“Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic,” a voice was heard in the darkness.
“Is that you, Bellona?” Menrva asked, surprised and confused.
“Indeed. Now that we have assimilated, my consciousness survived thanks to you, idiot,” Bellona replied.
“I know. When I took the spear your body left behind, I was able to see all your memories,” Menrva said.
Bellona fell silent.
“Do not worry. I will not tell anyone what I saw of your life,” Menrva replied.
“I think we can have this discussion another day,” the Roman goddess answered. “Right now, you should hurry up and get out of here!”
At that moment, Menrva, whose eyes had been closed, opened them. Her motionless bluish body was floating between the two gigantic beds of spikes, which were about to crush her.
“This?” Menrva asked. “You worry too much, dummy. Have you not seen the power I have now?”
“We have, you mean,” Bellona replied.
Menrva’s eyes emitted a silver glow, and she launched an electric discharge into her heart, reactivating it and recovering her movement. After that, the goddess fired two extremely powerful electric bolts from both hands at the beds of spikes, quickly destroying the trap.
“I told you!” Menrva said to Bellona. “I would have done it earlier if you had not spoken to me.”
Immediately afterward, the Etruscan goddess turned to look at Itztlacoliuhqui and smiled.
“Do you think that freezing barrier will save you?” the Etruscan goddess asked.
Then Menrva raised both hands to the sky and created an enormous sphere of luminous energy while shouting:
“Rath Lauchum Usil (Sacred Sun King)!”
The Etruscan goddess quickly hurled it at the Toltec god.
Itztlacoliuhqui did not rise from his throne. He waited for the attack to approach. When it drew close, the sun Menrva had created froze. But Menrva kept smiling.
The sun began thawing at dizzying speed, frightening Itztlacoliuhqui, who quickly rose from his throne and tried to stop the attack with the palms of his hands. But it was too late. The sun struck the Toltec god, generating an immense explosion that destroyed part of the planet where they stood.
A gigantic hole opened in the atmosphere, through which space could be seen. Only a vast breach remained in the ground where the mountain range had been. The opening emanated electric discharges as residue from Menrva’s immense power.
“Cold is nothing more than atomic stillness, and my electric sun is no longer as weak as it was in Adlivun’s cavern. It is impossible to keep its atomic structure still!” Menrva shouted with a victorious gesture.
“Wow, you really surprised me this time,” Bellona’s consciousness said. “Despite the divine limiter you are wearing, you managed to deal such great damage to this planet.”
“We would have to see whether it is larger than Earth, but because of the dimensional shield, I cannot,” Menrva replied, somewhat carefree.
But at that moment, the gigantic crater the Etruscan goddess had made on the planet froze. An enormous obelisk of ice emerged from its center, and when it shattered, Itztlacoliuhqui appeared again, this time carrying a curved sword that emanated cold.
“It seems you did not hurt him,” Bellona said.
“Yes, he seems to be a harder nut to crack,” Menrva replied, realizing that the god had likewise increased his divine power.
The planet quickly recovered its original shape. Menrva understood that this was the reality-control power possessed by the Toltec god. It seemed he could only alter the logic of the surface, but had no power over her.
Itztlacoliuhqui flew at tremendous speed toward Menrva and tried to decapitate her with his icy sword. The Etruscan goddess avoided the attack with difficulty, though it made a slight cut on the back of her neck. The wound froze immediately.
“I understand. If he cuts me with that, my ichor will not be able to heal it, correct?” Menrva asked Itztlacoliuhqui.
But as expected, the god did not answer, since he was only an automaton illusion.
“Idiot! He is an ice god!” Bellona shouted. “Use my fire techniques against him!”
“You are a damn liar, Bellona,” Menrva replied. “I analyzed your techniques, and you only generated fire through the friction of metal, which is your element: steel.”
“And what of it?! Fire is fire!” the Roman goddess’s consciousness replied.
“It is a very weak version of fire. And steel would not be a good option against this monster!” Menrva added, while continuing to avoid the attacks from the Toltec god’s ice sword.
Every slash the Toltec god made through the air cut apart a section of the planet where they stood, whether mountains, valleys, lakes, or anything else. Since everything was beneath a thick gray cloud and visibility was limited, it was difficult to see how every cut left an ice stalagmite where it divided the land.
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Fed up with Itztlacoliuhqui’s attacks, Menrva avoided the last strike from the freezing curved sword. Taking advantage of the Toltec god’s momentary distraction, the Etruscan goddess teleported behind him and, charging electricity into her spear, struck his back while shouting:
“Unus Frontac (Electric Flow)!”
But it did little good. Menrva’s electrical energy froze, and her spear became stuck to the Toltec god’s body as well.
Menrva then realized that the freezing was spreading across the spear, and she immediately released her weapon before she too turned to ice. When Itztlacoliuhqui turned around, the spear broke and shattered into pieces.
“See? I told you to use at least my strongest technique: Potestas Odio!” Bellona’s consciousness shouted.
Then Itztlacoliuhqui touched his shoulders with his hands, crossing his arms. The god opened them and shouted:
“Nouanyoxiktli (Absolute Zero)!”
At that moment, the entire planet froze. Not only the ground, but also the clouds. The air became mist, and only Menrva’s frozen statue could be seen floating in the sky. She slowly fell toward the frozen ground.
“Menrva! Menrva! Do not lose consciousness, idiot!” Bellona’s consciousness shouted, but Menrva could no longer hear her. Although, unconsciously, she could still hear the Roman goddess’s cries from very far away.
“Menrva! Menrva! Do not lose consciousness, idiot!”
Those cries… were just like the ones her brother used to shout when he secretly taught her how to use the spear.
