Menrva and Bellona faced each other with defiant looks, both clad in their totemas and standing in fighting stances.
Bellona’s totema looked the same as when they had found her in Denendeh: a golden Roman helmet crowned with red plumes, shining bronze armor, a red cape, and a short red skirt as well. The goddess gripped her chains tightly, while her left hand burned like a torch.
“Freyja, do not interfere in this fight,” the Etruscan goddess said to the Norse goddess. “I want to defeat her one on one.”
“I had no intention of doing so. It would be cowardly purr two people to fight meow,” Freyja replied without much concern.
“However,” Menrva continued, “I want you to tend to that injured boy over there. He is part of our group.”
“All right, though meow no longer have any ambrosia,” the Norse goddess replied, somewhat alarmed.
“Just make sure he regains consciousness. He is a very strong boy,” the Etruscan goddess added. Freyja nodded and, with a leap, reached Rodrigo’s side.
“You are not going to try to stop her?” Menrva asked Bellona.
“I shall accept her offer and kill you first. After that, I shall see how I manage to defeat that girl, though with her totema broken, I doubt she will be much of a problem to me,” Bellona replied as her chains began merging into her arm.
Freyja then began shaking Rodrigo, who was still unconscious, though his ichor had already healed the wounds on his neck.
“Hey, boy. Wake up, meow!” the blonde goddess said.
Rodrigo slowly opened his eyes and saw Freyja’s nearly perfect face, with her golden curls and amber eyes. In that moment, the young man thought he must be in heaven, and that the goddess was an angel.
“I see... this must Heaven, and you must be my guardian angel,” Rodrigo said, still dazed.
“Meow?” the Norse goddess asked in confusion.
Meanwhile, Bellona’s chains fused together and took the shape of a whip.
“There is no point in using my chain-whips against you, knowing that you already know how to evade them,” Bellona said.
“No trick will help you defeat me,” the Etruscan goddess replied.
Bellona then stroked her whip with her flaming hand, and it became wrapped in fire, as the flames from her hand were transferred into it. The goddess’s eyes glowed red, and a maniacal smile spread across her face.
“One final warning,” Bellona said. “I may... enjoy killing my victims a little too much, and commit acts of cruelty while doing so.”
“I have known many people like you,” Menrva replied.
“Good. If you have nothing more to say, then come!” Bellona shouted, leaping forward with an attack from her burning whip aimed at Menrva.
Bellona tried to slice through the goddess’s neck, but Menrva avoided the blow. At the same time, the fire pouring from the whip created a towering pillar of flame, forcing Freyja to grab Rodrigo and leap away.
But Bellona was already preparing, still in midair, to finish Menrva off. The Etruscan goddess, however, struck Bellona in the abdomen with both feet. Bellona’s face twisted from the blow, and she was hurled into the sky, vanishing from sight.
Menrva then adopted the same stance Athena had used when she attacked, and in the same manner tried to bend her electric spear. A massive storm of thunder began to emanate from her body as she did so.
Just as Bellona’s body came back into view, falling headfirst from the sky, Menrva slashed through the air with her spear in a blur and shouted:
“Nensa Lauchum – Unus Frontac (Electric flow of the king of death)!”
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A gigantic electric wave burst from her attack and struck Bellona, darkening the sky as a vast rain of lightning bolts fell upon the earth, while a white, ellipse-shaped explosion erupted from the Roman goddess’s body.
“Menrva is not fighting half-heartedly. She’s going all out,” Freyja said as she watched the tremendous attack.
Blushing, Rodrigo then asked the Norse goddess who she was.
“I’m a furrend of Ana and Epona. We came to rescue meow,” the blonde goddess said. “Meow name is Freyja.”
“Are they all right?! Is Epona all right?!” Rodrigo asked, clutching the front of the goddess’s cloak, leaving her completely surprised.
“They... are well,” Freyja said, though at that moment she remembered Epona’s current condition and how Ana was falling ill from taking care of her. “They’re fine, but they stayed behind in a nearby village,” she finished explaining.
Rodrigo felt relieved and lay back down on the ground.
“Thank you very much. I already feel better,” the young man said.
The light of the explosion faded, but there was no sign of anyone having been struck by the attack. Menrva then began searching everywhere for Bellona’s body.
“Behind you!” Rodrigo shouted.
