A dull blow was heard, and Camazotz’s claws released Tul’s neck.
“What happened?” the rabbit goddess asked nervously.
“Are you okay, Tul?” Freyja’s voice was heard in the darkness.
“Ch’úupal Freyja, did you save me?” the rabbit goddess asked nervously.
Freyja was wearing her cat transformation, though no one could see her because of the deep darkness.
“Yes, Tul. I can see a little in this darkness with my meow transformation,” the goddess said as she looked at the bodies of her fallen companions.
The goddess saw that Anpiel was lying face down on the ground to avoid the monster’s attacks.
On the other hand, Loki had turned into a fly and was hiding beneath a stone. However, she could see neither Susanoo nor Menrva.
“I am a warrior goddess!” Freyja shouted. “I won’t let these beasts take the lives of meow new furriends!”
Then another of the bat monsters grabbed Freyja by the neck. At that moment, the goddess felt her life had ended, but she remembered Thor’s sacrifice, and what Heimdall had told her: that they had not even been able to give him a burial.
“Our brother Thor died so that we could live, and the least I can do is not throw away meow life for nothin’ against these shitty meow-bats!” Freyja shouted furiously as she grabbed the beast’s claws and tore herself free from its grip.
“I am the proud warrior goddess of Vanaheim, and queen of the valkyries!” Freyja roared like a beast. “No one and nothin’ will stop me from surpassin’ my meow-limits!”
Freyja then shouted:
“Valfreyju stafr (Staff of Freya the assassin)!”
The staff carried by the Norse goddess lit up, and she pierced the body of the monstrous chiropteran above her. The beast shrieked in pain and got away from Freyja as best it could.
But the goddess’s eyes glowed amber, and she could clearly see the monster in the darkness.
“Did I give you purrmission to leave, you shitty meownster?” Freyja shouted furiously. Then, with a gigantic leap, she impaled the monster with her staff of light, making it crash into the ground.
“Freyja! You broke the barrier with your power!” Loki shouted excitedly.
“It’s still not enough!” Freyja shouted like a madwoman. “There are still two of those meownsters left!”
Then the Norse goddess saw Tul curled up on the ground, trembling in fear. Freyja quickly took her face in her hands and tried to calm her.
“I’ll protect you, Tul,” the Norse goddess said.
“But… but…” Tul said nervously. “We have to treat ch’úupal Tania and the others, or they’ll die for sure.”
“Or they will see that beast Epona saw,” Loki commented from afar.
Freyja looked up at the sky and saw the two creatures moving very quickly through the air, keeping as much distance from her as they could.
The creatures were terrifying. They were two gigantic bats of a dark reddish color. Their faces were like those of dogs, and they had enormous human ears. One of the bats was significantly larger than the other.
“I’ll try to fly and destroy those two meownsters,” Freyja said, raising her staff toward the sky.
“Wait, ch’úupal,” Tul said. “Take me to Tania’s body and the others first,” the rabbit goddess said nervously.
“Tul, I understand how you feel,” Anpiel replied. “But if they stand up, those beasts will surely come back down and attack them, since we cannot see anything.”
“Do not trouble thyself about those beasts. I shall deal with them,” they all heard Susanoo’s voice say, though only Freyja could see him. The goddess was stunned.
“Susanoo… did you rip out your own eyes?” the Norse goddess asked when she saw that the god had two sword wounds across his face in the shape of an X.
“Hai, Freyja-sama,” Susanoo said. “In this manner, I may sharpen my hearing within this eternal darkness.”
“Yuum Susanoo, do you want me to give you thunder so you can fight?” the rabbit goddess asked while trying to find the eastern god.
“Iie, Tul-chan. I cannot always depend upon thee to engage in combat,” Susanoo replied. “I have been practicing how to generate electricity for an occasion such as this.”
“But…” the rabbit goddess tried to argue, but Susanoo interrupted her.
“Freyja-sama!” Susanoo shouted. “Save Rodrigo-san and the others ere they behold that creature from the beyond!”
“I trust you… furriend,” the Norse goddess replied, then lifted Tul and placed the Maya goddess’s arm over her shoulder.
“Bakemono! I am Susanoo, warrior of the land of Yamato, and I shall defeat thee with all my power!” the eastern god shouted at the top of his lungs.
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Immediately, the smaller bat flew down rapidly toward Susanoo to try to decapitate him, while the larger bat began following Freyja.
“I can feel it. It doth descend at a most dreadful speed,” Susanoo said as he prepared his katana to fight.
Just as the monster tried to seize Susanoo’s neck, the god quickly avoided the attack, leaping and spinning through the air as he tried to decapitate the creature in midair. However, his weapon could not pierce the chiropteran’s hard skin.
“Masaka! Its hide is exceedingly strong,” the eastern god said in frustration, just as the monster struck him with its wing.
Susanoo was launched far away with terrifying force. The monster then saw that Anpiel and Loki were nearby and headed toward them to attack.
But even as Susanoo was thrown through the air, the god leapt off the air itself and returned to attack the monster again. Once more, however, his attack could not cut the creature’s skin.
“Nande? Why am I unable to break the barrier?” the god wondered in frustration, just as the creature caught him in midair with its hind legs.
The beast violently tore Susanoo in half, while the god regretted his own weakness.
The chiropteran then turned to look at Anpiel, who was the closest, and flew toward the angel at terrifying speed to try to decapitate him with its powerful claws.
“Ketsueki no yari (Blood Spear)!” Susanoo shouted in an almost extinguished voice, throwing a spear made from his own blood at the monster. It pierced one of its wings, but did not damage it enough, though it was enough to catch the beast’s attention.
