Chapter 67: Possibilities
While Athena was busy assimilating the energy of her victims, the imperial army began to move.
"Re..." The emperor's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets they were so wide open. "Retreat!" The sovereign bellowed in his fear.
The soldiers did not wait for the emperor to say "retreat" again and ran away from that sea of fire.
Veta, Verio, Eloan, and Qer, the remnants of the order of knights "Force of Emperor", were stiffened in their places. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.
In a single day, two tenth cycle spells were cast against them and one was more disastrous than the other.
Veta never felt his revenge as threatened as he did at that moment. He had spent a lifetime for that goal and now his plan's destruction was almost tangible.
The man clenched his fists, controlling his shaking hands, and headed back to town, trying to keep as much of his calm as possible and plan what he should do.
And so, the empire missed the perfect moment to attack and possibly win the war and thus ended the first day of war.
***
To the west of the empire, on an almost paradise island, with beautiful lakes and dense forests dominated by monsters, Mammon rested.
"Those bastards are really strong..." Mammon complained as he licked his hand smeared with his own dark blood.
At the man's feet were pieces of wings, feathers, arms, heads and other body parts of angels.
Mammon had obliterated a squad of angels alone, and all he had suffered was a cut to his back.
The man breathed out his fatigue and rose from his seat. His eyes looked east from where was possible for him to feel that powerful magic had been used.
The man smiled a serrated smile and flew away, leaving behind a feast for the monsters who were drawn there by the scent of blood.
***
"Where is Mammon?" Asked the boy to a lesser demon.
His long, dirty black hair covered his lifeless eyes, giving him a more menacing look. The katana in his hand and the half-armor on his body hadn't been cleaned in a long time, and even the demons couldn't stand his foul odor of sweat and rotting blood.
"I won't ask again!" The boy who was once the hero to a people, yelled with his jovial voice.
"M-master Mammon flew to the islands in the sky." Said the lesser demon pointing beyond the hole in the castle roof.
The boy looked in the pointed direction and then decapitated the demon who died without resistance, just like the other demons on the way there.
All that was left of life in the castle were the rats, the boy and the children who had an empty look like the boy's.
Seeing the undernourished bodies of the children, the boy went to the beautiful table laden with fruit in the corner of Mammon's throne room.
The fruits were all fresh and there was also clean water there, which was a surprise for the boy.
"Come, you need to eat to survive."
***
Athena's body burned with the process of absorbing all that energy she acquired. It was like she had a fifty-degree fever.
At the same time she felt heat, at any breeze she shivered with cold. She also had pain in her joints, bones and eyes. Not to mention the seasickness that made Athena want to throw up even on an empty stomach.
Not knowing what to do, they took Athena back to the tent, not caring about the retreat of the empire.
Mifa was desperate, as was Serien who cast a sixth cycle healing spell on the queen, not knowing that what Athena was going through was a strengthening process.
With Athena in this situation, she was an easy target and so Valkyries and Athena's personal platoon surrounded the royal tent to protect the queen while Serien and Mifa took care of her.
The night was long for both Athena and the soldiers who lay awake, drowning in worry. If Athena died there, it would result in another defeat for Basilica and no one there wanted that.
Whether he was a soldier or a mercenary, for different reasons, everyone wanted victory.
All that concern, and somehow loyalty, was rewarded in the morning when Athena opened her eyes in her bed.
"Good morning my love." Mifa said seeing the green of Athena's eyes.
Besides the dark circles under her eyes and tiredness, on Mifa's face was the personification of relief in the form of a smile.
Athena smiled back and caressed Mifa's face with affection. Athena sat up and approached her face to Mifa's and kissed the girl. "Good Morning."
"What happened to you?" Mifa asked as she hugged Athena.
"Nothing much. I'll explain to you later." Athena said and looked to the other side of the bed, where Serien was bent over in a deep sleep. "She tried to heal me?"
"Yes."
"Fufu~"
"What's the fun?"
"I wasn't sick."
Later, when everyone was asleep and rested, Athena called the leaders of her army.
Trigan, leader of the Owls. This was a select group of soldiers that Athena made Trigan turn into vampires, among them there were soldiers from Basilica and former members of the Vultures. Koria and Lobana represent the Valkyries and the mercenaries respectively. They looked after the interests of both groups and also the conduct of the most aggressive mercenaries. Esdan, a gentle-faced man, leader of the platoon Athena trained and Serien as the Queen's advisor.
All these people were having lunch at Athena and Mifa's tent to have a strategy meeting with Athena.
"We will have to attack the city again now that the empire has retreated." Trigan said and bit into a piece of sausage.
"We can also make a siege." Esdan suggested. "We can close the transport routes and starve them."
"Hm..." Athena mumbled and looked at Mifa who was sleeping peacefully on the bed. "Could be, but that would take too long. We don't know how much reserve they have."
