Capítulo 27: The glorious war of sister rivalry
Planet Myridia
Under the shadow of her mothership, the Twin Dragon, Demeter is floating above the roof of Null Palace. Noriko, Quantum, Kari and Torn are staring at her, noticing how much she resembles Vesta: other than the green hair, the two sisters are identical.
She seems to have more pride than Vesta in showing off her perfect body, with a scandalously revealing cleavage in her green dress. As her hand is playing with a curl of her green hair, she's looking down at Vesta; not just because she's floating above her, but because Demeter exhudes a sense of pride and superiority.
<Well, well, little sister. Grown weary of that little planet of yours, I see.>
<And you're still telling people how they should live their lives. How could you do this to a planet!?>
<I know, right? Look at all these ugly buildings> Demeter answers, her eyes shining with green energy. It's been thousands of years since they've met, but Vesta can't forget that look.
<No no no please don't…>
Null Palace is ripped in half by Demeter's mind, tons upon tons of steel and concrete straining under immense invisible pressure. She watches smiling, untouched by the large cloud of dust that is spreading though the city. Then she casually topples another building, like a child bored by his toy.
Over two hundred people are already dead. Despite the extremely low population density of Myridia, Demeter still needs to kill thousands more to clean her property.
Vesta flies through the thick cloud of pulverized concrete, yelling at her sister:
<What are you doing!?>
<Pest control. You need to be careful with mortals or they'll spread everywhere.>
<These are human beings! You can't just kill them whenever you want!>
<Oh grow up Hestia. Your hobby was tiresome when were kids, now it's just pathetic.>
As Demeter prepares to release another green blast, Vesta grabs her hand.
<What are you doing!?> Demeter asks, giving Vesta that terrifying look that only gods have.
<I won't let you kill mortals again.>
Imagine beings so powerful to be unchallengeable. Immortal children who never lose an argument.
Try to stand up to those beings, those gods, and what do you get? Temper tantrums on a genocidal scale. A wave of Demeter's arm, and Vesta is pushed back at hundred miles per second.
Vesta smashes through three walls before she even realizes she's been hit. Her back hurts; not as much as it should after pulverizing concrete, but she isn't accustomed to pain.
There's a Myridian family in the building she's landed into. They must be refugees: fathers are not allowed to live with their wives and children after they're old enough to join the army.
They must know who she is…there's no Internet or television on Myridia, but word of mouth travels at the speed of light on a planet where everyone can create duplicates of himself. They don't say a word, but there's utter terror on their faces.
The last thing they'll ever see is Vesta's face when she says:
<I'm sorry.>
There are over a hundred skyscrapers in Null City, remnants of the civilization Demeter harvested a hundred years ago. Now it's time to complete the job.
Six skyscrapers fly off the ground, surrounded by bright green energy, and are smashed together with maximum force. There are not enough words to describe the havoc of so many tons of glass and concrete exploding at the same time; the sound alone is enough to disintegrate eardrums.
Not counting duplicates, two thousand lives are abruptly ended in less than ten seconds.
Nobody sees the red-headed goddess wreathed in flames fly through the rubble at the speed of sound. Her unstoppable rage meets Demeter's telekinetic green shield.
<Why!? What did they do to you!?> Vesta shouts, her fists failing to do any damage to the shield.
<They were born> Demeter answers, her body now saturated with green energy.
The thunder created by her blast is loud enough to make the whole city shake. Vesta needs to gather all of her strength to resist its power; the wind alone will soon make more buildings collapse.
<Is this the best you got? I know you've always been weak, but this is just pathetic.>
It's time for a change of strategy. Vesta grapples her sister and flies away, as fast as she can.
Maybe she hasn't used her divine powers for centuries, but flying is as natural to her as breathing.
Demeter is surprised by this kind of attack; their fights have rarely been so physical. The wind blows her green hair at twenty times the speed of sound. Within half a minute, by the time she understands what just happened, Null City is already a hundred miles north.
Even at this speed, Demeter's telekinetic abilities are more than enough to stop Vesta in her tracks.
Adding insult to injury, Demeter uses her momentum against her; luckily they're far away from any mortals, because no city could possibly survive the next assault.
First, Vesta hits a mountain with her face. Faster than sound, she can't hear her sister's feet pushing her head through the rock. Vesta can lift hundreds of tons without breaking a sweat, but it's not just her sister's weight pushing down. It's the full might of Demeter's mind.
<And there you are, in the dirt, where you belong. Look at you, the Firstborn of Kronos, wasting her time with worthless mortals. Dad would be ashamed of you.>
Vesta's body is surrounded by flames hotter than the surface of the Sun, forcing Demeter to step back. Not out of pain or fear, since her shield is still intact, but out of surprise.
<I can't believe you're still obsessing over dad! He was an insane tyrant who ATE US!!!>
<He had a vision. A single god ruling the universe, worshipped by all those beneath him. That's the way it was always supposed to be…but you've poisoned the minds of your brothers and sisters. Made them weak. Attached to the mortals. I've worked hard to make things right.>
While listening to her sister's raving, Vesta realizes that the ground is shaking unnaturally. The clouds are moving closer and closer.