“Onee-san, pray, tell me what I must do,” Susanoo began praying in frustration, though he could not cry because he had torn out his eyes with his own weapon.
The eastern god then remembered a story he had heard as a child. It was about two demons who lived in the mountains. One was red, and the other blue.
The red demon wanted to befriend the humans who lived below the mountain, but every time he approached them, the villagers chased him away because they feared him.
Seeing the red demon’s frustration, the blue demon told him that he would go down and cause destruction in the village so the red demon could arrive and stop him.
Although the red demon was unsure about it, he agreed. Then the blue demon went down and began destroying the village.
The red demon then attacked his friend and defeated him. In that way, the red demon became the protector of the village, and he was finally able to live among the humans he had longed for so much.
One day, the red demon missed seeing his friend and decided to return to the mountain to visit him. But the blue demon was no longer in his home. At the door, the red demon found a note in which the blue demon said goodbye, because if the people saw them together, they would suspect the whole attack had been nothing more than a ruse.
The red demon had gained the village’s friendship, but had lost his best friend forever.
“Must I sacrifice everything, like the red demon, so that my friends may find happiness?” Susanoo wondered at that moment as he felt the monstrous chiropteran beside him.
“All my blood, all my essence, I shall expend for Susanoo's final attack!” the eastern god shouted, manipulating all his blood and turning it into a crimson bramble that wrapped around the monster.
“Ketsueki no ibara (Thorny Blood Bush)!” the eastern god shouted, while the bramble made from his own blood began crushing the creature, making it bleed.
However, the creature continued resisting with its strength. Little by little, the bramble began to break, and Susanoo started losing consciousness.
“Nakama! Tomodachi! Arigato gozaimasu!” Susanoo shouted with all his strength, just as more brambles appeared from his blood. His entire body dried up in that moment, and he trapped the creature with those thorns.
“Susanoo!” Anpiel said in fear as he felt his friend’s essence vanish.
“Damn it, Susanoo! You told me you could beat that monster!” Freyja shouted furiously, just as the gigantic creature descended in front of the goddess and blocked her path.
“Idiot,” Loki thought in frustration as he felt his companion’s divine energy fade away.
The creature remained trapped in the thorny bramble created from Susanoo’s blood and tried to break free with all its strength, but it could not. The monster was so entangled that every movement only harmed it further.
“It’s my fault… I should’ve given him electricity,” Tul said, crying while Freyja continued carrying her.
“It was his decision as a warrior, Tul. You must never dishonor a warrior’s vow,” the Norse goddess said in frustration as she raised her golden staff with her right hand.
But at that moment, lightning fell from the sky and electrified Susanoo’s body. The Japanese god’s inert body began glowing blue, and his heart beat once more. The electricity traveled through the brambles and made the monstrous bat explode into hundreds of pieces while Susanoo’s body recovered rapidly.
“Susanoo’s power is growing,” Anpiel said as the blood brambles vanished and Susanoo rose in his electric transformation.
“Part of friendship is knowing when you need help from others,” Menrva said as she approached the battlefield.
“What would you have done if you had died, Susanoo? Do you not realize that you would have made us suffer?” the Etruscan goddess said, almost crying.
“Menrva-san… I knew not where thou wert,” the eastern god said, while his eyes also began recovering thanks to the electric power.
“Do you realize you are healing yourself with electricity?” Menrva asked the eastern god. “You have broken the barrier, just like Freyja.”
Susanoo then realized that he no longer felt tired or overwhelmed by his transformation, as he had since arriving on this continent.
“Honto desu!” Susanoo shouted excitedly.
“Thanks to Tania, Epona, and Ana, we too have been blessed with Tawa’s light, but that essence is testing us. I finally understand,” Menrva continued saying, when, at that moment, the darkness completely dissipated.
The Etruscan goddess’s totema looked quite different. She had the bearing of a Roman general, with golden armor that shone like a sun, while electric sparks emanated from her body and a red cape fluttered with the energy she herself produced. Her helmet was now a beautiful Roman centurion’s helmet that spread light throughout the entire area.
“Menrva! You broke the barrier too!” Anpiel shouted excitedly when he saw the goddess.
“I apologize. I had to think about how Bellona wished to help us… in her own way,” the Etruscan goddess said as she made her spear appear. It now looked gigantic, with a silver tip, while the entire shaft was golden and bore sculpted details of horses and beasts.
Meanwhile, Freyja was doing everything she could to fight the great chiropteran, but it was particularly stronger than the other two. The goddess also refused to let go of Tul because she knew the beast could attack her while she was defenseless. However, her body finally reached its limit, and she lost her transformation.
“Meow damn it, not now!” the Norse goddess said in frustration as the monster quickly flew toward her.
But, as if lightning itself had struck, the chiropteran’s legs separated from its body. The monster shrieked in pain and flew backward.
Freyja turned and looked at Menrva majestically. The goddess had managed to break the barrier by perfectly assimilating with Bellona. It was not a failed assimilation like Ares’s. The goddess had reached an entirely different level of power.
“Fall back, Freyja! Go help Rodrigo and the girls,” Menrva said calmly while looking at the creature, which stared back at her with furious eyes.
The monstrous chiropteran let out a deafening shriek that made everyone cover their ears—everyone except Menrva, who, in the blink of an eye, swiftly decapitated the monster. The attack was so fast that the Etruscan goddess’s spear was not even stained with blood.
“Veni, vidi, vici,” Menrva said calmly as she made her powerful sacred spear disappear.
The last monster that had attacked the group had finally fallen.