“Why do I always end up like this? Am I not a warrior goddess?” Ana asked herself as she continued losing more and more consciousness from the blood pouring from her neck, caused by the ghostly corpses of her sisters, and the hit in her head.
“No, Ana, you must not lose consciousness... you have to summon Excalibur again,” she told herself. But she did not know how.
Then Ana remembered the first time she had made Excalibur appear.
“I know you are not the real Rodrigo,” the Irish goddess said as she saw the false Rodrigo mocking her like a madman.
“But I love Rui with all my heart!” the goddess cried out.
But nothing happened.
“If you love me that much, then you must accept my seed into your dry vagina,” the false Rodrigo said with a laugh as he approached Ana, while the false Epona forced the Irish goddess’s legs apart.
“No! Anything but that!” Ana screamed desperately, unable to stop the false Rodrigo from coming closer to rape her.
Think, Ana, think. What is the meaning of Excalibur? Why was Arthur able to pull it from the stone? the goddess kept asking herself in desperation as she watched the false Rodrigo looming over her. At the same time, her false sisters held her arms. Ana had almost no strength left to resist.
“Let us have our fun, Ana,” the false Rodrigo said.
Then Ana thought of her friends, and realized that they too were surely suffering under Coyote’s realistic illusions.
It is not only me. They must all be suffering. The only thing I desire now is to get out of here and help them however I can, the goddess thought, trying to find some escape.
Do I love Rodrigo? Ana kept thinking.
“Yes, I love him... but I love all of them as well. I love Tania, I love Epona, I love Anpiel, I love Menrva, I love Tul, I love Susanoo, I love Freyja... I even love that idiotic bastard Loki,” the goddess said while staring defiantly at the false Rodrigo.
“I love them because they are my friends, because they are the people with whom I have shared a bond greater than mere friendship. They are the people for whom I am willing to fight. And above all, I love myself!” Ana shouted.
At that moment, white light burst from Ana’s body just as the false Rodrigo was about to rape her. The light forced the false tannin back, along with the false sisters and the false Epona.
The light emanating from Ana’s body took the form of Excalibur, which Ana seized with both hands and fixed her gaze upon Rodrigo.
“You are not Rui... and your very existence disgusts me,” she shouted furiously, and cut him in half, at which point he vanished as though he had been made of dark matter.
“No, sister, do not betray us again!” cried the girls who appeared to be Ana’s sisters.
Their faces changed from corpse-like visages into the way they had looked the last time the goddess had seen them.
“You are not my sisters. You are only filthy vermin created by that thing called Coyote,” Ana said, and in that instant she decapitated both of them. Like the false Rodrigo, they disappeared into a cloud of darkness.
The false Epona stepped back, then hissed and lunged at Ana. The goddess cut the impostor in half, and at that moment the demonic presence in the room ceased.
Ana lowered Excalibur and took a deep breath. Her wounds still were not healing, even though the power of those creatures did not seem especially great.
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“So this was always it. It was always courage. I was only confused by my feelings,” Ana said with a great smile.
“I cannot seek to possess someone I love for myself if the one who makes him happy is someone I love just as dearly. The courage to fight for those I love is my true courage, my true gift. Just as Arthur fought to create Camelot, a kingdom of dreams... my desire to fight for my friends is my own ambition, my own treasure,” the goddess told herself, her face filled with pride and peace.
Yet the dark presence that had faded began to make itself felt throughout the room once more. Ana realized there was no way out of that chamber, for she was sealed inside it by the power of, most likely, Coyote. The goddess understood that she would have to fight until her strength gave out.
At that moment, a portal opened in that dimension, and through it came a rider upon a yellowish horse, bearing an enormous scythe across his back.
“Who are you?” Ana asked in alarm, and looking more closely, she saw that behind that energy which seemed baleful and rotten, there was the figure of a woman.
“Ana! Did you save yourself from Coyote’s nightmare?” the rider asked.
“Oh, give me a break!” Ana shouted, gripping her sword again. “Who are you... false Epona?” the dark-haired goddess said with determination.
The greenish energy lessened, and Epona could be seen astride the horse. Though the goddess wore her totema, it no longer looked as it usually did, but rather grim, as though it belonged to a corpse. Epona’s hair had turned a pale greenish white, and her skin was milky in tone. Her once-bright green eyes had become dark green and lacked pupils.
“It’s me, Ana!” Epona cried. “Don’t attack me!”
“Epona does not look like the Grim Reaper,” Ana said angrily, readying her sword against the mysterious rider.
“Ana, listen!” Epona shouted. “I fell into one of Coyote’s nightmares too, but at that moment I awakened this strange power and was able to free myself.”
“How am I supposed to trust you when we know Coyote can read our hearts?” Ana said, still nervous and wary.
Epona sighed.
“From what I saw, Coyote shows the most twisted and sickening things hiding in our minds. But never in your entire fucking imagination would you picture me as the lady of death, would you, crow-face?” the goddess said mockingly.
Ana fell silent, and after a moment lowered her sword.
“Very well. For the moment, I choose to believe you, Epona,” she said.
“Well, it seems this was caused by the residue left inside me by that thing that entered my body,” Epona said. “But thanks to it, I was able to save all of them from the nightmares they had fallen into.”
“All of them? You can move through dreams?” Ana asked.
“Yes, in this form I can. Well, to be honest, only you and Tania were left,” Epona replied.
At that moment, new ghostly versions of Epona, Rodrigo, and Ana’s sisters began forming again, advancing slowly toward the two goddesses like zombies. Epona quickly drew her scythe and, with one swift stroke, made them vanish.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve had to decapitate myself tonight,” the Irish goddess said awkwardly. “I didn’t think I was that important in your life, crow.”
“Shut up, mare, and let’s hurry to help Tania!” Ana shouted. But at that moment, Epona looked at her with eyes that were calm and sinister at once.
“First I have to do this,” Epona said, and raised the scythe toward Ana.
“Epona, what are you doing?” Ana asked, but before the Irish goddess could lift Excalibur, Epona had already cut across her neck.
Ana went rigid, only to realize that she had not died and her head had not been severed. A dark cord fell to the ground and disappeared.
“These cords were binding us to this dimensional world of Coyote,” Epona said. “My scythe is the only thing that can break them.”
The spirits that had been forming again vanished immediately, and the room dissolved, leaving the two goddesses alone in a white chamber.
“You stupid mare! I thought you were going to decapitate me!” Ana shouted furiously.
“And what exactly was I supposed to do if you still didn’t trust me, crow?” Epona shouted back as angrily.
“What, did you want me to say, ‘Ah, Ana, I know you don’t trust me yet, but I need to cut your neck with this scythe to free you from this dimension,’ is that it?” she demanded.
“I suppose you are right,” Ana said sheepishly.
“I freed the others the same way,” Epona said, “but they were left unconscious because of their injuries, and it seems our ichor doesn’t work in this dimension.”
Then Epona smiled and looked steadily at Ana as she said, “You are the first one who broke free from the nightmare by your own will.”
Ana shook her head.
"Well, I saw Susanoo too, but he was more injured than you. So don't feel so special," Epona remarked with a cynical smile.
“I am sure Tania hasn’t given in either,” Ana said, resting the massive Excalibur upon her shoulder and showing her tongue to Epona.
“Thank you for saving me, Epona,” she added.
“Save the thanks for another day,” Epona replied, making her horse turn toward a dimensional door she had created.
“Even if we escape this place, we still have to face that thing called Coyote,” she added nervously.
Ana nodded, and together they crossed the dimensional gate.