Chapter 37 - Unholy War - Part 2 - Intercession

*Now I'm going to use ( ) for thoughts instead of ' '. I hope it gets better that way.*

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The next day, at the restaurant of a charming inn called 'Fairy Rest', a group had breakfast quietly.

"What was that woman?"

The only boy in the group complained as he massaged his already healed nose.

Seeing this, one of the girls in the group, a hyena-type beastman, held back a laugh that forced its way through her mouth.

"Pfft"

"What are you laughing at Mifa?"

"Pffffffffft!!!! Wahahahahaha! You didn't stand a chance against her!!"

"K-Klad wasn't okay yesterday..." Shyly said the half elf.

"Don't console him, Sura. He was completely defeated last night." Said the draconian firmly.

"I agree with you, Mhia." Said the purple-haired human girl. "He shouldn't go out there wanting to fight everyone."

"Who are you on whose side?" Klad complained.

"Can you guys speak lower?" Complained the pale girl.

"Yes, keep it down. I'm not a morning person today..." Athena said from the other table.

People looked at Athena and Samy at the other table with surprise stamped on their faces.

Seeing Athena, Klad stood up, slamming his hand on the table hard enough to shake the dishes and overturn the bread baskets.

"So you're staying here too..." Klad stared at Athena's back, who didn't turn around.

Athena took another sip of her juice, ignoring the boy. Athena had rolled over half the night without being able to sleep.

It had been nearly two weeks since she'd run away to find herself, and missing Anemus and Fotiá made her mind roar and her heart restless.

But Klad didn't know that, and even seeing the woman downcast, he didn't care. The boy didn't accept last night's defeat and wanted a rematch.

"Hey! Are you going to ignore me?" Klad put a hand on Athena's shoulder.

"Athena, don't mind him." Samy said upon seeing Athena's scary expression.

"Stay out of this, dwarf!"

"Huh? I'm not a dwarf!" Samy protested with his arms up.

Athena set her glass down on the table calmly.

"I'm talking to this bitch." Klad glared at Samy. "Stay out of this or I'll kill you."

"Klad!" the purple-haired girl complained.

"[Hew]" Athena said monotonously and placed two fingers on Klad's wrist, using her nails as razors.

At that moment blood painted Athena's hair, shoulder and dress, but the blood was not hers.

Klad's hand was still on Athena's shoulder, but Klad was screaming in pain as his wrist spurted blood all over the place.

"Samy, I lost my appetite." Athena said looking at her food covered in fresh blood. "I'm going up to my room to clean me up."

Without waiting for an answer from Samy, Athena stood up calmly as the girls tried to stop Klad's blood and walked towards the stairs, being stopped by Mifa.

The restaurant was almost full and seeing Klad's blood spurt everywhere, they abandoned their plates and walked away from the group, watching from the corners of the place.

Mifa, who was facing Athena, was a thief and used her claws and fangs as weapons, and at that moment she had her 'weapons' aimed at Athena.

"What?" Athena had a cold look as she looked at the girl.

Beastmen are people with good natural instincts and even without being able to see Athena's mana, Mifa felt an overwhelming oppression as she looked into Athena's eyes.

Mifa recoiled with her ears down and her claws retracted, feeling a fear she had never felt.

"W-why did you do that?" She screamed the purple-haired girl.

"K-Killa..."

Athena looked at the beastman girl and followed her gaze to the purple-haired girl named Killa.

"Why?' Do you really need to ask that?"

Athena looked at Killa the same way she looked at Mifa, but the human wasn't intimidated.

"You could just push him away!" Killa had fury on her cute little face.

Athena looked at Klad who was having his wrist closed by some kind of bloody magic the pale girl was using.

"Thank me." Athena said as she wiped the blood from her jaw. "Now he'll think carefully before messing with someone who's quiet."

"Who do you think you are?" Mhia complained with blue flames escaping her red lips. "Who do you think you are to do this to Klad?"

"Hm..."

Athena thought for a while looking at the wooden ceiling of the place and then looked at the girls with a friendly smile that became tenebrous with all that blood in her body.

