Chapter 114 - Gehenna - The Beginning Of The Birth Of The Goddess Of Massacre

Lunnia's funeral was silent and reserved inside the throne room of the Imperial Palace in Basilian.

Lunnia wasn't royalty and didn't even have a royal knighthood, but she was buried in the crypt of the royal knights as if she were one of them.

Afterwards, feeling somewhat sentimental, Athena left Gion's funeral and teleported into the middle of the Sigma desert, where Lunnia and she had their first adventure together.

Now Athena had so much power, but it was still impossible for her to manipulate life and that made her even more furious at Hercules, who was trapped, hanging on black iron hooks in Basilian's underground dungeons.

The cold wind of the desert night hit Athena's skin, bringing her back to reality, after spending some time thinking of some way to reverse death, then she saw the mountain of mana crystals that emanated a exorbitant amount of mana and the plan she had thought of earlier came back to her mind.

"That's it..."

Athena took a step forward and the crystals that were at least five hundred meters away were now within reach of her hand.

Athena was not yet used to that range of her power and new abilities, but she felt it and used it naturally.

The mana, which stretched toward the sky like a white veil of energy, tried aggressively to penetrate Athena's skin, which would normally end up killing her as she stayed there, but only caused an irrelevant tingle.

However, preventing the mana from entering her body was not Athena's intention, quite the contrary, it was exactly what she wanted.

"I'll start with you." Athena said as she placed her hand on the surface of the crystal. {Mana Drain}"

This was a spell Athena swore never to use again. A spell that allows her to absorb mana from the world at high density and temporarily makes her mana infinite.

Obviously the price of using this magic was high and it could easily kill her, but that is a thing of the past. Now Athena absorbed the mana as if it were the most natural thing to do and made that mana her property.

This was possible because Athena was already subconsciously absorbing mana from the world. Her body and soul tried to adapt to the requirements of the Akashic Records that were often used by Athena. So as soon as the mana she was absorbing came into contact with the mana she already had, the two mingled and Athena's existence got stronger and stronger.

This idea emerged from Lucifer's suggestion of absorbing the world into itself, but she didn't need to. The mana of the world was something infinite as long as that world was alive and a world that didn't die even though half of it was destroyed wouldn't die for someone taking some of its mana.

So if Athena absorbed enough without killing the world, she would soon have enough power to even face the gods.

Athena wondered why the gods, or any other creature, had never done this, not knowing she was the only one who could. Well, not the only one, Hercules, being an invading soul like Athena, could absorb mana from the world, but he would probably die in the process for not being strong enough.

Anyway, as she absorbed the mana from the crystals and the mana from everything else around her, her hair turned completely white and the green of her irises turned azure blue with something aberrant in them.

In her eyes, inside irises, there were several thin lines that moved almost briskly, like snakes, undulating to her pupils that seemed to engulf the lines in black infinity.

The lines were different colors, each representing an element, black for the dark element, white for the sacred element, yellow for earth, green for wind, blue for water and red for fire.

This was a sign that Athena's mana was special or had become something special, containing all the elements of that world while having none, just like Athena, who had become a goddess without gaining divinity.

When it had fully absorbed the crystal that could easily surpass the size of three castles stacked on top of one another and glowed brilliantly, colored with blue and white, it faded and crumbled, leaving in its place only a mountain of pearly white sand.

Athena, floating without using her wings, looked around feeling everything. This was a nuisance for her, being aware even of the anthill thousands of miles from where she was was quite exhausting for her, but even after containing all the mana she had, almost nothing changed and she gave up upon containing her mana.

There was much to be done and Athena was grateful that it could all be resolved simply by killing Asherah. It wouldn't be easy and she knew it, but she liked the fact that it was simple.

Obviously she had nothing against the goddess, she couldn't feel something for someone she'd never seen before, but if the goddess was an enemy, it was natural for Athena to want to kill her.

Taking a deep breath, Athena closed her eyes and accessed the Akashic Records, looking for a way to reach true divinity and, at the same time, how to kill a god.

At that moment, without realizing it, Athena poured all her power onto the land, causing all the floating islands to tremble and be pushed down.

People everywhere, not knowing what was happening, despaired at the thought that the islands were collapsing, but those who could be called "mighty beings" like dragons, giants and fairies could sense what was happening.

In the forests, green dragons spread their wings and tornadoes sprang up as fairies danced. The reason for this was because they felt the birth of a new god and this kind of scene was repeated in several other parts of the floating continent.

In the lava mountains to the west, fire dragons breathed fire into the sky as if they were crowning the new god, in the snowy lands of the north, the ice dragons awoke from their dreams, excited by the new existence and the giants, who was fighting, stopped beating each other and roared to the east where the presence came from.

