NOVPUBPov Vanessa:
I was sitting in front of the statue of the Goddess Selene, saying my daily prayers, when she silently approached me. If she had been anywhere else, I wouldn’t even be able to notice her, but inside this Temple, there is nothing that the Saints can’t see. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
"Has he gone yet?" (me)
"Yes, I wanted to go, but I didn’t dare ask, she would do something to me." (Samara)
"Callidora gave you to my Father, she doesn’t think enough of you to go against it." (me)
"Callidora doesn’t matter, my happiness, suffering, life, death or anything related to my existence doesn’t matter to her. I was given to Zenos on a whim as if I had been discarded. It was luck." (Samara)
"My concern is for the girl, Niryna..." (Samara)
"..." (me)
"Don’t look at me like that, I’m older than some worlds in your universe, I’ve also experienced things that you can’t even think about." (Samara)
"Do you really think a normal Soul would end up in Callidora’s hands? Do you really think she would choose a random Soul to be her daughter?" (Samara)
"I thought she chose Niryna because of her connection to my Father." (me)
"Don’t be fooled about her, there would be other Souls for that, there would be some options to choose from at least, but she still chose this specific Soul." (Samara)
"..." (me)
I can’t refute your statements, these are things I’ve also considered as well as some others, I’m sure my father thought about it too, but he hasn’t said anything to me yet and as far as I know he hasn’t said anything to anyone else.
"(It’s not my problem...)" (me)
"You’re not here to talk about my sister, so what do you really want?" (me)
"A warning to your Goddess, I’m sure she pays a lot of attention to you, so she should listen." (Samara)
"Don’t use the sword, it’s not complete, that’s a bigger risk than it seems." (Samara)
"Than you..." (me)
"(Don’t say anything.)" (Goddess Selene)
Suddenly the statue of the Goddess shines and the air around it exudes the smell of fresh blood, a sweet and ferrous perfume that awakens my appetite.
An image of the Goddess reveals itself with the statue seeming to come to life, but Samara says nothing more than look at the Goddess, there is no reverence, fear, respect or admiration in her expression, only indifference as if the Goddess were any other person she met.
"I know very well how the Gods think and I know the reason Baldr became so bold, the only two items in this Universe that could grant him that are with you, but it would be impossible to be the crown since you never part with it, which only leaves the Sword as the only option." (Samara)
"To complete the sword you need the Blood of Zenos, a true user of the power of Chaos, until then be careful if you are forced to use the Sword." (Samara)
"..." (Goddess Selene)
"..." (me)
The Goddess says nothing, just looks at Samara who turns and leaves without giving another look to the Goddess who seems to contemplate what she heard, then she turns to me, a great amount of information flowing into my mind, a ritual that was about to be assembled by me as well as the materials I will need.
"(Be ready.)" (Goddess Selene)
"As you wish." (me)
Soon the illusion of the Goddess disappears leaving only the Statue of the Goddess Selene as it was before.
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Pov Zenos:
Looking around I was in a truly crazy place, there was a river of bodies flowing while screams of beings wailing endlessly were heard, the bodies moving trying to escape this grotesque river trying to pull themselves out by grabbing each other ironically that was what didn’t allow any of them to leave.
"My lord, may I guide you if you wish?" (Lara)
"Do you know the way?" (me)
"I didn’t know, now I know." (Lara)
I look at Lara again, she was already very tall to begin with, but with my small appearance it would take 3 of me to surpass her, her outfit was something between a biker and a butler, her ponytail being one of her most striking features with an intense black color contrasting with her slightly reddish skin.
She seemed very lively and her eyes were cold, but I could see a great respect for me in her eyes as she seemed to notice the height difference as something insignificant.
"I’m not going to waste my time with something like that, so she can guide you, just go in there." (Callidora)
"..." (me)
Suddenly Callidora appears, she points in a direction and space itself seems to curve revealing a tunnel that seems short, but as soon as we follow it, it was as if we were traveling thousands of kilometers per second and in just over an hour we arrived at the other side.
In front of us was a cave entrance with a metal gate in place, the gate had two symbols, a golden sun and a black moon, both side by side.
"Is this the way?" (me)
"Yes, we need to go through the door." (Lara)
"Couldn’t she open the gate instantly?" (me)
"She could, but she won’t." (Lara)
"(Knowing her, it wouldn’t be surprising that she created this gate at the last minute just to play with me.)" (me)
"I’ll take care of it." (me)
Sigh
"(We don’t have time for this...)" (me)
I approach the gate and realize that it doesn’t have a handle, so I try to rip the hinges off, but the gate doesn’t get a scratch.
"Callidora, I don’t have time for these childish games." (me)
"< Bend >" (me)
I just spoke as if I was upset to please her who is clearly messing with me like a child would just for fun, she doesn’t care if my reactions are true or not, she just wants to see a show and I gave it to her for a few seconds before getting serious.
I wrapped my hands in Starfire, the Power of Chaos pulsing in my Dragon claws, I hold one end of the gate while the Starfire spreads throughout it, then with a little force the entire gate bends.
The power of chaos is focused on transformation, I’m not very good at truly destroying something, but there is nothing that cannot be bent or transformed through my power.
When I passed through the now bent gate, I suddenly realized that the place I had passed through, I was alone with Lara without looking back.
Looking around, I noticed once again that city in ruins, an unusual architecture with traces of a more technologically advanced civilization, this place was in ruins and gave off a very strong aura of age.
Lara wasn’t much of a talker, she just walked in one direction and encouraged me to follow her until I reached the place where a man was sitting on top of a pillar, his legs trapped in a wire full of thorns that were moving on their own, tearing the flesh of his prisoner, chains were holding his arms, neck, legs and waist.
He was there just like in the past, but his situation was much more restricted than in the past, much worse.
He had a tattered hood covering his head, a black cloak dripping paint that I suspected was blood and his pair of deer antlers were cracked, in fact it looked like his antlers were broken with their pieces being held in place floating, a dark mist around him.
Black hair fell down his shoulders in a cascade to the ground, on his face a pair of dark eyes were focused on me.
I approached him once more, hitting his Will as if it were a rigid iron wall, it seemed to try to corrupt me, but before it even touched my body it was corrupted by me, being torn apart in the process.
But I was noticing something else, in the past I felt Divinity in the luminous mask he wore, it was some kind of Seal of Baldr that was in the book, but now he doesn’t have that seal on him, this allowed me to feel the remnants of Divinity in him.
"(A God, an Evil God at most...)" (me)
He had already sensed my approach, but didn’t say anything, I stopped right in front of him, I could feel that I was being watched by him, I could also feel his presence, a well of endless darkness, the purest essence of Darkness.
"You really came..."
His voice was weak, but it dripped with endless hatred, but that hatred wasn’t directed at me.
His voice was forced and full of fatigue, looking more closely one could see that the spikes on his legs were forcing his power to leak out while the chains weren’t just binding his body, they were absorbing the power directly from his Soul, if it was anyone other than a God, then their Souls would have been sucked dry.
He is continuously struggling with the chains using his Soul as a tug of war, all while his body is dripping with power.
"(An admirable willpower.)" (me)
Even for a God this would be a difficult state to maintain, but he has been managing to hold on for an unknown number of years, this considering that he is no longer a true God, his Divinity is no longer present and yet he does what would be difficult even for Gods.
But what took me a while to realize or maybe what I ignored until now was that he was actually here with his body, it wasn’t just his Soul.
