章 119: Gehenna - Freedom of a Goddess and Death of a Dragon

Minutes before the mana sphere disappeared, Athena thought hard about how to get out of that place, she spent a long time digging through the [Akasic Records], but due to the {Mana Scatter}, {Soul Torment}, {Distortion of Space} and {Magic Interference}, it was impossible to make use of locomotion spells.

Athena had created a perfect prison against anything that even she couldn't escape from.

So, in a cage of magic, where she was attacked every moment of distraction, Athena gave her everything to maintain the magical barrier and survive until she could cancel the spells.

However, maintaining spells proved to be an extremely difficult task. Athena expended her mana to maintain the sphere of destruction spells, she expended mana to maintain the protective barrier and had her mana dispersed every time the mana shield was penetrated.

Within seconds Athena had already received several injuries to her back, ribs, arms and legs. The wounds, which made her blood flow like an open faucet, varied between cuts, punctures and burns and her soul was also being attacked.

When Athena destroyed Nirsa, she felt that same weird sensation as when she killed something, but this one was significantly more powerful.

Athena had gained everything the god of night represented and had grown stronger, but it was a power that only manifested itself during the night.

Thus, her new powers were useless in that moment of crisis against Redel, which led Athena to not think straight about a strategy and in a moment of despair, she launched destructive spells when seeing that she would lose to Redel.

Anyway, now, with a little calmer mind, Athena saw that this was not the only way to deal with that situation and regretted having acted on impulse.

In that moment, she could have teleported or perhaps created several anti-magic field to weaken Redel and even cast dozens of strengthening spells on her own in order to confront the goddess.

In addition to her carelessness and lack of calm, Athena realized another mistake in herself. Earlier, she'd denied the fact that she'd been arrogant for having enough power to subdue a god, but that's exactly what she'd done.

Athena became arrogant and even seeing that the two gods were as strong as she was, Athena confronted them head on without using all her power, underestimating them.

However, Athena didn't underestimate them because she thought she was better than her two opponents, but because she thought more gods would come after Redel and Nirsa, and she didn't want to be caught by surprise when she was tired.

Athena realized her mistake and scolded herself, but it was too late for that, her mana was nearing the end and if that continued, she would be destroyed by her own magic, so it was time to put an end to it all.

Athena stopped to supply the spells and tried to cancel them, but the spell did not go away. That's because it still fed on Redel's mana that was being consumed, burned and shredded alive amidst all that energy, leaving Athena with the only choice to resist a little longer.

When the sphere was about to disappear, Athena, who had been pushed to the extreme of her mana capacity, could no longer keep her mana shield up and suffered from the last wave of the explosion of the spells she had cast. Then for a brief ten seconds, she felt what Redel had been feeling for over a minute and in the midst of the intense pain, Athena watched as time passed slowly.

The magic penetrated Athena's flesh, tearing at her flesh, breaking her bones and burning her organs as it tried to tear her soul apart too.

Athena screamed as she felt a kind of pain she hadn't felt since she'd first absorbed mana from the world in Sigma's desert. No, the pain this time was more intense than the pain she had felt in Sigma, it was as if they stuck dozens of red-hot swords into her body and not happy with just that, they poured molten iron over her body. It was a kind of pain that would drive anyone insane.

Athena was in so much pain that something that shouldn't have happened did. Fotiá, who was far from where Athena was, could feel her mother's pain throughout her body and fainted because she was unable to stand so much pain.

When it was finally over, Athena couldn't even maintain her physical form and weak as she was, Athena's presence faded into the air as if she had turned to dust.

Athena really was close to becoming just mana residue and didn't know what to do, because even after receiving the power that came with Redel's death, she couldn't get back to her physical form.

Well, that's until a new power emerges in the world.

***

Killing a god wasn't as simple as destroying they body, because if a god's body died, it would just come back after a while.

Even so, killing a god's body was still an extraordinary feat and that was something Anemus achieved in a moment of despair and anger at the thought that Athena was dead.