The angels in the sacred gardens knelt as they felt Lhia's presence in the energy that came to them and Michael, who was in Lucifer's territory in the world below, spread his wings and flew, leaving only the corpses of demons and monsters behind.

Athena opened her eyes, containing her power again, and looked up at the night sky with the satisfaction of having found what she was looking for and looking up at her moon.

The red moon she named "Moon of Massacre" shone brighter than the other two, it was as if it were celebrating it's master's rebirth, Athena smiled.

"So now I can start..."

***

After returning to Basilian, Athena gathered Ytria, Lucifer, Ella, Theikós, Anemus and Mifa in the meeting room of the imperial palace in Basilian and explained her entire plan.

Now knowing what she must do to kill Asherah and what she must do to become a true goddess, her words carried even more weight.

"First of all, I'm going to hide Fotiá." Athena said while cleaning the sand on her black dress. "I don't want her to be in danger while this is all going on."

"And where are you going to hide her?" Anemus asked, intrigued by Athena's appearance.

The woman's white hair gleamed more than the candles that lit the place, they were like Lucifer's wings, who couldn't hide them because she was still too weak. Also, although colored, her eyes were cold, it was as if she was no longer saddened by Lunnia's death.

Anemus was afraid that something in Athena had changed too much and as she bit the corners of her lips in her anxiety and fear, Anemus wondered what to do if her assumptions were right.

"I will send her to my former world and you two will go along." Atena disse olhando para Anemus e Mifa e então para Lucifer e Ytria. "You two will also go to the other world to protect them."

"Huh?!" Ytria jumped up in her chair, stunned by the ease with which Athena talked about dimensional travel. "Do you have any idea how much it will cost you to open a door to that world?"

"It's okay, I know what I'm supposed to do." Athena looked out the window. "A power supply is approaching as we speak."

None of this was in her plan for Athena. She just wanted Athena to free Uran and leave everything to the gods, but Athena intended to solve everything herself. Ytria was apprehensive about everything she was turning into something tragic.

"Then that's it?" Anemus asked after hearing Athena's explanation of her plan. "Are you going to fight alone in the end? And all that stuff about being together?"

Athena didn't respond, instead she looked at Mifa. "You won't object?"

Mifa shrugged and said. "I was not useful against an ancient man, how could I be useful in a battle against gods?" Then looking into Athena's eyes, Mifa sighed heavily, trying freeing herself from the weight of her defeat and smiling at her lover. "Don't make me wait too long, okay?

Athena smiled and looked at Anemus who looked ashamed of her attitude, but Athena understood why she was that way. "It's going to be okay. I always come back, don't I? One way or another."

Anemus widened her eyes as she understood the truth behind those words and then bowed her head with a bitter expression without saying anything else, but then in her mind, she heard Athena's voice.

(I'm sorry I have to leave you alone again.)

Anemus looked at Athena with a startled look, got up and hurried out of the room, leaving the people there, with the exception of Athena, confused and wondering what happened.

Athena smiled a fake smile and continued the meeting, explaining everything in minimums details to the remaining ones and then making Lucifer, Theikós and Ella recover their powers more quickly.

"I understood everything and the story Ytria told about the gods makes more sense than what I remember happened in the past..." Ella said. "But don't you axha too risky for you to fight alone?"

"I'll be fine." Athena said and clicked her tongue in irritation. "This is getting repetitive..."

"It's not like I have any feelings for my mom and brothers, so do what you want, but our agreement remains." Lucifer said with a smile.

"Of course, actually, he's coming here right now." Athena said and Lucifer shivered. "No need to be scared, it'll be over before it even starts."

"So you really intend to do everything alone?" Ytria asked, her throat feeling dry. "You know it's going to be an almost impossible task, don't you?"

"No! Who said I'm going to do it all by myself? I'm not dumb enough for this, I'll free Uran first. If Asherah uses her as a battery and Uran is a primordial goddess, how could I win without taking her power source?"

Ytria sighed in relief and let the tension slip away. "I'm glad you know what you're doing..."

***

"You can't be mad at someone who's going to war." Athena said to Anemus, who was sitting on the bed with her head down on her knees and with her back to Athena. "I know everything sounds scary and words don't make any difference when it comes to death, but I want you to know that I will always come back to you."

"But how long will it take? Four hundred years? A thousand years? How can I stand so much loneliness?" Anemus grunted without looking at Athena.

"You are stronger than you think you are. I know this because even with no hope of finding me again, you waited for me and I came back."

"That was just a coincidence...."

"Yes, that was a coincidence, but now it's a promise. It doesn't matter how long it takes, but I'll come back to you, to all of you.." Athena said and sat up in bed, being suddenly hugged by Anemus.