaf swayed by the wind.

Fortunately for him, after a few seconds, the pressure completely disappeared as if it was a lie.

"Any other questions?" the goddess inquired in her usual teasing tone, as if she hadn't just exerted her divine pressure on him.

Taking a deep breath to try to compose himself, Alex stared at the pink cloud with a mix of apprehension, wariness, and fear.

"Don't you have another question?" the goddess inquired, her tone playful.

"Y-Yes, I do have a few other questions," he stammered.

For the following minutes, Alex asked the goddess of lust several questions that he had. They were mostly questions about lust energy, how to use it, how to control it so it wouldn't consume him. He also asked other questions about the sin games and how they worked, what their goal was, what would happen if he obtained another sin artifact, etc.

The goddess answered some of his questions, ignored some, and straight out refused to answer certain questions. The questions she refused to answer were mostly questions regarding the sin games or questions about the other sins and what the other "champions" might be able to do with their own artifacts.

Alex was dissatisfied that he couldn't get the answers to all of his questions, but after the goddess exerted her pressure on him, he learned to keep his dissatisfaction to himself.

"Time is almost up," the goddess informed, "but you can still ask a last question. What would it be?"

Alex thought for a moment before he decided on his last question. "You once said that the goddess of light hated you. Why is that, and should I be worried about the members of the church of light?"