Menrva then remembered those moments when her brother Laran trained her using a pocket dimension inside her room.
“You hit me too hard, brother,” Menrva protested with a swollen cheek and a black eye.
The goddess wore simple Etruscan armor that was a little too large for her.
“Menrva, being a warrior means you will suffer wounds when you fight, but you must always rise with a smile,” Laran said to the Etruscan goddess as she stood again.
The goddess then charged her spear with electricity and attacked her brother, but he easily avoided her charge and kicked her.
“Ow! That hurt!” Menrva cried in pain on the ground while clutching her stomach.
Laran bit his lip to stop himself from running to help his little sister, but he knew he had to be hard on her to make her stronger and stronger.
“Menrva, you are a Jupiter, just like our father,” the goddess’s brother said. “That means you are destined to become a very powerful and magnificent goddess.”
“But I am very weak, brother,” Menrva said, discouraged, and sat on the ground, planting her spear there.
Laran began to laugh.
“Do not mock me, brother!” the Etruscan goddess shouted furiously.
“That is not why, Menrva, idiot,” Laran replied. “It is because you want to become strong after only a few months of training together.”
“I just… want to be like Athena,” Menrva said, looking at her hands, covered in sores and bruises from training with her spear without pause.
“Did you know she destroyed a giant and threw the island of Sicily on top of him?” the little Etruscan goddess asked.
“Yes, Menrva. You have told me several times,” the Etruscan goddess’s older brother replied with a smile.
Menrva then began eagerly speaking about Athena’s wonders, admiring her with devotion. Laran had heard those stories so many times that he only crossed his arms and nodded. He was sick of the stories by then, but he was there to motivate and encourage his prodigy little sister however he could.
“So,” Menrva concluded, “if I do not hurry, I will never catch up to her and become as strong as she is.”
Laran sat down and placed his arm around her shoulders.
“Idiot. You will become even better than her, because she is a Mars and you are a Jupiter.”
Then Laran leaned closer and looked straight at his sister.
“Do you know something incredible about Jupiters that no one else has?” the god asked.
“What?” Menrva asked.
“Jupiters, if they train enough, can even revive their heart when they are unconscious,” Laran began. “Even if they end up paralyzed or frozen, that electricity flowing through their veins can perform those small miracles and revive them.”
“Even frozen?” Menrva asked.
“Indeed,” Laran replied.
“Freezing is only the stillness of atomic particles. But electricity is pure energy that can never be stopped. Even if you were frozen, the electricity inside your body would revive your being, and you would return to normal,” he explained.
Menrva looked at her hands with excitement.
“It is an ability only Jupiters can use,” Laran concluded.
“That is incredible, brother,” Menrva replied.
“Also, Jupiters can have greater access to combining themselves with other elements, especially mine: Mars,” Laran continued explaining.
Then Menrva’s brother stood and looked toward the ceiling of Menrva’s room.
“That is why you have been destined for greatness since you were born,” he said.
“I am destined for greatness,” child Menrva and adult Menrva answered at the same time, while the latter fell frozen through the air.
Then electricity covered the ice statue where Menrva was trapped, and she was able to destroy the frozen layer. Menrva remained floating in the sky while thunder covered her body.
“I thought you were going to die, idiot!” Bellona’s consciousness shouted.
“Your shouting made me remember something,” Menrva replied with a smile, and then she said to the Roman goddess’s consciousness:
“All right. Let us use your steel and fire techniques.”
“I knew you would recognize my greatness as a goddess!” Bellona’s consciousness replied cheerfully.
“Of course, because I will combine electricity and steel in a single attack,” Menrva replied.
“That… will be interesting to see,” Bellona concluded.
Then Menrva made two steel chains appear from her hands and began spinning them as if they were ropes.
“Hey, Toltec god with the unpronounceable name,” Menrva said. “Do you want to know what happens when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable body?”
The Toltec god did not answer and charged his freezing power again.
“The answer is that whoever is stronger destroys the other!” Menrva shouted, while exclaiming:
“Sanguinis Sacrificium (Blood Sacrifice)!”
The chains filled with fire, and red thunder emanated from them while the goddess kept spinning them. She began doing it with such intensity that two wheels of red electricity were painted into the rotations.
The energy was so intense that the entire heatwave began bathing the planet where they both stood. The ground and clouds began to melt, while the sky started generating reddish electrical energy.
“The union of thunder and steel is called Prominence,” Menrva said as she wrapped the chains around her arms, and all that energy was channeled into the palms of her hands.
Itztlacoliuhqui shouted again:
“Nouanyoxiktli (Absolute Zero)!”
A freezing wave covered everything around him. But Menrva made her golden spear appear once more, transferring the energy accumulated by the chains into it.
In a throwing stance, Menrva bent her spear slightly while it shone red and emanated crimson thunder. When the goddess saw the ice wave approaching, she cut through the air with her weapon and shouted:
“Nensa Lauchum — Unus Frontac (Electric Flow of the King of Death)!”
Menrva’s crimson energy completely destroyed Itztlacoliuhqui’s cold wave, then struck the Toltec god while splitting him in two. When the god disappeared, only an aquamarine sphere remained floating in the air.
“We did it, idiot!” Bellona’s consciousness shouted energetically. “I knew it would not be a mistake to transfer my consciousness and will to you!”
Menrva then saw the bracelet Tul had placed on her detach from her arm. The Etruscan goddess had finally broken the barrier completely.
“And this is only the beginning, Bellona. Very soon, we will be known as the heirs of Athena,” the Etruscan goddess said with a smile as she took the small sphere the Toltec god had left behind when he died.