บท 23: For Anemus - War Queen Diana
After the preparations were complete, Athena said goodbye to Anemus and her new and first daughter, Fotiá.
"Behave and listen to what Anemus, Neu and Eun say, okay?"
"OK!" Fotiá replied with a big nod.
"Wait! What about me? She won't listen to what I say?" Gion asked alarmedly.
Athena looked at Gion and smiled innocently, making the man feel relieved.
"The Gion you don't need to listen to, and you don't need to befriend him, torment him as much as you can. Then when Mommy comes back, she'll bring you a present." Athena said with a serious face and Fotiá listened carefully.
"Fotiá will do what Mom says!"
"Wh-! Eh~! Athena!" Gion complained.
Athena kissed Anemus' cheek and ruffled her hair and ran to Kima who was waiting beside a pegasus with Lunnia on top.
"Fotiá, why don't you go with Neu and Eun to the castle tower? From there you'll be able to see Athena for longer." Anemus said.
After the girls disappeared down the hall, Anemus and Gion watched Athena and Lunnia drift farther and farther into the sky.
The silence between them was uncomfortable and even a certain tension could be felt. Anemus was expressionless and the same could be said about Gion.
"So what do you want to ask?" It was Gion who broke that uncomfortable silence.
"Why didn't you tell her?" Anemus asked without taking his eyes off the two dots far in the sky.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Gion said monotonously.
"Don't lie to me. I was in the bedroom when you used the parchment on her." Anemus finally turned to Gion. Her face was distorted with anger. "Why didn't you tell her that she was a tormentor? Even though you knew what it is."
Gion smiled and stared at the girl who was no more than the height of his leg. "But you also knew and didn't say anything."
"I don't know what a tormentor is. I don't like giving wrong information." Anemus snorted. "After all, what is it?"
"Let's go inside. It's going to be a long conversation..." Gion turned and walked away slowly.
Anemus couldn't see it, but Gion's expression was an expression only Nimo and two other people saw. Finally, his past would come back to haunt him.
***
Somewhere in the sky east of Sigma's castle, Athena and Lunnia, mounted on their respective mounts, flew at an alarming speed for a average person.
In fact, despite being flying as fast as he could, Lunnia's pegasus was seconds slower than Kima, so Lunnia was a little behind.
If she was with the girls, Athena wouldn't fly at such high speed and it would take her longer to reach her goal, but alone, she could make it halfway in just one day.
"It's nice to let go of the reins sometimes, isn't it Kima?" Athena said and the lion roared in excited response.
"Miss! Look!" Lunnia screamed.
"Lunnia, I already told you not to treat me so formally." Athena complained in a scream.
Below them, on the sand, a huge sailless galleon, its mainmast broken, glided across the sand dunes as if it were the most common thing. From above it was possible to see the deck filled with various things that resembled men and skeletons.
"I saw it yesterday! So it was really a ship..."
"It's not just any ship. It's the War Queen, Diana."
The moment she heard that name, Athena was reminded of a group of players who had decided to become pirates on Sigma, which was the busiest sea in the game.
The ship's captain was an NPC named Faust "Old Skull" because of his young, muscular body and gray, wrinkled head. Their ship's name was "Diana the Warlord" and they were an annoying group that just stole NPC ships and ran away from players.
Leaving their 'modus operandi' aside. Athena remembered this ship by its name and nothing else. She was just beginning to wonder if it was the same Diana when a harpoon passed her, nearly hitting Kima's right wing.
"Oou!!"
"Athena, are you alrigth?" Lunnia asked and ducked to avoid a harpoon that went over her.
"I was going to ignore them, but they started attacking first. Lunnia, I'll go ahead!"
Athena stood up in Kima's saddle, tied the skirt of her dress between her legs, and then jumped into nothingness.
"Huh? Wait! Athena!" Lunnia's eyes, wide, she couldn't believe what she had just seen.
Athena dropped like a hammer, but halfway to the deck, she floated like a feather and landed quietly on the ship's bow.
The crew of the War Queen, Diana, consisted of skeletons, ghouls and resurrected ones. The skeletons were of the most varied. There were what were once humans, orcs and half giants. All armed with swords, axes, halberds and maces.
By comparison, the ghouls, white-skinned, completely black-eyed humanoid monsters, were unarmed. Which didn't make them any less menacing with their serrated teeth and knife-sharp claws. And the resurrected ones were like zombies with a conscience, they wore clothes as rotten as their flesh and brandished their swords with elegance and skill.
The smell of that place was reminiscent of the alleys of suburban Reiden. Athena frowned every time she took a breath. She looked at that small army of undead in front of her and remembered that she had no sword.
"Good morning, gentlemen..." Athena said and saw a skeleton wearing something like a dress or tunic. It was too worn out to identify. "...and maybe ladies. I was passing by there, in sky, when you attacked me. I came to return the favor and destroy you."
The pirates looked at each other and as if laughing at her, the skeletons snapped their teeth against each other. Reproducing an even nice sound.
"And how do you intend to do this?" A spoiled voice, like that of an oldman smoker, asked.
In the far right corner of the deck, a resurgent in an old overcoat, torn where he was struck and colored black, or green, or brown, admired the blade of his sword.