In that instant, Bellona appeared behind Menrva like a shadow and lashed out with her flaming whip as she shouted:
“Flammeum flagellum (Fire Whip)!”
But thanks to Rodrigo’s warning, Menrva teleported away in time and Bellona’s attack missed, though it caused enormous explosions nearby. The blast sent stones flying violently all around them.
“You are fortunate your little pet warned you of my attack,” Bellona said. “But I doubt that will be enough.”
Red spears made of magma then rose from the earth as the goddess recited:
“Claudi umbra (Crippling Shadow)!”
These spears appeared precisely where the explosions from Bellona’s whip had struck.
The formation of spears resembled a plant whose leaves sprang up from the ground, like henequen. One of the spears pierced the Etruscan goddess through the stomach before she could avoid it. After striking Menrva, the spears sank back into the earth.
Menrva’s nervous system was completely paralyzed, and she could only watch as the Roman goddess approached her and began punishing her with repeated lashes across her back.
Rodrigo grew furious and tried to rise, but Freyja stopped him.
“Meow cannot interrupt a fight between meow people. Don’t meow know how much that would humiliawte her?!” the Norse goddess replied irritably.
“That is right, Rodrigo. Enjoy watching your friend’s final moments,” Bellona said.
“Once her nervous system is paralyzed, her body will be unable to regenerate, so I shall amuse myself by cutting her into tiny pieces,” she explained.
“Wait, Bellona!” Rodrigo shouted.
“I know you are not truly a bad person, that you only do this to protect your own! What does that have to do with torturing Menrva?” he asked.
“Aww, Rodrigo,” Bellona replied.
“I forgot to tell you why I was exiled from Saturnia... It was because I enjoyed doing this far too much!” the Roman goddess screamed with a look of pleasure and madness as her whip glowed crimson and sliced deeply across the Etruscan goddess’s back, tearing part of her totema apart.
Rodrigo was left in shock by Bellona’s words and felt that he could neither say nor do anything. He wanted to strike her, but that would go against his principles. Though he had already broken those principles long ago when they fought Bellona after leaving Denendeh.
But then, a discharge of electricity burst from Menrva’s body, forcing the Roman goddess backward. Menrva’s heart began beating again, and the goddess moved once more.
Menrva immediately rushed at Bellona and delivered an overwhelming blow that sent the Roman goddess crashing into the ground, forcing her to drop her whip.
“How can you move again?!” Bellona asked in surprise.
“I sent an electric shock into my heart to reactivate it,” Menrva replied, breathing hard.
“You bitch, you nearly killed me with that!” the Etruscan goddess shouted furiously.
Bellona then used telekinesis to summon her whip back into her hand, and it burst into flames once more.
“Sanguinis sacrificium (Blood sacrifice)!” Bellona shouted as she cut through the air with her whip. A line of fire raced across the ground toward Menrva, who easily avoided it by jumping, but Bellona had expected that. In the next instant, the line of fire drew a circle beneath the goddess, and a colossal pillar of flame erupted from it, striking the Etruscan goddess.
“You fell into my trap again,” Bellona said with a Machiavellian smile.
But suddenly, Bellona herself exploded in a gigantic sea of flames.
The fire vanished from Menrva, who still floated in the air with a mirror before her as she said:
“Malena Caperi (Mirror Coat).”
The Roman goddess recovered from the burns and rose to her feet again as the flames faded.
Menrva landed gracefully on the ground and looked at Bellona with satisfaction.
“Now then, what do you intend to do against my mirror, Bellona?” she asked.
“I’ll smash it to pieces!” Bellona shouted and began attacking Menrva with her whip.
But every blow Bellona struck also slashed her own body. Still, the goddess was so enraged and desperate that she kept trying to attack the Etruscan goddess, doing nothing but harming herself.
Menrva, walking slowly toward the goddess, raised her left hand and said:
“Pulumchva Luri (Shining Stars).”
Lightning bolts struck Bellona mercilessly, destroying part of her totema, and at last she fell onto her back upon the ground.
The Etruscan goddess then placed the tip of her spear against the Roman goddess’s throat. Bellona spat in Menrva’s face, and the spit landed upon the Etruscan goddess’s cheek.
Menrva wiped away Bellona’s insult and then asked the Roman goddess:
“What shall your last words be?”
But Bellona only began to laugh sinisterly, still staring at Menrva with a defiant gaze.