Chapter 66 - The Hero And The War Without Truce

This is a story of two years before Athena woke up in the eastern forest outside Reiden.

The central continent on the other side of the world below was the last clean non-floating continent.

The people of this continent actually didn't even know why there had small, gigantic islands floating on the horizon.

All they knew was that something happened on the other side of the world a long time ago and because of this unknown happening, demons invaded the mortal world and now the last continent that people could shelter and survive, was that hideous place.

The central continent was, for the most part, a wasteland. It has always been that way and would remain that way for eternity.

For this reason, the few fertile lands were engaged in constant warfare between the dozens of small kingdoms that were left in the world.

One of these kingdoms was Odeon, a kingdom of ancient history that had to abandon its lands in the northern continent because of two demons, who claimed to be princes of hell and demon lords in the mortal world

The king of Odeon, Ser'tio Odeon, seeing no other choice to end the suffering of having his people hostage to fear and an incessant dispute for land, decided that he would summon a hero.

Summoning a hero required a life to pay the price of the hero's journey and powers. Until then there was no problem, it was just using someone as a sacrifice.

Everyone applauded the king's initiative. An initiative that the kings of the past refused to take. But that only lasted until the king stated his intentions.

"I will not use any sacrifice. What kind of king sacrifices his people to survive?"

Ser'tio would pay the price himself and everyone was against that. Ser'tio was a zealous king and for that reason he was loved by his people. Nobody wanted to lose a leader like him.

However, that was how everything followed. To save his people, to save the world, Ser'tio sacrificed himself and summoned a righteous and strong hero to save the world.

Obviously the hero didn't like being summoned. After all, what had happened to him, from his perspective, was nothing more than a lightning kidnapping.

In the early days it was a pain. The hero locked himself in his room and just cried.

One day he was living his life normally like a regular high schooler and suddenly his life had turned upside down and now he had to fight scary demons and save an entire people.

It was quite a burden for a fifteen-year-old boy.

However, the days passed and the hero had a good brain. He stopped mourning and decided that he would fight for those people, save the world, and look for a way back to his world.

The hero went through strenuous days of training.

He had power, but he was like a seed that needed to blossom and grow and after months of training.

He closed his eyes to hungry people as he ate, hid from Odeon's enemy knights looking for him, and escaped from demons wanting his head. That's until one day he was ready.

The hero advanced across the battlefield, cutting hordes of lesser demons and nearly dying to greater demons, but always the last one standing.

Killing the first, second, third and even the fourth and fifth humanoid being was very disturbing for him. He wondered if what he was doing was right.

His enemies were demons, but... So what if they were demons? They understood what they said, laughed, mocked, felt pain and died just like everyone else.

"All you need to worry about is whether you'll be alive tomorrow. They want to kill you and they will if you hesitate. I don't know what your world is like, but here, if you want to live, you have to kill."

After hearing this, the hero's questions and moral disturbances ceased. In fact, he locked away part of his old morality and continued on the battlefield for months.

During this period he fought against Belphegor. Both the hero and the demon lord were seriously injured.

After months of recovering, the hero fought Leviathan and won, but Leviathan fled before receiving the final blow.

A draw and a victory against demon lords was a formidable feat and obviously it caught the attention of two bigwigs among the demon lords.

Azazel and Mammon went to find the hero. They wanted to know how a human could be so strong. But when they found him, they were disappointed.

The hero had considerable strength, but nothing to fear.

"That's your limit..." Azazel said to the hero after sweeping the floor with him. "As punishment for letting me down, I will destroy the kingdom that brought you to this world."

When the hero woke up, there was nothing left of Odeon. Houses, castle and slums had all been reduced to fire and corpses.

The hero wept in a shrill howl that echoed through the valley of death and fire.

His only home in this world, the only place he could call home was gone.

His chest burned, but it wasn't from the wound Mammon had done. The hatred that awoke and boiled inside him.

That day the hero set out to seek his revenge against Azazel and Mammon.

He still searches for the location of the demon lords while slaughtering every demon in his path.

***

In the Basilica's camp, in the queen's tent, Athena begged Mifa to forgive her while Serien healed the girl's arm and ribs, broken by Athena's kick.

Mifa was sitting on the luxurious bed that Serien had insisted on bringing to Athena, who was kneeling beside the girl, repeatedly apologizing.

"I didn't have a choice, if you stayed there, he could have used you to kills me!"

Mifa didn't look at Athena. That same day, the woman yelled at her and kicked her hard enough to break her bones.

Even knowing that all this was because Athena wanted to protect her, Mifa was still sulking.