When Anemus killed Redel, a part of everything the goddess was and represented was split in two. The divinity, authority, purpose and power, a part of all this was shared between Athena and Anemus.

The sun had long since hidden on the horizon, giving space in the sky for the night to take its rightful place, but even so, Anemus, Mifa and Serien still were crying for Athena beside the goddess's body.

Anemus felt a new power surge within her, but none of that mattered anymore. Athena was dead and Anemus thought that power was useless if her lover was no longer with her, but that was only until she heard the voice she so desperately wanted to hear.

"Why are you crying?" Athena asked as if nothing had happened.

Anemus looked up and even seeing Athena standing there, she couldn't believe what she saw. After all, she still didn't feel Athena's presence and began to think that maybe she was a ghost.

"Athena!" Mifa, who was crying as much as Anemus, jumped into Athena's arms. "You... You're alive!"

"But of course I am!" Athena replied and thought. (That was close....)

***

Redel was about to die in both flesh and soul when Anemus rescued her from the fall that would lead to her death.

This was because Athena's magic had consumed so much mana from the goddess and destroyed her body to such an extent that even her soul was being affected.

Redel had the option of letting her body die and going back to the divine plane, but she didn't want that. If that happened, in addition to the humiliation she would suffer from her siblings, she would also be incapacitated for tens of thousands of years until her new body was born.

The goddess chose to stay in her body and try to regenerate it, but anything she tried just used up her remaining mana in vain. She clung to life without understanding what was happening outside her own body, as she neither could see or heard with her body in the state where she looked more like a afire wooden puppet.

However, suddenly a comfortable heat penetrated her burned flesh and reached her soul that began to devour the mana of the magic before it was consumed by the residues of the magic that still remained in her body.

This made Redel begin her healing process, but in a way that she had never experienced before in all her millennia of life. For the first time the goddess was feeling real pain, something only the mortals she so underestimated had ever felt.

However, Redel endured the pain, in the end, the pain was just the price to pay for her to come back in full force and destroy everything Athena loved and stood for. Redel wanted to make Athena pay for what the mortal had done to her brother.

Unfortunately for the goddess, those who were by her side and who healed her were people strongly linked to her enemy and target of revenge.

When Redel finally managed to open her eyes, everything went dark again and then she heard the familiar voice of her older sister, Naph.

"How reckless..."

"Huh? What is this place? What happened?" Redel asked. She was confused by the situation in which she found herself.

Redel was in a foggy space that she didn't know, she already understood that she had been killed, but she couldn't understand why she hadn't returned to the divine plan, where she would have to put up with the humiliation of her brothers and sisters.

"You died, my little sister." Naph responded without showing herself to Redel. "And before you could return, I intercepted your soul. Having the banishment undone was great for me."

Due to the divine banishment, Naph's powers were greatly reduced, but now it was as if she were a bird that had escaped from her cage and could stretch her wings.

In the world there were many lost souls who hadn't been reincarnated, but now that Death was free, those souls flew all at once to Naph, leaving a gigantic charge of power in her.

"I knew that would happen and it's a shame for Nirsa to have his soul destroyed..." Naph said in a way that sounded more like a mockery. "But don't worry, I'll take care of you."

"Sister, what are you going to do?"

Redel tried to run away, but it was impossible to get out of there. That place was a space similar to the divine plan, but Death was the boss there and there was nowhere Redel could escape.

***

It had been two hours since Ytria had started undoing the seal and had already destroyed three parts of the seal.

Everything was going well despite the delay and Ytria, in her imagination, could see Athena smile when she see that Uran was free. She was anxious, but still remained calm and patient as she worked on building the keys.

However, things would not be so simple. Asherah would not allow the seal to be unraveled so easily and for the purpose of getting rid of Ytria and Theikós, she sent one of her sons, Kadra, the god of the earth.

It was not necessary to send two gods as she had done with Athena, this was because there were only a dragon and a human. One god was more than enough to handle the situation and so it was done.

