Chapter 116: Anthea

Goddess Eve stood in the sky, looking down at Styx, Aura and Spider with an ice cold tone. One hand was outstretched to the side where an enormous spear made out of fire aimed at them.

This spear was so hot that the water from everybody's bodies were evaporating and their blood boiling. The First Step residents and monsters had already died by being cooked alive, whilst the Second Step and even Third Step residents were weakening constantly as their body condition continued to deteriorate.

Eve didn't care about the small fry, so she never even spared them a single glance.

"Don't think I don't know that this is just an avatar of yours, dungeon soul. This will erase everything within the barrier, including your core."

She didn't even give him time for a response, simply casting her hand downwards and causing the world splitting spear of fire to fall upon the group.

Styx grit his teeth whilst Aura and Spider had looks of defiance. One howled whilst the other hissed, but both knew they couldn't stop this attack. Goddess Eve wasn't weak in the standards of gods by any means, and this attack contained the full power of her divinity to end what she saw as a parasitical existence in her kingdom once and for all.

'Mortals oppose while god deposes. This is the problem with the power imbalance in the Treaty of Gods. Whether you are protected by it, or have breached it, both are decided by god…'

Styx was unresigned from his very core. Despite all his complaints of unfairness, how the goddess had determined his fate regardless of his actions by either killing him with the army, or herself should he somehow prevail, he had but one thought.

'This is bullshit.'

As death was looming down upon him and Styx's omnipresent dungeon sight was burning away alongside his territory, a tickle in the back of his mind stirred.

Behind his avatar, a small tuft of grass sprung up from the ground, followed by several more as if marking footsteps.

A woman at the epitome of beauty appeared as if she was always there, grass and life growing from the ground wherever her bare feet stepped.

She had beautiful long golden hair, braided with beads, and several pieces of jewellery made out of pure gold with Mayan designs on it. Her clothes were hemp and somewhat rustic, but that did nothing to detract from her beauty.

"Anthea…" Styx said with the eyes of his avatar still forced shut with crusted blood. "…You are here."

"I am always here."

Her voice travelled into everyone's ears at the same time and gave their souls a sense of relief, as if a great weight had been shifted from their shoulders. The infinite heat burning their bodies also vanished and a refreshing coolness of being in moist dirt washed over them.

"…"

Styx clenched his fists as a slew of complex emotions raged through his body. He felt sorrow, guilt and remorse, whilst also anger and a sense of justness.

Anthea raised her hand casually and the giant spear of fire fizzled out. At the same time, the enormous temporal barrier which covered the sky broke at the apex before the rest rapidly crumbled and vanished.

Eve looked down at the woman whilst being dumbfounded.

"Who… What are you? I have never seen such a broken god before."

Anthea merely shook her head, her smile brightening up the world as she calmly stated, "Return."

"Pardon?"

"Return to the divine realm. This is not the place for you."

"Stand aside and let me finish my business. I have already paid the price to descend and I will return after my duty is complete."

"You cannot kill him."

"Are you going to stop me?"

"Only if you persist."

"You dare…" Eve's expression rapidly fell as she glared at Anthea in rage. "Why are you interfering and protecting that parasite!? I don't care what you are, you shall not prevent me from protecting my kingdom!"

Eve teleported directly behind Anthea, her spear tip splitting light in half as it thrust at the back of her heart.

Anthea didn't move and allowed the spear to strike her. Despite how powerful the blow was however, it stopped on her skin and didn't leave so much as a scratch. There wasn't even any aftershock, and it seemed like the attack merely sunk into a bottomless ocean.

A gentle divine hymn rang out as the rivers of blood on the ground were absorbed into the earth. In its place, long stalks of wheat and olive trees grew from the ground as if time was in fast forward. Fields of gold and the fresh scent of olives washed away the battlefield and left everyone stunned at the sight around them.

"Wha-"

Eve, equally stunned, was sent flying by casual sweep of Anthea's arm, even while the latter was facing the other direction.

She crashed through mountains, causing the top half of two mountains to be blown away through sheer kinetic force.

Her armor was cracked and falling to pieces, her body covered in lacerations where weeds and flowers grew from, further sucking away her divinity and vitality.

Eve ripped the weeds and flowers out of her would without hesitation, causing her blood to spill and stain the ground. She reappeared with a pale face twisted in rage while glaring at Anthea.

"What are you? How is a broken soul such as yourself so powerful?"

"I am but a god, breathing life onto this planet and the embodiment of the earth."

"You are not a god. I have never seen a god like you before."

"Your concept on god is incorrect. You call me strong, but I am no stronger than a mortal."

"…Do you honestly expect me to believe that?"

Anthea shook her head gently, her heavenly benevolent smile never once fading her flickering.

"You call yourself a god, but you are merely an empty shell. God is defined by authority, not power. Authority is merely a higher force, which is why mortals view us as powerful. No matter how heavy you strike, you cannot harm something you cannot touch."

"That is just semantics."

"God is weak, yet god's authority is almighty. We are bound by the meaning behind our existence, but also empowered by it. Return to the divine realm and contemplate your own existence. Perhaps then you will be able to fill the void of power which has been granted to you."

"Very well."

Despite her words, Eve suddenly and violently threw her spear at the ground right as the bridge to the divine realm opened and the pillar of light descended. This angle wasn't accidental, but was aimed directly at Styx's core.

She was sacrificing her own weapon whilst fleeing back to the divine realm, aiming to at least destroy the dungeon and avoid any counterattack.

A faint sigh escaped Anthea's lips as her gaze shifted over to the escaping goddess.

The spear was caught by several stalks of wheat whilst others grew and pierced into the pillar of divine light.

Eve's eyes widened in shock. She had believed the bridge to the divine realm would have kept her safe from the strange god and was even prepared to abandon her weapon and a significant amount of her strength to eradicate the dungeon, such was how direly she viewed Styx.

"That's impossible!"

The stalks of wheat crushed her legs and stabbed through her body but didn't take her life. She then ascended into the divine realm. The wheat stalks stained in the blood of gods rapidly withered and returned to the earth, giving nourishment to the next cycle of life.