Athena's eyes quickly dropped on the sword. It was a bastard sword with a bluish gray blade. Athena didn't know what it was made of, but she wanted that sword.
"Like this!"
Lunnia was at a good enough height to jump in the middle of the deck and was about to do so when an explosion opened a hole where the skeletons stake.
Athena cast two spells, hellfire and dark sphere, joined them into one and cast against the pirates. She had no idea if it was going to work, but as this world was relatively different from the game, she figured that spell fusion should be possible.
The new magic had a hideous appearance. A sphere of shadows that seemed to suck everything around. Within this sphere was an aggressive flame, colored green and purple, which was desperately trying to escape and mingling with the shadows. It was like seeing a miniature of hell mixed with the abyss.
In an instant the skeletons were either destroyed, or thrown into the air and then onto the sand. At least it was what it should be. Those who had been torn apart in a few seconds were on their feet again, and those who had been thrown overboard were climbing the ship's hull with impressive insistence.
"Hahahahaha! Is that it?" Laughed the resurrected.
"Yes. Look, I don't see any ghouls and the other two resurrected ones were burned so they won't come back." Athena said with a victorious smile, but in her mind she was hoping she was right.
"Athena! What was that?" Lunnia asked to appear with her back to Athena.
"Magic." Athena replied simply.
"That I know! What magic was that?"
"Ah... That? I don't know. I used hellfire and dark sphere at the same time and it worked well and didn't use as much mana." Athena descended from the bow to Lunnia's side. "And look at that sword."
Lunnia looked in the pointed direction and saw a zombie with clothes and little hair. He held a bastard sword with a certain dignity and moved with a dexterity unlike ordinary zombies.
"That one..."
"Yes. It's beautiful, I want it!"
"The resurrected?"
"No!!! His sword! Anyway, he's mine. You can have the rest."
Around a large hole in the deck, skeletons of various sizes clustered. Lunnia looked down into the hole and saw other skeletons, but of goats, snakes, and even cows.
This was her first battle alongside Athena, she didn't want to be dead weight and she wanted Athena to depend and trust her.
The knight drew her sword and held tight to her shield. Athena looked at the knigth and laughed at her seriousness and nervousness.
"Don't try too hard!" Athena said and the skeletons all moved forward together. "Huh? Hey! I'm not ready yet!"
The monsters didn't care if they were ready or not. It was as if they felt an urge to kill and that was what led them to attack Athena.
Lunnia stepped between Athena and the skeletons and then an aura like black veil covered her body. Athena had cast shield of darkness on Lunnia and it happened.
Lunnia's demonic blood resonated with the demonic power of the shield and what was only a veil of shadows became a storm.
The common shield of darkness could easily defend any attack that wasn't magical or from creatures that should be legendary, such as dragons. However, the shield around Lunnia would withstand even a dragon attack.
Seeing this, Athena felt the excitement of a new discovery. Dark magic was a good combo with a demonic being. Then she thought of another supporting spell from her arsenal of spells.
"Lunnia!" Athena called. In her left hand a blood red ball pulsed.
"What?"
"I'm sorry!" Athena undid her shield and cast another spell. "{Demon Heart}"
"Huh?" Lunnia turned and she was hit by a red smoky aura.
The moment Lunnia was hit, she lost consciousness for seconds, but those seconds were enough for her to be buried in bones.
"Hahahahaha! Is that it? Your plan is to betray your friend so you can run away? Too bad, you're going to die here, with her!"
Athena dodged one skeleton's sword and then another's axe and breaking the arm of a third, she stole the monster's scimitar along its forearm.
"Me? I didn't do anything you said." Athena said and then a shiver.
The magic that Athena used, brings out all the wishes of the bewitched and turns it into strength. In the game it was just a buff Hades learned so he could cheat on monster fights bets. However, in that world it was another matter.
The moment Lunnia was hit, her greatest desire was to prove herself to Athena and for that it was necessary to be strong. All this desire turned into Lunnia's strength.
Underneath that jumble of bones. Lunnia had suffered some injuries, but none serious. Her armor was stiff and the skeleton attacks weren't strong enough to get through.
Lunnia's body was full of red vein-like marks and her eyes through the helmet were red as glowing rubies.
Feeling her heart racing and her body simmering unable to move because of the weight, It irritated the knight. To get rid of it, she decided to destroy more of the deck.
She lifted her right leg as high as she could and kicked the ground with all her strength. The wooden floor, unable to withstand the impact, cracked and gave way, and most of the skeletons, along with Lunnia, disappeared from the deck.
"See?" Athena said. On her face was the same smirk she wore when she was Hades.
The resurgent was about to say something, when a ball of skeletons flew from the second hole and spread through the air like fireworks and another tremor happened and the ship broke in half at the sound of wind, wood breaking, Lunnia's enraged roar and Athena's laughter.
But it lasted shortly.
When the ship came to a stop after it cracked, the door to the captain's cabin opened and a tall, fat, shirtless man stepped from inside. In his rotting face he had a lifeless gray eye and a wound that split his face and thick beard in half.
"What the hell is going on here?" The thing asked and Athena threw up her breakfast.
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