As soon as she felt the presence of the god there, Theikós wanted to flee, because despite having fought several battles in the past, she had never fought someone as strong as her, she had never taken her battles seriously and had no experience in real battles.

Theikós' instincts screamed for her to spread her wings and get away from there as quickly as possible, but then her pride as a dragon spoke louder and instead of fleeing, she struggled.

Kadra, a man with copper hair and green eyes, slender and handsome, was a calm god and even as he stared at the women inside the crater, he hadn't said anything, but it wasn't necessary to say why he was there either.

Seeing Theikós, who was still in humanoid form, fly towards him, Kadra did the same and the shock of impact between the two sounded like a landslide.

In that impact, Theikós was the one who got the worst of it, being hurled to the snow-covered ground, but then, the sky had what it took to give the dragon the upper hand.

The storm clouds that always blanketed the northern skies were a mighty weapon in a blue dragon's domain. Kadra, who hovered in the air, waiting for the cloud of snow, which had formed from the impact of Theikós against the ground, to bend down to launch another attack, did not notice when a bolt of lightning fell on him from the sky.

The bolt was so powerful that it melted the snow and dug deep into the ground, creating a lake of bubbling water from which Kadra emerged with a puzzled look. He had never experienced being overwhelmed like that, even though the attack hadn't been powerful enough to hurt him.

At that moment, Kadra felt a latent excitement that he had never felt before and opened a big smile as see that the dragon was as well as he.

Feeling the blood rushing furiously through his veins, Kadra rose from the lake, floating to the edge and used his purpose to clear all the snow from that place without causing destruction.

In an instant, the snow covering the ground disappeared and the ground dropped several feet lower, revealing a backdrop of gigantic dead trees and frozen corpses.

The preparations were made and that place would be the stage where the god would fight a being that managed to stop him and throw him to the ground. Kadra felt an amusement he hadn't felt for a long time, and even though he had to ignore his mother's orders to do so, he wanted to have fun.

Theikós didn't see it as something fun, in fact, she was scared, because even after hitting the god with a lightning bolt like that, he was still fine. She wanted to run away, but her pride didnt allow it, she had never run from a battle and wouldnt start now.

Theikós returned to her original form, covering herself with hard, electrified blue scales, releasing electrical sparks with every breath and following the god's every move with her eyes.

"We'd better get away from here first..." Kadra said with his calm and voice as he looked at Ytria. "That mortal will die if we fight in earnest here."

Theikós looked to the side and Ytria was still focused on the seal of Uran. Theikós snorted when she saw that she was more afraid than a human, not knowing that Ytria struggled to keep her fear under control so as not to shake her hands.

(Let's switch places.) Theikós said.

Hearing Theikós' voice in his mind, Kadra found this really interesting. Someone who wasn't a god to be able to use telepathy with him, it was a wonderful thing. Kadra was increasingly fascinated by Theikós and impressed by Ytria's courage that hadn't moved even an inch from where he'd seen her at first time.

However, even if he respected them for the courage they had, he would still have to kill them for going against his mother's wishes. Kadra lamented in his heart that he had to carry out that order as he flew in a direction away from Ytria.

In a snow-covered open field between two mountains, Kadra landed and again the scenery changed to a dry, snowless, rocky land.

"Here should be far enough away." Kadra said as he heard Theikós land behind him.

(Agreed.) Theikós responded and circled the god like a beast studying its trapped prey.

At that time, the flow of mana became stronger and denser to the point of breaking the heavens. This was the effect of the two powerful beings releasing all the power they had.

Neither intended to hold back in battle, but for different reasons. Theikós would use everything because she was afraid of dying, while Kadra used all his power out of respect for the dragon.

The energy emanating from that place made the ground shake, lightning strikes and the mountains crack. It was a flow of mana so strong that Ytria, who was hundreds of meters away, could feel it.

It just meant that this battle would be brief to the point where everything could be resolved in a single blow.

Theikós condensed all of her mana into her lungs, creating a lightning storm within herself as Kadra condensed the mana into the ground in a way that ripped gigantic chunks of earth and rock out of the ground and compressed it into five huge stones.

