When Ana and Epona emerged on the other side, they were shocked to find everything engulfed in flames, as though a great fire had swept through the place. At the center of the devastation stood Tania, covered in blood and holding a charred skeleton by the throat. The goddess wore a look of pure rage and hatred.
“Tania? What happened here?” Ana asked.
The moment Tania saw Epona, she shifted into a fighting stance and hurled the skeleton away from her. But Ana quickly told her it was really Epona, and the equine goddess tried to calm the lioness-like goddess as well.
“First Rodrigo’s strange totema on Mars, and now you’re walking around like one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” Tania said, her expression easing a little.
“It looks like some residue from that thing inside her awakened these powers,” Ana said, and Epona nodded.
“Tania, tell me, what happened here?” Epona asked.
“That idiot Coyote tried to attack me with visions of sacrificed children, but when I suspected it was all an illusion, I decided to burn everything,” Tania said indifferently.
“Tania, did you burn children with your power?” Ana asked in horror as she noticed that several of the skeletons were those of infants.
“If they were illusions, then they were never alive,” Tania replied, still wearing that indifferent look.
“But how did you know it was all false?” Epona insisted.
“Even I believed it was real for moments,” Ana interjected.
“I swore it that day,” Tania said, rising to her feet and extinguishing the flames covering her body.
“I swore that I would never fall into another stupid illusion cast by our enemies,” she explained.
“Tania, that was... very dangerous. You could have fallen into the same sin as before,” Ana said anxiously.
“My only duty is to protect all of you,” Tania replied.
“I was the one who once tried to kill Rodrigo for the sake of my people, but that will never be my weakness again. I cannot afford the luxury of doubt. It is them or it is you,” the goddess added, and then she gave a broad smile.
“All right, Tania, I accept your devotion,” the Irish goddess said, while Epona stepped closer to the Punic goddess.
Epona then approached Tania.
“Here, Tania. If you look at your neck, you’ll see a dark cord tied there, and I’m the only one who can cut it,” Epona said to the fire goddess.
Tania looked, and indeed saw a cord around her neck, much like the one they had tied around her in Onondaga.
“And why didn’t you tell me that, mare?” Ana shouted angrily.
“All right. If only you can do it, then I trust you completely, Epona,” Tania said, closing her eyes with a smile.
Epona swung her scythe in a clean stroke across Tania’s neck. The dark cord was cut in half and vanished, taking with it the world created by Coyote’s nightmare.
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“That is why I told her,” Epona said to Ana, sticking out her tongue.
“And now, how do we get back to the real world?” Tania asked.
Epona then cut through the dimension itself with her scythe, and it shattered into pieces, leaving the three goddesses standing inside the cabin, specifically in the sitting room where Tania and Loki had remained.
“Indeed, Loki isn’t here,” Tania said.
“Could he have betrayed us?” Epona asked, making her horse and scythe vanish and returning to normal.
“No, Loki didn’t betray us,” Ana said. “I’m sure that this Coyote must have kidnapped him or something.”
“You’re the only one who believes that piece of trash,” Tania replied.
“It’s just that... I love him too,” Ana said with determination.
Both Tania and Epona turned to look at the Irish goddess with expressions of shock and disgust when she said those words. Then Ana realized what she had just said and turned bright red.
“No... I didn’t mean love like that. I mean I’ve learned to appreciate him as one of our companions,” Ana said quickly.
Tania looked at Excalibur and smiled at Ana.
“I think you’ve finally found the answer you were looking for,” she said.
Ana turned to her friend and nodded.
“I won’t have any trouble using this sword anymore,” she replied.
At that moment, outside the house, a deafening sound rang out—so loud that it made the structure of Ana’s cabin shake violently.
“It’s Coyote,” Tania said.
“Only the three of us can face him,” Epona added.
The Irish goddess then donned her totema. The others were startled to see it now gleaming in gold and purple. Her armor shone with an elegant beauty, balanced between darkness and light.
“Ana, your totema is beautiful,” Tania said excitedly, then turned to Epona, who had once more activated her totema and now gleamed with those funerary, ominous colors.
“The complete opposite of Epona’s,” she remarked.
“I didn’t choose these colors, you damned salamander,” Epona snapped.
Ana then created two ravens from the pauldrons of her armor, one dark as night and the other white as snow. They flew to the second floor, and through them Ana saw that although their companions were still unconscious, their ichor was healing their wounds. The ravens flew back to Ana and reentered her body.
“Our friends are fine, but we’ll have to be careful that Coyote doesn’t attack this house,” the Irish goddess said.
“Why don’t you just store it in your enormous pocket dimension?” Epona asked in confusion.
“Do you not know that deities can’t be stored in dimensional pockets?” Ana asked irritably.
“Well, mine is small and basic. I didn’t know yours had that restriction,” Epona replied, annoyed.
Tania then put on her totema and turned toward the other two goddesses.
“That’s enough chatter. Coyote isn’t going to wait forever,” she said.
The three goddesses stepped out through the door and saw, in the distance, a gigantic being made of total darkness. It had an elongated face and antelope-like horns. Its two arms, longer than normal, ended in enormous claws, and it stood upon two monstrously long legs.
“I don’t see anything wolf-like about it. It looks more like a reindeer, one of the kind they have in Norway,” Epona said.
“And its element... I can’t determine it,” Ana added.
“I think it’s one of those beings that has no defined element,” Tania said nervously.
“I didn’t think such beings existed outside of fiction,” Epona said in surprise.
“I knew they existed, but they’re usually anomalies with powers that surpass those of the rest of the gods,” Ana replied.
Then the goddesses looked at the horrible creature’s belly, and it seemed swollen as though it were pregnant.
“Inside its stomach... I can feel Loki,” Ana said.
“So the bastard ate him,” Epona replied, summoning her scythe once more.
The creature then raised its arms while a grotesque white smile appeared on its face.
“Goddesses from across the sea,” the monstrous creature began.
“First of all, I wish to congratulate you for overcoming my nightmares. As for your friend, he is being digested within my stomach, though I doubt you will be able to rescue him in time. Huhuhuhu,” the grotesque being said.
Coyote’s voice was everywhere at once, and its tone could strike terror into anyone. Yet at the same time, it was soft and elegant.
Tania transformed into her manticore form just as Ana raised Excalibur and pointed it at Coyote.
“For all the nightmares you made us endure... I swear that we will defeat you, infernal spirit!” Ana shouted furiously, while the three goddesses readied themselves to attack the grotesque being.