Athena stopped begging, she had already apologized too much. She waited for Serien to finish and when the princess left the tent, Athena tied the entrance, casted {Absolute Shield} on the tend, to isolate the place from whoever it was, and looked at Mifa.

"W-what are you going to do?" Mifa asked with wide eyes that got even wider when Athena started to take off her armor.

Standing in front of the girl, Athena lazily removed her plate armor, revealing the clothing that separates her skin from the upholstery on the metal pieces.

Athena didn't wear much, just a dark red dress and a white cloth coat.

She took off her coat, tossing it in the corner of the tent and approached Mifa with a serious look.

With each step of Athena, Mifa felt goose bumps rising in her belly, the back of her neck also shivered and she retreated farther to the center of the bed.

"Athena, I'm not in the mood." Mifa said, but didn't resist when Athena climbed onto the bed and stay over her.

Still looking into Mifa's eyes, Athena unbuttoned the girl's belt and untied the string of Mifa's dark brown shorts.

"Will you forgive me?" Athena asked in a whispered voice and with a sharp look as she slipped a finger into Mifa's exposed belly, who shivered and sighed.

"N-no... S-stop w-with- Ah!" Mifa said and gasped as Athena slipped her hands inside her dark green teal blouse.

Athena continued undressing Mifa little by little while she apologized and Mifa refused to forgive her as she sighed and moaned, until Athena was the only one in the place who still wore clothes.

"Are you sure you won't forgive me?" Athena asked, but now she was smiling mischievously.

Mifa was completely naked on the bed, showing Athena her sweaty white skin, her rosy and excited nipples in her firm breasts that rose and fell violently cause of her excited breathing.

"I…" Mifa stared at the roof of the tent and took a deep breath as she felt Athena's hand move up her thighs towards her wetness.

Athena bit her lip as she smiled at Mifa's reactions and Mifa panted as she arched her back to Athena's touch.

Athena bent down as she spread Mifa's legs and kissed the inside of the girl's thighs.

Athena continued kissing and licking Mifa's inner thighs, until she got where she wanted and made the girl moan loudly.

Minutes later, Athena was lying in bed with Mifa in her arms. The two women smiled, exchanged passionate kisses and caressed each other's sweaty skin.

***

The Basilica camp was having a relatively calm night for an army in enemy territory.

Soldiers patrolled the surroundings in shifts every ten minutes. It was at one of those intervals that it all started.

Flames set fire to tents, assassins killed sleeping soldiers, knights cut down monsters' heads, and in seconds the camp turned into a battlefield.

Athena and Mifa hurriedly dressed and ran out of the tent with weapons in hand.

Athena wore only the red dress and nothing else. Her armor had been left on the floor of the tent and the situation didn't allow for the whim of putting on a armor.

"Don't ask, don't talk!" Athena said to Mifa. "Just kill anything that has black armor and/or the symbol of the lion of the empire."

Mifa nodded and disappeared onto the battlefield. Athena ran to the opposite side and found Lobana protecting Serien who cast magic one after the other with a complicated expression.

The princess was still pale, making it clear that she still hadn't recovered. Athena ran to where the women were and saw Oliana in the distance.

"Serien!" Athena extended her hand to the princess, who took the queen's hand without question. "Lobana, go and kill anything that moves with the colors of the empire. I'll take care of Serien."

Lobana opened a smile and decapitated two soldiers in a single blow and ran with violence in her eyes to the middle of the battlefield.

"Serien, you will be safe with her!" Athena said without explaining anything.

Serien looked at her queen and before she could say anything, Athena screamed for Oliana. When the woman looked at Athena, Serien flew toward her.

"Now…" Athena focused on the battlefield and said in a powerful voice. "[Fortification], [Acceleration], [Hypersensitivity]." Athena opened her eyes that glowed with excessive use of skills and a smile appeared when she thought of another skill. "[Super Perception]."

Once Athena activated the skill, it was as if she could see the battlefield from above and like on a chessboard, know which "pieces" belonged to her.

She could also see in the distance, the real enemy waiting for something, but that wasn't a problem for now.

Athena decided to show her power to Veta and imagine the man making a stupid expression of surprise was almost as exciting as having sex with Mifa. She pointed her sword high and in a booming voice, she cast {Rain of Lightning}.

Black clouds covered the moons that lit the night. Tens of hundreds of lightning ripped through the sky and fell to the ground, hitting all the invading soldiers one after another.

"Let's start a massacre!" Athena screamed and that scream echoed across the plain, reaching even the ears of the emperor who soon heard like thunder the roar of the Basilican army and shrank back on his horse.

(What's wrong with these people?) The emperor thought and looked at Veta who had the look of an oppressed tiger.