When everything was ready, Theikós breathed out all the energy contained within her in the form of an extremely thick ray of intense blue color and Kadra, in turn, launched the five stones like meteors he had created towards Theikós.

The stones were less than a hundred meters high, but the speed with which it were hurled was enough to lit it on fire and turn them into massive bombs.

As they both expected, it was all over in an instant.

Theikós breath went straight through the stones, producing a powerful noise, hitting Kadra and paving everything in front of the dragon, who in turn was hit by five stones which was like meteors embedded with Kadra's purpose.

As the beam swept across the white landscape, the meteors exploded and created a gigantic crater where thousands of stone stakes appeared followed by a pain-filled roar mixed with the crashes.

After mighty, deafening bangs and explosions, Kadra, who, despite having protected himself, had been hit and dragged by the lightning to some distant place at the foot of a mountain, awoke but could not move.

The god took a deep breath, feeling everything ache and satisfied, he smiled as his body began to turn to earth. That was the first time he had died, but he didn't care. Kadra closed his eyes and disappeared into a heap of scorched earth.

Theikós breathed heavily as blood trickled from her nostrils to the ground, making a red pool in a dark hole in which she was impaled by thousands of stone stakes.

Theikós looked at the ground with her blurred vision and remembered that she hadn't done what she wanted to do yet, so she didn't want to die yet, not without having Athena's child.

A son who would be immortal and make a family with her so that she would no longer be alone, Theikós didn't want to die alone.

When silence returned, there was still so much mana everywhere that Ytria didn't let the opportunity pass and began to absorb the mana of the god and dragon.

Ytria couldn't purposefully absorb the world's mana because she didn't have a strong body like Athena's, but if the situation was like it is now, when there had mana in abundance spread by someone around the environment, she could calmly absorb it for not being just pure mana like the world's mana.

While she did her work of unseal Uran, Ytria absorbed as much mana as she could before the mana merged with the world's mana. With that, Ytria got enough mana to undo the seal on her own and now she just needed time.

Theikós struggled against the cold and death. She regretted not running away when she could, but she was also proud that she hadn't.

(It was a long life...) Theikós thought and then smiled with sad eyes. (Maybe not that long...)

Still impaled on the stakes, Theikós didn't have the strength to get out of there, but she was strong enough to tighten her muscles so she wouldn't lose as much blood. Theikós thought that if she lived a little longer, she could still be saved, but she also didn't hold that much hope in that possibility. She didn't have the strength to be an optimist, but she also didn't want to be a pessimist.

Theikós even thought it was funny that she was clinging to life so much, when she didn't even find life that much fun. But that was due to her new interest, which also gave her a dream and a goal. (Athena...)

Some time had passed and the sky was completely dark, Theikós didn't even know if she was still breathing and she was too tired to open her eyes. Nothing hurt anymore and she couldn't even organize a thought.

All Theikós saw was a dream where she was with her son in her arms and Athena was also there smiling at her.

As Theikós died with a beautiful dream, a column of white light illuminated the polar sky, creating hundreds of northern lights.

This was the sign that everything would change, the sign of Asherah's destined downfall, the beginning of the one-sided war of the gods.

From the light was born a girl with long white hair who in an instant, without saying anything, teleported along with Ytria to where Athena was scattering.

***

It was already very late at night, but due to the interference of her own magic, Athena was unable to regain her physical form even after having received the purpose of the god of the night by killing Nirsa.

However, when Redel died and Athena received some of the powers that the goddess's body wielded, she began to recover much faster, but it was still too slow.

Athena was in a hurry to get back, as she couldn't talk to Fotiá. Athena didn't know if this was because of magical interference in her body or if something had happened to her daughter.

It made her worried and anxious, so she tried her best to be able to walk at least, but even with her effort, her recovery was terribly slow until Uran and Ytria surged ahead of her.

"Athena, who is this little girl behind you?" Mifa asked when she saw Uran standing behind Athena with a cute smile on her face.