"What if we sent someone to burn these possible reserves?" Lobana suggested and drank some of the wine from her mug.
Athena was about to put her noodle fork in her mouth, but she lowered it. "That's a good idea. If we burn the supplements, they'll have no choice but to fight or maybe cannibalism." Athena joked and everyone at the table, except Trigan, frowned at the thought of the meat on their plates with a meat of its own kind. "However, I don't want to be here for that long, so a siege is not the best option."
"So are we going to invade?" (Trigan)
"Yes, but first..." Athena got up and went to the table where she had a big map of all the islands.
Athena knew that entering an enemy city unprepared was a bad idea. Many things could happen, like guerrillas, which could decrease her army little by little.
With a quill in hand Athena drew on a parchment and imbued it with mana. She was trying to make a skill learning scroll and she had no idea if it would work, but even so, after finishing the drawing, Athena handed the scroll to Serien.
"What is this?" Serien asked as he took the scroll.
"It's a skill learning scroll. I want you to learn the skill on this scroll."
"Huh? But I'm a cleric..."
"Just try it. This skill needs a holy element and you already have a skill."
"Yes, but my skill is by birth and it doesn't work anymore."
"Just do what I tell you, if it doesn't work, we can make every soldier try."
Serien frowned and stared at the scroll, imbued it with her mana. The mana circled the scroll and returned to Serien, burning the scroll in the process.
"It worked?"
Serien opened her eyes after closing them for a moment and smiled with eyes full of wonder. "H-how?"
Athena shrugged. "Who knows?" Even she didn't quite understand the Akashic Records. Athena looked at the others who were looking at them and explained. "The skill she learned is called 'Clairvoyance'. It's a skill that will show her two of the many possible futures. In other words, it's not concrete what she sees, so don't blame her if something goes wrong."
"What can she see then are possibilities?" (Lobana)
"Exactly." Athena sat back in her chair and looked at Serien expectantly. She had just warned the others about the skill, but she was the one who was putting the most burden on the princess. "Come on, use the skill!"
Serien huddled in her seat and in a low voice… "But… what am I supposed to look for?"
[Clairvoyance] was an ability that in addition to the sacred element, needed a setting to activate.
Athena thought for a moment, got up again and returned to the table with a map of Tarna. "Our army will enter through the two holes in the walls. In these two places there is a lot of rubble from the destruction that the weird-haired woman and I caused. I want you to see two possibilities for each route." Athena said as she scribed on the map.
Serien looked at the map carefully, imagining the scenario. The princess closed her eyes, took a deep breath and used her skill. "[Clairvoyance]"
Light escaped from Serien's eyelids and when she opened her eyes, where she should have had the people at table with her, were hundreds of thousands of Basilica soldiers.
They were fighting and being massacred by the imperial army at the foot of the imperial palace.
Serien's heart sped up and the and tears flowed as the image shifted to more at the center of all the killing.
Athena was on her knees, hugging Mifa and a huge sword cut through them both. Atena was crying as she dying and Mifa, with her eyes closed, was smiling.
Not to let her cry escape, Serien covered her mouth with her hands and then the scene changed.
In this new possibility, Basilica was winning after destroying the empire's pincer attack and Athena was fighting with everything she had against Veta and a man with long silver hair and black horns, a demon.
Athena killed Veta and seriously injured the demon, but due to the impacts of the battle and the excessive use of destructive spells and skills, there formed a crater in the middle of Tarna.
Athena was exhausted, on her knees in the cracks, she couldn't move anymore. She was about to be taken away by the erosion when Mifa took her place by kicking her away and falling to her death.
Both possibilities led to a tragic end for Athena, and Serien was afraid to tell Athena, but it was necessary and she did so in tears.
Upon hearing what the princess had to say, Athena's heart sped up in panic, but with a bitter expression, she swallowed back the fear that was beginning to feel.
"And the other route?" Koria asked with an almost mournful seriousness.
"It's just more of the same." Serien responded by wiping her tears with the back of her hand.
"Majesty, I know it's not for me to decide, but I beg you, Basilica needs you. Let's lay a siege and wait." Esdan said as he knelt and bowed his head in supplication.
Athena looked at the prostrate man and then looked at Mifa. "I have already decided..."
***
"Hm… Where was it?"
In the sky from somewhere in the empire, Mammon looked everywhere for the mana he followed.
"It was so strong until the sun came up, but..."
Mammon followed Athena's uncontrolled mana, but the trail was lost as Athena assimilated all the energy she had received and now the demon was lost not far from Tarna.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
All_J
All_J I'm too busy at work so the weekly chapter count may drop, but don't drop the story, I'll keep writing in my spare time and post as soon as possible.
This chapter is full of bad omens... (●_●;)
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