<With this planet's Drylon technology I can rule the galaxy. Like dad. Nobody will take it from me. Least of all, you.>
The world starts spinning. Instinctively, Vesta floats…and her jaw opens wide, looking at the entire mountain rotate on itself to position itself above her. She looks down: there's just a hole below her.
"Did she just lift a mountain with her mind!?" she wonders, an instant before the mountain hits her.
Vesta never really tested the upper limits of her strength; she worked as a waitress until a few months ago. Now she knows she can't lift a dozen billion tons of solid rock.
Trapped beneath the mountain, she can't move a finger. She can't see anything. She can't breathe.
She doesn't need to, of course, but she's lived with mortals for so long that she still tries. She can feel the vibrations of the earthquake Demeter just caused, immensely more destructive than anything Earth has ever felt, and she prays she's taken the fight far enough from mortals.
She hasn't felt this powerless in a long, long time…
Rome, 753 BC
She wasn't there when it happened. The fire was burning in the temple, living proof of the devotion to the goddess Hestia. The goddess whose fire kept homes warm and families safe. The gentle goddess who never raised her hand against her brothers and sisters, who never shared their desire for power. The goddess who couldn't hurt a fly.
The goddess that the young girl worshipped, and whose pure white robes are now red with blood.
<She called your name, you know> Ares taunts her. She will never forget the glee in his voice.
<Praying for your help or some crap like that. She didn't put up a fight…it was quite boring, really. Maybe she was a little too young to be violated. How can you even tell with these mortals?>
Hestia carries in her arms what used to be a twelve year old girl. Now she's a bloodied corpse.
<You know what's the most pathetic thing? You don't even know her name. And you know why? Because these fu###ng fleshy things don't f###ing matter, that's why. So stop preaching Zeus and the rest of the fu###ng family to treat them with respect, will ya?>
Hestia looks at her brother's son. Her eyes are burning with the heat of a billion stars, and her voice is on fire. Like her father's.
<Her name was Vesta.>
Myridia, present day
The mountain melts under the infinite heat. A fiery mass of pure rage flies towards Demeter, grabbing her by the hair and flying towards the ground.
They fly so fast they are swimming through solid rock. The pressure rises as rapidly as the temperature, while the two sisters swim through the molten magma.
Tidal waves of lava will cause every volcano on the planet to erupt within minutes.
Demeter is struggling to break free: she didn't recall her sister to be that strong. Heat and pressure rise rapidly as the approach Myridia's core; this isn't a place for any living thing, even for gods.
Taking the battle here is hurting Vesta as much as Demeter, but she isn't thinking straight. She's thinking about the little girl that died 2500 years ago, the one she couldn't save, the one that gods and mortals forgot. The girl whose name will live until the end of time, thanks to her.
She was so naïve, she thinks now. She honestly thought rebelling against Olympus and forcing the gods to leave Earth forever was going to change things. Then she sees it.
There's something above the planet's core. A solid monolith, far larger than anything built by mortal hands. Just standing there, unaffected by the hell that is hurting the goddesses.
<You see that? That changes everything> Demeter says, freeing herself and throwing Vesta against the core itself.
Vesta knows there's a limit to her invulnerability. As her face is pressed against the core, as the flesh is melting in searing pain, she knows she has reached it.
<It's billions of years old. Older then Gaea, older than the oldest gods. It dwarfs even my power. And yet compared to what the Drylon have left us, it's insignificant. Just as you are insignificant now, sister dear.>
If the descent into hell was quick and destructive, the return to the surface is faster and painful.
The two sisters emerge from the ocean floor. Demeter pushes the water out of the way; what isn't vaporized by the magma creates the largest tidal wave this world has ever seen.
Vesta regains consciousness on the beach. The sand becomes glass under the intense residual heat emanating from her charred skin. She looks like a third-degree burn victim; there's smoke coming out of her flesh. Strangely enough, she still has a full head of red hair and her clothes, though badly damaged and barely holding together, still have enough fabric left to protect her modesty.
Demeter lands on her back with the force of a sledgehammer. The green-haired goddess wipes the sweat off her forehead.
<So. Ready to give up?> she asks. Her short breath is the only indication that she just survived a battle with a goddess at the center of the planet.
Null City
Talas Khanos takes a deep breath, inhaling the heavy dust that is clouding the city. Everywhere, people are crying in pain and despair: the city is in ruins and death is everywhere.
He takes it all in. It is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen outside of an autopsy.
<VEIL OF PIERCING!!!> somebody shouts. Red energy blades appear everywhere; the wind created by their rotation sweeps the city, clearing the air from the deadly dust.
They just ruined it. And Talas Khanos can see who did it: there's a man with red skin in front of him, next to a man with brown skin.
<Shouldn't that be "piercing the veil"?> Kari asks.
<Shouldn't you stop him, or am I supposed to do everything around here?> Torn answers.
The girl with purple hair pouts. One of her duplicates kicks Khanos in the shin, another one punches in the stomach, and a third one lands on his back. All at the same time. Finally, when he's forced on his knees, the original Kari kicks him in the face.
Khanos spits blood and a couple of teeth. He's starting to hate this planet.
<You don't understand; Demeter can't be defeated. She is a goddess.>
Something cold touches his neck. It's a fully loaded Genius Gun, and Noriko is ready to fire it.
<I don't care who she is; she's never faced the Vanguard.>
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