"I am Athena. A knight?" Athena introduced herself and turned toward the stairs again. "So, good bye."

And just like that they watched Athena disappear upstairs without doing anything.

Aside from the girls and Klad's moans of pain, the place didn't have a noise at all.

The people there left the place in silence and Samy would do the same if Killa didn't stop him, wanting revenge on Athena's friend for what she did to Klad.

However, Samy was a kindred and making enemy such an abominable creature was a mistake.

The moment Killa raised her fist, glowing with the use of some attack skill, against Samy, Killa's entire arm disappeared along with Samy who was in front of the girl.

"Huh?" Killa looked at his armless right shoulder, not understanding what had happened. "Huh? My arm..."

The group looked at Killa as if they had seen a haunting.

One moment the gentle looking boy was standing there in front of Killa, and then in the blink of an eye the boy disappeared, and along with him, Killa's arm.

"Aah... Sorry!" Samy said from behind the group. "I only intended to put a curse on your arm so you can never use it again, but you scared me and..."

With the girl's bloody arm in his hands, Samy walked back to Killa, who still had a stunned expression on her face.

Samy returned the girl's arm and patted her shoulder consolingly.

Killa had a shallow, pale look on her face just like her party as see Samy walk away.

The girl wasn't bleeding, so she wasn't in danger of her life, but the shock of having her arm amputated in that eerie way left her in a semi-catatonic state.

Samy look to the group, smile charmingly and then walked away while he wiped his bloodied hands with a handkerchief.

***

In Basilian, the king sent emissaries to all the guilds and legions of mercenaries that were scattered all over the floating islands.

That's because the number of soldiers of the kingdom that fell in combat had already surpassed the estimates, while it was not even possible to even see the apex of the war.

The king visited Serien every day now, but Serien didn't even respond to his taunts anymore.

Every day she cried when she heard the news about the death toll and blamed herself, knowing it was lives she could save.

Serien prayed all the time, asking Lhia or any other god who would hear her cry, that she would send a light to the end of this useless war.

But she didn't know that even though the gods could freely interfere in the world, they were just as selfish and greedy as their believers.

The gods watched everything and saw everything, but they paid no attention to war or wars in the world. They liked to see simple things like the life of a random woman who simply gained the attention of a capricious goddess like Death.

***

After bathing, wearing off her armor, and fastening the belt of her sword sheath around her waist, Athena left the inn, not caring about the weeping and angry vows of revenge that came from the restaurant.

Athena looked up at the tower that rose majestically in the middle of the city as guards rushed into the inn.

(I think I'll buy some spell learning scrolls first...)

The tower had several layers like a wedding cake and streets that curled into its outer walls, where people who just wanted to buy magical items could find the thousands of stores with millions of items available.

Athena had already walked two entire floors and it was past noon and she hadn't found a learning scroll at all.

She begins to consider the non-existence of such items when she enters a store at the end of the second floor.

The store had several shelves of scrolls stacked neatly by elements.

Athena looked at that place marveling at its contents as she walk in it. It felt like magic paradise to her.

They had spells from the first through the tenth cycle and also quite curious magic items like a forearm that had green runes carved into its bones.

Athena admired the place when she heard a soft, mellow voice from behind a pile of parchments.

"Can I help you?"

"I want ten spells from each cycle." Athena said without looking for the owner of the voice.

Upon hearing what Athena wanted, the shop owner got surprised and knocked over the pile of parchments that was in front of her.

"Y-you said what?"

"I want ten spells from each cycle, that's a hundred scrolls." Athena said and looked at the attendant.

To Athena's surprise, the person speaking to her was not a grown woman but a girl who looked no older than thirteen.

She wore an open black tunic with a frilly dress underneath, her long, silky, silver hair flowed down her shoulders and back like waterfalls, and her startled eyes were also silver.

"You... do you know how much this is going to cost?" the girl asked with noticeable suspicion on her face.

"Congratulations, you will be very rich.." Athena scoffed with a cheerful smile.